Youthful filmmakers Benjamin Chee and Elvin Siew have created a short, daikaiju-inspired animated film — and it deserves to be noticed.
Stylistically unique, with beautiful colouring and a wonderful sense of humour, Zevastator GORGAROJ draws for its inspiration on Son of Godzilla and deals with issues in parenting that arise from the pair’s own experience. As Benjamin explained:
We are animation students at the LASALLE College of the Arts [in Singapore] and we made this film in collaboration as our graduating film. I am a Malaysian studying abroad in Singapore, whereas Elvin is local. The theme of this film is quite close to our hearts because as “art students”, we are not quite fitting the normal expectations of our Asian parents in a schooling environment revolving around exam grades and results.
Zevastator GORGAROJ‘s daikaiju are strange ape-like creatures with a reptilian ambiance — a father and his son, the latter of whom fails to take serious notice of his father’s city-destroying ambitions for him.
We made this film as an observation on the current Singaporean situation of child rearing, where parents hot-house their child by pushing him through the numerous “enrichment classes” in order to prepare and give him a head start in future and hasten the reaching of his potential.
So in searching of ways to reflect that, we came to ask ourselves what kind of parent would a 50-foot monster be? And from there we spin a story of a giant monster who wants to train his son to be the next great destroyer, but alas the son was less than interested in his father’s dreams.
Concept art: (above) the father and (below) the son
Interestingly, as Benjamin explains on his blog, the film grew from a non-monster story about ambitious parents pushing too hard to make their children become high achievers.
After a week of concepting, we decided to throw in a twist and add some spice. So, instead of a Singaporean dad trying to make his son the next 5-year-old PhD, it became a story of a giant monster teaching his baby to become the next destroyer of worlds (How to Train your Dragon hadn’t come out yet) …
It’s fascinating how often “real world” concepts find their true strength once a fantastical element is added. The wry and powerful UK comedy-drama Being Human — which features a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost living together in an attempt to reclaim some of their lost humanity — apparently gelled after creator Toby Whithouse decided to inject the supernatural into his naturalistic script about three people sharing a house, one sex-obsessed, another with anger management issues and a third with agoraphobia. He figured doing so would make it more interesting, and in the process it became stronger and more metaphorically resonant.
The lads have also made a MakingZevastator GORGAROJ video, for those interested in the more technical behind- the-scenes work that goes into creating a 3D animated film. It’s quite fascinating and certainly shows the talent that this pair bring to the task.
The abilities on display here are also evident on the pair’s blogs, where you can see some great concept art, not just for Zevastator GORGAROJ, but for other projects that the boys have had in the past or plan to pursue in the future. Check them out: Benjamin Chee; Elvin Siew. Also here. You’ll find “painterly” renderings of the Zevastator GORGAROJ, such as these by Ciew (click on it to get the full effect):
and this surreal salesman by Chee:
One thing’s for sure: if there’s any justice in the world, these guys will go far.
Check out the gallery below for a few more samples.
Remember The Asylum’s biggest hit ever, the internet sensation Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus (US-2009; dir. Ace Hannah)?
Who can forget it, right? It was a splendid example of a playful, tongue-in-cheek recreation of those extravagant, delightfully absurd giant monster films we enjoy so much — they may not be Art but are crafted to entertain the folk who get the joke. And there are lots of us. Many have been screaming for a sequel. One fan is quoted as saying: “If the Asylum doesn’t do a sequel to Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus, and soon, I’m gonna unleash my giant robot to stomp the lot of ’em into their own celluloid compost bin!”
Well, even though the Asylum on their website are acting dumb on the subject, take a look at this poster, spied by CNN in the Asylum’s booth at the recent Cannes Film Festival, and picked up by Horror-Movies.ca.
Yes, it’s the sequel we’ve all wanted, Mega Shark versus Giganotosaurus — the latter being some sort of over-sized T-Rex from the look of the poster art. [Note: we assume the name, with that Giganotosaurus spelling, means that it isn’t a Gigantosaurus, which is a real paleontological critter that doesn’t look at all like the one on the poster.]
Check out this cool picture of a GIGANTOSAURUS (not a Giganotosaurus) by Vincent Lynch (1862-1935) from Scientific American 1914 (source):
Note: I’m reliably informed by Justin M… that Giganotosaurus is also “a real species of carnivorous dinosaur discovered in 1993 in Patagonia and is the second largest theropod dinosaur after Spinosaurus.” He adds:
Giganotosaurus was featured in Jame’s Gurney’s second Dinotopia book, an episode of the BBC TV-series Primeval, and in the video game Dino Crisis 2.
So it’s already hit the big time!Check Justin’s comment below for the Wikipedia link.
As yet we know nothing about the film (apart from the obvious), but Kaiju Search-Robot Avery is threatening our contacts at the Asylum even as we speak. The big question is, what major bridge will Mega Shark eat this time?
While we’re at it, we noticed this:
“Man’s Most Powerful Weapon Versus the World’s Largest Creature”
Now, you just know a film by the Asylum based on the classic Moby Dick tale isn’t going to relate to the book all that much, but will up the ante on exploitation excess! Moby will be CGI big and wreck a lot of stuff…
It’s reportedly of a camel spider taken in the Middle East. OK, it’s big, though after this picture did the rounds of the internet some spoilsport pointed out how the arachnid is being held close to the camera so that it looks much bigger than it is against the soldiers standing further back. But despite the visual trickery, camel spiders, or solpugids as they are more properly called, are indeed rather large and scary-looking.
Even scarier would be the inevitable horror film version, as mutants, which is how they will appear in Extraction, a new in-development film directed by Tom Martwick. The story concerns a platoon of soldiers in Iraq “that become hosts to a new enemy. In an already unstable region, they must battle against a mutated species of camel spiders and prevent a sinister military cover-up that could backfire.”
