What's Stephen Sommers up to? (1 Viewer)

[MichaelSloan]

Comingsoon.net said on April 6 that he was working on a Flash Gordon remake but on the 11 Comingsoon.net said he's writing a remake of When Worlds Collide. Is he still remaking Flash Gordon? Not every remake is a good idea but some Buster Crabbe as Flash Gordon merchandise would be nice as would a When Worlds Collide Special Collectors Edition as tie-ins for whenever these remakes are released if they ever are. And maybe if the new War of the Worlds and When Worlds Collide are successfull they'll start making movies out of his novels that haven't been made into movies at all yet

 

[Ruz-El]

I would hope that the above potential remakes would be handled by a more competent director. I can't think of anything as painful as a Sommers "Flash Gordon". There is way too much potential in a Flash Gordon movie, and we already have a campy version.

 

[Mick Wright]

I agree with Russell. I hate to thread crap, but after seeing Sommers' recent output, I hope he retires. Van Helsing is one of the worst films I've ever seen.

 

[TheBat]

even us the fans could make a hell of better flash gordon movie.. this will really suck if he does make the movie.

JACOB

 

[MichaelSloan]

There certainly are better filmmakers. I hope somebody makes it. I want Flash Gordon merchandise and When Worlds Collide 1951 to get the same treatment as War of the Worlds. Mind you, if those were made without remakes being produced I couldn't care less.

 

[Robert Floto]

Whose novels? Those books were written by different people...

War of the Worlds was written by H.G. Wells. The novel that George Pal based the original film version of When Worlds Collide on was written by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer.

 

[rich_d]

Couple of different news items ...


As with many projects the money gets hot and cold. So it looks like Flash Gordon is on the sidelines for now.

Either way I don't see the need for these thread craps.

 

[Ruz-El]

Good, better to sit inactive than get hammered with a crap marketing rep disguised as a director.

Want to see a great affecting humanized Sci-Fi film? "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind". And by the way, I like big ass special effects moron movies, Sommers just can't get it right.

Who wants to put money down that this film wont feature a "Handsom scientist/adventurer type with a quirky side kick who befriends a hot girl who helps him save the world"? No kididng, the most childish manga has more complex story line than Sommers past 3 movies!

 

[Steve Christou]

Woohoo! HG Wells Flash Gordon is one of my favorite books! I hopes Steven Summers directs it! I love all he's films, my favorite was The Mummies Return.

"Flash I love you, but we only have fourteen hours to save the Earth!"

Flash Gordon (1980) long overdue for special edition treatment.

 

[TheLongshot]

I actually think 'The Mummy' is a pretty good film. It is a fun, lightweight action-adventure. Unfortunatly, Sommers has felt the need to go way over the top since then. I still have hope that one of these days, he'll figure out that it just isn't working and go back to doing smaller adventure films.

Someone needs to be there and say, "no, you are not getting more money".

Jason

 

[Sean*O]

"The Mummy" was a fluke.

 

[TheBat]

he is the worse director then MCG, michael bay and george lucas put together.

JACOB

 

[PeterTHX]

Sheesh you guys.

I enjoyed the Mummy films. I thought Van Helsing could have been better, but I'm willing to bet that some of you enjoy stuff MUCH crappier than that film.

What I'm looking foward to most is using ILM! Imagine what they can do with this project!

 

[Steve Christou]

I'm with you Peter, people like to overreact, as if the world was suddenly coming to an end. Flash Gordon we're talking about right? Hawkmen, Claymen, gay forestmen, lesbian queens, rapist robots etc the whole thing is inherently camp to begin with, it doesn't need an academy award winning director to 'do it justice', let Sommers have a go why not? I enjoyed the mummy films and I was one of the few people here that enjoyed that CG fest Van Helsing last year and 1998's Deep Rising is a guilty pleasure.



Oh dear that bad? And I'm betting you just can't wait for Ep.III to open eh Jacob?



ps I may have mixed up a bit of Flesh with Flash in my post.

 

[Michael Martin]

It's not the size of the adventures. It's the writing (and some of the plotting) that makes his movies stink.

I love The Mummy - it's a fantastic popcorn movie, and manages to include thrills, humor, and epic effects without being unbalanced. Performances are solid (he hired good actors) and production design/effects are excellent. It's a movie I watch regularly, and the DVD has some great extras (including a great commentary from Sommers and his editor, BTW).

