Screenhead

So there’s a little bittersweet news today, folks.  I’ve always had a fondness for boat movies, undersea movies and suchlike, and I definitely liked the whole Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea concept.  So when a remake of same was announced, I was somewhat happy about the whole thing.

At least until they told me McG was directing it.  And then I had a problem with the whole thing…but the irony is that I needn’t have a problem with it any more.

See, it seems that McG decided he wasn’t going to have anything more to do with the remake, and thus, he walked away.  And when he did that, Disney decided to shut down the whole program.

The big problem here, of course, is that McG is pretty much a tainted director now since the lesser performance of Terminator Salvation, and the fact that filming an underwater epic like Twenty Thousand Leages Under the Sea would necessarily have to be would cost money like no tomorrow in really lousy economic conditions and be only remotely guaranteed returns (it’s a known quantity but nothing’s been done with it in decades), they just didn’t have much choice.

So hopefully McG can find work again, but if nothing else, he probably made enough cash to not have to worry about work for a while.  Maybe he can go write a biopic or a chick flick or something, something really out of left field

You know, I really don’t like the thought of an angry Bill Murray.  It gives me the creeps, to be honest with you.  It’s unnatural.  You think of Bill Murray, you think of one of the greatest funnymen on the face of the earth today.  Thinking of him angry is like thinking of a black sun.  It’s just not RIGHT, you follow?

Anyway, Bill Murray is, apparently, SUBLIMELY torqued at McG.  How do I know?  I”m about to prove it with a couple choice quotes from the man himself.

You may have heard that, once, Bill Murray headbutted McG on the set of Charlie’s Angels.  If you did hear it, you heard it from McG because he’s told that story a few times.  Bill’s response?  Advance warning: it’s not for young eyes:

“That’s bullshit! That’s complete crap! I don’t know why he made that story up. He has a very active imagination.”

Okay, this by itself isn’t terrible…but it’s what Bill had to say after regaining his composure that’s got me freaked out:

“No! He deserves to die. He should be pierced with a lance, not headbutted.”

Whoa.  Bill.  Few deep breaths, huh?  Got to calm DOWN a tick.  You know if McG winds up dead now you’re the first person they’re going to be looking at.  I’m not fond of that jumped up video director either, but you can’t go around slinging the “die” word like that, man.

I really hope you were just joking on that one.

I have been writing articles about travelling in Asia, so I find it interesting that Dunst was walking through Akihabara Electric Town district of Tokyo merrily enjoying the wackiness of her thigh-highs.

Director McG is working on a music video with Kirsten Dunst. I guess he’s going back to his roots of making music videos. Dunst is the star.  I love this picture of her walking down the street. Definitely turns some heads. What would happen if you saw someone walking down the street looking like Dunst with blue hair carrying a parasol?

(Source)

Let’s all take a moment to remember that McG is not some kind of visionary movie directing hero.  He’s a music video director that’s handled a couple action flicks, probably because they’re essentially the same thing, only one’s longer and doesn’t involve music near as much.

Viewed in that light, McG’s comments about the upcoming Terminator 5 movie have to be viewed with some skepticism and a few chuckles.

Sometimes people like to take time off, but I’m excited about the next installation of the story in the Terminator idea. So for me, it’s terribly exciting to get back out there and show a different face of that idea, and perhaps get out of the apocalyptic world into a contemporary world. And I think the audience is going to be very excited about our way in. And I haven’t talked to anybody yet about that–you’re the first one.

See what I mean?  Guy thinks he’s some kind of genius.  The worst part is, he’s wrong–”get out of the apocalyptic world”?  Dude, it’s TERMINATOR.  It’s all ABOUT an apocalyptic world.  What are you going to do, ignore that whole aspect of things?  Maybe show John Connor sitting down to tea with Skynet?  Perhaps a little rom-com action with the Terminatrix?

But it seems that his overall plan requires Terminator 5 to be…a prequel.

Man, now I’m REALLY worried.  At least Terminator 4 had a legion of explosions and whatnot going for it, but if McG’s looking to pull its teeth before it even gets started, then what’s the point?

From THR comes word that Randall Wallace has been hired to rewrite Captain Nemo: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the upcoming Disney take on Jules Verne’s classic character.

