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Wow!! Have A Gander At BBC's TRIFFIDS Footage!!
SPOILER ALERT !!
I am – Hercules!!
“The Day of the Triffids” is about a species of mobile flora that develops a taste for delicious flesh after virtually every human on Earth is suddenly and unexpectedly rendered permanently blind.
It began in 1951 as a book by John Wyndham, became a movie in 1962, became a BBC miniseries in 1981 and has become a new 2009 miniseries that hits BBC One on Monday.
The new version was written by Patrick Harbinson (“ER,” “Law & Order”) and stars Dougray Scott as Bill Masen, Joely Richardson as Jo Playton, Brian Cox as Dennis Masen, Vanessa Redgrave as Durrant, Eddie Izzard as Torrence and Jason Priestley (!) as Coker.
To paraphrase Montgomery Scott, “Looks exciting!”
Clippage!
It hits BBC One Monday. Not sure about BBC America.
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because CGI can now create the sentient, *networked* triffids that John Wyndham wrote about in the original. Triffids exhude/extrude enormous amounts of filaments (web?) that allows them to communicate with each other, and perceive/control the environment at a nearly microscopic level. In the book, Wyndham made it clear that humans had lost this war before it started, as we had no way to network at this nearly microscopic/cellular level. Very different from the action/adventure takes. Sea water kills Triffids, indeed. I was insulted by the 1962 ending!
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don't give it to the SG: Phew guys
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With Eddie Izzard? I didn't know Brits could be D-list celebrities.
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....on a Halloween night about 8 years ago. It was hilariously bad. I think there was the one part in France, where people were partying in a mansion while the Triffids wreaked havoc outside. It was just awful, but you couldn't take your eyes off of it.
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I remember the original series as a kid, scared the bejesus out of me.
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Jason Priestley and Vanessa Redgrave...the team-up the world has been waiting for!
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You sure you're thinking of the right book? In the edition I read, the Triffids lurched slowly around and communicated (or at least attracted each other) with a sort of stick-and-drum arrangement. I do agree the first movie was awful. The original miniseries was very faithful to the book, but hampered by a minuscule budget. Judging from the clips I've seen, this new version has pretty much tossed the book's plot back out the window. (Triffids with slithering grasping tendrils? sssigh..) Might be worthy on its own merits, but I'm not holding my breath.
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That's the only thing I'm really interested in with this remake.
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hope it ain't a disapointment like SG: Phew is
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John Wyndham is one of my favourite authors. I've always wanted to see "The Chrysalids" done up right.
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...well, it's not that bad IF you were born in the sixties and saw it while you were a geek teen growing up in the seventies, discovering it alongside other low budget genre fare like American International's FOOD OF THE GODS and things like that. I mean, come on -- the original was made as a low budget monster movie with 1962 capabilities, so it was always going to have certain limitations. Not to mention it was a British production, so it likewise was one step removed from the way that even low budget American monster/horror films had a particular feel.All in all, as a geek, I'll be curious what they did with this as a remake, so I hope BBC America does get it and soon. Otherwise I'll have to add it to the "hunt this down on DVD someday list"!
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Oh, I hope they turn this into a Global Warming parable
I just can't wait for it to be a politically infused piece of cliqued garbage
If only we had listened to the plants!!! Why !!!!!
Will Keenu Reaves be in it?
..
Maybe they'll have some bad guy that causes the Triffids to attack. I bet that bad guy will be a Christian fundamentalist from America (never a fundamentalists can never be Muslim, too non-PC) or maybe a British racist (BNP; again no non-white can be racist). Maybe Jews are the cause, antisemitism is becoming popular enough in Britain that the Brown's government recently suggested prominently labeling products from Isreal (read Jews).
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I am so in on that alone!!
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Hope that was heavily ironic. If not, get a grip. And Merry Winterval..
