So there’s a new Pacific Rim trailer out. It’s not a whole lot different from the last one that was released, and, like the last one, it leaves me with one big suspension-of-disbelief problem.
I can’t say I’m a student of the whole Gundam/Jaeger/Voltron school of big bad-ass mechanical suits, but every time I see the scene — that’s been in both trailers — in which two side-by-side soldiers operate the legs of the fighting machine by running in place, I have to ask, why would any defense contractor build a weapon that would requite more than one independent-thinking individual to operate it? I know that there’s some kind of neural piloting system called “pons” that keeps everyone in the Jaeger operating as one, but, I mean, those soldiers look pretty strapped in place. What if one of them gets a cramp?
It looks like Guillermo Del Toro is going for a Real Steel meets Fritz Lang’s Metropolis by way of Michael Bay’s Transformers-type vibe, but I keep thinking that, on a logical level, operating one of these Jaegers would be a coordination nightmare, particularly in the heat of battle. And if I had Idris Elba yelling in my earpiece all day, I’d have an even bigger problem staying in sync.
Also, if you look at this Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) video, the future of robotic warfare looks like the only humans required will be those operating the remote controls. (That AlphaDog just won’t go down.) Why make it more complicated than that?
I’m betting that some Pacific Rim super fan out there will have answers to my questions and restore logic and balance to my world. Leave them in the comments section below.
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Brace yourselves, people: in an alternate galaxy far, far away, there is a Guillermo Del Toro-helmed Star Wars film in development.
Rampant speculation being the most powerful side effect of the Living Force, it’s no wonder that last year’s shocking news that we’ll soon all be watching – and probably complaining about – Star Wars: Episode 7 has resulted in endless guessing from the Jeditariat. When we’re not gushing about possible plot points, or the fact that the new film might feature a female lead. We’re talking about the most common subject of baseless and not-so-baseless guesswork: Just who will be directing it?
With George Lucas retiring, the possibility of a somewhat clean slate for the Star Wars universe after the mess made of it by the prequel trilogy is enough to make even the most bitter ex-fan drool. In the weeks after the initial announcement of Episode 7, several directors were consistently mentioned as potential hirees. At the time it seemed like nothing more than wish fulfillment fantasies and baseless rumor, but it’s beginning to look as though the rumored names reflected very real prospects.
One of the most frequently mentioned names was Pan’s Labyrinth and Pacific Rim director Guillermo Del Toro. In November, Del Toro outright denied having been approached by Disney, but speaking this week to The Playlist he finally confirmed that he was, in fact, asked if he’d like the job. “We got one phone call to my agent saying, ‘Is Guillermo interested?’,” the director said. “And basically I have so much stuff already of my own, and I’m pursuing stuff that I’m generating already…”
He offered no other comment, aside from affirming that he’d love to see Brad Bird take the job, but…
Full Story »Though Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows doesn’t come out until December, the third installment of the flashy Arthur Conan Doyle series already has a screenwriter: Iron Man 3 scribe Drew Pearce. Pearce also wrote a bit on Pacific Rim, Guillermo del Toro’s alien invasion movie that he’ll start shooting soon in Toronto. I suppose this means we won’t be returning to the simpler Basil Rathbone world of ol’ Sherl any time soon. I want quaintness! [Deadline]
Full Story »Years before Guillermo del Toro made a name for himself with dark box office hits like Blade II, Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy, Miramax gave the director a $30 million budget to film the insect horror film Mimic. At the time of its 1997 release, del Toro distanced himself from the studio-manipulated sci-fi flick — about a killer strain of bugs created by a well-meaning entomologist (Mira Sorvino) — but on September 27, Lionsgate releases a director’s cut Blu-ray of which del Toro finally approves. Ahead, find an exclusive clip from one of the Blu-ray’s new features in which the director discusses how he made Mimic an ‘A-Movie.’
The Mimic director’s cut, available tomorrow, will include seven minutes of restored footage as well as bonus materials created especially for its release including an audio commentary, a video prologue from the director and three featurettes. Find it on Amazon or your favorite digital retailer.
Full Story »· The long gestating Gravity, Alfonso Cuarón’s follow-up to Children of Men, has an Oscar-friendly release date, an all-star cast (George Clooney and Sandra Bullock), and now the blessing of Guillermo del Toro. “Amazing things,” del Toro said to MTV when asked what he knows about Cuarón’s progress. “What Alfonso was trying is so insane, and Jim [Cameron] said, ‘You know, you’re about five years into the future. It’s too early to try anything that crazy.’ They did it.” Click through to watch del Toro gush about his friend, then stick around for more Buzz Break.
Get More: Movie Trailers, Movies Blog
[via MTV Movies Blog]
· This video of 25 great improvised scenes in movie history has been knocking around online since July, but that doesn’t make it any less awesome. Click through to watch. [The Daily What]
· Here’s a potential teaser post for American Reunion, but note that the website listed at the bottom directs to a fan site. Cool teaser, though, whether or not it’s actually legit. [Coming Soon]
· Jean-Claude Van Damme will play a “retired military advisor” in the low budget sci-fi flick UFO. [THR]
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Be still, my Nicolas Winding Refn-loving heart! The redband trailer for the Ryan Gosling-starrer Drive that debuted today at Comic-Con has hit the web, providing a taste of the taut, gorgeous crime thriller-romance that Refn co-panelist Guillermo del Toro went bananas over today in Hall H. Do yourself a favor and watch this, already!
