District 9

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/movie/22717751/review/29554758/district_9

District 9
Starring: Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, David James, Mandla Gaduka, William Allen Young
Directed by: Neill Blomkamp
2009 Sony Pictures/Screen Gems Sci-Fi

Fanboys were orgasmic when producer Peter Jackson previewed District 9 at July's Comic-Con in San Diego. Variety tagged it the "thinking person's alien movie." I'm assuming Transformers 2 is the stupid person's version. And since Michael Bay's attack on the human thought process has already grossed $380 million in the U.S. alone, District 9 has its work cut out. Smart sci-fi movies, such as Duncan Jones' Moon, are typically shuttled to the indie ghetto.

Not this time. Jackson and South African writer-director Neill Blomkamp have made District 9 a thriller-diller that trades in ideas without forgetting to go whup-ass on your nervous system. The R-rated District 9 is all kinds of awesome — and not just to geeks. Blomkamp, 29, is a talent to watch. Raised in Johannesburg before moving to Canada, he dreamed of combining his interest in sci-fi with the tormented world of racism and xenophobia he grew up in. District 9 is an expansion of the six-minute short Alive in Joburg that he made in 2005, which Jackson had already admired. Using a documentary style, with harsh lighting and hand-held cameras, he sets the scene for the vividly real horrors that follow.

A spaceship hovers over Johannesburg. It stalled there 28 years ago, when apartheid policies segregated nonwhites into Soweto-like townships. Alien refugees have been closed off from humans in the slums of District 9. Despite their mental acuity, they are demeaned as "prawns" for their crustacean-shell armor and the mouth tentacles that wiggle madly when they speak in gurgles, in our language and in their own.

Blomkamp and co-writer Terri Tatchell are not above having a laugh at, say, the aliens' jones for cat food, cans and all, and the popularity of interspecies prostitution. But there is serious business in watching the world grow bored as the aliens fail to put on fireworks for the media by attacking or showing off. Instead, they follow the human model and form gangs, hassle cops, deal with Nigerian drug dealers and — yes — plan an escape by covertly building weapons.

It's the artillery that brings in Multi-National United (MNU), the private-interest group out to make a killing from learning how alien DNA can unleash firepower. Gruesome experiments are performed in secret labs, and a plan is initiated to ship the aliens off to District 10, which is a concentration camp.

Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copely) is the MNU agent in charge of the move to District 10. Wikus starts out as a dupe of his MNU father-in-law. But once infected by an alien virus that turns him into a prawn, he learns hard lessons at the hands of MNU killer Koobus (a hissable David James). Their climactic faceoff is tremendously exciting. But the soul of the movie resides in Wikus' relationship with two alien characters, Christopher Johnson (the superb Jason Cope) and his son, the computer-generated Little C.J. It's here that the film — with reference points from Alien to Cloverfield — grows into an intimate epic. You'll be wowed by Copley. His heart-rending tour de force deserves comparison to Jeff Goldblum's in The Fly. And to me, that's high praise. District 9, with a chump-change budget of $30 million, soars on the imagination of its creators. This baby has the stuff to end the movie summer on a note of dazzle and distinction.

PETER TRAVERS
Aug 13, 2009

'Monsters vs. Aliens' buzz gives boost to 3D

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/03/27/3d.monstersvsaliens/

'Monsters vs. Aliens' buzz gives boost to 3D revolution
Story Highlights
Buzz around "Monsters vs. Aliens" adds new momentum to drive for fully 3D industry
Economic slowdown affected introduction of 3D screens and projectors in cinemas
Other 3D films, like James Cameron's sci-fi "Avatar," slated for 2009 release
British film critic, Nick De Semlyen on 3D: "It's a revolution"
By Neil Curry
3-27-9

DreamWorks Animation's 3D movie, "Monsters vs. Aliens" should give Hollywood's new medium of choice a welcome boost in tough economic times.

