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Vin Diesel to kickass in a Scifi flick called BABYLON A.D.!?!?
Hey folks, Harry here... Seems Vin "I gargle with rubbing alcohol" Diesel is working to star in a Futuristic Thriller (boy Variety likes that word today) based on a French SciFi novel entitled BABYLON BABIES, but retitled BABYLON A.D.
Publisher's Weekly says this about the Novel:
Explosive and paranoid, this futuristic fable by French sci-fi novelist Dantec explores the frightening ramifications of genetic experimentation. In a constantly shifting world conflict circa 2013, violent-minded (though well-read) Hugo Cornelius Toorop, a 20-year Special Forces veteran of the Bosnian conflict, is offered a lucrative new job by the Siberian mafia in Kazakhstan to transport a young woman to Montreal. Who is Marie Zorn, and what does she carry that is top secret? Armed with new identities and the requisite grenades, Hugo, along with his expert team—the gun-happy Israeli Rebecca Waterman and the hard-core Belfast rebel Dowie—get her to Montreal, where it becomes clear that Marie is a pawn in a vast, pernicious artificial biosphere program and that, moreover, she's pregnant, feared to be carrying an animal clone, and thus contaminated. The nimble, hyperbolic Dantec creates a surreal alternate identity for her on the streets of Quebec through a kind of virtual death. Toorop is pressed by a New Age army of cyborgs (aka Cosmic Dragons) to find Marie and bring her back, and under drug experiments he penetrates the double helix to achieve a surprisingly humanistic conclusion. Riddled with acronyms and pop culture allusions, this is an intense, intellectually labyrinthine ride.
Who is directing this very interesting sci-fi fare? Well Mathieu Kassovitz. If you're foreign film impaired, then you probably just know him from the limp GOTHIKA, but if you've been a bit more exploratory - you might be familiar with his very cool films, THE CRIMSON RIVERS and LA HAINE! Or you might remember him as an actor in films like AMELIE as the quirky guy she fell in love with.... or the Toymaker/Bombmaker in Spielberg's MUNICH. No matter, looks like he's going to be making a very interesting film for Fox. Let's keep our fingers crossed for him. Could be very cool.
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Oh yeah
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...what a waste of a character...
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Not crazy about Vin Diesel though I'm sure he can be OK if directed the right way and with the right material but this sounds exactly like the kind of film I always accuse Hollywood of not having the balls to make. You know, something that isn't a retread of a retread of a tried formula.
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Cornelius? Zorn? Mathieu Kassovitz?
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..in Munich looks like Horseshack in Welcome Back Kotter
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This Kassovitz director is a ready to explode. La Haine had a very unique style to it. I haven't seen Crimson Rivers but Gothika was decent. The directing wasn't the problem on that one it was the script that lead to most of the major problems in that film. So niiice. And hopefully this is the beginning of Vin getting his career back on track. He shouild fire his agent.
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Only less talented. And not interesting. Even in PITCH BLACK he was more of a prop than an actor.
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after all
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The first one had a promising ending
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Ah, Vin. How I love thee inappropriately. My favourite thing about "Pitch Black" was the psuedo-sexual tension twixt him and Cole Hauser. Also: "Riddled with acronyms and pop culture allusions, this is an intense, intellectually labyrinthine ride." That sentence makes me puke out of holes I didn't know I could use.
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Wasn't that the name of a rock band from the early 90's? I think they did the theme song for Robocop 2 then faded into obscurity.
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Its quite well known in Hollywood that he could quite happily have method acted in brokeback mountain.
Dont believe me....http://www.writersstories.com/stories.asp?stid=-432591172&Stcat= -
While it had maybe one or two cool moments in it, the whole thing was just such a mess. The director's cut actually made the problems it had worse. Total garbage that gleefully pissed all over PITCH BLACK, a film I dearly loved but that is now tainted by having spawned a slimy turd of a pseudo-sequel.
