Star Wars Episode VII: Missing Director

Ever since Disney created quite a stir with its purchase of Lucas Films for a whooping $4 billion and announced its intention of launching the next trilogy of the epic Star Wars series, the buzz on the internet has not seen any respite.  Will we see the return of Luke Skywalker? Will Harrison Ford reprise his role of Hans Solo? Where does Darth Vader now feature in all this? The actors of the previous two trilogies have expressed their desires to feature in the new series. The fans have not been far behind in voicing their opinions on where the franchise should move. And with all this buzz, including a writing team being put in place to release the seventh installment for a 2015 release, the most iimportant question still remains unanswered. Who will direct the next episode of this saga? Surprisingly, we do not know yet.

Names have been floated by whosoeverer has an opinion. And in all this drama we have been led to is a long list of famous directors who will not be filling the director's seat for Star Wars: Episode VII. Guillermo del Toro is the latest name who has mentioned about a telephone call enquiring on his availability which he politely refused. Brad Bird has ruled himself out. So has Quentin Tarantino, though I am not sure if he was asked for such a movie in the first place (Star Wars with a cowboy theme, maybe?). J.J. Abrams has opted out calling himself too big a fan and wanting to only savour watching the movie. Steven Spielberg has dropped out. George Lucas is of course been made too rich by Disney to need any sort of job.  

So what's causing this dilemma? What is stopping the best of the lot from taking up one of the most talked about movies of this decade? I was given an opinion that this movie is too big a deal already, too hot to touch. But that made me wonder, wouldn't the best in the business be up for the challenge? A great director would hardly fret over living upto the duel that the series brings with it. Over managing to satisfy fans of three and a half decades. The reasons could lie somewhere else. Maybe the timelines are too tight. Disney is looking for a summer 2015 release and it is still working on the framework of the story. These directors are likely to have projects for the next one - two years available with them that leaves lesser time for a Star Wars flick. With Star Wars being a not-so-ordinary movie, the effort and the time to be put in by the director would also have to be not-so-ordinary. The deterrent for some could also be the fact that all said and done, this would be the 7th instalment of a movie series which they did not create. Most of these great directors are known for building their own projects, not continuing someone else's work Or maybe, in some weird way, it is not challenging enough. Knowing that it is likely to rake in the dollars with such a large fan base, it might not be the legacy that these directors are looking out.

There are still a few well-known directors whose names have not been thrown in the hat yet, or else it might just be the destiny of some lesser known one to take up the mantle that others have so far refused. Whichever way it goes, this is a story worth keeping eye on. And to whoever dons this much-talked about role, May the Force be with You! 

Total Recall: Arnold's Autobiography

This is what I completed today.

Total Recall - the autobiography of Arnold Schwarzenegger published in 2012. Took me about a month to read it. Got more than 600 pages after all. But the man's story could not be told in fewer. Born in a village in Austria, Schwarzenegger eventually grew up to become the Governor of California in USA and along this journey also became one of the most prominent bodybuilders, evolved into an action hero in Hollywood who delivered multiple box office hits and married one from the Kennedy clan. This book highlights the the competitive spirit in the man, his attitude of choosing big goals and then chasing them with single-mindedness. A determination that is inspiring. 

As a young kid, Schwarzenegger was one of my favourite movie actors. My early images of him are of course the ones that will always remain, wearing a black jacket with a gun in his hand as he rides the Harley chasing the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. But if you look at his movie roster, the guy hardly got anything wrong in the 80's and 90's. Right from Conan the Barbarian, which was his first box-office hit, Schwarzenegger truly invented the glass smashing and gun yielding modern action hero with a slew of hits spanning two decades.  

Total Recall however covers so much more, his achievements in other avenues – his bodybuilding days, his construction business, his foray in real estate, his political stand – apart from also capturing Schwarzenegger, the family man. It is a book written with a warm heart, a man’s thoughts about himself, a man who strived for a lot and achieved most of his goals. So whichever way you see him, like him or hate him, what you cannot deny is that Arnold Schwarzenegger has been at the top of his game, in whichever field he was, for a long long time. A story worth reading about...    

