Filmism.net Dispatch October 27, 2008
When the Lucas and Henson empires came together in the early eighties to extend their alliance beyond Yoda with The Dark Crystal, an Australian film industry virtually didn't exist, the ozploitation movement dying and the golden years of The Piano a decade off.
How interesting then that not just a processing lab (Omnilab) but an Australian one are producing the sequel. They're having to get out of the film-based services industry and get into production in droves as an all-digital workflow becomes reality, and a sequel to the Muppet empire fantasy piece is a cool idea to keep the ball rolling after their successful involvement with The Bank Job.
Also, who'd have thought a Ridley Scott movie could flop? As I write this, Body of Lies has only just scraped back half its budget. Was there a parallel with Russell Crowe's phoned-in performance? The more he coasts (a la A Good Year) the worse the film is?
How interesting then that not just a processing lab (Omnilab) but an Australian one are producing the sequel. They're having to get out of the film-based services industry and get into production in droves as an all-digital workflow becomes reality, and a sequel to the Muppet empire fantasy piece is a cool idea to keep the ball rolling after their successful involvement with The Bank Job.
Also, who'd have thought a Ridley Scott movie could flop? As I write this, Body of Lies has only just scraped back half its budget. Was there a parallel with Russell Crowe's phoned-in performance? The more he coasts (a la A Good Year) the worse the film is?