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Post by HTT on Feb 8, 2005 16:03:37 GMT
That's the bl**dy trouble with the 'net - there's so much contradictory info out there you never know what to believe! I think Pendragon need to employ a better promotion. If only Pendragon weren't so quiet about things! Grrrrrr!
I didn't mean to fib to the forum, but that was what I understood to be the case. Then again, I understood that Elvis was still alive, and the moon landings were staged... Still, 2 out of three ain't bad!!
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Post by twistedrabbit on Feb 8, 2005 16:09:38 GMT
Of course. Everyone knows the Moon is really made of cheese.
If Pendragon could improve anything about their company...it would be their image. Hire someone professional to do promotions/advertisements! Some people can make things look really good with little content. Take a look at the Speilburg WOTW site a few months back...just a teaser digital painting. Of course Speilburg had his and Cruise's name going for him...but it still looked interesting. If the website had looked better and not so confusing and unprofessional, the overall image of Pendragon would be better. I'm a graphic designer for a living right now, so I see "good" and "bad" company work all the time. Just my two cents.
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Post by themotile on Feb 8, 2005 18:41:03 GMT
That's the bl**dy trouble with the 'net - there's so much contradictory info out there you never know what to believe! I think Pendragon need to employ a better promotion. If only Pendragon weren't so quiet about things! Grrrrrr! I didn't mean to fib to the forum, but that was what I understood to be the case. Then again, I understood that Elvis was still alive, and the moon landings were staged... Still, 2 out of three ain't bad!! (A) Elvis is alive and well and runs a kebab shop in Grimsby. (B) The moon landing were faked but not for the reason people think. NASA knows theres an alien city on the dark side of the moon and didnt want to start a war. In return for privacy the moon aliens gave us the microwave oven and the casio digital watch. Just wanted to clear that up
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Post by themotile on Feb 8, 2005 19:37:25 GMT
Hines almost admits it himself about why they ditched the first version, 9/11 was a conveniant cover at the time. Paramount told them Cruise and Spielberg wanted the new version, they could have the old version, they were half way through the pre production after investing millions into sets, they even had all sorts of permission to have the Seattle space needle tower destroyed (not literaly).
Tim Hines:
"When I originally set up my production on 'The War of the Worlds', we approached everyone in Hollywood for the distribution side. Eventually we were funneled into Dreamworks/Paramount. We met with the heads of Paramount and friends of friends of Tom Cruise, various producers and associates. And little by little we learned that he [Cruise] had designs to do 'The War of the Worlds.' And we really weren't quite given clear indication as to why it was stalled out for him, what was his problem that he hadn't previously made it. But we weren't given such clear indications that it was definitely a go project for him. And indeed from the time where we first heard that to the point where they eventually fast tracked it, he did 10 or 15 projects in between." What's the legal copyright status of the right to make movies from the book? "It's one of the most complicated copyright issue problems out there. I can only say it like this. Parts of it are in the public domain, parts of it have really strange rights optioned in very strange ways to people for various different concerns. It's available in some territories and not available in other territories for some people and that possibly is why Tom Cruise was so stalled out. It was just a daunting experience. When we set out to make it we spent easily right at the very beginning $12,000 in just copyright research alone. Just to find out what all of the different various aspects of the copyright concerns were. So what I can say to you is that it boiled down to essentially a head to head between us and Paramount and ultimately they wrote us a letter conceding that we had a right to do a version of 'The War of the Worlds."
The excuse:
"On September 11, 2001, Hines was in the middle of pre-production on "The War of the Worlds." He wanted to create a scene in the movie where the aliens destroy the Space Needle, and had just negotiated permission from the monument's owners to do so. As the September 11th tragedy unfolded, Hines began to feel like it was the wrong time to shoot a movie about cities being destroyed. "
Tripe.
The production was not due for release for another THREE years, how in this world does a film now affect what happened three years ago? Does anyone take offence? In Spielbergs movie he has a plane crash into a house, is anyone shouting 9/11!!! No they are not.
Chrome:
Another quote from howstuffworks .com
"Hines decided to stop work on "The War of the Worlds" as a modern story. In so doing he left his production company Pendragon Pictures with a mountain of sets, materials, rental equipment and labor. Rather than let the momentum and materials go to waste, Hines decided to use all of that to begin work on the next picture in line for Pendragon, a sci-fi movie called "Chrome." "
So they has all the sets and props made for Chrome, most of the work had been done, they only needed the live action shoots and post production, 2003 release? Easy, no problem. It never came, to this day there is no release date, they cant release without a distributer to carry the movie.
Its almost like Pendragon Pictures and our Tim Hines made an enemy out of paramount and since then no distributer will touch poor old PP with a barge poll. Whenever they try they get funneled into the paramount offices.
It may go the same way with War Of The Worlds.
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Post by jeffwaynefan on Feb 8, 2005 19:40:10 GMT
(A) Elvis is alive and well and runs a kebab shop in Grimsby. (B) The moon landing were faked but not for the reason people think. NASA knows theres an alien city on the dark side of the moon and didnt want to start a war. In return for privacy the moon aliens gave us the microwave oven and the casio digital watch. Just wanted to clear that up Sorry, but I have to chime in here but Elvis DID run a kebab shop in Grimsby, he now runs the '8 TIL LATE' shop
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Post by nervouspete on Feb 8, 2005 20:09:46 GMT
(A) Elvis is alive and well and runs a kebab shop in Grimsby. You're wrong. There's a bloke down the chip shop who swears he's Elvis! (Sorry, I had to.) Pete
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Post by themotile on Feb 8, 2005 20:32:13 GMT
I heard as a side line he runs the quiz nite in the Winchester pub.
