Tag: Escape From New York

Posted on in Film News, News

‘Hypnotic’: Robert Rodriguez Calls Next Film Starring Ben Affleck “A Hitchcock Thriller On Steroids” & Started Writing It In 2002

After tackling effects heavy projects like James Cameron’s Alita: Battle Angel and Lucasfilm’s Star Wars series The Mandalorian/The Book of Boba Fett, director Robert Rodriguez is set to direct Ben Affleck (The Accountant, The Town) and Alice Braga (Predators, Queen of The South, City of God) in a new crime thriller called Hypnotic.

A detective (Affleck) becomes entangled in a mystery involving his missing daughter and a secret government program while investigating a string of high-end crimes.

Speaking with Collider, Robert Rodriguez has revealed that filming on Hypnotic begins in six weeks (in Austin, Texas) and has been working on the project for nearly 20 years, starting the script back in 2002. Also, comparing to the thriller to an amped-up version of a Hitchcock film, which is certainly a way to get naysayers on board to the idea of Rodriguez making something less cartoony.

“It’s like a Hitchcock thriller on steroids. That’s all I can say. As soon as you see the first trailer, you’ll go ‘I got it. I’m there.’ It’s that kind of a movie. A lot of twists, a lot of turns. Very exciting. It’s a not everything you see is real-type movie and it’s got a great cast. It’ll be very energetic. It’s one of my favorite stories. I started writing it back in 2002. So it’s one of the ones I’ve had the longest that I’ve been wanting to do. I’m very excited that we finally might be making it.”

It’ll be interesting to see him tackle something a little more grounded and mature, while an action movie, Desperado is oddly enough one of his less silly/grounded pictures. He sort of went overboard with kiddie flicks, CGI experiments, and wacky exploitation projects over the last couple of decades. So, seeing Rodriguez make something more for adult viewers and not teenage boys or kids will be fun to see come together.

He’s already wrapped on The Book of Boba Fett, his Star Wars spinoff series that will debut on Disney+ in December. We’re hearing there is a good shot that Rodriguez is returning to direct an episode of The Mandalorian for Season 3 as well.

Hypnotic is expected to see the filmmaker reunite with veteran stunt coordinator Jeff Dashnaw, who has a wave of action film credits under his belt like Once Upon A Time In Mexico, Sin City, Planet Terror, Death Proof, Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight, Predators, A Good Day To Die Hard, Machete Kills, Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, The Magnificent Seven, and The Equalizer 2.

At one point, Rodriguez was hired by 20th Century Studios (prior to the merger) to remake John Carpenter’s Escape From New York, but remains to be seen if that will ever happen. Interestingly enough, The Book of Boba Fett features work from Escape From New York cinematographer Dean Cundey, who worked with Carpenter on a wave of his films such as Big Trouble In Little China, The Thing, The Fog, and Halloween.

SOURCE: COLLIDER

Posted on in News, Television News

‘Jurassic Park’ & ‘The Thing’ Cinematographer Dean Cundey Worked On ‘The Book Of Boba Fett’

The last season of The Mandalorian ended with a huge tease for a Boba Fett series The Book of Boba Fett. We would later learn that it would begin airing on Disney+ sometime in December 2021 along with producers Robert Rodriguez, Dave Filoni, and Jon Favreau directing episodes. It would also star Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen back in their respective Star Wars roles.

It’s now been revealed by American Cinematographer that legendary director of photography Dean Cundey has shot multiple episodes of The Book of Boba Fett. The outlet recently revealing that Season 3 of The Mandalorian has already started production.

He recently completed episodes of the Star Wars series The Book of Boba Fett.

Cundey’s fantastic run of credits includes Halloween, The Fog, Escape From New York, Big Trouble In Little China, Jurassic Park, Back To The Future Trilogy, Apollo 13, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Hook, Casper, The Flintstones, and Road House.

We can only hope that Robert Rodriguez has been able to convince Kurt Russell to take a role in the Star Wars show.

Temuera Morrison spoke with Rotten Tomatoes not too long ago and gave us some teases about the upcoming series along with confirm Rodriguez (Planet Terror, Desperado, Alita: Battle Angel) returned to direct episodes.

“Well, we can’t say too much, but we’re going to see his past and where he’s been since The Empire Strikes Back. Somebody pointed out he’s been kind of stuck in this one place, and now’s the time to actually go back in time and check out his journey and find out more about him. They brought Robert back in to direct a few more. There’s some wonderful directors involved,” Morrison said.

Lucasfilm still hasn’t announced a full cast for The Book of Boba Fett, but we should expect a teaser trailer before the end of the fall.

The button scene saw Fett and Fennec Shand essentially take over Jabba’s Palace and potentially hints at the series could be taking place more in the criminal underworld than previous Star Wars projects. I wouldn’t be terribly shocked if ends up playing to the gangster elements that the franchise has always tipped-toed around even with something like Solo: A Star Wars Story.

SOURCE: AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER

Posted on in News

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Luther’ Creator Neil Cross Developing A Project Based On William Gibson’s Sci-Fi Novel ‘Pattern Recognition’

The Ronin has learned that British writer Neil Cross is developing a project based on the William Gibson science fiction novel Pattern Recognition, the first in Gibson’s Blue Ant books. The sci-fi author, alongside folks like Philip K. Dick, is famously part of a small group of writers credited for the formation of the cyberpunk sub-genre.

PATTERN RECOGNITION – Published in 2003, the novel focuses on Cayce Pollard, an expensive, spookily intuitive market-research consultant. In London on a job, she is offered a secret assignment: to investigate some intriguing snippets of video that have been appearing on the Internet. An entire subculture of people is obsessed with these bits of footage, and anybody who can create that kind of brand loyalty would be a gold mine for Cayce’s client. But when her borrowed apartment is burgled and her computer hacked, she realizes there’s more to this project than she had expected.

Still, Cayce is her father’s daughter, and the danger makes her stubborn. Win Pollard, ex-security expert, probably ex-CIA, took a taxi in the direction of the World Trade Center on September 11 one year ago, and is presumed dead. Win taught Cayce a bit about the way agents work. She is still numb at his loss, and, as much for him as for any other reason, she refuses to give up this newly weird job, which will take her to Tokyo and on to Russia. With help and betrayal from equally unlikely quarters, Cayce will follow the trail of the mysterious film to its source, and in the process will learn something about her father’s life and death.

It’s unclear if the project is active or if Neil has since moved on to other things.

Gibson’s Blue Ant trilogy includes novels such as Spook Country and Zero History.

Cross worked on Spooks, created both Idris Elba’s Luther and Hard Sun, currently is the showrunner on The Mosquito Coast at Apple TV+. The former show recently got picked up for a second season earlier this month. The screenwriter is also behind the Guillermo del Toro-produced horror flick Mama, briefly worked on Pacific Rim, and was hired by 20th Century Fox to rewrite the script for their remake of the John Carpenter cult film Escape From New York.

This isn’t the only William Gibson adaptation in the works as Amazon Prime Video has a series based on the cyberpunk novel The Peripheral from Westworld co-creators Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan. It stars Chloe Grace Moretz (Shadow In The Clouds), Jack Reynor (Midsommar), Charlotte Riley (Edge of Tomorrow), and JJ Field (Captain America: The First Avenger).