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Chris Weitz Blames New Line For 'The Golden Compass' -- Do You?
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, New Line, Celebrities and Controversy, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Religious, Fan Rant
Now rolling in New Moon millions, Chris Weitz is being more open about his troubles with New Line and The Golden Compass, a film that sank one studio and sent him into a tailspin. Rumors abounded as to what went wrong on that film, and as recently as last week, New York's Page Six was claiming that residual stress was causing him to leave the industry.Weitz denied any such thing to Variety, and announced he was leaving the world of the supernatural behind with his next film, The Gardener. The film centers around a hard working Mexican gardener and his efforts to protect his son, and Weitz will be making it alongside his new best friends forever, Summit Entertainment. His new friendship enabled him to take a parting shot at New Line. Weitz praises Summit and Stephenie Meyer for trusting him with New Moon, an experience that was the polar opposite of the debacle that was The Golden Compass.
Weitz claims that New Line didn't trust him to handle the content of the book, that the film was taken from him in editing. Heavy-handed hacking resulted in losing nearly 30 minutes of footage from the film, and neatly exercised the edgy thrust of Phillip Pullman's book. "It was an utter violation of my status as a director and the worst thing that has happened to me professionally ... I was treated badly, it was almost like they never read the books. They seemed frightened of offending the right." Out of loyalty to the cast and crew, Weitz said he "bit through my tongue" when Compass was released.
As a fan of Pullman's His Dark Materials series, I'd love to see all that missing footage to see if it could salvage Weitz's film, and if New Line really neutered it.
Go below the jump for the rest
Paul Haggis Bails on Scientology Big-Time
Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy, Newsstand, Politics, Religious
Normally, we don't run stories about the personal lives and religious beliefs of celebrities. The exception to the rule is when they have some kind of impact (positive or negative) on a film or a career. So when Paul Haggis gives the finger to the Church of Scientology, we have to run it. As Haggis himself admits, "I am fully aware that some of my friends may choose to no longer associate with me, or in some cases work with me." According to Village Voice, Haggis has been a member of the Church of Scientology for 35 years. But he found himself questioning its practices and beliefs, particularly after its San Diego branch openly sponsored California's anti-gay Proposition 8. Haggis asked Scientology's spokesman, Tommy Davis, to denounce the branch. Davis skirted the issue, and Haggis went on the offensive with a confrontational letter that has made its way online on Mark Rathburn's anti-Scientology blog. "The church's refusal to denounce the actions of these bigots, hypocrites and homophobes is cowardly. I can think of no other word. Silence is consent, Tommy. I refuse to consent."
The church's bigotry encouraged Haggis to do a little digging, and he found an online interview with Davis, who claimed that the Church doesn't force its members to cease contact with anyone who forsakes the religion, or openly criticizes it. "I was shocked. We all know this policy exists. I didn't have to search for verification - I didn't have to look any further than my own home." Haggis' wife was ordered to "disconnect" from her parents because they resigned from the church.
Continued below the jump...
This! Is! Moses! 'Exodus' To Get '300' Treatment
Filed under: Action, Deals, Scripts, 20th Century Fox, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Religious, War
Before our generation comes to a close, all of ancient history and mythology will have been filmed through a Zack Snyder / Frank Miller lens. Variety reports that the next ancient text to get the green-screened sepia treatment is the tale of Moses. Yes, Ten Commandments Moses. 20th Century Fox and its new big dog, Peter Chernin, have snapped up a pitch to retell "Let my people go!" in 300 fashion, and put Adam Cooper and Bill Collage to work penning a script. You might not remember their names now, but they're also pairing up with Timur Bekmambetov to remake the story of Moby Dick in a 300 "graphic novel style." Variety notes that all the elements you know and love from the story of Moses will be there (the Red Sea, the plague of locusts, the golden calf) but they will also incorporate "brand new elements" drawn from Midrashic sources. I wonder if they'll also find a way to include the scene with Zipporah rescues their son from the Lord by circumcising him? Because they could do some slow motion blood splatter with that.
