2011. Dir: Steven Spielberg . Starring: Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. ●●●●○
Unsurprisingly Steven Spielberg latest big budget roller coaster has conquered the box office across Europe, including a record breaking haul (non-sequel American movie) in France. Unsurprising not because of Spielberg, or for the cult cast list, or for the motion capture 3D presentation, but because The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn are based on one of the most successful cartoon characters of all time with over 350 million copies of his adventures sold - translated into 80 languages. I was a fan as a child, regularly borrowing the books from my local library, even using copies in it's native French to help me learn the language as a teenager, so it was with some trepidation that I went to see the adaptation, fearing the emotional connection to my youth would force me to find fault. Luckily the British trio of screenwriters, Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish, are able to transfer the flow and meaning of the comics to the screen, unfortunately whilst this makes for a delightfully quick romp it also highlights the flaws of the comic book medium.
Based on a mixture from Herge's stories we follow Tintin (Jamie Bell) as he gets entangled with the mysterious Unicorn, a 17th century Naval vessel that was lost with all hands and a priceless pirates booty, and it's replica models. The trail leads him across oceans, deserts and his own countryside (I assume this adaptation moves him from Belgium to the UK as he pays in pounds), encountering favourite characters from the books like the irrepressible drunk Captain Haddock (Serkis), the dubious detectives Thom(p)son twins (Pegg and Frost) and the Milanese Nightingale Bianca Castafiore (Kim Stengel, virtually the only female character in the cast), all the while accompanied by his faithful terrier Snowy, and chased by villainous emigre Ivanovich Sakharine (Daniel Craig).
The titular reporter has to be the unluckiest man/boy (his indeterminate age and social background aren't cleared up in this film) as not five minutes have gone by before a panting American is shot on his doorstep and his flat is ransacked, even crossing the road turns a hitherto peacefully foggy road into speed trials. This relentless action, taken it's cues from the books aim to always end a page on a cliffhanger, keeps the movie moving on at an exciting pace, but robs each sequence of it's threat. When a rottweiler gives chase to Tintin in the early scenes you already feel it won't be long before a deus ex machina comes along rescuing him from certain doom. Of course we know before the opening credits that Tintin's safe as houses, but a little more tension might have been appreciated.
This over-reliance on action also comes at the expense of character depth, I admit the lead has always been a bit of a cypher but surely the relationship between him and Haddock (or even Snowy) could have been drawn out with dialogue, rather then the furious intercutting of the Unicorn's potted history.
Of course there are moments where the action is delightfully appropriate, and fully justifies the otherwise unnecessary motion capture technology, especially the Moroccan chase sequence, shot a in a single take it's Heath Robinson complexity has our heroes (starting in a motorcycle and sidecar) follow the dastardly Sakharine and his trained hawk down the slopes to the port whilst a raging torrent of reservoir is released behind them. It's visually stunning, edge of the seat stuff that simply could not be filmed with any amount of stunt work or computer effects.
Andrew L. Jones' art direction, seemingly a tautology when the sets are created in a computer, captures the between the wars aesthetic and character designs, all noses and chins, are cleverly reworked from the simple drawing they're derived from. Odd flashes of dead eyes and over-realistic body parts (why was I distracted by arm hair at one point?) probably argue against the technology though.
And yet, and yet... In spite of all these complaints whilst I watched the film I thoroughly enjoyed it. The plot may be bobbins, the motion capture still not perfected, the action over-stuffed and the comedy painfully unfunny, but so were the comics and I sat there transfixed, captivated by the pure joy of the film, the chance to converse with my inner six year old. And not only was I mesmerised so was every child in my screening, that sat with wide eyed wonder, gleefully accepting every twist and turn, agog at the colour and speed of the images, unaware this is a pale imitation of Spielberg's earlier exploits with 1930's adventurers. They enjoyed it for what it was, and so did I, and so will you.
