Posters and Images from Director Juan Solanas’ Sci-Fi Romance ‘Upside Down’

Some people like to think that their one true love is waiting for them somewhere on the other side of the world. In his upcoming film, Upside Down, Argentine director Juan Solanas is taking that idea to an interesting extreme.

The movie, which merges science-fiction with romance, tells the story of a man, Adam (Jim Sturgess), who pines for the love of Eve (Kirsten Dunst), a women he once met long ago in another world. The twist is that the other world isn’t some unknown planet, but rather an inverted world in the sky that has its own gravity. (In essence an Upside Down world, as the title implies).

The core conflict of the movie is as old as time: star-crossed lovers fight to be together, despite overwhelming odds. However, Solanas’ interesting premise (the lovers are not just separated by class, but quite literally by the laws of physics) makes this film much more intriguing. Setting aside the plot, just consider how interesting the film might look.

In addition to its award-winning director (Solanas directed the  innovative short film The Man Without A Head), Upside Down boasts a talented production crew that includes Production Designer Alex McDowell (Watchmen) and Supervising Art Director, Michelle McGahey (Dark City, The Matrix). If these early images are any indication, the team has gotten off to a fine start in bringing this upside down world to life.

Check out the first images of the film, which come our way thanks to the French blog Into the Screen (via io9), as well as two posters for the movie. You can click the top two images for higher resolution versions. Check out the official synopsis for the film after the images.

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Look up towards the sky and rub your eyes because you won’t believe what you see: cities, forests, and oceans with their own inverted gravity, only an arm’s length away, yet completely unreachable. Take a leap over to this alternate reality, two worlds – one above, one below- facing each other, and you’ll land in the extraordinary world of Upside Down, the new ground-breaking film of Juan Solanas, the director of the innovative Cannes and César-prized short film The Man Without A Head and heartbreaking 2005 Cannes film Nordeste.

Adam is a seemingly ordinary guy in a very extraordinary universe. He lives humbly trying to make ends meet, but his romantic spirit holds on to the memory of a girl he met once upon a time from another world, an inverted affluent world with its own gravity, directly above but beyond reach… a girl named Eve. Their childhood flirtation becomes an impossible love. But when he catches a glimpse of grown-up Eve on television, nothing will get in the way of getting her back… Not even the law or science!

Upside Down will likely hit theaters sometime in 2012. We’ll keep our eyes out for any additional images from this interesting-sounding film until then.

Source: Into the Screen via io9

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‘Mars Needs Moms’ Trailer: A Sci-Fi Flick For The Kids

Readers familiar with Berkeley Breathed’s charmingly off-kilter comic strip Bloom County will be pleased by the news that Walt Disney Pictures has adapted one of the writer/illustrator’s other works, Mars Needs Moms, into a feature-length motion picture.

Disney has unleashed the trailer for its adaptation of Mars Needs Moms, but did the cleverly warped story from Breathed really need to be brought to life via Robert Zemeckis’ motion-capture technology?

The premise behind Mars Needs Moms is simple, but fun: Nine year-old Milo (Seth Green) learns the hard way about how important his mom (Joan Cusack) is when she’s kidnapped by Martians who are, for whatever reason, suffering from a shortage of maternal types. Milo teams up with a “tech-savvy, underground earthman” by the name of Gribble (who, as played by Dan Fogler, acts like Jack Black’s long-lost brother) and an alien gal called Ki (Elisabeth Harnois) to rescue his beloved parent.

Zemeckis produced Mars Needs Moms, which uses the same performance-capture techniques as his films Polar Express and A Christmas Carol -- hence how the 36-year old Green is able to physically portray a kid about 1/4th his age. But has Zemeckis’ mo-cap technology improved enough to avoid being negatively compared to that of James Cameron’s from Avatar?

Watch the Mars Needs Moms trailer below and find out:

Mars Needs Moms looks to pander far less to the under-10 crowd than next month’s Yogi Bear, but the 3D sci-fi pic is still very much for young moviegoers. The plot and characters seem satisfactory, if not especially memorable, and the trailer at least doesn’t go overboard with the pop culture references (aside from the obvious Star Wars homage), which bodes well for the film.

While the performance-capture animation is a vast improvement over that in The Polar Express, it still is weak, judging by this early footage. The characters’ expressions just look off, unnatural, and distract from the rest of the visuals on display, which are otherwise colorful and realistic enough in their own right.

It’s possible that Mars Needs Moms will benefit from being viewed on the big screen and that the characters’ features will look less wax-like. What do you think?

Mars Needs Moms hits 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D screens in the U.S. on March 11th, 2011.

Source: Walt Disney Pictures

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