Friday, June 23, 2006

Will the Prestige by Magical?

One of the movies I am anticipating the most for this year is The Prestige directed by Christopher Nolan (Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins). The film's release date is set for October 27th in limited release.

It's pretty challenging to find much information on this film, except that it's about dueling magicians in turn-of-the-century London. Those magicians are played by Christian Bale (who we all know worked with Nolan in Batman Begins) and Hugh Jackman.

Beyond those two, the cast is very interesting. Other famous cast members include: Michael Caine (also in Batman Begins), Scarlett Johansson, Piper Perabo (rember her from Coyote Ugly), Andy Serkis (you know Gollum/Smeagol and King Kong), and David Bowie (who will be playing the historical person Nikola Tesla)

The movie is based on the novel written by English science-fiction writer Christopher Priest.

I really hope that this movie is able to be a player come award season, the premise seems interesting, the cast seems like a lot of fun, and I've been very impressed with Nolan's career thus far.

Somewhat Related Strange Culture Post:
The Joker and Batman Begins 2
Hugh Jackman's Shot to Break Free to New Genres
2005's Best Film Portrayl of Love and Grace

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7 comments:

Useless Major said...

Christopher Nolan makes my life cross from moderately okay into wonderfully magic.

If I might inquire, who art thou and how didst thou stumbleth across mine blog?

-- Mark, uselessmajor.blogspot.com

jasdye said...

rc is blogger-friendly.

that casting is impressive. thanks for the update on the movie. i remember reading about it on lookingcloser. now, if bowie could contribute to the soundtrack, that'd be awesome. or, at least do some freaky things with lightning bolts coming out of his hands like the real tesla did.

Anonymous said...

I have trouble buying that anyone will care about this genre. Why is this suddenly a topic that interests people? The Illusionist was a bad script in my opinion and there's a similar project roaming around out there about Perfume.

Old-tyme-y magic and swindling rogues? Yawn.

RC said...

wow arden, i'm surprised you would discount the whole film because of it being in a "magic genre."

Magic films aren't really a genre in my opinion, but if they were I'd also include the Harry Potter films, and I don't think people are uninterested.

Obviously, that's a little more "fantastical" then Magicians a la David Copperfield but I think this sounds different and unique.

Anonymous said...

meh. i mean, would it be going out on a limb to say that harry potter is a christ metaphor? or at the very least constructed like an archetypal myth (not unlike the original star wars trilogy) which would account for its pop culture phenom status?

i'm grouping the prestige with the illusionist because it seems strange that there's sudden big studio/talent interest in their similar stories. they smell money. i say i smell something else.

i smell bad movie.

Magnus said...

I reserve judgement on the film as Nolan hasn't disappointed me as of yet. I haven't read the book either. Hadn't heard of The Prestige, in fact, until Mr. Overstreet mentioned it on his blog.
I like many of the actors in the film and find Bowie an interesting casting choice for Tesla. (a man who should have a had good biographical film made about him a long time ago)

JW said...

I am excited for this film as well, but I wouldn't count on it getting any awards recognition. Nolan doesn't really seem like the kind of guy the Academy is going to reward (except for maybe a lone screenplay or director nod, with a loss, at best).