Europa Report (2013) Grading and Discussion

[jefferiestubes8]

script stage in pre-production

Scripted by Philip Gelatt, Europa is the story of a six-person team of astronauts from various international space stations who are sent by a private sector corporation to be the first manned mission to Jupiter’s fourth moon. Eugenio Caballero (Pan’s Labryrinth, is production designer, and the plan is to begin shooting in New York this fall.

in pre-production on Europa, a contemporary space adventure that will be directed by Sebastian Cordero, the Ecuadorian helmer whose credits include Rage and Cronicas. District 9‘s Sharlto Copley is set to star with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’s Michael Nyquist, Anamaria Marinca (she starred in the Palme d’Or winning 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days), and Asian superstar Daniel Wu.

Deadline source


How cool is that? A film about astronauts on a mission to a planet's moon in our solar system!? We haven't seen anything like this at all since Moon (2009) or those 2000 films Mission to Mars & Red Planet.
An actual space bound & planet-landing movie! Woo hoo!

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Re: "Europa" a [contemporary space adventure] in dev.

[Pedantic nitpick] Since when was Europa Jupiter's fourth satellite? I hope they did a little more research than that. It was the second Jovian satellite discovered by Galileo and is the sixth known in increasing order of average distance from Jupiter. [/Pedantic nitpick]

ETA: So, any speculations about how the movie will be distinguishable from 2010: The Year We Make Contact?

 

[LitmusDragon]

Re: "Europa" a [contemporary space adventure] in dev.

This is intriguing. It doesn't really tells us what happens on Europa though does it? Could be aliens, could be metaphysical mumbo-jumbo ala 2001, could be a horror film like Apollo 18, or it could be a realistic depiction of a scientific expedition (wait, this is Hollywood, no chance of that). Anyway, excited but the execution is going to be an important factor. What are they trying to do with the story?

 

[jefferiestubes8]

Re: "Europa" a [contemporary space adventure] in dev.

any speculations about how the movie will be distinguishable from 2010: The Year We Make Contact?

To be honest it would have more to do with Clarke's 3rd book in the 2001 series: 2061: Odyssey Three (published 1987) in which

Spoiler: major plot spoiler

a ship is landed on Europa

in the film 2010: The Year We Make Contact no astronauts actually land on the moon.

I'm sure it will be a solid surfaced moon for the "Europa" film in development.

 

[Myasishchev]

Re: "Europa" a [contemporary space adventure] in dev.

Yeah, I mean, Europa is admittedly pretty small, but there's room for more than just Arthur Clarke on it.

I liked Mission to Mars (the scene with Robbins and Nielsen set to Van Halen's "Dance" = one of the greatest moments in cinema history). But everyone else seemed to hate it. I think I have an idiosyncratic taste in films.

ETA: seriously, that first tracking shot! Brian de Palma rules you.

 

[stonester1]

Re: "Europa" a [contemporary space adventure] in dev.

Yeah, I mean, Europa is admittedly pretty small, but there's room for more than just Arthur Clarke on it.

I liked Mission to Mars (the scene with Robbins and Nielsen set to Van Halen's "Dance" = one of the greatest moments in cinema history). But everyone else seemed to hate it. I think I have an idiosyncratic taste in films.

ETA: seriously, that first tracking shot! Brian de Palma rules you.

Dismissed MtM first time I saw it. Got a cheap copy on DVD, watched again, totally changed my opinion. LOVE it and put it in my pantheon of "realistic" space travel movies. And yeah, that dance scene owned me.

 

[Reverend]

Re: "Europa" a [contemporary space adventure] in dev.

This is intriguing. It doesn't really tells us what happens on Europa though does it? Could be aliens, could be metaphysical mumbo-jumbo ala 2001, could be a horror film like Apollo 18, or it could be a realistic depiction of a scientific expedition (wait, this is Hollywood, no chance of that). Anyway, excited but the execution is going to be an important factor. What are they trying to do with the story?

My money is on either a giant ice squid, mind controlling bacteria or some mysterious artefact.

 

[watermelony2k]

Re: "Europa" a [contemporary space adventure] in dev.

It's starring the fooker from District 9? I'm in.

 

[sojourner]

Re: "Europa" a [contemporary space adventure] in dev.

any speculations about how the movie will be distinguishable from 2010: The Year We Make Contact?

To be honest it would have more to do with Clarke's 3rd book in the 2001 series: 2061: Odyssey Three (published 1987) in which

Spoiler: major plot spoiler

a ship is landed on Europa

in the film 2010: The Year We Make Contact no astronauts actually land on the moon.

