In Pictures: A look back at four greats!

There ain't much to write about tonight. The skies feel bereft of the stars. And yet the city shines with its own splendour. So as I try to enjoy the little things, and feel like reminiscing of the old again, I figured that these pictures could do the talking for themselves. Pictures worthy of being framed and kept beside the most expensive artistic item in your house. Pictures of four directors, much younger then, with their destinies not yet defined. They took their chances, they made their mark, and they still continue to go strong after so many years. Salutations to their brilliance!

He may be completely unrecognisable from this picture, if not for the cast around him. So the one with the unkempt hair standing beside Roy Scheider is Steven Spielberg shooting for the 1975 sensation Jaws. 

A young De Niro is easily distinguishable. But can you recognise a young Martin Scorsese? Scorsese is infact the guy on the right in the above picture, on the sets of the classic movie of 1976 Taxi Driver. 

A vision that changed a lot in the sci-fi industry! This is a young James Cameron passionately explaining to Linda Hamilton on the sets of the 1984 blockbuster The Terminator. 

Before we met ET, aliens were looked on as a viscous breed altogether, thanks in no small way to this man. Here is Ridley Scott in a rather pensive mood with Sigourney Weaver on the sets of 1979's Alien.

Looking forward to many more great movies from them!

A 4D release for Iron Man 3!

The way 3D is starting to take over the movie watching experience is pretty easy to observe. The big studio backed movies, especially in the summer period, release simultaneously in 3D and Imax 3D formats along with the poorer 2D versions. Not only are the studios pushing for 3D releases more often, the movies too are being shot in a manner to suit 3D viewing, with wider landscapes preferred rather than closeup shots so that the perceptions of depth can be appreciated. With growth in 3D content, we have now moved to television sets that can display 3D films as well. But the manner in which technology bursts forward, the obvious question is, what follows next? Well, 4D of course! The fourth dimension here refers to numerous physical senses being added on along with the 3D viewing. It ain't new, with specific theatres and theme parks across the world showcasing 4D content already, generally short films. But what has still remained limited, is the application of 4D in full-length feature films. Iron Man 3 has got its 4D version though!

I remember Spy Kids: All the Time in the World being promoted as a 4D film which made me rush to the theatre, certain that I would be amazed by some new technology. At the theatre, they handed me cheap looking 'scratch and sniff' cards, which was the fourth D in the 4D! A colour beeps on the screen, I'm supposed to scratch the circle having the same colour on the card and then behold, there's a new smell to tingle my senses. It was quite disappointing, to say the least. But there have been a few other feature films that have seen 4D versions in selected places across the globe, and I am assuming with more sincerity. Journey to the Centre of the Earth was amongst the first ones to be given a 4D treatment, and so was Avatar for releases in South Korea and Hong Kong, with the movie experience filled with moving seats, spraying water and smell of explosives. Now, Japan is set to experience the 4D version of Iron Man 3!  

The lucky Japanese will get the chance to watch Iron Man 3 with "tilting seats, strobe lights, bubbles, blowing wind, fog, and odors". Maybe feel they are flying across the glittery skies with Iron Man, or smell the scent of the perfume worn by Pepper Potts, or get caught in the crossfire when Iron Man goes up against Mandarin. Eh, if they are lucky, they might be provided Iron Man suits as they enter the theatres to make it a complete experience! Who knows, by Iron Man 6, that may not remain such a ludicrous thought. But for now, some steps are being taken to grow 4D viewing; and even if they are baby steps, as technology advances, there would be an era when a 4D movie each weekend would not be rare. The feel of Thor's hammer whirling close to our faces, a plunge underwater in an Avatar sequel, the sparks from two lightsabres clashing with each other.... maybe, just maybe, these would all come to life in a more dramatic fashion!  

Star Wars, too many?

"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." 

Words that have become immortal with time, unblemished even as new generations visit it, words that still bring goosebumps to many. That is the power of the opening line of any Star Wars film, brought to the screen first in 1977. And now you might end up seeing them each year itself! For those who fell off into a long prolonged slumber, some time in October 2012 came the news that pretty much shook the Star Wars fanbase (and that is a big big number!), that Disney had purchased Lucasfilm for a staggering $4 billion. While it would have prompted many to laugh at the possibility of Mickey wielding a threatening lightsabre, the manner in which Disney made its purchase of Marvel count (incidentally that too was for about $4 billion!) through the well-crafted and elegantly showcased series of movies upto The Avengers, made Disney appear as someone who knows what it is doing.

