the most anticipated...

[Ghoul]

Coming Soon
(Thailand)
By DENNIS HARVEY

by ghoul:
http://ljudska_splacina.com/2009/06/coming-soon-2008.html

[crippled_avenger]

Danielle Panabaker ("Mr. Brooks," "Friday the 13th") will star opposite Amber Heard ("The Stepfather," "The Informers") in John Carpenter's psychological horror thriller "The Ward" for Echo Lake Entertainment and A Bigger Boat says The Hollywood Reporter.

The story follows a girl (Heard) who is admitted to a psychiatric ward, meets other girls there with distinct personalities and discovers a mysterious girl haunting the halls at night.

Panabaker plays a patient in the institution, a snobbish girl who flirts with orderlies and faces electroshock therapy. Mamie Gummer ("Taking Woodstock") also has been cast as a patient.

Michael and Shawn Rasmussen wrote the script, with revisions by Jim Agnew and Sean Keller. Shooting kicks off next month in Spokane, Washington.

[crippled_avenger]

Universal Pictures is developing the aspirational comedy "Pharm Girl" for Reese Witherspoon to produce and star in says The Hollywood Reporter.

The project centers on a woman (Reese Witherspoon) who gets a job at a pharmaceutical powerhouse but begins to see the underbelly of the industry as she rises through the company's ranks.

"Bad Santa" and "I Love You Philip Morris" writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa are penning the screenplay and in talks to direct.

[crippled_avenger]

"Michael Clayton" and "Duplicity" writer/director Tony Gilroy is set to rewrite MGM's remake of the 80's cult classic "Red Dawn" reports Latino Review.

The original John Milius classic followed the scrappy insurgency of a group of Midwestern teenagers who take on their high school mascot name as a rallying cry of resistance against Soviet and Cuban forces that have invaded the US.

Gilroy, who also penned the Jason Bourne series, performed a similar re-write job on Universal's recent US film remake of British mini-series "State of Play".

[crippled_avenger]

Mike Mitchell ("Shrek Forever After") will direct the live-action fantasy "Once Upon a Time..." for MGM Films reports Variety.

The story has Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty married to their handsome princes, the Charming brothers, and planning to live happily ever after -- only to see their spouses go missing.

The sisters-in-law set out to save their husbands and the fairy tale kingdom. Charlie Vignola, Kevin Marcus and Bradley Marcus penned the script.

Because the characters are public domain, there is no need to license Disney who've made big profits from the three characters via animated feature films.

[crippled_avenger]

Rising British actress Carey Mulligan ("An Education," TV's "Doctor Who") has been cast in Oliver Stone's "Wall Street" sequel "Money Never Sleeps" says Latino Review.

Mulligan will play the daughter of Gordon Gecko (Michael Douglas), who hasn't spoken to her father in the eleven years he was away in prison.

Now she's engaged to Shia LaBeouf's character and she also blames her father for her brother's suicide.

[crippled_avenger]

I Sell the Dead
By DENNIS HARVEY

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An IFC Films release of a Glass Eye Pix presentation. Produced by Larry Fessenden, Peter Phok. Directed, written, edited by Glenn McQuaid.

With: Dominic Monaghan, Larry Fessenden, Angus Scrimm, Ron Perlman, Eileen Colgan, John Speredakos, Brenda Cooney, Daniel Manche, Joel Garland, James Godwin, Aidan Redmond.

Antic horror comedy "I Sell the Dead" nods to the '60s Hammer heyday of fog-swirling Victorian chillers, as well as that period's penchant for teaming genre favorites (Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone, Peter Lorre, etc.) in genial sendups. Fondly crafted, amusing if slight item has toured fests since last fall, selling rights in several territories. IFC will give the pic simultaneous U.S. theatrical and on-demand rollouts starting Aug. 14, with partner Blockbuster handling rental/download distribution.

In addition to producing, contemporary horror helmer Larry Fessenden ("The Last Winter") steps before the camera here as rascally Willy Grimes, who apprentices Arthur (Dominic Monaghan) in the fine art of grave-robbing, their primary client being sinister Dr. Quint (Angus Scrimm, "Phantasm"). As if this illegal trade weren't trouble enough, the duo's exhumed corpses have an exasperating habit of coming back to hostile life. Stringing together several macabre episodes, framed by Arthur's pre-guillotine confession to blase Father Duffy ("Hellboy's" Ron Perlman), Glenn McQuaid's feature writing-directing debut doesn't build much narrative steam. Still, droll perfs, diverting f/x and handsome B-pic atmospherics ensure a good time for horror fans with a memory past last weekend's slasher remake.

Camera (color), Richard Lopez; music, Jeff Grace; production designer, David Bell. Reviewed at San Francisco Independent Film Festival, Feb. 13, 2009. (Also in Slamdance, Rotterdam, Seattle, Los Angeles film festivals; Cannes Film Festival -- market.) Running time: 85 MIN.

[Milosh]

[crippled_avenger]

"Eragon" star Edward Speleers has joined the cast of "Cowboys for Christ", the follow-up to the original 70's cult classic "The Wicker Man", according to the actor's official blog.

Speleers and Morgan James star as two Texans who plan to spread Christianity in Tressock, Scotland but are unaware that they're in grave danger from the Celtic pagan community in the village.

Original 'Wicker' star Christopher Lee is also onboard. Principal photography is scheduled to start in July in Scotland under the helm of Robin Hardy.

[crippled_avenger]

Three days before production was scheduled to begin, Sony Pictures has dropped plans for the $50+ million Steven Soderbergh-directed Brad Pitt-starrer "Moneyball" reports Variety.

The move came on Friday after Sony chief Amy Pascal apparently read the final draft delivered last week by Steve Zaillian and Steven Soderbergh and found it very different from the earlier scripts she championed.

That discomfort was enough for her to put the picture "in limited turnaround" and gives Soderbergh the chance to set it up at another studio. Shooting was supposed to kick off on Monday in Phoenix after three months of pre-production and both cast and finances locked in place.

As a result there's been a scramble over the weekend to get another studio to sign on, if it can't be found by Monday then Sony could either entirely drop the project, delay it until the script issues are sorted, or replace Soderbergh and possibly Pitt.

The film is based on the bestselling Michael Lewis book about Billy Beane (Pitt), the former baseballer who undermined his playing career by taking a big paycheck before he was ready, and resurfaced as Oakland A's general manager who found success fielding competitive teams for low cost.

Pascal's concern could stem from the film's unusual structure which includes real interview vignettes with the likes of Lenny Dykstra, Mookie Wilson and Daryl Strawberry interspersed throughout the film.

[crippled_avenger]

French actor Alain Chabat ("Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian") is attached to play the titular role in the buddy comedy "The Dubber" for Focus Features reports Variety.

The film centers on a man who provides the French dubbing voice for a top Hollywood star. When the A-lister has an on-set meltdown and goes missing, the dubber travels to the U.S. to help find him.

Richard Raddon and filmmaker Marina Zenovich ("Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired") came up with the idea. A script was then penned by David Gilcreast and writer-director Jay Chandrasekhar, with a second draft by Mark and Jay Duplass ("Baghead").

[crippled_avenger]

Marking the first major acquisition for newly appointed Paramount Film Group prexy Adam Goodman, the studio has paid seven figures upfront for action-comedy pitch "License to Steal."

Shane Salerno will pen the script. Project is loosely based on Marc Weingarten's Salon.com article about the high-end repo business, in which agents travel all the world to reclaim play toys including private jets and speedboats.

Par teamed on the purchase with Skydance Prods., David Ellison's production and financing company. Skydance is in discussions to possibly co-finance the picture.

Writer-producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are producing "License to Steal." Sale of the pitch came just as Orci and Kurtzman celebrated the blockbuster opening of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," which they penned with Ehren Kruger.

Kurtzman and Orci also penned this summer's "Star Trek," from Paramount, as well as exec produced Disney's romantic comedy "The Proposal," which placed No. 2 behind "Transformers" at the weekend box office.

Paramount took possession of the repo project so quickly that other studios didn't have time to bid. While Kurtzman and Orci are CAA-repped, WME shopped the project and aligned three of its major directors to bids. McG took the project to Warner Bros., Timur Bekmambetov took it to Universal, and Bryan Singer (with Michael De Luca) took it to Sony, with Salerno the writer at each pitch to studio presidents.

