THE (ALMOST) UNDELETED

Speaking of what the hell moments, I'm also having a bout of deja vu about a topic I swear we had for "The Road". But since I can't seem to find it, here's the latest:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/new ... view_N.htm

Some pictures from the new production.

If you don't know much about The Road (I've yet to read it myself) you can find some basic information in the wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_%28film%29

I loved the book.. I don't think I've ever read another quite like it.

I read awhile back that Charlize Theron was playing the wife. I wonder if they're padding her role out some. The wife was barely mentioned in the book, maybe two or three times that I remember.

The trivia text accompanying the six pictures from the set describe her role as significantly expanded.

Great book, but not really surprised the Wife role is being expanded. I
mean, there really weren't enough characters of merit in the book to
translate well into a Hollywood production. I do like Viggo though. Good
choice there.

Maybe they're making up some of the earlier times on the road. I got the impression that she went with them for awhile, but it was all very vague.

Mandy wrote:Maybe they're making up some of the earlier times on the road. I got the impression that she went with them for awhile, but it was all very vague.

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Yeah, I was thinking about that. I remember where Cormac describes the
Man and his Wife holed up in their house and actually witnessing the
holocaust, with the Boy born right around that time. This would place the
time of the book about 11 years after the holocaust, which means she
could have been on the road with them for a while, and still be dead long
enough as the narrative implies.

I wonder how they will handle her death.. I hope they can keep the bleak hopelessness of the book, but I imagine they'll have to make it uplifting somehow.


After 11yrs I don't understand why there wasn't some vegetation returning.

Mandy wrote:Maybe they're making up some of the earlier times on the road. I got the impression that she went with them for awhile, but it was all very vague.

My recollection is that he showed her how to kill herself with the obsidian shard, then a little while later he and the kid left their home. Here's my review where I talk about it a bit:

http://www.omphalosbookreviews.com/inde ... ws/info/22

Mandy wrote:I wonder how they will handle her death.. I hope they can keep the bleak hopelessness of the book, but I imagine they'll have to make it uplifting somehow.

Amen. I actually think its a mistake to write her character in in the first place. The book is about the father and son and the near hopeless love dad feels for the boy. Adding a wife will only distort that, or give them some stupidly cheesy opportunity for dad to "make a choice" and hollywood-up the drama.

After 11yrs I don't understand why there wasn't some vegetation returning.

Nuclear winter. Whatever fucked things up in the first place, the dust was still up in the air. Technically that "works" because you dont know what the apocalypse was. It could have been something like the Ring of Fire going superactive or something.

One of the things I loved about the book was the simplicity of the relationship between the boy and the man. I just don't see how they're going to avoid fucking the story up.. the wife was only a memory. I will be kinda pissed if they make her seem heroic in any way, she basically abandoned them.

Hollywood...my heroes!

Taking things wonderful and grand and...turning them to shit.

LOVE it.

So many express disappointment with the book because they want to know all the background of the world and the characters, Cormac is way smarter though. He wanted ot tell a story about the relationship between a father and son. Simplicity that breeds complexity and deep thinking.

Rob

Release date announced. 10/16/2009.

Is that a typical date for big movies?

Omphalos wrote:Release date announced. 10/16/2009.

Is that a typical date for big movies?

Hmmm, kinda early for the holiday season, but late enough that it's still fresh come award nomination time.

I'm fine with that date. It's just right. It's well into the fall drama season, but will offer a little more excitement for those looking for a smart, post-apocalyptic story with heart. If this is going to be a lousy summer for blockbuster movies (and given the fare, I have every reason to believe that it will be), The Road should find audiences in just the right frame of mind for what it has to offer. I only hope it's good.

Mid-October pretty much kicks off the awards season for movies Omph.

Rob

Robspierre wrote:Mid-October pretty much kicks off the awards season for movies Omph.

Rob

Is that how it works?

Omphalos wrote:

Robspierre wrote:Mid-October pretty much kicks off the awards season for movies Omph.

Rob

Is that how it works?

Mid to end of October you see the "award" films start being released. Also I be The Road will have an R rating. You do not see to many R's during the summer season. You have a very different movie going demographic attending in October, I see the studio trying to grab people who enjoyed There Will Be Blood, No COuntry For Old Men, etc. with this picture.

Rob

I know nothing about this book or movie, but here's an interesting little tidbit.

I just happened to read a magazine article last week, in Time or Newsweek or something like that, about a small Pennsylvania steel town that's gone to hell. High unemployment, 1/4 of the houses empty, the place looks like shit, just a dying little city barely hanging on. And then at the end of the article they mentioned that this town was used as a setting for The Road.

