Indie Newsweek - 30th April 2008 - Page to screen and back again

So Guillermo Del Toro has finally been confirmed as director of the forthcoming The Hobbit prequels. After weeks of speculation and not-so secret discussion between almost everyone involved, it has been announced that the Mexican behind 2006’s stunning Pan’s Labyrinth will definitely helm the two films, expected to see release dates in 2011 and 2012.

Although it’s all change on the director front, much of the team behind the huge-selling original film trilogy are expected to return. Sir Ian McKellen’s Gandalf and Andy Serkis’ Gollum are back, and Peter Jackson will return for screenwriting duties with Lord of the Ring's scripters Phillippa Boyens and Fran Walsh. With effects maestros Weta also on board, and New Zealand once again standing in for Middle Earth, it would seem the project survived the protracted studio wrangling surprisingly intact…

Also making the journey from page to screen is Blindness, which will open the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Adapated from an acclaimed novel by Jose Sarmago, the thriller follows the lives of a city’s residents devastated by a sudden epidemic of blindness. Starring Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo, Blindness is directed by Fernando Meirelles, whose biggest UK hit was 2005 political thriller The Constant Gardener. The film will kick off a festival which also includes new films from Charlie Kaufman, Clint Eastwood and – yes – the first look at Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Finally, following Issue 3’s look at the art of poster design (see Hands On, April 2008), we thought it’d be worth pointing you in the direction of the forthcoming Now Showing, an exhibition representing over 70 years worth of film in the form of specially commissioned prints.
Forty assorted “creative types” – from comic illustrator Nathan Fox to magazine designer Corey Holms – were invited to create “their own interpretation of a cult, classic or obscure film poster from the past, whether it be a literal or abstract solution.” Among the films tackled are Blade Runner, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and Rear Window. None of them can be described as easy choices, since the films already have strong visual identities in their own right, but the organisers describe this as part of the appeal: “This project certainly wasn’t about redesigining ‘bad’ film posters; that was far from its objective. Most contributors taking part picked films that already had beautifully executed solutions. Having said that, there is never just one solution to a creative brief, as some of the classic films proved.” The exhibition runs from 29th May to 13th June at the COSH Gallery, Soho.