Though a portion of the article got published in two parts by Salon.com, Salerno actually acquired the article from Weingarten a year ago. Studios read an 8,000-word unpublished version, along with a pitch by Salerno, who is currently writing a project that James Cameron is producing at Fox.

Kurtzman and Orci said: "We're thrilled to be working with Shane, a wildly inventive and talented creator. His passion was clear the minute he started telling his story. He has crafted a smart, lighthearted action movie that's fun and topical, with a ton of unexpected plot twists.."

Salerno will be executive producer with Ellison and Kurtzman/Orci's Bobby Cohen.

[crippled_avenger]

Casanegra
(Morocco)
By JAY WEISSBERG

A Sigma Film, Soread 2M production. Produced by Ali Kettani, Dino Sebti. Executive producers, Ali Kettani, Dino Sebti, Omar Jawal. Co-producer, Aziz Nadifi. Directed, written by Nour-Eddine Lakhmari.

With: Anas Elbaz, Omar Lotfi, Mohamed Benbrahim, Ghita Tazi, Driss Roukhe, Hassan Skalli, Raouia, Haitham Idrissi.

Yet another new voice is emerging from Moroccan cinema, and it's fresh and energetic enough to be heard on multinational stages. Nour-Eddine Lakhmari's sophomore feature, "Casanegra," is a cross between classic film noir and "Mean Streets," a dark tale of two small-time hustlers with big dreams looking to escape their dead-end lives in Casablanca. Though Lakhmari occasionally overpitches his scenes, he's crafted memorable portraits of not-so-quiet desperation, helped considerably by Italo d.p. Luca Coassin's tonally muted but intense visuals. Already a local smash, the pic could see modest Euro arthouse success, spurred by wins at Dubai and Taormina.

A terrific credits sequence, all neon signs in 1940s typeface, prepares the way for a style and story indebted as much to Anthony Mann as to Martin Scorsese. Karim (Anas Elbaz) and Adil (Omar Lotfi) are just past 20, looking to earn a fast buck through shady deals. For Karim, perpetually dressed in a black suit and tie, the dough is his ticket out of anonymity and into respect. Adil has a more pressing need for escape, thanks to a psychotic stepfather (Driss Roukhe).

After an especially violent beating, Adil becomes more determined than ever to get an illegal visa to join his uncle in Malmo, Sweden. He turns to Zrirek (Mohamed Benbrahim), a brutal shake-down artist with a hair-trigger temper -- he's part Fagin, part Bill Sikes via David Lynch. Karim wants nothing to do with the guy, but a brief stint as a nameless cog in a fish-cleaning factory (memorably lensed) convinces him that one job for Zrirek would be worth the risk.

Hesitation comes in the form of a slightly older beauty, Nabila (Ghita Tazi), a classy antique dealer. For Karim, she represents a gentler side of the city, one of chic watering holes, European trappings and soft femininity. Their first meeting is wonderfully played, providing a palpable sense of relief from the darker elements -- a nightmarish assortment of whores, addicts and freaks who inhabit the nighttime streets.

"Casanegra" reps a considerable advance from Lakhmari's promising but disjointed debut, the Norwegian-Moroccan co-production "The Gaze." He's tightened his scripting skills, allowing the story to develop naturally while adeptly building tension. One slip-up, however, is glaring: A scene of Adil's step-father on the rampage is so over-the-top that it transcends the stereotype, but Lakhmari undercuts the sequence when he tries to recapture its intensity in a throw-away setpiece between Adil and a couple of nut-job fences.

Despite such a blunder, "Casanegra" captures Moroccan dissatisfaction in such a hip way that it's no surprise some snatches of dialogue have become the nation's latest street lingo. Part of the appeal is attributable to the two leads, both non-professionals who convey a nervous vulnerability beneath their tough-guy shells. These are career-making perfs for Elbaz and Lotfi, who could become stars if handled properly.

Shooting on location and mostly at night, Coassin and Lakhmari capture not merely the city but its tarnished yet still attractive soul in true film-noir fashion. Colors have been drained so that the visuals appear as close to black-and-white as possible; about the only warmth comes from Nabila's lipstick. Sarah Mouta's editing is sharp and considered, with Richard Horowitz's jazzy score forming the ideal accompaniment.

Camera (color, widescreen), Luca Coassin; editor, Sarah Mouta; music, Richard Horowitz, Amine Snoop; production designer, Badria Soud Elhassani; costume designer, Amina Hamada; sound (Dolby Digital) Emmanuel Le Gall, Patrice Mendez, Remi Verbaeys. Reviewed at Taormina Film Festival (Mediterranean competition), June 16, 2009. (Also in Cannes Film Festival -- market; Dubai Film Festival.) Running time: 131 MIN.

[crippled_avenger]

The Athlete
(U.S.-Germany-Ethiopia)
By LESLIE FELPERIN

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An Av Patchbay, El Atleta (U.S.)/Instinctive Film (Germany)/Riot Entertainment (Ethiopia) production. (International sales: Av Patchbay, New York.) Produced, directed by Davey Frankel, Rasselas Lakew. Screenplay, Lakew, Frankel, Mikael Amerio Awake.

With: Rasselas Lakew, Dag Malmberg, Ruta Gedmintas, Abba Waka Dessalegn.

Based on a remarkable true story, told through a blend of drama and archival footage, "The Athlete" recounts the life and times of Africa's first Olympic gold medalist, Ethiopian marathon runner Abebe Bikila. Co-helmed by visual artist Davey Frankel and Ethiopian athlete Rasselas Lakew (who also plays the lead), pic reps a worthy if somewhat programmatic contribution to cinematic sporting history. Upbeat yet tragic finale could ensure a few laps around the fest circuit and niche distribution.

Pic starts in 1969 with Bikila (Lakew, quietly dignified), then at the height of his career, revisiting his Ethiopian hometown, prompting some spectacular location scenery. Flashbacks and dialogue reveal how he survived WWII by hiding in hills, became an athlete and soldier, and then triumphed running barefoot in the 1960 Rome Olympics. However, in 1969, a car accident leaves him paralyzed. Not one to take adversity sitting down, Bikila fights to gain control of his arms at least and then goes on to win medals in cross-country sledging. Finale, set to a song by avant-garde Icelandic group Sigur Ros, is properly tearjerking if manipulative. Tech credits are low-budget but watchable all the same.


Camera (color/B&W, 35mm-to-HD), Philipp Pfeiffer, Rodney Taylor, Radoslav Spassov, Toby Moore; editors, Davey Frankel, Matt Mayer; music, Christian Meyer; production designer, Tesfaye Wondemagegne; costume designer, Muslin Dulti. Reviewed at Edinburgh Film Festival (Rosebud), June 23, 2009. Original title: Atletu. Amharic, English dialogue. Running time: 85 MIN.

[crippled_avenger]

Wasted
(U.K.)
By LESLIE FELPERIN

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A Scottish Screen, BBC Scotland presentation of a Raindog production. (International sales: Wasted Prods., Glasgow.) Produced by Wendy Griffin. Executive producers, Carole Sheridan, Ewan Angus, David Hayman. Co-producers, James Hamilton, Clare Kerr, Phyllis Ironside, Margaret Paterson. Directed, written by Caroline Paterson, Stuart Davids.

With: Neil Leiper, Emma Harley Miller, Kate Dickie, Paul Thomas Hickey, Alan Tripney, David Hayman, Cavan Bolland, Paige Gillies, Gary Lewis.

Auds who thought "Trainspotting" painted a depressing portrait of Scottish junky life ought to get a load of "Wasted," an ultra-realistic depiction of the lower depths that pulls no punches, kicks or pummelings of any sort. Feel-real-bad pic will rep a very hard sell beyond the fest circuit, but this debut feature for legit-trained co-helmers Caroline Paterson and Stuart Davids is well worth catching for its outstandingly credible improvised perfs, fluid handheld lensing and assured helming.

Glaswegian twentysomethings Connor (Neil Leiper) and Suzanne (Emma Harley Miller) grew up together in a children's home where some very bad stuff went on (they're played by child actors Cavan Bolland and Paige Gillies in flashbacks). Deeply damaged, both have grown up to become junkies who rely on prostitution for money.

Reunited after not having seen each other for years, the two reignite their bond but don't become lovers at first, presumably because sex is now just work for them both. When not turning tricks, they spend much of their time getting high in a dilapidated squat with other junkies, including older prostitute Michelle (Kate Dickie, "Red Road") and longtime addict Joe (David Hayman).