IDX Studios has just produced of a teaser of Extraction. It was produced by Milko Davis and Russell Reed, with music and sound by Alvaro Morello.
We’re told that the solpugids get bigger than they appear in the trailer, but not Tarantula-sized! Pity.
Note that the producers are still looking for potential investors in order to complete the film. Contact IDX Studios if you’re interested.
There are a bunch of production pictures in the gallery below.
Source: Milko Davis of IDX Studios, Inc. via Avery Guerra. Article written up by Robert Hood.
Gallery:
Notes from the producer on the pictures: “The dead guy in the truck was made to fit in a burned out truck that we ran across in a junk yard. The prop was made out of toilet paper and latex. The tank was made out of cardboard for about $70 and painted for authenticity. The location of the film was in Colorado and all shots were filmed on farm land with mountains later removed digitally to create the Iraq desert look.
About his short, retro-50s giant monster film, It Came From Beyond the Mountain, director Douglas Bankston commented to UB:
And you’re right — ICFBTM absolutely should be a feature film, but I only found so much loose change under my couch cushions. (I really should start inviting wealthier friends over.)
Synopsis:
Man treads on dangerous ground while trying to tame the atom, but power-mad General D.E. Williams doesn’t care — it’s his last day on the job at Pearl Lake Weapons Range anyway. His reckless detonation of a nuclear bomb unleashes an eight-legged mutation that exacts 1950s, B-movie-style revenge on all who get in its way.
or
A classic! Long thought to have been destroyed in the great vault fire of ’59, a print was discovered during the police raid of a reclusive collector’s home and can now be seen for the first time in 40 years! Teens are terrorized by a giant rampaging spider mutated in a 1950s atomic test gone awry, featuring a mad general, a freight train and a mind-numb… I mean bending… climax that will make your brain turn into some sort of quivering, gelatinous substance.
The epic film was three-and-a-half years in the making — grueling years as Bankston battled “two computer meltdowns, software peculiarities, unforeseen technical difficulties, scheduling disasters, inopportune equipment failures (as opposed to opportune ones), gale-force winds, locusts….”
The result is awesome, as you can see for yourself — because here is the 4:43 min. movie! (Note: I should point out at this juncture that there is also a DVD extended version that runs for 11 minutes.)
It Came From Beyond the Mountain was Official Selection at the 2006 Hollywood Horror , Sci-fi & Fantasy Festival.
Urged to reveal all, Bankston settled for telling us about the VFX:
… the number of effects shots skyrocketed. Because of this, I turned to visual effects artist Erik O’Donnell, whom I met through a friend, to help out … Our first conversation went something like this:
Erik: This movie sounds great! I’d love to help!
Me: Perfect. I’ll get you the footage.
Erik: How many effects shots are there?
Me: Uh…12?
After the number of effects shots reached 40, I had to tackle the remaining effects myself because Erik would pretend he wasn’t home every time I came around.
Fortunately the only giant spider available had a lot more presence on film…
Then there’s the train sequence [which only appears in the extended version], in case you were thinking of trying it yourself, at home:
Somewhere outside of Mojave, I found the perfect location with the perfect background to shoot the miniature freight train. It had to be in the middle of nowhere because the train would be on fire and it was the height of fire season. I didn’t need any witnesses to my pyromania. I had bought a bunch of HO trains and track off eBay, and the morning of the shoot I set up a stretch of about 30 feet of track and wired the power transformer to my Jeep. Everything was ready to shoot. Then in the span of about 10 minutes, the nice, calm morning turned into 40 mph wind. The small HO-gauge train just spun its wheels because the track happened to be facing into the stiff wind – the angle for the perfect background. The background was unacceptable if I ran the train downwind. I compromised and turned the track somewhat. This helped, but the wind, now coming toward the train at an angle, frequently blew the freight cars off the track. There is plenty of footage of me running into frame chasing after tumbling box cars as I curse the stinging sand, the wind, and even God himself. The footage was useless anyway. I had borrowed an Innovision Probe Lens for the day. Apparently, the Innovision’s adapter that attaches the Probe Lens to the XL1S was loose. The wind shook the Probe Lens violently meaning the image was all over the place and off the camera sensor. I returned the lens at the end of the day and pointed out the problem. The adapter was loose because of one tiny screw that could be tightened with a jeweler’s screwdriver. “You almost never have to worry about this,” I was told by the equipment manager as my jaw clenched and my knuckles whitened. I was in the Mojave Desert. In the middle of nowhere. In 40 mph wind. I did not have a jeweler’s screwdriver.
For the re-shoot, I charted the wind conditions for Mojave for over a month. Finally, one day, the wind was calm. I raced back to the location, set up and shot the miniature train. My oil fire idea wasn’t working – or lighting – so at this point in the frustrating game I put flame directly to train.
To put the live-action engineer into the train engine, I basically bought a piece of plywood, cut a square out of it, painted it chroma key green and mounted it between two C-stands, then put a second green piece of plywood behind it. The actor stood between the two pieces. The engineer’s hat flew off when I yanked the black string that was tied to it.
Thanks for the great story — and film, Doug! Hopefully someone will give you the money to do a feature-length version someday…
Source: Douglas Bankston via Kaiju Search-Robot Avery; Production Notes
Undead Backbrain wants to help Canadian author Peter Watts get to this year’s World SF convention!
Why? Read on.
Peter Watts has written some of the best hardcore science fiction available today. On reading his first Rifters novel, Starfish, I became an instant admirer, blown away not simply by the detailed and convincing tech and the compelling story, but by his ability to integrate real science into his fiction without turning the prose to stodge and while allowing vivid characterisation to drive the narrative. His work is dark, technological and grim, yet it is also profoundly humanistic, and thus ultimately a source of light and hope. It is smart and original, rather like the man himself.
