VARIOUS NOTES ON THE FILM:

From Empire Magazine (empireonline.co.uk):

Thunderbirds Is 'Tremendous'

20/06/2003

A month or so ago, Empire magazine interviewed director James Cameron and the subject of Bill Paxton came up. ''Someone like Bill Paxton or Arnold Schwarzenegger understands [the rigours of action movies],' he told us back then. 'They don't call that tough shit an adventure.They just call it Tuesday.'

Well it's now Friday and Empire Online caught up this morning with Mr Paxton en route to Dover Castle for a day out from filming his latest endeavour, the Thunderbirds movie. Ostensibly our talk was about his directorial debut Frailty, which is coming out on DVD in the UK this month but in-between we did manage to find out a little bit more about Thunderbirds which he's been shooting with director Jonathan Frakes at Pinewood.

'I've got one more day left on Thunderbirds,' Bill told us. 'It's going to be tremendous. You heard it from me first.'

'Thunderbirds is about the International Rescue and The Hood and in a way it's got an innocent charm � great action and great scale and great characters. To me it has an old-fashioned, retro set of ethics � I feel like it's going to be embraced as a breath of fresh air as far as a big family movies go.'

'But when I say family friendly, I don't mean homogenised. This thing has got something for everyone and I mean that in a great filmmaking way. I think it's got to be a tour de force. It's great to see the five brothers running together and all that. It's got a lot of integrity, but it has an innocent charm that I haven't seen in films in a while.'

Was he a fan of the original TV show? 'It was a cult curiousity. Something I think I watched more as camp amusement � it wasn't big when I was a child growing up in Texas. It was never widely syndicated in the States.

So what can we expect from the tone of the film? Well it seems like it's a homage to Sixties Britain. 'Everything was coming out of London in the 1960s � the music, the fashion, the great actors. That's kind of what Thunderbirds is celebrating � the 60s � but not in an Austin Powers kind of way.'

And we hear there are going to be some massive action sequences, namely one set on the Thames. ''Oh god, there's several,' he sighs happily. 'This thing is big, big, big.'

So big, in fact, that there's already a teaser trailer for Thunderbirds in existence which previewed in London last night ahead of the Hulk press screening. Our sources at UIP say it's a very early test, with no word yet as to whether it will accompany The Hulk when that's released in the UK next month.

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From the Daily Mail, June 6, 2003:

THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!

FIVE, four, three, two, one . . . Thunderbirds are GO! Again. The mammoth hulk of Thunderbird 2, the green transporter, rests on hydraulic legs in a Pinewood sound stage. Close by are life-size versions of the Mole, the Firefly and the laser-firing Thunderiser.

When I visited the set of the live action film of the cult Sixties TV show, I'd been expecting miniature models of the various International Rescue vehicles. But they're huge! I feel ten years old again as I sit in the cockpit of T2 and look over the command and control room on Tracy Island.

In the film, some of the action takes place on Thunderbird 5; John Tracy's in big trouble when meteors batter his craft. Then there are problems on the Tracy family's south sea island when it is infiltrated by vengeful villain The Hood, who has wicked plans for the Thunderbird machines.

Director Jonathan Frakes spent weeks auditioning unknowns for the roles of the Tracy brothers and Lady Penelope, but contacted name actors for other roles. Bill Paxton plays billionaire Jeff Tracy, who runs International Rescue with four of his five sons.

The story is told through the eyes of youngest son, Alan, 15. 'It's about him gaining his spurs and winning the key to one of the Thunderbirds,' said Tim Bevan, who is producing the movie with Working Title partner Eric Fellner. American Brady Corbet plays Alan. His screen siblings are being played by Philip Winchester (Scott who pilots T-1); Lex Shrapnel (John, co-ordinator of space monitor T-5); Dominic Colenso (Virgil, T2 operator,); and Ben Torgeson (Gordon the aquanaut).

As the FAB Lady Penelope, Sophia Myles rides in a pink limousine (now a Ford Thunderbird, not a Rolls-Royce). Ford helped John Beard's production team design the vehicle. "It still has six wheels and a glass top but it's more futuristic," said Beard.