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...from a brother but bad guys from Eastern Europe sucks. I mean, it has to be okay to have real international badguys like Islamic terrorists or something...considering that they actually are plotting to harm the Western world. Just asking? 'cuz white bad guys are getting boring unless they are British...British bad guys are always good.
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I need another Chronicles of Riddick please! Say what you want, I find Diesel's movies to be highly entertaining. There's not Oscar worthy and he's no Ralph Finnes, so what the hell is everyone expecting? The fact that Riddick ended with a cliffhanger really gets my goat, because I want to know the fall out. How he's dealing with Keira's death and if he'll rule the Necromongers or bring back the Furyian race. Questions and more questions. I loved Pitch Black, but I can't help, but think he might get slammed for this "Riddick"-esque type film. It sounds interesting though.
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what made pitch black such a good movie was its understatement. this concept was totally lost on chronicles. gone was the tension, the character development, and the intimacy that made pitch black work. proof positive that bigger budgets do not make better films.
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One of my all-time favorites with "Les Racines du Mal" (The Roots of Evil) from the same author.
It's more of an anticipation story than pure SF, mixed with some cyber-punk reference.
Dantec is one of the most controversial french author these days (and a best-seller maker too), because he does more than just write good anticipation stories, he adds a deep spiritual and philosophical meaning in them.
Hope this movie turns out good :) -
Another book from this guy was made into a movie: "La Sir
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It sounds terrible, although that may just be Publisher's Weekly talking shit... Also, I'm not sure what "hard-core Belfast rebel" means but it could be astonishingly offensive to millions of people. Gotta love films that try to make you care about violent people.
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Late 80s/early 90s band. Hits like, "Bang Go the Bells" and "Hammer Swings Down." Bad lyrics, great guitars.
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Oh, and BTW, I thought Chronicles of Riddick kicked ass. I don't understand why more people didn't like it. Personally, I don't think Diesel is the best actor (XXX, anyone?), but he was BORN to play Riddick, and I, for one, would gladly pay money to see another sequel.
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Although I hated "The Chronicles of Riddick" for its hamfisted, role-playing game level of emotion, by which I mean zero engaging characters or plot intrigues, "Babylon A.D." sounds quite the opposite. Here's to hoping this odd, convoluted, yet ass-kicking futuristic story gets greenlit. Oh, and removing the date "2013" from the storyline might be a good idea, too. Good point, Moray.
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"...and under drug experiments he penetrates the double helix to achieve a surprisingly humanistic conclusion." Er, what?
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...as if it was one of those cheesey fantasy/sci-fi movies from the '80's that you know is bad, but you enjoy watching anyway... something like Krull or Flash Gordon. Plus the ending really lent itself to a good sequel. My biggest beef with it was the production design on the Necro guys. Everything else I thought was halfway decent in a cheesey kind of way.
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Like a cheap whore I want more Riddick! What happened to his Hannibal film?
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Human-animal hybrids, people.
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""...and under drug experiments he penetrates the double helix to achieve a surprisingly humanistic conclusion." Er, what?"
Yes you read well...
At some point, Thoorop has a shamanistic experiment with some kind of cyber-shaman where after he ingests some kind of ancient drug (that actually exists), he penetrates the double-helix, a reality plane reprensting life, that countains the sum of information of the universe, and with that experiment he understands what is really going on with his protegee, and what are the implication of the DNA mutations that were embedded in her.
This leads to the grand finale, which is really cool by the way :) -
Chronicles of Riddick was like a barbarian movie in space. I fucking loved it.
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Feb 09, 2006 11:57:24 AM CST
Hugo Cornelius Toroop Wow, a name worse than Vin Diesel
by big bad clone
Dude, I feel stoned just reading that plot descripton
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How much better would Total Recall been with a guy that looked somewhat human? It would be one thing is Vin was charming or had a cool delivery, but I can only imagine a mumbling dude sans shirt spouting silly "science" while throwing a guy through a plate glass window.
