For the first time since I saw the original Toy Story (1995), my faith on Pixar’s excellency is wavering. In a way, it’s not really fair, given they’ve done only awesome films without any exceptions, but still, looking at the new teaser for Cars 2, I can’t but say I’m not completely convinced. Cars hasn’t been the best Pixar film, and I know to many it’s even considered as a bad film, but I have to disagree on that. I’ve been watching Cars over and over again with my kid since it was out, and I know it inside out – and I think it’s a fine film. It may not be as unique as most of them, but still – it’s a good basic small story with a lot of character, a good story structure and all that stuff.
But let’s see. Cars 2 seems to be some kind of an … agent film? What? Have I missed something somewhere? I mean I know the franchise quite well, having been exposed to it quite much as a dad of a 5-year-old, but I never knew about this angle. The only real explanation to it that this is one of Mater’s (Larry the Cable Guy) fantasies they’ve been pushing out as Mater’s Tall Tales, but I don’t know. It doesn’t feel like it.
So, I’m concerned. But, nevertheless, here’s the new teaser, and a bunch of concept art. We’ll see, it’s coming out in the summer of 2011.
TechCrunch just wrote an article claiming today being officially the death of compact discs (basically in any format, be it CD, DVD or BluRay). Their reasoning was because the writer MG Siegler had realized he hadn’t used the DVD drive of his MacBook ever for anything. With computers, I’m quite confident that’s the future, and I couldn’t be more happier with it. But what about film industry? When do we get rid of the DVDs and BluRays, and do we even want to?
I’m all for digital distribution, all for the easiest flow of entertainment. But looking around my house right now, I’m unfortunately not seeing an easy way out when it comes to films. And again, unlike with those horrible computer program boxes filled with nothing but air, I do have a mental attachment to our DVD collection. It’s not huge, but it’s cute. In a bachelor nerd way. And compared to a collection of computer program boxes, that become historical relics after just one year when a new version of the program has replaced the earlier one, these are eternal. And by eternal I mean they last 15-20 years. But that’s ten-twenty times longer than a computer program. And even a computer game – watching a wall full of computer games, it’s not quite likely you find yourself in a sudden rush of nostalgia, pull out your old Amiga, set it up, install Monkey Island 2 and spend few hours playing it. It sounds great, but really for that to happen… I don’t think so.
There's a bunch of 'em. Not a huge collection, and a bit messy, but good stuff there is!
So DVDs and BluRays have more collecting value. But in addition to that, still looking around my house and the equipment I have, there’s absolutely no way a digital download of a film would be superior to a physical high quality BluRay, 1080p, 5.1 sound, the works. Connecting my computer through a display port to a HDMI adapter to my TV, then pulling out an optical cable and rigging it to my laptop, then downloading the 1080p file from a pirate site, watching it… It’s just too much hassle, a hassle which I can get around by just walking to Sokos next door, grabbing the desired BluRay, sticking it to my PS3 and kaboom, it’s on. It’s easily something I’m happy to pay 20-30 bucks, and then – I have the physical copy in my collection, available for watching quickly anytime I want. And more than that, just a glance on the wall of my room, and registering titles like Terminator 2, Citizen Kane,American Beauty, Big Fish – even unconsciously – makes me feel like I’m in a good place. Somehow, watching the same names typed on a computer screen with 10pt Tahoma don’t work the same way.
So, the reason BluRays (and DVDs) will live on for at least another 10 years are three:
1) As a physical item, they have a collecting and portability value.
2) As long as hooking your laptop to your home entertainment system requires even hooking one cord somewhere, it’s not working.
3) As long as there’s no reasonable online version that will provide the easiness, the enjoyment of collectibility and the quality of a BluRay.
The conclusion is: digital distribution is not killing the film business. It adds a new customer segment, that will merge *in the future* to the existing one, making it stronger. But as long as the digital pioneers are being punished for the mistakes the industry makes, there’s not enough synergy that this would happen. Hunting “pirates” should end, and we should come up together with the industry, the audience, the film buffs, the Internet and the filmmakers a distribution system that’s making sense so that the merging from physical units to digital distribution would be painless, productive, profitable and possible.
A bit of Zombie news, for a change. I happened to buy the copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith quite randomly from Brisbane, and haven’t read a page of it. More than a book I want to read, it’s a book I want to own. But nevertheless, a film of it is coming up, yet it’s still quite ambiguous what kind of a film – directed by who and starred by who – it’s going to be. But more than a film I want to see, it’s a film that I’m happy to see get made. It might be directed by David Slade, or Mike Newell, or Neil Marshall, or … well, it basically could be anybody who’s done some sort of a genre hit lately. Yet I’d be happiest to see it being directed by Finland’s own AJ Annila. That would bring an interesting angle to the film indeed.
