In the Lobby

Archive for November, 2009

TORCHWOOD star John Barrowman has revealed that the sci-fi spin-off will be back with a 13-episode fourth season.

Barrowman, who plays Captain Jack Harkness, today said they won’t be repeating the format of Season 3, which aired as a five-episode miniseries called Children of Earth over five consecutive nights.

The 42-year-old actor, speaking on the BBC’s Steve Wright in the Afternoon, admitted Doctor Who had changed the course of his career and Captain Jack changed his life.

He said: “We are discussing the future of Torchwood because most definitely Torchwood will come back to the BBC.

“We are not sure when because we have to work out the logistics of filming and it’s already been said that it will be 13 episodes rather than five.”

Asked if he’d be appearing in the next Doctor Who series, starring new Time Lord Matt Smith, he said: “I don’t know about Captain Jack’s future in Doctor Who because nothing has been said or I haven’t been asked. I am kind of prepared that I won’t be in any of it, which is fine.”

Before all you LOTR fanboys get all in a tizzy about this bit of information, know that production on the Guillermo Del Toro-directed version of THE HOBBIT was previously set to begin production in March of 2010.  The first draft of the script has only recently been submitted, and a second draft is currently in the works.  However, today comes word from the German site MovieReporter.net in an interview with Peter Jackson that production on the film has been pushed back to later in the year, possibly July.

Here is what Jackson had to say in detail (translation courtesy of TheOneRing.net):

We’re currently working on the second script which we hope to have completed by the end of this year or beginning of next.  When the scripts are completed, we can begin with the exact calculation of the necessary budget.  We hope to start filming in the middle of next year. However, we’ve received no green light from the studio yet.

The issues facing MGM might be what is holding up that green light, but no one is saying for sure.  Jackson also hasn’t given any indication whether this will delay the film’s proposed December 2011 release date.  This was for the first film in the new two-parter with the second film scheduled for December 2012.

Part of the original, 1979 film’s tagline says it all.  For God’s sake, Dimension Films, don’t go through with this project.  According to Bloody Disgusting, the Weinstein-backed genre studio is prepping a remake of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR.  No, you didn’t get into a DeLorean, and, no, we didn’t just jettison ourselves back to 2004.  Platinum Dunes did release a remake of the film in 2005 starring Ryan Reynolds and Melissa George, but that isn’t stopping Dimension from turning around five years later to do the exact, same thing.

According to Bloody Disgusting (and their source) a director is already in talks to helm the project.  Until recently, MGM was planning on doing an Amityville-centric film, THE AMITYVILLE TAPES.  Their recent financial issues have, to say the very least, put a hamper in that film’s projection.

The 2005 version of the film was anything if not a success.  It made $65 million domestic ($108 million worldwide) against a reported $19-million budget.

On August 15th, 2009, Evan Ratliff, a freelance writer for WIRED magazine went missing. On purpose. He wanted to see if one could disappear into the ether in an age where we are surveilled, swiped, and social security numbered to death. Where our IPs are tracked and we willingly give information about our lives through social networking.

In a recent issue of the magazine, Ratliff recounted his attempt to change identities alongside the mad pack of tech savvies who were trying to find him (and earn a bounty of $5,000).

It’s in that spirit that I wanted to see what we could learn from films about the subject of leaving your life behind and creating a new identity.

1. Double Back

The Film: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

The Lesson: One of the first things Ratliff does is allow a toll checkpoint to register his ID tag before tossing it out the window, doubling back through side roads, and heading in a different direction. In fact, he leaves false clues all over the place by smartly using his personal debit cards to put trackers hot on the wrong trail. Cue Indiana Jones (who curiously shows up later as Dr. Kimball…) when he and his father escape from the Nazis by setting a power boat loose to make it look like they’ve made a water escape. They don’t quite give enough time for their chasers to get out to sea, but it’s still a solid diversionary tactic.

2. Don’t Call From Where You’re Calling From

The Movie: Taken

The Lesson: In addition to setting up false trails, Ratliff also set up a computer system in a city he had no intention of staying in and ran his IP through it, envisioning a group bursting into a doorway to find a bare room and a modem smiling back at them. This happens in countless films since, as we all know, tracing programs take mere seconds to work. One of the most recent examples comes from Taken where Liam Neeson’s Bryan Mills sets up a cell phone next to a walkie talkie in order to make a safe call. Low tech and effective. If you absolutely have to twitter, mask your location.

3. Just For Men – Your New Best Friend

The Film: The Fugitive

The Lesson: Ratliff may have taken a few cues from the good Dr. Kimble because he wastes no time in changing his appearance using a handy bottle of dye. He, like Kimball, also shaves his beard, but seems to have absolutely no desire in finding a one-armed man. The hard lesson here is that you won’t always get to look your best. Blending in might mean sacrificing some vanity (and a really sweet beard).