According to the pic's press notes, the script was developed over a long research and rehearsal process, and the thesps so inhabit their smack-ravaged personas that even the better known actors, such as Dickie and Hayman, are nearly unrecognizable. Dialogue (which will probably need subtitling for some English-speaking territories due to accents) sounds so naturalistic, the pic could almost pass for a documentary. It's only the more filmic touches, such as the flashbacks, that give the game away.

Paterson and Davids strike the odd false note at the end, including the now tedious cliche of having characters interact with their younger imagined selves. Moreover, some auds may feel repelled by the pic's relentless grimness, however sociologically accurate it may be. There's gang rape (of a man), child abuse, physical abuse, repulsive needle marks -- something to upset everyone.

Running time could lose 10 minutes or so, but tech credits are pro.
More than one option

    * (Person) James Hamilton
      Set Designer
    * (Person) James Hamilton
      Photography, Actor
    * (Person) James Hamilton
      Screenplay
    * (Person) James Hamilton
      Makeup Assistant, Hair Assistant
    * (Person) James Hamilton
      Assistant Director
    * (Person) James Hamilton
      Editor
    * (Person) James Hamilton
      Foley Editor, Foley, Foley Recordist
    * (Person) James Hamilton

More than one option

    * (Person) David Hayman
      Director, Assistant Director, Actor
    * (Person) David Hayman
      Music Supervisor

More than one option

    * (Person) Paul Thomas
      Actor
    * (Person) Paul Thomas
      Driver, Production, Transportation Coordinator
    * (Person) Paul Thomas
      Electrician, Grip
    * (Person) Paul Thomas
      Assistant, Driver, Production Assistant
    * (Person) Paul Thomas
      Book as Source Material
    * (Person) Paul Thomas
      Song Performer
    * (Person) Paul Thomas
      Sound
    * (Person) Paul Thomas
      Publicity
    * (Person) Paul Thomas
      Camera Assistant
    * (Person) Paul Thomas
      Stunts

More than one option

    * (Person) Gary Lewis
      Actor
    * (Person) Gary Lewis
    * (Person) Gary Lewis
      Actor, Song Performer
    * (Person) Gary Lewis
      ADR Editor, Dialogue Editor, Sound Editor

More than one option

    * (Film) Wasted!
    * (Tv) Wasted
      Summer Phoenix, Stephen T Kay
    * (Tv) Wasted

Camera (color, HD), Lol Crawley; editors, James Hamilton, Phyllis Ironside; music, Jim Sutherland; production designer, Stephen Bryce; costume designer, Iain MacAulay; sound, Kenny Allan. Reviewed at Edinburgh Film Festival (competing), June 26, 2009. Running time: 103 MIN.

[crippled_avenger]

Buben baraban
(Russia)
By LESLIE FELPERIN

An Ithaca Film production, in association with Central Partnership, with the support of the Russian Ministry of Culture and Cinematography. (International sales: Central Partnership, Moscow.) Produced by Ruben Dishdishian, Aram Movsesian, Sergei Danielian. Executive producer, Andrei Ridarov. Directed, written by Alexei Mizgiriov.

With: Natalya Negoda, Dmitri Kulichkov, Yelena Lyadova, Sergei Neudachin, Liubomiras Lauciavicius, Alexander Oblasov.

A lonely, embittered librarian struggles to balance ethics, love and the brutal facts of survival in Russian drama "Buben baraban," aka "Tambourine Drum." Sophomore writer-helmer Alexei Mizgiriov ("The Hard-Hearted") subtly evokes an atmosphere of quiet desperation and has a nicely oblique touch with storytelling; a beautifully restrained but emotionally complex lead perf from Natalya Negoda ("Little Vera") reps another plus point. Pic should drum up minor coin domestically and have a shot at fest play.

The film opens just after the 1996 nationwide miner's strike that paralyzed the country, and in a small, provincial coal-mining town, everyone has to do what they can to survive.

Middle-aged spinster librarian Katya (Natalya Negoda) loves literature, to such an extent that she humiliates the mother of a child who has defaced one of the books from her library. Her young colleague Yelena (Yelena Lyadova, "The Banishment"), who also lives next door in the crummy social housing provided by the state, tells Katya how much she looks up to her for holding out for true love, even if it's left her lonely. But Katya has a secret: She steals books from the library to sell for cash.

One day a man (Dmitri Kulichkov) arrives in town, dressed as a soldier. He immediately starts making advances toward Katya, who succumbs to his charms. However, like Katya, he's not what he seems. In fact, almost nobody in the town is really honest or straight; gradually, secrets and lies come out, precipitating a breakdown in Katya that recalls Isabelle Huppert's disintegration in "The Piano Teacher."

Pic starts out quite naturalistically and slowly introduces unsettling, borderline surreal touches, such as a scene in which strippers line up for display in the town's supposedly one classy restaurant, where Katya finally eats a meal she's never been able to afford.

Casting of Negoda in the lead not only reaps a terrific lead perf but adds extra resonance, given that Negoda once played the sexy rebel bridling against Soviet conformism and cramped social housing in "Little Vera" (1988). Given the crummy conditions and social pressures Katya has to deal with, "Buben Baraban" almost forms a kind of distaff sequel to Vasily Pichul's Glasnost-era film.

Craft contributions are a little above average for a Russian film, with good use of sound and nuanced lensing by Vadim Deev, favoring striking medium-distance compositions.

Camera (color), Vadim Deev; editor, Natalia Kucherenko; production designer, Denis Shibanov; costume designers, Marta Khushvatova, Tatiana Kniazheva; sound (Dolby Digital), Makar Akhpashev. Reviewed at Sochi Open Russian Film Festival (competing), June 14, 2009. Running time: 92 MIN.

[crippled_avenger]

KICKS
(U.K.)
By LESLIE FELPERIN

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A Northwest Vision, Media & Digital Departures presentation, in association with the Liverpool Culture Co., BBC Films, of a Starstruck Films production. (International sales: Missing in Action, London.) Produced by Andy Stebbing. Executive producers, Christopher Moll, Lisa Marie Russo. Co-producer, Stephen Cheers. Directed by Lindy Heymann. Screenplay, Leigh Campbell, based on a story by Laurence Coriat.

With: Kerrie Hayes, Nichola Burley, Jamie Doyle, Laura Wallace, Sarah Jane Buckley.

Two teenage girls' adoration of a British soccer star becomes dangerously intense in "KICKS," an absorbing drama marred only by a slight loss of focus in the third act. Although the script's askance view of celebrity idolatry is timely, the pic may struggle to find auds, even domestically, given that it's not quite clever-clever enough for the arthouses but too cerebral for the teen demographic it depicts. Still, it should kickstart a few careers, particularly for first-time helmer Lindy Heymann and young stars Kerrie Hayes and Nichola Burley.

Shy loner Nicole (Hayes, "Sparkle"), with her long Alice-in-Wonderland hair and baby face, barely looks her 15 years. Left to her own devices much of the time -- her single mother, never seen, works a lot of night shifts, and her dad has started another family elsewhere -- Nicole hangs out with other would-be groupies near the players' exit at Anfield stadium in Liverpool, where her idol, Lee Cassidy (Jamie Doyle) plays for Liverpool FC.

At the stadium, Nicole meets Jasmine (Nichola Burley, "Donkey Punch"), a girl about her own age but older-looking and more sophisticated, whose greatest ambition is to become a WAG. ("WAGs," originally an acronym to denote footballers' "wives and girlfriends," is now Brit slang for a certain kind of trashily but expensively dressed femme sub-celebrity, many of whom feature prominently in Blighty's supermarket tabloids.) The two become best friends, united in their shared obsession with Cassidy, whom they begin stalking.

When it's announced that Cassidy is going to be transferred to Madrid, the girls are at first devastated, then quietly determined to find a way to make him stay.

Like its protagonists, the pic doesn't quite know what to do with itself toward the end, and the final resolution seems arbitrary and curiously flat. The film's midsection is the strongest, especially its depiction of how Nicole and Jasmine's generation has internalized the materialism and superficial values of the media, which constantly promote celebrities who are famous just for being famous.

The girls' hormonally flushed, semi-hysterical relationship also convinces (Jasmine, in her own way, is just as neglected by her parents, who promise her a boob job when she's 16). There are obvious resonances here with "Heavenly Creatures," "My Summer of Love" and "Thirteen," but elfin Hayes and the more carnal Burley have their own unique presences and consistently impress. Heymann's helming is quietly assured; her strong use of music suggests her background in musicvideos has paid dividends.

