Month: February 2011

Invasion Alert!: Ridley Scott, Orson Scott Card & John Carter of Mars Join the Invasion!

The 'Space Jockey' from Ridley Scott's "Alien" (1979).

By Jason Apuzzo. • The big news since our last Invasion Alert! was the announcement by Fox of Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, a semi-prequel to Alien, Scott’s classic sci-fi horror thriller from 1979. As predicted here for many months, Noomi Replace has been tapped by Scott as the lead for this long-rumored project, with Angelina Jolie And Charlize Theron reportedly circling other roles. Also: Michael Fassbender was recently added to the cast, apparently to play an android. And, despite Scott’s coy public statements, early indications are that this film will, indeed, serve as a prequel to Alien – and that we may actually get two films following this new Prometheus storyline, as well.

So what is the Prometheus storyline? Lips are officially sealed but some interesting plot details have leaked … [SPOILER ALERT] suggesting that the story involves the discovery on Earth of alien DNA at a desert archaeological dig, followed by the lead characters’ jetting off to the original alien homeworld – a setting we haven’t set yet in the Alien series. (There’s already a lot of online chatter that Scott intends to shoot the film’s archaeological dig in Morocco.)

The word for years has been that Scott wanted to do a prequel to Alien that would tell the story of the non-human ‘space jockey’ from the first film (seen above), the fossilized/mummified creature in whose ship the alien eggs were initially found. I listened to Ridley Scott’s DVD commentary on Alien recently, in which he basically sketched out his conception of the Alien backstory: namely, that the race of ‘space jockeys’ were originally using the alien creatures as a kind of bio-mechanoid weapon to terra-form planets, prior to the creatures breaking loose in the ‘space jockey’ ship – the ship eventually discovered by the crew of the Nostromo. Of course, James Cameron later riffed off this theme of ‘military exploitation’ of the alien creatures in Aliens, and it’s easy to imagine Scott returning to this theme for Prometheus; the film’s title itself suggests the use of ‘forbidden’ technology, which the aliens would certainly represent. [END OF SPOILERS.]

We’ll be keeping a close eye on all this. My sense is that Scott was kicked in the pants to do this film by the success of Avatar; I doubt he wants to go down as second fiddle to Cameron – and, frankly, he shouldn’t. Suffice it say that although Scott has gone a bit daft in recent years, and become more aggressively left-wing, he remains one of sci-fi’s greatest filmmakers – and it’s exciting to consider what his return to this genre may hold. Prometheus is set for a June 8, 2012 release.

Brooklyn Decker talks about "Battleship."

• Speaking of James Cameron, he recently committed to release dates in 2013 and 2014 for the Avatar sequels, and talked recently about some of the technical challenges he’s facing already on those films (such as underwater motion-capture, and the potential of filming in the Marianas Trench; he certainly doesn’t do anything the easy way, does he?) Also: Cameron claims that he still wants to do Battle Angel Alita, once he’s finally done with Avatar. We’ll see.

But that’s not all. Cameron also confirmed recently that Tom Cruise is interested in top-lining the epic alien invasion thriller At the Mountains of Madness (based on the Lovecraft novel) that he’s producing for Guillermo del Toro – although no deal is in place yet. (Del Toro also offers an update on that project here.)

From "Battle: Los Angeles."

• In the midst of her media blitz for Just Go With It, Brooklyn Decker recently talked with MTV about her forthcoming, $200 million alien invasion thriller from director Peter Berg, Battleship. You can check that interview out here. I can’t quite remember what she said, but I know she looked good saying it.

• Battle: Los Angeles is approaching. Images of the invading aliens have been leaked, plus new set photos, interviews and an on-set video blog are now available. I was initially quite enthusiastic about this film, but that’s cooled somewhat. We’ll see.

• Can you believe it? Some 25 years after it’s initial publication, Orson Scott Card’s alien invasion thriller Ender’s Game is now the hottest property being shopped around Hollywood (Card is a right-winger; did you know that?); although, of course, 25 years is nothing compared to the almost 100 years since Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars was published, and Pixar’s Andrew Stanton (WALL•E) offers an update on Disney’s live action adaptation of that novel here; John Carter of Mars is currently set for a March 9th, 2012 release.

