Thor Freudenthal To Direct They Came From Upstairs
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Scripts, Family Films
In an interesting twist, the film that was one of the biggest spec sales of 2006 is getting a less-than-famous name to head it. 20th Century Fox was the winner who grabbed Mark Burton's They Came From Upstairs -- about a group of kids in a vacation home in Maine who have to fight aliens that have invaded from the home's upstairs. The British screenwriter is responsible for many of the leading family films to be released over the last few years -- Chicken Run, Madagascar and Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Considering the success that Burton has had so far, it might seem logical that a big name would head the directorial ship. However, Barry Josephson, of 20th Century Fox's Josephson Entertainment, has chosen Thor Freudenthal.Thor was chosen because of his advertisements for the likes of Ritz and Reebok and for his short noir film, Motel. Apparently his other work had a tone that reminded Josephson of Men in Black. Variety really went in-depth into the producer's picking process, with a lot of justification. In case his film experience isn't enough to sell you, the new director has also worked with children and done some creature design.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-24-2007 @ 9:51PM
Rick Badman said...
If movie companies didn't take a chance on newcomers, do you think Steven Speilberg would have become one of the greatest science fiction directors in the business seeing how he didn't graduate from a film school like his good friend George Lucas did? And then there's family connections that sometimes don't pan out. We all know about Carl Reiner and his son Rob who is probably better than his father. But Rob's sister isn't in the industry. And Kirk Douglas's son Michael Douglas is a wonderful actor. But Kirk's youngest son committed suicide because he couldn't measure up to his dad and brother.
I compose classical music and would love to have my music used for film scores. The Newmans are two generations of Oscar winning composers with Alfred and Lionel Newman being the first generation while Randy is the second. The theme music for 20th Century Fox was composed by the brothers with Randy's father adding the closing flourish when Fox brought out Cinemascope. The greatest baseball music in my opinion was composed by Randy for the movie "The Natural" as Redford steps up to the plate and smashes the ball into the lights. And his song that the cowgirl sang in the second Toy Story movie brought tears to my eyes. His oscar for best song in "Monsters Inc." was long overdue.
Second generation science fiction actors seem to be few and far between. The same may be true for writers and directors. We see some of the same actors in most science fiction movies like Dean Caine, Ron Perlman, and Bruce Campbell. I hope the young man can do a good job. I just hope the movie is a hit in the theaters instead of oft-repeated fare on Sci Fi.
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