Caffeinated Clint
Twentieth Century Fox aren’t going to be letting off any firecrackers on the opening day of their new sci-fi actioner “Babylon A.D” – in fact, they won’t even be holding media screenings for the film in a lot of markets (not sure about Australia, but that’s definitely the case in America). I’m starting to wonder whether they’ll even bother contracting Vin Diesel, the film’s star, to any sort of publicity. Seems they’re trying to wipe their hands clean of the film.
Pity. The film sounded like it had some potential. What could’ve been this year’s “Children of Men” now sounds more like – uh oh – “Battlefield Earth”. What’s happened? Who fucked the nun here?
According to the director, the studio held “Babylon” down and had its way with her. She’s now a mere shadow of her former self (in this case, the source material – a great book called “Babylon Babies”).
Talking to AMC, director Mathieu Kassovitz said, “I’m very unhappy with the film,” he admits. “I never had a chance to do one scene the way it was written or the way I wanted it to be. The script wasn’t respected. Bad producers, bad partners, it was a terrible experience.”
Kassovitz (“Gothika”) says the studio wasn’t as interested in making a good movie as they were in saving dollars (that’s nothing new – ed).
“I had something much better in my hands but I just wasn’t allowed to work”, he says, no doubt empty glass of whisky in hand as he speaks.
Kassovitz says the resulting film is one of “pure violence and stupidity” and that it now resembles a “bad episode of 24” rather than an exciting big-screen blockbuster.
“I should have chosen a studio that has guts,” he says. “Fox was just trying to get a PG-13 movie. I’m ready to go to war against them, but I can’t because they don’t give a s–t.”
We’ve been hearing some unfavourable things about the movie – studio interference, FOX trimming it down from an R to a PG (Europe gets the uncut version), and a lot of the script being rewritten on the fly (by a studio accountant – I joke, or do I?) and this essentially confirms the worst fears of Diesel fans- that this ain’t his comeback film after all. One to miss by the sounds.
“Babylon A.D” opens this week.
