hmm, Michael this new film looks VERY familiar to me...

[Anonymous]

Well I imagine this isn't set in the same exact milieu as your
Oswald Bastable novels, but still...I saw one second of a preview of this
film and boy it reminds me of those books!
Call me crazy but I feel like we've seen (read?) all this before. I hope they're sending you your royalty check this week!
I dunno if they've got airships in this movie but I could swear they do...
complete with painted-on Union Jacks etc. etc. Ah, deja vu!

cheers,
Scott Briggs
nyc

p.s. met you in NYC at your library reading a few years back,
was a really good talk and reading, thanks again for that and
taking the time to sign some books! I still howl at your commentary
on Fuest and the Final Programme fiasco!


Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
(from Yahoo Movies)
About the Movie

Action/Adventure, Science Fiction/Fantasy and Thriller
September 17th, 2004
Starring:
Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Giovanni Ribisi, Michael Gambon
Full Cast & Credits...
Directed By:
Kerry Conran

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Synopsis:
Famous scientists around the world have mysteriously disappeared and Chronicle reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) along with ace aviator Sky Captain (Jude Law) are on the investigation. Risking their lives as they travel to exotic places around world, can the fearless duo stop Dr. Totenkopf, the evil mastermind behind a plot to destroy the earth? Aided by Franky Cook (Angelina Jolie), commander of an all-female amphibious squadron, and technical genius Dex (Giovanni Ribisi), Polly and Sky Captain may be our planet’s only hope.
More Movie Info

[Jerico]

Michael commented on the movie already somewhere on here recently.
I hate to speak for him since I'm not as eloquent, but he basically said it's going to suck.

Bastable yes. A swipe, but-- like a cold and refreshing glass of soda with ice from a newly opened bottle-- what you actually are getting is the melted ice with flakes in it, having been fully drank, none of the substance there.
(damn! sometimes pot helps you know? where is it when you need it?)

I've seen the trailer. What's the deal with the dreamy, surrealistic glow about everything? Everything was made to match the animation? It looks cartoony.
Well that's not the main reason it looks crappy. You can pretty much tell what the trite storyline is going to be like from the 30 seconds you're getting.
If I could've been in it! Put me in a black SS soldier kind of suit, and I'll roll back my head and go... muahahahahahahaha! Perfect!

Ah, what does it matter? Those flying machines look cool, eh?

As Michael would say, "Hey! That's my TV, you bastard!" As the theif waves goodbye, responding "I like it!" while climbing down the fire escape.

[Mario]

I think the entire film is an homage to the pulp era, especially G-8 & His Battle Aces. The dream-like cinematography & Fleischer-style robots only add to it.

I find it more interesting that the entire film was shot against green-screens. From a technical standpoint, this could make shooting certain kinds of movies (like, for example, an Elric film) much easier.

[Anonymous]

yeah, I figured this had been covered already but...

I couldn't find the earlier thread about this movie so I posted
my message. The first two seconds of footage I saw of this
movie had like the airship or whatnot with the Union Jack or
Rising Sun flag or something on the rudders, and first thought
that came to mind was "well, either Michael licensed out some
of the Bastable material or worked on the film, or they really ripped off a bunch of authors ESPECIALLY Moorcock," it's sooo obvious even though
this film is apparenly set in the 30s during the rise of the Nazis
etc. Or is it also an alternate world thing? I'm not even certain yet.
I like Jude Law a lot, so that at least the movie has going for it,
he's really a talented actor. I wouldn't mind seeing him have a part
in an Elric movie, actually, maybe as Elric's cousin? (playing
AGAINST type of course, the antihero thing) He certainly looks
regal and gallant enough to be a Melnibonean, albeit an evil one.
Sky Captain so far looks great but less filling, as you guys said
was the consensus. I'm all far spectacular fantasy films that
transport you to another dimension etc., but you gotta concentrate
on the story and characters also a bit.
Thank god Michael's involved with the Elric film cause I think this
fact alone will help raise it above most fantasy films adapted
by other folks. Plus, he's one of the few authors that have really
worked in film before and know how to do screenplays, which is
so important. Even Frank Herbert's screenplay for DUNE was
rejected ultimately as unfilmable, because it was too much like
a novel and not enough like a screenplay that would flow properly.
Does anyone know how long the Elric film will run? I mean,
are they projecting a 3 hour or close epic like Lord of the Rings
for the first film, or something shorter? I would think only a
2+ to 3 hour film would really do it justice right?

