In anticipation of Hitchhiker’s, Disney and AICN have banded together to offer a spiffy and brutal Vogon office desk set — mug, stapler, and pen — to whomever composes a lousy poem worthy of the Vogons (or, for that matter, Paul Neil Milne Johnstone of Beehive Court, Redbridge.) The contest notwithstanding, the idea that all Vogon construction is based on the square is exactly the type of clever design flourish that gives me hope for this film. Update: Even more Hitchhiker’s news: ComingSoon talks with Hammer & Tongs (a.k.a. the producer and director) about the movie’s progress.
Category: Fanboy
Angel in America.
“A few years ago I started down this path of creating this 3D camera system and once I started working in that, I couldn’t imagine myself going back and shooting with the camera that I used before. It just seemed like going back from a car to a bicycle, and I don’t want to ride a bicycle again, so the question is, at what point can I use the kind of imaging that we’re able to do now for a feature film?” From the Rebel Billionaire to the King of the World, James Cameron (fresh off Aliens of the Deep), talks up 3D cinema and his next project, a live-action Battle Angel Alita.
X3, III, & 3 Pulls.
Lots of fanboy trilogy news at ComingSoon today…Famke Janssen talks about the likelihood of Dark Phoenix in X3, word of a likely Episode III cameo breaks, and New Line announces it’ll shoot Books 2 and 3 of His Dark Materials back-to-back should the first one prove a hit. “New Line says the ‘Materials’ trilogy would soar far beyond the $350 million the studio spent on ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy.” It’s good to see New Line continuing to make big gambles on fantasy adaptations, but still…it sounds a bit like the guy who doubles his money on black in Vegas, then goes ahead and throws it all back on the table. Ah well, our gain, I suppose.
Terror Moms and Soccer Dads.
Scuttling online today is new trailer for The Ring Two, and it looks like it has the potential to be as unsettling as its predecessor (particularly if it foregos the Nancy Drewisms that marred the middle hour of the first one.) Also, soccer coach Will Ferrell has no use for kids, creepy or otherwise, not following the game plan in the trailer for Kicking & Screaming.
Hans Gruber, Paranoid Android.
More stellar news from the Hitchhiker’s camp: Alan Rickman will voice Marvin. By Grabthar’s hammer, that’s pitch-perfect casting. (Also, BBC star Bill Bailey will voice the whale…no word on who’s playing the flowerpot.)
Shambling to the polls.
By way of Quiddity, Film Threat examines the uncanny correlation between Republican administrations and excellent zombie movies. You do the math. (Adding fuel to the fire, the new Romero, Land of the Dead, is set for October 21.)
Blue (and Red) Crush.
In the fanboy casting department, Kate Bosworth is set to play Lois Lane in Bryan Singer’s forthcoming Superman, while Natalie Portman purportedly joins V for Vendetta. Bosworth doesn’t scream Lois to me, but she’s talented (and, obviously a looker) and I’m sure she’ll do well. As for V, I could see it going either way at this point, although I do like the teaser poster (at right). Update: Regarding Superman, it’s official: Spacey is Lex.
Quit while you’re a head.
Also up today, some highly spoilerish Episode III images (and a very naughty ESB-era Chewbacca.) Hey, Zaphod, if you’re not using that second head, can Chris Lee borrow it? Update: Elsewhere in Star Wars news, The Force.Net gets their hands on the forthcoming Ep. III Vanity Fair cover, with everyone from Jar Jar to Billy Dee Williams featured.
Arthur’s Amigos.
From the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying “Beware of The Leopard,” Dark Horizons manages to procure the first two publicity stills from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. From left to right we have Zaphod (1-headed Sam Rockwell), Trillian (Zooey Deschanel), Marvin (Warwick Davis, with terrible pain in all the diodes down his left side), and Ford (Mos Def)…In case you were wondering, Arthur (Martin Freeman) is in the other one.
House of Cards.
It’s clear early on in House of Flying Daggers that Zhang isn’t shooting for anything with the ambition and gravitas of Hero…Instead, we’ve got a plot strung together with a number of genre cliches, most notably the “deep” undercover cop (Takeshi Kaneshiro) questioning his motivation and the sixth-sense-laden blind girl (Zhang Zi Yi, lovely as always) who improbably kicks more ass than Rutger Hauer in Blind Fury. Hey, genre exercises are cool…let’s get to the fighting. Alas, there seemed to be a lot of filler between the action setpieces, and I found myself hoping through several unmemorable meet-cute scenes that more low-level flunky guards would show up and be efficiently dispatched.
With that in mind, I know it’s a little late to be complaining about the realism of kung-fu sequences. But the fights in House of Flying Daggers are so stylized and farfetched that I didn’t find them all that engaging — there was no real sense of danger to be had. In Crouching Tiger, Hero and countless lesser kung-fu films, I never found myself thinking so much about the logistics of what’s going on, but Daggers seems to beg questions like, “Where are these tree-flying policemen obtaining their inexhaustible supply of bamboo spears?” and “How straight and true could you throw a dagger if gravity was of absolutely no consequence?” Perhaps it’s unfair to call out this House for its fantastical fight sequences, but for one reason or another my disbelief was suspended less than usual.
At any rate, not to give the whole game away, but the movie does eventually contain some unexpected twists in the middle going. That being said, the denouement of the film also suffers from one of the most egregious dead-“not dead” reverses I’ve seen in recent memory. If martial arts films are your bag, then you’ll probably find House of Flying Daggers an operatic tale of love, passion, and betrayal. But, as for me, I kinda wish these two young lovers had spent less time being smitten and more time smoting.
