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R.P. McMurphy rants and raves about trailers from SAN DIEGO COMIC CON: LOST SOULS, THE GREEN MILE, MAN ON THE MOON +...
Well this disheveled drooling spy plugged himself into the wall socket, ran a through volts through his ol noggin... had some electrolytes and started typing up a storm. My one fear is THE GREEN MILE trailer... I really hope that Warners isn't attempting to sell this movie as a feel good film. Anyone familiar with the piece can attest to the fact that it ain't too heartwarming... OF COURSE this wouldn't be the first time Warners dropped the ball with marketing a high quality film ahem iron giant ahem. Well... Who knows.... Perhaps the world will turn funny, maybe Joel Silver will take some MATRIX profits and produce Brad Bird's next film... Maybe the sky will fall. Who knows what the future holds... The Shadow knows, and until I hear from Lamont, I'm as much in the dark as you.
Hello, R.P. McMurphy here. I fled the asylum in order to attend the San Diego
Comic Con, and had a lot of fun. The Mute Witness covered the Heather Donahue
and Casper Van Dien panels very well, but I thought I'd add a couple
anecdotes. In real life, Donahue comes off as an endearing spaz, always
gesticulating wildly and laughing uproariously. She revealed what was in the
bundle of twigs in The Blair Witch Project: hair, blood, and human teeth. I
found Van Dien's performance in Starship Troopers as Johnny Rico irritatingly
boyish, but he seemed genuinely nice and surprisingly funny in his
question-and-answer session.
However, since no one has reported on the batch of new trailers premiered at
the Comic Con, I thought I'd chime in.
Lost Souls/The Ninth Gate- There were over 5 supernatural-themed trailers in
the presentation, ranging from the promising (Stir of Echoes) to the
apparently awful (House on Haunted Hill, which I'll get to anon). But I don't
know what to make of these two. I'm a huge fan of Janusz Kaminski's
collaborations with Spielberg, but his directorial debut, Lost Souls, has no
groundbreaking visual scheme or emotional pull from the looks of this mundane
trailer. I like the idea that Ben Chaplin's character doubts his eminent
posession by Satan, but other than that, expect a generic
countdown-to-expensive-finale flick. Likewise, I loved Roman Polanski's
Chinatown, but his newest, The Ninth Gate, has a trailer that features
apocalyptic visuals we've all seen before.
The House on Haunted Hill- If Ratched hadn't already given me a lobotomy,
this trailer would have. A lot of very quick cuts of third-rate actors (Peter
Gallagher, Lena Olin, Chris Kattan) running around waving flashlights and
falling in bathtubs, with bright colors and loud music. Concludes with
Geoffrey Rush in pencil-thin moustache and smoking jacket commenting that
"some houses are just funny" or some one-liner like that. Ugh.
Man on the Moon- Aaaah, how I love Milos Forman's work (check spy name). As
well as Jim Carrey's, and the fantastic-as-expected script by Larry and Scott
(Ed Wood, The People vs. Larry Flynt). The trailer lives up to expectations.
It starts out with DeVito and Love at Kaufman's funeral, and flashes a screen
that says "Andy Kaufman" and his life span (year born-year died) with a moon
in the background. We see various Kaufman exploits while a narrator intones
"Some found him brilliant...others did not." Then a great montage backed up
by R.E.M.'s titular track showcases vivid images of the human comedy and
tragedy we can expect from Forman: Kaufman and Shapiro (DeVito) in a warm
embrace, Lynn wearing a fake moustache, a healer laying stones on a
chemo-undergoing, bald Kaufman, Kaufman dancing on stage with a Howdy Doody
puppet, etc. The title is superimposed over the moon, then we see Kaufman
leap off a stage and announce to the assembled audience, "Free milk and
cookies for everyone!" This is a can't-miss film.
