Mel Gibson "explains" Apocalypto
Filed under: Action, Drama, Foreign Language, Disney, Newsstand, Cinematical Indie
At a press conference yesterday, Mel Gibson finally provided a few
details on
Apocalypto, his latest directorial effort. Set before the
Spanish arrival in the Americas, the film's dialog will be in
Yucateco, which is apparently an ancient Mayan language. According to
Mel, the movie will be both "an action-adventure film of mythic
proportions" and "a story about a man and his woman, his child and his
father, his community." Alrighty - an exciting home life, then? Because
the story takes place before Europeans arrived on the continent, the
cast will be made up of native Mexican actors. Gibson, who wrote the
film and is financing it himself, plans to begin shooting next month in
Mexico.While we're explaining things, could someone please tell me why, exactly, there was a bidding war for distribution rights to this thing? Yeah, ok - Mel Gibson. Woo hoo. The Passion of the Christ did well and got lots of press and all, and yes it had subtitles. But wasn't that whole "Jesus" angle probably responsible for the majority of the profits and the attention? What makes anyone think that audiences are going to flock to a movie full of people they don't recognize, speaking a foreign language? Forgive me if I'm missing something here, but isn't that basically also a description of every movie from, say, Germany? I mean, I happen to think that Werner Herzog is a genius, but when was the last time one of his German-language films blew up here? Color me confused.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-29-2005 @ 4:30PM
Bill Igerant said...
Personally I didn’t see Passion, I personally had no interest in a story that has been told too many times already, though apparently many did. I like new stories, perhaps because I don’t need to know how it ends when I walk in the theatre. Maybe some people do, but…
Pre-invasion Americas is a very interesting area filled with tons of potential stories. This one I will go see.
I have noticed something interesting in my life. When turning some people on to music they have never heard, they walk out of the room. Obviously everyone doesn’t like things they have to put too much thought or effort in to. But, the American audience has matured much over the last few decades, and we have also grown tired of the same old stories over and over. Maybe, just maybe, we are ready for a new genre (or two), and someone as brilliant as Gibson is just the guy to bring new genres in to play in the stagnant waters of the American movie scene.
I mean get real, there were 80 copies of Chainsaw Massacre (didn’t see that lamo flic either) on the shelves at my local video rental store recently. It would be hard for anyone not to see the need for something new in the movie scene.
Mel is a professional, he knows the industry and the audience, and if he thinks it will work, there is a pretty good chance it will. Go for it Mel, I’ll be there.
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10-30-2005 @ 7:31PM
Jaime Jacobs said...
I can hardly wait for this one. It sounds like it will be a story of universal themes and archetypal characters, but told from the perspective of a culture we rarely get to explore, in a language that has survived both cataclysm and obscurity. I'm already hooked and filming hasn't even begun. I have a feeling the great Joseph Campbell himself would have approved this project.
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10-31-2005 @ 4:46AM
Jeremy Fox said...
I think "Passion of the Christ" is a great movie, a masterpiece but people made their opinion about the movie because of their religion and not movie-making (sorry for my english but you get the point, don't you?).
I have used your article as source for an article of mine in my blog. Thank you very much.
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11-02-2005 @ 11:56AM
TheMovieGoer said...
Anyone interested in this film as already read "Aztec" by Gary Jennings, the definitive epic historical novel.
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