King Kong; other stuff
Saw King Kong and was exhaustified by it. The first two-thirds I spent delightedly squeeing every single moment that Thomas Kretschmann's grimy, handsome face was onscreen; the last third I could barely bring myself to watch, and sobbed non-stop all the way through. Jesus Christ, those shooting scenes went on forthefuckever. I was too embarrassed to leave the cinema horribly red-eyed and sat through the end credits in their entirity. I'm sure it could have been a lot shorter and been better for it, but it was pretty decent, I suppose.
- The New World
Los Angeles Times is hosting a clip from Terrence Malick's (The Thin Red Line, Badlands) The New World, a film about the landing of the English in (now-called) Virginia, titled "Pocahontas Saves Smith". There is also a slideshow of pictures from the film. >> LA Times
>> Official Site
- Poseidon
A remake of the 1972 disaster movie, The Poseidon Adventure. Set aboard a luxury ocean liner on New Year's Eve, Poseidon is directed by Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot, The Perfect Storm) and Shinhi Aramaki. Cast includes: Josh Lucas, Kurt Russell, Jacinda Barrett, Emmy Rossum, Mia Maestro, Freddy Rodriguez, and Richard Dreyfuss.
The teaser trailer has been added to >> Apple Trailers
>> Official Site
- The next project for Studio Ghibli, which was behind films such as Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, is going to be Gedo Senki ("Gedo War History"). It's an animated adaptation of Ursula K. Le Guin's novel, "A Wizard of Earthsea", the first book in The Earthsea Cycle. Hayao Miyazaki's son, Goro, will direct. (Dark Horizons)
- Ender's Game
The latest on the interminable pre-production for the movie to be based on Orson Scott Card's science fiction classic, Ender's Game: OSC has said on his official message board that he is going to be rewriting the script himself. (Dark Horizons)
"The option with Warner Bros. was due to expire on December 7th. There was no filmable script - though in fairness to the writers so far, they may well have been following faithfully all that they were actually asked to do - EG is simply a very hard story to put in script form.
At the last minute, a committed Warner exec met with me and we worked out some key decisions. Warner is still strongly committed to making Ender's Game into a great movie, and we agreed to another year or so of option, starting with a new script written by me (a page-one rewrite not based on any previous script, including mine). Guess how I'll be spending my Christmas vacation.
This is very promising, I think. As far as I know, all other elements of the team remain together. I will be working closely with Chartoff Productions and with the Warner executive to get this script right. It will be faithful to the story, within the limitations of a two-hour form factor. Stuff has to be left out. But what's THERE will be true to the story in the books, even if it isn't word-for-word or point-for-point the same.
I want a movie people can sit through. Two hours if possible; no more than 2.5 hours. With two hours or less, you can get two showings a night at popular showtimes. That's the studio's goal; and it's mine, too. We're not doing Gandhi, here. It doesn't need to be ponderous. It needs NOT to be. It needs to be so good that people pack the theaters".
- The Da Vinci Code
I can pretend the book doesn't exist, but I guess there's no escaping the movie. Let's just hope it's better, because with Paul Bettany and Ian McKellen in it... Well, there's no use dwelling on what will only make me depressed.
The first full-length trailer is now up at >> Apple Trailers