Thursday, 3 November 2011
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
Saturday, 18 June 2011
Toy Stories (Film News - 18/06/11)
It's been a bumper week for film news, with an extraordinary selection of stories catching my eye, even if some of them appear to be less likely than me winning the lottery this evening. Actually mainly what we've seen this week are stories concerning directors who just can't seem to make their minds up about the next excuse to get behind the camera. In fact for the various big name helmers I'm going to mention this week there are at least 20 projects they've been "attached" to so far this year and given they can't possibly make all of them it seems unlikely that any will be made. Once again we're facing the fact that the Internet will eat itself in it's desperate attempt to create and sustain news feeds. Like a sucker though I just carry on reading and digesting everything for just the slightest indication of what's coming up. So to mix it up this week I'm going to be labeling the projects I've read about against their potential auteurs (although given the range of some of the titles I think we can safely say the director is not the author of the film when it is a studio picture) rather than the titles.
Robert Zemeckis
Having seen his Yellow Submarine remake sank Zemeckis appeared to be going into live action movie making again with Flight with Denzel Washington just having gone into pre-production. However he's now been attached to Major Matt Mason, a 3D extravaganza based on the 1960's Mattel action figure with Tom Hanks in the lead role. Side note, given Hanks's long time association with a different kind of toy do you think he's doing this as a way of competing with Buzz Lightyear?
The action figure's (see below for his lifelike limbs) story was surprisingly complex, given it was a standalone product, with several different coloured suits for his assistants in space and a giant foe who proved to be more help than hindrance against more hostile aliens. 
Of course the toys must have had a large, albeit unsung, cultural influence. They were released around the same time as the original "Star Trek" series and with them popularised the idea of colonization of space by a future collective of humans able to put former nationalistic ideas of Earth to one side. Although these days it will probably feel too much like a throwback, the plot could be a retread of Star Trek only for a much younger audience with elements of John Carter of Mars thrown in for good measure, so it might struggle to build up it's own identity in a crowded genre field. I also suspect the trend for 3D presentations will be well and truly dead by the time the film is made.
Read on for more debunking of the auteur theory, the latest casting gossip and my reaction to the latest group of actors inducted into AMPAS.
Ben Affleck
Currently in pre-production for his CIA mission movie Argo, including chucklesome plans to lock the actors up for a couple of weeks together to give them an idea of what's it's like being in captivity, Affleck has also been named as the go to guy for the American remake of French thriller Tell No One (see poster, left). Going back to Harlen Coben's source novel, itself American, the story focuses on a doctor who begins to suspect his wife is still alive several years after her murder at the hands of a known serial killer. The French version, written and directed by Guillaume Canet, was a huge success in both Europe and the States so any remake will have to work very hard to survive the inevitable comparisons.
Ethan and Joel Coen
At the opening of the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center earlier this week the Coen brothers and Noah Baumbach were discussing film openings in front of an invited audience when a small clue about the Coen's next project was revealed, in that it involves music but little playback (the comments were in response to a question about their dislike of the cumbersome process of playback recording). Of course without anything else we're completely in the dark, although it's worth noting earlier this year they said one of their potential projects was a mockumentary - or rather a fake documentary in that it won't be openly comedic. Could that be focused on a musician?
Catherine Hardwicke
I hope she's liking her wounds following my scathing review of Red Riding Hood (unlikely I know, and in the picture on the right she's still smiling so I guess Catherine hadn't heard my views then) and hopefully she's taking my advice about returning to pubescent girls for the subject of her next movie. Regardless of whether she is it's still what she's going to do with the announcement of a Scandinavian set crazy, raw and gritty true story of which more will be announced over the next few weeks (hang on why didn't I wait for that...)
Sean Penn
The only name here is isn't pimping himself out to the highest bidder is actor and sometime director Sean Penn, who doesn't go behind the camera often but when he does it's a fascinating thing. This week we've been asking whether he's going to take on the Art Linson script The Comedian which has already grabbed the attention of Robert De Niro. The project was originally intended for Martin Scorsese but it looks like he's passed leaving Sean Penn free to pick it up, if so this seems like a unlikely but hopefully fruitful combination of talent involved.
