There’s a little buzz starting to build for a film by the name of Monsters. It’s by no means being eagerly awaited by a legion of comic-con pilgrimaging fanboys, nor are breathless Twihards counting down the days till it’s release.
Let’s be honest, Snakes on a Plane had a bigger internet presence than Monsters… but it’s early days yet, the buzz is slowly, steadily growing.
Having been screened (out of competition) at the recently concluded Cannes Film Fest those who saw it seem to be in universal agreement, this is one to see.
Outlined (Monsters from my understanding was improvised, not scripted) and directed by Gareth Edwards, the film is being described as “Lost in Translation” meets “Jurassic Park”, a description that instantly piqued my interest.
The story is that prior to the film NASA discovered signs of life in our solar system and sent a probe to investigate, without incident. On the return home though the probe crashed in Central America, unleashing new life forms. Now, six years later, half of Mexico is quarantined as the US and Mexican governments struggle to stop the spread of the aliens.
Our protagonist is a photographer for an American newspaper whose been covering the incidents that occur within the infected zone. As it happens his editor’s daughter went on vacation in the area and he is saddled with the task of finding her and bringing her safely home.
As a writer I am always excited by original takes to well tread territory and Gareth Edwards’ goal of grounding a monster movie in the most realistic world possible does just that. I haven’t yet seen the film and unfortunately there’s no script to get my hands on but by all accounts the story is more “Lost in Translation” than “Jurassic Park”, a structure unique to attack of the monster films that I am told makes the scenes when these aliens do attack a hundred times more scary sheerly for the fact we actually care for these three dimensional character rather than just caring about the three dimensional monster animation.
But the CGI is a big part of why this film is gaining buzz. Rumours suggest the film was made for the minuscule budget of $15,000 and with the smallest crew possible.
To hear how this was done, in the director’s own words, check out this video:
A lot of people in the industry are taking notice, as they do every couple of years when an outsider makes an excellent piece of cinema for a fraction of the normal Hollywood budget.
There’s no doubt that the current business model of this industry is up for evaluation and Monsters is starting to be bandied about as maybe one to learn from, maybe, they say, it’s the magic bullet that solves the unsolvable problem we all seem to know is right around the corner: film industry profits will dramatically drop while the astronomical price tag of production will stand frozen.
Let’s be honest, Monsters sounds like an excellent film but it’s no magic bullet. Read on and I’ll tell you why…
From Top Left to Bottom Right: Castle, Human Target, Modern Family, The Big Bang Theory
With the feature script done a couple days before it’s due I am turning my attention to the coming weeks. I have notes I need to address from a producer for my script Aurora and I need to have an updated TV Spec done by next Friday.
With this last one in mind your input is highly appreciated.
Please weigh in by commenting below or tweet me @derekrob
And stop by this site next week, we’ll be posting an outdated (from the first season) script I wrote for Parks and Recreation. If you’ve been a fan of the show since the first season (last spring) you might enjoy it, if you started watching it in it’s second season it might feel a little out of place (some pretty big changes between the first and second season took place tone wise)… if you’ve never seen the show at all, I don’t know what to offer you.
Until then though, let me know what you think re: Spec Poll
