Vampires are definitely hot right now. Daybreakers is yet another vampire project, written and directed by the Spierig brothers (Undead). Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill, Claudia Karvan, Michael Dorman, Vince Colosimo and Isabel Lucas star. In the year 2019 the world is so overrun with vampires that humanity is on the verge of extinction, which in itself is an extreme danger to the vampire population for obvious reasons. Ethan Hawke plays a hematologist caught between creating an artificial blood source and helping the human survivors reverse their dive towards extinction.
It actually looks rather cool, with an interesting future world and a premise that allows the filmmakers to simultaneously explore humanity’s self-destructive tendencies and its will to survive.
Daybreakers will be released by Lionsgate on January 8th, 2010.
Rubicon is set to become AMC’s third drama series after Mad Men and Breaking Bad as they’ve recently given the order for twelve episodes on top of the pilot. The show follows a think tank analyst as he becomes increasingly aware of a global conspiracy. The project is inspired by a lot of the great paranoia-rich thrillers of the 1970s. Jason Horwitch (Medical Investigation) is the creator. The pilot was directed by Allen Coulter, who in recent history also did the pilots for Damages, Sons of Anarchy and Nurse Jackie. He’s also known for directing 12 episodes of The Sopranos. Rubicon stars James Badge Dale, Miranda Richardson, Lili Taylor, Dallas Roberts and Peter Gerety.
Lost’s sixth and final season has been given an additional hour bringing it to eighteen episodes/hours. That’s all there is to it. Lost will return to air for its last hurrah in late January.
Here comes the trailer for the second Steven Soderbergh film of the year, The Informant! A rising star at agri-industry giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Mark Whitacre suddenly turns whistleblower. Even as he exposes his company’s multi-national price-fixing conspiracy to the FBI, Whitacre envisions himself being hailed as a hero of the common man and handed a promotion. But before all that can happen, the FBI needs evidence, so Whitacre eagerly agrees to wear a wire and carry a hidden tape recorder in his briefcase, imagining himself as a kind of de facto secret agent. Unfortunately for the FBI, their lead witness hasn’t been quite so forthcoming about helping himself to the corporate coffers. Whitacre’s ever-changing account frustrates the agents and threatens the case against ADM as it becomes almost impossible to decipher what is real and what is the product of Whitacre’s rambling imagination. Based on the true story of the highest-ranking corporate whistleblower in U.S. history.
Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, Joel McHale, Melanie Lynskey, Tony Hale, Scott Adsit, Clancy Brown and a huge host of others star. Based on the trailer, the film is now set for theaters in September, although it used to be dated October 9th.
OceanLab’s released a new single alongside its new album of remixes from its debut Sirens of the Sea. “Lonely Girl” is the single, with the video rather literally following the lyrics. OceanLab is the collaboration between the trance group Above & Beyond and vocalist Justine Suissa.
Sirens of the Sea: Remixed is also now out. Having just discovered it tonight, I’ve got it on order, but the samplings sound great.
Lars von Trier’s Antichrist will be shown in Los Angeles and New York City on October 23rd before expanding to other cities. IFC will also release it to video-on-demand services on October 21st.
The film follows a couple (played by Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg) grieving over the death of their infant by retreating to a cabin in the woods where their relationship endures the most brutal sorts of psycho-sexual horrors. Gainsbourg was awarded an acting prize at Cannes for her performance.
Personally, I cannot wait. I’ve thrown the trailer in again after the jump. Continue reading →
Awards season biopic ahoy! Hilary Swank stars in the story of Amelia Earhart’s plight to circumnavigate the globe via airplane. Richard Gere, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston, Mia Wasikowska and Virginia Madsen co-star. Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding, The Namesake) directs. Ron Bass and Anna Hamilton Phelan wrote the script.
The trailer throws me off by using John Murphy’s score to Sunshine making me think of a very different kind of film, but maybe there’s something good here. There’s decent enough talent behind it and at least this is a biopic that won’t involve anyone’s drug-fueled downward spiral so that’s something ‘fresh’. It could go with a more creative title though. Enough with the lazy biopic titles using the subject’s first name in order to fabricate some kind of intimate relationship between them and the audience.
Amelia will be released by Fox Searchlight on October 23rd.
