User:Alientraveller/Sandbox 2

Star Trek

Writing reviews is difficult because you got a whole blob of random opinions there. I want to really feel like the points in the reviews are corresponding with what the filmmakers put effort into, so it's not a bunch of snobby opinions. This is my sandbox for that. This is also my temporary page for a short plot synopsis. I know too much...

• Variety - McCarthy praises everything! though Giacchino’s score soars - occasionally a bit too much, perhaps - with real character and vigor
• THR - Ray Bennett calls the effects bar raising, cast so expert they're instantly identifiable as the iconic crew, Bana is suitably scary, everyone has moments to shine except blink-and-you'll-miss Ryder, Giacchino's score is disappointingly derivative
• Emanuel Levy - [1] B+, Compared to Iron Man and Bourne, more fun than SW and BB/TDK, time travel story raises thematic concerns
• James Berardinelli - [2] - praises cast except Pegg and Yelchin, as their characters are sidelined for comic reflief, and Bana is "flaccid" due to a "weakly developed and poorly explained", leaves sense of a good set-up for a superior sequel, lots of "breadth" but little depth beyond Kirk and Spock's relationship, Enterprise doesn't feel homely enough, 3/4
• Roger Ebert - criticizes science although everything else seems to be fine, 2.5/4 [3]
• NY Daily News - [4], 5 stars, finds early scenes too punky
• [5] EW's Owen Gleiberman gives A-, enjoys Kirk-Spock relationship which he finds to be heart of Trek, praises Saldana and Pegg but wishes Urban had more "idionsyncracy", time travel story could have been better but excused because Nimoy is great, another comparison of Pine to Brad Pitt
• http://www.slate.com/id/2217854/
• http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/movies/08trek.html?hp&em
• http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/reviews/cl-et-trek7-2009may07,0,462205.story
• http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/reviews/2009-05-06-star-trek_N.htm
• http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1896513,00.html
• http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2009/05/18/090518crci_cinema_lane?currentPage=2

Canadian papers

• Toronto Sun
• Toronto Star
• Montreal Gazette

Aussie papers

• The Age's reviewer applauded Abrams for not using the time travel to create "change for change's sake", praising the frequent homages to the show and the way the cast tributed the original as well as creating something of their own. He preferred the dramatic character moments to the spectacle, deciding that the third act was too brief and Bana was not given enough screentime to function as more than a one-dimensional plot device.
• In his 9/10 review, Andrew Fenton of The Advertiser concurred the final battle was unsatisfying because of the various origin stories. Otherwise, he praised the film for resembling the original Star Wars trilogy, lacking the "fake animated CGI" feel of the prequels, and felt Pine succeeded in bringing elements of Han Solo to his Kirk.
• The Daily Telegraph also praised the film despite its third act, noting its character development would "resonate so well with audiences" and the "surprisingly funny" dialogue that "elicit[s] a chuckle in exactly the right places". The paper added Nimoy's cameo was well implemented.
• The Australian dubbed it "one of the finest films made in the sci-fi genre", praising the realistic effects and comparing the pacing to the James Bond films, as well as the cast and script.

Fanboys

• Harry Knowles praised the film as the most epic since Star Trek: The Motion Picture. He noted the difficulty the cast had in portraying the original characters, particularly Bana's "thankless" role as Nero. He was thankful the film dealt with the repercussions of time travel rather than use the reset button technique, and though this meant the characters were not the same as the originals, the story still gave a sense of "destiny".
• Knowles' colleague Eric "Quint" Vespe, a casual Star Trek fan, deemed it "genius" how the time travel story rebooted the series yet honored the previous series. Vespe praised the cast and the cinematography. He was critical of the second act's manner of introducing every character, although he found Nimoy's reintroduction "rock solid".
• Another casual fan, Film School Rejects' Neil Miller, published an "A+", praising Pine, Quinto, Urban and Pegg, although he was put off by Yelchin's accent and Cho's small part. He felt it was Orci and Kurtzman's smartest script yet, balancing humor in a way superior to Transformers. He also singled out Ben Burtt's sound design, which made warping feel palpable to him.

