ZNAK SAGITE — više od fantastike — edicija, časopis, knjižara...

Alexander Aja & Wes Craven a Team for 'The Waiting'.

Here's something that's only just on my radar, another Craven / Aja project thats been openly discussed in the past week in some quarters, and it's one of those things again that's a bit 'work in progress' so take it as something that could fall apart, but hopefully remains something that will come through for its scheduled 2007 release. Craven and Aja have discussed working together on something following Craven's positive reaction to Aja's remake of his 'The Hills Have Eyes' which opens in America on March 10th 2006. Craven has managed a solid but not particularly fresh career for decades, Aja is still up and coming, and potentially the pairing could be very interesting indeed.

Fine, Aja did a top job of 'Haute Tension', one of the best films I saw last year in many respects - particularly for its modern look, old-fashioned genre story and great special effects - something not entirely new but which showed enough promise, and I was amongst those saying 'pfff... yeah, nice choice' sarcasticly in my head when Aja opted for a remake - something essentially to likely to be even less original that another genre movie like 'Haute Tension'. Anyway, remakes can be fresh too I suppose, and 'The Hills Have Eyes' remake trailer is just lovely, and it remains one film I want to see more than most this year.

'The Waiting' is a ghost story revolving around a relocating family, and is said to potentially both be a remake (of sorts) of 'Last House on the Left' (like it, prefer Aldo Lado's version of that tale in 'Night Train Murders' - a great Blue Underground disc of that out in America) and something in the same vein as 'Rosemary's Baby' and 'Don't Look Now'. So potential in there for something with that Gothic Horror edge, the feel of 'Omen', 'Carrie', 'Halloween' and many things out of Italy during that decade too. They seem to have scoured scripts that contain the basic elements of a story they can add their edge and touch to, and I hope that such a meeting of minds comes up with something lovely.

NOVI MIKELE SOAVI!

Arrivederci amore, ciao
from the website of the international sales agent for the movie, Wild Bunch Sales Limited: "Giorgio, a left-wing idealist-turned-terrorist, returns to Italy from exile in Central America with one goal - to establish a life of comfortable bourgeois respectability. A normal life. All idealistic fervour and political conviction destroyed during his horror-filled years on the run, Giorgio's obsessive desire for this normal life is limitless, his methods utterly ruthless.  Blackmailing former comrades buys him a reduced jail sentence, but once on the outside, despite himself, he sinks unavoidably and ever-deeper into a vortex of violence and crime from which there seems to be no escape.
Larceny, pimping, drug-dealing, easy dirty money... Giorgio hesitates briefly, then abandons himself to the corruption that surrounds him. A relentless machine, he flourishes. In partnership with Anedda, a crooked and cynical special services agent in possession of evidence that could put him away forever, he takes on increasingly dangerous criminal jobs. Blood starts flowing, bodies start piling up around him. A major heist scores Giorgio some serious money. Enough to pay Anedda off, enough to start over again, enough to buy the dream that has never stopped haunting him.
But for Giorgio, the past is never dead. It's not even past.
Based on the best-selling novel and graphic novel by Massimo Carlotto, brutal, chilling, utterly compelling, Michele Soavi's Arrivederci amore, ciao is the gripping story of one man's battle against destiny, his struggle to escape from himself and his own black history of violence."

+ slika iz filma:

Michele obecava, cim ga je uzeo Wild Bunch mora da je nesto zanimljivo...

Bryan Singer, the writer/director behind such films as X-Men and Superman Returns, told SCI FI Wire that he wants to become a producer of horror films as well, following in the footsteps of other well-known auteurs-turned-horror moguls. "And I'm also acquiring other properties for movies," Singer said in an interview at WonderCon in San Francisco over the weekend. "I'm looking to produce some films. I'm looking at the prospect of producing some horror films."

It sounds like Singer wants to emulate established directors such as Back to the Future's Robert Zemeckis, who with producer Joel Silver heads the genre label Dark Castle (House on Haunted Hill), and Spider-Man's Sam Raimi, who with longtime partner Rob Tapert operates Ghost House Pictures (The Grudge). "Something like that," Singer confirmed.

Singer has already acted as a producer of his own films, as well as TV fare such as Fox's House and SCI FI Channel's original miniseries The Triangle, which he executive-produced with Dean Devlin.

And Singer said he won't just restrict himself to movies and TV: "I'm also involved in video-game stuff as well," he said. Superman Returns opens June 30.

AJMO RAJA!

Mandalay has made a deal with "Wild Things" helmer John McNaughton to direct "Backstabbers," penned by Stephen Peters, who wrote the 1998 sexy thriller "Wild Things" starring Denise Richards, Neve Campbell, Matt Dillon and Kevin Bacon reports Variety.

Richards and Campbell are in talks to reteam in "Backstabbers" which is described as a sexy caper about a rich New York man who masterminds his wife's kidnapping unaware that his mistress and bodyguard are going to double-cross him.

Although "Backstabbers" reunites the players from "Wild Things," it's not being billed as a sequel.

Focus Features and BBC Films have attached David Cronenberg to direct "Eastern Promises," a $15-$20 million budget London thriller penned by Steve Knight ("Dirty Pretty Things") reports Variety.

The script digs into the seamy underside of life in the U.K. capital and focuses on a young midwife drawn into investigating the identity of a mysterious Russian girl who dies in childbirth on Christmas Eve. The nurse stumbles into danger when she discovers that the dead woman was a prostitute ensnared by a sex-trafficking gang.

Focus is taking worldwide rights on the film, Cronenberg and Knight have just started working together on the script, and the aim is to shoot the project in the Fall depending upon Cronenberg's commitment to the Bruce Wagner-scripted "Maps to the Stars".

Kako da čitam textove koji beže se7en ekrana udesno?!

novi Bekmambetov

Requiem" helmer Hans-Christian Schmid will next direct "Storm," a political-thriller about an attorney working for the Hague who discovers war-crime skeletons in the closet of a popular Croatian politician. Schmid is writing the screenplay with "Requiem" scribe Bernd Lange..."

"Alec Baldwin has scored the lead role in the $15 million thriller "The Forbidden City" written by Don Ethan Miller. Based on the book 'The Last Mandarin' by Stephen Becker, the story tells of the Chinese and the American working together to capture Japanese war criminals in 1949. Andrei Konchalovsky ("Runaway Train") will direct when shooting begins in China in May..."

