jonathan liebesman Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Those of us who suffered through Warner Bros' Troy were always kind of hoping they'd reward us by making the obvious sequel of The Odyssey. Now they are. Variety reports that the studio has nabbed "Odysseus," a spec script by Ann Peacock, and has assigned Jonathan Liebesman to direct.

Here I should stress that it's not officially a sequel to Troy but it might as well be, since it will follow that "real world" vision they set up with their earlier Homer rewrite. The movie won't be the tale of Odysseus' really lousy trip home from the Trojan War, but what happens when he finally gets back to his kingdom of Ithaca which he "finds under the brutal occupation of an invading force." Now this is true to the poem in that Odysseus finds all those wannabe husbands eating him out of house and home, and Penelope trying her best to fend them off. But they're not an invading force, they're local boys having a lot of fun, and their families don't take kindly to Odysseus slaughtering them all. War nearly breaks out between Odysseus and all of Ithaca until Athena intervenes, and forces them to make peace.

So yeah, there's a movie there, and the Muse will always start where she will. But it wouldn't be nearly as much fun as the Cyclops, the Sirens, Circe turning men into pigs (ha ha!), the Underworld, faithful Penelope and manwhore Odysseus (so good in bed that Calypso refuses to release him for years). I'm enough of a classics nerd that I could sit through a whole Odyssey trilogy if Warner Bros would just make the whole sprawling saga. I know I'm not alone in that. Still, if this is the version they're going to go with, could we at least have Sean Bean reprise the role?

You know, you would think that after starring in one of the biggest movies of all time, Aaron Eckhart might want to take a break from the world of big-budgeted action movies. Then again, he probably knows better than anyone that sometimes those small indie films can really get you into trouble. So, in the spirit of 'safe bets', The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Eckhart will star in the sci-fi action flick, Battle: Los Angeles.

Chris Bertolini's (The General's Daughter) script centers on an alien invasion that has landed in the streets of LA. Eckhart would play the leader of a platoon of Marines who are the last line of defense in the invasion. Jonathan Liebesman (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning) has already signed to direct the film for Columbia Pictures, although a start date for the production has yet to be finalized.

Since his 'debut' in 1997's In the Company of Men, Eckhart has stuck to parts in smaller films like Thank you For Smoking, or like his latest with Jennifer Aniston, Traveling. Unfortunately, the big-budget flicks haven't worked out so well (with one whopper of an exception.) So even though some of Eckhart's other Hollywood projects have been less than impressive (cough, The Core, cough), Battle will be the first time Eckhart is playing front and center in an action flick. Lets just hope Battle doesn't fall into the same category as some of his other very expensive disasters.

Ah, Friday the 13th... One of these days, I'm really going to have to watch it again, but for a while, it was vehemently banned from my house. You see, at the ripe old age of 5 or 6, I had a friend with an older brother and sister who liked it, so every time I went over there, we'd sneak and watch that, as well as the other flicks we weren't supposed to (Squeeze Play). Not surprisingly, I'd come home and have crazy nightmares. However, I better get on reorienting myself with the original soon, because as you might remember, it' s getting a remake.

Instead of adding to the neverending franchise, writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift have penned the redo, and The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Marcus Nispel is in final negotiations to direct it. (It looks like Jonathan Liebesman has gone bye-bye!) After directing music videos for the super-varied group of artists like Faith No More, Amy Grant, Billy Joel, and Bone Thugs n Harmony, he turned to television and film. There was a TV version of Frankenstein, and then he helmed Pathfinder, the weird viking/Native American action thriller. Oh yeah, he also helmed that little remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which you might remember.

The plan is to start the film this winter, so it looks like he's going to tackle Jason before going to work on Sarah Michelle Gellar's action thriller Alice. This also means that we should get casting news really soon. Now, this isn't some plain-Jane remake, but a redo. THR says: "While Jason made only a brief appearance in the final frames of the first movie in 1980, and didn't even don his famous mask until the third movie, the new movie will focus on Jason -- who will wear the mask and kill -- and keep the famous setting of Crystal Lake." I wonder if this will confuse future horror fans who then go back and watch Scream...

