You know, this year will be a doozie of a year for movies. With all the comic book based flicks as well as sci fi and fantasy flicks being released. But there’s one movie that I’m SO looking forward to. And it’s a Tom Cruise flick. “The Last Samurai”. It’s another film project taking advantage of the lush beautiful landscape that is New Zealand. In this case, NZ as Japan.
And finally, the trailer; here it is.
Briefly, some more interesting news:
*John Travolta has just been cast as the villain in “The Punisher”. They (studio) say he’ll bring humanity to the role of “Howard Saint”. Also, there’s movement with other Marvel big screen projects: Sub-Mariner, The Fantastic Four (the “Shield” Chiklis as “The Thing”?), Ghost Rider (may have to go total CGI for the Rider’s flaming skull), and Elektra (will be released BEFORE Daredevil 2).
*King Kong: Speaking with Onfilm magazine, Peter Jackson talked a bit about the script for the remake and how its going to change from his original 1996 first draft now that he’s had both the ‘Rings’ experience under his belt and co-writer Philippa Boyens has come aboard - “We can do a complete rewrite. Now that Philippa has joined the team, it’s a chance to start over. The basic storyline will be very similar [to the 1996 draft] but the scenes, the sequences and the detail will be very different. [I don’t like] the flip, smart-arsed tone of our old script. We are better writers now than we were in 1996. This new version will be based on the 1933 movie, but not on our 1996 script. This movie will be so much better than the 1996 film would have been. In hindsight, fate has been kind to us”. Jackson also confirmed 2/3 of the film will be set on Skull Island
*Oh, there’s more: but I’ll wait until this posts.
The Last Samurai looks like shit. I’m so sick of Tom Cruise. It looks just like a remake of “American Samurai”. Sorry if you are a fan of midget Cruise.
Freddy vs. Jason Oh yeah, it will be terrible, but entertaining.
Has anyone seen the trailer for The Italian Job? I’m usually there if it’s Ed Norton. He’s terrific. Mark Wahlberg’s quality too. Oh, and Charlize Theron might just be the most beautiful woman in the world. Ever.
I think The Last Samurai looks good as well. I like Tom Cruise and I usually like his movies. I’m still waiting for Aliens vs Predator. But that will probably never be made. It should just be a movie with no humans just the Aliens and the Predators killing each other. With a few subtitles when the Predators are talking to each other. Ciao.
I had been waiting for word on this bad boy ever since I read about it several months ago. It had somewhat slipped from my mind, so I was very pleasantly surprised when the trailer showed before Matrix Reloaded today. As soon as I saw the first shot of the man sitting in the dojo I knew what it was and got really pumped. I think it COULD be a great epic, hopefully in the tradition of Braveheart/Gladiator. Whether that actually happens, however, only time will tell…
Q for Patricia: (Hopefully this won’t be a spoiler for anyone as the movie has been out for quite awhile now - but if you haven’t see Daredevil, avert your eyes) I’m guessing the Elektra film will have to be set before Daredevil, timeline-wise? Seems like that might be a little forced as her character didn’t seem to have much history in the film. It was like she didn’t really become “the” Elektra (as in, the superhero) until after her father was killed…perhaps I’m wrong. I think they messed up big time by what they did to her…I thought her character had huge potential…
Forgot to mention I’m pretty excited about the Italian Job…I’m also a big Norton fan (Rounders is one of the most underrated films out there IMO).
If you know of the history of Daredevil and Elektra, what happened to Elektra (in the movie), HAD to occur. It is to allow for her next evolution.
“Elektra” is to be set AFTER the events in Daredevil.
As for “The Last Samurai” trailer. I had to watch it again last night, so did Ko. Beautiful. And remember this is a TEASER trailer. Filming is not yet completed.
Patricia:
Thanks for the reply. Obviously I don’t know my Daredevil/Elektra history Never followed the book much when I was growing up, just saw him in guest appearances here and there. My books growing up were X-men, Spider-man, and Punisher (man have I gotten lucky with the movies they’ve decided to make, or what?). Not that those were the only ones I read, just the ones I know the history and background stories of quite well. Witchblade was one of my favorites of the later books (later for me anyway, I haven’t been following comics for awhile); I really feel the TV show ruined that series’ integrity. Sarah never once looked like a frickin’ knight in armor in the books (okay maybe once in the medieval crossover).
But back to the point, I’m extremely excited to hear this about Elektra. I loved her character in the movie and look forward to seeing her more.
