Immediately following a Devil’s Due panel in which he discussed the Hack/Slash adaptation that’s coming to the big screen, I had the opportunity to speak briefly with Justin Marks, the writer behind Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li and the recently well-reviewed and much anticipated Grayskull: Masters of the Universe script.
During the panel, I asked him what he’s working on next, and he said that he’s trying to do a Children of Men-style sci-fi film. When I pressed him for more details about the script, he responded:
It deals with man’s exploration of the universe. I grew up on 2001, Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 even, are movies that I kind of love, but they have kind of steered science fiction towards horror. I want to bring the genre of space travel back to contemporary science fiction. The movie starts with a murder in zero gravity and goes from there.
First of all, to me, this sounds really promising, and hopefully will represent a fresh take on the sci-fi genre from a younger generation writer. But secondly, I thought this was an interesting observation, as in my experience, a lot of sci-fi has indeed stumbled into the horror category. Even Alex Garland’s mostly-excellent film, Sunshine, had substantial horror elements well before the third act, which drove home the horror situation clumsily, yet unequivocally.
What do you guys think? Has sci-fi been heading too much for horror territory? Do we need a return to sci-fi purity in the movie industry? What are some examples that demonstrate your viewpoint?
July 25th, 2008 at 2:05 am
sounds pretty interesting…
hmmm… children of men syle? meaning 6 minute shots? 18 year olds as youngest people? hitting people off motorbikes by smashing them with car doors?… lol
July 25th, 2008 at 2:10 am
I agree with you Chen, what a surprising lack of fail in your post.
We really do need fresh takes on Sci fi, everything is either horror or based on something already existant.
July 25th, 2008 at 3:24 am
Yeah, they have. Example: Sunshine. Awesome concept.. but with horror. -__-’
July 25th, 2008 at 3:36 am
The actual story of Children of Men just lives because of the fantastic camera work and direction. The long shots are just fantastic. But the story? Getting a pregnant girl out of a fascist country? Hmm - the characters were very good, though :)
July 25th, 2008 at 3:51 am
Marcel, the basic premise of a film does not indicate the potential of the plot.
“Man in prison plans escape” could be any number of bad films, but also the premise for Shawshank Redemption.
Children of Men had a well structured plot which suited the needs of the film, was not style over substance unlike far too many releases.
July 25th, 2008 at 7:19 am
I’m sorry. I can’t respect this guy’s ideas when he has written a Street Fighter movie without Ryu and Ken. Last time I saw something that stupid it was called Birds of Prey.
I totally agree that since Alien, everything has been sci-fi bordering on murder mystery. Hmmm Mission to Mars, Red Planet, Sunshine… could we get a sci-fi movie with aliens who aren’t assholes like us? (ID4, War of the Worlds). I think they are just too scared of being to close to Kubrick.
Frankly I am embarassed to say I had He-Man figures and I don’t thing you can make a gem from a turd… unless you squeeze real tight…
July 25th, 2008 at 7:54 am
It seems to me that a lot of people have been missing a really simple fact that all the latest “comic book” movies are indeed sci-fi/action movies at their heart. The source material is based in comic books, but they’re not just straight die-hard adaptations. The REAL trend in current sci-fi film-making (according to box office revenue and marketing muscle) is a lot closer to sci-fi/action than it is to sci-fi/horror. there’s a bit of fantasy thrown in from time to time, but they always seem to base the origin of superheroes around some kind of pseudo science. It may be flimsy and less mentally stimulating than a more well thought out sci-fi like 2001 or Contact (Carl Sagan rocks!), but gamma radiation, and super strength exo-suits are science fiction as much as space stations and rockets.
July 25th, 2008 at 7:55 am
and yes, I realize space station and rockets are also real. haha.
July 25th, 2008 at 9:54 am
It really is hard to find a good hard SF movie these days. Being generally expensive and complex it’s somewhat hard to market these films.
July 25th, 2008 at 11:56 am
absolutely, nowadays it is often difficult to differentiate between the two. though i don’t remember any horor elements in Sunshine until the third act when the killer/captain shows up. before then, what parts are you thinking of?
July 26th, 2008 at 10:18 am
I’d like to see some faithful adaptations of Isaac Asimov’s books. I would particularly like to see The Foundation Trilogy of The Robot Series brought to the big screen. Some William Gibson (like the long rumored Neuromancer movie), Neal Stephenson, or Rudy Rucker adaptations would be pretty great as well.
July 26th, 2008 at 10:21 am
*The Foundation Trilogy or The Robot Series, not of, I apologize.