Craft contributions are sturdy, with Eduard Grau's richly colored lensing drawing particular attention.

Camera (color, HD), Eduard Grau; editor, Kant Pan; music, Daniel Glendining; production designer, Grant Armstrong; art director, Colin Taylor; costume designer, Julian Day; sound (Dolby Digital), Giancarlo Dellapina; sound designers, Paul Horsley, John Rutherford. Reviewed at Edinburgh Film Festival (competing), June 25, 2009. Running time: 81 MIN.

[crippled_avenger]

Kambakkht ishq
(India)
By RONNIE SCHEIB

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'Kambakkht ishq'
Kareena Kapoor hangs with Sylvester Stallone in the Eros Intl. release.
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An Eros Intl. release of a Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment production. Produced by Sajid Nadiadwala. Executive producer, Prachi Thadani. Co-producer, Sunil A. Lulla.
Directed by Sabbir Khan. Associate director, Ashwin Shetty. Screenplay, Khan, Ishita Moitra, Kiran Kotrial, Anvita Dutt Guptan.

With: Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, Aftab Shivdasani, Amrita Arora, Denise Richards, Sylvester Stallone, Brandon Routh, Kiron Kher, Javed Jaffrey, Vindu Dara Singh.
(Hindi, English dialogue)


Bollywood meets Hollywood -- or rather, invades it -- in "Kambakkht ishq," a bold, brash, singing-and-dancing romantic comedy set on Paramount's soundstages and Universal's backlots. Featuring two of India's biggest stars, Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor, with key secondary roles filled by Yanks Sylvester Stallone and Denise Richards (playing themselves), pic revolves around a classic, no-holds-barred, love/hate match between a male-chauvinist stuntman and a man-hating model-cum-doctor. Targeting the diaspora and beyond, this entertaining if somewhat uneven romp reps a strong contender in Bollywood's ongoing quest to go global, opening July 3 at more than 2,000 theaters worldwide.

Viraj (Kumar) and Sim (Kapoor) first face off in church, each racing in dramatically and failing to stop the marriage of their younger siblings, Viraj's brother Lucky (Aftab Shivdasani) and Sim's sister Kamini (Amrita Arora). At the wedding reception that follows, battle lines are drawn between the sexes in a dazzlingly choreographed number that ends in a farcical brawl.

Indeed, all the musical numbers, from the garbage can-wielding motorcyclists on the quays of Venice to the multiple brides caught in the throes of a male nightmare, percolate with style and vigor, with none of the garish busyness or google-eyes that afflict some Bollywood romantic comedies.

Surprisingly, pic works best when fully immersed in the films-within-a-film context of Hollywood moviemaking. Kumar's martial-arts expertise (he performs his own stunts) pays off big time in a string of impressive, full-blown action sequences. These setpieces are sometimes played straight, while others pile disaster upon disaster in perfectly executed overkill. The interactions between Viraj and real Hollywood actors like Brandon Routh ("Superman Returns"), or Stallone at a formal Taurus Stuntman of the Year award ceremony, feel totally authentic; Viraj's long-standing, flirtatious friendship with Richards likewise rings true.

If Viraj's stuntman skills serve to balance out his otherwise unfeeling macho image, Sim's oddball double career as supermodel and surgeon does little to offset her character's ball-breaking bitterness. Initially, a modeling job in Venice enables sexy motorcycle rides and athletic musical confrontations with Viraj. But instead of sticking to the fashion world (Kapoor is always gloriously outfitted), the filmmakers insist on placing her in medical settings, presenting hospital rounds as a series of tired running gags. (Admittedly, the setup allows for a good extended joke involving a surgical mishap.)

Tyro helmer Sabbir Khan adroitly maintains high energy through most of the lengthy running time, ably assisted by lenser Vikas Sivaraman and a slew of gifted action directors, choreographers, dancers and musicians. Pic drags noticeably around the two-hour mark, during a recap of previous scenes edited in an interminable musical montage, but then rebounds with an ultimately hilarious, over-the-top bit in which Stallone is allowed to administer the coup de grace.
More than one option

 
Camera (color, widescreen), Vikas Sivaraman; editor, Nitin Rokade; background music, Salim-Sulaiman; song music, Anu Malik; lyrics, Guptan; production designer, Acropolis; costume designer, Aki Narula, Shabina Khan; sound (Dolby Digital), Jitendra Chaudhary; re-recording mixer, Leslie Fernandez; visual effects, Prime Focus; action directors, Spiro Razzatos, Franco Solman, Mahindar Verma; choreographer, Vaibhavi Merchant. Reviewed at Broadway screening room, New York, June 30, 2009. Running time: 139 MIN.

[crippled_avenger]

Modern Love Is Automatic
By LESLIE FELPERIN

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A Zach Clark production. (International sales: Clark, New York.) Produced by Clark, Sydney-Chanele Dawkins. Directed, written, edited by Zach Clark.

With: Melodie Sisk, Maggie Ross, Carlos Bustamante, Diana Cherkas, Rebecca Herron, Morgaine Lowe, Matthew Hartman, Marissa Molnar.

At first knowing and campy, but growing darker and more interesting by degrees, the low-budget sex comedy "Modern Love Is Automatic" tracks the fortunes of a bored nurse who starts moonlighting as a dominatrix. Given its premise, pic could have easily repped just another hipster-targeting celebration of alternative lifestyles, but instead, sophomore writer-helmer-editor-producer Zach Clark ("Rock & Roll Eulogy") audaciously suggests that even whipping businessmen while wearing latex catsuits won't necessarily make you happy. It's a chilly message, and coupled with its ice-maiden heroine, pic may struggle to connect with all but the most modern-minded auds outside the fest circuit.

Living in some unidentified East Coast suburb, poker-faced brunette bombshell Lorraine Schultz (Melodie Sisk) is clearly bored with her job as a nurse, and so bored with her b.f., Ben (Matthew Hartman), she hardly blinks when she catches him having sex with another woman.

After she kicks Ben out, Lorraine takes in terminally perky aspiring model Adrian (Maggie Ross) to help pay the rent, and takes up dominatrix work as a sideline after boning up, as it were, on the techniques involved (she studies an S&M mag she finds on a bus). She proves adept at her new hobby, but the charms of forcing men to clean toilets while wearing gimp masks start to pale after a while.

Meanwhile, a subplot follows Adrian as desperation forces her to take a job in a mattress showroom, where she's expected to wear skimpy outfits and flirt with the customers. It's much like working in a strip bar, opines one colleague (Marissa Molnar), except in a strip bar, the customers aren't allowed to touch the workers.

So far, so John Waters-esque, but with fewer one-liners. But around the halfway mark, things turn nasty as Adrian's b.f. Mitch (Carlos Bustamante) develops a creepy obsession with Lorraine and starts stalking her.

Clark's skill at shifting tone impresses, and what at first seems like a good indie-movie laugh at the expensive of provincial hicks develops into something both more empathic and more troubling. It helps that Sisk's laconic performance (she must barely utter more than 200 words throughout) reps a kind of blank slate onto which characters and auds can project what she might be thinking. The final scenes prove, however, there's more there than just a pretty face.

Strikingly stripped-down production design enhances the air of anomie, while the costumes by Denise Farthing, in particular Lorraine's trademark hot-pastel outfits (somewhat reminiscent of Joan Holloway's wardrobe on "Mad Men"), add a nice, kitschy splash of color to the proceedings. Raucous tunes by hard-core outfit Blasphemer inject punky edge.

Camera (color, HD), Daryl Pittman; music, Adam Blais; costume designer, Denise Farthing; sound (Dolby Digital), Daniel Drachsler, Jen Sickles; sound design, Rodrigo Galvan. Reviewed at Edinburgh Film Festival (Under the Radar), June 26, 2009. (Also in South By Southwest festival.) Running time: 93 MIN.

[crippled_avenger]

A Wednesday
(India)
By RONNIE SCHEIB

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A UTV Motion Pictures presentation of a Friday Filmworks/Anjum Rizvi Film Co. production. Produced by Ronnie Screwvala, Anjum Rizvi, Shital Bhatia. Executive producer, B. L. Gautam. Co-producers, Deven Khote, Zarina Mehta, Siddharth Roy Kapur. Directed, written by Neeraj Pandey.

