Memorial Day Weekend Mega-Invasion Alert!: Aliens to Battle Dinosaurs, Teenage Girls, French Space Pirates & Tom Cruise!

Concept art for "Dominion: Dinosaurs Versus Aliens."

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).

Yes.

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? Continue reading Memorial Day Weekend Mega-Invasion Alert!: Aliens to Battle Dinosaurs, Teenage Girls, French Space Pirates & Tom Cruise!

Happy Birthday to The Duke

By Jason Apuzzo. LFM celebrates John Wayne today, born Marion Robert Morrison on this day in Winterset, Iowa back in 1907. Among Hollywood’s greatest male stars, possibly only Humphrey Bogart compares to The Duke in terms of his lasting appeal as a symbol of American character.

The Duke made many great films with many great filmmakers, but he’s probably best experienced through his work with director John Ford. Their partnership may be the best pairing of director and star ever in the cinema. More than that, however, their films depicted the courage and grandeur of the American spirit, something that’s somehow only really captured in the vast wastelands of the southwest. My personal recommendations here would be The Searchers, Stagecoach and 3 Godfathers; and among the celebrated Cavalry trilogy films, my favorite would probably be She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. It’s also worth mentioning that Ford did minor work with The Duke on both The Alamo and Hondo, both very fine films.

For those in the vicinity of Winterset, Iowa, there’s a wonderful birthday tribute to The Duke going on this weekend benefiting the John Wayne Birthplace Museum, and The Duke’s daughter Aissa Wayne will be in attendance. Best wishes to everyone at that event.

Happy Birthday, Duke.

Posted on May 26th, 2011 at 12:50pm.

Sony to Distribute Kathryn Bigelow’s ‘Hunt for Osama bin Laden’ Film

Director Kathryn Bigelow.

By Jason Apuzzo. As you may have heard by now, the word in the industry (see here and here) is that Sony is negotiating to distribute Kathryn Bigelow’s long-gestating movie about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, a movie that’s changed – unsurprisingly – since bin Laden’s demise at the hands of Navy SEAL Team 6. According to Nikki Finke over at Deadline:

Mark Boal, Bigelow’s partner on the Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker, is finalizing a script that changes the film from a drama about an unsuccessful attempt to hunt the Al Qaeda leader into a methodical hunt that culminates in his death. The film is being fully financed by Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures. Production will start in the early fall and the pic will be ready for release in 2012.

The project currently has no title, and is apparently projected to have a budget between $25 million-$30 million. Producer Megan Ellison is the daughter of Oracle’s Larry Ellison, and she also recently paid $20 million for the rights to the Terminator franchise. Additionally, her brother David Ellison is the person currently trying to revive the Top Gun franchise, as well as Star Blazers. So the Ellison siblings are obviously becoming major players here.

On balance, I think this is very good news – a promising development – and we’ll obviously look forward to the film. Ideally I’d love to see a project of this sort have a higher budget in the $100 million range, but that sort of thing depends on the how the story is being told. Certainly a great deal can be done these days using digital technology on a $30 million budget.

Bravo to Megan Ellison for stepping up quickly and making this happen, and congratulations to Kathryn Bigelow. Govindini and I met her briefly while she was doing post-production on K-19, and she couldn’t have been nicer. LFM NON-SUBLIMINAL HINT: Chris Hemsworth would make a great SEAL …

UPDATE: I’d like to add, on a further note, that I think it’s wonderful and appropriate that the producer/financier and director of the ‘getting bin Laden’ movie are both women.

Posted on May 25th, 2011 at 12:53pm.

The New Trailer for Showtime’s Homeland Series

By Jason Apuzzo. I’m curious as to what readers think of this trailer for Showtime’s forthcoming war-on-terror themed series, Homeland. The series, from what I’ve read, involves a CIA officer (Claire Danes) convinced that a recently-rescued American POW (Damian Lewis) may be a brainwashed al Qaeda sleeper-agent charged with carrying out a terrorist plot here in America. The series also stars Mandy Patinkin as the CIA officer’s mentor.

The eagerness with which the networks always want to depict Americans as the ‘true’ villains never ceases to amaze me, even when it’s done in this convoluted form.

Posted on May 23rd, 2011 at 4:25pm.

Avast! LFM Mini-Review of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Ian McShane as Blackbeard in "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides."

