Sex and Death 101
Finally! I've been waiting eons for Sex and Death 101 to hit the shelves -- ever since there was news that writer Daniel Waters was not only taking another stab at directing, but that he would be reteaming with Winona Ryder. Sure, it wouldn't have her digging into her blue clothes for more Veronica Sawyer, but I take what I can get.

Simon Baker stars as an executive and ladies man whose world is thrown into upheaval by the appearance of an e-mail -- one that includes the names of all the women he's had sex with, plus all the women he will canoodle in the future. Ryder, meanwhile, is "Death Nell," a femme fatale who targets men guilty of sex crimes. Other faces that pop up include Leslie Bibb, Julie Bowen, Sophie Monk, Mindy Cohn (yes, that Cohn), Dash Mihok, Patton Oswalt, and Neil Flynn.

The release includes a commentary with Waters, plus a featurette called "101 Perversions."

Seeing that this is the 20th anniversary for Heathers as well, Anchor Bay is also releasing the 20th High School Reunion Edition today.

Check out Scott's review | Buy the DVD

A Taiwanese filmmaker's tribute to a celebrated French short soared easily to the top of the indie charts this weekend. Flight of the Red Balloon (IFC Films), directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien, averaged $17,450 at the two screens where it played in Manhattan, according to estimates compiled by Leonard Klady at Movie City News. Jeffrey M. Anderson wrote: "Like Hou's more recent work, Flight of the Red Balloon moves a little more toward international accessibility and away from his early, uniquely Taiwanese stories." Juliette Binoche stars as a frazzled writer and performer with a troupe of puppeteers who hires a Taiwanese film student as a nanny for her young son.

Surprisingly, My Blueberry Nights (The Weinstein Co.) finished #2 for the weekend, grossing an average of $11,380 per screen at six locations. Wong Kar Wai's first English-language film met with lukewarm reaction at Cannes last year; the director tinkered with the editing, but the end result is still not very satisfying, according to Nick Schager. He wrote that the "lovelorn dilemmas [of the female characters] ... consistently come off as precious and trifling, which is dispiriting considering that Wong and [director of photography Darius] Khondji make everything look and feel so rapturous and enticing that one wants to believe the proceedings are of consequence." Nora Jones, Jude Law, Rachel Weisz and Natalie Portman are featured.

Once again, order and logic have deserted me, left me behind like a half-eaten bag of movie theater popcorn (extra butter, of course). Try though I might, there's no common theme under which I can group five trailers, so for this week anarchy shall reign over the Trailer Park. And what better way to start out than with a movie called:

Chaos Theory
Ryan Reynolds plays a meticulously organized man. "A specific list is a happy list," he tells his wife. His life begins to slip into disarray and he finds himself embracing the madness, loving the chaos. This leads to him doing such previously out of character things as drinking too much, picking fights and streaking at a hockey game. Reynolds' best friend is played by Stuart Townsend, and considering his roles in Queen of the Damned, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Night Stalker, it's kind of jarring to see him not playing some kind of creature of the night. Martha Fischer's posting about this one from back in 2005 also mentions something about the friend being the father of Reynolds' character's son, but there's nothing about it in the trailer. This one left me with a good feeling.

My Name is Bruce
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who realize Bruce Campbell is a god, and those who have yet to learn of his greatness. We've been hearing about this one for awhile, and supposedly it will hit theaters some time in 2008. We have the trailer, though, and if you're a Bruce fan it's a little slice of awesome. Residents of a small town have unleashed an ancient Chinese demon and, mistaking Campbell for the character he played in the Evil Dead films, they enlist his aid in vanquishing the monster. As cool as Bruce is, he's far from infallible. The Evil Dead trilogy and his book If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-movie Actor veritably reek of awesomeness. On the other hand, The Man With the Screaming Brain and How to Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way just plain reek. Still, the trailer is really cool, so hopefully Bruce will be chainsawing his way into the hearts of moviegoers soon.

I'm not sure if this is true, but I've heard some movie geeks out there grew up crushing on Winona Ryder. I know I wasn't the only one. Actually, I know there were thousands of us, if not millions. Now, as a sensitive teen, one of the things I liked about the actress was that she was firm on her decision to keep her clothes on. Of course, as a hormonal teen, this was also one of the things that frustrated me about her. Well, now that it's been about twelve years since I met Ryder while selling her Shine tickets and came to the realization that she was a real person and not someone to obsess over, she is baring some skin. It's still not a lot of skin, and it's only noticeable if a certain gossip blog freeze frames it for us, but Winona Ryder is a bit naked in Sex and Death 101. Now, you might want to chime in and point out that, as MrSkin.com does, Ryder showed a dab of flesh in Autumn and New York (there were rumors of a full nude scene that was cut out), and this isn't that much better. But this is a little different; I would at least consider it more of a nude scene. And if you want to watch it, you better do it quick. The video and the NSFW photo are sure to be taken down soon.

For those who don't know, Sex and Death 101 is the film that reunites Winona Ryder with Heathers screenwriter Daniel Waters, who also directs this time around. It stars Ryder, of course, as a serial killer named Death Nell, who targets sex criminals. Ryder's co-star in the film is Simon Baker (The Devil Wears Prada), who can be seen in the video, as a guy who one day receives a mysterious email detailing all the women he has and will have sex with in his life. Our own Scott Weinberg saw the film at Fantastic Fest and called it Waters' "best work in a very long time," and Ryder's, "best stuff in years." That may not say much to you, knowing their lack of success in recent years, but Scott continued to give the film praise. He wrote, "the movie juggles romantic comedy, dark humor, sex farce and slight slapstick with seldom a misstep, resulting in a surprisingly unpredictable flick that works on a small variety of levels." Sounds interesting. Oh, and don't forget that sex scene; that might interest you, too.