In other news, there’s been obviously a lot of talk about The Walking Dead TV-series lately, and as far as I can gather, it’s premiering on Halloween somewhere in the states, and exactly 30 seconds after it’s out, also on Pirate Bay. Latest bit of goodies are the new behind the scenes shots from the makeup studio of The Walking Dead, available here. Oh, and here’s the trailer for the series, check it out.
This is, hopefully for me, going to be out of the box. It’s going to be the best one, I hope. Well, I would say that, but I really do feel that, and I feel this is going to be very different. This is Wolverine. This is not Popeye. He’s kind of dark. But, you know, this is a change of pace. Chris McQuarrie, who wrote The Usual Suspects, has written the script, so that’ll give you a good clue. [Aronofsky’s] going to make it fantastic. There’s going to be some meat on the bones. There will be something to think about as you leave the theater, for sure.
Think whatever you will from the blurb, but it makes me feel the project means a lot to Hugh. And although the first part was crap, I still think Wolverine is the most interesting character in the Marvel good guys lineup, and deserves a decent film.
Considering the heaps of shit that keep on flowing out from the tubes dressed up as vampires these days, I’m not envious of the directors who decide to invest their time and enthusiasm on just another vampire story set in the modern world. Vampires (2009) does that. But in order to deliver something new, one needs to face the Big Three of the modern Vampires – True Blood, Let The Right One In and Twilight, each in their own fields of expertise.
Belgian director Vincent Lannoo has been able to find an approach vector that hasn’t been explored thoroughly yet – a mocumentary with a black comedy twist (well, they all have that, don’t they). He leads the viewers with the camera crew into the world of a perfectly normal Belgian middle-class family: a man, a wife and two teenage kids – but all vampires.
As any mocumentary, the film consists of interviews with the family members and important people around them, mixed with being in the middle of the action with the cameras, stitched together to form a story. Vampires basically a reprise of Man Bites Dog (1992), the famous belgian black comedy mocu which follows the life of a serial killer – only much less shocking. Where Man Bites Dog goes deep into the psyche of a contract killer, Vampires stays on top of the mythos, never actually digging its teeth deep enough to make us believe that there really is tens of thousands of years of vampire culture behind this modern vampire family.
Vampires feels thin… Sort of stretched, like… butter scraped over too much bread. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the story, the fresh take on a worn-out mythos, and the work the actors did. But in the end, Vampires is a joke – quite a good one, I must admit – that’s been told for a bit too long by a guy who loves his voice a bit too much. It’s bound to make you laugh, but it’s 20 minutes too long, and a bit too obvious.
Had this film been done in the 90s, it would’ve become a legend. But today, the viewers expect more. See, in modern vampire film, if you even so much as mention “count Dracula”, you’re out of the game.
The Zombies have just returned from the Cannes Film Festival, and for me – this year’s hubbub is now done, and I’m not missing it one bit. That doesn’t mean we didn’t have fun – hell yeah, we did – or that the festival was not successful – quite the contrary, but there’s nothing better than come back home, to the warm spring weather of Finland, and get back to work.
I’m assembling here a small scrapbook from the festival, just to give you an overall idea what happened there – welcome to the Cannes 2010 Memory Lane!
First few days of the festival were mainly about setting up our office in the Grand Hotel terrace. The location was just the best anyone could’ve asked, since most of the business in Cannes takes place in or very close to the Grand Hotel.
Setting up a nice and visible banner to the balcony is a custom many production companies or distributors tend to do, so we wanted to have our part of the fun. Pekka did a great job designing and doing the dirty work with the banner.
But of course, our puny attempts to surpass the big Hollywood money which they pour in the advertisement in Cannes are feeble. Take a look at some of these ads. And although they might seem ludicrously expensive – which they are – this year things was much smaller than last year.
But this year, the most expensive spot in Cannes was taken by the French. The price for that is 70,000€, plus the banner, design etc. of course.
This year’s logo of the festival did have some serious 80′s vibe to it, but I liked the cool colors, which definitively connected well with the cold weather…
Finally, the teaser for Iron Sky arrived, and we were one happy campers, the whole bunch of us!
And of course, a big thanks went over to the main CGI wizard Samuli in Tampere!
But as said, the weather was mostly quite crappy this year. Although there was sun in the daytime, I was mostly freezing in the balcony of our office – it was actually much warmer in Tampere this year than in Cannes, which has always been the other way around.
Every now and then, being in Cannes, surrounded by all the glamorous people and parties, you might feel like living in a bubble. Well, at least this time we got to try that out for real.