As a example, check out Peter’s brilliant take on John Carpenter’s classic SF monster flick, The Thing — entitled “The Things” — a re-telling of the story written from the point-of-view of the alien itself. Unbelievable! It’s available on Clarkesworld here.
Apart from anything else, Starfish and its sequels would make a great movie franchise in their own right. Are you listening, Hollywood? Critics often comment on all the unimaginative SF remakes and sequels that are hitting our cinema screens these days. Why not consider these books for something both new and thrilling?
But I digress.
As you may or may not know, Peter Watts recently found himself at the receiving end of an example of law-enforcement gone berserk. After being bashed by US border guards and spending a fearful six months dealing with the US justice system, Peter was cleared of most charges but found guilty of failing to comply with an order quickly enough — despite the fact that almost everyone concerned considered him the victim in the affair. It’s a scary story for those of us who consider ourselves decent folk who, like Watts, deserve to be protected, not victimised, by our respective governments’ representatives.
The experience drained Peter emotionally and financially. My partner, Australian writer Cat Sparks, wants to help him get to Australia for this year’s World SF Convention, Aussiecon 4, which is being held in Melbourne in September — especially as his story “The Island” has been nominated for a Hugo. I’m certainly right behind her endeavour, for Peter’s sake and my own — hey, I’d love to meet the guy. So listen up and if you’d like to help as well, you’ll learn how you can do so.
Cat writes:
Many of you will be familiar with this story already but for anyone who isn’t:
Last year Canadian marine biologist and science fiction writer Dr Peter Watts underwent a terrifying ordeal at the hands of over zealous border crossing guards in Port Huron, USA. While leaving the United States on December 8, 2009, he was subject to an exit search, then beaten, maced and arrested when he tried to find out what was going on.
A full account of the incident and what was to follow is up on Tor.com.
Or hear him interviewed about his experience, podcast at Starship Sofa.
Even though all he did was fail to promptly comply with border guards’ instructions, he narrowly escaped a prison sentence and is now officially a convicted felon and therefore no longer able to attend US conventions.
Peter’s short story ‘The Island’ from The New Space Opera 2, edited by Gardner Dozois and our own Jonathan Strahan, has been nominated for a Hugo award. What with Worldcon being on Aussie soil in September this year, I thought it would be a good thing if he could fly out here for both the Hugos and Aussiecon itself.
To that end, with Peter’s permission, I’m conducting a raffle to raise money for his airfare and accommodation. First prize is tuckerisation [inclusion of your name] in his next novel State of Grace. Peter says:
“make sure that all entrants realize that their namesakes will most likely come to a really painful and unpleasant end. And they may not be especially cuddly as characters before then…”
The Aussiecon committee has very kindly donated Peter’s membership. The rest is up to us. If you think the guy deserves a break, how about taking part in the raffle or making a donation?
I’ve never met Peter face-to-face but we’ve been email buddies since I sent him a gushing fan letter after reading his first novel Starfish some years back.
He is well-known as an excellent-value panelist and would be a fantastic asset to the ‘hard science fiction’ end of the Con’s literary stream. He has also consented to participate in Dudcon where he will hand out the Ditmars and generally partake of other silliness as required.
To participate in the State of Grace tuckerisation raffle send AUS $10 via Paypal to watts2aussiecon@gmail.com.
Email me privately if you’d prefer to buy a ticket via some other medium: cat [at] catsparks.net.
If you’re not into tuckerisation but would like to sling a few bucks into the pot, that’s awesome, too.
Any funds raised surplus to requirements will be donated to a reputable charity of Peter’s choice.
Feel free to re-post this message on your own blog if you consider this to be a worthy project.
Matinee is an intelligent, moving and under-appreciated comedy directed by Joe Dante in 1993. Set in Key West (just the other side of water from Cuba) at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis (October 1962), it features John Goodman as well-known exploitation producer/promoter, Lawrence Woolsey — who is in all but name a stand-in for gimmick-driven filmmaker/promoter, William Castle. Woolsey has come to Key West for the premiere showing of his latest monster picture, Mant! and Matinee cross-cuts between the real-world crisis and the coming-of-age adventures of monster film-fan Gene Loomis (Simon Fenton) in his quest to meet his idol, creating a poignant sense of the end-of-innocence world of the time and making powerful comment on the connection between the real and the celluloid worlds in which Gene and his mates live.
As part of Matinee! we get to see a preview of the film that Woolsey has come to premiere. Mant! is about a man-ant hybrid created through the misuse of atomic power and is full of the bad science, bad writing, bad gimmicks and stereotypical characters that populated 1950s-1960s exploitation scifi pictures, especially those of William Castle. Dante’s parody of the form is spot on. Here is the preview that we see as part of Matinee:
As this weekend’s Fright Flick Undead Backbrain presents Mant! — all 16 minutes of it, in two parts and in Atomo-Vision!
Yes, it’s an unofficial remake of King Kong, made in Bangladesh and released on 28 May 2010.
Banglar King Kong (Bangladesh-2010; dir. Iftekar Jahan)
Synopsis:
King Kong comes to Bangladesh in search of love, and finds it. (YouTube)
Kong might find love but so does the hero apparently:
Described as “comical action”, the film apparently doesn’t take things too seriously and from the trailer below contains all the singing and dancing and mugging at the camera that we might expect from a Bollywood-style Kong.
[Note: “Bollywood-style” means “in the style of Bollywood movies”. I never said it WAS a Bollywood film. I’m well aware that Bangladesh is not in India and hence not part of the Bollywood filmmaking scene.]
