Roman Polanski Will Lay Waste To Pompeii
If I asked you to name a director who'd be well suited for bringing the last days of Pompeii (back) to the silver screen, whose name would you throw out? Roland Emmerich? Wolfgang Petersen? The late Irwin Allen? Nope. How about Roman Polanski? Doesn't matter if you agree with me that it seems a strange fit; Roman just got $130 million to work with and he's not coming back without a big, flashy Pompeii movie.
As with most of Mr. Polanski's recent films, Pompeii (which will be based on the novel of the same name by Robert Harris) will be bankrolled by private investment sources -- and then sold off to distributors around the world, thereby making almost all its money back before the flick even hits a screen. (Unless the thing turns out to be a monumental turkey, which is always a possibility when a filmmaker ventures too far from his comfort zone -- and I'd call "Roman Polanski's Pompeii" precisely that type of venture.) According to Variety, Pompeii will be about a young engineer who has to repair a vital aqueduct, woo a fair maiden and deal with all sorts of nasty old Roman politics. And then a whole lot of CG-intensive lava-splatters and dramatic carnage. I'm picturing Volcanic Titanic, basically.
Although best known for films like Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown, Roman Polanski is certainly no stranger to over-budget and underwhelming movies. His 1986 bomb Pirates is one such example, plus I vaguely remember him doing an occult thriller with Johnny Depp in the late nineties. Polanski's last two films were certainly not what you'd call low-budget: 2002's The Pianist was certainly "grand in scope," and 2005's Oliver Twist was no chintzy affair. But $130 million for a period-piece disaster flick? Polanski? Really?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-08-2007 @ 9:19AM
Donna Di Giacomo said...
This type of post is exactly the reason why I totally ignore blogs: Your argument is incomplete, and I don't see people making a big stink of the monumental turkeys Hollywood has produced over the years (anyone remember Kevin Costner's "Waterworld," among many others?).
The name of the movie that Polanski made with Johnny Depp was "The Ninth Gate" in 1999. Please look up your facts before spouting off.
As for Roman's tackling of Robert Harris's book, "Pompeii": I am fascinated to see what Roman will do with Southern Italian scenery. I don't think it's fair that you're writing off the entire project vefore it's started (and just because it's not the director that you wanted doesn't mean anything).
Europeans should tackle the subject of Pompeii, definitely NOT Hollywood!
And if Roman's version of the events of 79 C.E. are not successful, well, that's just the way it is.
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