Could There Be A Dark City 2? Maybe… But Not From Fox
By Brendon Connelly/March 11, 2009 2:37 am EST
Here’s Mr. Proyas tossing us his concept for a Dark City Deux:
Power corrupts – always a good theme because it will always be true. Despite the clear quality of City part one, I’d be slightly wary of this sequel, however – and particularly if Proyas makes The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag too. There’s only so many slices to be taken from the one cake, I feel, and these three films would very possibly end feeling a little too close for comfort.
I always thought it would be intriguing to have Rufus, who was the hero in the first one, be the bad guy. He should turn nasty because he’s got unlimited power. That’s something I’d like to explore.
During a web video chat yesterday, Proyas was drawn on the subject of I, Robot and the studio suits that did their best strangle it in the womb. Proyas declared that he’s “warned people off” of working with Fox, that he’d “never again” enter into a deal with them and that they are “a really bad studio”. Proyas does understand the nature of industrial film production – “Filmmaking is a business, it’s not just an art form as much as we’d like it to be” – but he also understands that the studio need to admit art to their party as much as, if not more than, the creatives need to admit the pooper suits to theirs.
I’m very intrigued by Knowing and I’m sure that even if the narrative explanation of how and why the prophetic mcguffin exists ends up short changing the audience – which isn’t a given, of course - the film is still going to deliver on other counts. At the very worst, I’d expect Knowing to be compromised but not crippled. Like I, Robot before it, I suppose, and even the theatrical cut of Dark City.
Even with one leg lopped off, Proyas films’ can hop faster than most other event films can run so, frankly, I’m not worried one bit.
And… er… with Proyas chatting left, right and centre, why is Garage Days never coming up in any of these conversations? Are none of these interviewers interested in anything that isn’t sci-fi or fantasy based? Tsk.
