To become a Netflix film by Vincenzo Natali (Cube, Splice, Haunter)

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Gerald

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In the Tall Grass is quite a long title for Natali, since (next to a lot of tv-episodes of various series) he's done mostly films with one word titles: Elevated, Cube, Cypher, Nothing, Splice, Haunter, Tremors. But considering Cube (still his best regarded film, I think) I can see why he is attracted to this story: it his a similar premise of people having to escape from a closed-off space that defies the regular rules of nature.

Stephen King Adaptation 'In The Tall Grass' Headed to Netflix

(Sorry, made a mistake in the thread title, it's actually called Cube, not The Cube.)
 

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In the Tall Grass is quite a long title for Natali, since (next to a lot of tv-episodes of various series) he's done mostly films with one word titles: Elevated, Cube, Cypher, Nothing, Splice, Haunter, Tremors. But considering Cube (still his best regarded film, I think) I can see why he is attracted to this story: it his a similar premise of people having to escape from a closed-off space that defies the regular rules of nature.

Stephen King Adaptation 'In The Tall Grass' Headed to Netflix

(Sorry, made a mistake in the thread title, it's actually called Cube, not The Cube.)

I fixed the title for you.
 

Gerald

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...I've not seen Cube-I apologize.....but some more origin would be welcome.....

We already discussed the rock at length in some thread, but I always felt it was more like a sacrificial place than something from outer space. The whole story had that Children of the Corn vibe of sacrifice for me.

To keep it in line with his other one word titles Natali can always call it 'Grass', or would that sound too much like a film about weed and hippies?
 

Gerald

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This seems like one that could be done on a very low budget, I'm assuming it's gonna be a short film?

Full length I would say.

Basically you could do it very cheaply - all you need is a piece of road, a field of high grass and a rock. But I assume they'll try to make it visually interesting, show the way the field plays with people's minds and perceptions in a filmic way, which is gonna be interesting because it's kind of hard to imagine how to do that. Natali talks about the field as a kind of maze.
Plus I suppose they'll add more story to it. The story as it is offers too little for a full film.

I think the best one to compare it to is 1408. An even shorter story, also about a small environment that plays tricks on the protagonist's mind. And still they managed to make it into a full film that doesn't have a weak moment anywhere.
It's a little bit too much to hope it will be as good, but just as a comparison.
 

Gerald

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I take it everyone has seen the trailer? It looks terrific. The church that was mentioned in the story seems to play a bigger part in the movie. In fact it looks like the church may be there BECAUSE of the rock in the field. Hopefully we find out more about what the rock is and why it is there.


Actually it comes out on October 4th, which is World Animal Day!
And the story involves people eating their pet!
 
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Gerald

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I liked it a lot. Although it didn't feel as gruesome as the novella.

As I always felt the rock didn't come from space, it just had always been there. In the end it remains very hard to decide what it really is about though. Why the rock needs humans to come in there all the time remains rather unclear. There are carvings of humans in the rock though, which seems to indicate at one time these were done by people. Maybe some balance was upset, since the rock was at the perfect centre of everything and was not to be disturbed. Since there is no sign in the film of any real villainous being of monster, it feels almost like it was something people have done to themselves: since they disturbed the rock an endless cycle was set in motion.
But that's all just speculation, it is not really said anywhere. I wonder with a story like this whether King or Hill actually know what it is about, or care. They may have just liked the basic idea and not thought about any explanation. There are more stories which really don't lead to anything or make sense in the end.

Good film though, it made the most of it. I liked the new ending too. There are not so many horrorfilms with a happy ending, or semi happy ending. So that's always a nice thing every now and then.
 

Dana Jean

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I thought this was very good, BUT I have not read the source material to be able to judge one against the other.

To make grass, mud, dirt, water a character unto themselves was Art. I thought it was done very artistically and realistically.
 
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Gerald

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Not that it truly anwers questions (there aren't real, definite answers), but here are a lot of thoughts about the film:


I also felt that there was a Lovecraftian feel to it, to the film more than the story. Mostly because of the chanting on the music track, and the idea of something ancient bending realities. But still the film doesn't feel outspokenly Lovecraft to me. There is also some Native American sounding music during the end titles, which gives me this feeling of 'a balance' in nature that was disturbed.

I think this one of those endlessly fascinating concepts, like Picnic at Hanging Rock (which also in the end seems to have to do with a disturbance or bending of time).