Hansomee Gretolll Witchy hunt hunt

Aaargh... heavy eyes. Night time. Need sleep! Meds don't assist in staying awake. And then I end up watching the trailer of what looks nothing more than a B-grade flick. The name itself is so long. I need to copy-paste it. Wait. Hansen and Gretel: Witch Hunters. Here it is. You find the name familiar? Maybe you're sleepy as well and hallucinating. Or maybe you read fairy tales while you were a kid. A fairy tale of a young brother and sister, left in the woods by their poor parents and then something something happened. I lost whatever interest I had in the fairy tale when I saw this trailer. 

But it has Jeremy Renner! How? He's had a good 2012. That's not how you want to start 2013, starring in a movie that people might be unlikely to go to because by the time you complete mentioning the name of the title, the others would have already suggested fifty alternatives and chosen one of them. (could sleeping be one of them? Aaargh... my eyes!). Oh, it has Gemma Arterton too. She was feisty in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. Then how can you bring two good actors and create what appears such a lowly budget movie? I'm too sleep deprived to think about it. I leave it upto you, if you have nothing better to do. And if you still reading this, then why not have a look at the trailer itself. Hope the movie is somewhat better than this garbled trailer that has been released. (PS: This is the first trailer released few months back. The latest trailer is a Red-Band version, shorter than this)

 

Gary Oldman : The Good and the Bad

Gary Oldman was an alcoholic? Had entered into rehab? Gary Oldman!? This Gary Oldman...

Commissioner James Gordon from The Dark Knight trilogy. An epitome of honesty, integrity, morality! One who knew his duty but also was bold enough to tweak around the system to serve the greater good. Or this Gary Oldman...

  

Sirius Black from Harry Potter series. A rebellious and courageous wizard. A loyal friend. A great godfather. One who valued lives of his loved ones more than his own. Oh, wait, Gary Oldman was also this...

Norman Stansfield from Leon: The Professional. A cop corrupt to the core. Willing to kill whosoever dares cross his path. Psychopath involved in drugs. And Oldman was also this...

Creepy! That's Oldman playing the lead in Dracula. Blood sucking vicious creature who sticks his fangs into the blood streams of... well, you already would know what Dracula does! 

Oldman was the guy after the blood of the US President in Air Force One while a British patriot and espionage veteran in Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy. Gary Oldman has been a lot of characters, ranging from the evilest of evils to the best of the best. His performances are so subtle at times that you may miss the importance of his roles in the first watching and realize the power and depth in his performances when you watch the rerun. And that is why it came as such a surprise to me when my colleague talked about Oldman's alcohol problems. I guess I never thought of this guy as a person beyond his roles; for the latter overshadow the man himself. 

So to answer what I asked in the beginning. Yes, as per Wiki, Gary Oldman had alcohol addiction and entered into drug rehab in 1993. But he has since then recovered and lives a teetotal life. He's had a number of spouses, and is living happily with his current wife of four years. Here's a toast to Gary Oldman, a private man, a man with a darkness in his past which he has hopefully truly buried, and an outstanding actor, one of the greatest character actors I've ever seen! Waiting for more from you, Gary...

The Good Dinosaur walks...

Damn you cold! The lamest of diseases to have. None of the greats ever get even a sniff of a cold. Imagine Batman not being around to protect Gotham... because he has a cold! Aachoo... but I have my jacket on. And that should be enough of a saviour as I type out this post. As the cold left me with a woozy feeling and no 'brilliant' thoughts to talk about, I glanced through the movie news making the rounds. And the one that brought a wee bit of a smile out of me despite the cold blocking out my emotions, is from Pixar. Who else? And the news is the release of the first concept art for Pixar's 2014 movie, The Good Dinosaur. 

