Last week after Mark Romanek quit the $85 million remake of The Wolf Man, names began to drop over possible replacements. Brett Ratner? Ick! John Landis? How strange! Cloverfield’s Matt Reeves? Really?? And now comes word that Joe Johnston has come aboard the project to save the day. And while some are giving Johnston a hero starring credit in this story (yes, he was the guy who designed Boba Fett and won an FX oscar for Raiders of the Lost Ark), am I the only one to remember that this is also the guy who made the horrendous third Jurassic Park film? Or the 2004 Action/Adventure Western misfire Hidalgo?
And the fact that Romanek left the project over creative differences doesn’t inspire blind faith in Andrew Kevin Walker’s screenplay. I mean, what has Walker done anyway? Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hallow? Joel Schumacher’s 8MM? David Fincher’s Se7en! Ah ha! You knew there had to be a hit buried in that filmography somewhere right?
Johnson knows special effects, but aside from transformation sequences, how important will his talents play in this film? Johnson’s October Sky is a pure joy to watch, and is evidence that he (at least at one point) had a knack for directing drama. It should be noted that Romanek supposedly wanted a larger budget. Maybe Johnston’s FX knowledge will help him achieve more with less?
The film has a promising cast for a horror remake, with Benicio Del Toro as the title character, Anthony Hopkins as the title character’s father (read what you will), and Emily Blunt (The Devil Knows…) as the female lead.
Johnston helming The Wolf Man might mean that a fourth Jurassic Park is possibly further out of reach. Oh well…
February 3rd, 2008 at 10:56 pm
The third Jurrasic Park film was, in a lot of ways, much more fun than the first two. The first two let readers down by being really inadequate adaptations of the book, whereas the third movie was its own thing and just had a lot of fun with great action sequences and just threw the characters into situations with little jibber jabber. Plus the pteradactyl sequence and been what fans of the first book had wanted to see in 1993. Macy is a lot of fun and the scene where the raptor talks is hilarious. You can compare the scripts of the movies, but in terms of directing, it’s pretty good. And you mentioned October Sky as well, which was not that long ago at all (only two years before JP3)
Also, those three scripts you mentioned by Andrew Kevin Walker were all pretty good (you neglected to mention Aquaman… ha).
And you should be more excited about JP4. I mean, The Departed was pretty well-written, right?
February 3rd, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Andrew Walker did heavy work on fight club too…
February 3rd, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Then again if he does well here another Jurassic Park may be in reach. Ugh…
February 4th, 2008 at 12:44 am
What do you mean, “read what you will” about Anthony Hopkins. The original had Claude Rains playing Lon Chaney’s father, which is about as far-fetched.
February 4th, 2008 at 12:56 am
Isaac: I was actually just pointing out the obvious that Hopkins will also… ______
February 4th, 2008 at 1:09 am
also… what?
February 4th, 2008 at 2:05 am
Ugh. Just throw it to Ratner like a nice piece of steak. This project is dead to me.
However, I do want to see Jurassic Park 4 aka Dinos Talk And Fire Guns.
February 4th, 2008 at 4:27 am
Sleepy Hollow was a modest hit, and it’s a movie I love.
Walker’s original 8 Millimeter script was brilliant before Joel Schumacher stole the project from under his nose and rewrote/directed it into a mediocre piece of trash.
February 4th, 2008 at 4:28 am
What is this “Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hallow” you speak of? Is it any good?
February 4th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Johnston wasn’t going to direct JPIV anyway. He hasn’t been involved with the project for a couple of years now.