LEVIATHAN Coming in 4K UHD from Kino

[AndyDursin]

Reaching the bottom of the barrel??

[Monterey Jack]

Major bleh. This isn't even good for laughs.

[Eric W.]

Couldn't care less. Jerry's score was DOA for me as well.

[Monterey Jack]

THIS gets a UHD release, when we're still waiting for The Abyss on standard BD.

[Paul MacLean]

Leviathan is a certainly great-looking movie -- striking art direction, it's phenomenally well-photographed (the cast is terrific as well), but in the end it's just a boring Alien ripoff.

Apparently the original script was much more original, but George Pan Cosmatos kept re-writing it to be more like Alien.

I like Goldsmith's score, particularly his main and end titles, and love theme. I honestly think it is a better score than Warlock.

Here's an Italian TV interview with Goldsmith, from when he was in Rome recording Leviathan...

[Eric W.]

THIS gets a UHD release, when we're still waiting for The Abyss on standard BD.

That boggles my mind.

[AndyDursin]

Blame the director. There's literally nobody else to blame.

[Monterey Jack]

Blame the director. There's literally nobody else to blame.

If Cameron wants to spend the rest of his like making Avatar sequels, hey, that's his prerogative, but he could have taken ONE DAY out of his oh-so-busy schedule to okay new HD transfers of The Abyss and True Lies over the last decade. Instead, both are stuck on non-anamorphic DVD transfers from 1999 when it comes to physical media releases, which is insane.

[AndyDursin]

If Cameron wants to spend the rest of his like making Avatar sequels, hey, that's his prerogative, but he could have taken ONE DAY out of his oh-so-busy schedule to okay new HD transfers of The Abyss and True Lies over the last decade. Instead, both are stuck on non-anamorphic DVD transfers from 1999 when it comes to physical media releases, which is insane.

I still think he's now embarrassed by both movies and doesn't want them in circulation. Maybe it's the effects or something he wants to tinker with on THE ABYSS and hasn't had the chance. As we've long said TRUE LIES is the 21st century version of SONG OF THE SOUTH, he probably wants the negatives burned up. Since it's now a "Disney movie" it could possibly happen and they wouldn't at all care.

But it's not like some studio doesn't have an interest. If it wasn't his movie, and was just any other movie made at, say, MGM...like LEVIATHAN...these would've been released like 15 years ago.

[AndyDursin]

I like Goldsmith's score, particularly his main and end titles, and love theme. I honestly think it is a better score than Warlock

The good news is this basically confirms someone will do an expanded album! I agree it's better than WARLOCK.

Cosmatos had a weird career. I don't think he was much of a director, more like a "manager" overseeing a production on behalf of the producer or star involved. The two most popularly enduring films he was associated with were RAMBO II, where Stallone was running the whole show (as he did on COBRA as well), and TOMBSTONE, where Cosmatos replaced the writer (Maurice Jarre's son I believe, who was fired from directing it), but apparently it was Kurt Russell who personally oversaw most of the shoot. His filmography is littered with mostly dreadful movies like this, THE CASSANDRA CROSSING, ESCAPE TO ATHENA (all "international" productions shot in Europe), the Canadian "giant rat" Peter Weller movie OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN, then a later dud like THE SHADOW CONSPIRACY, but that was a rare "American studio movie" Andrew Vajna produced (and they worked together on TOMBSTONE)...overall he didn't make a whole lot of movies. His big asset was being able to work in international cinema, as he spoke six languages:

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm ... story.html

[Paul MacLean]

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm ... story.html

I get the sense that Cosmatos was a kind of glorified "assistant director" -- i.e. adept at logistics, with a talent for coordinating complex / large-scare sequences, but maybe not so skilled with directing actors (hence Kurt Russell's intervention).

[AndyDursin]

Very much seems to be the case:

In 2006 Kurt Russell confessed that he ghost directed the hit western Tombstone after original director Kevin Jarre was fired by the studio, who urged Russell to take over on the condition that he didn’t receive a credit. He ultimately brought on George P Cosmatos with the understanding that he would follow Russell’s instructions to the letter. “I’d go to George’s room, give him the shot list for the next day, that was the deal.” Russell’s agreement with Cosmatos included a vow of secrecy while the helmer was alive, with the actor only revealing the truth of their collaboration after the director had passed.

...Sylvester Stallone is famous for taking control of productions – indeed, Cosmatos got the Tombstone gig off the back of Stallone’s recommendation, having performed a similar function on First Blood Part II and Cobra.

https://lwlies.com/articles/ghost-direc ... ltergeist/

[Paul MacLean]

In 2006 Kurt Russell confessed that he ghost directed the hit western Tombstone after original director Kevin Jarre was fired by the studio, who urged Russell to take over on the condition that he didn’t receive a credit. He ultimately brought on George P Cosmatos with the understanding that he would follow Russell’s instructions to the letter.

Credits can be vague and not as cut and dried as one might suppose.

I recently served as "Director of Photography" on a documentary, and the director wanted to film some historic reenactments for it, but had never made a movie before. So I taught him about about screen direction, the 180 degree line, continuity, etc.

I lit all the reenactments, and helped him storyboard a more complex reenactment which required about 60-70s extras, but he operated the camera. I was alongside to help him realize these sequences and give input and help "steer" him. So at times I served almost as a "co-director", but it was "his movie" and he supervised everything (from pre to post- production).