Apocalypse Oz: The First Feature Film Mash-Up?
I suppose it was only a matter of time before the whole trailer mash-up phenomenon evolved to the next step: a full-length feature film mash-up. Apocalypse Oz is a movie constructed from a hybrid of the screenplays for Apocalypse Now and The Wizard of Oz, set in the present day. As the website explains, “It is not a spoof, a parody or a remake. While the film itself is an original production, it is based upon a radical reinterpretation and ‘remix’ of two well-known screenplays.” They also make note that there is no original dialogue in the movie at all, and apparently they’ve even got a name for this new genre of filmmaking: CineClash. There’s even a statement on the website from Francis Ford Coppola where he basically encourages young filmmakers to rip off those who came before them. What do you think, is this a cool idea that should be embraced by others, or just a gimmick by a newcomer who wants some attention? Check out the trailer for Apocalypse Oz over at the official site (linked below).
Comments (3)
I’ve actually not been following the trailer mashups but this is slightly interesting. What more interesting is that a director like Coppola is actually OK with this. I’m vaguely interested in the result.
Posted by Marina on December 21st, 2006It’s gimmick to be sure. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be an interesting experiment. I don’t know if it will start a trend and I sort of hope it won’t since “homage” and just flat out “ripping off” are two different things, mostly. The idea of sticking to the original dialouge sounds like the biggest aspect of the gimmick and I’m sure if it is to have a fun spree of a few films and filmmakers doing these kinds of projects they will need to come up with a Dogme ‘95 kind of list of rules and then the fun will be to see where they break them.
Posted by Ian on December 21st, 2006The trailer looked ok. Very Tarantinoish. I liked the idea of the mash-up but I wouldn’t like if everyone started doing it. It takes away from originality.
Posted by wolf on December 22nd, 2006Leave a Reply