Jim Sheridan Wanted Off 'Dream House' and Pete Travis Kicked Off 'Dredd'
A pair of turbulent productions
Jim Sheridan on the set of Dream House
I'll begin with the film currently in theaters and then move to the one still a year away as the "Los Angeles Times" has a pair of interesting director horror stories to tell, beginning with the recently released supernatural thriller Dream House starring Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and Naomi Watts.
Directed by Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot), there was talk of troubles between Sheridan and Morgan Creek Productions co-founder James G. Robinson during production. Sheridan deviated from David Loucka's script while filming and after a dismal test screening and a first round of reshoots, the production company ultimately took control of the film in the editing room.
This decision prompted Sheridan to approach the Directors Guild of America and request his name be removed from the feature, labeling the film with a director credit of Alan Smithee, Hollywood's equivalent of John Doe. Obviously his bid failed, but it does show the final vision of the film was far from what Sheridan intended. Whether that means much is up to you, but he did decline to do any press for the film just as Universal declined to screen the film for critics. Tit for tat I guess.
Moving on, Steven Zeitchik and Ben Fritz are reporting Pete Travis (Vantage Point) was "asked to step aside" as Dredd, an adaptation of writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra's British science fiction anthology "2000 AD", heads into the editing room for Lionsgate.
Although he completed shooting the picture earlier this year, Travis has not been involved in the current editing phase of the movie, after creative disagreements with producers and executives in charge of the film reached a boiling point, said three people with knowledge of the production who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak about the situation publicly. Instead, the editing room is now being run by a writer-producer on the film, the screenwriter Alex Garland, the people said.
Garland is so involved he may actually seek a co-director credit. Curiously, with a September 2012 release so far in the future, reshoots are likely, but who would direct in that case? Garland is a screenwriter responsible for such films as 28 Days Later… and Never Let Me Go. He's not a director.
Zeitchik and Fritz report troubles "arose when Travis and producers and executives in charge of the production did not see eye-to-eye on footage Travis was delivering," though another source says that while "Travis is no longer involved in postproduction, he is keeping up with progress via the Internet and has not been pushed aside."
If you're unfamiliar, Dredd is something of a remake of the 1995 Sylvester Stallone feature, centering on an American law enforcement officer, Joe Judge Dredd (Karl Urban), in a violent city of the future where uniformed Judges combine the powers of police, judge, jury and executioner. Dredd and his fellow Judges are empowered to arrest, sentence and even execute criminals on the spot. The film co-stars Olivia Thirlby, Lena Headey and Domhnall Gleeson.
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For all the advances over the past years, Judge Dredd still looks too silly to take seriously.
Stallone's Judge Dredd was 1995.
I assume what happened was that Pete Travis wanted to give the film a third act, Garland was like "not on one of my films, you don't" and then kept on showing Travis the last 20 minutes of 'Sunshine' until the director could take no more and left.
Seriously, I am bewildered that the producers felt that Garland would have been a suitable substitute. He's a fine novelist, but all of his films have suffered from serious structural problems ('28 Days Later' turns into a slasher film in the last 20 minutes, ditto 'Sunshine').
As Judge Dredd, Karl Urban should be a hardcore badass like Liam Neeson in Taken.
Karl Urban must say the following lines in Dredd:
“I am the law!”
“I knew you’d say that.” (in five scenes)
“I knew they’d do that.”
“Full auto. Rapid-fire.”
“Armour piercing”
“Double whammy.”
“Signal flare!”