With: Naseruddin Shah, Anupam Kher, Jimmy Shergill, Aamir Bashir, Deepal Shaw, Kai Prasad Mukherjee.
(Hindi, English dialogue)

Terrorists, cops and ticking time bombs make for an explosive mix in tyro helmer-scribe Neeraj Pandey's "A Wednesday." A lopsided two-hander featuring a couple of legendary Indian thesps locked in mortal conflict, this brisk political thriller pits a solitary terrorist (Naseruddin Shah), atop a building overlooking Mumbai, against a seasoned police chief (Anupam Kher) with all the combined municipal forces racing around at his command. Though timely, the pic's excitingly packaged rumination on the ethics of counterterrorism may be couched in terms too regional to travel very far, the post-"Slumdog Millionaire" trendiness of Indian locales notwithstanding.

A nameless agitator gives the police four hours to round up four incarcerated terrorists and bring them to a soon-to-be-specified location or he will detonate five bombs hidden around the city. He lets officials find one of them, stashed across from police headquarters, to attest to his bona fides.

Early intimate and/or comic scenes proceed unexceptionally as they establish the characters, making up in brevity what they generally lack in finesse or wit. The sole exception is antiterrorist cop Arif (Jimmy Shergill), who spectacularly, brutally wails away at a subordinate on a thoroughfare packed with horrified bystanders.

The pic doesn't really take off until the countdown to doomsday. Once police commissioner Prakash Rathod (Kher) begins deploying his troops in all directions, editor Shree Narayan Singh's complex intercutting, propelled by Sanjoy Chowdhary's relentless score, keeps the tension mounting as the mission-driven terrorist and the calmly controlled Rathod engage in terse cat-and-mouse exchanges over the phone.

Shah and Kher's mutual star-turn dominance recalls "Heat," just as the general setup -- the cops' frantic attempts to follow the terrorist's phoned-in directives while still scrambling to find his planted bombs -- recalls "Die Hard With a Vengeance." Helmer Pandey borrows freely from the Hollywood action toolbox; there's even a "wrong building" scene like the one so iconically executed in "The Silence of the Lambs." Hardly striving for originality, Pandey satisfyingly negotiates genre trappings to craft a familiar buildup, leading to a surprise twist that sends the pic careening off in unexpected directions closer to Paddy Chayefsky than to Michael Mann.

After suitable pyrotechnics, "A Wednesday" stops dead for more than 10 minutes to deliver the extended lamentation of a "common man" who, tired of living under the threat of terrorism, is mad as hell and isn't going to take it any more. Only the extraordinary skill of the actors and the inventiveness of cinematographer Fuwad Khan save the film from bogging down in muddled, pretentious populism.
More than one option

    * (Film) Heat
      1995 - Al Pacino, Michael Mann
    * (Film) Heat
      Sylvia Miles, Paul Morrissey
    * (Film) Heat
      1987 - Burt Reynolds, Stanton Barrett
    * (Film) Zhara
    * (Tv) Revealing Evidence

More than one option

    * (Person) Michael Mann
      Director, Executive Producer, Story By
    * (Person) Michael Mann
      Location Manager
    * (Person) Michael Mann
      Actor
    * (Person) Michael Mann
      CGI Artist
    * (Person) Michael Mann

Camera (color, widescreen), Fuwad Khan; editor, Shree Narayan Singh; music, Sanjoy Chowdhary; art director, Sunil Nigvekar; costume designer, Riyaz Ali Merchant; sound (Dolby Digital), Kuldeep Good; action director, Sham Kausal; line producer, Rajesh Ganguly; associate producers, Alpana Mishra, Usha Balram; assistant director, Ashok Kumar Shukla; casting, Indivar Bhatia. Reviewed at Museum of Modern Art, New York, June 11, 2009. (In Shanghai Film Festival.) Running time: 104 MIN.

[crippled_avenger]

Home Movie
By JORDAN MINTZER

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A Moderncine production. (International sales: Worldwide Film Entertainment, Los Angeles.) Produced by Andrew Van Den Houten, William M. Miller. Directed, written by Christopher Denham.

With: Adrian Pasdar, Cady McClain, Austin Williams, Amber Joy Williams.

The kids are far from all right in "Home Movie," a Val Lewton-esque, no budget horror pic that applies a "Blair Witch" aesthetic to a psychotic family yarn a la 2009 Palme d'Or winner Michael Haneke. Freshman scribe-helmer Christopher Denham's chilling four-handler features "Heroes" star Adrian Pasdar as the clan's abusive, alcoholic father with an iffy sexual upbringing -- but he's not the worst of them. Inventively using home video footage that starts off cheerfully and slowly becomes terrifying, film is the perfect antidote for camera-yielding parents, and deserves inclusion on the household DVD rack.

The Poe family (natch!) seems to be living happily enough on their isolated homestead, so why are little Jack (Austin Williams) and Emily (Amber Joy Williams) acting so weird? Maybe it's because their dad's (Pasdar) a priest and their mom's (Cady McClain) a shrink. Or because their folks can't stop documenting every last activity with a DV camera. Before long a child revenge fantasy kicks in, first subtly (a dead frog here, a rock thrown there) and then ferociously (poor cat, poor parents). A rambunctious Pasdar more than earns his paycheck, and five-and-dime tech package is aces.


Camera (color, DV), William M. Miller; editor, John T. Miller; music, Ryan Shore; production designer, Emilie Ritzman; costume designer, Michael Bevins. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (market), May 19, 2009. Running time: 76 MIN.

[Ghoul]

onaj rus gore (Buben baraban) deluje zanimljivo, a Home Movie imam već neko vreme na divxu, daću mu šansu u narednim danima.

[crippled_avenger]

Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston and Brian Blessed are set, but who else is starring in the upcoming film adaptation of the Marvel Comics hero "Thor"?

Not Clifton Collins Jr. it would seem. The "Capote" and "Star Trek" actor, who revealed that he auditioned for a role in the film, told The Dead Bolt this week that he's no longer a part of the project.

"That was a long time ago. I wasn't really getting into it, I was just preparing stuff. It's a fantastic director, a great piece, but I have absolutely nothing to do with it."

Meanwhile Jessica Biel is now being rumored to be playing a female character and love interest to the titular hero in the project according to Nuke the Fridge.

The site's source also says the role is likely to be that of Amora The Enchantress.

[crippled_avenger]

"Fringe" scribe Brad Caleb Kane is set to pen a feature film based on the popular children's toy View-Master for Dreamworks Pictures says Greek Geek.

Kane revealed on a Twitter post that "Transformers" and "Star Trek" scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are also involved on the project said to be in the vein of great 80's family adventure films like "The Goonies" and "Young Sherlock Holmes".

Kane is currently penning the -fi action-adventure Uprising for director Wolfgang Petersen over at Sony Pictures.

[crippled_avenger]

Scribe George Gallo ("Bad Boys", "Midnight Run") will sit in the director's chair for the upcoming indie thriller "Columbus Circle" says The Hollywood Reporter.

The story centers on a reclusive heiress (Selma Blair) in an upscale Manhattan apartment building who is brought face-to-face with her fears when a detective (Giovanni Ribisi) shows up to investigate a homicide next door and a new couple (Amy Smart, Jason Lee) moves in to that apartment.

Kevin Pollak, who co-wrote the script with Gallo, plays the building's concierge and one of the heiress' few friends. Jason Antoon has also been cast.

Shooting kicks off this month in Los Angeles. Christopher Mallick, William Sherak and Jason Shuman will produce.

[crippled_avenger]

Christina Applegate and Charlie Day (TV's "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia") have joined the cast of the romantic comedy "Going the Distance" for New Line Cinema says The Hollywood Reporter.

Geoff LaTulippe's script follows a couple (Drew Barrymore and Justin Long) trying to maintain a long-distance relationship.

Applegate plays Barrymore's sister while Day is playing Long's best friend. Nanette Burstein ("The Kid Stays in the Picture," "American Teen") is directing while Adam Shankman and Jennifer Gibgot are producing.

[crippled_avenger]

Guy Pearce is in final negotiations to join the supernatural thriller "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" for Miramax Films says The Hollywood Reporter.

Based on a 1973 ABC telefilm, the new film's story deals with a young girl who moves in with her father and his girlfriend and discovers they are sharing the house with demonic creatures.

Bailee Madison ("Bridge to Terabithia") is set to star as the girl. Pearce will play the father, an author frustrated by his daughter's tales of monsters, not believing her even when his girlfriend (Katie Holmes) backs her.

Troy Nixey helms the project which Guillermo del Toro and Matthew Robbins penned. Shooting kicks off next month in Melbourne, Australia.

