First Look Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Hey, remember the Morgan Freeman / Antonio Banderas thriller, The Code (also known as Thick as Thieves)? No? That's ok, no one does! This poor film was doomed to go straight to DVD shelves, but there it was not forgotten. Home Media Magazine reports that the flick topped the rental charts last week, deftly knocking Gran Torino out of #1. (Mr. Freeman, did you call and crow over your pal Clint for that one? If not, you should. I'm sure he'll get a good laugh.)

Scott Weinberg believes this is the first DTV movie to ever top the rental charts. If anyone out there knows of another one that has, you should correct him. But for now, history has been made by Mimi Leder!

The plot follows an aging jewel thief (Freeman) and the uppity young Turk he recruits to help him pull off one final job. They're not going after just any family jewels, but those most treasured by the Romanovs -- Faberge eggs! The ultimate goal of the heist is to pay off the Russian mob, and I'd like to think Banderas and Freeman are stealing the Faberge eggs just to really piss them off. Meanwhile, Radha Mitchell gets in between them, and makes things sexy. Check out the trailer below the jump, and contemplate renting it for yourself. It topped the rental charts, and millions of people can't be wrong!

You'll be forgiven for not remembering, but I posted several months ago about the trailer for a fantastic-looking movie called Special. In the film, the great Michael Rapaport plays "a lonely metermaid [who] has a psychotic reaction to his medication and becomes convinced he's a superhero." From the hilarious, melancholy trailer (and, I gather, the movie as well), it's unclear if the character is just bonkers, or if he actually really has some of the powers he claims -- it's probably a little bit of both. Despite some buzz about the movie at Sundance and rumors of distribution talks, though (check Karina's comment on the original post for details about that), a deal was never secured, and the movie went back to languishing on the internets, looking for love.

But today it's been revealed that Special finally got some love: First Look has picked up world-wide distribution rights to the movie. WOO HOO! First Look reps are at Cannes looking to farm out international rights, but they'll handle the movie in the US themselves, and plan to have it in theaters this fall. Did I mention woo hoo?

Friday's bits and pieces:

• First Look has picked up the worldwide rights to this year's Sundance hit, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints. The autobiographical film, which is based on parts of director Dito Montiel's memoirs, didn't particularly impress either James or The Hollywood Reporter's Duane Byrge; you can decided for yourself this fall, when the movie is expected to hit theaters.

• According to the latest scuttlebutt, Angelina Jolie might just be spending some (professional, of course) time with George Clooney in the near future. Rumor has it that Brad Pitt is trying to persuade her to join him in Ocean's Thirteen, though who Jolie would play has of course not been discussed -- with this sort of story, it's the idea of the two of them on screen together that's fun. Details, schmetails.
  

• This morning's Hollywood Reporter offers some more details on the rapidly expanding cast of Balls of Fury which, when it comes to buzz, just might be the next Snakes on a Plane. And if it's not, you people are just not paying attention -- it's Christopher Walken! It's ping-pong! I mean, come ON! Joining Walken in the dark underworld of the pong are George Lopez, who will play an FBI agent bent on taking Walken down, and Maggie Q as "the sexy niece of...Master Wong," the master of the paddle who is brought in to train the FBI's pong-plant (that'll be Dan Fogler). How can you resist any of this?

• Until today, P.D.R. -- the based-on-a-true-story movie about a heroic swim coach and the tough youths he straighted out -- had nothing but testosterone on board. Terrence Howard and Bernie Mac are set to costar, while Diana Ross' son Evan, who made an impressive debut in ATL, will play one of the kids. Now, though, there's finally a woman around (Perhaps she'll hang some curtains. Or maybe do some dusting.): Kimberly Elise has come on board as the female lead.
  

Whoa. Gregg Araki, best known for serious, frequently haunting looks at American youth in films like Mysterious Skin and The Doom Generation, is making a "stoner comedy" called Smiley Face. In another break for his usual pattern, Araki will be working for someone else's screenplay for the first time - the script was written by Dylan Haggerty, and is about an actress/slacker who accidentally eats a pot brownie. Jesus, seriously? Hasn't this been the plot for enough sitcoms that it doesn't need a full, 90-minute treatment?

The stoned actress will be played by Scary Movie queen Anna Faris, and she's joined in the cast by John Krasinski (Jim from The Office), John Cho, and Jane Lynch. The movie, which is being produced by First Look and Anonymous Content, goes into production this week - hopefully, Araki can work some of his demented magic on the thing and save it from cliche hell.