So coming back to the Star Wars series, what are Disney's plans for the same? Quite elaborate, if you are keeping a tab on the latest slew of announcements coming from the Disney camp. We all knew that Disney wanted the first of its Star Wars films (that would be Episode VII, for the minuscule population that still got no clue what I'm talking about!) to hit the theatres by 2015, but now the official announcement has been made. Star Wars will have its next three episodes releasing in 2015, 2017 and 2019! So every alternate year a Star Wars film to savour? No, wait. There's more. The latest announcement does not allow for any breathing space, for there will be a Star Wars related film releasing in each of the other alternate years! These would be spin-offs of existing characters, and if rumours are to be believed they could be stories on a young Yoda, or a young Han Solo (no Harrison Ford for that, surely). Phew! We did ask for more of Star Wars, but so much? 

The die-hard fans would be hugging each other, thrilled that life will once again revolve around inter-galactic conflicts, more new planetary names to learn, stranger creatures to dig deeper into, and understand further the science and the mysticism behind the Force further. But the die-hard fans should also be worried, skeptical at least. Star Wars isn't so popular for just being a wonderfully told film. It is far bigger than that, it has a life form of itself. For a long time it has narrated the most thrilling of tales in the most grandiose of manners, pulling in each and every one of its audience into a journey of a lifetime. It has a sanctity tag attached to it. You never speak ill of Star Wars, is a rule to be followed and fought for! At least for the original trilogy. And the fear that fills me up is whether Disney knows what it is doing with this majestic saga. Are their plans reeking of being excessive, in fact over excessive? 

Well-written stories that are turned into well directed movies work. Disney has already created a roaring surge of enthusiasm with the Marvel movies. But Star Wars is different; it has not been formed with a history of tons of comic books behind it. It's heart and soul was George Lucas who would be at best in an advisory role now on. New episodes of Star Wars have to be freshly written, they have no known path to undertake and so whichever path they choose cannot afford to fall short of expectations, it cannot be a clumsy attempt to earn back the $4 billion quickly. Disney of course knows about the burden of expectations, of that I am sure. Roping in a director of the stature of J.J. Abrams is like sending a beacon that the ship is in good hands. And so it is not the initial movies I am worried about, but what would happen when we end up with spin-offs of spin-offs, or a Star Wars: Episode XV? Would it be still meeting the high standards that we so wish to see, or be build with lower production budgets so that a lower audience headcount keeps the franchise profitable? And my worries are compounded by knowing that Disney's Chief Executive Robert Iger would be stepping down in 2015, the man behind the acquisition of Pixar and bringing Steve Jobs to the Board, the man behind the acquisition of Marvel and now Lucasfilm. 

Or maybe all my worries are ill-founded. Maybe Star Wars turns out to be such a phenomenon once again that George Lucas is cheered for a Presidential position. Heck, who really knows anything. May the Force be with them! 

PS: An old post ... to relieve memories of the old!

Rainy poster for 300: Rise of an Empire

Six years back, the release of 300, a graphic war story about an old old war forgotten to many, saw the emergence of a lot of things. Homage to one of the bravest hero-kings, a unique frame by frame adaptation of a comic book on the big screen, a young Fassbender, a popular war-cry and a shout out to Sparta!, a sudden increase in Gerard Butler's fan base and maybe most importantly, Zack Snyder and his ways of scaling up the 'ooohh!' factor in a movie. On the day that Zack Snyder's next movie, a certain Man of Steel, released its newest trailer, a journey he could never have taken but for the success of 300, Snyder has tweeted the first poster of the prequel to his old success, titled 300: Rise of an Empire. 

