Rev Stan's film blog

First War Horse trailer

As a big fan of the play, the jury is still out on whether the film will be quite as good for reasons I've mentioned before.

Of course I'll be going to see it when it's released at Christmas, it's got the wonderful Benedict Cumberbatch in it after all - no glimpses of him in this first trailer though.

  

A final Potter snippet to get excited about

The run up to the last film is a bit of a roller-coaster for a nerdy fan like myself, torn between watching clips that show worrying book-swerving snippets and others that have me doing a little applause of excited anticipation.

This clip falls into the latter, or rather interview, as Daniel Radcliffe says that Alan Rickman gives possibly his film perfermance of his career. I'm sure it isn't but I love Alan Rickman's Snape and this is the chapter of the series where he really comes into his own, where we finally find out who he really is. *excited applause of anticipation*

 

Amazing A Life in a Day trailer

This film looks amazing. Brilliant idea, on July 24 last year people were asked to film their day and post the video on YouTube then producers Ridley and Tony Scott and director Kevin Macdonald (Last King of Scotland) put together a film based on those clips.

You can read more about it here but the trailer has just been released and is breathtaking:

 

Woman in Black teaser trailer

I'm quite excited about this film. Partly because I'm curious about the career of Daniel Radcliffe who surprised me on stage in Equus but mainly because I saw the play years ago, before I started going to the theatre regularly. Throughout the performance I couldn't help thinking how much better it would be as a film. We shall see, shan't we?

 

The nerdy 'how are they going to do that in Harry Potter 7 Part 2?' post

The lure of re-reading Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows was too great after seeing Part 1 of the film for a second time over Christmas. I enjoyed the film immensely but there were a couple of plot points I couldn't quite remember that were driving me nuts...well that's my excuse anyway.

Aside from noticing all the bits that had been left out (this post only really scratches the surface) it also got me thinking about how they will execute certain key scenes on the big screen.

*This post will contain spoilers if you haven't read the book*

One problem the film makers have had throughout the series is the cloak of invisibility. It is one element of the magical world that works brilliantly on the page but not on screen. It is a difficulty which I believe led to the Dumbledore death/astronomy tower debacle that ruined my enjoyment of the Half Blood Prince film.

The cloak of invisibility features heavily in the last book but has been largely ignored in the first film without too much deviation . But in Part 2 or the final third of the book* it is an essential aid for the trio:

1. Harry and Griphook hide under the cloak while Hermoine is polyjuiced into Bellatrix and Ron disguised in order to break into Gringotts

2. The trio also use the cloak to apparate into Hogsmeade and then is used by Harry and Luna to get into the Ravenclaw common room.

3. They also use it to get around the castle while the battle of Hogwarts is raging and then to the whomping willow when they attempt to kill Nagini at the Shrieking Shack.

4. Harry uses the cloak to leave the castle undetected after Voldemort calls a cease-fire in the battle and for Harry to be handed over and then again after his 'death' and the battle recommences.

Of those, the one I will be most disappointed to see go is when Harry leaves the castle because there is a lovely scene when he sees Ginny and really wants to go to her but can't. I think Gringotts will be difficult to engineer without it too.

Is there no end to Ben Whishaw's talent?

Just bought the soundtrack for The Tempest (well I've got to have something to keep me going for the next three months) and Mr W sings on two tracks. Yes, he sings too and he doesn't sound half bad either.

Am loving mixture of rocky guitars and more traditional classical on the soundtrack. It's very atmospheric.

 

Download 09 Where the Bee Sucks

 

Download 04 Full Fathom Five

For fellow sad The Tempest fans, the films facebook page seems to have an interesting stream of pics and videos to whet your appetite (if you haven't seen it yet) or remind you of it (if you have).

 

 

 

Ben Whishaw/Helen Mirren clip from The Tempest

You know this is going to go on until well into March next year don't you? (Oh and here's a link to the official website. Lots of dramatic music but not much else really)

 

And if that wasn't enough, here's a short 'making of The Tempest' video

Thanks to one of my fav Ben Whishaw sites for sourcing this via Trailer Addict

 

Right I'm going to stop now otherwise I'll never be able to sleep tonight.

Another tantalising pic of Ben Whishaw as Ariel (and a UK release date, eek!)

Found this one here.

And with The Tempest premiering in LA this week there is finally a release date for the UK: March 4. Counting the days already.

The Way Back (trailer) and why I'm interested in seeing it

Thanks to Screen Rant for first bringing this to my notice but here is a little taster of Peter Weir's new epic.

I'm interested because:

a) Peter Weir has made some of the films that I've long loved, Gallipoli being the first back in the day when I was a Mel Gibson fan (before he went completely bonkers) and then of course Dead Poet's Society. Cheesy but it still brings a tear to my eye "O Captain! My captain!".

b) It's got some good actors - Colin Farrell, Mark Strong and star in the making Saiorse Ronan - as well as Stan fave Jim Sturgess

c) Anything set in Russia/with Russian accents is my new love since I saw the play Ivan and the Dogs this evening which I will be writing about on my Theatre blog just as soon as I get a night in.

Anyway here is the trailer: