Display MoreGreetings WingNuts,
The Wing Commander movie club is ready to turn in our collective multipass! We watched The Fifth Element last week and it's just as strange and beautiful an experience as many of us remember from our youths. It represents such a fascinating moment in our culture when such a strange, not-like-anything-else film could get a blockbuster budget and a huge theatrical release. Whether you're interested in discussing deeper meanings or if you just want a completely unique audiovisual experience it's one heck of a film.
We loved the movie but there aren't many Wing Commander connections to report! We talked all about the cinematography of Thierry Arbogast and his team in the intro post and it was certainly on full display here. There's no question that his incredible talents are what made this movie look so incredible… and they're a significant reason why Wing Commander remains so appealing, too! Here's Korben Dallas' taxi, which was shot using the same rig and crew as the Rapiers in Wing Commander… and also made of the same mix of CG and physical taxi set.
Here's a featurette that covers the creation of the cab chase… with a focus on the gimbal!
The spectacular taxi rescue sequence (and the general out there European science fiction world) reminded us a lot of Privateer 2. It turns out both projects were shot at Pinewood Studios in London, one after the other! The traffic scenes, which drew from the comic work of French artist Jean-Claude Mézières, are especially similar to the Anhur and Hermes transition shots that show similar masses of hovercars, trucks and buses.
We did find one more fun incidental Wing Commander connection: a brief appearance by the famous Double Shadow knife. The Double Shadow is a two-bladed knife which often appears in science fiction productions; Wing Commander know it as Seether's knife from Wing Commander IV. In The Fifth Element, Korben's neighbor is using it to shave when the police show up to arrest him!
Sully doesn't speak English or bad English.
