The ad campaign for Kathryn Bigelow‘s Zero Dark Thirty, which chronicles the mission that led to the killing of Osama Bin Laden by a Navy SEAL team, has been pretty low-key so far. But then, the studio hasn’t had to do much, as there has been a fair amount of publicity for the movie thanks to accusations that the original October release date was meant to remind audiences of President Obama’s role in the mission, just before the Presidential election takes place. There have been far more serious (but unproven) allegations that the film is based on access to classified data that was given illegally to the production.
Now it’s time to move beyond those talking points to look at the actual film. Derspite featuring Joel Edgerton, Jessica Chastain, Chris Pratt, Kyle Chandler, Mark Strong, and Jason Clarke, the teaser trailer showed few faces, and relied upon audio montage to set up the story of the hunt for Bin Laden. A few images later gave us a bit more. Now you can see a lot more of Bigelow’s follow-up to The Hurt Locker, in the full trailer below. Read More »
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With a shock of blond hair, braces, and a physique that has yet to even begin thinking about filling out, PK is an unlikely general. He’s a relatively tiny kid, maybe eleven or twelve years old, and the undisputed champion of War amongst kids at school. In I Declare War, PK (Gage Munroe) plays by the rules in games of capture the flag: two teams, two immovable bases, gunshots incapacitate for ten seconds, grenades “kill.” A fan of the movie Patton and a student of war history, PK believes in the rules of the game, and the rules of engagement, and winning.
His game of War is the same game many of us played as children, with sticks standing in for guns, and a give and take between honor and rule-bending dictating the outcome of a fight. But in this film, the combat is rendered as real, with splashes of blood, and hands full of real pistols and automatic rifles. When the bouncy, imaginative Frost (Alex Cardillo) finds a particularly choice tree branch, we see it in its natural state for a few shots, but the next time it appears the branch has transformed into what Frost sees: an olive drab bazooka.
The “game as realism” approach of I Declare War is the hook, but the reason to stick around is the way that writer/co-director Jason Lapeyre, who directed with Robert Wilson, weaves enduring ideas about friendship, betrayal and adolescence into the film. Their movie won the audience award last night at Fantastic Fest, and it’s easy to see why. The scenario transitions seamlessly from playground fluff to effective exploration of the causalities incurred as one kid follows his drive to secure victory at any cost. Read More »
The first trailer for Steven Spielberg‘s Lincoln, starring Daniel Day Lewis as the 16th President of the United States, has just been released. It opens November 9 in select cites and expands November 16 everywhere. Co-starring Sally Field, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, James Spader, Hal Holbrook and Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln dramatizes the final months of Abraham Lincoln’s life before he was tragically assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. Check out the trailer below. Read More »
With the Toronto Film Festival set to get into full swing Thursday, we’ve already begun to see trailers and clips from all sorts of interesting independent releases. The latest is Twice Born, directed by Sergio Castellitto based on a novel by Margaret Mazzantini. Penelope Cruz stars as a mother who brings her 16-year-old son back to the city of his birth, Sarajevo, and is forced to relive the trials and tribulations she and her family faced during the wars of the 1990s. Emile Hirsch co-stars and, after the jump, you can see the first trailer for the film which premieres this week in Toronto. Read More »
Stanley Kubrick never wanted you to see Fear and Desire. The 1953 film was his feature debut, but the director took prints out of circulation and fought a constant battle against it screening in any form for decades afterward. This self-censorship by one of the greatest filmmakers of all time gave the film an underground cult status, making it a must-see for film fans lucky enough to get their hands on a bootleg version. When Kubrick passed away in 1999, however, the film began popping up more often. Now, after over half a century out of the mainstream, Fear and Desire is coming to Blu-ray on October 23. Read the press release after the jump. Read More »
Here’s a little change of course: James Bobin, who did a fine job directing The Muppets last year, is now set to direct a film called Agent Zigzag for New Line and Playtone Pictures.
The project sounds like a great, classic spy caper: it’s a true story about a criminal who became one of the most notorious double-agents of WWII. He appeared to work for German intelligence even as he was on the payroll of MI5. Read More »
Tom Clancy‘s books are no stranger to big screen adaptations. The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger and The Sum of All Fears have all been made into films. However, in the past decade, he’s much better known for his video games and now one of those is about to get the red carpet treatment.
Deadline is reporting that several studios have been competing for the rights to Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell and Paramount, who made the four Clancy movies mentioned above, has now emerged as a front runner. Splinter Cell is one of Clancy’s most famous game franchises and focuses on stealth missions. Read more after the jump. Read More »
When it was revealed that Marc Forster‘s World War Z would need almost two months of reshoots, we all realized it was in deep trouble. Paramount has now hired a screenwriter to play savior: Damon Lindelof. The Prometheus and Star Trek screenwriter, who recently said he was done with movies after signing a new TV deal, apparently spoke too soon and has been called upon to help bolster the film’s third act.
World War Z, based on the book by Max Brooks and written by Matthew Michael Carnahan, stars Brad Pitt as a scientist trying to solve a global zombie pandemic. Read more after the jump. Read More »
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