Trailer:
Produced by Sharmin Osman for the government-sponsored FDC (the Bangladesh Film Development Corporation), Banglar King Kong appeared with very little fanfare and apart from the pictures on display here and the trailer, Undead Backbrain’s main source of information is a small press release/article [see it here] — which is rather unfortunate as we don’t speak the Bangla language. However, with the assistance of correspondent Arafat Kazi we have extracted what information from it we could.
Arafat Kazi says that in the press release (or rather an article on the movie from a local newspaper), the director, Iftekar Jahan, “brags about the use of advanced CGI in the movie”.
“He also mentions that the gorilla suit was purchased from America, as were certain software packages used in the production. The movie has been shot in remote Bangladeshi locations (Teknaf, Rangamati, St. Martin and Cox’s Bazaar) and the main actors are: Munmun, Danny Sedak, Shamim Osman, Afzal Sharif and Kazi Hayat.” (Kazi)
A touch of the daikaiju Kong, some Jacksonesque face-scarring, colourful clothes, cross-species romance, song and dance, bananas. Looks like all the elements are there for a good time, eh?
As an addendum here is a rather effective image of Purnima Cinema Hall, Farmgate in Dhaka, where Banglar King Kong was shown, taken from a passing car. Click on it to enlarge. [Source]
It was also shown at ‘Jonaki’ cinema in Paltan.
More pictures in the Gallery at the end of this article.
Post Kong Kongs:
The iconic giant ape — created in 1933 by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, utilising the stop-motion brilliance of the great Willis O’Brien — has had a somewhat checkered career beyond the original classic. Sure there was a major official remake by John Guillermin and Dino De Laurentiis in 1976, where he was played by Rick Baker in a gorilla suit (with a cameo from a very dodgy full-scale animatronic model) and the even more lavish and expensive one by Peter Jackson in 2005 (utilising state-of-the-art CGI), but over time he’s also appeared in less respected form in various countries worldwide.
His international career began early in Japan in 1933 with a short film Wasei Kingu Kongu [lit. Japanese King Kong] (directed by Torajiro Saito) and a few years later in Edo ni arawareta Kingu Kongu [lit. King Kong Appears in Edo] (1938; directed by Sôya Kumagai). These films are lost now, but we do know that Kong was played by a man in a suit and from available stills did pretty much what he did in New York — grabbed the girl and rampaged. Japan took another shot at reviving Kongs film career in 1962 with Kingu Kongu tai Gojira [trans. King Kong vs Godzilla]. Directed by the great Godzilla director Ishiro Honda, this Kong became daikaiju-sized in order to have a chance of standing up to the Big G, and the film was extremely successful in its home country. Unfortunately it was completely mangled in the translation to American screens; Thomas Montgomery’s 1963 re-cut, King Kong vs Godzilla, turned a genuine comedy into a laughable and notorious crap-cinema abomination. In both versions, though, the Kong suit was rather risible.
But there have been quite a few international, low-budget and no doubt unauthorised Kongs over the years, even apart from giant ape movies that don’t use the name. Here are some:
Kingukongu no gyakushu [trans. King Kong’s Counterattack] (1967; dir. Ishiro Honda) [aka King Kong Escapes (1968)]
King Kong (India-1962; dir. Babubhai Mistri)
Tarzan and King Kong (India-1965; dir. A. Shamsheer)
A*P*E [aka King Kongui daeyeokseub; Attack of the Giant Horny Gorilla] (South Korea/US, 1976; dir. Paul Leder)
Queen Kong (UK/Italy-1976; dir. Frank Agrama)
King Kong Lives! (US-1986; dir. John Guillermin and Charles McCracken) — sequel to the 1976 remake
The Mighty Kong (US-1998; animation; dir. Art Scott)
Kongula: Affengigant des Grauens [aka I was a Teenage King Kong] (Germany-2004/5?; dir. Ralj Lorenz) — note: this one was never completed
Kong: King of Atlantis (US-2005; animation; dir. Patrick Archibald)
not to forget the Asylum’s King of the Lost World (US-2005; dir. Leigh Scott), which manages to rip off both King Kong and The Lost World at the same time.
A grand and ambitious new version of one of “the father of modern science fiction”‘s most famous novels has just completed production.
The First Men in the Moon, H.G. Wells’ 1901 “scientific romance” (as he referred to his “science fiction” novels), remains a classic of the genre. It was first filmed in 1919, in a silent version directed by Bruce Gordon and J.L.V. Leigh (UK). Unfortunately, the film is now considered “lost”. Most famously, however, the novel was filmed in 1964 as First Men in the Moon, directed by Nathan Juran. Starring Lionel Jeffries as Cavor and Edward Judd as Bedford, it captured much of the wonder and some of the social commentary of Wells’ novel (the Selenites’ antagonism comes from having watched our aggressive, war-like history from afar), using Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion animation (“in Dynamation”) to create not only Cavor’s gravity-defying spherical “spaceship” but also the Mooncalves and Selenite hordes. Its period quality remains part of its continuing appeal, though it did deviate from Wells’ original story in many ways and is considered an unsatisfactory adapatation by many.
Now, in 2010, there are two new versions of The First Men in the Moon on the horizon. One is a BBC production directed by Damon Thomas and written by League of Gentlemen‘s Mark Gatiss, due for broadcast release toward the end of this year. The other is an impressive independent production from Praxinoscope Inc., being filmed in 3D, and written, co-produced and directed by David Rosler, who also took responsibility for art direction and VFX. After a two-year production schedule, The First Men in the Moon 3D will be coming in Spring 2010.
It’s a retro-Victorian period piece that looks destined to be a lively and stylish addition to the cinematic history of Wells’ novel.
