18 April 2007

Movie news: Pirates, Narnia and Hobbits, oh my

I was one of the few people who did not see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest during its theatrical run last summer. First off, I realized the film was just too big, too expensive and just plain to bombastic to be entertained. After all, one set piece after another does not a great film make. I like the first one, even if only because of Johnny Depp. While I adore Orlando Bloom, I finally discovered what many people had been saying about him through the The Lord of the Rings trilogy: He has just on emotion. Plus, even at 2:20 minutes, The Black Pearl was overlong. At 2:30 minutes, Dead Man's Chest could've lost at least 1/2 and been none the worse. Now, Walt Disney Pictures has confirmed that Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End will clock-in with a whopping 170 minute runtime (that’s 2 hours and 50 minutes -and with added trailers a good three hours). Yep, this makes the film 30 minutes longer than Black Pearl and 20 minutes longer than Dead Man's Chest. And for the those hardcore fans, this will not be the last film. While it will tie-up many of the loose ends that were so frustratingly left unanswered for the second film, At Worlds End will be very open ended. Not a cliffhanger, per se, but they are certainly not ending the story here.

Meanwhile, with The Chronicles of the Narnia: Prince Caspian already filming, work on the third book in the series, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader has already begun. Walden Media has announced that acclaimed documentary filmmaker Michael Apted will helm the film. Apted, who ventures into fictional filmmaking once in while, is mainly known for his documentaries like the 7 Up series. And when he does embark for his fictional films, they are usually low to moderate budget thrillers, like Gorky Park. The closest he’s gotten to a big scale film, was the third James Bond film starring Pierce Brosnan, The World is Not Enough.

Finally, if New Line Cinema’s Bob Shaye and The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson cannot solve their much public falling out over monies from the DVD editions of the films, it appears that Spider-Man director Sam Raimi might be his replacement on -and when - the 2 part film adaptation of The Hobbit goes before the cameras. Shaye has made it public that he would like Raimi to do it, while Raimi has kept mum on the potential of picking up where Jackson left off. Talking to Entertainment Weekly, Raimi finally went on the record: "Peter Jackson might be the best filmmaker on the planet right now. But, um, I don't know what's going to happen next for me right now. First and foremost, those are Peter Jackson and Bob Shaye's films. If Peter didn't want to do it, and Bob wanted me to do it -- and they were both okay with me picking up the reins -- that would be great. I love the book. It's maybe a more kid-friendly story than the others."

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