Supernova

Cinematic failures always seem to draw attention. There’s the catastrophic sort; the big budget, high profile vanity project that audiences slow down and gawk at like a freeway accident. And then there’s the quiet sort like Supernova (2000) that are released almost as an afterthought, flagged for failure by a studio just mitigating its losses.

Responding to a deep space distress signal, a medical rescue team is met by a single survivor, a suspicious treasure hunter (Twilight’s Peter Facinelli) who brings a glowing inter-dimensional relic onboard that bestows youth and super strength on whoever comes in contact. As acting Captain, Nick Vanzant (James Spader) must rally his crew (including medical officer Angela Bassett) to dispose of the intruder and his device before they’re all sucked into the gravitational pull of a giant sun.

Directed by Walter Hill (The Warriors) who shepherded the Alien franchise as a producer, Supernova works from a remarkably similar story…or maybe not so remarkable considering the amount of Alien rip-offs that popped up since 1979. So perhaps Hill thought he’d jump on his own bandwagon, polishing the film with a sleeker look and keeping the threat within our own species.

Whatever the motivation, he actually does a bang-up job creating a different look for the film, highlighted by cinematographer Lloyd Ahern’s “floating camera” technique and an almost psychedelic color scheme punctuated by lens flares and bokeh effects. But prior to delivering a final cut, studio executives balked at Hill’s demand for reshoots without testing the film first. The impasse led to Hill’s dismissal from the project and months of editorial tinkering from people like Jack Sholder (The Hidden) and even Francis Ford Coppola.

The result is a film that feels choppy and abbreviated, introducing and disposing of characters with editorial abandon (poor Robert Forster’s role is reduced to a cartoon-watching cameo). But Spader and Bassett’s performances remain fascinatingly watchable, mostly because they’re such unexpected casting choices to begin with. Spader in particular pulls off the butch space marine with a soft-spoken conviction that’s unlike anything else in his career.

Supernova’s failure lies mostly at the feet of its boring bad guy. Facinelli, who looks remarkably like a young Tom Cruise, just never develops into anything more than a pumped-up poser…a far cry from the chest-bursting menace of the Nostromo. With Alien, Ridley Scott was able to overcome a similar lack of substance with an overabundance of style. With so many cooks in the kitchen, Supernova couldn’t get a single chef to take the blame…resorting to an anonymous “Thomas Lee” director credit. Which is a shame, since 15 years removed it’s a lively B-movie that more things going for it than against it.

A nice addition to the Scream Factory lineup, the new Blu-ray includes the R-rated cut previously released by MGM as well as a rough-looking alternate ending and deleted scenes but also adds a 30-minute Making Of that gathers comments from editor Jack Sholder, producer Daniel Chuba and actors Forster and Lou Diamond Phillips. Their comments seem (mostly) honest and supportive of Hill’s original vision for the film even if there are still too many careers on the line to tell the whole story. The featurette and colorful new HD transfer are reason enough to upgrade from the old DVD edition. Add Supernova to the long list of theatrical failures Scream Factory gives fans a second-chance to discover on home video.