Being an irreligious sort, I find the idea silly instead of offensive but it's possible that a lot of moviegoers could find this very disrespectful to their faith. Will it spur on copycat projects? Will other studios go "Why didn't we think of the Bible?", abandon Greek texts, and start producing 300 versions of Maccabees? Judges? 1 and 2 Kings? There's a lot of gory tales just waiting to be revamped with green screen.
TIFF Review: Agora
Filed under: Drama, Theatrical Reviews, Festival Reports, Exhibition, Religious
"If you choose to do nothing, though, you will continue to do the same thing over and over again."
Hypatia (Rachel Weisz), Agora
Hypatia (Rachel Weisz), Agora
To some, the name Alejandro Amenábar sparks instant interest. But if it does not, let me refresh your memory. In 1997, he wrote (with Mateo Gil) and directed the Spanish film Open Your Eyes -- which North American audiences know better by its ultra-strange U.S. remake Vanilla Sky. 2001 marked his English film premiere, the eerie Nicole Kidman thriller The Others (the only feature Gil hasn't co-written). And then in 2004, he went back to Spanish filmmaking with the Javier Bardem-starring Oscar winner The Sea Inside. Now he's grabbed the likes of Rachel Weisz, Max Minghella, and Oscar Isaac for a film that doesn't journey through facial reconstruction, ghosts, or euthanasia. It's a gorgeous, thought-provoking Roman epic called Agora.
The film focuses on one of the most impressive female figures in history – Hypatia, a leading thinker in the Rome-governed Alexandria, considered to be the first notable woman of mathematics. She studied philosophy and astronomy, and both pagan and Christian students from far and wide came together to study under her. "For all men on account of her extraordinary dignity and virtue admired her the more."
Review: I Can Do Bad All by Myself
Filed under: Drama, Lionsgate Films, Theatrical Reviews, Religious
The latest movie from writer-director Tyler Perry, I Can Do Bad All By Myself, may strike you as being another comedy featuring Perry's big bad old lady Madea. However, Madea has only a small role as comic relief in this melodrama/morality play. The credits tell us that the movie is based on Perry's 2000 play of the same name, but after reading summaries of the play, the two seem to have little in common apart from the title and a moral awakening on the part of the lead characters.
April (Taraji P. Henson) is a mess -- a nightclub singer who rarely sees the light of day, an alcoholic, a woman heavily involved with a married man (Brian White) who pays all her bills. Suddenly, she has three children foisted upon her -- caught trying to break into Madea's house, they confess that the grandmother who has been raising them has gone missing. Madea sends them to Aunt April, who is unwilling to take them but can't find another option. In the meantime, the local church sends April a handyman to help fix her crumbling old house in return for room and board, the optimistic and caring Sandino (Adam Rodriguez). How will April deal with these disruptive people in her life?
The Chills-Inducing Trailer for 'Agora'
Filed under: Drama, Religious, Trailers and Clips
Suffering through films like Troy, which is akin to being cinematically stabbed in one's Achilles' Heel, it's easy to be wary of the ancient period pieces. All too often, epic legends crumble due to Hollywood's obsession with spectacle -- falling to epic looks rather than an epic heart. But just sometimes ... a film can have both.I will be writing more about the film later, but for now, I implore you to hit the jump and watch the trailer for Alejandro Amenabar's Agora. This is the sort of trailer every film needs: It balances exposition (helped along by a great narrator rather than deep-disembodied typical trailer voice) and explanation with passion -- outlining what exactly the film is focusing on before exploding into a rising crescendo that will tap into your skin and unleash the goosebumps and chills.
Agora focuses on Hypatia (Rachel Weisz), a female scholar from Alexandria in 370-415 AD. Well ahead of her time, she was a well-respected philosopher dedicated to studies of math and astronomy. Christianity was spreading through Egypt, however, and it was only a matter of time before her incredibly advanced status (for a woman in that era) became her downfall.
