Among my favorite film books is Michael J. Weldon's two-volume "Psychotronic" film guide. The first was published in 1983 and the second in 1996 (Michael hopes to publish a third at some point). Unlike Leonard Maltin's annual book, Weldon doesn't update an existing guide; each new guide is an entirely new volume. If you want to read about Halloween, you need Vol. 1 and if you want to read about Halloween 4, you need Vol. 2. A "Psychotronic" movie can be fairly easy to define. It's basically any of the "lower" film genres, dealing with the more questionable elements of society: horror, sci-fi, bikers, strippers, superheroes, zombies, kung-fu, vampires, comic books, drugs, sex, action heroes, rock 'n' roll, midnight movies, monsters, witches, cults, serial killers, magic, time travel, robberies, heists, contract killers, gladiators, Spaghetti Westerns, mad scientists, murder mysteries, pimps, voyeurs, etc.
The big story of the weekend was the success enjoyed by Under the Same Moon (Fox Searchlight / The Weinstein Co.), which earned $8,910 per screen playing on 266 screens, according to estimates compiled by Leonard Klady at Movie City News. Our own Jette Kernion described it as "essentially an old-fashioned family melodrama." She pointed out that the film has an "overt agenda" in its message about U.S. undocumented workers, but concluded: "Despite its flaws, Under the Same Moon is an entertaining film that knows how to charm an audience."
Playing at one theater in New York and one in Los Angeles, Planet B-Boy (Elephant Eye Films) made $14,500 per screen, giving it the highest per-screen average. Benson Lee directed the documentary, "which weaves the stories of numerous crews from 18 nations vying in the Battle of the Year championship in Braunschweig, Germany," in the words of Ed Gonzalez in The Village Voice. "What most sticks is Planet B-Boy's aesthetic, which feels jocked from the school of Michael Moore."
Well, hell. I've been all excited (and, hopefully, the few of you interested in Hong Kong film have, as well) about the fact that Simon Yam is part of the ever-expanding cast for Olivier Assayas' multi-cultural Boarding Gate, and now it turns out that Yam isn't going to be able to do the film. Which, you know, sort of sucks. The good news, though, is that Yam pulled out of the project because he's committed to playing a part in Johnnie To, Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam's "puzzle film." In case you've forgotten, the film will be directed in thirds, with each section being completed before the next is made. The three will reportedly tell a single story, but each director will have to write his segment based on what the director before him does with his own piece -- for example, if Hark, who is going first, kills off his main character at the end of his segment, To, who comes next, will have to come up with a way to deal with that event.
As a frequent collaborator with To, Yam apparently felt he had to make the puzzle film a priority (plus, it sounds like a hell of a lot of fun); because it was likely to shoot at the same time as Boarding Gate, he was forced to pull out of Assayas' project.
Just last week, I shared the exciting news that Hong Kong superstar (and a pretty good actor, to boot) Andy Lau was going to appear in Olivier Assayas'Boarding Gate, assuming the film fit into his schedule. It now appears, unfortunately, that despite the fact that Assayas reportedly flew all the way to Hong Kong (From Paris, I assume. It's less impressive if he was in Beijing before making the trip.) to make the request in person, Lau won't be able to take part in the project. Before you fans of HK film get too depressed, however, check this out: Both Kelly LinandSimon Yam (aka one of the most wonderful supporting actors the world has ever known) will now be appearing in the film. Yay! As long as this sucker doesn't turn into an HK-stars-making-cameos mess (which, since we're talking about Assayas, seems very unlikely), it's sounding more exciting by the second.
In other news from Hong Kong, Johnnie To has announced that he recently signed a deal with Meridian Pictures. Under the terms of the deal, To will reportedly direct 3-4 "big budget" films for the studio over the next six years. What's interesting about this news is that the first project has already been revealed: It's called Butterfly Flies and will star Li Bing-bing and Vic Chow in a story about "a girl who has a fight with her boyfriend right before he dies in an accident. She gets depressed, and then she meets his ghost." (A far cry from To's output for Milky Way, huh?) There's no word on the timeframe for this one (the script is yet to be written), but things happens fast in Hong Kong, so it could easily be out sometime next year.
Early reports indicated the movie has an awesomely convoluted plot, involving "An Italian woman [Argento] who lives in London [and] has a passionate affair with a former financial big gun [Madsen]. She also had a second lover [a Leung], a contract killer who has to kill the big gun. Her second lover's wife [Yeoh] is behind the scenes, pulling the strings." So it sounds pretty damn great, no matter who Lau might play. The problem, however, is that Lau is supposed to be shooting a film with Derek Yee this summer as well, and it may be difficult for him to find time to appear in Boarding Gate. According to Lau, though, there is still hope, because Assayas has said he'll "try to work around my schedule."
I just wish we had a damn release date for this thing -- the combination of cast and director on this one is making it one of my most-anticipated upcoming projects.
French director Olivier
Assayas has an impressive filmmaking pedigree: his father was writer/director Jacques
Rémy and, like François
Truffaut and Jean-Luc
Godard before him, he wrote for Cahiers du cinéma before taking up direction. Irma Vep, his international breakthrough, got a certain degree of
exposure in the US, but despite its complexity and relative success, he's be largely overlooked here since then. While
it's unlike that anything will change with the release of his next project (which he wrote and will be directing) it
nevertheless sounds intriguing.
Entitled Boarding
Gate, the movie boasts a multicultural universe of stars, including Michelle Yeoh, Asia
Argento, Michael Madsen, and not one but two TonyLeungs.
According to early web reports, the film's convoluted plot revolves around "An Italian woman [Argento] who lives in
London [and] has a passionate affair with a former financial big gun [Madsen]. She also had a second lover [a Leung], a
contract killer who has to kill the big gun. Her second lover's wife [Yeoh] is behind the scenes, pulling the
strings." With Assayas at the helm, the chances that the movie will be the straightforward genre story that
summary suggests is pretty much nil, so it'll be exciting to see what approach he takes. No information is yet
available about when he might begin shooting, however, and it's likely to be a while before we get to take a look.
The big story of the weekend was the success enjoyed by 
Well, hell. I've been 
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