Ted Tschopp's Blog

Where are you going to be May 22nd 2008

Well, looks like Junior is back and this time it's Aliens, Russians, and more werehouses full of toys. I can hardly wait!

Jurassic Park Jumps the...

Looks like there is a rumor running around the net about a Jurassic Park IV featuring "a government who has trained dinosaurs to carry weapons and use them for battle purposes."

I'm ok with this as long as the Dinosaurs win and drive humanity under ground. The sequal would be called "Xenozoic Tales" aka “  I think I still have some of the books from back in the day.

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Spielberg and Jackson to direct Tintin

OK, so most of my friends don’t know this, but in my youth I was a huge fan of Tintin.  I own a bunch of the books.  Additionally, I would check the books out of the library over and over and over again.  While the books are a bit more European / Global, I enjoyed them as an American boy.  In addition to Tintin, I also enjoyed Asterix, and I own many of the books as well. 

So when I saw this news today I reacted the way many of my friends probably did when they first heard that HellBoy or the 300 was being made into a movie.  Anyway, here are the details

Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson have teamed to produce a trilogy of Tintin feature films, with each director helming at least one of the features.

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Film Snob

I’m starting to feel like I’m a film snob.  I’m putting together a list of movies that seem interesting to me, and I can categorize them into two lists.  Movies with a stupid amount of money spent on them and movies that look truly interesting.  There seems to be a common thread in most movies that peek my interest.  Each of the interesting films seem to come from places outside the United States.  Paprika is from Japan, while Day Watch is from Russia. 

I fear the trend is growing.   Here is a complete list of films that I enjoyed last year: Pan’s Labrynth (from a Mexican director filming in Spain) and Children of Men (from a Mexican director filming in the UK), The Illusionist (almost an American Film), The Prestige (American), Lady in the Water (American), Brick (American), Casino Royale (UK), Fearless (Chinese). 

Paprika
This movie is from Japan, and is animated.  The plot sounds interesting and unusual.  The themes are about reality, humanity, and the mind.  I don’t know if I’d ever want to see it made into a live action film, as it might be a bit too disturbing.  Can’t be all that bad, an animated film that’s rated R. 

In the future, a revolutionary new psychotherapy treatment called PT has been invented. Through a device called the "DC Mini" it is able to act as a "dream detective" to view inside people's dreams and explore their unconscious thoughts. Before the government can pass a bill authorizing the use of such advanced psychiatric technology, one of the prototypes is stolen, sending the research facility into an uproar. In the wrong hands, the potential misuse of the device could be devastating, allowing the user to completely annihilate a dreamer's personality while they are asleep. Renowned scientist, Dr. Atsuko Chiba, enters the dream world under her exotic alter-ego - "Paprika" - assisted by Detective Kogawa Toshimi (the victim of bizarre recurring dreams), in an attempt to discover who is behind the plot to undermine the new invention.

Soon, dream and reality blend to a point of being indistinguishable from one another.

Day Watch
This movie is a sequel to another Russian Film called Night Watch.  The original beat out Star Wars when it was released in Moscow.  The books the movie is based on are very different, but also very good.  And yes, that’s a screen capture from the movie of a Mazda Miata driving on the side of an apartment building.

It has been some time since the grand finale of the original film (Night Watch). Anton  continues to fight the forces of Darkness while simultaneously attempting to find and save his son from the clutches of those same forces. But when vampires belonging to the Dark side start mysteriously being killed, and Anton is framed for their murders, he must put that goal on hold and try to escape the Day Watch that is looking for his blood.

At Worlds End; Pirates of the Caribbean
Ok, obviously this is an example of a movie that falls into the category of “I don’t care how much it costs” production.  It will basically be another ILM effects reel that has a bit of story and funny lines thrown in.  And it’s got Pirates.  Too bad it’s not rated aaRRRRRrr!

After Elizabeth, Will, and Captain Barbossa rescue Captain Jack Sparrow  from the clutches of the Kraken, they must face their foes, Davey Jones  and Lord Cutler Beckett. Beckett, now with control of Jones' heart, forms a dark alliance with him in order to rule the seas and wipe out the last of the Pirates. Now, Jack, Barbossa, Will, Elizabeth, Tia Delma, and crew must call the Pirate Lords from the four corners of the globe, including the infamous Sao Feng, to a gathering that will make their final stand against Beckett, Jones, Norrington, the Flying Dutchman, and the entire East India Trading Company.

Day Watch Trailer now available on Apple

The sequel to Night Watch, the movie that destroyed Star Wars in Russia, has been posted to Apple. I would recommend getting a copy of the books that these movies are based on as they are much better than the movies they are based on.

