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(I searched around the board for mention of this, but didn’t see anything.)

Anyways, I’ve run across bits of information about Dario Argento’s newest film, Giallo, and wanted to see what the more experienced of you with the genre thought about it. 

There is already an IMDb page set up for the film.  Some things from there:
- Looks like the screenplay is going to be written by Jim Agnew and Sean Keller.  I’ve never heard of either of them, and haven’t see anything they’ve worked on, so I can’t really comment on that.
- Attached cast at the moment is Asia Argento, Ray Liotta, and Elsa Pataky.  The IMDb does not list this, but I’ve also heard rumors of Vincent Gallo possibly being in it.
- Giallo will be filmed in English, and one site said something to the effect of, “It’s Dario Argento’s English homage to the genre he is most known for.”

So I was wondering what some of your thoughts were on this project.  I’m certainly too new to the genre to have much of an opinion, but if it’s popular enough, I could see this having a similar effect that Grindhouse had on that particular genre (namely, a large amount of insta-fans arguing that they liked it before it was cool while amazingly completely missing the point of the genre altogether).

Top notch post Will.
I heartily agree and was pretty upset by this because like you said all this is going to do is drag copious amounts of idiocy to my FAVORITE para-cinema genre.
I love Giallos and if what we think is going to happen.. does…. well let’s just say that there will be hell to pay from F13

Cinema Diabolica, DEFENDING THE HOMELAND SINCE 2007

I thought a lot of Italian films were filmed in English and dubbed later - at least the older movies.  Isn’t that how all kinds of Brit and American actors show up in the movies with their actual voices while others are more awkwardly dubbed?

So filming in English is hardly revolutionary.  And I think Ray Liotta will work for food. He’s at that stage in his career.

The main thing that worries me about this is that the last Argento movie I saw, The Card Player, was pretty much crap. I don’t want to see him put out another crap movie, but I’m at least intrigued by this.

I don’t see this film bringing a lot of attention to the genre. It’s not like Tarantino’s making a Giallo - I just don’t see a lot of mainstream movie fans suddenly becoming interested in what Dario Argento’s doing. Maybe a few horror fans who know his name or have seen Suspiria will feel the need to check out some of the old Giallo films, but I don’t see why that’s a bad thing.

Not sure about contemporary films, but I don’t think the Italians normally shot with sync sound.  I remember seeing some DVD extra with an American, maybe Jessica Harper on the “Suspiria” dvd but not sure, talking about how different it was shooting a scene with part of the crew just a few feet out of frame, hammering away at a set for an upcoming scene.  While I love the bizarre stupidity dubbing adds to some ‘80s Italian flicks, it also makes it impossible to take anything seriously.  This was a huge problem for me watching the dubbed version of “The Third Mother,” particularly with Asia’s horrible vocal acting, and helped reinforce the silliness of a lot of the movie than I would have liked.  Argento should avoid shooting in English and dubbing all together.  It’s not like this would hurt his box office take in the States as his films don’t even open here, and I would think the majority of his audience would be up for the chore of reading to see one of his films.

OliverOnions - 20 March 2008 09:51 AM

Not sure about contemporary films, but I don’t think the Italians normally shot with sync sound.  I remember seeing some DVD extra with an American, maybe Jessica Harper on the “Suspiria” dvd but not sure, talking about how different it was shooting a scene with part of the crew just a few feet out of frame, hammering away at a set for an upcoming scene. 

She also said that there were scenes where each of the actors might be speaking their lines in a different language, so she’s speaking English, someone else is speaking Italian, someone else might be speaking French, and it all gets dubbed into the same language later.

as far as Vincent Gallo, I’d heard he was out of the project as he had a falling out with Asia a few years back and doesn’t want to work with her again(cry baby).. I’m hoping this will be good, but I’ll be inevitably let down I’m sure..

i seriously hate vincent gallo

F13 - 19 March 2008 10:35 PM

Top notch post Will.
I heartily agree and was pretty upset by this because like you said all this is going to do is drag copious amounts of idiocy to my FAVORITE para-cinema genre.
I love Giallos and if what we think is going to happen.. does…. well let’s just say that there will be hell to pay from F13

Yeah, I’m kind of afraid of that, too.  But I think working in a video store when Grindhouse was first coming to theaters probably has a lot to do with why I’m so apprehensive.  For example, our video store sent out a list of films we were supposed to display on a “Grindhouse Films” stand.  Mingled in with some of the more appropriate films like Thriller and The Wizard Of Gore were things like Critters, Army Of Darkness, and (seriously) The Sting.  And there were the elitist customers who came out of the woodwork to constantly proclaim the greatness of grindhouse films, even though I’d never heard them say a word about grindhouse in my previous year-and-a-half working there.  Ugh ...
So my fear might be unfounded and completely irrational.

matimus_ does bring up a good point, though.  An Argento giallo doesn’t have the marketing pull of a Tarantino grindhouse, so the two situations probably aren’t even comparable.  On a more optimistic note, maybe this film will be great, or at the very least breathe some new life into giallo films.  Maybe it could even spur some sort of neo-giallo movement?

I love Gallo.  Buffalo ‘66 is a blast.  Unfortunately, he dropped out because he used to date Asia and apparently…it didn’t end well.

And yeah, a lot of Italian productions didn’t shoot with sound at all and dubbed the dialogue in later.  That’s why Italian actors in Fellini films often had that little flap of the lip that gave them the appearance of having spoken in another language.

casting update(Adrian Brody, Emanuelle Seigner, etc)