2D Trailer:
Note: You can check out the 3D version of the trailer on YouTube here. You’ll need a pair of red/blue 3D glasses, of course.
Undead Backbrain’s Search-Robot, Avery Guerra, talked to David Rosler about his ambitious project.
Avery Guerra: To start with, please refresh our reader’s memories about the story, The First Men In The Moon by H.G. Wells.
David Rosler: The novel was published in 1901, and concerns two late Victorian English gentlemen, Mr Cavor and Mr Bedford, who, thanks to inventor Cavor’s anti-gravity paste, travel to the moon in a metal and glass polyhedron. Once there, they encounter all sorts of situations and creatures, including the dangers of low gravity, giant, slug-like creatures called Mooncalves and a mostly subterranean race of surreal ant-like semi-humanoid insects called Selenites. Wells was also a lion of a social commentator, so if you never read the book, you can imagine what kind of implications about humanity get made in a story like this.
AG: Can you tell me more about yourself and the crew?
DR: Well, I started out in stop-motion animation and effects, then additionally storyboards for commercials for some very large agencies and TV shows, and eventually got into producing and directing commercials, as well as some feature ghost-producing behind-the-scenes. I am, however, a big believer these days in the director getting off the stage right away and not talking about himself, and I do think The First Men In The Moon in 3-D speaks very well for itself, so I’m taking my own advice on that.
The crew was terrific. I should note that Emmy-winning cinematographer Sonjia Stark is a real artist and is one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. Our composer Daniel Godsil is a real star in this film. As a creative and experienced orchestral composer, trained in part in Vienna with his own orchestral works performed with himself conducting, he created a fantastically sensitive and imaginative score on First Men – on my request to be evocative of the Golden Age of movies without any style imitations per se – that’s hugely accomplished and exciting. People should go to the website and listen to the background music they put up there – separate from the film clips — on the pages detailing the history of the film, book and author, and compare that music to today’s even very big-budget scoring. I’m sure they’ll appreciate in an instant how genuinely masterful and beautiful Daniel’s orchestral work really is. I’m really devoted to him, now.
AG: So, how did the film come about?
DR: The film came about when I got a call out of the blue from a Producer who knew me from another film, seemed to like what he saw and said “I want to make a movie with you.” The only limitations were the budget and the requirement that it would be derived from pre-sold, family-friendly material, like a novel. We eventually agreed on The First Men in the Moon, which I had always wanted to do anyway, and that the film should have a comfy, retro feel to it without being slow or dull — and that was that! Very simple and painless, and an interesting challenge artistically. Thus far everyone feels it works.
AG: Who has inspired you as a filmmaker? Who would you say are some of your influences?
DR: For vision and initial childhood inspiration, Ray Harryhausen and illustrator Frank Frazetta without any doubt. While directors like Wells, Hitchcock, Whale and Mamoullian are favorites, everyone has their high and low points, so a person could also point to any number of films as particular influences.
AG: Are you a fan of the previous film version? Of H.G. Wells’ original story? Are there any other stories by the famous author that are of interest to you?
DR: On the more famous film versions, I’m more of a fan of the men behind them: George Méliès, [whose 1902 A Trip to the Moon or Le Voyage dans la lune was in part based on Wells’ story — UB], and Ray Harryhausen, who did the effects on the 1964 version. The 1964 version was shot in Cinemascope, a move forced upon Ray by his producer that robbed Ray of the techniques that were crucial to his cinematic and directorial style, so while I like the film, I can’t say I’m a fan of it, unlike The 7th Voyage of Sinbad or Jason and the Argonauts, which are really stunning imaginary excursions that still hold up very well.
I am, however, a fan of the original Wells’ novel The First Men In The Moon and feel it’s the best narrative of Wells’ works. And in any film, it all starts with the story. When you think about it, it’s amazing and dumbfounding that so many Hollywood films in recent years pay the screenwriters next to nothing, or plagiarize something badly and then spend unbelievable amounts of money hiring armies of people to realize in glowing and elaborate detail a very poor screenplay. It really is as close to practically senseless in moviemaking as a person can imagine.
AG: How does your film adaptation differ from the previous version?
DR: The 1964 version was apparently hamstrung by demands by the studio/distributor to widen the audience market by including story elements that led the screenplay far astray from the original novel. The original story has a unique sense about it we very much wanted to put on the screen, though it was a daunting task on a TV movie budget, particularly in 3-D.
AG: Why a remake of this film now?
DR: This is not actually a remake in any way. A remake to me is taking material which began from conception to be a film, made into a film and remaking that. When a film is derived from a novel, however, the source material was created with an entirely different intention in an entirely different medium. So we really aren’t remaking any other films at all. We’re simply doing a film version of the book that we feel is particularly close to the original novel. For perspective, think of how many versions of A Christmas Carol or Alice In Wonderland have been made. A dozen or more, probably, when you consider animated versions. Wuthering Heights , Jane Ayre, Beauty and the Beast, the list goes on forever. Even plays, which are closer in form to movies than novels, like Romeo and Juliette, have been done endlessly on film. The 1964 version of First Men is wonderful, but in many ways extremely different from the novel, and so we felt very strongly that there was easily still room for another version without stepping on anyone’s toes.
AG: Why the use of 3D? How do you feel about the current surge of popularity in the technique?
DR: For us, it was originally a business decision because even a couple of years ago it was obvious that the market was going very strongly in this direction – you couldn’t miss it. I don’t think there’s any escaping it. Just as widescreen televisions have become the standard, even though for 60 years motion pictures and the majority of the television were mastered exclusively in non-widescreen 4:3 ratio, so, too, I think 3-D is here to stay – if nothing else, the box-office success of most things 3D ensures that it will.
