UFO movie news round-up (27 May, 2012)

Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Prometheus: the making of a new myth

“What made Ridley Scott revisit the world of his iconic movie Alien more than 30 years later? The reasons are complicated, writes Damon Wise, and the results aren't what you'd expect.”

Article featuring comments from Ridley Scott indicating that Prometheus might be the beginning of a whole new franchise. Read it here. 

Men in Black 3 stuff

MIB 3 director Barry Sonnenfeld tells io9 what he has learned from the second movie’s mistakes and how his threequel is better as a result.

Meanwhile, Lee Spiegel of The Huffington Postreminds us of the real-life MIB encounters that inspired the movie franchise.

Finally, on the MIB front, it’s an “illegal alien” face-off between MIB 3 and Mars Attacks over at Bryce Zabel’s Movie Smackdown site. Go see who wins!

Former SETI Director: Hollywood’s aliens are too nasty!

Former SETI Director Jill Tarter tells Universe Today that Hollywood’s alien invasion movies are a big bag of bollocks… but phrases it more politely than that…

“While Sir Stephen Hawking warned that alien life might try to conquer or colonize Earth, I respectfully disagree. If aliens were able to visit Earth that would mean they would have technological capabilities sophisticated enough not to need slaves, food, or other planets. If aliens were to come here it would be simply to explore.

Considering the age of the universe, we probably wouldn’t be their first extraterrestrial encounter, either. We should look at movies like ‘Men in Black III,’ ‘Prometheus’ and ‘Battleship’ as great entertainment and metaphors for our own fears, but we should not consider them harbingers of alien visitation.”

Read the full article here.

ALF! You know, from the ‘80s?

Lovable ‘80s TV alien ALF is headed for the big screen according to his creator Paul Fusco, who tells The Hollywood Reporter:

“ALF could be more outspoken now than ever, because the world is a whole different place than the '80s. And I think the character still stands up and certainly has more to say now than ever,” he says. “I think we would approach it in a fresh way. I don’t think we would duplicate the TV show, but I think we would maybe put it in a storyline where we would explain how ALF got here and put him with a new family and let the character speak for himself.”

Read more about the history – and possible future – of ALF, here.

Sticking with the ‘80s theme...

Thunder, Thunder, ThunderCats... ho!!!

This is old news (it was first reported in February of last year), but I’ve never mentioned it on Silver Screen Saucers until now. Five years ago, Warner Bros. Pictures announced it would be producing a big screen CGI adaptation of the 1980s animated TV series, ThunderCats. However, the project got lost in development hell, and there it remains to this day. Fans of the heroic alien cat-people thingies might be interested in the following test footage for the movie that found its way online last year (don’t get excited, though. It’s naff)...

The best alien invasion movie ever?!

Last but not least, visionary filmmakers Michael Bay (Transformers) and Peter Berg (Battleship) have teamed-up to bring us their dream project ;-) Could this be the greatest alien invasion movie ever? View the trailer here...

Hollywood's Aliens After Disclosure

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Jonah Hill, Ben Stiller, Richard Ayoade, and Vince Vaughn in The Watch.

A new trailer for alien invasion comedy The Watch features Ben Stiller and fellow Frat Packer Vince Vaughn repeatedly shooting the seemingly lifeless body of an extraterrestrial before taking it home and using it as the centerpiece of an alcohol-fuelled party... 

This got me thinking... in an After Disclosure world (assuming an AD world could one day exist - and a hat tip here to Richard Dolan and Bryce Zabel), how might cinema audiences respond to The Watch and other movies of its ilk? If, at some point - perhaps in our near future - we have an affirmative and universally accepted answer to the age old question: "Are we alone?", might Hollywood think twice about depicting extraterrestrials as soulless things that exist only to be shot and tortured for shits and giggles?

In an AD world - regardless of the true nature and intent of the UFO occupants themselves - much of Hollywood's back-catalogue of UFO/alien movies will, I suspect, make for deeply uncomfortable and shameful viewing.

As Ben Stiller and his comedy cohorts delight in posing for photographs with an almost-dead, captive alien in this latest trailer, I couldn't help but think - dare I say it - of Abu Ghraib and similar wartime atrocities around the world inflicted by Western troops. Obviously, Stiller and Co. are all for pushing the boundaries of taste, and I have no problem with that... up to a point. Would audiences be laughing quite so hard at The Watch's 'photoshoot' scene if an almost-dead human being were sat in that chair? Just sayin'.

NOTE: If the trailer embedded above should be removed from YouTube, you can view it here instead.

