Resistance Forms Against Hollywood’s 3-D Push
Source: nytimes.com
LOS ANGELES — A joke making the rounds online involves a pair of red and green glasses and some blurry letters that say, “If you can’t make it good, make it 3-D.”
The fans of flat film have a motto. But do they have a movement?
While Hollywood rushes dozens of 3-D movies to the screen — nearly 60 are planned in the next two years, including “Saw 3D” and “Mars Needs Moms!” — a rebellion among some filmmakers and viewers has been complicating the industry’s jump into the third dimension.
It’s hard to measure the audience resistance — online complaints don’t mean much when crowds are paying the premium 3-D prices. But filmmakers are another matter, and their attitudes may tell whether Hollywood’s 3-D leap is about to hit a wall.
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MGM Developing ‘The Outer Limits’ for Film
Source: screen rant
After receiving a sixth extension from creditors, MGM has curiously announced production on a film adaptation of the popular 1960s sci-fi TV show, The Outer Limits.
While MGM continues to sort out its plans for restructuring, the company has been forced to put a number of major projects on hold, including the new James Bond film and The Hobbit.
It would appear, however, that even amid all of its financial chaos, MGM has not given up on the movie-making business – because MGM is currently developing a feature-length adaptation of the landmark 1960s sci-fi series The Outer Limits.
According to a Variety report, MGM has hired Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan to write the script. The writing pair has previously worked together on the Saw franchise, scripting parts four through seven (aka the upcoming Saw 3D).
On the off chance that you’ve never heard of The Outer Limits, it was a science-fiction show written from 1963 to 1965. In some respects, The Outer Limits was a little brother to the more well-known and popular sci-fi TV series, The Twilight Zone, which ran from 1959 to 1964. In the decades since it aired, The Outer Limits has been recognized as a major influence on modern science-fiction and was even revived for an impressive seven season run on Showtime and then Syfy.
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Interview: M Night Shyamalan
Source: shadowlocked.com
The Last Airbender director M. Night Shyamalan discusses martial arts, changing a beloved source and the pressure of early success…
The film’s very different from your previous work, without twists or horror – what was the attraction to adapting The Last Airbender?
Most of my movies are connected to some childhood point of view and the moment we let go of some kind of belief system and become adults. What drew me to this particular movie was the Hayao Miyazaki influence, which was huge for me, and martial arts. There are two types of movie that were my guilty pleasures when I was a kid – horror movies and martial arts movies. I got to do my version of scarier movies and I’ve started to think about martial arts again. It’s interesting, as it’s something you learn so that you never have to use it and the philosophies that are involved mean it’s a great medium for entertaining but also talking about deeper things. The opera of The Last Airbender was something that interested me too, I think you can feel it become more operatic in the third act. If we get the opportunity to make 2 and 3, that’s what I want the language to be.
With your love of martial arts movies, could The Last Airbender be seen as an homage to Bruce Lee heroes?
In my office, I have a statue of Michael Jordan and a statue of Bruce Lee, in an action pose. Bruce Lee is like a god to me. He brought philosophy, he changed the game, he learned different forms and blended them and caused a lot of reactions. I like to think of my movies as blending genres and I like learning each thing and finding a new form of it, his philosophies were incredible. I referenced it with [lead actor] Noah [Ringer] a lot about how Bruce would show intelligence in his movements and listen to what was behind him – you could tell he was aware of seven or eight people behind him. One scene, with [Waterbender] Pakku with the water-whips was a straight homage to Enter the Dragon.
The Last Airbender has a strong fan-base from its TV success so you’re going to get lots of strong reactions to the film, some positive, some negative – how do you react to negative opinions?
Ultimately, it was the source material that really spoke to me – I was a fan of the show, it’s not like I was hired to do it. The influences – the Miyazaki, the martial arts, the Shakespearean back story for the royal family – all these things that became part of the language as the show progressed over the three years. When it started it was very young and had a completely different tonality but it evolved and in many ways, it didn’t quite fit the network. It was successful but shows like Dora the Explorer blow it away in terms of ratings – this is not a runaway ratings show, it was a cult following. With the movie, 85 per cent of the audience that’s going to see are going to be fresh [to The Last Airbender] and I’d love them to see the movie and then go back and watch the show and see how we evolved from that.
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Repertoire Of Horrors: The Films Of Roger Corman
Source: npr.org
Roger Corman — often referred to as the “King of the B Movie” — is something of a Hollywood legend, famous for making low-budget cult horror films like Piranha and Little Shop of Horrors. But Corman has also mentored many now-famous directors — including Martin Scorsese, James Cameron and Ron Howard — and employed many a star before they made it big. (He worked with Sylvester Stallone in Death Race 2000, released the year before Rocky.)
This year, Corman’s films are being re-released on DVD, one a month or so as part of the “Roger Corman’s Cult Classics” series. Ultimately, 50 titles will be released.
Corman, who has directed more than 50 movies and produced around 350, started to find success with “creature features” pretty early on in his career. In many cases, he would just come up with a title before fleshing out his ideas. His 1957 movie Attack of the Crab Monsters was just one example.
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