The Green Mile- The Shawshank Redemption is a classic, and one of the oddest
success stories of the '90s (weak box office, but a favorite of everyone you
talk to). I hope that Frank Darabont remembers that Andy Dufresne and Red's
little triumphs and ultimate escape were so damned invigorating because the
forces against them were so dark and almost frightening. His newest, The
Green Mile, looks like it starts out feel-good and doesn't stop. The
friendship between Edgecombe (Hanks) and Coffey (Duncan) looks unique and
moving, and I still have high hopes for Darabont, but there are a few
mistakes made in the trailer. One is having a CGI light effect come out of
Coffey's mouth when he resuscitates a dying woman. Yeah, he has healing
powers, but using CGI to communicate that is cheesy. Another is showing a
scene with Coffey and Edgecombe watching a film in a prison screening room a
la Shawshank. That's a weak, obvious bid for audience familiarity, and I'm
pretty sure death row inmates can't see movies. The script reviews have still
been very positive, so let's cross our fingers.
Until next time, when I'll have some script reviews,
R.P. McMurphy
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I remember reading an on-set report that mentioned Jim Carrey shouting "Milk and Cookies for everyone!" to people on the set.
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When Andy played Carnegie Hall, he handed out milk and cookies to the entire audience at the conclusion of the show. He had something like 10 trucks full of milk and cookies. It musta been something for the audience...
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very nitpicky: peter gallagher is a wonderful actor. did you not see 'sex, lies and videotape'? a great performance. peter's not a star because he's too damn intelligent...
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I hope this is just a misleading trailer. This movie must be very sad and depressing most of the time with maybe a few moments of feeling good. I hope that's all there is. CGI though! What the hell? I totally agree, you should not actually see his powers, now he'll look like some sort of wizard or something. That's disappointing if The House On Haunted Hill sucks though, I was hoping it would be what The Haunting could have been. Also, I never would have expected Lost Souls or The Ninth Gate to seem like something we've seen before. Another disappointment, hopefully these are all just bad trailers.
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A new Polanski! Why haven
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Purple d was correct in stating that Andy Kauffman gave milk and cookies to his Carnegie audience;though incorrect how he gave them the milk and cookies. After his Carnegie Hall performance,Andy blurted that he wanted to take the audience out for milk and cookies. To the audience's surprise,ten or more busses were lined outside of carnegie ready to transport them to a luncheonette where they were served cookies and milk pints. I saw this on Comedy Central. I'm sure Comdey Central will replay this scene when Man on the Moon is released.Also,Jim Carrey makes an appearnce in the afformentioned Comedy Central Andy Kauffman show(originally aired on NBC.
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Where's the review of the full 4 1/2 minute Battlestar Galactica Second Coming trailer. We are all waiting to hear a blow by blow and how it's been improved/completed since DragonCon. Please let us know...
Thanks
Chris Feehan
CureMode@CureMode.com
http://www.curemode.com
MY BSG Revival Site...
http://battlestar.homepage.com -
Does anyone know of a link where I can get hold of the Green Mile script?
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It's a remake of a William Castle film, for heaven's sake! I would be very disappointed if it WASN'T corny as hell. Though if the trailer is as bland as you say, then they've certainly missed their opportunity to run a REAL William Castle trailer (promising reimbursement in case of "death by fright" while watching the movie, etc.). Too bad.
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I don't know all the fuss is about the CGI for the healing scene. . . if anyone remembers the book(s), there is a light or energy that comes out of him when he heals, so it seems to follow that they would generate some sort of effect for the scene. And PLEASE don't rip on Lena Olin, she's a great actress, simply unrecognized. Just because you haven't seen her films, doesn't mean you get to call her "third rate".
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I think any one of us would be acting pretty spazzed-out had we gone from an unknown actor reading for parts against 100's of other people to an actress in a 100-million dollar grossing film in only three weeks time. I've seen her in several interviews and the amount that her life (as well as the filmmakers of BW and other actors) has changed in the past month would boggle most people's mind. I think it's a cool thing for independent film, and film in general, though. I'm happy for all of them and it makes me laugh that it was made for less than 100 times what The Haunting cost, but is still trouncing it in Box Office take. Gimme Gimme Indie Film! http://www.almostcool.org
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Hey Harry;
What's the deal here, I expected you to be all over the fact that the COMPLETED Battlestar Galactica Trailer was also shown at San Diego Comic-Con, to RAVE Responses, I might add. Richard Hatch was even invited to show it at the over 3000+ audience Costume Contest event, where it got more standing O's... (That following TWO Standing Ovations for the first two runs on Friday)
So what's the scoop Harry, did Glen Larsoney and his Trained Monkey, Todd "I'm in it for the CASH" Moyer drop you a dime to pop a lid on this thing, or what?
