simon west Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but Hollywood tends to break things. If a formula worked once, it will invariably be remade, repackaged, and resold over and over again until the equation is no longer profitable. But occasionally the Hollywood hive mindset is not content with merely breaking something. Every now and then it has to rape and pillage, and thus we shall soon have Night of the Living Dead: Origins. Wallow in these few key bits from The Hollywood Reporter's news on the matter:

"Zombie movie "Night of the Living Dead" is coming back, this time in a 3D CGI format and without the involvement of George Romero." ... "On the story front, De Soto, who wrote the script with David R. Schwartz, wants to update the tale partially by bringing out the characters' backstories and make what he called "an American-style anime."" ... "The aim of the process is to make tennis balls on a stick representing real people or monsters a thing of the past by allowing actors interact with CG elements as if they are tangible." ... "De Soto was a fan of the original "Living Dead" and once the trio realized the rights were in the public domain, zeroed in on that project."

Read the rest of this story at HorrorSquad.

With Death Wish being remade by Sylvester Stallone, it was clear that the entire Charles Bronson back catalog is up for grabs ... and the next up is 1973's The Mechanic. Last year, it was also reportedly being redone by Stallone, but it's now in new hands. Unfortunately, they're the hands of Simon West, who has nabbed his second remake job according to Variety. So now you know it'll look more like Con Air and Tomb Raider, and less grim and gritty, though it is being produced and updated by the original Mechanic men, Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff.

The upside (to me, anyway) is that it will star the deliciously surly Jason Statham in the lead role -- and frankly, if you are going to remake a Bronson movie, Statham is your man. I think he's the closest we have to the manly men of 70s B-Movies and that we'll all live to see Crank remade by whoever succeeds him.

If you're unfamiliar with the plot, it goes a little something like this: an aging hitman named Arthur Bishop is assigned to kill Big Harry, one of the head men of his organization. At Harry's funeral, Bishop meets his son, Steve and takes him under his assassin wing. Bishop's shadowy organization doesn't like this though, and things get predictably bloody. The film is actually on Netflix Instant Watch, so check it out this weekend as a gritty come down from Star Trek ... that's what I'm going to do!

Eventually every second-tier director will have his own film about Iraq. And yet I never thought someone as low on the tier as Simon West would actually get one so soon. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the guy who made Con Air (it's so bad, but oh so good), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (its so bad, but -- no but) and the remake of When a Stranger Calls (no comment) will attempt an adaptation of Thunder Run: The Armored Strike to Capture Iraq, which was written by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Zucchino. West will produce and direct from a script penned by Zucchino himself. The book, which was written first-hand by the Los Angeles Times correspondent, follows the U.S. military entrance, or "thunder run", into Baghdad in April 2003 and subsequent battle for the capital city. West compared the feeling he got from reading Zucchino's book to reading Black Hawk Down, which he found and developed as an executive producer.

The important thing to remember, though, is that West didn't end up directing Black Hawk Down. The great Ridley Scott did, and it ended up a flawed but ultimately well-made film. Show me somebody in Hollywood who honestly thinks West is capable of the same work, and I'll eat this blog. And I mean this person would have to take a lie detector test and prove to me that he or she really, really thinks this is going to be good enough to garner West his own Oscar nomination (as Scott received for BHD) and not just an easy-money attempt at the current trend of Iraq War-based movies. The latter is more likely the case for the six producers besides West, which includes Randall Emmett and George Furla (both of the Wicker Man remake), and five executive producers, which includes BHD's writer Ken Nolan. There has yet to be a dramatic feature about the war that's as good as the many docs on the subject, and I can definitely promise this will not be the movie to achieve that status. At least it probably won't be as bad as West's proposed Dalí biopic would be.

I don't know what is worse, that Steve James (Hoop Dreams) hasn't already been a member of the Academy all this time, or that Simon West (Con Air) is now allowed to take part in the Oscar voting process. Both directors are part of the list of 115 individuals who have just been invited to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Unlike last year's list, which seemed to be gearing for younger influences (like Dakota Fanning), this year's is pretty normal, and consists of a lot of people nominated for awards back in February. These include actor Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson), supporting actress Adriana Barraza (Babel), supporting actress Jennifer Hudson (winner, Dreamgirls), suporting actor Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children), supporting actor Eddie Murphy (Dreamgirls), director Paul Greengrass (United 93), foreign film writer-director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (winner, The Lives of Others), screenwriter William Monahan (winner, The Departed), screenwriter Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine), foreign film producer Agustín Almodóvar (Volver), composer Javier Navarrete (Pan's Labyrinth), composer Gustavo Santaolalla (winner, Babel and Brokeback Mountain), composer Alexandre Desplat (The Queen), animator Torill Kove (winner, The Danish Poet), production designer Eugenio Cabellero (winner, Pan's Labyrinth) and documentary filmmaker James Longley (Iraq in Fragments).

