The last time we talked about Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur movie, it was suggested that a new script was going to be called for, superceding the Warren Ellis draft and now, we’ve found out who the new writer will be. The lucky winner is John Hodge, probably most famous for having written Danny Boyle’s Shallow Grave and Trainspotting. If his adaptation of Trainspotting is anything to go by, he can certainly make order out of rather sprawling and tangled narrative messes, so perhaps he’s a great choice for guaranteeing a driving through-line in this episodic, stop-start storyline.
At least when Ellis was at the Word Processor the film’s basic shape was to be “very specifically about the gathering of the Knights”. Cue Lock Stock style ensemble of British character actors. Variety have reported that the basic source material will be Mallory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, but I can’t imagine the tone and flavour of a 15th century French romance being maintained under Ritchie’s directorship.
You may recall that, last year, Warren Ellis mentioned he was working on a treatment for an Arthurian film that may or may not be a remake of Excalibur. Now Warner Bros. has evidently attached a director to the film: Guy Ritchie, ready for more adventure after scoring a success with Sherlock Holmes. Read More »
Warner Bros has released a music video to help promote the original music composed for Sherlock Holmes, timed to let the Academy members get one last look before casting their ballots. The video introduces the musicians behind the music:
The musicians are Hans Zimmer, the composer nominated for his 8th Oscar for this score. The gentleman on the boat in the red pants is Lorne Balfe, (co-music producer) Alexsey Igudesman is the gentleman playing the violin on the beach and on the elephant, and the women are Ann-Marie Calhoun who is playing the violin and also in the box and Tina Guo plays the cello on the car. Davey Johnson has the long bleach blonde hair playing the banjo and Diego Stocco is banging on a cello like a drum towards the end of the video.
All of these people featured in the video are the original musicians that played on the film’s score and director Guy Ritchie and star Robert Downey Jr. also joined in on the fun. Watch the video, embedded after the jump.
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Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers?
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Lobo fans hoping for Guy Ritchie to bring his talents to the comic series’ live action adaptation best look elsewhere. Coming off the incredibly successful Sherlock Holmes, it appears that Ritchie is now looking towards the next entry in the detective franchise instead. LAT’s Hero Complex blog had a chat with producer Joel Silver who mentioned that the studio really wants a Holmes sequel. They already have “some ideas and some good story points” for a sequel, and Ritchie is currently chatting with the studio to see if they can fast-track the film.
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Mark Millar’s Nemesis is an upcoming comic series that, apparently, I shouldn’t really describe with the phrase “What if Bruce Wayne was the Joker?” because the DC legal people really don’t like it. That was Millar’s great pitch in an interview back in December, and it immediately created a huge surge of interest in not only the comics but their inevitable big-screen adaptation.
Though Marvel will publish the comics, the rights will remain with Millar and artist Steve McNiven and they will be free to sell the movie option to whoever they see fit. Millar maintains that he’s not going to discuss any deals until March, perfectly timed with the peak of Kick-Ass mania and when the first issue of Nemesis hits shelves to undoubtedly sell out multiple print runs, but it seems that he’s already receiving interest.
After the break, some quotes from the man himself about the supposedly very real possibility that either Sam Raimi or Guy Ritchie will become the film’s director.
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Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes edged out James Cameron’s Avatar to win Christmas Day at the box office, $24.9 million to $23.6 million. Avatar is currently tracking to smash $200 million in just 10 days of release (on Sunday) and should hit $250 million by Wednesday (in only 13 days of release).
But the bigger news is that, even though we’re in a recession, Christmas Day ticket sales have destroyed previous years records. The record for a Christmas Day opening was set last year when Marley and Me grossed $14.4 million. In fact, if you add the grosses of the the top three films of Christmas Day 2008 you would get $35 million. If you add the Christmas gross of this year’s top three films, you get $63 million. [reuters]
If you’ve watched the trailers, seen the posters or read the rapidly multiplying coverage, you’ll already know that Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes are very different men indeed. There’s definitely some core factors that tie them together, of course, such as their almost supernatural powers of observation and, to varying degrees, skill in a fist fight.
The conception of this new Holmes started before Robert Downey Jr’s casting, even before Ritchie’s involvement. Indeed, they were picked to fit. After the break, see some of the concept art that producer-writer Lionel Wigram had comic strip illustrator John Watkiss draw up in order to convince the studio of his approach.
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The first reviews for Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes have begun to hit the interwebs, so I thought we’d do a round up of the early buzz. So far the response is kinda mixed. Some critics loved the film, while others hated it. Although it should be noted that the film currently has an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes. Here is a look at some of the review quotes:
The Guardian: “Sherlock Holmes is high-end hack work. It could have been made by anyone. There’s the odd Ritchie-ism, like crunchy slo-mo in the fight scenes, but he was, presumably, brought on board for reasons not wholly to do with his cinematic style.” … “Sherlock Holmes isn’t even a magnificent mistake. It’s just a film that makes you hanker after Ritchie’s back catalogue. Snatch included.”
Box Office Magazine: “Easily one of the most enjoyable action pictures in recent memory, this alternately brisk and brainy reworking of the legendary detective’s mythos makes the delightful Robert Downey Jr. into a rumpled, complicated and alternately swashbuckling and pratfalling Holmes for our time.” … “under Ritchie’s expert guidance, Downey has at last found a big, iconic mainstream movie character that draws on the full range of his limitless acting capacity, not just his brash narcissism, the way Iron Man’s Tony Stark does.”
More after the jump.
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Warner Bros has released 30 production photos (some of which we’re seen before) for Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes, starring Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law. I’ll be honest with you, I wasn’t really looking forward to this film, but I know a lot of people who have seen the final cut, and LOVED IT. So this might be the movie to see this Christmas. Check out the photos after the jump.
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