Subject Two

 
  Patrick Z McGavin in Berlin 20 February 2006
 


Dir/scr Philip Chidel. US. 2006. 92mins.

Philip Chidel's second feature Subject Two begins with a taut, suggestive title sequence of two men battling for possession of a gun; a smart, sharp opening that provides a chilling introduction to the highly assured and impressively staged low-budget horror film that follows.

It conforms enough to the demands of the form, allowing enough blood, gore and action to thrill the youth crowd. But Chidel is also after something more elusive and difficult to track, a psychological suggestion of divine right and absolute power.

It's a reconsideration of the Frankenstein myth, given a new, relevant idiom about technology and science in conflict with mortality. "You're an assistant, not God," a character says late in the film.

Just as impressively Chidel draws on the spectacular Colorado mountain scenery where the film unfolds, drawing on the clean, sinister white-on-white compositions to heighten the quotient of dread and unease. The movie suggests Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining, not only in the claustrophobic, snow-capped landscapes, but also in lead actor Dean Stapleton's resemblance to a younger Jack Nicholson.

Premiering in the Midnight section at Sundance, Subject Two is a natural title for the smart, discerning late-night crowd. It clearly will not perform at the Saw or Hostel level, but it's a shrewd, stylish programmer that should find an appreciative, probably cult, following.

The movie's top prospects are in ancillary markets, particularly the lucrative field of DVD and pay cable. Internationally, the commercial possibilities are more restricted.

But while Far From Bismarck, the first feature from San Francisco-based Chidel, went largely unseen, he'll experience no such problems with Subject Two.

A young medical student whose migrained induced seizures pummel his promising career, Adam (Oliver) is summoned by a mysterious benefactor, Dr Franklin Vick (Stapleton) to meet him at his isolated medical research facility.

A specialist in cryonics, Vick is conducting highly experimental research in resurrection, developing a serum that he says enables him to revive the dead. Adam is drafted into his "experiment": Vick strangles him in the first of a series of medically sanctioned killings, then drains him of his blood and shoots him.

Dubbed Subject Two, after failed experiments with his predecessor, Adam is suddenly transformed and his seizures and migraines disappear. "You have no idea what's going on inside me right now," he tells Vick. But the process remains unstable, and Adam is soon convulsed with horrifyingly painful side effects and begs Vick to end his life.

The narrative conflicts plays out their struggle for equilibrium, Vick needing Adam to understand the full medical range of possibilities with his reanimation, and Adam trying to fully realise the psychological and physical consequences of his condition.

Shut off from the outside world, Adam is denied the earthly pleasure of a beautiful young woman (Mace) he befriended, and the tension subtly increases between scientist and subject. A good, thoughtful man, Adam is divided between trying to cope with the contradictory impulses his feels, continuously suspended as he is between life and death.

Director and writer Chidel makes a late appearance as an actor, and finds a highly appealing, revealing way to resolve the essential conflict between the two men.

The late plot revelations also deepen the sense of mystery, echoing the mysterious opening and powerfully suggesting that Adam is only capable of living by returning to civilisation.

Chidel's directing is taut and well underplayed and the tempo is fast and unnerving. The director smartly plays off physical space in expressive, inventive ways, heightening the confrontation in the cramped interiors and using the scale and depth of the exterior landscapes to project a different form of unsettledness, even encroaching madness. Christian Oliver's German-accented English creates a further sense of imbalance and strangeness.

Production companies
Cardiac Pictures
Chabo Films

International sales
Jeff Dowd & Associates

Producers
Philip Chidel
Dean Stapleton
Christian Oliver

Cinematography
Rich Confalone

Editor
Philip Chidel

Special effects make-up
Joann Gross

Music
Erik Godal

Main cast
Christian Oliver
Dean Stapleton
Courtney Mace
Jurgenn Jones
Thomas Buesch
Philip Cidel

Requiem

 
  Lee Marshall in Berlin 20 February 2006
 


Dir: Hans-Christian Schmid. Ger. 2005. 92mins.

The thinking man's The Exorcism Of Emily Rose, Requiem offers a deliberately understated take on the real-life events which inspired that commercially successful courtroom horror yarn.

Director Schmid and scriptwriter Lange are only marginally interested in the hoary theme of Emily Rose – the tussle between religious faith and scientific reason. Instead, they weave a dourly compelling character study out of the 1970s Klingenberg case, in which a young German epileptic girl died at the end of an exhausting series of exorcisms, officially sanctioned by a Catholic bishop.

More strong, eccentric martyr than weak and passive victim, the film's complex heroine comes to life thanks to an electrifying feature debut performance by young theatre actress Sandra Hueller, who lifted a deserved Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival.

EFM sales action was brisk, and Requiem will benefit, rather than suffer, from its release after Scott Derrickson's Hollywood version.

A floppy-haired muppet of a girl living in a rural town somewhere in deepest Catholic Germany, Michaela (Hueller) wins a place to read pedagogy at the University of Tubingen. Her ice-cold mother (Kogge), who is always ready with a bitter word and a scathing comment, opposes the move because of her daughter's medical problems, soon revealed to be a form of epilepsy. But Michaela is supported by her weak, tremulously affectionate father (Klaussner).

At university she gets herself a best friend (Blomeier) and a boyfriend (Weiser), but she also has a recurrence of the fits that have already led to her skipping a year of school. This time, though, they twine with Michaela's religious faith, as she finds herself unable to pray, count her rosary beads, or touch the cross.

The action is set in a drab, brown-and-green version of the early 1970s that comes through mostly in the haircuts, clothes and music of the university scenes, and then only as a distant provincial echo. Though the script's one-way journey towards illness and obsession draws a rather uneventful straight line, it is leavened by the quirky unpredictability of Michaela's character.

As unorthodox as she is pious, this proto-saint goes freshwater swimming in her underwear, thrashes about to progressive rock music and enjoys sex with her permanently bemused boyfriend.

Michaela's descent into an emaciated half-life of visions and terrors is rendered with astonishing veracity by Hueller, with only minimal contributions from the make-up department.