'Legion' Gets a Comic Book Prequel
Filed under: Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Sony, Newsstand, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Religious
When the red-band trailer for Legion appeared online, the responses ranged from "What the hell?" to "How can angels go bad?" to "I don't like the look of that at all." All the footage is very dark, demonic, and confusing and we have to wait until January 2010 to figure out why all hell (or heaven) seems to be breaking loose.But guess what! You don't have to wait that long if you're insanely curious about it. IDW Publishing announced that Scott Stewart and Tom Waltz have penned a four issue miniseries that will serve as a prequel to Stewart's upcoming holy war. Legion: Prophets will introduce you to the Theologians, the Guardian, the Codebreaker and the Voice, five very different and unlikely individuals who become humanity's only hope in surviving the Apocalypse. (Here we thought it all rested on the well-built shoulders of the ex-angelic Paul Bettany.) "There were a lot of cool and scary characters and situations that I wasn't able to include in the main narrative of the movie, so I'm very excited to be able to expand the Legion universe beyond the film and explore those other stories through the comic book series," says Stewart.
Legion: Prophets hits comic store shelves in November, just in time for the holidays and to make you look a little askance at the angels glittering on every holiday decoration. If you're still into the movie after reading the paper prequel, Legion comes to the big screen on January 22, 2010.
[via io9]
Red-Band Trailer For 'Legion' Might Scare You Back to Church
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sony, Newsstand, NSFW, Movie Marketing, Religious, Trailers and Clips
The enormous casting call of Legion was one of the earliest stories I penned on Cinematical, a fact I recalled in a blinding flashback when I encountered Paul Bettany's naked abs in a San Diego elevator. From ComicCon on, the film seems to have been attracting a curious buzz, probably helped greatly by Bettany's wing-framed body. Come on, it's pretty darn nice.
A very long, very red-band trailer for Legion has appeared on MySpace and now we can get an eyeful of what the lucky Hall H attendees saw at ComicCon. It's strange, horrifying, violent, and weirdly funny. There's a dash of Preacher, Dogma, and The Prophecy about this clip and I'm honestly surprised it isn't based on an edgy comic book of some kind because it has that mash-up of camp and blasphemy that you generally only find in a book published by Vertigo or Dark Horse. I'm very curious about this one. It looks like it could be awful, and yet I have to admire any film that features a lanky Englishman kicking ass, Dennis Quaid doing anything, Kevin Durand doing his usual scary thing, and people willing to crack jokes in the face of angelic invasion. Plus, it's my humble opinion that storylines featuring scared teenagers who may be pregnant with a Messiah just never get old.
Hop below for the trailer. No lying about your age now, you whippersnappers. Remember, your guardian angel is watching.
A very long, very red-band trailer for Legion has appeared on MySpace and now we can get an eyeful of what the lucky Hall H attendees saw at ComicCon. It's strange, horrifying, violent, and weirdly funny. There's a dash of Preacher, Dogma, and The Prophecy about this clip and I'm honestly surprised it isn't based on an edgy comic book of some kind because it has that mash-up of camp and blasphemy that you generally only find in a book published by Vertigo or Dark Horse. I'm very curious about this one. It looks like it could be awful, and yet I have to admire any film that features a lanky Englishman kicking ass, Dennis Quaid doing anything, Kevin Durand doing his usual scary thing, and people willing to crack jokes in the face of angelic invasion. Plus, it's my humble opinion that storylines featuring scared teenagers who may be pregnant with a Messiah just never get old.
Hop below for the trailer. No lying about your age now, you whippersnappers. Remember, your guardian angel is watching.