I was honestly a bit surprised to see Kingpin in the movie as he appeared quite often in Spidey’s books. I know I’ve mentioned this before in another thread, but this is another case of just BEGGING for some kind of crossover for all these Marvel characters in the movies.
I know you’re all excited about The Last Samurai and all, but I don’t think it will do well AT ALL for one reason.
Sitting in the 10pm (first show) of The Matrix, there was a Last Samurai trailer. Almost the entire audience LAUGHED out loud when they flashed the title, revealing that Tom Cruise would be a samurai.
Don’t take this the wrong way, but I could really give a damn as to a audience reaction to a trailer. More than likely the whole of this audience walked out of Matrix:Reloaded with a “this movie ROCKED” type of attitude before even fully digesting what they just witnessed up on the screen. And maybe even this audience would be the type who would try to convince me that “Dude, Where’s My Car?” was the epitome of wit.
In short: I don’t care and do not go by a movie’s future box office pull by just one trailer; especially when the movie’s release date is several months away.
I’m looking forward to this since Tom Cruise (who I’ve never really been a big fan of), blew me away first in Jerry Mcquire, THAN in Minority Report. He’s become a very capable actor, IMO. And choosing compelling projects.
And in this movie, Tom Cruise is portraying a Civil War vet who has to choose sides. This movie is being directed by the same man who directed “Glory” - another reason I’m looking forward to it.
Alrighty, I think it looks really good. I am a bit like Patricia, I am becoming more of a Cruise fan with time. His early stuff (Top Gun, Cocktail etc) is rubbish and the MI movies, well don’t get me started. Jerry M was pretty good, and Minority Report very good.
On to the subject at hand, Samurai, shooting finished in NZ just over a week ago and TC has left the country. He gave 2 very long interviews with a radio station and in the last one (day before he left) he said he would definitely return to NZ to make another movie (HA! did you know that Pat? :-))
You can listen to the interviews here
Patricia, I think the audience that was mentioned was laughing because they thought they were trying to pass Tom Cruise off as Japanese. That seemed to be the prevalent feeling among the audience members that I saw Reloaded with. But thank you for clearing up that this isn’t a “albino Japanese samurai” movie.
Jared. I saw the trailer too and there is no way anyone could be that stupid to think that Tom was suppose to be Japanese. I guess it shows just how much people pay attention. Ciao.
Is the main character of Last Samurai supposed to be a Westerner, or do they want us to pretend that TC is Asian?
Something interesting to me is how little credit Frank Miller is getting for this flood of comics to film.
Superman (70’s) was good, but it did not really start any trends in that direction.
Although he received no credit for it, the Batman movie was inspired by Frank Millers epic graphic novel, Dark Knight Returns. The whole mood and feel of the movie was borrowed from his series. The success of Batman is what started this whole craze of putting comic characters in movies in the last 10 years. I heard a rumor (can anyone confirm or disprove this for me?) that FM wrote the script or was somehow involved with the story of the next Batman movie, which involves the Scare Crow, and is supposedly going to be MUCH darker and less campy. We’ll have to wait and see I guess.
The Daredevil script was lifted right out of the storyline written and illustrated by Frank Miller (and Clause Jansen), yet no credit to either of them.
I just wish I could let him know that some people out here recognize his role and contribution in all this.
One more thing – on the topic of Alien… The 3rd was the beginning of the end in my opinion. The 4th one – I just wish we could pretend it was just a bad dream and that it never happened! Originally, the 3rd Alien was to take place on Earth, after the Aliens had found their way here. The script was written by the original cyberpunk author, William Gibson. Now THAT would have been cool! It would have laid the stage nicely for the Aliens VS. Predator too, although that seems an awful lot like Freddy VS. Jason. God, that preview had me laughing on the sticky floor of the theater! I may actually shell out $5 at a matinee for that, even though I have not really been a big fan of either once they entered sequelhood.
I’ll go see it, but I prefer the original Japanese samuraii genre. Try the Lone Wolf and Cub series. It’s also known as the baby cart assassin. There are a bunch of others such as Zatoichi the one armed swordsman. I did a web search and found some web sites that deal with Japenese films.
I think Jared got it right with his comment. Since the trailer didn’t give any other information, it was assumed that they were trying to pass off Tom Cruise in an asian flick. After reading the info you gave, then seeing the trailer a second time in the theater, it makes sense. I missed the short cuts where Cruise was wearing Civil War period clothing.
Anyway, it’s very possible the movie could rock. Especially with that director. Didn’t mean to offend.