Finally, no post like this is complete without input from resident horror expert, Scott Weinberg: "Good lord, would Nispel be a large improvement over Liebesman. Sure, Pathfinder kinda stunk, but if we can get a Friday the 13th remake that's as bleak and ferocious and Nispel's TCM re-do, then that'll be good enough for me."

Following the Labor Day success of Rob Zombie's re-invented Halloween, we knew it wouldn't be long before our old pal Jason Voorhees popped back up on the big screen. Like folks are just going to sit around and let Michael Myers soak up that box office cha-ching all by himself. No. Not a chance. There have been rumors circling around a new Friday the 13th flick for awhile now, with some saying they'd do a franchise re-boot (a la Halloween), though I have a feeling the peeps over at Platinum Dunes were waiting to see how well Myers was received in his return. And now that they've seen him rake in the dollars, they've apparently decided to fast-track the flick and place it on their pre-strike roster, replacing Roger Clemens: Will The Man Ever Retire???? (Not a real title, but a film someone should probably make -- after all, the dude seems to have more lives than Freddy, Jason and Myers)

According to ShockTillYouDrop, who've heard from a source that is "100%, solid gold, baby," Dunes has just brought writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift on to pen a draft of the new Friday the 13th. For those that don't remember, Shannon and Swift were also the guys who brought us Freddy vs. Jason -- a film I still have not seen in its entirety, though I've heard fans enjoyed it. Shock also gives us a little backstory on the current film, recalling how early drafts from Mark Wheaton (The Messengers) were shelved, and that Jonathan Liebesman was attached as director. There's currently no word on whether Liebesman is still onboard, or what direction they'll be taking the franchise, but there's now a pretty good chance we'll see that freaky hockey mask guy wreak havoc at some point within the next year.

With the arrival of (their version of) The Hitcher, Platinum Dunes producers Andrew Form and Brad Fuller have started making the junket rounds, and that's how the Bloody Disgusting boys were able to ask the filmmakers if that long-rumored Friday the 13th remake is still moving forward. And the answer seems to be ... yes.

"We're working on a script right now and I think next year, maybe end of the year we will have it out. Jonathan Liebesman is still attached, but he's got a lot of things rolling around. If he's available when we have the script we'd love to work with him again."

Liebesman is the gentleman who directed both Darkness Falls and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning -- and if that's all it takes to become an in-demand director these days, heck, I'm in the wrong business. To be fair, he also helmed the short Rings, which is notable in that it's about ten times better than The Ring Two.

In related news, it seems that Paramount Pictures might be back in the Jason Voorhees business. BD.com further reports that when the new Friday arrives, it will be as a co-production between New Line Cinema and Paramount Pictures. Hardcore horror geeks are well aware that Paramount dropped Jason after 1988's Manhattan disaster, thereby giving New Line the ability to churn out Jason Goes to Hell, Jason X and Freddy vs. Jason. No specific word on how/why Paramount will be involved in the series again, but ... does it really matter?

If there's one thing the media really loves to do, it's lump a bunch of barely-connected people into an ill-fitting group -- and then give that group a clever name. Whether it's The Rat Pack, The Brat Pack or The Splat Pack, I just get irked whenever a new "pack" makes it into the cultural lexicon. Oh, you're not familiar with that last one? Yeah, it's a moniker that's been given to a bunch of "new" horror filmmakers, one that seems to imply that these guys get together every weekend to smoke weed and watch Halloween 2 together.

According to a recent article in Time Magazine, one that seems to approach horror flicks the same way a prissy schoolmarm would approach some inappropriate comic books, the members of "The Splat Pack" are Eli Roth (Cabin Fever, Hostel), Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers, The Descent), Alex Aja (High Tension, The Hills Have Eyes), Rob Zombie (House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects), and James Wan, Leigh Whannell and Darren Lynn Bousman of the Saw trilogy. (Apparently Wolf Creek director Greg McLean was part of the original pack, although he goes unmentioned in the Time article, probably because he hasn't made much money yet.)

