Thursday, October 25, 2007

"24" Teaser; "Angels & Demons" news

A couple of interesting pieces of news for those of you Jack Bauer and Robert Langdon fans: First of all, Fox has released a teaser for Season 7 of 24 which genuinely looks different than previous seasons of the show. Again, if you don't want to know anything about Season 7, don't watch this link. (Having said that, I bet you anything that Fox will start promoting this like crazy in the next couple of months, so staying completely secret-free is going to be increasingly difficult...).

Personally, I think the 24 trailer is a great one--with plenty of action and new scenery to make it feel new, as well as a few familiar faces to tie us back to former seasons (they even address--twice--the controversial torture issue that has been so abundant in season's past). I really can't wait for the season premiere in January.

Next, Sony announced today that production will begin in February for the film adaptation of Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code prequel, Angels & Demons, again starring Tom Hanks. Ron Howard is returning as the director. No other cast members have been announced. The target release date is December 2008. Read all about it here.

While I wasn't initially as impressed with the film version of The DaVinci Code as I would have liked, a recent repeat viewing left me feeling a little kinder towards the box office hit. I still don't love the albino-monk self-flagellation scenes, and think they could have found a more charismatic heroine, but overall it was a flashy and passable thriller, with some killer locations and a decent score by Hans Zimmer.

I always felt like Angels & Demons was a superior book to The DaVinci Code, even though it's a little gorier and has basically the exact same plot as its successor. Can't wait to hear how they try to film around the Vatican with such a controversial plot.

One more interesting note: although Angels & Demons is officially a prequel to The DaVinci Code, they have written it for the screen as a sequel. Since the two stories stand alone from each other and have very little ties to each other, I don't think it was that difficult for the screenwriter to adapt as a sequel. Still, I hope they'll do a good job with it--I think the story lends itself to be a very thrilling movie.

3 comments:

Amber Marcum said...

Just watching the 24 teaser, I bit off a fingernail!! ohhhhh i can't wait! How's life going papi? I don't think I've seen pics of the baby yet... when are you guys due?

KA said...

Don't you think Angels and Demons would/will be rated R?

Justin said...

I think they can probably film it in a fairly discreet way so that they don't get the "R" (for example, using a different lens that dulls the red of blood). Plus, the book wasn't any gorier than your standard episode of CSI...