CryptoCinema To Shine in ’09?

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? ~ Roman poet Juvenal
(“Who watches the watchmen?”)

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).

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.)

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.”

Meanwhile, in development hell, apparently, is 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea TBA. The giant squid has to wait another year.

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.

Loren Coleman 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.

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