DON BLUTH HAS RESURFACED, ALERT YOUR CHILDHOOD
Don Bluth, the American animator behind childhood classics of the 80s and 90s like The Secret of NIMH, The Land Before Time and An American Tail has not been working much in recent years, somewhat left behind by the rise of computer generated animation and also the fact that Titan AE wasn’t really that good. In fact, that was his last film and was 15 years ago now. When John Kricfalusi has been busier than you, it’s got to make for an embarrassing trip to the animator’s gentleman’s club. However, Bluth is now looking to get back into the game, having launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring his video game Dragon’s Lair to the big screen.
Dragon’s Lair was unusual video game fare that combined Bluth’s animation with full motion video on laser discs, with animated movie quality visuals sitting in the arcade next to the bleeps and bloops of Pac-Man. Since apparently the bleeps and bloops of Pac-Man are enough to get a movie in the year 2015, you could understand why Bluth and partner Gary Goldman might want to give this resurrection a go. The goal they have set is $550,000 to help the production of a film that will have fully hand-drawn animation, rare as gold dust these days, and includes rewards from Bluth’s Toon Talk magazines up to dinner with Bluth and Goldman.
WES ANDERSON WANTS TO MAKE A HORROR MOVIE
In news that will probably make the person in charge of royalties for The Zombies sit up and take notice, director Wes Anderson has spoken about an interest in taking his particular pronounced stylings to the world of horror. While speaking to author Donna Tartt (who must have had a rough go at it at school) at the Rome Film Festival, Anderson said that he was interested by the challenges that making a horror film would present. Anderson said:
Horror is an area where if a filmmaker really wants to use all the tricks, the techniques to affect your emotions…. With the kind of movies I do, you’re supposed to say is this part supposed to be funny, or is this part supposed to be sad? Well, you say, I don’t know. I’m not sure. This is the way we wanted it. When you make a horror or a thriller, you say you’re supposed to be scared here. You’re supposed to be relieved here. Here we’re explaining something so you know the next part so you’ll be more scared then. I like the idea of the requirements and the obligations of working in a genre like that.
There are little peaks here and there through Anderson’s films that suggest he could make a good horror movie-the church-top storm in Moonrise Kingdom or everything Willem Dafoe does in The Grand Budapest Hotel and it would be interesting to see him step out of his wheelhouse. This may just be idle chat at a festival, but I’m going to be disappointed now if we don’t get Owen Wilson: Axe Murderer With Father Issues at some point in the future.