Thompson On Hollywood

2001's Arthur C. Clarke Talks

Sci-Fi Wire posts a never-before-seen interview conducted with the late great sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Childhood's End. The interview was conducted in 2001.

Avatar: Cameron, Weaver Talk

James Cameron and Sigourney Weaver give an Avatar update.

Jumper's Liman: Crazy Like a Fox?

In keeping with the teleporting theme of Jumper, Twentieth Century Fox mounted elaborate press junkets for this hugely expensive movie in Cairo and Rome last week and finally premiered the pic on Feb. 11th in NYC. Here's the film's website and trailer.

An entertaining male fantasy picture--you haven't seen its like before-- Jumper will be hugely commercial, even though it's a mess and asks audiences to buy a wildly unbelievable plot premise. Here's Variety's review.

I remain fascinated by the enigma that is director Doug Liman. Some studio folks who have worked with him swear they will never repeat the experience (ask Frank Marshall, Stacey Snider or Marc Shmuger about working with Liman on The Bourne Identity). And the task of making Jumper, a movie already saddled with extraordinary continuity issues--it's like Buster Keaton's jump-cutting Sherlock Jr. on steroids--was not made easier by Liman's last-minute creative changes. Editors on the film were tearing their hair out.

Here's the New York Mag profile that attempts to explain the method behind Liman's madness. (See a selection from the piece on the jump.) And here's John Clark's interview on Premiere.com.

Or is Liman (son of the late famed Iran/Contra attorney Arthur Liman) crazy like a fox? The thing is, his movies are fun to watch partly because they keep surprising you. Given the free-spending insanity that is already a given on big-budget Hollywood movies, why not indulge a filmmaker who makes the movies a little less polished, predictable and formulaic? Both Bourne and Mr. and Mrs. Smith actually stand up to repeated viewings.

On the other hand if Liman's out-of-control, kid-in-the-playpen rep keeps dogging him, I'll be curious to see who will keep hiring him. Finally, as long as the movies keep working, he'll have no shortage of offers. Next up: he's directing Nicole Kidman as Valerie Plame.

[New York Magazine photo by Stefan Ruiz; Jumper premiere by Wireimage]

Watchmen and V for Vendetta Creator Alan Moore Talks

Here's a documentary interview with Watchmen and V for Vendetta creator Alan Moore. Very cool.

I Am Legend: Popular Mechanics Debunks Film's Science

Popular Mechanics takes on the dubious science in I Am Legend, which is based on Richard Matheson's book--which tried to explain the science behind vampires! I think you're supposed to call it "suspension of disbelief."

[Hat Tip: MCN]

I Am Legend: Matheson Redux

I Am Legend is a $150- million studio movie that will score at the boxoffice, thanks to the amazing Will Smith and $40-million in fab pixel-FX, although its thrill-and-chills violence will skew audiences toward the male side.

New York Mag lays out one of the cool shots of a deserted daytime Manhattan. (Here's David Edelstein's review.)

What happens at night, well, that's where the book that the movie is based on, written by Richard Matheson back in 1954, was cooler in its day, because now vampires have been done to death. The filmmakers try to scoot past that a bit. I Am Legend's fleet CG night critters are more like virus-ridden zombies who can't survive in daylight. But they're still vampires. I would have liked them better if they'd used good old-fashioned FX and make-up. When they're humanoid CG, they're just not so believable. Smith works hard in the movie to humanize his character and give him heart. But this is a straightforward actioner.

I love the book---it's tough stuff. (Stephen King is a major Matheson fan.) A fave film of mine, A Stir of Echoes, is based on a Matheson story, as is The Incredible Shrinking Man, What Dreams May Come, Somewhere in Time and Steven Spielberg's Duel. And of course Omega Man and Last Man on Earth were also based on I Am Legend.

This film version is finally less interesting than it could have been.

I Am Legend: Early Review

Here's Variety's review by Todd McCarthy:

Although Smith's role may not be as difficult in certain ways as Tom Hanks' was in "Cast Away" -- Smith gets to move around a lot, indulge in eye-catching action scenes and interrelate with a wonderful dog rather than a volleyball -- they are comparable in that both parts required the actors to carry their films virtually singlehandedly, with long silent passages. Smith manages it very well, showboating only briefly to show off his newly trim physique and intermittently displaying the incipient madness that would surely come from being alone against an unrelenting threat.

Thesp's greatest scene, which reps an inspired staging choice on the director's part, consists of a prolonged, agonizing closeup of Neville dealing with his dog after it's been contaminated; you're thankful not to have to watch what he's doing, and the powerful emotions Smith expresses are riveting to behold.

NYFF: Blade Runner Redux

Ridley Scott's Blade Runner will screen at the New York Film Fest before playing in NYC. Here's an update on Blade Runner then and now. Here's Wired's uncut Ridley Scott interview.

Justice League Set to Take Off for WB

As expected, Warner Bros. is chasing down the DC Comics property Justice League as a pre-strike movie, even though it may not star Christian Bale or Brandon Routh. The studio likes the script and wants George Miller (Happy Feet) to direct.

Southland Tales: Richard Kelly Speaks

Covering Southland Tales at Cannes last year, I was struck by the number of financeers, neophyte producers and actors who were willing to go along for the ride with writer-director Richard Kelly, who was riding high off Donnie Darko. It was a classic case of the emperor's new clothes. Even the festival itself bought into the notion that this wildly ambitious visually rich incomprehensible mess of a futuristic fantasy was worth showing at the fest. The clearly unfinished film, clocking some two hours 40 minutes, was rushed into the fest, and turned out to be a disaster. At press conferences, actors like Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson would admit that they didn't understand the script, but wanted to follow Kelly's vision. That's the thing. Directors often have an idea of what they're doing, but don't realize that it's not getting through to anyone else.

