Two Werner Herzog video clips in one day! While I was looking around on Youtube I came across a trailer for The Wild Blue Yonder, Werner Herzog’s unusual mix of documentary and science-fiction that’s both hard to catagorize and hard to find ANY information about. FINALLY we get a look at what exactly is going on in this film. (well sort of…) Here’s a synopsis from the official website:
The film follows a hypothetical proposition: a group of astronauts are circling the earth in a spacecraft, but they cannot return, as our planet has become uninhabitable. The cause of this remains open – all-out war, outbreak of a new disease beyond control, radiation after the complete disappearance of the ozone layer, or whatever. The crew of the spacecraft has to find a more hospitable place out there in space, and releases a probe from their cargo bay, Galileo. But Galileo – after sending back very disquieting data – has to be sent on a suicide mission…
The film stars Brad Dourif (awesome) as an alien visiting Earth, talking directly to the camera about his home planet, The Wild Blue Yonder. It’s a crazy mix of staged footage, real interviews with Nasa scientists and actual Nasa film footage. We also get a mix of footage from Antarctica (doubling as the alien planet) shot by Grizzly Man composer Henry Kaiser. The trailer sets the film up as a unique film experience along the lines of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Oddessy. Part sci-fi, part documentary…a combination that we’ve seen in a few other Herzog documentaries. (Lessons of Darkness, Fata Morgana) Check out the trailer below and let us know what you think in the comments section. Me personally? I’m quite excited.
An experience like 2001: A Space Oddysey? I know I’m biased but that’s pushing it a little…
I don’t think it’s fair at all if you watch this movie expecting it to resemble 2001. It’s too far out, even for a strange german like Werner Herzog…
Man… 2001 is a can of worms. I don’t think anything will ever be quite like it. I can’t imagine anybody wanting to try either.
I’m probably a retard for posting that comment before I saw the trailer but it took forever to load…
I don’t have to reiterate how big a mistake I think it is to actually mention those two movies in the trailer. I suppose you could say it shows confidence… But don’t compare yourself to Kubrick.
The synopsis sounds good though, and the one shot of Brad Dourif looks like it’s shot in Denmark with all the windmills… I’ll be in the arthouse to watch this.
I don’t think the trailer is comparing Werner Herzog to Stanley Kubrick…they are worlds apart. I think it’s simply stating that watching The Wild Blue Yonder will be a similar film experience. Afterall, I think we can agree that watching 2001 in some cases is more of an ‘event’ then most other films. Almost like a ride by the end of it. I guess The Wild Blue Yonder is shooting for an equally visceral experience. Should be interesting!
Werner might be a God, but God needs to work on his credit sequences……