Posted by Sean the not so Beloved at pm3-14-ip34.albany.thebiz.net on June 13, 2002 at 15:22:16:
In Reply to: Re: AI Thoughts for Intangible-Reality posted by sean on June 13, 2002 at 12:14:36:
: : I had not heard that Eyes Wide Shut was made to finance AI, as Spielberg and Kubrick both most likely have multi millions to their name (Speilberg more than Kubrick) personally I don't think that they would have to worry about it.
: Don't worry, you're right about that, except for the millions part. Spielberg is worth something like four or five billion. [One of those is Lucas, the other is Spielberg. Now, I'd like to think Spielberg has more money, but I tend to think it may be Lucas's.]
: : I had heard that Stanely had decieded to make Eyes Wide Shut becuase, like his Napoleon movie, it was another long standing project that he had wanted to get to.
: I believe he had decided not to do the Napolean movie, though I'm not sure of this. But, yes, Eyes Wide Shut was on his list of things to do since around "2001".
: : As the computer technolgy was getting closer but not quite up to what he wanted for AI he decieded to tackle the Eyes Wide Shut project in between. As he devoted just about everything in his being to the movies he directed, based on my choice of words I wouldn't say that was an aside. It was close as it was not his number one choice to work on at that time.
: Well, he had two projects vying for the #1 slot, and chose "EWS" because he couldn't make "AI" look right. There are even plenty of reports that Kubrick wasn't planning on directing "AI" at all anymore because he felt it ought to be a Spielberg movie with him overseeing it. So "Eyes Wide Shut" was his number one choice, there were just mitigating circumstances.
: : Personally I do believe Speiberg lived up to what he believed would have been Stanley's vision. As he was not there to help of course Speilberg would have to use his best judgement and couldn't do things exactly as Kubrick did, no one could but Stanley himself.
: And therein lies the major flaw of the movie. Kubrick wanted Spielberg to make it a Spielberg movie. His presence would've given it a very interesting balance. But instead, he died, and Spielberg decided to do it as a Kubrick movie (especially the ending), which he isn't really qualified to do (though, you could argue, he's more qualified than anybody else around). So it was the wrong thing to do, especially since he spent every stage of it not treating it as a Kubrick movie (which is to say, not allowing things the time to fully develop, be they script, performance, whatever). He tried to do it both ways and wound up with, in my opinion, not quite either.
: But it just looks so damned good.
I appreciate hearing comments from another with a great name! I agree the movie does look beautiful and I am interested to see what Minority Report has in store for us. The cinematography looks very bleached from what I can see in the trailer and of course this is quite a great difference from AI. Speilberg has stated that other than the Indy sequel and a JP IV he doesn't plan on doing any further sequels to his previous efforts. He does state that he loves Sci-Fi and due to it's scope of imagination he plans on bringing us many sci-fi movies in the future. I for one am looking forward to seeing what he has in store for us.