van helsing

POSTED BY: sanmi
UPDATED: Monday, May 24, 2004 22:49
VIEWED: 9401
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SANMI

Saturday, May 15, 2004 5:39 AM

now i know that this has nothin to do about firefly but i gust wnted to share this with you
UNIVERSSAL AND NBC ANNOUNCE
TRANSYLVANIA, A DRAMATIC SERIES INSPIRED BY THE WORLD OF STEPHEN SOMMERS'UPCOMING FEATURE-FILM EPIC VAN HELSING

UNIVERSAL CITY,CA,SEPTEMBER 16,2003-
Universal Pictures,Universal network Telivision and NBC today announced a commitment to develop Transylvania, a dramatic fantasy television series convinced by Sterphen Sommers and inspired by the world he's created for VAN HELSING,his feature-film epic which will be released on May 7,2004.

nbchas given a plot commitment to the project,executive producedby Sommers and his producing,partner Bob Ducsay.Sommers will write the series inital episodes and hias indacated that the weekly narrative planned for Transylvania will be connected in spirit amd style to his big-buget feature film but will not share any major characters or story lines with VAN HELSING.

VAN HELSING, WRITTEN AND DIRECTD BY Sommers and inspired by the classic Universal monster films of the 1930s and '40s whitch ans endured as cinematic milestones,creats a world where evil is ever present, where danger rises as the the sunsets and where the monsters tha inhabit man's nightmares take form. In Sommer's hands Dracula, the Frankenstine monster and the Wolf man are reborn as dynamic heirs to their cinematic traditions, Van Helsing (Huge Jachman),the legendary monster hunter from the pages of Brian Stoker' dracula travles to Trasylvania to face down a multitude of monsters in the tale if ultamet evil aginst a lone forse of good.

The mytholigy any universe that Sommers has created for the feature film are so expansive that he and Universal reconized their potrntial to be explored in othe medeums, Universal hope tha Van Helsing will launch a fenchise film series for the studio,with Transylvania serving as a telivised offshoot with shares the films fich mytholic folklore and atmosohere of fantasy and dread.

'I didn't want to stop imagining storylines and character for this world when i finished writing and direcing Van Hlsing,' commented Sommers. ' The source material is too rich and basic narritive too promising to wait for further installments of the film series. A weekly series that introduces new chairicters , conflics and creatures seemed like a invigorating way to continue my creative commitment to this project , and I'm so happy that Universal nd NBC have provited the platform for doing just that.'

'Steve flourishes when given free artistic license and a big, blank cancas on which to express his ideasd." noted Universal Vice Chairman Marc Shmuger. "The basic conceit of the Van Helsing universe is so compelling that we know that Steve and his team won't be limited to what can be contained in the film framchise. Transylvania is a place that exists in all of our collective literary and cinematic memories, so to explore its secrets and frights in a television series with real production value and Steve'screative signature was an idea we wanted to give lifr,even before Van Helsing is com;peted.
Well atleast somthing good comes out of the mearge

SEVENPERCENT

Saturday, May 15, 2004 6:08 AM

I saw VH, and dug it immensely- Yeah, I could nitpick, but as an edge-of-the-seat actioner, it was pretty shiny-
I'd give that show a shot- But they have some big cojones, because the special effects budget would be out of control I'd imagine-

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He looked bigger when I couldn't see him.

MAKEROFPATHS

Saturday, May 15, 2004 6:10 AM

Nothing's been said about this since then either, according to thefutoncritic.com. Go here:
http://www.thefutoncritic.com/cgi/gofuton.cgi?action=newswire&id=6165

However, there could be news next week during the nets' upfront presentations.

CAPNRAHN

Saturday, May 15, 2004 7:32 AM

Sorry, I am the opposite camp concerning Van-H ... but I shant sully this thread with my tetchy fimmaker grouses...

"Remember, there is only ONE absolute - There ARE NO absolutes!!!"

SEVENPERCENT

Saturday, May 15, 2004 8:06 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by CapnRahn:
Sorry, I am the opposite camp concerning Van-H ... but I shant sully this thread with my techy fimmaker grouses...

"Remember, there is only ONE absolute - There ARE NO absolutes!!!"

Sully away! I'm curious why people didnt like it- If you judge a movie (and that's what this is, it's not a film, or a piece, it's a movie) by what it seeks to accomplish, and it does it/doesnt do it, I'm all ears- I'm not saying VH is Casablanca, but it advertised spec. effects and adventure, and I thought I got it- What's your take, Capn?

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He looked bigger when I couldn't see him.

FARWALL

Saturday, May 15, 2004 10:00 AM

I had a couple of objections to Van Helsing if you really want to hear peoples gripes.

Firstly, I got really, really bored of the fight scenes by about halfway through. And given that that was pretty much the entire film, I was really, really bored. I can't quite quantify what was wrong with them but they didn't grip me at all, there was no bite to them (if you'll excuse the pun), no edge or feeling of realness. This may be to do with the fantastical creature that where involved in them but there have been some very, very gritty, real feeling fights done in monster movies (Dog Soldiers comes immediately to mind) so there's something missing from Van Helsing on that level.

