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Using the immeasurable fear and desperation of the Bubonic Plague, Vincent Ward's The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey delivers a different approach to the age-old tradition of time-bending in science-fiction and fantasy films. Creatively ambitious and rife with religious and societal undertones, The Navigator intricately utilizes visions and dreams to warn its characters of an impending doom, toying with audiences' expectations of what is real and what is not. The result is a smorgasbord of filmic images that bends the conventions of time and space. The Navigator is arguably essential viewing for those interested in time-travel and its immense possibilities.

Jack Beresford Nov 20, 2019

Sequels to hit movies are a Hollywood staple. Here are some of the most fascinating would-be follow-ups that never got off the ground...

This article comes from Den of Geek UK.

Sequels, by their very nature, are difficult to get right.

What may have started as a one-off film becomes a bona fide at the box office and suddenly Hollywood comes calling for more of the same. The only problem is that more of the same doesn’t always cut it. Sequels may be an increasingly common by-product of the Hollywood machine, but they don’t always replicate the success of the original.

A good sequel is a delicate balancing act. Repeat too much of what made the original so successful and you end up with something like Home Alone 2: Lost In New York. Veer too much from what made the first film work so well...

Vincent Ward’s The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey will be available on Blu-ray July 24th From Arrow Video

Following the release of his 1984 debut feature, Vincent Ward returned four years later with The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey, a film that would cement his position as one of the most exciting filmmaking talents to emerge during the eighties.

Cumbria, 1348 the year of the Black Death. Griffin, a young boy, is plagued by apocalyptic visions which he believes could save his village. Encouraging a small band of men to tunnel into the earth, they surface in 1980s New Zealand and a future beyond their comprehension but must complete their quest.

Nominated for the Palme d Or at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey is a bold and often startling fusion of medieval fantasy and time travel science fiction, quite unlike anything you ve seen.

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Vigil (1984) will be available on Blu-ray June 26th from Arrow Video

Vincent Ward once described as the Antipodean Werner Herzog made his feature debut with Vigil, heralding his status as one of New Zealand s most distinctive filmmaking talents and paving the way for such equally remarkable and unclassifiable efforts as The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey and Map of the Human Heart.

A stranger appears in a remote New Zealand farmland at the exact time a farmer accidentally falls to his death. The mysterious outsider grows close to some of the dead man s family, to the point where he and the widow become lovers. But her eleven-year-old daughter, Toss, struggling to come to terms with the death of her father as well as her impending womanhood, believes the intruder to be the devil and sets about protecting her family and their homestead.

Propelled by Fiona Kay s outstanding performance by as Toss,...

The Alien franchise has an interesting history not just because of the films that hit the big screen, but also because of the ones that did not. This is a look at some of the Alien films that came close to getting a greenlight, but were never made.

During the movie production process, it is not uncommon for a film to undergo several major changes in concept before becoming fully realized. The Alien franchise is one franchise that has seen its fair share of changes along the way. However, it is also unique due to the shear volume of potential films that have hit the drawing board but never progressed. Part of the reason for this is due to the fact that the Alien franchise has run into many different problems along the way. For one, it is a rare franchise with a multitude of different filmmakers and producers involved...

Vincent Ward’s fish-out of-water time travel story, the first Australian-New Zealand co-production, is still gobsmacking to watch three decades on

The camaraderie shared between Australians and our friends across the Tasman Sea in New Zealand has manifested in many forms over the years, from blood and sweat spilt on the battlefield as Anzacs to travel agreements, encouraging the easy flow of citizens (and easy-to-ridicule accents) from one country to the other.

When it comes to artistic affiliations between the Aussies and Kiwis, rarely if ever have our mutual efforts matched the quality of director Vincent Ward’s 1988 masterpiece, The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey.

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Our look at underappreciated films of the 80s continues, as we head back to 1988...

Either in terms of ticket sales or critical acclaim, 1988 was dominated by the likes of Rain Man, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Coming To America. It was the year Bruce Willis made the jump from TV to action star with Die Hard, and became a star in the process.

It was the year Leslie Nielsen made his own jump from the small to silver screen with Police Squad spin-off The Naked Gun, which sparked a hugely popular franchise of its own. Elsewhere, the eccentric Tim Burton scored one of the biggest hits of the year with Beetlejuice, the success of which would result in the birth of Batman a year later. And then there was Tom Cruise, who managed to make a drama about a student-turned-barman into a $170m hit, back when $170m was still an...