solace in cinema : A vast wasteland of movies

It could be the title of some new Korean horror film, that was my first impression when I heard about it, but no. The Bridge is a documentary about the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and the people that go there each year:

More people choose to end their lives at the Golden Gate Bridge than anywhere else in the world. THE BRIDGE offers glimpses into the darkest, and possibly most impenetrable corners of the human mind. The fates of the 24 people who died at the Golden Gate Bridge in 2004 are linked together by a 4 second fall.

The trailer is pretty heavy, but seems to be coming from an interesting angle. I'm not sure quite what they mean in the voiceover "some people go there to cross-over" and hope they don't make some hokey M.Night Shymalan angle on the whole thing.

Watch the trailer at apple here 

In an interview with MTV Linklater reported he's interested in making a sequel to the 1973 film 'The Last Detail', a film basically about three sailors getting drunk (Jack Nicholson, Randy Quaid and Otis Young). Linklater told MTV:

"I do like that movie, and there's a book by the same writer who wrote 'The Last Detail' back in the late '60s, Daryl Ponicsan. He wrote a follow-up novel that I've adapted. … I sent [Quaid] the script, and he'd be great. I hope he'll do it."

So at this point it's all just loose talk…

"I haven't even talked to Nicholson about it yet; I don't even know if he's read it. … It hasn't gotten that far down the line. They haven't made an offer to him yet or anything like that."

MTV also talks briefly about the plot of the book Linklater mentioned

"The novel has Buddusky running a bar and Quaid's Larry Meadows reuniting with him after the Iraq war takes his son's life. Rumors persist that Morgan Freeman is interested in taking over the role of Mule from the deceased Otis Young"

I've always thought 'The Last Detail' doesn't get enough credit and is kind of over-shadowed by Nicholsons other films from the same period like 'The Shining' and 'One flew over the Cuckoos Nest'. If nothing else it would be fun to see Nicholson and Randy Quaid back together.

(source slashfilm)

OK, I love zombie movies, and my quality tollerance for zombie films is really quite low, but even I thought the first two Resident Evil films were shit. They just didn't stay true to the feel of the games and dumbed everything down to satiate studio executives and 11 year old cinema goers. Funnily enough despite any views on the series I might have they're currently in the middle of making the third film 'Reident Evil: Extinction'. 

There were some character photographs floating around on the net a couple of months ago, but now there appears to be some footage online filmed by an extra. So you get a zombies eye view of the set. I don't think this footage is official, which makes it twice as tasty… mmmm forbidden video.

Check out the first '200 zombies in the desert' clip here

Zombies at the fence (reminds me of 'DOTD') here

And check out Neto2night's videos on youtube for more bits and pieces here

(via bloody disgusting) 

Ghosthouse pictures has just posted another very brief video blog featuring some of the production crew location scouting in what I presume are the mountians of New Zealand. The clip is very short but atleast lets have get a look at the snowy wastes and what they'll look like as a location. The answer? cold.

Check out 'Location scout ends with a long walk' here

The second blog (I think has been out for a week or two, but I missed it) is checking in with some of the guys who are building the houses and sets, and basically constructing the town of Barrow. Interesting enough.

Check out 'Piece by Piece' here 

Some nice looking posters for 'The Children of Men' and 'Pan's Labyrinth' (click on images to see bigger versions). I saw Pan's Labyrinth this last friday as part of frightfest and loved it. The film was followed by a Q&A by Guillermo Del Toro where he was introduced onto the stage by Alfonso Cuarón (director of 'Children of Men'). Probably the best night of my life. A review of 'Pan's Labyrinth' will be up soon.

both posters from impawards 

I loved 'Brick'. The 'Asphalt Jungle' meets 'The O.C','The Thin Man' meets 'Dawson's Creek', compare it however you want, but the fact is 'Brick' is one of the best films i've seen all year(no, not just independent ones either, and yes, it's better than 'Snakes on a Plane').

With a script so sharp and a plot that is so intriguing you would have thought producers and directors would have been lining up to have a go at it, but apparently this wasn't the case. I was listening to the filmspotting podcast last week where they had an interview with Ryan Johnson, the first time writer/director of 'Brick' who claims his script garnered no interest around hollywood at all. He spoke about his inspirations for Brick, what he's working on next and the fact that people didn't 'get' his script.

During the interview he also mentioned that the script (and the original novella the script was based on) have been put up for download on his official site here. If you haven't seen the film, I recommend you do before you read it, but once you have, trust me, you'll want to read the script in an attempt to decifer the dialogue that was being fired past you at 300mph.

Brendan Frye: Your muscle seemed plenty cool putting his fist in my head. I want him out.
The Pin: Looky, soldier…
Brendan Frye: The ape blows or I clam. 