The film aims to tell the origin of Nemo and his submarine warship, the Nautilus. Verne wrote him in the book as a mysterious and noble antagonist who was a genius with a thirst for knowledge and desire for revenge against the forces of Imperialism.

Bill Marsilii and Justin Marks had previously worked on the script. It is being helmed by the infamous McG (Terminator: Salvation) who is aiming for an action-adventure tone.

Wallace is known for having written films like Braveheart and Atlas Shrugged. He is set to direct Secretariat after this project is completed.

I remember back in high-school, when my friends and I “discovered” cinema after watching Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. We were so besotted by Tarantino’s pop-culture sensibilities that we grasped onto his world by attempting to write sequels to Reservoir Dogs. Surprisingly, none were optioned by Hollywood studios. And since the internet reigned supreme since then, the concept of fanfiction has found and a home and even some acceptance. Every major film and book has spurred writing from people who want to keep that world alive, but of course generate status-quo-maintaining slop. Yet you can’t criticise it for its lack of innovation, as it doesn’t aspire to be anything beyond someone’s fantasy. You can however, criticise it when it’s given 150 million dollars and continues one of cinema’s most potent franchises, which is exactly what Terminator Salvation is.

The most defining aspect of fan-fiction is that it usually tries to generate new stories but without having to alter the characters or environment so much as to disrupt the feel of the source material. And this is done by having a new scenario but recreating the defining moments of the original. So on to McG’s vision of Terminator Salvation, the first Terminator film to be set in the future, during the war between men and machines. The film attempts to scare with a batch of new and unseen machines, from the skeletal robots we all know, to giant harvester robots and tiny water-based snake-like bots, and even motorbike robots (more on that later). But what strikes you about the film is how deeply unambitious it is, especially the third act. As our hero John Connor finds himself deep in Skynet territory, escaping a terminator factory, he finds himself being chased around. The scene almost completely recreates the climax of The Terminator, with Kyle Reese being chased around a robotics factory. The metal foot ascending the grated steps, the metal bar as a weapon, it all feels like we’ve seen it before. And there’s also a molten lava scene as well, just like in T2’s climax. There’s even a few references to Aliens in the set design and characters (spot the new Newt). Read the rest of this entry »

Pizza Hut debuted exclusive Terminator Salvation footage containing The Harvester attacking humanity at Pizza Hut’s website.  Director McG introduces the footage, which also includes behind-the-scenes footage of how the special effects gurus figured out how to blow up a gas station that ignites The Harvester.   The site has other cool stuff too. You can even use your mouse to take out a Terminator or two. To get to the site, click on the screen shot of Pizza Hut’s site and you’ll go directly to the exclusive footage.

Following reports that Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson was being sought for the upcoming family sci-fi film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo, director McG set the record straight, denying Rock’s involvement in the project.

McG said: "I’ve never spoken to Dwayne Johnson about this. I like him. He’s great. He’s a wonderful human being and an excellent screen presence, but we have not spoken about 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Not a word."

Filming begins later this year in Queensland, Australia.

Director McG (Terminator: Salvation) is in talks to turn Broadway rock musical Spring Awakening into a feature film.

The musical is set in 19th-century Germany, following a group of teens discovering their sexuality and dealing with various topics like masturbation, abortion, rape and suicide.

The musical is based on an 1891 German play; it was developed by Sater and rocker Duncan Sheik who turned it into a runaway Broadway success.

Wired.com put together a wonderful piece on Terminator 4 with plenty of images. McG is interviewed throughout the article and, there’s no doubt, the man has mastered Terminator. 

I agree with McG point of view on using real robots instead of CGI: 

“A lot of people make CG movies where actors are emoting to poles with tennis balls on top of them,” said McG. “That’s the last thing I wanted to do. I don’t like dealing with cartoons, so to speak. I wanted real robots for the actors to interface with so you could get that grittiness and realism. There’s an archetype shape to the T-800. We needed body types to suggest the robot that would combat John Connor, and Roland Kickinger is a good body type. His shoulders are huge, his waist is narrow. The [Industrial Light & Magic] guys used their calipers to measure shoulder spatial differences and said he’d make a good body double. Roland as an individual is not in the movie.”