Posted on 12/02/2002 11:04:08 PM PST by vikingchick
If you were assigned to make a fantastical 20-hour, 10-part series about alien encounters, you'd think you'd concoct the freakiest, funkiest extraterrestrials ever conceived.
Not so.
Not if you're making "Taken," the alien-abduction saga that premieres at 9 tonight on cable's Sci Fi Channel.
"Steven said we had to respect the lore," says Jim Lima, the project's visual-effects supervisor. "We had to be faithful to what was said the most by people who had encounters."
Steven is Steven Spielberg. He is not only one of the most powerful people in entertainment, but also the man who gave the world "E.T." and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." The man who can green-light so many projects gave birth to this one four years ago. It's on cable because no network could commit such a massive chunk of its prime-time schedule.
Because of Spielberg's decree, the aliens in "Taken" are rather standard issue: gray, about 4 feet tall, long fingers, skinny bodies, oversized heads with huge black, almond-shaped eyes. Spielberg scored with the acclaimed World War II miniseries "Band of Brothers" on HBO, and now he's out to see if an audience will stay with 10 two-hour, movielike episodes over two weeks.
The series follows three American families - the Clarkes, Keys and Crawfords - over four generations, from 1945 to the present day and slightly beyond.
It pays homage to major alien encounters reported in America's postwar history, including the most pivotal event: the supposed crash of a spaceship near Roswell, N.M., in July 1947.
"It's the coolest thing that I've ever seen," says Tobe Hooper of the series. Hooper directed the pivotal first episode (each episode has its own director). Hooper knows about "cool," not to mention strange, having directed "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" and "Poltergeist" (co-written by Spielberg).
Although it was up to Hooper to integrate "the grays" into the story, it was the Earth-bound humans who received most of his attention. The director said he was hooked because the story was so character-driven.
"I liked that it wasn't sci-fi-y," he says on the phone from his home in Southern California. "It was like the real thing."
The real thing begins in the skies over Germany during World War II. Capt. Russell Keys (Steve Burton) is leading an Allied bombing mission. His bomber gets hit and is headed down in flames but is saved by some mysterious blasts of blue light. He and his crew are mysteriously healed and wake up in a field in France. But who really saved them and what was done to them after they were "taken"?
Keys returns home to a sepia-toned America to reunite with his parents and his best girl, something out of "The Best Years of Our Lives."
"I tried to give the characters that subtext, to give it that Norman Rockwell feel," says Hooper.
Hooper said no expense was spared.
"We had 60 locations and more than 60 actors. I had every lens, every cinematic toy," he says. And he had Lima.
The visual-effects guru, who had worked previously with Spielberg in television on "SeaQuest DSV" and "The Others," also had created outer dimensions for films such as "Space Jam" (he also designed the Green Goblin for "Spider-Man.")
"It was like doing 10 movies," says Lima on the phone from his home in Pacific Palisades, Calif. "We had 16 months of production. In my earliest discussions with Steven, he explained that science fiction is 'Minority Report.' Science mythology is UFO sightings, close encounters of the first kind." (Close encounters of the second kind are defined as physical evidence; close encounters of the third kind are alien sightings.)
Lima used a cavalcade of computer-generated digital tricks; there are no puppets or animatronics. But there is a human element. He took a digital photograph of his wife's eye, enlarged it, stretched it out, colored it and used that for the aliens' eyes.
"The iris is still in there," says Lima. "I wanted to show thought, to have these digital characters show emotion."
The grays also can take human form and read minds.
If "Taken" is groundbreaking for its length and visual effects, it also must set some sort of record for script-writing. Les Bohem wrote the entire 20 hours. A former member of the band Sparks, Bohem ("Dante's Peak") emphasizes the human relationships and family interplay.
The ensemble cast includes Catherine Dent, Joel Gretsch, Eric Close, Ryan Hurst, Matt Frewer and Michael Moriarty as the stern colonel who covers up the initial Roswell crash in tonight's episode. Some characters span several nights. Eight-year-old Dakota Fanning (the daughter in "I Am Sam") narrates all 10 episodes and appears in the final four.
Her voice is at once innocent and filled with wisdom.
"It's very much 'To Kill A Mockingbird,' " says Hooper. "It has that sensitivity, that kind of elegance."
As for the phenomenon itself - the long lists of people who claim to have been abducted, poked and prodded by aliens and returned to Earth - Hooper says he has studied it more than half his life. He finds it valid.
"I'm definitely a believer," says Hooper. "There's something out there."
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
coconnor@plaind.com, 216-999-4456
The other thing different so far, seems to be the piece of metal tracking device or recorder. That's a plus for Spielberg, unless I missed this in another movie..
sw
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Since the series is now set in present day time, obviously he was referring to President Bush. (Who sent me a very nice post card from Crawford! No kidding!)
She is quite talented. I'm looking forward to seeing how the series ends.
I caught that too. I guess he had to get a swipe in.... oh well.
I was sort of surprised, given the anti-gun tilt of hollywood, the one of the best "good guys" in the series was a hunter who kept a rifle on a rack in his pickup truck.
I've never seen that one, but I remember a Lost in Space episode where evil aliens create a fake San Francisco Chinese diner that Dr. Smith had been to. They read his mind to trick him into believing he was back on Earth.
Yep, she made it all up. Should have got the clue when the soldiers Mother appeared with a plate of Toll House Cookies to lure him into the craft. Now, how would the Aliens have known That?
Catch the first half before the show starts again tonight, if you haven't already.
You guys are great. Spielberg has taken a Black General, obviously a Democrat, who can't accept Bush as President and his Commander In Chief. Figures, sigh.
When the Astronauts landed on Planet X in Twilight Zone, they were being mentally lured by sweet memories of home, into a very horrible ending, which we never saw but could only magine. Not an unusual plot.
Spielberg is recreating many past events, but I guess there's only so much you can do when it comes to Aliens?
So how's it all gonna end up? Hummm? Maybe the little girl and parents go off in that Silver Spaceship and the loading "has begun..(I loved that song, LOL)..OR they are kind and wonderful and simply take back the piece of metal that gives her all her powers and telepathy. That simple. The end...LOL.
sw
The general referred to Bush as "Junior" last night. I got the distinct feeling it was an anti-Iraq remark. But they were equally rude to JFK during the Cuban missile crisis, so I can't say it is completely partisan.
My bet: the girl will leave with the aliens. They are not here for any particular purpose other than exploration.
The 90s were when the shadow agency built up its ability to track every movement of every citizen. The president was not mentioned because he was busy.
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