Men in Black 3 director Barry Sonnenfeld has revealed more details about his next alien-themed
silver screen project. As reported last year,
Sonnenfeld has teamed-up with comic book writer Grant Morrison to develop a
graphic novel and movie sharing the same name: Dominion: Dinosaurs Versus
Aliens, which will
chronicle a secret, prehistoric battle for the Earth.
Chatting with io9
recently, Sonnenfeld addressed concerns that audiences might find it difficult
to relate to his dinosaur protagonists: “First, we have to sell the project,” said
the director. “We're going out to LA in about 6 weeks with a pre-vis and our
script, to see who wants to buy into it. We've already had lots of ideas. The
aliens speak in a way [that] you can understand them. And the dinosaurs — they
actually have a certain amount of culture, through grunts and doing stuff with
their bodies and sticks. We believe that the Dinosaurs had culture. They didn't
speak, but they did have other ways of communicating. It won't be a problem,
and it will be pretty fantastic.”
Dino-culture? Yep, apparently so. Sonnenfeld
says his movie’s dinosaurs are “very smart... possibly the way they really
were. They have rudimentary things,
but they learn as they go along from the aliens.”
Yes,
it sounds completely bonkers; however, the idea of animal characters utilizing
non-verbal communication methods to carry a movie is certainly intriguing and
was used to stunning effect in Rise of the Planet of the Apes – arguably
one of the best Hollywood movies of 2011.
We
can only speculate as to what else Dinosaurs vs. Aliens has in store
for us. Will the dinosaurs defeat their alien invaders only to be wiped out
later by an asteroid? Or will the movie postulate that ETs were responsible for the
great dino-extinction? Watch this space, and expect a 2014 release.
This would probably provoke a coronary among certain Smithsonian bloggers, I reckon :P
ReplyDeleteKnowing Morrison is involved, it's hard not to imagine some Reptilian conspiracy overtones might be included.
Morrison has also written a movie adaptation of the Area 51 video game for Paramount. Apparently the project is currently in development and is unrelated to Oren Peli's 'Area 51' movie that's currently in production.
DeleteHmm, interesting...
DeleteAlthough Area 51 feels so 90s to this old Conspiracy dog ;)
Stick-wielding, emoting dinosaurs doing battle against articulate, technological aliens?
ReplyDeleteIf you find out who wins, don't spoil it. ;)
Yeah, but the aliens in these movies always have a natural weakness that gets expoited in the final act. The most brilliantly idiotic example is 'Signs', in which an alien species allergic to water decides to invade Earth, seventy percent of which is covered with the stuff.
DeleteI'm guessing the ETs in 'Dinosaurs vs. Aliens' might be allergic to, erm... dinosaurs?
Welp, there was a lot of talk 2 weeks ago about how some scientist think the dinosaurs farted themselves to extinction; could that be exploited as some defense mechanism against odor-conscious aliens? ;)
DeleteI thought aliens were allergic to baseball bats?
DeleteWell, the 'Sings' alien was allergic to water delivered through the medium of the baseball bat. Joaquin Phoenix's character no doubt saw the label on the back of the alien's neck immediately prior to smashing up all of the room's water receptacles: 'TO KILL, JUST ADD WATER'.
Delete'I'm guessing the ETs in 'Dinosaurs vs. Aliens' might be allergic to, erm... dinosaurs?'
ReplyDelete...and sticks.
I can't wait to see the typical action scene of the hero dino running towards camera as a craft explodes behind them...fraught with unintended comedy potential.
Yep, and sticks, too. Kandinsky, great image of the dino-hero running towards the camera (in slo-mo, of course). And Miguel, the odour-conscious aliens dying in a dino-directed fart-pocalypse is also inspired. If any of these ideas feature in the finished film, we'll know Grant Morrison and/or Barry Sonnenfeld have paid a visit to Silver Screen Saucers. Maybe you could both get executive producer credits?
Delete