Cinematical

Like a whole lot of you, I "discovered" a strange little sci-fi flick called Dark City right after it hit DVD. (I do remember wanting to see the film during its theatrical run, but it opened opposite David Schwimmer's Kissing a Fool and Richard Dreyfuss' Krippendorf's Tribe, and I wasn't about to miss either of those.) (If I have to tell you I was just kidding, you might be drunk right now.)

So after hastily unwrapping the brand-new New Line DVD (and noticing that the platter came complete with a Roger Ebert audio commentary!) and grabbing a few snack items, I sat down to enjoy what I'd hoped would be a pretty nifty science-fiction movie. And nifty it was. Also dark, moody, disturbing, intelligent, bizarre, intense, strange, and oddly beautiful. It was a full-bore neo-noir mystery combined with a really convoluted (yet still decipherable) episode of The Twilight Zone. It had brilliant set design, retina-tickling visual tricks, brilliantly bombastic music, some really creepy villains, and a cast of old-school archetypes portrayed by some rather brave actors. (Rufus Sewell and William Hurt are great; Keifer Sutherland is wonderfully unhinged; and then there's the achingly lovely Jennifer Connelly, whom, according to court order, I'm not legally allowed to write about, so let's just move on.)

So the recap is this: Dark City made less than $15 million during its theatrical run, but (like many excellent sci-fi films *koff* Blade Runner) it has since gone on to become a wiiiiidely-adored piece of filmmaking. That's not to say that everyone loves the thing, but those who do -- do so with much fervor. (Good ol' Ebert called it the best movie of 1998, god love him.)

Segue from unnecessarily lengthy intro into the meat of the matter:

In a message board post right here (which was brought to our attention by this kook right here), Dark City / The Crow , I, Robot director Alex Proyas just dropped two little tidbits that had my geek light flashing:

1. As we already know, New Line is working on a big swanky Special Edition of Dark City, which isn't a big shock considering the fanbase its built over the past few years. It is, however, very good news, despite the fact that the original DC DVD is a dandy release all over, what with its lovely anamorphic transfer, a pair of commentaries, a featurette comparing Dark City to Metropolis, thoughts from Neil Gaiman, etc. Bottom Line: This movie is worthy of the "double-dip" treatment.

2. Does Proyas actually intend to make a Dark City ... sequel??? Really?? This comes from the keyboard of Proyas himself (we think): "DC was hardly a smash hit at the box office so it is unlikely, if a sequel was made, they'd give me a huge budget to work with. So don't worry too much about that! I am more and more interested in the idea of a sequel, and who knows, after the special edition comes out, with everyone's support behind it, a sequel... maybe who knows... but I've already said too much."