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Monday, September 28
Actor Dennis Quaid is riding a wave of genre movies that have led him right to ... the White House. (On film, that is.)
Quaid recently portrayed General Hawk in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, the film adaptation of the popular toy line. He's currently starring in the sci-fi/horror flick Pandorum. And Quaid just wrapped filming on Legion, which Quaid called a "first-class drive-in zombie movie."
Next up, he will portray one of the most popular — and controversial — presidents in American history, Bill Clinton. Quaid said he spent all summer prepping for the role, which is now in production, including packing on a few pounds to get better into character.
I've been eating everything that isn't nailed down. I think I'm ready for it. I've got the voice. Just got to keep working on it and see where we can go with it.
I had a relationship with Bill Clinton when he was in the White House. He was the smartest person I've ever met, and that's the key to him. He's just a really, really bright guy. A tough role, a challenging one. He's never really been done in a movie, except in parody [John Travolta in Primary Colors]. Travolta did a good job on him, but Clinton's from Arkansas, I'm from Texas. I think I've got him.
Next Showing: Pandorum is in theaters now; Legion opens January 22
Posted 9/28/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Dennis Quaid | Pandorum | Legion
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Friday, September 25
Pandorum was not screened for critics and, predictably, the reviews are not very good. The movie does have, however, one of the creepiest posters of the year.
"...non-sci-fi fans may well themselves be driven mad long before the end."
— Clark Collis, Entertainment Weekly
"From the producers of the Resident Evil movies comes ... a Resident Evil rip-off in space! An actual Resident Evil sequel in space would have been better — at least then we'd have Milla Jovovich to look at instead of Ben Foster."
— Luke Y. Thompson, E! Online
"Quaid and Foster spend far too much time trying to figure out what's going on, but audiences are liable to respond only with a dispirited "Who cares?""
— Nathan Rabin, Onion AV Club
"...tempts the viewer into hypersleep."
— Rob Nelson, Variety
"...a claustrophobic, tedious sci-fi thriller..."
— Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
Posted 9/25/2009 by reelz
Related: Ben Foster | Dennis Quaid | Pandorum
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Tuesday, September 22
While the studio has been pretty generous distributing disturbing teasers for the deep space horror flick Pandorum, most of what we've seen so far is half-glimpsed terrors in the shadows. Pretty effective all on its own.
But now there's a new featurette in which the cast and crew situate footage of the terror, and the running, and the flesh-peeling into the clearest exposition so far of an overall story line. And it's this story line, even more than the visual effects, that the studio is now actively promoting as the major selling point of the movie. Key point: Alien-esque it may be, but there are no actual aliens involved. Space madness is afoot, and a large part of the suspense is in the mind.
Posted 9/22/2009 by Bill
Related: Pandorum
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German director Christian Alvart's latest movie, Pandorum, blends the sci-fi and horror genres to tell the story of two crew members on a deep space mission who wake up with amnesia and discover they are lost, but not alone. Actor Dennis Quaid ( G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) stars as Payton, one of the crew members on the mission, and he told Movieweb that it was writer Travis Malloy's "unique storyline" that drew him to the role.
It is hard to find any movie that is worthy. A lot of these scripts out there are so derivative. When I read a script, it is the only time I get to be an audience member. It's the first time I am dealing with it. I thought to myself, "Wow." I read it in one sitting, and I couldn't put it down. I didn't know what was going to happen until the very end. And it had such a great twist. It surprised even me. It is original, and unique.
Quaid said that Payton was an interesting character to play because of his mental state at the beginning of the movie.
I am very interested in the human condition. That is what I love about acting. I like studying different people and their psychosis. I like discovering what makes them tick. I always find that with any character I play. I need to find out what makes them tick. With Payton, I really had to start off with a blank slate. Because he doesn't know who he is. Then he thinks he knows who he is. Then he finds out something else, and he is in denial about it. Denial has a lot to do with this character. It is one of his qualities as a human being.
Next Showing: Pandorum opens September 25
Posted 9/22/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Dennis Quaid | Christian Alvart | Pandorum
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Friday, September 4
Other than a bit of truly disturbing skin-peeling, most of the footage and images from the Alien-esque deep space horror-flick Pandorum released so far involve trying to get away from some half-glimpsed terrors. Not that those aren't plenty to run from, as we can see in a couple of new TV spots.
But now we also have a new clip from the movie that isn't quite so coy, showing off one of the creatures lurking in the corridors, not just in the shadows, but in the flesh — or at least it looks like flesh, and spines, and teeth ... and stuff.
Posted 9/4/2009 by Bill
Related: Pandorum
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Friday, August 28
The promotional campaign for the deep space horror flick Pandorum led off with all sorts of disturbing posters of things that were just wrong in some visceral way. The movie's trailer teases glimpses of Nosferatu-like creatures multiplying in the dimly lit corridors of the ship while crew members peel off their own skin.