Anthony Pascale of TrekMovie.com gave a positive review. Some of his criticisms included the sometimes contrived moments necessary to assembling the young crew together by the film's end; the overly modern engineering rooms; and the Kelvin uniforms resembling those from The Next Generation. Overall, he felt Abrams would revive the franchise just as Nicholas Meyer had with The Wrath of Khan, and felt the cast was so strong it was shame the supporting cast members had such short screentime. He was unsure of whether Nero would become a classic villain like Khan Noonien Singh or Chang because he was an unconventionally ungrandiose character. Mark A. Altman chipped in that the film restored the adventurous and sexy spirit of the show (though he found some of the comedy out of place); that it used Uhura well; was happy that it lacked technobabble (though he felt some would be confused by the exposition in the third act); disliked the lack of use of Courage's theme; and found some of the coincidences credibility-straining, particularly the way it set up the "Enterprise as the only ship in the quadrant" element of the show. Overall he thought it was a good film that set up a greater sequel. Plus Jeff Bond's review at http://trekmovie.com/2009/05/05/jeff-bonds-review-of-star-trek/

Garth Franklin criticized Nero as a pale and underdeveloped imitation of Khan, and felt imitating Khan was a flaw shared by many other Star Trek films: he added the script became mired by time travel and technobabble in the second half. Overall, Franklin enjoyed the film as an exciting revival, with a sense of wonder lacking from the recent Trek and Star Wars films, and hoped it would lead to a superior sequel just as Batman Begins led to The Dark Knight. He felt Pine made Kirk likably arrogant and he and Quinto's chemistry showed promise for the future. He concurred that not using the reset button was a good idea and allowed an entry point akin to the revived Doctor Who, where classic characters could be reintroduced without the baggage of a complex continuity. Franklin had one complaint among the cast, and that was Ben Cross, whose Sarek was too grumpy compared to Mark Lenard's portrayal.

• Den of Geek
• /Film - destiny comes across as fatalism = clumsy writing
• CBR
• Sci Fi Channel (Australia) - Good paragraph on cinematography, characters feel a bit larger than life but definitely room for improvement in sequel and Uhura's well developed
• J.J. Abrams brings the fun back to Star Trek - Patrick Lee praises the performances though it takes a while to warm to Quinto, criticism of coincidences of plot and lack of explanation for Nero's story, fights comparable to Firefly and Ron Moore's BSG as well as old Trek and Wars, "full of wit and speed and action and heart. And it works more often than it doesn't [...] Mostly, Abrams' Trek understands that the original series was only nominally about space adventure and social commentary: It is really a story of hope and humanity and the comradeship among people we ultimately wish we could become. In this, Abrams, Orci and Kurtzman have captured the spirit of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek. The only thing missing is some kind of larger social message, one of the hallmarks of earlier Trek films: I expect that shortcoming will be redressed in future installments. This film necessarily deals with personal arcs: the becoming, so to speak, of the main characters into the people we recognize."
• Abrams Takes Star Trek to Spectacular New Frontier - Simon Blaire finds the use of time travel ingenious, amazed by all the action but felt it restricted Starfleet Academy screentime and Kirk's time with McCoy there, criticizes Urban and Yelchin's imitations, enjoyed Bana's raging performance
• http://io9.com/5244572/the-sexualization-of-spock

British mags

• Colin Kennedy. "Star Trek". Empire Online.
• Chris Hicks. "Review". Total Film.
• Ian Berriman. "Film review". SFX magazine.

• BBC
• Times - Debra Craine: "The movie looks gorgeous. Gone is the gloom of the last Star Trek film, Nemesis (2002), which seemed cast in the depressing shadow of George Bush’s post-9/11 America. The prequel, though conceived before the rise of Barack Obama, taps into the optimism of his presidency."
• Telegraph - Mark Monahan says the first five minutes alone top the Star Wars prequels, "Who was that pointy-eared bastard?" epitomises how "playful, irreverent and light on its feet [the film is], and it knows exactly when to leaven the universe-rescuing with a nice nugget of humour", film lacks strong female characters and plot is a bit convenient/opague,
• [6] James King's favorite of the series, plus he now wishes Abrams had rebooted Star Wars way back
• Guardian - Phil Hoad thinks "You imagine a look very like Spock's frowning bemusement coming over the screenwriters' faces every time it came to write a scene requiring our Earth emotions," standout sequence is Vulcan attack, Pine and Urban are the unqualified successes, with the former reminding Hoad of the young Brad Pitt and pretty much the best thing about the film for him (cultural reference = Romulans resembles Maoris?)