Pixar is the teacher who teaches the animation industry about the standards it has to live upto, and then goes ahead and sets new ones, higher than the previous. While Pixar is releasing Monsters University this year, a prequel to its decade old hit, Monsters, Inc., my eyes are already set on the 2014 release of The Good Dinosaur. Pixar, unlike other studios, was never in the business of sequels and prequels, keeping this restricted to the Toy Story series. Well, until the only dud in Pixar's history, I feel, Cars 2 of 2011. It seems though Pixar could not resist the chance of sinking again into the popularity of one of its old gems and hence the creation of Monsters University. Though I hope it proves me wrong and ends up being more of a Toy Story 2 rather than a Cars 2 (though being a prequel Monsters University should be compared with Toy Story 0 and Cars 0; that is my woozy head talking!), it is The Good Dinosaur that should tell you once again what sets Pixar apart from the pack. Its genius of telling a story that stays close to your heart! The ability to make you fall in love with the characters as soon as they pop up on the screen and make you forget that it is an animation movie after all. Of creating new characters each time, of telling a new story every time in a new way, while still making it feel like a Pixar flick. That is what Pixar is about! And that is how I hope it stays for years to come...

The first concept art of The Good Dinosaur for your eyes.

New Year... More Movies

Everyone is coming out with their 'must watch' movie list for 2013. Not to be left behind, yours truly picks out his top ten (sigh, I am a franchise lover) with a one-line reason behind them. 

10) Thor: The Dark World - Everything leading up to Avengers 2 needs to be watched
9) Sin City: A Dame to Kill For - Long awaited ever since the gritty Sin City of 2005
8) After Earth - Redemption time for Shyamalan? Trailer blew me away!
7) The Wolverine - Long Adamantium Claws
6) The Fast and the Furious 6 - Vroooommm! A franchise getting better with age!
5) The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - For more of Katniss Everdeen
4) Man of Steel - Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder running the show
3) Star Trek Into Darkness - J.J. Abrams rarely gets anything wrong
2) The Hobbit: The Desolution of Smaug - The biggest adventure movie of the year!
1) Iron Man 3 - Cocky Robert Downey Jr. and chilly Ben Kingsley

The year that was...

A sparkling 2012 inches to a close giving Hollywood one of its greatest years as the gross earnings from US box-office alone crept nearer to $10.8 billion which is the highest ever, surpassing the 2009 earnings. There were those that blew away expectations (The Hunger Games, Ted), ones that lived up to all the hype (The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers) and there would always be those that failed to stand up and put on a show. Here are the posters of the 43 Hollywood movies of 2012, good, bad and ugly, that I watched in the year. 

  

The Cherry on the Cake (9/10)

1) The Avengers                                                      2) The Dark Knight Rises

The Special Ones (8/10)

3) The Hunger Games      4) Brave                 5) Snow White and the Huntsman
6) Skyfall                            7) The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Almost Classy (higher side of 7/10)         

8) Argo                               9) Prometheus           10) The Bourne Legacy
11)  Men in Black 3          12) Lawless                  13) The Amazing Spiderman
14) Looper                        15) Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

The Entertainers (7/10)

16) Contraband                  17) Safe House            18) Underworld: Awakening
19) The Lorax                    20) John Carter           21) The Woman in Black
22) Wrath of the Titans    23) The Raven             24) Ted
25) People Like Us            26) Taken 2                  27) The Expendables 2
28) Dredd 3D                     29) Rise of the Guardians

The Watch-it-Once (6/10)

30) Haywire                       31) The Grey                32) Red Tails
33) Dark Shadows             34) Battleship               35) Ice Age: Continental Drift
36) Total Recall                 37) Jack Reacher          38) Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
  
The Disappointments (5/10)

39) Man on a Ledge          40) Premium Rush      41) Madagascar 3

The 'I never Watched This' (4/10)

42) Resident Evil: Retribution                   43) Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance