Month: March 2011

Invasion Alert!: Falling Skies & The Summer’s New Wave of Alien Invasions

From Steven Spielberg's "Falling Skies."

By Jason Apuzzo. • There’s been an ocean of ‘alien invasion’ news since our last Invasion Alert! – so much so that I’ll barely be able to cover it all. So let’s jump right in, focusing on recent developments …

• Trailers and promotional art have begun to appear for Steven Spielberg’s Falling Skies TV series for TNT. If ever we’ve seen a classic alien invasion scenario, this would seem to be it. The excellent new promo trailer for this series makes it look like a cross between V and War of the Worlds – although, interestingly, some of the promotional art seems to suggest that this series may also be headed down the path of Robert Heinlein’s Puppet Masters, with alien creatures riding on the backs of humans and ‘controlling’ their thoughts and actions. That’s just a hunch, but check out this promotional poster here (scroll below to the second poster) and perhaps you’ll see what I mean.

I’m not too crazy about Noah Wyle in the lead – he plays a Boston history professor who has to “use his military knowledge to aid the resistance movement known as the 2nd Mass” (sounding a bit like V here?) – although that may be because I keep thinking of him playing Steve Jobs in Pirates of Silicon Valley, which didn’t quite work for me.

In any case, the show’s trailer features a lot of gratuitous flag-waving and patriotic imagery, once more suggesting that this genre is heading back down its traditionally pro-American, pro-freedom path, a la the recent Battle: Los Angeles. With that said, I strongly suspect that this series will likely also have multiple layers to it in the way V has had over its first two seasons.

As far as alien invasion projects, Spielberg’s Falling Skies will be headed into some crowded skies when it premieres in June, right after the J.J. Abrams/Steven Spielberg Super 8, and with the Michael Bay/Steven Spielberg Transformers: Dark of the Moon and the Jon Favreau/Steven Spielberg Cowboys & Aliens opening in July. By the way, anybody notice a recurring name here?

• So Battle: Los Angeles worked out well, yes? You can read my glowing review of Battle: LA here, which got some attention when most everyone else in the critical community was trashing the film. Battle: LA is currently the top-grossing movie worldwide, so far having taken in over $153 million. Possibly the rest of the world simply likes seeing Los Angeles being destroyed? Putting a more positive spin on things, I suspect the film’s done well because it depicts a more old-fashioned, hard-nosed, patriotic side of America – the America that the rest of the world misses, even when they claim they don’t.

Brooklyn Decker: "Battleship" has "a lot of yelling."

At the same time, I think Battle: LA probably could’ve done even a lot better at the box office had the film been a bit more original in conception. Battle: LA takes such a straight-no-chaser approach to alien invasion that it’s hard to distinguish the film from many similar projects that have come before it – and will soon be coming after it. In any case, I’m already looking forward to the DVD …

• Brooklyn Decker spoke recently about Battleship, giving us some crucial new insights into next year’s alien invasion war thriller. In the UK promoting Just Go With It, Ms. Decker revealed that “I worked on [Battleship] for a good four months and I think it’s going to surprise a lot of people … There was weapons training, stunts with cars, it’s more of an intense film with a lot of fights and a lot of yelling.”

It’s true that when aliens invade, there’s usually a lot of yelling.

• Since our last Invasion Alert!, Guillermo del Toro very publicly had to set aside one alien invasion thriller, At the Mountains of Madness (from the H.P. Lovecraft novel), in favor of directing another alien invasion epic called Pacific Rim. At the Mountains of Madness was to star Tom Cruise, be shot in 3D, and would’ve had James Cameron on board as a producer. Universal, however, balked about the project’s reported $150 million price tag and potential R-rating, so del Toro has switched to directing Pacific Rim for Legendary – which is looking like an old-fashioned, Toho-style thriller about “a future Earth defending itself from attacking creatures.”

What do I think of this? It comes down to the question of whether you’d prefer seeing an important novel filmed and botched – or not filmed, at all. For various reasons I was having doubts about del Toro’s vision of Madness, although I’ll confess to having looked forward to seeing what he, Cruise and Cameron would come up with. Ultimately I suspect that same team will probably still make the film, only with another studio; as for Pacific Rim, we know little about it at this point other than that it feels a bit like Godzilla, which happens to be in the midst of a re-boot from Legendary.