Like Bresson's Joan Of Arc, Michaela is both a remarkable life-force and an active player in her own martyrdom. Though an exorcism taster is thrown in, the film ends, with impeccable instinct, at the moment when Michaela realises her path is mapped out, well before the Beelzebub and holy water routine can begin in earnest.

Production company
23/5 Filmproduktion

International sales
Bavaria Film International

German distribution
X Verleih

Producer
Hans-Christian Schmidt

Screenplay
Bernd Lange

Cinematography
Bogumil Godfrejow

Production design
Christian M Goldbeck

Editor
Hansjorg Weissbrich
Bernd Schlegel

Main cast
Sandra Hueller
Burghart Klaussner
Imogen Kogge
Anna Blomeier
Nicholas Reinke
Jens Harzer
Walter Schmidinger

Kate Moss is set to play a lesbian in a biopic about singer Dusty Springfield by "Brokeback Mountain" director Ang Lee reports Ananova.

Moss is expected to play a socialite who became one of her early lovers. Charlize Theron is lined up to take on the role of Springfield in the film which will follow the Dusty's life from her birth in Hampstead, north London, to her death from breast cancer in 1999.

A source says "Kate's the ideal choice to play the love of Dusty's early life. She's beautiful, aloof and she epitomises swinging London. There'll probably be sexual scenes but as Ang is behind the camera they will be very tastefully done. Kate's character breaks Dusty's heart and sparks off the chain of tumultuous relationships that dogged her throughout her life".

"Aliens" and "Titanic" helmer James Cameron has set Laeta Kalogridis ("Alexander", "Pathfinder"), who is co-writing "Battle Angel" with him, to write "The Dive," the true, tragic love story of freediver Francisco "Pipin" Ferraras and his wife Audrey Mestre reports Variety.

He plans to direct the film for 20th Century Fox and Lightstorm Entertainment, although "The Dive" won't be the next directing effort for Cameron. That film is a 3-D project entitled "Project 880" which many speculate is either of his long-awaited "Avatar" or "Battle Angel" project.

"Dive," which would begin after that project, will tell the story of two pre-eminent free-divers who, with but a breath of air in their lungs, plunged to unimaginable depths before swimming back to the surface. She died during an attempt to better her world record to 557.7 feet.

"Wedding Crashers" team Vince Vaughn and director David Dobkin are teaming again for "Fred Claus," a Warner Bros. holiday comedy about Santa's loser brother reports Variety.

Comedy revolves around Santa's black-sheep brother, who heads back to the North Pole and gets a chance to redeem himself. Vaughn is expected to land a $20 million salary for the first time.

Dan Fogelman wrote the script. Project is very likely to be Director Dobkin's next.

Director Simon West ("When a Stranger Calls", "Con Air", "Tomb Raider") is re-teaming with Screen Gems it seems as he's in negotiations to direct the horror thriller "Vacancy", penned by Mark L. Smith for the Sony genre-arm.

"Vacancy" centers on a young married couple who become stranded at a desolate motel and realize that their lives could be in danger.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Screen Gems is eyeing a mid-June start date for the project for release sometime in early 2007.

Weinstein Co. has acquired "Evilseek," a supernatural thriller that Wayne Kramer ("The Cooler", "Running ScareD") wrote and will both produce and direct. Thomas Jane is set to star reports Variety.

Jane will play a cop so demoralized by the handiwork of a serial killer that he commits suicide. Satan uses the cop's body as a vessel, inheriting a disgruntled ex-wife, a promiscuous 15-year-old daughter, a lesbian partner and some of the cop's dogged determination to catch the killer.

Kramer has committed to make the film his next directing assignment with plans to shoot later this year. Jane just completed the John Madden-directed "Killshot" for WeinsteinCo.

Latino Review has landed the exclusive scoop that Joaquin Phoenix is zeroing in to topline John Singleton's "Without Remorse" for Paramount Pictures as the lead character of John Kelly.

"Without Remorse" is based upon the novel of the same name by Tom Clancy, and is the story of how former Elite Navy Seal Commando John Kelly becomes the C.I.A. operative known as Mr. Clark, made famous in the Jack Ryan series of books and films.

Willem Dafoe played Mr. Clark in "Clear and Present Danger" and Liev Schreiber in the "Sum Of All Fears". Expect a formal announcement in the trades soon.

e sad vise nema ZAJEBAVANJA...

Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (46 Oku Nen No Koi)

 
  Lee Marshall in Berlin 28 February 2006
 


Dir: Takeshi Miike. Jap. 2006. 84mins.

The softening of Takeshi Miike – after the loopily tender Zebraman, and Box, his operatically stylised contribution to the Three Extremes anthology– continues apace with this bizarre gay prison yarn.

With shades of Gohatto (Taboo) and early German expressionist cinema, Big Bang Love, Juvenile A begins intriguingly as a sort of cosmic, poetic enquiry into male friendship and bonding. But then, abruptly, it becomes a murder mystery.

Visually striking but ultimately confusing, this is one of those films that is fine as long as you're content just to soak up the atmosphere. Those turned onto the director by Ichi The Killer will be disappointed; after some more festival exposure – it played as a Panorama Special in Berlin - Big Bang Love will likely be confined to the extreme arthouse edge in Miike-receptive territories, plus the usual specialist DVD outlets.
Pretty boy Ryuhei Matsuda – who, tellingly, made his acting debut in Gohatto – plays Jun Ariyoshi, a waiter in a gay bar who commits a horrific murder one night for no apparent reason. He is committed to prison on the same day as tattooed hard man Shiro Kazuki (Masanobu Ando), who is also on a murder rap, and the two develop a mutual dependency that never quite develops into a sexual relationship – though there is clearly plenty of same-sex action in this lock-up. Prison, Miike-style, is a homo-erotic netherworld peopled by male model inmates in designer rags.

Gradually, it becomes clear that this is a future world. At first only the curious stellar geometry of the prison cells and the stylised backdrops hint at this, but we move into full-on Metropolis mode when Jun looks through a peephole in his cell wall and sees a ruined zigurrat and a Sputnik-era rocket, served up in CGI retro sauce that serve as potent symbols of something or other. This is the problem with Big Bang Love: it so damn suggestive that it puts the audience on the back foot, reluctant to be the little boy in the Emperor's New Clothes.

