“V” was something pretty special to us kids who can remember the original series that aired in the mid-80′s. Needless to say, skepticism would be an understatement when I heard about a possible reboot of another beloved series. Information has slowly trickled out over the past few weeks and last night new clips were aired on ABC. Color me… intrigued.
The promo poster kind of makes me shiver with disgust, but the new clips could be classified as interesting. They don’t spark any real chords with me (poor writing, stiff acting), but they do manage to generate at least some intrigue and a wee bit of the old Battlestar Galactica allegory (here a clear problem with the current state of the popular media). I wonder how much of the glossy look which is apparently all the trend right now will resound throughout this series.
We don’t see much but the lovely Morena Baccarin as she addresses the world upon arrival (with an interesting technique) and later at a pre-interview ethical debate.
Besides Baccarin, we have another “Firefly” cast member in Alan Tudyk making an appearance here as well as “LOST” hottie, Elizabeth Mitchell. Plenty of other recognizable faces are here as well. There had better be a Michael Ironside cameo, or someone is getting a mouthful of red powder.
Look for 4 seasons (yes, FOUR) of “V” to start sometime mid-season of 2010 on ABC.
When one thinks of James Cameron‘s re-invention of the premise from 1979′s Alien, it generally is the macho bravado of the space marines that get the lion-share of quotable dialogue, and have been copied in other films to this day, ad nauseum. Yet the movie (most especially the lengthened directors cut of the film) slips in a strong maternal theme amongst the testosterone. While the film finally does turn Ellen Ripley into a ‘mech suited warrior’ (via the most well realized body-fork-lifter ever committed to celluloid), that comes later.
One of the strongest scenes in the film, perhaps showcasing some of Sigourney Weaver‘s best acting (this side of Death and The Maiden or Galaxy Quest) is a tender moment spent with the frightened little girl. Being the only survivor of the fledgling colony of a planet infested with monsters, Rebbecca, or Newt, likely witnessed many of the horrors when her parents bring home an embryo implanted in her father. Hardly a girl that needs to be lied to for protection, yet she is surely confused by the pretense of adults. Newt’s line of questions on ‘monsters’ and a tacit acceptance that they do indeed exist, ending with the connection to pregnancy is worthy of a Grimm fairy tale. Despite being a hearty mainstream blockbuster with crowd appeal, this moment stands out as one of (if not the) best moment in the film, worthy of Jan Svankmajer‘s Alice, a surreal take on Lewis Carroll that would come along two years later from eastern Europe, and feature a child actress bearing more than a little similarity to Newt’s Carrie Henn. Henn quit while she was ahead, not appearing in another film after this one.
Worthy of mention too is that the scene starts out cold, metallic and sterile (like most of Aliens) and ends on a warm orange light haloing both actresses in intimate close-up. This is one of the last breathing moments before a 45 minute long perfectly sustained action sequence. A sequence where much is on the line because of the tenderness of that moment.
Fred Dekker superfan and all around nice guy from Iceland, Omar Swarez (who designed that swanky one-sheet on the left, just for fun), suggested last year the 1980s genre mash-up Night of the Creeps, for an episode of the Movie Club Podcast (which you can find here). Combining the college nerd-movie with zombies, aliens, noir-ish cops and even 1950s nostalgia, the film is a beloved cult item which has been only around on aging laser discs, battered VHS tapes and various traded torrents and bootlegs. With the concept of alien slugs infecting and turning folks into zombies, this movie is surely inspiration behind the bigger budget cult comedy Slither (Tom Atkins vs. Nathan Fillion, go). The powers that be (that would be Sony Pictures, who produced Night of the Creeps as a studio picture originally under TriStar) are finally putting out a directors cut, with the original ending restored. The cut is being personally supervised by Dekker (who has been touring with a theatrical release print of the film for years, from Austin to Toronto), and it may even be out this October for Halloween. Fans of wacky 80s projects, rejoice!
The DVD is in the production stages right now, according to ‘special features production house’ Red Shirt Pictures. This will join the fabulously thorough Monster Squad DVD that was put out a few years earlier.
Maybe this is old news, but sitting down for my screening of Duplicity this evening and up flickered a trailer for a movie I’d not heard anything about and was frankly a little surprised to see… in front of any movie I suppose Alien Trespass
You can look at it from two perspectives. A fun, campy throwback to the old sci-fi, b-movie drive-in films of the 1950′s or… a Mars Attacks! rip off (sans ginormous, A-list cast). Either way, looks like fun. Check out the pretty quicktime trailer below…
Director: Alex Proyas (The Crow, Dark City) Screenplay: Alex Proyas, Stuart Hazeldine, Ryne Douglas Pearson, Juliet Snowden, Stiles White, Richard Kelly Producers: Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, Alex Proyas, Steve Tisch Starring: Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne, Chandler Canterbury MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running time: 130 min.
It’s difficult, and a little sad to see the turns that Alex Proyas’ career has taken. It has taken him from one cult film to another and it seemed, on the surface at least, that 2004’s I, Robot could be the film to break him into mainstream popular culture while retaining his great director credibility. The markings were on the wall: the casting of Will Smith in the lead role and the grumblings of the studio mingling in the production raised a few red flags but no one was prepared for the travesty that was the adaptation. And so it seemed that Proyas might be finished. How long can two great films sustain a career?
