Iñárritu, Abrams, Storm Reid: Weekly Round Up

8th March 2021

Iñárritu, Abrams, Storm Reid: Weekly Round Up: When it comes to films, I can’t honestly say I’m a fan of the J J Abrams style “mystery box” approach to filmmaking. I find it frustrating and ultimately fruitless, and plot threads are teased but inevitably dropped in favor of overblown fan service and CG climaxes. Such was the problem with The Rise of Skywalker, a film that seemed – for the most part at least – to unite the Star Wars fandom in condemnation of its awfulness (no small feet given how bloody divisive the response to The Last Jedi was).

But for all the critical words levied at Abram’s trilogy closer, I have often thought that it’s the other big space-based franchise he rebooted that really got the shit end of the stick. If you’re anything like me, what drew you to Star Trek was its innate ability to take complex sociological, philosophical, or political concepts and use the tropes and trappings of science-fiction to explore them in a thoughtful and diplomatic way. Sure, there was action here and there, but the real entertainment came from the big ideas and hefty themes of each installment. So, again, if you’re anything like me, Abrams’ “pew-pew-bang-bang” approach not only missed the point of the franchise but was also kind of insulting. Of course, the blame cannot be placed squarely at the mystery box obsessive’s feet, as it was screenwriter Alex Kurtzman who delivered the scripts and took the franchise off into the abyss with the likes of Discovery, Picard, and… ugh… Lower Decks.

Perhaps then you may take some solace in this week’s news that Abrams’ production company Bad Robot have hired screenwriter Kalinda Vasquez to pen the next Star Trek big screen outing (not to be confused with the reported Tarantino penned Star Trek film, which may or may not be happening anymore, no one’s really sure on that one). This news is somewhat noteworthy as, should the project get the greenlight and make it to production, Vasquez will be the first female to write a Star Trek movie.

Vasquez is perhaps best known at this point for serving as executive production on Star Trek: Discovery, which admittedly doesn’t bode well, but at least she’s not Kurtzman so… it can only go up from here. You never know, maybe she’s a fan. And not like one of those fans who says they’re a fan but clearly has no idea why it was good – Kurtzman – but an actual fan.

It is not yet known whether this film will be a sequel to the Kelvin timeline movies or whether it will introduce brand new characters and be its own thing. Either way… I’m struggling to care.

Speaking of sequels I’m not sure I care about, anyone remember the John Cho starring found footage movie Searching from a few years back? It was surprisingly good, although it did follow a somewhat formulaic plot. Still, the film wrapped up nicely and was a fun, interesting little standalone outing. But it seems standalone is a thing of the past, as this week we got some casting announcements for the surprise sequel literally no one was asking for.

(I’m a cynical mood today, can you tell?)

Apparently, the upcoming sequel will feature new characters in a new setting but will apply the same found footage formula as the original to its premise. It is definitely a more tantalizing prospect than new Star Trek at this point, so I’ll give it that. This week we learned that Storm Reid, who folks may recognize from 12 Years a Slave and A Wrinkle in Time, is now in talks to take on the lead role. Although, what that role may be remains a mystery.

And finally, I thought I’d report on something a little less “Hollywood” for the last piece of news as this week we learned that filmmaker Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu has started shooting his next film, making it his first since the award winning The Revenant, which was released five years ago now (God, I feel old). The film is called Limbo and will reportedly “explore the political and social modernity of Mexico”. Quite what that means I’m not entirely sure, but the film is currently in production and shooting in Mexico City.

I don’t know about you, but to me it certainly sounds like this film may be more inline with his earlier works, especially Amos Perros, which was also set in Mexico City, than his latter works. While no casting announcements have been made yet, I’m actually quite curious about this one. Iñárritu is an interesting filmmaker, and his work is always unique, even if it isn’t always all that good. I guess we shall have to wait and see. – Iñárritu, Abrams, Storm Reid: Weekly Round Up

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