By Jason Apuzzo. • There’s a lot of news on the Alien Invasion Front, but probably the most interesting thing that’s happened recently is that two joint video interviews were released – one featuring Michael Bay talking with James Cameron, the other featuring J.J. Abrams talking with Steven Spielberg. The two films they’re discussing, obviously, are the two big alien invasion thrillers coming down the pike: Bay’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and the Abrams/Spielberg Super 8. The interviews are both roughly 15 minutes long, but are otherwise studies in contrast.
The Bay-Cameron interview is very much tech-talk – good tech-talk mind you, intelligent discussion of a subject that many people are familiar with but rarely understand on a sophisticated level: moving stereoscopic (i.e., 3D) imagery. Bay and Cameron deliver one of the more thoughtful discussions I’ve heard on this subject – examining how 3D impacts editing, and how 3D is ‘dynamic’ (i.e., it can be dialed back, when necessary).
You really get a feel in this interview for how smart these guys really are when they’re discussing their own profession, or in pushing the technological envelope in big, mainstream filmmaking. I may disagree with Cameron about a great many things, but I would not want to tangle with him on the subject of stereo-optics, or on the subject of cinema montage in general. He’s certainly impressive, as is Bay. Both understand how the cinema really needs to push forward innovations like 3D in order to give audiences new reasons to go out to the movies, rather than to stay home and watch downloads. I fear for what YouTube and the internet in general are doing to the cinema, but these guys are obviously aware of the problem and developing creative solutions to address it. I found their discussion inspiring, and interesting … but probably best recommended for the more technically inclined readers out there.
Watching Abrams and Spielberg go at it is a completely different ball of wax, altogether! Although I admire Cameron (minus his politics) and Bay, Abrams and Spielberg seem more personable, fun, and you really get a sense of what a sentimental exercise filmmaking is for them. Super 8 is quite obviously intended as a journey back to their childhood, to what inspired their young imaginations and pushed them to become storytellers in the first place.
Both men also have what is clearly an advanced understanding of what generates excitement in audiences, and in how to create an air of mystery and suspense about what they’re doing. You really get a sense of what a personal matter filmmaking is to these guys, how non-technical it is, how filmmaking is something tied up with their everyday lives and emotions – even in their emotional reactions to other peoples’ films.
Anyway, I enjoyed both discussions and found them inspiring for different reasons – and I’m very much looking forward to both films. We’ll be getting Super 8 very shortly …
• On the Transformers: Dark of the Moon front, the film will have its world premiere June 23rd as the opening-night film of the Moscow International Film Festival (probably because the film has a neo-Cold War angle involving the Russians), and the U.S. debut has been bumped up to June 29th. Capone over at Aint It Cool News has already seen the film, and given it a rave review – praising it “not just in terms of its scope, but also in its pacing, performances, and ideas. This one dares to go dark from time to time, and that helped me find the often-lacking component of many Bay films: emotion.” Also: the film’s 3D IMAX trailer is now available on-line (I’ve seen it in a theater; it’s phenomenal); new ads and clips are out; and there’s already an ILM featurette out about the film’s VFX (in particular, it’s old-school use of miniatures).
Better still, the best image yet of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley in Transformers has been released (see above), an image suggesting how deeply Michael Bay understands the male imagination (Victoria’s Secret supermodel + Mercedes concept car = automatic ticket purchase). The image also got me thinking: somebody should give Michael Bay the Bond franchise. Can you imagine how great that would be? In any case, you can also watch a clip of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley in the film … and Rosie talks to The HuffPo about her life as a farm girl. According to HuffPo:
She was pretty frank when discussing her shooting of livestock on her parents’ farm. “I know where my food comes from. I don’t get sad ’cause you don’t build relationships with those animals,” Huntington-Whiteley said. “I’m a farm girl; there’s the pigs, that’s the dog that I play with and love, but it’s the pig that’s gonna be in the freezer next month.”