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Because in their prime which now seems GONE, they took lesser type action movies that did nothing for them...while back in the day STALLONE and SCHWARZENEGGER took roles that had teens lining up...ie COBRA, PREDATOR, the ROCKY and RAMBO movies, TANGO & CASH, RUNNING MAN, CONAN, The TERMINATOR films etc....And now with news that Brain Grazer has a hot script that might rival INGLORIOUS BASTARDS which would team the two, Vin and The Rock will never dethrone the two 80's TITANS...ROCKY BALBOA, RAMBO IV, TERMINATOR 4 will just be the fan boy topping on the cake!!!
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Because in their prime which now seems GONE, they took lesser type action movies that did nothing for them...while back in the day STALLONE and SCHWARZENEGGER took roles that had teens lining up...ie COBRA, PREDATOR, the ROCKY and RAMBO movies, TANGO & CASH, RUNNING MAN, CONAN, The TERMINATOR films etc....And now with news that Brain Grazer has a hot script that might rival INGLORIOUS BASTARDS which would team the two, Vin and The Rock will never dethrone the two 80's TITANS...ROCKY BALBOA, RAMBO IV, TERMINATOR 4 will just be the fan boy topping on the cake!!!
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Enough with the Riddick love, already. For an irrefutable laundry list of everything that was wrong TCoR, go to http://tinyurl.com/eyyh6 Meanwhile, let's all do our best to ignore this film completely, and perhaps Vin Diesel will finally go away. Oh, wait, we still have to suffer through March, when Sidney Lumet's "Find Me Guilty" limps through the multiplex. THEN maybe Vin Diesel will finally go away.
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GAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I can't wait for KING RIDDICK!!! And I don't give a rat's ass if Diesel's gay. Why do all you closted homosexuals care so much?
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I mean I was hoping for something actually good, the "evil version of Star Wars" the director was hyping it up as. And that's not what it is. But as a retarded sci-fi epic I have to say it is pretty fuckin great. Some of my favorite parts were: 1. when he's rockin the dreadlocks and John Walker Lindh beard in the opening 2. when he gets attacked by monsters and stops them by petting them 3. when he's handcuffed in the back of a spaceship but explains to the audience in badly written voiceover that he is doing it on purpose 4. obviously, the part where he says "I haven't smelled beautiful in a long time." Legendary. and 5. the cliffhanger ending. I mean come on, even people I know who hated the movie (which is most people) want to see the sequel to find out what happens after that. If they can't do it for real how bout a cheap-o straight to video starring DMX?
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PITCH BLACK and THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK are two different movies. From two entirely different genres. PITCH is a horror movie in space. CHRONICLES is an action adventure. The two were intentionally made to be entirely different film-going experiences connected only by a main character. Just like what was done with ALIEN and ALIENS. You can go back to your bitching and complaining now.
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La Haine on DVD? Oh, and Chronicles was Conan in Space, for those of you born after 1988.
thank god the French exist.... -
I think you're right that Vin Diesel and The Rock can't be "the next Stallone and Schwarzenegger," because they're trying to force it. Stallone and Schwarzenegger's action stardom were naturally occurring phenomenons. You can't just start out on purpose as "the new Schwarzenegger." But I think especially in the case of The Rock you have something entirely different. He's not doing a good job of picking roles but I really think The Rundown and even that horrible Walking Tall remake show that he has the potential to be much more than a musclehead. He has a charisma and an aura of inherent decency that your washed up '80s heroes didn't. (Don't get mad, he didn't write ROCKY, I'm not saying that makes him better.) I have a dream that Steven Soderbergh will cast him in a movie. He wouldn't work in Bubble but put him in (another) Elmore Leonard movie or something and I think he could be more of an actor than an action hero. (Even if he has giant muscles.) Hey, maybe a Coen brothers movie. I guarantee you he could handle the dialogue better than Schwarzenegger and Stallone, even after months of intense hooked on phonics training. As for Vin Diesel, he seems to have such an ego that his career will probaly go in more of a Van Damme/Seagal direction where you mostly watch him for unintentional laughs with scattered showers of awesomeness. But we'll see. He at least seems to have weirder tastes in roles than the other guys. Like for example this ridiculous sounding human-animal-hybrid nonsense.
