Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Well, I guess Christmas is early this year. Or late. Whichever. SANTA here has a pretty full bag of goodies for us today, all of which have to do with the world of Rob Bowman. He does such a good job explaining himself that I'm just going to get out of the way...
Yankees,
Rob Bowman was around the Dublin Institute of Technology college last Friday, taking time out of post-production on REIGN OF FIRE (shooting around Ireland in the next few months) to give a director's master-class.
After the initial shock of meeting an American with the dual gifts of wit and irony (ho ho ho) it turned out that Bowman was a very cool, laid-back guy. This PR woman ran around before he came in, frantically trying to weed out any potential hecklers. She needn't have bothered.
I wasn't taking many detailed notes, but here are some of the highlights in regards to REIGN OF FIRE (and a little bit on I AM LEGEND).
- He nodded when someone asked if the "Mad-Max-with-Dragons" tag was a fair description of REIGN OF FIRE… and despite the fact that Disney was (the main body) behind the film, it wouldn't be a typically Disney movie. Bowman had some amusing stories about his initial dealing with Disney in regard to dragon-designs -
"They were saying, 'Gee, Rob, their eyes are a little small aren't they?'
'But they're supposed to be small.'
'But how can you tell them apart?'
A pause. 'What?'
'How are you gonna' tell… y'know, what they're thinking.'
'THEY'RE DRAGONS! THEY'RE BIG ANIMALS THAT KILL PEOPLE - WHO CARES WHAT THEY'RE THINKING?!'
… and so on in this vein. He said he saw the dragons as big, black scary things that destroy cities and kill millions of peoples. The film WOULD have violence. References were made to the ALIENS films and JAWS.
- Bowman also cleared up the Schwarzenegger-cameo rumours that were floating around REIGN OF FIRE… basically all bullshit that he was the last to hear about (more about Arnold with reference to I AM LEGEND in a moment.) To have Arnold in a film with fire-breathing dragons would fatally unbalance it… Bowman referred to such a things as being "two utterly-fantastic elements in a film that only has room for one," which was pretty a much a nail in the coffin of that particular rumour.
- Oddly enough, he mentioned in an aside that he had been approached by Vin Diesel's agents for REIGN OF FIRE… Now, I haven't read the script, but I have been led to believe that the two male leads (Christian Bale and Mathew McConaughey) were not only locked, but were about to commence filming. Bowman never said WHEN he was approached and nobody asked. But given how Vin Diesel is such a charismatic, larger-than-life fellow, I might hazard the hypothesis that he could fill the cameo that Ah-nuld was rumoured for… Other actors I've heard involved are Izabella Scorupco (GOLDENEYE, VERTICAL LIMIT) and Alexander Siddig (DEEP SPACE 9).
- Like the X-FILES movie, REIGN OF FIRE would take place in a "de-saturated world"… but considering that almost everything Bowman's done post-X-files has been dark and creepy, this is not much of a surprise.
- Location searching for a suitable fort/castle around Ireland wasn't all that successful, so they'll be building their own in the Wicklow Mountains.
It should be completed by the end of March/April.
- Most interesting was Bowman's response to inquiries of his involvement with I AM LEGEND. For those of you unfamiliar with this luckless production, it is based on the classic novella of the same name by Richard Mathison and has already been filmed twice - Bowman cited THE OMEGA MAN as one of his favourite post-apocalypse films of that time. The basic premise sees the (apparently) last man on earth and his constant vigil against the swarms of vampire-like creatures that descend on his fortified home each night.
Often regarded as one of the best unmade scripts doing the rounds, I AM LEGEND by Mark Protosevich (THE CELL) is a terrific read, updating the story as well as giving the third act an action-fuelled shot in the arm… personally I don't think it works all that well, but the first two-thirds of the script are fucking brilliant.
Ridley Scott, James Cameron and even Jonathan Frakes were all at one point linked to direct, but all dropped out for various reasons. Schwarzenegger has been set to play the lead for donkey's years, but has always seemed to have something else on the horizon. (classics like THE 6TH DAY and END OF DAYS, I suppose)
Bowman was the last director heard attached to the project, and according to him, it was still on. He got very excited talking about it, (and remember, this is a guy who had been working the whole day on camera setups and lighting tests, heavily into pre-production on the biggest film project ever to set up shop in Ireland) and even started describing how he'd shoot some of the exterior shots; Neville driving his armoured jeep through the ruins of San Francisco… the way he'd check his watch at regular intervals… the rising sense of panic as darkness began to fall…
All incredibly cool stuff, as you can imagine. But here's the rub. Bowman not only confirmed that Schwarzenegger was a "lock" for the lead (all those Kurt Russell rumours seem to have been just that: rumours) and that his deal with the studio guaranteed him a fat $20 million fee on the table when the film is made. All well and good, but Schwazenneger's involvement is integral to this deal.
IE: The film can't be made with anyone else (Bowman made a throwaway example of Nicholas Cage). The film can't be made unless Schwarznegger steps away.
And he still wants to do it.
So Schwarzenegger dies or goes into politics, it isn't going to happen. He's still got COLLATERAL DAMAGE to wade through, which doesn't leave the 50+ action-man much time left to maintain his hard-ass image convincingly. Not if he's going to do THE CRUSADES as well…
Anyway, that's about all I have.
Santa, out.
"Moriarty" out.