Gosling stars in Drive as a quiet, unassuming young Los Angeleno — Hollywood stunt man by day, getaway driver by night — who falls for the young mother (Carey Mulligan) who lives next door. Only problem is, her husband’s fresh out of jail, and he needs help with one last job.
What ensues is a stylish L.A.-set “fairytale” of sorts, not to mention a heart-wrenching romance and killer electronic soundtrack. The redband trailer does a good job of conveying the arc and escalation of the film without giving too much away; suffice to say, Gosling’s stoic, silent act belies an antihero capable of inflicting incredible violence in the name of protecting his loved ones, and Albert Brooks makes the most captivating and unlikely villains in recent memory.
FilmDistrict releases Drive on September 16. Read more from the Drive panel live-blog here.
[via IGN Movies]
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For fanboys, a sigh of relief; the just-announced schedule of events for Thursday at this year’s Comic-Con will slate ladies first, generally speaking, as The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn holds its presentation early in the day, thus allowing for thousands of sweaty non-Twilighter geeks to pack Hall H in time for their most-anticipated panels. Official Breaking Dawn panel times and more from Thursday’s schedule after the jump!
Summit’s Breaking Dawn panel will take place from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. in Hall H, with filmmakers and possibly all three leads in attendance to unveil exclusive footage from the November release. Will K-Stew, R-Pattz, and Taylor Lautner show up again to incite deafening screams and test fire safety capacity numbers in Comic-Con’s biggest forum? It seems likely, but is still unconfirmed. Either way, Twi-hards are expected to camp out in line overnight to be first into Hall H.
The move is smart on Comic-Con’s organizers’ part, as scheduling Twilight first should alleviate fanboy concerns that Twilight fans will suck up all the space in Hall H before other big studio presentations of the day — which include Sony Pictures Animation’s panel (Arthur Christmas, The Pirates! Band of Misfits), FilmDistrict’s double team of Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark and Nicholas Winding Refn’s Drive, 20th Century Fox’s as-yet unnamed titles, Robert Rodriguez’s Quick Draw Productions line-up, and EW’s annual Visionaries panel, this year featuring Guillermo del Toro and Jon Favreau in conversation.
Meanwhile, yours truly will be in Room 5AB from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, July 21, participating in the annual Masters of the Web panel alongside online writers Peter Sciretta (Slashfilm.com), Anne Thompson (Thompson…
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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Or, rather: First came the agony — the surprise shut-down of production on his ambitious At the Mountains of Madness — but now filmmaker Guillermo del Toro is having a ball prepping his next directorial effort, the futuristic alien invasion action movie Pacific Rim. He spoke with Movieline about the two projects while making the press rounds for Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark.
“At the Mountains… it’s tragic what happened,” del Toro recalled. He and screenwriter Matthew Robbins, his co-writer on Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, had tried to get the film off the ground for years, and he’d been working closely with would-be star Tom Cruise to start production on the H.P. Lovecraft adaptation earlier this year. “We were very close to it. We were doing the movie together, Tom and I, and we loved the screenplay passionately.”
“I worked with Tom for a long, long time — many, many months. We were very close in the partnership in creating it, and when it collapsed, it collapsed four days before we opened offices in Toronto. So it was a big surprise. But you know what? I think it’s either going to happen one day in the right way, or I really think the worst thing that can happen to a movie like that is for it to get filmed the wrong way. There are two ways of preserving the greatness of a movie: Making it, or not making it. But what you cannot do is make it the wrong way because you needed to make it, that’s silly.”
Del Toro’s currently in prep for Pacific Rim,…
Full Story »The summer of 2013 just got a little more exciting: Warner Bros. has announced that they’ll release Guillermo del Toro’s sci-fi action pic Pacific Rim on July 12, 2013. The alien invasion film is set to star Idris Elba, Charlie Hunnam, and Charlie Day and begins filming this November; del Toro has described the Travis Beacham-penned project as his biggest film to date, so expect a summer monsterpalooza, del Toro-style. [Deadline]
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Before Sunday night’s L.A. Film Fest premiere of the August horror pic Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark succumbed to an unfortunate series of annoyances — a fire alarm temporarily evacuated the theater midway through, while chaos reigned at the post-screening cell phone check — producer and co-writer Guillermo del Toro emphasized what, hopefully, will make Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark memorable: Its “pervasive scariness,” so terrifying that the MPAA deemed it too frightening for its intended rating.
“This movie was in mind for a PG-13, but I will say with great honor the non-negotiable R-rating from the MPAA, I wear as a badge of honor,” del Toro quipped before the screening. “Whatever they saw that they thought was ‘R,’ we didn’t want to cut. So I don’t know why, but it’s an R for ‘pervasive scariness.’”
“It’s like getting an award for sexiness; I’ll take it.” He paused. “It hasn’t happened yet.”
The film stars Katie Holmes (in her biggest film since 2008’s Mad Money) as an interior designer restoring a spooky Gothic mansion with her architect boyfriend (Guy Pearce). His young daughter Sally (Bailee Madison) comes to live with them and discovers supernatural fairy-like creatures living in the basement — creatures that are so very hungry.
Del Toro and co-writer Matthew Robbins adapted the film from the 1973 TV horror movie of the same name. Between the film’s young protagonist and its non-gory but very, very effective shocks, it makes for the kind of scary movie that made you pull the bedsheets over your head, in a good way, as a kid. For del Toro, recapturing that bygone…
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