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How I can believe this debate when it is so stupid!? Vin Diesel doesn't want to be Rock or Sly or Governor of California; he wants only to be the best Vin Diesel he can possibly be and I think you all should look inside yourselves and think, "How can I be the best [put your name here] I can be?" Is it by making stupid remarks here on the AICN boards? If so, bravo, you have succeeded.
Also, does anyone else think that Vin should be a guest villain/guest director on 24? I do - I think he's perfect for both.
Thanks for listening, suckers.
Now get back to sucking your mamma's teet! -
You're right, "Pitch Black" and "Riddick" are, indeed two different movies. The first was derivative and decent. The second was derivative and abysmal.
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I know I'm right. And your post was derivative and boring. The worst kind. As for Vin Diesel going away, don't count on it. After The Pacifier raked in over $100 mill, it's safe to say Vin ain't going anywhere soon. Pacifier 2 and King Riddick will own you all!!! No, serioulsy, it will. LONG LIVE VIN!
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WOW, that sounds awesome! And original. Hey, if Vin drops out, maybe they can get Chuck Norris, or Michael Dudikoff? Or maybe get Dolph Lungren out of retirement, er, I mean staright to video. I wonder if they have a scene with Vin 'suiting up' with weapons and shit, wearing nothing but a tank top and flexing his muscles. Ooooh, maybe they'll have a bunch of wire-fu bullet time effects. Oh, this sounds so cool, I'm gonna cream my jeans! What was it called again? Shit Sandwich?
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At least, not as a big-screen boggle-thon like TCoR. You might get a direct-to-video flick or a low-rent cable movie, but that universe ain't coming back to the big screen. According to Box Office Mojo, TCoR lost about $20 million when all was said and done (and that includes international BO). As for "The Pacifier 2" -- I hope to God he does make that film. It would be a fitting way to dispose of Diesel's last shred of credibility.
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You are a very nutty person - not in a "currrrrAYzee!" type of way, but in a "it puts the lotion on its skin" type of way.
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I hated the trailers but got into the movie, even though I did'nt even like Pitch Black. Thought it was original and well done...what other Sci Fi has been out lately that was any good???
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What other recent Sci-Fi has been any good? Well, "Serenity" kicked unholy ass last summer. In 2004 (the year "Riddick came out), "I, Robot" was a superior sci-fi flick. The year before that, "Terminator 3" proved that there's still life in that franchise, and "X2" came out that year as well. _______ I don't know how you can say that TCoR was original - the story was an assembled mass of cliches and ideas swiped from other movies. And "well done"? The script was an absolute mess -- it managed only 28% fresh on RottenTomatoes.
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i'm sure COR is well in the black (no pun intended) by now. If they budgeted a sequel around 60-70 mil I think it'd make a tidy profit too. so bring it on Universal.
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Ha Ha Ha! NOT. (and I actually liked RIDDICK. it was dumb and overwrought, but fun. it was a massive bomb though.)
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descent flic.
great soundtrack. -
HE WAS THE FUCKING IRON GIANT!!
GFY -
Why do you guys think a Riddick sequel will happen. The movie was a bomb and critics hated it. On top of that the movie was incredibly dumb and surprisingly dull. The sequel will never happen.
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Feb 09, 2006 6:47:20 PM CST
"pernicious artificial biosphere program" - Why Bother?
by i_snake_plissken
I don
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used then I am happy.
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CUZ GOTHIKA WAS THA SHIZNIT!!! RIGHT GUYS?!?!??!