David O. Russell
I wish this guy would just make up his mind over what he wants to do. So far this year he's been linked to Cocaine Cowboys, Fighter 2, Joe, Politics and Pasta, Silver linings Playbook (currently in pre-production), Uncharted: Drake's Progress (which he's ruled himself out of) and a Russ Meyer Biopic. Not to mention his Nailed which is languishing in post-production vaults waiting for the money to finish the cut. So imagine my surprise to see two more projects land on his desk including Disney's Cinderella spin-off Maleficent (surely not what someone like Russell should be concentrating on) and The Mission which may be about the rescue of 15 FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia, left) hostages in Columbia in 2007 by cross-national agencies working together and certainly will be produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura.
Steven Spielberg
I've been keeping the two I least suspect of making it to multiplexes under the directors I've attached them to until last - it's not just because it's his name last alphabetically - which stems from the difficulties in separating Spielberg the producer from Spielberg the director. Anyway over the last few days there have been stories in connection to Jurassic Park 4 and Transformers 4 both of which could have the beard in control, and both of which would be interesting to see, but I suspect a less-assured name will be found soon to take over both projects.
Casting News
Plenty of exciting stuff going on in the casting couches of Hollywood including Darren Aronofsky courting Christian Bale as the lead in his Noah's Ark picture and the curious news that Annette Bening has signed onto to He Loves Me, the writers block movie from Valarie Faris and Jonathan Dayton, the directing duo behind Little Miss Sunshine, which explains why she's dropped from Rob Reiner's similarly themed movie. Elesewhere Ed Harris has signed on to World War Z, Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin are circling Jason Reitman's Labor Day and John Hurt and Kevin Bacon will be passing through Jayne Mansfield's Car. Finally there's been the surprise sighting of Liam Neeson on the set of Dark Knight Rises in the costume of Ra's Al Ghul, the character he played right up until he drove a train off it's tracks in Batman Begins, so of course the fans on the net have been trying to figure out how that will affect the plot (and how he got out of the predicament). Personally I suspect the truth is less exciting, we already know Josh Pence is playing Ra's in flashbacks, surely it's not to difficult to make the leap to more recent flashbacks with Neeson in the role? 
How they know Neeson was in costume confuses me as he wore a variety of clothes in the first film, maybe he's dressed for a fight like in this picture.
AMPAS
Another year and another cohort of inductees find themselves offered membership into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. As ever it's a fascinating list that says as much about the Academy as it does about those invited. In terms of the actors (I'll be honest it's the group I'm most interested in) there's been 27 performers who've received invitations, up 7 on last year, with a large number of younger members whose tastes are hopefully more hip and in touch with public tastes than the older conservative members. None of those invited this year have riled me as much as Ryan Reynolds and Seth Rogen did over the last couple of years, although you do have to question the wisdom of letting Russell Brand and John Corbett identify quality movies. Anyway here is the full list of actors and the films that probably formed part of the reason for their invitation, in order that I think they deserve that honour.
John Hawkes - Winter's Bone; American Gangster; Miracle at St. Anna; Miami Vice; Identity; Perfect Storm; Flesh and Bone
Jesse Eisenberg - Social Network; Cursed; Village; Emperor's Club
Ellen Page - Juno; Inception
Jacki Weaver - Animal Kingdom; Picnic at Hanging Rock
Jennifer Lawrence - Winter's Bone;
Vincent Cassel - Black Swan; Eastern Promises; Elizabeth; Ocean's Thirteen; Ocean's Twelve; Jefferson in Paris
Anthony Mackie - Hurt Locker; Half Nelson; Million Dollar Baby; She Hate Me; Manchurian Candidate; 8 Mile
Lesley Manville - Vera Drake; Secrets and Lies; Another Year; Christmas Carol; All or Nothing; Topsy-Turvy; High Hopes; Sammy and Rosie Get Laid; Dance with a Stranger
Jennifer Garner - Juno; Catch Me if You Can; Valentine's Day; Deconstructing Harry
Rosemarie DeWitt - Rachel Getting Married; Cinderella Man;
