PACIFIC RIM – Cinefantastique

PACIFIC RIM: CFQ Spotlight Podcast 4:28

Posted on July 15, 2013 by Dan Persons

A Jaeger makes a handsome, albeit destructive, addition to any city in PACIFIC RIM.

PACIFIC RIM is Tombstone pizza when you asked for Lombardi’s, McDonald’s when you wanted Shake Shack: A passable example of something that was never going to be the pinnacle of sophistication to begin with, but could have been so much better. Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons get together to discuss Guillermo del Toro’s eagerly awaited Kaiju (giant monsters) film, in which a corps of mammoth robots, called Jaegers (German for hunter — did you know that?) and piloted by an international team of mind-linked soldiers, embarks on a last-ditch mission to meet the enemy on both land and sea (will there be much destruction of valuable real estate? Oh, my child, certainly there will be), and put an end to the conflict once and for all. Battle sequences are analyzed, drama and character arcs, such as they are, are deconstructed, questions of how such talents as Idris Elba and Ron Perlman are misused are pondered, and slowly, slowly, the long route to recovery from dashed expectations is begun. Also: What’s coming to theaters next week.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Here’s What’s Going On 07/12/2013: Guillermo del Toro on PACIFIC RIM

Posted on July 12, 2013 by Dan Persons

You can’t dream this stuff up… The finer points of torturing your actors… Next film will not be about unicorns weaving rainbows…
From the luxurious Cinefantastique Online studios in NYC, Dan Persons brings you up-to-date on what’s happening in the world of fantastic film & TV.

FULL-SIZE VIDEO IS BELOW

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Here’s What’s Going On 06/26/2013: Pics from PACIFIC RIM

Posted on June 26, 2013 by Dan Persons

Guillermo del Toro loves robots vs. monsters… Ronald D. Moore gets fantastically historical… WOULD YOU RATHER attend a deadly dinner party?…
From the luxurious Cinefantastique Online studios in NYC, Dan Persons brings you up-to-date on what’s happening in the world of fantastic media.

FULL-SIZE VIDEO BELOW

PACIFIC RIM

(L-r) CHARLIE HUNNAM as Raleigh Becket and MANA ASHIDA as Young Mako.

(L-r) MAX MARTINI as Herc Hansen and ROB KAZINSKY as Chuck Hansen.

(L-r) RINKO KIKUCHI as Mako Mori and IDRIS ELBA as Stacker Pentecost.

A Kaiju, code name Trespasser, attacks the Golden Gate Bridge.

China's Crimson Typhoon.

Pacific Rim trailers 1 & 2

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Steve Biodrowski

It’s been too long since Guillermo Del Toro (HELLBOYS) directed a movie, thanks to the back-to-back disappointments of THE HOBBIT and AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS. Fortunately, he’s back with what looks like his most spectacular achievement ever – a big-budget action spectacular, set in a future time when humanity is threatened by monsters from the deep – i.e., gargantuan alien beings that have emerged through a dimensional portal deep in the ocean (sounds a bit like Lovecraft’s Old Ones, doesn’t it?). The only way to stop the monsters is not with rockets and cannons, but with equally oversized robots – so big, in fact, that it takes too humans to pilot the machines.
Judging from the trailers, the action is spectacular, and so are the special effects (raising hopes for the upcoming GODZILLA reboot, which is also being produced by Legendary Films).
Del Toro directed from a script co-written with Travis Beacham. Warner Brothers opens the PG-13 film on July 12, 2013.

Domestic Trailer #1

Domestic Trailer #2

Domestic IMAX 3D Poster

Pacific Rim featurettes

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Steve Biodrowski

In “Oversized Robots,” Guillermo Del Toro discusses his upcoming film, in which giant monsters emerge from a dimensional portal deep in the ocean, and humanity responds by placing warriors in colossal robots. In particular, the director notes the necessity of including practical effects to convey the physicality of the situation; in PACIFIC RIM, this took the form of a four-story tall set, complete with a rig, for the head of the robot, so that the actors would bounce around as if battling an opponent.
Fans of Japanese kaiju films such should get a kick out of the premise of PACIFIC RIM, which deliberately recalls the GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA films of the 1990s and early 2000s (not to mention Stuart Gordon’s ROBOT JOX). In fact, the monsters in the film are even called by the word “kaiju.”

In “Drift Space,” Del Toro and cast members Charlie Hunnam and Rob Kazinsky elaborate on portraying the men controlling the robots, who must fuse their memories in order to act as one consciousness while directing a machine too large for a single person to operate.

“Con Footage” gives us a more detailed look at the story set-up than presented in the trailers.

Red Riding Hood & Jane Eyre: CFQ Round Table Podcast 2:10

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Steve Biodrowski

red riding hood jane eyre copy — Lost in the woods: Amanda Seyfried as Red Riding Hood, Mia Wasikowska as Jane Eyre

It’s another weekly round-up of news, events and reviews at the Cinefantastique Round Table Podcast. This week, Lawrence French and Steve Biodrowski hold down the fort without the missing-in-action Dan Persons (who will return soon), giving their reaction to the news that Guillermo Del Toro has (temporarily, at least) abandoned AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS for PACIFIC RIM and also offering insights and commentary on the week’s other big stories, including a discussion of how real-life disasters, such as the recent tsunami in Japan, provide a grim context that inflects one’s perception of “fantasy” films. Also on the agenda: capsule comments on two new theatrical releases, apparently at polar opposites of the cinematic spectrum in terms of popular appeal and artistic inspirations, but both offering moody, atmospheric portraits of Gothic Romance, RED RIDING HOOD and JANE EYRE.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Del Toro Goes To 'Pacific Rim'

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Tom Powers

Legendary Pictures announced that Guillermo del Toro is directing the company’s upcoming feature PACIFIC RIM, which they confirm as his next film.

The film has already entered pre-production and will begin principal photography in September 2011.
PACIFIC RIM will be released during summer 2013 and will be produced by Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni for Legendary Pictures and Guillermo del Toro.
Stated Guillermo del Toro: “We started developing PACIFIC RIM a while ago with the mad passion and enthusiasm of a project unwatched and unchecked by politics or comparisons. We designed and shepherded the movie we want to make.
We start shooting in September and we hit the ground running because we are so in sync. My partnership with Legendary represents, both in scale and creative demands, a huge step forward for me.”

PACIFIC RIM was wriiten by Travis Beacham (CLASH OF THE TITANS, 2010) and reportedly features giant creatures that attack the Earth.