Let’s be honest, what’s your all-time favorite dragon movie? Is it Dragonslayer? Dragonheart? Q: The Winged Serpent? Maybe it’s an animated feature like How to Train Your Dragon or Raya and the Last Dragon? No matter what your answer is, the unpopular opinion remains, Rob Bowman’s 2002 popcorn flick Reign of Fire is one of the most underrated movies featuring the mythic fire-breathing beasts. Never mind the fact that the flick boasts a lowly 39 Metascore and 42% Rotten Tomatoes score, the grim dystopian world-building, excellent visual effects, and big-d*ck swinging performances from Matthew McConaughey and Christian Bale remain a ton of fun to behold. Of course, Reign of Fire had the misfortune of running into the far more potent cinematic behemoth, Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, which largely overshadowed the movie’s mild commercial success and eventually relegated the film into obscurity at worst,...
- 1/11/2024
- by Chris Bumbray
- JoBlo.com
From fire-breathing beasts to benevolent nature spirits, dragons are present in the myths of nearly every single culture. And while popular media has mostly defaulted to traditional western fantasy drakes instead of exploring the extensive mythology behind East Asian and even Central American dragons, it makes sense that there’s an overabundance of stories featuring these legendary reptiles.
Fortunately, there are still some innovative storytellers willing to come up with fresh takes on familiar monsters, and one of my favorite draconic reinventions happens to be Rob Bowman’s post-apocalyptic creature feature Reign of Fire, an underrated early 2000s gem that was only a couple of drafts away from greatness.
While the end result was undoubtedly a product of its time, the story behind Reign of Fire begins in the mid 90s with an unrecognizable spec script written by Kevin Peterka and Gregg Chabot. This early version of the story followed...
Fortunately, there are still some innovative storytellers willing to come up with fresh takes on familiar monsters, and one of my favorite draconic reinventions happens to be Rob Bowman’s post-apocalyptic creature feature Reign of Fire, an underrated early 2000s gem that was only a couple of drafts away from greatness.
While the end result was undoubtedly a product of its time, the story behind Reign of Fire begins in the mid 90s with an unrecognizable spec script written by Kevin Peterka and Gregg Chabot. This early version of the story followed...
- 8/23/2023
- by Luiz H. C.
- bloody-disgusting.com
Reign of Fire
Written by Gregg Chabot & Kevin Peterka
Directed by Rob Bowman
UK, Ireland, USA; 2002
Batman, The Man With No Shirt, and a bunch of dragons walk into a post-apocalyptic bar. If not a decent joke, that should at least make for a solid movie, right? In the not-so-distant future, a British mining team drills too far into Earth’s core and awakens a nest of hibernating dragons, who proceed to thank all of humanity by killing everything in sight. Much of Reign of Fire plays out like an environmentalist’s nightmare: the planet is a scorched marble, billions are dead, and any remaining survivors have been reduced to disparate factions warring over land and dwindling resources.
Quinn Abercromby (Christian Bale) heads one such faction from an old castle, vowing to defeat the winged beasts after one took his mother’s life — a sentence that might otherwise sound ludicrous...
Written by Gregg Chabot & Kevin Peterka
Directed by Rob Bowman
UK, Ireland, USA; 2002
Batman, The Man With No Shirt, and a bunch of dragons walk into a post-apocalyptic bar. If not a decent joke, that should at least make for a solid movie, right? In the not-so-distant future, a British mining team drills too far into Earth’s core and awakens a nest of hibernating dragons, who proceed to thank all of humanity by killing everything in sight. Much of Reign of Fire plays out like an environmentalist’s nightmare: the planet is a scorched marble, billions are dead, and any remaining survivors have been reduced to disparate factions warring over land and dwindling resources.
Quinn Abercromby (Christian Bale) heads one such faction from an old castle, vowing to defeat the winged beasts after one took his mother’s life — a sentence that might otherwise sound ludicrous...
- 1/28/2013
- by David Klein
- SoundOnSight
Legendary’s Waterproof, got stuck in pre-production limbo for several thousand years is now in the hands of new writers – Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, writers of Saw 4, 5, 6 and 7 have been hired to do a rewrite.
Back in Aug. 2009, Legendary Pictures had tapped Christopher Weekes to rewrite Waterproof, the family actioner in that time, which Enchanted helmer Kevin Lima should direct.
Now comes word that the horror writing duo Melton and Dunstan will turn Waterproof into a supernatural thriller.
Legendary reportedly picked up Waterproof as a pitch from Gregg Chabot and Kevin Peterka, who took the first stab at penning the script which revolved around a man who unwittingly unleashed a cadre of mythological creatures upon his town.
But now the story centers on a teen boy who accidentally unleashes monsters on his small town after finding an order form in an old comic book.