A lot of non-nominees were invited, too. Some of those included are Jennifer Aniston, Steve Carell, Daniel Craig, Aaron Eckhart, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Danny Huston, Christopher Plummer (you'd think he was already in there, too), producers Jonathan Glickman (The Pacifier) and Jane Rosenthal (The Good Shepherd), directors Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) and D.J. Caruso (Disturbia), composer Carter Burwell (Kinsey), animation cinematographer Sharon Calahan (Finding Nemo), documentary filmmaker Brett Morgen (nominated in 2000 for On the Ropes) and, as mentioned, Steve James (nominated in 1995 for editing Hoop Dreams) and Simon West (shockingly no Oscar noms nor any Razzie noms). This is only the fourth year the Academy has made the list public, and you can see all of those invited here. All of the new members will be officially welcomed at a ceremony this September.

The coincidences of cinema stretch well beyond the shores of North America. Whether its due to a thoughtful, snooping ear or a collective consciousness, if one film gets made about a particular subject, chances are that at least one other one will follow suit. In February, Martha Fischer reported that Alec Baldwin was set to star in The Forbidden City, a movie about an American who returns to China to find the man responsible for The Rape of Nanking. Months later, Erik Davis reported that another Nanking film was to be made -- based on Iris Chang's book*, which was released on the 60th anniversary of the slaughter, The Rape of Nanking.

The film is about to become a reality, as its set to start filming in January. A Chinese, British and American co-production, the movie has a script penned by William Macdonald, and it will be directed by Con Air helmer Simon West. It's an interesting choice, considering the fact that West is known for his lighter action fare, and not serious, historically-based cinema. The film is set to be released on the 70th anniversary of the start of the slaughter, December 13, 2007, with a wider release in 2008. For those who aren't familiar with this bit of history, The Rape of Nanking was a massacre committed by Japanese troops while they occupied the city of Nanking. The crimes included rape, executions and arson, and while the recorded death toll varies, it is believed to be in the hundreds of thousands.

*Thank you, Bill, for the correction. I'm not sure what inspired my fingers to type out "novel!" -MB

The director of films like When a Stranger Calls (2006) and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is looking to jump onto the pirate ship with his next film, although something tells me Johnny Depp will not be involved. Simon West Prods. (and if you haven't guessed by now, Simon West is the director in question) has just optioned Mark Haskell Smith's novel Salty, which West intends to produce and direct.

Smith has taken on adapting duties himself, and is almost finished with a first draft. The story is an odd one, as it revolves around a reformed sex-addicted bassist who's forced into a trip to Thailand by his ex-supermodel wife. However, once there, all hell breaks loose when she's kidnapped by a gang of pirates looking to raise money for a new boat. Says West, "It's just the thing I was looking for. It's smart, slightly twisted, slightly dark, and above all really funny with great characters." Heck, I have no idea how the main character's recent addiction to sex will come into play when his wife is kidnapped by Thai pirates, but my curiosity is definitely peeked piqued. How about yours?

There's nothing like a crime drama which revolves around real life events, and Simon West (When a Stranger Calls) has just signed on to helm one such pic, Crazy Love. As you can imagine (based on the title), the film will center around characters who are not only in love, but also prepared to do crazy things for their significant other. (Thank God they're not interested in my own real life romantic adventures, because the craziest thing I've ever done in the name of love was taking the dog for a walk during the Yankees opening playoff game. Wait, that was last night -- see, I'm not good at this sort of thing.)

According to Variety, the plot "revolves around a surfer girl who takes up with a drug smuggler and agrees to bring millions of dollars into Pakistan, only to be interrogated by authorities and persuaded by a DEA agent." See, mayyybe I could understand if there were some killer waves in Pakistan, but as far as I know (and, trust me, I know very little about hot surfing locations), that's not the case.

Okay, so now I have to ask: What's the craziest thing you've done in the name of love?

Director Simon West, whose recent projects include The General's Daughter, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and remake of the moment, When a Stranger Calls, is hoping to go in a very different direction in the near future: he's planning a movie about surrealist artist Salvador Dalí. The film will have a rather massive scope, covering Dali's life from his teenage years to his death at the age of 84, and focusing on his "incredible and romantic life story." Though the movie is still in the talking stages (West describes it as "getting very close"), the director is already fantasizing about his cast, and he claims that "There are a couple of Spanish actors that are interested." While it's not clear that they're the ones with whom he has talked, West goes on to specifically mention Antonio Banderas and Javier Bardem as possible stars.

Despite what seems like a small potential audience for such a film, West insists that it will in fact have broad appeal: "I believe in getting as many people to go and see rather than deliberately trying to make it for a small audience. Like Amadeus [meets] Moulin Rouge.” Whoa. So, melting clocks, but with songs?

[via Moviehole]