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Movies editors Dawn Burkes and Holly Warren offer views, news and nuggets on all things movies.

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Babylon A.D. director calls movie experience "terrible"

1:54 PM Tue, Aug 26, 2008 | Permalink
Holly Warren

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If you were planning on seeing Vin Diesel's big summer movie this week, you might want to rethink your movie choice. At least, that's what the director thinks:

French director Mathieu Kassovitz, who cradled and loved his Babylon AD project for 5 years, is mad as hell at Fox. Citing terrible management, budget shenanigans, bad producers and partners, Kassovitz says making the futuristic tale starring Vin Diesel was a hideous ordeal. What went so wrong with Babylon AD that its own director and star call it "terrible"?
In the film, Vin Diesel plays Toorop, an ex-mercenary who is getting paid to transport an important girl from one end of the globe to another, while dodging enemy fire and hiding from the oppressive government. But according to Kassovitz, it should have been so much more. He worked on a project whose main point was to focus on refugee trafficking in a gritty tomorrow, as well as political issues like censorship and a declining educational system.

Read the rest of the post here.

So: Another case of an evil studio sucking the life and creativity out of a project to make it more marketable? Or a director with auteur visions for his Hollywood popcorn flick? Does this whole thing make you more or less likely to see the movie?

It doesn't sway me from my "maybe I'll catch it someday on Showtime" plan. If anything, it provides a little vindication for my belief that if the studio thought it was a great blockbuster, it would have come out earlier in the summer. And if it was a big think piece, it would find a home this fall. But the end-of-summer dead zone? Not a good sign.

Via io9

Views, news and nuggets on all things movies

Babylon A.D. director calls movie experience "terrible"

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