Sundance has been hogging all the headlines this week with the first reactions and aquisitions flying everywhere you look. You want uncomfortable violence - you got it! - or teenage lesbians - everywhere you look! - or pot smoking extravoganza's - this is Sundance! Away from Utah there have been some interesting stories, and of course it's time to catch up with the shuffling in UK release schedules.
Selma
Lee Daniels is curently riding high with Precious opening this weekend here and should receive a number of high profile Oscar nods on Tuesday morning. So it's no surprise that his next project is picking up some heavy weight casting. The project, Selma, concerns the civil rights movement during the 1960's and Robert De Niro has signed up to play the infamous Alabama Governor George Wallace - one of the biggest obstacles to ending segregation. It should certainly be an involving experience, although I suspect it will also be a tough ride.
Lee with Precious star Gabby Sidibe.
Click on the jump for deranged killers, masked vigilantes, intergalactic romances (two of them) and other affairs of the heart.
Another Year
But first my number 14 in the top 20 most anticipated films for 2010 was Mike Leigh's untitled project with Imelda Staunton and Jim Broadbent. Well, we may still know nothing about it, but it is, possibly, titled. As Another Year. Make of those crytic words what you will.
Avatar
In case you hadn't heard James Cameron's sci-fi epic has just hit an importnat box office milestone. It's only broken the record for international receipts, passing Titanic on Tuesday. Expect it to pass the US domestic record in the next couple of weeks too. Admittedly it isn't close to the biggest box office draw of all time once you factor in ticket price inflation and the 3D premium, but that's still quite an achievement that will take some years to be broken. Or at least until Cameron turns his attention to Avatar 2.
Dream House
Daniel Craig, and family, will be moving into the house belonging to a psychotic murderer sometime in 2011. Luckily his next door neighbour, the newly cast Naomi Watts, will be on hand to offer sound advice and dire warnings. She was in the Funny Games remake so she probably knows what she's talking about.
Passengers
I'm not sure whether this qualifies as an addition to the intelligent sci-fi boom, but Gabriele Muccino has signed on to direct the next Keanu Reeves project. Set on a autopilotted space ship Reeves is awoken from his cryogenics chamber some 70 years early and faced with the terrifying propect of growing old alone wakes up a beautiful - yet to be cast - woman. (I's go ape if I we her). The idea has some promise so I'll wait to see how the script balances out the potential pitfalls. i.e. being incredibly boring, or having a weird monster.
The Shadow
Sam Raimi hasn't announced what his first non Spider-Man movie will be now he's been ousted from the franchise, but that won't stop the rumours from drifting around the internet. This week he's said to be considered the big screen adaptation of pulp hero The Shadow. There has been a Shadow movie before (with Alec Baldwin!) but luckily no-one will be comparing any work Raimi does with that, although the original radio series was narrated by Orson Welles so perhaps there is a big challenge to face.
Take This Waltz
Essentially a simple love triangle drama with a married woman having an affair with the man across the street the script has still managed a high profile place on 2009's Black List. No surprise then to see it's been picked up, and with Sarah Away From Her Polley at the helm. Two sides of the triangle have been cast - Seth Rogen and Michelle Williams - and a big name announcement for the third is expected soon.
Release Date News
The Lovely Bones - Causing a disappointting mess in my Tuesday trailer continuity was the sudden shift of Peter Jackson's latest epic - presumably to allow the underwhelming US response to be out of our heads when it opens. Take revenge against your killer on 19 February 2010.
Ondine - Colin Farrell takes in the leading (human) role in this drama about a mermaid caught in a fisherman's net. Don't let this be the one that got away on 05 March 2010.
Shutter Island - Moving back for The Lovely Bones is Martin Scorsese's return to pulp B-movies. Leo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo will investiagte the mysterious prisoners in the titular asylum. Don't be patient 67 on 12 March 2010.
Wild Target - It's a comedy. Starring Rupert Grint from Harry Potter as an apprentice hitman with Emily Blunt as his rival. Why am I even vaguely interested? Because Bill Nighy is training him. Inspired. Take a potshot on 09 April 2010.
New York, I Love You - I've waited a long time to see the sequel to Paris, Je T'aime, in fact it was one of the first films I showed a trailer for back in September 2008. I hear it isn't quite as good - but we don't get enough collections of shorts in British Cinemas so I'm right there. Fall in love with your favourite city on 16 April 2009.
