The great futurist now belongs to history; AP reports that Arthur C. Clarke was found dead in his home in Sri Lanka. Others can write about Clarke's contributions to technology ... for example his 1945 scientific paper "Extra-Terrestrial Relays" describing the possibilities of the communication satellite, which was as essential to modern living as electricity was to earlier generations. Let's talk about movies. 2001: A Space Odysseyis in some ways a collaboration between Clarke and Kubrick ... or as the author said, "the film should be credited to Kubrick and Clarke and the novel should be credited to Clarke and Kubrick."
This account from wikipedia notes the genesis of one of the ultimate science fiction films was a 1950 short story by Clarke, titled "The Sentinel." The classic spawned a 1984 sequel, 2010. Various short stories were adapted for television (unfortunately not enough of them from Tales From the White Hart, still waiting for its time on screen.) It's been announced that David Fincher will film Rendezvous With Rama, with Morgan Freeman in the lead; here's Jessica Barnes' item on it from 2007. The film concerns a close encounter of the third kind with an alien spacecraft. And John Hurt is definitely playing a Clarke figure in this Jodie Foster outer-space movie.
Clarke was born in England, and was a radar expert with the RAF during World War 2. Years of astronomical research gave way to a later-life interest in the ocean; hence his life in Sri Lanka, where he could scuba dive. He is remembered, among numerous accomplishments, for the fostering of Clarke's Three Laws: 1."When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong." 2."The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible." 3."Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Funny story, actually: growing up, my dad would always take me to the movies, and sometimes he just wasn't all that concerned about those pesky MPAA ratings. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he did. I got to see a lot of great movies. But it is also why I saw Heavy Metal at the tender age of six. My dad saw the voice cast of John Candy, Eugene Levy and Harold Ramis and thought it couldn't be that bad ... but boy was he wrong. So you can imagine my amusement when Varietyannounced that David Fincher is going to head a film 'inspired' by the cult classic.
The original was released back in 1981 and was based on sci-fi and fantasy stories that were published in Heavy Metal magazine over the years. First published in the US in 1977, Metal was known for its over the top sex and violence. The update will definitely follow in the footsteps of the original film (and avoid the pitfalls of the 'sequel' in 2000), and will be an R rated animated film consisting of about eight or nine segments.
Fincher will only direct one of the segments in the film. Other segments will be helmed by Kevin Eastman (co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and Tim Miller. Miller's Blur Studios will also handle the animation for the film. Fincher, Eastman and Miller will produce with Paramount, and the rest of the directors are expected to be signed soon. So what do you think about an update? Can Fincher pull this off? Or are images of chicks riding polar bears with flaming swords best left to van art?
Say what you want about Tarsem Singh, but you can't deny the man has a way with art direction. If you don't believe me, take a look at the trailer over at IGN for Singh's fantasy film, The Fall. Dan Gilroy's story focuses on a young girl in a hospital who befriends an American actor. The tales he tells her to pass the hours begin to bleed into the real world and suddenly everyone around her becomes part of the story. Lee Pace *(Friday Night Lights) stars as the storytelling actor, and Catinca Untaru as his captive audience. The trailer might not explain much about the film, but it now carries the seal of approval from respected directors David Fincher and Spike Jonze in the form of a 'so and so presents'. You never know, maybe it was their combined star power that helped get the film a deal with Roadside Attractions.
Unfortunately for Singh, his film career has been filled with very few ups and plenty of downs. Despite his success with music videos, critical response to his debut film, The Cell, wasn't exactly encouraging. As of late, it hasn't gotten much better for the director, and he was recently replaced by David Slade (30 Days of Night) as director on the thriller Unthinkable. The Fall is proving to be no exception to Singh's track record in Hollywood. The film was completed back in 2006, and only a few people got the chance to actually see it when it premiered at TIFF. Hopefully putting Fincher and Jonze's name on the marketing is going to help draw an audience. The Fall is expected to go into limited release in March.
Any time I hear news about a new project from director David Fincher, I get a little excited. Barring his debut, the studio-monkeyed Alien 3, Fincher has had a remarkably impressive run as a flick helmer: Seven, The Game, Fight Club, Panic Room and Zodiac, with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button on the way. So even though he already has a few projects in development, Mr. Fincher has signed on to direct an adaptation of Charles Burns' graphic novel Black Hole. Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary, who last collaborated on Beowulf, will bang out the screenplay for MTV Films and Paramount Pictures.