Robbie Coltrane - Mona Lisa; Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; Ocean's Twelve; World is not Enough; Message in a Bottle; Nuns on the Run; Henry V; Revolution; Loose Connections; Krull; Britannia Hospital; Death Watch
David Duchovny - Chaplin; Full Frontal; Zoolander; Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead; Bad Influence; Working Girl
Gerard Butler - Mrs Brown; Game of Their Lives; Phantom of the Opera; Timeline; Cherry Orchard
Connie Nielsen - Gladiator; Return to Sender; Hunted; Mission to Mars; Devil's Advocate
Wes Studi - Dances with Wolves; Avatar; Heat; Last of the Mohicans; Doors
Dominic Monaghan - Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring; The Two Towers; The Return of the King
Mia Wasikowska - Kids are All Right; Alice in Wonderland; Defiance
Beyonce Knowles - Dreamgirls; Fighting Temptations
Mila Kunis - Black Swan;
Rooney Mara - Social Network;
Natassja Kinski - Inland Empire; One Night Stand; Crystal or Ash, Fire or Wind, As long as it's Love; Revolution; Maria's Lovers; Hotel Blue Hampshire; Unfaithfully Yours; Cat People; One from the Heart; Tess
Tea Leoni - Spanglish; Hollywood Ending; Flirting with Disaster; Wyatt Earp; League of Their Own; Switch
Thomas Jane - Killshot; Mist; Dreamcatcher; Magnolia; Boogie Nights
Peter Dinklage - Death at a Funeral; Find Me Guilty; Station Agent; Human Nature
Bradley Cooper - Valentine's Day; New York I Love You
Russell Brand - Tempest
John Corbett - Raising Helen
The other Academy news story this week was the twist in the number of films the Academy will nominate for best picture this year, it will now be a variable figure between 5 and 10 based on the number of films getting over 5% of the vote for the best films. It's an odd way of doing things, but it sure will make the announcement of the nominations more exciting.
Yes, this man, holding his hand out to the Academy in the dreadful Sex and the City 2 now has more of a say about what the best films of the year are than you do, reader.
Saturday, 22 January 2011
20 for 2011: 7 - War Horse and The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
I'm cheating here at number 7 and calling it a draw between The Adventures of Tintin and War Horse, it's a Steven Spielberg double bill.
It's not the first time Spielberg has released two films in the same year, in 2005 we had War of the Worlds and Munich, in 1993 it was Jurassic Park and Schindler's List and similar pairings happened in 1989, 1997 and 2002. In each case there was a popcorn film and one with more personal themes. This year looks set to be the same with Tintin pushing the boundaries of motion capture and the adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's horse and his boy novel.
All in all I think we can expect to see Steven both reaching the top of the box office charts as well as critics top tens in the coming year.
Saturday, 8 May 2010
Film News (08/05/2010)
I can't say that I spent much of this week looking at the news, what with the election on my mind I have been somewhat preoccupied. These four stories did jump out at me though.
Peace, Love and Misunderstanding
When Jane Fonda came out of retirement in 2005 we all drew collective breaths in awe of her talent, and looked forward to the fantastic projects she would have needed to bring her out. Unfortunately she made the funny enough Monster-in-Law followed by the very pedestrian Georgia Rule. Hopefully her next film will be an improvement, even if it is a Georgia in reverse as workaholic conservative Catherine Keener goes back to her mother tree-hugging Fonda to recover from a messy divorce. Admittedly this synopsis sound like utter garbage - it goes on to say they find love in extraordinary places - but that sort of combined talent can't be ignored.
Read on for twitching, ghost stories and an extraordinary horse.
The Big Year
When this birdwatching comedy first came to my attention (through production news in March) I clearly stated that it may have one of the least interesting casts of all time with Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson as competitive twichers. However since then there have been some developments with a supporting cast now in place including Anjelica Huston, Dianne Wiest, Rosamund Pike and Tim Blake Nelson. All of which is beginning to turn me. Still one to look out for. Like the guys on the left are doing.
The Skin I live in
Pedro Almodovar has annouced his next project, and it reunited him with his Tie Me Up, Tie me Down star Antonio Banderas. Strangely though, it's said to be a kind of horror movie, with Banderas playing a plastic surgeon who enacts a terrible revenge on his daughter's rapists - a more continental version of the Last House on the Left, if you will. Can't wait to see what Almovar does with a torture scene!