The films, no doubt, are...
Back in Aug. 2009, Legendary Pictures had tapped Christopher Weekes to rewrite Waterproof, the family actioner in that time, which Enchanted helmer Kevin Lima should direct.
Now comes word that the horror writing duo Melton and Dunstan will turn Waterproof into a supernatural thriller.
Legendary reportedly picked up Waterproof as a pitch from Gregg Chabot and Kevin Peterka, who took the first stab at penning the script which revolved around a man who unwittingly unleashed a cadre of mythological creatures upon his town.
But now the story centers on a teen boy who accidentally unleashes monsters on his small town after finding an order form in an old comic book.
The films, no doubt, are...
- 9/26/2012
- by Nick Martin
- Filmofilia
Legendary Pictures has hired Christopher Weekes to rewrite Waterproof , the family action film that Enchanted helmer Kevin Lima will direct, reports Variety . The project revolves around a man who unwittingly unleashes a cadre of mythological creatures upon his town. Legendary initially picked up Waterproof as a pitch from Gregg Chabot and Kevin Peterka, who took the first stab at penning the script. Weekes first attracted attention for his script The Muppet Man , a fictional account of the final days of Jim Henson.
- 8/12/2009
- Comingsoon.net
"Small Voices" (Mea Munting Tinig), a Phillipine drama about impoverished schoolchildren, was the big awards winner at the Eighth Annual Palm Beach International Film Festival, which concluded April 5. The film was named best feature and also won the best director award for its producer/director Gil M. Portes and took home screenplay honors for its script, written by Portes, Adolfo B. Alix, Jr. and Senedy H. Que. Jonathan Bennett was named best actor for his performance in the prep school drama, "Season of Youth", and Lynn Redgrave was singled out as best actress for her role as a woman living in a fantasy world in "The Annihilation of Fish". Other awards were chosen by a jury comprising journalist Luke Sader, Sony Pictures' Terry Tharpe and writer Gregg Chabot.
- 4/11/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Is Robin Hood set for a return to the big screen - with Russell Crowe playing the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham? Top screenwriters Gregg Chabot and Kevin Peterka have already pitched a role in the planned film to Christian Bale, who stars in their latest movie Reign of Fire. They also want Boogie Nights actor Philip Seymour Hoffman to play an overweight Robin in the film, which will be set 10 years after the Robin Hood story traditionally ends.
- 7/15/2002
- WENN
While the prospect of nasty flame-spewing dragons turning contemporary London into toast holds considerable, CGI-enhanced promise, "Reign of Fire" ultimately fails to come through in the fire-breathing clutch.
Despite an intriguing setup, during which director Rob Bowman ("The X-Files") creates an effective brooding menace, and muscular performances by Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey, the crucial action sequences are disappointingly choreographed, failing to generate the necessary crowd-stirring heat.
Lacking that edge-of-the-seat dramatic tension, it's unlikely this Touchstone Pictures release will be burning up the summer boxoffice, though it could have a sizzling opening weekend.
With 1996's "Dragonheart" and 1981's "Dragonslayer" among the better efforts, the genre was certainly ripe for revisiting, and "Reign of Fire" certainly looked to have the goods, starting with the post-apocalyptic setting.
The story starts off at a present-day London construction site, where 12-year-old Quinn (Ben Thornton), who's visiting his engineer mom (Alice Krige), inadvertently awakes a sleeping, fire-breathing giant from a centuries-old slumber.
Fast-forward a couple of decades and thousands of reptilian offspring later, when most of the world has been reduced to a pile of ash and the adult Quinn (Bale) serves as fire chief and guardian to a small community of survivors holed up in a medieval castle.
Keeping a constant eye on the sky for signs of the next dragon attack, Quinn appears to be fighting a losing battle, and his people are losing faith in his leadership.
Enter manic Van Zan (McConaughey), a gung-ho American fighting machine accompanied by his ragtag team of dragon-blasting "archangels" who has a more proactive approach to problem at hand -- one that involves tracking down and eliminating the evasive, lone male dragon that keeps managing to fertilize all those eggs.
Although Bowman, who also directed the film version of "The X-Files", is good with layering on all the atmosphere, the picture lacks that visceral, heart-pounding threat of an "Alien" or even "Jurassic Park".
And while McConaughey, something of a cross between Jesse Ventura and Robert Duvall's napalm-loving "Apocalypse Now" character, and the righteous Bale act their hearts out in a bid to keep things grounded in some sort of reality, the scripting (credited to Gregg Chabot, Kevin Peterka and Matt Greenberg) is neither clever nor campy enough to get away with some truly smirk-enducing dialogue.