Hey! What starlets slaughter pigs these days?
• In Super 8/J.J. Abrams news, the NY Times did a large and interesting feature on J.J. Abrams this week; also, a new, highly Spielbergean poster is out for Super 8, and the first 20 minutes of Super 8 were recently screened for audiences at Cannes. Here‘s how one critic reacted to the footage:
Instantly you are reminded of Stand By Me, ET, The Goonies, The Monsters Squad and Dazed & Confused – despite its sci-fi allusions this is a classic coming-of-age drama, something producer Steven Spielberg is the past master at. Well JJ the protege has certainly picked up where The Beard left off…
Otherwise, Abrams talks about casting the film here; new Super 8 clips and TV spots are out (here, here, here, here, here and here; you may not want to watch some of these, if you don’t want the movie spoiled).
Also: a 70-page outline of Abrams’ next Star Trek was just turned in, indicating that a finished screenplay will not be arriving anytime soon. This, in turn, has lead to speculation that Star Trek 2‘s release may be pushed back until Christmas 2012. Remember that Abrams’ first Star Trek also had to be pushed back about 6 months … but the results were exceptional. [Incidentally, it’s hard to write the words Star Trek 2 without chills running down the spine …]
• Some Major New Alien invasion Projects are starting to rumble through the pipeline. Tom Cruise and a $100 million budget were just committed to Joe Kosinski’s Oblivion, which will feature Cruise battling “a savage alien life form” on a post-apocalpytic Earth. But that’s nothing compared to the project Men in Black director Barry Sonnenfeld has apparently dreamed up: Dominion: Dinosaurs Versus Aliens. And you thought it was just cowboys fighting aliens, these days!
Sonnenfeld is apparently developing this dinosaurs vs. aliens story idea as both a graphic novel and movie, and here‘s the plot: “When an alien invasion attacks Earth in the age of the dinosaurs, the planet’s only hope is the giants that roam the planet with, it turns out, a lot more intelligence than previously realized.” Yes, a lot more intelligence, apparently! (Is this genre jumping the shark already?) Actually, given the cheeky good humor of Sonnenfeld’s films – I’ll confess to being one of the few people who enjoyed his Wild Wild West with Will Smith – this might be a lot of fun … although hellishly expensive to produce. We’ll keep an eye on it, obviously.
Of course, the key question about this project is: will there be cavegirls?!
Elsewhere, it seemed long overdue but Twilight novelist Stephanie Meyer’s teenage girl alien invasion thriller The Host is finally going to be adapted, with Andrew Niccol directing. I’m surprised it took so long for this novel to get picked up. Were they waiting for the Twilight grosses to pass the $1 trillion mark?
We’ve also got another new alien invasion thriller called The Fallen coming down the line, about an alien ship that crashes in Russia and starts to cause trouble.
Other big news of late is that William Gibson’s groundbreaking tech noir/cyberpunk novel Neuromancer is finally being adapted for the big screen. Unfortunately this adaptation is being done by Vincenzo Natali, who did the grotesque Splice. Neuromancer – which depicts a futuristic, Cold War world in which the boundaries between human and computer consciousness have been shattered, including even the boundaries between Earth-based and ‘alien’ computer consciousnesses from another galaxy – was hugely influential in its day, and I’m curious as to how exactly they’re going to compress the novel’s wildly complex plot into something viable for the screen. We’ll certainly keep an eye on this, although my expectations here are decidedly modest.
Also: Ender’s Game just got pre-sold at Cannes, and Alexandre Aje’s Cobra the Space Pirate has a new teaser poster out (see above), although I wasn’t even aware that film had a finished screenplay or financing yet.
• For reasons absolutely nobody understands, Disney has decided that its John Carter of Mars, based on the first of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ ‘Barsoom’ novels, is now simply going to be called John Carter. Sci-fi fan reaction (including my own) has been extremely negative about this news, and this is starting to look like one of those idiotic corporate decisions that somebody at Disney is going to have to walk back quickly, before this becomes a debacle.