And of course, when in Cannes, you can’t avoid popping by at La Petit Majestic, a small pub just around the corner behind Grand Hotel, where everybody gathers after the day is over (and nobody wants to spend 15€ to a G&T on Grand Terrance or Carlton anymore…)
One of the coolest people in Cannes we got to meet this year were the Norwegian Ninjas, as we call them. We of course mean the people from Tordenfilm and Euforia, and the freaks working on the hugely awesome Norwegian Ninja -film that’s coming out later this year. We got to see a sneak peek of the trailer, and although I’ve been waiting for the film – it kicked ass much more than I had expected! They will release the teaser on the Internet quite soon, and we’re definitively going to tell you about it. I mean what more can you ask, a good political ninja spy movie set in Norway?
We visited the Norwegian Ninja party on the last day, and enjoyed some Norwegian sausage.
See you next year, Cannes! We’re off to make some movies!
Ever wanted to do a Zombie film? Well, it’s easy; just follow these five simple steps, and you’ve got yourself a seller!
The remake of The Crazies is a teflon-coated horror film. It’s made carefully to entertain everyone, crafted so that it won’t offend too many people, and tuned down so that there’s not too much of gore that would push the rating too high. And as in many similar cases, when you try to do a film for everyone – especially a genre film – it becomes a film for no-one. Luckily, there’s a big mass of people called General Audience, and they’ll munch anything thrown at them like zombies. If you’ve done your math, you can’t go wrong with a general audience horror flick.
I haven’t seen Romero‘s original The Crazies (1973), so I can’t do any comparison to the original, but the film that it reminds me of is The Mist (2007). The setting, the feeling, the look and the main characters are very much alike. Both are films made with 20 million, and made their money back 2-3 times. The only main difference is that The Mist is actually quite a good film.
To sum it up, I’d say that The Crazies is a perfect horror film for the douchebags in their mating season. I can’t see anyone else finding anything even remotely interesting in it.
You shouldn’t waste your money on the film – easiest way to see it is to check out the trailer. It’s a chronological walk-through of the film with the coolest moments stitched together. Here you go:
There, I saved 10 bucks of your hard-earned money.
I don’t usually talk too much about the projects that I’m involved with, but I thought Reindeerspotting- Escape from Santaland is just too special not to talk about. I have been working on the film as a production manager and if you know the subject matter, you will also know that it wasn’t the easiest project to do. Now that the movie is finished I feel great, the material feels unique and the message important. I have to say that I feel honored to be apart of this movie.
Reindeerspotting is a documentary film of a group of young guys living in Rovaniemi, Arctic Circle, dabbling in petty crime and hard drugs. One of them, Jani, has lost five years of his life and two fingers to his debotators. He wants to leave Lapland and his old life behind. Robbing a supermarket is a start for his getaway. A few years back a documentarist, Joonas Neuvonen, was a young man living on social welfare and using drugs on daily basis. He started to film his friends and their life.
Reindeerspotting is the first documentary I have ever been involved with, it is also done very untraditionally. Where as usually you come up with and idea, you get a production company to finance that idea and then you make that idea come to live. In Reindeerspotting there was no idea and no plans. The director/cinematographer Joonas Neuvonen just started shooting his friends more or less randomly with no plans what so ever what to do with the material. The bags full of numerous MiniDV tapes found their way to our offices long after they were shot.
The material was so unnerving and disturbing that there was just no way we could have passed the opportunity to give people a glimpse of the dark reality of drug addicts. Reindeerspotting got the highest possible rating and is prohibited from under 18 year olds. Keep in mind that this doesn’t happen in Finland every day. And actually Reindeerspotting might even be the only documentary that has ever gotten a rating that high.
The film had it’s first screening and is competing in Tampere Film Festival on thursday and the official Finnish premiere is April 9th 2010. Check out the brand new trailer for the movie below. Unfortunately there are no english subs, but I think the images speak quite loudly anyway.
When I went to see The Box, I have to admit, I was sort of fearing the worst. Not because I don’t like director Richard Kelly, but because I actually do. I’m one of those people who refuses to believe that Donnie Darko was an accident or a fluke. I also think Kelly is a very interesting film maker and his way of expressing himself is so different from everybody elses, that sometimes people just can’t understand his vision. For example with Southland Tales, which I just didn’t get at all. But even with that film, you have to recognize the originality and thought provoking aspect of the movie.
The Box is set in Richmond, Virginia, in 1976. It tells a story of a family (Cameron Diaz and James Marsden) who are struggling with financial problems. One night they receive a box that has a red button. The next day they get a visit from a mysterious, disfigured man (Frank Langella). The man presents them with an unusual offer. If they push the button, two things will happen; somebody somewhere in the world, who they don’t know will die and second, they will receive a payment of $1,000,000. This sets in motion a set of events that will change their lives forever.
