frank darabont just announced that tom hanks will no longer play guy montag. read the whole story here...
http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2008/03/28/breaking-tom-hanks...t-of-fahrenheit-451/

I agree with the person who suggested Christian Bale - one of the best young actors around.
Anyway (and I'm probably a minority with this opinion), I'm glad to hear Hanks is out. I concede he is talented, but still an over-rated over-actor (and a bit old for Montag now).

I'm not worried. The fact that Darabont is directing the movie gives me great confidence that he'll do a great job with whoever he has as actors. He's a fantastic director.

Yes - I absolutely agree. I love all his films (even the flawed MAJESTIC had a unique charm). THE MIST was one of the boldest Hollywood films I've seen in a long time.

quote:

Originally posted by gguthrie:
I'm not worried.

I used to think that. He's done Stephen King good, mighty good. With fillums like The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile - very accurate adaptations.

Then I saw The Mist. One of my favourite long short stories (or short novellas), and a project I had high hopes for. It was clicking along nicely most of the way thru, until the end.

I don't know what Frank was thinking, or why Steve let him get away with it, but he compleatly ruined the film with that last section. Absolutely removed from the story, it also thoroughly destroyed that characterization which had been built up throughout the picture.

A potential three-and-one-half star movie reduced to two stars because of that.

Frank must redeem himself in my mind now.

Sorry, Doug - gotta disagree with you about THE MIST.
I thought it was actually quite a clever, multi-layered film - a smart exploration of the psychology of fear, and a sharp social / political allegory, neatly disguised as a cheesy 50s B-grade monster movie.
I liked the nods to other Stephen King works (notice the GUNSLINGER movie poster early in the film?).
As for the ending, yes it's incredibly confronting, but also bold & powerful for a mainstream Hollywood film. The ambiguous, unresolved ending of the King story probably wouldn't have worked on film.
Anyway, I'm excited that Darabont is directing F.451, and that the film seems to FINALLY be getting off the ground.

quote:

Originally posted by oz-crumley:
Sorry, Doug - gotta disagree with you about THE MIST.

Tis your right, oh Wonderful Wizard of Australia, however, I must reiterate that the perfect ending to the film would have been the one of the story - that giant flying creature passing a shadow over the little group as they made their way out of town, heading into an uncertain future. A future of hope, I might add.

The ending used in the film not only destroyed that hope, but left me with a sick, unsatisfied feeling.

Overall, I would say this ending, more than any other I can think of, ruined a potentially great film in the shortest amount of time possible. Never before has a film lost a star-and-a-half in a matter of five minutes!

Well I really can't argue against the fact you didn't like the ending Doug, but I can put The Mist into perspective.

The ending actually turned off the first distributors of the movie, but Darabount wouldn't budge, so he shopped around found someone, but the the deal he got for this movie became a small budget movie. $30 million I think?

He also was involved in some television work (CSI or The Lost, can't remember?) and decided to bring along some of the people he worked with for the television show and shoot it as he would for a television show. Which means really fast. He shot the movie in six weeks. It was a rush job, because of the budget. The visual effects were not top notch either because of the the funding.

He had top funding for the Green Mile and I think he will with Fahrenheit 451, so a lot more effort and money will be thrown into this movie which should make for a better Darabont movie.

EDIT: Thanks Nard!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: gguthrie,

There was another video version of "The Mist" a few years ago which totally changed the story. I thought this version did a much better job of capturing the story and its tone.