That last bit definitely makes a real impression, and it's an iconic image that the filmmakers are clearly hoping will draw audiences into the theater. Now they've released a new motion poster in which the flesh comes off over and over again with a creepy voice in the background repeating, "They didn't see me coming." Definitely not a movie for the squeamish. You've been warned.
Posted 8/28/2009 by Bill
Related: Pandorum
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Wednesday, August 12
In an interview with MTV, Pandorum producer Paul W.S. Anderson addressed comparisons between his upcoming deep-space horror flick and the granddaddy of them all, Alien.
It's a very scary movie set in space and there are creatures in it. It introduces an unexpected terror to the audience. Any buzz floating around that this is a bit like Alien, I take as a huge compliment.
It is not just "some Alien knock-off" though, he insists. For one thing, the monsters, at least from what we have seen of them in the trailers, are a bit more Nosferatu. Then there's that whole weird skin-peeling thing. And as far as plot is concerned, an element of mystery is added with the missing crew.
On top of all that though, he reveals that there is a nude scene with Twilight star Cam Gigandet:
For fans of Twilight, there's a scene where Cam's completely naked. He's covered in blood, of course. There's more Cam nudity in this than there is in Twilight! There's this great scene where Dennis finds Cam and he's naked and covered in blood and Dennis covers him up and he says to Cam, "Is that your blood, Corporal?" and Cam says, "Some of it," and of course the question is, "Whose blood is it?"
Given what happens to his character James at the end of Twilight, it seems rather unlikely that Twilight fans will be put off from seeing Cam that way, no matter whose blood it is or how much there is of it.
Posted 8/12/2009 by Bill
Related: Paul W.S. Anderson | Alien | Twilight | Pandorum | Cam Gigandet
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Monday, August 3
"Fear What Happens Next," proclaims the latest in a series of disturbingly suggestive posters for the deep space horror flick Pandorum. Like the other posters in the series, this one isn't too clear what terror lurks in the spaceship's vast network of corridors. Bulging muscles, peeling flesh, and lurking menace, sure, but what exactly are we going to see? Of course, that's the point: the horror you don't know often turns out to be far creepier than the horror you do know.
There are a few more tantalizing glimpses of what everyone seems to be running from in some recently released footage. It's just a bit more than we saw in the previous trailer, but still not enough to really identify what, or perhaps who, they are. There do sure seem to be a lot of them, though.
Posted 8/3/2009 by Bill
Related: Pandorum
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Monday, July 20
Like many a good horror flick, Pandorum aims to play on the fear of the unknown. So what we have seen so far in the trailers — mysterious creatures loose in the labyrinthine corridors of a giant spaceship, peeling flesh, and missing passengers — is more disturbing than illuminating. For those on the spaceship who have just woken up from hibernation, it's pretty hard to figure out what's going on too.
Without giving too much away, supporting cast member (and champion kick-boxer) Cung Le adds some details as he talks to Shock Till You Drop about the character he will be playing in the movie:
His name is Manh. He's an agriculture specialist and he's been awake for a while. The storyline is two crew members wake up and don't know where they are at. Or what [their] mission is. I've been awake and I know what's going on and I've been surviving on this ship. Over time he's battle-hardened. He knows what to do.
He doesn't always know what to say, though. Filmmakers have built the fact that English isn't his first language into the plot. So his communication difficulties add to the uncertainty.
Le also confirms that mystery, not just sci-fi and horror, is at the heart of Pandorum:
You think you're going to figure something out and you're going to be wrong. You think you know what's going to happen next and you're going to be wrong. I guarantee there are going to be so many twists and turns. And the ending is going to make you think. It's a mindf**k. For the horror fans who feel scary movies have been lacking, this is it.
Posted 7/20/2009 by Bill
Related: Pandorum | Cung Le
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Monday, July 13
The upcoming deep space sci-fi flick Pandorum has definitely been trying to stake out some pretty edgy territory along the border of science fiction and horror. In fact, recently released posters for the movie have definitely fallen on the skin-peeling horror side of the line.
Now some concept designs for the bridge and other parts of the starship are fleshing out the more sci-fi aspects of the film. This is no Enterprise, though. Here, the captain's chair is embedded in the center of some kind of holographic user interface and the majority of the design seems inspired by boiler rooms and submarines. Despite the vast size of the ship, spaces everywhere are just a little too busy and claustrophobic for humans to ever really feel at home. And that's where the horror comes back in...
Next Showing: Pandorum opens September 4, 2009
Posted 7/13/2009 by Bill
Related: Pandorum