It's not the Happening (Film News - 23/10/10)

I have done provisional posts for "out this week" before, second guessing critical reactions to films not yet released, but this is a first time provisional news post. This weekend I am unable to reach a computer for longer than an hour (a big thanks to Kirklees Library service even for that opportunity) so I have looked up the stories on my crappy mobile and written my post in long hand with the hope of typing it up before the hour dealine is over. It's honestly like watching the closing sequence of a Bond movie here in the Library. Wish me luck:

Day of the Triffids

John Wyndham's classic apocalytic sci-fi novel about a meteor shower that blinds the World and the strange carnivorous plants that take over at the top of the food chain is not as cinematic as you might immediately suppose. There have been a number of noble efforts to adapt the project over the years including a recent BBC miniseries but thay have all failed to highlight the horror implicit in man-eating shrubs from which we are unable to defend ourselves. In most cases the main let down has been the animatronics and puppetry of the Triffids themsleves.

Step forward Sam Raimi, the producer/director responsible for making trees scary in the Evil Dead trilogy, to work his magic. Unfortunatley whilst I love Raimi's excellent comic-horror hybrids (the aforementioned trilogy and Drag me to Hell come to mind) I persoanlly believe the parable in Triffids only works if the terror is undiluted. As viewers of The Happening will attest it's hard to believe flora fighting back, and to suggest that mankinds grip on planetary domination is weak and fleeting will be tough where there are lashings of gory guffaws.

Can Raimi adequately turn off the comedy of will this just be another disappointing adaptation? Are the plants really just watching and waiting forour downfall? Let me know in the comments.

Read on for Affleck's choice, the end of humanity and MacGuffins galore.



Replay/Trade

The offers for Ben Affleck continue to mount up following the critical and commercial success of The Town. The latest two projects pitched to the writer/director are Replay, where a 40 year old gets to go back in time to 18 and relive his adult life (this sounds suspiciously like that awful Zac Efron vehicle 17 again to me), or Trade, which is based on a wife-swapping arrangement in professional baseball. On a side note isn't it odd how baseball and sex are always interlinked in a negative manner? Personally I'd rather see Affleck swinging his bat so I'm voting for Trade (I'm so very sorry for that image).

One Thousand A.E.

You would've thought that M. Night Shyamalan had been banned from the making movies given the relentless stream of abuse abuse heaped upon him on the internet. He's more reviled than even Uwe Boll and Brett Ratner (possibly because he once had so much promise). However The last Airbender took a credible $130m in the US domestic box office and it seems studios are still willing to let him handle a megaphone. Next up is this sci-fi epic set to star Jaden Smith (son of Will, and freash off The Karate Kid which passed $160m). Unsurprisingly we know nothing about the plot but rumours are rife that the AE of the title refers to After Earth. Although I personally suspect that a community of religious nutters have locked themsleves in a spaceship and told their kids about the end of the world even though their still all in a industrial estate in Slough. Nice (originalish) third act twist or what?

The Thin Man

The 1934 original is a classic screwball whodunnit with alcoholic well-to-do detective duo Nick and Nora Charles (played to perfection by William Powell and Myrna Loy) trying to find the eponymous missing scientist whilst mixing martinis and waliking their adorable Fox Terrier. The crime itself is such a periphery incident to watching the leads it can hardly be called a mystery but it does at least move the plot forward.

The original is a delightful cocktail so I struggle to see why Johnny Depp is so keen to update the project (with Rob Marshall at the helm), especially given how dipsomania is more frowned upon now than back in the gin swigging thirties. Saying that I can see how the idea of playing a playful drunk would appeal to the man behind Captain Jack.

Overall this might be worth watching but it could be a horrific travesty. Keep an eye what happens next.

Casting News

There may have been more castings bandied aroung this week but the only one that caught my eye is the replacement of Matt Dillon with John C. Reilly in Roman Polanski's God of Carnage. Reilly will play Jodie Foster's hubby with Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz as the other couple in this stage to screen adaptation about parental grouping defending their children fighting and ending up emulating their petty motives. Sounds absolutely unmissable to me.