sebastian gutierrez Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Carla Gugino has spent the better part of the last decade playing some of the most complicated and interesting female characters in Hollywood. After early roles in lighthearted fare like Son in Law, she played an appropriately combative counterpart for Michael J. Fox's deputy Mayor on Spin City before appearing in Wayne Wang's The Center of the World as a troubled seductress, Robert Rodriguez' Sin City as a tough-as-nails parole officer, Ridley Scott's American Gangster as Russell Crowe's exasperated ex-wife, and most recently in Zack Snyder's Watchmen as a sexpot superheroine with a pitch-black past. This month, she's acting in Sebastian Gutierrez' Women in Trouble, where she plays a porn star coming to terms with the news that she's pregnant.

Cinematical recently spoke to Gugino at the film's Los Angeles press day, where in between pointing out some of the bruises she earned while shooting Zack Snyder's Watchmen follow-up, Sucker Punch, she offered a few insights into her character in Women in Trouble.

Cinematical: What immediately jumped out to me about Elektra is that even though she's at her own crossroads in Women in Trouble, she seems to have the most certainty of the characters about who she is.

Look, I know what you're thinking. I thought the same thing when this photo arrived in my inbox. And then I looked at the "backstage" footage from Women in Trouble, which you can see for yourself after the jump, and I was even more confused. The clip begins with porn star Elektra Luxx (Carla Gugino from Watchmen in a really questionable faux bondage ensemble over regular street clothes) announcing that she's here to tell you why you shouldn't see Women in Trouble. Fresh-faced prostitute Holly Rocket (Adrianne Palicki from Friday Night Lights) chimes in that she's also here to talk to you about why you should avoid the movie. It's not for people who don't like sex, "hot chicks in lingerie," "damn strong language," or, uh, spaceships, among other things. ("There is no spaceship in the movie," whispers Elektra to Holly.), Later, the two talk amongst themselves...

Indie Roundup reviews the past week of news from the independent film community and provides a peek at what's coming soon.

Deals. Screen Media Films picked up U.S. rights to Women in Trouble and plans a release on November 13. The film, directed by Sebastian Gutierrez, is "a fun addition to the current trend of revisiting and reworking exploitation-film themes in a lighthearted way," wrote our own Jette Kernion earlier this year. "There's a certain pleasure in seeing a movie where the men are relegated to the Supportive Spouse and Lust Interest roles, after I've seen so many films where those are the only roles for women."

Dave Boyle's White on Rice, described as a heartwarming comedy, has been acquired by Variance Films and Tiger Industry Films; a theatrical release is scheduled to begin in Los Angeles on September 11 before expanding throughout the fall. Matt Bradshaw pointed the way to the quietly funny trailer. [More details on both deals can be found at indieWIRE.]

Online / On-Demand Viewing. All you Netflix "Watch Instantly" addicts can get your fix from even more indie films, thanks to Cinetic Rights Management. Matt Dentler notes that Richard Linklater's charming (and hugely influential) Slacker and festival favorites like Bob Odenkirk's Melvin Goes to Dinner and Gabriel Fleming's The Lost Coast, among others, are now available for online streaming to subscribers. I suppose it's a little too obvious to point out the irony of making a movie called Slacker even easier to watch, with almost no effort required at all? Ah, life in the 21st Century.

Who won the Indie Weekend Box Office? It's a laughing matter -- find out after the jump!

I'm wary of movies that try to be instant cult/camp classics, with intentionally overdone dialogue and outrageous costumes and actors who are metaphorically winking or even non-metaphorically mugging for the camera. When the characters are in on the joke, it isn't all that funny. And when I learned that the writer-director of Women in Trouble also co-wrote Snakes on a Plane, I grew even more skeptical. But the actresses who populate Women in Trouble tend to play it straight, even when they're wearing assless spandex pants or smoking invisible cigarettes, and that's what keeps this film fun instead of tiresome.

Women in Trouble has a multi-story, anthology-like structure. Writer/director Sebastian Gutierrez said before the SXSW screening that he originally had one ten-page sequence that he wanted to shoot, then thought it might be easy to shoot several of them, all with different actresses, to make a good movie quickly. Apparently it wasn't all that easy, but the result is a large cast of mostly actresses playing a variety of the traditional exploitation "women in trouble." These include porn stars, tag-team hookers (one in a Catholic school uniform, natch), stewardesses (they're not flight attendants when we're poking fun at the exploitation genre), unmarried-and-pregnant women, and a very understanding masseuse.

Jessica Alba's latest, The Eye, is about a blind woman who has an eye transplant that enables her to see into the supernatural world. It's a remake of twin brothers' Oxide Pang Chung and Danny Pang's 2002 Hong Kong horror film Gin Gwai. The new film was directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud, with re-shoots (uh-oh) by Patrick Lussier. It was written by Sebastian Gutierrez, who scripted Gothika and Snakes on a Plane (uh-oh again). The trailer is up online over at Yahoo Movies, and you've probably got some questions. Will this one be any better than the average crappy horror flick? Are we talking more The Ring or more The Grudge 2? If Jessica Alba were really blind, could she learn to love a monster like me? Maybe you should take your pretty little eyes over there and check out that trailer, Mogambo!

The trailer feels like more of a long teaser. There is no dialogue, just some pulsing music, and quick flashes telling the story in images. It's nicely done but not mind-blowing. A few moments stood out, like the floating feet and the nice little jump at the end. I also like the bit where she appears to be painfully squeezing fluid out of her eye. It reminded me of trying to put in my contact lenses while hung over. The Eye co-stars Alessandro Nivola (Junebug) and the always delightful Parker Posey. I saw Posey for a half second in the trailer, and no Nivola, but I guess when you've got one of the most beautiful women in the world in your movie, you want to put her front and center. Cinematical visited the set of The Eye back in April, and if you'd like to read a discussion with Miss Alba regarding the film, you can find it here. The Eye is due in theaters on February 1st, 2008.