• In Star Wars News, read here the full specs on the forthcoming Star Wars Blu-rays, which look phenomenal. Needless to say I’m very curious about the “deleted, extended and alternate scenes” from these films. Aren’t those what we’ve all been waiting for for years? It’s amazing how long those have been tucked away unseen in the Lucasfilm vaults.
What’s even more amazing, however, is recent word that over 50 hours of the live-action Star Wars TV series have already been shot! I’m astonished that word of this hasn’t spread farther, although in the same video clip in which George Lucas revealed this, he also indicated that he currently has no way to finish the project (VFX-wise) in a cost-effective manner. Watch for this story to develop … it’s too big not to.
• Elsewhere on the TV Front: speaking of expensive TV series, Terra Nova has a new trailer out that is making the series look like a hybrid of Avatar and Jurassic Park, with a distinctly lefty enviro-message. I’m skeptical this series will make it, frankly – it looks too expensive, and a bit humorless. In related news, Steven Spielberg’s other big series Falling Skies hasn’t even debuted yet, and it already may be getting a second season.
Two recent series have been cancelled, however: ABC’s V, and NBC’s The Event. Regular LFM readers know how completely thrilled I was by Season 1 of V, only to be let down enormously by the Season 2 premiere and its anti-Israeli subtext. Frankly, I never picked up watching the show after that. What an enormous disappointment that show ended up being! But as one reader put it, we’ll always have Season 1 …
• On the Creature Invasion Front: Guillermo del Toro’s huge alien creature invasion thriller Pacific Rim apparently has a lead, as does Captain Nemo, which is being billed as a 3D ‘steampunk’ sequel to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; Gareth Edwards’ Monsters for some bizarre reason is getting a sequel, although without Edwards and at a higher budget; Trollhunter is going to get an Americanized remake (do we have trolls here in the States? actually I think I’ve met a few), plus you can read an interview with Trollhunter director André Øvredal; Piranha 3DD (greatest movie title ever) will be bringing back Christopher Lloyd and Ving Rhames, and casting blonde 30 Rock starlet Katrina Bowden … and also David Hasselhoff! Yes! So piranhas will now be hassling The Hoff! Could this film possibly look any better?! This is fast-becoming my favorite franchise.
… although Piranha 3D certainly has inspired some competition. This past week saw the release of the new Shark Night 3D trailer and poster, both of which looked pretty good, as these things go. And for the true fanatics, check out the new trailer for Bait 3D, which features sharks set loose during a tsunami Down Under. Humans are the bait.
• On the Indie Alien Invasion Front: indie Brit alien invasion thriller Attack the Block opens May 11th, and is already getting rave reviews (see here and here). The film also has a gnarlier new poster out, along with some new production stills; plus, Sundance favorite Another Earth will be screening at the Seattle Film Festival prior to its theatrical release this summer.
• In other Alien Invasion/Sci-Fi News & Notes: it looks like Hugh Jackman may be toplining the new 3D Fantastic Voyage remake, produced by James Cameron; Cowboys & Aliens has a new TV spot, plus in a case of epic pandering the film is now sponsoring a NASCAR racer, and Jon Favreau otherwise has some interesting thoughts on the mixing of the cowboy and alien invasion genres (which is not new, actually); Guy Pearce has been cast in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus; Elysium has a new release date; check out new set photos from the much-troubled production Men in Black 3D here and here, plus Bill Hader has been cast as Andy Warhol in that time-travel themed film; George Clooney and Darren Aronofsky may be teaming on a futuristic sci-fi alien invasion thriller called Human Nature that would be Aronofsky’s next film (NOOOO!!!); the Total Recall remake, which already features Colin Farrell, just went on a casting binge – bringing on board Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel, Pirates of the Carribbean‘s Bill Nighy, Ethan Hawke (whose character has a 5-page monologue?! NOOOO!!!) and Star Trek‘s John Cho; and otherwise it doesn’t look like I Am Number 4 will be getting a sequel, which is a shame … given that Monsters will. Read this feature on the excellent VFX from that film, by the way.
