PARIS SCREENING OF SOLOMON KANE

Hot on the heels of the release of the wonderful French poster I’m happy to say I’m going to be in Paris on Tuesday 8th of December with Mr James Purefoy to present the film to a select audience for an informal French premiere prior to the wide release on 23rd December.   If you’re in Paris and would like to see the movie and maybe chat with James or I afterwards then I think you can still get tickets.

I’m told that this is the venue UGC CINE CITE LES HALLES, 7, place de la Rotonde 75001 Paris and you can buy tickets online here:

http://www.ugc.fr/complex.do?comeFrom=allMoviesLink&complexId=HORIZ

See you on Tuesday night!

NEW SOLOMON KANE POSTER

Hi All

This was ‘leaked’ out today so I figured I’d make it more official and drop it in here too…. This is the French poster for Solomon Kane.  Much as I adored the ‘hat down in the rain’ poster which always my very clear vision for at least one version of a poster for Kane – it was so very atmospheric and pure to the more sombre nature of the movie,  I have to say I LOVE this poster.  To me, it’s really classical and painterly. I like the colour pallette, love the textures, love James’ stern almost haggered look and the fact that he can totally kick your ass and look better than you too.  Can’t wait to get a framed one for my office, right next to the man in the hat in the rain.

VAMPIRES

Just gotta get this off my chest and what better place than here?

Don’t you think it’s about time that scary-as-shit bloodthirsty, properly supernatural vampires made  a return to our screens? I’m talking old school horror where the vampires are true supernatural beings of pure evil.  I’m sick of vampires being brooding, pretty-boy tragic heroes caught up in longing and passion.  I don’t even really want them  created by a virus that can be ‘explained’ or ‘cured’  (sorry Guillermo) I want magic and mystery and true evil.   I know about the elegance of sex and death and that eternal dance that beautiful evil does with  hormonally fired up young girls and I’ve read Stoker’s Dracula and, sure, there are elements of the tragic hero inherent to the idea of the immortal bloodsucker but dammit, I feel vampires have been so completely co-opted into pathetic objects in romance stories that any menace is being lost to a whole new generation.   Spill some blood! Scare me! Be gritty, dirty, nasty, horrific and make me fear the dark all over again.  Surely it’s about time we returned these iconic monsters to their rightful place at the right hand side of the devil himself?

Anyway… it had to be said.  (Though, for the record; I think Eric (Alexander Skaarsgard) in True Blood, completely kicks ass.)

GEEKY FILM LIST

I’m really not keeping this blog very well.  I’m assuming most you come here for Solomon Kane news and as there’s none at the moment I’ve little else to say. I can’t imagine anyone is really interested in the minutiae of my life or opinions. 

Having said that, I was going through my old web site – and at some point I’m going to get a proper site up and running again – and found this page that I kept for a while and haven’t updated for a few years.  Basically a long list of my fav films. It’s just such a guy thing to do that I’m almost ashamed but, what the hell, I thought I’d share it.

http://www.michaelbassett.com/pages/films.htm

RUMOUR CONTROL – LIONSGATE AND KANE

Lots of notes and emails coming through telling me that Lionsgate have picked up Kane. Yes, it seems like a good fit but no, it isn’t true – as far as I am aware. Don’t know where this rumour started but sorry folks in  North America, you are no nearer to seeing Solomon Kane.   Everyone else; early next year.

Blast from the past…making Deathwatch

A ten minute video diary/making of… featurette that I put together for my first film, Deathwatch. It was a horror movie set in the trenches of World War 1 starring Jamie Bell and Andy Serkis.  Not a great movie but it has its moments and was pretty ambitious for the budget.   I came across this little featurette whilst cleaning out some old files and thought it would be fun to share for those who are interested.  I tried to embed the YouTube video but it just wouldn’t take here for some reason. So, here you go…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ljN1MsOyx0

23rd October

I’m writing at the moment, so have almost nothing of any interest or value to contribute.    Kane is slowly gearing up for its first set of release dates at the end of this year and early 2010, which means James and I are going to be starting a publicity tour of Europe at the beginning of December.  He’s shooting a new movie right now and I’m taking some quiet time to develop some new ideas and also adapt a children’s fantasy book that I hope will become a directing project some time in the future.  Mostly this involves me staring out of the window, walking the dogs, standing in the garden and being pecked by my raven,  domestic chores, playing computer games, reading and astonishingly little actual writing…. But that’s the process, so I don’t mess with it and I’m not  going to claim it isn’t a pretty good life.

17th OCTOBER

I know, I know I need to write up a proper and detailed summary of these last few weeks of jetting around on behalf of the Puritan.  I’ve been home a few days now and needed to revert to domestic mode and deal with some real life rather than the exotic life of film.  I’m not going to lie, it’s fab going to film festivals, being treated wonderfully by great people and getting to meet the rich and famous as well as seeing movies for free but at the same time, it’s not real life and it’s probably just as well that toilets need unblocking and wood needs chopping, just to remind me which way is up.

The Sitges Festival in Spain was wonderful though.  The audiences appeared to love Kane and really embraced what the film was trying to do (sucks that Variety wasn’t so kind to it in their review though) and the Spanish distributors seemed to be really behind the film and are looking to give it a big release early next year.  Apart from being great guys they are also amazing hosts and we ate at some fabulous restaurants and generally had a swell time.  Felt very Bacchanalian in my indulgence. Something that seems worryingly easy to do in Spain. I got to meet Viggo Mortensen, which was a great pleasure; he’s a proper guy, very charming, self effacing and thoughtful.   Had a brief chat with Duncan Jones, the director of MOON. If you haven’t seen this fabulous little sci-fi movie, I urge you to check it out.  Sam Rockwell gives a fantastic performance(s).  

 Paul Berrow (Producer), Me and Samuel Hadida (Producer)

I promise I’ll write some more soon.

SPILL AUDIO INTERVIEW

I did a kind of goofy interview with the guys from Spill.com whilst I was in Austin. I’d forgotten about it until I was just reminded. It was fun to do and not really very serious but here’s the link if you want to listen.

http://my.spill.com/profiles/blogs/michael-j-bassett-interview

SOLOMON KANESPACE

In the neverending battle to increase awareness and generate more fans, Kane now has his own myspace page… There’s a bunch of stills there, which some of you may not have seen before.

http://www.myspace.com/solomonkanethemovie

Join up, spread the word…