By Jason Apuzzo. THE PITCH: With seductive mermaids, the Spanish fleet, and a cranky Geoffrey Rush standing in their way, Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow leads saucy pirate wench Penélope Cruz and Ian McShane as Blackbeard on a quest for the mythical Fountain of Youth.

THE SKINNY: After the previous film’s reportedly $300 million budget, Disney’s formidable Pirates franchise goes on a diet – as this slightly undernourished sequel jettisons the heavy VFX sequences of the past, but makes up for them with humor and a colorful turn by Ian McShane as the legendary, real-life pirate Edward Teach/Blackbeard, along with a long-overdue love interest for Captain Jack in the form of a fiery and duplicitous Penélope Cruz.

Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow.

WHAT WORKS:

• Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow schtick has been refined down to a pleasant bouillabaisse of squints, smirks, pirouettes and self-effacing one-liners. It all works here again, like clockwork, and it’s the key to what makes these films tick. While most of the Pirates cast typically get lost in their costumes or heavy make-up, Depp is the only one who really seems to feel at home – always bringing a lightness of touch to the proceedings. Whatever Disney’s paying him, it’s worth it, as the franchise would be lost without his good humor.

• Even though they’re a bit too covered-up for my tastes, the film’s exciting mermaids add to the growing catalogue of vivid mythological creatures already encountered in this series.

• Typical of the Pirates series, the film’s production design is rich and sumptuous. Also helping matters out in giving the film a lavish touch is Hans Zimmer’s score, aided here by guitar flourishes from the Mexican musical pair Rodrigo y Gabriela.

• An absolutely priceless cameo from Keith Richards, who utters what’s probably the film’s most memorable line.

WHAT DOESN’T WORK:

• Geoffrey Rush is an actor I’ve never warmed to, and this film doesn’t help matters. For someone so vexatious, with a permanently constipated look on his face, he certainly gets a lot of screen time.

• In comparison to the vast VFX spectacles of the past, this new Pirates feels a little on the smallish side – and some sequences feel like filler. Also: I’m not certain that the film’s payoff at the end – at the Fountain of Youth – really packs enough of a punch, given what we’ve become accustomed to from this series.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Continue reading Avast! LFM Mini-Review of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

The 1 Year Anniversary of Libertas Film Magazine

By Jason Apuzzo. Today, May 19th, is the one year anniversary of our re-launch of Libertas as Libertas Film Magazine (LFM). Govindini and I want to thank all of our writers – including (in alphabetical order) Jennifer Baldwin, Joe Bendel, Patricia Ducey, Max Garuda, Steve Greaves, David Ross and The Joker – for their wonderful contributions of this past year. It’s a great pleasure putting this site together with you all each day, and we sincerely thank you for the insight, dedication and good humor you’ve brought to this new version of Libertas. We could not do LFM without you. Our thanks also go out to Lars Larson for featuring Govindini regularly on his national radio show and for publicizing our efforts, and also to Michael Apuzzo, and to special friends of Libertas Gretchen Brooks and Rebecca Julian for their kindness and enthusiasm.

And on behalf of all of our writers, we also want to thank our readers. If there’s any group of people who make this site go, who make Libertas an exercise in communication, it’s our readers – who contribute so much in the comments section each week, and always turn what we do here into a productive and colorful conversation. We thank you humbly for your attentiveness.

When we launched this new version of Libertas last year, we described the site in our inaugural post as having “a different emphasis from that of its predecessor … Whereas the prior Libertas spent most of its time critiquing the ideological content of Hollywood entertainment – much of which is still inimical to freedom – the new Libertas Film Magazine is focused on positively promoting films that celebrate freedom, democracy, and the dignity of the individual.”

Having launched the site with that new mission, I had one major concern: whether there would be enough films to even talk about! Little did I know what a task we were actually setting ourselves – because easily the most pleasant surprise we’ve had over the past year is how many new films we’ve been able to discuss that are infused with these basic values. This has easily been the most encouraging aspect of doing this site – what filmmakers all around the world have contributed to it, by way of their creativity. And in a sense, it’s really to them that Libertas is dedicated. Their courage, devotion and vision demand a voice – and that’s what Libertas endeavors to provide.

So again, let me thank everyone, and encourage our writers to keep writing, and our readers to keep reading and commenting … but most importantly, I encourage filmmakers out there, many of whom read this site, to keep making films. You and your inspirational efforts, ultimately, are why we’re all here.

Posted on May 19th, 2011 at 9:48pm.