[manmiles]

Apart from a rather steampunk feel to the film's more pulp-ish backings. To me this has little if none connection to Michael Moorcock's Bastable novels.

Just because a film happens to share elements of a genre or reminds you of a book doesn't mean that it ripped off that particular book. It would be like saying that the Bill and Ted movies ripped off cult British TV Series Doctor Who because both involve a time travelling Telephone Box (or a time machine which looked like one). It is like saying that anything which is fantasy genre set is either a rip off of Tolkein, Howard or Moorcock. Sometimes what appear to be rip-offs are only what the people impose on the text than what the author himself was creating.

This film is more a homage to 30's pulp magazines, serials and old cartoons like Kill Bill is a homage to Hong Kong movies.

Anyway, I don't remember Bastable being anywhere near so heroic in the books. :P

[DeeCrowSeer]

I find it more interesting that the entire film was shot against green-screens. From a technical standpoint, this could make shooting certain kinds of movies (like, for example, an Elric film) much easier.

I agree it might make films easier from a technical standpoint, but would it make them better? I believe the last film I went to see with a vast quantity of green-screen shots was the last Star Wars film, and that didn't really tickle me cinematically. While the LOTR films may not have been my cup of tea either, I never got tired of looking at those gorgeous New Zealand landscapes.

D...

[Mario]

That's a fair question, but I suspect the quality of a movie has more to do with the director than the special effects. :)

[Krzysiek]

Re: yeah, I figured this had been covered already but...

The first two seconds of footage I saw of this movie had like the airship or whatnot with the Union Jack or Rising Sun flag or something on the rudders, and first thought that came to mind was "well, either Michael licensed out some of the Bastable material or worked on the film, or they really ripped off a bunch of authors ESPECIALLY Moorcock," it's sooo obvious even though this film is apparenly set in the 30s during the rise of the Nazis etc.

What kind of rip-off are you talking about? There were hundreds of books, movies, comics, rpg's and video games using anachronic airships (most of them with Union Jack on the rudders). Don't matter whether you call these works "retro-futuristic", "techno-victorian", "modern pulp" or simply "steampunk", this genre of SF has been around since the mid-60s. Moorcock was one of the first, but obviously not The first. Please check out my Steampunk Chronology - the link is in my signature.

[Michael Moorcock]

When I wrote Warlord of the Air, nobody, to my knowledge, had done that sort of thing before. I'd be curious to see the titles of the books you're talking about. And I'll be happy to stand corrected.

[Krzysiek]

"The Wild Wild West" TV show (1965)
"Queen Victoria's Bomb" by Ronald Clark (1967)
"Pavane" by Keith Roberts (1966-1968)

[Michael Moorcock]

Sorry, I can't see any of those as being commentaries on Edwardian idealistic imperialism, which is what Warlord of the Air was first and foremost intended as, much as I enjoyed the books (never saw the TV show, but saw the movie).

[Krzysiek]

Besides, the airship from the "Sky Captain" looks more or less like the imperial prussian command ship "Siegfried" from Bryan Talbot's "The Adventures of Luther Arkwright" (inspired by MM's books, of course):
[broken link]

[Krzysiek]

Sorry, I can't see any of those as being commentaries on Edwardian idealistic imperialism, which is what Warlord of the Air was first and foremost intended as, much as I enjoyed the books (never saw the TV show, but saw the movie).

Excuse me, Michael, but we are not talking about your commentaries on British imperialism, but about visual aspects of steampunk and technological anachronism, which became an essence of the genre. Unfortunately, political steampunk is a rare bird these days (if not extinct).

[Priapus]

I saw the preview and thought, wished they had done "Warlord of the Air" instead.

_________________________

Stop Groveling--God

[Mario]

This isn't steampunk anyway...it takes place in an alternate 1930's, and has bog all to do with Edwardian imperialism. :)