Some upcoming movies I worry about.

I'm not perfect! Sometimes I'm prejudice. Sometimes I am so blinded by my own opinion that I don't see another possibility. But, then again, sometimes I'm right.

In this little sum up I wish to tackle one or two movies that I worry about. Just, so that, when the movie finally gets released I can reread this and see if my doubts turned out right or unfounded.

The happyland murders.

This movie has been in development hell for over a decade (right next to the now cancelled the dark crystal-sequel). And to me it always struck me as the darker half of Who framed Roger Rabbit.

WFRR, after all, was promoted as a family-film to bring the kiddies to, which in turn traumatized kids by the hundreds

(we remember the character/scene right? I sure do).

So a film noir with muppets. According to the promotional test footage.

I love this picture because of the details. Here we have a dead bunny. He’s been brutally murdered, all his stuffing hangs out –and yet it looks comical. Then you look at the rest of the picture and you notice that this was a porn-entrepreneur dealing in muppet porn.

I like this because the picture looks like it is going to be played absolutely straight (like WFRR) except that some of the cast members happen to be muppets. So there’s probably a shady detective, a femme fatal and some dark shadows and gunfights.

I am highly intrigued in this possible balance between weird and an all out film-noir thriller.

And then the movie casts Melissa McCarthy!

I'm not pouring a lot of hate on her. I like her as a person. But 'till now the only movie I really liked her in was Spy.

So now I'm worried. You often hire an actor/actress because you want a certain type of acting, humor and audience pull. McCarthy's current resume is basically all comedy. I can’t readily think of a serious part she played. So I fear that, by hiring the actress, the happyland murders-movie decided to forego the weird/’straight’ aspect of the tale and focus on the comedy. This isn’t what I have in mind.

So I'm worried. I think McCarthy is miscast. But I do like her enough to prove me wrong.

Murder on the orient express.

That moustache. Oh dear. Two things bother me about this upcoming adaptation. Let me get the most obvious one out of the way first: the singular African-American among white folk.

It (used to happen) happens all the time in movies. A predominately white cast, one Afro-American to even things out.

I do have a problem with this choice when Afro-American characters are 'dropped in a movie' as equals in a time period where racism was still very much a thing. I’m prefer historical accuracy so it feels off.

We should never forget apartheid. So these choices always strike me a bit like a ‘rewriting of history’. Pretending racism never existed.

The second peeve is Brannagh's moustache. We all know that Kenneth Brannagh can be a tad arrogant at times -it's a personal flaw he's more than willing to agree with. But then, him (a rather tall man) playing the petite Belgian detective Poirot -already felt wrong on the page.

Now seeing the photograph it is obvious that Brannagh willfully took an entirely different visual visage than was shown on the screen before. Brannagh's moustache might be in line with the original books but it differs from Finney’s, Suchet’s and Ustinov’s depiction of the sleuth.

At least it's a bold move -turning back to the origins. But me, wanting more of the same, am a bit annoyed by it.

Especially after that great BBC adaptation of And then there were none.

Or last year's the visually (and acting-wise) great adaptation of Witness for the prosecution.
Too bad they seriously ravaged (this is as polite as I’m willing to get) the story.

So prove me wrong! Finney’s version was definitely too theatrical for its own good. But I'm certainn that Cruz is going to have a ball with her character like Bergman did before her.

The Dark Tower.

I once started book one on a beach somewhere and never got past the first twenty-five pages before the sea beckoned. Now that I've seen the trailer I have to wonder: how is this movie going to be better than any of the other marvel fantasy epics that we get on a yearly summer blockbuster basis?

My inkling is that Stephen King writing fantasy involves some serious horror coming by. I mean, read the Child Thief by Brom to see how well these two genres work together. Even the death-scene in Eyes of the dragon is brutal beyond belief.

I didn't see this in the trailer. Maybe it'll be so. But for now it looks nothing more than an average action flick of a kid and hero versus super villain (who happens to have some more back story - I know that much about the Dark tower series: I can wiki).

Death note

Alright, let’s end with something I’m more positive about: Death note. The big critique on the internet is that this upcoming adaptation is being ‘white-washed’ (all the main characters are Western instead of Asian).

Well, I guess after a successful manga, a anime-cartoon and three movies I don’t feel this unfairness as other people do. Maybe a wider release of the originals is called for. To readapt a story in another setting after several versions is nothing terrible (Asian cinema does it all the time as well).

What does bother me, though, is that the current promotional tidbits are proclaiming this upcoming show as a glorious ‘R-rated feast’. I don’t know how happy I am about that?

The anime-show I watched was bloody, sure, but never indulged in the bloodshed. Rather the cartoon was about the psychological and philosophical battle. So I fear a shift of focus from an internal battle to an external massacre. Maybe I’m wrong.

So there you have them. Just some short descriptions of upcoming projects and my doubts about them. The reason I wrote all of these down is because they peak my interest. Nonetheless, I remain critical until I sit myself down in the theater seat and allow myself to be blown away by it. Or not...