Spliced and Reviewed

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Vincenzo NataliHot on the heels of this week’s early news (“Brody to Splice” – September 2007) we learned thanks to a reader that film ick contributor Brendon posted a review today of Vincenzo Natali’s script, Splice.

The blog only shows us a small sample of the script, but hints are given about other parts of the story…

As the story begins, Clive and Elsa are working on creating new lifeforms by splicing together genes from various naturally evolved animals. For ethical reasons, they don’t use any human DNA but it seems that pretty much anybody else is fair game, primates, reptiles, birds, the furry, feathery, scaly works. Their recent babies-come-creations, Fred and Ginger, were created as part of a program designed to eventually lead to easy synthesis of a desirable, marketable protein. As such, the new lifeforms are created not as an end in themselves, but as a means, and under the sponsorship – and regulations – of a BioResearch company.

And the program is proving very successful, so the eyes of the world are on Clive and Elsa. They even take part in a Vanity Fair photoshoot (which gets a nifty third act call-back) and in one surprising moment, fail prey to a religious activist. But, mainly, these are good times, and they enjoy them. They go so far as to formulate their own custom drugs for designer trips. This is definitely a take on Frankenstein, but it’s a post-rave era Frankenstein and, I suppose, it has a little in common with Mary’s life with Percy as well as her fiction.

From what I’ve read a stronger emphasis put on ethics and the relationship between the characters instead of this being just a creature feature is a breath of fresh air. Judging by his previous work this could easily ramp up to be pleasing to movie goers all across the spectrum.

The site also has a few concept images up by Dan Ouellette of what these two scientists are creating. Click here to check out the monsters in all their cuteness. Keep in mind these were made long ago, so odds are the final designs may be quite different.

Syxx

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