UNIVERSAL SOLDIER (Roland Emmerich, 1992)

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Re: What is the last movie you watched?

Postby viendammage on 15 May 2013, 09:21

Jox wrote:
viendammage wrote: he was whisked away to a green room after the screening.

I bet...!

Emmerich had nothing but good things to say about his experience making Unisol. He had quit the Carolco, Stallone led, Isobar after 9 months. Mario Kassar was impressed with his willingness to walk away and offered him Universal Soldier which was running into pre-production problems. Emmerich asked to keep the general concept and the two stars but discard everything else. Kassar agreed and Emmerich got to work with Dean Devlin to bang out the new story. It had to come in under $20 million even though $7 million had already been spent. Emmerich was all smiles talking about Unisol, how it was first time he was in charge of a big production, everything went smoothly, it was a big success and launched his and Devlin's career.

Sounds better than his two superficial commentaries he did with Devlin (2001 UK + 2004 US special edition) where they're in between a good memory and making fun of it or at least dismissing it like a low budget embarrassment.

Mario Kassar was impressed with his willingness to walk away and offered him Universal Soldier which was running into pre-production problems. Emmerich asked to keep the general concept and the two stars but discard everything else. Kassar agreed and Emmerich got to work with Dean Devlin to bang out the new story. It had to come in under $20 million even though $7 million had already been spent.
I believe neither Carolco, Dolph or Jean-Claude were too happy about the first script and Andrew Davis's approach (who was in pre-production for it during one year). One Emmerich got on board, Devlin wrote a script in a month or two, the production was rolling, to start shooting only a few months later...


Ha, here it is! I would love to see some of the stuff Carolco was working on during it's demise. Like Cannon before them they were in bed with so much talent and were prepping 100 movies at the same time.
I kick ass, or kiss ass... and I'm busting heads! http://viendammage.blogspot.com/
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Re: UNIVERSAL SOLDIER (Roland Emmerich, 1992)

Postby Jox on 16 May 2013, 12:39

savagesketch wrote:Jox, have you seen the original script? Do you have any idea on its story, characters, etc.? How much different is it than the later finished product? I'm now extremely curious...

CRYSTAL KNIGHTS wasn't used for long, it was referring to the first script "bio-armor" concept.
"They also had self generating armour. That's why they were called 'The Crystal Knights'. When they sensed danger their adrenal glands would kick into high gear and produce a sweat that would harden into a diamond hard body armour that had the appearance of a many faceted diamond like crystal covering their entire body. The reason this was abandoned was because at the time no one had the CGI technology to pull this off within the budget.",
said writer Chris Leitch in my interview. It was renamed UNIVERSAL SOLDIER pretty much when JCVD and DL got attached.

I haven't read the original screenplay unfortunately (only have two drafts of Devlin's script). I interviewed on of the writers but he wouldn't tell me much about it. It has nothing to do with Devlin and Emmerich's story's except for the "super soldier" concept. I'm kicking myself because I did read the story around late 1990 on French Minitel (internet's ancestor) but I lost all trace of it... I think Dolph's character was named Thompson and also was the leader of UNISOLS going after JCVD's character (who was was not a UNISOL).

Exclusive and unknown fact is that Arnold was first attached to do it in the mid- to late 80s (scripts must be from around '86) but he wouldn't approve one of the two writers Richard Rothstein to direct it.