[Tex Murphy]

JENNIFER'S BODY
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/3033798/jennifers_body_trailer/
Sudeći po traileru, ovo ne izgleda POTPUNO nepodnošljivo, mada će nas po svemu sudeći opet lišiti bilo kakve golotinje.

[Milosh]

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809961221/video

Trejler za DISTRICT 9. Deluje obećavajuće. Nakon bledog TERMINATORA i apsolutno ogavnih TRANSFORMERSA, evo konačno robotske akcije koja izgleda prilično dobro i ima R rejting.

[Milosh]

Sudeći po traileru, ovo ne izgleda POTPUNO nepodnošljivo, mada će nas po svemu sudeći opet lišiti bilo kakve golotinje.

Pa, deluje da će biti makar gledljivo, iako su se osamdesetih slični filmovi snimali sa znatno manjim pretenzijama i uz akcenat na opuštenoj eksploataciji. Mada, glupo je da sudim, pošto "Juno" još nikako da pogledam, ali bar po onome što sam video i pročitao u vezi tog filma, a uz ovaj trejler pride, imam utisak da bi Diablo Cody sa "Jennifer's Body" htela da ponovi ono što je Kevin Williamson uradio sa "Vriskom" (mada znamo kako je Williamson svojih 15 minuta slave ekspresno istrošio). Kad je reč o Megan Fox, ona tek treba da pokaže ume li uopšte da glumi, tako da golotinju verovatno čuva kao adut za budućnost, kad interesovanje za nju bude počelo da zamire...

[Tex Murphy]

Mislim da bih mogao da repriziram tu Juno. Prilikom prvog gledanja bio sam (vjerovatno opravdano) vrlo bijesan zbog nedostatka bilo kakvog dešavanja u filmu, a i ekstremno sam mrzio Elen Pejdž zbog Hard Candy. Međutim, ima nešto neodređeno simpatično u tom filmu što sprječava čovjeka da pljuje po njemu, a i Jelena se oprala ulogom u American Crime, tako da...

[crippled_avenger]

"I Am Legend" director Francis Lawrence is back in business with Will Smith.

Lawrence is aboard to develop and direct "City That Sailed," a 20th Century Fox project about a father and daughter living on opposite sides of the ocean whose love is so strong that it causes Manhattan to split off and float across the Atlantic.

The film will be developed as a potential star vehicle for Smith, who is producing with Overbrook Entertainment partner James Lassiter.

"Ocean's Thirteen" scribes Brian Koppelman and David Levien will rewrite a script that originated from "Truman Show" scribe Andrew Niccol.

Lawrence is next expected to direct "Water for Elephants," the Fox 2000 adaptation of the Sara Gruen novel that is being scripted by Richard LaGravanese. Lawrence has been courting Reese Witherspoon to star in the story of a Depression-era traveling circus, but the actress has not committed. Gil Netter, Erwin Stoff and Andrew Tennenbaum are producing.

[crippled_avenger]

Hoping to add some giggle to the jiggle, Paramount Pictures has set Jeremy Garelick to rewrite and direct "Baywatch," a bigscreen comedy based on the syndicated series about buff lifeguards who patrol a beach in California.

The film marks Garelick's directing debut. The scribe, who most recently did an uncredited rewrite of "The Hangover" with Todd Phillips, has written "Murray at Large" for Phillips to produce and possibly direct at Warner Bros., and also scripted "The Insane Laws" at Columbia.

While new Paramount Film Group prexy Adam Goodman is sorting through the studio's development, "Baywatch" shapes up as a good bet to get made. It's one of the projects Goodman brought over from when he was an exec at DreamWorks -- and "Baywatch" has the kind of built-in global brand awareness that studios look for in potential franchises.

The pic will be co-financed by the studio and Cold Spring Pictures, the financing arm of the Montecito Picture Co. Contrafilm's Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson are producing with "Baywatch" creators Michael Berk, Doug Schwartz, Greg Bonann and Michelle Berk. Montecito's Ivan Reitman, Tom Pollock, Jeff Clifford and Joe Medjuck are also involved in producing capacities.

DreamWorks paid seven figures for remake rights in 2005 and got a script by Jay Scherick and David Ronn that was heavy on action. Garelick was sent the script do a punch-up. Though he never saw the original TV show and its well-rounded cast, he saw an opportunity to turn it into broad comedy.

"It felt like the template to do a movie that was similar to 'Stripes' and 'Police Academy,' the comedies I loved growing up," Garelick said. "Rather than trying to pitch the tone, I figured it would be easier to write the first act to convey who these characters were," Garelick said.

Some 37 pages later, Garelick has landed the job. The script now focuses on two unlikely lifeguard candidates trying to catch on alongside the buff bodies that will be as abundant in the film as they were in the TV series.

Garelick is repped by UTA and manager Allen Fischer.

[crippled_avenger]

Don McKay
By ROB NELSON

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An Animus Films production. (International sales: Lightning Entertainment Group, Santa Monica.) Produced by Jim Young. Executive producers, Thomas Haden Church, William Earon. Co-producer, David Denney. Directed, written by Jake Goldberger.

With: Thomas Haden Church, Elisabeth Shue, Melissa Leo, M. Emmet Walsh, Keith David, Pruitt Taylor Vince, James Rebhorn.

A film noir set mostly in broad daylight, "Don McKay," writer-director Jake Goldberger's mild riff on "Double Indemnity," etc., works best as a showcase for its veteran cast, particularly Elisabeth Shue in a playful perf as a small-town femme fatale faking terminal illness. As the titular homme futile, exec producer Thomas Haden Church displays aptly geeky gullibility in a film that most resembles John Dahl's twisty cable/theatrical hybrids of the mid-'90s. Unlike Dahl's "Red Rock West," though, Goldberger's oddly laid-back thriller will stick exclusively to smallscreen slots.

Pushing an electric broom in Nowheresville, high school janitor Don (Church) is summoned to the town of Mount Raven by his childhood sweetheart Sonny (Shue), who looks to be the healthiest cancer patient alive. Suspiciously begging to spend the "rest of my short life" with a milquetoast loser, sexy Sonny turns up the body heat but somehow can't get Don to the altar as required by her gold-digging plot. Despite the blackly comic appearance of a corpse about halfway thru, the pic doesn't gather sufficient steam until its surprise-packed final reel, in which Melissa Leo earns laughs as Sonny's independently scheming nursemaid.




Camera (color, DV), Phil Parmet; editor, Andrew Dickler; music, Steve Bramson; production designer, Aleta Shaffer; costume designer, Andrew Poleszak. Reviewed at Solstice Film Festival, Minneapolis, June 18, 2009. (Also in Tribeca Film Festival -- Encounters.) Running time: 90 MIN.

[crippled_avenger]

Me
Ya (Russia)
By LESLIE FELPERIN

A VVP-Alliance production. (International sales: VVP-Alliance, Moscow.) Produced by Anna Mikhalkova, Maxim Korolev.
Directed, written by Igor Voloshin.

With: Artur Smolyaninov, Andrei Khabarov, Oksana Akinshina, Aleksey Gorbunov, Pyotr Zaychenko, Anna Mikhalkova, Maria Shalayeva, Aleksei Poluyan, Mikhail Evlanov.


Sort of a cross, plotwise, between "Trainspotting" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," Russian drama "Me" follows an 18-year-old druggie's efforts to dodge national service by feigning madness in the early 1990s. Sadly, its characters are not quite as outrageously costumed and made up as those in helmer Igor Voloshin's previous feature "Nirvana," but pic still has plenty of style and sass, and the script's better this time. "Me" has the makings of a cult hit at home among young audiences and would make ideal fodder for midnight movie slots at offshore fests.

Glasnost has arrived. The Soviet Union is about to break up, and old conventions are breaking down. A gang of young people in Sevastopol enjoy their newfound freedom, getting high on the drugs newly flooding the market and wearing punk gear 10 years after everyone in the West has moved on to other fashions.

Pic's adolescent protagonist, Geroi (beaky but charismatic Artur Smolyaninov), is drawn into their circle and eventually becomes good friends with the gang's leader and chief drug dealer, Rumin (Aleksey Gorbunov), who's first seen arriving at a party in slow-mo, surrounded by babes, dressed in finest gold and sequined bling. (Voloshin likes this sequence so much, he shows it twice.)