Yeah, Braddock, Pennsylvania. They had the article about this town and The Road on the IMDB's hit list this week. Basically, Braddock is a small community that was the victim of the steel industry going for shit. They chose it because it's basically a half-abandoned town, which makes for an ideal post-apocalyptic setting. Braddock is going to be used as just one of the shooting locations for Hillcoat's film adaptation. Pretty smart location scouting

It's not exactly flattering to know the town you live in has the "post-apocalypse look," is it? The article I read, though, was all about the town's mayor and his special perspective on the decay as an opportunity for creative revitalization projects. It was a pretty interesting read, actually.

No, not very. But Im sure it was a bit of a boon for the townspeople. A production crew that big is going to need a lot of services, like food, gas, hotel, etc.

No shortage of towns like that either. How about Flint, Michigan?

First official trailer for The Road that I've seen. Sorry if this is old news to you guys. Sure enough, they're gonna milk the mother character. Seems to be a lot more action in it as well. Oh well, these things were more or less expected.

What a fucking awful trailer.

However - bear in mind that trailers must contain action, romance and more more action. The fact they used Trajan for the title shows that the trailer was made by bleeding idiot. (Trajan is a quality font, but that's just bloody lazy!). Fingers crossed the film will be completely different.

(That trailer is shit though... reckon I could pull a better one out of my arse...)

It seems though that usually all the best parts of the movie are put into the trailer.

So if the trailer sucks...

If I had a dollar for every time a movie was misrepresented by it's appeal-to-the-lowest-common-denominator trailer, I'd be rich.
Still, I don't know for sure which direction this adaptation is going. The director, casting and release date seem to indicate this is not some action packed Wolverine-like cliche of a film. But who knows. I'm more than willing to take a chance on The Road than most of the other shit coming out this year (here's looking at you Bayformers and G.I. Blow).

I'll also say that I'm not the least bit surprised that the film adaptation is using some environmentalist bullshit to describe the global calamity which, in the book, was largely nondescript. But such is the politics and marketing strategy of filmmaking. Gotta get more asses in the seats

Just watched the trailer, and it doesn't seem as bad as I thought it would be. I expected the woman to play a bigger part in the movie than in the book, and looks like she is. The sound on my computer is shit, so I don't know what they were saying, but it looked alright. Too many explosions, of course, but they got the bleak look right.

I might would watch it just as an action film. It does look like it would be just another 'end of civilazation' film.

I kind of like those mindless disaster films for simple enjoyment and relaxation.

Eh. I think I remember being afraid of crap like this. Maybe Ill just read the book again.

Eyes High wrote:I might would watch it just as an action film. It does look like it would be just another 'end of civilazation' film.

I kind of like those mindless disaster films for simple enjoyment and relaxation.

It better not be a mindless disaster film! The book was one of the most touching books I've ever read. If it's just an action film, I won't see it. I have hope that they managed to capture at least some of the relationship between the boy and the man.

Omphalos wrote:No, not very. But Im sure it was a bit of a boon for the townspeople. A production crew that big is going to need a lot of services, like food, gas, hotel, etc.

No shortage of towns like that either. How about Flint, Michigan?

The Airforce figured that when the first Transformers movie filmed out at Holloman/White Sands, 30 million was pumped directly into the economy. Since then, Transformers 2 and Year One both have filmed out here. The new Terminator was up north.

Rob

Saw the new extended trailer for The Road before Inglorious Basterds last night. Not to sure now. They really are playing up the post apocalypse background, and judging from the trailer a bit too much I think. I'm on the fence on this one at the moment. I adore the book which honestly did not need any help to make it visually stimulating for the cinema. I know it's hard to judge by trailers but I dunno.

Rob

Variety was mostly unimpressed.

The reviews for this one are polarized beyond belief. Some are calling it crap, others are calling it brilliant. I just finished reading Rex Reed's review from his report at the TIFF and he's praising The Road as a triumph.

All I know for sure is the book hit me like a bomb and is easily the most impressive book I've read in years, by an author to which I'd not been previously exposed. The film adaptation has a lot to live up to, but from the buzz, it's clear this is one I've got to see for myself. I don't trust most people to understand the nuances of adapting novels to film, so a lot of the reviews I'm reading are almost useless as a benchmark.

Damn, I wish I caught that screening at TIFF on the 13th

Well that's good to hear. I have some pretty high hopes for this film.