The colour palette is stunning, dominated by noirish blues and deep sunset reds and golds, while Matsuda and Ando look great.

But this is not enough to save the film from feeling over-burdened when it starts to develop its existential murder-within-prison-walls plotline, complete with captioned whodunit questions that sound like something out of a game of Cluedo. By the end, this viewer at least was baffled. Miike is clearly a twisted genius; he just needs to work on his communication skills.

Production companies
Excellent Film Co
Maki Production Co
Shochiku Co
Eisei Gekijo

International sales
Shochiku Co

Producers
Takeshi Watanabe
Shiro Sasaki

Screenplay
Masa Nakamura, from the novel A Ereji by Masaki Ato

Cinematography
Masahito Kaneko

Editor
Yasushi Shimamura

Production design
Takashi Sasaki

Main cast
Ryuhei Matsuda
Masanobu Ando

HOT FUZZ HEATS UP Working Title is delighted to announce its next production, Hot Fuzz, an action comedy from Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, co-creators of the hugely successful romzomcom, Shaun of the Dead.

A Working Title production in association with Big Talk Productions, Hot Fuzz is directed by Edgar Wright and stars Simon Pegg.

A comedy about a London cop who is seconded to deepest, darkest Somerset, the film is from an original screenplay by Wright and Pegg. Hot Fuzz will be produced by Nira Park (Shaun of the Dead), Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner and the executive producer is Natascha Wharton.

Pegg leads a stellar British cast including Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead), Jim Broadbent (Moulin Rouge), Timothy Dalton (The Living Daylights), Steve Coogan (A Cock and Bull Story) and Martin Freeman (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), Paddy Considine, Bill Bailey, Olivia Colman, Anne Reid, Rafe Spall, David Bradley, Stewart Wilson, Paul Freeman and Edward Woodward..

Says producer Nira Park, "We're delighted to once again be joining creative forces with Working Title on this very exciting and very British film. Together, we're looking forward to giving the police action genre the same treatment we gave the living dead in 2004."

Police constable, Nicholas Angel is good at his job, so good in fact, he makes everyone else look bad. As a result, his superiors at the Met have decided to sweep him under the carpet. So it is that London's top cop finds himself in the sleepy West Country village of Sandford. With garden fetes and neighbourhood watch meetings replacing the action of the city, Angel struggles to adapt to his situation and finds himself partnered with Danny Butterman (Frost), an oafish but well meaning young Constable, who dreams of being Mel Gibson. Just as all seems lost, a series of grisly accidents motivates Angel into action. Convinced of foul play, Angel realises that Sandford may not be as idyllic as it seems.

The film will start principal photography later on in March.

The Libertine, konacno, od marta 10og i u nasim bioskopima

David radi giallo

According to Joblo, horror director David Cronenberg is considering filming an adaptation of best selling book "I Kill".

The books storyline revolves around a killer who rings a live radio show declaring he will commit a crime a later that night, and ends up murdering a famous couple to make masks out of them.

Apparently filmimg will take place both in Europe and the States.

Cronenberg always makes interesting movies, and I'm sure he can work wonders with this concept.

Avary and Gaiman at it again, this time with BLACK HOLE for a young, HAUTE director!!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with news on BLACK HOLE... No, not Disney's BLACK HOLE with Norman Bates, Robert Forster and Maximilian Schell... I'm talking about the graphic novel by Charles Burns. Turns out that book is being attacked by a pair of loons, namely Roger Avary (not Avery as Hollywood Reporter said) and Neil Gaiman who just recently worked together on Robert Zemeckis' upcoming BEOWULF.
Moriarty broke this story back in his STARDUST report, posted Sunday.
Alexandre Aja (HAUTE TENSION, HILLS HAVE EYES) is locked in to direct for Paramount.
I've been buried (sorry) in Robert Kirkman's THE WALKING DEAD recently, but now I have to check out Burns' books. I already ordered it from Amazon. Sounds pretty nifty, described as a horror romance story about a group of high school students who come into contact with a sexually transmitted disease called "the teen plague" or "the bug." Sounds great. Can't wait to dig into it!!!

the Wicker Man trailer

http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/thewickerman/

Stavio u "most anticipated" mada verovatno to i ne zaslužuje. Po onome što sam uspeo da saznam, verovatno ga treba spaliti, al' ajd' sad... šta je tu je, zaboravimo original (ako je to moguće) i ovo može biti gledljiv film.

Meni ovo zvuci kao vrhunska budalastina u kojoj ce se uzivati:

A man (Black) whose brain becomes magnetized unintentionally destroys every tape in his friend's video store. In order to satisfy the store's most loyal renter, an aging woman with signs of dementia, the two men set out to remake the lost films, which include Back to the Future, The Lion King, and Robocop.

BE KIND REWIND (2007.)
scenario i rezija: Michele Gondry
Uloge: Jack Black, Kirsten Dunst, Danny Glover

u petak The Descent

POVRATAK KRALJA

According to The Hollywood Reporter, DEAD master George A. Romero will script and direct SOLITARY ISLE, based on a short story by Japanese horror author Koji (RINGU) Suzuki, for Hyde Park Entertainment and Kadokawa Pictures. The source tale, published in Suzuki's DARK WATER anthology that also spawned the Japanese and American films of the same title, is about a teacher who joins a trip to a manmade island in Tokyo Bay—where one of his friends claims to have dumped his girlfriend, who died there—and the horrors they encounter once they arrive. ISLE is the first product of a pact between Hyde Park and Kadokawa (the company that publishes Suzuki and many of his genre contemporaries in Japan) to co-finance horror films budgeted under $25 million; distribution is likely to be handled by 20th Century Fox, which has a first-look deal with Hyde Park. Kadokawa is also backing Eric Valette's currently lensing remake of ONE MISSED CALL that stars Edward Burns, Shannyn Sossamon and Gabriel Byrne (but not Ed Harris, as we previously reported due to some erroneous information).

FANTOM Jovana Todorovica

John McTiernan has been confirmed to direct the thriller Deadly Exchange says Production Weekly.

