Recently, I got to thinking about what would make an interesting film. Ideally, it would be engaging, decently plotted, fast paced and fun.
Let me back up a bit. Me and my buddy were hanging out and I said something like, "Even though I thought it was a terrible movie, I really want to see Pacific Rim." Something about the swaggering ridiculousness of that movie appealed to me.
But then he commented that all the bad parts would still be bad, but wouldn't be moderated by being unexpected. I'd know when to cringe and when to sigh. All I really wanted was to have fun.
So I said something like, "You know what would be fun?"
That's the idea I want to talk about for a second.
What if we remade Top Gun? Yep, bring back Maverick and Goose and Iceman and Joker and all the rest. Exact same story, exact same script. Update it just a bit by putting them in F-22s and make the MiGs Chinese planes.
Except instead of this . . .
The only difference is that Maverick is a woman.
Think about it for a second. Charlie is still a woman. Goose is still a dude. The love story remains unchanged except that in the new world where "Don't ask, don't tell" has been repealed, this kind of story makes sense. (I'd even keep the music.) But instead of a testosterone fueled romp, it takes on a whole new meaning and there's no inherent reason to even change the dialogue. (Except for a few pronouns here and there.)
We get this.
It's still a great movie. It is still full of great action, cheesy dialogue, intense rivalry and random volleyball game in the middle of the movie. And lest you concern yourself that much of the narrative occurs in the men's locker room--easy fix! Instead they banter in the gym (or if you want to go CRAAAZY just make it coed).
So here's your homework for the weekend. What's your favorite action movie and how does it change (or better yet, how does it remain the same) if you make your protagonist a woman?
My Christmas break wasn't entirely unproductive. I've got two new short stories and the first chapter and outline of a new fantasy novel. I spent a lot of time with family and friends, and I read a tremendous amount of economic history. I also read at least one novel, and I'm still trying desperately to finish Game of Thrones before I start watching the HBO television show. I've gotten really interested in the economy of magical worlds, so I've been spending some time looking at how the economy actually works in the real world.
In the meantime, I haven't seen anything new in the theaters. I'm really looking forward to seeing Les Miserables, Django Unchained, Jack Reacher and Zero Dark Thirty (which I've been informed hasn't been released nationwide, yet). The Hobbit, while enjoyable, was underwhelming. On a somewhat related note, George Lucas is engaged to DreamWorks Animation Chairperson Mellody Hobson.
Speaking of Zero Dark Thirty, it's been getting a lot of attention from lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who are questioning the narrative it advances, and wondering whether CIA operatives purposefully misled the filmmakers about the importance of torture in finding Osama bin Laden. The debate centers around the films portrayal of "advanced interrogation techniques" producing timely intelligence in the manhunt of the terrorist leader. Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee want to know if it's true. And if it's not, they want to know why the CIA gave the filmmakers false information.
January looks like a pretty good month for genre releases. First of all, the behemoth against which all fantasy epics are compared comes to a conclusion this month. A Memory of Light concludes the Wheel of Time. Since the tragic loss of Robert Jordan, the series has been helmed ably by Brandon Sanderson. The final book is set to be released Tuesday, January 8th. Jay Lake's third installment of the Green Trilogy, Kalimpura is set for a January 29th release. Peter Hamilton's new book, The Great North Road was released this last Tuesday, January 1st. I'm kind of interested in The Explorer by James Smythe. Here's the publisher's synopsis:
When journalist Cormac Easton is selected to document the first manned
mission into deep space, he dreams of securing his place in history as
one of humanity’s great explorers. But in space, nothing goes according
to plan. The crew wake from hypersleep to discover their captain dead in
his allegedly fail-proof safety pod. They mourn, and Cormac sends a
beautifully written eulogy back to Earth. The word from ground control
is unequivocal: no matter what happens, the mission must continue. But
as the body count begins to rise, Cormac finds himself alone and
spiraling towards his own inevitable death, unless he can do something
to stop it.
Tor.com is offering, for free, an ebook collection of the best short stories offered from their site in 2012. You can read them all on the site, or you can download the collection. Either way, it seems like a pretty good deal.
Guillermo Del Toro has been hinting that he'd finally put H.P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness" to celluloid (actually, is there any celluloid used in movies anymore?) for a while now. Most of his movies hint at the darkness that lurks behind our world; both of the Hellboy movies are directly inspired by Lovecraft, and Pan's Labyrinth has the same foreboding sense of another world hidden just out of the corner of your eye. His work is dark, and ominous, and you have the sense that humanity is small and insignificant compared to the forces arrayed against it.
