TheOpenRoad Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The Lovely Bones
In this new film from Peter Jackson a young girl is murdered and watches from the afterlife as her family struggles to come to terms with her death and to find her killer. Based on a bestselling book and starring Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz and Susan Sarandon, this one hits theaters on December 11.

The Boys Are Back
Clive Owen plays a man whose wife dies suddenly and he finds himself the single father of a young boy and a teenager from a previous marriage. This one gets a limited release on September 25.

The Blind Side
Sandra Bullock stars in this film based on a true story about a well to do white family that takes in an African-American teenage boy and helps him reach his potential as a football player. Watch for this one on November 20.

Just the other day, we debuted the sour-faced poster for The Open Road -- a road trip movie starring Justin Timberlake, Jeff Bridges, Kate Mara, and Mary Steenburgen. On the heels of that release, MSN has nabbed the official trailer, which is full of difficult dads and aggravated offspring, but not as many laughs as the poster would hint. The film follows a son who, on the request of his dying mother, reunites with his estranged father, a minor-league baseball player, to bring the family back together.

I wasn't sure what to expect from the film. It's written and directed by Michael Meredith, the man who wrote Wim Wenders' Land of Plenty -- a quite somber film starring Michelle Williams as a missionary returns to LA from Palestine and gets wrapped up with a post 9/11 conspiracy nut and the murder of a homeless Muslim man. But this project isn't very political, and only partially serious.

If the trailer is any indication, this will be one of those chuckle-inducing and heart-warming melodramas, like a father-and-son version of Boys on the Side. Well, a version of the story where a fairly talented but new actor tries to play it straight and hold his own against Bridges' charisma and talent. How far the film will go ... it could grab some Timberlake momentum, or come and go without a sound, like the similar kooky father/angry son film $5 a Day.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for the film The Open Road, starring Justin Timberlake and Jeff Bridges. The film follows a minor league baseball player (Timberlake) who, along with his girlfriend (Kate Mara), travel to reunite with his estranged father (Bridges) and bring his family back together to help support his sick mother (Mary Steenburgen). Lyle Lovett and Harry Dean Stanton also star.

Written and directed by Michael Meredith, we first reported on this dramedy wayyy back in 2007, and again in 2008 when Timberlake and Bridges signed on. It's hard to argue against this cast -- Bridges always brings his quirky A-game, and Timberlake, in my opinion, is only a year or so away from really landing some big roles. But it's these smaller flicks that will convince people of Timberlake's on-screen talent; the ones that strip away his celebrity and expose a little more substance. Definitely seems like one you should seek out when it hits theaters on August 28.

Check out the full poster by clicking below. Full synopsis after the jump.

The key players from the indie film world will be gathered together in Cannes for the next 10 days. Look for our daily roundups of news each night, titled "Cannes in 60 Seconds." But first, what's been happening during the past week?

Deals. Oliver Hirschbiegel's drama Five Minutes of Heaven, starring Liam Neeson, has been acquired by IFC Films, according to indieWIRE. IFC will release the film, which "explores aspects of Northern Ireland's 'Troubles,'" simultaneously in theaters and VOD in August. Michael Meredith's drama The Open Road has been picked up by Anchor Bay, again per indieWIRE. Justin (Motherlover) Timberlake stars as a man who tries to effect a reconciliation between his dying mother (Mary Steenburgen) and his estranged father (Jeff Bridges). Release plans have not yet been announced. I Love You Phillip Morris, a gay con man prison romance, has secured distribution via the fledgling Consolidated Pictures Group, says Variety. The picture stars Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor. A release is planned for next Valentine's Day.

Box Office. While mainstream audiences trekked into theaters, indie film lovers divided up their love, resulting in less than stellar results for new releases. We've embedded the trailer below for Outrage, Kirby Dick's new doc, which inspired hypocrisy by NPR; it made $6,518 per-screen at five locations. Little Ashes, with gay love scenes by Twilight's Robert Pattinson, averaged $6,116 per-screen at 12 theaters. Julia, featuring Tilda Swinton's extraordinary performance, took in $4,175 per-screen at three cinemas. Jim Jarmusch's excellent, exquisite The Limits of Control expanded into eight more theaters and grossed $4,153 per screen, a drop of just 18.2%. [Box Office Mojo.]

After the jump: Festival heads talk about the future; AFI Fest in Los Angeles will be (almost entirely) free.

The latest Wim Wenders (produced) film, The Open Road, was sounding pretty decent back in February, when Jeff Bridges, Justin Timberlake, and Mary Steenburgen signed on. Now it's gotten even better -- The Hollywood Reporter has posted that both Lyle Lovett and Harry Dean Stanton have joined the cast. I just wish that Wim was heading this feature, since the last time that both Stanton and Wenders were on the same project, it was in the great film Paris, Texas back in 1984. This time around, writer/director Michael Meredith gets the honor (he did write Wenders' Land of Plenty, so this isn't out of left field).

The film is a reconciliation tale that focuses on a man (Timberlake) who is trying to reconcile with his former sports pro father (Bridges) as they head to his ailing mother's bedside. As Christopher Campbell noted back in April of 2007, there's also a girlfriend in the road trip mix. THR says that Kate Mara is the other player in this film, so I imagine she's Justin's love interest. As for Lyle and Harry -- the former plays a Memphis bartender who "lends a helpful ear" to Timberlake's character, while the latter will play his grandfather.

After his creepy stint as Roman Grant in Big Love, it will be nice to see him as a grandfather who isn't some gangster-like Mormon. Then again, maybe he is, but that'd be a totally different sort of story. Production is currently underway in Louisiana.

When 'N Sync was prancing around the stage in the late '90s, did anyone imagine that one of the dudes would become a pretty successful actor in less than 10 years? I mean, I'm sure Jeff Bridges didn't see Justin Timberlake on the boob tube and say: Gee, that kid should play my son in something! It's as weird as watching Ronnie Regan in his movies and imagining that he'd become President. NOTE: I am, in no way, suggesting Justin will turn to politics -- I'm just noting surprising career moves.

Anyway, Variety reports that Timberlake is about to head on The Open Road with Bridges, the comedy drama that Christopher Campbell first blogged about almost a year ago. Under filmmaker Wim Wenders' watchful eye, writer Michael Meredith will direct his own script. This was going to be a reunion for the Land of Plenty crew, but unfortunately, it seems that cinematographer Franz Lustig has been replaced by Yaron Orbach.

Road is a reconciliation tale about a young man who reconnects with his dad, "a legendary athlete, as he struggles to get him home to his ailing mother's bedside." While the parts aren't specifically laid out, I imagine Bridges is the dad, Timberlake the son, and Mary Steenburgen is the mom. Initial reports also described a girlfriend on the trip, but there is no word about that role in this latest bit of news. This could be at least partly autobiographical, as Meredith's dad is ex Cowboys QB Don Meredith, but for this film, the sports figure is a baseball legend. Personally, I'm interested in seeing how Meredith handles the comedic aspects since Land of Plenty was all sorts of somber -- good, but somber. The film is scheduled to slip into production in Louisiana later this month.