The film revolves around a terrorist who infiltrates the US to hunt down the FBI agent that killed his family. Duke is a twenty-year-old, highly trained and Anglo-looking terrorist. Smuggled into the United States, Duke poses as a British exchange student while making preparations for his mission ... one of death and destruction on a large scale. Homeland Security Agent Arthur Griffin, who is assigned to locate Duke, is the same agent who killed Duke's parents, also terrorists, nine years earlier as they attempted an attack on an American airport. Duke, looking for revenge for his parents death, enters into a romantic affair with Griffin's daughter Jenny. What he doesn't expect, is to develop real feelings for Jenny. Griffin discovers Duke's identity. Not only must he stop Duke's plan before he kills hundreds of people but now his own daughter's life is in danger. On the run, Duke takes Jenny as a hostage. When he is given the order to kill her, he is torn between his oath of revenge and his growing love for Jenny.

Production is set to begin in Shreveport, Louisiana later this summer based on a screenplay by Ron Shusett and Ian Rabin.

Za MekTirnan ne treba nesto da ide u zatvor..?

Biće svedok-saradnik.

We've covered the development of David Cronenberg's newest flick, EASTERN PROMISES, a lot here on the site. Why wouldn't we? It's David Frickin' Cronenberg! The flick stars Naomi Watts, Viggo Mortensen and now Vincent Cassel. Watts is a nurse who helps a mysterious woman give birth. The woman ends up dying and Watts investigates her past, which leads her into the seedy world of Russian prostitution. Cassel plays a man named Petrid, whose family owns a Russian brothel. Cronenberg is the man and this cast is shaping up nicely. Can't wait to see this flick!!!

Pojavio se trejler za The Prestige:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0482571/trailers

All The Boys Love Mandy Lane

 
  Fionnuala Halligan in Toronto 14 September 2006
 


Dir/scr: Jonathan Levine. US. 2006. 88mins.

A quick $3.5m-$4m buy for The Weinstein Company at Toronto, All The Boys Love Mandy Lane proves to be a crisply-executed teen horror debut from director Jonathan Levine and LA production outfit Occupant Films. It's likely to be a smart buy, given that this genre, at its best, is a licence to print money and that Levine's first feature brings a smart and sexy, almost postmodern, twist to the proceedings.

Business will be best of course in the US, birthplace of the scarily-mature teenagers who populate Mandy Lane – with the exception of Mandy herself, of course, who is a newcomer to the genre and, as played with dewy-lipped lusciousness by Amber Heard, another strong selling point.

Territories which traditionally warm to US teen horror will also embrace the movie warmly, with ancillary as hot as Mandy is. Word of mouth should be good all round, ensuring a longer-than-usual run for similar fare of the genre.

From the get-go, All The Boys Love Mandy Lane seems quite familiar – yet also a little different. The opening sequence sets the scene, with the shyly-beautiful Mandy (Heard) invited to a pool party where she is pursued by all the boys – and the camera – but which ends in tragedy.

Cut to school's end, and a weekend invitation to a Texas ranch house. Mandy, still aloof but very much the object of desire, has teamed up with some of the more popular, sexy, mean-style-girls, and decides to go, even though the main point of the event seems to be to bed her.

With three boys, three girls and a convenient lake on site, the murders duly commence, with the only new character introduced being a sexy ranch hand and Vietnam veteran (Mount).

Mandy Lane, however, has more up its sleeve in its nifty 88 minutes than typical teen audiences might expect. Visually, too, it's deft and as savvy as the characters who inhabit it, although viewers may only ultimately take away the image of Heard in close-up.

As a commercial genre exercise, it hits all the buttons, although Mandy Lane is unlikely to bring any newcomers in off the street. Those who do stray in may be more horrified by the sexual precociousness and competitiveness of these teens than the murders themselves, although it does have a strong ring of truth to it.

Unsurprisingly, because a perfect teen horror always leaves a door open, there's definitely room left for a sequel.

Production company
Occupant Films

US distribution
The Weinstein Company

International sales
Submarine Entertainment

Executive producer
Keith Calder

Producer
Joe Neurater
Felipe Marino
Chad Feehan

Cinematography
Darren Genet

Editor
Josh Noyes

Production design
Tom Hammoock

Music
Mark Schulz

Main cast
Amber Heard
Anson Mount
Michael Welch
Whitney Able
Edwin Hodge
Aaron Himelstein
Luke Grimes
Melissa Price
Adam Powell
Peyton Hayslip
Brooke Bloom
Robert Earl Keen

Park Chan-wook to produce Bong Joon-ho's adaptation of French sci-fi comic Le Transperceneige

Valjda se nece ispostaviti kao novi SNAKES ON A PLANE...

http://latinoreview.com/films_2007/newline/shootemup/index2.html

Jim Uhls, who successfully adapted the "unadaptable" Chuck Palahniuk novel "Fight Club," has been hired to turn "Rex Mundi," a series of graphic novels by Arvid Nelson and Eric Johnson, into a feature for Johnny Depp to star in and produce through his Infinitum Nihil production company.

James Wong ("Final Destination", "Black Christmas") will rewrite and direct the WWII horror film "The Watch" for New Line reports Variety.

The story focuses on a team of soldiers sent on a mission that can help end World War II and battle a supernatural force.

The script by John Claflin and Daniel Zelman was picked up in 2001 but put into turnaround. Producers Matt LeBlanc and John Goldstone managed to get Wong attached, after which New Line reacquired it and put it on the fast track.

The $14 million psychological thriller "Straight Edge" starts shooting October 2nd in Fiji with Peter Stormare, Mila Kunis and Gregory Smith headlining reports Variety.

Story's about a group of troubled teens sent to a rehabilitation program housed in a remote camp on the island of Fiji.

What their parents believe is a state-of-the-art deluxe institution in a beautiful natural environment turns out to be a prison-like boot camp where they are abused and brainwashed.

Christian Duguay ("The Art of War") is directing a script from John Cox and Agatha Dominik.

vrh vrhova!
ova fraza opisuje istovremeno poziciju na mojoj most anticipated naslova kao i samu ideju:
zapravo, nije toliko ŠTA koliko KO:

elem, od scenariste i režisera najsatanističkije komedije ikada, dolazi:
ANTIHRIST!

Lars von Trier's next film project ANTICHRIST
Described by Production Weeklyas a horror film, ANTICHIRST tells a story set in nature and based on the theory that it was Satan, not God, who created the world.

