Well this disheveled drooling spy plugged himself into the wall socket, ran a through volts through his ol noggin... had some electrolytes and started typing up a storm. My one fear is THE GREEN MILE trailer... I really hope that Warners isn't attempting to sell this movie as a feel good film. Anyone familiar with the piece can attest to the fact that it ain't too heartwarming... OF COURSE this wouldn't be the first time Warners dropped the ball with marketing a high quality film ahem iron giant ahem. Well... Who knows.... Perhaps the world will turn funny, maybe Joel Silver will take some MATRIX profits and produce Brad Bird's next film... Maybe the sky will fall. Who knows what the future holds... The Shadow knows, and until I hear from Lamont, I'm as much in the dark as you.
Hello, R.P. McMurphy here. I fled the asylum in order to attend the San Diego Comic Con, and had a lot of fun. The Mute Witness covered the Heather Donahue and Casper Van Dien panels very well, but I thought I'd add a couple anecdotes. In real life, Donahue comes off as an endearing spaz, always gesticulating wildly and laughing uproariously. She revealed what was in the bundle of twigs in The Blair Witch Project: hair, blood, and human teeth. I found Van Dien's performance in Starship Troopers as Johnny Rico irritatingly boyish, but he seemed genuinely nice and surprisingly funny in his question-and-answer session.
However, since no one has reported on the batch of new trailers premiered at the Comic Con, I thought I'd chime in.
Lost Souls/The Ninth Gate- There were over 5 supernatural-themed trailers in the presentation, ranging from the promising (Stir of Echoes) to the apparently awful (House on Haunted Hill, which I'll get to anon). But I don't know what to make of these two. I'm a huge fan of Janusz Kaminski's collaborations with Spielberg, but his directorial debut, Lost Souls, has no groundbreaking visual scheme or emotional pull from the looks of this mundane trailer. I like the idea that Ben Chaplin's character doubts his eminent posession by Satan, but other than that, expect a generic countdown-to-expensive-finale flick. Likewise, I loved Roman Polanski's Chinatown, but his newest, The Ninth Gate, has a trailer that features apocalyptic visuals we've all seen before.
The House on Haunted Hill- If Ratched hadn't already given me a lobotomy, this trailer would have. A lot of very quick cuts of third-rate actors (Peter Gallagher, Lena Olin, Chris Kattan) running around waving flashlights and falling in bathtubs, with bright colors and loud music. Concludes with Geoffrey Rush in pencil-thin moustache and smoking jacket commenting that "some houses are just funny" or some one-liner like that. Ugh.
Man on the Moon- Aaaah, how I love Milos Forman's work (check spy name). As well as Jim Carrey's, and the fantastic-as-expected script by Larry and Scott (Ed Wood, The People vs. Larry Flynt). The trailer lives up to expectations. It starts out with DeVito and Love at Kaufman's funeral, and flashes a screen that says "Andy Kaufman" and his life span (year born-year died) with a moon in the background. We see various Kaufman exploits while a narrator intones "Some found him brilliant...others did not." Then a great montage backed up by R.E.M.'s titular track showcases vivid images of the human comedy and tragedy we can expect from Forman: Kaufman and Shapiro (DeVito) in a warm embrace, Lynn wearing a fake moustache, a healer laying stones on a chemo-undergoing, bald Kaufman, Kaufman dancing on stage with a Howdy Doody puppet, etc. The title is superimposed over the moon, then we see Kaufman leap off a stage and announce to the assembled audience, "Free milk and cookies for everyone!" This is a can't-miss film.
The Green Mile- The Shawshank Redemption is a classic, and one of the oddest success stories of the '90s (weak box office, but a favorite of everyone you talk to). I hope that Frank Darabont remembers that Andy Dufresne and Red's little triumphs and ultimate escape were so damned invigorating because the forces against them were so dark and almost frightening. His newest, The Green Mile, looks like it starts out feel-good and doesn't stop. The friendship between Edgecombe (Hanks) and Coffey (Duncan) looks unique and moving, and I still have high hopes for Darabont, but there are a few mistakes made in the trailer. One is having a CGI light effect come out of Coffey's mouth when he resuscitates a dying woman. Yeah, he has healing powers, but using CGI to communicate that is cheesy. Another is showing a scene with Coffey and Edgecombe watching a film in a prison screening room a la Shawshank. That's a weak, obvious bid for audience familiarity, and I'm pretty sure death row inmates can't see movies. The script reviews have still been very positive, so let's cross our fingers.
Until next time, when I'll have some script reviews,
R.P. McMurphy
