‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ director defends alien twist

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Last week, while speaking at Nickelodeon’s annual Upfront presentation, Michael Bay announced that his upcoming live-action production of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would present the beloved characters as extraterrestrials, effectively re-writing their sacred origin story.

Predictably, Bay's comments resulted in a stinging backlash from Turtles fans, who quickly took to online message boards and accused the filmmaker of violating their childhood memories (don’t take it personally, guys, that's just Bay's 'thing').

Anyway, ComingSoon.net took the opportunity yesterday to talk to the movie’s director, Jonathan Liebesman, and ask him what he made of ‘Turtle-gate’.

Liebesman had this to say:

"I heard about it, and I'm glad there's such a passionate fanbase – I think that was good news for everyone – but literally, I've just been locked in a room with Kevin Eastman [original co-creator of the Turtles]. I think what we're developing, the fans will love. I'm a fan, and I love what we're doing. It's a lot of stuff Kevin's been thinking about for a long time and just hasn't done. Anything we expand will tie right into the mythology, so I think fans will go apesh*t when they see it...”

Jonathan Liebesman

I think we can all agree with Jonathan that Turtles fans most assuredly will go “apesh*t” when they see his movie. The director then added, apparently with a straight face:

“We worked so hard on this. You just don't want to f*ck it up and you don't want to disappoint people who pay money... out of respect for the people who are paying money to see the movie – you feel those people are the reason why we have these jobs."

This from the man who gave us Battle: Los Angeles (2011). How Liebesman still has a job after that plotless, excruciatingly bland military recruitment campaign is a bigger mystery than the real life Battle of Los Angeles. And Liebesman made that one without Michael bay... the thought of these two men working together is the stuff of cinematic nightmares. Turtles fans, abandon all hope, ye who enter the multiplex December 2013.

Obama, Roswell, and 'The Day the Earth Stood Still'

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Ask President Obama the quickest way to fictionalize a real event and he'll tell you: brush it gleefully with Hollywood dust.

Earlier this week, while in Maljamar, New Mexico, President Obama dropped the R-bomb on reporters in a cheap effort to elicit some laughs. It worked better than ever, because in his next breath he paraphrased the 1951 UFO movie, The Day the Earth Stood Still, in which the enlightened alien, Klaatu, tells the people of Earth: “We have come to visit you in peace and with good will.”

The President then proceeded to... threaten to kill young children who ask him about Roswell??

You heard the man, "We're gonna keep our secrets here," whatever that means. Don't worry, Mr. President. Your comments may have turned a little sinister towards the end, but all the headlines will recall is your whimsical sci-fi movie soundbite... see!

Related:

Did President Obama Fumble the UFO Cover-up?

"Klaatu Barada Nikto" (Guest Blogger: Grant Cameron)

UFOs and Hollywood: Blurring the Line Between Fact and Fantasy

'The Host': teaser trailer for new body-snatching alien movie

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Here is the first teaser trailer for the big screen adaptation of The Host – Stephanie Meyer’s 2008 science-fiction romance novel about alien entities (called “Souls”) who silently take over Earth by invading the minds of its inhabitants...

While the teaser trailer is suitably enigmatic, the official plot for the movie is rather more revealing:

“Our world has been invaded by an unseen enemy. Humans become hosts for these invaders, their minds taken over while their bodies remain intact and continue their lives apparently unchanged. Most of humanity has succumbed.

When Melanie, one of the few remaining "wild" humans is captured, she is certain it is her end. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, was warned about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the glut of senses, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.

Wanderer probes Melanie's thoughts, hoping to discover the whereabouts of the remaining human resistance. Instead, Melanie fills Wanderer's mind with visions of the man Melanie loves – Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she has been tasked with exposing. When outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off on a dangerous and uncertain search for the man they both love."

The Host is directed by Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, Lord of War). It is scheduled for release March 29, 2013.

‘Battleship’ movie: Goldilocks planets and the perils of ET contact

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Battleship hits cinemas 11 April (UK) and 18 May (US)

Back in 2010, the alien invasion film Skyline incorporated real news stories into its marketing campaign. The trailer for the film begins with bold text against a cosmic backdrop reading:

“On August 28, 2009, NASA sent a message into space farther than we ever thought possible in an effort to reach extraterrestrial life.”

This is true. On the date specified, the Australian government, through its “Hello from Earth” science initiative, and with the help of NASA, sent some 26,000 (carefully vetted) messages from the public to the extra-solar Earth-like planet Gliese 581d in a single transmission. This proactive approach to alien contact known as METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence) differs from the traditional passive approach favoured by SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), which devotes its efforts simply to listening for any potential incoming alien signals.

The METI approach is controversial as some scientists consider it unwise to knowingly alert our presence in the galaxy to any potentially technologically superior civilizations. In April 2010, Professor Stephen Hawking made international headlines by stating his firm belief that humanity should seek to avoid extraterrestrial contact: "To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational," Hawking said, but added, ominously, "If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn't turn out very well for the American Indians.” Hawking suggested that aliens "might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet” and would perhaps be “looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach.”

Skyline was a box-office bomb, panned by critics. Despite this, director Peter Berg has chosen to incorporate the “dangers of METI” idea into his upcoming mega-movie, Battleship (which was produced with the full cooperation of the US Navy).