But his two movies since - The Mummy Returns and Van Helsing - reveal that Sommers needs to work with a screenwriter. Sommers confuses homages with cliches, and too often goes for stupid plot points. The Mummy Returns has some great elements, including a great stretch of action from when the bad guys first attack the O'Connells in their mansion (!) to when the villains escape with their son. But it also features some atrocious dialogue, hoary cliches, and other enjoyment-killing aspects. Van Helsing....ick. I had high hopes for this movie; again, I thought it was a great premise, but Sommers pissed all over vampire lore (they can fly during the DAY as long as there are clouds?) and reduced the potentially iconic and tragic figure of Van Helsing to a platitude and cliche-spewing generic action figure.

Just to really light some fires, I compare Sommers with George Lucas - fantastic visual director who needs to acknowledge his weaknesses in plotting and dialogue.

 

[David Rogers]

Mummy and Mummy Returns were good movies, a lot of fun, but had a few questionable effects and budget decisions. At least part, if not a majority, of that fault has to lie with Universal for pushing their budget approach to event filmmaking.

Scorpion King has a few moments, but is pretty damn silly in a not-so-amusing way. Van Helsing is good for an average movie, but again has some questionable budget and effects problems that impacted it's look on screen.

Basically, my major complaint with Sommers is he needs to learn how to fight for money to finish some effects shots (so they look more polished and believable), and ... most importantly ... he needs to WRITE HIS OWN DAMN MONSTER MOVIES!

I know he's working with Universal, and they own a large library of classic movie monsters. I know he adores classic monster movies. But damnit, he needs to stop ripping on the old monsters and put together an original monster movie, or at least a more modern one. Three of his four flicks are remakes. Get some original thought involved.

 

[Seth Paxton]

The Mummy Returns was one of the first sequel ripoff of the original I have ever seen. I mean the water wall was different from the sand wall how? "We'll change the plane into a jet-powered balloon and turn the sand into water. It's totally different and shows my creativity".

Sucked. Sorry, but I don't see reworking the EXACT SAME SCRIPT that close to verbatum as worthy of any budget, let alone a big one.

Then you cast The Rock and instead of using him for the main final scene you go total CGI thing. It's the Rock for chrissake, you cast him to have HIM in the film. It's like T2 spending the last 20 minutes with Arnold replaced by a CGI verion of the metal skeleton only.

Van Helsing...one of the worst written films in years, topped with hokey, over the top CGI and a premise that undermines the very villains being used, as campy as an Abbott and Costello horror flick (without the 2 funny guys in it).


I dread any future work by him. If we are discussing what SS is up to, I hope to see an answer along the lines of "he's out of the biz and a more competent and creative director is getting his budget".

It really bums me out to know that he's in front of WWC, though at least he's not on Flash Gordon. Maybe they can give that to McG instead.


Completely agree. Too bad, so sad would sound awful even if Bela himself read the line.

 

[Ernest Rister]

DRACULA
Igor! Why must you torture that poor creature so?

IGOR
(pause)
It's what I do.

I still think many people over-reacted to Van Helsing. It was horrible, but it was the self-aware kind of horrible, the kind where you can tell everyone involved is winking at you and saying, "We know this is completey over-the-top and implausible and silly. Wait'll you see what we're gonna do next."

My friends and I laughed all the way through the film and had a great time. I wasn't expecting it to be a serious and tragic look at the nemesis of Dracula, I was expecting a silly romp with some old classic horror characters, and that's basically what I got.

Hey, I had fun -- it was so over the top, it was more fun than Cursed and Dracula 2000 combined.

Sadly, it wasn't worse. If it had been Dungeons and Dragons bad, I would have *loved* it.

 

[TheLongshot]

The Mummy Returns was a very frustrating film for me. On one hand, there are some pretty good moments in the film, particularly between Brendan Frasier and Rachel Weisz. Unfortunatly, the plot was horrible, a lot of stuff was not fully developed, and mostly was there to have an excuse for action scenes.

But, the fact that I do see good things in the movies he's directed lets me believe that there is some hope for him. I agree that he should stop writing his own films, or at least get him a collaborator who will cut down on his excesses.

Jason

 

[Jason Seaver]

No matter how many times you post that quote, Ernst, you're not going to make it funny.