When I was farting around with my ToM this week I made note that one of the movies I was looking forward to this year was Neil Marshall's Doomsday. He had me at The Descent and I feverishly hunted down a copy of Dog Soldiers thereafter. And lo and behold, when I get home tonight there is a message waiting, from Neil's wife of all people, spreading word that Doomsday is coming on March 14th.
And just to recap why you should be marking this down on your calendars...
After a lethal virus wipes out hundreds of thousands of lives in the United Kingdom, a massive wall is built to keep those contaminated from leaving the country of its origin: Scotland. Those who try to escape are killed, and the wall itself is a massive barrier fully armed with advanced weaponry to prevent any escapes. Nobody gets in. Nobody gets out. Scotland has been shut off from the rest of the world - forever ...30 years later, the virus named “The Reaper” has been all but forgotten until a new case rears its ugly head in London. With no choice and the fear of another epidemic at hand, the government sends in an elite group to venture past the great wall, a territory not touched by those uncontaminated in over 30 years. The group must recover the work of Dr. Kane, who was close to finding a cure to “The Reaper” when it first was exposed. What lies beyond the wall is a mystery, a hellish environment left in ruins. What they will discover is far beyond the reaches of anything they could have imagined.
Preview screening reports state that this is Neil Marshall's KILL BILL, an overblown mishmash of references to classic films (ROAD WARRIOR, EXCALIBUR, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK) that never amounts to anything. I'll watch it of course but don't expect it to be a near masterpiece like THE DESCENT.
Thanks for this bit of news Mack! I absolutely loved Neil Marshall's "Dog Soldiers" and "The Descent" and hope that "Doomsday" is just as good. Pretty interesting cast with Rhona Mitra (Kit McGraw of Nip/Tuck), Malcolm McDowell, Bob Hoskins, Alexander Siddig and Craig Conway.
Latino Review posted a script review back in Aug of last year and gave it a lukewarm response:
http://www.latinoreview.com/news.php?id=2706
Well, following anything as stellar as Descent HAS to be tough. Everyone's expectations are high, perhaps too much. And to compare any film he ever makes from Descent on, to that particular movie, will rob any successive movie of merit and credit.
I'm going in with no expectations. And hopefully I can give Doomsday the credit it is due, and if if doesn't work then it doesn't work. What can we do? It's not OUR movie.
Test. I hope this post get through. Anyway, I just wanted to say that Doomsday is my most anticipated movie of the year. This, tied up with Descent and Dog Soldiers makes a great triumvirate of films. But he still has to film the zombies on an oil platform. This guy is without a doubt at this moment and in my opinion, the greatest director working today.