This may end up being del Toro’s put-up-or-shut-up moment; either Pacific Rim is a huge hit, or he may have a lot of trouble helming another big-budget sci-fi feature in the future. Tron: Legacy‘s Joseph Kosinkski is finding that out right now, as his huge sci-fi project Horizons just got dropped by Disney.

From "Transformers: Dark of the Moon."

• Some new pics came out today of Transformers: Dark of the Moon, plus word that Leonard Nimoy will be doing the voice of Sentinel Prime, who’s glimpsed briefly on the Moon in the film’s teaser trailer. Also: some spoilerific details about the film are apparently available in the Dark of the Moon novelization.

I’m really looking forward to what Michael Bay’s cooked-up here, especially now that he’s taken the plunge into 3D. I thought the first two Transformers films were a lot of fun, and also warm-hearted – unlike a lot of contemporary sci-fi.

• Men in Black 3D seems on the road to becoming one of those spectacular behind-the-scenes disasters that comes along every few years to bankrupt studios, end careers, etc.

The film, which has been in development for years, went into production with only a third of the screenplay written in order to take advantage of expiring tax incentives; the latest story now is that nobody even knows who one of the screenwriters is working on the film’s rewrites! Ouch. Also: Alec Baldwin has dropped out of the film (hooray!), and tensions are developing between director Barry Sonnenfeld and producer Walter Parkes. It will be interesting to see how – or whether – they pull this one out of the fire …

• In other Alien Invasion/Sci-Fi News: Ridley Scott’s Prometheus is shooting right now in Toronto, and Noomi Rapace talks about the project here; a new trailer for The Thing should be coming soon; there’s breaking news about The Darkest Hour; J.J. Abrams has been talking about Super 8 recently, and 20 minutes of the film was recently shown to exhibitors; incidentally, Abrams still apparently wants to do Cloverfield 2 (see here and here); another J.J. Abrams project, Star Trek 2, has apparently bumped the Jack Ryan reboot from Chris Pine’s calendar for the time being; a description of the first two reels of Cowboys & Aliens has leaked; the release date for Apollo 18 has been switched to January 6, 2012 (not a good sign); indie alien invasion thriller Attack the Block apparently rocked the SXSW film festival in Austin (see new clips of the film here); the indie sci-fi pic Another Earth (read the LFM Sundance review here) will be released July 22nd; Paramount just put Dune into turnaround, probably because they can’t find anyone with half a brain to do it; Tron: Legacy and the original Tron hit DVD/Blu-ray on April 5th (see my Tron: Legacy review here); will there be a third Tron? my guess is yes, with a new director and new writers; Steven Spielberg’s massive new Terra Nova series has been delayed again; a new trailer for Mass Effect 2 is out; there’s casting news on the Total Recall remake (see here and here); and there’s been a huge new wave of sci-fi deals all over Hollywood (see here and here), including movement on such projects as: The Runner, Voltron, Agent OX (about a human spy infiltrating an alien planet) and something by McG.

Sarah Carter of TNT's "Falling Skies."

• Speaking of Pacific Rim and Godzilla, on the Creature Invasion front the forthcoming Piranha 3DD now has: 1) the greatest title in the history of the cinema; 2) a new script; 3) Tara Reid in the cast; 4) a rumored setting of a water park; 5) and a Thanksgiving release date of November 23rd. I’m there. No questions asked.

• James Cameron and George Lucas recently sat down to discuss 3D, digital technology and the future of the cinema. Lucas’ Phantom Menace is currently being retrofitted into 3D, and the entire Star Wars saga is now coming to Blu-ray on September 16th. Very much looking forward to both.

