In the Future with Jessica Alba

[RebelMan]

Source: Edward Douglas/Comingsoon.net
September 29, 2005


24-year-old actress Jessica Alba has had a pretty crazy year, starting off in April with Sin City, leading into July's comic book blockbuster Fantastic Four, and now, tomorrow, she has Into the Blue, an underwater action thriller she shot with Paul Walker before she did either of those other two movies. It was the latter that brought Ms. Alba to New York, where she talked with ComingSoon.net about some of her upcoming projects.

Of course, most people will probably want to know what's going on with the progress of Sin City 2, the proposed sequel to the Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez crime noir movie based on Miller's graphic novels. "I talked to Robert, and he's doing some movie with Quentin (Grind House), where they're each writing half of a movie and then they use the same twelve people," she said. "He's doing that now and then I know he wants to do 'Sin City' after that, but Frank is like a big Hollywood star now. He's being offered all these things to direct and write. I had dinner with him, and he has some pretty damn cool ideas about Nancy, and I think he's going to write something for me. I mean, he said he was. Who knows until I see the script. He might do it as a graphic novel first and then release it simultaneously? I don't know."

Being comic fans, we wanted to know what "Sin City" creator/director/artist Frank Miller was like on the set and if he was different from other directors she's worked with. "No director is the same that I've ever worked with except for television directors. They're all similar…kind of," she told us. "There are some exceptions, but he's definitely an artist, yeah. I definitely get that he's an internal, crazed artist. He attaches everything emotionally to the back story of the character and why he or she do what they do and why they're saying what they're saying, and what that means. So he always approaches everything from a very emotional place. Robert would do that, but then be like 'I need you to cry out of that eye because that's the one we have in the angle and it matches the drawing." I'm like, "Okay, how do I cry out of my right eye? That's insane!" And then Frank would be like, "Nancy feels…" and then he would tell me the back story, so I somehow figured out how to cry out of the right eye. It was a nice marriage."

We also asked her about the rumors of her starring in a movie based on the '70s television show I Dream of Jeannie and whether that's something she really might want to do. "I've definitely met a couple times with Sony and we've talked about it. The script is just not in the shape that I would want it to be in if I was going to do it. I want to do the show and I want the charm of the show. I don't want to do a version of the modern thing. No. People want to see Jeannie, and so that's all the conversations have been about." Hmm. Maybe Ms. Alba is remembering this summer's Bewitched movie?

After a bit of persuading, she told us what type of actor she would want to play the Larry Hagman role of Major Nelson if a "Jeannie" remake ever happens. "It needs to be a two-hander. It needs to be a very strong leading man, who is funny and all the things that you love about Larry Hagman. He's beautiful and he's unassuming, and then you need to have a Jeannie, who's just a little spitfire, but is innocent and funny and wants to please her man." (Seeing that Alba is such a fan and with a line like that, how could anyone say 'no' to make a Jeannie movie with her?)

And what does Alba think of the success of the Fantastic Four movie despite the negative criticism of it on the internet? "Any negative buzz anybody had, they knew nothing about the comic book," she insisted. "They were comparing it to Batman. It's not dark. It's a fun, family comic book. That's the charm of it. It doesn't take itself seriously, and it's a little campy. That's why kids and parents can read it and everyone can get something from it. I know most of the reviews wanted it to be another movie. They didn't understand why the 'Fantastic Four' was successful, and they certainly didn't know anything about the comic books." (Actually, this writer disagrees with the previous statement, but being completely under Jessica Alba's spell made me forget how to disagree.) She confirmed that they are working on a sequel, but they aren't telling her anything about it.

She doesn't read comic books herself, although she admitted to reading them when she got the jobs. "I thought they were profound," she said when asked what she thought of the "Sin City" graphic novels. "I couldn't believe that I hadn't read them before, and I thought that I was missing out on the graphic novel world, because it's just so… graphic. I don't think my mind can ever go where Frank Miller's mind goes and having his illustrations with his dialogue. It's very old school and nourish. It's pretty incredible."

She also told us a lot about her next movie Awake, maybe even a little too much for those who don't like knowing everything about a movie before seeing it. She'll actually be moving to New York City for this Weinstein brothers project (yay!) with Hayden "Anakin Skywalker" Christensen and Terence "Hustle & Flow" Howard. "It's character-driven. I don't have to wear a bathing suit or chaps or a superhero outfit. I don't have to do any fighting." She told us about the premise for this independent film. "It's about anasthetic awareness, which is what happens when you go under for surgery, and they don't give you enough for your body weight. It's literally like a drop or two too little that makes this thing happen, and basically, your body is awake, like it should be, but your mind is awake. So you hear and you can feel the entire surgery, and you can't say anything. You can't talk, you can't move, you can't cry. You just have to suffer through it until it wears off, and it happens to people. It's like this huge epidemic that I didn't know about. After I read the script, I was having dreams about it and freaking out and having all these visuals of what it must be like in your mind, knowing that you have to suffer through hours of pain." Alba proceeded to tell us more about the story and the relationship between her and Christensen's characters—essentially they're engaged to be married when he has heart surgery—but you'll just have to wait and see the movie to learn more.

We also asked Alba about her own dream role, so all you ambitious producers with lots of money, please pay attention: "I think there's something fascinating about Mata Hari," she responded without hesitation. "She was kind of like an international triple-threat spy, who came from a mixed background, a Danish, Dutch-Indonesian background. She was kicked out of school for having an affair with a 90-year-old professor, which clearly didn't happen, but she was the only woman in the school, so they had to kick her out for some reason. Then she was a spy-stripper kind of. They don't really know why she was caught and killed, because they don't have any real evidence that she was a spy. I just think it's a very fascinating place."

After taking a deep breath, Alba ran off all the other projects and ideas she's been working on that are in various stages of development. "There are two action movies I'm attached to as a producer, and they've been in development for a year. One's called 'Sonic' and the other's called 'Beautiful Killer,' (also based on a comic book) and I would do one or the other if they ever got made. Then there's a romantic comedy that I'm attached to, an adaptation of a Korean movie that's in development, and then I'm developing a video game, which is a non-violent video game that can relate to people all over the world. There are seven or eight characters that you can customize. They're from different countries with different music and clothing styles. It's kind of a lifestyle video game and it's really cool, but it's still in prototype mode."

Alba's older fans whom have kids or plan to soon will also have something different Alba to look forward to. "I have a baby clothing line that'll be coming out probably in the spring," she continued, "and I'm going to give a portion of the money to charity. I'm a godmother of two healthy boys, so I've just been inspired by being a godmother—all my friends keep having kids so it keeps me from having to ever think about going there—but it's a lot of shopping for baby clothes."

Awake IS an Indie film, oh crap! I thought they were all about gay cowboys eatin' pudding?

Wow, to long for me to read right now, but i have to do it some time, thies articals are very intresting

Ok, read it and btw have they start filming Sin City 2?

[ October 14, 2005, 11:32 AM: Message edited by: DrolRevo ]