james marsden Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Richard Matheson's original short story, "Button, Button," was a nifty little morality tale about a couple faced with a peculiar opportunity -- if they push a button in a box, they'll get a sum of money but kill a stranger in doing so. That version of the story ended with the wife pushing the button and killing her husband, a man she didn't really know. As an episode of "The Twilight Zone" in 1986, the story ended with the couple paid off and assured that the device would then go to another couple to whom they qualify as strangers. Now, Richard Kelly's The Box takes that same basic premise and spins it into a mind-bender of the most baffling degree, starting out as another "Twilight Zone"-worthy variant but eventually reaching the outer limits of both patience and reason.

Our good friends (and partners) over at Moviefone have just debuted the first trailer for Richard Kelly's (Donnie Darko, Southland Tales) much-anticipated freaky little sci-fi thriller The Box, starring Cameron Diaz, James Marsden and Frank Langella. Due in theaters on October 30th (just in time for Halloween), the film follows the story of a couple who receive a mysterious box that grants them one million dollars, but with one catch: once they open the box, a person who they do not know will die. Pretty catchy premise and based on the trailer alone, the movie definitely looks to bring the thriller-ish vibes. I've always loved the look of Kelly's films, and The Box is no exception (something about it -- the cold, stark wintry chill, perhaps -- reminded me of The Shining). Perhaps a more commercial tale will help heal Kelly's former box office woes. He's a darn good filmmaker, and so I hope that's the case here.

Check out the trailer after the jump (or in HD over on Moviefone) and let us know what you think.

Last Wednesday, I threw on Jeff Buckley - Live in Chicago and got to work. One of the times I glanced at the TV screen, a thought occurred to me: Robert Pattinson could pull off a decent Jeff Buckley. He's only a few years younger than the musician was during the creation of Grace; he's a got a slew of musical talents; and has a similar look. Heck, I even tweeted about it. Only a few days later, in a turn that taps into my collective conscience/coincidence question, there's a mass of buzz about a Buckley biopic.

ABC News reports that Pattinson and James Franco are in a showdown to play the musician in the upcoming biopic. There's not much beef to this account, and they get it wrong that "Hallelujah" was released posthumously (it was on Grace), so it doesn't seem definitive. However, an older news release down under explains things in detail. The Sunday Mail reports that Buckley's mother Mary Guibert is overseeing the project, with producers Michelle Sy (Finding Neverland) and Orion Williams (Control !!) and screenwriter Ryan Jaffe (the less-promising The Rocker). (With the inclusion of Sy and Guibert, this must be the project that began cooking three years ago, although writer/director Brian Jun is not mentioned.)

If there's one remake that's solidly irking the masses, it would be Rod Lurie's plan to re-do Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs. Remaking a big studio film is one thing -- remaking a controversial and violent Peckinpah film is something else entirely. In March and August of 2007, Cinematical readers weighed in with their distaste, and now a few years later, this sucker is finally getting cast ... with Cyclops.

The Hollywood Reporter posts that James Marsden will be taking over Dustin Hoffman's shoes to play David Sumner. This time around, the man will be an LA screenwriter who moves to his wife's deep-South hometown before the marriage troubles begin and locals get violent.

I have to admit it; I'm kind of intrigued. It's not that I want a remake (I almost never do), but I really want to see what Lurie is doing with this. He's already expressed his distaste in the rape controversy, and swears it will be much different in his film, and he's moved the whole project over to an entirely different social landscape. Why? And then picking Marsden? I can't decide if this is a move of genius, and something that could set the actor on more of a Hoffman path than a rom-com and annoying eye-zapper path, or if this is just another reason to ignore this remake.

So far, it's like a garish accident, you're compelled to look even if you don't really want to... But what do you think? Does Marsden make you want to pick up the pitchforks and revolt, townie-style?

Tempted though I may be to do so, I won't take credit for Warners' moving up the release of Richard Kelly's hopefully good The Box after I blathered on about it for too long and then some last month. According to BOM, the thriller is now scheduled to open on October 30th and just opposite Saw VI -- and between us, if it was between either the fifth Saw sequel or a title with both Richard Kelly and Richard Matheson's names on it, my moviegoing dollar would surely find its way to the latter.

Going instead into the newly vacated 11/25 slot is the Wachowski-produced Ninja Assassin, helmed by James McTeigue (V for Vendetta, the third act of The Invasion) and starring that guy Stephen Colbert hates so much. Not much has come of that film beyond a "we're making it!" press conference -- no trailer, no poster, no nuthin' -- but the film has been formally rated R for "strong bloody stylized violence throughout, and language," which suggests that the film is completed.

