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Damon, Winslet Lead Soderbergh's 'Contagion'
Filed under: Action, Drama, Thrillers, Casting
Once again, our friends at The Playlist have the inside scoop on a Steven Soderbergh film. Having previously been the go-to site for updated casting info on the filmmaker's current project, Knockout, they now bring first word on what will be his next effort: Contagion. The ensemble action-thriller, which is reportedly being called a "terrifying" cross between the Bourne movies and Soderbergh's own Traffic (with some obvious reference to Outbreak), involves interweaving stories set on four continents during the outbreak of a deadly virus. Contagion will star now-regular Soderbergh lead Matt Damon along with Oscar-caliber thesps Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Marion Cotillard. The script was penned by Scott Z. Burns, who wrote Soderbergh's The Informant! and co-wrote The Bourne Ultimatum. According to an earlier posting by The Playlist, the idea for Contagion actually spawned from the scene in The Informant! when Damon's character rants about germs. It's possible this film will therefore treat the central virus metaphorically, as does Damon's speech. If the film does contain subtext commenting on the travel of information and misinformation, though, it would certainly bring about comparisons to Babel.
Interview: Pierce Brosnan on Polanski, Percy, and R-Patz
Filed under: Drama, Thrillers, Noir, Mystery & Suspense, Celebrities and Controversy, New in Theaters, Interviews, James Bond
February is about to get really interesting for Pierce Brosnan. A mere week after his debut as a self-proclaimed "horse's ass" (aka Chiron) in Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief on February 12, a much smaller and much more controversial thriller he's in will be hitting art house screens in New York and Los Angeles. Brosnan is one of the heavy-hitting stars in Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer, the movie Polanski was doing post-production on when he was arrested in Switzerland on an outstanding warrant from 1978, when he fled the US before being sentenced for having sex with a minor. (Polanski finished the film while under house arrest.) Pierce Brosnan, who plays ex-Prime Minister Adam Lang, is part of an impressive ensemble; Olivia Williams is Lang's intensely intelligent wife Ruth, while Ewan McGregor is the titular writer who reluctantly signs on to help Lang with his memoirs after the first writer turns up dead.
Brosnan spoke to Cinematical about working with the legendary figure on The Ghost Writer, as well as Percy Jackson, dealing with Robert Pattinson's screaming fans on the set of Remember Me, and much more.
SXSW Exclusive: 'Red, White & Blue' Teaser Trailer
Filed under: Drama, Thrillers, SXSW, Mystery & Suspense, Trailers and Clips
"In Austin Texas, the lives of three young people "Erica, Franki and Nate" intertwine in a fateful, tragic way and head down a rocky and violent road to heart-rending oblivion."Going off the above description from the official SXSW program guide, Red, White & Blue reads like it could be a number of different films, but two names attached to the production hint at what kind of "heart-rending oblivion" it'll be. First off, this is the latest film from The Living and the Dead director Simon Rumley, so we can begin to rule RW&B out as, say, a Havoc-type melodrama about teenagers dipping their toes into life on the other side of the tracks and winding up in over their heads. Second, its roster of producers includes Tim League, which should give anyone familiar with the cinematic tastes of both Fantastic Fest and the Alamo Drafthouse (League is a co-founder of both) an idea of what kind of genre brew will be coming to SXSW in a few weeks time.
But even with those two nuggets, nothing gives as good an idea of what's in store than seeing the beast in motion. And with that, Cinematical is proud to offer you the premiere of Red, White & Blue's first teaser trailer, starring Noah Tyler, Amanda Fuller and Marc Senter.
Be warned, the below teaser is most definitely Not Safe For Work. Nudity and sexual explicitness abound, so keep that in mind before you click on.
Memo to Brangelina: Don't Let Them Reboot 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith'!
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Romance, Thrillers, RumorMonger, 20th Century Fox, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Remakes and Sequels
I'm sure I'm not the only person who likes Doug Liman's Mr. & Mrs. Smith. But I might be the only person who considers it a masterpiece. The problem is, I don't really know how to defend it without sounding like a bad combo of fanboy and academic. Saying it's the best action movie interpretation of the comedy of remarriage subgenre since Twister surely isn't bringing anyone to my side, even if they are fans of both Twister and classic screwball comedies of the '30s and '40s.Regardless of my inability to properly convince people of how perfect Mr. & Mrs. Smith is, I'm sure I can get enough people to agree with me that Fox should not dismiss the film by trying again with a sort of remake/reboot. According to Vulture, the production company New Regency, which operates out of the Fox lot and through its distribution, and original producer Akiva Goldsmith are hoping for a new franchise this time around with a prequel/origins movie (now titled Mr. and Mrs. Jones) that recasts the title characters, originally played by Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.
