Yup. Wow. Cloverfield director, Matt Reeves' American adap. of the Swedish book/film Let the Right One In just got pretty darn interesting with the addition of Casey Jones himself, Mr. Elias Koteas playing the role of the policeman. Incidentally this was a pretty important character in the book, but not in Tomas Alfredson's film.
Production began yesterday on the Overture/Hammer co-production which will hit American theaters sometime next year. Richard Jenkins (The Visitor), Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road) and Chloe Moretz (500 Days of Summer) also star.
Thanks to /film for posting the story.
Production began yesterday on the Overture/Hammer co-production which will hit American theaters sometime next year. Richard Jenkins (The Visitor), Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road) and Chloe Moretz (500 Days of Summer) also star.
Thanks to /film for posting the story.
Ah. I was wondering who that character was... kudos for more accuracy than I was expecting, then, but still not really reassuring me. The film is much better than the book (I've skim read most of it); probably the best case I've ever seen of an author paring everything away from his story that doesn't really work. They'll be sticking the gore back in next.
Well... I think you could indeed make a movie which focuses more on Hakan and less on the bullies as "teh evil" in this film. This might be a case where two adaptations are so vastly different that they won't hurt each other.
But if they take the Hakan angle and keep it intact (which getting "the policeman" in the script seems to imply), they'll be needing three brilliant child actors, not two!
And this is what the movie in the end will still be judged on, especially in comparison to "Let the Right One In": the performances of the child actors. Good luck with casting the children!
Oh, I'd be impressed if they did go down that route, and the cast does look interesting. Just that even judging any finished film on its own merits I still think the story as presented in the book is fundamentally inferior to the film. Still good - just not as effective. The 'Hakan angle' pushes things way too far into splatter, to the point it just gets a tad too silly for me, to be honest. It doesn't completely gel with everything else that's been established up until that point IMO. Stripped to the bare essentials the story is a work of genius; weighed down with genre stuff it's 'just' good horror with more of a brain than usual.
Again, I have to admit I haven't completely read the book cover to cover, but though I'm sure some would disagree I'm still confident I've read enough - and seen the film three times - to be able to judge.
"Weighed down with genre stuff it's 'just' good horror with more than a brain than usual" - I pretty much agree. The book focuses on the adults and the community at large almost as much as Eli and Oskar.
Other than the fact it was almost three am, I wanted to stay pretty simple and neutral in posting this. Alfredson's film is one of my absolute favorites (in the top 20) and I need to distance myself from this version for the time being, even if there are some actors in the cast I really like. I'm not opposed to it, and appreciate the angle they seem to be approaching it, IE going back to the book for "fresh" material, but that isn't necessarily a good thing.
Uh, spoilers much, you two?
Not to mention - and to join in ruining it
Yep, you're right Eight Rooks, I deleted the last two remarks about Eli because they were spoiling things.
Not much would be spoiled when you consider Alfredson's film, but hey... you never know how important this aspect would be in Reeves' version.