This is the premise to Pacific Rim. Monsters have traveled via dimensional gateway to our world and we are incapable of fighting back. But instead of lying down to die, we find a way to fight back. And that way? We built Voltron. Take a look at the trailer below and try to tell me that instead of At the Mountains of Madness, I didn't get Voltron. Everything about this movie smacks of ridiculous. So, uranium-depleted bullets don't pierce monster hide, I get it. But where does the logic of building giant robots come in? And then making them anthropomorphic. We have bombs, currently, that can bore hundreds of feet into solid earth, stone and concrete and you're telling me we had to build a three hundred foot version of Real Steel? We can bash these transdimensional monsters to a bloody pulp, but we can't drop a tactical nuke on them. Ridiculous. Where's Shia LeBeouf when you need him?
I realize that for every movie I have to suspend my disbelief, but this movie asks too much.
With the release of the first teaser poster last week, interest in the new Star Trek movie has peaked. I'm not at all sure how I missed it, but over the weekend, the new trailer was also released. This blog isn't really designed to be a movie-speculation forum, so I'll just leave it without making much comment, except that I'm pretty sure Cummerbatch is not playing Khan.
First of all, there's a new Star Trek: Into Darkness poster up. You know the drill: Let's get excited! There's not a lot to go on; I've heard speculation that it's the Borg (please, God, no!), and if you zoom in on the poster you can see the devastated city is clearly London. How that ties in is anyone's guess, but after they destroyed San Francisco in the last one anything goes.
It also seems pretty clear that the central figure isn't Kirk. Chris Pine is many things, but brunette he certainly is not. So that leads me to suspect Cummerbatch; if that's the case, and we know he's set to play the villain, that makes me pretty sure the devastation has been wrought by Gary Mitchell, the rumored bad guy in this go-round. From the Original Series, we know that Gary Mitchell gained near-Q powers and would certainly make sense to see someone unsettled by the sudden acquisition of power go berserk on a major Earth city. So that's my speculation, what do you think?
This is pretty cool: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is set to be made into a BBC mini-series. The book, written by Susanna Clarke, still ranks in my Top 10 Fantasy Books List. It's up there with Name of the Wind, and The Farseer Trilogy (I know, trilogies shouldn't count as one entry, but in the genre of fantasy if I didn't include series as single entries there'd only be two [maybe three] on there.) That being said, I'm really excited about the mini-series. Tor.com has an interesting article on who should play each character; even though he's been just about everywhere, Benedict Cummerbatch would make a great Jonathan Strange, and Ian Holm would excel as Mr. Norrell.
The interwebs have been abuzz recently with an ongoing controversy surrounding sexism in the comic industry and nerdom in general. The basic argument is that women are under-represented and that rampant sexism denies their agency and objectifies them. Over at The Hawkeye Initiative, artists have recast Hawkeye in many of the provocative poses of female superheroes. io9 has a great article detailing some of the better entries.
It's Friday again, and once more I'll recap the week and let you in on what's happening this weekend.
First, Lincoln is being released today. Based on the Pulitzer prize-winning Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, Lincoln is the story of the eponymous president struggling with the carnage of the Civil War while pushing for emancipation. Originally slated to star Liam Neeson, who dropped out because he felt he was too old for the role, the movie stars Daniel Day-Lewis as President Lincoln, and Sally Fields as Mary Todd Lincoln. It looks interesting from a historical bent and I was pleased that Daniel Day-Lewis was able to capture the tone and timbre of the thirteenth president. I'll be seeing this and it seems like a pretty good bet.
Other than that, there's Wreck It Ralph, from Disney, which has been getting a lot of word-of-mouth publicity. Everything I've heard so far is good--good voice acting, good story, good CGI. The only complaint so far is that its many pop culture references are directed toward an audience older than the usual cartoon demographic. Bring your kids, or go see it on your own, seems to be the general consensus. Either way you'll probably like it.
Also, if you haven't seen it yet, go see Skyfall. I've already reviewed it here, but suffice to say, it was very good and definitely worth your time.
I just finished Between Two Fires, by Christopher Buehlman and I'll have the review up probably around Tuesday. Quick snapshot: It's good. Not as accessible as Those Across the River, and with a heavy dose of Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror, but otherwise a fun read. That means that I've started The Twelve by Justin Cronin.
Also, I've just started reading a new collection of Lovecraft inspired short stories/novellas. Space Eldritch is a collection of science fiction stories with a Lovecraftian bent; I heard about it from Howard Tayler (Hugo award-nominated for his web comic Schlock Mercenary, and co-hosting of the writing advice podcast, Writing Excuses) whose long short story "Flight of the Runewright" holds pride-of-place as the capstone story.
In publishing/book news, Sir Terry Pratchett has decided to turn over control of his Discworld franchise to his daughter, author and game writer, Rhianna Pratchett. Diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2007, Terry Pratchett has nevertheless remained active, and Rhianna is already working on the Discworld television show The Watch. Head on over to tor.com for the rest of the details.
