For whatever reason in the fall of 2005, I had missed out on the initial local press screening of Terrence Malick's latest epic, The New World, and the reactions that followed were decidedly ... less than appreciative. Shortly thereafter, word had come our way that an alternate cut would be opening instead, and so it was this second screening that I did attend.

For the first half of the film, I was fairly fascinated by the tale of John Smith (Colin Farrell) and his conquest of both what is now America and what was then Pocahontas (Q'orianka Kilcher). However, somewhere around when Smith disappeared and John Rolfe (Christian Bale) all but replaced him, I found my interest waning at a considerable rate.

It's difficult to deny that there were those who still thought the film to be one for the ages, even in its 135-minute incarnation. Those who lucked into the earlier screenings or lived in New York or Los Angeles could briefly get a glimpse of the original 150-minute cut, before certain scenes had been abridged, excised, or even replaced. Now, come October 14th, fans will get the chance to devour a DVD release of 172 minutes in length.

Earlier that same year, I'd found myself fairly unimpressed with the theatrical cut of Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven, only to eat my words once the engrossing three-hour-plus director's cut hit DVD after a similar NY/LA bow. Maybe almost three years after the fact, I can bring myself to give Malick's masterpiece another go. Will you?

[via DVD Active]

Neil Jordan has dabbled in the supernatural before. He'd probably like to forget the maligned Annette Bening thriller In Dreams, but on the other hand Interview with the Vampire is one of his most successful -- and most mainstream -- efforts. After a few more straightforward outings, Jordan will be delving back into fantasy with Ondine, starring Colin Farrell and Mexican-Polish newcomer Alicja Bachleda. Bachleda will play the title character, a mythical sea nymph who gets caught in the net of a fisherman (Farrell) and changes the lives of the people in his Irish town. Jordan wrote the script himself, and the project is set to start shooting next month.

In Dreams notwithstanding, Jordan is a remarkably consistent filmmaker, capable of doing beautiful and subtle things with sometimes schlocky material. Hopefully people are ready to try sea nymphs again after the frustration that was M. Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water. Ondine sounds more whimsical and playful than Shyamalan's heavy-handed parable.

Bachleda has been acting in Poland since the 90's, but made her American debut in the Kevin Kline sex trafficking movie Trade, which I didn't see (and which I heard was pretty bad). Jordan's last film, the revenge drama The Brave One, was a critical failure but a moderate commercial success. For a while, Jordan was supposed to direct the fantasy thriller Killing on Carnival Row, but it looks like Ondine will be his next project.

Although Anthony Minghella has passed away, his name continues to live on, whether it be through New York, I Love You, or being named the "one true godfather" of a new film on the pike -- Triage. Variety reports that the dark drama, which is coming from the hands of Bosnian filmmaker Danis Tanovic (writer/director of the Oscar-winning No Man's Land), is getting a cast that boasts the likes of Colin Farrell, Paz Vega, and Christopher Lee.

Farrell will star as a photojournalist who goes on a dangerous assignment with his colleague/best friend, but returns home without him. I imagine he is tight-lipped about what happens, because his girlfriend, played by Vega, "sets about solving the mystery of the disappearance." Either that, or Farrell comes back without a clue. Unfortunately, there's no word on who Lee will play. Since the man is getting close to 90, however, I think it's safe to say that he won't be the colleague. Still, it'll be nice to see Lee in a more realistic setting.

The film is going to be sold at Cannes by Hanway films, and will shoot on-location in Ireland, and in Spanish studios, from this month through June.

After the shock of Heath Ledger's death, there were questions about his latest project, Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. Then came rumors last month from AICN that Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell would ALL step in to replace the actor. Well, the site was right! Reuters reports that the filmmaker has confirmed the involvement of all three actors.

According to a statement from producers: "Since the format of the story allows for the preservation of his entire performance, at no point will Heath's work be modified or altered through the use of digital technology." They follow with: "Each of the parts played by Johnny, Colin, and Jude is representative of the many aspects of the character that Heath was playing."

For once, it seems like Gilliam's notorious bad luck will pay off into something special. In the words of the man himself: "I am delighted that Heath's brilliant performance can be shared with the world. We are looking forward to finishing the movie and, through the film, with a modicum of humility, being able to touch people's hearts and souls as Heath was able to do."