Singer

Singer was born on September 17, 1965 in New York City. He was adopted by Norman and Grace Singer, an Maidenform executive and the bureau chief for the Department of Environmental Protection respectively, and was raised in Princeton Junction, New Jersey. His uncle was Jacques Singer, making Lori Singer and Marc Singer his unrelated cousins.

Singer began making 8mm films aged 13 with friends Ethan Hawke and Christopher McQuarrie. One of their first films was entitled The Star Trek Murders. Singer and McQuarrie spent the entire summer watching movies and writing stories. Singer attended West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South, and spent two years studying at the School of Visual Arts. He was rejected by the film school of the University of Southern California, so he enrolled in film criticism instead. Once he graduated, Singer directed his first official film, Lion’s Den (1988), a 25-minute short about five friends hanging out after finishing their first semesters in college. Singer and McQuarrie raised $250,000 for their feature debut, 1993's Public Access, which was joint winner of the Grand Jury Prize at that year's Sundance Film Festival.

After completing The Usual Suspects, Singer convinced Stephen King to give him the film rights to the long-gestating project Apt Pupil by giving him a copy of the unreleased picture. Singer next launched the X-Men series with X-Men (2000) and X2 (2003), and was in talks to write for Ultimate X-Men. For Fox, he executive produced House and directed the pilot in 2004. However, they terminated his contract when Singer left a third and fourth film to direct Superman Returns, and moved on to Valkyrie.

Alexander

WB

John Milius and Oliver Stone were interested in depicting Alexander the Great's life on film. Stone wanted Tom Cruise for Alexander and approached Gore Vidal to write the script. Vidal rebuffed Stone because he disliked JFK and Nixon. In December 1997, Peter Buchman completed a 177-page draft for an Alexander the Great film which Christopher McQuarrie would make his directorial debut with. However, an unconfident McQuarrie chose to direct The Way of the Gun instead. McQuarrie wanted to cast Jude Law in the part, but a Warner Bros. executive wanted Matthew McConaughey. In December 2000, McQuarrie revived the project with producer Mark Canton. The budget was estimated at $85 million. In October 2001, Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio were set to direct.

U

In May 2001, Dino De Laurentiis optioned the rights to Valerio Massimo Manfredi's trilogy of novels about the conqueror. Manfredi had tried to produce a film about Alexander beforehand with Terry Gilliam. Ted Tally was hired to adapt the novels, and De Laurentiis discussed with his Gladiator and Hannibal collaborator Ridley Scott the possibility of directing the film. Anthony Hopkins was cast in a supporting role. In July 2002, Baz Lurhmann took over as director, and DiCaprio moved to this version. The filmmakers enlisted the aid of king Mohammed VI of Morocco, where filming would have begun at Ouarzazate in 2003. The king would lend 5,000 soldiers and 1,000 horses to the production. The budget was $140 million and involved building three new soundstages for Morocco. Universal Studios and 20th Century Fox would co-finance and distribute the project.

Meanwhile

In February 2002, Stone announced he would begin filming his version with Heath Ledger in October that year in India, for release in Christmas 2003. Moritz Borman was producing the project which had a script by Christopher Kyle. Ledger left and his replacement Colin Farrell chose to film S.W.A.T. instead. The budget was also estimated at $140 million, which left Borman unsure whether to go ahead after financing the $170 million Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.