But what do these guys have in common, really, other than the fact that they all make horror flicks? I see Americans, Brits, Aussies and a Frenchman in the mix, and while some of the guys are fresh-faced and 20-something, guys like Roth have been toiling away in backstage anonymity for years. Plus, c'mon, Rob Zombie is 42 years old, so how exactly does he tie in with these kids? And why is it that Neil Marshall never seems to be quoted in these articles? Is he just included because his horror movies are ... GOOD? Apparently the Splat Pack label was created by Alan Jones of Total Film, and I'm sure the guy's an absolute expert on horror flicks -- but labels create limits, exclusions and oversights. And, ultimately, articles like this one, I suppose. (Either way, I bet Jones bangs out a book called The Splat Pack by the end of 2008.)

The UK's Christopher Smith (Creep, Severance) is young and horror-heavy, so why isn't he a member of The Pack? Shouldn't (Dawn of the Dead screenwriter, Slither director) James Gunn be one of the den mothers? Lucky McKee has made only two feature films (May and The Woods), but they're both downright excellent pieces of horror. Why's he not a member? Uwe Boll's done a bunch of horror flicks that could be accurately described as " laden with torture," so why not throw him an invitation? You want a guy who loves the word splat? Try Jake West, the guy who directed Evil Aliens. Plus I read another article a while back in which Jonathan Liebesman (Darkness Falls, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning) was considered a member of The SP! Now, if that guy can be considered some sort of "future of horror," I'll eat my hat.

The common themes among the Splat Packers are ... what? They all like horror movies, they don't shy away from intense chills, harsh themes or copious gore, and they're all carbon-based life forms, I guess. But really: Does anyone out there think the work of Eli Roth is even remotely similar to that of Neil Marshall? Does a Rob Zombie flick remind you of what was seen in, say, High Tension? I mean, if you're going to define a term, then define it. And as a big fan of just about all these movies, I just gotta scratch my head when I hear these guys lumped together in one basket.

And what happens when guys like Ryan Schifrin (Abominable), Adam Green (Hatchet), J.T. Petty (S&Man) Scott Glosserman (Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon), Jon Levine (All the Boys Love Mandy Lane) and Adam Mason (Broken) start to make their way up the ranks? Will we have the arrival of Splat Pack 2: The New Generation? Back in the late '70s/early '80s, did we need a goofy little heading to remember names like Carpenter, Hooper, Craven, Dante, Landis and Cunningham?

Ultimately, I have no real point. I'd just seen the phrase "Splat Pack" one too many times and felt the need to vent. Opposing viewpoints are welcome, as long as they agree with my own opinions.

In the beginning there was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) ... and it was good. So good, in fact, that it swiftly became known as one of the most effective and unapologetic horror movies ever made. The original TCM begat The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986), which wasn't nearly as good but offered an insane Dennis Hopper performance to sweeten the deal. Four years later came Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3, which was even weaker than the last one, but still had tons of goopy gore to please the bloodhounds. But 1994's The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (later renamed The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, in an effort to entice the Star Trek fans, I guess) was, far and away, the mega-nadir of the series. (So bad, in fact, that stars Renee Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey lobbied to keep the flick out of distribution!) And, sequel-wise, that was pretty much that.

Flash forward to nine years later and up pops a Michael Bay-produced remake that everyone was just sure would suck eggs. Granted, some horror fans still feel that way -- but there's little denying that the remake was considerably more well-received than originally anticipated. Which brings us to the sixth and (so far) final movie in the Texas Chainsaw lesson plan: It's a prequel to the remake, it's called The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, and it focuses on the early years of Leatherface's clan. Aside from that skimpy concept, expect the new flick to be a whole lot more of the same stuff: Bleak, black-hearted, merciless horror with a whole lot of gooey gore on the side.

The director this time around is Jonathan Liebesman, working on his sophomore effort after the seriously lame Darkness Falls. The flick's scheduled to open on October 5th, and there's a brand-new theatrical trailer available -- but you can only watch it between 10pm and 4am (or you can just monkey with your computer's clock and watch it whenever). So yeah: All that blather for a trailer link. Can you tell how obsessive I am with these crazy horror flicks?