'Dinosaurs vs. Aliens': new details emerge

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Men in Black 3 director Barry Sonnenfeld has revealed more details about his next alien-themed silver screen project. As reported last year, Sonnenfeld has teamed-up with comic book writer Grant Morrison to develop a graphic novel and movie sharing the same name: Dominion: Dinosaurs Versus Aliens, which will chronicle a secret, prehistoric battle for the Earth.

Chatting with io9recently, Sonnenfeld addressed concerns that audiences might find it difficult to relate to his dinosaur protagonists: “First, we have to sell the project,” said the director. “We're going out to LA in about 6 weeks with a pre-vis and our script, to see who wants to buy into it. We've already had lots of ideas. The aliens speak in a way [that] you can understand them. And the dinosaurs — they actually have a certain amount of culture, through grunts and doing stuff with their bodies and sticks. We believe that the Dinosaurs had culture. They didn't speak, but they did have other ways of communicating. It won't be a problem, and it will be pretty fantastic.”

Dino-culture? Yep, apparently so. Sonnenfeld says his movie’s dinosaurs are “very smart... possibly the way they really were. They have rudimentary things, but they learn as they go along from the aliens.”

Yes, it sounds completely bonkers; however, the idea of animal characters utilizing non-verbal communication methods to carry a movie is certainly intriguing and was used to stunning effect in Rise of the Planet of the Apes – arguably one of the best Hollywood movies of 2011.

We can only speculate as to what else Dinosaurs vs. Aliens has in store for us. Will the dinosaurs defeat their alien invaders only to be wiped out later by an asteroid? Or will the movie postulate that ETs were responsible for the great dino-extinction? Watch this space, and expect a 2014 release.

'Men in Black 3' reviews

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Image credit: ComingSoon.net

A selection of early critics’ reviews for Men in Black 3 is now viewable over at RottenTomatoes.com. At the time of writing, the movie has a “fresh” rating of 67% on the Tomatometer, but this will almost certainly change as more reviews pour in. 

Here’s a snapshot of the decidedly mixed reviews so far... 

"Few things in life are worth waiting a decade for, and this isn't one of them, but after witnessing so many big-screen sci-fi comebacks go so hideously wrong in recent years, Men In Black 3 emerges as something of a triumph."

Jordan Farley

SFX

"There’s a disheartening lack of wit throughout... despite some good moments, Agents J, O and K are missing an E."

William Thomas

   Empire 

"Although it still remains the threequel nobody was demanding to see, Men in Black III works as a solid creature feature filled with memorable performances and remarkable visual effects."

Matthew Pejkovik

  Matt’s Movie Reviews

"In a summer hardly starved of comic-book properties, this redundant extension of a series that ran out of gas a decade ago doesn't need a neuralyzer to be forgettable."

Neil Smith

 Total Film

"There is genuine heart in the reteaming of J and K, certainly sufficient to warrant MIB3's existence; enough, perhaps, to even trumpet it."

Simon Foster

Screen-Space

Men in Black 3 hits cinemas May 25.

Alien movies battle for box-office top spot

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Alien invasion movie Battleship has been torpedoed at the US box-office in its opening weekend by alien invasion movie The Avengers – still sitting pretty at the #1 spot after three weeks on release. Deadline has compared Battleship’s US opening to that of the disastrous John Carter, noting that the star of both movies – Taylor Kitsch – might soon be asking: “You want fries with that?”

Battleship’s weekend box-office estimate is just $25 million (that’s 5 million short of John Carter’s opening weekend!), compared to The Avengers’ $55 million. Luckily for director Peter Berg, Battleship has already hauled in $230 million internationally, thus making a profit – albeit a measly one – on Universal’s $209 million investment. Less fortunate for studio and director are Battleship’s wince-inducing international critics’ reviews, which reached the US well in advance of the movie’s stateside docking this weekend and are now causing American cinemagoers to abandon ship.

As for The Avengers, Joss Whedon’s superhero extravaganza is set to become the highest grossing domestic release in Disney’s history. It is already the studio’s highest grossing movie of all time globally, and, with $1.1 billion to its name at the worldwide box office, is currently the fourth highest grossing movie of all time. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Battleship!

Related:

John Carter gives Disney boss the boot

Battleship: Silver Screen Saucers Review

Life on Venus in ‘Beyond Apollo’?

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Barry Malzberg's award-winning sci-fi thriller novel Beyond Apollo is being adapted for the big screen by writer/director Michael Grodner and executive producer Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Let Me In).

Here’s the synopsis for Beyond Apollo as presented on the movie’s official website:

“The first two-man mission to Venus is aborted in mid-flight and abruptly returns back to Earth. When rescue crews go to retrieve the space capsule, they make a startling discovery: The Captain is missing – there is no sign of his body whatsoever – and strangely enough, the lone surviving astronaut has no clue about what took place.