• And guess who else is headed to Mars … Sinbad! No kidding, Charles Schneer’s son Barry wants to bring the Sinbad: Rogue of Mars comic to the screen in 2012 as a belated sequel to the wonderful Sinbad movies his father did years ago with Ray Harryhausen.

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley of "Transformers 3."

• Sinbad may not only be running in to John Carter up there on Mars, of course, but also Alexandre Aja’s Cobra the Space Pirate, another comic book/manga hero whom Aja (Piranha 3D) is planning to bring to the big screen soon, as well; Aja talked recently about that project here.

• On the Classic Alien Invasion Front: The New York Times reviews the latest triple-feature DVD release of Roger Corman’s Not of This Earth, War of the Satellites and Attack of the Crab Monsters; and we otherwise want to wish the great Zsa Zsa Gabor the best, as the star of the 1958 cult classic Queen of Outer Space continues to undergo more medical difficulties.

• In other Sci-Fi News & Notes: Director Gareth Edwards talks about the Godzilla reboot today; Matt Reeves And J.J. Abrams apparently haven’t found the right concept yet for Cloverfield 2; the J.J. Abrams/Steven Spielberg Super 8 will have a Super Bowl ad (along with Transformers 3 and Cowboys & Aliens); Spielberg’s forthcoming Terra Nova TV series continues to raise eyebrows, primarily due to its cost; Westworld is being re-booted (?!); Sony will be releasing Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium; V-babe Laura Vandervoort has a new interview out about the future of that series (which may not actually have a future, if its ratings continue to sag and its storyline irritates the fan base); and Liam Neeson will be returning to the Star Wars universe to voice Qui-Gon Jinn on The Clone Wars TV series.

• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … Rosie Huntington-Whiteley of Michael Bay’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon just posed for the UK’s Vogue … and I’m suddenly not remembering Megan Fox any more, you know what I mean?

And that’s what’s happening today in Earth’s War on Alien Invaders!

Posted on February 4th, 2011 at 7:47pm.


Frantisek Vlacil at The Lincoln Center: Sirius

Director Franstišek Vláčil.

By Joe Bendel. The story of a boy and his dog is a classic motif of children’s films. However, Franstišek Vláčil transformed this well-established convention into something sadly poetic, perfectly befitting the tenor of his time. As was the case with many artists, the post-Soviet Invasion years were not kind to Vláčil’s career, but by the mid 1970’s he was eventually allowed to take the reins of a smattering of short documentaries and films for young audiences. Though ostensibly one such children’s film, the adult world tragically intrudes in Sirius, Vláčil’s elegiac WWII-era coming of age film, which screens this Saturday afternoon as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Fantastic World of Franstišek Vláčil retrospective now underway at the Walter Reade Theater.

Sirius (or “Sir” as he is affectionately called) is not quite Lassie, but his ability to communicate and follow the instructions of his master is impressive nonetheless. Fascinated by the night sky, the director’s young namesake named the loyal canine after the Dog Star, the brightest star visible from Earth with the naked eye. Franstišek’s days appear to be filled with child-like wonder, as he and Sir commune with the nature. It seems their only cause for concern is the Bo Radley-esque forest-keeper who makes no secret of his ill will toward the animal. All that changes when a Nazi troop train blows up right before his eyes. Suddenly, the Germans are keenly aware of Franstišek’s station agent father as well as his spirited dog.

From "Sirius."

Though comparatively brief at a mere fifty minutes, Vláčil still takes his time establishing the rapport between boy and dog. Indeed, most of the film has a pastoral feel, though a sense of foreboding looms over the film. Clearly, there was a very competent dog trainer working behind the scenes, but Michal Vavrusa is also surprisingly understated and engaging as Franstišek.

Sirius could be considered an Old Yeller from behind the Iron Curtain.Yet, Vláčil slyly employs astronomical motifs to add a metaphysical-allegorical dimension unlike anything in Disney films. Though it burns brightly, we are told Sirius the star is due to temporarily disappear from the horizon. Likewise, the National Socialist occupiers may appear all-powerful, but they too shall pass (as their Communist successors did, as well).

