"Mr. Nobody" (Jared's next movie?)
Repeating details on Jared's new movie, "Mr. Nobody"....
Based on the French book by director and screenwriter Jaco Van Dormael.
Anyone know the author of the book? The year it was published?
Nemo Nobody, born in 1972, strongly believes that he's still 36 when he wakes up as an old man in the year 2092. At 120, Mr. Nobody is both the oldest man in the world and the last mortal of a new mankind where nobody dies anymore. But that doesn't seem to interest or bother him very much. The only questions that preoccupy him in the present is whether he lived the right life for himself, loved the woman whom he was supposed to love, and had the children whom he was meant to have . . . and not the others, all of the other lives, all the other possible women.
Reminds me of Frederik Pohl's "Outnumbering the Dead". I love that book. My favorite quote from that book is here.
As a young boy, at a train station, he had to choose in which direction to go: into the arms of his mother or the arms of his father. At that prophetic moment, they all separate and Nemo Nobody still doesn't know the right answer. His entire life is based on indecision. We will follow Nemo Nobody in all of his adventures--experienced or dreamt, real or imagined...
Sounds a bit like "Sliding Doors". The whole "one decision leads to a split life" thing. Great movie.
Quote: "In life, there are two tragedies. One is to never achieve our dreams. The other is to achieve them."
A phrase to retain: "As long as we don't choose, everything is possible."
Oooo, that sounds like something that would appeal to Jared.
Nemo (Jared Leto) is 35. He leads an ordinary existence at his wife's side, Elise, and their 3 children until the day when reality skids: billboards start addressing personal messages to him; he stumbles on unknown people who strangely look like him... Nemo wakes up. He is drowning in the middle of a lake. He wakes up again, facing a stranger who shoots him in the chest. He wakes up again on the edge of a swimming pool at a splendid villa, with a new wife and new children that he doesn't recognize. Is is still a dream?
Am I the only one hearing "Was it a Dream?" playing in the background?
From here:
Monday, February 12, 2007
Mr. Nobody
Jaco van Dormael's debut film Toto the Hero was, and still is, a favourite of mine; his Downs Syndrome love-story follow up The Eighth Day disappointed, perhaps, but it was still pretty strong indeed. Now, over ten years later, van Dormael is readying his third feature film and it's going to be his first made in English (perhaps unsurprisingly in view of the film's reported $39 million budget).
I read that Mr. Nobody is inspired by chaos theory and the so-called Butterfly Effect - though not The Butterfly Effect, I would hope. Not much is yet known about the lead character (perhaps also unsuprisingly in view of the film's title) but according to Variety, he is 35 years old and has four women in his life (A wife? A mistress? A mother? A sister? A woman who comes round to water his plants?) One of these women has been cast, and she's to be played by Sarah Polley. No other actors have been announced as yet.
"Some of" the film takes place in Canada. No idea where "the rest of" the film is set, but most of the 25 week shoot is to take place in Belgium, van Dormael's home and, if you ask me, the strangest, most surprising place on Earth.
Never seen "The Butterfly Effect". I assume the phenomena is just what sounds like....
The phrase refers to the idea that a butterfly's wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that ultimately cause a tornado to appear (or prevent a tornado from appearing). The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading to large-scale phenomena. Had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been vastly different. wikipedia
Yup, that's what I had in mind. Reminds me of another book. "Thrice Upon a Time" by James P. Hogan. The book was basically about rewinding time and having the slightest change alter how things moved forward. The wind fails to blow your hat off and you never meet the person you would have spent your life with.
Ok, this movie is appealing to me completely apart from the fact that Jared's involved.
"A Sound of Thunder" is a science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury, first published in Collier's magazine in 1952. ....
This well-known story about time travel revolves around a business called Time Safari, Inc. Time Safari promises to take people back in time so they can hunt prehistoric animals, such as a Tyrannosaurus rex.
In order to avoid a time paradox, they are very careful to leave history undisturbed on the principle that even the slightest change can cause major changes in the future. Travellers are only allowed to shoot animals that are already about to die, and they are required to stay on a path which hovers slightly above the ground. Hunting trophies are not taken; no souvenir is allowed except a photograph of the hunter standing next to the dead monster.
Plot summary
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
In the story, a hunter simply known as "Eckels" is about to embark on his trip. A democratic man named Keith had just won the presidential election the day before, defeating a supposed, Hitler like dictator named Deutscher. Eckels seems jittery in the time machine, and when he sees the tyrannosaurus, he seems scared and declares killing the dinosaur impossible, and wants to leave. His guide, Travis, who is trying to kill the dinosaur himself, tells him he can leave, but Eckels goes the wrong way and veers off the path. Travis and his assistant, Lesperance, manage to kill the dinosaur but when they go back to the time machine Travis is furious when he sees Eckels' boots, realizing he went off the path. Travis threatens to leave Eckels in the past, but he lets him back on if Eckels removes the bullets from the dinosaur's body, as they couldn't be left in the past.
Upon returning to the present, Eckels notices subtle changes. English is now spelled phonetically, people and buildings are different, and, worst of all, Deutscher has won the election. Looking at his boots, Eckels finds a crushed butterfly, apparently the cause of the changes. He pleads to Travis to go back into the past, but Travis refuses and fires his rifle. It is left untold what he shoots, although it is presumed that he kills Eckels. The dark ending is the meaning of the title: the story's final words are "There was a sound of thunder". wikipedia
Very interesting. Apparently, this is the full short story. Haven't read it yet.
Ok, Jared, you really have to do this one. This movie has an awesome concept and I hate to see it ruined by a bad production. It appeals to the nerdy science geek in me. It appeals to the dreamer who loves the concept of fate and meant to be. It just overall sounds awesome.