Why no updates PLUS a look at MINORITY REPORT

Hey folks, Harry here. Sorry for the lack of updates, but beings that I was in Los Angeles these past 3 days coupled with the fact that many of the studios and production offices are now on vacation till January 4th... well, there ain't a whole lot going on at the moment, other than a whole bunch of well deserved Merry Christmas'. So if you are on vacation, heck my friend send in a scoop if ya have a chance, let's see if we can give one wonderful update for Christmas... if not... well gosh I guess I'll have to try to pull something out. We'll see.

Ok, Now I know the above isn't what you wanted to hear, you came to read about the Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise MINORITY REPORT scoop. Well, on my plane ride back yesterday another curious chap from a certain Dreamy studio happened to have a tree-worth of paper with the typed words MINORITY REPORT upon his lap. When he dozed off... well, I did my spy duty and read it. Heh heh heh....

First, I've never read the Phillip Dick short story that this is based on, and over the next few days, I'll be getting my grubby little simian paws upon Riker's directorial version of Minority Report entitled TOTAL RECALL 2.

This is the sort of movie everyone will be very pleased to have Steven Spielberg attached to. It feels and moves for about 2/3rds of it like a pretty darn cool sci fi film noirish crime story. It's set in the year 2040, in and around the Washington D.C./Virginia area. The world has gone retro-Fifties, but with super science driving it all. The world is filled with automated cars (both land cars and flying cars), flying dirigibles with televisions affixed to their sides. The costumes are described as coming straight out of the Forties. Robogeek will be pleased.

However, the most significant change in the future is that there is no murder. Huh? Well, there is a department of Pre-Crime in this future that along with the help of three precognitive siblings strapped 24 hours a day into a machine that monitors their every vision of murder... well Pre-Crime units fly out to prevent the murders. These people/future murders are strapped with a Halo which basically wipes their minds away leaving them vegetables.

For about 2/3rds of this script, which I imagine will see quite a bit of tweaking on up till the August filming schedule for Spielberg and Cruise, well it just about kicks your ass hard. Those first 2/3rds just bustle with a sense of inevitability, of doom. You can feel the main characters sweat and desperation. His run underground, as this future Gestapo-esque police force and government squeezes and squeezes. Taut and terrifying, the pressure just builds and builds.

Then, for me, the last 1/3rd takes the lid off... The main character feels a release of steam, it allows everyone to gather their senses. It begins softening up on the poor guy. The action continues, but... well the thing they do gives our main character an unfair advantage, which well... sort of makes the rest of the film.. just play out. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't ruin the film, but it does keep it from being extraordinary. In my mind, I felt we should have been unsure of the outcome till the very last frame of film. That's the way the film felt. But hey, I'm willing to bet Spielberg and crew will pull out all the stops on this one.

This will be Spielberg's first foray into the worlds of future world sci fi. This could be an amazing film if Spielberg can keep the film lean and mean. If he has Tom Cruise grow stubble and get a bit mangy looking. Bruise up that face, tear his clothes. Knock that perfection right out of his system... well then this movie could just rock. Spielberg should be able to kick all of our asses with this film, there are so many cool future things, like the little light sabre-ish breadknife to the little glove guns.

Get excited about this one, it's a top of the line cool project.