...and with only twelve days of the year gone, I feel quite safe in saying that Babylon A.D. is going to be one of the worst films I see in 2009. And I've seen Australia! C'est tout, merci - comme vous avez été.
"Babylon AD" director Mathieu Kassovitz is not a happy man and he is making it very clear. In an interview with AMCTV, he reveals: "I never had a chance to do one scene the way it was written or the way I wanted it to be. The script wasn't respected. Bad producers, bad partners, it was a terrible experience."
He blames 20th Century Fox for "sending lawyers who were only looking at all the commas and the dots. They made everything difficult from A to Z." Then the studio interfered with the editing of the film, cutting it down to 93 minutes. This even astounded Vin Diesel, the star of the film, who was quoted as saying: "Am I even in the movie any more, or am I on the cutting room floor?"
According to Kassovitz, "Babylon AD," which is based on a French novel "Babylon Babies" by Maurice Georges Dantec, fails to deliver the book's messages. "It's pure violence and stupidity," he admits. "The movie is supposed to teach us that the education of our children will mean the future of our planet. All the action scenes had a goal, instead parts of the movie are like a bad episode of 24."
At this point, Kassovitz regrets ever to have signed on with Fox. "I should have chosen a studio that has guts," he says. "Fox was just trying to get a PG-13 movie. I'm ready to go to war against them, but I can't because they don't give a sh*t."
Finally, the director feels that "Babylon AD" will likely have a strong first weekend, but will then die off after fans see how bad it is. "I don't see how people who went through all these amazing blockbusters like 'The Dark Knight' and 'Iron Man' this summer will take it."
He blames 20th Century Fox for "sending lawyers who were only looking at all the commas and the dots. They made everything difficult from A to Z." Then the studio interfered with the editing of the film, cutting it down to 93 minutes. This even astounded Vin Diesel, the star of the film, who was quoted as saying: "Am I even in the movie any more, or am I on the cutting room floor?"
According to Kassovitz, "Babylon AD," which is based on a French novel "Babylon Babies" by Maurice Georges Dantec, fails to deliver the book's messages. "It's pure violence and stupidity," he admits. "The movie is supposed to teach us that the education of our children will mean the future of our planet. All the action scenes had a goal, instead parts of the movie are like a bad episode of 24."
At this point, Kassovitz regrets ever to have signed on with Fox. "I should have chosen a studio that has guts," he says. "Fox was just trying to get a PG-13 movie. I'm ready to go to war against them, but I can't because they don't give a sh*t."
Finally, the director feels that "Babylon AD" will likely have a strong first weekend, but will then die off after fans see how bad it is. "I don't see how people who went through all these amazing blockbusters like 'The Dark Knight' and 'Iron Man' this summer will take it."
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