Today marks the end of our traditional four-day Christmas holiday weekend, and despite all the free time, I’m still catching up on my newspaper reading.
For example, I recently read Lynne McNamara’s column from Saturday’s Vancouver Sun, in which she announces that local outfit Brightlight Pictures has given the green light to White Noise 2: The Light — and that’s a lot of light, no? The film is a sequel to White Noise (my review), a surprisingly scary horror film that was one of this year’s earliest modest hits. Reports McNamara:
Patrick Lussier is directing the script written by Matt Venne. The original starred Michael Keaton; the sequel has not yet been cast.
It’s the story of a man who’s brought back to life after he and his family are murdered. After his own personal near death experience, he undergoes a transformation that allows him to see people who are on the verge of death. Trying to save their lives, he realizes that a price must be paid for trying to change the natural order of things.
FWIW, Brightlight was also responsible for Alone in the Dark, which is easily one of the trashiest movies I’ve ever seen — but the heckling audience with which my wife and I saw the film also made it one of the more entertaining moviegoing experiences of recent memory. Then again, as I commented at the time: “Is THIS what has become of indigenous Vancouver filmmaking? If so, I weep.”
Further down in her column, McNamara also profiles the cinematographer who shot the recent teaser for Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto:
The trailer was shot in Mexico last September by cinematographer Don McCuaig, who began his career here back in the 1970s at BCTV, when then-producer Alan Clapp gave him the opportunity to shoot news stories for the station.
McCuaig, originally from Ontario, now lives in Los Angeles, but keeps a home in Vancouver and makes frequent visits between his film work and acting as a governor for the Television Academy in L.A., which sponsors the annual Emmy Awards. “Imagine that, hey,” said McCuaig this week in Vancouver — “a little guy from Cornwall, Ontario.” . . .
The Gibson project came out of the blue last August when McCuaig was visiting Vancouver. He got a call from fellow cinematographer, Academy Award-winning Dean Semler (Dances With Wolves) who’s shooting Apocalypto for Gibson, asking if he was available to shoot the trailer.
“It was all happenstance,” says a humble McCuaig, “somebody wasn’t available and I happened to be.”
He headed back to L.A. and within a few days, met Gibson and flew to Mexico.
They arrived and immediately scouted jungle locations in Yucatan and met up with their Mexican support team.
“It was very hot and muggy, but quite refreshing in its own way,” says McCuaig, who spent six days in total shooting the trailer after doing prep and some of the shots in Mexico City.
As for Gibson, McCuaig was very impressed.
“I found him very committed, very good at in-camera effects. He has worked with some very talented directors during his career as an actor and obviously paid attention. He’s an incredibly enthusiastic person — we had some very long days, and the crew was won over when at the end of the first long day he told them how great they were and that they ranked with the best in the world. That’s the kind of guy he is.
“He’s a great guy to work for — he’s a committed filmmaker and a pleasure to be around, but you have to understand that you have to work very hard and you have to run to keep up with him, he’s everywhere,” laughs McCuaig.
So … does this mean it’s possible that none of the footage in the teaser will be used in the actual movie?
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