Day: November 1, 2010

UPDATE: Tom Cruise would be the Lead in any Top Gun Sequel

Good to go: Tom Cruise, back when he was Tom Cruise.

By Jason Apuzzo. I wanted to update people on a story that we covered previously. Apparently the screenwriter on the proposed Top Gun sequel, Christopher McQuarrie, has come out and said: “There is no Top Gun 2 in which Maverick is not the starring role.” It had previously been reported that Cruise’s Maverick character would only have a relatively minor role in the sequel.

We’ll see how this plays out. I’ve already expressed my thoughts on this proposed project here.

[UPDATE: Tony Scott has confirmed that if a sequel happens, he will be directing it. Scott also told the Wall Street Journal the following about the proposed project:

“It’s not a reboot, it’s not a reinvention, it’s not a remake,” Scott insisted. “The world of ‘Top Gun’ today is very different. It’s really computer geeks sitting in Nevada playing war games. It’s the end of an era for fighter pilots, but those fighter pilots then become test pilots, and the planes now that they go to fight are drones, but while they’re perfecting [the drones], they fly them.” … “David Ellison is the guy that inspired me,” Scott said. “He’s a pilot. People kept talking about ‘Top Gun 2’ and talking with Jerry [Bruckheimer] and talking with me [about the possibility of doing it], but it wasn’t until David came and he showed me these visuals of what the Air Force is doing today that I said yes, I want to be involved. So it’s not a reboot at all. It’s a totally new movie.”

We’ll continue to keep you updated about this as we learn more.]

[UPDATE #2: And here’s more from Tony Scott about the film, from over at the MTV Movie blog.]

Posted on November 1st, 2010 at 1:43pm.

Kevin Smith’s Red State Poster

By Jason Apuzzo. Kevin Smith, movie maestro of white trash, has just put out this teaser poster for his new horror thriller about homophobic Christians, Red State.

He’s apparently hoping to debut the movie at Sundance.

I think the poster more or less speaks for itself.

[UPDATE: Smith is apparently intending to score the film with speed metal and country music. Perfect. What we have here, apparently, are the makings of a white-trash version of Machete – i.e., a hyper-political exploitation thriller being used to revive the career of a director whose career is gradually hitting the skids.

I doubt this strategy will work any better than it did for Robert Rodriguez, though.]

Posted on November 1st, 2010 at 9:35am.

The Last Days of East Germany: The Land Beyond the Rainbow

By Joe Bendel. Arthur Koestler and his fellow apostates from Communism called the ideology “The God that Failed.” One can see how apt a term that was in Herwig Kipping’s The Land Beyond the Rainbow, a scathing critique of the secular religious fervor mandated by Stalinism. A selection of the 1992 Berlinale, Beyond remains a scorching critique of Communism, and screens next Tuesday as part of the Wende Flicks retrospective of post-Fall of the Wall films from the East German DEFA studio at New York’s Anthology Film Archives.

It is hardly a coincidence that Beyond takes place during the eventful year of 1953. Of course, that was the year Stalin died.  Three months later, Soviet troops invaded East Germany to suppress an outbreak of strikes and demonstrations. However, life appears peaceful in the fictional provincial collective of Stalina. Both Hans and Rainbowmaker have eyes for Marie, the film’s ethereal narrator. Yet Rainbowmaker’s grandfather, a strict Party leader, brings the isolated community to grief.

From his cowl-like cloak to his prayer-like invocations to the recently deceased Stalin, Rainbowmaker’s grandfather is an unambiguous figure of orthodox faith. He also appropriates whatever he pleases from the collective and purges members at will. However, his greatest specialty appears to be encouraging children to inform on their parents. Unlike more allegorical films produced behind the Iron Curtain, there is absolutely no question what he represents. In fact, Stalin’s apologists are probably watching Beyond in Hell for the rest of eternity.

Yet the blistering Beyond cannot be dismissed as mere post-Wall score-settling, given the eerie rendering of the hyper-Communist community and Kipping’s occasional flights of surrealist fantasy. This is an angry film, but an artful one as well. It also features some surprisingly compelling turns from the then-young trio of Stefanie Janke, Thomas Ewert, and Sebastian Reznicek, as Marie, Hans, and Rainbowmaker – the pre-pubescent love triangle.

There may truly be no more viscerally anti-Communist film than Beyond. However, Kipping’s in-your-face Christ-like imagery might put off some Christian audiences. Indeed, there are strong visuals throughout the film, the cumulative effect of which is a damning indictment of the GDR. Accordingly, anyone with a scrap of interest in the Communist and immediate post-Communist eras should make a special effort to see Beyond when it screens Tuesday (11/2) as part of Wende Flicks at Anthology Film Archives.

Posted on November 1st, 2010 at 9:06am.