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)
Monday, 19 January 2009
Seven Pounds
2008. Dir: Gabriele Muccino. Starring: Will Smith, Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson, Michael Ealy and Barry Pepper. ●●●○○
Between Bad Boys 2 and Hancock Will Smith has opened 7 films with a total US gross of $1.27bn, an average of $182m. Seven Pounds will struggle to hit $75m, his lowest tally since 2001's Ali. This film does not deserve to be the film the ends Will's $100m run, although I can understand why it will be. It is a measured and sophisticated look at the nature of love and sacrifice, it touches on how you deal with guilt and the nature of goodness, it is at heart a very bleak story with a flwaed hero. It is a film which I am glad to recommend.
The film opens with Ben Thomas (Smith) waering a "cinnamon" short sleeve shirt making a 911 call and speaking directly to camera. I won't tell you the details of this call, for fear of spoiling the effect, but we then jump back a couple of months and show how Ben got to that situation. Ultimately Ben is suffering from guilt brought on from a car crash which killed 7 people, including his wife. Ben blames himself for the crash as he was checking a text message at the time - I'm not sure that explains why so many people died (none of them appear to be wearing seatbelts in the fuzzy flashbacks, although perhaps that's how I'd feel not how Ben feels).
In order to assuage the guilt Ben is dishing out random acts of kindness to strangers that he feels deserve a better or new life, or just to ensure they live. For instance he gives his house to a battered wife and one of his kidney's to an Ice hockey coach.
Most of the story revolves around him meeting Emily Posa (Dawson) via the medium of a tax audit, the beginnings of a romantic entanglement between the two of them and finally Ben offers the greatest gift he can for her.
Will Smith gives a thoroughly committed performance of a man ripped apart by what has happened to him and unable to share his deep inner thoughts. When his brother interrupts a romantic evening between Ben and Emily and Smith tells her he no longer wants to lie to her that line reading comes so naturally and fully we all want him to open up and tell all his dark secrets. Rosario Dawson is also superb, at one moment fragile and shrunken the next deeply territorial.
The rest of the parts are grossly underwritten. Woody Harrelson's blind pianist appears to be either sanctimonious or plain stupid. And Barry Pepper, an actor who always makes the periferies of the movies he's in shine, is criminally underused - shoved into a couple of scenes to say "I'm not sure" and cry. Joe Nunez, as the motel owner, provides some well earned comic asides without which the film would have been lesser.
Gabriele Muccino's direction seems more fluid than The Pursuit of Happyness, his english language debut (I really dislike that movie) but the decision to place the 911 call at the beginning of the movie, possibly to ratchet up some will he/won't he tension only succeeds in making the film a tragedy before you know it's end.
Philippe Le Sourd (A Good Year) does a great job as DP, letting you catch things in the corners of the screen which foretell where the film is going but without becoming ominous. Especially Ben's "pet", which was gorgeously lit at all times.
At this point I would consider giving the film a 4, only I didn't agree with the actions Ben took. Berate me in the comments for this if you like but I find the judging and testing to discover whether the other characters were good was distastefull, even if you will be donating your bone marrow. After all who are we to just whether others are good, or even if the people he killed in the car crash were good. Also the final gifts were done for the wrong reasons. You have to ask whether Ben's love for Emily was strong enough for him to save her or for him to stand by her, or was he merely distracted by her from completing the goals he had already set. And I'm not sure which route would have required more love.
