JonTurteltaub Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Hearing that National Treasure: Book of Secrets is going to tackle the Lincoln assassination, I can't help but wish that Nicolas Cage grabs one of those fake parchments with the side-by-side rundown of the coincidences between that assassination and Kennedy's. Man, it would terrible, but in that wonderful Bubba Ho-Tep sort of way. And really, we're talking about National Treasure, so I don't think that could hurt it at all.

IGN recently talked to director Jon Turteltaub about the flick, and from what he says, the film is exactly what you would probably expect: a Bruckheimer-like adventure movie. The director says: "Making National Treasure, I was aspiring to all the Jerry Bruckheimer movies I'd seen. To make a movie that looks big, felt exciting and would be a big audience pleaser. But I didn't want to do that and forget about the kinds of things that were important to me. Not just great characters, but great character relationships. People who you root for." Well, based on the teaser that Scott directed us to a few months ago, I don't think I'll be rooting for Riley Poole, but anyway...

Turteltaub also talks about sequels and says: "everybody is going to be thinking, 'You're a sellout.' Everyone down the line, including cinematographers and editors, are thinking the same thing. So we tried to elevate casting by getting Helen Mirren and Ed Harris." Of course, we know that -- but from what he said, I'm getting the feeling that he isn't too sure he believes it. (Besides, wouldn't a really solid script be more important than notable actors?) He goes from there to talk about attempting to make a movie he would like, and if he fails, then at least a movie others would like. There's too much talk about selling out and failing for my tastes. However, to give him credit, Turteltaub also talks about the lack of adventures on American soil, and that I'm totally into -- we're familiar with the landscape, the people and the history -- so why not play on that on-screen?

When National Treasure hit the screens (in a big way) in late 2004, everyone and their symbologist grandmothers were scrambling over each other to dub it a blatant rip-off of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. But now that we can look back to the starchy disappointment that was Da Vinci Code: The Movie, all of a sudden National Treasure doesn't look so silly. I know I didn't think much of the flick upon my initial visit, but it's managed to grow on me just a little bit since then. (Plus a good portion of it was shot in Philadelphia, so it can't be all bad.)

Anyway, you know where I'm going with this: National Treasure 2 is about to get underway, complete with the entire cast (Nicolas Cage, Justin Bartha, Diane Kruger, Jon Voight and Harvey Keitel) but minus Sean Bean, presumably because Jerry Bruckheimer thinks it's time for a colorful new villain. Cool. The plot for the sequel is being kept under wraps, but director Jon Turteltaub dropped a hint regarding "Mount Rushmore," a location that might be able to lend itself to quality cinema.

Whether or not National Treasure 2 qualifies as "quality cinema" is up to you; the flick should be ready by late 2007.