Shannyn Sossamon Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Last night I finished watching a new straight-to-video comedy called Falling Up. It was pretty mediocre, but I watched it mainly because it had a good cast: Annette O'Toole, Mimi Rogers, Joe Pantoliano and Snoop Dogg. OK. I didn't watch it for them, entirely, but because of Rachael Leigh Cook. I have had a movie crush on Rachael for years and this will be the fourth straight-to-video movie I have endured just for another glimpse of those amazing eyes. But the question is: why is she in all these straight-to-video movies? If my adoration for her has endured, why has her career not done the same thing? But the scariest thing of all is that Rachael is not the only movie crush of mine that has seen a marked dip in her career. Are my affections somehow cursed? Am I a career killer?

Rachael first made a splash as the young Jackie O in The House of Yes (1997), and then starred in a genuine hit, She's All That (1999), as the nerdy girl who gets the question: "do you really need to wear those glasses?" Following that was a flurry of five major films in two years, all of which landed with a giant, collective thud. There was Sylvester Stallone's remake of Get Carter, the lame comedy Blow Dry, and the tepid Western Texas Rangers. The paranoid thriller Antitrust may well qualify as a guilty pleasure, at least, and Josie and the Pussycats is definitely a guilty pleasure. I loved that film; I loved the punk/pop music and its cheerful parody of the music business. But of course, everyone else hated it.

Have you ever liked an actor that no one else seems to like? You almost want to keep your adoration to yourself, for fear that you'll be laughed out of a party or a gathering when you say how much you like Josh Hartnett. I actually do like Josh Hartnett, quite a lot. For a pretty boy, he has a very warm screen personality, and though he can appear perfectly comfortable playing a boxer or a cop, he also has a wonderful sense of humor. In short, he's not a brooder or a poser like most of his other pretty boy contemporaries. And yes, he was in Pearl Harbor, but he made up for that with excellent performances in The Virgin Suicides, O, 40 Days and 40 Nights, Hollywood Homicide and The Black Dahlia. Incidentally, these are all under-appreciated or misunderstood movies, just like Josh himself.

There. I've gone on record. Looking down the list of movies currently playing on 400 screens or less, I came up with several other actors I like that have not really received the love they deserve. First up, we have Amy Adams, who I just caught in the new Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. As far as I'm concerned, Amy walks on water. She's like a Carole Lombard for the 21st century. That means that she's not particularly suited for low-key "realistic" roles, such as the one she plays in Charlie Wilson's War (97 screens); in that, she basically trails Tom Hanks and occasionally reads some complicated dialogue to him. (I thought Mike Nichols was supposed to be good with actors.) But in Enchanted (329 screens), Amy is perfectly cast as a slightly cartoonish, screwball kook. She can move her eyes and her entire body in very precise ways for outlandish results, but she still retains a strain of humanity; she never spirals off into anything untouchable or unknowable. I thought she deserved an Oscar nomination for this one, but I'm afraid she'll need to put on a lot of "ugly" makeup before she wins anything.

It seems like an odd choice to hire a Frenchman to remake a film by Japanese master Takashi Miike. I've only seen half a dozen Miike features to date, which isn't many considering that he makes at least that number in any given year. But I can say that his style ranges from utterly insane to completely cracked, and few French filmmakers -- who generally specialize in intelligence and austerity -- could match him. But director Eric Valette brings something interesting to the new remake of One Missed Call. Most horror remakes come complete with an undisguised sense of callousness, and almost flat-out disdain, for their intended customers. But One Missed Call has a kind of effective low-key tone. Perhaps it was confusion or sheer laziness, but it worked for me far better than some other junky remakes I've seen.

Sure, the story is unbelievably stupid, and the film doesn't do much to justify its silly logic. Both this and Miike's film were adapted from a novel by Yasushi Akimoto, and I'd like to believe that the novel made a far better argument for its plot. A med student, Shelley (Meagan Good), dies after receiving a mysterious phone call. After her death, her phone mysteriously dials a friend, and that friend dies. And so on. The calls come in dated and timed to some point in the near future, and the recipient of the call hears his or her own voice at the moment of their death. So they know exactly what day and time they're going to die and they know what they're going to say, but that information can't help some of the dumber characters from saving their own lives. One character sits at a café with only one minute to go to his impending death. Instead of sitting there safe one minute longer, he decides to get up and cross a busy street.

Cinematical has learned conclusively that actress Shannyn Sossamon (A Knight's Tale, One Missed Call) has auditioned for director George Miller for the upcoming film Justice League of America. Details are scarce, but we know the following: Sossamon did audition for Princess Di and she apparently blew away the writing team of Kieran and Michele Mulroney and has heard back from them since. According to our source, the Mulroneys were so taken with Sossamon that they championed her to director Miller, even going so far as to state that they had envisioned Sossamon in the Amazonian role all along. But now comes the bad news ... our source also tells us that Miller was less than over the moon about Sossamon's audition (or just didn't see her as being the right casting fit), which means that a resulting stalemate will almost certainly break in his favor. The audition apparently took place sometime prior to the recent 'Young Hollywood' open casting call, and that's all we know at this point.