There are technologies like lenticular screens which make 3D without the need for any kind of glasses a very real possibility. At such point that that happens, particularly, it’s only a matter of time before most everyone has a 3D TV. That’s just the way of things. Besides, most 3D TVs are certain to have the option to turn off the 3D, just as you can mute the TV or de-saturate the color or crop the aspect ratio on a widescreen TV now. Colorizing black-and-white films, though, causes real damage because it fundamentally changes the B&W values and contrast of the image, and that can ruin a delicate film.
Artistically, on the other hand, 3D really has the potential to be the first major new step in cinematic storytelling form since Griffith invented the basic narrative structure in the silent days, and I really mean that. Will people just fall into an endless array of novelty 3D shots of things flying at the camera or will the new Z-axis medium offer stunning new dramatic moments in the hands of the right directors? It seems inevitable that if 3D is here to stay, the latter must come true. And that’s exciting.
3D Action Sequence: The Mooncalf Attacks! (red/blue 3D glasses required):
Note:This clip and the one further down are from the 4:3 fullscreen version. A 16:9 widescreen version is also available.
AG: How long do you think interest in this technique will last? What do you predict will be the next big craze in the film industry?
DR: I think the market forces are so strong that 3D is here whether anyone likes it or not. But necessity is the mother of invention, and as people find ways to justify the 3D ball-and-chain they’ve been stuck with, great things artistically will come from it. At that point, it becomes a legit form of the cinematic medium, and debating the validity of its existence is moot.
Rather than make a predication, I hope that the next big thing is to make solid fantasy films with great storylines. The predominant industry perception has always been that fantasy films can function entirely on eye candy and it’s the dramas that pay attention to strong dramatic values and more nuanced theatrics. I’d like to see great fantasy films be the next big thing, because the majority of the films coming out of Hollywood right now just aren’t very good films, generally. When you compare them to the expensive films from Hollywood in the 1930s through the early 50s, the comparison is really just dispiriting. Giant union pressures have turned Hollywood cinema into really just very expensive versions of TV show episodes because they’re made the same way – big crews producing limited coverage of the scenes of thin scripts because the running clock is very expensive that way. If the 1940s were the Golden Age of Hollywood, then right now we’re in the Thin, Rusty Aluminum Period, though lavishly produced.
AG: What are the film’s release plans at this point? What sort of release will you be seeking: DVD, television, or theatrical/festival route?
DR: No festivals are planned. At this point a TV/DVD release is coming fast, but the who and when of it I’m not at liberty to say right now. Look for it soon is the best I can offer. It is a family film in many ways, so look for it particularly in those outlets.
AG: So, what’s next for you? Any other projects you care to mention at this time?
DR: There are several, actually. Though the story is still in development, one of the best bets is sort-of an homage to the monster-on-the-loose films of the 50s, but played straight and in no way campy or a send-up. That sounds impossible to do today, I know, but I’m working though the outline with a prolific, well-respected NY Times-bestselling thriller novelist, and we think there’s very solid potential in the concept and structure that’s being developed. I also want to tackle a couple more classic novels in time, because so few have been done faithfully, regardless of budget.
AG: Thank you for taking the time to do this interview. In closing, is there anything you’d like to add?
DR: Well, for a slightly more elaborate description of the actual making of the film itself, people can go to Films In Review, the online arm of the oldest film journal in the US, and look up “H.G. Wells Gets the 3-D Treatment” [link]. And thank you for your interest.
2D Action Sequence: Selenite Swordfight:
Source: David Rosler interviewed by Avery Guerra | Article by Robert Hood
Trailer Park of Terror (US-2008; dir. Steven Goldmann)
Reviewed by Robert Hood
Like some sort of unnatural horror spawned from the genetic residue of Rob Zombie, Herschell Gordon Lewis and the Crypt Keeper from EC Comics’ Tales From the Crypt after a particularly nasty one-night stand, Trailer Park of Terror offers up a howling mix of redneck sensibilities, supernatural nastiness, spurious morality and gore-splattered degradation — all with its tongue firmly planted in places it’s probably best not to think about. Add the fact that it also has a hard Southern-rock soundtrack (much of which is sung and played by a decaying corpse with an electric guitar), and surely you can’t complain if you choose to pay a casual visit to its sodden, storm-battered, pink-flamingo-and-car-hulk-decorated precincts only to find yourself getting eviscerated for your trouble.
Based on Imperium Comics’ horror anthology series (which in turn is a reincarnation of the EC Comics horror ethos), Trailer Park of Terror begins with a poignant prelude in which Norma — a killer blonde trailer-park chick who wants nothing more than to escape the hell-hole that is her life — prepares for a date with a nice young man who seems to love her for herself and may be her ticket out. But the local rednecks start doing what local rednecks do and before you can say “AC/DC Rocks!” the boyfriend is accidentally impaled, leaving Norma, full of despair and hatred, the easy target of a demonic road cowboy offering revenge. Next thing, she’s slaughtered all the inhabitants of the trailer park and blown the whole thing, including herself, to smithereens.
Years later, during a vicious thunderstorm, a busload of young urban hard-cases out on a bonding camp accidentally end up stuck in the trailer park after their religious camp leader takes the inevitable shortcut. An attractive blonde woman runs the place and lets them shelter in the apparently uninhabited cabins. Of course, the cabins are more inhabited than expected — by the rotting and quite active corpses of the dead rednecks and other trailer trash who died there — and the result isn’t pretty.
