First Trailer For Mysterious Sci-Fi Film Europa Report, With District 9\'s Sharlto Copley

[Brendon Connelly]

It's been a good long time since I've had anything to share from Europa Report, but a new trailer for the film has rolled out tonight with all of the real mystery of a press release wrapped around a brick and thrown through the window.

There's also a viral site associated with the film, and the URL is cunningly hidden as a big caption that hangs around on screen at the end of this trailer.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/VBDXBfylo_k" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

But there is real mystery here. The real mystery is "What the hell is this about?" and that's cool. If I learned one thing from the marketing of Prometheus, however, is that I'm more than likely to see these mists of mystery wiped away before the film hits cinemas.

For now though, I'm happy with the page of Google search results that the viral site sends me to. That's teasing enough.

The presence of Sharlto Copley will do this film any amount of PR good in nerd circles, I think. The association with District 9 is definitely a positive one. I'll say that director Sebastián Cordero is interesting too, if mainly on the strength of his film Crónicas.

Hopefully we'll find out where and when we'll be able to see Europa Report soon. Feels like Sundance to me, on a hunch.

[moun10dew]

Didn't they already do the "Life on Europa" thing in 2010 a space Odyssey?

[Brendon Connelly]

Didn't they already do the "Life on Europa" thing in 2010 a space Odyssey?

Yep, more or less.

[tkioz]

Didn't they already do the "Life on Europa" thing in 2010 a space Odyssey?

Well to be fair, Europa has long been considered one of the better chances to house complex* extraterrestrial life in the solar system... IIRC it's tied with one or two others, with only Ganymede being far more likely to house complex extraterrestrial life.

*Complex in this case means more advanced then microbes not intelligent beings.

[_OM_]

Didn't they already do the "Life on Europa" thing in 2010 a space Odyssey?

...That was 2010: Odyssey Two, by Sir Arthur C. Clarke, one of the few people bestowed a Limey Knighthood that, save for the hoaxters who pulled that "Sir Art's a child molester" scam before he died, almost everyone on the planet actually believed he *earned* that honor. And not just for 2001 or 2010, but for pretty much every book he wrote - excluding those involving Gentry Lee, which were crap - as well as coming up with this rather obscure little concept involving satellites in geosynchronous orbit.

Oh. Yeah. There was also this film by Peter Hyams that "adapted" 2001 into 2010: The Year We Make Contact. Not a bad film on the first viewing, but it's the second viewing that a lot of the film's flaws show up. Especially all the EVA suits were these big, thick, standard Shuttle-issue spacesuits, whereas 2001 had these rather thin "squeeze box" suits, with intelligent helmets no less. YMMV on this film, but if you've already read the book, you've been warned...

[Death's Head]

I didn't think the film of 2010 was all that bad - plus, Helen Mirren! Woof!