tarsem singh Tagged Articles at Cinematical

If there was ever a director perfectly suited to tackle a tale about warring Gods, it's Tarsem Singh (The Fall). Say what you will about the man's ability to tell a story, but there is no director working today who has more of a flair for the visually dramatic than Mr. Singh. He recently spoke with Empire magazine about his current film, The Fall, when the subject changed to Singh's upcoming fantasy tale for Relativity Media, War of the Gods. Singh tells Empire, "It's turning into, basically, Caravaggio meets Fight Club, it's a really hardcore action film done in Renaissance painting style. I want to see how that goes; it's turned into something really cool" -- I don't know about you, but he had me at "Caravaggio meets Fight Club".

Back in November, Elisabeth brought us the news that Singh had his eye on Henry Cavill from The Tudors as the Greek warrior Theseus battling against imprisoned titans. Of course, there is still the small matter of a competing flick in the form of Louis Leterrier's Clash of the Titans remake. But I have to say, I'm intrigued by Tarsem's description of War, saying, "I'm going for a very contemporary look on top of that so I'm kind of going with, you know, Renaissance time with electricity. So it's a bit like Baz Luhrman doing Romeo + Juliet in Mexico; it's just talking a particular Greek tale and half contemporising it and telling it."

So we've already torn the Motion Picture Association of America asunder for not displaying enough discipline with select film ratings, but what about the times that the MPAA maybe overdid it a bit with their judgment calls?

Earlier this week, I watched Danny Boyle's Millions for the first time in a good while, and I'd noticed that it was only rated PG for "thematic elements, language, some peril and mild sensuality" after an appeal to the ratings board. It's a fitting rating for a film worthy of an audience of all ages, but it made me wonder what the similarly whimsical Son of Rambow did to merit a PG-13 for "some violence and reckless behavior". I suppose the argument could be made that the behavior in Rambow lends itself more to imitation, but I know that my theoretical children (they have their mother's eyes) wouldn't be watching one and not the other.

Later that day, I saw Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon, which gets an R for "some language". Now, I know that the MPAA tends to let adult-skewing PG-13 fare get away with an extra f-bomb or two (ex: About a Boy or the particular exception that is Gunner Palace), but by my count, F/N has a single -- albeit loud -- usage of Samuel L. Jackson's favorite expletive, and then nothing else that wouldn't earn an R. Isn't this just Once all over again? Are our nation's teens really going to stumble into this film and walk out worse off for it? (Robert Altman admitted on his Gosford Park commentary track that he intentionally swung an R for similar reasons.)

There's two Greek epics racing to production as we speak -- Relativity Media's War of the Gods, directed by Tarsem Singh, and Louis Leterrier's Clash of the Titans for Warner Bros. Both are looking to fill the muscle-and-sandal void left by 300, and plan to employ the stylish green-screen effects that made 300 so darn pretty to look at, and cheap to make.

And it looks like they'll be borrowing something else from 300 -- manly eye candy. According to Variety, both films are in negotiations for their lead actors. War of the Gods is looking to cast Henry Cavill as Theseus, legendary king of Athens. Cavill is best known as the rakish Charles Brandon on Showtime's The Tudors, and as Albert Mondego in The Count of Monte Cristo. That's him on the right. He's ridiculously handsome, and thus an ideal candidate for a mythic Greek.

Meanwhile, the increasingly in-demand Sam Worthington is in talks to play Perseus in Clash of the Titans. By now, Warner Bros has undoubtedly seen him in action in Terminator: Salvation so they'll know if he's the right man to take on Medusa. Again, he's not a bad looking fellow, and should look good in bronze and leather. Incidentally, both he and Cavill were once in the running to play James Bond.

Both films are expected to start production in late winter or early spring, so this will be the first of many casting announcements. I wonder if both films are doomed to move in sync, lumped together in the trades until the day they hit theaters.

I love when stuff like this happens: Armageddon vs. Deep Impact. 1492: Conquest of Paradise vs. Christopher Columbus: The Discovery. Umm, Vice Versa vs. Like Father Like Son. You know what I mean: When two very similar movies from two very different movie studios hit the theaters at just about the same time. And according to Variety, it looks to be happening again, this time with a pair of Greek Mythology-type movies. Of all things. We get none of 'em for two decades and then all of a sudden everyone wants to bang one out. It's good news for me, though. I love this stuff.

In one corner we have WB's Clash of the Titans remake, which will be directed by Louis Leterrier and written by Lawrence Kasdan. We all know a bit about Clash of the Titans, or at least I hope we do, so let's focus on the other corner: Here we have the very intriguing War of Gods, which Relativity Media is prepping for Tarsem Singh to direct. According to Variety, it's "a mythological tale set in war-torn Ancient Greece, as the young warrior prince Theseus leads his men in a battle against evil that will see the gods fighting with soldiers against demons and titans." Whoa. Yes, please.

Both flicks are looking to use the 300-style approach to bring their ancient worlds and creatures to life, both aim to start production before the end of the year, and both will probably make a whole lot of money. I mean seriously: We need more epics about Greek Mythology. Call me a nerd, but those stories are freaking cool!