However, when Geroi is called up for national service, his only way out is to either appear mad or convince the authorities he's gay. Opting for the first, he's sent to one of those horrifically dilapidated mental hospitals that are always showing up in Russian movies. Life's no picnic in the nuthouse under the stern rule of chief doctor Elizabeta (Anna Mikhalkova, who also produced). Fortunately, Geroi meets and woos beautiful nurse Nina (Oksana Akinshina, "Lilya 4-Ever," "Hipsters").

The story skips around quite a bit, taking in subplots about Rumin and some of the other characters, and occasionally bursting into the odd fantasy sequence, such as one fab interlude in which Nina lip-syncs to "Venus." All this somewhat disguises fact that the script, despite its earthy, often funny dialogue, is a rather shambolic affair, but nonetheless sharper than the melodrama of "Nirvana." That said, the larky atmosphere gives way at the end to an elegiac tone in which the deaths of several characters are foretold.

Suspicion grows -- especially given the pic's title and the fact that helmer grew up in Sevastopol -- that it's all a bit autobiographical. Direction certainly feels impassioned and personal, and Voloshin's talent for visual excess is much in evidence. Perfs are solid, if not outstanding.

Tech credits reunite most of the key craftspeople from "Nirvana" with impressive results, especially in the lighting and lensing department under Dmitri Yashonkov. Soundtrack, chosen by music supervisor Alexander Kopeykin, reps the right kind of retro.

Camera (color, widescreen), Dmitri Yashonkov; editor, Tatiana Kuzmicheva; music supervisor, Alexander Kopeykin; production designer, Pavel Parkhomenko; art directors, Parkhomenko, Nadezhda Vasilyeva; costume designer, Nadezhda Vasilyeva; sound (Dolby Digital), Maxim Romasevich; sound designer, Alexander Kopeikin. Reviewed at Sochi Open Russian Film Festival (competing), June 12, 2009. Running time: 86 MIN.

[crippled_avenger]

Hipsters (Stiljagi)
7 July, 2009 | By Dan Fainaru


Dir: Valery Todorovsky. Russia, 2008. 125 min


An energetic, impressive production already garlanded with four Nikas (the Russian Oscar) for best film, production design, costumes and sound, Valery Todorovsky's attempt to revive the immediate post-Stalinist era may appeal initially to Russian audiences, but should easily navigate international markets after an enthusiastic reception at Karlovy Vary.

A portrait of a grim period, Hipsters is almost a Russian version of Grease - as fanciful and unrealistic as its American counterpart, but with more of a political subtext to sustain it. It's set way back in 1955, when, in an attempt to establish their independence against the backdrop of grey uniformity surrounding them, young Russian rebels ("hipsters") copied American fashions, hairdos and slang.  Featuring a cast of young energetic hopefuls and several seasoned veterans in cameo roles (Sergey Garmash, Oleg Yankovsky), critics might carp that Hipsters offers perhaps an overly gentle and forgiving image of that time, hiding behind colorful sets and costumes which border on caricature. But general audiences are likely to be much more forgiving.

Hipsters centres around a shy, nerdy Communist youth (komsomolchik) called Mels, played by Anton Shagin, who falls for luscious blonde hipster Polya (Akinshina) and turns his back on his pretty but strict brigade commander girlfriend (Brik). He takes up the tenor saxophone instead, raises some hell of his own and ends up marrying his blonde bombshell and even having an unlikely child with her before Todorovsky wraps it all up in a rousing finale.

Hipsters' score, a lively mélange of updated Soviet hits and fresh numbers written specially for the film, pumps away energetically, while clever art direction blends real-life locations with studio sets to create a world apart. Throughout it all, the cast seems to be having the time of its life.

Production Company

Red Arrow Company

Producers

Leonid Lebedev

Leonid Yarmolnik

Vadim Goryainov

Valery Todorovsky

International Sales

Central Partnership

+ 7 495 777 4961

Screenplay

Yuri Korotkov

Cinematography

Roman Vasyanov

Production design

Vladimir Gudilin

Editing

Alexei Bobrov

Music

Konstantin Meladze

Main Cast

Oksana Akinshina

Anton Shagin

Evgeniya Brik

Maksim Matveev

Oleg Yankovsky

Sergey Garmash

[crippled_avenger]

http://dobanevinosti.blogspot.com/2009/07/laffaire-farewell.html

[crippled_avenger]

Mel Gibson will star in "The Beaver" for director Jodie Foster.

The script, written by Kyle Killen, topped the Blacklist in December.

Gibson will play a depressed man who finds solace in wearing a beaver hand-puppet. On top of helming, Foster will play the role of the man's wife.

Foster boarded the project and brought it to Gibson, with whom she co-starred in 1994's "Maverick."

Anonymous Content's Steve Golin and Keith Redmon will produce the film. Producers are pushing for a September start date in New York.

Financing for the $18 million-$19 million pic has yet to be finalized. A studio could pick up the project or it could go the indie route, as Golin did with Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's "Babel."

It's possible that Gibson's production company Icon could get involved in some way. Icon has distribution shingles in territories such as the U.K. and Australia.

Project had several star and director combos circling -- including Steve Carell and Jay Roach -- over the past several months.

Pic brings Foster back to feature directing for the third time, after 1991's "Little Man Tate" and 1995's "Home for the Holidays."

[crippled_avenger]

Tomas Alfredson to direct Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy
9 July, 2009 | By Screen staff

Swedish director Tomas Alfredson has signed on to direct an adaptation of John Le Carré's Cold War spy novel, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, for Working Title Films.


Alfredson, director of vampire movie Let The Right On In, will start shooting next year. It will be his first English-language film.

Oscar-nominated screenwriter Peter Morgan, who previously worked with Working Title on Frost/Nixon, is writing the film and also acting as executive producer,

The feature will be produced by Working Title's co-chairman Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, with Le Carré, Debra Hayward and Liza Chasin are also executive producing.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy tells the story of a retired British intelligence officer who is asked to seek out one of the men – a Russian spy -  in the senior ranks of his old agency. It was made into a BAFTA-winning and Emmy nominated TV series, starring Alec Guinness, in the Seventies.

Bevan said: "The timing is right for a new screen version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier,Spy so it's great for us to be able to continue our creative collaboration with Peter Morgan on this and to have Tomas onboard who we've no doubt will bring a unique vision to the material."

Alfredson added: "It is both satisfactory and uplifting to make my debut in the English language in the good company of Peter Morgan and Tim Bevan."

Alfredson, who is a former member of comedy troupe Killingganget, won the Best Narrative Feature award at the Tribeca Film Festival for horror film Let The Right One In. He also made award-winning short film Screwed in Tallinn and the 2005 film Four Shades of Brown.

[crippled_avenger]

Zooey Deschanel ("Failure to Launch," "") has joined the cast of the comedy "Your Highness" for Universal Pictures says The Hollywood Reporter.

The story centers on an arrogant, lazy prince who must complete a quest to save his father's kingdom. Joining him on the quest is his more heroic brother.

"Tropic Thunder" and "Land of the Lost" star Danny McBride plays the prince and "Spider-Man" star James Franco will be his brother.

Deschanel plays Belladonna, Franco's virginal bride while Natalie Portman plays McBride's love interest, a warrior princess.

McBride and Ben Best penned the script while David Gordon Green directs. Shooting kicks off this month in Northern Ireland.

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Circle of Confusion's producing "Gatekeeper," a zombie thriller with Matthew O'Leary, Lea Thompson, Judge Reinhold, Ron Perlman and Jana Kramer attached.

Circle of Confusion exec Stephen Emery will produce, with production starting in September.

Isaac Meisenheimer is signed to make his feature directing debut on "Gatekeeper." Meisenheimer also penned the script, in which a simple mistake leaves three friends to defend their town from a zombie outbreak.

"We intend to make a film in the vein of 'Shaun of the Dead' for American audiences," Emery said.

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LONDON -- Jason Statham is in final negotiations to star in "Blitz," a London-set thriller about a serial killer targeting police officers.

Lionsgate U.K. is fully financing the project, which is an adaptation of Ken Bruen's bestseller of the same name. Mandate Intl. will handle international sales.

"Blitz" will be Lionsgate U.K.'s first British project since it announced its plans to beef up its local production last year. It will also mark the first collaboration between Statham and Lionsgate U.K. since last year's "The Bank Job," which was a hit at the Blighty box office.

Statham will play a tough, uncompromising cop assigned the task of tracking down the killer. Paddy Considine will play his partner.

Nathan Parker wrote the script; Elliott Lester is directing.