Technically the cast, including Anthony Edwards as Brains, Ben Kingsley as The Hood and Ron Cook as Parker, are the stars of the $60 million film - but Beard and his design colleagues are the superstars. As Kingsley observed: "The scale of it is awesome. Everywhere you go on set there is something moving on a video screen, or a console lights up, or you can actually drive one of the vehicles. It's really great!" During my visit, Dominic and Lex had to strip and be wrapped in clingfilm. "It's so they can make bodycasts to ensure the costumes fit," Dominic said. He doesn't add that it will also help the marketing people to design the toy action figures.---Baz Bamigboye

Copyright 2003 DAILY MAIL Financial Times Information Limited

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Pricey 'Thunderbirds' a Go in Britain

Fri May 16,12:58 AM ET

By Stuart Kemp

LONDON (Hollywood Reporter) - Clad in an astronaut's uniform for his lead role in "Thunderbirds," a live-action version of the 1960s cult TV show, Bill Paxton (news) was taking a break between takes.

In between bites of cold cuts and salad, the actor, seen recently in "Frailty," was joking with one of the movie's two lead producers.

"Back to work," producer Mark Huffam ("The Hours") says to Paxton.

"Time is money," Huffam winks.

Paxton, who is playing Jeff Tracy, the head of the Tracy family and their top-secret International Rescue organization, laughs. "Man, gotta go," Paxton says. "Since I produced my first movie ("Traveler"), I know what the pressure is like."

Donning his fake microphone headset, Paxton took one last bite and sauntered over to the set of Thunderbirds Two, one of five key vehicles -- the others range from a rocket to a space station -- in the movie, which is being directed by Jonathan Frakes ("Star Trek: Insurrection").

Paxton is aware that in his current role, he is taking on a character beloved around most of the world -- with the exception of the United States. Never mind that the character was originally played by a puppet. The "Thunderbirds" TV series achieved cult status in the United Kingdom, Australia and Japan even though its Space Age toys and vehicles weren't always built to scale and the leading actors were made of wood.

What Paxton might not know is that "Thunderbirds" has the largest budget -- at $50 million-plus -- that the successful British production company Working Title ("Johnny English") has ever toyed with. At its height of activity at Pinewood Studios, the Working Title production is spending about $250,000 a day and employing more than 200 construction specialists across eight stages.

Fully backed through the outfit's financing deal with Universal Pictures, the gamble is that the movie version of "Thunderbirds" -- which has been more than seven years in development -- will become a box office success story despite not being a well-known property in the United States.

Working Title co-chairman and producer Tim Bevan, who brought the property into the firm, took a break from the set to explain his team's approach.

"The decision we've made is that the puppet show doesn't exist as far as the U.S. is concerned," Bevan says. "It's just a great idea for a movie and has all the eye candy necessary for a terrific family film."

The movie follows the Tracy family and their International Rescue organization, which operates from a secret island. The family of five sons -- Virgil, John, Gordon, Scott and Alan -- travels around the world carrying out covert missions. In the film, they face evil archcriminal the Hood, played by Oscar winner Ben Kingsley ("Gandhi").

The picture has gleaming rescue craft, lots of action and adventure and, unlike the TV series, no strings attached. The moviemakers are approaching their big-budget pressures with a relaxed attitude, with Universal chairman Stacey Snider and president of production Scott Stuber -- who've both visited the set -- backing them all the way.

"It is very easy to be overwhelmed while on the set of a movie like this," Bevan says. "But we know that in six months' time, we will be looking at a monitor in a room, and all these people will be gone. It will be our fault for not saying anything while shooting, and there will be no one else to blame if it doesn't work."

The team is aiming to make an out-and-out family adventure film, and the studio is backing that strategy. "A project that puts the script and story first in a family action-adventure movie is rare," Frakes says.

Let's just hope that this time around on "Thunderbirds," there is no wooden acting.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

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From Matt Fleming, Daily Variety Matt Stone and Trey Parker plan Supermarionation parody film: "Our cast will be deliberately made of wood, but that will only be taking to the extreme what is evident in many Hollywood movies right now," said Stone. "I hate all these new Hollywood films that are CGI-driven. Trey and I loved that 'Thunderbirds' series because of the artistry of the marionettes. It's amazing that a studio would make a movie out of it and take out the only thing that was good about the series."