Beautiful in its simplicity and directness, Sirus is a rewarding film for both smart kids and relatively smart adults. Not available on DVD here in America, it is highly recommended for all ages when it screens this Saturday (2/5) as part of the Vláčil series at the Walter Reade Theater.

Posted on February 4th, 2011 at 2:18pm.

BREAKING: Lionsgate Acquires Uday Hussein Film The Devil’s Double for Distribution

Dominic Cooper and Ludivine Sagnier in "The Devil's Double."

By Jason Apuzzo. Deadline Hollywood reports today that Lionsgate has acquired North American distribution rights to the Sundance hit The Devil’s Double, director Lee Tamahori’s new gangster epic about Uday Hussein and his body double. Libertas’ own Joe Bendel saw The Devil’s Double at Sundance and loved it (see his glowing review).

The film stars Dominic Cooper as Uday, and Ludivine Sangier as his mistress Sarrab. [Side note: expect to see lots of pictures of Ludivine Sangier here at Libertas in days ahead.] For those of you not familiar with the film, here’s the official description:

The year is 1987 and Baghdad is the playground for the rich and infamous- where anything can be bought, for a price. When army lieutenant, Latif Yahia (Dominic Cooper), is summoned from the frontline to Saddam’s palace, he is faced with an impossible request – to be Iraq’s notorious Black Prince Uday Hussein’s ‘fiday ,’ his body double. With his family’s lives as well as his own on the line, his fate is decided. Latif begins his journey as Uday Hussein, a man as widely hated as he is powerful. As he learns to walk, talk and act like Uday, he experiences the extravagance of a world filled with fast cars, endless money, easy women, and deeply depraved violence. Knowing who to trust becomes a matter of life or death, as he battles to escape from his forced existence alongside Sarrab (Ludivine Sangier), Uday’s notorious concubine. In a dynamic and chilling portrayal of Latif Yahia’s autobiographical novel, THE DEVIL’S DOUBLE charts one man’s struggle in a world of bloodlust, power and seduction.

Congratulations to the filmmakers, and we look forward to the film’s release. Here’s an interesting interview below with director Lee Tamahori (Once Were Warriors, Die Another Day) about the film.

Posted on Feburary 3rd, 2011 at 2:14pm.

The Russian Ark Screenplay

By David Ross. Aleksandr Sokurov’s Russian Ark (2002) is a marvel: a ninety-six-minute movie consisting of a single unbroken tracking shot. With a sensual fluidity unmatched except perhaps by Ophuls’ La Ronde, the camera follows two ghosts – one Russian, the other European, one earnest, the other ironic – as they stroll through the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

The centuries swirl gracefully about them, the twentieth century suddenly giving way to the nineteenth, the eighteenth suddenly giving way to the twenty-first, as if time itself were a gently shifting breeze. The film is pregnant with a wonderful faith that time is not an erosion, but an accretion, that some great memory catches the falling drop of the individual moment, that all is somehow gathered to the breast. As they make their tour, the ghosts maintain a patter of wry commentary and affectionate observation, humanists mingling in the parade of humanity. They have no urgent message to deliver and nothing to teach, thankfully; their pleasure is the film’s essential communication, though there is also a clouding of elegy. Meanwhile the camera makes a tour of its own, lingering on the splendid details of the palace: molding, gilding, ironwork, marble-work, drapery, china, crystal. The camera provides an implicit object lesson in the tradition of disciplined form that has made the beauty of the West, and this aspect of the film can only seem a terrible if inadvertent reproach. In comparison to the door handle or to the lace of a tablecloth, calmly wrought for the eye of God, whose discernment is infinite, our contemporary masterpieces – a Jackson Pollack, say, or the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao – flail hysterically, as if the soul itself were abandoned and drowning.

