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Trailer park report: live-action films, part 1
01/10/2006 . Source: Mark R. Leeper 
Here's Mark continuing with his coverage of the trailers for upcoming films shown at the recent World Science Fiction Convention in the USA. It may be a sign of what is going on in the film industry, but it was quite noticeable that the same popular actors like Nicholas Cage or Scarlett Johansson were showing up in multiple films. While the power of the stars seems to be waning in Hollywood, the studios are still using a few young, attractive faces repeatedly. Hugh Jackman, best known for playing comic-book character Wolverine, is involved in four of the films presented: FLUSHED AWAY, HAPPY FEET, THE PRESTIGE, and THE FOUNTAIN. What we saw in this trailer compilation are not all the films coming out, by any means.
It is a small sample and Jackman is in four of the films. Somebody obviously thinks his name will attract people, probably on the basis of his playing Wolverine in X-MEN. Also, some of the ideas seem repetitive. THE ILLUSIONIST (trailer not shown at the convention) and THE PRESTIGE both seem to be sumptuous period pieces about stage magicians. The plots may or may not be quite different but I expect a lot of the dramatic tension of THE PRESTIGE, like that of THE ILLUSIONIST, will work off the tension of the mystical focus a stage magician affects.
Dakota Fanning will be starring in a new live-action version of CHARLOTTE'S WEB. It looks very much like it will be handled like a third BABE film. It is very much in the same style with talking animals and a cute and very similar pig voice. E. B. White's book is a children's classic, albeit a tear-jerker for kids, so this has the potential to be a good film. I have heard of children actually breaking down and crying when they get to the end of the book. Actually I hope that the filmmaker--the director is Gary Winick--has the good sense to leave the sad elements in for the children. I am hoping it does not have a "better, happier" ending.
My personal feeling is that the sad or frightening things I read or saw as a kid did me no harm and a lot of good. Perhaps parents want to protect children from things that are pornographic--that is another argument--but scary or sad books or movies are good for children, like broccoli. They help to form well-rounded adult minds. I was sad that (spoiler coming) Bambi's mother died, but it helped to teach me the value of life. These days kids learn the value of life from films like THE MATRIX with its machine gun sequences. Perhaps the value of life has changed accordingly.
It is not uncommon for film trailers to be actually booed by the Worldcon audience if the films do not look good. This year only one film that I noticed, a remake of the classic film THE WICKER MAN starring Nicholas Cage, brought jeers from the audience. One can tell by the trailer that the new version misses much of the point. It looks like it has real supernatural elements. The story does not need them. (It is like Kiyoshi Kurosawa's film SÉANCE, a remake of SÉANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON. But the frequently very good Kurosawa adds a real ghost. That is one thing this film does not need.) Part of the point is that it is not supernatural. I will add my opinion to the folks in the audience. Rent the original. [P.S. This is already in theaters as to this publication and is making a very poor show.]
THE PRESTIGE is the film that at the moment I am most looking forward to. Christopher Priest is a very good author and my wife Evelyn recommended this book before it was a movie. The plot involves two competing stage magicians, one of whom can perform a seemingly impossible trick. Is it really impossible? There was a similar question for a competing film this season, THE ILLUSIONIST. The trailer speaks of a very good-looking film with a good period feel. Christopher Nolan directs as he did for the film MOMENTO and BATMAN BEGINS. The cast includes Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Hugh Jackman, and Scarlett Johansson. [The film is reviewed this issue.]
BORAT (full title: BORAT: CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN) seems to be a low-budget independent comedy about a reporter from Kazakhstan who comes to the United States to study Americans from his own cultural point of view. He knows nothing about the United States. That is a pretty tired premise. This looks from the trailer like a very standard fish-out-of-water story. Robin Williams did it well with MOSCOW ON THE HUDSON. There was some of this sort of humour in THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING. The sort of joke is to show Borat leaving for America in a taxi and as the camera pulls back we see it is pulled by a horse.
Rumour has it that the character is anti-gay, anti-gypsy, and especially anti- Jewish. The trailer is not going to improve international understanding. I doubt the film will either, but it may have more teeth than the trailer made it seem to have. In general, my advice is to avoid comedies about characters taken from television shows. This includes Coneheads, Pat, and Borat from HBO's (and Britain's Channel 4's) the "Da Ali G Show."
[P.P.S. It was more than two weeks ago that I wrote the above about this film causing trouble. It turns out now it is causing an international incident. See http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/09/14/borat.shtml and http://tinyurl.com/jddqw.]
I will be looking forward to FLYBOYS. The film appears to be about the Lafayette Escadrille. When France was fighting Germany in World War I and America was still officially neutral, some young men went to France to fly with the French biplane squadrons. They called themselves Escadrille Américaine. When Germany protested that people from the neutral United States was attacking Germans the squadron was officially abolished but unofficially just renamed the Lafayette Escadrille. FLYBOYS is a film about the Lafayette Escadrille which promises of lot of biplane flying and probably some dogfights. The special effects look very digital, but they still get the idea across. Director Tony Bill previously helmed a lot of television and a few OK films like MY BODYGUARD and UNTAMED HEART. I did not recognize any of the actors, but that is not necessarily a bad sign. I will certainly see FLYBOYS.
Most historians now believe that about a millennium ago there were Vikings in the New World. I cannot tell much about the plot of PATHFINDER, but it is set against a backdrop of invading Vikings fighting Indians. The style reminds me somewhat of THE THIRTEENTH WARRIOR, a film that was promising and started very well but which wore out its welcome. Too much (albeit realistic) fighting without character interest makes for a dull movie. The IMDB describes the film as, "A Viking boy is left behind after his clan battles a Native American tribe. Raised within the tribe, he ultimately becomes their savoir in a fight against the Norsemen."
Martin Scorsese usually makes a good crime film. THE DEPARTED is the story of the Justice Department's efforts to bring down Frank Costello. The plot looks reminiscent of DONNIE BRASCO. There is a cop infiltrating Costello's organization trying to counter Costello's spies in the justice department. The cast includes Jack Nicholson as Frank Costello, Mark Damon, Mark Wahlberg and Leonardo DiCaprio. I think DiCaprio can out-act Damon or Wahlberg, but we shall see. My wife Evelyn pointed out the similarity to the Hong Kong film INFERNAL AFFAIRS and the IMDB confirms it is a remake of that film. Since when does Scorsese do remakes? I guess he did do AGE OF INNOCENCE.
Brian DePalma is also doing a crime film, THE BLACK DAHLIA. This is a work of fiction based on the unsolved Black Dahlia murder case. In 1947 Los Angeles aspiring actress Elizabeth Short (nicknamed Black Dahlia) was found in an empty lot, her body cut in half at the waist and most of the rest of her body mutilated. James Ellroy, who wrote L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, also wrote a fiction novel based on the case and this film an adaptation of that novel. The film stars Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart, Scarlett Johansson, and Hillary Swank.
Speaking of fiction films about unsolved mysteries, HOLLYWOODLAND is about another Los Angeles case. In 1959 George Reeves, who at the time was television's Superman, apparently committed suicide. It has been suggested since that it might have been murder, but it was never proven. Adrien Brody, Diane Lane, Ben Affleck, and Bob Hoskins star in a more fanciful murder mystery. [P.S. Okay, now I have seen it. I have a review this issue. I think they filmmakers missed the point of where the real story was.]
Next week I will talk about some of the major fantasy releases, including an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's STARDUST.
Mark R. Leeper
(c) Mark R. Leeper 2006
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