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Zack Snyder, Gore Verbinski, Guillermo del Toro Directing Heavy Metal Segments?

by Alex Billington
September 4, 2008
Source: rgbFILTER

That Heavy Metal movie that David Fincher's putting together that was first announced back in March has been in the news quite a bit the last few days, not all of it good. The first bit of news surrounds the film's studio switch from Paramount to Sony. At first there was no official reason for the switch, but SlashFilm discovered that it was actually Paramount's on-going fight with David Fincher over Curious Case of Benjamin Button that was the inciting incident. In a separate update today, rgbFILTER (via SlashFilm again) posted an interview with Kevin Eastman, where he mentions that "Fincher is directing one, Guillermo del Toro wants to direct one, Zack Snyder wants to direct one, Gore Verbinski wants to direct one." Three new exciting names to add to the list makes this another hot project yet again.

Regarding the studio change, Eastman, who owns the Heavy Metal magazine, told The Playlist that Paramount said "'until you step up to do what we want you to do with Benjamin, we're not going to greenlight any other of [your] movies.' And David said, 'Fine, fuck you, I'm going to set up [Heavy Metal] somewhere else,' so we jumped over to Sony and set it up there." If Fincher does get a total of 9 fantastic directors to each put together a segment for the film, this may be a bigger loss for Paramount than they initially thought. The film was described as an R-rated, adult-themed feature obviously inspired by the cult magazine's erotic and violent storylines and images. That brings us to today's update on directors.

In a separate interview, Eastman told rgbFILTER that "we have a $50m budget, we're doing a full-blown production" before mentioning a few more directors. We previously confirmed that David Fincher, Kevin Eastman himself, and Blur Studios' Tim Miller were all directing a segment for the film. Now Eastman says that Zack Snyder, Gore Verbinski (of the Pirates of the Caribbean films), and Guillermo del Toro are all interested as well. With Guillermo's schedule full until 2017, I don't think he'll be able to participate. So that leaves around 3 or 4 more spots left to be filled by other directors. And if these previous five turn out, then I think Heavy Metal may end up being the new cult classic that I think we were all hoping to see. Does this sound like an interesting animated project to you?

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http://movieguyreviews4u.blogspot.com Ryan

It sounds pretty cool but what is up with BENJAMIN???? Also, I didn't know this was animated, I think this would benifit being live-action.
JL

I haven't seen Heavy Metal or Heavy Metal 2000. Would you recommend them to someone who liked the Animatrix and shows like Cowboy Bebop? The fact that Verbinski, Snyder, and del Toro are interested in the upcoming project intrigues me.
Lawrebnce

She is sexy~~`Many her pictures can be found at Richromance s. c om where she has a profile. Is she still a single?
Xerxex

#2 JL yes Heavy Metal and H.M. 2000 I highly recommend these fims, especially if you you like Cowboy Bebop (as do I). I can't wait to see what these directors have to bring to the table.
Kail

Not gonna make ANY money. If this movie happens, it will crash and burn at the box office. Why? Because adult animation lost it's zazz a long time ago, when Bakshi did Fritz the Cat, now there was something bankable because it hadn't been done before. Now half of the cartoons out there are for adults, not very shocking any more, therefore, not very bankable. It doesn't matter if they got Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick, Stephen Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Francis Ford Coppola to direct segments. As we saw with Grindhouse, no matter who directs a movie, if it isn't mainstream fodder, it will not do well.
Roy

Kail, you have NO clue. Look at long Adult Swim has been on "Cartoon Network". Look at shows like The Simpsons and Seth McFarlane's work. If adult-oriented animation isn't cool, color me nuts.
JL

Cartoons started out as adult-oriented satire in newspapers. The yellow kid, for instance. Ever hear of that, Kail? What about the original bugs bunny? Seth MacFarlane and Matt Groening are just continuing that kind of work. I agree that some of it gets by on shock value. However, some things will never lose their edge because they are relevant, clever, and funny.
Moviegimp

Heavy Metal is a cult classic. Great animation, great music, great everything. Heavy Metal 2000 was good but not a classic. Made by Kevin Eastman and his model wife just because he owns Heavy Metal magazine. The first, it sounds like this will be too, was done by different people with short stories tied together by one story running through the whole thing. HM2000 on the other hand was all one story. Hopefully this will be like the former and not the later. If so I have high hopes. Wonder which bands will do the sound track, heavy metal isn't really as popular as it was even in 2000. Good points on Groening and MacFarland but this is real adult animation, read nudes and bad language. If you have never seen Heavy Metal go rent it! HM2000, you might want to rent. Lastly, for number 1, live action? have you ever read HM magazine, I'm thinking the answer is no.
John

Loved this movie when it came out. Even had that exact Tarrna poster hanging on my wall. I would prefer they do this live action because doing it as a cartoon hinges on basically a remake of a classic which I hate.
Kail

Hey now everyone stop bad mouthing me because you don't know WHAT you're talking about! I'm not saying it won't be popular, I'm saying it won't make MONEY! #6 - Have you noticed that adult swim IS well liked by kids, but the aqua teen hunger force movie came in at number 11 at the box office it's first weekend? And your examples are all TV shows, TV and Cinema are two COMPLETELY different mediums, more people watch TV then they do go to the movies, it's a fact, and more minors watch adult animated tv shows than can get into an adult animated movie. #7 - Now I must say that I agree that it all originally started out as being for adults back in the day and then animation became kids stuff, I have no idea the point you're trying to make because that's IRRELEVANT to what I said, I'm not saying this is gonna be a shit movie because I feel exactly opposite that, I'm saying it's not gonna make money because very few people will go see it. If any of you actually knew the business then you would agree with me. Cinema is a very different medium than home video and television because it actually takes an amount of effort to go to the theater, pay $11.50, and buy candy and a soda for $10 when you KNOW you can get it down the block for $2. Home video and television take no effort because you don't have to go anywhere to watch a DVD or watch Cartoon Network, and nobody is gonna tell you you CANT watch Family Guy or The Simpsons because of your age, unless you have strict parents. The reason why I said this was not going to do good is because the last R-Rated adult animated film that was released to theaters was South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, which was 10 years ago might I add, and that only did well because South Park was a hit on TV because of a mix of controversy and clever dialogue and jokes. Heavy Metal does not have that on it's side. You can't compare Heavy Metal to Family Guy or The Simpsons because Heavy Metal is more akin to Japanese anime then american cartoons because it's so violent and sexual. This is going to be R rated, there is no getting around that, and R rated films typically don't do as well in theaters in general, this is an animated movie. Ever notice how movies flop at the box office yet make a killing at the home video department? Because people look at trailers and say they'll wait for it to come out on DVD if it doesn't look good enough. That's just how it works. This will probably be good, but because of what it is, it'll only do good on DVD. In conclusion, I'm pretty excited for it, and I will infact see it opening night.
Timothy M. Nolan

Del Toro, Snyder, Verbinski, this might turn to be interesting I can't wait. rumor has it that Rob Zombie is also interested doing a segment.
Timothy M. Nolan

whoops I forgot to add Fincher also, who rude of me. We finally get some good visionary filmmakers in a project like Heavy Metal. Now they need next is the perfect cast of actors, maybe one or two big names but the rest should voice acting professionals