'Dirty Girls'
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Apprently Diesel is directing himself in a costume epic drama, Hannibal. I know he's made short films before, but for a debut director on feature-film, this strikes me as somewhat over-ambitious.
But then, we had Costner and the Wolves movie and Mel Gibson with Braveheart, so he's following an actor-turned-director trend, I guess. Oy.
He's having a fun time of it (from IMDB):
Action man Vin Diesel has been forced to scale down his epic labor of love, Hannibal The Conqueror, after learning his ideas would cost a studio more than $210 million. The XXX star has been working on the film, about heroic Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca, for years, and admits he's now struggling to rework the project to make it an affordable option for a leading Hollywood studio. He tells movie website Moviehole.Net, "I got a budget back from a studio that said it would cost $217 million. So I said, 'I know I'm not the smartest guy in the world but $217 million, doesn't that mean that this film will never get made?' There's no way in the world that this film will be made at $217 million, and I am already committed to this character, channeling this guy. So I'll go into soft pre-production, and think about sequences, and think about ways to shoot sequences that would have the same story about it but cost a lot less." Diesel insists his latest draft of the film will cost just $50 million. He adds, "If you are thoughtful and creative, you can cut down a scene, and have the same story, the same emotional and action impact, and not spend so much money."
The XXX star
They really need to be more careful about spelling that right.
He adds, "If you are thoughtful and creative, you can cut down a scene, and have the same story, the same emotional and action impact, and not spend so much money."
Budgeting is hard.
...This just in: new archaeological evidence that Hannibal invaded Rome on the back of a tricycle. Contrary to almost two thousand years of history, which recorded Hannibal's steed of choice as an elephant, this revelation will shake the foundations of classical scholars everywhere.
It might be that good of a cock.
Just might. Hey, I'm a Vin fan. I just haven't seen him do anything that puts him on the same tier as Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon or Serpico.
Not that Al could play Riddick...
Dude, I forget that was Lumet. No fuckin' way. (/Pacino partisan)
Am I the only geek that finds the idea of a Hannibal bioepic fun? (In spite of the horrible events that were "Troy" and "Alexander," I still love Greek and Roman history.)
Or maybe I just want to see VD riding a war elephant. Which is a pretty good description on me PMSing, so maybe I'm just impaired by 5 years of Latin coursing through my Diesel lust-addled head.
Am I the only geek that finds the idea of a Hannibal bioepic fun?
No. And that goes double if they get the costume folks from Troy.
FYI, Vin Diesel's on Letterman tonight.