Bless You! It's Paul Bettany in 'Priest'
Filed under: Action, Horror, Sony, DIY/Filmmaking, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Religious, Images, Western
Look what's got a promo poster! Scott Stewart's resurrected Priest, the Tokyo Pop adaptation that stars Paul Bettany and Cam Gigandet. (I've got to be honest, it will continue to be "That movie Gerard Butler was supposed to be in way back when" for me for a very long time. It's a curse of fandom and incessantly covering such stories.) Anyway, this little promo piece has appeared on the official Priest website Sony has just put online. Obviously, there's nothing there but this photo, but it does a bit of glowing animation you mind find amusing. It's a nice nod to the original Toyko Pop cover, though Bettany is missing Ivan Isaacs' long and flowing hair.
I think what makes this creepy is not that Bettany does resemble the bony Isaacs, but that those not following the intricacies of film news won't know the difference between this and the upcoming Legion which is also a Bettany-led film directed by Stewart. I have really enjoyed many of Bettany's films, and I think he's a fine actor, but he really really needs to take a break from the religious orders. I can see Joe Moviegoer seeing the Priest poster and going "Isn't that the archangel movie we already saw?" "No, dummy, it's that DaVinci Code sequel!"
I think what makes this creepy is not that Bettany does resemble the bony Isaacs, but that those not following the intricacies of film news won't know the difference between this and the upcoming Legion which is also a Bettany-led film directed by Stewart. I have really enjoyed many of Bettany's films, and I think he's a fine actor, but he really really needs to take a break from the religious orders. I can see Joe Moviegoer seeing the Priest poster and going "Isn't that the archangel movie we already saw?" "No, dummy, it's that DaVinci Code sequel!"
'The Lovely Bones' Has a Blank Poster
Filed under: Drama, Mystery & Suspense, Paramount, RumorMonger, Newsstand, Dreamworks, Peter Jackson, Movie Marketing, Religious, Images, Posters
A bland teaser poster for The Lovely Bones has appeared on Film1 and, well, it's just not that exciting. No worries, though, this was only used to tease the film during an international trade show (CinemaExpo to be exact) -- hence the 2010 release date (it arrives stateside on December 11, 2009). But with the film due out this winter it's surprising that there's still so very little to go on.
Bones has been dogged by bad rumors from day one. Mark Wahlberg replaced Ryan Gosling in very short order, and Susan Sarandon had issues with her role as Grandma Lynn. Flicks.co.nz reported that production shut down as Peter Jackson and art director disagreed over how to best portray Heaven, a story that was later denied by DreamWorks and Paramount. The rumor machine really went into overdrive when the release date of the film was delayed by six months, but the studio also brushed off any concerns, assuring the world they had always intended to release the film December 11, 2009 ... just in time for awards consideration.
But hey, now you have a poster to go with those initial images, and it's the kind of marketing you can project all your wishes onto. You can read its blankness as a sign of a disorganized production that doesn't have its poster art sorted. You can read it as a sign that they're keeping it under wraps because it's something very special. Maybe you see your own version of heaven there. (Mine is a really good film.) It's all things to all people. Really!
[via Dread Central]
Bones has been dogged by bad rumors from day one. Mark Wahlberg replaced Ryan Gosling in very short order, and Susan Sarandon had issues with her role as Grandma Lynn. Flicks.co.nz reported that production shut down as Peter Jackson and art director disagreed over how to best portray Heaven, a story that was later denied by DreamWorks and Paramount. The rumor machine really went into overdrive when the release date of the film was delayed by six months, but the studio also brushed off any concerns, assuring the world they had always intended to release the film December 11, 2009 ... just in time for awards consideration.
But hey, now you have a poster to go with those initial images, and it's the kind of marketing you can project all your wishes onto. You can read its blankness as a sign of a disorganized production that doesn't have its poster art sorted. You can read it as a sign that they're keeping it under wraps because it's something very special. Maybe you see your own version of heaven there. (Mine is a really good film.) It's all things to all people. Really!
[via Dread Central]
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