Trailer Park of Terror doesn’t break new ground in theme or narrative structure, being a pretty standard comicbook supernatural morality tale, but it does work the trope with trashy stylishness. Its redneck characters (zombie-like in their physicality, but actually corporeal ghosts) are energetically played out, a sort of even-more-caricatured complement to the folk that inhabit Rob Zombie’s House of a Thousand Corpses. And the stereotypical victims are (mostly) well-deserving of their fate. As in the EC template, there is a pseudo morality at work and the lone survivor is the one you expect to survive. Her survival comes about narratively because Norma (trapped into being the leader of the gruesome crew when she gave in to her own desire for revenge) recognizes a shared sense of injustice, but subtextually it is dependent on the fact that the survivor doesn’t bully anyone, isn’t taking drugs and doesn’t act like a tart — an outsider in a group of less-attractive social misfits.
But the morality is inconsistent and in the end a furphy. The film isn’t meant to be taken seriously on any level. It’s a hellish rollercoaster ride, with gaudy imagery, in-your-face comicbook characters and lots of black, back-country humour. And gore, of course — gore of the kind that makes us smirk at its excess rather than gasp in horror at its grim truthfulness.
In short, Trailer Park of Terror is trailer-trash horror — well done and entertaining enough, but only if you like that sort of thing and are happy to slum down for the 97 minutes it takes to get through the night.
In the 22nd Century,
the darkest region of space
lies in the hearts of men.
News of a huge in-development 3D SFX extravaganza from China-based production company Agog Films — with multi-national backing and creative input — has hit the cinematic zeitgeist with the announcement at Cannes that its lead cast will include Ray Park, Eriko Satô, Lisa Sa (Lisa Cheng) and Yasaki “David” Kurata. The film, Future Fighters, is described in the press release as “a relationship-charged, action-packed, mecha fest”, and features giant robots, combative spaceships, martial arts and inter-planetary spectacle.
Newly Announced Stars:
Ray Park, Hollywood action star and self-confessed Jackie Chan-Jet Li fan, was the man under the Darth Maul mask in Star Wars: Episode 1 — The Phantom Menace. He has also featured as Toad in the first X-Men movie, Snake-Eyes in the recent G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and Edgar in the TV series Heroes.
Eriko Satô was the titular lead in Hideaki Anno’s 2004 live-action manga-adaptation Cutie Honey, as well as featuring in many other major Japanese films, such as Nihon chinbotsu [Japan Sinks] (2006), Kuchisake-onna [The Slit-Mouthed Woman] (2007) and Goemon (2009).
Chinese model Lisa Cheng, a championship athlete and gymnast, is new to acting, but is currently involved in a number of projects.
Yasuaki Kurata, a Japanese martial arts actor, in a film career being with Xiao quan wang [Hands of Death] in 1971, has starred in many martial arts films, including Jing wu ying xiong [Fist of Legend] (1994) in which he sparred with Jet Li, and the 2009 live-action version of Blood: The Last Vampire, as well as Jackie Chan’s Shinjuku Incident.
China kung-fu actor Gordon Liu (True Legend, Kill Bill 1 and 2)
Future Fighters (HK/US/Japan-[in development]; dir. TBA)
Synopsis:
It is the 22nd Century. After bringing irreversible destruction to our planet’s habitable environment in their relentless plunder of resources, the Earth’s leading mega-conglomerates lead humanity into space to colonise the night skies and forge a new future, leaving behind the barren Earth as a ruined, radioactive wasteland, with humankind seemingly destined never to return. For the past fifty years the colonies living amongst the planets of our solar system have been at peace.
But now, out of the ashes of the scorched Earth a new evil emerges, threatening to engulf the entire free solar system into a terrible darkness. Now, never before has the fate of all humankind lain in the hands of so few — a small clutch of brave mercantile militia soldiers, and their sophisticated intrastellar fighting machines, stationed at a military garrison outpost orbiting the planet Jupiter and its moons. Pitted against impossible odds, they must fight… for the future. But they will soon unwittingly and devastatingly discover that, in space, the blackest darkness is in the hearts of men.
Sound epic enough for you?
But what exactly can we expect from Future Fighters?
Countless fighter craft explode, battleships are ripped apart, moons shatter, love is lost and found, and whole atmospheres ignite in huge planet-sized fireballs in this exciting new, big-budget, CG-heavy, sci-fi epic […], which features never-before-imagined non-stop zero-G action stretching from the serene azure Neptune-filled skies of the exotic, geyser-filled moon Triton, to the heights of the colossal Olympus Mons on Mars, through the volcanic, hellish landscape of Jupiter’s Io and icy depths of the subterranean oceans on Europa, crashing through the rings of Saturn and methane rain and lakes of its moon Titan, and down into the ubiquitous, ravaging Giant Red Eye storm of Jupiter itself! (Facebook site)
Future Fighters is being described as “a new live-action 3D science fiction movie to ‘put the science back into science fiction’” and already boasts a cast and crew that includes, as well as those announce at Cannes:
… action director DEE DEE KU 谷軒昭 (“Matrix 2&3”, “Kill Bill 1&2”, “The Mummy 3”, “Forbidden Kingdom”, “Kungfu Hustle”, “Fearless”, “Warlords”), 3D cinematographer HENRY CHUNG (“Peony Pavilion”, “My Fair Gentleman”), orchestral movie composer, scorer and conductor ROBERT ELLIS-GEIGER (“Election 2”, “After This Our Exile”) of Vision Sonics (www.VisionSonics.net), and sound designer MARTIN CHAPPELL (“Accident”, “Sparrow”, “Turn Left Turn Right”) of Fork Media (www.Fork-Media.com). Also starring are REUBEN LANGDON (“Avatar”, “Spiderman 2”, “Pirates Of The Caribbean 3”), KAZUYA SHIMIZU 清水一哉 (“Azumi”, “Big Man Japan”, “Returner”), and actress/model/national athlete LISA SA. (From the Press Release)
Though the film itself doesn’t have a director yet (something that co-producer and creator Guy Orlebar says is in train and will be announced before Comic Con 2011), it does have a mock teaser trailer, shot with Hong Kong television channel TVB actress, Coffee Lam, in late 2009 and intended to provide a glimpse of the movie’s original mecha designs and to “reinforce its 3D credentials”.