Lionsgate U.K. topper Zygi Kamasa, Steve Chasman, Brad Wyman and Donald Kushner are producing.

Project begins lensing Aug. 10 in London.

"Jason and I are excited about the opportunity to be working here again as we are keen to continue supporting British films," Chasman said.

While its U.S.-based parent company has been the subject of boardroom unrest with speculation over the intentions of shareholder and corporate raider Carl Icahn, Lionsgate U.K. has been gradually ramping up its production activities.

Lionsgate U.K. projects in the hopper include the $15 million contemporary sci-fi thriller "83," which Noel Clarke will write, direct and star in; and laffer "Stiff," from "Borat" writer Dan Mazer and producer Andrea Calderwood about a 1980s rock star who falls into a coma on stage and wakes up 20 years later.

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Danny Huston ("30 Days of Night," "Wolverine") has joined the cast of Ridley Scott's "Robin Hood" for Universal and Imagine Entertainment says The Hollywood Reporter.

Huston will step into the shoes of the historical figure King Richard, who became known as Richard the Lionheart because of his exploits in the Third Crusade.

As previously reported, Russell Crowe plays the legendary folk hero with Cate Blanchett as Maid Marian. Filming is continuing apace in the UK at present.

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Susan Sarandon and John Goodman have joined the cast of the Jack Kevorkian biopic "You Don't Know Jack" for HBO Films says The Hollywood Reporter.

Al Pacino stars as Kevorkian, known as Dr. Death, who assisted in more than 130 suicides. After willingly sending a videotape of himself euthanizing a terminally ill man to "60 Minutes," he was convicted in 1999 of second-degree murder and spent eight years in prison.

The HBO film follows Kevorkian's (Pacino) rise as he builds his infamous Mercy Machine and sets out to perform assisted suicides while waging an epic legal battles defending a patient's right to die.

Goodman will play Nicol, a friend and co-worker of Kevorkian since 1961 and a steadfast supporter of the right to die.

Sarandon will play Janet Good, an activist with the Hemlock Society who becomes one of Jack's staunchest supporters, working side by side with him to make humane suicide available to the terminally ill and suffering.

Barry Levinson directs from Adam Mazer's script which is loosely based on Neal Nicol and Harry Wylie's book "Between the Dying and the Dead".

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Rupert Graves is attached to play the lead role of Eduardo in the Balkans-set drama The Filthy War to be directed by John Irvin.

Graves will play a war correspondent in former Yugoslavia who creates a platoon of international volunteers to defend a Croatian village from Serb militants.

Vinnie Jones has been cast as the Balkan warlord Arkan. Additional casting will be announced shortly.

Producer Laszlo Hege of Mozgofilms adapted the screenplay partly based on E Rozsa Flores' memoir of the Yugoslav War. In an unrelated incident, the author was killed in Bolivia under mysterious circumstances.

Graves' previous credits include V For Vendetta, Death At A Funeral, and The Madness Of King George.

[Ghoul]

heh, ko bi reko da će arkanovci da ga nađu čak u boliviji!?

Croatian village of peacufl minding-their-own-business shepherds defended from the bearded, drunk, bloodthirsty Serb militants

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"Creation," helmer Jon Amiel's biopic about Charles Darwin, will open the 34th Toronto International Film Festival, it was announced this morning (July 14), along with three galas and 19 special presentations.

"We are pleased to open the Festival with such an impassioned look at Charles Darwin, especially on the year marking the 200th anniversary of his birth," said TIFF director and CEO Piers Handling.

Produced by Jeremy Thomas, pic stars Paul Bettany ("The Da Vinci Code") as the English scientist and author of the controversial "The Origin of Species," and Jennifer Connelly as his wife Emma. John Collee's screenplay is adapted from "Annie's Box," a biography about Darwin's private life written by his great-great-grandson Randal Keynes.

Recorded Picture Company developed the pic with BBC Films and the UK Film Council.

Gala world preems include romantic comedy "The Invention of Lying" (Warner Bros. U.S.), from co-writers and co-helmers Ricky Gervais (who also stars) and Matthew Robinson, and Aaron Schneider's frontier drama "Get Low," starring Robert Duvall as a backwoods eccentric who stages his own funeral while still alive. Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek co-star.

The North American preem of "Max Manus," co-helmer Joachim and Espen Sandberg's biopic on the Norwegian resistance fighter, and the Canuck preem of Lee Daniels' "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" will also receive gala screenings.

Helmer Scott Hicks ("Shine") will deliver Clive Owen starrer "The Boys Are Back," one of 10 world preems announced as special presentations. Other pics include: Bruno Dumont's "Hadewijch," Bruce Beresford's "Mao's Last Dancer," Neil Jordan's fisherman fairytale "Ondine" (starring Colin Farrell), Jordan Scott's boarding school drama "Cracks," Tim Blake Nelson's "Leaves of Grass" (Edward Norton as twin brothers), Raoul Peck's political thriller "Moloch Tropical," Brian Koppelman and David Levien's "Solitary Man" (Michael Douglas stars), Nicolas Winding Refn's Viking saga "Valhalla Rising" and Niki Caro's romance "The Vintner's Luck."

Steven Soderbergh's "The Informant!" will receive its North American preem, as will Jane Campion's "Bright Star," Rachid Bouchareb's "London River," Bong Joon-ho's "Mother" and Yousry Nasrallah's "Scheherazade Tell me A Story."

Catherine Corsini's "Partir," starring Kristin Scott Thomas, will receive its international preem.

The Toronto International Film Festival runs Sept. 10-19.

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Principal photography has begun on Takashi Miike's samurai epic, Thirteen Assassins, in Japan's Yamagata Prefecture.


Based on Eiichi Kudo's 1963 film of the same name, the film follows the coming together of thirteen assassins who undertake a suicide mission to kill an evil young lord in the era of the shogun. The screenplay has been written by Daisuke Tengan.

The $6m movie is being produced by Toshiaki Nakazawa, who picked up this year's foreign language Oscar for Departures, with Jeremy Thomas executive producing through Recorded Picture Company.  Thomas has a long history with Asian cinema, producing classics such as Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, and The Last Emperor.

The film, which stars Koji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada, Hiroki Matsukata and Kazuki Namioka, is being distributed by Toho in Japan. Thomas's UK based Hanway Films is handling international sales.

[Meho Krljic]

Da vidimo, može li Miike da snimi strejt ap samurajski film. Nagađam da ne može i biće zanimljivo gledati rezultate.

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Rough Cut
(South Korea)


A Studio 2.0, Sponge Entertainment release of a Kim Ki Duk Film, Yeomhwamiso production. (International sales: Showbox/Mediaplex, Seoul.) Produced by Kim Ki-duk, Jo Seong-gyu. Directed by Jang Hun. Screenplay, Kim Ki-duk; adaptation, Jang, Ok Jin-gon, Oh Se-yeon; story, Kim.

With: So Ji-seob, Gang Ji-hwan, Go Chang-seok, Hong Su-hyeon, Jang Heui-jin.

The disquieting tendency in South Korean cinema toward ever more senseless alpha-male violence is given a film-buffy spin in "Rough Cut," scripted by local maverick Kim Ki-duk. Basically one long faceoff of competitive testosterone between a hardened gangster and a cocky actor, this first helming outing by Kim alum Jang Hun makes a small point about the worlds of real and fake violence colliding at a personal level. However, it also wallows, repetitively, in the world it supposedly critiques. Release last fall scored a warm 1.4 million admissions, partly due to the teen appeal of lead So Ji-seob.

Su-ta (Gang Ji-hwan), a short-fused actor who thinks he's a tough guy, and Gang-pae (So), a real-life tough guy who's always wanted to be an actor, meet in a nightclub. When Su-ta hospitalizes a stuntman, he asks Gang-pae to step into the production; the latter agrees on the condition that the violence isn't faked, thereby testing Su-ta's limits. Male perfs run the range of Korean male attitudinising, but even the memorable final slugfest is diminished by the foregoing violence. Tech package is standard; Korean title means "A Film Is a Film."

Camera (color), Kim Ki-tae; editor, Wang Su-an; music, No Hyeong-woo; art director, Lee Hyeon-ju; costumes, Ma Yeon-heui. Reviewed at Shanghai Film Festival (competing), June 14, 2009. (Also in New York Asian Film Festival, 2008 Pusan Film Festival -- market.) Original title: Yeonghwaneun yeonghwada. Running time: 113 MIN.