By Jason Apuzzo. • There’s been an ocean of ‘alien invasion’ news since our last Invasion Alert! – so much so that I’ll barely be able to cover it all. So let’s jump right in, focusing on recent developments …
• Trailers and promotional art have begun to appear for Steven Spielberg’s Falling Skies TV series for TNT. If ever we’ve seen a classic alien invasion scenario, this would seem to be it. The excellent new promo trailer for this series makes it look like a cross between V and War of the Worlds – although, interestingly, some of the promotional art seems to suggest that this series may also be headed down the path of Robert Heinlein’s Puppet Masters, with alien creatures riding on the backs of humans and ‘controlling’ their thoughts and actions. That’s just a hunch, but check out this promotional poster here (scroll below to the second poster) and perhaps you’ll see what I mean.
I’m not too crazy about Noah Wyle in the lead – he plays a Boston history professor who has to “use his military knowledge to aid the resistance movement known as the 2nd Mass” (sounding a bit like V here?) – although that may be because I keep thinking of him playing Steve Jobs in Pirates of Silicon Valley, which didn’t quite work for me.
In any case, the show’s trailer features a lot of gratuitous flag-waving and patriotic imagery, once more suggesting that this genre is heading back down its traditionally pro-American, pro-freedom path, a la the recent Battle: Los Angeles. With that said, I strongly suspect that this series will likely also have multiple layers to it in the way V has had over its first two seasons.
As far as alien invasion projects, Spielberg’s Falling Skies will be headed into some crowded skies when it premieres in June, right after the J.J. Abrams/Steven Spielberg Super 8, and with the Michael Bay/Steven Spielberg Transformers: Dark of the Moon and the Jon Favreau/Steven Spielberg Cowboys & Aliens opening in July. By the way, anybody notice a recurring name here?
• So Battle: Los Angeles worked out well, yes? You can read my glowing review of Battle: LA here, which got some attention when most everyone else in the critical community was trashing the film. Battle: LA is currently the top-grossing movie worldwide, so far having taken in over $153 million. Possibly the rest of the world simply likes seeing Los Angeles being destroyed? Putting a more positive spin on things, I suspect the film’s done well because it depicts a more old-fashioned, hard-nosed, patriotic side of America – the America that the rest of the world misses, even when they claim they don’t.
At the same time, I think Battle: LA probably could’ve done even a lot better at the box office had the film been a bit more original in conception. Battle: LA takes such a straight-no-chaser approach to alien invasion that it’s hard to distinguish the film from many similar projects that have come before it – and will soon be coming after it. In any case, I’m already looking forward to the DVD …
• Brooklyn Decker spoke recently about Battleship, giving us some crucial new insights into next year’s alien invasion war thriller. In the UK promoting Just Go With It, Ms. Decker revealed that “I worked on [Battleship] for a good four months and I think it’s going to surprise a lot of people … There was weapons training, stunts with cars, it’s more of an intense film with a lot of fights and a lot of yelling.”
It’s true that when aliens invade, there’s usually a lot of yelling.
• Since our last Invasion Alert!, Guillermo del Toro very publicly had to set aside one alien invasion thriller, At the Mountains of Madness (from the H.P. Lovecraft novel), in favor of directing another alien invasion epic called Pacific Rim. At the Mountains of Madness was to star Tom Cruise, be shot in 3D, and would’ve had James Cameron on board as a producer. Universal, however, balked about the project’s reported $150 million price tag and potential R-rating, so del Toro has switched to directing Pacific Rim for Legendary – which is looking like an old-fashioned, Toho-style thriller about “a future Earth defending itself from attacking creatures.”
What do I think of this? It comes down to the question of whether you’d prefer seeing an important novel filmed and botched – or not filmed, at all. For various reasons I was having doubts about del Toro’s vision of Madness, although I’ll confess to having looked forward to seeing what he, Cruise and Cameron would come up with. Ultimately I suspect that same team will probably still make the film, only with another studio; as for Pacific Rim, we know little about it at this point other than that it feels a bit like Godzilla, which happens to be in the midst of a re-boot from Legendary.
