Corona | Coming Attractions

Phil Mahoney, a graduate from the Vancouver Film School, added sound effects and voices to Aaron Ross' Rendezvous with Rama short fan film. This is their collective effort:

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While being asked questions about his latest (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), David Fincher told First Showing that the chances of ever seeing his version of Rendezvous with Rama looked bleak.

"It looks like it's not going to happen. There's no script and as you know, [Morgan Freeman's] not in the best of health right now," said Fincher, talking about the serious injuries the actor sustained from a August 2008 car crash. "We've been trying to do it but it's probably not going to happen."

Just when all hope of ever hearing any news about this project seemed gone, a new interview with David Fincher reveals that he is still attached to directing Rendezvous with Rama.

"Yeah, it's a great story. It's just… I mean talk about a piece of work that's been… talk about a corpse where the bones have been stripped," Fincher explained to Ain't It Cool News. "There was so much of it that was taken for Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Aliens… So many movies owe their plotting and stuff to that story, so we have to be careful about what's the part that we're going to use, because a lot literary conceits in there that maybe aren't ultimately the most cinematic."

Fincher didn't comment on when the likelihood of seeing his Rama movie could conceivably happen.

Telling MTV that "We're still at it," Morgan Freeman updates us on what's happening with his long gestating sci-fi movie. "It's a very intellectual science fiction film, a very difficult book to translate cinematically." Freeman tells the website. "[At least] we have found it very difficult to translate, to get ready for film."

Explaining why it's been such a long road to get his cerebral expensive science fiction film made, Freeman explained, "There are no guns, no explosions ... Although it's fiction, it's all based on pure science.

"But it's worth doing."

Morgan Freeman's Revelations Entertainment has struck a two-year, first-look deal with Paramount Pictures. In addition to developing a thriller for Freeman to star and produce, the studio now has first dibs on whether it will make Rendezvous With Rama

The ZD Net article might be about how Industrial Light & Magic has switched its hardware from RISC-Unix workstations to using Intel-based Dell computers, but the material that caught our scoopers' eyes was in regards to Rendezvous With Rama. While talking to Grant Boucher, a consultant working for Digital Revelations (which appears to be a division of Revelations Entertainment), the ZD Net article mentions "Digital Revelations is largely relying on Intel-based computers for the effects on Rendezvous with Rama, a thriller coming out next year in which a group of humans seek revenge on aliens that blow up Italy."

Anyone who's read Clarke's novel knows that nowhere in the book do any aliens "blow up" anything on Earth. The article has fans of Rama scratching their heads and wondering if ZD Net got their story wrong or if something drastic happened in a story rewrite.

A.Fincher.News.Site has posted an exclusive interview with Rama screenwriter Scott Brick in which the writer describes how he was selected to adapt Clarke's novel into a feature film. Brick also reveals that he's working on three new projects, one a "Bibical epic" with Revelations, a time travel romance and a supernatural romance.

Screenwriter Scott Brick contacted Coming Attractions earlier this week regarding our review of his screenplay that appeared on the site last month. Brick was out-of-town when the review went up on CA but soon learned of the review when his manager began receiving calls from people who read it online. Surprisingly, it also seems the producer and director of Rama found out about it...

"Word travels fast. Your review went up just before the start of an all-day meeting between David Fincher and Lori McCreary, Revelations CEO; by the time the meeting began, theywere already talking about it. In glowing terms, of course; they appreciated the nod as much as I did. And, although I haven't talked to him, I'm sure Arthur C. Clarke did, as well."

Scott Brick has agreed to do an interview with Coming Attractions about how he came to be involved on the project as well as how he adapted Arthur C. Clarke's novel into a feature length screenplay. Look for that review to appear in the near future on Coming Attractions.

 In his latest Director's Cut column, Coming Attractions' creator Patrick Sauriol reviews the screenplay for Rendezvous With Rama and bestows high praise on the script.

"I'm happy to report that Scott Brick didn't just nail Rendezvous With Rama; he hit this mother right out of the ballpark. This has the potential to be the mainstream sci-fi hit that eluded Clarke when 2001 first came out in theaters. Rendezvous With Rama the movie promises to be a 'hard' science fiction film filled with tension, action, thrills and above all else, a profound sense of wonder. In the hands of Fincher, this promises to be an absolutely amazing sci-fi picture, one that will live up to fans of Clarke's novel as well as audiences who don't know who the hell he is," said Sauriol in his review.

Read the exclusive Coming Attractions screenplay review of Rendezvous With Rama.

Thanks to the webmaster at a.fincher.news.site we've got the Comdex video clip showing Rama producer Lori McCreary and actor Morgan Freeman showing off some of the digital pre-planning they're doing for the movie. The clip shows the pair showing off some of the work done on the Rama biots. Check out the site's news section for the clip.

"On 4/4/01, Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary appeared onstage in Chicago at Comdex (for an Intel presentation) to show the audience samples of the computer-generated cylinder-world and the spider-like monster. They can rotate it and zoom in from hundreds of feet in the air. Freeman crossed his fingers and said it would be released in 2003."

Still trudging along towards actualization. Here's the latest:

"Just saw Morgan Freeman on Charlie Rose. Asked what he's going to do, he said Mandela 'is going to happen' and that he has had this wonderful Arthur Clarke book for years. Re: Rama -- 'Putting a team together,' 'ready to jump off.' Sounded quite impending. I'm sure someone will send you more, that's all I got, I was caught ill-prepared."

The official site has been updated...with wicked concept art on slides. And a release date of 2003.

Sometimes you do hear things from deep space. Such is the case with this message, sent to us by someone who wanted to throw an addendum on our last scoop:

"Being previously involved by way of Fincher's office with the production, I can assure you that although he has verbally made a strong agreement to do it, it will not necessarily be his next film. This is also considering the amount of time Revelations and Intel need to develop their partnership and technology, and the fact the the final draft of the script is not yet finished."

Our latest scooper recently received a Rama heads up via email that solidifies Fincher as still being the film's director.

"I asked producer Lori McCreary if Morgan Freeman was going to produce Rendezvous With Rama for director David Fincher. She mailed me back and confirmed this. So David Fincher is going to direct Rendezvous, he will do this after he has wrapped The Panic Room."