Cameron has been in the news a lot lately, as usual. He recently said that that he’s considering bringing the cast of the Avatar sequels to the Amazon so they can get in touch with nature and with the lifestyle of indigenous tribes – this, no doubt, to the chagrin of the former Fox executive who wanted him to cut the “New Age, tree-hugging, hippy crap” out of Avatar. Also: the Japan earthquakes are probably going to lead Cameron to call off his planned dives to the Marianas Trench to capture footage for the Avatar sequels. Cameron also wants to shoot the Avatar sequels at  48 or 60 frames/second to reduce 3D strobing, which sounds great except for the fact that every theater in America would need to be retrofit for that. (Incidentally, is Fox paying for all this?)

You get the feeling that pre-production on these Avatar sequels could total around $1 billion. Why am I thinking these films may take another 12 years for him to complete?

• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … let’s take a look above at Sarah Carter of TNT’s forthcoming alien invasion series Falling Skies. She plays the only surviving member of an “outlaw motorcycle gang” who’s now on the run after a massive force of extraterrestrials arrive on Earth and begin wreaking havoc. Do women in outlaw motorcycle gangs really look like this these days?

And that’s what’s happening today on the Alien Invasion Front!

Posted on March 31st, 2011 at 6:44pm.

HBO’s Mildred Pierce: Faithful, If a Little Cold

By Jennifer Baldwin. “About her face there was no distinction whatever. She was what is described as ‘nice-looking,’ rather than pretty; her own appraisal she sometimes gave in the phrase, ‘pass in a crowd.’ But this didn’t quite do her justice. Into her eyes, if she were provoked, or made fun of, or puzzled, there came a squint that was anything but alluring, that betrayed a rather appalling literal-mindedness, or matter-of-factness, or whatever it might be called, but that hinted, nevertheless, at something more than complete vacuity inside. It was the squint, Bert confessed afterwards, that first caught his fancy, and convinced him there was ‘something to her.’” – James M. Cain, Mildred Pierce (1941).

The squint in her eye is Mildred’s defining detail in James M. Cain’s novel, but in Todd Haynes’s (dir. Far From Heaven) beautifully detailed new adaptation, it’s the one detail that’s been left out. Meticulously rendered, obsessively detailed, HBO’s new five-part miniseries Mildred Pierce is a gorgeous and intoxicating recreation of Depression-era southern California. And Kate Winslet throws herself full-throttle into the part of Mildred, a recently divorced housewife and mother who does what she must in order to provide for her children, especially her snobbish, cruel elder daughter, Veda (Morgan Turner, Evan Rachel Wood). Winslet gives a naturalistic performance and her sobs and flashes of anger are neither histrionic nor mechanical, but instead subtle and filled with an inner intensity. She puts as much life into Mildred as she can and you can see Winslet’s skill at work in every frame (and she’s in almost every frame of the show). Unfortunately, seeing is not feeling, and I was left strangely cold by Winslet’s performance, despite being hypnotically sucked in by the luridness of the story and the sumptuousness of the set design. Continue reading HBO’s Mildred Pierce: Faithful, If a Little Cold

LFM Review: Miral, and the Envy of Suffering

By Patricia Ducey. Miral, the latest from painter turned filmmaker Julian Schnabel, strives to marry lyricism to polemic; the clumsy union fails.Written by Schnabel’s collaborator and now girlfriend Rula Jebreal from her “fictionalized autobiography,” the resulting, uneven film has been soundly rejected by both critics and audiences alike. Schnabel’s prior efforts–The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Before Night Falls, and Basquiat–chose real artists as their subjects and these unique stories, told with his exquisite painterly vision, proved eminently watchable and thoroughly satisfying as stories. Schnabel knows the territory of artist versus society, artist versus himself, and of the ecstatic vision that can sometimes destroy–he inhabits this milieu himself. He fancies himself a bit of an artistic rebel as well, clad always in his silk pajamas, carrying on his serial marriages in the NY gossip columns, all with a carefully calibrated dash of épater la bourgeoisie. Why then veer away from this successful, tragic-Romantic vein and choose the highly politicized Israeli-Palestinian conflict instead?

It would be too easy to suggest that Schnabel’s love affair with the beauteous Jebreal that began with their collaboration entirely influenced his adaptation. Instead, I attribute this filmic failure to a common psychological characteristic of the left: a veneration of victimhood that surpasses real understanding or compassion.

