If you'll permit me to embarrass myself for a moment: I'm the guy who liked Neil LaBute's redo of The Wicker Man. Well, maybe I'm not the only one -- if I recall correctly, Weinberg didn't hate it either. But I'm pretty sure that's it. Any movie where Nicolas Cage dropkicks Leelee Sobieski and then dons a bear suit for an extended stretch is okay by me, but most people seemed to think that LaBute was out of his element in the supernatural thriller genre. In that case, his next project finds him back in his wheelhouse: generating suspense by manipulating and exaggerating everyday social tensions. Lakeview Terrace involves an interracial couple (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington) who find an enemy in their new next-door neighbor (Samuel L. Jackson), an LAPD cop who disapproves of their relationship and becomes determined to drive them away.

A trailer for Lakeview Terrace has surfaced on the film's official website, and the movie looks like squirmy, uncomfortable fun -- the kind of material LaBute is most comfortable with. In addition to the racial angle, it looks like the film is going to explore another touchy subject: the near-omnipotence that comes with a police uniform. It takes some guts to make a cop the bad guy without also providing a virtuous foil (e.g. Ethan Hawke offsetting Denzel Washington in Training Day). But if anyone can pull it off, it's Neil LaBute.

[via Comingsoon.net]

He's been gone for over 20 years, but now François Truffaut's work is once again heading to the big screen. Well, sort of. Variety reports that New Line is remaking his 1981 film, The Woman Next Door (La Femme d'a cote). Neil LaBute, the pen behind In the Company of Men, Nurse Betty, and The Wicker Man, will handle adapting the film, while Oscar-winner Taylor Hackford (Against All Odds, Ray) has signed on to direct. This will be the first time LaBute writes a feature for someone else. Now of course, he won't begin writing until the WGA strike is over, but Variety says he couldn't resist the offer, which came after Hackford and wife Helen Mirren saw LaBute's play, Wrecks.

I understand being allured by great projects, but it seems like making big writing deals while you're striking is really defeating the purpose. I wonder if he'll start writing it now, but only "officially" start later. Anyway, LaBute says: "This is a lesser-known Truffaut film about ex-lovers, long separated, who suddenly find themselves living next door to each other. Each is married. Neither tells their spouse they know each other, and it's a collision course into disaster as they rekindle a volatile relationship, with great passion and suspense. ...Taylor said if he was ever going to remake a movie, this was the one he could do something with." That's not surprising, considering the possibilities with the urges of temptation and rekindling of lust. The original starred Gérard Depardieu and Fanny Ardant as the trysters, but who would you cast in a modern-day, English version?

Chances are, if you watch any type of indie films, or The Phantom of the Opera, you've probably caught Patrick Wilson. In the last few years, he's been the creep about to get fed some Hard Candy by Ellen Page, Jennifer Connelly's husband in Little Children and he also had a part in Running with Scissors. While he's got the indie scene covered, he hasn't really broke through to the mainstream, but I'm thinking this might help -- he's signed onto the Neil LaBute thriller Lakeview Terrace.

Cinematical has followed the development of this film for a while now. As of March, we had Samuel L. Jackson starring as a racist LAPD officer who has got it in his mind that he has to do anything and everything to remove the interracial couple who live next door. LaBute was in talks to direct (and has since signed) and Ashton Kutcher was being considered for the role of Kerry Washington's husband, forming the couple being harassed. It looks like someone came to their senses (who would want to tread similar ground to Guess Who?). Mr. Demi Moore is gone and Patrick Wilson is taking over. I'd say this is a pretty solid move for the film, and its cred has since jumped up a few levels.

The film starts shooting on Monday. I just wish it was shooting in Toronto. LA (I presume) gets this, and what's the big film shooting in the midst of the Short Film Fest theaters? American Pie sequel 38945793. If that's something that interests you, I walked by the production today. I can tell ya that there are horses and hay as part of their college shenanigans, and if you want to go snoop, they're filming in/near the frat houses north of the University of Toronto. Sigh. It would've been much cooler to walk by some classic Jackson ranting.

