| Rumour Control: Burton To Direct Grim Fandango Film? |
 Rumour Control: Burton To Direct Grim Fandango Film? Fri, 14 July 2006 Denzel as Master Chief? Spielberg directing WoW? Put your hand up if you've seen the film 'Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back'? Keep your hand in the air if you'd love to extract your own brand of justice on chuckleheads who spread rumours about films via the internet? Okay, you can put your hand down now - it's time to try and quash some of these ridiculous game-to-movie rumours floating around on the internet at the moment.  Not after Planet of the Apes, you don't According to some obscure film blog called The Movie Center, director Tim Burton (Beetlejuice, The Corpse Bride) is planning to direct a film version of the criminally underrated 1998 Lucas Arts game, Grim Fandango. Here's what "Tim Burton" had to say to The Movie Center:
Well, I'm currently woerking (sic) on Sweeny Todd (sic), which will be released in mid-2007," read the quote attributed to Burton. "After that, I'm gonna start working on a new script that was sent to me recently: Grim Fandango. It sort of follows the style of The nightmare before Christmas (sic) and Corpse Bride. It's about a surreal land of the dead, some sort of purgatory where everyone goes when they die. In that place, dead people have to make a four-year transition before they can rest in peace for all the eternity. I still don't know when we're going to start filming this, though.
- "Tim Burton" speaking to Movie Center Given the litany of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, the obscure nature of the source, and the fact that the majority of the "interview" was pieced together with quotes borrowed from other press outlets, I wouldn't put any faith in this rumour. With that said, Burton directing a Grim Fandango film in the style of The Corpse Bride or a The Nightmare Before Christmas would be absolutely incredible.  Not after War of the Worlds, you don't Spielberg directing the World of Warcraft movie ... yeah, right. This rumour originated from a post on the Yahoo! Movies mailing list, and quickly circulated around the internet. It claimed that Variety magazine reported "Steven Spielberg sign[ed] to direct World of Warcraft," and that the film would be out in 2009. Spielberg's office was quick to deny the fictional Variety article through the website SpielbergFilms.com:
If there was any doubt in your mind to the credibility Spielberg Films had in debunking these "World of Warcraft" rumours, here's a final nail in the "Warcraft" coffin.
Steven Spielberg's offices have told us in no uncertain terms that Mr. Spielberg will not be directing "World of Warcraft." The project is in development, but not with Mr. Spielberg attached.
- SpielbergFilms.com I'll take that as a 'no way in hell'. If you are interested in Spielberg's real upcoming projects, just have a read of the Future Projects Page on the website.  Not after The Manchurian Candidate, you don't This rumour originated from a throw-away line on the Dark Horizons website, which simply read "Halo: Latest rumours have Denzel Washington as the favourite for Master Chief". Now this is an interesting one. According to an article in the June 30 edition of New Zealand newspaper The Dominion Post, Denzel Washington flew to New Zealand to meet with director Peter Jackson to discuss his latest project. Given that Peter Jackson is the executive-producer on the Halo movie, one could imagine how the rumours got started; despite the fact Washington has made it clear that he will be directing this new project himself, and that Peter Jackson would be providing the special effects for it. The rumour seems highly unlikely: could you really imagine that Denzel Washington would want to play the Master Chief, a character that is stuck in a suit of power armour for the entire movie? With that said, Denzel would make a cool Sergent Johnson... Rumour - a piece of unverified information of uncertain origin usually spread by word of mouth. Hmm... have you heard about that CTU: Marine Sharpshooter movie being directed by Woody Allen? |