War Horse
You are fully entitled to take this story with a big pinch of salt, but apparently Steven Spielberg has decided his next film to direct will be the big screen adaptation of War Horse. (Not Interstellar or Pirates Latitude or Indiana Jones 5 or 39 Clues or Harvey or Matt Helm or the biopics of Abraham Lincoln or George Gershwin or Martin Luther King.) Adapted from the original children's story by Michael Morpurgo and not the hit play version which has a puppet horse (see below) the tale revolves around a pit pony that's sent to the front during the First World War. Expect Spielberg to try to make you cry.
Saturday, 6 February 2010
Film News (06/02/10)
You may or may not have heard but the biggest story of the week is the Oscar nominations. I don't want to retread my post on Wednesday, but I was thinking about the new voters, the latest inductees to the Academy and how they voted. What do you suppose Brendan Gleeson, Eddie Marsan, Jeffrey Wright, James Franco, Emily Blunt, Emile Hirsch, James McAvoy, Jane Lynch, Michael Cera, Paul Rudd, Hugh Jackman or Seth Rogen had at the top of their voting form? Humourous answers on a postcard to...
Away from that there's hasn't been much in the news, only a couple of small stories to get your teeth into, as well as some potentially interesting international production news.
Zachary Quinto, stardom and the George Gershwin Biopic
First up is the frankly bizarre news from Zachary Quinto that he may be ready to move on from the reinvigorated Star Trek franchise. I'll confess I haven't seen the latest installment, but from what I hear whilst Quinto was best of the best parts in it what Star Trek mostly proved was that this was a character based franchise and not actor based - losing William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelly didn't destroy the ratings, so there won't be much worry about the Heroes star moving on. However, I doubt it's a good idea for him. Does this look like he can't commit to long term projects? Or will it mean he retains more integrity than his Enterprise co-stars?
The project he appears to be moving on to is a Steven Spielberg helmed biopic of George Gershwin. Gershwin was a composer and musician, from Russian emigre heritage, who made a name for himself in the early Hollywood musicals of the 1930's and by sucessfully blending classical and jazz influences and appealing to both markets. His most famous works include "Rhapsody in Blue" and "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess. Both of which has a prominant place in public conciousness. He also died tragically of a brain tumour, aged just 38. It's a baity role with a known director wso perhaps it's the right choice.
This is a famed caricature of George (right) with brother Ira Gershwin. Do you think Quinto could manage that look? And who would you cast as Ira?
Go past the link for the worst news you will read all week, and a pleasant surprise from Sweden.
The Lucky One
The cinematic rush to adapt the works of Nicholas Sparks continues unabated with the revelations that The Lucky One will be the next book to see the inside of cinemas. That in itself is not too bad, Sparks may be unashamedly romantic with The Notebook and A Walk to Remember being classic three hanky films and Dear John, which opened in the US yesterday appears to be getting solid reviews. The bad news is they've managed to find the worst possible person to direct it. Step forward Scott Hicks (The Boys are Back) who will no doubt attempt to wring every ouce of dramatic tension out of this story about a soldier who cheats death thanks to a photo of a beautiful girl he's never met.
Production News
And finally (I told you it was a quiet news week) I thought I'd start a new section on production news, which essentially will be tying up the fantastic rumours that we've covered with imdb's Production status. If a film moves into pre-production then I'll let you know. It's my way of keeping track of hat's coming - "Pre-production" being a much closer step to relaity that "annouced". Of course the film may never materialise. Until we see it opening weekend then there is no guarantee that the film will ever be released, but I like to think that this is a good sign.
Now most of the films which have entered the pre-production phase are pretty obvious big budget behemoths:
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides: last got a mention in Runs-like-a-Gay back in August. Avctually they'd better get a move on with this, as it's due to come out in May 2011 and I can't imagine it'll be a simple post-production process...
The Next Batman sequel is also rumbling on, but with no villian casting news I guess it's still a long way away. This was last discussed in July.