Playwright-turned-filmmaker Neil LaBute won me over big time with the smart dialogue and unapologetic characters he wrote for In the Company of Men and Your Friends & Neighbors. He then made a very enjoyable film from a script he didn't write, which in many other hands would have been forgettable. But after that film, Nurse Betty, he hasn't done much to keep me interested. I was especially disappointed with The Shape of Things, a flat, predictable film based on his own play, and finally couldn't even bother to check out his remake of The Wicker Man, which came out last year. He will likely keep me away once more with his next project, if it does turn out to be Lakeview Terrace, a thriller starring Samuel L. Jackson we told you about in January.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, LaBute is in negotiations to direct the film, which was written by Money Train screenwriter David Loughery. And if he gets the gig, he may get to work with Ashton Kutcher, who is possibly being cast as the husband of Kerry Washington -- because we couldn't get enough of his interracial-coupling in Guess Who. Kutcher and Washington would play a husband and wife being terrorized by Jackson's character, a racist LAPD officer who lives next door. If the script could be rewritten by LaBute -- the LaBute of ten years ago -- and feature a lot of scenes with Jackson beating on Kutcher -- really hard -- then Lakeview Terrace could have a chance, but the script is instead being retooled by playwright Howard Korder, and Screen Gems will probably want to keep Kutcher from being too bloodied up.

Haunted by a death he couldn't prevent, policeman Edward Malus (Nicolas Cage) is having a bad time of it: Off the job, taking pills so he can sleep without dreams, shaking hands and shaken spirit. And then he receives a letter from his ex-fiancee Willow (Kate Beahan); they haven't spoken for years, since she went back to her childhood home on an agrarian commune on a small island in Puget Sound. Now, she's reaching out to Edward because her daughter Rowan (Erika-Shaye Gair) is missing. She needs him. And with the pull of memory and the necessity of finding Rowan propelling him, Edward makes way to Summersisle, the isolated island Willow calls home, to try and unravel the mystery of Rowan's disappearance. And it is not the only mystery he will find.

A remake of a lesser-known but well-loved 1973 British horror film, The Wicker Man returns to the big screen as a project of writer-director Neil LaBute. With a track record of short, sharp, shocking plays and indie dramas to his credit (In the Company of Men, The Shape of Things), LaBute doesn't seem like a typical choice to helm a horror remake; then again, The Wicker Man isn't your typical horror film. My memories of the original are thin at best -- I viewed it a long time ago, and all I recall is Edward 'The Equalizer' Woodward using his shouty voice, and some truly interminable musical numbers -- and, of course, the climax, which we won't discuss. The Wicker Man was first written for the screen by Anthony Shaffer -- like LaBute, a filmmaker who started in the theater. And The Wicker Man -- which wasn't even screened for critics until 10pm the day before it opened -- is actually a compelling and disquieting film, especially after Cage's Malus gets to the island to help his old love look for her daughter. Summersisle, it turns out, is private -- in more ways than one. It's owned by Sister Summersisle (Ellen Burstyn), a bright-eyed natural leader who's made a peaceful, agrarian community where people live simple lives and worship as they choose. At first, Edward's annoyed but accepting of the islander's ways -- Hey, that's why we have a First Amendment, right? -- but gradually we notice that the ways of Summersisle go far beyond the limits of reason ... even if Edward doesn't.

What sounded like one of the year's most ill-fitting and head-scratching projects -- Neil LaBute and Nicolas Cage (of all combos) getting together to remake Robin Hardy's 1973 chiller The Wicker Man (a true cult classic if ever there was one) -- ends up being a half-compelling, half-goofy and half-redundant piece of remake revisionism. (Yes, that's three halves, but it's that weird a movie.) That's not to say you won't find a few really strong components in LaBute's (ultimately pointless) revisit ... but it'll take a straight face and a eagle's eye to find the good stuff. And even then, the only people who should bother with the remake are the ones who simply can't be hassled renting the original because it's old and British.

Cage stars as state cop Ed Malus, a hard-working and noble sort of everyman hero, whose story begins with a mysterious, deadly roadside explosion and the malaise that comes only when a cop loses two civilians ... and the bodies are never found. After stewing around in his misery juices for a few days, Ed receives a letter from an old lover: She needs him to make the trek out to a private and very isolated island off the coast of Washington because her daughter's gone missing and there's nobody on the island who can help.

After bribing a local pilot and mildly butting a few heads upon his arrival, Edward settles in with the meat of the mystery. But the off-kilter community of Summersisle, which is composed almost exclusively of unfriendly females, indentured males and billions of bees, does not take too kindly to Eddie's arrival. (It probably doesn't help that he has the word "male" as part of his last name.) Indeed, most of The Wicker Man consists of Cage flaccidly interrogating a series of very sneaky women before the mystery is laid bare with a finale that (thankfully) hasn't been monkeyed with too much.

And the horror remakes just keep on comin'.