Beyond Apollo tells the riveting story of when that astronaut, Harry Evans, returns to earth and must answer to the authorities about what really happened on board the doomed flight to Venus. His mind-bending struggle to figure that out is a harrowing journey through the possibilities: Was the Captain murdered? Did he commit suicide? Or were alien beings responsible for his demise? The answer, as Evans will eventually discover, is far more terrifying than anything he could possibly imagine.

Based on the award winning book by Barry N. Malzberg, Beyond Apollo captures the eerie isolation of delving into the unknown, begs us to ask the unanswerable, and marks the separation between the real, unreal and surreal.”

Pre-production artwork for Beyond Apollo. Image credit: BeyondApollo.com

First published in 1972, Beyond Apollo is Malzberg’s most famous novel and in 1973 became the first recipient of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.

The cast list for Beyond Apollo is still developing, but so far includes Scott Speedman (Underworld), Bill Pullman (Independence Day) and Ali Larter (Heroes). The movie has been in development for several years but has lacked sufficient funding. Now, with the backing of sales company Stealth Media Group, principal photography is due to begin this fall. Expect a 2014 release.

'Prometheus': new poster & viral video

Silver Screen Saucers

New viral video for Ridley Scott's Prometheus, featuring Noomi Rapace as Elizabeth Shaw...

And a new international poster for the movie leaves little to the imagination...

SETI astronomer discusses 'Battleship'

Silver Screen Saucers

SETI astronomer Seth Shostak spoke to Space.com recently about his involvement in Hollywood's newest alien invasion movie, Battleship, and discussed the problems inherent in our making contact with extraterrestrials.

Read the interview here...

When Aliens Attack: 'Battleship' Strategy with SETI Astronomer Seth Shostak

Related:

'Battleship' director: "You gotta join the army, motherf**ker!"

'Battleship': Silver Screen Saucers Review

'Men in Black 3' aliens featurette

Silver Screen Saucers

New MIB 3 featurette goes behind the scenes with legendary Hollywood 'monster maker' Rick Baker and gets up close and personal with the movie's aliens...

Related:

President Obama tells Will Smith's son: "I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of extraterrestrials"!

President Obama tells Will Smith's son: "I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of extraterrestrials"!

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Men in Black 3 star Will Smith today told BBC Radio 1 host Chris Moyles that his 13-year-old son Jayden (himself a Hollywood star) put President Obama on the spot recently during a private tour of the White House. The subject of Jayden’s enquiry – aliens!

Remarkably, Obama anticipated Jayden’s question before the young star even had chance to ask it, and the President’s response was suitably tantalising:

“The aliens, right? OK, I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of extraterrestrials but I can tell you if there had been a top secret meeting and if there would have had to have been a discussion about it, it would have taken place in this room.”

Watch the video of Will Smith’s accounting of his son’s Presidential UFO encounter here...

Related:

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

'Falling Skies' season 2 promo art

Silver Screen Saucers

New promotional poster art for Falling Skies season 2 (via Entertainment Weekly)...

The two-hour first episode of Falling Skies season 2 premieres June 17th. Here's a three-minute taster clip...

'Battleship' director: "You gotta join the army, motherf**ker!"

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Battleship helmer Peter Berg was interviewed recently by Israeli reporter Jason Danino-Holt. The idea was for Berg to promote his new movie, which sees invading aliens face-off against the US Navy. However, the director was more interested in voicing his opinions on US/Israeli foreign policy in regard to Iran.

In the bizarre interview, Berg challenges the 25-year-old Holt on his military record, asking the reporter if he has served in the Israeli military -- a requirement for Israeli citizens.

When Holt answers "no", the ultra-militaristic Berg is displeased: "What?! How did you get out of that? Are you a draft dodger?... You gotta join the army, motherf**ker!"


The video speaks for itself and also goes a long way towards explaining the remorseless violation of the cinematic medium that is Battleship...

Battleship docks in US cinemas May 18. Read my full review of the movie here...

Battleship: Silver Screen Saucers Review

'The Avengers' & Hollywood apocalypse post-9/11

Silver Screen Saucers

A fascinating Guardian article by J Hoberman looking at Hollywood's depictions of war and domestic disaster post-9/11 - inspired by the recent release of alien invasion/super hero movie, The Avengers...

The Avengers: Why Hollywood is no longer afraid to tackle 9/11

Related:

'Battleship': Silver Screen Saucers review

The Power Behind the Screen

An Offer They Couldn't Refuse (CIA in Hollywood)

Hollywood Propaganda Post-9/11

Scarlett Johansson in 'Under the Skin': first official image

Silver Screen Saucers

Here’s the first official look at Scarlett Johansson in upcoming alien movie Under the Skin...

