Cuarón Unveils Children of Men

Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro did a fine job interviewing his fellow countryman, director Alfonso Cuaron, on his new film Children of Men. Universal is clearly 100 % behind this movie, as studio chief Ron Meyer turned up, sitting in the front row of the VIP section. He had never been to the Con before, he admitted, and was turning around and jetting back after the presentation, but he wanted to see what it was all about. 

The trailer and preview footage of Children of Men were impressive (aint-it-cool-news reviewed the whole film July 7). Cuaron's been wanting to make this Dystopian sci-fi adventure since Tim Sexton's first script in 2001. It's set in 2027, when civilization is in ruins, human beings have become infertile and the world is dying. "It's the anti-Blade Runner," Cuaron said. Clive Owen is our cynical hero who stops pouring whiskey into his coffee to join the fight to save the human race. Julianne Moore is his ex-wife and counter-revolutionary. Michael Caine is an entertaining pothead who tokes joints on screen. "9/11 dictated the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. We're bringing things going on to the world of the 21st century, like immigration. I said, 'Let's do the Battle of Algiers for the 21st century.'"

Cuaron and Del Toro turned to the audience and grinned:  "We have our green cards with us!" Cuaron shoots super-long takes, to heighten the movie's super-realism. One ten-minute battle scene is one of the most exhilarating complex single-takes I've ever seen—explosions, shootings, tanks, Owen running down a street ducking in and out of cover. "I wanted a documentary kind of immediacy," Cuaron said. "It takes five days to shoot. At the end of the fourth day I have not rolled camera. On the fifth day, the first take doesn't work. On the second the squibs are burned out. I only have one chance and magically at the last moment when everyone is stressed it works." Cinematical was bummed by the trailer, maybe because the movie looks serious, dramatic, and scary: think an arty cinema verite-style Fahrenheit 451 meets the end-of-the-world of Terminator 2, with a steadicam right in the middle of all that action. Finally Cuaron cited his two caballeros, Del Toro and Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu, who also have fall films, Pan's Labyrinth and Babel: "These three films are from three friends of the same generation; they show who we are thematically; we share the same ideology about what is coming in between the communication of people." 

Comments

[Brenda Micheals]

Egad a movie with Helen Mirren--please stick to Shakespere and Cuba Gooding---you think hes even interesting to watch!!!!!
Why waste celluloid on this combo!!!!