On Septmber 1st you'll be able to see what Neil LaBute and Nicolas Cage have done to modernize Robin Hardy's cult classic The Wicker Man, but until that time ... here's the trailer.

The original, which I finally tracked down a few years ago AND LOVED, is about a policeman who travels to an isolated British isle to track down a missing girl -- only to discover that the citizens are mixed up in some really disturbing goings-on. Empire Magazine once called The Wicker Man the greatest British film of all time, and it's a flick that's earned a whole lot of fans since it debuted in 1973.

The new version comes bearing an unlikely director in Neil LaBute, the man who gave you In the Company of Men, Your Friends and Neighbors, and Nurse Betty. Nicolas Cage steps into the role made famous by Edward Woodward (yes, The Equalizer), and he'll be joined by ladies like Ellen Burstyn, Leelee Sobieski, Frances Conroy and the strangely gorgeous Molly Parker. For a bit more info on the re-do, check out our previous reports here, here, and here.

Color me curious regarding the remake, but like I always say: If a remake of The Fog / The Omen / Dawn of the Dead / etc. gets a few young horror geeks to check out the original versions, then keep the remakes coming. (Having said that, there's really no reason for the remakes to SUCK so often, is there?)

Neil LaBute's already-controversial remake of the cult mega-classic The Wicker Man has been assigned a September 1st release date by Warner Bros., according to my blood-soaked brothers over at BD.com. The studio has also taken Dark Castle's The Reaping and switched it from August 11th to November 8th.

The Wicker Man is based on Robin Hardy and Anthony Shaffer's quietly brilliant original chiller, and it's a revisit that Mr. Hardy is none to thrilled about. (As Karina reported back in September, he had some decidedly unhappy things to say about LaBute's remake.) The new take features Nicolas Cage, Ellen Burstyn, Leelee Sobieski, and Molly Parker. (The original coasted by on just mood, atmosphere, and a commanding lead performance by Edward "the eventual Equalizer" Woodward.) If you really crave a plot synopsis on The Wicker Man, do us both a favor and go buy/rent the original flick. It really is as good as the fans say.

Now, The Reaping is the latest from the Dark Castle gang, the folks who offered you House on Haunted Hill, 13 Ghosts, Ghost Ship, Gothika, and House of Wax. It stars two-time Oscar-winner Hilary Swank as a supernatural debunker who visits a small Louisiana town, only to discover that some truly freaky shiznit is going down. We're talking biblical plagues here, horror fans. Although Dark Castle's been a bit inconsistent with their output, The Reaping seems to be getting off on the right foot: The director is Stephen Hopkins, the man who helmed Nightmare on Elm St. Part 5, Predator 2, Judgment Night, The Ghost and the Darkness, and several episodes of Tales from the Crypt and 24. (True, he also directed the big-screen version of Lost in Space, but I'm trying to think positive thoughts here.)

Things with Neil LaBute's remake of The Wicker Man have never really gone very smoothly. What with people involved in the original alternately calling his work "a crime" and threatening to sue, LaBute's got to be getting a little nervous about how his effort will be received when people actually get a chance to see it. The remake, which stars Nicolas Cage as "a sheriff investigating the disappearance of a young girl from a small island [who] discovers there's a larger mystery to solve among the island's secretive, neo-pagan community," has been met with widespread disdain both because the original is so well-loved, and because the remake has, typically, transplanted the events from a Hebridean island to one in the US.

The first images from the film have just shown up on a German fansite, so now at last there's something concrete to complain about. My primary reactions are 1) A leather jacket like the one Cage is wearing in image #2 is never a good idea, and 2) Why is he making those demented faces? Is that supposed to be curiosity? Charm? Pain? Man alive. If this is the best they've got, the movie could be even worse that we feared.


[via Dark Horizons]

Upcoming Horror Movies has a couple (literally) of new shots from the set of the Wicker Man remake, which stars Nicolas Cage, Ellen Burstyn and Leelee Sobieski. Not much to see here, beyond the big ... wicker ... man. Of course, the most interesting thing about this film is that it's being directed by Neil LaBute, the driving force behind Nurse Betty, In The Company of Men, and Your Friends and Neighbors. With a filmography chock full of protagonists notable solely for their overarchingly selfish emotional brutality, LaBute's got maybe the most strident overall vision of humanity of any filmmaker working today. How do you see this integrating with the Wicker story, which, if I remember correctly (it's been awhile since I've seen the original) has something to do with a series of hedonistic rituals extending towards human sacrifice? Is this the ultimate LaBute film, or is he the wrong guy for this job?

[via Coming Soon]