Ultraviolet

By: Coming Attractions
Date: Monday, January 05, 2004

Genre:
Action/Science Fiction.

Studio:
Screen Gems.

Production Company:
Unknown.

Project Phase:
In Development.

Who's In It:
Milla Jovovich.

Who's Making It:
Kurt Wimmer (Director, Screenwriter).

Premise:
A sub-class of genetically engineered humans engages in a war with the government that created them. One of these modified humans, a woman named Violet, is caught in-between the two warring factions.

Release Date:
Unknown.

Comments:
Wimmer's last film was 2002's EQUILIBRIUM.

Rumors:
Unknown.

Scoop Feedback:

March 28, 2003... Before writer/director Kurt Wimmer's last project, the sci-fi action pic EQUILIBRIUM, has a chance to hit DVD the ink is already dry on his next contract. Wimmer will stick with the genre with ULTRAVIOLET, scheduled to begin filming this fall in Shanghai. Sony's niche distribution arm Screen Gems will release the $30 million film worldwide.

ULTRAVIOLET (no relation to the British mini-series of the same name about a secret government organization that fights vampires) is set in a time when the government has made a sub-race of disease-modified humans who have superior speed, strength and intelligence. The lead character is a woman who is caught in the middle between the two groups. [Source: Variety.]

March 31, 2003... When news broke in Variety last week about director Kurt Wimmer's (EQUILIBRIUM) next film, there wasn't really that much to know. The project was titled ULTRAVIOLET, a deal had been worked out for distribution with Screen Gems, the movie would film in Shanghai and it involved genetically engineered humans with advanced strength, speed and intelligence.

Late last week Wimmer dropped by the CHUD website and scooped out the inside intel about his new sci-fi yarn, including sharing an early piece of conceptual artwork for the film's main character, Violet. "She is this really hot-looking vampire who could whip you and 75 others just like you's asses in a flat second if she had the chance," Wimmer told CHUD. "It takes place in the future and it's very sci-fi. In this world, vampires are actually the good guys, in a waythey're more heroic."

Vampires, eh?

Wimmer also disclosed that the film will have a load of action in it. The artwork displayed on CHUD shows Violet holding two Uzi sub-machine guns -- with two-foot long blades extending out of the handles for close-quarter combat.

ULTRAVIOLET is set to begin filming later this year.

May 30, 2003... RESIDENT EVIL cast member Milla Jovovich has been cast in the leading role in ULTRAVIOLET. She'll play Violet, a genetically engineered woman in the future who possesses vampire-like traits such as enhanced physical strength. She'll also be fighting to protect a 9-year-old boy from a war between her kind and humans.

Filming on ULTRAVIOLET starts in December. Kurt Wimmer, who's last picture was EQUILIBRIUM, also wrote the script for this film and will direct. [Variety.]

January 5, 2004... Director/writer Kurt Wimmer is now at work filming his latest project, the science fiction/action ULTRAVIOLET starring Milla Jovovich. The modestly budgeted picture is filming in Shanghai, and what little we know of the film's plot comes by way of an announcement in the trades months ago.

Now the first review of Wimmer's screenplay has surfaced online courtesy of Chris Faile at FilmJerk. Unfortunately, Faile's appraisal of Wimmer's script isn't a favorable one. "To say this effort is 'uninspired' and 'hackneyed' would be giving this script too much credit," writes FilmJerk's Faile in his review. "This is a lesser attempt at this past summer's UNDERWORLD (minus the love story and werewolves) if such a thing is even possible."

Faile is critical of the amount of monologue used by the main character, Violet, as well as the supporting characters and a item used by Violet. He does give note to Wimmer's spin on vampirism and what promises to be an interesting visual look at the latter half of the 21st century, but ultimately Faile's final grade for the ULTRAVIOLET script is poor: "Dialogue, characterization and the settings are all spotty, as it plays out as something more suited to the comic book or videogame form than a major motion picture."

You can read the full review at FilmJerk by clicking here.