To promote and honor the film – one of the greatest ever in my opinion – I have fully transcribed the dialogue and annotated some of the artistic and architectural detail. This task required perhaps fifteen hours of truly tedious labor. I drew upon and sometimes cribbed directly from Paintings in the Hermitage by Colin Eisler and The Hermitage Collections (2 vols.) by Oleg Yakovlevich Neverov, Dmitry Pavlovich Alexinsky, Dr. Mikhail Piotrovsky (who possibly figures in the film; see here and here).

It is sometimes difficult to identify who speaks what words, and I can’t vouch for the accuracy of my transcription in every instance. I look forward to receiving corrections and additional annotations from our conscientious and knowledgeable readers. Please consider the script below a first attempt to map the fluid, elusive drama of the film. Hopefully somebody will find it useful in its present, rough form.

Continue reading The Russian Ark Screenplay

Frantisek Vlacil at The Lincoln Center: The White Dove

By Joe Bendel. Like many contemporary Iranian filmmakers, the late great Franstišek Vláčil often focused on ostensibly apolitical subjects, like children and animals. Yet, as a filmmaker in the vanguard of the Czech New Wave, his work was still considered suspect by the Communist power structure. Though his career would be put on hold for six years following the 1968 Soviet invasion, the international acclaim greeting his 1960 feature film debut The White Dove promised great things at the time for the filmmaker, making it the perfect selection to launch Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Fantastic World of Franstišek Vláčil retrospective.

A group of doves is released in Belgium. On a small Baltic island, their handlers eagerly anticipate their return. However, young Susan’s bird has a late start due to a twinge of the wing. While detouring through Prague, the wheelchair-bound Miša’s pellet gun nearly proves fatal. Shamed by Martin, the artist in the next door apartment, he nurses the bird back to health, while Susan faithfully keeps watching the skies.

Franstišek Vláčil.

Dove is a deceptively simple story, involving several themes Vláčil would return to in later films, such as the bond between children and animals. Reportedly reluctant to overwhelm his youthful cast with extensive lines to memorize, Vláčil makes his points visually rather than verbally. Stark but sensitive, nearly every artful black-and-white frame lensed by cinematographer Jan Čuřík is suitable for framing. Indeed, it is an arresting film to behold, effectively contrasting the claustrophobic, urbanized Prague with the idyllic sun and sea of Susan’s Baltic isle. Adding further texture, composer Zdenek Liska’s spritely jazz interludes and more suggestive chamber music nicely underscore and reinforce the power of the film’s speechless moments.

Vláčil elicits some natural yet restrained performances from Karel Smyczek and Katerina Irmanovová, as the dove’s two youthful caretakers. He also captures the artistic impulse better in Dove than nearly any other film, raptly observing as Martin creates a series of works inspired by Miša and the injured dove (which are credited to Czech artists Theodor Pištěk and Jan Kablasa).

At times, Dove seems to suggest deeper allegorical significance, but Vláčil judiciously keeps it all rather obscure—though perhaps not obscure enough, in retrospect. (Whenever you have a cat named Satan hunting a peaceful white dove, it could be rather awkward explaining what each represents to the occupying commissar .)

Many have likened Vláčil’s films to poetry. Indeed, like a good poem (at least by Poe’s standards) Dove is relatively short at seventy-five minutes. Though it memorably evokes a child’s perspective, it is unquestionably high art cinema, better suited to the discerning connoisseur. A major work from a filmmaker under-exposed on the American film scene during his own lifetime, Dove kicked-off the FSLC’s welcome reappraisal of Vláčil’s films yesterday at the Walter Reade Theater.

Posted on February 3rd, 2011 at 12:17pm.

The Kennedys Lands at The ReelzChannel, Show Debuts April 3rd

By Jason Apuzzo. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Joel Surnow’s The Kennedys miniseries has finally found a home – at the ReelzChannel, where the show will premiere April 3rd.

This is good news, I suppose, but quite a come-down from what the initial ambitions for this series were. In the status-conscious world of Hollywood, this amounts to a body-slamming of everyone involved in the project – sort of like the LA Dodgers moving back to Brooklyn.

In any case, I suppose I will now have to actually find the ReelzChannel.

Posted on February 2nd, 2011 at 10:22am.