Alfonso Cuaron

[MacGuffin]

Cuaron: most 3D films are "crap"
Gravity director talks 3D, Sandra Bullock's "astounding discipline" and why he may not be able to afford to make his dream movie.
Source: Total Film

Gravity director Alfonso Cuaron has branded most 3D movies as "crap".

Speaking at a press conference at the Zurich Film Festival, where Gravity screens tonight as a 'Green Carpet Gala', the Mexican director said: "The problem with 3D is that it's been completely misused.

"The problem now is that they make all these films that are not designed for 3D and then convert them as a commercially afterthought – and they are crap. They don't follow the rules of 3D of what does and doesn't work.

"There are a handful of films that have used 3D in a proper way so it can be an amazing tool."

Gravity was designed to be seen in 3D and the 2D version is just "30% of the experience", the director told Screen International editor Wendy Mitchell, who moderated the press conference.

Bullock: disciplined

The film stars Sandra Bullock as an astronaut who goes spiralling into space following an accident.

Cuaron praised Bullock, who stars alongside George Clooney, for her "astounding discipline" when making the film.

"Sandra started rehearsing and training five months before the shoot just to get fit because of the rigs she was going to use," he recalled.

"She worked with stunts, special effects, her personal trainer and the puppeteers to see which parts of her body she needed to train specifically for the rigs.

"We started working together on hundreds of cues and timings because everything was pre-programming and she could not change timings. It was like dance choreography – more like we were doing a ballet.

"Her capacity of abstraction, because she was performing against nothing, was amazing. She was doing it with such precision that it looked like second nature and we could instead talk about performance and emotions."

Dream movie

The director, who has previously made films including Y tu Mama Tambien, Children of Men and Harry Potter and the Prison of Azkaban, was also asked how he chose projects.

"I don't think about it, I do whatever feels right," he replied.

"There are many other kinds of films I would like to do. Sometimes it's down to money, not only getting the finance together but also if I can afford it.

"I have a dream movie I'd like to make but it's tiny and not commercial. I couldn't be paid but I have a family and a life."

The film, which Cuaron thought would be a quick job, took more than four years. "I improvise a lot in my other films so this was completely different," he said. "I enjoyed every part of the process but would never do it again."

Drawing laughter from the assembled press, Cuaron added: "I now want to work on films in which people walk. I feel very strongly about this. If they walk, lay down, sit in wheelchairs or even swim, that would be fantastic."

[MacGuffin]

Rumour: Alfonso Cuarón to direct prequel to The Shining?
Warner reportedly keen to tie him to The Overlook Hotel
Source: Total Film

There have long been rumours surrounding the possibility of a new, big-screen version of The Shining, and now it seems as though Warner has its eye on the man it wants to make that proposal a reality...

According to Schmoes Know, Warner is planning a prequel to Stanley Kubrick's film, and has the Oscar-winning Alfonso Cuarón earmarked for the director's chair.

The rumour represents the second major project Cuarón has been linked with this week, with the director also thought to be Warner's first pick to helm the forthcoming Harry Potter spinoff, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them.

As to the project itself, former Walking Dead showrunner Glen Mazzara is thought to have penned a script for the film, which is operating under the working title The Overlook Hotel.

Whether or not Cuarón decides to take the plunge remains to be seen, but it sounds as though the project is beginning to make some moves either way...

[wilder]

Charlize Theron, Alfonso Cuarón Team for Philip K. Dick Family Drama 'Jane' (Exclusive)
The Hollywood Reporter

The Oscar winners will produce — and are being eyed to star in and direct — the Amazon project from Dick's daughter Isa Hackett.

Oscar winners Charlize Theron and Alfonso Cuarón are partnering for Jane, an Amazon feature project based on the personal life of beloved science fiction author Philip K. Dick from his daughter Isa Hackett.

The genre-bending project is based on the relationship between Dick and his twin sister, Jane, who died six weeks after birth. The death affected Dick personally, and also influenced his creative work.

Theron, Cuarón and Hackett will produce the project, which is being developed with an eye for Cuarón to direct and Theron to star.

Jane, according to the project's description, is "a moving, suspenseful and darkly humorous story about a woman's unique relationship with her brilliant, but troubled twin, who also happens to be the celebrated novelist Philip K. Dick. While attempting to rescue her brother from predicaments both real and imagined, Jane plunges deeper and deeper into a fascinating world of his creation."

Dick's work inspired many Hollywood projects, including Blade Runner, Total Recall and the Amazon series The Man in the High Castle, which counts Hackett as a producer.

"The story of Jane has been with me for as long as I can remember," said Hackett. "Jane, my father's twin sister who died a few weeks after birth, was at the center of his universe. Befitting a man of his unique imagination, this film will defy the conventions of a biopic and embrace the alternate reality Philip K. Dick so desperately desired—one in which his beloved sister survived beyond six weeks of age. It is her story we will tell, her lens through which we will see him and his imagination. There is no better way to honor him than to grant him his wish, if only for the screen."

Electric Shepherd Productions, Denver and Delilah Productions and Esperanto Filmoj will produce the film. Gabriela Rodriguez, Beth Kono, AJ Dix, Sarah Scougal and Kalen Egan will produce alongside Theron, Cuarón and Hackett. Lila Rawlings of Esperanto Filmoj will executive produce.

Theron and her Denver and Delilah banner, repped by WME and Hansen Jacobson, are currently working on the sequel to Netflix hit The Old Guard, The Old Guard: Force Multiplied.

Cuarón and his Esperanto Filmoj banner are currently in production on Disclaimer for Apple TV+, starring Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline. He is repped by WME and Johnson Shapiro.

Hackett and the Estate of Philip K. Dick are repped by Tricarico Chavez.

[WorldForgot]

Holy shit that's very exciting.