Ridley's Scott's Exodus

"Black Hawk Down"(!), "Body of Lies", "American Gangster", "Kingdom of Heaven"(!) and I'm a big fan of the smaller and goofier "Matchstick Men".

 

"Body of Lies", "American Gangster",

Hmm. I'll have to check these out.

 

The book is better.

 

Think Mel Gibson's Jesus Movie...... But then again as a Jew I'd rather see any Woody Allen Movie than film spending 40 years in the desert again.. But you never know...

 

True! I also said "there's no way Passion of the Christ could make any money" (as did most of the industry), and everybody was wrong about that. Last I checked, it made over $600M, which is far more than anybody expected -- and I think Gibson got the lion's share of the profits.

 

I'm with you on all of those except "American Gangster", which I thought was a complete bore. But the others are all very solid and entertaining. I didn't know Ridley directed "Matchstick Men".

 

I was the sound FX editor/sound designer on nine Ridley films including those mentioned above.
The man is incredible.

He always has 3 or 4 projects in planning stages.
While doing "Gladiator" he was getting "Hannibal" ready. A better film than it is given credit for.
He called it a "romantic comedy".
While working on "Hannibal" he was getting "Black Hawk Down" ready.
The story on making that one is for another time and place.

At one point we was considering remaking that John Wayne film "The Searchers".
He said he was gonna make it more true to life. I didn't know that it was based on a true story.
He said, "I think I might be able to a do western quite well."
Well YEAH!
That man can create worlds that have depth, character and are totally believable.He was also considering "The Forever War".

At one point he was gonna do "Child 44" a compelling book about a serial killer in Stalin era Russia.
He is now producing and I'm working with director Daniel Espinosa on it.
Daniel directed "Safe House". It was his first American studio feature and we had a great time.
Very collaborative and open to ideas.

I'm biased but I thought "American Gangster" was great.

 

I'd have liked to have seen that. I think "The Searchers" is a great story, but I don't like the Wayne movie. The style of acting so common back then really bugs me. It doesn't seem natural at all. Too bad he didn't move forward with it.

 

For understandable reasons they skipped this part in the G-rated DeMille version....


"
Moses stood at the gate of the camp and shouted, “Whoever is for the LORD, come to me!” All the Levites then rallied to him, and he told them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Each of you put your sword on your hip! Go back and forth through the camp, from gate to gate, and kill your brothers, your friends, your neighbors!”

The Levites did as Moses had commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people fell.

Then Moses said, “Today you are installed as priests for the LORD, for you went against your own sons and brothers, to bring a blessing upon yourselves this day.”

"


Here's what Christian Bale has to say about this, seeming to suggest that this scene above might be included in the new movie:

"It's an intriguing piece, because it's very few people that I've met that have actually read the Torah, the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, all the way through," Bale said. "Most people read snippets. If you read it all the way through, it's harsh. It's really 'Old Testament.' And violence in the extreme. He was not a man of any half measures whatsoever."
Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention...-scotts-moses-epic-exodus#L3qaSHDjKMpGk6pY.99

 

I read snippets, m0st when I was 13.

 

Exodus: Gods and Kings seems to have been filmed and will be shown in 3D....

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/filmch...us-the-first-bible-epic-to-be-shot-in-3d.html

“I’ve never seen so many cameras or a more efficient orchestration,” said Turturro, who spent two weeks playing [Seti] on location in Almería, Spain where Fox’s Moses epic is in production.

“[Scott] likes to shoot both directions at once, so that in a scene all the actors are being recorded in a single take,” he said. “That’s a pretty unusual approach but it struck me as very economical because he is working with a high budget but maintaining the pace of far lower budget movie by moving quickly.

“He’s a great visual stylist and supremely organized. He’s shooting with 3D, there are lots of visual effects — of the Red Sea parting for example — and it’s a costume pic, but he is involved with every detail.”

 

That scene was included in the 1995 TV movie Moses starring Ben Kingsley.

 

Interesting. I've never seen that one. Is it any good?

 

I haven't seen it since it first aired but I remember it as being very good. It's nothing as epic as the DeMille movie but it is more accurate to the story. In the scene you describe, Moses stands in the midst of the carnage with tears streaming down his face. It's hard to watch.

 

Well, I don't know about 1956, but we still don't actually have a definite answer on what "race" the ancient egyptians actually were.

 

It probably was not Ramses II, but could have been Rameses I. We don't even know if the event was real, or if it was embellished during later re-telling.

 

That would be hilarious. Can you imagine how some would go nuts if John The Baptist met the Space Jockey? Call it "Apostles & Aliens".

 

"Apostles and Aliens: Gods, Kings, and Directors"

 

When I first read this, I got a good laugh out of it and immediately thought Passion Of The Christ. Then I saw the follow up post where you admitted to botching your prediction on that one. (we're only human, brother)

Interestingly enough, and maybe you'll agree, Noah will dictate how this particular film does.

I personally think it will do well enough, but only because I'm a Ridley Scott homer since Black Hawk Down is one of my favorite movies, and Blade Runner (along with 2001) is what I judge all other sci-fi against.

 

I'm seeing this just for Jesse Pinkman... Yeah Moses - Science bitch!

 

I hope at the end Moses turns out to be a replicant.

 

Ridley Scott's commercial hit record is extremely hit and miss, but I don't dispute he's a very talented filmmaker.

 

As you say, he's really been all over the map in terms of box office. But he's had enough hits, and his talent is so clear, that studios keep giving him big budgets. But unlike with someone like Spielberg, he sometimes loses the "final cut," which often comes out as a director's version on home video.

I can't find it now, but the production budget figure I read for Exodus was something like $170 million. If you use the rule of thumb that a movie has to gross 3x the production budget to be a hit, that means it needs to make about $500 million. Might happen, but right now I tend to doubt it. His movies are usually big on home video, and so that helps.

But let's look at some of Scott's scorecard for the 21st century. Figures are from box office mojo.

film production budget/worldwide boxoffice
Gladiator $103 million/$458 million
Hannibal $87/$352
Black Hawk Down $92/$173
Kingdom of Heaven $130/$211
American Gangster $100/$266
Body of Lies $70/$115
Robin Hood $200/$322
Prometheus $130/$403
Counselor $25/$71

It seems like we've got maybe three hits (Gladiator, Hannibal, Prometheus), some films that are just breakeven at best, and then Robin Hood and Kingdom of Heaven, which because of their huge costs would seem to have a lot of red ink. Ironically, It think Kingdom of Heaven and Robin Hood, in the director's cuts, are two of his best "epic" movies. I'm hoping for a similarly good "epic" Exodus, even if it doesn't turn out to be a big hit.

 

DeMille's Ten Commandments had a production budget of about $15 million back in 1956 (and it's really up there on the screen), and grossed in the US alone $65m. It probably did an equal amount in the rest of the world. It was one of the biggest hits in the history of Paramount.