I tuned into the Oscar’s too late to see Mel Gibson’s anticipated address via satellite from Mexico (did it happen?!), but here’s the latest on Apocalypto from TIME, which was given “an exclusive peek at the filming for a story to appear in a forthcoming issue.” Some highlights:"I wanted to shake up the stale action-adventure genre,” Gibson told TIME . . . “So I think we almost had to come up with something utterly different like this."And:
A last observation: when TIME asked Gibson if the movie's depiction of human sacrifices could cause a stir among the "politically correct", Gibson's response is not that of what you might expect from your typical conservative Catholic, ack. And don't think the media didn't pick up on that one: see here.Apocalypto promises some surprises. The film, which Gibson co-wrote with first-time screenwriter Farhad Safinia, is an allegory about the collapse of civilizations – with warnings about environmental abuse and political fear-mongering, not the sort of thing to comfort conservatives. And the obvious care that has been taken with costumes, sets and the dialect-correct language suggests the kind of cultural attention filmdom has rarely if ever accorded the Mayas, who were the Greeks of the New World.
If you haven’t seen the trailer, visit the film’s website here.
(Image from Cinemablend.)