The Hollywood Reporter offers this as a plot synopsis: "The story follows a group of high school students whose lives are altered drastically when they come in contact with a sexually transmitted disease called the "teen plague" or "the bug." But if you head on over to the publisher's site, you'll find a much more thorough breakdown. To me it sounds like John Hughes meets (early) David Cronenberg ... and obviously that'd be just fine by me. Here's hoping Fincher makes Black Hole his very next project.
In this current media climate, musicals are hotter than hot -- whether they bounce back and forth between stage and cinema (like Hairspray and The Producers), or they come from seemingly surprising fare. When Evil Dead: The Musical hit the stage a few years ago, a whole new venue was tapped -- that of horrific singing and dancing. Now we've got Sweeney Todd, and are soon to have Repo: The Genetic Opera! to sing along with as killers slice and dice. But a whole new area might be tapped -- the testosterone-laden action drama -- and it could come at the hands of David Fincher of all people.
He recently talked with MTV about his last film, Zodiac, and then chatted about his past and upcoming projects. He said: "One of the things I want at the 10-year anniversary is to do Fight Club as a musical on Broadway. I love the idea of that." Yes, folks -- we might see a bunch of half-naked men singing and dancing while they fight and destroy each other. I think I have about zero interest in the film as a musical -- well, aside from some curiosity about how they'll keep the machismo high with song, dance, and partial nudity. Methinks this would easily become a wild, gay phenomenon. Okay, I'd also be interested in how ridiculous it would be to have Robert Paulson dance around with his man boobs, but in that train wreck sort of way. I definitely see the humor in Fight Club, but I'm not so sure about the song and dance -- how about you?
So this is probably way too early to start getting excited about David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button -- but cut me a little slack; it's not like this guy is known for making movies with any frequency. Frankly, I should probably just take what I can get. Hollywood Elsewhere has received a scoop from the set of Button, and even if you only believe half of what was reported then things are still looking pretty good for the literary adaptation. According to Elsewhere, the news came from the husband of the costume designer for the film. There is no shortage of praise in the report and some of the highlights of what she said include: "the script was top-notch" and that, "Fincher and Brad Pitt were consummate professionals".
Button is based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's story about a man who finds love at 50 only to begin to age backwards, causing him some serious complications (and if you ever wondered how Pitt was going to age, then here is the chance for a sneak peek). The movie is a reunion not only for Fincher and Pitt (who worked together twice before), but also for Cate Blanchett as well (she also co-starred in the Oscar-nominated Babel with Pitt). Also in the cast are Julia Ormond, Elle Fanning (sister to Dakota), and Tilda Swinton. Pitt even got his family in on the film and his daughter Shiloh will be making her screen debut -- so much for keeping his kids out of the public eye.
Elsewhere's scooper went on to say that, "some of the sequences they saw that had been edited were absolutely stunning. Her description of the mood of those who worked on it is that of bated breath -- a near universal belief that they have made an outstanding and moving film, one that transcends and one they wish not to jinx by too much loose talk". Well, if nothing else it is nice to know that I am not the only one betting big on this film. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is set for release on November 26, 2008.
Say what you will about David Fincher's work, but I've been with him the whole way. Yeah, I even liked Alien³, at least at the time.Okay, I have to admit a lot of my attraction to Fincher's movies is actually to the cinematography of Darius Khondji and Harris Savides (now that I look back, I'm surprised to see they only shot two Fincher titles each). But hey, at least the guy can pick a DP, right? Well, I do appreciate Fincher's directorial talents, as well, and regardless of how few films I've seen this year, I continue to consider his Zodiac to be the best of the year. Fincher recently wrapped his next feature, The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons, which reunites him with Brad Pitt. Now that that's done, he may choose to direct an adaptation of a French graphic novel titled Le Tueur (The Killer). According to Variety, Paramount has bought the rights to the comic, written by Matz and illustrated by Luc Jacamon, with Fincher in mind. Producer Allesandro Camon (American Psycho) is writing the screenplay, and Pitt's company, Plan B, and Alexandra Milchan (Chapter 27) are producing.
Despite the need for a title change, and the fact that we have too many hitman movies coming out these days, the graphic novel should make for an interesting adaptation. Publisher's Weekly compared it to the films of Godard and Melville and the illustrations of Darwyn Cooke and even addressed Jacamon's placement of the camera (maybe Fincher should recruit him to be the film's DP). So, it already sounds like a cinematic story. Unfortunately, PW also claims there's too much "self-consciously cool narration," which can really ruin this type of pic. Another opinion of The Killer, this one from The Comic Book Bin, relates the graphic novel to American Psycho (nice, then, for Camon's involvement) and Leone/Eastwood westerns. Dark antihero with a gun? We see them every day. But with Fincher at the helm, I have higher hopes than usual.