                                       

Quote from: "Ghoul"tells a story set in nature and based on the theory that it was Satan, not God, who created the world.

s ovom extremno kontraverznom teorijom bih se zapravo ladno slozila

pa ti onda nisi hipik nego gnostik! (in a way)  

ja sam Ja, Ghoule.. i to sto sam napisala nema nikakve veze sa onim u sta verujem/ne verujem vec sa cinjenicama: svako svakcijato doba nosi neko novo zlo, kao da svaki put mutira u neko jace zlo i svaki put ga je sve teze pobediti

Protiv Zla se ne treba boriti, nego se infiltrirati i delovati subverzivno.  

A mister S je samo vladar ovoga sveta, dok je Tvorac nesvestan svojih tvoračkih moći, a možda je čak i nesvestan svoga postojanja.

Friday, Sept. 29, 2006


Return of the 'delinquent girl cops'


By MARK SCHILLING
Ask fanboys everywhere what got them into Japanese movies and the answer is probably not going to be Ozu. Instead, you're more likely to hear names like Suzuki, Miike, Fukasaku and other makers of what used to be dismissed as trash-for-cash genre pics. Their favorite past era is probably not the 1930s to 1950s, when Ozu and other Golden Age masters flourished, but the 1960s and 1970s, when the Japanese film industry entered what many thought at the time to be its creative death throes.

Sukeban Deka: Code Name Asamiya Saki  Rating: (3.5 out of 5)  
     

Aya Matsuura wields her killer yo-yo in "Sukeban Deka." (c)"SUKEBAN DEKA: CODENAME ASAMIYA SAKI" SEISAKU IINKAI  

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Director: Kenta Fukasaku
Running time: 99 minutes
Language: Japanese  
Opens Sept. 30, 2006  
[See Japan Times movie listing]  


My own introduction to Japanese films was through Ozu, Mizoguchi and Kurosawa -- Akira, not Kiyoshi -- but I've also written books about yakuza and Nikkatsu Action movies, which include appreciations of two icons of what might be called the kick-ass-chick genre, Junko Fuji and Meiko Kaji. So who am I to look down my nose at Kenta Fukasaku's "Sukeban Deka: Code Name Asamiya Saki (Yo-Yo Girl Cop)," Toei's revival of a popular 1980s franchise about an undercover girl cop, whose weapon of choice is a yo-yo.

We're talking camp, aren't we? But in the best examples of the genre -- the "Hibotan Bakuto (Red Peony Gambler)" series for Fuji and the "Shurayukihime (Lady Snowblood)" films for Kaji, the heroines defeat their male foes with sword moves more worthy of gap-mouthed awe than sardonic winks.

The "Sukeban" franchise began life in the more degenerate 1980s as a hit manga, which morphed into a live-action TV series, anime series and films. By this time, Japan was deep into the idol era and the first three "Sukeban" heroines were all popular idols of the day -- Yuki Saito, Yoko Minamino and Yui Asaka. So if camp was not always a prime element in the series' appeal, cute certainly was.

The fourth, Aya Matsuura, is a J-pop idol, as is Rika Ishikawa, who plays her deadly rival. But instead of cute, Fukasaku and his collaborators, including action director Makoto Yokoyama and (I am not making this up) "yo-yo director" Takahiko Hasegawa, are more into cool, as defined by Hollywood, Hong Kong and Quentin Tarantino.

This, the first "Sukeban" movie in 18 years, brings to life a common teenage fantasy of defying various adult authority figures, putting the fear of God into one's enemies -- and doing really neat stuff with a yo-yo. Its opening is adolescently primal: a teenage girl named "K" (Matsuura) is judged so violently dangerous by the authorities in New York, where she is living more or less on the streets, that they deport her to Tokyo. There the local cops chain and bind her as though she were Hannibal Lecter, nabbed after his latest gourmet meal of human flesh.

Detective Kira (Riki Takeuchi), a National Police Agency cop with a limp, a growl and a ratty trench coat, becomes her keeper and offers her a deal: freedom in exchange for working undercover at a local high school, which has become a hotbed of bullying and various sorts of thuggery. The violence, the cops believe, has been inspired by a Web site called Enola Gay (named, significantly, after the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima) that instructs visitors in bomb making, torture techniques and other extracurricular subjects.

Then a countdown clock appears on the site's screen -- and the cops worry that its anonymous owner is planning something big -- similar to the bomb explosion that ended the life of a previous undercover deka (detective). "K" agrees to become the replacement -- and the cops give her a deadly yo-yo that doubles as a badge, a school uniform that turns out to be different from everyone else's (just the way to go undercover) and a new name -- Saki Asamiya. Kira also tells her that her own mother had been a sukeban deka ("delinquent girl cop").

Once in the classroom, Saki finds Reika (Ishikawa), a honey-haired beauty, and her girl gang bullying the sweet-tempered, Osaka-accented Tae (Yui Okada). Saki rescues Tae from these tormentors and their male allies with a devastating display of kicks and blows and thus gains a friend -- and informant. Tae tells her that another bullied girl (Erika Miyoshi) tried to blow herself up with a bomb the year before and is now a vegetable in a nearby hospital. Saki realizes that a mysterious hand is behind this and other nastiness, belonging to one Tokiro Kimura (Shunsuke Kubozuka), a genius tech nerd with a soft voice, hard eyes and taste for explosive games. Somehow Saki has to stop him and his evil fellow plotters before the clock hits zero.

The action is fast and furious, somewhat in the style of Fukasaku's apocalyptic epic "Battle Royale II," but where that film was a patchy-looking pastiche of "Saving Private Ryan" and "Battle Royale," the last hit of Kenta's late father, Kinji Fukasaku, "Sukeban Deka" is something that aspires to coolness -- and achieves it more often than not.

The climatic battle may trade in cliches, including the warehouse setting and the bad aim of the bad guys with automatic weaponry, but it also has plenty of propulsion and invention, mostly in the slick yo-yo moves of Saki and her showdown opponent.

