I won’t make any bones about it - I think this first full trailer for Luc Besson’s The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc Sec looks simply superb. I’ve embedded the trailer below the break and fully recommend you check it out.
Meanwhile, the film’s offical English language web site has launched. A lot of it is still “coming soon”, but you can check out the a synopsis and some character art from the original Jacques Tardi comics.
The synopsis is housed as part of a virtual newspaper which also notes “How plentiful they will be, the bonuses and videos that The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc Sec website will make available via the advertising pillar”. Clicking on the ‘advertising pillar’ on the main street-scene, I was indeed given access to an interactive roster of vids… though almost all were still “coming soon”. Disappointing.
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?
Posted on Friday, February 5th, 2010 by Russ Fischer
It’s difficult at this point for me to reconcile the directorial work of Luc Besson with his endless string of writing and producing projects. I’m still trying to wash the taste of From Paris with Love out of my mouth, and then a new teaser trailer for The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec drops in my lap. Looking at this, I wonder if Besson still has it, at least when he’s fully committed to a film as a director.
Watch the new clip after the break, and try to make some prediction as to whether the film will be a grand continental adventure in the Indiana Jones mold, or just another exercise in style over substance. Read More »
Right near the top of my 2010 most-anticipated list is Luc Besson’sAdele Blanc-Sec, a film I previously described as a “little bit Indiana Jones, a little bit Tintin and a little bit Hellboy”.
Our first look at the film came via a teaser poster, then there were some gorgeous stills unveiled and now there’s a wonderful trailer. You can see it embedded below the break.
We brought you the poster and first details of Luc Besson’s upcoming comics adaptation Les Aventures Extrodinaire d’Adele Blanc-Secback at the end of October, and now the first official images have been released by Europacorp. Most of them are stills from the film but there’s also one behind the scenes shot, and you can see the whole lot after the break.
Here’s the synopsis I offered up the last time:
The year is 1912. Adèle Blanc-Sec, an intrepid young reporter, will go to any lengths to achieve her aims, including sailing to Egypt to tackle mummies of all shapes and sizes.
Meanwhile, in Paris, it’s panic stations! A 136 million-year old pterodactyl egg on a shelf in the natural history museum has mysteriously hatched, and the bird subjects the city to a reign of terror from the skies. But nothing fazes Adèle Blanc-Sec, whose adventures reveal many more extraordinary surprises…
A little bit Indiana Jones, a little bit Tintin and a little bit Hellboy - and Euroapcorp, should you wish, you can have that tagline for your poster.
Luc Besson is moving fast on his new film Les Aventures Extrodinaire d’Adele Blanc-Sec (The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec, but likely to be just Adele Blanc-Sec when it crosses the Atlantic). From the various bits and pieces of info I can gather, Besson started shooting in Mid August and is now heading into post production for release in France on April 14 next year.
I’ll reprise the first poster and share the plot, cast and plot details after the break.
Gallery1988 has provided us with another exclusive look at one of the many art pieces which will be on display at the third annual pop culture art show Crazy4Cult 3D. Jeff Boyes has done a nice piece inspired by Luc Besson’s 1994 film The Professional, which starred Natalie Portman as a 12-year-old who is taken in by a Professional assassin (Jean Reno) after her parents are killed.
Click on the image above to enlarge. Gallery1988 will be selling limited edition prints of this piece at the show, which opens on July 16th and runs until August 8th in Los Angeles.
Mediacorp scriptmeister Robert Mark Kamen has been telling theLos Angeles Times all about his next assignments for the big French action factory, and both of the films they namedrop are seemingly inevitable responses to the studio’s past glories.
Besides a sequel to Taken, the sleeper hit of the year (so far), Kamen is also crafting the screenplay for a US set rehash of Banlieue 13 - or District B13 as it was already renamed in English speaking territories. The original took an American paradigm - Escape From New York, essentially - and gave it such a specifically French spin that, frankly, I don’t know what sort of mess we’ll end up with after it gets spun back the other way.
In the next few weeks, quite a few bloggers will debate whether Liam Neeson gives Jason Bourne and James Bond a sharp chop to the throat in the fluid, under-the-radar actioner Taken. Today, FirstShowing.net swept away its weekly confetti and threw a fresh parade for the film in hopes of getting 20th Century Fox’s attention. Fox, that ever-maligned of studios, is essentially “dumping” Taken—which has been released everywhere except for America—in late January. So, what’s the verdict? I’m not sure if Neeson’s vigilant “preventer” could murder someone with, oh, a whisk, but the “real world” he inhabits would definitely make the PG-13 Bourne sob inside his 1,000th borrowed Audi.
