by Liam at filmonic: How The Lovely Bones went after the Twilight audience
Variety has posted an interesting article looking at the marketing and release of Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones. The film was pushed back to December from it’s original release date in March 2009, which was supposed to give Peter Jackson time to finish and improve the visual effects. It would also mean the film would be released in time for the awards season we are currently in now.
Paramount thought the film would appeal to adults, and could potentially be Oscar bait. After all, the film tells the story of a raped and murdered 14-year-old girl who watches over her family as they mourn and try to find her killer.
However, after test screenings Paramount found that adults weren’t responding to the film, then when The Lovely Bones was given a limited release in December it performed poorly. This caused Paramount to re-think how they marketed the film.
Read More here
Carol Kaesuk Yoon at the New York Times: Luminous 3-D Jungle Is a Biologist’s Dream
When watching a Hollywood movie that has robed itself in the themes and paraphernalia of science, a scientist expects to feel anything from annoyance to infuriation at facts misconstrued or processes misrepresented. What a scientist does not expect is to enter into a state of ecstatic wonderment, to have the urge to leap up and shout: “Yes! That’s exactly what it’s like!”
So it is time for all the biologists who have not yet done so to shut their laptops and run from their laboratories directly to the movie theaters, put on 3-D glasses and watch the film “Avatar.” In fact, anyone who loves a biologist or may want to be one, or better yet, anyone who hates a biologist — and certainly everyone who has ever sneered at a tree-hugger — should do the same. Because the director James Cameron’s otherworldly tale of romance and battle, aliens and armadas, has somehow managed to do what no other film has done. It has recreated what is the heart of biology: the naked, heart-stopping wonder of really seeing the living world.
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from Ain’t it Cool News: What is the next Tim Burton Fairy Tale Twist for Disney?
It seems that Tim has a hankering for SLEEPING BEAUTY… but not really… You see, he’s going to tell the story from Maleficent’s point of view. In fact, it’ll be called MALEFICENT.
She was always the most interesting character in that story, but we never knew why she hated those three little fairy wenches… or what indignity she suffered at the hands of Aurora’s parents. Yeah, I’m on board… if only it ends with Maleficent with a sword in her heart in dragon form. Cuz that’ll rule. Think about how long this plotline was carried out over. She has quite a tale to tell. Let’s see where it pops up in Burton’s filmography.
Read More here
I’d love to see a Maleficent movie. It sounds like Wicked. Of course, if someone did a fairy tale based on the original story, not the Disney version, it could be pretty violent. Especially Sleeping Beauty or Snow White. And I still have not seen Avatar and it’s driving me crazy! Next week, I swear…And my mom wants to see The Lovely Bones, so I’m surprised that it didn’t do well with adults. Especially considering the book was good. But maybe that’s why-if it’s not true to the book.
What did you think of the special effects in Avatar? Would you go see a Sleeping Beauty remake?