Snyder would no longer be directing it but he's still associated with the movie, and so is Frank Miller and I hope that their presence in whatever capacity will not let us down. If the poster is anything to go by, things are looking good. It's got the comic book touch, the darkness of war reflected in the gloomy rain-filled clouds, and the red colour once again chillingly distinct from the backdrop. 300: Rise of an Empire would bring forth the story of Themistocles, an Aethenian general to be played by the unknown Sullivan Stapleton, who like King Leonidas in 300, took a stand against Xerxes and one of his allies, Queen Artemisia.  The actual historical tale is once again interesting, and the fact that the battle happened more than twenty centuries back should allow the writers to take some liberties to build a strong and entertaining movie. While there is no Gerard Butler flexing his muscles here, Eva Green as Artemisia would be one of the highlights of the movie. In the coming months, more on the film would surely be marketed before eventually the battle begins in August. The beginning is good... and hopefully so would be the end! Ha-ooh Ha-ooh Ha-ooh!

Who is Electro?

The theatrical release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is an year away. But in what is turning out to be a decade of superhero movies, the period from now till the release date of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is likely to be filled with photos, videos and stories of Spider-Man, Electro, Rhino, more Spider-Man, Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson, some more Spider-Man, Harry Osborn, Norman Osborn and a few others. Lot of characters bunched together! While the news on Electro has been around for quite some time with Jamie Foxx cast as the bad guy, it is finally today's on-set pictures of him, which have made me beg the most important question that a non-voracious reader of the comics should have asked... Who is Electro after all?  

To update those who have been perplexed about the character and yet have applauded the casting of Foxx in it, here is a brief that should help you get along well when the group chats on this movie start picking up pace (just don't forget what you read today for the next one year).

Real Name (he was not born Electro, duh!): Maxwell Dillon

Family Issues: Father abandoned the family; Dillon was raised by an overprotective mother

Earlier profession: A lineman for an electric company

Powers: Can generate electrostatic energy upto 1,000 Volts per minute; Can emit lightning arcs from his fingertips; Can override electrically powered devices and manipulate them mentally; Can travel along conductive surfaces like power lines

How he got his powers?: Got struck by lightning during work when in contact with power lines which were connected to their spool

Arch nemesis: Of course, Spider-Man, though he has battled with Daredevil at times too

Group Affiliation: Mainly part of Sinister Six (and is versions) which was setup to bring down Spider-Man  

Love Life: Haha! Well he did have a wife, Norma Lynn, before his Electro days, but she did not stick around much 

Interesting Trivia: J. Jonah Jameson, editor of the Daily Bugle, initially believed Electro to be an alter-ego of Spider-Man and launched a smear campaign against Spidey (that guy will never give up!) which made Spidey battle Electro 

A background check always helps! 

A Catching Fire trailer!

Before 2012, Jennifer Lawrence was already seen as 'one with promise'. She had an Oscar nomination early in her career and had already bagged a role in a widely-known franchise, X-Men. One could have predicted stardom to fall on her doorstep with time. But the wait didn't last long, did it? In 2012, packed with a quiver of arrows, out stepped Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, and achieved a big push to the A-star list. As if that was not enough, she rounded off the year with a stellar performance in Silver Linings Playbook to finally achieve a glory that many crave for throughout their lives, an Academy Award! The tricky part for Lawrence lies in maintaining this high success ratio, as at only 22 years, she has a much longer journey to undertake. What is going to of course keep her on the cover pages for a few years at least (and I am expecting her reign to be for a much longer time than that), would be her role as Katniss Everdeen in the upcoming sequels of The Hunger Games.

The second movie, based on the second book of the trilogy, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is out with its first trailer. And if you are expecting any slowdown in the pace and the drama that the first movie had created, gosh, are you wrong! The trailer opens with scenes taken right from the book, when the victors of the previous Games are showcased in front of various districts, here specifically District 11 (Rue's district, remember?). What is then to follow are the initial sparks of a rebellion, or call it a revolution! The trailer is tough, there is hardly much in terms of the romantic angles which actually played quite a part in the book at least, and the music is haunting and gripping as was the case with the trailer for the first movie. President Snow's motives are explicitly made clear here (unlike the books where one understands them over a course of time), and the presence itself of Philip Seymour Hoffman besides Snow adds further to the credibility of the movie series. Just as was the case with the first trailer of The Hunger Games, this too does not have any scenes from the fight itself but ends on a rather ominous note on things to come. And as if you could not have guessed, Jennifer Lawrence once again seems to stand out in the bits that we see of her in the trailer. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is to be released in November this year, but the heat is already building! The trailer below...

