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| Tuesday, August 9, 2005 02:45 PM |
| The Once and Future Bullet Points |
 by Fëanor |
- Via sarcasmoscorner:
| In a Past Life... | 
You Were: A Genius Sailor.
Where You Lived: Cyprus.
How You Died: In Childbirth. |
I can see myself as a woman, but not as a sailor, sorry.
- I hadn't heard of this movie Everything Is Illuminated until I read about it at The Movie Blog, who pointed me toward the Quicktime trailer. Looks like it could be good or it could be bad; hard to say. But there's some interesting stuff in this trailer, and there are some talented people associated with the movie--Elijah Wood is in the main role, and Liev Schreiber is writing and directing. It's the first time for Schreiber in the big chair, but I love him as an actor, so I'm hoping his talents will transfer well to the other side of the camera. Anyway, I'll be keeping an eye on this project.
- The Movie Blog has another news item today about a film based on a book; in this case, it's His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass. If you don't know, His Dark Materials is a trilogy of fantasy books that are supposedly for children, but that actually deal with many very adult themes. I enjoyed them quite a bit, although I found the second one a bit slow to get going, and the third one a bit odd.
Anyway, Mr. Brunton mentions here in passing that supposedly the folks making the movie have radically changed the story, and all religious references have been taken out for marketing purposes.
I am horrified. What is left of the His Dark Materials story after you take out the religious references? That's like taking the religious allegory out of the Narnia story.
I think it would be particularly meaningful, especially given the current political and religious climate in America, to tell the whole story, which takes the Old Testament and stands it on its head, and emphasizes how important and good freedom and knowledge really are. But apparently the (predictable) decision was made to slap together a Harry Potter-esque, children-friendly fantasy adventure film instead of to tell an interesting, provocative story.
I don't have any comment on the actual meat of this news item, as I don't know anything about Anand Tucker or his work, and so can't say whether he'll be good to direct this or not. The only thing that gives me hope for this film is the fact that the author of the books, Philip Pullman, is still on board and supportive. And also, Tom Stoppard is listed in the writing credits on the IMDB. But then again, there was a rumor going around just before Revenge of the Sith came out that Stoppard worked on that film's screenplay, too, so who knows how true this is.
UPDATE: Cinematical's post on this issue makes the whole new director thing sound a bit more scandalous, but more importantly, it mentions Stoppard's participation like it's fact. Sweet!
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