AlexGarland Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Never Let Me Go will be Mark Romanek's follow-up to One Hour Photo, the sinister Robin Williams film he directed back in 2002. Romanek, as you may know, is a legendary music video director who has worked with Nine Inch Nails, Michael Jackson, Audioslave and Madonna, among others. You may remember his heartbreaking video for Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt," which was all but hailed as the second coming. Though One Hour Photo was not Romanek's first feature film – that would be Static, the surreal, low-budget 1986 drama he co-wrote with Keith Gordon – but it was supposed to be the beginning of a distinguished film career.

From 2002 to 2008, Romanek became attached to a number of projects, none of which made it out of development hell. He was meant to direct an adaptation of the Philip Gourevitch non-fiction crime drama A Cold Case starring Tom Hanks, but that has thus far gone nowhere. He had decided to tackle James Frey's A Million Little Pieces but that, of course, was before it turned out that James Frey was a honking fraud. In 2008, it looked like Romanek would at last cross the finish line with The Wolf Man – and then he walked out on the eve of filming over creative differences. Journeyman director Joe Johnston will be delivering that finished product this November.

What do you do when you need a pretty actress with limited facial expressions? Well, if Nicole Kidman is busy, I guess you call Keira Knightley (only kidding ... well, maybe not completely kidding). Believe me when I tell you I have nothing personal against the girl, but darn it if I can detect a facial movement in most of her performances other than the example provided to the right. But Knightley's 'reserved' approach to emotion might come in handy now that Variety has announced that the perpetually pouty Ms. Knightley will star as a clone alongside Carey Mulligan in Never Let Me Go, a romantic sci-fi thriller based on the acclaimed novel by Kazuo Ishiguro.

The story centers on three friends who grow up together in a posh boarding school; unfortunately for them, however, this charmed life is a short one and the three learn the disturbing truth that they have been bred for organ donation. Don't worry if this sounds an awful lot like the 2005 stinker, The Island, because unlike Bay's exploration of 'happy organs' and Xbox competitions, Ishiguro's story is much more concerned with existentialism and the meaning of humanity (not exactly Bay country).

Mark Romanek is on board to direct the adaptation, and Alex Garland (28 Days Later) is already at work on a script. Romanek made his name making music videos (even though he didn't make the cut for Monika's list) but has directed only one other feature film: the slightly underwhelming One Hour Photo. But the pressure is on, because unlike The Island, if this flick is a flop we won't be able to blame Michael Bay.

What would happen if the sun were eating itself up from the inside out, resulting in its own extinction? More than likely there would be a lot of panicking and an intervention made by the best astronauts this world had to offer. This just happens to be the plot for the upcoming action sci-fi feature Sunshine; Cillian Murphy stars as a member of a heroic team who think they have a plan to save the day. The film is due out stateside this fall and in an effort to satiate U.S. fans, director Danny Boyle -- also responsible for one of my favorites, Trainspotting -- and his production staff have created an online production video diary that documents nearly everything you wanted to know about the film.

It's incredible how true to life Alex Garland (writer) and Boyle wanted the fictitious experience to be. They met with radiologists to understand its effects on the human body, sent the cast to high altitudes to experience zero gravity and studied up on how to recreate the sun's beauty. The most visceral aspect of the diary is interviews with both Boyle and director of photography Alwin Kuchler, who spoke of the necessity to shoot the film with an emphasis on lighting. Boyle explains that the film is "unusual cinematically, the balance between darkness and light." The diary reveals some of the beautiful shots that exemplify just what he's talking about. The characters, he says, are literally, "surrounded in darkness but driven by an internal light." The diaries also include interviews with certain cast members including Troy Garity, who has always been a fan of sci fi but finds it difficult to read a good script in that genre.

One thing we knew for sure about the (eventually) upcoming Halo movie was that the screenplay was written by Alex Garland, he of frequent (The Beach, 28 Days Later, and the slick-looking Sunshine) Danny Boyle collaborations. Now comes word, however, that novelist-turned-screenwriter D.B. Weiss has been given second draft duty by Halo producer Peter Jackson.

But who, exactly, is D.B. Weiss? According to this interview, he's a writer who's pretty well-versed in video games, which certainly helps when you're adapting something like Halo for the silver screen. Mr. Weiss is also the author of a very well-received novel called Lucky Wander Boy, which deals with a guy obsessed with obscure video games (and is also a book I now plan to read). Plus he's also the umpteenth writer to get a whack at the Ender's Game screenplay, and maybe he'll actually be the one who finishes the job ...

Anyway, if you love movies and video games in equal measure, check out this solid interview with Weiss. Guy seems to be someone I'd trust with a project like Halo. Then again, I thought Pitof would be the perfect guy to direct Catwoman.

(Previous Halo reports can be found here, here, and here.)