Forget witches, this flick has had to fight Hollywood to make it to the silver screen!
You’re watching Beyond The Trailer’s review of Seventh Son...
Back in 2012, Oscar winner Jeff Bridges, Oscar nominee Julianne Moore and Narnia’s Ben
Barnes made the fantasy actioner Seventh Son. But then... visual effects house Rhythm and
Hues went bankrupt, and production company Legendary Pictures had to pay an additional
five million so the company’s work on Seventh Son could be completed. Because of that, scheduling
conflicts arose for Slumdog Millionaire composer AR Rahman, and it wasn’t until December
2013 that the prolific yet less high profile Marco Beltrami was finally chosen to replace
him. And THEN Legendary and Warner Bros broke up. That left the fate of Seventh Son up in
the air until Legendary found a new home at Universal, yet that studio was unsure of when
to release the film. They finally settled on a nice vindictive date - opposite Warner
Bros Jupiter Ascending. Seventh Son also finds itself part of a two week span that’s acting
as a dumping ground for much delayed movies, with The Loft, Project Almanac, and Jupiter
Ascending. Even Kingsman The Secret Service, opening the week after Seventh Son, was originally
supposed to debut in October. And Seventh Son took so long to get to theaters, several
other members of its cast have become more prominent. Of course Kit Harington’s star
continues to rise thanks to Game of Thrones, German actress Antje Traue impressed as Faora
in Man of Steel, and Alicia Vikander has gotten Hollywood’s attention with Danish film A
Royal Affair - this year you’ll also see her in Ex Machina, The Man from UNCLE and
potentially Tulip Fever unless it too finds its release date delayed. Seventh Son is the
Hollywood debut for Russian director Sergei Bodrov, who got worldwide recognition back
in 2007 for Mongol - which was supposed to be a trilogy...but has yet to move beyond
that first film. As someone who sat through Mongol, which was pretty darn good, I’m
still kind of annoyed that I’ve been unable to finish what I enthusiastically started...
If you don’t have the money and commitment from a distributor for three flicks, don’t
just tell a third of the story in the one movie you DO have greenlit! (SIGH) Bad luck
certainly seems to plague Bodrov’s efforts - is there as much injustice with Seventh
Son as with Mongol, or is it deserving
of its fate?