Manchester physicist consults on Sunshine

It's not often that I'd expect to find myself linking out to Manchester University's website, but one story popped up in my RSS reader this week and caught my eye:

"A new $45m British-made science fiction film [Sunshine] is being unveiled this week and a physicist from The University of Manchester has played an important role in bringing it to the big screen.

"Dr Brian Cox, who can usually be found investigating how the universe was formed at the Centre for European Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland, has been working with Sunshine scriptwriter and University of Manchester old boy Alex Garland (The Beach) and director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting and 28 Days Later)."

Good article, quite a bit of background info on the movie, not too many spoilers: www.manchester.ac.uk.

April 4, 2007 | Filed Under Movies | Leave a Comment

Neil Jordan to write & direct the Heart-Shaped Box movie

My good buddy Joe Gordon has just emailed to point me at an articles posted on Empire Online yesterday, which reports that Irish director Neil Jordan has signed up to sort out the movie version of Heart-Shaped Box (Joe's blogged it on the FP Blog already, naturally).

Anyway, the director is question has a track record (of sorts) in the horror genre at least, being the man behind The Company of Wolves. And hey, he can't really be blamed for Interview With the Vampire; with Tom 'least convincing vampire ever' Cruise in the lead role it was pretty much doomed to ignominious failure from the word 'go', despite anyone else's best efforts to rescue it.

And at least Mr Jordan needn't worry too much about the casting for HSB, seeing as we've already got that covered. But if he wants to drop me a line and talk through the finer points of the selection process, then I'd be happy to help out, naturally... :)

April 4, 2007 | Filed Under Books, Movies | 4 Comments

Stardust movie trailer online

Neil Gaiman points us in the direction of an extended trailer for the forthcoming Stardust movie - based on his novel and original Charles Vess illustrated book (which Titan seem to be reissuing in the UK in May) - over at Yahoo! Movies UK, although the movie itself isn't actually out until October.

Ricky Gervais and Michelle Pfeiffer in a scene from Stardust

The film stars (among others) Robert DeNiro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sienna Miller, Peter O'Toole and Ricky Gervais who, judging by the trailer, seems to be playing... Ricky Gervais. In a hat.

Looks terrific, and there aren't too many plot spoilers in the trailer, either. Which makes rather a pleasant change...

March 28, 2007 | Filed Under Movies | 2 Comments

Highly Recommended Viewing: 300

Jo and I went to see 300 on Saturday afternoon. At the Manchester Odeon IMAX. Screen the size of an 8-storey building, half a gazillion watts of stereo sound; all of that. It was undoubtedly the most intense cinematic experience of my life.

'Our arrows shall blot out the sun!' 'Then we shall fight in the shade.'

I'm delighted to report that the movie was everything I'd hoped it would be. Visually stunning, deeply visceral, an incredibly faithful re-envisioning of the original Frank Miller graphic novel and an intensely cathartic storyline that was complemented throughout by a quite superb musical score (which I must get hold of on CD).

It took me right back to the first time I read Legend, or the first time I read the Battle of Helm's Deep in The Lord of the Rings. Heroic last stands, undaunted courage in the face of insurmountable odds, a fight to the death to defend your homeland and loved ones... I think that sort of thing speaks to something deep in the psyche of most fantasy fiction fans. I'm not enough of a psychologist to say what, exactly, it might be, but it's probably something to do with chivalry, with honour, with doing the right thing, even if it means you won't necessarily live to reap the rewards.

I know; a bit old-fashioned in this day and age, perhaps. But you show me a fantasy fan who tells you they're not just a bit old-fashioned, and I'll show you someone who's fooling themselves ;)

Needless to say, I'll be buying the DVD as soon as it appears. And quite possibly a bigger TV screen to play it on. Don't think Jo would let me install an IMAX - we'd probably have trouble with the planning permission - but hell, you need something huge to really do the movie justice. If you're thinking of seeing 300 at any point, don't wait for it to come out in a small-screen format. Shell out the cash, go to the cinema, sit back, relax, enjoy the spectacle. You'll be glad you did.

Quick Edit: There's an interview with art director and effects designer Grant Freckleton over at the CG Society website if you're interested in how they came up with those aforementioned stunning visuals...