As Saki, Matsuura is all cold, kick-ass business, but with a sympathetically human side as well. As Rika, Ishikawa is a worthy adversary -- a mean girl to the nth degree, but also a tough, savvy fighter, with an agenda all her own. Finally, Kubozuka, the bad boy of the Japanese movie business, is all but unrecognizable as the ethereal Tokiro, with his air of deadly degeneracy. A career as Japan's Christopher Walken awaits -- or at least another "Sukeban Deka" sequel.

IMDB - Renaissance (2006)

Sanjaju li Parižani električne ovce?

Noir je opet in. Nakon Rodrigueza & Millera i De Palme, Christian Volckman svojom vizijom Pariza budućnosti osvaja Annecy 2006.

Godina je 2054. Pariz je velegrad koji se neprestano širi, odsječen od ostatka svijeta. U njegovu labirintu lako se izgubiti, a svaki se korak pažljivo motri i snima. Najveća gradska kompanija, Avalon, miješa se u sve aspekte javnoga života kako bi prodala svoj najvažniji proizvod – vječnu mladost i ljepotu.

Zaplet počinje nestankom obećavajuće mlade znanstvenice Ilone koja radi na tajnom projektu nazvanom Renaissance Protocol. Avalon angažira detektiva Barthélémyja Karasa, kojeg prati reputacija da može naći svaku nestalu osobu, bez obzira na žrtve. No, kako istraga napreduje, Karas shvaća da nije jedini koji traži lijepu Ilonu, a svaki svjedok završava mrtav. Rješavajući slučaj, detektiv razotkriva mračni svijet korporativne špijunaže, organiziranog zločina i genetičkih istraživanja.

Redatelj ovog križanca 'Istrebljivača' i 'Sin Cityja' je Christian Volckman. Film je snimljen tehnikom mocapa (motion capturing), koji se nešto češće koristi u video igrama, a od nedavno i na filmu ('Polar Express'). Riječ je o posebnoj tehnici koja uspijeva uhvatiti svu puninu i glatkoću glumčevih gesti, i to u svima trima dimenzijama. U procesu snimanja glumci su smješteni u poseban prostor koji odgovara virtualnom prostoru u računalu, a samo snimanje obavljeno je na vrlo malome prostoru i u vrlo kratkome roku (devet tjedana).

Montaža i kadriranje trajali su šest mjeseci, a za to je vrijeme prostor obogaćen brojnim detaljima vezanima uz dekoracije, ali i uz ekpresije lica (npr. širenje zjenica). No, ono što odmah upada u oči svakako je vizualna komponenta filma. Film odlikuje crno-bijela fotografija izrazita kontrasta, a arhitektura je određena suprotstavljanjem 'klasičnog' i modernog, gotovo futurističkog stila.

Autori navode kako su u izgrađivanju svijeta željeli izbjeći stereotipe vezane uz Pariz, tako da pariška arhitektura nema onaj romantični naboj kao u većini drugih filmova. Volckman kaže da se trudio film što više utemeljiti na stvarnosti, pa je čak i auto koji Karas vozi rezultat rada s Citroenovim dizajnerima.

Kao uzore navodi noir filmove 40-ih i 50-ih godina, na koje se ne referiraju samo vizualno. Scenarist Alexandre Patelliére o tome kaže: 'To su bili krimići koji su odražavali eru u kojoj su nastali. Likovi ovoga filma arhetipi su žanra, ali njih muče problemi kao što su sigurnost, etnički sukobi, terorizam i globalizacija'.

Sam projekt razvijao se nekoliko godina, a kako bi osigurali maksimalnu kontrolu nad umjetničkim procesom, osnovali su i vlastiti Attitude Studio, uz malu pomoć IBM-a. I nakon mjeseci rada, konačni je proizvod doživio svoju premijeru na festivalima. Reakcije? Nagrada za najbolji film na Annecyju 2006 i uvrštavanje u službenu selekciju filmskoga festivala u Torontu.

Američki studiji nisu ostali slijepi na uspjehe – film je otkupio Miramax, angažiravši novog 'Bonda' Daniela Craiga kao glas Karasa, Romolu Garai (Prljavi ples 2) kao glas Ilone, a ostatak voice-over ekipe čine Ian Holm (trilogija 'Gospodari prstenova'), Catherine McCormack ('Hrabro srce', 'Zvuci grmljavine') i Jonathan Pryce ('Brazil').

Američka distribucija počinje krajem rujna, a hopefully ni hrvatska neće biti puno kasnije. Više informacija o filmu, fotke, dio scorea i trailer čekirajte na vrlo zanimljivom službenom sajtu.

Izvor: Filmski.net

Lake Of Fire

 
  Len Klady in Toronto 03 October 2006
 


Dir: Tony Kaye. US. 2006. 152mins
The Book of Revelations talks of a lake "which burns with fire and brimstone" and this state of eternal doom proves an apt metaphor for the subject of abortion. While there are hints on which side film-maker Tony Kaye stands, his film will not be embraced by either pro-lifers or those that favour a woman's right to chose. It is a complex, nuanced, penetrating study that compliments familiar voices with idiosyncratic thinkers in a remarkably fluid fashion that is never less than compelling.

Originally spurred by the 20th anniversary of the landmark US Supreme Court Roe vs Wade decision in 1993, the production odyssey in no way interferes with the finished film. It has strong theatrical prospects in niche exploitation and its extended version is certain to generate potent television interest and brisk sales on DVD.

Focusing specifically on the situation in the US, one commentator observes that the issue is a perennial for conservative politicians just as the minimum wage is a staple for liberals. And it's an excellent point of demarcation. There is a decided smoke screen of politics and religion that clouds abortion and allows both sides not to deal with it in a straightforward fashion.

That perspective manifests itself via a number of zealots and two cases in which doctors working in abortion clinics were murdered in Florida. An observer notes that logically speaking those advocating the primacy of life by extension should be supporters of universal health care and equal opportunity education. That isn't the case and by the same token there are anomalies among those advocating "choice".

Lawyer and professor Alan Dershowitz speaks eloquently about his career advocacy for a women's control of her body. However, when he segues into his personal life, the cracks of reason reveal a discomfit about when life begins. An anecdote underlines the dilemma of pushing forward when by definition or conviction all factions are "right" in their opinion and belief.