Since the only female spies I can think of in the movies are La Femme Nikita, various Bond Girls, or Charlie's Angels, I don't think I'm wrong for thinking that there has never been a terribly realistic portrayal of a woman in the espionage business. Hopefully, that is going to change. The Hollywood Reporter announced that Paramount Vantage has tapped Sex and Death 101 scribe Daniel Waters to adapt Lindsay Moran's memoir, Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy.

Published in 2005, the book covers her time in the CIA, and critiques what she calls "a dysfunctional intelligence organization." Moran joined the CIA in 1998, after graduating from Harvard and working in Bulgaria as an English teacher. After five years as a "case officer," she became disillusioned with her lifestyle and quit. Moran's dissatisfaction with "the life" was also closely tied to her disappointment with the fact she was "far from being a female James Bond." She "discovered that the life was more isolating than anything else, with her not able to tell even her closest confidants or boyfriends what she did for a living."

Surprisingly, she was allowed to speak freely about her time with the organization, and even criticized them for both their slow reaction to the Sept 11th tragedies and their role in the Iraq War. Karen Tenkhoff (The Motorcycle Diaries) will produce. There is no word on a director yet, but considering the amount of spy projects getting the green light, it shouldn't take long. But for those who like their spy films with a little less bureaucracy and a little more glamor, there is always Bond 22. You can always count on 007 to give us our fix of super-model spies and unlikely adventures.

To say that screenwriter Daniel Waters has had an "up and down" career would be a very accurate observation. After penning the cult classic comedy that is Heathers he moved on to The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (ugh) and Hudson Hawk (whoa) before earning a credit on the excellent Batman Returns. Then he co-wrote Demolition Man, vanished for eight years, and made a small comeback with an indie comedy called Happy Campers, the movie that marked his directorial debut. So which Waters would show up in Sex and Death 101? Well, let's just say we're not nearly in Heathers territory, but Waters' latest represents his very best work in a very long time.

The plot is a cleverly simple one: A likable ladies' man receives a list of names -- all the women he's ever slept with! At first it seems like a prank played by one of Roderick's wise-ass buddies, but get this: The list also includes the names of every woman that Roderick Blank (Simon Baker) WILL sleep with! Like, for the rest of his life! Now, imagine if you received an email telling you the name of every sex partner you'll ever have ... precisely what would that DO to your approach to romance? If you meet a nice sweetie -- but she's not on the list -- what would you do?

Odds and ends from Tuesday:

• Is it me, or is Ian McShane "The Man" lately? Seems every day I find his name associated with another project. And I like the guy -- so that's a good thing. Well, chalk another one up for this cowboy: Variety reports the Deadwood star has signed to star alongside Renée Zellweger (man, she's still acting?) in Case 39 for Paramount Pictures. Directed by Christian Alvart, pic centers around a social worker (Zellweger) who rescues an abused girl from her parents, then later learns things aren't exactly as they seem. McShane will play a cop who helps the social worker with her case.
• Don't you just love movies that feature characters who suddenly realize they're part of some big, elaborate government experiment? Well, don't you? How come no one is raising their hand? Are you alive out there? Is anyone even reading this free information? If you are, then I'll tell you Intermedia has optioned Adam Alleca's spec script The Drowning Man, which is based on Hideshi Hino's Living Corpse. The sci-fi thriller revolves around a guy who wakes up without a heartbeat, then realizes the government has something to do with it.  Damn government! Why can't a guy just enjoy his freedom?
• One of the greatest dark comedies ever made might be heading back our way, this time in super-cool sequel form. According to Entertainment Weekly, Winona Ryder and Heathers scribe Daniel Waters are interested in producing a sequel to the hit 1989 film. Currently, the two have teamed up once again for Sex and Death 101, in which Water both wrote and directed. Ryder was quoted as saying, "There's Heathers in the real world! We have to keep going!" This might mean a possible sequel could find our characters out of high school and locked inside cubicles. Personally, I'd be very interested to see something develop here. How about you?

Why is everyone calling Sex and Death 101 "the return of the guy who wrote Heathers," rather than "the return of the guy who wrote Hudson Hawk?"* Come on, people -- let's give Daniel Waters his due! Anyway, back in March we told you about the movie, which revolves around a man receiving "a mysterious e-mail containing the names of every woman he has had sex with and, eerily, every woman he will have sex with in the future." So there, you see, we have the "sex" part of the title -- no idea where the "death" comes in, though. (Personally, since the man is being played by Simon Baker, I'm fervently hoping someone else bites it.)

Since the movie went into production without a female lead, it's a good thing that Waters finally worked his Heathers connections to bring Winona Ryder on-board. Supposedly, she was his one and only target for the role -- Waters says he wrote it her in mind. (Do you think he really did, though? I mean, how often do people pull that line out in an effort to flatter stars into appearing in their movies? "Denzel -- I wrote the part for you! Really! You can totally play fat, old, and white.") Also in the film are Dash Mihok and Boston Legal's Julie Bowen; release is planned for some time next year.

*There is no sarcasm whatsoever in this statement. I'm going to be buried with a Hudson Hawk DVD.