Let me throw some other titles at you then: "The Shadow", "The Phantom", "Dick Tracy"..... audiences really dont like that 30's/40's timeframe for their fantasy films......

i think their reaction is going to be the same as mine upon seeing the ads: "oh, cartoon classics again. ho hum". the novelty of computer animation wore off long ago.

it might not be as big of a bomb as "gigli", but i'll be very surprised if its not of similar megatonnage

I heard the "Indiana Jones" movies managed to make a few bucks portraying that time frame....

JohnP- Yep, you're right about too many "Z" models, but it could have been an E with that blue & creme paint...LOL I hated that they flew the planes on wire, insted of using Ken Flaglors "Z" replica that DOES FLY! Maybe Delmar Benjamin's Gee-Bee R2 and then John McCulloch's 110 Special Clipped-Wing Monocoupe, and the entire EAA's classics too.

BTW- X-Plane.org has some cool vintage planes you can download and fly with their simulator(GB-R1, R2,E, travelaire R, some beech Staggerwings and 2 Monocoupes, including Lil' Butch!!)
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Also- I LIKED the period as done in Phantom, Rocketeer, and Tracy, and others. unfortunately, many young set directors and the like are NOT familiar enough with the various periods to make it convincing. Any time I see shipping Pallets in a pre-WW2 era setting I know they are wrong. pallets were not in use very much until then, same with forklifts.

Let me throw some other titles at you then: "The Shadow", "The Phantom", "Dick Tracy"..... audiences really dont like that 30's/40's timeframe for their fantasy films......

i think their reaction is going to be the same as mine upon seeing the ads: "oh, cartoon classics again. ho hum". the novelty of computer animation wore off long ago.

it might not be as big of a bomb as "gigli", but i'll be very surprised if its not of similar megatonnage
You may be right that this movie will bomb - but I would argue that "The Rocketeer" is a much better movie than the other titles you listed - it's the only one I own on DVD and that's because it's a movie I enjoy immensely - the others you listed don't quite reach the same bar. And Philip makes a good point about the Indiana Jones movies. I don't see why any particular time frame should prohibit audiences from going to see a movie if the word on it is good. The word on this one may not be - I'm only mildly interested in it myself.

The Mummy and The Mummy Returns take place in that time frame and they made a few bucks.

I don't see why any particular time frame should prohibit audiences from going to see a movie if the word on it is good.
Agreed (nice to be able to say that outside the 9/11 thread! ;) ). I quite like Dick Tracy -- I think it succeeds in its goals of being a cinematic comic book. As with other properties, it mnight be that I had limited familiarity with the mythos of the character -- and it it certainly has flaws, but I like it. I'm not sure how much of a role the time period plays in it, either. As with the Burton Batman films, there's a sense almost of it being outside of time.

Saw a few minutes of The Phantom not long ago, and had I been able I would have watched more.

Characters such as The Shadow and Dick Tracy were favorites of my grandfather, so I'm sometimes drawn to them today as a connection to him, even if the recent versions aren't 100 percent the same as what he heard/read/saw.

Qapla'

SSB

for Jennifer Connely at her most glowing.
Can't argue with that. If she didn't exist we'd have to invent her!

Qapla'

SSB

What exactly are they refering to when they say "all digital"? On the format it's shot? Nope. SW:TPM was shot on digital tape.
Actually, that was Attack of the Clones that was shot digitally. However, it cannot technically claim to have been shot digital from beginning to end -- the scenes in the Jedi Council chamber used background plates shot on film for The Phantom Menace, which were scanned and manipulated for the newer movie.

Mmmmm ... Adi Gallia ...

Qapla'

SSB

Saw a few minutes of The Phantom not long ago, and had I been able I would have watched more.


Qapla'

SSB

I always liked "The Phantom" too, it has a great cheerful serial "feel" to it, Zane was an interesting choice, and Treat Williams hammed it up in a good way. Plus then-unknown Catherine Zeta Jones was a great dragonlady, and I always liked James Remarr.

I always liked "The Phantom" too, it has a great cheerful serial "feel" to it, Zane was an interesting choice, and Treat Williams hammed it up in a good way. Plus then-unknown Catherine Zeta Jones was a great dragonlady, and I always liked James Remarr.
I didn't much care for "The Phantom" on first viewing, but liked it much better the second time around. It was well done considering it's relatively small budget, but maybe looked a little too much to the Indiana Jones movies for "feel" without having the same kinds of resources. It is a "fun" little movie, though.

Ebert LOVED it; Roeper's being an ass about it.

The Phantom, Dick Tracy, The Shadow, The Rocketeer.... I thoroughly enjoyed all of those films. Personally, I hold DICK TRACY to be the best - or, most satisfying - out of that bunch.
The Rocketeer was also quite good but... My biggest disappointment with the Rocketeer concerned all of the changes they made from Dave Stevens' original concept. Those little nuances that made reading the comics so fun! Things like references to old radio shows and pulp magazines of that period...

For instance, 'Peevy' in Dave's comic book was clearly patterned after Richard LeGrand's Mr. Peavey character from The Great Gildersleeve radio show. Alan Arkin was a much younger Peavey and wasn't played anything like that character.

Jennifer Connely's character was clearly Bettie Page in Dave's comic. But, for some reason, they felt the need to change her name to 'Jenny' for the movie.

In the comic version, the Rocketeer is constantly running up against characters who seem oddly familiar..... like Doc Savage and his cohorts ( Monk & Ham ), and Lamont Cranston ( the Shadow )!
I guess I should be happy that the movie version at least gave us an Errol Flynn-styled Nazi villian, Howard Hughes, and the Rondo Hatton-inspired character! ( Clark Gable, W.C. Fields, and the Hollywood-Land sign were nice touches, too! )

The Shadow was another of those movies that was done quite well - considering that it had to appease fans of the Pulp magazine version AND the Radio show version ( both of which were somewhat different ). I thought they juggled those difficulties nicely.

The Phantom, while it admittedly could have benifited from a bigger budget, was surprisingly effective as presented. I would have enjoyed a sequel.

So, it should come as no surprise that I'm looking forward to SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW with great anticipation!

- GJS

They changed Betty to Jenny mainly because Disney paid for the movie, and in the comic, Betty was a sexpot who posed nude for postcards. They wholesomeized her.

Where do Brinke fit into the Rocketeer mythos?
Where do?

They changed Betty to Jenny mainly because Disney paid for the movie, and in the comic, Betty was a sexpot who posed nude for postcards. They wholesomeized her.
I didn't know there was anything unwholesome about the name "Betty". Go figure.:)

- GJS

I know what you're saying, John. They didn't want Family audiences to connect the character with Bettie Page. They merely avoided a possible can of worms by making the character a legitimate actress with a different, but similarly euphonious, name.

Alan Arkin was a much younger Peavey and wasn't played anything like that character.
- GJS
Don't you think there was also a tip o' the hat in Arkin's portrayal/look to Geppetto in Disney's "Pinocchio"?

please dont get me wrong guys... im not saying that any of the films i listed are bad... the audiences just stayed away in droves... as to the indy films, you must admit the lucas/speilberg teamup makes it a little unique and the exception to the rule