My stance on this film has always been that you’d have to pay me to witness it even via Netflix, or at least provide me with copious amounts of booze and friends to distrct me from it, but that doesn’t mean I can’t get some indirect enjoyment from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. That comes in with all the critics seemingly getting a kick out of decimating it.
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” is a horrible experience of unbearable length, briefly punctuated by three or four amusing moments. One of these involves a dog-like robot humping the leg of the heroine. Such are the meager joys.
And make no mistake: Mr. Bay is an auteur. His signature adorns every image in his movies, as conspicuously as that of Lars von Trier, and every single one is inscribed with a specific worldview and moral sensibility. Mr. Bay’s subject — overwhelming violent conquest — is as blatant and consistent as his cluttered mise-en-scène. His images, particularly during the frequent action sequences, can be difficult to visually track, but they are also consistently disjointed. (And proudly self-referential: the only director he overtly cites is himself, with a shot of the poster for his movie “Bad Boys II.”) The French filmmaker Jacques Rivette once described an auteur as someone who speaks in the first person. Mr. Bay prefers to shout.
Bay has a great love of flashy effects, stroboscopic editing and loud crashes; he famously calls his cinematic technique “fucking the frame”. That phrase might be brutal, but it’s accurate. And there’s no doubt about it: he really has given the frame a right old seeing-to this time. Bay has turned up at the frame’s flat with some unguent massage oils, scented candles and a hundredweight of Viagra. It isn’t long before the headboard of the frame’s bed is crashing repeatedly against the wall, while the frame gazes up at the ceiling … and I think the frame is faking it.
And we hadn’t even gotten to the point where it became obvious that no one involved in the film cared enough to craft even the most rudimentary of stories or to be concerned about even the most simple of continuity: at one point the characters walk out of the back door of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington DC and end up blatantly in Arizona at the Sorona Desert Airplane Graveyard. It’s a breathtaking moment of not giving a shit, one that gives you an idea of how little thought and care went into the construction of the film.
Showtime’s put together a preview of the third season of Californication. The season features Hank taking a job as a professor while Charlie Runkle gives up the porn business and returns to an agency. I’ve seen no indication of what Natascha McElhone’s Karen is up to, after leaving for New York at the end of season two. Kathleen Turner shows up in ten episodes as Charlie’s new boss while Peter Gallagher will play the dean at the university for eight episodes. Diane Farr portrays a teacher’s assistant that Hank unsurprisingly becomes involved with. Ed Westwick, Eva Amurri, Embeth Davidtz and Rick Springfield will also make guest appearances. The main cast stays the same with David Duchovny, Natascha McElhone, Evan Handler, Madeleine Martin, Pamela Adlon and Madeline Zima returning.
Season three will premiere on Showtime in the fall, presumably in September.
Meghan Markle has grabbed the new role on Fringe that serves to replace Kirk Acevedo after he was fired (or not asked back). Anyway, Markle plays a new junior FBI agent who is attractive, brash and quick-witted. That’s a fairly general collection of character traits, so hopefully the writers will find something interesting for her. Markle appears to have a number of guest appearances on television shows and a couple TV films, none of which I’ve seen so I can’t provide much of an opinion. She is credited as a model for a few episodes of Deal or No Deal however…
Fringe will return to the air on September 17th, when it moves to Thursday nights at 9 PM.
David Simon (The Wire, Generation Kill) may have Treme to occupy himself, what with HBO picking that show up for a first season of ten to twelve episodes, but he’s also developing other projects. (For more on Treme, check this post.)
First there’s a miniseries about the hunt for John Wilkes Booth after his assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Simon’s collaborating with Tom Fontana (Oz, and Homicide: Life on the Streets, also with Simon) on the writing and producing, with the project specifically based on Manhunt by James L. Swanson. Fontana specifically is a huge history buff and is obsessed with the Lincoln assassination. The series would use the points of view of smaller players, not the likes of Booth or other nationally recognized figures. To my knowledge this project was last updated in the fall, but these things are slow going at HBO. Perhaps that’s why their miniseries are always golden.
More recently David Simon talked about other ideas for series. One concept would track the role of the CIA in United States society and political history since its creation in 1947. Another would revisit the racial and urban elements of The Wire by exploring the 27-year battle to desegregate the Yonkers district of New York, which culminated in a 2007 court case.