• In Classic Sci-Fi/Alien Invasion News: we want to express our sorrow at the passing of Dana Wynter, co-star of 1956’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers and other classics like Sink the Bismarck. She was a very lovely, elegant and sophisticated star. In other news, the Cannes Film Festival recently showed a newly restored, full-color print of Georges Melies’ Trip to the Moon, which must have been wonderful to see!
• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS …Brooklyn Decker says that the aquatic alien invasion war-thriller Battleship will “start doing promos and all that good stuff probably late Fall, early next year,” and here we get a look at Ms. Decker as she continues her strenuous preparations to fend off the invaders!
And that’s what’s happening today on the Alien Invasion Front!
Posted on May 29th, 2011 at 1:00pm.
Nice update Jason.
Both understand how the cinema really needs to push forward innovations like 3D in order to give audiences new reasons to go out to the movies . .
After taking in 3D “blockbusters” KF Panda 2 and Thor this week, I’m still not loving the 3D effect – particularly the way it makes an extra 20 percent for admission disappear from my wallet. At some point, I expect a significant portion of the audience will begin feeling the same way I did last night in the middle of KFP2; like a rube who’s just realizes he’s been had.
Let’s face it, though: there are films that are simply riding the 3D wave, and others that are actually pushing it forward. I think it’s unfortunate that everyone’s getting lumped into the same basket. I agree with you that the last few times I’ve seen something in 3D – Pirates, Green Hornet and Thor being the most recent examples – the 3D basically did nothing for me. At the same time, none of those films were shot 3D native, nor with the nuances of the medium in mind.
ADD: According to the cartoon brew site, shares of DreamWorks Animation dropped today to their lowest point in two years, and equally significant, shares of 3D hardware firm Real D plummeted over 12%.
One would think that a CGI animation would have total control over 3D implementation.
Whew! That was an alert … how do you write 1,000 words with such urgency?
Where do I start?
– The Bay/Cameron, Abrams/Spielberg interviews were fantastic. From the first time I saw Abrams in an interview, I always saw him as a Spielberg disciple in his enthusiasm and showmanship. To me, Bay’s gifts stem from how comfortable he is about who he is. Cameron, while a wonderful storyteller and screenwriter (technically, at least) always seemed a little cold, and has never grown intellectually.
– Jason, I hate to be that guy, but I think Lucas was talking about hours worth of scripts.
– A Clooney / Aronofsky alien-invasion thriller? I just threw up a little in my mouth … luckily I read that Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel are in the same film … which one doesn’t matter.
– It’s a little sad there’s no “I Am Number Four” sequel. I just watched the Blu, and I loved it.
Thanks for the kind word, Vince.
– On the Lucas thing, I have an easy way of confirming that … but I don’t want to bother the person about it. I’ll admit, I don’t know how George could keep that sort of thing secret, if he’d actually shot 50 hours worth! The casting process alone would be a dead giveaway. Everybody blabs.
– I agree with your assessments of Bay and Abrams. I think there’s a lot of growth potential in those guys, and I hope they continue to stretch themselves. As far as Cameron goes, though, I have to disagree. Although he has a significant blind spot for politics, my sense is that he’s quite cerebral in his approach to filmmaking. Cameron seems fully aware of what he’s doing, and not simply lucky in terms of connecting with audiences. Everything seems carefully planned with him, often years in advance, and it’s hard to argue with the results – however uncomfortable I may be with the ideas he sometimes communicates.
I should’ve been clearer about Cameron, because I agree with you. When I said he hasn’t grown intellectually, I mean his films haven’t advanced thematically. He seems stuck in his same ideas, which I see as rooted in his naive (at best) politics.
