What. what what what Tom Cruise might be a grade-A douchecanoe™ in his personal life, but that doesn't mean that all of his movies are terrible just because he is in it. Batman Begins is a good movie and you are missing out on some quality entertainment because you are prejudice. Do you not watch Roman Polanski films because he butt-raped some 13 year old girl? Or is it ok to watch his movies because Tom Cruise doesn't act in them?
There is the argument that if Tom Cruise is getting a percentage of the gross, so is the Church of Scientology. I understand the attitude, even if I don't share it.
No, actually I don't watch any Polanski films for the very reason you stated. I won't support a fugitive child - rapist.
Tom Cruise wasn't on the take with Batman Begins. In fact, him and Katie didn't get together until after filming wrapped.
This slipped under my radar. I just caught a trailer on i09. I was hoping for sequel to District 9. But I'll take this. And lol this did have the Inception BWONG! I have watched many a space colony vid on youtube. This paradise above Earth looked great. Why the Matt Damon Hate? The dude delivers.
After watching the trailer again I couldn't help but notice a few things: 1) Some of the action takes place in an artificial ring-like construct. 2) Matt Damon's character undergoes some kind of augmentation procedure and ends up with a cybernetic exoskeleton. 3) We see several VTOL dropships with a striking resemblance to, well UNSC Pelicans. 4) The final shot features the movie's title surrounded by a haloish ring. I see what your did there, Mr. Blomkamp. Consider my ticket bought.
Welcome To Elysium This is basically a tour guide to the space colony. According to that the torus is 125 km. It does not say if that is a radius, diameter, or circumference; and it holds up to a quarter of a million people. O'neill cylinders designed to be up to 20 mile slong could poterntiall house 10 million. Any of the the three potential measurements for Elysium could house much more but it looks like they are going for providing less crowding.
That's some creative marketing. I don't know what it actually cost to make, but I think Elysium was budgeted at $90 million. 3x the budget of District 9 but only 60% of the 2009 Star Trek budget, which looked positively low rent next to District 9. I'm assuming a nice chunk of that budget increase went to buying Jodie Foster and Matt Damon.
Found another one looking for images. HERE 7,946 : Citizens of Elysium 92 BILLION: Man hours to build Elysium torus 251.2 : Square kilometers of habitable surface on the torus It has 7.6 times the area of Manhatten and Manhatten has millions of people on it. Elysium has just under 8,000.
Space rings and futuristic VTOLS aren't owned by Halo, and they're not new/original concepts. Actually it seems like the first Halo game borrowed heavily from Aliens. But, Blomkamp did do that Halo short.
Honestly the first thing I think of when someone mentions a "space ring" is "2001: a space odyssey." That said, some of the shots in that trailer do remind me of Halo a bit e.g. seeing the ring curve upwards out of frame.
And Halo in turn was influenced by Larry Niven's Ringworld. Elysium's hub is an homage to the 2001 station. The 'zact same rectangular hanger.
Rings, spheres and cylinders. Poetically speaking I always loved the torus/ring design best. I have fantasies of walking the circumference both before population and after. That thought might have its seed in Ringworld when an unenlightened native thinks the Ringworld is in fact a flat piece with an arch overhead and he sets out to walk to the base of the arch not knowing the entire structure is in fact a ring.
And he was involved with the aborted Halo movie. I guess that was my point. Either that he decided to heavily borrow from those not-so-original elements for this flick or he's showing us he can actually do that particular franchise as well.
Right--he said recently that he left the Halo film because he didn't have enough creative control, It think. I think it likely that he may be proving the latter--the he can actually do that franchise as well. Elysium could be a way of saying he deserves more creative control, sure. "I still really love the world and the universe and the mythology of Halo," he said. "If I was given control, I would really like to do that film. "But that's the problem. When something pre-exists, there's this idea of my own interpretation versus 150 other people involved with the film's interpretation of the same intellectual property. Then the entire filmgoing audience has their interpretation." He added: "You can really live up to or fail in their eyes. That part isn't appealing to me, but the original pieces are appealing."
No one really wants to make or see a Halo movie. If this project had the slightest potential it would already have been made.
