Direct Download Links For Slipstream Trailer

Anthony Hopkins' Slipstream now has a rather curious trailer out and about. Download it for closer inspection in WMV format.

Choose from small, medium, big and bigger. Right-click to save and then rename patronstoffavabeans.wmv or similar to ensure it works.

The LA Times Talk Beowulf

Two Beowulf pictures have turned up in a new LA Times piece. I'll pop them at the bottom of the post.

[EDIT: And now better versions have turned, up so I put them even further down. These new versions seem to show Zemeckis' framing, which was quite a thrill. Thanks to all of you who mailed them over]

The LA Times discuss the film at length, though defininetly not from the viewpoint of having seen the whole thing because it's some ways from being complete. Here's a hit-list of their intriguing tidbits (not all new news, and many of the points probably not quite true, but it is nice to see them compiled) and, sadly, it isn't all good news:

- The film is "a minimum of PG-13". Honestly, the script was definitely R-rated, so I was surprised and disappointed to hear "the producer and director purged the script of foul language, used an array of blood colors ranging from crimson to green and dreamed up gravity-defying nude scenes." Gaiman misses the swearing, and says so.

- Grendels mother's feet appear like "sharp stilettos merged with bestial hooves".

- Beowulf battles Grendel in the nude but "Beowulf's naughty bits are obfuscated by random objects in the foreground", a la Austin Powers, but not for (deliberate) laughs.

- The characters age from teenagers to septugenarians, courtesy of the CG skins on their motion captured skeletons.

- Neil Gaiman said of Crispin Glover's casting: "Then we got on the subject of Crispin. Bob said he would never work with him again because he never hit his mark and didn't understand how scenes cut together. But as he went on, you could see Bob realizing that was completely irrelevant if Crispin was in a motion-capture suit covered in dots, every move recorded."

- Oh, and mentioned here only as a curiosity, we learn that Ray Winstone's character in Indiana Jones IV is called Mac.

Romanek Attached To Direct Ben Stiller Vehicle

Steve Conrad has been hired to do an extensive overhaul on the script for In Deep, originally written by George Beckerman in the late 80s, and he's apparently being paid 1.6 million against 2.5 million for his trouble.

The director attached is Mark Romanek which, if you ask me, is a very good thing. Both of Romanek's features so far - One Hour Photo and Static - are genuine masterpieces.

Ben Stiller is producing the film and seems likely to star. The plot revolves around a man who challenges a parking ticket and, as a result, becomes sucked further and further into 'criminal allegations'. Sounds like Changing Lanes maybe, or even The Winslow Boy, in an odd way. It may, however, be nothing like either of those because all I know for sure is that this simple logline won't be anwhere nearly as sophisticated as the actual film.

Romanek is due to go into production on The Wolfman later this year, with Benicio Del Toro in the title role and, possibly, Anthony Hopkins as his father (and fellow bearer of the lupine genes?).

Romanek's Wolffather

According to Anthony Hopkins, he's in the frame for a role in Mark Romanek's Wolfman film. He'll be playing the father of Benicio del Toro's character, the titular wolfman, but seems to think the character has lycanthropic tendencies himself.

He said "There's also a chance I may play the Wolfman in London in a movie with Benicio Del Toro" and later added "I play the Wolfman's father in Paris. A wonderful part."

Seems like sensible casting to me. You?

RW 7 Foot Jesus

According to John Malkovich, talking to IGN, Ray Winstone's appearance as Beowulf will be a seven foot amalgam of himself and Jesus. Better still, Anthony Hopkins character is going to be really very, very fat indeed.

There's been no mention of just how Grendel is going to work, of how much Crispin Glover there will be underneath the CG-skinned monster. The fact that none of the images 'leaked' a few days back seem to include any Grendel make me somewhat suspicious of their underhand nature, suggesting maybe that their appearance and the subsequent legal threats was just another contrived publicity ruse.

Yawn.