Jodelle Ferland Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Did you know that back in 2006, Renee Zellweger took on a horror film? The project was Case 39, a creepy, kid-centric thriller that started off with bad luck in production when a fire scene torched the entire set and most of the crew's equipment, and continued when the film just couldn't get a distribution break. It was supposed to be out last summer, but just like Mandy Lane, it was a no-go. Now it is said to hit theaters sometime this year, and a trailer has finally been released.

Zellweger plays a social worker who thinks she's saving a kid (Tideland's Jodelle Ferland) from her evil parents trying to send her to hell (one of whom happens to be the excellent Callum Keith Rennie). So this woman takes the kid into her home, but then realizes that this little 10-year-old isn't exactly innocent.

One would imagine that a horror film would have to be pretty decent to get Renee Zellweger on board, and that it can't be all that bad with the talents of Ferland and Rennie. However, Shock Till You Drop says that this puppy has "been through the test screening wringer," so there might be a really good reason we haven't seen it yet, and not just Mandy Lane bad luck. It looks like your basic thriller set-up in the trailer, but looks can be deceiving ... and if they are, could someone give Ferland a break and put her in something that gets a little more love?

For your Monday perusal, here are the latest casting blips from Variety:

• Brett Granstaff, who has appeared in films like Deserted and States of Grace, and looks ridiculously familiar although I've never seen his movies, has got himself a role in that Al Pacino/Robert De Niro flick, Righteous Kill. It's not too shabby for the new actor, since he's already finished The Deal with the likes of Meg Ryan, William H. Macy, and Jason Ritter. The dude has gone from no-buzz to high-buzz flicks, so I'm sure we'll be seeing much more of him in the future. For now, you can just stare at the pic to the right.
  
• The following news amuses me. Just last week, I found myself in need of entertainment and was saved by a very friendly Aussie woman who let me watch some of her CSI: Miami episodes -- for amusement, of course. It was this uber-ridiculous, yet almost-funny episode called Triple Threat that you'd have to see to believe. Now word has it that Colin Ferguson, who co-starred in the episode, will star as an ex-NFL football player in an upcoming film called The Egg Factory. According to Yahoo, it's being directed by William Fruet, and is about a kid genius who is mourning the death of his dad. However, he "finds a new friend and champion in Cutter Hanson, his dad's estranged brother, a former NFL player." But that's not all -- the pair team up to "save a young girl from a group of murderous mobsters." You know, instead of those stuffed animal-loving mobsters. Man, Ferguson knows how to pick interesting, spastic premises.
• Ally Walker, who has spent time on television shows like The Profiler and Tell Me You Love Me, is going to star alongside Sanaa Lathan and Matthew Broderick in Wonderful World. That's the film I posted about earlier this month, which "centers on a depressed, divorced, and unemployed father who finds solace in his Senegalese roommate's sister." Variety says Walker will play Broderick's wife, but I assume that means "ex-wife." The awesome kid from Tideland, Jodelle Ferland, is also involved.
  
• Ah, Brian Bloom. I never watched his first acting stint, As the World Turns, but man, his face was always in those celebrity teen rags. This is some television spin-off news, so I'll just be brief. He's scored himself a recurring role in The Sarah Conner Chronicles. Will he be a man? A machine? Variety isn't saying; however, in the meantime, you can check him out in Smokin' Aces.

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Director Terry Gilliam's movies usually have a distinctive style: if you're channel-surfing and encounter the middle of Time Bandits or 12 Monkeys, you instantly know it's a Gilliam film even if you can't figure out which one right away. Even The Brothers Grimm, perhaps Gilliam's weakest film, retains a diluted version of that style. But if no one had told me that Tideland was a Terry Gilliam film, I might not have guessed. Many of his usual themes are present, but the visuals and for the most part, the dialogue, are not quite in his usual style.

Tideland is also an exceptionally difficult movie to watch, much harder than Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which was stylized and surreal and almost cartoonish at times. This movie contains some very real, appalling situations, which have the potential to leave you feeling repelled, disgusted, and uncomfortable. (Don't eat during the movie.) As a result, it took me at least 24 hours to realize that Tideland is a very good film, and although I didn't exactly like it, I'm glad I saw it. Some of the images and scenes can stick in your head for days. (It was the same experience I had after seeing Pulp Fiction: I loathed it for a couple of days, then realized the movie was still sticking with me, and eventually came to appreciate it.)