Cinematical has just received this exclusive, action-filled clip from Tarsem Singh's The Fall. The film is set in a Los Angeles hospital in 1915, where stuntman Roy Walker (Lee Pace) is recovering from a stunt-gone-wrong and the fact that his girlfriend dumped him for the film's leading man. Set on ending his life, he befriends the young Alexandria (Catinca Untaru) in order to persuade her to nab him the morphine he needs for his suicide. He begins to tell her amazing stories, full of people from his life and the hospital, to get her anxious for more, and to make her do his bidding.

The clip shares a scene from one of those stories, and is full of horses, dusty action, the freeing of slaves, and even some first-sight romance. This is definitely looking to be a rare gem -- a great story with a myriad of beautiful scenes. The film goes into limited release this Friday.

Cinematical has just scored these exclusive stills from Tarsem Singh's upcoming film, The Fall. It's no wonder that David Fincher and Spike Jonze are presenting this feature, which will hit theaters on May 9. Set in the 1920s, a young girl (Catinca Untaru) meets a bedridden man (Lee Pace) while recovering from a fall in the hospital. The two become friends as he tells her an exotic tale, cast with the people she knows and loves, to spark her imagination.

The pictures from this film are, frankly, stunning, and if they are any indication of the story itself, this should be one solid and enjoyable fantasy drama. In these stills, you can check out the storytelling pair above, plus Daniel Caltigarone's Governor Odious, Otto Benga (Marcus Wesley) and Darwin (Leo Bill), another still of the young Catinca, and some spinning whirling dervishes. Check out the gallery below for these exclusive stills, plus some extra, previously-released peeks at the film.

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.

*Correction: Pace stars in Pushing Daisies

According to Variety, David Slade will now direct Unthinkable, the story of a nuclear bomb in the United States. Tarsem Singh, director of the visually spectacular but dramatically weak 2000 thriller The Cell, was originally attached to direct (we brought you that announcement over a year ago). He has moved on, and no reason is given, but I'm sure it's something along the lines of "creative differences." Peter Woodward (Closing the Ring) penned the script, and Oren Moverman (co-writer of I'm Not There) is now listed as a co-writer.

Unthinkable centers on "investigators who push the limits of interrogation as they seek a suspect's knowledge of an impending nuclear attack on the United States." The film is budgeted at $15 million, so it will likely be a pretty small affair. No casting announcements have been made at this time. Slade made his feature debut with Hard Candy. That sharp, entertaining 2005 thriller starred a pre-Juno Ellen Page as a young girl who turns the tables on a pedophile. He followed that with 30 Days of Night -- last year's vampire flick that was chock full of beautiful camerawork...but not much else. Slade is definitely a director to watch though, and I'm excited to see what he'll bring to this project. Miss this one? Unthinkable! Damn, I'm good.

Unlike the title of his latest flick, Tarsem Singh's The Cell was pretty forgettable. I only saw it once (mayyybe twice), and all I remember is how unbelievably freaky Vincent D'Onofrio was. But the visual effects were pretty stunning, and Singh earned kudos from me in that respect. But then the guy disappeared for six years before returning with an indie flick, The Fall, back in 2006. Now, however, The Hollywood Reporter tells us Singh will once again step into studio world and direct a science fiction thriller for Warner Bros. called The Unforgettable. Based on the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment video game The Condemned: Criminal Origins (which I haven't played), project will be produced by Basil Iwanyk, David Goyer and Jason Hall (who also helped create the game alongside Nathan Hendrickson).

At one point they were calling this Species X, but I imagine they didn't want people to associate it with the long-running (and now strictly DTV) franchise, Species. So now it's called The Unforgettable, and it centers on a cop who, during the course of a murder investigation, realizes he's not human. That kinda sucks. And from there, he becomes involved in a war between good and evil aliens. So much for throwing up some yellow tape, grabbing a box of donuts and calling it a night, huh? Kurt Sutter, who's currently doing some work on The Punisher re-do, and penned a bunch of Shield episodes, wrote the script.

Considering what a fruitcake of a movie The Cell was, it is a bit of a surprise that Tarsem Singh is still directing feature films. The Indian-born director got his start in music videos and commercials, but he is probably best remembered for his video for REM's Losing My Religion. His debut film might have been visually stunning, but that was unfortunately all it had going for it. Singh's second film The Fall was on a much smaller scale than The Cell, but it did get some positive reviews when it screened at the Toronto Film Festival.

Variety has announced that Tarsem Singh has been signed to direct the political thriller Unthinkable for Sidney Kimmel Entertainment. The plot is being kept under wraps with the only detail being provided was that the film would be set in contemporary America. While, it is not exactly the most illuminating information, it helps to remember that when it comes to Tarsem Singh's films, plot isn't always foremost in his mind. Peter Woodward is overseeing a re-write of the original script, and SKE hopes to start production later this year. This movie sounds like a bit of stretch for the director, who is known for surreal and fantastic imagery. If it works, it should be one trippy political flick.

[via Empire Online]