Trailer: Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Arleigh

I love films, all films, in general but if there’s one particular film genre that really floats my boat then it would be in the horror category. This summer will see the release of a title that I’ve been anticipating since I heard about it at last year’s San Diego Comic-Con. The film I speak of is the remake of the 1973 tv horror film of the same name: Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark.

While Troy Nixey takes the director’s chair for this film he’s working on a story written by Guillermo Del Toro who’s been known to dabble in the horror genre (Cronos, The Devil’s Backbone). Del Toro promised a horror film that would bring back horror the way it’s meant to be and that’s with genuine scares and not horror predicated on torture and extreme use of gore. Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark will be a throwback to the atmospheric, almost gothic horror, that reached it’s peak during the late 70’s before the slasher boom hit.

The film has been delayed several times as Miramax Films was sold by Disney and the restructuring of the studio after it’s owners finalized it’s purchase put the film on the backburner. It now has an official August 26, 2011 release and it looks like the film got an R-rating from the MPAA for “pervasive scariness”. While Del Toro, Nixey and the rest of the film crew were hoping for a PG-13 rating the one given by the MPAA who seemed to really enjoy said “pervasive scariness” recommended it go out as an R-rated horror (one with little to no gore).

So, we have an upcoming horror film by an upcoming filmmaker handpicked by Del Toro. A film written by Del Toro himself and one which just got an R-rating which made Del Toro as happy as a clam. Plus, it’s a horror film that relies on genuine scares and not gore. My answer to that is August 26, 2011 cannot come sooner.

Del Toro and Cameron to Climb “The Mountains of Madness”

Posted on July 28, 2010 by Arleigh

It looks like the unnamed horror project Guillermo Del Toro was quite coy about during this past week’s San Diego Comic-Con may turn out to be one of his dream projects finally getting a chance to be up on the big-screen. Mike Fleming over at Deadline has reported that Del Toro’s next directing project since leaving The Hobbit will indeed be his long-gestating project to adapt H.P. Lovecraft’s classic scifi novella, At The Mountains of Madness.

He will not be going alone in this project as best buddy and confidant James Cameron has also joined Del Toro on his dream project as producer. Fresh off of the humngous success of Avatar has made Cameron the King of Hollywood once again and his name and clout should be able to give Del Toro the necessary muscle to get Universal not just to move the project forward but give Del Toro the budget he wants and the hands-off treatment he works best under.

Fleming also reports that the film will be in 3D which makes sense with Cameron being on-board and someone who can give Del Toro all the assistance he needs with the 3D tech Cameron has developed from his work with Avatar. The fact that Cameron will let his name be used in the promoting of the film speaks volumes as Cameron is known to be very choosy as to which projects he lends his name out to that he doesn’t direct.

There will be some moans and groans to the mention of 3D. Del Toro has never dismissed 3D, but didn’t see himself as having a particular project that worked best with it. Like any visually-gifted filmmaker, Del Toro knows how to use the tools of his trade both new and old so I don’t think Cameron’s 3D film-tech will be something he wouldn’t want to try out. Plus, if there was ever a story to be adapted onto the big-screen that would not just work well with Cameron’s 3D tech but also look beautiful it would have to be a Lovecraft tale and especially one with a setting and plot that’s not just epic but cosmic in scale. From the massive vistas of the non-Euclidean structures of the Elder Gods to the Plateau of Leng which may or may not have been the base for Cthulhu and his Star-spawns. Plus, we can’t forget the amorphous beings the “Shoggoths” which definitely would become even more terrifying in 3D.

I really hope that this project moves forward and with the speed with which Del Toro works I won’t be surprised if during San Diego Comic-Con in 2011 we get to see good footage of the film as a sneak-peek for a 2012 release.

Source: Deadline

Song of the Day: A Princess (by Javier Navarrete)

Posted on June 5, 2010 by Arleigh

The latest Song of the Day is from one of the best films of the past decade and, in my opinion, the best film of 2006. I speak of Pan’s Labyrinth by acclaimed Mexican-filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro.