One day until hump day! News bites for your Tuesday:

• One would think that after the success of Spider-Man, Sam Raimi would stay focused on feature films. However, The Hollywood Reporter has posted that the filmmaker is teaming up with Disney/ABC to produce a new, live-action weekly series called Wizard's First Rule -- to get off the ground this fall. The show is based on Terry Goodkind's fantasy series The Sword of Truth, and "follows the extraordinary transformation of woodsman Richard Cypher into a magical leader who joins with a mysterious woman to stop a bloodthirsty tyrant." Production will begin this May.
• In the doc world, Variety reports that Liberation Entertainment and Netflix's Red Envelope have nabbed distribution deals for the soccer documentary Kicking It -- which is narrated by bad-boy Colin Farrell. (This is in addition to the ESPN deal from Sundance.) The doc focuses on "the personal struggles and triumphs of seven soccer players from six countries who participate in the 4th annual Homeless World Cup." The plan is to have a day-and-date release between the ESPN premiere, DVD rentals and computer downloads on Netflix, and DVD sales.
• Finally, I bet those rabid and weary Da Vinci Code fans from 2 Days in Paris would get a kick out of this. According to the BBC, paintings and statues from Lincoln Cathedral, which was dressed to be Westminster Abbey, are on the auction block to raise money for the building. The light, polystyrene pieces were part of an exhibition since the film crews left the location, but will now be sold off in a series of sealed bids through March 31.

Here's a strange twist to the writer's strike, and a postponement excuse we haven't heard before: New Line has pushed back Inkheart from March 2008 to January 2009 because of what the strike is doing to the television industry. Huh? According to Variety, the studio figures that without first-run programs on TV, it can't reach enough viewers through commercials, which is apparently the only way to market a movie these days.

OK, I kind of get it, but I hardly ever watch TV, and I've seen about 1,000 TV ads for Cloverfield this week, so there has to be a way to reach an audience by the original release date of March 18. They could have bought some time during the Super Bowl or the Oscars or, since its a family fantasy, any children's program. Seriously, kids don't care if their show is in repeats or not. I'm not going to go the usual route and accuse Inkheart of having production troubles. Judging by the trailer and Erik's visit to the film's set last year, the movie looks and sounds like it's a lot of fun, and anyway, it's reportedly all finished and ready to deliver to theaters. But since the TV marketing excuse seems odd, I'll assume that New Line is simply trying to figure out how to market a movie that could be accepted as just another fantasy movie and go mostly ignored by the same public that didn't go to see The Golden Compass or The Seeker: The Dark is Rising.

Those of you who need your Brendan Fraser fix need not cry for too long. The actor can still be seen in New Line's Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D, which comes out July 11, and Universal's The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, out August 1.

In other release date news, New Line has also pushed back Pride and Glory, which stars Edward Norton and Colin Farrell (which I remember them filming in Brooklyn back in Summer 2005), from March 14 to sometime in 2009, though the reasoning behind this one may have had more to do with Norton and Farrell having other new releases coming out soon, than it had to do with the writer's strike effect on TV ads. Meanwhile, Universal has moved up its Judd Apatow-produced comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall so that it doesn't have to go up against Sex in the City (which New Line will have no problem advertising on television) and Starship Dave (which I can't imagine really being a threat to anyone). Forgetting Sarah Marshall will now bow on April 18, which should perfectly fit in with some college kids' spring break. The same studio also pushed back its Baby Mama one weekend, from April 18 to April 25.

Last night saw the first formal party of Sundance 2008 -- the post-screening bash for In Bruges. Held in the Tent at the Lift on Main Street, it featured everything you might expect from a Sundance party: Booze sponsor you've never heard of? Check! (And thank you, Hypnotiq vodka.) Meat on a stick? Check! A cross-promotional tie-in that makes no sense? Check! (Guitar Hero was scattered throughout the party with playable kiosks. If you can explain to me, in a hundred words or less, what the game has to do with In Bruges in any way, shape or form, then please do so; you'll win a prize.) Celebrity guest with no reason to be there? Check! (And hello, Mary-Kate Olsen!) Farrell and Gleeson were in attendance, but attempts to take photos of the stars within the party were firmly -- and understandably -- being rebuffed. Here's a photo of the crowd, though -- just to remind you that if you're a claustrophobe, Park City's a bad, bad place to be for the next few days.