While hard at work on graphic novel adaptation Wanted with Angelina Jolie and The Dark Knight, Morgan Freeman spoke with MTV movie blogs about his adaptation of Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke. The story centers on an alien star ship that floats into our solar system and the human team of scientists working to figure out its origin. Freeman is planning to produce and star in the film and has promised that David Fincher will direct. There is no official confirmation on whether Fincher's involvement in the film is just wishful thinking on Freeman's part, but Freeman seems confident that Fincher is on board. Freeman first expressed interest in the project back in 2000, but in 2003 he had spoken with Sci-Fi Wire to speak about the problems he was having with studios, saying "These things, they always want to make it into an action film, You can't do it with this. And we've been having trouble getting someone to see the science aspect of this, the exploratory aspects of it, rather than the blood and guts and stuff".
Four years later, and it doesn't sound like getting the film into production has gotten any easier. Freeman now tells MTV, "It's a very intellectual science fiction film, a very difficult book to translate cinematically. [At least] we have found it very difficult to translate, to get ready for film". Rama was published back in 1972 and won both a Nebula and a Hugo award for science fiction writing. The book was later expanded upon into a series of novels, but Clarke was no longer writing them. Instead, he served as an executive editor for the remaining novels. Freeman still isn't finished with Wanted, and he has already signed to portray Nelson Mandela in a biopic about the legendary human rights leader. But in spite of the delays; persistence has paid off and Rendezvous with Rama is tentatively set for release in 2009.
Trent Reznor scares me. He's not scary in the way that Marilyn "Ooo! Look at me! I'm spoooooky!" Manson thinks he is. He seems to be a genuinely disturbed person. I remember being traumatized after seeing the horrifying video for Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" as a young man -- the images of severed pig heads and torture devices remain imprinted on my memory. And now he's talking about taking his latest album, Year Zero, into visual mediums. Says Reznor: "Some interesting things have come up in terms of turning this into another format of entertainment, like a television show or a movie. I've had some meetings with A-list people I'm interested in possibly working with." With the right A-lister, this could be a really cool project. Off the top of my head, Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo) shot that "Closer" video, as well as the video for Johnny Cash's cover of NIN's "Hurt" -- my favorite music video of all time. David Fincher directed the terrific video for NIN's "Only," and memorably used "Closer" in the first-class opening credits to Seven -- putting those two together could potentially be an excellent collaboration as well.
Reznor intended Year Zero to be the first album of a trilogy, and should this film project take off, it could have an impact on the music he writes. "It interjects a narrative into it that, if this is all going to make sense, it affects the second musical part of it. Or not. It depends on how closely I want the puzzle to go." Well, consider me puzzled already, Rezzie! When can we expect this project, Trent? "I haven't written any new music for this yet, I literally haven't had a second to do that...But I don't expect it to sound like Year Zero did. It won't be another 15 songs from that same vibe." Fun Fact -- "Closer" was the last song played at my eighth grade dance. Yes, somehow a song with the chorus "I want to f*** you like an animal!" got past the teachers and principals. As if eighth grade isn't enough of a sexually confusing and frustrating time, just imagine young boys and girls trying to dance to that song under the watchful eye of authority figures. Paging Dr. Freud!
"Gulag" is another word for "prison" or "labor camp," so when Robert Downey Jr. compares working for David Fincher to a "gulag," it's probably not a compliment. Then again, Mr. Downey is known for saying lots of things with a wink and a grin, so I don't think Mr. Fincher should take it all that personally. I mean, the director IS known for demanding 20, 40 and sometimes 60 takes from his actors -- but on the other (much more important) hand, Downey was really excellent in Zodiac ... so perhaps there's a method to Fincher's madness after all. ("Gulag" is also a pretty good 1985 HBO movie starring David Keith and Malcolm McDowell. Just sayin.')
Downey says he's the perfect type of actor to work for Fincher "because I understand gulags." And if you scan through this rather solid interview over at the Australian Herald Sun, you'll see precisely how demanding David Fincher can be. Speaking only as a movie nerd, I say this: If Fincher being a meticulous, demanding and tough-to-please director means we get movies like Fight Club and Seven (yes, and Zodiac), then what's the problem? It's not like Hollywood actors don't get paid enough. So sometimes you have to work with a director who's also a pain in the ass. So what? Hitchcock and Kubrick were pains in the ass too. (Plus he can't be THAT difficult; Brad Pitt's working with Fincher on a third collaboration, and I don't see Brad Pitt as a guy who takes a lot of crap from movie directors.)