As was Yellow Submarine, the Robert Zemeckis motion capture remake of The Beatles' oddball animation.
Bond 23, Hanna, The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Your Cheating Heart have all been in the news during January. (The last is the Ron Howard/Vince Vaughn collaboration.)
On the other hand I found out about Swedish picture Domen över död man purely by accident. I know nothing about it whatsoever - not even a plot description (although Domen means judgement and Dod means dead so taht may be an indication), however it's being directed by Jan Troell, the man behind Maria Larsson's Everlasting Moments (pictured below) and as that was one of my favourite films from 2009 I'm fairly confident in his next project.
Saturday, 23 January 2010
Film News (23/01/2010)
Slightly less news this week when compared to the overstuffed article we had last week. Still there's a fair selection of stories. We'll start with the most intriguing and move on to the good guys after the jump.
Maleficent
Tim Burton's clearly enjoyed his reunion with Disney on Alice in Wonderland, so much so he's started work on a Sleeping Beauty re-imagining from the view of poisoned spinning wheel providing Maleficent. Oddly I can't remember having seen Sleeping Beauty as a boy, although obviously i know the story, so I don't have the original as a point of reference but the idea of a Grimm fairytale with the villian as the centre is quite delicious. 
Obviously Helena Bonham Carter will up for the lead, but let's hope some non-Burton regulars get a chance.
Read on for dancing penguins, gun toting vicars, civil rights leaders and something suicidally depressing.
Gods of Carnage
In Roman Polanski news this week both sides of the abuse scandal have been digging in their heels. On the prosecution U.S. Courts have declined Polanski's request to be sentenced in absentia - probably indicating they want to lock him up. On the defence his wife has been letting on about Polanski's plans to film Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage. The play has had tremendous success in it's native Zurich as well as the West End and Broadway picking up a few Tonys on the way. It's a four hander about two well educated wealthy couples fighting about their children (among many other things) during one dinner party. Polanski has done well with small casts before (see Death and the Maiden) so this could be oe to watch, assuming he gets the chance to do it.
Happy Feet 2
The original Happy Feet was surprisingly adult for a cartoon, with some very realistic elements of how the animal kingdom is full of a violent struggle to survive and the effects of global warming on extreme environments. I doubt the sequel will be quite as viscereal but at least it's bagging an interesting cast. This week Brad Pitt and Matt Damon both signed on. I don't know if they'll be dancing penguins, but I'll let you know when I know.
Labor Day
During an interview with ESPN's Bill Simmons Jason Reitman has mentioned a number of porjects he's currently working on, including both a football and a hockey film, but coming next will be Labor Day, based on the novel by Joyce Maynard. It's a coming of age tale about a boy who struggles to connect with either his peer group or his family, especially his mother who is harbouring a deep secret. Juno proves Reitman has form with this age group, and the virtually agoraphobic mother could be a juicy role for any actresses of a certain age.
Machine Gun Preacher
Gerard Butler would like to remind us all that he can act. (Looking at his back-catalogue of drab rom-coms and mindless action you'd be forgiven for thinking he can't.) He will do this by starring in the biopic of Reverend Sam Childers (left), the drug-taking biker who found God then moved to Sudan to help protect orphans from Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army; which he has done by forming a civilian militia. Whilst I suspect there's a powerful and interesting story to tell in Childers' life I very much doubt that Butler and the baggage he carries with him is the best way to tell it.
Martin Luther King Biopic
Steven Spielberg's untitled Martin Luther King biopic (he's definitely producing but no confirmed director is attached) is moving on following the hiring of Ronald Harwood to script with unlimited access to the estate. South African Harwood has a fascinating and quality pedigree including The Pianist, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and The Browning Version so expect some high quality scribbling.
Ang Lee and James Schamus project
Lee and Schamus have collaborated on a number of projects over the years including The Ice Storm, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and last years Taking Woodstock, so it was good to hear in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter this week that Schamus is already working on thier next script together. Although he has curiously described it as "the good old, tragic, suicidally depressing Ang!" Which presumably means less of this:
and more of this:
