In what could be one of the unlikeliest director-project pairings to come down the pike in some time, Vulture is reporting that Fast & Furious franchise director Justin Lin is talking to Universal Pictures about directing L.A. Riots — a cinematic re-telling of the 1991 uprising that was sparked by four Los Angeles Police Department officers’ brutal beatdown of Rodney King.
According to the website, the project was first set up at Universal six years ago, with Spike Lee set to direct a script by Red Tails screenwriter John Ridley, but the studio wouldn’t give the Do The Right Thing filmmaker the $35 million he required to make the movie he wanted.
If Lin gets the green light, he’ll be making the picture for Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment, but it’s unclear whether he’ll still be using Ridley’s script.
Video of King’s vicious beating during a March 3, 1991 traffic stop became one of the most horrific and indelible images of that decade, and during the riots, the construction worker appeared on TV to utter his now-famous line: “Can we all get along?”
In June, King became news again when he was found dead at the bottom of the swimming pool at his California home. The February shooting of unarmed Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch coordinator for a gated community in Sanford, Fla., also recalled the incident.
Lin is currently shooting the sixth film in the Fast and Furious franchise, which is slated for a May 24, 2013 release date. According to Vulture, Universal is seeking to keep the director happy “by allowing him to tackle a topic that’s quite a bit more serious”, though budget remains a question. One talent agent told the website: “They didn’t want to make…
Full Story »Man, tip your cap to the marketing crew at 20th Century Fox, which redirected one of 2012’s most unfortunate current-events overlaps into a completely revised angle that it probably should have pursued in the first place. Behold: the new and improved teaser for The Watch, complete with introduction by star Vince Vaughn.
The actor unveiled the package last night during a surprise drop-in on Conan, where the host’s mock protest against unannounced guest appearances gave way to exactly that — just the thing the retitled summer comedy (née Neighborhood Watch) needed in the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin tragedy in Florida. Gone are the prowling, leering suburban vigilantes bringing to mind Martin shooter George Zimmerman, swapped out right up front for Vaughn, Ben Stiller, Jonah Hill and Richard Ayoade as a fierce, do-it-yourself, alien-hunting cadre.
(Skip to 1:55 for the teaser.)
OK, so still a little vigilante-ish and creepily gun-dependent in the end, but whatever. I laughed! Which is saying something, I guess, because that last trailer made this look almost wholly unsalvageable under the circumstances.
Also? Kudos to Fox for catching some of Men in Black 3’s alien-comedy buzz for the week. You’d be forgiven for thinking Conan hadn’t been able to book Josh Brolin for Thursday night.
High five to Fox for pulling their bullet-ridden Neighborhood Watch marketing materials from Florida theaters this week following the February killing of Trayvon Martin. Trying to get as much distance as possible from the teaser’s emphasis on grown men Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill, and Richard Ayoade stalking and finger-shooting suburban kids is a good idea and a sensitive move — not to mention a no-brainer necessity, PR-wise — so the studio’s forthcoming campaign will likely focus on the film’s “broad alien-invasion comedy” elements. But even four months from now, will it be too soon for Neighborhood Watch to make fun escapism out of vigilante violence?
A Fox representative explained the studio’s decision to THR:
“We are very sensitive to the Trayvon Martin case, but our film is a broad alien-invasion comedy and bears absolutely no relation to the tragic events in Florida,” a Fox spokesperson tells THR. “The movie, which is not scheduled for release for several months, was made and these initial marketing materials were released before this incident ever came to light. The teaser materials were part of an early phase of our marketing and were never planned for long-term use. Above all else, our thoughts go out to the families touched by this terrible event.”
Extending that retraction on a wider scale might even be in order, seeing as the media firestorm over Martin and his shooter, George Zimmerman, is now a national conversation and not just one for Floridians. Which brings us to the big question: Is the Trayvon Martin case too big, too incendiary, or just too heartbreaking for Neighborhood Watch to come out as planned, and perform well, in four…
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