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Post by paco417 on Feb 8, 2005 23:01:31 GMT
In my view i very much doubt that the film will be delayed, i feel that they know by releasing it at the end of March they are stealing Spielbergs Thunder. i look forward to seeing what develops over the next few weeks in the Hines camp!
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Post by malfunkshun on Feb 9, 2005 2:32:17 GMT
i think it would only be realistic to expect this movie to be released in small venues. there are several here in dallas that cater to indie, foreign, and lesser known films. you probably won't be seeing it at your local Cinemark Megaplex or Tinseltown.
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Post by Topaz on Feb 9, 2005 3:26:00 GMT
Yep, I'd agree with that. It's an independant film. Unless they can hook up with some big distributor, you're not going to see this at anything but the local 'art house' theater.
That's not a shot against PP or the film whatsoever. Just the reality of independant filmmaking.
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Post by themotile on Feb 9, 2005 5:46:32 GMT
Even art house cineam releases need some sort of distributer but none has been anounced, if none have been found its cutting it very fine for a march 30 release.
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Post by paco417 on Feb 9, 2005 10:49:01 GMT
will this film get a worldwide release like spielbergs film? i don't know as the company is only a small outfit. i tend to agree with most of you who feel it will be shown only in some cinemas that allow the indie films/internationals. if this happens it will be a shame but only time will tell!
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Post by DarkElastic on Feb 9, 2005 11:05:46 GMT
If it does not get a world wide showing, or does not do very well on the cinema, I am sure - just like The Thing - us WOTW fans will make it a dvd cult classic.
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Post by themotile on Feb 9, 2005 14:25:32 GMT
If it does not get a world wide showing, or does not do very well on the cinema, I am sure - just like The Thing - us WOTW fans will make it a dvd cult classic. Except The Thing was ace with high production standards, it was genuinely a scary movie. Heck even the original black and white movie was ace. Just because its got WOTW as the title doesnt mean it will be a DVD classic, it must be at least an ok film, if its utter dire tripe (im not saying it will be btw) even the die hard fans wont buy it and the word will spread fast.
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Post by DarkElastic on Feb 9, 2005 14:32:36 GMT
But Motile, if this is a faithful adaptation of the book (as we know it is) this film will be genuinly scary, just like the book is. It will have to be really bad for them to mess this up because the book is so good.
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Post by themotile on Feb 9, 2005 14:43:52 GMT
But Motile, if this is a faithful adaptation of the book (as we know it is) this film will be genuinly scary, just like the book is. It will have to be really bad for them to mess this up because the book is so good. You could go get a gang a tramps off the street and get them to read the war of the worlds in period costume in Woking and add cartoon effects on your home PC, it would still be an authentic adaptation as long as you dont stray from the source material but it would still be crap and not a cult classic. Im not saying it will or it wont, who knows, i've only ever ripped into the stuff released so far (all of it) and the management of the whole thing from the start, every one know this and to a degree they mostly agree, so I have conceded that we cant judge the movie until we see it. All im saying is dont presume it will be a classic just because its an "authentic" war of the worlds, you do need a certain degree of quality and style for it to be a cult classic.
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Post by RossH on Feb 9, 2005 18:24:09 GMT
To be honest, it doesn't make real sense to me for Hines to release any material for his project just now especially if Spielberg is doing his teaser 'thing' right now.
And considering that Paramount turned his idea down and went with Spielberg (not that that is unsurprising), I'd be wary about releasing too much information about my WOTW project before it's released if I knew there was a big budget one also being worked on. Good ideas can be stolen, and improved on.
I'm not saying the Spielberg production WOULD steal ideas, but I'd certainly be a little paranoid if I was Hines. I mean, be honest. If Hines did cry foul, who would believe him- 'Sure, Mr Spielberg stole one of YOUR ideas. Remind me, you are both working on adaptions of THE SAME BOOK!'.
And of course, the 'love and affection' that showers any release from Pendragon is probably another reason not to release anything 'til it's polished and final.
Having said that, I really hope they redo their website properly closer to the release of the film. They may not be able to compete with 'the big boys' for publicity, but it doesn't take much to have a professional looking website. Presentation is 50% of the battle- it brings people in to see what you have!
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Post by Cylinder on Feb 10, 2005 22:12:51 GMT
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Post by David Faltskog on Feb 10, 2005 22:26:13 GMT
LOL!!. D.F.
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Post by dudalb on Feb 11, 2005 4:01:19 GMT
There is no freaking way they are going to meet a March 30th Deadline. A. All indications are they are not near completed with the Effects yet. And after the effects are completed you still have final sound editing, music mixing and hundred other things before you can lock the print. B Printing the film will take at least a week, possibly more. C. They have no distributor as of yet, and a theater manager of mine who has been following this project syas there is no freaking way you can plan a film distribution , even on a art/indie house level in six weeks time. D. The film has had no real advertising or marketing,and you need a couple of weeks for that to stir up some interest in the film. My own betting is that the film will be held back until the fall since I don't think they want to go head to head with the Spielberg film. " i feel that they know by releasing it at the end of March they are stealing Spielbergs Thunder."
They have as much chance of stealing Speilberg's Thunder as a snowball has in hell. Let's be realistic about this.
The fact is I doubt the film will be ready for a March 3oth release. I really think that Pendragon and Hines should be a bit more honest with the fans who have supported them, and give us a release date that we can actually beleive in. We won't mind delays, we will mind having our intelligence insulted by asking to accept a release date that is, even to the layman, pretty damn unrealistic at this point. I wonder if they might decide to sell it to television rather then atempt a theatrical release.
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