Trailers: ‘Coraline’, ‘Astro Boy’, ‘Knowing’, ‘The Day The Earth..’
Thursday, December 4th, 2008
Got a few “new” trailers for you guys. I say “new”, because many aren’t particularly new. However, they haven’t been discussed on the site, so have at it. Coming up after the break are four big geek films of various subjects:
Neil Gaiman’s Coraline is brought to you by the director of Nightmare Before Christmas.
The hugely successful 1950’s manga/anime series Astro Boy gets a teaser trailer for a movie packed with top voice talent.
Nicolas Cage tries to predict major disasters using a sheet of numbers in Knowing.
Keanu Reeves comes to Earth to wipe out humanity in an effort to save an inhabitable planet in the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. Whoa!
Gallery of Images
Tagged under: Astro Boy, Coraline, Henry Selick, Knowing, Neil Gaiman, Nightmare before Christmas, The Day the Earth Stood Still
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Book of the Month
Y The Last Man Vol. 5In this final Deluxe Edition hardcover collecting Y #49-60, Yorick and Agent 355 prepare for their ultimate quest to reunite the last man with his lost love, while the person, people or thing behind the disaster that wiped out half of humanity is revealed. Then, Yorick Brown's long journey through an Earth populated only by women comes to its dramatic, unexpected conclusion.
“Keanu Reeves comes to Earth to wipe out humanity in an effort to save an inhabitable planet in the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still”
Wait, is that actually the plot? They’ve just completely ruined the spirit of the original which is all about peace… damn you fox!!!
Well, that’s the bit that the trailer tries to convey. We will see.
Im really looking foward to Coraline. Im a huge stop motion fan, but my biggest problem with this is that the animation doesnt seem to be as smooth as Nightmare, or James and the giant peach (i’ll admit it has been awhile on this one), Corpse bride, ect. The story looks amazing and im sure i’ll love it, it does seem alittle off though.
Oh yeah and does anybody else think that the guys who made “knowing” heard about that Richard Kelly time capsual movie, and desided to change it up to try be original?
@Prettz – Knowing IS the Richard Kelly time capsule movie. From what I understand, the studio that bought the script put it on the shelf until Kelly got tired of waiting and started working on Southland Tales and The Box, then they rewrote the script until there was so little left of Kelly’s original concept he doesn’t even get credit anymore. Check out the poster and check the ridiculous writing staff they had on this flick. It’s ridiculous:
http://origin.aintitcool.com/images2007/knowing.jpeg
I have no feelings about Astro Boy one way or the other. That teaser doesn’t really show us much.
Coraline looks awesome, and I can’t wait for it. Stop motion is a difficult artform, and Henry Selick is one of the talented few who are very good at it. I like the look of this, and I didn’t think the animation looked rough at all. Nightmare isn’t as smooth as you may remember it, and Corpse Bride is just insanely smooth for stop motion. I’d say that Coraline looks to be somewhere between the two, and it seems to lean a little more towards the Aardman style of stop motion as well.
I think that Knowing looks great. I really like Alex Proyas (Dark City is probably my favorite of his), and the story looks good. Hopefully the large team of writers didn’t make the movie incoherent and dumb. The trailer looks very promising.
The Day the Earth Stood Still is just trying for name recognition. I doubt it will have much to do with the original movie, based on all these trailers. Despite that, it looks like it could be a fun popcorn movie….or it could suck horribly. I’ll probably wait to see it until I hear more about how it turns out.
@TheDoctor- Damn that sucks, I really loved the concept. I’ve been really unimpressed with Nick Cage in everything but lord of war these days, and the change from pictures to numbers seems like a device to make it seem more complex and intresting that it didnt really need. Iv went from really wanting to see this to just hoping it doesnt suck
I really need to do my research before I post, haha. 3 basically amature writers and the guy who did mercury rising…….at least we know why its numbers now.
I agree that Coraline doesn’t look as smooth as the Nightmare Before Christmas. But I’ personally don’t mean smooth only in the animations sense, but also along the lines of the character designs and such. However, after seeing the covers to one of the books (http://www.electricstory.com/images/Coraline450×600.jpg) I can see why it looks a little off. Because it’s following the original art style. So I’m fine with that. Looks promising. Not as good as Nightmare, but better than Corpse Bride, which ultimately was missing a lot of heart. I’ve never been a big fan of any of the Gaiman based movies before. But that was mostly based on how the movies themselves were made, and not the story. Because the stories almost always have heart before anything else.