Harry, I tell you, seeing the finished Trailer was UBER COOL! You AND Glen need to get on the horn with Hatch, and do a full blown Interview with him.
Mark my words Harry, that Larson/Moyer thing ain't gonna happen. I don't know if you saw that detestible interview Moyer gave, where he talks about how "wonderful Wing Commander the Motionless Picture is" and where he discusses their new "Mech Style Walking Viper" but that in a nutshell should provide you with a clue as to what a huge Moron this Moyer guy is.
Come on Harry, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA-THE SECOND COMING needs YOUR Support!
Unless of course you LIKE the idea of PEGASUS 1980 - the Pegasus Discovers Earth idea Larsoney and Clown Boy Moyer are offering to unload!
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Hey R.P., those characters watch a movie in the book. They also get away with a lot of other fun things, it being the 1930's and all. Think of a dark vision of "The Andy Griffith Show" (remember how Otis Campbell town drunk had the liberty of coming and going from his cell?). That is much of the same southern leniency of old that pervades King's book. I should hope someone has not read the script or anticipate the movie without having first read the book (for shame!! It is one of the best "modern" books around).
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Damn, Man on the Moon is gonna be great, but dark as hell. Kaufman was one screwed up dude and he honestly didn't know who he was by the end of his life. That's gonna be awesome to see.
The Green Mile script was ok, but it was a first draft. It needed some tinkering, but it'll do great. It's got Darabont, how can it NOT be great? -
Actually, Andy knew perfectly well who he was when he died. He would just probably prefer people to think that he didn't.
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I'd love to see a big budget reinvention of Battlestar Gallactica. I've always felt it was a bad idea to remake or reinvent great works whether they are from tv (Lost in Space, WWW West) or movies (King Kong, Dial M For Murder). Battlestar Galactica was a cheezy tv show and we all know it (Adama?) - it is ripe for reinvention, just like the cheezy Batman or Star Trek series were much given new life on the big screen. Now let's get somebody to greenlight a bigscreen reinvention of one of my favorite cheezy tv shows: THE MAN FROM ATLANTIS! (Love the way Bobby Ewing swam in that show - I still do it when I'm in the pool.)
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I'd love to see a big budget reinvention of Battlestar Gallactica. I've always felt it was a bad idea to remake or reinvent great works whether they are from tv (Lost in Space, WWW West) or movies (King Kong, Dial M For Murder). Battlestar Galactica was a cheezy tv show and we all know it (Adama?) - it is ripe for reinvention, just like the cheezy Batman or Star Trek series were much given new life on the big screen. Now let's get somebody to greenlight a bigscreen reinvention of one of my favorite cheezy tv shows: THE MAN FROM ATLANTIS! (Love the way Bobby Ewing swam in that show - I still do it when I'm in the pool.)
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As other posters have said, the CGI that they have added is straight out of the book. When Coffey heals somebody, he has to inhale the evil that infects them, and when he releases it, it's in the form of a dark black cloud of tiny insects. How else are they going to do this? Sounds like Darabont is going with King's vision, and I certainly am happy to see that, as The Green Mile is one of his finer stories. One last question to ponder.... Since every of the novellas from Different Seasons has now been made into a movie except one...(Apt Pupil, Stand By Me, and Shawshank Redemption), does anybody think that we could ever see the Breathing Method as a either a stand alone or part of a compilation movie a la Creepshow?
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I was at the ComicCon as well and I sure didn't see any of the trailers mentioned here. Did they show them at the convention center itself? Was there a major panel that I missed?
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