“A Princess” was composed by Spanish composer Javier Navarrete and this particular piece of music from the film continues to use the main lullaby waltz-theme introduced in the beginning of the film. Where the music’s first time being heard by the audience is full of innocence and child-like magic in its tonal structure and melody in “A Princess” Navarrete dials back the innocent quality by adding in some of the hard-won wisdom the main character of Ofelia gains through her trials and tribulations throughout the film’s running time. While the song starts off with a sad and melancholy theme to its melody the song gradually moves back to it’s innocent and magical tone at it’s midway point to signify the main character’s final and complete transition from Ofelia to Princess Moanna.

It’s truly one of the best use of the leitmotif in a film score in quite a while. The fact that Navarrete was able to mine so man different emotional beats from a simple lullaby theme into one final distinct piece of music to end the film shows he was in tune with what director Guillermo Del Toro had in mind. He could easily have gone the usual fantasy music cliche of a huge number of brass and percussion to score the film, but instead went on a more subtle yet complex manner to accentuate a fairly simple fairy tale retelling which also happened to have many complexities in it’s narrative if one was willing to peel back the pages.

Poll: Who should direct “The Hobbit”?

Posted on June 1, 2010 by Arleigh

Now that Guillermo Del Toro has made it official that he’s leaving The Hobbit as director there’s now a scramble to find who will be replacing him on the project. Del Toro was universally hailed as the best choice the first time around when Peter Jackson made it known that he would only produce the two-part film and not get back to directing them. The many delays due to MGM’s financial troubles, script still not completed and casting still not done forced GDT to back away and could shelve the project for good.

The only thing keeping the project afloat is the fact that this project has a major fan-base already clamoring to see it made. With the huge success both critically and commercially of Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings Trilogy this two-part film adaptation of The Hobbit is pretty much a lock to do the same in the hands of the right filmmaker.

Jackson and studio heads holding the rights to the project will not want just any director. While Peter Jackson was still a little-known director and an outsider from the Hollywood scene when he began work on the original trilogy, this time around studio people will want a marketable name or, at the very least, a filmmaker who has the skills to follow Jackson’s work. Guillermo Del Toro was the perfect choice now someone else has to take up the baton.

Some have mentioned Peter Jackson as the only choice if he’d back off comments that he won’t direct but only produce. There’s a camp that say now’s the time to sign Sam Raimi who recently has left another mega-franchise and now available. Raimi is an interesting choice in that knows how to handle huge blockbuster projects and he definitely needs a home-run to follow-up a bad end as helmer of the Spider-Man franchise.

Another name to come up which I would welcome if Jackson doesn’t return as director is Guillermo Del Toro’s fellow countryman and one of his best friends: Alfonso Cuaron. Cuaron has shown himself to be one of his generation’s best. He’s done fantasy as helmer of the third Harry Potter film (universally seen as the best in the franchise) and may see tackling this blockbuster project as a major artistic challenge. I, for one, would hope Cuaron takes the job if offered.

The one dark horse name which has begun making the rumor mill about who may replace GDT is Jackson’s own protege, wunderkind filmmaker Neill Blomkamp. He’s worked with Jackson already and his first feature-length film, District 9, shows he has the storytelling and directing chops. The only drawback to him accepting the job if offered is that this will be a major-budgeted studio film which means it could turn into another Halo-clusterfuck where he commits and the project dies due to problems within the studio.

Other filmmakers have been mentioned like Brad Bird, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Andrew Adamson, Tim Burton and Peter Weir just to name a few. In the end, my money is on either Jackson just taking the reins on the film if he thinks no one else would give the necessary commitment to the project it deserves, Cuaron takes on the job as a way to challenge himself or Jackson protege Blomkamp tackling something bigger as a way to add more cred to his growing reputation as one of the best young filmmaker of his generation.

Who do you think should take charge of The Hobbit now that Guillermo Del Toro has left?

