Film

An archive of blog entries about films and film production.

Film

David Fincher’s up for another serial killer movie

12 January 2006 Natalia Romanova Post a comment

Poster for the movie Se7en

Se7en director David Fincher is up for another serial killer movie. Torso explores a little-known incident in Elliot “The Untouchables” Ness’ career, in which a serial killer challenges Ness to catch him. Ness, by then working as a public safety officer and without any training as a detective, has to put together a team of ex-police officers to help him catch the killer.

I love Fincher’s movies, particularly The Game and Fight Club, and regard Se7en as one of the best movies ever made. But some of his recent output such Panic Room has has been a little lacking. If Fincher is trying to recapture the mid-90s pinnacle of his career, it’s probably a mistake. The serial killer territory is now not only well trodden both by Fincher and by others, it’s very passé. But I guess if anyone can still make a gripping serial killer movie, it’s him. I suspect he’ll need Andrew Kevin Walker as a script doctor though.

What author double-acts would you like to see in movies?

5 January 2006 Natalia Romanova Post a comment

Following the news that WB is planning a movie in which Shakespeare and Cervantes become friends and bum around Europe together (or solve crimes. Who knows?), I wondered which other authorial double acts you’d all like to see in the movies. Let me know.

Here’s a few to get you started:

  1. Martin Amis and Harold Pinter: “when two authors clashed over their views on modern-day American Imperialism, it was murder”
  2. J D Salinger and F Scott Fitzgerald: “Their first names a secret, their attitude insouciant, they came to change nothing, but left having changed everything”
  3. Enid Blyton and Raymond Chandler: “Who you nodding at, kiddo? This ain’t toy town any more!”
  4. Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift: “It was a journey greater than any they’d written about, but they would be back by Friday”

BBC Four’s return to normality was just a blip

22 December 2005 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

My head’s in a whirl again. No sooner do I think that BBC Four has returned to a post-Christmas schedule of unwatchable crud, then they start to unveil things like Jonathan Ross’s Asian Invasion.

Say what you like about Jonathan Ross – I’ve probably said it already – but when it comes to films, he really knows his stuff. His 1980s Channel Four film programme, the Incredibly Strange Film Show, introduced a whole generation of British youth to Jackie Chan movies long before he became ubiquitous in Hollywood, and that was just one of its achievements. So a three-part tour of Asian cinema by Johnny can only be good.

While researching this entry, I came across an article in The Independent, which suggested that BBC4’s ascent into watchability may actually be a strategy by BBC4 controller Janice Hadlow. If it is, my hat’s off to you Ms Hadlow. It turns out you may be the only controller in British television who knows what she’s doing.