Quickhits: Stars in Universal's Eyes, Snider for Shrek, Distrib for Last Western
Filed under: Documentary, Independent, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Executive shifts, Paramount, Universal, Fandom, Distribution, Newsstand, Dreamworks, Cinematical Indie
Odds and ends for Wednesday: - In news possibly of interest only to me, Chris
Deaux has scored a distribution
deal with Seventh Art for The Last Western, his full-length documentary about "the era of the
B-Western." The movie actually has an even narrower focus than it sounds, and is concerned primarily with a set
(built by Gene Autry and Roy Rogers!) known as Pioneertown that was home to many films during the period in question.
- Universal has picked up the
rights to Alfred Bester's disturbing-sounding sci-fi classic, The
Stars My Destination, and handed it over to the outrageously busy Lorenzo
di Bonaventura, who will co-produce. The book, written in 1955, is about (ready?) "the sole survivor of a
wrecked spaceship that drifts through deep space. When a passing vessel ignores his distress signal, he becomes
obsessed with revenge and ultimately uncovers a secret destined to change the course of history." Yikes. Anyone
who's read it, feel free to add details in the comments. It sounds sort of terrifying.
- Despite earlier reports that new Dreamworks queen Stacey Snider would have to serve out her full contract at Universal (keeping here there through year's end) before cleaning out her desk, sources say Universal and Paramount (which owns Dreamworks) are working on a settlement to get her out in a matter of weeks. And I do not lie to you when I report that the terms of said settlement just might - get this - involve the ride at Universal's theme park that is based on Dreamworks character Shrek. That's right, friends: human-for-animated-creature swaps are taking the industry by storm.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-22-2006 @ 11:49PM
Nicholas said...
Regarding The Stars My Destination: it is kind of terrifying, and I've always thought it would make a good movie -- it's got a lot of cool visuals. For example, the main character, Gully Foyle, at one point has his face tattooed, then later has the tattoos removed. The removal doesn't work as well as hoped, however: whenever Foyle gets mad, the blood rushing to his face fills in where the tattoos were.
It's one of the truly great science fiction novels, and in the right hands, it'll be an awesome movie -- but there's a LOT that could go wrong. One potential problem is the handling of the "jaunte": in the book, people have learned to teleport, without any sort of technology (they can't jaunte through space, however -- only to another location on the planet they're already on). Visualize that for a moment and I'm sure you can think of at least a dozen cheesy visual effects that could be employed to represent the jaunte.
Also, the book is loosely based on The Count of Monte Cristo -- in the beginning Gully Foyle is an uneducated criminal who speaks a primitive sort of patois; in pursuit of revenge he educates himself and improves his station in life. The transformation is handled well in the book, but when it's compressed into a two-hour script, there's a danger of overdoing it.
There's also a rape in the book, but I'm guessing that'll just be skipped over in the movie.
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3-23-2006 @ 4:46AM
Starbuck said...
I will agree fully with Nicholas -- a movie based on Bester's "The Stars My Destination" (published in the UK as "Tyger, Tyger") has the potential of either being great or a real bomb. I have long felt that Bruce Willis, or at least the Bruce Willis of several years ago, would be an excellent Gully Foyle.
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