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Bill Paxton wasn't an especially illuminating narrator in James Cameron's Titanic documentary "Ghosts of the Abyss" ("Oh my goodness! Just look at that! Wow!"), but in the flesh he's much more specific. Asked how he avoided injury while filming so many action movies, Paxton � who's just wrapped shooting on Thunderbirds - dropped his trousers, hitched up his boxer shorts
and revealed some of the nastiest bruises this side of Goodfellas.

(Catherine Shoard/Telegraph, June 2003)

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The studios aren't wasting any time staking their summer 2004 claims with a rash of costly effects extravaganzas and sequels: monster mash Van Helsing, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Vin Diesel in the Pitch Black sequel The Chronicles of Riddick, Shrek 2, Spider-Man 2, Will Smith in Isaac Asimov's I, Robot and the TV remake Thunderbirds. As toymaker Sylvester Stallone intones in Spy Kids 3-D:
"This childish game will soon be over. And a new game will soon begin."

(The Observer, June 1, 2003)

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Thunderbirds Trashed (From Dreamwatch Magazine by way of Sci-Fi.net)
25/06/2003

With the feature version of classic puppet programme Thunderbirds being heralded as the next big kids' film and the teaser trailer turning more than its fair share of heads, now would usually be the time for the studio to wheel out the man behind the original series to give the film his official endorsement. Well don't hold your breath because while Gerry Anderson has sat and watched his brainchild flourish into a Hollywood behemoth, he�s far from convinced it will survive the transition.

"I was really quite prepared to [support the picture] in my own way, but they wanted me to enthuse over it," Anderson told Dreamwatch's David Bassom. "And then I saw [Lady] Penelope's new car, which was published in the papers, and I thought it was a monstrosity! I thought if that's the kind of thing they're doing, how can I possibly support the picture? Could I lean against the car and have my picture taken and say, 'Isn�t it terrific?' I couldn't do that."

Starring Bill Paxton and directed by Star Trek veteran Jonathan Frakes, Thunderbirds is a CG-enhanced, live-action reimagining of the series and will see the Tracy family battling the evil genius of criminal mastermind Aristotle Spode, who sets out to take over Tracy Island.

Now far be it from us to doubt the sincerity of Anderson's reservations (the man created Captain Scarlet and Stingray for Chrissakes) but could there be a hint of sour grapes here? Publicly announcing his wish to be involved with the film in a consulting role early on, Anderson confirmed that his guidance was, in fact, never sought by the studio. "It's disappointing for me, and I have a feeling it's going to be disappointing for them as well. For example, there's no way I'm going to go to the premiere unless things change." We wouldn't advise waiting by your mailbox for an invite either. The full interview with Gerry Anderson can be found in the latest issue of Dreamwatch magazine.

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Kingsley Flies To T-birds

(Sir) Ben Kingsley---who plays the villainous Hood in the upcoming Thunderbirds---told SCI FI Wire that the movie adaptation of the '60s TV show warrants first-rate talent. "We're making a film of quality," Kingsley said at a press conference during production at Pinewood Studios near London. "So it's not an out-of-kilter thought to bring the best possible cast together to tell this pure story of the struggle for a boy's soul, and to present this tale to children in the brightest, clearest and most fantastic way possible."

Kingsley plays a villain who wants to undermine the Tracy family International Rescue team by infiltrating their island home to steal their high-tech rescue vehicles, the Thunderbirds. The task of saving the family and the Thunderbirds falls to the youngest son, Alan Tracy, played by Brady Corbet.

"I think we're dealing very much with the rite of passage of a 14-year-old boy, who is damned and blessed with heroic parents, one of whom is dead, and one of whom is a world hero," Kingsley said. "It's pure, mythological, rich stuff."

Kingsley added that his own family influenced his decision to join the Thunderbirds cast. "I have three sons," he said. "My 14-year-old son, I said to him, 'I have been offered the role of Hood in Thunderbirds,' and he said, 'Dad, you're going to have to do it.' He has a Thunderbirds alarm clock." Kingsley described the countdown recognized by all Thunderbirds fans. "When the alarm goes off, it's 'Five, four, three, two, one ... .'" Thunderbirds are "GO" in summer 2004.

More to come!!!