News Around the Net (and a rant about Prometheus!)
So, OK, bloody disgusting ran an article that Fox doesn’t know what to do with a proposed sequel to Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, and that the source of the problem is that when Lost’s Damon Lindelof re-wrote Jon Spaihts’ original Alien prequel script into what became Prometheus, he turned a one-shot film into the start of a trilogy, except now he isn’t returning for film two and so Ridley Scott and Fox are left holding the bag with no idea where to take the story next. The article is pretty fierce in attacking Mr. Lindelof, and no surprise he has responded to defend himself, saying that Ridley Scott and everyone at Fox all wanted Prometheus to be the start of a trilogy and explaining why he isn’t returning for the sequel. I have no reason not to take Mr. Lindelof at his word, but the real story to me, here, is how clear Mr. Lindelof’s comments illustrate the brain-dead decision-making that went into the making of Prometheus. Mr. Lindelof comments that the whole idea was that, if/when they made a sequel to Prometheus, they didn’t want that sequel to be the already-made original Alien. They wanted room to explore the story further, to tell what he describes as a “parallel” story to the events of Alien and its sequels. That’s why instead of making the planet that they find in Prometheus LV-427, the planet where Ripley finds the crashed ship and the alien eggs in Alien, they decided to set Prometheus on a different planet (despite the fact that they kept in the film the Engineer’s ship that looks exactly like the one Ripley found, crashing at the end so it looks exactly like what we saw in Alien. Guess those Engineers just crashed their ships on LOTS of barren planets, huh? So stupid!!). Am I the only one who sees how easily the filmmakers could have had their cake and eaten it too? Had they stuck with Jon Spaihts’ original plan, the events of Prometheus would have beautifully lined up with what we saw in Alien, explaining who the Engineers were and how their ship carrying Alien eggs wound up crashed on that planet… and meanwhile, had the movie ended exactly the way it did, with Dr. Shaw and David’s head surviving the Engineer’s rampage and setting off in search of the Engineer’s home-world, they could have had their “parallel” story-line right there, continuing to explore Shaw’s adventures in future films without connecting any further to Ripley. Am I right or am I crazy?? Once again I am struck by what an enormous, jaw-dropping missed opportunity Prometheus was. (Click here for my original review of the film.)
I didn’t get to see this past weekend’s sneak peek at The Desolation of Smaug, the second Hobbit film, but this write-up at theonering.net is pretty thorough. Seems like not much footage was shown, which is a shame, I was hoping for a trailer. (I have fond memories of going back to see The Fellowship of the Ring in theatres about five months after in opened, because they switched out the last reel of the film to include an extended trailer for The Two Towers. It was awesome!)
It’s going to be a while before we get any substantial, real info as to what J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: Episode VII is going to look like, but this interview has some interesting comments from Mr. Abrams as to what he is thinking about and his reasons for switching from Trek to Wars.
I love Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons’ new comic book series The Secret Service, about a James Bond type super-spy training his hoodie-wearing punk nephew to be a suave lady’s man and bad-guy killer, and I am super-psyched that Matthew Vaughn will officially be directing an adaptation of the comic as his next film. (I just wrote about Matthew Vaughn’s first film, Layer Cake, a few weeks ago…). I am a little bummed Mr. Vaughn passed on directing Days of Future Past, but I can’t wait to see The Secret Service on the big screen.
Judy Greer has been really great in a lot of TV shows and movies, but I’ll always love her the most from her crazy performance as Kitty from Arrested Development. I am delighted that she’s been cast in the next Planet of the Apes film, and I must say the revelation in that article about her Planet of the Apes-centric wedding makes me love her even more.
I really want the new Wolverine solo film, The Wolverine, to be good, and to erase memories of the horrible X-Men Origins: Wolverine (click here for my review of that atrocity). Word that the filmmakers were adapting the seminal Frank Miller & Chris Claremont Wolverine mini-series from the ’80s, which still stands as one of if not the most iconic Wolverine story ever told, was very encouraging. But other than taking place in Japan, I am not seeing ANY of that great story in this first full trailer for the film. What I am seeing looks more like a dour mess. (And didn’t they already do that “cure” story-line back in X3?) I hope I am wrong. Here’s the trailer, we’ll all be able to judge for ourselves in a few months.
Staying on the subject of comic book movies for a second, here is a great short video on adapting comic books into movies, featuring Ed Brubaker (who is one of the very best comic book authors working today, in my estimation).
Not sure what to make of this trailer for World War Z. I’ve never read the book, which is pretty well thought of, but from what I have read this action movie bears little resemblance to the book. Brad Pitt tends to have a knack for choosing weird and interesting projects, so I am intrigued at least…
I don’t know that I have ever really enjoyed a Ryan Reynolds film, but he seems like a nice enough fellow and this weird, all-over-the-place interview with him really caught my interest. I forgot that he was once on The X-Files!
I have always loved the work of Paul Lichtenstein, but I never really considered what the comic book artists whose work Mr. Lichtenstein, ahem, let’s say co-opted, thought of his work. This is a fascinating article dealing with some of those complex issues, well-worth your time to read.
Have a great weekend, everyone!