Taken attempts to expose modern international sex rings like Paul Schrader’s memorable Hardcoredid with the darker side of California’s porn economy in ‘79. Like with Hardcore, the audience gradually discovers a lawless, albeit much grander, subculture of greed, sex and death through the eyes of an accomplished actor most audiences see as morally upstanding (Neeson here, George C. Scott there). But Taken’s (accurate?) adrenaline-charged presentation of highest-bidder sin is even more effective IMO. Neeson’s character, an ex-American spy named Bryan Mills, is on such a lean, linear and kick-ass mission of shoot/stab/kill, that viewers are required to contemplate the potential for female enslavement in the world market at breakneck speed. Moreover, Mills’s implied covert past leads you to believe that he’s all-too-aware that this flush criminal labyrinth exists as he rushes through it: unsettling, and yet awesome.
The storyline itself is unremarkable: After years spent “serving his country” in secret, Mills retires back to the U.S. to span time with his estranged teenage daughter. As played by Maggie Grace (Lost), this all-American teen is even more clueless and innocent than Juliette Lewis’s in Cape Fear. When Mills reluctantly allows his daughter to leave the States for a “normal” tour of Paris with a rich girlfriend, she’s promptly kidnapped (this happenstance is admittedly Eli Rothian). Naturally, Mills must cross the Atlantic to find her, cell phone clock ticking, and he chooses not to contact the usual authorities and embassies (implied as totally worthless and possibly complicit). Once he touches down in France, Mills’s pursuit and pursuers never let up.
French director, Pierre Morel (the parkour showcase District B-13), and writer/producer, Luc Besson, seem set on making the United States look like a delusional safe haven. There’s plenty of ironic jingoistic humor in the movie, accented with un-subtle baguette placement, totes depraved dapper sheiks, and even a stars-and-bars virginal “pop diva.”
What Taken executes quite well is an exposition-free drop into a fast-paced world where diplomatic power, secrets, hush money and human traffic roam realistically unchecked. In the film, the black market has become more interconnected, profitable and thus bolder than ever, resulting in a winding, diverse body count and numerous inventive kills. Unlike the similar films of Bourne and Daniel Craig’s “realistic” Bond, there is no set villain or organizations. Neeson’s character is simply resigned to a highly corrupt world, and his taboo, U.S.-taught tactics counter it so relentlessly that you often laugh and go, “Umm, Bourne probably wouldn’t have done that…that was kind of fucked…” If you are expecting Neeson to show his age like Harrison Ford, it’s the complete opposite: somehow, this guy could kick Mark Wahlberg and Matt Damon’s ass.
Unfortunately, Taken hits a rough patch when landing its ending atop Mills’s brutal and family-centric worldview i.e. I see evil people everywhere, and while I love my daughter and ex-wife, they are idiots. (No spoilers ahead.) And in the last third, some of the action enters the “oh c’mon” Die Hard 3 realm of believability, while the creative license taken with a photo kiosk will cause quibbles amongst nerds.
Otherwise, this is a showcase for a great actor to play the rare intelligent, original action hero in a fun, politically incorrect movie…that just so happens to tackle the illegal sex trade in illuminating fashion. (Re: yes, it’s several steps above The Cowboy Way!) Taken does indeed merit a much stronger push by Fox and even consideration as a new action franchise. You get the sense that Neeson’s character could stand in LaGuardia for less than an hour and discover an urgent mission for a sequel that’s ahead of today’s headlines. If not, just leave his 17-year-old daughter alone on a playground with an iPod. Unlike Morel and Besson’s upcoming From Paris with Love, evidently starring John Travolta as a bloated Zangief doppelganger undergoing chemo, Taken 2 needs to happen. Of course, it likely won’t because Neeson’s character doesn’t wear a mask and have X-ray vision. The movie marketplace can be nearly as grim.
7.5/10
Discuss: Any thoughts on Taken from those who have seen it?
Hunter Stephenson can be reached at h.attila[@]gmail.com and via Twitter.
I can’t remember the last live-action movie that John Travolta starred in that I actually enjoyed, or even wanted to see. His latest film,From Paris With Love is co-written and produced by Luc Besson (The Fifth Element), and directed by District B13 helmer Pierre Morel, tells the story of a young embassy worker and an American secret agent who cross paths while working on a high-risk mission in Paris. The movie co-stars Jonathan Rhys-Meyers.
The talent involved gives the project promise, but the plot description sounds rather generic, and some of the shots in this promotional trailer are iffy, at best. I’m not saying this film looks cool, but for some reason I’m actually interested in checking this one out. Leave your thoughts in the comments below but keep in mind that the film is still in production and this is a promotional trailer with unfinished effects/sound/everything. Thanks to Christopher M for the tip.
