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In Reply to: RE: Hmmm....Just saw The Golden Compass.....I'm not sure why.... posted by TWB on January 15, 2008 at 14:38:32
I would love to get a hold of that Stoppard script. What a shame they let Weitz direct it - he just can't shape the material at all.
Speaking of which, the Phillip Pullman books the movie is based on (His Dark Material) are really quite fine and thought provoking. Weitz just made a hash of the script and films, but don't blame the material, which is first rate on its own terms.
Now we know what LOTR could've been. (SHUDDER)
Follow Ups:
American Pie 1 & 2?.....Some nominal TV success....Nutty Professor (The Klumps) LOL.....and they give HIM some quality material to interpret?!?!?!?.....God...bring back some discerning Hollywood Execs......Diller, Eisner, Katzenberg.....etc,etc......and the movie industry wonders why box office numbers are low!!!!!
They are looking for what they think will bring in the most money. I'd say they have done well lately in that regard. Not that I am defending the suits. I think most of them are no more reliable than the service guy in India that you get on the phone when the cable goes down. But even when they are doing their job well they are promoting crap films. This trilogy actually looked like a good willed attempt at good family movie making. The books had a very good reputation.
It's still a blow from the people that brought us a pretty darned good LOTR. Ya might think NL woulda learned a thing or two from that experience.
The books really are literature BTW.
Chris Weitz is a crap director, weak visual style, never attempted anything like this, nothing on this scale. He's been a profitable hack in low level comedy stuff, so he's done well for studios before. He actually did an OK job casting it, but nothing in his CV screams "epic".
At least Jackson, Verhoevn et al were *real* filmmakers - people that know how to shape lengthy, complex material.
I knew we were in trouble as soon as NL ditched Stoppard's work in favor of Weitz's script. Bad sign. And the movie is as bad as I expected it to be.
And NL haven't done well lately. Every industry report and the info at Box Office Mojo says they've had a string of flops and disappointemtns going back to ROTK with only 2 hits and very few profitable movies...hence the eagerness to buty the hatchett with Jackson over The Hobbitt.
they have had some proven success with blockbuster/fantasy epics....
I'm shaking...whew. The very thought of CC makes me quiver in dread.
No offense, please, but those guys are just lateral moves IMO.
Chris Columbus, the hack, the pedestrian, the non-visual director would have been another disaster IMO. Very literal director, not the man for a mulitlayed spritual quest story IMO. Fantasy is not his forte. Even with a Steve Kloves script HP I & II barely survived him (yes I know they made obscene amounts of money) to be resurrected by Alphonso Cuaron. David Yates did rather well on the lastest HP but as good a director as Mike Newell nearly sank Goblet of Fire.
New Zealander Campbell is an odd fish - of his many projects I quite liked last year's very good Casino Royale and an episode of the TV miniseries Reilly Ace Of Spies way back when. But I loathed the Zorro movies - the last was positively painful.
So yes, those two had some commercial success with "fantasy", but no critical acclaim in the genre (quite the opposite), and approaching material like His Dark Materials as blockbuster pap is the totally wrong angle IMO. Just cheapens the material, no focus, loses direction, satisfies no one - oh wait, that's what Weitz did. At least the movie looked good - we wouldn't have even had that with Columbus.
You need a director who can shape complex material and is a strong visual storyteller who isn't intimidated of literary material. In thiese kind of endeavors, what you leave out is nearly as important as what you leave in. And you also need somebody with an edge, who understands the underlying darkness in much of the books. Someone who can make you feel what's at stake.
So who would I have chosen? Probably the usual suspects which would've been two of the Three Amigos (del Toro and Cuaron) both of whom were way too busy with other projects, or The Others helmer Alejandro Amenabar.
Actually...I'd have probably approached someone way out in left field...the prolific Michael Winterbottom for example, who makes a film every year it seems and is comfortable in many genres and styles but is fircely intelligent. Another thought would have been Peter Weir, who undoubtedly would have turned it down, though maybe not with the Stoppard script attached.
I'm sure there's others, I'm just not awake enough yet to think about it.
But Columbus...dear God.
a good choice to direct...I've been a fan of his films for years...and Master And Commander had some wonderful moments...especially when Russell Crowe was OFF screen (I can't stand him!). As to the HP films we highly disagree with which were better....I've liked 1 & 2 the best of the series so far and 3,4 and 5 the least...with the most recent two IMO being the worst! As to the Zorro films...I agree that the last one was not AS good...but the first one was wonderful!!! (primarily due to the two main stars on-screen chemistry). As to Casino Royale....I loved it!!! Hopefully Campbell will direct the next installment of the revitalized series as well....I just wish they had picked Gerard Butler for 007 instead of Craig...007 IMO should be a larger than life character...and the fact is that Craig is a small man...I was surprised though...as I thought he brought some nice nuances to the role...YMMV....
2007 was the highest grossing year ever (up some 30% from '04 when things started to really slip).
"You can safely assume you have created God in your own image when he hates all the same people you do."
.
Complicit Constapo Talibangelical since MMIII
More's the pity, and he wrote the script on spec too.So you have a scrtipt by arguably the world's greatest playwright, the screenwriter of a little movie called Shakespeare In Love, and one by the guy who made American Pie...and you choose...the guy who made the Pies, the Nutty Professor - doesn't Weitz's resume just scream existential hero's journey? LOL! No amount of enthusiasm for the project could make up for that CV.
Defies all reason doesn't it?
New Line seemed to have forgotten everything they did right on LOTR. I think the fear of an anti-religious taint totally screwed up their thinking, either that or it was executive hubris beyond belief. CGI and publicity alone cannot make a good movie, not even out of first rate material. You need the right script, and you need the right director.
Peter Jackson wasn't well known when he helmed LOTR but he at least had one remarkable, critically acclaimed film under his belt (Heavenly Creatures), and an Oscar nom to boot. And as low rent as they are, the NZ horror films he did showed a real filmmaking talent at work.
NL had a chance to do something very special. They blew it.
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