Friday, February 27

• Crashes and Numbers and Gore in New Clips from Knowing

  Three new clips from Knowing have just been released, giving us a more detailed look at the movie's really spectacular subway and plane crash sequences, as well as some tension-building scenes in which the Nicolas Cage character begins puzzling out the horror behind the mysterious numbers. The train wreck is the real standout here. Another clip of it was released earlier, but that one was more focused on Cage's futile attempts to limit the damage. This time it's all about the carnage and mayhem. In a recent interview with SciFi Wire, director Alex Proyas talked about the inspiration behind the sequence:

  So what we decided to do is we had the train actually leap the tracks and go sliding across the subway [platform], and I just ... find that, you know, carnage in crowded places is one of the most horrific things you can possibly imagine, because there's nowhere to go. So this whole notion that a train carriage at a hundred miles an hour is ... skidding across a platform, and you've got nowhere to run, and you're going to get mowed down, is a pretty brutal concept.

  Next time you stand on a crowded subway platform, it's definitely going to have you keeping your eye out for a quick exit strategy. Watch:

  
  

  Posted 02/27/2009 by Bill

  Related: Nicolas Cage | Alex Proyas | Knowing

Friday, January 30

• The Apocalypse According to Knowing Director Alex Proyas

  The idea that the end is indeed nigh has become a fixture of the contemporary zeitgeist and one that filmmakers are exploiting to the hilt in upcoming movies from Terminator Salvation to 2012 to Knowing. The director of Knowing, Alex Proyas, recently sat down with the crew of io9 and talked a bit about what made his take on the coming apocalypse different. The basic premise, he says, is "like an urban myth," that someone could have buried information, "like a message in a bottle," with a code that predicts disasters with total accuracy. Laid down in the 1950s and dug up in the present day, the time capsule device also allowed him to play with the idea that the future isn't what it used to be. Unlike the 1950s, where the specter of nuclear armageddon crowded out all other threats, he says, "Now, annihilation could come from so many different directions, it's hard to know which specter of destruction to be scared of." There was also a naive optimism about the future in the '50s that he brings out in a scene where the time capsule is being buried with everyone "talking brightly about the promise of a shining future, with the proverbial flying cars and personal rocket ships." We all know how that turned out.

  
  

  Posted 01/30/2009 by reelz

  Related: Alex Proyas | Knowing | Terminator Salvation

Thursday, December 4

• New Knowing Poster Ups the Ante on Apocalypse

  Is Earth's number up?

  A provocative new poster for Alex Proyas' apocalyptic thriller Knowing has popped up at Ain't It Cool, teasing a truly ultimate cataclysm, with the Earth itself on fire and disintegrating into numbers from the South Pole up. Assuming it's more than just a very cool promo image, it looks as if star Nicolas Cage really will have his hands full trying to prevent a bit more than your run-of-the-mill preordained apocalyptic disaster. The concept is not totally unprecedented though. It bears more than a passing resemblance to the opening sequence of Showtime's sci-fi series Odyssey 5, in which the earth dramatically explodes before your eyes. Interestingly, in that series too, the main characters, who have been sent back into the past, try to avert a literal planetary destruction about which they are the only ones in the know.

  
  
  Next Showing: Knowing hits theaters March 20, 2009

  Posted 12/04/2008 by reelz

  Related: Nicolas Cage | Alex Proyas | Knowing

Wednesday, July 11

• Movie Dealz

  Footloose, Superman, and Dracula - Oh My!

  In today's dealz...

  ...Paramount will be doing a musical remake of Footloose (a la the musical remake of Hairspray that comes out next week). Movie musical crowned prince Zac Efron (High School Musical, Hairspray) is in talks to star as Ren McCormack (i.e. Kevin Bacon's part) and Kenny Ortega (High School Musical) is in talks to direct...

  ...A film adaptation of journalist Toby Young's amusing memoir about his time at Vanity Fair, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, is being made by British film company Number 9 Films. It will star Simon Pegg, Kirsten Dunst, Gillian Anderson, and Jeff Bridges as Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, and will be directed by Bob Weide (Curb Your Enthusiasm)...

  ...Animated French feature Persepolis will be given a new cast to do an English language version. The cartoon, which is based on the bestselling graphic novel about Marjane Satrapi's experience growing up during the Iranian revolution of 1979 will include Sean Penn, Iggy Pop, Gena Rowlands, and Catherine Deneuve...

  ...There's a bevy of Dracula films swirling about town, including Dracula Year Zero, which will be about Vlad the Impaler--the Romanian royal who inspired the whole dracula myth to begin with. Alex Proyas (I, Robot) is set to direct...

  ...And finally Kevin Spacey has signed to reprise his role as Lex Luthor in Superman: The Man of Steel, director Bryan Singer's sequel to Superman Returns...

  Source: Variety.com.

  
  

  Posted 07/11/2007 by reelz

  Related: Bryan Singer | Jeff Bridges | Kevin Spacey | Zac Efron | Alex Proyas | Kenny Ortega | Footloose | How to Lose Friends & Alienate People | Superman Returns | Dracula Year Zero | Superman: The Man of Steel