Back in October, we reported on an interview that 47 Ronin stunt coordinator Gary Powell did with Hollywood. In the interview Powell talked about the action and the reshoots. On the reshoots Powell said:
“It was a quick couple of weeks reshoot, story points and all that,” says Powell. “It will make the film better. I have not seen it, but all the visual effects people [say] there are a hell of a lot of visual effects
On the action, we learned the following:
“[There is] a lot of fighting. We have a pretty good horse chase at the start of it, with this mystical creature. Keanu did a lot of action on that.”
“The fights are more believable than, say, the ones that are around a lot these days,” says Powell. “Where you slice someone in the face and spin around six times before you hit the floor. Carl can’t stand that stuff, basically.”
With respect to the fantasy elements, Powell says:
“It definitely has that tone to it. There is a huge eight-foot samurai in it, and that sort of thing. We play with the fantasy side of it quite a bit, but we want to keep it believable.”
Earlier in May we reported that the comments coming out of a test screen of 47 Ronin in California were mixed. Someone from that screening mentioning liking the fantasy elements because they were different. Twitter chatter indicates that there was another test screening of 47 Ronin in Arizona near the end of May. The tweets referring to the Arizona screening were significantly better.
Shortly after that test screening a very brief review appeared on karlagal666-reviews.blogspot and all indications are that she attended the Arizona screening. She said the following about the film:
This movie has a long way to go still, but what it is so far… very good.
Good story line, cast, romance and lots of action.This movie is a thumbs up, must-see!
The amount of information that is available about 47 Ronin these days is slim to almost non-existent. It is good to see test screenings occurring. The positive comments trickling out seem to indicate that the negative comments by test audiences back in May 2012 were successfully addressed by the September reshoots and further editing. Folks interested in hunting down Ronin news can follow #47ronin on twitter.
December 25 isn’t that far off and you have to wonder where Universal is with respect to this film. Considering they plan to market it as a tent-pole at the very least they could release a few movie stills to generate some buzz until the trailer is ready.
Note: You might want to check out this post, ‘What the Hell Happened to 47 Ronin?”. It is here.