There’s no question the man is born to do what he does. I just wish he’d evolve a little. For example, if you watch “THX-1138” and “The Phantom Menace” it’s clear to see George Lucas has refined his ideas.
For the record — and I HATE to say it — I’m one of a few conservatives that enjoyed Avatar.
I’m curious … what was it precisely you enjoyed about it?
Okay … let me just say that most of the criticism Cameron got from my fellow conservatives is accurate. I just think Cameron’s leftism shows up in the motifs of the film, and not so much the themes.
The overall theme of advocating extreme force to defend your home resonated with me. To me, while still far and away the most forward-thinking country in the history of the world, the United States is certainly not operating at its highest capacity — we’re pretty far from our Founders’ vision of the Republic.
So when I saw Jake Sully literally fly, hunt, worship freely, experience true love, and stand up for something, I couldn’t help but get excited. It just seems there’s so little truth out there today, and there’s so much bureaucracy in our lives that it makes it a little difficult to do little things — like hunt or own a firearm.
Those themes have to be pretty strong to shine through the HEAVY motifs of anti-Americanism, anti-colonialism, and dense historical allegory in the film. I don’t love Avatar by any means, but I didn enjoy it as a nice “Don’t Tread On Me” home invasion piece.
Also, the way I saw it, the film slammed government healthcare (it’s why Jake couldn’t walk), and it painted a world conflict that is VERY possible: war in Venezuela (socialists dealing with Iran) and Nigeria (Islamist slavers with greater terror ties).
I can even stand the anti-corporatism in the film. Who says the R&D company isn’t in some unholy alliance with the UN or any other government? Maybe it’s like some GE, George Soros entity.
Everyone has their own opinion, I guess.
OK, I see where you’re going. The problem I have with the film is that it demands too much acceptance of naked anti-Americanism, and also what is to me a grossly inadequate metaphor for the War on Terror (i.e., as an exploitative colonial imposition on otherwise peaceful, free, uninhibited peoples). I simply couldn’t get past all that to experience much pleasure in the film, although its action sequences are quite spectacular – breathtaking, actually. As a side note, in retrospect I’ve come to think that Avatar‘s primary virtues as a visual spectacle have to do with the incredible rendering job done by ILM, Weta, et al and not so much the 3D. Even in 2D, the film is quite incredible to look at – and truly stands apart. It’s a beautiful and sumptuous visual experience.
Your comments about Jake Sully flying, hunting, worshipping, loving freely, etc. – these things are the bait to trap the audience, in my opinion. Avatar, much like the Matrix films, is very dangerous, potent stuff – precisely because it’s appealing.
You’re logic is astute, Jason — I can’t dispute it.
I can’t really see past the anti-Americanism in the film either — it’s what keeps it from being one of my go-to pictures.
Cameron running around bragging about the leftist messages doesn’t help the illusion either. What I do when I discuss this film with liberals is agree with them on the negative aspects of colonialism. Then I hit them with my examples: Bill Clinton bombing and murdering Christian Serbs is a good start. Silence usually ensues.
Sometimes, I think, we cede too much ground to leftists. When I can, I’ll turn their arguments against them — it usually hits them with twice the force.
But you’re right … the anti-War on Terros language in the film jars you from everything.
All interesting points, Vince. Unfortunately, I doubt Cameron spends a lot of time thinking about these issues. My sense is that, like most of these guys, he lives in a bubble and probably doesn’t let a lot of contradictory information in.
With all of that said, Avatar 2 and 3 are going to be a more difficult sell for him. He’s not going to be able to sneak up on the public next time with respect to his political message – and if he’s smart, he will find a way to incorporate some of the criticism he received into what he’s doing. If he continues to carry the Michael Moore-line, however, his film is inevitably going to suffer at the box office next time out. The Avatar IMAX extended re-release sank like a stone, which bodes a bit ominously, I think …