Public Enemies - What Did You Think?
Crazy: Buried With Ryan Reynolds Is Really A One-Man Show
Posted on Friday, July 3rd, 2009 by Russ Fischer
Just a week ago we reported on Buried, the indie thriller about a civilian contracter in Iraq who is kidnapped and buried alive, to be played by Ryan Reynolds. Now The Playlist got quotes from an Autralian TV interview with Reynolds, who says the movie is all him, all the time. One man, one coffin, one crazy thriller. Read More »
Kristen Bell Doesn’t Think a Veronica Mars Movie Will Ever Happen
Posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
In March, show creator Rob Thomas gave an update on the developing Veronica Mars movie, stating that “while the pitch went well and I don’t think the movie’s dead, right now it’s looking depressing.” We haven’t heard anything since, and assumed that it’s fallen into the deep dark depths of development heck. Ad now the star of the series, Kristen Bell, is finally conceding that a film will probably never happen.
Guy Pearce has joined the Miramax remake of the classic 1973 television movie Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, scripted by Guillermo del Toro and directed by Troy Nixey. Bailee Madison has also signed on to play his daughter. They’ll be joining Katie Holmes, who was cast a couple of months ago. Read More »
Assassination of a High School President Movie Trailer
Posted on Monday, June 29th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
At the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, Yari Film Group premiered Brett Simon’s Assassination of a High School President, a film noir mystery set inside the world of a John Hughes-style High School comedy. (half way between Rian Johnson’s Brick and Veronica Mars) It quickly emerged as one of the underdogs on the schedule to become one of the most buzzed about films at the festival (read some of the review quotes here).
Unfortunately, Yari Film Group was forced into involuntary bankruptcy, and the film has been sitting on the shelf ever since. This has presented a very serious problem for theatrical distribution, and because of the legalities of bankruptcy court, the timing of this economic downturn and a whole slew of other worst-case-scenarios, Assassination might be going direct-to-DVD. Hope isn’t lost quite yet, the bankruptcy court meets in late-July, and the fate of the Yari-owned films will be decided at that time. I hope someone comes to their senses and gives this movie a theatrical release of some kind.
A trailer for the film has finally been released online, but you should be warned… this is far from a good representation of the movie. Actually, it’s quite bad. But with all this legal mess going on, I’m surprised there is a trailer at all. It’s presented in full screen aspect ratio, the sound seems a bit off, and is cut with low royalty soundtrack music. Hopefully those of you who have been interested in this film will be able to see between all the unfortunate trailer production issues. The film is really so much better than this. Read the reviews, a lot of people really loved this film. This trailer cut is a butcher job. Watch the trailer embedded after the jump.
We’d recently thought that Moon director Duncan Jones would make the submarine thriller Escape From the Deep as his next feature, but now it seems like Mute, the film he’d previously likened to a Berlin Blade Runner, will be next after all. Moon won the prize for best new British feature over the weekend at the Edinburgh Film Festival, and that win may have helped push Mute forward. Screen Daily reports the UK-German co-production will once again be produced by Moon producer Stuart Fenegan, but with a lot more money: $25m instead of $5m. Read More »
Ryan Reynolds will star in Buried, a film that pushes him well out of the studio comfort zone, according to Variety. The film is about a civilian contractor in Iraq who is kidnapped and buried alive in the desert. According to the trade he has a candle, knife and cell phone; not the sort of things typically left on the person of someone who is being buried alive, so I’m tending towards the assumption there’s more going on than just Iraq war drama. Read More »
The first trailer for Richard Kelly’s new film The Box has appeared, and it appropriately tries to push a few buttons. The film stars Cameron Diaz and James Marsden as a couple with an increasingly desperate need for money. A box mysteriously appears on their doorstep, followed by Frank Langella, who presents an offer: push the button on the box and someone unknown to them will die, and they’ll be given a payment of one million dollars. The story is based off Richard Matheson’s short story Button, Button. See the trailer after the jump. Read More »
Warner Bros has premiered two character posters for Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes. The posters feature Robert Downey Jr as Holmes and Jude Law as Watson, and the taglines: “Nothing Escapes Him” and “Crime Will Pay”. Maybe they shoulda said “Not Your Father’s Sherlock Holmes”… oh wait, another film already took that slogan this summer. Check out both posters after the jump.
Bored To Death Television Teaser With Schwartzman and Galifianakis
Posted on Thursday, June 18th, 2009 by Russ Fischer
HBO has released the first teaser for Bored to Death, a series pilot starring Jason Schwartzman as an alcoholic writer who begins to moonlight as a private detective, just because he can. In mid-September last year Zach Galifianakis was added to the cast as Ray, a comic book writer and close friend of Schwartzman’s character. Given the success of The Hangover, nabbing him now probably seems like the best idea this production ever had. Consequently he figures into this teaser in a big way. Read More »
Earlier this week, AMC dropped a teaser for the channel’s upcoming remake of the classic Patrick McGoohan ITV series The Prisoner. I’ve been curious about how this would look, not to mention why exactly it’s being made, and the teaser at least gives an indication of the aesthetic. The six episode mini-series, which premieres in November, stars Jim Caviezel in Patrick McGoohan’s role as Number Six, and Ian McKellen as Number Two. See the teaser after the jump. Read More »
Interview: Johnny Kevorkian, Director of The Disappeared and Sleep Thief
Posted on Saturday, June 13th, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
Johnny Kevorkian’s debut feature film The Disappeared is notable as a horror movie that is neither a remake nor a gore fest. It is also distinguished by the depth of characterization it shoots for, and assisted by the great performance of Harry Treadaway in the lead, Kevorkian has succeeded in giving us a horror film protagonist with a little light, a little dark and a lot of soul. I have spoken to Kevorkian about this film, and also about his upcoming second project Sleep Thief. That’s another horror film, though one will apparently skew more towards the gore-effect end of the spectrum without sacrificing the atmosphere and ambitious writing. That interview follows, along with a trailer for The Disappeared.
Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island Movie Trailer
Posted on Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Paramount Pictures has released the first trailer for Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s novel Shutter Island. The story follows a U.S. Marshal named Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) who travels to Shutter Island, a small island in Massachusetts’ Outer Harbor, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to find an escaped murderous patient in the Summer of 1954. And I’ll let the official plot description take over:
“But nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is what it seems. And neither is Teddy Daniels. Is he there to find a missing patient? Or has he been sent to look into rumors of Ashecliffe’s radical approach to psychiatry? The closer Teddy and Chuck get to the truth, the more elusive it becomes, and the more they begin to believe that they may never leave Shutter Island. Because someone is trying to drive them insane. . .”
Beautiful cinematography, hints of wonderful performances, and some really creepy sequences. But is it a thriller with Oscar potential? Watch the trailer after the jump, and please leave your thoughts in the comments below!