The movie was acquired by Sony, which saw some DVD promise in it. (Goldwyn will release theatrically.)Kelly worked on the flick some more, cut 20 minutes, rerecorded Justin Timberlake's narration, and added visual effects. The new improved model will open November 9. Here's Kelly's candid interview with the LAT's Mark Olsen:

"Even with all that happened, I don't regret it," Kelly said recently of the experience. "Now that all the dust has settled, the movie is actually better off because of it. Honestly, it is. The hope is we can still somehow recover and the movie can find an audience."

UPDATE: here's the trailer.

Avatar: Cameron Adds Two

James Cameron has added two new cast members to Avatar, which has been in production since April (you can't say "shooting," because technically no cameras or film are involved). Broadway star Stephen Lang will play yet another military role in a buzz cut, while tough girl Michelle Rodriguez (Lost) will also add some muscle to the cast. Mauro Fiore (Training Day, The Island, The Kingdom) has been hired as d.p.

Comic-Con Wrap: Iron Man, Marvel, Hulk, Watchmen, Narnia, Golden Compass, Shoot 'Em Up

While Comic-Cons past have heralded the advent of such future blockbusters as 300 and Superman Returns, this year only Jon Favreau’s new Marvel entry starring Robert Downey, Jr. as the mighty Iron Man roused the fan hordes in the 6000-seat Hall H to rise up and give a standing O. The crowds also responded well to Pixar's Wall-E, from Finding Nemo creator Andrew Stanton, about a robot trash compactor left behind on earth, who is being "voiced" by sound wizard Ben Burtt, who created the whistle-language for Star Wars' R2D2.

Many of the big fanboy titles had no footage to show because they were just heading into production, from 300 director Zach Snyder’s The Watchmen, an adaptation of the Alan Moore graphic classic, to Edward Norton’s page-one rewrite of Marvel’s latest iteration of The Hulk. Snyder, Norton and Favreau all promised fans to stay true to the spirit of the source material. "We're not going to make it accessible to teenyboppers for marketing reasons," said Snyder, who is setting “The Watchmen” in the R-rated 80s and drawing his way through the novel, shot by shot. "It doesn't feel PG-13. It makes sense that now it's a period film. It has resonance, it's separated from the Cold War, it's almost cool to go back."

Snyder had hoped to announce his Watchmen cast at the Con, but was scooped by the press by several days. "We have real actors for this movie," he said. "This movie has no stars in it! 300 had no stars in it either. A couple people saw it." The actors will start out young and evolve into old age with the help of CGI, he said. “Technology is on my side.” Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson and Jason Patric didn’t show, but Jackie Earle Haley and Malin Akerman were on hand. The crowd in Hall H applauded when The Hulk producer Gale Ann Hurd assured them that this time--as opposed to Ang Lee’s 2003 Hulk, which did not score a bullseye with fans--The Hulk would remain the same size throughout the film. Marvel’s latest design for The Hulk seemed to play for fans.

Disney’s Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian panel promised a deeper, richer, more action-packed realistic take on the next installment of the fantasy series, which will now unspool at the rate of one a year. (It will be interesting to see how much interest there is in the lesser known books that don't feature the four kids.) Audiences were wowed by an well-paced animatic of the capture of a castle featuring airborne sword fights.

On the other hand, New Line Cinema’s bid for a new fantasy franchise, Chris Weitz’s adaptation of The Golden Compass, starring Nicole Kidman, Dakota Blue Richards and many CG polar bears, yielded a more muted response. Kidman keeps rolling her tongue around something called "the Aletheometer lethiometer." Like Stardust, The Golden Compass features flying ships and witches. But it also looks all too familiar...

While Twentieth Century Fox cancelled its show-and-tell, citing materials that were too hard-R for a family-friendly event (which nonetheless showed plenty of violent, edgy material), the studio did send a convoy of trucks to promote the movie Jumper emblazoned with black-and-white billboards reading “If you were a jumper you’d be home now.”

Short action clips from Shoot ‘Em Up, starring Clive Owen as a Chow Yun Fat-inspired gunfighter toting a baby amid blood-splattering mayhem, played well in Hall H; the full-length movie screened Thursday night to a wide range of reactions. The pic clearly plays best for hard-core action fans with a taste for a taboo-busting, hard-edged R. (A women gives birth during a gun battle; when the baby cries, Owen shoves the infant onto her breast to shut him up. And there's more.) Storyboard-artist-turned director Michael Davis thanked Angry Films for rescuing him from oblivion after 35 screenplays just as he was about to give up his filmmaking career. Owen thanked Davis "for making an original movie in a time of sequels," he said.
Here's Variety's review.

Neil Marshall’s viral thriller Doomsday generated some fan heat, along with Rob Zombie’s reimagining of Halloween, the graphic novel-based 30 Days of Night, a hard-R return to killer vampires who terrorize an isolated town in bleak midwinter, and writer-director Frank Darabont’s reunion with Stephen King on the $17-million “The Mist.” But many other horror titles fell flat, including Warners’ Japanese remake One Missed Call, the conclusion of Paul Anderson's zombie trilogy, Resident Evil: The Extinction, and Silver’s The Invasion, yet another version of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

“Comic-Con elder” Darabont, who started coming to The Con as a teenager in 1973 when it was held for 1000 people at the El Cortez Hotel, had a good time this trip. “Every year it’s gotten crazier and bigger.”

Sunshine: Checking the Science

Popular Mechanics explores the science behind Danny Boyle's science-fiction adventure Sunshine.

Movie Directors: Danny Boyle Talks Sunshine

Sunshine is a must-see for any serious sci-fi buff, even if it goes awry in the last third. Director Danny Boyle speaks to the NYT.