I stumbled across this film for two reasons, one I read about it being shown at the Tribeca film festival, but also because I just saw the poster over at impawards.com. The films headline stars are Brendan Fraser, Mos Def and 'the thinking man's David Carradine' Scott Glenn.

The plot goes a little something like this…One of the most dangerous cities in the world is São Paulo, Brazil. It's in the city's underworld of sex, drugs, money, and corruption that a father and son plan to finally escape this vicious and dangerous underworld. Journey to The End of The Night is Eric Eason's gritty sophomore feature, and stars Brendan Fraser, Scott Glenn, Catalina Sandino Moreno, and Mos Def. 

The film's only announced release date is for the U.S, on the 1st of October. 

Check out some (very Wong Kar Wai looking) stills from the film over in our flickr account here

and a bigger version of this poster at impawards here 

Michael Haneke is a filmmaker that divides audiences and critics alike. His films of often difficult watches, interesting and intriguing (and occasionaly confusing) but difficult. 'Funny Games' (1998) was no exception, a story about a family that are held captive in their lakeside holiday home and slowly tortured (physically and mentally) and made to play sadistic games with each other by two young men.

I read a couple of weeks ago that Haneke was planning to remake 'Funny Games' in english and had cast Naomi Watts as the mother of the captive family. Dark Horizons is now reporting that Tim Roth has been cast as the father of the group with shooting set to begin in September.

It's an interesting choice to remake your own film, and If I ever wanted to see any of Haneke's films remade, 'Funny Games' is probably a good choice.

Obviously the 'we hate remakes' crew are already 'throwing their toys out of the pram' on messgae boards everywhere

No, not the new Ed Norton film but rather the latest animated opus from Sylvain Chomet, the writer/director behind the brilliant 'Belleville Rendezvous' AKA 'The Triplets of Belleville'. Chomet is currently working on three new projects at a studio in Edinburgh.

'The illusionist' is  apparently based on an original story by influential french filmmaker Jacques Tati about an aging magician who befriends a girl in scotland but can't bear to come clean and tell her that his magic isn't real.

'Barbacoa' is a dark and violent tale of a group of animals who take part in the Paris Commune, a bloody period in France’s revolutionary history.

The Tale of Desperaux will be Chomet's first purely 3D feature and is an adaptation of a french  childrens book. The story tells the tale of a mouse named Despereaux, born with a daring heart and romantic spirit who falls desperately in love with the human Princess Pea. His life is bound by chance with her, the king, the rats, a jailer, a dim witted girl, and a cook who makes soup. DiCamillo involves ideas of inner duality (good and evil), abandonment and redemption.

The Storyboard to the left (click to see a bigger version) is a storyboard and frame from 'The Illusionist', the scan is from a copy of esquire, but was grabbed from the 'atomic bear press' blog

Severance Charity premier, Leicester Square, unoffical opening to Frightfest.

I conducted an interview with the writer of Severance, James Moran, a couple of days ago (my first real interview) and if you read it you'll see he was a very cool guy. So I'm really glad I liked the film as much as I did, otherwise I’d have to email him and tell him it sucked, something I wouldn't enjoy doing to someone with such appreciation for John Carpenter's 'The Thing', the film 'Freaks' and the 'Preacher' comics.

OK, it's big talk to say ‘Severance’ is the best horror/comedy since ‘Shaun of the Dead’. But fuck you, I’m saying it. I'm not even sure how many horror/comedies there have been since SOTD, but since I can't remember any, maybe it's better to rephrase my comparison; Severance is awesome. If you get the chance, see it, because the sooner you do, the sooner you can tell your friends and act like the 'man/woman in the know'. Being that person is cool.

The plot of Severance is relatively straight forward; six people, who work for a weapons manufacturer, are on their way to a 'Luxury Lodge' in Eastern Europe for a team building weekend. When they arrive, at what they think is their destination, they discover there are some grim looking ex-army/facially scarred dudes waiting to hunt them down. Why? Well, I think they had an axe to grind with the Weapons Company (I might have missed that part of the plot).. The point is they're eastern European soldiers and they're crazy; they don't need a reason.

The office workers running for their lives include some actors that I’ve rarely seen before, but after this would like to see more of. There's Toby Steven's perfectly studied 'office asshole'. Tim McInnery ('Captain Darling' from Blackadder) as the team leader who perfectly portrays the kind of guy that would have one of those 'Inspiration' posters on his office wall. There’s Laura Harris as the innocent, yet sassy American that everyone's secretly in love with. And finally Danny Dyer, who plays the young drug-taking wideboy of the group, turning in some of the most convincing 'Shroom' acting ever committed to film