UFO movie news round-up (24th Oct. 2011)

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

A Hollywood remake of the 2011 UK alien invasion flick Attack the Block may be on the cards according to the film’s director, Joe Cornish, who tells Empire magazine he’s “also had approaches for a [TV] show to spin off it." However, Cornish adds that “it’s very early days” yet and that he might “like to do something different” for his next project. That’s unlikely to stop Hollywood bigwigs from pressing forward with their stateside version, though.

It was also reported last week that Transformers 4 and 5 are in the works with Ehren Kruger (Dark of the Moon) on writing duties. Paramount plans to shoot the two movies back-to-back in a move that will apparently save on production costs. However, Shia LaBeouf will not be returning as Sam Witwicky and – best of all – Michael Bay will not be helming the projects, despite initial rumours to the contrary. The movies are still only in their early conceptual stages and are unlikely to hit cinemas for at least a couple of years.

On the subject of Hasbro toy line movie spin-offs, Paramount is also to oversee the production of Micronauts, which will be produced by J.J. Abrams (Super 8) and written by Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese (Zombieland). “Micronauts” was an American name for a line of toys that originated in Japan in the late 1970s. For those who don’t remember them, Collider recalls that “The toys were sold as individual figures that had interchangeable parts. They were short-lived, though the franchise experienced two resurrections in the 2000s… the Micronauts are simply a toy line and have no overarching story from which to draw inspiration for a script.”

It is worth noting that the movie’s plot will likely have an extraterrestrial element to it as alien characters featured prominently in the Micronauts toy line.

Finally, Battlestar Galactica is to undergo a Hollywood reboot at the capable hands of director Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, X Men) and writer John Orloff (Band of Brothers, Anonymous). The Ancient Astronaut-themed TV series of 1978 and 2004 have a strong cult following and so there’s much at stake with the Hollywood movie, but screenwriter Orloff assures Deadline that he’s definitely the right man for the job: “I have wanted to write this movie since I was 12 years old, and built a Galactica model from scratch out of balsa wood, cardboard, old model parts and LEDs… I love BSG, and I would pass on the job rather than frak it up.” Singer also is delighted to have the opportunity to bring Battlestar Galactica to the big screen – something Deadline notes the director has “been interested in doing for at least a decade.”

Lead Paint Work & Retirement Party

We should be seeing the albatrosses coming back any day now.  I think I forgot to mention it, but the first Black-footed albatross was seen over a week ago, but didn't stick around long enough for anyone to get photos.  I'm guessing that some will be back by next blog.
 
The lead paint work is going along well.  The buildings are being treated and the ground is being covered by shade cloth so that the albatrosses won't nest in those areas with the most lead paint.  That should save a lot of chicks from dying of lead poisoning. 

We also had a retirement party last night for Sak Phosri.  He has worked on Midway for almost 29 years.  We've never heard of anyone else being here for that long anytime in Midway's history.  We'll lose a lot of island knowledge when he leaves. 

 This is the old machine shop.  The shade cloth will keep the birds from nesting here while the work is going on. 

 Remediation of the old torpedo building (or parachute building) is almost complete.

 A lot of people wonder where we get our drinking water.  Well, this is it.  This is our rain catchment area next to the runway.  The ducks like it a lot.

 This is some nice marine debris artwork made by Susan Scott in Honolulu.  She writes a weekly column for the Honolulu Star Advertiser as well.  The birds are all old cigarette lighters and the blue and green areas are small plastic pieces that washed up or that albatrosses brought back to feed to their chicks.

 This is the other "Lighter art" piece that Susan donated.  Thanks, Susan!

 We had a full house at the All Hands Club for Sak's retirement party.

Here's the guest of honor, in the dark shirt, as well as Toy, Kamwang, Prajim, and Anthony.

Someone had a lifesize photo of Sak made for everyone to take photos with.  The golf bag, which everyone signed, was a retirement gift from the island.  The cutout will stay on Midway, but Sak will take the golf bag. 

Duck Bands and Kahana

The Kahana showed up this week and brought some supplies for the lead paint remediation.  The plane also brought 16 people up for that project and they'll be here for 5 weeks.  They are a good bunch of guys and seem like they're liking Midway so far. The Chugach band played last night at the All Hands Club, but had to quit early due to electrical problems.  It's been a while since they played since a few of the band members were off island for a while.

Michelle and Chris have been catching a lot of ducks and replacing or putting on new bands.  We've already been spotting the new ones in the field and they are much easier to read.

People have been seeing a Northern harrier (formerly known as a Marsh hawk) around the island.  It's apparently really easy to spot because there's normally a big flock of white terns or noddies harassing it.  I haven't seen it yet, but I'll try to get a photo of it for positive ID.  I hope it leaves before it eats too many birds.

 

We've been getting a lot of rain this week, and it's not quite as warm.  But it's still beautiful.

 This duck has a new band.  You can see the 9 pretty easily.

 The Kahana brought fuel and the lead paint supplies.  And stayed about 2 days. 

 The white tern chick in my yard finally left yesterday.  It's been able to fly for over a month, but hung around anyway.  It's a nice bird, so I hope it comes back to visit now and then.

We did a sunset duck survey over on Eastern Island last night.  The sunset wasn't the most colorful, but it was nice watching it on the really smooth boat ride back to Sand Island, which you can see on the horizon of this picture. 

