Big-budget Pulp

Read this L.A. Times Story about “The World of Tomorrow”, a big-budget, digital-effects pulp action movie tentatively set for release next year, starring Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow. Don’t know how this one slipped under my radar….

To quote the article:

“World of Tomorrow” is set in 1939 (the title comes from the New York World’s Fair of that year) and owes much to the Saturday-morning serials that movie theaters used to show. It is split into seven “chapters,” with titles like “Winged Terror” and “Shadow of Tomorrow.” As for the film’s content, Avnet, an experienced producer who found success with “Risky Business” 20 years ago, and who also directed such films as “Fried Green Tomatoes” and “Up Close and Personal,” described it as “Buck Rogers meets Indiana Jones.”

It begins in New York City, where Polly Perkins (Paltrow), crack reporter for the Chronicle newspaper, wonders why so many world-famous scientists are missing. Around this time, strange flying machines threaten Manhattan, and gigantic walking robots tramp down the city’s streets, crushing everything in their path. Polly joins forces with her old flame and sometime adversary Capt. Joseph Sullivan (Law), also known as Sky Captain. He commands the Flying Legion, battling bad guys in his Warhawk P-40. He and Polly fly to a remote part of Nepal (think Shangri-La) to track down the crazed mastermind Dr. Totenkopf, who seems to want to destroy the world.

OH HELL YES. Sign me up. I’ll even willingly put up with Gwyneth Paltrow for this one.

(Cool article about digital effects compositing, too. Give it a read.)

GMS