Quick Edit II: Film mag Empire Online has a set of video interviews with Zack Snyder, Gerard Butler, Lena Headey and Rodrigo Santoro.

Quick Edit III: I re-read the graphic novel this lunchtime. Apart from the addition of the side-plot with the slimy politico back in Sparta (there to give Queen Gorgo some more screen time, I reckon) the movie is an incredibly faithful adaptation of the original. I mean, right down to some of the frame layouts, the dialogue, the posture of Xerxes as he lounges on his throne and sneers down at the remnants of the Spartan force... everything... superb.

March 26, 2007 | Filed Under Movies | 7 Comments

Fantasy casting: Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box

Let's face it, it's only a matter of time before Joe Hill's rather superb debut novel, Heart-Shaped Box, is made into the multi-million dollar Hollywood blockbuster it deserves to be.

So to help speed things along, a couple of weeks back Jo and I sat down and - after a few beers - sorted out the casting of the principle characters. No, no, don't thank us now, Hollywood. Just invite us to the L.A. Premiere or something. All expenses paid would be nice, it's a heck of a flight from Manchester.

Judas Coyne = Billy Bob Thornton - We both think he'd be prefect for the grizzled ex-rocker, especially if the photo on Jude's MySpace page is anything to go by.

Craddock = Gary Oldman. Who else could convey that sense of manic menace so well?

Georgia = Reese Witherspoon. We've seen her in Walk the Line, so we know she can do the accent, and I bet she'd goth up pretty durn good. Or Jo suggested Selma Blair, who wouldn't need to dye her hair or nuthin'.

Florida = Pick a random blonde. Heck, she'd only be on-screen for a few flashbacks and a cameo or two... there must be enough blondes in Hollywood to choose from, no? Suggest your own, if you feel strongly enough.

Comment away if you have better candidates in mind. No plot spoilers though, if you please!

March 16, 2007 | Filed Under Books, Movies | 10 Comments

300

Quick follow-up to the previous post, and the good news is it looks like I've got a week less to wait than I thought... 300 will be on general release in the UK on the 22nd of March. Joe Gordon's ever-informative FPI blog points the way to Warner Bros' UK 300 website. Trailers, posters, all sorts of multi-media goodness.

I've read a few comments elsewhere about 300's likely lack of plot, character development and so forth. I've read accusations of its ahistorical bias towards a modernised view of the concepts of democracy and freedom, and its glossing over of the historical Sparta's attitude towards slavery, the role of the female in society and the importance of homosexuality in the warrior classes as a means of forging stronger emotional links on the battlefield.

Well, I hear all that, but it doesn't make me want to see the movie any less. If I want to learn about the historical Sparta - and after seeing the film there's every chance that I will - then I'll read a history book. But 300 is a fantasy; a work of fiction. I want to see one thing from this movie, and one thing only: spectacle. It just has to be magnificent. And if it is, then for me that will make it a complete success...

February 24, 2007 | Filed Under Movies | 4 Comments

At the Movies: Hot Fuzz

Went to the cinema last Friday for the first time in about 18 months. Saw Hot Fuzz, the smash-hit Brit comedy starring two funnymen I've always got time for: Simon Pegg (Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, Run, Fat Boy, Run and more) and Nick Frost (Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, Hyperdrive et. al.) plus a vast range of cameo appearances by just about anybody who's anybody in British comedy acting.

Anyhow, great movie. A quite wonderful send-up of every cliché-ridden Hollywood buddy-cop blockbuster under the sun, but set in a sleepy Gloucestershire village (turns out it looked familiar for a reason: it was filmed in Wells, which isn't so far from where my Gran used to live, so I must have visited a fair few times as a lad).

Won't spoil the plot, or pre-empt any of the punchlines for you... you should just go see it. But don't bother buying the bucket of fizzy pop on the way in: you'll be in too much danger of snorting the stuff down your nose to be able to drink it.

And now that Jo and I have tentativley re-established the cinema-going habit, we might be tempted to check out a couple of new releases that my Odeon Cinemail tells me are out this week: The Good Shepherd looks like it might have potential, but is probably more likely to be Sky+ fodder for next year. The number 23 looks a bit more interesting. And the movie I really want to see on opening night, 300, isn't on general release until March 28th. But that one's a definite.

