Title: NOTLD being remade as a 3D CGI origin story
Doran Gaston - September 16, 2009 06:46 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| On the story front, De Soto, who wrote the script with David R. Schwartz, wants to update the tale partially by bringing out the characters’ backstories and make what he called “an American-style anime. |
:blink:
It's funny, I never saw anything particularly anime-like in Night of the Living Dead. Have we just reached a point where "anime" refers to any kind of "gritty" or "adult" animation?
Shawn Garrett - September 16, 2009 07:09 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| Have we just reached a point where "anime" refers to any kind of "gritty" or "adult" animation? |
I think they mean it in an "action oriented" way - low-angle shots of character swinging shovels, lopping off zombie heads while speed lines whizz in the background. Gads, I feel stupid just typing it.
Chris Stangl - September 16, 2009 09:51 PM (GMT)
There is no such thing as American anime.
John Charles - September 16, 2009 10:14 PM (GMT)
I hope that Romero and company at least see some money out of this, unlike that horrid live action 3-D remake.
Domenick Fraumeni - September 16, 2009 11:22 PM (GMT)
Just as I begin to think that there's some hope in the new generation of filmmakers, something like this tends to come along to bring me down to Earth.
Aaaah, and produced by Simon West. Well, that says a lot there doesn't it?
Doran Gaston - September 17, 2009 02:57 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Shawn Garrett @ Sep 16 2009, 01:09 PM) |
| I think they mean it in an "action oriented" way - low-angle shots of character swinging shovels, lopping off zombie heads while speed lines whizz in the background. Gads, I feel stupid just typing it. |
That sounds like a pretty good guess as to what these people mean when they talk about "American-style anime." On the other hand, it may be that they want to make a zombie "anime" in the style of Angel's Egg or Night on the Galactic Railroad, but I sort of doubt it. :lol:
Of course, given the fact that anime films are not stylistically homogenous, saying that you want to make an "American-style anime" seems about as meaningless as saying you want to make an "American-style" animated film.
While we're on this subject, what exactly would it add to Night of the Living Dead to give the characters "backstory?" I think that this whole "backstory" craze is probably one of the things that's ruining contemporary horror movies.
JEFFREY ALLEN RYDELL - September 17, 2009 03:10 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Doran Gaston @ Sep 16 2009, 09:57 PM) |
| I think that this whole "backstory" craze is probably one of the things that's ruining contemporary horror movies. |
Yes, but what's behind this trend?!
Domenick Fraumeni - September 17, 2009 02:34 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (JEFFREY ALLEN RYDELL @ Sep 16 2009, 10:10 PM) |
| Yes, but what's behind this trend?! |
The desperation of having to basically hack in and around someone else's work, along with a strange American notion that in horror movies, everything must be explained and clarified. Which usually results in the complete dilution of the monster/fiend,etc. It's a similar mindset to that which thinks good marketingon a horror film means having a poster or DVD cover that includes a female in a boring white tank top carrying a large gun.
The confusion of horror and action are also major contributors to declining quality horror. Not that there shouldn't be action, but I think we're past the 80's now, where one had to utter one last, usually pretty bad, one liner before proceeding to blow something up or off. Same thing happens in a lot of Sci-Fi films, which makes them barely about the science part.
Bill Picard - September 17, 2009 03:22 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| Yes, but what's behind this trend?! |
Depends. What's behind your question?
:lol:
Bob Gutowski - September 17, 2009 03:33 PM (GMT)
Fellas, I think Jeffrey was making a joke!
The whole idea that Hannibal Lecter is ONLY nuts and a cannibal because of how his sister was killed in the war, blah, blah, blah, is precisely that kind of "let's ruin the franchise with an origin story" bs. I love in JEEPERS CREEPERS and its overly homoerotic sequel (but I'm not complaining) that, while the feeding cycle of "The Creeper" may be discussed, what or who he is/was is not.
JEFFREY ALLEN RYDELL - September 17, 2009 03:46 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Bob Gutowski @ Sep 17 2009, 10:33 AM) |
| Fellas, I think Jeffrey was making a joke! |
My fault. I skimped on the set-up and will have to address it in the prequel.