After five Harry Potter films, Chris Columbus was the only director to helm back-to-back (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) Potter flicks. However, now that David Yates has officially signed on to direct Harry Potter and Half-Blood Prince, he will join Columbus in an exclusive club that may or may not shut its doors for good with only two members. With only one director-less Potter film currently accepting applications (that being the last pic in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), the speculation begins: Who will be chosen to end one of the most ambitious (and well-made) franchises in movie history? Will Yates become the only man to helm three Potter films? Or, will Warner Bros. hand the magic wand to a brand new face?
In a fun little article, MTV caught up with eight of today's most talked-about directors to ask them how they would end the popular franchise, should they be chosen by the studio Gods to finish the job. Those who participated were Rob Zombie (Halloween), Zack Snyder (300), David Fincher (Zodiac), George Miller (Happy Feet), Tom Tykwer (Perfume), Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz), Edward Zwick (Blood Diamond) and Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth). Here's how a few of them responded (Note: It appears most, if not all, feel Harry should die in the final installment):
Rob Zombie: "I'd probably be very violent with a lot of nudity. That's what it needs. Harry should say 'f---' a lot. That would spice it up."
Edgar Wright: "I think I'd like to see Daniel Radcliffe naked and mutilating horses [like he did in the play 'Equus' in London's West End]. It's amazing in the U.K., the poster outside the theater is absolutely enormous. It's crazy. It's three stories high - a picture of Daniel Radcliffe with his shirt off. It's quite distressing."
David Fincher: "Could I make it darker than Alfonso's? I don't know. [Should Harry die?] As all good teenagers must."
Guillermo del Toro: After admitting that he was asked to helm the third film before Alfonso Cuaron took over -- then saying that Cuaron should helm the final one -- del Toro said: I would love to do one, but I would love to do one where I can kill off one of the characters. I would love to kill off one of them. I would like to be the guy who ends the franchise - I come in and destroy everything that everyone else has created!"
Head on over to MTV to see how the rest of them responded. If it were up to you, who would you choose to helm the final Harry Potter film?
There aren't too many movies that necessitate sequels. Unless a movie is part of a pre-proposed series or is an adaptation of a series of books, it should probably be able to stand alone. But a lot of sequels come from movies that are perfect by themselves -- sometimes the sequels compliment nicely; sometimes they are easily ignored; occasionally they actually take away from the previously regarded original.
It isn't often that a movie screams out for a sequel, but I think I've come up with seven that at least whisper a request for one. Two actually have source sequels that they would be adapted from. One has a lot of history to mine material from. Three of them have been discussed at length at different points in time by makers of the original(s). The problem is that none of these sequels is likely to ever grace your DVD player let alone your local theater. For whatever reason, they simply have too much against them in the minds of studio execs. For now, though, we can dream.
Even with the incredible cast and the surprisingly faithful-enough script, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was not the epic that I was hoping for. It also wasn't the blockbuster that Disney was hoping for. The filmmakers, Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith (aka Hammer and Tongs) and the necessary actors had signed on for the sequel, to be adapted from Adam's follow-up, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, but it appears to be dead in the water. Despite my few reservations with the first film, I would love to see the sequel, as well as the rest of the series (they could end before The Salmon of Doubt, I guess). I remember being bored with some of the prehistoric Earth sequences in Restaurant, but I think they'd make for great cinema. In any event, I think Martin Freeman and Mos Def were a great duo in the original, and they alone should have been propelled to stardom following its release. Maybe they can appear in something else together.
For decades San Francisco and its surrounding counties were haunted by a faceless, seemingly unstoppable killer -- one who crowed about his murders to the press and struck without warning. From the late 1960's until the 1980's, a killer known as Zodiac took credit for 37 murders. That number may be a fabrication of a psychopath's bravado -- but it's incontrovertible that Zodiac committed 5 grisly shootings and stabbings that took place on lover's lanes and darkened streets. Director David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club) grew up in the Bay Area during those years, and revisits that time of terror and tension with his new film Zodiac.There's one easy criticism that can be lodged at Zodiac from the start: How can you possibly make a suspense film out of a story that's still a mystery? The Zodiac killer was never caught, after all -- so where's the climax, the closure?
The easy answer to that is simple: Life often doesn't provide closure -- and Fincher expertly crafts tension and suspense from the things we don't know about the Zodiac case. Zodiac follows the parallel investigations by police and press, the possible suspects, the tantalizing leads, the frustrating dead ends, the exciting possibilities. By showing us the details in carefully-wrought, exacting fashion, Fincher and screenwriter James Vanderbilt turn the hunt for the Zodiac killer into thrilling, exciting cinema -- and the best true-life tale of detection we've had on the big screen since All the President's Men.