It was only a matter of time before the director took on another project with a studio that would allow him his own vision and, hopefully, that vision would produce a great final product, but it’s fair to say that no one expected Knowing to be that film. Surprise!
Conceived by author Ryne Pearson and flushed out by a team of writers, the film stars Nicolas Cage as John Koestler a professor of astrophysics who finds himself in the middle of a mystery when his son brings home a sheet of paper covered in numbers which had been stored in a time capsule for 50 years. At first, the numbers don’t seem important but after a few drinks, anything is possible and the doctor thinks he sees a pattern in the numbers. A nigh-full of research later, he has a whiteboard full of circled numbers and a more questions than when he started circling. He’s come to the conclusion that some of the numbers mark the date and number of deaths of major tragedies to have occurred over the past fifty years and even a few that have yet to occur. It all sounds fantastic and yes, you do need to put your brain on a bit of autopilot here because the major plot points are not playing in the realms of reality but don’t fall asleep just yet. The good stuff is coming.
John Carpenter’s The Thing is one hell of a monster movie. Filled with fantastic special effects, it was a film that Carpenter himself was very proud of (“I love the movie a great deal. It’s my favorite film of my own”). Unfortunately, it also had the misfortune of opening two weeks after Steven Spielberg’s box-office juggernaut, E.T., a movie with a message that was essentially the polar opposite of The Thing’s. As a result, Carpenter and company failed to make a splash at the U.S. box office, a reality which would greatly impact the director’s career from that point forward. For the first time ever, studio chiefs began to equate John Carpenter with box office poison.
More a re-telling of John W. Campbell’s short story, “Who Goes There”, than a remake of the 1951 Howard Hawks-produced film, The Thing is set in the Antarctic, where twelve guys manning an American Research Station are preparing for the hard winter ahead. Their preparations are temporarily interrupted by the arrival of a stray dog, one that, as it turns out, is actually an alien creature in the “shape” of a dog. Helicopter pilot MacReady (Kurt Russell) destroys the alien with a flamethrower, but as the men soon realize, this isn’t the end of their problems. The creature, which is able to assume the appearance of any living being it comes in contact with, may have ‘infected’ members of the crew as well, meaning that some of the twelve may not be who they appear to be. With such a possibility hanging over their heads, tensions rise and suspicions mount. In order to survive the ordeal, however, these men have no choice but to band together to locate the traitor (or traitors) amongst them. Failure to do so will result not only in their destruction, but the possible end of mankind as well.
Yes, The Thing is a very tense film, and perhaps one of its most interesting aspects is that this tension seems to have existed well before the alien ever made its way to the camp. Carpenter gives shape to his characters right from the get-go, and we in the audience are given the distinct impression that we’re watching twelve guys ready to jump down each other’s throats at a moment’s notice. When we’re first introduced to MacReady, he’s playing a video chess game against the computer, a game he eventually loses. Far from taking his defeat gracefully, MacReady reacts by pouring his drink into the computer’s monitor. Discipline among the men has also broken down by the time the danger arrives; Nauls (T.K. Carter) plays his music way too loud, and Garry (Donald Moffat) smokes his pot right out in the open. The combination of harsh weather and isolation has already taken its toll on these men. Throwing an alien into the mix only intensifies the situation. Add the fact that any one of them could also be that alien, and you have a time bomb set to blow at any minute.
The alien creature itself, in all its manifestations, was superbly crafted, and is easily the film’s strongest point. In its first appearance as the dog, where it transforms into a bloody mess of goo right before our eyes, we’re given a taste of just how creepy this intruder can be. Yet it’s only the beginning. Once the alien starts assuming the shape of the crew, it becomes all the more terrifying. So ground-breaking were the make-up and special effects in The Thing that they received special mention in the book, Defining Moments in Movies (published in 2007 by Cassell Illustrated), which states ”Requiring the services of 34 special makeup effects staffers, among them luminaries like Rob Bottin and Stan Winston, The Thing towers above all other entries in the field of bubbling flesh”.
Yet despite the film’s innovative special effects, coupled with the fact they were presented within a story that effectively creeps the hell out of us, The Thing was ultimately a box-office failure. “I thought at the time”, Carpenter says, “and I still think now, that I had made a very powerful, very scary, very strong monster movie”. Unfortunately, as he would also come to realize, this wasn’t enough to guarantee success. “One of the things I learned when I got to be a professional”, he continues, “is that, no matter how much you put into it and no matter how great you think it is, you are going to be competing with the other movies that are released at exactly the same time. E.T. came out ahead of us and was this huge, sensational hit, and its message was the exact opposite of The Thing”. As a result, Carpenter’s now-heralded Sci-Fi / Horror classic was received with indifference by the movie-going public of 1982.