Knowing is the first movie in a long time that has made me say, “I can watch AND enjoy a Nicolas Cage movie”. I have no idea what the original script turned out like in a movie, but I think this looks very interesting. But I must say, from the pictures vs numbers discussion, I personally love the numbers plot a lot more. I am always intrigued by people that find away to write a story around numbers. Remember, math is supposed to be the universal language. I enjoyed the role of math in Contact, the hidden number in The Number 23, etc. Things like that always interests me. I’m not saying that the idea couldn’t have been pulled off with pictures. However, numbers have always seemed much more mysterious to me.
I don’t have an opinion on the other two at all at this point. I see “Earth” to be close to “War of the Worlds”. Where it looks pretty and mildly interesting, but seems to be lacking a lot of what made the original special. I like Keanu Reeves ok. But I don’t find him to be the most powerful actor. So it depends on the role they give him in this movie as to how well he succeeds. Likewise, with “War of the Worlds”, I didn’t think Tom Cruise was the best choice to carry the story. Take away Dakota Fanning, and my interest int he movie goes through the floor.
Astro Boy could end up being cool. But it’s obvious they weren’t trying to show us anything yet. I’ve never been the biggest fan of old anime/manga, and Astro Boy isn’t an exception. I’m also not a big fan with the look of the animation. It is obviously supposed to remain similar to the original source material, but I just don’t care for it. But then again, I thought Meet the Robinsons looked goofy, and ended up loving that movie. So we’ll see. It does have a solid voice cast. Nicolas Cage will be doing a voice there too. If they stick him on the right character, he has a unique enough voice that he could shine in something like that.
@ “I’ve never been a big fan of any of the Gaiman based movies before. ”
Are you only basing this on MirrorMask? Because if you are, you should see Stardust… that was a great movie with a ton of heart and was based on his novel.
I was about to mention that as well. Stardust is awesome!
@’I was about to mention that as well. Stardust is awesome!’
Couldn’t agree more. Stardust was either my third or fourth favorite movie last year.
Stardust is terrific fun, much like the Princess Bride. And I love Clare Danes.
The original Day the Earth Stood Still is a classic, albeit a dated one. Nevertheless one of my all time favorite movies. To this day I remember watching it for the first time as a young child and being blown away by it’s message and by Gort! ANd then there was the first use of iconic scary Theremin music! I so wanted to see a good updated version to carry the torch forward for a new generation.
The new one is reportedly more true to the short story that inspired the original – but I’ve never read the story. I’ll be very disappointed if the peaceful and urbane spirit of the first is changed and the movie becomes a more War of the World’s in character.
Yes, The Day the Earth Stood Still is VERY dated. It is about the cold war, 110%. Still good, still worth watching but it isn’t about our political/social climate in the second mellinium one bit. But the message of peace and love I think should still be there, and I’m not so sure it is in this remake. I’m not against remakes, but this just seems like a blah movie in general. I dunno. It does feel like War of the Worlds (though, my problem was more the ending with the family than the common cold ending. I love the common cold thing- always had. It was, like, HG Wells ultimate political statement- the strength of men will fail, but a tiny bug can take anything down- and might one day take us down too.) And I wish to no end Spielberg had re-used the theme to Close Encounters for the aliens sooooo bad.
I am PUMPED for Coraline, one of my favorite Gaiman offerings.
Stardust really is amazing, fun, like an old fashioned “family” movie without the saccharine. One of these days I hope Terry Gilliam releases the rights to Good Omens so someone can make it- that’s the one Gaiman (co-written with Terry Pratchet) that I’ve always thought would make a really great ensemble movie.
I want it made with Michael Cain as the demon, and Ian McKellon as the angel so bad.
American Gods should be made too- but I figure that if it did it’d be really dumbed down which would sadden me to no end. And I’ve always wanted them to make what they were supposed to make- a remake of Neverwhere with the Jim Henson company. They were planning it but from what I’ve heard it fell through.
And Hollywood should hopefully NEVER make a Sandman move. EVER. If they have to do SOMETHING, do a cartoon anthology- but I NEVER want a film adaptation.
@TheDoctor: Actually, yeah, I forgot about Stardust. I watched and loved that movie.