Tarsem Singh's The Cell released with much publicity in 2000 and starring Jennifer Lopez (before she became J-Lo and MTV crowd got obsessed over the size of her arse) was at best mediocre, an awkward mix of Silence of the Lambs and Dreamscape, that as a narrative just didn't work. But what it did have going for it was Tarsem's stunning visual style, perhaps the most beautiful looking shit-fest ever put on celluloid. Tarsem's beautiful imagery was carried through to his follow up in 2006,
The Fall, but this time there was a more involving story to compliment the style and the final product was a much better film. When it was announced that he would be taking the reins on
Immortals, Relativity Media's epic 3d Greek mythology themed fantasy, it seemed like a perfect match of artistic sensibilities and material and at least it had to be better than the pedestrian Clash of the Titans remake. The film which stars new Superman
Henry Cavill,
Mickey Rourke,
John Hurt and
Frieda Pinto concerns Theseus (Cavill) and his battle to stop King Hyperion (Rourke) and the imprisoned titans unleashing death and destruction on the world of man. At Wondercon over the weekend the film started it's big promotional push with a teaser trailer - more on that below - and five striking character posters which you can see below...
Now from Wondercon,
courtesy of /film who attended the Immortals panel on Saturday comes a description of the teaser trailer and some info from the Q&A;
The trailer shows us beautiful women, including Freida Pinto as Phaedra. Shots of a huge showdown on a battlefield with thousands of soldiers, mythological weapons like fire whips and a bow and arrow which shoots laser-like arrows in machine gun-like rapid fire. A gigantic mountain collapses, a huge total wave coming towards land. There is a shot of the men fighting from an angle which appears to either be below the ground or if the men are suspended in air above the camera with the clouds upwars in the background. Its beautiful, but Im not sure whats going on. There is a lot of slow motion and tons of shots with computer generated backgrounds.
The general consensus from the footage was a '300 with Greek gods' vibe, which is kind of disappointing, but inevitable really. Other tidbits gleaned from the panel Henry Cavill found it easy to act scared of Rourke, as he is a "scary dude" Tarsem Singh did not find shooting 3d a problem as he tends to shoot longer takes, landsacpe shots Producer Mark Canton said the 3d will look great but is betting the 2d collectors edition will be the most popular. It must be said my hopes were high for this one and have been slightly dampened by what I've heard so far but judgement is reserved until we see the trailer for ourselves, which should be revealed soon. Immortals is released on 11-11-11.