It is a welcome boost to the 3D schedule: The introduction of special screens and digital projectors into cinemas across the world has have slowed in the last six months along with the economy.

Instead of the 5,000 3D screens expected to roll out, the figure is closer to 2,000, as the cost of installing new technology during the downturn causes pause for thought.

The release of "Monsters vs. Aliens," along with the recent announcement that Pixar 3D animation, "Up" will open the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in May, should give Hollywood's new medium of choice a lift.

"Monsters vs. Aliens," which U.S. movie industry bible, Variety describes as "'Monsters, Inc.' Meets 'War of the Worlds'" features a fight between a collection of well-loved movie monsters ( think 1950s B-movie characters like a 50 ft woman, a friendly amorphous blob, and a genius cockroach scientist) and alien invaders who want to take over Earth.

The brains behind the feature -- which has an all-star cast including Reese Witherspoon and Kiefer Sutherland -- are Rob Letterman, the writer-director of Will Smith animated pic, "Shark Tale" and Conrad Vernon, the director of "Shrek 2."

The film is one of a number of 3D films, like James Cameron's sci-fi "Avatar," already in production that are slated for 2009 and 2010 release.

Of course, 3D is not new: Films like "The Creature from the Black Lagoon" and "It Came from Outer Space" first emerged during the affluent years of the 1950s, but because 3D was quite gimmicky the medium fell into decline and exhibitors turned their attention to other technologies.

"Monsters vs. Aliens" is one of the new breed of 3D movies, projected digitally and very immersive for audiences, that Hollywood is hoping will lure paying audiences out of the comfort of their living rooms and back into cinemas.

"Hollywood is throwing themselves into 3D like never before," said Nick De Semlyen, critic for British movie magazine, Empire.

"All the big directors from Spielberg to Peter Jackson from 'Lord of the Rings,' they are making 3D films and it's looking like pretty much every big film is going to be in 3D in the next couple years ... It's a huge thing, it's a revolution."

"Monsters vs. Aliens" is the first film that DreamWorks Animation, the Hollywood giant behind movies like the "Shrek" franchise, "Madagascar" and last year's "Kung Fu Panda," has designed from scratch as a purely 3D movie.

Dennis Laws is Chief Projectionist at the BFI IMAX, which is home to the UK's biggest cinema screen and also has 3D capability. He told CNN, "It's the first film from DreamWorks that was designed from the very beginning to be in 3D and DreamWorks are very proud of the fact."

DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg is probably 3D's most devoted advocate. He has said that the medium's introduction may be as significant to the movies as sound, and that all DreamWorks animations will be made in 3D from now on.

"Mr Katzenberg was so articulate in explaining what he wanted to do, and it was very different than anything that I had ever heard of before, which was 3-D used as a gimmick in a film," Keifer Sutherland told CNN at the UK premiere of "Monsters vs. Aliens." Watch Kiefer Sutherland talking about "Monsters vs. Aliens"

"He actually wanted to envelope the audience in the movie and make you feel like you were part of the scene.

"That not only knocks down the fourth wall between the movie and the audience but it also furthers telling the story."

With commercial 3D still in its infancy, all eyes are on each new release to take in the advances in the technology, which is moving forward very quickly.

"The technology is growing really fast," De Semlyen told CNN, "It's very exciting."

Mairi Mackay contributed to this story.

Spielberg casts British teenager as Tintin

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/03/28/bbtintin128.xml

Spielberg casts British teenager as Tintin
By Lucy Cockcroft
28/03/2008

A British teenager has been selected by Steven Spielberg to star as Tintin in a series of three films about the boy journalist.

Thomas Sangster, 17, who played the role of Liam Neeson’s step son in Love Actually, had originally sent an audition tape to the Hollywood director hoping to snare a role in The Talisman, a project which never got off the ground.

Instead Spielberg realised he had found the boy who could play Tintin, the young adventurer created by Belgian cartoonist and writer Georges Prosper Remi, better known by his pen name of Hergé.

