As an addendum to the recent Undead Backbrain article about Van Gölü Canavarı [aka Lake Van Monster] (Turkey-2009; dir. Bünyamin Yaşar), which is currently in production, here are a number of videos on the subject.
News Report: This one appears to be a news report from Turkish TV on the film’s production. It includes an interview with the director and some behind-the-scenes footage. Sorry, but I can’t translate.
Documentary on the Lake Van Monster: Animal X (Part 1):
Documentary on the Lake Van Monster: Animal X (Part 2):
Footage of Supposed Lake Van Monster Taken in 1997:
In 1997, a local man, Ünal Kozak, a member of Van University, said he had captured the creature on video and sent the film in for analysis. He has also written a book about the monster. Kozak’s video is under constant criticism, with viewers questioning why it never pans left, saying perhaps there was a boat carrying the “creature,” or asking why the monster only goes straight, instead of curving through the water. Some have even criticized why the creature’s breathing seems to be not in and out, but a continuous release, much like the effects of an air hose. (Hurriyet Daily News)
Other Footage: I’m not sure what this is but the text indicates some connection with the Lake Van Monster.
Now in production is a lake monster movie about a lake other than Loch Ness or Lake Champlain. While these latter are well-known domiciles of megafauna of a vaguely prehistoric nature, it is less well-known that Lake Van (aka Van Gölü) in eastern Turkey — a large, rather voluminous enclosed lake — has been the site of over 1000 reported sightings of a similar monster since 1995. (See the website Searching for Cryptonia, for more details and some interestingly left-field speculation. This is the blog of Doug Ormsham, who corresponded with me over an extended period concerning his great-grandfather Hugo Drakenswode, who was apparently a cryptozoologist and monster hunter.)
The Lake Van Monster has, of course, become quite a tourist attraction. Now Bünyamin Yaşar is directing a film called Van Gölü Canavarı (Lake Van Monster), to be released later this year.
Shooting at the lake
Director Bünyamin Yaşar with cast and crew
The Lake Van monster has never featured in a film before, despite its tourist appeal, and The Backbrain wondered if it was destined to be in this one, given that the plot apparently concerns three disgruntled shepherds who concoct a scheme to make money by showing fake footage of the monster.
However, the director has expanded on the plot:
“Three shepherds, who were dismissed from their town, come up with an idea while swimming in the lake that will fool the people of the town: They make a mock-up of a monster and film it,” he said. “Then they make the people watch it in return for money and make very good money. But, at the end of the film, the shepherds see the real monster in the lake.”
He added:
“The film will leave a question mark in people’s minds,” added Yaşar, who said there would be elements of comedy and romance, as well as action scenes, in the film, which stars Levent Aras, Nazif Çetin and Didem Ellialtı.
The lake is a picturesque one, quite extensive and sporting many features reminiscent of Loch Ness — not least of which is the fact that it has a castle overlooking it, just like Urquhart Castle on the Loch.
Van Castle on the southern shore of Lake Van
Urquhart Castle on the southern shore of Loch Ness, Scotland
The monster has become so famous locally that statues have been built to it at various centres around the lake — though they offer vastly different views of the beast.
At any rate, it will be fascinating to see how the film develops. See here for further details about the lake monster and his film.
Gallery of Images, including more of the production:
Doug Ormsham’s Searching for Cryptonia offers a rather intriguing perspective on the monster, though what the suggestions it makes actually mean is cryptic at best.
Addendum: Videos relating to both the film and the monster on Undead Backbrain
Jeffrey Lau’s robotic love story, Metallic Attraction: Kung Fu Cyborg, is soon to be released in China. Begun as an oriental answer to the success of Michael Bay’s Transformers, it in fact appears to share only some moments of transformational CGI hustle, while exploring the line between biological humanity and artificial life, which may be crossed by love.
Lau is renown for his ability to mix profound metaphysical and philosophical issues with the most bizarrely comedic strain of Chinese filmmaking — which gets pretty bizarre. At any rate, this film’s mix of giant robots, cyborgs, exaggerated comedy, full-on CGI action and sci-fi kung fu, all in a context that questions issues of identity and the nature of life — promises to be unique at the very least. After all, this is a film that can be promoted with a wide divergence of posters that range from the giant robot threat of the one at the beginning of this article to the comedy, romance and action-hero imagery of those following:
You can see more posters in the Gallery at the end of this article and here.