Inception - The second schedule change for Leo sees this trippy Christopher Nolan picture move to a mid summer release, probably down to high expectations for it's box office potential. Steal from your dreams on 16 July 2010.
Knight and Day - But it will face competition from the Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz action comedy opening on the same day. I wonder which of these will lose their nerve... Have your date go very wrong on 16 July 2010.
Eagle of the Ninth - I know there is probably a great deal of pathos and spectacle to be had in the adaptation of Rosemary Sutcliffe's seminal Roman Legion novel, but it's got Channing Tatum in it so I guess it will be sold on the torso. Find your lost Legion on 10 September 2010.
Thor - Occupying the space left by Spider-Man 4 was an easy decision for Marvel's Norse superhero. Should give it ample opportunity to take an early hold of next year Box Office championship. By Odin's Staff I'll see this on 06 May 2011.
Spider-Man 4 wasn't the only film to disappear from the schedules during the last month. Rod Lurie's original source adaptation of Straw Dogs has also lost it's UK release - that's the third time so it's getting to be so much of a habit I doubt I'll believe the next date.
Some gratuitous shots of Channing Tatum in Eagle of the Ninth.
Saturday, 30 January 2010
Film News (30/01/2010)
Saturday, 9 January 2010
Film News (09/01/2010)
It's been an incredibly busy week, with rumour and counter-rumour flowing about many of the studio tent-poles of this year and next, as well as some delicious indie features. I won't bore you with US release date changes - but May 2011 was all a flurry on Wednesday - but we've still got loads to get through.
Bond 23
At the beginning of the week the news was not good - the sale of MGM meant that some high profile projects, such as the Bond franchise, were on hold until completion. Of course MGM denied it and surprisingly a day later the story leaked that Sam Mendes (Away we Go, Road to Perdition) was in negotiations to direct the next episode.
There's been no official confirmation yet, but equally none of the major players have denied it. It's an odd choice for both parties, especially coming after the last off-the-wall director choice (Marc Forster) made the underwhelming Quantom of Solace. Saying that we know that Mendes can build tension in a scene, and he's probably got enough clout to force the film to delay if he's not liking the script.
Oh, and I'm using this post as an excuse to remind everyone what Daniel Craig looks like in his Casino Royale swimming trunks... Here you go:
Read on for child killers, nuclear bombs and Soderbergh doubles.
Hanna
Killer teenage girls have been dominating the press this week with the release of the Kick Ass trailer and the casting of Saoirse Ronan in Hanna, reuniting her with her Atonement director Joe Wright. It's a story about a girl bred as pat of a secret CIA assassin experiment, sounds half Bourne, half Leon. Maybe half good.
Ron Howard/Vince Vaughn collaboration
Vaughn, who is probably desperate for a hit, has pitched a comedy about infidelity to his mate Ron Howard, probably aware that Ron says yes to everything. The concept is simple, and instantly recognisable, revolving around a guy who finds his best mates girls has been cheating but can't tell his friend. It probably sounds more like a soap opera twist than a mvie, but if it's handled correctly there could be the basis for a likeable farce of co-incidences.
The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Even though variety reported that Chris Robots Wedge was directing this childrens fantasy back in May the rumours of Martin Scorsese holding the megaphone have not died down. I guess Marty has nothing to prove at this stage of his career so there is no longer a need to make biopics or gangster dramas - see his pulpy Shutter Island for proof.
Invention concerns a small boy living in the rafters of a Paris train station and fixing the clocks, as well as a small curious device left to him by his father. I don't know what that device does so I guess that's the invention of the title.
Knockout
Steven Soderbergh's martial arts movie has been gaining some fantastic actors to support MMA fighter and cinema newcomer Gina Carano, including Ewan MacGregor, Michael Douglas, Dennis Quaid and Michael Fassbender. It's that sort of delightful mix of ators that gets so interested in Soderbergh's work, even the likely popcorn efforts such as this female Bourne rip-off. (Carano plays a Black Ops soldier who's been cut off by shadowy governement figures - yawn!)
Talking about Steven Soderbergh it's emerged in the Sydney Herald that whilst he was over in Australia directing for the stage he may have shot a quickie using the same, unknown cast. Nothing official or plot-based yet, but I'm thnking that if this is the same sort of quality as The Girlfriend Experience then we could be in for another great year of Soderbergh output.