I’m especially hopeful that the Lincoln assassination miniseries goes through. HBO is always fantastic when it comes to historical films and miniseries, and the combination of David Simon and Tom Fontana would guarantee something special. Plus, it’s something that might be able to fit in between seasons of Treme, assuming it were to continue further than one.
Simon has a development deal with HBO through 2011, so it’s certainly probable we’ll see something fruitful sooner or later.
What the hell is going on? It was announced about a year ago in an equally bizarre moment that Aaron Sorkin was scripting the story of Facebook’s creation by Mark Zuckerberg. Now comes word from Variety that David Fincher (Se7en, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) might direct the film, which is now called The Social Network. First of all, what could possibly be interesting about this story in the first place? Secondly, why would David Fincher be drawn to this? Thirdly, how could this even remotely compete with the other projects Fincher has in development, like the adaptation of Black Hole by Charles Burns? Now that’s an awesome comic that is perfectly suited to Fincher’s twisted sensibilities and his interest in pushing special effects forward.
Meh. This is so very disappointing if it goes through.
The teaser trailer for M. Night Shyamalan’s live-action adaptation of the Nickelodeon cartoon series Avatar: The Last Airbender has been unveiled. The title had to change due to the other Avatar film. I have no experience with the series, but it’s well regarded even among adults so my interest is vaguely piqued. Plus, I really think Shyamalan could do wonders with a great story, and at least here he may be behind the script but it’s based on an already developed property. It’ll be interesting to see how it turns out.
The premise goes something like this: In a world where the four elements can be controlled by people known as “Benders”, the Fire Nation is waging a ruthless, oppressive war to control the other great nations. The only hope for stopping the brutal war led by the Firebenders rests on the shoulders of a reluctant young boy named Aang (Noah Ringer). The last known survivor of the peaceful Air Nomads, also known as Airbenders, Aang is also the world’s “Avatar”. The “Avatar” is the physical re-incarnation of the world itself, with the power to manipulate all four elements. Aided by a protective teenage Waterbender named Katara (Nicola Peltz) and her bull-headed brother Sokka (Jackson Rathbone), Aang begins a perilous journey to restore balance to their war-torn world. Standing in their way are Fire Nation Admiral Zhao (Aasif Mandvi) and Prince Zuko (Dev Patel), the banished prince of the Fire Nation who seeks to capture the young Avatar to regain his honor.
It’s probably worth noting that the film’s cinematographer is Andrew Lesnie, who shot The Lord of the Rings.
The Last Airbender is scheduled for release on July 2nd, 2010.
A new trailer for Inglourious Basterds has shown up. It downplays the whole brutalizing Nazis a bit compared to the teaser and focuses more on the plots to assassinate Nazi leadership, including Hitler, at a movie theater. Those plotlines interest me more, but I’m still unsure about seeing this one if it’s going to try and make me feel good about gratuitously torturing and slaughtering people, even if they are Nazis. Plus, it’s got Eli Roth acting, and every time I see his smirk in these trailers I have an urge to strangle a kitten. So that’s a negative.
Inglourious Basterds, written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, follows a band of Jewish soldiers led by Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) dropped into German-occupied France for the sole purpose of revenge via mass slaughterings of Nazis. At the same time a German woman escapes execution to Paris and becomes the owner and operator of a cinema while crafting her own revenge plot. Needless to say, the two threads merge during the film. The film has a gigantic ensemble cast, including Diane Kruger, B.J. Novak, Eli Roth, Samm Levine, Mélanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Mike Myers, Maggie Cheung, Julie Dreyfus, Samuel L. Jackson, Daniel Bruhl, Omar Doom, Cloris Leachman, Til Schweiger, Michael Fassbender and more.
Inglourious Basterds is scheduled to reach theaters on August 21st.
HBO’s begun running an awesome new trailer for The Pacific, the Band of Brothers conceptual follow-up from Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg centered on the campaign against the Japanese. Joseph Mazzello (Tim from Jurassic Park) seems to have the main role, or at least what might end up analogous to Damian Lewis’s Dick Winters in Band of Brothers. Counter to that other series, it looks like we’ll see more of the domestic action, although it’s unclear whether that might just be for the first episode or two, at the end or somehow interspersed throughout the full ten episodes.
Unfortunately it seems the airing of this has been pushed into 2010, perhaps March according to some comments by Tom Hanks. It’s certain to be worth the wait though.