No further details about the project have leaked out in the last couple of days, and all of Hollywood is waiting for word on who will land the coveted roles of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman and Green Lantern. Oh, and that Martian Manhunter guy, too. Other actors known to have thrown their tights into the ring include Adam Brody, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Common, and Teresa Palmer, of Wolf Creek, who I think would do a bang-up job. Stay tuned for Cinematical as we continue to try to eek out more details of this and other fabulous pre-strike projects! As a footnote, we can also confirm earlier reports that Warner Bros. is in a tizzy over how the film's title will play worldwide, considering how, you know, the rest of the world hates America.

In addition to being a fine horror site (where you can watch full movies for free if you like!), FEARnet is also a movies-on-demand channel that's available to Comcast subscribers. Generally the FEARnet cable channel offers old-school time-wasters like Leprechaun, Wishmaster and Child's Play ... which is great when you're in the mood to flip through some options and settle in for a nasty little horror flick.

Anyway,as of right now FEARnet is offering their very first "original" movie! It's a flick called Catacombs -- and yes, horror fans, it's that one with Shannyn Sossamon that's been sitting on a shelf at Lionsgate Central for the past two years. I haven't seen the movie yet (probably later tonight!), but I think it's pretty nifty that the channel has a "first-run" title to offer the viewers. Even if it sucks, Catacombs is definitely a horror movie you haven't seen yet, plus it's a freebie anyway.

Here's what the IMDb says about Catacombs: "On her first trip to Paris, a young woman hits a party in the Catacombs, the 200-mile labyrinth of limestone tunnels under the city that's lined with the remains of 7 million people. Separated from her friends, she becomes convinced that someone or something is chasing her." The flick was cooked up by writer / directors Tomm Coker and David Elliot. (The former is a comic book artist and the latter wrote The Watcher.) It's also a Twisted Pictures production, which means it comes from the same checkbook that birthed the Saw series. (Lionsgate will release the flick on DVD early next year.)

So let's say you're dying to see Catacombs now ... but you don't get the FEARnet cable channel. Well FEARnot, because if you really want to watch the flick (online, for free), you can do so right here starting on October 31. (Full disclosure: I write horror reviews for the FEARnet website, just so you know. But I'd be sharing the news on FREE NEW horror movies no matter where they were hosted.)

There's really nothing like a good cult flick. It's fun, engaging, and wonderfully quotable. Even the vibe is different -- fans of cult films don't just sit quietly, catatonically watching the screen -- they radiate energy -- hooting, hollering, and reciting. It's why films like Bubba Ho-Tep should be seen in a theater -- it's there to have fun. Others, like Fight Club and Donnie Darko, are a little darker and serious, but just as engaging. So, the question VH1 is asking: Is Wristcutters: A Love Story destined to be the cult classic?

I, for one, am dying to find out. Way back in the beginning of 2006, Karina Longworth reviewed it and said: "It's a bold first effort, with a distinct, swaggering sense of style and humor that's hard – even for a cynical blogger sick to death of indie 'quirk' – to resist." Sounds good to me! The flick also had a controversial ad campaign to elicit buzz and anger, while appealing to the darker more cult-driven movie fans. Topping all that off, it's even got a following already, according to Courtney Solomon, the head of After Dark films. While it's going into limited release on October 19, he says: "People do actually quote the lines, and it's gotten such an underground following just from doing the festival circuit." Maybe, just maybe, this is the next big thing. But either way -- people have to stop comparing these sorts of films to Heathers -- they never live up to it and just make expectations way too high.

I really dig Shannyn Sossamon. At least, I did with her first three features -- she was my kind of alterna-mainstream girl. She hit it out of the park with A Knight's Tale, and then she started moaning from an orchid in 40 Days and 40 Nights before bringing to life Ellis dysfunction with The Rules of Attraction. After that, not so much. I'm still itching to see her in Wristcutters: A Love Story, but I'm not to keen on her turn to horror. The latest is called One Missed Call, and it co-stars Edward Burns (The Holiday). The horror flick is supposed to get released next year, and now we can finally check out the trailer on Yahoo.

At first I was a little intrigued -- Azura Skye kicked arse on her too-short stint on Buffy, as a girl who knew her death was coming, but the scenario just doesn't seem so cool this time around -- probably because it looks like Final Destination with cell phones, not to mention the fact that we're drowning in Asian horror remakes. The trailer covers the basic plot -- with or without batteries, these cell phones keep ringing and letting the person hear the last few moments of their life. They get paranoid and scared, and then succumb to the death the mobile predicted. However, Kevin Kelly saw some clips at ComicCon and said they were "extremely spooky," so maybe it ain't all bad. Heck, I might see it just for Ray Wise, Laura Palmer's troubled pop from Twin Peaks. The movie will hit theaters on January 4, 2008.