Thanks to some state-of-the-art, three-dimensional work overseen by visual effects supervisor Richard R. Hoover, the creatures sure look impressive, but their CGI-generated fireballs appear flatly phony by comparison.
Production designer Wolf Kroeger's vision of a charred London, on the other hand, is pretty nifty. Not so cool are composer Edward Shearmur's loud, crashing orchestral explosions that tend to drag on (sorry) endlessly.
REIGN OF FIRE
Buena Vista
A Touchstone Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment presentation
Credits:
Director: Rob Bowman
Screenwriters: Gregg Chabot, Kevin Peterka, Matt Greenberg
Story: Gregg Chabot, Kevin Peterka
Producers: Richard D. Zanuck, Lili Fini Zanuck, Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum
Executive producer: Jonathan Glickman
Director of photography: Adrian Biddle
Production designer: Wolf Kroeger
Editor: Thom Noble
Visual effects supervisor: Richard R. Hoover
Costume designer: Joan Bergin
Music: Edward Shearmur
Cast:
Van Zan: Matthew McConaughey
Quinn: Christian Bale
Alex Jensen: Izabella Scorupco
Dave Creedy: Gerard Butler
Jared Wilke: Scott James Moutter
Young Quinn: Ben Thornton
Karen Abercromby: Alice Krige
Running time -- 100 minutes
MPAA rating -- PG-13...
Despite an intriguing setup, during which director Rob Bowman ("The X-Files") creates an effective brooding menace, and muscular performances by Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey, the crucial action sequences are disappointingly choreographed, failing to generate the necessary crowd-stirring heat.
Lacking that edge-of-the-seat dramatic tension, it's unlikely this Touchstone Pictures release will be burning up the summer boxoffice, though it could have a sizzling opening weekend.
With 1996's "Dragonheart" and 1981's "Dragonslayer" among the better efforts, the genre was certainly ripe for revisiting, and "Reign of Fire" certainly looked to have the goods, starting with the post-apocalyptic setting.
The story starts off at a present-day London construction site, where 12-year-old Quinn (Ben Thornton), who's visiting his engineer mom (Alice Krige), inadvertently awakes a sleeping, fire-breathing giant from a centuries-old slumber.
Fast-forward a couple of decades and thousands of reptilian offspring later, when most of the world has been reduced to a pile of ash and the adult Quinn (Bale) serves as fire chief and guardian to a small community of survivors holed up in a medieval castle.
Keeping a constant eye on the sky for signs of the next dragon attack, Quinn appears to be fighting a losing battle, and his people are losing faith in his leadership.
Enter manic Van Zan (McConaughey), a gung-ho American fighting machine accompanied by his ragtag team of dragon-blasting "archangels" who has a more proactive approach to problem at hand -- one that involves tracking down and eliminating the evasive, lone male dragon that keeps managing to fertilize all those eggs.
Although Bowman, who also directed the film version of "The X-Files", is good with layering on all the atmosphere, the picture lacks that visceral, heart-pounding threat of an "Alien" or even "Jurassic Park".
And while McConaughey, something of a cross between Jesse Ventura and Robert Duvall's napalm-loving "Apocalypse Now" character, and the righteous Bale act their hearts out in a bid to keep things grounded in some sort of reality, the scripting (credited to Gregg Chabot, Kevin Peterka and Matt Greenberg) is neither clever nor campy enough to get away with some truly smirk-enducing dialogue.
Thanks to some state-of-the-art, three-dimensional work overseen by visual effects supervisor Richard R. Hoover, the creatures sure look impressive, but their CGI-generated fireballs appear flatly phony by comparison.
Production designer Wolf Kroeger's vision of a charred London, on the other hand, is pretty nifty. Not so cool are composer Edward Shearmur's loud, crashing orchestral explosions that tend to drag on (sorry) endlessly.
REIGN OF FIRE
Buena Vista
A Touchstone Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment presentation
Credits:
Director: Rob Bowman
Screenwriters: Gregg Chabot, Kevin Peterka, Matt Greenberg
Story: Gregg Chabot, Kevin Peterka
Producers: Richard D. Zanuck, Lili Fini Zanuck, Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum
Executive producer: Jonathan Glickman
Director of photography: Adrian Biddle
Production designer: Wolf Kroeger
Editor: Thom Noble
Visual effects supervisor: Richard R. Hoover
Costume designer: Joan Bergin
Music: Edward Shearmur
Cast:
Van Zan: Matthew McConaughey
Quinn: Christian Bale
Alex Jensen: Izabella Scorupco
Dave Creedy: Gerard Butler
Jared Wilke: Scott James Moutter
Young Quinn: Ben Thornton
Karen Abercromby: Alice Krige
Running time -- 100 minutes
MPAA rating -- PG-13...
- 7/12/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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