Alfonso Arau was set to film an Alexander film, budgeted at $15 million, in Mexico in 2002. Mel Gibson was also producing a 10-part, $120 million HBO miniseries to air in 2004.

http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/373/373808p1.html http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/380/380891p1.html http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/381/381340p1.html http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/385/385843p1.html http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/400/400485p1.html http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/400/400696p1.html http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/401/401148p1.html http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/409/409832p1.html http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/426/426472p1.html http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/430/430960p1.html http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/440/440935p1.html http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/529/529949p1.html http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/571/571191p1.html http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/589/589662p1.html

Lincoln

Lincoln
Directed by	Steven Spielberg
Written by	Biography Doris Kearns Goodwin Screenplay Tony Kushner Paul Webb John Logan
Produced by	Steven Spielberg Kathleen Kennedy
Starring	Liam Neeson Sally Field
Cinematography	Janusz Kamiński
Edited by	Michael Kahn
Music by	John Williams
Production company	DreamWorks
Release date	November 2009
Country	United States
Language	English

Lincoln is a planned biographical film about Abraham Lincoln, to be directed by Steven Spielberg and to star Liam Neeson. Spielberg intends to film and release it by the end of 2009.

Cast

• Liam Neeson was cast as Abraham Lincoln in January 2005, without seeing a script for the next four years. Neeson was familiar with the American Civil War after researching it for Seraphim Falls (2007). To further prepare, Neeson read twenty-two books about Lincoln, and travelled to Washington, D.C., where he was given access to Lincoln's personal letters, his wallet and the Bible he was inaugurated on (which Neeson chose to pray with). He also visited Ford's Theatre, where Lincoln was assassinated.

• Sally Field was cast as Mary Todd Lincoln in September 2007. Marcia Gay Harden was also reportedly considered for the role.

Development

While consulting on a Steven Spielberg project in 1999, Kearns-Goodwin Steven Spielberg directed a short documentary, entitled The Unfinished Journey, for the 1999 New Year's Eve celebrations. It was a montage about the 20th century and screened near the Lincoln Memorial. Doris Kearns Goodwin consulted on the project. During a meeting, she told Spielberg she was planning to write Team of Rivals, and Spielberg immediately told her he wanted the film rights. DreamWorks finalized the deal in 2001, and by the end of the year, John Logan signed on to write the script. His draft focused on Lincoln's friendship with Frederick Douglass. Playwright Paul Webb was hired to rewrite and filming was set to begin in January 2006, but Spielberg delayed it out of dissatisfaction with the script. Neeson said Webb's draft covered the entirety of Lincoln's term as President.

Tony Kushner replaced Webb. Kushner considered Lincoln "the greatest democratic leader in the world" and found the writing assignment daunting because "I have no idea [what made him great]; I don't understand what he did anymore than I understand how William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet or Mozart wrote Così fan tutte." He delivered his first draft late and felt the enormous amount written about Lincoln did not help either. Kushner said Lincoln's abolitionist ideals made him appealing to a Jewish writer, and although he felt Lincoln was Christian, he noted the president rarely quoted the New Testament and that his "thinking and his ethical deliberation seem very talmudic". He denied any interest in portraying Lincoln as homosexual – as had been speculated due to Kushner's sexuality – because "there's [not] enough evidence one way or the other to make a definitive statement about Lincoln's sexuality". By late 2008, Kushner joked he was on "my 967,000th book about Abraham Lincoln". Kushner's initial 500-page draft focused on four months in the life of Lincoln, and by February 2009 he had rewritten it to focus on two months in Lincoln's life when he was preoccupied with adopting the Thirteenth amendment.

While promoting Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in May 2008, Spielberg announced his intention to start filming in early 2009, for release in November, ten months after the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth. In January 2009, Taunton and Dighton, Massachusetts were being scouted as potential locations. Spielberg arranged a $50 million budget for the film, to please Paramount Pictures CEO Brad Grey, who had previously delayed the project over concerns it was too similar to Spielberg's unsuccessful Amistad (1997). Spielberg had wanted Touchstone Pictures–which agreed to distribute all his films from 2010–to distribute the film, but he was unable to afford paying off Paramount, which DreamWorks had developed the film with.