God created Man in his own image; Man creates robot in his own image. Just as man doubts God, does robot not doubt man?
In 2046, technological advancements keep improving human lives, as well as renewing their desires. So, robots, created to serve man, are born. The first generation AI android, K-1 (Alex Fong), has just been invented secretly at Tian An Science Lab, with the aim of carrying out dangerous tasks for the police, to safeguard the human law enforcers against injuries and deaths. To test its functionality, commissioner Lin Xiang stations him at a remote town for on job training, putting him under the charge of the local sheriff Xu Da Chun (Hu Jun), with his actual identity a closely guarded secret.
K-1 joins the police force under the assumed name De Ming, immediately cracking various cases effortlessly. With perfect socialising routines, De Ming becomes idolised by the townsfolk in no time, while female cop Su Mei (Sun Li) falls head over heels for him.
….
De Ming and Xu Da Chun are assigned to apprehend a runaway robot K-88 (Wu Jing), which is suspected to have errant AI. After a mind-blowing hi-tech battle involving aerial, underground chases and exchanges, as well as 72 transformations, the invincible K-88 explains his reason for escaping, “For freedom, not wanting to be a mere robot forever.” He even admonishes De Ming for being an electronic slave.
…..
Meanwhile, assassination robots, under order to terminate any defectors, are arriving in the town…
So far a number of trailers for Metallic Attraction: Kung Fu Cyborg have appeared, each emphasising different aspects of the production (drama, sci-fi, comedy…). The latest gives a good idea of the eccentric CGI spectacle we can expect to see.
Latest trailer:
And then there’s the giant robots, which seem to be based on an aesthetic taken from ancient Chinese art and lore:
You can check out conceptual art for the various robots included in the film (such as those above) in the Gallery below.
George A. Romero’s follow-up to Diary of the Dead (US-2007; dir. George A. Romero) has for some time been called by the in-production title of “… of the Dead”.
Now (even though Romero has previously — and ironically — suggested that the title should perhaps be “Enough of the Dead”), we’ve been told that the official title is Survival of the Dead. Going on the synopsis, this makes perfect sense.
Synopsis:
In a world where the dead rise to menace the living, rogue soldier Crocket (Alan Van Sprang) leads a band of military dropouts to refuge from the endless chaos. As they search for a place ” where the shit won’t get you”, they meet banished patriarch Patrick O’Flynn (played by Kenneth Welsh), who promises a new Eden on the fishing and ranching outpost Plum Island. The men arrive, only to find themselves caught in an age-old battle between O’Flynn’s family and rival clan the Muldoons. It turns out that Patrick was expelled from the isle for believing that the only good zombie is a dead zombie, while the Muldoons think it’s wrong to dispatch afflicted loved ones, attempting to look after their undead kinfolk until a cure is found. But their bid for stability on the homestead has turned perverse: the undead are chained inside their homes, pretending to live normal lives – and the consequences are bloody. A desperate struggle for survival will determine whether the living and the dead can coexist.
Kaiju artist Todd Tennant has sent us a great image he’s created that irresistably reminds me of a sort of monster noir (I’ve been watching a lot of films noir lately). It’s the Gryphon — Godzilla’s opponent in the 1994 US Godzilla screenplay by Tedd Elliott and Terry Rossio, movie project never filmed by Jan De Bont (or anyone, for that matter). [Click on the image to see it full size]
I don’t think Todd did this for any particular reason — but it does relate to his online graphic novel version of the unfilmed script.
I’m always up for a big SFX-laden apocalyptic disaster movie — and The Asylum’s current in-production effort along those lines involves the imminent ripping apart of the Earth by a massive seismic disturbance. The film’s called Megafault (US-[in production]; dir. David Michael Latt) — and though it will feature limited SFX compared to, say, Emmerich’s upcoming mega-spectacular disaster blockbuster, 2012, it still interests me, even if for no other reason than to find out what kind of pseudo-scientific goobledegook the main characters (played by Brittany Murphy, Eriq La Salle, Bruce Davison and Justin Hartley) must resort to in order to deal with a natural disaster of that magnitude. And, of course, to see some city destruction…
Synopsis:
A seismologist and a miner must stop a massive earthquake that threatens to tear the world in half.
In the meantime, producer and writer Paul Bales has supplied us with three brief SFX clips in order to introduce this lastest End-of-the-World epic.