It became as clear as day to me after watching American History X that Edward Norton was a real actor that I needed to pay attention to. I wasn't the only one who felt that way. It's not that The People vs. Larry Flynt or Rounders weren't on the top of my cinematic appreciation list, but his portrayal as a reforming skinhead -- the pure humanity that he exposed through the character -- remains unforgotten. His careful consideration of the roles he plays leaves him with a resume flowing with fulfilling roles both for himself and for his audiences. In a recent interview with the Guardian Unlimited the actor talked about everything from the digital revolution in filmmaking, to working with David Fincher, to the freedom that acting gives a person to experience their full range of emotional expression. Norton appears to be fearless ... he is not afraid that the accessibility of filmmaking materials will kill the art of creating cinema.
He's certainly not afraid of vulnerable roles that show the ugliness inside a person. Acting to him is "in some ways, a free pass to exorcise all kinds of emotional stuff without the consequences." In preparing for a role, Norton has no go-to method. In fact, he relies on no methodology but instead approaches each role with a new way of creating. "So in the beginning, I always feel like I'm fumbling for an entry point." It should be a relief to any actor that someone of Norton's stature still feels like a fraud the minute a new project comes to fruition.
He is also not afraid of choosing films because they are poignant to him at the time. In fact, that is the number one reason he has chosen to work on Fight Club, 25th Hour and The Illusionist. "Most of the films that I've ever really responded to are ones that I feel were really involved in their times. They were documents of a moment, or an exploration of what was dysfunctional, fucked up or painful about that moment in time." Those films spoke to him directly as reflections on what was happening around him. They also happened to be great scripts made by talented artists. This is what is responsible for the variety and range of the roles that he chooses. "I like a lot of things, I just like them well done."
In less than three weeks, we will finally see a new film from David Fincher. And not only is Zodiac his first release in five years, it is his return to the subject of serial killer investigations. So where is all the excitement? Where is all the buzz? I really thought Fincher would have a bigger online presence, but I was apparently wrong. Nonetheless, I'd like to keep the energy up for this one. I'm pretty sure it will be the first film of 2007 that I actually go out and see. As I mentioned last fall when the first trailer hit, I should at least be pleased with the look of the film. And judging by the new photos apprehended by FirstShowing.net, I have no reason to change my mind on that assumption.
This could be the largest amount of publicity photos I've seen released for a film in a long time, actually. There are so many, in fact, that you'd think you could make a flip book out of them and get the film's whole story. Not quite. But considering the film is about an unsolved case, the story shouldn't be as much a concern as should the look, the tone and the plot structure. So far we've heard the script is "exceptional", we've gotten a couple good early reviews, and some great looking images. What more could we need? The actual film, of course, which hits theaters March 2.
The great futurist now belongs to history; AP reports that Arthur C. Clarke was found dead in his home in Sri Lanka. Others can write about Clarke's contributions to technology ... for example his 1945 scientific paper "Extra-Terrestrial Relays" describing the possibilities of the communication satellite, which was as essential to modern living as electricity was to earlier generations. Let's talk about movies. 2001: A Space Odyssey is in some ways a collaboration between Clarke and Kubrick ... or as the author said, "the film should be credited to Kubrick and Clarke and the novel should be credited to Clarke and Kubrick." 
Funny story, actually: growing up, my dad would always take me to the movies, and sometimes he just wasn't all that concerned about those pesky MPAA ratings. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he did. I got to see a lot of great movies. But it is also why I saw 
Say what you want about 
Any time I hear news about a new project from director 
In this current media climate, musicals are hotter than hot -- whether they bounce back and forth between stage and cinema (like Hairspray and The Producers), or they come from seemingly surprising fare. When Evil Dead: The Musical hit the stage a few years ago, a whole new venue was tapped -- that of horrific singing and dancing. Now we've got Sweeney Todd, and are soon to have Repo: The Genetic Opera! to sing along with as killers slice and dice. But a whole new area might be tapped -- the testosterone-laden action drama -- and it could come at the hands of 
So this is probably way too early to start getting excited about 
Say what you will about 
While hard at work on graphic novel adaptation 
Trent Reznor
"Gulag" is another word for "prison" or "labor camp," so when 
After five Harry Potter films, 
It became as clear as day to me after watching 
In less than three weeks, we will finally see a new film from 
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SCOOP: Spider-Man 4 and 5 Might be Shot at the Same Time!
Cinematical Seven: Disney's Awesome Live-Action Kid Adventures