If Dershowitz is the epitome of the conflicted soul, others such as linguist Noam Chomsky arise as dispassionate observers. He clinically breaks down the oratory surrounding abortion and dissects the inconsistencies in the rhetoric. Without stating it in a direct or obvious fashion, the emotional component surrounding abortion rights overwhelms reason, science and sometime compassion.

One of the most unsettling sections centers on Norma McCorvey, the Jane Roe of the landmark case that established a woman's right to choose. In the decades since the trial she confronted a crisis of conscience and became an evangelic. Despite her brave face, one senses that having been the poster child for both extremes her exposure to manipulation was intense and disorienting.  

In the final portion of the film, Kaye follows Stacy, a woman who has decided to abort. She is Lake Of Fire's human face and the conduit for the film's most disquieting images.

Her resolve nonetheless belies an unsteadiness that has genuine poignancy. The audience sees far more of the procedure and its aftermath than Stacy. The removal of the foetus concludes with portions of limbs and skull set out in a laboratory tray.

Kaye selected to film in black and white and it simultaneously lends the picture authenticity and distance. The majority of the footage was shot between 1993 and 1998 and aside from a modest amount of subsequent shooting he has struggled to find a form that was balanced and comprehensive. An earlier cut ran six hours and dealt with the subject on a global basis.

Despite the vintage of what's on screen, there's no sense of a time capsule being unearthed. Obviously considerable effort has been extended to create something that feels organic and universal. It is a singular achievement that cannot help but leave the viewer shaken regardless of his bias, extreme or impartial.



Production company
Tony Kaye Productions

International sales
Anonymous Content
(1) 310 558 3667

Executive producers
Yan Lin Kaye
Steve Golin
David Kanter

Producer/cinematographer
Tony Kaye

Editor
Peter Goddard



Music
Anne Dudley

The Departed

 
  Mike Goodridge in Los Angeles 02 October 2006
 


Dir: Martin Scorsese. US. 2006. 119 mins.

Martin Scorsese returns to familiar territory – the world of inner-city gangsters – in his latest film, an expertly-crafted genre thriller which stands a chance at becoming one of his biggest box office hits yet. Remaking Andrew Lau and Alan Mak's 2002 Hong Kong blockbuster Infernal Affairs, Scorsese and screenwriter William Monahan have taken that film's cracking story and reset it in the colourful setting of south Boston where hard-nosed cops wage war on ruthless Irish American crime factions. Fast-paced, unpretentious and bristling with rich language and tasty detail, The Departed is bound to find a large mainstream adult audience.

Although critics may be hard on Scorsese for remaking a foreign-language film, his Americanised film stands as both homage to and independent of the slick HK original. Infernal Affairs was a superb entertainment dominated by the laconic presence of Asian stars Andy Lau and Tony Leung. Scorsese's adaptation is successful because it truly starts afresh, finding its feet in the Boston setting, recreating the characters as authentic Southies, and investing screen time in the dialect, traditions and characters of the city. It's one of the best examples of a US remake in some years.

The Aviator is Scorsese's highest grosser to date with $213m in 2004/5, while Gangs Of New York is second on $190m in 2002/3 and Cape Fear third on $182.3m in 1991. The Departed is certainly likely to rival these performances, although this is a strictly adult film with an abundance of cursing and some extreme and unpleasant violence.

Warner Bros has worldwide rights excluding some key territories sold by producer Graham King such as the UK (Entertainment), France (TFM) and Italy (Medusa). The film opens day and date next Friday in the US and UK and has a continental European launch at the Rome Film Festival in Oct.

The film starts in much the same fashion as the Hong Kong version. Frank Costello (Nicholson) is a powerful gangster who nurtures a young south Boston kid Colin Sullivan (Damon) and supports him through police academy, training him to be a high-ranking insider for his interests in the police force. Meanwhile Billy Costigan (DiCaprio), another kid from "Southie", also goes through police academy and is recruited by poice Captain Queenan (Sheen) and his deputy Dignan (Wahlberg) to go undercover into Costello's gang.

Costello is initially skeptical about Costigan, suspicious that he has quit the police force to return to his neighbourhood, but the young man soon wins his trust after a few violent tests and joins Costello's inner circle.

Sullivan meanwhile rises swiftly in the force eventually joining the special investigations unit designed specifically to bring Costello down.

As the war between the two sides of the law rages, it becomes obvious to both Costello and Queenan that each has a mole in their camp. Costigan and Sullivan find themselves in constant fear for their lives as scrutiny on their every move becomes more intense and the stakes become higher. Only when Queenan gets caught in the crossfire do matters come to a head.

Scorsese peoples the drama with a wonderful assortment of salty characters from Wahlberg (whose character was not in the original) as the pugilistic, foul-mouthed Dignan to Alec Baldwin as the fearsome head of the police unit to Winstone as French, Costello's number two. Vera Farmiga is effective as the only woman in the film, a police psychiatrist who is both Sullivan's live-in lover and Costigan's shrink.

DiCaprio and Damon acquit themselves well as the two men who have "departed" from normal existence into lives of deception and secret identity; Nicholson, as expected, steals the show with a portrait in genuine villainy that is as chilling as it is colourful.

It's not an awards picture like Gangs or The Aviator became, but there are some fine elements here – Nicholson, Monahan's script, Howard Shore's thunderously dramatic score, the gritty camerawork by Michael Ballhaus – which could get recognition.

Among elements which are changed from the Hong Kong film are the fact that Costigan's secret is known by two people not one, the fact that Costigan sleeps with the psychiatrist (it remains platonic in the first film) and the death of a leading character in this film, who survived for a sequel in the Asian version.

Production companies
Plan B, Initial Entertainment Group, Vertigo Entertainment in association with Media Asia Films

Worldwide dist
Warner Bros
Initial Entertainment Group (select territories)

Executive producers
Roy Lee, Doug Davison, G Mac Brown, Kristin Zahn, Gianni Nunnari

Producers
Brad Pitt, Brad Grey, Graham King

Screenplay
William Monahan

Cinematography
Michael Ballhaus

Production design
Kristi Zea

Editor
Thelma Schoonmaker

Music
Howard Shore

Main cast
Leonardo DiCaprio
Matt Damon
Jack Nicholson
Mark Wahlberg
Martin Sheen
Alec Baldwin
Ray Winstone
Vera Farmiga
Anthony Anderson
Kevin Corrigan