The Germans call it Leidensneid, or an “envy of suffering.” Based on exaggerated idealism, those who have not suffered much at all feel somewhat guilty for their good fortune (as if freedom and prosperity were mere happy accidents) and almost inexplicably offer support to ideals that they would never countenance in their own life. Communism, radical Islam, fascism; all have been momentary darlings of the left. This envy of suffering propelled the German and Italian activists/terrorists of the ‘60s to identify with the Vietnamese or the PLO against the West, for instance, and culminated in Entebbe – with the end always justifying the means, however murderous. In the leftist moral universe, the losing side is always right. Thus in Miral, if Israelis are prosperous and free thinking, the poverty stricken and devout Palestinians must be their victims. Continue reading LFM Review: Miral, and the Envy of Suffering

LFM Review: The Ten Commandments (1956) on Blu-ray, Available March 29th

By Jason Apuzzo. The new Ten Commandments Blu-ray comes out this Tuesday, March 29th (see the trailer for the Blu-ray at the bottom of this post). Paramount will be releasing a 2-disc Blu-ray set of the classic film, and also a Limited Edition 6-disc DVD/Blu-ray Combo set, that features both Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 and 1923 versions of the film – and a host of goodies, including a handsome archival booklet that may be worth the price of the set on its own.

The Ten Commandments is a special favorite of mine. Not only is the film one of Hollywood’s greatest epics of the 1950s, the film is also a timeless and enduring ode to human freedom – and one which seems to grow only more timely and urgent as the years go by. The Ten Commandments is a film that will always remain powerful and ‘relevant’ so long as there are souls yearning for freedom – even, as we’ve seen recently, in contemporary Egypt and North Africa where so much of The Ten Commandments was filmed.

We had the pleasure of showing what was then the best existing print of The Ten Commandments at our first Liberty Film Festival in 2004, when we invited cast member Lisa Mitchell to talk about her recollections of Mr. DeMille – and how influential he was in her life. Several years later Govindini and I spent time with Cecilia DeMille Presley, granddaughter of Cecil DeMille and a caretaker of his legacy – who shared some wonderful memories of her grandfather with us. Most special, however, was the opportunity Govindini and I had years ago to meet Charlton Heston himself at The Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, when he introduced a special screening of The Ten Commandments. (We actually sat right behind him during the screening – and watched his reactions to the film, which he still seemed to take great delight in so many years later.) It was an extraordinary thrill to meet him; even late in life, he was still handsome and rugged, with a biting wit – but also a warm and generous spirit. He was the consummate gentleman.

Charlton Heston in "The Ten Commandments."

The Ten Commandments is without a doubt one of the best films Hollywood has ever produced, and a carrier of important ideas about freedom, so I thought we’d take a little look back at it today. It also happens to be a magnificent showpiece for the Blu-ray medium – with the film’s rich, saturated colors, beautiful costumes and production design, endless desert vistas, and iconic visual effects sequences. To put it mildly, The Ten Commandments is not only an emotional spectacle of the heart … it’s also an eyeful.

Interestingly,The Ten Commandments happens to be the fifth highest-grossing film of all time, adjusted for inflation. When the film was released in 1956, theater tickets cost about 50 cents – and the film still grossed over $65 million. What this means is that at today’s ticket prices, The Ten Commandments would have grossed over $1 billion at the domestic box office. In the history of American moviemaking, only Gone With the Wind, Star Wars, The Sound of Music and E.T. have fared better at the box office than did DeMille’s extraordinary film.

I don’t mention The Ten Commandments‘ box office success because that denotes anything in particular about the film’s merits – success at the box office can always be misleading – but to suggest the kind of powerful bond this film has with the public. The Ten Commandments is, as it turns out, a beautifully written, directed, acted, photographed and scored film – a majestic and emotional voyage into one of the primary myths of Western religious life. It’s also the crowning achievement of one of America’s greatest moviemakers. At the same time, The Ten Commandments is something else: it’s a part of American popular mythology, as important to America’s filmic conversation about freedom and individual dignity as Casablanca, Gone With the Wind or On the Waterfront. Continue reading LFM Review: The Ten Commandments (1956) on Blu-ray, Available March 29th

LFM Review: Cairo 6,7,8 and Women’s Freedom in Egypt

Poster for "Cairo 6,7,8."