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Looks pretty good. Oh and jbs9200 why don't you go to a New Years Party with a bunch of black guys who know how to party, get stoned, laid and chill the fuck out. Peace
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I suspect you'll be joining the British Nazi (oops I mean National) Party soon...you idiotic moron. "Fundamentalists can never be Muslim...No non-whites can be racist"....idiot. And then throwing in a pro-Jew sentiment to cover your right-wing prejudice attitude...hahaha...dumb, real dumb. We all know you did that to somehow validate your hatred. Have you not seen Avenue Q?? Everyone is a little bit racist sometimes...but unlike the BNP, we don't say that one race is superior to another. We don't want all non-whites out of the country. BNP...bunch a racist crooks...never comply with Electoral Commission legislation....and when they were fined a useless £5,000 penalty for non-compliance, actually said that they had no money - despite the fact that their racist record arm makes a million a year and their leader earns £60,000 a year plus expenses as an MEP!!! JBS9200 you are a racist turd!
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And Merry Chistmas...you Right wing motherfunker!
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jbs9200 you have made me mad - quite MAD!!!
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but I suspect the classic sound effect of the triffid from the original BBC series won't make it which is shame as I feel it's as iconic as the tardis sound.
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Dec 23, 2009 4:55:08 AM CST
I hope I'm the first to shout 'PLANT!' when the reviews arrive
by richard_gere_raped_my_gerbil
If I'm not, there will HELL to pay. FUCK YOU ALL.
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the cash they saved from suspending jonathan ross for a few months. haha!
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Which looks hair raising.... you see something vine like moving towards Ewan Bremner.
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the triffid sound.
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And ends with Donald Sutherland as Homer Simpson stomping the plants to death.
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...it won't be in the same lague as the original BBC series. It was the perfect slow-boiler. This one is over two nights. Great cast though. Brian Cox is in it too.
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was an incredible sense of hopelessness and doom. It was 'The Road' with walking, poisonous cacti.
And I do remember references to the spores/filaments that the Triffids kept exhuding. One of the characters pondered if that is what made them so self-aware. The clackers didn't seem quick enough. Of course I read the Penguin version when I was a little kid, so maybe I'm mixing it with another story. -
When do we get to see that? Anyone have any ideas?
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Fuck off you wanker.
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Not the 2006 film, the 1954 one. Giant ants. Cool, right? I'm joking of course.
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...not so much. Is there a reason why BBC can't produce halfway-passable sfx? Are they affiliated with the Syfy Channel? Are they only granted a few quid and a sixpence or somesuch small monies to produce said crappiness? Are they using an old C64? Perhaps a TI-88. Still...after my griping and carrying-on, I'll watch it if shown here in the Peoples Republic of the United States.
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At least theres something to watch in the week between the 2 Doctor Who episodes
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The BBC is part of the government. They're not like the major networks over here who get advertising money. The funds they receive are already part of a yearly budget.
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Why is it so important to have them on?Looks good though.
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Pandora's first strike against Earth... I guess Avatar 2 will be a Cameron's idea of a Reboot of "Day of the Triffids"...
But can't wait to see this... -
They go for the eyes....
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Is that what they were doing to the girl?
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I simply cannot understand why any conservative would even be remotely associated with the BNP; it is a protectionist, bigoted party that has its roots firmly planted on the far left of the political spectrum. The BNP are, indeed, an entirely disagreeable party but they are a legitimately registered political party and therefore we should beat them at every given democratic opportunity. I do, however, think it is folly to not fully understand the justifications for not voting for a particular party. To admonish or castigate an organisation on false pretences is counter-productive.
The consistent miss-labelling of extremist parties is very damaging to liberal democracy, as it creates false tensions and misaligns people with causes they do not understand fully. I’ve yet to meet a Tory who believes in clamping down on free-trade and the nationalisation of private companies. The BNP are both racist and fascist: all fascist parties have left wing tendencies as they predominantly believe in nationalisation, collectivism and forbid free expression, which makes fascism the very antipathy of right-of-centre politics.
I would find it very difficult to authorise a coordinated campaign against the BNP if the terms of discourse and engagement were not properly defined: the BNP are a party of hate and have their roots in the left wing traditions of fascism.
