Luc Besson Returns to Sci-Fi

That's the poster for French director Luc Besson's latest, a Steampunk adventure titled Les Aventures Extraordinaire d'Adele Blanc-Sec, based on the French comic series by author Jacques Tardi. Besson wrote and directed one of Sci-Fi's most underrated films, The Fifth Element and 2006's CGI Fantasy flop, Arthur and the Invisibles.

The story surrounds the titular Adele Blanc-Sec, a popular early-20th Century novelist who turns investigative journalist. The beautiful Adele has to deal with a bevy of suitors while fighting off any number of monsters, beasties and assorted creatures.

If you've been reading from the beginning, you know Uncle Prospero loves him some good Steampunk. In fact, I basically started blogging to document my Steampunk-inspired production of Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth. And my fascination with the genre goes back to before it actually had a name. I grew up loving the novels and stories of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells (and the countless movies they inspired), so it's no wonder I have an affinity to the movement. The Victorian era saw the Industrial Revolution and Verne and Wells were prescient enough to imagine nuclear submarines, space travel, computers and even wireless communication (though I'm still waiting for time travel, teleportation and the discovery of Atlantis).

As for Besson's films (which include the movie that made my obsession a star, The Transporter and the actioner, La femme Nikita), they always manage to be over-the top, if nothing else. In The Fifth Element, starring former obsession Bruce Willis and future Zombie-fighter extraordinaire, Milla Jovavich, Besson imagines a future with government-regulated tobacco use; vacations on other planets; McDonald's uniforms designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier and what is possibly Gary Oldman's creepiest villain, ever. I, for one, can't wait for what he does for Steampunk aesthetics. The trailer below (via) is in French, but you get the general idea.

Les Aventures Extraordinaire d'Adele Blanc-Sec is scheduled for release in France, in April. No word on a U.S. release date, but you can bet I'll be among the first in line.

More, anon.
Prospero

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Not Much To Say?

I know. Can you imagine me having a post with such a title? I'm not sure what to say about that, either (obviously).

I've said pretty much all I have to say about Maine on Facebook, though I will take the opportunity to once again to tell the voters of Maine to "Suck it!" There's a newish term being bandied about these days: "Gay Apartheid." We're sure feeling it lately, aren't we? Basically, apartheid means "You're different from most of us, therefore you should not be afforded the same rights and privileges as us and we're going to pass laws to ensure that you never will." We all saw how well that worked in South Africa, didn't we?

But I'm not getting on my high horse, tonight. I've already said I don't have much to say.

Not much happening at the movies, this weekend, either. There is the abysmal-looking (and pretty abysmally-reviewed) The Fourth Kind, starring Milla Jovovich (The Fifth Element; Resident Evil) as an Alaskan psychiatrist investigating what appears to be a rash of alien abductions. Yawn. Alien abduction has never been particularly scary to me, and while I was certainly an X-Files fan, I never understood why aliens would be so interested in anal probing (unless of course, their leader was Richard Simmons wanting to know what it's like to be a top - Oh, now that was just mean. Stop it!).

Then there's Richard (Donnie Darko) Kelly's latest, The Box. Based on a Richard Matheson short-story, The Box is about a young couple (James Marsden and Cameron Diaz) who are in dire financial straits. Along comes a mysterious stranger (a digitally scarred Frank Langella) with an unusual offer. In exchange for pressing the red button in the mysterious box he brings them, they will receive a million dollars. The catch? Someone they don't know will die.

Kelly's last film, the critically drubbed Southland Tales was a highly-anticipated failure that didn't even find an audience on DVD. His first film, the enigmatic Donnie Darko, won both critical acclaim and a devoted cult following (myself among them). It's the movie that shot Jake Gyllenhaal into superstardom and gave the late Patrick Swayze his best role since Ghost.

The Box has gotten less than stellar reviews and I suppose I'll wait until it's On Demand.

On TV, my beloved Fringe was back this week with a story about an alien entity trapped in the body of a comatose Cosmonaut which feeds off the radiation in its victims, leaving them little more than piles of carbon dust. Like the best X-Files stand-alone episodes, it was creepy and fun, though it lacked the intensity of episodes about the series' central conspiracy plot.

Oh, and I almost forgot. there's a new Grizzly Bear video (via):



Well, I guess I had a few things to say, after all. I hope you're having a good weekend. I'm trying to... I think I'll do a little Christmas shopping tomorrow. What are your plans?

More, anon.
Prospero

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