TimeTravel Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Before I begin doling out the rant soup with a side order of opinionated snark, I should make one thing clear: I'm not talking about films in which time travel is a central concept. The Time Machine, Back to the Future, Time After Time, Bill & Ted, Casablanca, Somewhere in Time, etc., are all exempt from the following (rather silly) rule:

Time travel sucks. And here's why:

Take the new Star Trek, for example. Or better yet, pretty much any episode of Heroes. At one point we start out on linear playing fields, an A to B to C storytelling device that, you must admit, usually works pretty darn well. But once a character stumbles onto the ability to leap through time ... I get bored. All bets are off. I'm probably going to watch something else. Why?

1. It's a screenwriting cheat: As much as I enjoyed the new Star Trek (and I seriously did), the time-twist subplot seemed ... out of place. As if it was concocted just so we could have a "logical" way for Leonard Nimoy to play an important role. Which leads to...

I guess there is always room for another weird form of time travel. A big blue box has been making time travel fun for years on Doctor Who, and now we're getting a wet and wild version. The Hollywood Reporter posts that MGM has picked up a new comedy project by Josh Heald called Hot Tub Time Machine. Doesn't that sound like something right out of the '80s? I could totally see it as a follow-up to Weird Science.

Anyway ... the flick is said to follow "a group of guys, adults who used to be cads back in their heyday, who, after a night of vodka and Red Bulls in a hot rub, travel back in time and set out to rediscover their 'mojo.'" Methinks there will be no room in this feature for time travel rules and paradoxes -- this is sounding like the sort of project that will throw time travel law to the wind ... or maybe not!

MGM exec Cale Boyter says: "We're always looking for ways to stand out from the rest of the pack in today's crowded marketplace, and what better way than to combine hot tub debauchery and the complications of time travel." Oh, the ultimate geek adventure -- perfecting youthful ways whilst trying not to complicate time travel. What I don't get is how this works -- are they going back in time to watch themselves secretly and try to re-tap into their lost lasciviousness? I get the feeling it won't matter; I'm betting this flick will be all about the boobs and booze.

Time travel is, well, a time-honored tradition in Hollywood with movies like Back to the Future, The Terminator, The Time Machine and the upcoming New Line film The Time Traveler's Wife, based on the bestselling novel by Audrey Niffenegger. The movie version of the novel was announced recently with screenwriter Jeremy Leven of The Notebook handling the adaptation duties, while Steven Frears (The Queen, Dirty Pretty Things) and director Robert Schwentke (Flightplan) are left to battle it out for helming duties. And now we can add some casting news to the mix as well.

According to TMZ (via Coming Soon), super-hot Rachel McAdams, star of Wedding Crashers, Red Eye and The Notebook, is in serious talks to star in the film as Clair, a beautiful art student who falls for Henry, a librarian with a problem: At random moments he disappears and travels through time to other parts of his life. Obviously, this causes a great deal of trouble for Henry and Clair as they struggle with children, jobs, friends and any semblance of a normal life. If she takes the role, this will mark McAdams' second go-round with screenwriter Leven after their work together on The Notebook.

No word yet on who will play time traveling Henry, but if producers are looking for any suggestions, I'll throw one out: How about casting McAdams' co-star from The Notebook Ryan Gosling in the role? Although Gosling might be a little busy these days seeing as he's appearing in at least four new movies over the next year, including director David Michael's The Other Side and The Last Face for director Erin Dignam. Still, casting these two actors together worked pretty well for The Notebook and I'm sure the duo could do wonderful things with The Time Traveler's Wife too.

What do you think, is Gosling a good idea?

 

Poor Ray Bradbury. Has his work ever been treated right on the screen? In 1966, François Truffaut clumsily adapted Bradbury's most well-known novel, Fahrenheit 451, about a future society in which information is repressed through the burning of books. The Martian Chronicles became a mixed-bag miniseries starring Rock Hudson in 1980, though it is remembered largely by sci-fi purists and self-styled xenosociologists. It was during Disney's "dark years" in 1983 (which also produced the bleak 1985 animated feature The Black Cauldron) that someone came the closest to capturing Bradbury's spirit when Jack Clayton, with whom Bradbury had worked on the 1956 adaptation of Moby Dick, made Something Wicked This Way Comes (from Bradbury's own screenplay). That trend of misses continues, as the time travel misadventure A Sound Of Thunder is an inept wheel-spin which, at best, will earn a "wait until DVD" (followed by "...and skip it then, too.")