This may end up being del Toro’s put-up-or-shut-up moment; either Pacific Rim is a huge hit, or he may have a lot of trouble helming another big-budget sci-fi feature in the future. Tron: Legacy‘s Joseph Kosinkski is finding that out right now, as his huge sci-fi project Horizons just got dropped by Disney.
• Some new pics came out today of Transformers: Dark of the Moon, plus word that Leonard Nimoy will be doing the voice of Sentinel Prime, who’s glimpsed briefly on the Moon in the film’s teaser trailer. Also: some spoilerific details about the film are apparently available in the Dark of the Moon novelization.
I’m really looking forward to what Michael Bay’s cooked-up here, especially now that he’s taken the plunge into 3D. I thought the first two Transformers films were a lot of fun, and also warm-hearted – unlike a lot of contemporary sci-fi.
• Men in Black 3D seems on the road to becoming one of those spectacular behind-the-scenes disasters that comes along every few years to bankrupt studios, end careers, etc.
The film, which has been in development for years, went into production with only a third of the screenplay written in order to take advantage of expiring tax incentives; the latest story now is that nobody even knows who one of the screenwriters is working on the film’s rewrites! Ouch. Also: Alec Baldwin has dropped out of the film (hooray!), and tensions are developing between director Barry Sonnenfeld and producer Walter Parkes. It will be interesting to see how – or whether – they pull this one out of the fire …
• In other Alien Invasion/Sci-Fi News: Ridley Scott’s Prometheus is shooting right now in Toronto, and Noomi Rapace talks about the project here; a new trailer for The Thing should be coming soon; there’s breaking news about The Darkest Hour; J.J. Abrams has been talking about Super 8 recently, and 20 minutes of the film was recently shown to exhibitors; incidentally, Abrams still apparently wants to do Cloverfield 2 (see here and here); another J.J. Abrams project, Star Trek 2, has apparently bumped the Jack Ryan reboot from Chris Pine’s calendar for the time being; a description of the first two reels of Cowboys & Aliens has leaked; the release date for Apollo 18 has been switched to January 6, 2012 (not a good sign); indie alien invasion thriller Attack the Block apparently rocked the SXSW film festival in Austin (see new clips of the film here); the indie sci-fi pic Another Earth (read the LFM Sundance review here) will be released July 22nd; Paramount just put Dune into turnaround, probably because they can’t find anyone with half a brain to do it; Tron: Legacy and the original Tron hit DVD/Blu-ray on April 5th (see my Tron: Legacy review here); will there be a third Tron? my guess is yes, with a new director and new writers; Steven Spielberg’s massive new Terra Nova series has been delayed again; a new trailer for Mass Effect 2 is out; there’s casting news on the Total Recall remake (see here and here); and there’s been a huge new wave of sci-fi deals all over Hollywood (see here and here), including movement on such projects as: The Runner, Voltron, Agent OX (about a human spy infiltrating an alien planet) and something by McG.
• Speaking of Pacific Rim and Godzilla, on the Creature Invasion front the forthcoming Piranha 3DD now has: 1) the greatest title in the history of the cinema; 2) a new script; 3) Tara Reid in the cast; 4) a rumored setting of a water park; 5) and a Thanksgiving release date of November 23rd. I’m there. No questions asked.
• James Cameron and George Lucas recently sat down to discuss 3D, digital technology and the future of the cinema. Lucas’ Phantom Menace is currently being retrofitted into 3D, and the entire Star Wars saga is now coming to Blu-ray on September 16th. Very much looking forward to both.
Cameron has been in the news a lot lately, as usual. He recently said that that he’s considering bringing the cast of the Avatar sequels to the Amazon so they can get in touch with nature and with the lifestyle of indigenous tribes – this, no doubt, to the chagrin of the former Fox executive who wanted him to cut the “New Age, tree-hugging, hippy crap” out of Avatar. Also: the Japan earthquakes are probably going to lead Cameron to call off his planned dives to the Marianas Trench to capture footage for the Avatar sequels. Cameron also wants to shoot the Avatar sequels at 48 or 60 frames/second to reduce 3D strobing, which sounds great except for the fact that every theater in America would need to be retrofit for that. (Incidentally, is Fox paying for all this?)