I have to admit -- I never heard of the Catacombs of Paris until this year. Lounging at a friend's place, we somehow ended up watching one of those informational shows on the French city, and I finally got a primer on the eerie miles of tunnels underneath Paris. For the uninitiated -- the Catacombs is a network of tunnels and rooms underneath France that were converted into gigantic tomb at the end of the 18th century. The city was suffering from disease, so mass exhumations were performed, and remains were carefully placed in the tunnels, building walls of human bone and skulls. Considering the eerie story, it's surprising that it took all this time for someone to throw together a horror flick.

Will it be good? I'm not so sure. We first told you about Catacombs a year ago, because Pink was playing one of the sisters caught in the Catacombs. Then, Scott Weinberg blogged about a trailer and the inclusion of Shannyn Sossamon as the other sister. The clip has since been taken down, but an official Lionsgate trailer has gone up over at Terrorfeed. The premise: a young woman (Pink) and her sister (Sossamon) go to an illegal rave in the Catacombs. When the cops raid the party, everyone flees, and the girls and their friends get caught in the maze of bones, hunted by a creepy creature whose head looks like a skinned donkey head or something similarly icky. It's kind of a bummer to have a scary beast be the culprit, because is there any place that would be better for a scary ghost story? You can't get much more ghostly potential than the Catacombs. Otherwise, Sossamon seems alright, but I'm not too sure on Lady Pink. At the very least, they shouldn't have her do the voiceover explaining the history -- it doesn't have much creepy impact. The trailer also gives a rundown of who died, which could seem spoilery if it wasn't completely inevitable. Although the movie was made ages ago, it has an ambiguous release date for sometime next year. Will it actually get released? Your guess is as good as mine.

After Dark Films clearly has a marketing team that knows what it's doing. The company's movies are causing controversy and sparking conversation well before release. First came the graphic billboards for the upcoming Elisha Cuthbert thriller Captivity that caused an uproar and were taken down last week. And now even more scandal is stemming from the marketing campaign for Sundance hit Wristcutters: A Love Story -- read Karina's review here. We told you a few weeks back about the campaign in question, and reading about it, I get the feeling that controversy is exactly what they had in mind. The campaign was set to unspool in July in preparation for an August release, and was reported to include cardboard cut-outs depicting various ways to kill yourself. Courtney Solomon, After Dark's co-owner, said of the signs: "We just hope they don't cause too many accidents."

Fifteen suicide prevention groups, including the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Mental Health America and the Suicide Prevention Action Network USA are outraged, and determined to put a stop to the campaign. Solomon says he has been "too busy" to reply to the groups because he's been busy re-shooting and adding violence to Captivity, in order to make it appeal to the gore-hungry audiences of today. He says Wristcutters and its promotion is certainly anti-suicide, but does concede that the marketing strategy may have to be altered, and that After Dark will offer screeners to, and welcome input from, the protesting groups.

Those raising the complaints have not seen the film and are not objecting to the movie itself, but they are concerned about the possible effect such an advertising campaign could have on the public. The letter from the AFSP to Solomon and After Dark states: "(We) know from more than 30 years of scientific research that media portrayals of suicide can be inadvertently harmful to vulnerable individuals, leading to what behavioral scientists call suicide contagion or 'copycat suicide.' Recent research confirms that young people in particular are vulnerable to this effect and can tragically act on depictions of suicide." Wristcutters follows a group of people who have taken their own lives and journey through purgatory. It stars Patrick Fugit and Shannyn Sossamon, and was directed by Goran Dukic. The film is set for a limited release on August 31st.

I've been dying to see Wristcutters: A Love Story. It doesn't help that Karina Longworth gave it a solid review during Sundance 2006, or that the film won the Acura Grand Jury Award for Best Feature at the Gen Art Film Fest last year -- or any of the other awards it has nabbed since its premiere in Utah. The Goran Dukic film stars Almost Famous cutey Patrick Fugit, DJ-turned-actress Shannyn Sossamon, Arrested Development's Will Arnett and the wonderfully gritty singer Tom Waits. It follows Zia (Fugit), a young man who kills himself over a girl, and finds himself in an afterworld full of people who have committed suicide. When he finds out that the girl he killed himself for did the same deed after him, he goes on a quest to find her.

The film itself is making its way to theaters way down the line in August, with one hell of an interesting marketing campaign by means of AfterDark Films, who have the North American rights. Along with an Internet and college campus push, the marketing for the film will feature a lot of cardboard cutouts that The Hollywood Reporter describes as "potentially controversial." I think that's just a bit of an understatement. The cut-outs will be a collection of suicides -- characters jumping off a bridge, hanging themselves and electrocuting themselves. Hmm... At least they're not handing out razor blades? Courtney Solomon of AfterDark says of the scheme: "We just hope they don't cause too many accidents." Or maybe they're hoping that the controversy helps drum up buzz for their Wristcutters. Considering the hordes that get angry with video games, I can't begin to imagine the backlash this campaign will get.