I can understand why those on the left don't wish to be branded in the same political mindset as the BNP. Now they know how those of us on the right feel. But the fact remains that BNP beliefs DO have more in common with Socialism than with Conservatism - centralised command control, trade tariffs, state owned businesses ... I could go on. I struggle to think of a single issue which joins the BNP and mainstream conservatism. The Nazis were called National Socialists for a reason. Fascism is invariably described as a creed of the right. It isn't. As with the BNP, fascism has far more in common with the left, at least in political theoretical terms.
A brief skim through BNP manifesto literature brings to light proposals for the following: large increases in state pensions; more money for the NHS; improved worker protection; state ownership of key industries. Under Griffin, the modern-day far right has positioned itself to the left of Labour
It is also interesting that most BNP electoral successes come in former Labour voting areas. It is the crumbling of the Labour vote in deprived areas that provides the manure for the BNP to thrive. Witness the rise of the National Front in the late 1970’s under a decaying Labour Government and we can see that those conditions are close to being replicated today.
Above all, though, the BNP is used as an indirect weapon against the mainstream Right. You will have noticed that the party is almost never mentioned without the soubriquet “far Right”. The BNP doesn’t call itself Right-wing, of course. It favours nationalisation, higher taxes, protectionism and (though it keeps quiet about this) republicanism. It markets itself as “the Labour Party your parents voted for”. Its manifesto calls for “the selective exclusion of foreign-made goods from British markets and the reduction of foreign imports,” and promises to “restore our economy and land to British ownership” and “to give workers a stake in the success and prosperity of the enterprises whose profits their labour creates by encouraging worker shareholder and co-operative schemes”.
As Hayek wrote in 1944 in his brilliant chapter on “the socialist roots of Nazism”, the dispute between fascists and socialists is a dispute between brothers. Labour and the BNP are, in a sense, competing for the same sort of voter: one who believes in the power of the state. The one kind of voter whom both fascists and socialists regard as beyond persuasion is the small-government Tory.
The real purpose of banging on about the “far-Right BNP” is to damage, by association, the Conservatives. If hurting the Tories means giving the BNP enough free publicity to keep it alive, it’s a price some Lefties seem happy to pay. -
Yes, my original post was intentionally over-the-top.
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I loved the book as a kid, hope this is actually good but those clips did nothing for me. Looks like most current BBC output cheap, over-produced, under-written tat.
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Fantastic actor .... could watch him all day long.
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but not bad. Good looking cast too, but Priestly? Its like whats wrong with this picture? And I'm surprised Bill Nighy couldn't find a role.
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two new dr who's in a week and this to fill the gap between them. it must be christmas.
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We need this adapted next, John Christopher's classic series, STAT.
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Like all crooks, the BNP lie. They push leftish ideology because thats what they think the low classes want. But they are a Right wing party because the only policy they actually believe in is forced deportation of non-whites. Anything else they say are lies. Left or Right, they do not deserve a voice in mainstream politics. Why? Because they are racists who break the law. You break the law, you lose your rights as a citizen. End. Of. Story.
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Tell me that chick in the third clip didn't remind some of you of Gwen Cooper.
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The Tripods Trilogy was (partially) adapted in the eighties, but it fell apart because of some weird teen/man erotic undertones. Oh, and SithMenace, triffids have a poisonous tongue-like sting that strikes the eyes and blinds victims before killing them.
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reminds me of someone...Decalan Ganley and leibertas. that guy creeped me out. and he was seent packing twice. once by the Eu and ireland and then again by the irish voters.
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Dec 24, 2009 1:59:47 AM CST
Triple_J_72: "Giant ants. Cool, right? I'm joking of course.'
by big dumb ape
Triple_J, a remake of THEM! would be cool and totally rock, given how much could be done with modern SFX. The military versus giant fucking ants? Talk about a summer popcorn movie that would put asses in the seats.In fact, in case you didn't know, Warner Bros. has long had a remake of THEM! on the development books, but it keeps getting pushed back and falling apart for one reason or another. Last I recall, Joe Johnston (who just did Universal's updated WOLFMAN) was actually in negotiations to direct a remake.
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Dr Who costs just shy of a million quid an episode - when they know they can flog it around the world, and on DVD, they've got the cash...
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Does it mean Three Fid?