And when you have a completed film on your hands, you generally release it. (And then this'll be the part where the "More You Know" star will shoot overhead...)

Back in January, we all recoiled a little bit at the news that Neil LaBute was remaking Death at a Funeral -- a nice little British movie that only just came out in 2007, making a remake seem even more superfluous than they usually are. The fact that he was making it with Chris Rock made the whole thing seem even more cheesy. (Not that we don't like Rock ... it's just that we like him in original, edgy stuff.)

Well, the remake just got a lot more over the top. The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Martin Lawrence and Tracy Morgan have joined, along with Loretta Devine, Ron Glass, Danny Glover, Regina Hall, James Marsden, Zoe Saldana and Columbus Short. (Who wants to bet money that Marsden is the gay lover? Anyone? Anyone?)

It's keeping the exact same plot of misplaced cadavers, gay blackmail, hallucinogenic drugs, and family secrets, though Rock cowrote the script with Ayesha Carr, so we can expect some changes. It's just not clear yet what they might be ... but at least it probably won't involve bear suits or misogyny. I'm still not convinced this needed to be remade, but I suppose if you're going to do one, it ought to feature Danny Glover. Let's just hope Tyler Perry stays a million miles away from the set.

ETA: Yes, the title originally read Tracy Jordan. I watch way too much 30 Rock.

Last month, I weighed aloud the notion of relocating oft-delayed con man crime caper The Brothers Bloom just one more time, to somewhere out from under the shadows of many May blockbusters. Summit's reaction to that piece was prompt yet delicate -- they merely blackmailed Universal into moving Bruno away from Bloom's NY/LA bow.

This time around, my latest open letter to futility is being CC'ed to Warner Bros., as my concern now lies with the latest move of Richard Kelly's bumped-and-then-some thriller, The Box, starring Cameron Diaz and James Marsden as a couple forced to weigh the cost of one life against a chance at considerable wealth. (In other words, they get to slip into the shoes of Hollywood executives.)

Well, now I just feel silly -- thanks a lot, Win Butler. Back in May, rumors began to circulate that Arcade Fire members Butler, Regine Chassagne and Owen Pallet were working on the score for Richard Kelly's The Box, but Butler had insisted there was nothing to those rumors. Now it's eight months later, and as it turns out he was just messing with us. In an interview with Pitchfork, Butler finally fessed up that he had been working with Kelly on the orchestral score for the Twilight Zone-inspired drama. He says, "We didn't really think we were going to do the whole thing, and then it just kind of was easier once we got in. It was like, 'Oh well, we'll just keep going.' It has so much to do with the editing, and your job is just to help the director. It's a very different experience."

Kelly's follow-up to Southland Tales is based on Richard Matheson's short story, Button, Button, and centers on a couple who come into possession of a mysterious box that can make all their financial dreams come true. But there's a catch: if they use the box, an innocent person will die (I can almost hear Rod Serling in the background telling me to "Picture a couple..."). The film stars Cameron Diaz and James Marsden as the husband and wife with financial woes, and Frank Langella as the box's strange 'delivery man'. It's a pretty creepy premise that would appear to be a perfect fit for the music of Arcade Fire ... and Kelly's own twisted sensibilities.

Back in November, Will brought us the news that the film had been pushed back for a second time from March to November 6, 2009. Hopefully the delays aren't signs of another troubled production for Kelly.

Oy vey: after shifting more dates than an old lady working in the produce section, it appears that Richard Kelly's thriller The Box has been bumped once more, from next March to next November. Usually, this would be a bad thing, but I'm still seriously intrigued by this adaptation of Richard Matheson's short story, in which a young couple (James Marsden and Cameron Diaz) are given a mysterious box that can make them wealthy, but at the cost of killing a stranger the moment they use it.

The film is completed enough to merit a PG-13 from our pals over at the MPAA (for "thematic elements, some violence and disturbing images"), so it's not post-production woes holding the film up. One suspects this is a much less sprawling film than his Southland Tales, which we'll come back to soon enough. Is it part of WB's strategy to spread out product as the strike catches up to them, as they had by moving Harry Potter from this week to next summer?

Man, if I could just kill a stranger to get some answers...

One normally tries not to bring the marketing of a film up in its review. Maybe one can toss in a mention here of a misleading trailer or of a really clever teaser poster, but that only serves and represents a film up to a point, after which the final product should serve and represent, well, itself.

However, the poster for Sex Drive so clearly represents what I cared for least in this film that we're just going to start there ... specifically not with the relatively apt one in which our protagonist (Josh Zuckerman) has an erect speedometer, but the most recent one, the one that just has a donut on it.