dedication Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Oddly enough we're told it's Justin Theroux, who's making his screenwriting debut with Tropic Thunder a bit later this summer. Yes, that would be the same Justin Theroux who played the immortal role of Adam Kesher in Mulholland Dr. and the badass Irishman Seamus O'Grady in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. The trade piece breaking the story gives no hint of why Marvel Studios thought of Theroux for the project, and I couldn't find out anywhere else, but I'm sure someone will give an interview soon enough.

Last year, Theroux directed an indie called Dedication from someone else's script, starring Tom Wilkinson and Billy Crudup. It got mediocre reviews and I missed it, despite my eagerness to watch anything with Wilkinson. If a career change is what the actor was after, he certainly got it: writing Iron Man 2 is a pretty plum gig. Can you imagine?

Of course, I tend to doubt that the sequel -- which is set for release in April, 2010 -- is going to wind up with just one screenwriter when all is said and done. Theroux's draft will probably be reworked, retouched and polished a dozen times. But it's cool that the actor-turned-director-turned-scribe will at least take a first crack.

New releases had a tough time drawing interest this past weekend. Leonard Klady of Movie City News estimates that Bollywood comedy Heyy Babyy grossed the highest amount with a box office take averaging $4,460 per screen at 68 locations -- for a total of $300,000. This is the first full-length feature by Sajid Khan, who previously contributed a segment to the anthology film You Must Be Scared. Heyy Babyy looks like it was inspired by Three Men and a Baby; the trailer features a ton of faces being slapped, for some reason that doesn't translate without subtitles.

A handful of indies made their debuts in very limited engagements. Deep Water did the best, with Klady estimating $10,550 for each of its two screens, while Dedication took in $5,570 per screen and Hannah Takes the Stairs followed with $4,800. I checked Rotten Tomatoes for each: Deep Water scored a perfect 100%, while the others trailed far behind, with Dedication at 46% and Hannah at 55%. Cinematical's Nick Schager was highly critical of Dedication, but Jette Kernion was much more positive about Hannah. Deep Water, a doc about nine men competing in a solo boat race around the world in 1968, has a smashing trailer.

Three other new releases performed below expectations; our own Ryan Stewart saw two of them. He quite liked Right at Your Door, which he described as a manipulative but clever thriller with a good performance by Mary McCormack. On the other hand, he described Ethan Hawke's The Hottest State as "one of the most unauthentic films I've seen in a long time ... I've seen more sexual chemistry from two doorknobs." Ouch! Right at Your Door played on 20 screens but could only scare up $1,430 at each, according to Klady's estimate, while The Hottest State only pulled in $2,730 per screen (at three locations). That's still far better than family film Eye of the Dolphin, which dragged in just $290 per screen at 130 locations.

I'm filling in for Matt this week while he's off lounging in Vermont. Mmmm ... lounging. This week I decided to focus on trailers that feature actors and actresses who are just so damn good looking. Bonus points go out to the person who can tell me who spoke the line used in the title of this post, and in what context.

Descent: If anyone could go up against Angelina Jolie in a Sexiest Hollywood Lips competition, it would be Rosario Dawson. In Descent, which first premiered earlier this year at the Tribeca Film Festival, Dawson plays a college girl who is brutally raped by a guy she trusted. From there her entire world flips upside down as she struggles with the transformation this attack has caused, as well as whether or not she should exact revenge upon the guy who did this to her. The film was also slapped with an NC-17 rating, which means this ain't no after school special about coping with a brutal attack while sipping Juicy Juice in the park. Check out Ryan's coverage of the film from Tribeca; Descent is scheduled to hit theaters (or should that be "a theater") on August 10.

Rendition:. Does it get any hotter than Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal? What if we add Peter Sarsgaard, Meryl Streep and Alan Arkin to the cast? When her husband is kidnapped and sent off to some faraway "torture" prison for being a suspected terrorist, one woman (Witherspoon) hunts for the truth, one guy (Gyllenhaal) hunts for reasons and everyone else goes along for the ride. Has Oscar come knocking a bit early? Directed by Gavin Wood (whose Tsotsi won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language pic two years ago), Rendition arrives in your local theater on October 12. Check out the trailer below.

Those nice people over at The Weinstein Co. just sent Cinematical the first poster for Justin Theroux's upcoming romantic dramedy Dedication, starring Billy Crudup and Mandy Moore. The story revolves around a highly-dysfunctional author of children's books (Crudup) who has major issues with women, enjoys telling children that Santa Claus doesn't exist and whose personal motto is "Life is nothing but the occasional burst of laughter rising above the interminable wall of grief." When his usual illustrator, played by Tom Wilkinson, unexpectedly dies, the author must begin working with an attractive young female illustrator, played by Moore. Dedication, which premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and was snapped up by the Weinsteins at that time, marks the directorial debut of Theroux, who is known for his acting work in David Lynch films Inland Empire and Mulholland Drive, along with other credits. The film will also feature other well-known players such as Dianne Wiest, Amy Sedaris, and Bob Balaban, and is scheduled to hit theaters on August 24. Click on the image above to get the full-sized poster.