February 22, 2007 | Filed Under Movies | Leave a Comment

Watched 'Constantine', quite liked it. 'Elektra' was better…

This Friday night just gone, Jo was out at her work Xmas do and unlikely to return until the early hours. So, after spending a couple of hours of overtime on my current Big Project, I settled down to spend a few hours in the company of my usual vice-of-choice when the missus is out: Civilization IV (Warlords expansion) on the laptop, a couple of bottles of whatever beer happens to be in the fridge (in this case Leffe brun, with an option of an Old Ember for later on) and then I started channel-flicking on Sky.

Didn't take me long to find Elektra on Sky Movies 4; a film that I didn't rush to go see when it came out on account of having thoroughly enjoyed the comic and therefore wanting to avoid the let-down of paying money to go see some ropey adaptation full of o.t.t. SFX and with not much else going for it.

So I'm glad to report that I was pleasantly surprised; for the first half of the movie, at least. It was dark, almost sinister, and very, very stylish. Oriental demons cropping up all over the place, martial artistes leaping all over the screen, Jennifer Garner (a handsome woman, you have to admit) in that outfit... generally speaking it was all good stuff. And then... well, I don't want to commit wanton spolierage for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, so let's just say that human interest raised its all-too predictable Hollywood-shaped head, and everything got a bit too twee and nice for my liking. So I kept half an eye on the fight scenes, concentrated on guiding my fledgling empire through its tricky early expansion phase instead.

And then, scheduled straight after Elektra on the same channel, came Constantine. Now, I'll freely admit that I've had truly massive reservations about this movie, pretty much from the day that I heard Keanu "plank" Reeves was going to be playing John Constantine. It stems from my deep and abiding love of the Hellblazer series (as aforementioned here) and the fact that, well, Reeves is just so totally wrong for the part of the chain-smoking, wise-cracking, demon-thwarting (note: thwarting, not arse-kicking), British anti-hero John Constantine that I don't even know where to begin...

And you know what? It was every single bit as crap as I'd feared it would be, from the first blatant Exorcist-rip-off exorcism scene, through to the shoe-horning in of every single major plot strand and throw-away appearance of just about every interesting support character from the first sixty or seventy issues of the comic series; from the piss-poor character adaptation to the lousy attention to established detail.

Okay, I'll admit that some of the effects were quite interesting, as techno eye-candy goes, and again there was a nicely dark, atmospheric feel to most of the movie. But it just could have been so much better in so many ways, you know..?

And then, about a quarter of the way through - and just before I was going to reach for the remote and resort to MTV2 instead - I realised there was one long-established comics trope that could actually save the day and turn this execrable desecration of my favourite comics series into a half-watchable action movie.

So... what if, you know, what if, this was actually an Elseworlds-style alternative take on the whole Constantine mythos? What if the central concept of the movie itself was one big 'what if'? As in: "What if John Constantine was a wooden-faced American with a shocking inability to emote, limited vocal talent (but an oh, so photogenically square jaw), an all-too predictable penchant for big guns and gimmicks, and an aversion to proper khaki trench-coats? How would that look..?"

At that point, it did actually become half-watchably bearable. Looking at it as an average Hollywood action movie, something to put on in the background on a Friday night (as I made in-roads on the technology tree and wondered whether making a land-grab for the mineral-rich area on the Aztecs' border would over-stretch my economy and stifle my scientific development into the medieval period), it was... okay. So yeah, once I'd managed to put myself through the aforementioned mental gymnastics I kinda, sort of, quite liked it. But by 'eck, I had to suspend a whole Sci-Fi Channel mini-series' worth of disbelief in the first place...

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, by 1.30 a.m. I'd managed to pull off my usual trick of over-developing my core cities whilst neglecting my military build-up, so when the massed (and I do mean massed) ranks of Egyptian war chariots and horse archers appeared on the eastern horizon, my paltry defences were set to be swept aside in record time, and that was looking like the end of Asoka's Indian Empire... so I very sensibly switched off when Jo came home, and went to bed.

December 18, 2006 | Filed Under Gaming, Movies | 4 Comments