ComingSoon.net reports that Johansson, taking her direction from Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast), plays “an alien on earth, disguised as the perfect aesthetic form of a mesmerizing woman. She scours remote highways and desolate scenery looking to use her greatest weapon to snare human prey -- her voracious sexuality. She is deadly efficient, but over time becomes drawn to and changed by the complexity of life on earth. With this new found humanity and weakening alien resolve, she finds herself on a collision course with her own kind.”

Under the Skin is due for release later this year, though an exact date has yet to be set.

New 'Men in Black 3' featurette

Silver Screen Saucers

New MIB 3 featurette focuses on Will Smith's 'Agent J'...

Men in Black 3 hits cinemas May 25.

Related:

Movies, Music & Men in Black

Ridley Scott: great director, bad astronomer?

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

A new extended featurette for Ridley Scott’s upcoming blockbuster Prometheus looks at ancient aliens and reveals new footage from the movie.

Also notable – and somewhat bizarre – is that Scott says that the aliens’ home world of Zeta(2) Reticuli is “an existing moon just off Io.” Say what?? Surely Scott is aware that Io itself is a moon – and not an extra-solar one either, but rather belonging to Jupiter?

As noted yesterday here on Silver Screen Saucers, the Zeta Reticuli system is located around 39 light years from Earth (and is also thought by many in the UFO community to be home to the “Greys”). But perhaps Scott was momentarily confused, or maybe the facts got fudged in the featurette’s editing process. In any case, I think it’s pretty unlikely that Prometheus and her crew will be paying a visit to Jupiter this June. They’ll be meeting their makers much farther afield.

Watch the new featurette over at ComingSoon.net.

Related:

'Prometheus' headed for Zeta Reticuli 

'Prometheus' headed for Zeta Reticuli

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

The crew of Prometheus explore the alien world of Zeta(2) Reticuli. Image credit: Entertainment Weekly

Just as you thought the Ancient-Astronaut-inspired Prometheus couldn’t get any more ‘UFOey,’ a new featurette for the movie reveals that the alien planet to which the human characters travel to meet their makers is none other than Zeta(2) Reticuli.

In the featurette, director Ridley Scott says: "The planet where they go is called Zeta(2) Reticuli, and what they find there is an establishment that is not what they expected it to be,” adding, "this story kind of walks around the truth of what there may be out there... It presents some big questions."

Zeta Reticuli, as any self-respecting UFO buff knows, is a binary star system in the constellation of Reticulum located approximately 39 light-years from Earth. The UFO buff knows this because Zeta Reticuli is also thought by many to be the home system of the so-called “Grey” aliens – an idea that has its roots in the 1961 Hill abduction incident in which Betty and Barney Hill were allegedly taken aboard an extraterrestrial spacecraft in rural New Hampshire and subjected to medical tests. It was the first UFO abduction account to gain widespread media attention and led to several books (the most recent of which is Stanton Friedman and Kathleen Marden's Captured!), a TV movie and innumerable film and TV references.

When the Hills underwent regression hypnosis a couple of years after their abduction experience, Betty recalled being shown a star map by the ETs, which she later sketched from memory at the urging of her psychiatrist. That star map was later interpreted as a depiction of the Zeta Reticuli star system and quickly entered UFO lore. Zeta Reticuli would also be cited in later years as being home to the Greys in connection with Project Serpoand by Area 51 “whistleblower,” Bob Lazar.

Betty Hill’s sketch of the star map. She says she was told that the heavy lines
on the map marked regular trade routes, while the broken lines showed various
space expeditions.

With the release of Prometheus this June, Zeta Reticuli is set to break out of the often unfathomable worlds of science and UFOlogy and burst like an alien from a blood-soaked chest into global pop-culture.

Related:

Hill abduction case headed for silver screen

'Prometheus' gets an 'R' rating!

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers 

Alien fans, rejoice! Ridley Scott’s Prometheus has received an ‘R’ rating from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

Empire today reports that Scott’s hotly anticipated Alien prequel “has ended up with an R in the US, due to 'intense images and brief language'... so we’re seeing it very much as the director intended.” The Los Angeles Times also reports that the MPAA's rating for Prometheus takes into account "sci-fi violence."

Empire confirms that Prometheus has received a ‘15’ rating in the UK, which it secured “without any cuts or edits.”

Until now, it was feared Prometheus would be ‘toned down’ for a PG-13 (UK 12) rating, allowing for greater box-office returns.

Kudos to Scott and 20^th Century Fox for staying true to the dark – and frequently bloody – Alien universe in spite of the almighty dollar.

Prometheus hits US cinemas June 8.

New 'Men in Black 3' clips

Silver Screen Saucers

Three new clips from the upcoming Men in Black 'threequel'...

Men in Black 3 hits cinemas May 25.

Related:

Movies, Music & Men in Black