Event Horizon

Laurence Fishburne stars in this spectacle-heavy, dialogue-light space sci-fi thriller

EVENT HORIZON

Starring Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan, Joely Richardson, Jack Noseworthy

Director Paul Anderson

Opens Aug. 1

In space, no one can hear you recite Shakespeare. But that didn’t stop Othello star Laurence Fishburne from beaming out of Bard territory into this spectacle-heavy, dialogue-light sci-fi thriller. He’s Captain Miller, head of a recon team sent to check out a cosmonaut spaceship that shows up near Venus after a seven-year disappearance. And what’s waiting aboard the dark, spooky, mile-and-a-half-long craft? ”It’s not some monster where the whole game is, How much droolier can we make the mouth?” says Brit director Anderson (Mortal Kombat). ”This is an A-list haunted-house story, which Hollywood hasn’t done in ages. It’s about the demons these people bring with them.” That’s not to say the mission doesn’t get bloody messy. Filming on the vast sets at Pinewood Studios outside London involved a deluge of simulated blood that literally nauseated poor Richardson. ”I had no idea what I was getting myself into,” she says. ”I was wet through with this disgusting, icky, sticky sugar-based stuff all day every day for two weeks, and the stages were freezing. I thought these pictures were done with computer graphics and stunt doubles and I’d just be coming in for the close-ups.” UPSIDE With Alien Resurrection and Starship Troopers bumped to fall, Event‘s horizons are looking better. DOWNSIDE In a season rife with impressive, computer-generated beasties, the suggestive ghost-story approach may feel like a cheat.

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