I'm sure it will be a solid surfaced moon for the "Europa" film in development.

In the book 2010, the Chinese landed on Europa, to their misfortune.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Re: "Europa" a [contemporary space adventure] in dev.

Woo hoo! An actual Science Fiction film?

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

Re: "Europa" a [contemporary space adventure] in dev.

Looking forward to when ever it screens here.

 

[Kegg]

Re: "Europa" a [contemporary space adventure] in dev.

Yeah, I mean, Europa is admittedly pretty small, but there's room for more than just Arthur Clarke on it.

Quite. Europa's the one place most speculated or suggested to possibly have some sort of life (like, bacterial, but life hooray!) and as such has a kind of magnetic appeal for sci-fi. To the extent there's still somewhere in the solar system we can project our fatanasies, the rest of it having been scoured and found quite dead, Europa is as somewhat plausible as it gets.

one of the greatest moments in cinema history). But everyone else seemed to hate it. I think I have an idiosyncratic taste in films.

...idiosyncratic is right.

 

[FluffyUnbound]

Re: "Europa" a [contemporary space adventure] in dev.

I'll watch it. As long as it's not space horror. Space horror is played out.

I like that Copley is in it.

could be metaphysical mumbo-jumbo ala 2001

I don't consider 2001 to be metaphysical mumbo-jumbo. It's all sci-fi in the end sequence; Kubrick just doesn't explain any of it. But Clarke did in the book.

 

[FluffyUnbound]

Re: "Europa" a [contemporary space adventure] in dev.

Yeah, I mean, Europa is admittedly pretty small, but there's room for more than just Arthur Clarke on it.

I liked Mission to Mars (the scene with Robbins and Nielsen set to Van Halen's "Dance" = one of the greatest moments in cinema history). But everyone else seemed to hate it. I think I have an idiosyncratic taste in films.

ETA: seriously, that first tracking shot! Brian de Palma rules you.

I vastly prefer Red Planet.

OK, the terraforming plot twist is a little absurd, but it's nice that the big twist was a "science" twist. And the whole plot revolves around an engineering queston ("How many guys can we fit on our improvised rocket?"). I think it's underappreciated.

Edited to say: If only they had not included the "Oh no our robot is crazy" silly subplot. And also to correct title.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

Re: "Europa" a [contemporary space adventure] in dev.

Now that we have our first look at Sharlto Copley from his newest film The Europa Report (thanks to ComingSoon), we also have what appears to be the first viral site for said film.

‘The Europa Report’ Viral is Launched Along With A Photo
Feb 11th, 2012

And 2 images!
http://www.movieviral.com/2012/02/11/the-europa-report-viral-is-launched-along-with-a-photo/

via
First Look at Sharlto Copley in Sci-Fi Film The Europa Report
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=86922

How cool are those images!

 

[RJDiogenes]

Re: "Europa" a [contemporary space adventure] in dev.

Looks good. I hope what they find on Europa is interesting, and not just an alien invasion or something.

 

[Beagleman]

Re: "Europa" a [contemporary space adventure] in dev.

Probably some kind of alien (Europaean?) killer-bacteria. As long as the rest looks as good as these pictures suggest, I'm cool with that.

 

[TeknoNurd]

Re: "Europa" a [contemporary space adventure] in dev.

Defying Gravity was contemporary space travel through the solar system, and I think it was cancelled before they got much of anywhere.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

comtemporary space-set TV

Defying Gravity was contemporary space travel through the solar system, and I think it was cancelled before they got much of anywhere.

Yes it was the most contemporary take on a scifi show set in space. The TrekBBS community did not like it as the show dumbed down the science and was trying to bring different audiences to that show.
The series was pitched to networks as "Grey's Anatomy in space". by

executive producer James Parriott, who previously worked on Grey’s Anatomy and executive producer Michael Edelstein who also worked for Desperate Housewives

It attempted to bring a 18-34 female audience to a sci-fi soap opera and the soap opera turned off most scifi fans. Not a good mix.
I was glad to see a major broadcast network do a scifi show set in space. It was a co-production and aired internationally. It will not be the last show set on a spaceship or space station.
I really liked the production design and costumes. It had a good amount of flashback scenes set on Earth though which while necessary for a first season I don't think would be necessary for future seasons. I think due to the cost of building sets for this type of movie genre the ship sets should be reused for another TV show in development to keep pilot costs down. Of course it may hurt a movie sequel.

 

[sojourner]

Re: comtemporary space-set TV

^On a similar note to that. If you want to see what's left of the sets from "Mission to Mars", they were used to "dress" the entrance to the Rocket to Mars ride at Epcot.