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with Heath Legder. bought the rites to the tripods some time ago. and had planned to make independent film of them.
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In the novel, it's just a catchy made-up word that some anonymous newspaper copywriter comes up with, the "tri-" based on their three ambulatory appendages. (Although it's pronounced "Trif-fid".) No idea what inspired Wyndham in real life.
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interesting
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can't wait!
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You can find all the latest clips, info and news on the official The Day of the Triffids website - www.dayofthetriffids.co.uk for the upcoming DVD release 1st Feb and BD out 22nd Feb. I'm huge fan of the original novel and indeed of Wyndham so we've also stocked the site full of links any Triffids fan should get a kick out of including the original TV series, movie, the radio adaptations and more.
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of the past twenty years. if not the finest. as an actor not so much. check him out on youtube.
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I saw it as a youngster and it was a memorable experience. That said, I have to agree it did not age well at all. Although I am usually skittish over remakes, reboots, or what have you, I think this story deserves a remake.
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and wondering - if they knew how dangerous Triffids were, when they had them on these farms - why not frigging keer them on an island somewhere, and not on mainland frigging Britain????
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although I'm a British taxpayer and hence paying for this thing, i'm not predisposed to hate it straight off the bat.
First of all, I still have fond memories of the 1981 BBC version, although i was a kid at the time and have no idea if or how well it has stood the test of time. It's also been decades since I read the book so i'm in no position to say how faithful it is.
certainly some of the updating is obvious straight off the bat. the triffids are now cultivated by giant corporations to provide an alternative energy source that's saved the world from global warming. also, it's a giant solar flare that blinds everyone, not a meteor shower. broadly speaking, all the key characters from the original are in the new version, although the main nemesis seems to be hell-bent on power for its own sake rather than ambitions to settle a polygamous christian commune as per the original.
for the most part, the 2009 version of Day of the Triffids plays out like a made-for-tv version of 28 Days Later (which itself owes a lot to earlier versions of DOTT), if you replace the fast scary zombies with slow lumbering plants. it's also fairly slick and well shot, and the cast is pretty high grade. the whole solar flare and ensuing blindness and mass hysteria is handled sufficiently well to make it engaging enough to begin with.
what sucks? pretty much everything that follows. after a watchable opening, the whole thing devolves into a series of cliches and dumb decisions. for example: Dougray Scott's character goes to extraordinary lengths to save his colleague from being blinded by a triffid in the opening scenes, by giving up his own safety glasses and almost being blinded as a result. Later on, he returns to the triffid farm to find they've all escaped. Does he stock up on safety glasses? You'd have thought it would be step 1 in fighting monster plants that try to blind you, but apparently all that safety glasses thing was too much plot consistency. And so it goes.
what makes the tired script worse is each scene is vested with all the dramatic force of an episode of Holby City. Dougray Scott and the hot Richardson do okay but only Eddie Izzard seems to be enjoying himself playing a slimeball.
it's watchable for a while & only the prospect of Brian Cox showing in Part 2 might make me follow the thing through to its conclusion tomorrow night. But despite the strong cast and slick production, the whole thing feels like a made-for-SyFy affair. It's watchable, but only to the degree that you find your entertainment in laughing at stupidity.
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the radio personality emerges from moorgate tube station, home of the underground's worst crash in 1975. ponder this: if she was up in the millemium wheel, why didn't she emerge from the embankment station which is just yards from the wheel. moorgate is several blocks away and to get to it you need to get on at embankment and then transfer at euston square. silly bbc look at a tube map next time.
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I work not too far from Moorgate Station and wondered exactly the same thing. Bit of cockup. Not nearly as big as the idea that a solar flare can blind THE ENTIRE PLANET AT THE SAME TIME. Do the scriptwriters not realise that the Earth is round?
Anyhow, that said... I liked it. The effects were very pretty. Brandon from 90210 as Coker was a bit of a giggle, but all in all it held up and was a lot of fun. Even the Triffids weren't too cheesy. I mean, 10 foot killer walking orchids was never going to be easy to pull off, but they're kept at a distance and suitably scary. Like how they kept the triffid sound from the earlier TV incarnation.
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