'Death of a President' Director Works With 'Last King of Scotland' Writer
Filed under: Documentary, Drama, Foreign Language, Independent, Thrillers, Casting, Celebrities and Controversy, Cinematical Indie
In spite of all its controversy and its Emmy and Toronto Film Festival awards, the faux documentary Death of a President was not worth all the hype it received four years ago. I won't say it was terrible, because I've come around to respect some of the positive things said about its purpose, but I certainly did not enjoy watching the film, which depicted the hypothetical assassination of George W. Bush using real footage of the former U.S. president. However, I'm willing to give director Gabriel Range another shot, especially now that I've learned his next film comes from a script by one of the writers of The Last King of Scotland, Jeremy Brock. Though Peter Morgan may have been the better screenwriter involved in that adaptation, Brock's involvement with other decent British films, such as Charlotte Gray and Driving Lessons, which he also directed, are indicative of his talent. He also scripted Kevin Macdonald's upcoming sword-and-sandals flick The Eagle of the Ninth.
Eric Bana Will Be The Father of Assassin 'Hanna'
Filed under: Action, Independent, Thrillers, Casting, Focus Features, Newsstand
I'm very intrigued by Hanna, Joe Wright's hitgirl film that starts his steely-eyed Atonement star, Saoirse Ronan. Even if it's a bit of a Leon / Kick-Ass story, Wright hasn't really let me down yet (though I never did see The Soloist -- maybe I speak too blindly), and Ronan is a force to be reckoned with. Now she's landed a brooding hunk of a costar, as Heat Vision reports that Eric Bana is in line to play her nemesis and father. Hanna centers around a 14-year-old Eastern European girl who is groomed by her father to be a cold-blooded killing machine. She finds a loving connection with an ordinary French family, but is dragged kicking and screaming (I imagine that's no hyperbole) back to her father's brutal world. She then discovers that she's one of many such killer children, born and bred in a CIA training camp. If she wants to be free, she's going to have to fight her way out. Cue the blood and brutality, I hope.
An actor who has never quite made it huge on this side of the Pacific, Bana seems to be destined for darker roles in Hollywood films. He's capable of very funny and very nuanced work. (Have you seen Romulus, My Father? If not, go rent it now.) I can't imagine Wright is going to give us a one-sided bad guy, and will let Bana play someone who is loving and cruel. Given the way he's bolstered so many British careers, maybe Wright and Hanna will be the film that launches Bana into a more respected stratosphere.
Cinematical On Demand: Pontypool
Filed under: Horror, Independent, Thrillers, Fandom, Home Entertainment
Welcome to Cinematical's new On Demand, where we review the latest in home entertainment -- on demand, on disc, on the web -- and detail the must-sees, maybe-sees, and never-sees available from the comfort of your own home.
Pontypool is the best recent film you haven't seen.
Adapted from Tony Burgess' novel by Canadian filmmaker Bruce McDonald, Pontypool arrived on the scene during the Toronto International Film Festival of 2008. It slowly hit markets and enjoyed a limited release last Spring, while slipping onto IFC Midnight, Canadian DVD last July, and finally U.S. DVD just last week. It dances just out of reach of the mass movie-going conscious, but it's a terrible shame. This psychological thriller offers thrills and bloody viral chaos for the horror folks, verbal banter and literary cues for the linguists and English fiends, tensions and oddities for those who like to think and question, and the irreplaceable Stephen McHattie to entertain us all.
Release Date Shuffle: 'Titans' Clash Cusses Everything Up
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Disney, Universal, Warner Brothers, RumorMonger, Distribution, 20th Century Fox, Family Films, Remakes and Sequels
"
Damn the Gods"? Nah, more like "Damn the Suits" who opted to give Clash of the Titans a 3-D upgrade in the wake of Avatar's popularity, unaware or unfazed by the fact that A) that film was actually shot for 3-D, not just given layers in post-production, and B) that film didn't succeed massively because of star Sam Worthington (no offense, fella).