Carpenter was deeply troubled by the failure of The Thing, yet feels he also took something away from the whole experience. “I don’t think I ever made a more savage film or as bleak a movie as The Thing since. And I think I probably won’t because I don’t think the audience, especially the audience out there now, wants to see that”. He became painfully aware of just how audiences react during a test screening of The Thing that he himself attended. While talking with the audience afterwards, Carpenter was questioned by a teenage girl, who was confused by the film’s ending. Carpenter replied that the climax was left purposefully ambiguous because he wanted the audience to use their imagination. “Oh God, I hate that”, was the girl’s reply.
It was at that moment, Carpenter said, that he knew he was doomed.
Sad news. One of the films I was most excited to see is, apparently, going to bypass theatrical distribution and head straight for DVD.
We’ve talked about Outlanderinthepast. The viking vs. aliens story staring James Caviezel, Sophia Myles, Jack Huston, Ron Perlman and John Hurt was shaping up nicely but for one reason or another, likely because they don’t feel it has box office appeal, it looks as though the The Weinstein Company, who have the US distribution rights, will not be putting any money into a release.
It has come to my attention, via Dread Central, that Movies Unlimited has the film on pre-order with a release date of November 18th. I’ve never heard of Movies Unlimited so I’m not quite sure how accurate that release date is but I’m assuming that since they’re taking people’s money, they know what their talking about. Also worth noting that Amazon also has the film listed for the November 18th release date.
Though this means we may not get to see it in North America, other markets may still have a chance to see the film on the big screen. We’ll be keeping you posted if any new developments arise.
I‘m not sure what more needs to be said about the, hopefully, upcoming Viking/Alien awesomeness that will be Outlander but for one reason or another, the folks at Weinstein have yet to announce anything even remotely connected to a release date. What on earth are they waiting for? Another viking/alien flick to come along and pave the way? The bloody film is already in the can so there is little more for them to do other than roll it out. Heck, if you have such little faith, start small and expand!
But I’m already digressing. The real reason for the post is that the folks at Quiet Earth have uncovered the first clip for the film which also happens to be an official clip for the press from the recently wrapped Locarno Festival. If you’re still scratching your head wondering what this viking and alien talk is about, be sure to check out our previouscoverage.
We’ll be keeping you posted on the release date if and when it is available.
I‘m pretty sure we’ve discussed the possibility of a “V” movie within this forum before, but I don’t remember discussing plot synopsis or any detail other than it might be coming. Well I think we’re getting closer and closer to a green light all the time.
The lucky bastards over at Latino review got their hands on a script and wrote up a brief, but detailed synopsis on how the movie would go down. As I read through the synopsis (clearly marked with a “spoiler” warning), I didn’t see anything that was much different from the original TV miniseries of the 80′s. So whether this thing is a slightly updated remake of the original (which it appears to be) or a complete revamping of the story structure and style, I am 100% on board as of right now. Hope they can find someone as cool as Mark Singer and Michael Ironside were to play these roles
Also, just like the original mini-series, it appears to end on quite a cliff hanger. Which is fine by me as it gives the opportunity for the writer to unleash his novel, “V: The 2nd Generation”, upon the big screen as a sequel. Apparently the guys over at Latino review have an outline or a script for that one too – though they haven’t put up a synopsis yet. Either way, I’ll be searching for the novel over the weekend to gear up for this and I now have the urge to finally tackle the original series (including The Final Battle) on DVD that’s been eating a hole on my shelf for some time now.
Oh sweet mother of all that is good and wonderful in this world. I’d like to thank you for ending my already great week with the biggest smile I’ve had in a while.
I’ve already gushed over my excitement at the upcoming Viking awesomeness that will be Howard McCain’s Outlander starring James Caviezel, Sophia Myles, Jack Huston, Ron Perlman and John Hurt.
Thanks to reader AD for the heads up, we bring you the first official trailer for the film and it’s glorious. Seriously fantastic. I’m full of glee. See it below or in much bigger, better quality at the official website!
My first real experience with true Summer Blockbuster hype that I can really remember was Independence Day (or ID4 as some of the promotional materials touted it as). I was 20 years old and walked into the flashy new theater at the Mall of America (which is now a completely crap theater) around 4:30 in the afternoon, only to find out that ID4 was sold out for every screening until 10:50 that evening. “Holy shit” I thought. I’ve never seen this before. I convinced my girlfriend at the time to hang out at the mall all day until our screening at 10:50 that night. Reluctantly she agreed. And I’m so glad she did. It was the most memorable and maybe the best theater experience I’ve ever had in my life. And probably why I saw the movie in the theater at least 5 times back in late ’96.
Now, does ID4 have some holes and get a little cheesy here and there? Most certainly. Is some of the dialogue a little corny? Yeah. But the rest of the film is so enjoyable and successful and cool and fun and exciting that these very minor problems are so easy to overlook. Instead of the typical review, I’ll assume everyone’s seen the movie and present a list of reasons why I love ID4 so much (currently at #53 on my list of favorite movies of all time) and why I had such a great experience.
It was only a matter of time before the director took on another project with a studio that would allow him his own vision and, hopefully, that vision would produce a great final product, but it’s fair to say that no one expected 
Yes, 
Yet despite the film’s innovative special effects, coupled with the fact they were presented within a story that effectively creeps the hell out of us, 