2D Teaser Trailer:
3D version available here (recommended). Check the 3D button near the resolution button for a menu that gives you various options.
The divergent focal strength of my eyes simply doesn’t effectively render 3D, so I can’t comment on the quality (no, I haven’t seen Avatar in 3D either and probably never will). You will have a different experience of it, I hope.
You can also watch a video looking Behind the Scenes of the making of the 3D Teaser video (see pictures of Coffee Lam, Guy Orlebar and 3D cinematographer Henry Chung below), as well us the teaser trailer in Japanese or Chinese and using several different 3D methods, on Guy Orlebar’s YouTube Channel.
According to Orlebar, the idea to do Future Fighters came in the aftermath of the success of his first directorial effort, Kong Hong: Lost in Love, while on his honeymoon on a tropical island.
We were sitting by the hotel pool and my wife had already reached for her blackberry; I had a pen and small notebook in front of me and I remember thinking to myself “Okay, Guy. You’ve proven you could make your first movie and go through all the ropes. Now what? If you could make just one more movie, your dream film, where budget or any other constraints weren’t an issue, what would it be?”
His choice was to go live-action mecha!
I’m an Eighties kid, and a huge fan of the animated Transformers show and all the fantastic mecha, particularly giant robot, shows that were being shown in Japan at that time. Shows like Macross (known as Robotech in the US), Patlabor, GUNDAM, of course — loads more. But we’d never really seen any of these types of stories coming out of Hollywood before. Okay there’d been a few. I’m not sure how many people remember Robot Jox [directed by Stuart Gordon] or the English language live‐action Gundam G‐Saviour. But it wasn’t until Steven Spielberg, against all conventional Hollywood wisdom, decided to big‐up his live action Transformers with director Michael Bay, that Hollywood finally sat up and took notice, especially because as we all know Transformers as well as Transformers 2 did phenomenally well. Personally, I preferred Korean director Nelson Shin’s 1986 animated theatrical version of Transformers in terms of style and emotion and coolness… but I was only 8 at the time which probably helped! (laughs)
Anyway, I totally respect Misters Spielberg and Bay for reviving the franchise and making Transformers go mainstream. It may not be the Transformers I grew up with, but it’s great that it’s going strong, and has ushered in an entire new generation of Transformer fans. So Future Fighters is our contribution to expanding the giant robot genre. Other examples that this genre is now taking off include Spiderman Tobey Maguire’s recently announced Robotech live‐action adaptation, and the live‐action adaptation of Voltron, another Eighties anime shown also in the West.
As well as those works mentioned above, Orlebar cites great SF author Arthur C. Clarke as another major influence on Future Fighters.
In my teens I read Arthur C. Clarke’s sequels to 2001: A Space Odyssey: 2010, 2061 and, er, what was the most recent one? 3001. In 2010, or maybe 2061, Clarke writes about some of the fantastic moons around Jupiter. I don’t want to give too much away here, but anyway they’re not just rocks, and they definitely both feature in some of the key visuals for Future Fighters. And there’s a whole bunch of other stuff out there too which I learned about and which have been discovered only in the past few years. Really fascinating.
… One of the great things about [Clarke’s] novels is they are all steeped in science and realism. That’s also something I want to achieve with Future Fighters: bringing the science back to science fiction. Honestly, there’s no sound in space, and (unless you’re spinning around) there’s no such thing as artificial gravity in a spaceship. The challenge, and what we’re aiming to achieve with Future Fighters, is to keep it real without losing any of the great action, pace and excitement of a fabulous sci‐fi adventure. Imagine like a cross between the first Star Wars film and Stanley Kubrik’s seminal 2001: A Space Odyssey. That’s what we’re aiming for.
In terms of the mecha aspects he commented:
One of the strongest influences to the story of Future Fighters is the original Japanese animated TV show, Macross (see image below), which as I mentioned earlier US readers will probably know as the first Robotech installment. And which Transformers fans will know from the original Jet Fire toy, which I did have as a kid. This Macross story is basically a love‐triangle between the main three characters set against a war between humans and big green aliens who battle in these fantastic robotic fighters. The robots, or mecha — the Japanese word for mechanical designs — are treated as little more than part of the background, and instead it’s the human drama between the three characters that takes centre stage — something which is also very similar to the Japanese TV show, and two of Mamoru Oshii’s animated feature films, Patlabor, where the robots in that show are really nothing more than fancy police patrol cars but still looked so cool and made the show so distinctive.
So, apart from the big green aliens in Macross, I really liked this concept of putting human relationships first and keeping the mecha secondary. But, and this is true for all Japanese mecha shows, the mechanical designs have to be unique and original, and utterly distinctive. I read in an article by Spielberg how all his best characters are instantly recognizable from their silhouette only… just think of Jaws, ET, Indiana Jones. Very good advice for designing memorable characters or imagery.
All pretty ambitious! But Orlebar means business. Apart from enthusiasm, he’s looking at a large budget, under the multi-national umbrella of Agog Films in Hong Kong. And he has so far managed to get commitments from a great cast and crew of high-level players.
Conceptual art by Pat Lee (Click on images to enlarge)
Apparently high-profile SF writer Alan Dean Foster is set to write the novelisation of Future Fighters. Below he’s pictured (in the middle) with producer Mike Leeder (left) and Guy Orlebar, at AFM 2009 in Los Angeles.