TV news: Elizabeth Henstridge and Ian De Caesstecker have joined the cast of Joss Whedon's S.H.I.E.L.D TV show. You can get the full story at The Hollywood Reporter.
Hey, check this out. James Franco as the Wizard of Oz? You better believe it. Directed by Sam Raimi and set to be released in 2013.
And here's the new Hobbit TV Spot:
That's my weekend, what about yours? Let me know in the comments.
The first trailer for Iron Man 3 was released a few days ago. It looks like the Iron Man platform has finally been weaponized, Tony Stark's under the knife to finally remove those pesky bits of shrapnel, and he's fretting over the carnage wrought in New York during the Avengers movie. With all that on his plate, how can things get more tense? How about another terrorist leader with murky vocals threatening everyone he loves?
Sound familiar? If so, try not to think of Nolan's failure to properly dub Bane as any reason to think Marvel will make the same mistakes. Lack of production oversight isn't really the problem at Marvel, since they've displayed a remarkable persistence of vision throughout the Iron Man franchise, and the burgeoning Thor, Hulk, and Captain America franchises. All that being said, poor character development in Dark Knight Rises certainly was the bane of my movie-going experience (I crack myself up), but I'm looking forward to the gloss and shine of a Marvel production with Iron Man 3.
Did you like Bane? Hate him? Just couldn't understand him? Let me hear what you think in the comments.
Legal problems have been holding Warner Bros. back from making Superman movies for years. But last week, a key victory allows Warner Bros. to use Superman, and key elements from his mythos, in movies after 2013. This is a huge boon for anyone hoping for a DC come-back in the face of the Marvel juggernaut that's been plowing through theaters. With the success of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and a slew of others, superhero fans have been waiting for a DC rebuttal. Except for the major success of Christopher Nolan's Batman, DC superheroes have failed to excite much attention. All that could soon change, however, as plans for a Justice League movie are slated for summer 2015. Warner Bros. is then hoping to spin out each superhero in their own movies, eschewing Marvel Studio's success teaming up their heroes after the fact.
Though Christopher Nolan has signed on to produce the new Superman movie, Man of Steel, he has not signed on to produce the Justice League; furthermore, Christian Bale will not reprise Batman, and we can't expect Henry Cavill (if Man of Steel doesn't flop) to play the role of Superman. Wonder Woman is up in the air, and no one seems to care about the Green Lantern, even with Ryan Reynolds filling out his tights.
While I'd love to see an adult treatment of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, I'm not actually excited to see this movie. The Justice League has always seemed kind of hokey to me, the writing is barely tolerable, and the basic premise is just kind of shallow. I get that it worked well in the 70s and the 80s, and the cartoon spin-off is one of the highlights of my childhood. But it's not a memory that I want to revisit. Warner Bros. have their work cut out for them to get me interested, but I'm looking forward to see what they're planning.
What are your thoughts? Looking forward to it? Love it, hate it, not really interested? Let me know in the comments.
With the new release of the "Carrie" teaser, I'm officially excited to see this movie. Apparently this has been in the works for a few months now, but this is the first time I've heard of it. And let me tell you, from what I've been reading, this movie is going to be awesome. It does something so many Stephen King movies have failed to do: be faithful to the text. With so much of the story a collage of newspaper articles, interviews and other voices, it's good to hear them put back in the story. And let's be honest, we all love how creepy Chloe Grace Moretz was in "Let Me In," so we know she's got the chops. Keep an eye out, and stop bullying kids in the locker room.
I'm a huge sucker for Daniel Craig's leaner, meaner, post-9/11 James Bond and have loved the introductory movies: "Casino Royale" and "Quantum of Solace." Skyfall looks to be everything I hoped it would be. Here's the new TV trailer. I'm excited for theaters.
So after that gaffe with Karl Urban leaking the antagonist for the upcoming Star Trek 2, J.J. and team have commenced a wild teaser campaign that culminated a few nights ago with J.J. Abrams unveiling some footage from the movie on Conan. Unfortunately, it consisted entirely of only three frames from the movie. Yep, that's the totality of it up at the top. It's Spock. In a volcano. In a crazy suit. Here's the entire Conan clip:
According to news outlets, Tony Scott, director of films such as "Top Gun" and "Crimson Tide," and "Man on Fire," died early this morning in an apparent suicide. According to officials, he left a note in his car before jumping from Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro, California.
With his older brother, Ridley Scott, he created Scott Free Productions in 1995. Since directing "Top Gun" he's been behind the helm of many of the films that defined my sense of summer action blockbusters. "Crimson Tide" and "Enemy of the State" stand out as pivotal films that altered the way I perceive the role of government and, in the case of "Crimson Tide," war itself.
He was a great director, and with his brother (notably as Executive Producer for "Prometheus"), helps define the genre of science fiction for the big screen. His will be a sorely missed presence.
