Well, the future V For Vendetta film, based on Alan Moore's dark and brilliant graphic novel, now has one potentially negative indicator and one clearly positive indicator.
The negative indicator was the Wachowskis' decision to make career assistant director James McTeigue the director. McTeigue worked on some excellent genre films, such as Dark City and Matrix. Sadly, he also worked on the Matrix sequels and on SW: ep II. And he's been an assistant director for over ten years. The Wachowski bros may not know how to write more than one movie of any given series (a sweeping statement, given that they've only done one series, but I think said sequels were bad enough to warrant it), but they do know how to direct. Their visual touch, combined with Moore's story could be amazing.
But Natalie Portman was apparently cast as Evie, and this is a very good sigh. I'm not a huge fan of hers, but she just fits as Evie. If the casting of V is equally inspired, I may be inclined to start feeling optimistic. V is a tough, tough part to cast. Both villain and hero (particularly the latter), mad and sane (particularly the former). He's lethal and grandstanding. But he's a character the viewer MUST care about.
Also in genre films, the trailer for Fantastic Four is online. And it... kinda sucks. I'm not counting this film out quite yet, though. F4 are definitely A-list characters for Marvel, and while movies based on B-listers have generally, well, sucked, the A-listers have been treated quite well. And Julian Mcmahon won me over on the Globes red carpet, when he outed himself as a comics fan.
Speaking of Marvel B-listers... it seems Elektra blows. A shame, as I like Garner quite a bit. Oh, well. It's the other film Frank Miller related film that I'm really looking forward to.
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
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2 comments:
The Fantastic Four trailer has the sort of rough look I recall from the very first X-Men trailer, except that - damn, they should have picked an A-List actor to be Doom. And the soundtrack they picked is less cool, and the text has a nudge-nudge heavy-handedness to it (changed forever. 4ever. get it? 4-ever?)
Elektra - I was actually happy with the trailer, which promised at least kinky red outfits and flashy villains. However, the comparison to Kill Bill (which does Elektra no favours) is very apt: The Bride was much closer to the raw, unflinching vibe of Miller's Elektra than Garner could ever be.
About V for Vendetta, casting V is a curious point - you're basically casting a voice, because in any sane version, you will never see his face, nor the face of the man in room five.
Of course, if Genkin's prediction turns out, he may spend more time unmasked than Toby Maguire did in Spider-Man 2.
Well, I'm gonna ignore Gankin's prediction (for non Hebrew readers, it was basically "it'll star Keanu and be stupid and patriotic") because it is a silly prediction. There's no need to use Moore as source material if you're going to make that kind of film, and the W's really, really, really wanted to adapt VFV for a long time. In the first Matrix film, btw, I thought Reeves was an inspired choice, as he mostly had to look clueless for the early part, and once he was supposed to get smart, he had shades to hide the dumb look in his eyes. Sadly, the choice meant they were stuck with him for the (crappy, crappy) sequels. But overall, the Ws have a decent history in casting. The supporting cast of Matrix was very good, and they used the excellent Harold Perrineau in the sequels.
And I really don't think you're just casting a voice. An actor acts, even behind a mask. There's limited facial expression, and unlimited physical expression.
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