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I actually love the Chronicles of Riddick. I don't care what is wrong with it, It was the violent Sci-Fi movie I'd been hoping for (maybe not enough blood, but whatever). And who really cares if Diesel's gay, unless your gay and you just wanna fuck him or something. I don't care as long as I don't have ta watch him kiss some other dude or he starts shoving it in my face; and as he's done neither his sexual preference is not my business and I don't care. Oh and this movie sounds awesome.
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really?
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quality Sci fi, who cares about character deveklopment and that garbage. It had cool ships, badies and a cool ending.
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Well to me, Vin Diesel clearly isnt schwarzie nor sly...nevertheless, when I see 'Pitch Black', and 'The Chronicles...', which was differently surprisingly up to the level of the first film, and as said earlier up there, brings the audience to expect a 3rd one, as well as us to understand the crucial differences in between the two (like 'Alien' and 'Aliens' were at the time, as said earlier up there too...on the whole, I really liked those two films.
Vin's other work isn't to neglect either ; good stuff like pure entertainment stuff like 'knockaround guys', or even 'xxx'were kinda fun to watch.
All i can say here is I am glad to hear that he is planing to make a film directed by french director Mathieu K. and especially that type of film. (sci-fi, realist kinda..ooh! can't wait to hear more about it...)
If you haven't seen either 'la haine', 'the crimson...' or even 'gothika', well you're not properly aware of this young man's (M.K.)good work so far. As an actor too...etc
'Amen', (Costa-Gavras)...'Am -
Sometimes I really can
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They aren't making that kind of movie anymore. It would seem to me that Schwarzenegger and Stallone's rise was tied to a trend in the eighties of making action blockbusters which were primarily vehicles for a particular star. The actor was the movie and essentially playing themselves in whatever setting. Even 'Predator' seemed like it was intended to be centered on Arnold although the monster ended up stealing the show. Later action hits like 'Die Hard' and 'Speed' were more about gimmicky plots than launching one star as the next tough-guy icon and featured main characters that were more vulnerable and sympathetic. Both Arnold and Sly branched out later in their careers while Segal and Van Damme (the same formula, less successful) have kept making the same thing over and over and are now exiled in direct to video land. Diesel seems at least smart enough to try other things early on. I also thought TCOR was original and interesting. It didn't seem to hit the right note but it had potential and I'm glad it reminded someone else here of Conan. I thought I was the only one.
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I dont uderstand anybody who is talkin sht about Vin. First I am sure that he is not gay. Tom Cruise is way more likely to be gay than he is. Check out a scene with him and Brad Pitt in Interview with the Vampire. What does that tell me? That if Vin diesel was gay, there would be some kind of evidence. You could see evidence of other actors acting as gays like Tom Hanks in Philadelphia and the recent, Brokeback. Also, I really admire Vin Diesel for trying hard and being picky about his roles. If he really was desperate for more more fame, e would have participated in XXX and 2Fast 2 furious.
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I decided to post some more statements. I think that Vin is an underupreciatted actor like Stallone used to be. Don't get me wrong, I readboth of their biographies from different sources and I can see the 2 relate in some way. Stallone got fame through Rocky 1 and even then critics blasted him and found different things to pick on. I think what Vin Diesel is doing is very smart. Look oneof his upcoming project is going to be Hannibal the Conqueror. He is going to produce and direct the film all by himself with a budget of 50mil. And I am certain that if the story is great the film will gross to be a huge succes considering its. Compare Troy, King Arthur and Kingdom of Heaven. All are budgeted over 150million. Kingdom of heaven(domestic gross 47mil,worldwide 211mil, budget 130mil) and King Arthur(domestic gross 51million, worldwide 203mil, budget 120mil.) were domestic flops but overseas grosses and DVD sales saved them. Troy had a budget of 200 million plus huge marketing of over 50 mil. Domestic gross-133 mill. overseas=394 mil. Even if Diesel's Hannibal picture doesn't attract large audiences in U.S. (which I doubt) considereing this budget the movie will be a very big success worldwide. Vin Diesel s the next Mel Gibson!
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