The Brothers Grimm

[myrrh]

I just got the new issue of Wired in the mail yesterday and was blown away by the photo's of Terry Gilliam's take on it. Holy Shit! This looks like I had always dreamed it would look. Dark and Twisted. The very small article says it was done filiming two years ago, and it took this long to get the CGI done.
.
I did a quick search and found a trailer here (http://progressive.stream.aol.com/aol/us/moviefone/movies/2005/brothersgrimm_017952/brothersgrimm_trlr_01_dl.mov)

It says it comes out Aug 26th. I am pretty excited about it!!

[grady]

Yeah! There are two Gilliam films coming this year! The Brothers Grimm and Tideland. It's been far too long too. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was the last film by Terry and that was in 98. Then of course there is the documentary about the unmaking of the film version of the man from La Mancha.

That trailer is kind of goofy though. It doesn't necessarily seem indicative of what the film will be. Maybe I'm wrong and maybe that is what the film is really like. But it just has the feel as far as trailers go, as one of the trailers put together in house by Miramax/Dimension with very little thought or care. Just my two cents on that one. Either way I will be there at the cinema opening day.

[b.miller]

i agree, grady. looking forward to the movie but the trailer is crap.

[adam]

Speaking of trailers (sorry for the off-topic, but you jarred my memory), I saw one for Flightplan the other day. That looks great (if the trailer didn't show too much).

[grady]

Speaking of trailers (sorry for the off-topic, but you jarred my memory), I saw one for Flightplan the other day. That looks great (if the trailer didn't show too much).

It made me think Panic Room on an airplane upon initial viewing of the trailer. That is just me though.

[winjer]

Too bad Gilliams basically renounced/abandoned the film... I'm sure it'll still have great stuff, but I don't think we can expect another Gilliam masterpiece...

[adam]

He has? Link/quote?

[grady]

After a bit of checking here is what I came up with. I went to the Gilliam fan site first as it was the easiest source for information. There are few comments allueding to some sort of conflict, most likely about budgets and what not.

http://www.smart.co.uk/dreams/grimdev.htm

If I find more info I will post it here.

[adam]

Actually, that link sounds fairly reassuring. Sounds like Winjer read a blown-out-of-proportion version?

Just noticed your tag, Myrrh. I wanted to write a story about the myth of the hashashin. I was disappointed to find out that it's a myth, actually. I thought that story was true.

[myrrh]

Just noticed your tag, Myrrh. I wanted to write a story about the myth of the hashashin. I was disappointed to find out that it's a myth, actually. I thought that story was true.


Are you sure about that? Try looking under 11th century Ismailis.

[stimpee]

I found both the normal trailer for Brothers Grimm and the new Quicktime 7 HD trailer version (2m30s) at the Apple Trailers (http://www.apple.com/trailers) site. Usually my first stop for any trailers.

Normal: http://www.apple.com/trailers/miramax/the_brothers_grimm/
HD: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/hdgallery/thebrothersgrimm.html

[adam]

Well, there's plenty of refutation of it, and plenty of people claiming that it's a widely believed myth, anyway. They sounded rather credible to me. I know that it's often credited as being factual though. Neat story, either way.

[b.miller]

Well, there's plenty of refutation of it, and plenty of people claiming that it's a widely believed myth, anyway. They sounded rather credible to me. I know that it's often credited as being factual though. Neat story, either way.

you mean Dan Brown was WRONG!!!???!?!?!

(heh)

[adam]

Here's some of what I had read previously on it - the refutations of it are harder to find that endorsements:

Now, there is in fact an Isma’ili sect called the Nizari that lies at the centre of the Hashashin myth. And there is also a famous leader of the Nizaris called Hassan i-Sabbah who established a stronghold at Alamut in the mountains south of the Caspian Sea in 1090. Other than building strongholds, the Nizari leader improved irrigation and cultivation and began sending religious emissaries to other Isma'ili communities spread out through the Islamic world. It is Hassan i-Sabbah that seems to be the contender for the title ‘Old Man of the Mountain’, but rather than being a drug pushing megalomaniac, he is described by one historian as “a strategist, an administrator and a thinker who led a highly ascetic life and enforced the sacred law of Islam very strictly throughout his community”. And as other historical sources suggest, the fanciful term ‘Old Man of the Mountain’, is likely to have originated from Western occidentalists, and may have been a mistake in translation, since ‘Old Man’ is the literal translation of ‘Sheikh’.

Now, it is from his stronghold in Alamut that Hassan i-Sabbah initiated a policy of armed revolt against the Seljuk rulers who were back by the Abbasid Sunni leadership in Iraq. Against the might of the Seljuk armies, the Nizaris adopted guerrilla style tactics in their armed struggle, a feature of which was the often open and spectacular assassination of religious or political enemies. But as one historian points out, they were not the inventors of the policy of assassination, nor the last group to resort to such methods, yet somehow any assassination of religious, political or military significance during the Alamut period was attributed to them.

So, it seems that on closer inspection the Nizari sect and their leader Hassan i-Sabbah were the victims of some political spin. There appears to be no evidence that the Nizari sect has ever endorsed the use of Hash or any other drug, and some writers suggested that rather than a drug reference, the word ‘Assassin’ simply stems from the 'followers of Al-Hassan'. In light of this, one has to wonder how such a fanciful story of the drug crazed Hashashin spread so pervasively. Rather than based on fact, it seems the drug association was a myth encouraged by the enemies of the Nizari. As Barnard Lewis, the famous Islamic History professor explains, the word Hashashin was “an expression of contempt for the wild beliefs and extravagant behaviour of the sectaries - a derisive comment on their conduct rather than a description of their practices”. These sentiments seem to be backed by other historians who attribute the Assassin legends not only to the general hostility of the Sunni Muslims towards the Isma’ilis and but also as a story taken up by Europeans as yet another fanciful impression of the Orient. And so ends today’s lesson in Middle Eastern mythology, hopefully you enjoyed it.

[myrrh]

Okay. You are saying the part about the hash didn't exist, which I could agree with you. I thought you were saying that the Ismaili's, Assassin's and Alamut didn't exist at all. That's why I was like WTF?

Anyway, just to mention something else as we go off the topic here, Bernard Lewis is probably the worst person to read from regarding Islamic History. Just thought I'd let you know.


Though there is that saying (to pull this back to Treatment):

"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."


Perhaps, they are still around. ;)

[b.miller]

i mean, you could always lie and say it's true anyway... like that movie King Arthur...

[adam]

And everyone loved that movie! Anyway, I quite like the untrue portion of it.