You get the feeling that pre-production on these Avatar sequels could total around $1 billion. Why am I thinking these films may take another 12 years for him to complete?
• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … let’s take a look above at Sarah Carter of TNT’s forthcoming alien invasion series Falling Skies. She plays the only surviving member of an “outlaw motorcycle gang” who’s now on the run after a massive force of extraterrestrials arrive on Earth and begin wreaking havoc. Do women in outlaw motorcycle gangs really look like this these days?
And that’s what’s happening today on the Alien Invasion Front!
Posted on March 31st, 2011 at 6:44pm.
That was an epic Invasion Alert, Jason. I don’t know how you keep track of all these projects. I’m looking forward to Super 8 and Transformers 3 (love the idea that Leonard Nimoy is involved). If Spielberg and J.J. Abrams are behind Super 8, then that’s enough for me.
I’m relieved that At the Mountains of Madness and Dune aren’t yet a go. Those are two classic novels that should not be ruined by a bunch of Hollywood illiterates. Give it to the Brits or people who know how to adapt literature. Del Toro isn’t up to it, and please don’t let James Cameron get his hands on it either. I know everyone thinks he’s a genius (maybe he is when it comes to special effects), but his storytelling is one-note and simplistic.
Thanks for the kind word, Serve.
Why would you think they’d do any better?
A Falling Skys poster with what appears to be a dad escorting his son and he’s carrying an AK-47???
Now that’s really weird.
It certainly isn’t part of the ‘new tone,’ is it?
Hey Jason. Any thoughts on why alien spacecraft in many of the movies/tv series you have highlighted look like they been put together with parts from the junkyard, see District 9, Battle LA and now Falling Skies? What happened to the sleek modern alien craft from the 1950s? Or has alien ware entered the post-modern era? hee, hee
Great question! I was just saying to Govindini yesterday that the alien ship above looks a bit too much like a coat rack.
I think that in the 1950s there was a greater optimism generally about the future, and about civilizations that hailed from the future. As a result, the alien ship designs were a bit more sophisticated and elegant. Nowadays the ships always appear either insectoid, or like some sort of underwater sea creature. It’s not very elevated.
The obvious contrast here would be what George Lucas did with the prequel trilogy; I’m thinking here of the beautiful, sleek ship designs for Amidala.
I just saw Battle: LA, and I rented Skyline on the way home. Your reviews were pretty close to my thoughts.
I thought Battle: LA was saved by being set in LA, because you can believe people there, for the most part, would not be capable to mounting any serious defense of their home. It also got a shot from some well-drawn characters — I actually cared about them. These two aspects saved the film for me, because (and I’m a flag waver) I don’t find it too fascinating watching a bunch of Marines doing the job they were trained to do.
The approach of Skyline worked better for me, but the characters were just too weak for me to love the film.
From what you report about Falling Skies, it sounds like it will be the best of both of those recent films.
I just jumped into Mass Effect 2, and technically it’s amazing. However, I sense the evil private security firm is going to be the villain — and that irks me a little. It’s not nearly as patriotic as the first, but it’s great space opera.
And count me in as one of the very few who are a little curious about Tera Nova. I’ve always been fascinated by the terraforming elements in sci-fi: Star Trek III, Total Recal, the Firefly universe, and others.
Thanks for the comments, Vince! As you say, Skyline had an interesting premise, but the vapid characters kept me from fully engaging with the film; the movie really felt too much like a VFX reel gone mad. And as for Battle: LA, as much as I liked the film, it took an almost perilously straight-forward approach to the whole alien invasion scenario. There weren’t many surprises there, and my sense is that the film has suffered somewhat as a result at the box office. It’s too bad, because there was a lot to like in that film.
Falling Skies does look interesting, but will it even match what V was/is? I’m not yet sure. I’ll note that Saving Private Ryan screenwriter Robert Rodat is involved with the project, which is interesting.
Otherwise, Tera Nova is looking pretty left-liberal/Avatar to me, not to mention super-expensive. We’ll see …