So Warner Bros. has bought themselves a week, moving Clash back from March 26th to April 2nd in order to capitalize on Easter weekend and give How to Train Your Dragon a whopping week before squeezing in on its 3-D screens. This move has left other studios to scramble to avoid competition (or fill the gap left behind), and so far as B.O.M. is concerned, here's how things have settled at the moment:
Damn the Gods"? Nah, more like "Damn the Suits" who opted to give Clash of the Titans a 3-D upgrade in the wake of Avatar's popularity, unaware or unfazed by the fact that A) that film was actually shot for 3-D, not just given layers in post-production, and B) that film didn't succeed massively because of star Sam Worthington (no offense, fella).So Warner Bros. has bought themselves a week, moving Clash back from March 26th to April 2nd in order to capitalize on Easter weekend and give How to Train Your Dragon a whopping week before squeezing in on its 3-D screens. This move has left other studios to scramble to avoid competition (or fill the gap left behind), and so far as B.O.M. is concerned, here's how things have settled at the moment:
- Fox's family-friendly Diary of a Wimpy Kid has moved to March 19th from 4/2
- Universal's sci-fi actioner, Repo Men, has moved to March 19th from 4/2
- MGM's raunchy romp, Hot Tub Time Machine, has moved to March 26th from 3/19
- Disney's Nicholas Sparks/Miley Cyrus vehicle, The Last Song, opens on March 31 instead of 4/2
- Summit's kiddie comedy, Furry Vengeance, has moved to April 30th from 4/2
Review: Frozen
Filed under: Horror, Thrillers, Sundance, Theatrical Reviews
By Eric Snider -- reprint from 1/24/10 -- Sundance Film Festival
You can picture Adam Green, the writer and director of Frozen, sitting on a ski lift one day, idly thinking, "What if I fell off? How high above the ground am I? No! What if the lift stopped moving and they couldn't get it started? What if I was trapped here!" We all have our moments of morbid fantasizing, but what separates Adam Green from me and you is that he turns his dark "what if?" scenarios into movies. His Hatchet had tourists terrorized in the swamps of Louisiana; Frozen pits the heroes against Mother Nature herself, that wanton trollop.
The setting is a ski resort in New England, where three college students are trying to talk their way onto the lift without buying tickets. Dan (Kevin Zegers) and Joe (Shawn Ashmore), best friends since grade school, come skiing here regularly, but today Joe is miffed because Dan has brought along his girlfriend, Parker (Emma Bell), in a flagrant violation of the Bros Before Hoes policy.
No one likes being the third wheel; it doesn't help that Joe and Parker don't really get along, each jealous of the other's relationship with Dan. It's the same old story: "We haven't seen you at Fezziwig's for dollar pitcher night all semester!" Joe complains. What, Dan would rather spend time with his beautiful girlfriend than drink cheap beer? It's like Joe doesn't even know him anymore.
This Just In: 'Wild Things 4' Rated R!
Filed under: Thrillers, Fandom
Your sleep has been off lately, hasn't it? You can't quite place your finger on it, but you haven't been getting your full eight and what few hours you do get are plagued by tossing and turning that leaves you feeling like you've barely slept at all. Admit it, you've been rattled by the thought that Wild Things 4 would be the next victim of the Die Hard 4 curse and end up going the PG-13 route.What, you didn't know there was a Wild Things 4? Well you do now and the good news is it just received an R rating. What's the bad news? Wild Things 4 exists and it's rated R for "some sexuality/nudity, language and violence." I mean, come 'on. "Some sexuality/nudity'? John McNaughton's original erotic thriller starring Denise Richards, Neve Campbell and Matt Dillion was given a "strong" classification for the same things 12 years ago!
If you're still trying to cash in on a sexy movie that was a mild sensation over a decade ago by making straight-to-video sequels with the exact same plot, shouldn't you at least up the ante a bit? From "strong" to "some" is not progress. Three sequels in and the rating should be going from "strong" to "absurd", no?
Ah, but who am I to argue. Wild Things 4, which is boldly calling itself simply Wild Things on IMDb, is directed by Andy Hurst, the man who has written all of the Wild Things sequels to date. I haven't seen either Wild Things 2 or Wild Things: Diamonds in the Rough, afterall, so I shouldn't be so quick to judge. Maybe what was strong by 1998 standards is pretty tame by today's. Who knows? I don't. I do know one thing, though. After having seen the below (SFW) trailer for Diamonds in the Rough, I have got to see
Tom Cruise and J.J. Abrams Reunite for 'Mission Impossible 4'
'Big Top Pee-Wee': The Original Benicio Del Toro Wolfman
Spin-ematical: New on DVD and Blu-ray for 2/9
Watch This: Brilliant Oscar-Nominated Short 'Logorama'
Chris Nolan to Lead 'Superman' Reboot!?
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