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The Screwtape Letters to be Filmed

Walden Media has aquired the rights to film The Screwtape letters.  The film will be produced through Walden’s Bristoy Bay Productions.  Bristol has produced “Ray” and “Sahara”.  Ralph Winters Productions “The Fantastic Four” and “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” will directly produce the film.  The picture is being described as a midbudget, primarily live-action film embodying Christian Themes.

Source: Variety

Pictures From The Two Towers Premier

Here are a couple pictures I found recently from my trip to the Premier of the Two Towers a couple years back.  Thought I would post them here instead of on the Tolkien site for others to enjoy.  I have a bunch more I should post as well, these are Liv Tyler and Orlando Bloom.

 

HBO to do Fire and Ice series... and George Cloony to do Diamond Age

Did you hear that?  That was the sound of a million geeks falling over dead with pleasure comas.

Here is the information about Diamond Age and Cloony, and here is the information about Fire and Ice.

I personally feel that its final proof the world is going to end soon as there is some holy and devout geek out there who has been praying “God please don’t destroy the human race until ________ has been made into a movie.”  Of course that blank would be, Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, Fire and Ice, and Diamond Age.

For all of you who have not read George R. R. Martin or Neal Stephenson, you are missing out on some of the best fiction written in the last 20 years.  Just a word of caution, both books are rated a strong R if they were to be movies.

Books, Movies, and The Children of Men

I finished reading Children of Men this weekend.  The book is a social commentary on Sex, Family, Love, Hope, and Religion.  With this being said, it is a very honest and open look at issues man has surrounding these important dynamics in our lives.  In many cases I found it sad. This as the desired effect as the book is a dystopia.  The book itself ends on an up note, but everything is not all happy as there is a warning wrapped in it.

I think the book will be one of the top 5 to 10 books I’ve read in my lifetime.

Also this weekend, I went and saw the movie Children of Men.  What was most fascinating about the movie is what has changed.  The most vivid example of the difference between the books and movie is that Luke in the books is a white Episcopalian Priest with epilepsy.  In the movies he is a black terrorist who is second in command of the Fishes.  Another example of the differences is the movie starts around chapter 20 of a book with only 32 chapters.   Overall the themes of the movie are Hope, Politics, Justice, and Freedom.  Missing are all the themes of Family, Sexuality, and Love. 

Don’t get me wrong, I think the movie is good, but it suffers from the politics of the five sceenplay writers.  Also the movie has some of the strongest documentry style scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie.  One sequence near the end of the movie is amazing when you think it’s all one continous shot.

Of course as always I could spend many hours blabbering on about both works of art.  But I think I’ll end with the Psalm that the author used as the title of the book.  It should be noted that his Psalm is a written by Moses.

Psalm 90
Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.  Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.  Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.

The Rattle Inside my Head

If I had to draw a picture of what is inside my head, it would look something like a large network of lines and topics that are connected. So when you go to the movie section of my brain you will see a long list of actors, directors, studios, and writers.  Additionally you will se a long list of movies and television shows.  There are lines that connect each person to the project they worked on. 

So last night Tom told me that the director of  La Cité des enfants perdus and El Laberinto del Fauno were the same person.  Now at first this didn’t make sense, my mind didn’t have those connections. They were two seperate people.  I thought about it did the following calculations.  Ron Perlman is in  La Cité des enfants perdus and in Alien: Resurrection which I know are both by the same director.  Additionally, I know that Rom Perlman is in Hellboy and in Blade II, and I know that Guillermo del Toro directed those three movies.  I also know that directors have people they like to work with.  

But that’s not enough I need more.  I know that the director of  La Cité des enfants perdus had done a lot of great work, and at the time that it came out a lot of actors were trying to get into his projects.  This is why Winona Ryder was in such a stinker.  That doesn’t give me any more information about the director, but it might explain why all of a sudden there is a break in my mind with the director of La Cité des enfants perdus career and then I finally put a name to the guy.  But this still isn’t enough.

I look at the movies La Cité des enfants perdus and Alien: Resurrection both have young females that act as the hero who overcomes some rather adult problems.  Additionally El Laberinto del Fauno features a young female dealing with very real adult problems.   Additionally both are fairy tales centered on a theme of rescuing the younger brother from the “belly of the beast.”  Ron Perlman in La Cité des enfants perdus and the Faun from El Laberinto del Fauno play the same character mythically speaking. 

Finally I am willing to accept this, but my problems still linger.  Why did the director go from doing French films to Spanish films?  Also Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain and Un long dimanche de fiançailles  do not fit into a schedule that allows for Hellboy and Blade II. 

So all night I kept saying “I can’t believe that they are the same people.”  I must have said it at least ten times.  But I qualified my acceptance that I would check IMDB and lay the matter to rest.