CryptoCinema To Shine in ’09?
Posted by: Loren Coleman on January 1st, 2009
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? ~ Roman poet Juvenal
(“Who watches the watchmen?”)
Will it be thee?
With signs of the second Great Depression nipping at our frosty heels, and all indicators pointing to motion pictures being a badly needed form of escapism during these times, I anticipate that 2009 shall be a big film year.
Do you remember what kinds of films ultimately became the most successful during the 1930s and early 1940s? Let me give you a hint…those who were pure of heart had little to fear.
Therefore, let’s have a look at a few films waiting in the wings that spill over into all of our cryptozoological interests (i.e. cryptocinema).
In terms of forthcoming releases, the movies to watch include the following.
Adult fare
Watchmen: Scheduled, famously, for 03.06.09 (clever), this cryptopolitical more than cryptozoo film will follow in the successful wake of the visually beautiful 300 (which is a “character” in Peyton Reed’s Yes Man). Alan Moore’s graphic novel is called the “Citizen Kane of Comics,” and thus great expectations proceed this movie.
Any storyline that has a caped anti-hero named Mothman (Nite Owl II is shown above) in it is well-worth our attention. (It seems like such a long time since The Mothman Prophecies was released, in 2002.)
Look for Watchmen to be big, really big box office.
The Wolfman: The full moon of November 2nd may get folks ready to watch this one when it hits theaters on November 6th.
Already it is one of the top picks for a cryptocinema favorite of the year. This movie remake of Lon Chaney Jr.’s 1941 Universal classic The Wolf Man is putting all the right pieces together.
Wired.com notes: “Benicio Del Toro [pictured at top] stars, with Anthony Hopkins as the wolfman’s father. Emily Blunt (Devil Wears Prada) plays the love interest with Hugo Weaving (V for Vendetta) portraying a shrewd Scotland Yard inspector….Universal Studios entrusted the project to veteran visual effects expert-turned-director Joe Johnston (Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Hidalgo). Look for Oscar-winning Del Toro to invest the role with his characteristic method intensity — he’s also executive-producing.”
Another possible 2009 opening is Creature from the Black Lagoon TBA, also from Universal. Unless it comes out in 2010.
Will there be news in ’09 on the Tom Slick project too?
Meanwhile, in development hell, apparently, is 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea TBA. The giant squid has to wait another year.
Where are the Bigfoot and Yeti films for the year?
What forthcoming films have you heard any rumors about?
Kiddie Korner
Monsters vs. Aliens: Coming March 27, a children’s film you might enjoy with your cryptozoologists-in-training. This one is more about pretend than reality, of course, (as if Watchmen‘s “alternative history” isn’t?). But then anything with characters in it named “The Missing Link” and “Insectosaurus” (a 350-foot-long grub) might be a great distraction.
Land of the Lost: This June 5 film will get a lot of buzz because it stars Will Ferrell and Jorma Taccone plays the “Missing Link.” (Is there a theme developing here with hairy hominoids?) While the television series may be a long-forgotten or a cherished memory to some, this movie probably will be merely recalled as another feral (sic) comedy after it comes out.
Where the Wild Things Are: Max and his creatures come to the big screen on October 16.
The combo of the famed director Spike Jonze plus his three years work on this one could equal a surprising rendering of Maurice Sendak’s well-known fable.
Thanks to Patrick Huyghe for a suggestion. And this site for the Watchmen/Mothman images.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Well, the Founding Father’s had the 2nd Amendment as the answer to the question “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”, I look forward to these movies. Thank you for reporting them.
I, personally, can’t *wait* for the release of Watchmen! 🙂
I’m sorry, but the Watchmen doesn’t have much to do with cryptozoology. Except for a secondary character called the Mothman, who in the comic, is featured in a flashback and mentioned to be institutionalized after suffering a mental breakdown and alcoholism.
Still, I was pleasantly surprised that movie of Where the Wild Things Are is being made. And Monsters Vs. Aliens is on my watch list.
Watchmen sounds very promising but may not come out on schedule, thanks to Warner somehow dismissing the little fact that Fox owned the rights to distribute any Watchmen film.
The others – well, we’ll see. The people behind The Wolf Man certainly make it sound promising as well, but when was the last time a remake of a “creature” horror film was good? The most recent example I can think of is The Fly, and that was made 23 years ago.
Those two wretched TV adaptations of 20,000 Leagues may have made the thing unmarketable as a film remake.
Others in 2009, from Wikipedia and a quick trawl of other movie sites: There’s another chapter of Underworld due out for werewolf fans, plus a new animated Ice Age film and a movie about an albino sign-language-capable gorilla for a young audience.
Cool creatures will no doubt be on display in the next Harry Potter film and in James Cameron’s Avatar.
There is Piranha 3-D, set in Arizona. Really.
Cloverfield seems likely to have a sequel, but it seems unlikely to make a 2009 release date.
If Watchmen makes it out of the gate this year because of the Fox/WB case, I’d be surprised. And frankly, I wish it had never been made. There is no way that a 12-issue maxi-series (that’s what Watchmen is, not a graphic novel), can be condensed down to two and a half or three hour movie and keep any of the real substance or nuance that Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons painstakingly created.
Personally, I’m looking more forward to Transformers: Rise of the Fallen and G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra. But, that’s just the child of the ’80s cartoons and toys talking.
Oops. On remakes, how can I have forgotten King Kong, a delicious exercise in cinematic excess? The science was bad and the ending went on forever, but the film was a wonderful visual creature-fest.
The scientifically advanced world of Watchmen allows for the uber-rich Ozymandias to have exotic (genetically sculpted) animal breeds as seen in this poster, here.
The images of Nite Owl II were properly identified soon after this posting went up on the 1st. However, in the admin resizing of the images, an unfortunate deletion was made in a caption. That has been caught, so please, everyone, the error has been corrected and recorded.
I agree: Watchmen has little to do with cryptozoology. Mothman is shown in a photo in the movie, as seen in pre-release images, but it’s not known if he’ll show up in any capacity, or if his name will even be mentioned. One movie isn’t enough to cram in all of Watchmen’s back story.