William D'Annucci - September 17, 2009 03:49 PM (GMT)
Anime backstory? I may be old-fashioned, but I prefer Duane Jones talking his out.
| QUOTE |
| You know a place back down the road called Beekman's? Beekman's Diner? Anyhow, that's where I found that truck I have out there. There's a radio in the truck. I jumped in to listen, when a big gasoline truck came screaming right across the road! There must've been ten, fifteen of those things chasing after it, grabbing and holding on. Now, I didn't see them at first. I could just see that the truck was moving in a funny way. Those things were catching up to it. Truck went right across the road. I slammed on my breaks to keep from hitting it myself. It went right through the guard rail! I guess - guess the driver must've cut off the road into that gas station by Beekman's Diner. It went right through the billboard, ripped over a gas pump, and never stopped moving! By now it was like a moving bonfire! Didn't know if the truck was going to explode or what. I still hear the man... screaming. These things, just backing away from it! I looked back at the diner to see if - if there was anyone there who could help me. That's when I noticed that the entire place had been encircled. There wasn't a sign of life left, except... by now, there were no more screams. I realized that I was alone, with fifty or sixty of those things just... standing there, staring at me! I started to drive, I - I just plowed right through them! They didn't move! They didn't run, or... they just stood there, staring at me! I just wanted to crush them! And they scattered through the air, like bugs. |
Bill Picard - September 17, 2009 03:56 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| Fellas, I think Jeffrey was making a joke! |
So was I!
Jeez, guess I better keep my day job.
Domenick Fraumeni - September 17, 2009 06:17 PM (GMT)
Oh, I know Jeffrey was kidding, I just kinda took it and used it as a launch for one of my pet peeves with genre filmmaking today.
See? That quote from Duane Jones in NOTLD is great. Scary in how he's telling it, and to the point.
I really don't know why we need another interpretation of NOTLD, especially when the movie and it's very active creator, are very much alive and well. It's just a cheap way to get one's name out there, on the back of someone else's work.
William S. Wilson - September 17, 2009 06:35 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Bob Gutowski @ Sep 17 2009, 09:33 AM) |
| I love in JEEPERS CREEPERS and its overly homoerotic sequel (but I'm not complaining) that, while the feeding cycle of "The Creeper" may be discussed, what or who he is/was is not. |
Just wait for JEEPERS THREEPERS (yes, that is how Salva refers to it).
Bob Gutowski - September 17, 2009 06:48 PM (GMT)
Look for it to be set at a Midwest mall that's just opened an Abercrombie & Fitch. It's just before closing time, and the store is full of shirtless, jeans pulled down to THERE hard-bodied male models, as all of the chain's stores are, pushing the goods. Suddenly, the power goes off and a window is heard shattering...
Domenick Fraumeni - September 17, 2009 06:51 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Bob Gutowski @ Sep 17 2009, 01:48 PM) |
| Look for it to be set at a Midwest mall that's just opened an Abercrombie & Fitch. It's just before closing time, and the store is full of shirtless, jeans pulled down to THERE hard-bodied male models, as all of the chain's stores are, pushing the goods. Suddenly, the power goes off and a window is heard shattering... |
Hmmmm....not bad, not bad......"evil grin"
William S. Wilson - October 7, 2009 03:26 PM (GMT)
Here is an interview with the director of this prequel. Judging from the quotes I put below, he doesn't instill much confidence.
| QUOTE |
BD: Can you tell me a bit more about the "origins" story, how Barbara is in the movie?
Zeb: I've always been a big a fan of George Romero's zombie series and I really wanted to approach the story from the standpoint of staying true to the original which is kind of a catch 22. There had been some pretty bad remakes in the past and they were all regurgitating the same thing that Romero had already done. No one can compete with Romero's vision of Night. That film was perfection. So I asked myself, “how do you remake a movie with the intention of staying true to the original while not repeating the same ol' shit that everybody has seen?” And that's when I came up with the concept. There were always bits of dialogue in the original film describing everybody's personal back story in terms of their journey that led them to this house. Cooper and his family were attacked by the zombie plague and found themselves in the car being overturned. Ben found himself in the middle of a zombie riot witnessing a truck being chased down by a horde of these things. And these were all really cool ideas but we never got to see it. That is when I decided to do Night of the Living Dead Origins. I wanted to tell a part of the story that we never got to see. But I always wanted to give it a scope that has never been seen before in a zombie film, which is why I set it in New York. I think of this movie almost like an alternate time line in which this event takes place. As a zombie fan, I have always wanted to see those zombie riots that we have always yearned for. I wanted to see thousands of these things tearing apart the city in a post 9/11 world. Death, chaos, madness, explosions. I wanted to make my “Zombie Empire of the Sun”. I want this to be a very serious film minus the bad cliches which has become a pretty common practice in the making of a zombie film.
BD: So what is the exact time period?
Zeb: It's now. |