March 23, 2005

Zee Germans?

Posted by pete at March 23, 2005 11:30 AM

As if everyone else didn't need another reason to geek out over Natalie Portman:

Actress Natalie Portman impressed everyone on the Berlin set of her latest film V For Vendetta when she started speaking fluent German. Unlike many actors, who would be silenced by the language barrier, linguistic Portman, 23, immediately started communicating in the native language. A source says, "She just turned up one day talking German. It has made her very popular with the Germans on the crew." The Star Wars actress, educated at top American university Harvard, is fluent in Hebrew, French and Japanese, as well as German.

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm not one of those who slobbers over Miss Portman. I was an old man, in spirit if not body, when Leon came out, and have a hard time looking past the fact she's 13 years younger than I am.

But wait a minute, I hadn't heard they were filming V for Vendetta in Berlin. That seems...odd:

V For Vendetta explores how different life would be if Germany had won World War II.

Er, no it doesn't. V for Vendetta explores the motivation behind a Guy Fawkes-inspired terrorist's actions against the fascist goverment of Britain that ascends to power following WWIII.

Man, I hope the "alternate history" angle isn't how they're doing this.

I wouldn't worry too much about this. That IMDB news page always seems to contain dubious information at best. Many things that appear there are retracted or contradicted the next day.

--Chris

--Posted by Chris on March 23, 2005 1:35 PM

And here, my lame ass didn't even know they were filming V for Vendetta at all. And I would bet money that you have mentioned it here. I really have to quite buying nug.

--Posted by Grotesqueticle on March 23, 2005 4:40 PM

This is another movie that I can't wait to see...

--Posted by Tracy on March 23, 2005 4:55 PM

Oh for the love of jesus' balding dome.

I CANNOT BELIEVE that they're going to make Nazis the bad guys in V for Vendetta. That's so wrong it makes me want to KILL EVERYBODY NOW.

What the hell's next? V was created in Auschwitz? V's pointy hat is adorned with the Union Jack? The Veemobile??

I recognize that enjoying modern cinema is all about lowering your expectations, but this is ridiculous. Didn't Moore learn anything fro LoEG?

--Posted by HWRNMNBSOL on March 23, 2005 4:55 PM

I think he learned that adding "Secret Agent Tom Sawyer" (with his own theme music from Rush, naturally) was a gutsy, sassy, fantastic move.

--Posted by norbizness on March 23, 2005 6:56 PM

The "Germans win WWII" revision of "V for Vendetta" was cited in Variety a while back. I'm afraid the story may actually have legs.

More here:
http://www.comicon.com/thebeat/archives/2005/01/alan_moore_wach.html
http://www.comingsoon.net/news.php?id=7809
http://www.comics2film.com/ProjectFrame.php?f_id=444

--Posted by Karin on March 24, 2005 10:33 AM

I certainly have heard nothing that suggests that they're preserving much of the details of the story. Not being set in a fascist near-future Britain is probably indicative of how true to the book the movie will be.

I can only wonder how much of the terrorist-protagonist they're going to preserve. I can only assume that he's not ambiguous, they're definite about his origin, and he spends most of the movie with his mask off.

--Posted by (Cunning Alias) Not Greg Morrow on March 24, 2005 1:28 PM

I did not know that they were making a "V for Vendetta" movie. Now that I know, I hope that they or I die before it is released.

The one thing that gives me hope is that, in the interview I just watched, Joel Silver did not actually say "The Wachowski brothers opened up a copy of the graphic novel and took a giant dump all over it." But I can't imagine that's not what he meant to say.

--Posted by kodi on March 25, 2005 2:25 PM



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