Spielberg has been working with The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson on how to bring Tintin, instantly recognisable by his blonde quiff and faithful side-kick Snowy the dog, to life.

All the regular characters are expected to be in the new movies, including the oafish detectives Thomson and Thompson and the virtually deaf Professor Cuthbert Calculus. Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in the adaptation of Tolkien’s books, has already been cast as Tintin’s friend Captain Haddock.

But it is not yet known which of the 23 Tintin stories will be filmed. And while Spielberg will direct one and Jackson one, it is still not known who will direct the third. They will be filmed back to back in the US and New Zealand, using the latest 3D technology.

Spielberg said: “We want Tintin’s adventures to have the reality of a live action film and yet Peter and I felt that shooting them in a traditional live action format would simply not honour the distinctive look of the characters and world that Hergé created.

“The idea is that the films will look neither like cartoons nor like computer-generated animation. We’re making them look photo-realistic, the fibres of their clothing, the pores of their skin and each individual hair. They look exactly like real people - but real Hergé people.”

More than 200 million copies of Hergé’s The Adventures of Tintin books, a series written between 1929 until his death in 1983, have been sold around the world.

Del Toro a Hobbit-Forming Director

http://www.eonline.com/news/article/index.jsp?uuid=c4fe9cef-bd34-436a-9144-ae73e4ba1c69

Del Toro a Hobbit-Forming Director
by Natalie Finn
1-28-5

After delving into Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth, MiddleEarth shouldn't feel like that much of a descent for Guillermo del Toro.

The Academy Award-nominated writer-director is reportedly in talks to helm back-to-back epics adapted from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, which, after various delays, are finally going forward with Peter Jackson set to produce for New Line Cinema and MGM.

A rep for New Line had no comment on the purported negotiations, but del Toro's name has been on a short list of auteurs who could do the fantastical source material justice ever since the studios announced Jackson was back on board.

"I’ve heard some rumblings, but nothing official," del Toro told Entertainment Weekly last month when asked if he'd been approached for the job. "I don’t want to think about it because it’s such an eventuality. It’s the only Tolkien book I read...I read it and I loved it. So it would be a privilege."

The fate of the Lord of the Rings prequel remained in doubt for several years while Jackson, who struck box office gold with his Oscar-winning Rings trilogy, tangled with New Line over royalties.

Lucky for Bilbo Baggins fans, the two sides settled up last month and are ready to proceed with plans for two Hobbit films, which they're planning to shoot one after the other with a budget estimated at $150 million per picture.

Jackson, who has been busy adapting the bestselling novel The Lovely Bones for the big screen and has signed on to share directing duties with Steven Spielberg on a series of Tintin movies, had to pass on helming The Hobbit himself.

Principal photography is tentatively scheduled to begin next year with an eye on respective release dates in 2010 and 2011, but no screenwriters have been hired yet thanks to the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike, now in its 13th week.

Del Toro, who earned an Oscar nod for his original screenplay for Pan's Labyrinth, and Jackson, who shared adapted-screenplay honors in 2004 with wife Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, will oversee the writing process, whenever it comes to pass.

Tolkien fans, at least, have been largely positive about the idea of del Toro handling their beloved dwarves and elves, although some are concerned that he might cast a dark shadow over the production.

"Well, all I can say is I certainly can think of directors that I would not want to see touch TH with a 10-foot pole, and del Toro is NOT one of them," wrote the Watcher on LOTR supersite the One Ring. "I do agree with some others here that I fear he alone might make a very dark and disturbing version, but with P.J. on board and New Line basically really needing this film to work, I think it might be pulled off."

"I have hoped that P.J. and del Toro would be working together, it was only a pipe dream," mused Ari-Anna on the One Ring."And it will either be phenomenal or a bust. I am hoping for the first."

At least he didn't come up in an old discussion of "nightmare" Hobbit directors. Those shunned included George Lucas, M. Night Shyamalan, Spike Lee (they probably didn't have to worry there), Sam Raimi, Alfonso Cuarón, Michael Bay, Tim Burton and David Lynch (again, nothing to lose sleep over).

