I am so incredibly glad that Robert Zemeckis has emerged from his creepy-looking animation phase (Polar Express, Adventures of Tin Tin) and gotten back to making live-action films. Like most Americans, seeing the two towers of The World Trade Center is almost a visceral gut punch. Perhaps this film can do a little to remove that instant revulsion as it is an incredible true story (previously the subject of the documentary Man on Wire) of a man who executed a plan to put in place a high-wire from Tower 1 to Tower 2 and walk across it. Joseph Gordon-Levitt has become one of my favorite actors and this looks like an incredible addition to the fall slate of films. The Walk will release October 2, 2015, and for a full plot synopsis, read below.
Twelve people have walked on the moon, but only one man – Philippe Petit – has ever, or will ever, walk in the immense void between the World Trade Center towers. Guided by his real-life mentor, Papa Rudy (Ben Kingsley), and aided by an unlikely band of international recruits, Petit and his gang overcome long odds, betrayals, dissension and countless close calls to conceive and execute their mad plan. Robert Zemeckis, the director of such marvels as Forrest Gump, Cast Away, Back to the Future, Polar Express and Flight, again uses cutting edge technology in the service of an emotional, character-driven story. With innovative photorealistic techniques and IMAX 3D wizardry, The Walk is true big-screen cinema, a chance for moviegoers to viscerally experience the feeling of reaching the clouds. The film, a PG-rated, all-audience entertainment for moviegoers 8 to 80, unlike anything audiences have seen before, is a love letter to Paris and New York City in the 1970s, but most of all, to the Towers of the World Trade Center.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled that he’s back from the Uncanny Valley, but Zemekis was always on the cutting edge of special effects (Back to the Future II, Death Becomes Her, Forrest Gump) and through the Polar Express and the unfortunate handful of films that followed, he helped give birth to a technology that is extremely practical, and will get much more useful in the years to come. But I’m glad someone stopped him before he was able to remake Yellow Submarine like he wanted.
Also, I hate to point this out, but Tintin was Spielberg all the way.
LikeLike
Yeah but the animation style is the Z model. True though.
LikeLike
Enjoy your rustic trip, man. Hope you find a way to catch JP4 while you’re gone.
LikeLike
It’s WV. It’s rustic, but I know where the movie theaters are. I used to live here…a long time. I’ll pop in as much as I can. I suffer techno withdrawal if I don’t make it to THE McDonald’s that has WiFi. What I do for you people…..
LikeLike