Take a look at this new promotional featurette for Battleship, in which scientists take a proactive approach to extraterrestrial contact, sending a signal directly to a 'Goldilocks' planet...

Silly, arrogant scientists. What, with their selfish desire to expand human knowledge, and all. And, man, is that lead scientist fugly – and British to boot!! The stunningly attractive US military has better things to do with its time than sweep up the sciency mess of bumbling British boffins. But, then, who’s gonna kick those aliens’ asses if not... Rihanna? Wait...

'John Carter' will lose Disney $200 million

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

On location: John Carter director, Andrew Stanton, and star, Taylor Kitsch

Disney has admitted that its epic Mars-based sci-fi adventure John Carter is set to lose the studio more than $200 million at the box-office. The movie, which cost at least $250 million to make (some say $300 million), opened two weekends ago to a disappointing $30 million and has yet to recoup its budget.

In a statement earlier this week, Disney acknowledged that it expects John Carter “to generate an operating loss of approximately $200m” by the end of March.

Pondering the box-office failure of John Carter, Ben Child of The Guardian writes:

“Critics have suggested that John Carter’s failure to connect with audiences may have been due to confusing marketing as well as lukewarm reviews. Disney chose not to run with the “of Mars” suffix in the wake of traditionally poor box-office results for films that focus on the planet, and trailers also largely ignored the movie's central romance, something Hollywood tends to see as a surefire method of attracting female filmgoers.”

Followers of Silver Screen Saucers, however – and, indeed, anyone familiar with sci-fi movie history – will know that John Carter’s box-office belly-flop was not the result of poor marketing or lukewarm reviews (in fact, Disney marketed the hell out of it, and a number of high-profile critics loved the movie), but something entirely beyond the control of all Hollywood creatives, something ominous and unforgiving: The Martian Curse!

I, for one, am puzzled by the public’s historical aversion to Hollywood’s Mars movies. What is it about The Red Planet that turns us off at the box-office? Your thoughts are welcome...

'Iron Sky' reviews

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

A handful of early reviews for the Nazi UFO invasion comedy, Iron Sky, have started to surface online. The movie is not released theatrically until next month, so it’s too early yet to judge whether or not the following reviews are representative of the hundreds still to pour in, or, indeed, if the reviewers’ cutting comments will have any bearing on the movie’s box-office returns. At this point, though, things aren’t looking too promising.

Here are some review snapshots (for the full reviews, click the website titles in bold red)... 

The Guardian

Perhaps the harshest review comes from The Guardian’s Andrew Pulver, who gives the film just two stars out of five and writes:

“Proper comedy is a rare gift, and all the fancy, fanboy-titillating CGI effects in the world can't make up for it... No one on show has what you would call natural comic timing – a difficulty reinforced by the fact that half the cast aren't speaking their native language... [Directors] Vuorensola and Torssonen can console themselves with the likelihood that the remake rights will be worth a bomb; I've no doubt a queue is already forming. Theirs is an idea that Hollywood could do much better with.”

Time Out London 

London’s Time Out Online also could muster only two stars for the movie, saying “The lingering sense is one of missed opportunities: any movie featuring Nazis from the moon should be an easy win. Iron Sky just proves that even the dumbest idea needs a smart mind behind it.”

The Hollywood Reporter

David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter compares the movie to both Starship Troopers and Galaxy Quest, but notes that, “while the plotting is mostly sound enough, the dialogue would have required several more polishes to put Iron Sky in the league of either of those movies,” adding, “the real problem is that the jokes are just not there.” 

Screen Daily

Screen Daily’s Mark Adams, meanwhile, is more positive in his review of Iron Sky, saying “fans of the genre will lap up the film,” which has “some delicious moments” and “some truly impressive special effects.”

What Culture!

Robert Beams of What Culture! was also somewhat complimentary:

“There are visual puns, gloriously over-designed Nazi spaceships and even autobahns on the surface of the moon. Every frame is full of jokes – some of them highly inspired and many of them less so (in fact some don’t work at all). But the gag-rate is so high that you’re bound to chuckle at least once every few minutes even if you don’t surrender yourself to it entirely.”

Teenage Mutant Ninja Aliens??? Michael Bay tells fans to "chill"

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Transformers director Michael Bay has suggested that his production company’s upcoming live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie reboot will be entirely rewriting the Turtles’ origins story and presenting the ‘heroes in a half-shell’ not as mutants, but as extraterrestrials. Seriously. Last week, while at Nickelodeon’s annual Upfront presentation, Bay told crowds:

“When you see this movie, kids are going to believe, one day, that these turtles actually do exist when we are done with this movie. These turtles are from an alien race and they are going to be tough, edgy, funny and completely lovable.”

Bay's comments did not go down well with Turtles fans, however, who quickly called for the director's massive head on a platter. In response, Bay has now posted the following on his official message board:

"Fans need to take a breath, and chill. They have not read the script. Our team is working closely with one of the original creators of Ninja Turtles to help expand and give a more complex back story. Relax, we are including everything that made you become fans in the first place. We are just building a richer world."

To see video of Bay’s Turtles revelation, head over to io9.com.

Bay’s Turtles reboot is scheduled for release Christmas 2013.