Last Train to Hiroshima
We were all saddened to hear of the death of Tsutomo Yamaguchi, the last survivor of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombs, this monday. It's easy to forget just how awful and indiscriminate a nuclear device is and only by talking to the survivors can we understand why we must never let them be used again.
Curiously, following his death, it emerged that James Cameron had visited him to talk about his experiences in December. It look likely that Cameron was researching in order to adapt The Last Train to Hiroshima, the heavyweight non-fiction account of the afteraffects of the blasts, based on interviews with survivors. Whether Cameron has ideas of making a documentary or a fiction piece based on the transcripts remains to be seen, but we should support whatever his efforts are as this is a shameful chapter in 20th century history that has yet to be fully explored in film.
Thor
Adriana Barazza has become the latest cast member to sign onto the Norse epic due to start filming next week, as a yet to be disclosed human character. It's good to hear there will be some human characters among all the gods, it will make the drama of the story a little more interesting. Oh, and going full circle Thor is one of the films shifting it's release date in response to the Spider-man delay rumours. 
Thursday, 24 December 2009
Avatar
2009. Dir: James Cameron. Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Sigourney Weaver and Michelle Rodriguez. ●●●●○
On Tuesday Avatar stormed past $100m in domestic receipts, when you add the estimated overseas groses Avatar is almost certainly in the black. There are a bunch of LA accountants patting themselves on the back and starting to work out how to re-invest the profits. In that respect Avatar is a massive success.
The hoopla about immersive 3D environments and photo-realistic computer generated effects is justified. It's made it's money back, all that expence and time means nothing as it's in profit. The margins will mean that this technology is justified and is the way forward; clearly Cameron has changed cinema forever.
Let's be honest about this - what James Cameron wants to do with his films more than anything else is to prove he has a lasting legacy and get people in the door. Innovative and spectactular are merely byproducts of that desire to live forever in cinema history. (I'm not knocking that, I have the same dream of sorts.)
But is it any good?
Technologically it is incredible, marking a new milestone in the creation of 3D digital effects. It was difficult to judge what was real and what was computer generated which surely must be the aim. However there is still so very far to go. I believe that 3D is as just a fad today as it was in the 1950's. When falling into a cavern or having pointy things thrust upon you it is great and exciting, but I still don't feel part of the action - immersive panoramas are a myth that Hollywood will continue to peddle for many years to come. The effects also don't have the weight of reality, the wild things I raved about earlier in the week were so much more "there" than any of Pandora's natives, even though they were clearly fantastical elements of Max's imagination.
Producton design and the design of the flora and fauna is also a highlight. It's clear that Cameron has used his expertise of the deep sea environments as an influence, the preponderance of ultraviolet light and the concept of bigger predators being better predators (although I'd argue it probably isn't likely biologically for animals to grow to the sizes shown in thick jungle habitats). I also have concerns about the (quasi-sexual) appendage that can be used between different species to create a physcological link - where would this have developed evolutionary in such different species? Perhaps if all the specias with them had 6 limbs it may have been more conceivable.
The Na'vi themselves show where CGI has reached, when Sigourney Weaver's Avatar smiled it was recognisable, yet at the same time the walk and talk of the native Na'viwas different to the Avatars - at least before Sam Worthington had trained himself up. This may also be a compliment to the Na'vi performers who developed a graceful movement technique for the motion capture to pick up on.
Unlike most reviews I haven't talked about th plot structure and what happens. This is partly because, unlike most of the films that interest me, it is not the plot that makes people watch Avatar, it is partly beacause the plot, when analysed is complete drivel.
To summarise: humans are bad, Na'vi are good; War is bad, peaceful co-existence is good; abusing the planet for it's resources is bad, living at one with nature is good. The parallels between Pandora's strife and the world in which we are living today are so plain and in your face that they could have been written by a 10 year old. Released as the occupation in Afganistan comes close to 8 years and during the World's biggest climate change conference it's message couldn't be more timely, and yet the simplicity of the parallels is such that it lessens the impact.
It's not like these issues are new to Cameron, either. From the moment it opens we know that humanity has been dehumanised (a character we never meet is zipped into a body bag then put straight into a furnace - nothing close to a funeral service). Faceless corporations focus on the product and don't care about the consequences (see Skynet). Like Titanic hundreds of digitally produced characters are created in order to be killed off heroically - it's amazingly how little we care about them, though.
All in all these misgivings about the plotting have made me reticent about recommending Avatar. It is certainly a game changer, the future of cinema, but until storywriting and technology work together we will never see a brave new world.
