Hey folks, Harry here... this sucker isn't due out till the end of August, next year... buuuut, Chief Chirpa managed to grab a viewing of it and shockingly.... It is apparently pretty damn good. Directed by Brett Leonard... noted for his directorial endeavors of THE LAWNMOWER MAN and VIRTUOSITY... The first... I remember as a film that first made me realize just how great TRON was, and also how truly trippy CG could be. VIRTUOSITY... well, this was part of the great unveiling of Russell Crowe... back when he didn't quite work in THE QUICK AND THE DEAD... and didn't quite work in NO WAY BACK.... well, Russell was probably best in VIRTUOSITY, which was a pretty bad movie otherwise. So far, I'd have to say Brett makes "neat" movies that tend to suck, but that I somehow end up watching when they come on T.V. Whether that is a statement on my own laziness or their quality I'll leave up to you. However, this does sound cool, and the MAN-THING comics were pretty damn cool in my book. Never as cool as Wrightson's SWAMP THING mind you, but still pretty cool...
Harry,
Chief Chirpa here,
Just saw a work print of MAN-THING. It was still rough around the edges and I heard that the Arad's, based on notes from writer Hans Rodionoff, were making a few editorial changes, and adding some scenes to help tie the film together a little bit more, but on the whole, it was really, really good. I was impressed.
Director Brett Leonard has really suprised me here, the film is incredibly well shot and looks phenomenal for the money. He's got a touch of M. Knight-itus with a very small part played by himself, which was weak, but I think on the whole, it's a winner. Considering the money they spent on it, and that it has now been slated for a theatrical release rather than straight to video, the Marvel boys have high hopes for this one.
The creature looked quite a bit like it did in the comics, which I was never a fan of, in this fuzzy little guys opinion, some of the pre production artwork I saw earlier in the year from an FX company that was vying for the job and didn't get it, was a lot better, but the films titular character was well done and din't bother me.
However, the best part of the whole movie by far, is the script. (which I read months ago) This film was so incredibly well written, with no offense to Leonard, (who I think shot a great movie), a monkey could have directed this film. The dialogue, pacing, character development, and especially the ending (which I won't spoil) were very well written. The way Rodionoff handled the swamp, how he made it a charcter, and conveyed that this creature was of the swamp, therefore, WAS the swamp, was really eerie, and made for a chilling, creepy movie. Just a really solid piece of genre writing.
Rodionoff also wrote WEREWOLF BY NIGHT for Marvel (which I hope gets made) and most recently, Clive Barker's TORTURED SOULS for Universal. This guy definitely gets genre, and is a big comic book fan. I was told he's currently working on a huge, sci-fi gladiator epic called THE CIRCLE, which from some of the development art I've seen, looks amazing.
Check out MAN-THING when it comes out, it's a good movie.
That's it.
Chief Chirpa