I was immediately intrigued with the idea of the premise. Movies that ask questions and/or offer moral dilemmas to the audience have always appealed to me. But even though I liked the story, the script was a bit messy. It almost felt like Kelly had too many ideas, even if they were good ones. Still his ideas are interesting, extremely bold and challenging, and I truly admire him for that.
I also had a problem with the main cast. Cameron Diaz’s southern accent just wasn’t believable at all and James Marsden is no astronaut, I can tell you that. I’m sure these two will fill the seats in the movie theatre, but I just didn’t buy it. There are problems in the acting through out the movie and it’s hard to say if it’s deliberate or not, but quite often the dialogue felt unreal and even fake sometimes. Frank Langella on the other hand, was very creepy and frightening, and more or less ended up carrying the whole movie.
The Box is director Richard Kelly’s third feature film and it doesn’t have the smart storytelling of Donnie Darko, but it is definitely a huge leap from Southland Tales. Because of it’s originality, suspenseful story and interesting mood, even with its flaws, I really enjoyed movie. But it is absolutely certain that The Box is not for everyone. There will be people who will passionately hate it, but also people who will just as strongly love it. Well, you can think what you like, but I say The Box is still a hundred times more interesting than the regular predictable bullshit that is usually pushed from Hollywood. At least Richard Kelly has his own point of view, even if people don’t always get him.
Well, perhaps I am a little biased, because of my hunger for new ideas, to let problem such as in The Box slide. But the point of the matter is that I was entertained and remained interested trough the whole movie. I think Richard Kelly has huge potential and even if he still has some soul searching to do to make his storytelling as perfect as it was in Donnie Darko, I’m convinced his debut film won’t be his last masterpiece.
I have to admit that I was struggling with my words on this one, because how do you describe something that you had to see to believe? Yesterday I experienced something extraordinary at Night Visions Film Festival, The Crispin Glover Experience! It was indeed an experience, one that I won’t ever forget.
When I walked into the fully packed theatre, a weird circus music fills my head. It perfectly sets the mood to the show that’s about to begin. The Crispin Glover Experience! In the beginning we are instructed to turn of all technical equipment and no recording of any kind was permitted during the entire show. The lights go out and it gets totally dark and quiet. Suddenly a bright red spotlight hits Crispin Glover’s face. He welcomes us to the show and starts his performance. As soon as the first slide hits the screen, he is immediately in his element, reading passages from his books with a passionate drive. He goes trough about six books, that are just as absurd and surreal as the way he is presenting them. I loved this part of the show, especially parts from his books Concrete Inspection and Rat Catching.
When the hour-long slideshow ends, it’s time for the movie, part two of Glover’s IT-trilogy, It is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE. The movie is written by Glover’s friend, a CP-handicapped Steven C. Stewart who also plays the lead in the movie. It is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE tells a story of Paul, a wheelchair-bound man who craves women with long hair. In his fantasies people are able to understand him verbally, women find him irresistible, and his is a legitimate threat to anyone who stands in his way.
I had seen the trailer before hand and I’m of course familiar with Glovers previous work, but I could not have imagined what was to be projected to the silver screen last night. I can say that some parts of the movie are not easy to watch to say the least, but that’s exactly why you should watch them. One of the most fascinating elements about the movie is the fact that Stewart wrote the movie specifically for himself. It made me think if he wrote the script just to be able to experience the things he probably wouldn’t have been able to to do any other way. Also I thought it was very interesting that you couldn’t understand a word that the protagonist was saying. Only way to know what he was saying, was to listen and watch how other people reacted to him, who did understand him perfectly. I’m still quite blown away about this and I don’t think I have ever witnessed anything quite like it. So the movie is definitely not short on originality.
Here’s the trailer for It is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE so you get even some sense of what I’m talking about. But rest assured this movie needs to be seen in a theatre and with the director present. Trust me.
Right after the end credits had rolled mr. Glover came back on stage and asked the audience “So, is there any questions?” with a little grin on his face. He knew there were questions, he knew he had evoked thoughts. And ultimately that has always been his main goal with all his work. Glover talked very openly about his fears for traditional distributing, about financing the movie with money he’d made from Charlie’s Angels, and of course his relationship with the late Steven C. Stewart and how they came about to do the film together. The Q & A session lasted for about an hour, but I could have easily listened to it for much longer.
I encourage everyone to go see this show if you ever get a change. It was an experience like no other and it will definitely give you something to think about.
Also I would personally like to thank everyone at Night Visions for organizing The Crispin Glover Experience! This is one night I will remember for the rest of my life. And also a huge thanks to an idol of mine, mr. Crispin Glover, who not only gave me the movie experience of a life time, but also took the time to have lunch with and Timo the other day.