The other thing about the film that put me off it was how sloppily written the dialog was. Sommers was obviously going for some of the feel of the classic Universal monster movies where everyone speaks with public school accents and in wonderfully florrid language but it doesn't seem like his writing was up to it. Every now and again a character would drop out suddenly from their expansive voccabulary and deliver a line that you'd expect to hear from a kid walking down the high street. Again, the example that comes to mind is Kate Beckinsale talking about her wish to see the sea. The way she'd been talking through the film (all very proper) you'd expect a line like "I imagine it is beautiful", or "I should think it must be beautiful" but instead we get Sommer's lazy script coming up with "I bet it's beautiful".

I know it sounds like a small objection but everytime something like that happened it completely broke my suspension of disbelief in the characters and I was no longer in the world of Van Helsing, I was just stuck watching a mediocre flick.

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I have no faith but it's all that I want
to be loved and believe
in my soul.

HKCAVALIER

Saturday, May 15, 2004 10:07 AM

I was so ready to love this movie. It had been getting panned left and right for being "silly" and "over the top" and I love silly and over the top. I also loved the two mummy movies and even "The Scorpion King." So I was all ready for some fun at the movies. And then...

Well, seriously, it wasn't fun. I barely laughed during the whole thing. It starts out loud and just gets louder. Slinky vampire brides turning into bat demons and flying around is cool maybe the first 17 times it happens, the next 438 times got pretty dull. What I really liked about the mummy movies were the fun characters and relationships and Imhotep was plenty menacing, and not a little sympathetic in his back story. Dracula was one note--one very loud, screachy note (I imagine the director saying, "Okay, that take was great, now let's do the scene again only this time shout at the top of your lungs, 'kay?). And Van Helsing himself barely registered. "He has a mysterious past!" Well, there's a difference between "mysterious" and "criminally underwritten." A humorless killing machine with one of the most annoying "comic" sidekicks I can think of.

But what really rained on my movie going parade were (spoiler alert--seriously, I'm about to give away the whole idiotic plot of the movie) the gorram vampire babies. WTF? You can't take three of the the most classic movie monsters from the golden age of movie monsters and throw in thousands of vampire babies, that pupate [?] in gooey green pods but they're all born "dead", see, so Dracula needs the life force of Frankenstein's monster to bring them to "life." Was that really the best way Sommers could come up to link the two characters? I'll give you a topic: vampire babies, neither vampires nor babies--discuss.

Two good things: the fight at the end was pretty great even though we'd seen most of the same kind of flying/smashing through walls/jumping all over the place type action in the first 2 hours of the movie. Finally the action seemed to fit into a story. And Frankenstein's creature. I thought Sommers and the actor playing the role really nailed it. That character was all heart and ruined innocence. His reaction when Ms. Valarious thanks him was priceless.

HKCavalier

Hey, hey, hey, don't be mean. We don't have to be mean, because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

TRACER

Saturday, May 15, 2004 1:49 PM

Arg i haven't seen the film, but most of the thread is telling me what i already feel in my water..i hope that makes sense. I couldn't quite like the Mummy nor its sequel nor the scorpion king y'know. But i dunno if its put on TV i'll end up watching it.... arg..makes me want to see it now to try and distinguish the film..

That will be £3.50 please
damn it

SERGEANTX

Saturday, May 15, 2004 2:35 PM

Call me a curmudgeon, but I can't imagine why anyone would go see a movie like this in the first place. I suppose there was a day I'd go with the flow, concede to go because all my friends were... Then I'd come out of the theatre sheepishly saying "that was fun", like some kid trying to pretend the three bucks he just blew on the carnival sideshow wasn't a complete waste of money.

The fact is, it's a helluva lot harder for producers to use critical judgement and laboriously sift through all the junk to find a script and a director worth their salt. But as long as they can get the suckers to cough up their money through slick ads and lurid sideshow come ons, why bother with the quality?

SergeantX

"Dream a little dream or you can live a little dream. I'd rather live it, cause dreamers always chase but never get it." Aesop Rock

JEBBYPAL

Saturday, May 15, 2004 3:01 PM

I agree whole heartedly with most of the complaints on this thread. I'm stunned that nbc/universal are planning to make a series on this (and really worried what it would mean for serenity if this series flops). The only reason I went to see it was that Punisher had gotten the same horrendous reviews and then been a kickass movie that the critics had obviously not understood the intentions of the directors [i mean come on, the classical music fight scene!!].

My other problem was not just the inconsistency of the writing, but it was just too gorram cheesy! And only got cheesier as it went on --- i mean the last scene on the bridge? Uggg, and then the end. Somers couldn't even see the line anymore of over the top. Previously he'd done a good job balancing good story dialogue writing and the cheese factor just enough to give you laughs but he lost it on this one. I don't know if he got sucked into the special effects trap or what but that was all the movie was. And was disappointed at the lack of development of characters -- Frankie was about the only believable one. Ended up being a bad medieval james bond.

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