I guess all talkbackers DO think alike...

on the other hand, Scott doing something like this is awesome news.

oh, and nottingham sounds stupid conceptually and russell crowe is over - no one gives a shit about him any more ever since he bullied a journalist and threw a phone at a hotel clerk. he's considered an arrogant bully.

In fact I was reading an interview with Scott in which he said he can crank the movies out these days cause he knows he's right on set and everyone else is wrong. well if that's what's been the problem lately, fuck it. blade runner was made under incredible duress and look at the results.

And Variety ticks me off; Forever Peace is NOT a sequel (or prequel) to Forever War.

And personally, I hated Forever Peace. Neato setting and idea, sloppily executed. Just my opinion.

The documentaries with the "Alien" DVD re-release show how hard Scott worked to turn a routine project into an outstanding movie. His brilliant story-boarding alone doubled the funding!

"Alien", its predecessor -"The Duellists" (still one of his best films), and "Blade Runner" (not the lame, dumbed down studio version) show what he was capable of when he was still artistically committed.

"Hannibal" was inexcusable. "Matchstick Men" was embarrassing. "Kingdom of Heaven" looked in places like a slavish copy of Peter Jackson.

The Scott/Crowe team is sadly inferior to Scorsese/De Niro or, for that matter, Spielberg/Hanks.

IMHO, Scott's true strengths are Cinematography and Set Design -he's a mediocre director of actors. He'll never be Pollack or Lumet so let's hope he gets back to what he's brilliant at - Astounding Visions on Screen.

If he's directing weak scripts, it may be at least partly his own fault.

I seriously believe if The Godfather was released nowadays, it would be a giant flop.

But Legend being shit movie? Give me a fucking break. Its some of the best photography, make-up effects, set design in film fucking history. Only a brain dead ape would say Legend is a shit movie. You could find it bizarre and uncomfortable as many do....but saying it is bad just makes you look stupid.

I think Todd Field's involvement is a VERY interesting development. He may be able to get away with more of the book's central themes and infamous scenes than the now more commercial Ridley Scott. Let's hope he has got a good grasp of the material. Apparently, it's still slated for a 2009 release.

As for THE ROAD, I've been searching the web for any and all new updates. Since it opens next month, we should be seeing our first glimpse sometime soon. I anxiously await to see what Hillcoat's done with that one!

And he HAS done that "tone" before (and therefore again), but I'm guessing you're not Australian, or typically American (wait, don't take offence yet) in that you've only seen the ones that got mainstream U.S. release and haven't sought out earlier ones, and haven't seen Ghosts of the Civil Dead, which he also worked with Cave on, which is similar in "tone and atmosphere". BTW, American audiences have also missed out on some of Russell Crowe, Eric Bana and Heath Ledger's best stuff (especially Crowe, who hasn't topped what he did back then). Like I say I'm not having a go at you MNG, just saying that unfortunately that's usually the way it goes - most here on AICN judge these directors and actors from the time they hit Hollywood to they point where they say "EVERYTHING in their career to date"... etc., meaning Hollywood. With rare exceptions. Chopper and maybe this being two of them - although Guy Pierce and most of the actors in The Proposition have long Hollywood track records...

But yeah, are they keeping The Road that quiet on purpose? It's not like your average geek will have even read it, so they're not going to have the knives out...

Cheers!

BTW, American Gangster is nothing but a completely subpar two hour movie of The Wire with nowhere near the depth of character, theme, and authenticity or import.

One last thing about Crowe - Crowe has failed the essential leading man test. Women don't want to be with him any more, and men don't want to be him.

Scott seemed unable or unwilling to exert any discipline over Nicholas Cage - who turned in his worst, scenery-chewing, twitching, eye-rolling, schtick since "Vampire's Kiss".

It's not as if Cage can't act - "Leaving Las Vegas" and "Bringing out the Dead" show what he can do in the hands of a strong actor's director.

Scott himself admitted that Matchstick Men was "just a quickie" but that's a sad excuse from a director with his ability.

As for your thoughts on Hillcoat, no worries. And for the most part, I agree with you. I honestly don't recall and doubt if I've ever seen any of Hillcoat's other movies aside from THE PROPOSITION. So, I can't really comment on his work beyond that. (I think the first film I ever saw with Crowe was ROMPER STOMPER...)

However, I am curious...have you ever read BLOOD MERIDIAN? (It's unique among McCarthy's work. Few books can match its tone or its depravity. As a novel, it's about as dense and bleak as it gets.) Because I definitely think Cave and Hillcoat read it before they set to work on THE PROPOSITION. Strangely enough, I discovered BLOOD MERIDIAN by reading reviews of THE PROPOSITION - it was so heavily referenced as an influence, that I decided to check out the book. And from what I understand, it's Hillcoat's familiarity with McCarthy that led him to doing THE ROAD.

As for the point I was trying to make earlier - it's not that Hillcoat couldn't do an adaption of BLOOD MERIDIAN, its that I think he has sort of already done it with THE PROPOSITION. In my opinion, it's VERY familiar territory.

Word on THE ROAD has been rather quiet...at least on this site. But there have been some recent newspaper articles with photos and CHUD has run an update every now and then. I've got a feeling that things will change though once the first trailer hits. The book was a monster hit and there will be a LOT of people interested in seeing it on the big screen no matter how depressing it may be!

And seriously, Ridley Scott, you're fucking amazing, get your shit together. You're turning into the highbrow George Lucas.

However, the manner in which the story is told is another matter entirely. McCarthy's language (a mash-up of arcane, Biblical, and Faulkner/Melville-style flourishes) especially in terms of describing the violence is cold and matter-of-fact. I think it's this matter-of-fact telling that makes the impact of the violence so disturbing. It's like the idea of bloodlusting insanity told through an indifferent and callous voice.

I think if the film were "told" in an insane manner, it would border on FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS territory = total sensory overload and incoherence. And while some of that is essential to the story, it should never lose the matter-of-fact or indifferent perspective to the viscious horror taking place on the screen.

BLOOD MERIDIAN is not an easy property to adapt...but I think a cold and calculating director (i.e. Field) might have as good a chance at making something truly disturbing.

Thanks for mentioning EL TOPO. I'll check it out.

What drturing is saying, I think, is that the clinical narrative does give way to several scenes of extreme surrealism, horror and madness (carnival in the night, whore's banquet, ending, etc...)

I think someone like Herzog would have gotten the humanity/depravity right, but he would have been reluctant to do it on the scale it demands.

As for Hillcoat, I think that, while The Proposition was certainly influenced by Blood Meridian, the stories, characters and locations are really quite different. The tone and pacing of the film does serve as a perfect template for how one might adapt Blood Meridian properly.

Again, whatever we get will have to be abbreviated, and who knows if anyone can really pull it off. I was hoping for a big-budget HBO miniseries directed by the Coen Brothers, but, this too, is madness.

You'll see that Moynahan is no longer attached, with Field writing the adaptation himself. The great Scott Rudin (No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, etc...) is producing. I sincerely wish them well and hope they have all the time and money that this project deserves.

Yeah Crowe was great in Romper Stomper - and went straight from that to playing a gay guy in The Sum of Us. There's a stretch for ya. The great Jack Thompson was his Dad. He does have a temper though. Almost ran me over once in his fancy Porsche 4WD, too (I think the speed limit was like 20kph, too - not whatever he was doing). And I saw him blow seven bells out of a journo... still, shouldn't confuse the singer with the song I guess. Shared a dressing-room with Thompson too - he's cool. O.K. enough being a wanker for now...