By Joe Bendel. When CBS journalist Lara Logan was assaulted by a gang of rampaging men in Tahrir Square, it became clear that there is a real problem in how a sizeable portion of Egypt’s Islamic male population relates to women. When NPR had to delete scores of hateful comments on the Logan story and issue a scolding reminder to its readers (serviced by our tax dollars) that violence against women is always unacceptable, the western media’s deficiency handling issues like the conditions endured by women in Egypt (and in the wider Muslim world) also became blatantly clear. Now with his directorial debut, Mohamed Diab offers a blistering corrective to his country’s self-serving denial and outright misogyny in Cairo 6,7,8, which screens during the 2011 New Directors/New Films, co-presented by MoMA and the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

Cairo’s buses are a groper’s playground. Fayza understands this only too well. Every time she files onto the titular 6/7/8 line, she is felt up. It is taking a toll on the traditional working class Muslim woman, depleting her spirit and further poisoning her already frosty relations with her boorish husband.

Modern and affluent, Seba was the victim of a large scale sexual assault during a soccer match that eerily parallels the subsequent Logan story. Naturally, her husband blamed her—not directly of course, but through his emotional distance. As part of her own recovery process, Seba begins teaching self-defense and empowerment classes for women, attracting Fayza as a student. Eventually, the two join forces with Nelly, a hip, aspiring stand-up comic who has launched the country’s’ first sexual harassment lawsuit. Continue reading LFM Review: Cairo 6,7,8 and Women’s Freedom in Egypt

LFM SPECIAL: Elizabeth Taylor, Our Time with Jane Russell & Why We Miss the Women of the 1950s

The late, very great Elizabeth Taylor.

By Jason Apuzzo. By some cosmic irony, yesterday was the day I’d finally worked up the fortitude to write about Jane Russell – the warm, glamorous and iconic 50s star whom Govindini and I had the pleasure of spending time with several years ago, before she passed away recently at her home in Santa Maria. I wanted to share with Libertas readers some of the things she’d told us about her life and career, although I would be doing so with a heavy heart as she is now no longer with us.

Then came news yesterday that Elizabeth Taylor had passed away.

This is very sad news, indeed. Although Taylor had been in failing health for some time, and word of her passing was not altogether surprising, I must confess to still being stunned by the news. Elizabeth Taylor had overcome so many crises and health scares in her life that she seemed utterly indomitable – and I had assumed that her recent health scare would, like so many others, pass away into legend as another one of her epic brushes with misfortune. Alas, her many health problems have apparently taken their toll over the years, and so mortality has now folded even over Elizabeth Taylor, the great survivor.

Elizabeth Taylor and Jane Russell both deserve their own posts and remembrances, frankly. Both of them loom large as entertainment personalities of the 20th century, and as people for whom – for different reasons – I’ve developed an affection over the years. At the same time, many of the the things I’d intended to say about Jane can also and should also be said about Liz – and more generally about the women of their generation. We’re all missing these women terribly right now, and missing what they represented. Everything I’m seeing written about Liz at the moment resembles what was said about Jane just a few weeks ago: that women of their sort are no longer with us, and that the women who’ve replaced them in the intervening decades since their heyday haven’t made up for the loss. Fundamentally, we all know this to be true but are so often restricted for various reasons from saying it.

Now is not the time for such restrictions, however. Now is the time to be emotional and passionate about the women on our big screen. So I have a few thoughts today about Elizabeth Taylor – arguably the greatest female star of all time – and also about Jane Russell, the girl-next-door who became an icon of her era. And you’ll forgive me, but I will be wearing my heart way out on my sleeve. These women deserve that. Continue reading LFM SPECIAL: Elizabeth Taylor, Our Time with Jane Russell & Why We Miss the Women of the 1950s