Before making an international splash with Pan's Labyrinth, a horror-tinged fantasy about a young girl seeking respite from her tyrannical stepfather in 1930s-era Spain, del Toro was responsible for the sci-fi thriller Mimic, the vampire-action sequel Blade II and the hit adaptation of the comic book Hellboy.

The 43-year-old filmmaker, who was mentioned frequently last year alongside Babel director Alejandro González Iñárritu and scribe Guillermo Arriaga as one of the Mexican-born masters of cinema taking Hollywood by storm, is currently in postproduction on Hellboy II: The Golden Army and recently executive produced the Spanish-language horror film The Orphanage.

Peter Jackson won't helm 'The Hobbit'

http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2007/12/no-jackson-will.html

Peter Jackson's manager says the director won't helm 'The Hobbit'
Dec 18, 2007
by Missy Schwartz
Categories: Movie Biz, The Hobbit

As Hollywood Insider reported earlier today, Peter Jackson will executive produce The Hobbit and a sequel, both set to go into pre-production as soon as possible. But although MGM president Harry Sloan told Hollywood Insider there was a chance Jackson himself might end up directing the films, Jackson’s manager Ken Kamins tells HI that was not possible:

“Peter won’t be directing the films because he felt the fans have waited long enough for The Hobbit," Kamis said. "It will take the better part of every day of the next four years to write, direct, and produce the two Hobbit films. Given his current obligations to both The Lovely Bones and Tintin, waiting for Peter, Fran [Walsh, Jackson's life/creative partner), and Philippa [Boyens, co-writer/co-producer] to write, direct, and produce The Hobbit would require the fans wait even longer. By serving as executive producers and having approval over all creative elements of both films, Peter can ensure that the films will be made with the same intimacy and care as if they were writing and directing themselves.”

Despite rumors that Sam Raimi, Alfonso Cuarón, or Guillermo del Toro will be taking over directing duties, sources say that no decisions have been made on that subject, nor has a writer been chosen.

According to New Line co-chief Bob Shaye, the studio plans to meet with Jackson in early 2008 and begin the development process. “All decisions about writers and directors will be made in conjunction with Peter,” Shaye told HI. Another source confirmed that Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens will have director, writer, and cast approval.

It will take some time before anyone begins penning a script for The Hobbit because of the ongoing writers’ strike and Jackson's schedule -- the director is in Pennsylvania shooting The Lovely Bones until February. But surely Jackson is planning a big ole bender back in New Zealand, right? “Honestly, I haven’t talked to Peter!” said Kamins, laughing. “He just got home from Pennsylvania last night!”

-- Additional reporting by Nicole Sperling

'The Hobbit' is a go with Peter Jackson

http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2007/12/its-back-to-mid.html

'The Hobbit' is a go with Peter Jackson
Dec 18, 200
by Nicole Sperling

Categories: Movie Biz, The Hobbit

It's back to Middle Earth for Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and the boys from New Line. Finally, the years of disputes have ended, and the partners (including co-producer and co-distributor MGM) are gearing up for two new Hobbit movies. EW investigated, talking to the parties behind the negotiations to uncover how everything got resolved, and to get an idea of what viewers can expect of these adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's original literary masterpiece. Here's the lowdown:
Jackson and his life/creative partner Walsh have always envisioned the big-screen adaptation of The Hobbit as two movies. The first would deal with the 80-year old novel. The second, imagined entirely by Jackson and Walsh, would link the conclusion of The Hobbit to the start of the first Lord of the Rings book, The Fellowship of the Ring. New Line and Jackson will develop the properties over the next year with hopes of entering into pre-production by 2009 for a 2010 and 2011 release. No writers, including Jackson, Walsh, and their longtime partner Philippa Boyens, have been commissioned. (None can be, because of the strike.)