4. A Quick Change of Clothes

The Film: Enemy of the State

The Lesson: Related to the last entry, changing your appearance means more than just donning eyeglasses, trimming your nose hair and smearing shoe polish all over your face (I’m looking at you, Gene Wilder in Silver Streak). It sometimes means changing your clothes completely, especially if they are full of bugs and tracking devices that rogue members of the NSA are using in order to find and kill you. A handy hotel robe should do the trick.

5. Cash Only

The Film: The Stepfather

The Lesson: Using a credit card is like shining a huge spotlight on yourself. You might be able to get away with getting false documents and setting up a new life, but if you can’t figure out how, working jobs for under-the-table cash is the best way to go. Despite not being a great movie, Dylan Walsh’s character in The Stepfather teaches us that as soon as you go legitimate, you start leaving a paper trail. Plus, it’s not like you can snort coke through a direct deposit stub.

6. Fake It ‘Til You Make It

The Film: Catch Me If You Can

The Lesson: One thing that Ratliff fails to do is create a new life (considering that he was only experimenting for a month), but Leonardo DiCaprio’s Frank Abagnale Jr. becomes a doctor, a lawyer, and an airline pilot through sheer charm and improvisation. It may seem impossible in this paranoid modern age with ID cards and background checks, but the age has also given us photoshop and a great many means to falsifying professional references (as a recent episode of “30 Rock” displayed). More so than that, being confident can be the best lesson to learn no matter how or why you choose to change your identity. Pretend you know what you’re doing and, suddenly, you will.

7. Fake It ‘Til You’re Dead

The Film: You Only Live Twice

The Lesson: If you have a ton of people looking for you, one of the most extreme ways to keep the trail cold is to let your body go cold, too. We have much to learn from master spy James Bond, but the man takes it to the next level in You Only Live Twice when he fakes his own death and deep sea burial. Want to get away forever? Start with a clean slate.

8. Burn It All Down

The Film: Into the Wild

The Lesson: Evan Ratliff could never commit at this level since he needed to return to his world after a month of hiding out. If you’re really serious about leaving everything behind, then leave everything behind. Burn your money, your social security card, grab a backpack and head out into the wilderness. But be prepared for the loneliness. Even when he was rolling around the country, hunted by strangers, Ratliff wrote about how desperately lonely he felt sometimes simply because starting a new life comes with the added downside of leaving everything warm, comfortable and loving behind. Even if you aren’t headed for the wilds of the Alaskan winter, starting a new life from scratch comes at a price.

Related Reading:

• ‘Taken’ Director ‘Signals’ For ‘More’ ‘Action’
• Reject Radio: Episode 22: Hunting Off the Coast of Martha’s Vineyard
• Where the Wild Things Are Begins With a $32 Million Rumpus
• The Reject Report Goes Where the Wild Things Are
• Kevin Carr’s Weekly Report Card for 10.16.09
• Fat Guys at the Movies Ep. 136 – Where the Fat Things Are
• Review: The Stepfather
• ‘Edge of Darkness’ Trailer Features The Welcome Return Of Crazy Mel Gibson

TWILIGHT MANIA is an inescapable part of the entertainment world at present, with the second film New Moon doing record-breaking box office business on its debut last weekend.

This weekend, New Moon has taken a further $42.5million in the USA, according to industry estimates. This was a steep drop of 70.2 per cent on the earnings of its opening. Sports drama The Blind Side came a close second with $40.1million.

As I mentioned earlier, there are plenty of other vampire film projects lurking in the shadows, ready for their turn at sparkling in the spotlight.

But not everyone wants to leap on the bloodsucking bandwagon. Marvel Comics says it will avoid any cash-in projects.

The publisher’s editor-in-chief Joe Quesada says they won’t be capitalising on the teen craze for vampire romance.

He told Comic Book Resources: “No. It’s not something we’ve actively looked to saying, ‘How do we get our own Twilight?’ I think that’s fool’s gold.

“It’s the same thing when you look at Harry Potter. It’s very much the same concept as X-Men, except you replace magic with mutant powers. But the whole school aspect of it has it all there. If you dig into Twilight, you’ll see some themes of the stories we already do, but I think it’d be foolish to chase that trend.”

He added: “I’m not saying we wouldn’t do a vampire story here or there. We’ve done them in the past. But we wouldn’t say, ‘Hey! We want to capture that Twilight audience!’ because I don’t think it’s the prudent thing to do, because by the time we catch up, a trend like that could be over. And it exists because they caught magic in a bottle.

“There’s something about Twilight and how it depicts vampires that’s been successful for them. The last time this was really that successful was when the Lestat books (Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles) were out, but that captured more of a mature audience than this. This is not just capturing young girls, but their moms and everyone in-between. It’s wonderful, and I hope it has lasting power.”

He says the Twilight trend is like Pottermania all over again: “We heard the same thing about Harry Potter when that first exploded onto the scene, and how many years ago was that?

“I think stuff like this comes around every generation, and Twilight is the latest one, and hopefully it has the staying power that Harry Potter had.

“But to me, it’s all part and parcel of the same thing – that sci-fi, fantasy, fantastical fiction boat that we’re all part of whether it be superheroes or vampires or magical kids at Hogwarts. And yeah, it’s great for everyone.”