External links

• Lincoln at IMDb

VOTD

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Directed by	Michael Apted
Written by	Michael Petroni Richard LaGravenese Novel: C. S. Lewis
Produced by	Andrew Adamson Mark Johnson Perry Moore Douglas Gresham
Starring	Georgie Henley Skandar Keynes Will Poulter Ben Barnes Peter Dinklage Eddie Izzard Liam Neeson
Cinematography	Dante Spinotti
Edited by	Jim May
Music by	David Arnold
Production company	Walden Media
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	December 10, 2010
Countries	Australia United States
Language	English

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader will be a fantasy film based on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third published novel in C. S. Lewis' children's fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia. The third film in Walden Media's Chronicles of Narnia film series, it will be directed by Michael Apted and is currently scheduled for release on December 10, 2010.

Premise

Lucy and Edmund Pevensie, and their irritating cousin Eustace, are summoned onto King Caspian's royal ship the Dawn Treader. They join him on a quest across the eastern sea for seven missing lords of Narnia; along the way, they encounter delights, dangers, and transformations before reaching the edge of the world and Aslan's country.

Cast

• Ben Barnes as King Caspian. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is Barnes' favourite Narnia novel, which he described as an adventure, whereas Prince Caspian is more of an action film.
• Skandar Keynes as Edmund Pevensie. Keynes predicted filming the sequel would be odd without director Andrew Adamson or actors William Moseley and Anna Popplewell, who played his siblings Peter and Susan in the first two, as they had become friends.
• Georgie Henley as Lucy Pevensie, Edmund's sister who accompanied him on his previous visits to Narnia. Henley was excited about returning to the role, explaining Lucy's role in the film would be proving herself to be as strong as the other characters, being the only girl on board.
• Will Poulter as Eustace Scrubb, Edmund and Lucy's cousin.
• Peter Dinklage as Trumpkin the dwarf. Trumpkin is not in the novel, acting as Caspian's Lord Regent in Narnia. Barnes noted some book fans would find the change "sacrilegious" but he enjoyed working with Dinklage.
• Eddie Izzard as the voice of Reepicheep, a warrior mouse.
• Liam Neeson as the voice of Aslan, the Lion god of Narnia.

Production

• Apted described taking over direction of the series as easy because of "how different all the stories are [...] there's no element of Narnia in it at all. This is a journey that Caspian the Tenth is making into the islands, outside to the east of Narnia. So it's interesting, it's a whole different tone to the other things." Adamson dropped out having spent several years on the series, and felt his role as producer would be limited to just "the occasional phone call".
• Douglas Gresham explained unlike the previous films, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader had a story which needed to be compressed. He felt unlike Guillermo del Toro's decision to adapt The Hobbit over two films, they could adapt their story into one film.
• David Arnold had collaborated with Apted three times before on The World Is Not Enough, Enough and Amazing Grace. He felt Harry Gregson-Williams should have been asked to return since the series had been his "case", and Apted agreed but nevertheless wanted to collaborate with Arnold. Arnold looked forward to scoring the film though, as he had not done a traditional fantasy score since Godzilla.

External links

• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader at the Internet Movie Database
• Crew listing at NarniaWeb

Avengers

Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Hulk, War Machine and others unite against an enemy that dwarfs them.

In 2005, Marvel Studios announced its intention to produce The Avengers among their independent films after Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk (both eventually released in 2008). The project had seemed unlikely in the past because film rights to certain characters were given to different studios, but Marvel had regained them. Zak Penn was hired to write. He emphasized Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's Ultimates as the inspiration for his script, because of its realism. After the release of both films, Marvel announced a July 15, 2011 release date, and booked the majority of shooting for Raleigh Studios in Manhattan Beach, California. The following year they delayed the film to May 4, 2012.

Iron Man writers Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby stated they want the Hulk to be an antagonist, as "friends or colleagues who become enemies" are more interesting than heroes fighting villains, because to fight "someone you actually care about" is "always the worst thing". They also wanted to explore Captain America and Iron Man's relationship by placing Howard Stark as an influence in both their lives. Producer Kevin Feige felt the script would not be overcrowded because there are less characters than in the X-Men films.

Iron Man director Jon Favreau was interested in directing, having viewed The Avengers as the third film in his story arc, but was unable to as the second film was scheduled for 2010. He became executive producer instead.