The first time Brendan Fraser and director Eric Brevig worked together, they made Journey to the Centre of the Earth 3D, and it turned a m. budget into 0m. at the box office.
The pair are now going to be re-teaming for William Tell: 3D, Deadline report, the tale of the classic Swiss folk hero with incredible aim who shot an apple sitting atop his son’s head with a crossbow.
Now a few years into the 3D technology revival/regeneration/however you’d like to describe it, you could arguably say that there’s less of a need to question why a film’s going to be shot in 3D. But nonetheless, I can’t see a very big need for this to be in 3D. Of course, there’s going to be the arrow shot, but that’s about it.
Still, even though he’s not been in many films lately that I’ve loved, I maintain that Fraser is a great actor, and would point you towards his roles in things like The Mummy, The Air I Breathe, and his few episodes in Scrubs. And Brevig has a lot of potential going for him too. Though his own directing efforts, Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Yogi Bear, haven’t been quite to my taste, he’s earned himself two Oscar nominations to date for his visual effects work on Hook and Pearl Harbor, and he was also second assistant director on Men in Black and The Island.
So for me, this project, written by brothers Chad and Evan Law, has a bit of a question mark over it at the moment. It’s being pitched as a family action film, which isn’t necessarily my cup of tea, but it could definitely be something the kids will enjoy, and could quite possibly be a bit of a guilty pleasure for us older types, a bit of harmless fun. We’ll see how the project shapes up, with shooting expected to begin in Romania and Switzerland in mid-March next year.