Guillermo Del Toro Leaves The Hobbit

Posted on May 30, 2010 by Arleigh

Sad news for Tolkien fans worldwide as Guillermo Del Toro has announced that he will be leaving the planned two-part film project to adapt J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic novel, The Hobbit. As his announcement on TheOneRing.Net explains the many delays to the start of the project has made his role as director to the two films untenable. He had signed up to spend three years in New Zealand to do the films and has even moved his family to have them closer to him during the process, but the constant delays to getting an official start date would mean he would need to spend double the time he had originally signed up for.

These delays have made him put on the backburner his own film projects which seem very close and dear to him. He still has to finish off his Spanish Civil War Trilogy (The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth being the first two). There’s also his wish to do a third Hellboy film (the second film setting up what could be an epic closing to the franchise). Then there’s his dream project to bring to the big-screen a film adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s novella, At the Mountains of Madness.

With Del Toro now gone as headliner for the two Hobbit films there’s surely going to be new rumors about who shall replace him. There was major scuttlebutt that Sam Raimi was in the running in the beginning before Del Toro signed on. I wouldn’t be surprised if Raimi’s name came up once again. He definitely has free time now that he’s off the Spider-Man franchise. Will Jackson do another “out of left field” decision and tap Blomkamp to take over for Del Toro. I think that’s a brave move if it happens, but also one that could backfire and stunt Blomkamp’s career. He’s already been part of plans to adapt a major franchise only to have it taken away from him.

In the end, it looks like The Hobbit may just end up not being made or, at the very least, not make a 2012 release date many insiders have set it two-part film for.

Source: TheOneRing.Net

20 Best Horror Films of the Past Decade

Posted on December 31, 2009 by Arleigh

The Aught’s, as some people have come to call this decade about to end, was actually a pretty good decade in terms of the amount of quality horror that showed up on the big-screen. We had some channeling the nastiness of the 70’s exploitation era while a couple ushered in this decade’s era of the so-called “torture porn.” There were more than just a few remakes of past horror films. Most of these remakes were quite awful compared to the original, but more than a few managed to end being good and held their own against the original.

Some of the titles I will list will eschew gore and the shock scares for a more subtle and atmospheric approach. More than a few straddled not just horror but other genres like comedy, drama and sci-fi. If there was one major observation I was able to make, when collating what I thought was the 20 best horror films of the decade, it was that the Foreign studios really came into the decade with a vengeance.

While I consider these horror films on this list as “the best of…” it is still my opinion and I am sure there will be people who will disagree, but even if people do not agree with all my choices it would be hard to dispute any of them as not being good to great in their own way. Like my similar Sci-Fi list this one will be numbered but only for organizational sake and doesn’t determine which film is better than rest. They’re all equal in my eyes.

The Mist (dir. Frank Darabont)
Splinter (dir. Toby Wilkins)
Let the Right One In (dir. Tomas Alfredson)
Hostel (dir. Eli Roth)
A Tale of Two Sisters (Kim Ji-woon)
The Descent (dir. Neil Marshall)
Martyrs (dir. Pascal Laugier)
28 Days Later… (dir. Danny Boyle)
Bubba Ho-Tep (dir. Don Coscarelli)
Dawn of the Dead (dir. Zack Snyder)
The Devil’s Backbone (Guillermo del Toro)
Frailty (dir. Bill Paxton)
Kairo (dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
Shaun of the Dead (dir. Edgar Wright)
American Psycho (dir. Mary Harron)
Inside (dir. Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Mary)
The Orphanage (dir. Juan Antonio Bayona)
The Devil’s Rejects (dir. Rob Zombie)
Slither (dir. James Gunn)
Audition (dir. Takashi Miike)

Honorable Mentions: Saw, Haute Tension, Drag Me To Hell, Trick ‘r Treat, Dog Soldiers, Ju-On, May, Midnight Meat Train, The Ruins, Jeepers Creepers, Ginger Snaps, Funny Games (remake), Shutter, Frontier(s), Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon…just to name a few.