By Jason Apuzzo. • Tron is approaching, a wave that’s looking smaller as it approaches shore. The film is tracking poorly; it’s also getting mixed reviews thus far (see here and here) … oh, and the total cost of the film, with marketing? Apparently around $320 million. Plus, people are starting to scratch their heads about the fact that this is the debut feature for the film’s director, Joseph Kosinski (see interviews with him here and here), whose background is in architecture and design rather than in drama or literature – you know, those old-fashioned disciplines that involve human beings.
So, what are we about to get here with Tron? I’m guessing something stylish and dull – with a dash of retro-liberalism (of the anti-corporate variety) to keep the Boomers happy. (Incidentally, there’s some speculation that this new film may already be subtly setting up the corporate villain for the sequel … )
In the meantime, Olivia Wilde continues to flaunt herself (see here), and otherwise make herself out to be the face of the production. As annoying as she is, that’s probably a good idea given how flat Garrett Hedlund seems, and how spaced-out Jeff Bridges seems in his interviews about the film (see here). Somewhat more fun are the Daft Punk guys, whose “Derezzed” video just hit.
More sinister, however, are inferences from several people (see here and here) that Disney is psuedo-suppressing access to the charming, old version of Tron while the new film gets its marketing binge. That’s certainly an ironic development for a movie that’s supposedly a sub rosa critique of ‘fascism’ and enforced sameness. (In fairness, the old film just got remastered and will be getting a Blu-ray release in 2011.)
Incidentally, whatever happened to that Path to 9/11 DVD, Disney?
• Michael Bay is coming out of his cocoon as he finishes Transformers 3. He’s talking to the media about the film now (see here and here), he’s allowing people to visit the set, and is now saying that he loves working in 3D. Also, a teaser trailer is coming, and there’s a new poster out for the film.
I’m not sure how much juice the Transformers series still has, really, but we’ll probably learn something from that trailer. Footnote: Megan Fox is really seeming out-of-sight/out-of-mind right now.
• Nobody’s hitting the panic button yet, but the Cowboys & Aliens trailer did not go over well – not just with me, but apparently with test audiences who laughed at it, thinking the film was a comedy. Ouch. Anyway, the production team is now suddenly doing a lot of interviews (here’s Favreau) and allowing set visits (see here and here), but questions are still being raised about whether this picture is going to work.
Also, Nikki Finke noticed today that the one-sheet for Dreamworks’ Cowboys & Aliens looks a lot like the one-sheet Dreamworks’ other alien invasion thriller, I Am Number 4. Oops.
They’ve since put out a new poster, although it still has the same feel.
I’m getting bad vibes about this project. Cowboys right now is looking like one of those All Star teams in basketball or baseball that looks great on paper but doesn’t play well. We’ll see.
• Ridley’s Scott’s Alien prequels have been pushed back to 2013 and 2014. What’s more annoying, however, is that Olivia Wilde is suddenly in the mix to play the lead. PLEASE STOP CASTING THIS PERSON. She’s already in Tron, Cowboys & Aliens and the Logan’s Run knockoff Now (which also just halted production) … and now Alien? Look, I haven’t seen Tron yet but I’ve seen enough of House to know that she’s not that good, besides which she’s almost as abrasive as Natalie Portman.
• I Am Bored by I Am Number 4, but it’s marketing binge has begun. This alien invader thriller – also from Michael Bay – has a new poster, the film will apparently be converted to IMAX (why?), and there are new interviews out with the director (here) and babes Teresa Palmer (here) and Dianna Agron (here). Basically this looks like another movie about a WASP teenage guy with Special Powers. Never seen that before.
• In other Alien Invasion News & Notes: The Thing has a new release date (October 14th), and there’s a new interview out with the film’s director, Matthijs van Heijningen; Pauley Perette will be playing a girl from Mars in Girl from Mars; Guillermo del Toro provides an update on At the Mountains of Madness (produced by James Cameron); SPOILER WARNING … this may be what the alien looks like in J.J. Abrams’ Super 8; a production still has been leaked for The Darkest Hour; Star Trek’s screenwriters claim they’ve broken the next story; new set photos are out for Judge Dredd 3D; District 9′s Neill Blomkamp is going forward with a mysterious sci-fi project called Elysium; Alex Proyas is going to do a big new sci-fi spectacle called Amp; a Red Faction movie is coming to the SyFy channel; Mars Needs Moms has a new trailer out; Apollo 18 has a poster out already; there’s a big new Avatar exhibition in Seattle (see here and here); and author Jonathan Lethem takes a look back at John Carpenter’s 1988 alien invasion thriller, They Live. Whew.
• On the Creature Invasion Front: Troll Hunter will be having its world premiere at Sundance; besides having one of the greatest titles in the history of the cinema, Piranha 3DD now also has a release date (September 16th); and David Ellis’ untitled 3D shark thriller recently got picked up for distribution. So there you go: sharks, piranhas and trolls.
• In the time since our last Invasion Alert! we’ve lost the great Leslie Nielsen from Forbidden Planet. Our condolences to his family; he certainly will be missed.
• On the Home Video Front, some classics from Roger Corman are finally coming to DVD: Not of this Earth, War of the Satellites and Attack of the Crab Monsters (not as bad as it sounds). Also: have I told you people that I caved and bought the whole first season of the new V? I’m definitely enjoying it thus far (here, by the way, is a review of the Complete Season 1 on DVD).
• It was both funny and sad to read about the Skyline guys’ surprised reaction to the torrent of abuse that film received on-line. Apparently they couldn’t understand all the trash-talking because, as they put it, “Brett Ratner liked it!”
• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … I finally got around to watching the sci-fi music video “The Ghost Inside” that Christina Hendricks did this summer (see below). It’s a little odd, and slow … but it’s got Christina Hendricks in it as a robot with detachable parts, so how bad could it be – right?
And that’s what’s happening today on the Alien Invasion Front!
Posted on December 8th, 2010 at 9:06pm.
Cowboys & Aliens trailer did not go over well . .
Can’t imagine how this was pitched, but it must have been epic. There’s only been one successful serious western in the last 10 years – obviously because nobody’s been genius enough to have aliens as the black hats.
Awesome.
Possibly the movie simply has a bad trailer. It’s happened before. But the timing on this project, in the midst of all these other alien invasion thrillers, suggests that they really had better have their act together.
I clicked on the the link for Olivia Wilde and could see how “talented” she really is. As far as Tron is concerned, I’ve not seen a single, or even remotely engaging trailer for this movie. To use a one word quote from Hannibal Lector, Tedious!
It looks to be another Teenage White Guy With Special Powers movie. Been there, done that.
There has already been a great Cowboy/SciFi flick – Serenity (which in it’s TV form happened to have the TV introduction to me a certain buxom favorite of Libertas).
Ah Christina.
I’ll be in my bunk.
Serenity has been recommended to me several times by people with good taste. I’ll have to check it out …
I haven’t seen the movie yet, but from watching the TV show, the best parts were when it was space opera, the worst part was the horse opera. Kept wondering why in another star system the low tech settlers emulated the American west, and not, for example the South American gaucho or Australian Jackaroos? Besides the obvious fact that some studio lot had some 1860s western town sets available for rent.