On the most obvious level, the plot of this MTV “Special Movie Presentation” is driven by pop music aesthetics aimed at the typical MTV audience — hence the inclusion of Carmen Electra and Nick Carter, not to mention a major narrative element that involves an MTV competition and concert performances. Josh, a miserable college student who has been bumped by his girlfriend, wins the competition, having been entered against his knowledge (and wishes) by his sister. The prize: party time on a Pacific island paradise for his class mates and friends, plus entertainment from the sexy Carmen Electra. What no one mentioned was that the island had been the site of nuclear testing in the past and is now inhabited by giant mutated insects.
One of these overgrown pests — a flying (Queen) ant — carries off the celebrity and while the rest of the crowd and the TV crew decide that discretion is the best option and dubious agendas take hold of the more self-serving of the party, only Josh shows initiative and whips up a few of their number (most of them motivated by their own less-celebrity focused ambitions) to mount a rescue mission. Now all they have to do is negotiate a jungle full of ravenous monsters, find the lair of the giant ants, rescue the singer and get off the island before the whole thing comes apart, sinking à la Son of Kong under the waves.
This is all nonsense, of course, and though Monster Island happily flows along in B-horror fashion, with competent performances by all concerned (crew included), anyone versed in the genre will recognise that writer/director Perez (recently responsible for the tentacle-in-cheek Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus) has a secondary audience in mind, one that probably predates most of the MTV demographic: classic monster movie fans. As Carmen Electra, Daniel Letterle (Josh), Adam West as the resident eccentric scientist and the other stereotypes (the ex-girlfriend, her obnoxious prick of a boyfriend, the nerd, the journalist, etc.) go about their glittery MTV business, Perez runs us through an array of homage scenes, referencing everything from King Kong through Son of Kong, Son of Godzilla, Them! and much more — even possibly Mothra — all done not with CGI, but full-size puppetry and stop-motion animation (hence the name of the scientist character, Doctor Harryhausen). The most spectacular of the beasties are the two praying mantises. The modelling is impressive and the animation, though hardly Harryhausen standard, is effective enough, even to the extent of giving the mantises some touches of personality.
Perez and his crew had a lot of fun in Monster Island. We’re not talking realism here on any level, nor profound dramatic aspirations, so leave those particularly irrelevant pieces of criticism out in the kitchen, fetch the popcorn and beer from the fridge, put your feet up, engage your inner monsterphile — and you might be able to join in.
Prolific B-horror film writer/director Brett Piper has a mission in life:
I’ve come to realize that keeping B-movie clichés alive is my mission. After all, we all enjoy old movies like The Blob and I Married a Monster From Outer Space, but what’s going to happen when all those movies have been seen? Who’s making more? Not Spielberg or Lucas, that’s for sure. Just me, baby!
Less cliché than monster archetype perhaps is the Thing That Rises Out of the Swamp, which Piper is currently resurrecting in his now-in-production film, called, attractively, Muckman.
Set to bring the swamp-gas back into horror, Muckman is seen by Piper as being in the tradition of such quagmire epics as Swamp Thing (US-1982; dir. Wes Craven), The Return of Swamp Thing (US-1989; dir. Jim Wynorski) and the more recent Man-Thing (US-2005; dir. Brett Leonard).
Swamp Thing (Image Source: Wire Image)
With an absolutely mind-blowing career in independent filmmaking behind him, Piper’s films have involved giant spiders, big bugs, mutating bacterium, monsters from the drains, werewolves, zombies, aliens, nymphoid barbarians in dinosaur hell, and God knows what else. Swamp creatures sound like a reasonable addition.
Among others, Muckman stars Alison Whitney and Anju McIntyre, who will undoubtedly end up in an impromptu mudfight with the algae-covered villian. They are poictured below with Brett Piper, on location during recent shooting.
Finally, an intriguing shot from the early rushes. I have no idea where it fits in the plot, but I look forward to finding out!
As mentioned in passing in the previous post, Sean Cain’s Silent Night, Zombie Night is coming to town.
Synopsis:
Zombies paparazzied:
Trailer:
In regards to the Christmas theme, the director comments:
Well, [the film] does take place in Los Angeles so if you expect a snowball fight between the heroes and the zombies you might be disappointed. And if you’re hoping for something campy you’re also going to be disappointed because the movie, while goofy at times, (especially with the Santa Zombie part) is a straight balls to the wall action film with a dash of romance. I think having a tragedy take place during Christmas lends a certain weight because it’s a time when we’re supposed to celebrate. (SearchMyTrash)