Tracking the Harry Potter trio...

Hollywood has a lot to offer to its leading men and women, fame being one of its greatest gifts. Some thrive to seek its glimpse, some bother not and yet it is thrust onto them. While some wither away by the time fame catches onto them, there are those who are entrusted with it quite early on, maybe at an age when they do not fully understand its power. A power to help you sail the skies, and a power to bury you under the grounds. Just as Harry Potter in the J.K. Rowling book series had to handle his fame from an early age, so the leading actors of the movie series have had to. For the Harry Potter series which came to life on the big screen in late 2001 did not take its time to burst into a global success, but rather remained one across an entire decade and until the last of the eight movies which, in 2011, marked the end of one of the most phenomenal series in cinematic history. And so quickly were thrust into the spotlight the leading trio of Harry, Ron and Hermoine, aka Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson. 

While there would be a list of child actors who made it big in the world of cinema and thus act as an inspiration for many in the same profession, there would be a longer list of youngsters who starred in the biggest of movies of their time, to be eventually forgotten. And why only youngsters? There are other actors who have played some of the most popular of roles and then never 'made it big' again, either because they were typecast into a certain kind of role or they never tried enough to break away from it. And this curse of fame is what would have hung above the Harry Potter trio when they embarked on their separate paths a couple of years back, knowing how important it would be to carve a name for themselves, as Daniel, Rupert and Emma.  

So where have they ventured and how have they fared? First of all, kudos to the trio for the subsequent roles they have chosen, the boldness they are displaying in breaking from the moulds formed from the Harry Potter series and the efforts being put to showcase their acting range by trying out variety of roles. Daniel Radcliffe would have known how keenly his first non-Harry Potter role would be observed, and so what did he choose to work on? A horror flick! In The Woman in Black, Radcliffe played a widowed lawyer who travels to a village on matters related to work and encounters mysterious happenings, in the way you would expect in a horror movie. The movie did well commercially considering its modest production budget and did no harm to Radcliffe's 'new' start. Radcliffe will be seen next in Kill Your Darlings where he plays the American poet Allen Ginsberg, which would be followed by the romantic drama of The F Word and then a fantasy flick, which he is not unfamiliar with, titled Horns, with all these three movies slated for a 2013 release. On top of that, Radcliffe would be involved in theatre once again, playing in The Cripple of Irishman. So while I could have lived off a few lives with the Harry Potter earnings, this lad on the other hand is very much occupied with work!

Rupert Grint starred in a relatively unknown Norwegian film Into the White in 2012 to begin with, based on a real-life incident during World War II. His future projects involve movies from both UK and USA, with a few of them having a vast cast such as The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman and CGBG. Grint would also be voicing a character in a UK animated movie scheduled for 2013 release. But possibly his most interesting role could very well crop up in Drummer, which is a biopic on Denis Wilson, the drummer of the band Beach Boys, to be played by Grint and would star Chloe Grace Moretz as well. The only problem is, I am not able to locate any development on this project on the web, and so whether it is going ahead as per original plans remain doubtful. Rupert Grint has also moved to TV, where he is slated to play the lead in a comedy TV show titled Super Clyde which would also star veteran Stephen Fry. Somehow I can see Grint fitting well in the role of "Clyde, a meek, unassuming fast food worker who decides to become a super hero."

Emma Watson starred in a brief role in 2011's My Week with Marilyn, post the Harry Potter series. But her real pull away from Hermoine began with the critically acclaimed movie of 2012, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which earned Watson positive reviews. She would be seen next in The Bling Ring, whose poster might fool you into thinking it is a chick-flick, though it is rather a crime/drama film based on true events. The latest clip released for the film has Watson attempting a pole dance, clearly dispelling any notions of the audience being reminded of the rather nerdy Hermoine. A role along with the ensemble cast of This is the End follows, and then a bigger role of playing Noah's adopted daughter in 2014's Noah starring Russell Crowe should help her grow further in Hollywood.

Only time will tell, the degrees of success that these three talented young actors enjoy. One can hope though that they stick to the right path, challenge themselves with new and varied roles, and get etched in cinema history as Daniel, Rupert and Emma, leaving behind the stories of Harry, Ron and Hermoine, as a wonderful beginning to a long journey!