In Bruges, the opening night film at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, comes at you sideways; the opening moments and slick snap of the dialogue lull you into believing that you're in for yet another standard-issue post-Tarantino film. Hit man protagonists; punchy, poppy, profane digressions about everything but the matter at hand that lead to punchy, poppy, profane digressions about the matter at hand; characters whose capacity with vocabulary is matched by their capacity for violence. But then, Martin McDonagh's script moves in unexpected directions - and, more importantly, in unexpected directions which are the kind of unexpected that you do not actually expect. In Bruges, with two killers exiled to Belgium after a badly botched London hit until the heat comes off, turns into something different from the standard-issue post-Tarantino film; it becomes the post-post Tarantino film, one where the talk talk bang bang is actually, just as it was in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, about something.

In Bruges, in fact, reminded me of nothing less than an earlier excellent example of the post-post-Tarantino film, Christopher McQuarrie's excellent, underrated and under-seen The Way of the Gun. Both are about a group of tough guys who, through extraordinary variations on their normally extraordinary lives, find out precisely how tough they really are, the hard way. Ken (Brendan Gleeson) and Ray (Colin Farrell) are in Bruges, and all of their quibbling about Bruges's scenic destinations and charm is a way for them to talk constantly without actually talking about what they need to talk about -- which is how off-the-charts wrong one of their jobs has gone. They're not on their familiar London turf; they're in, as Ken relates from the guidebook, "The most well-preserved medieval city in Belgium, apparently." Ken is enjoying the trip; Ray is not. "I hated history, didn't you?" Ray asks. "It's all just a load of stuff that's already happened." As McDonagh's script carefully, firmly lays out why Ken and Ray are in exile amid the cobblestone streets and Gothic cathedrals, Ray's desire to avoid thinking about what's already happened becomes completely understandable.

After all of these years, I never thought I would be reading an MTV interview with legendary director Woody Allen, but I guess that times change. MTV recently spoke to Allen about the rumors regarding another possible project with muse-of-the-moment Scarlett Johansson. Turns out Page Six had it all wrong and there is no New York, I Love You film that will reunite the actress and director for the third time in a row. Allen was hard at work doing promotion for Cassandra's Dream with Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor when the subject of the anthology film came up in conversation. Allen told MTV that the whole Page Six story was "A complete and total fabrication. Made up like a poem by Coleridge. Completely untrue. It wasn't even grounded in any conversations or anything." This might lead me to believe that some of those other Johansson casting announcements were a little premature as well.

Allen has just wrapped up his latest film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona with Johansson, Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz. Just because the NY anthology flick is not going to happen, I seriously doubt that Barcelona is the last we will see of the pairing. When it comes to Johansson, it seems like the guy can't stop gushing: "She's very charming, very bright, very amusing. She livens the set up. The minute she walks on the set, the amperage goes up 200 points. She's a great kid and very talented. She can sing. She can do dramatic things and jokes if you need her to. Whenever there's a part she could play, she would probably always be my first choice." But as any Woody Allen fan can tell you, the man loves the ladies and I'm sure her humor and talent aren't the only 'attributes' that the man admires. Vicky Cristina Barcelona hits theaters this fall.

I have to be honest, I have always had a soft-spot for Colin Farrell and was convinced he could be great in the right role. After watching the trailer for In Bruges, I think this could be the one. Just last week, Peter gave us the heads up that the black comedy had been chosen as the opening night selection for Sundance 2008. Now, a trailer has surfaced and unless you have some headphones at your desk there's no way you're going to be able to watch this one at work ... sorry. Bruges stars Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as two hit-men who are awaiting their contact in a hotel room in Bruges, Belgium. Also starring is Ralph Fiennes, playing very against type as a gangster, and Elizabeth Barrington.

Written and directed by Martin McDonagh, the film is a black comedy with a capital B. Original reports had our two hapless hit-men knocking off a kiddie by mistake and then having to go on the run. By the looks of the trailer though, it seems like there might have been some minor changes. Now, there is no mention of a kid and it looks like the target is a man of the cloth -- which I guess is funnier depending on your sense of humor. So even with my aforementioned bias, I still think this looks like a pretty funny flick. I don't even know all that much about Bruges, but there is one joke that had me almost snorting coffee on the keyboard. Not to mention there are some pretty creative uses of the "F-word" -- and that's just for the trailer. In Bruges will premier at Sundance this January and then a limited release will follow in February. Hopefully the movie will get a wide release sometime in '08.

[via The Movie Blog]

*Update: You can now catch the trailer at the Alliance Films website.