Here I collected quite some informations about it (please browse the site there's tons of facts that most don't seem to have read):
http://www.dolph-ultimate.com/dolph-in/universal.html
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Re: UNIVERSAL SOLDIER (Roland Emmerich, 1992)

Postby Jox on 20 Jun 2013, 12:12

German steelbook
unboxing video

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Re: UNIVERSAL SOLDIER (Roland Emmerich, 1992)

Postby Jox on 25 Jun 2013, 20:56

Test review of the new German steelbook Blu-ray
http://www.looki.de/universal_soldier_n ... 681_1.html

Bonus features wise it's a more complete edition as this does feature the 2004 extras, alternate ending PLUS this additional and rare 15 mins behind the scenes 1991 footage that was only released in the UK special edition DVD of 2001 (but it still lacks the 6 mins vintage featurette, TV spots and the Ice-T / Bodycount music video):

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Re: UNIVERSAL SOLDIER (Roland Emmerich, 1992)

Postby Jox on 01 Jul 2013, 13:31

Down in fourth place this weekend, White House Down, which stars Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx, suffered the worst inflation-adjusted opening weekend of a big-budget Roland Emmerich movie since the Jean-Claude Van Damme / Dolph Lundgren star vehicle Universal Soldier back in 1992 — more than two decades ago.
At 1,916 theaters, Universal Soldier scored $10.05 million on its first weekend out, the equivalent of about $19 million today, according to figures found at Box Office Mojo. Sony Pictures’ White House Down, for its part, took in an estimated $25.7 million from 3,222 sites — including $1.35 million from Thursday evening shows — this weekend, June 28-30, 2013, scoring $7,976 per venue, a mediocre figure for such a big-budgeted, high-profile movie.

http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/white-h ... ing-tatum/
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Re: UNIVERSAL SOLDIER (Roland Emmerich, 1992)

Postby Tom on 02 Jul 2013, 00:47

What they could have pointed out was that the budget on WHD is probably 5 times more than Unisol's was.
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Re: UNIVERSAL SOLDIER (Roland Emmerich, 1992)

Postby Jox on 17 Jul 2013, 00:58

A little souvenir of Arnold visiting the set in 1991 (photos courtesy of JCVD biographer Philippe Graton):
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Re: UNIVERSAL SOLDIER (Roland Emmerich, 1992)

Postby Jox on 17 Jul 2013, 09:35

Call sheet from the barn fights "reshoots"/"additional footage pick-ups" in March 1992

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Re: UNIVERSAL SOLDIER (Roland Emmerich, 1992)

Postby Mosquito on 02 Aug 2013, 00:17

Now that's a cute photo. How young they were.
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Re: UNIVERSAL SOLDIER (Roland Emmerich, 1992)

Postby Jox on 12 Aug 2013, 17:26

Teaser & theatrical trailer recreated in HD and original cinemascope 2.35:1 aspect ratio



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Re: UNIVERSAL SOLDIER (Roland Emmerich, 1992)

Postby Sgt.AndreaScott on 15 Aug 2013, 12:56

Jox wrote:Image

Damn, he looks fuckin' cute on this pic. It's a nice shot, I've never seen it before. Will add it to my ever growin' collection... :mrgreen:
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Re: UNIVERSAL SOLDIER (Roland Emmerich, 1992)

Postby Jox on 27 Aug 2013, 23:36

Image
The redent German steelbook looks nicer and less DNR-altered than the U.S. edition or the previous German one, it sounds it also features an alternate commentary, the first Emmerich and Devlin recorded in 2001 plus the 15 mins behind the scenes B-roll.

comparison with U.S. disc
http://caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergleiche/m ... 53#auswahl

comparison with older German edition
http://caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergleiche/m ... #vergleich
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Re: UNIVERSAL SOLDIER (Roland Emmerich, 1992)

Postby Jox on 12 Sep 2013, 14:55

Roland Emmerich interview on U.S.:
"I kind of directed it"
http://www.ign.com/videos/2013/09/11/ro ... al-soldier
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Re: UNIVERSAL SOLDIER (Roland Emmerich, 1992)

Postby shooby on 30 Sep 2013, 18:33

http://www.expendablespremiere.com/univ ... ldier.html

I think the real star of this movie is Dolph Lundgren. He takes the villain role to heart and makes it memorable by acting deranged in every scene. I love that his necklace made of severed ears is constantly pointed out in case the audience somehow forgot that he was a psychopath or didn’t notice it the first three times.
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