Spielberg's 'A.I.' as alien communication allegory

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Haley Joel Osment and pal in Spielberg's A.I. (2001)

Over at the Daily Grail, recent Silver Screen Saucers guest blogger Red Pill Junkie shares some very interesting UFOlogical musings on Spielberg’s 2001 ‘love-it-or-hate-it’ sci-fi epic A.I. Artificial Intelligence (personally, I love it – and so does Red Pill Junkie).

So, go now to the Daily Grail and read Spielberg's AI: Blue Fairies as Alien Ambassadors.

Hollywood to revisit ‘The Twilight Zone’ in 2012

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Cloverfield director Matt Reeves has been selected by Warner Bros. Pictures to direct a new movie based on the classic TV series, The Twilight Zone, which originally ran on CBS from 1959 to 1964 and later underwent two revivals (1985–1989 and 2002–2003).

According to Deadline, a script has been penned by Jason Rothenberg, and life-long Twilight Zone fan Leonardo DiCaprio is onboard as a producer. This won’t be the first time The Twilight Zone has received the silver screen treatment: in 1983 Twilight Zone: The Movie (directed in part by Steven Spielberg) flopped at the box-office due to bad publicity stemming from a helicopter crash during filming that killed three of the movie’s actors. Even without the blight of this tragedy, the episodic structure of the movie -- as well as the jarring styles and sensibilities of its multiple directors -- made it decidedly hit-and-miss.

The new Twilight Zone is being described as a "big science fiction action movie with a single freestanding story." No further details have yet been released by Warner Bros., however, online speculation suggests that the movie may be based on the classic TZ episode ‘To Serve Man’, in which a race of seemingly benevolent nine-foot-tall aliens lands on Earth and proceeds to solve humanity’s most pressing problems, including hunger, energy, and the threat of nuclear war. Soon, many Earthlings are volunteering to visit their alien saviours’ home planet where --oops-- they learn that they are ingredients in an alien cookbook titled... To Serve Man!

Warner Bros. aims to start shooting in summer 2012, which means the movie won’t hit cinemas until sometime in 2013. Whether or not the new Twilight Zone movie will actually be based on 'To Serve Man' remains to be seen, but an alien-themed story of some kind seems likely given the current popularity of the UFO movie at the Hollywood box-office.

Incidentally -- and perhaps more intriguingly -- Deadline also notes that director Matt Reeves has “a deal at Universal to write and direct a film based on the Ray Nelson short story 8 O’Clock in the Morning, about a man who awakens with the realization that aliens are all over the place and control society.” 8 O’Clock in the Morning, of course, was the story on which John Carpenter’s brilliant 1988 movie They Live was based. Universal has just released a prequel to Carpenter’s 1982 classic The Thing to poor reviews and disappointing box-office returns. Silly Universal -- leave the Carpenter classics alone!

'The Thing' opens to frosty reviews

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

The Thing has opened in US cinemas today with critics failing to warm to the Antarctic-set sci-fi horror prequel. John Carpenter’s 1982 movie of the same name is regarded as a classic of its genre - a perfect movie - and so a frosty critical reception for this new version was to be expected.

Variety notes that, “Apart from [Mary Elizabeth] Winstead's flamethrower-toting paleontologist, bravely battling an extraterrestrial menace that hides inside its human prey, this unfrighteningly icky "Thing" is memorable mainly for illustrating CGI's gross deficiencies relative to old-fashioned makeup f/x.”

Slant Magazine was also unimpressed, finding the movie to be sorely lacking the tension of the 1982 version:

“Rather than attempt to recreate the precarious mix of psychological tension and gore struck by Carpenter's version, The Thing favors the latter, maintaining a sideline interest in suspense but no real devotion to prolonging it.”

The filmmakers can take solace in Salon’s review, however, which describes the movie as “a lovingly constructed tribute and companion to Carpenter’s 'Thing,' not a knockoff or a replica. It’s full of chills and thrills and isolated Antarctic atmosphere and terrific Hieronymus Bosch creature effects, and if it winks genially at the plot twists of Carpenter’s film, it never feels even a little like some kind of inside joke."

Not terrible, then, by any means – but perhaps a little redundant. Check back here at Silver Screen Saucers in a few days for a box-office report, and for more critics’ reviews of The Thing, head on over to Rotten Tomatoes.

Disney's Mars movie "excellent" says test audience

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Disney's forthcoming Mars-based epic John Carter has been well received by test audiences according to the film's director, Andrew Stanton. In a recent interview with The New Yorker, Stanton (who directed Pixar hits Finding Nemo and Wall-E) said that a two-hour cut of John Carter was screened in July for an audience in Portland, Oregon, with 75% of attendees scoring the movie either "excellent" or "very good", despite it being largely unfinished and distinctly lacking in post-production polish.

It has not all been plain sailing for Stanton, however. When the director screened a nearly-three-hour rough cut of John Carter for his Pixar colleagues last December the reception was far from enthusiastic. The opening scenes in particular were said to be "rather drab" and the movie as a whole lacked the "personal touch" seen in Stanton's previous movies. As a result, back in April, Disney agreed to fund 18 days of reshoots. The director didn't take it personally, though. “Reshoots should be mandatory," he said, "some of the Pixarness we’re trying to spread at Disney is ‘It’s O.K. to not know, to be wrong, to screw up and rely on each other.’ Art is messy, art is chaos—so you need a system.”

 

Stanton says the movie's new opening will "launch viewers immediately into a battle [on Mars] between Zodangans and Therns, before cutting to Earth where we first meet John Carter."

John Carter is due for release in March, 2012, and, with a budget approaching $300 million, it will need to do some serious business at the box-office if it is to become the franchise that Disney hopes for.