solace in cinema : A vast wasteland of movies

'Dead Silence' is the new film from James Wan, the director behind the original 'Saw' film. 'Saw' was Wan's first film and everyones wondering how the 'difficult second album' will turn out. Will he become a great Horror director or was 'Saw' a 'Blair Witch' style one-hit-wonder. The trailer for 'Dead Silence' arrived over the weekend and Bloody-disgusting just got the drop on the poster (pictured, click to see a bigger version).

Newlyweds Jamie (Kwanten) and Lisa Ashen have established a new life for themselves far from their hometown of Ravens Fair–a sleepy, near-forgotten blip on the map haunted by late-night whispers and ghost stories from generations past. But when his wife is gruesomely murdered, Jamie reluctantly returns to Ravens Fair for the funeral, intent on unraveling the mystery surrounding her death.

Once back under his family's roof, reunited with his ill father (Gunton) and his father's new young bride (Valletta), Jamie begins to explore the creepy town and encounters the legend of Mary Shaw, a famous murdered ventriloquist whose presence still casts a pall over Ravens Fair. Himself the lead suspect in his wife's murder, Jamie is forced to dig deep into the town's bloody past for answers, where he soon uncovers the truth behind the curse that ended Lisa's life…and threatens to take his as well.

The trailer looks.. not great. I liked Saw, but it might just have been because it made gore cool again, and for that I'm thankful. Maybe I'm just tired of scary dolls…

Check out the normal trailer here 

And the 'Redband' trailer is here 

Oh and if your interested the original short-film version of 'Saw' is here

(via Bloody-disgusting)

I've been quite slack with my coverage of the new Danny Boyle sci-fi 'Sunshine', but quite honestly I wasn't even that interested in it. Then I saw the trailer. Yes ok so the trailer used music stolen from 'Requiem for a Dream' but it visually it had me hooked.

Since the trailer renewed my interest I've been digging through the Sunshine site, and re-watching the video blog entries and behind-the-scenes footage. Most of the special effects shown in the clips are early pre-visuals but there's some interesting extended scenes (not seen in the trailer) that show the actors at work, and it's interesting to hear the VFX guys talk about trying to recreate the sheer size and mass of the sun with 3d graphics.

My post about the trailer (Including links to the trailer) is here 

Checkout the clips on the official site here or click on the direct links below.

Danny Boyle talks about VFX 

Science and radiation 

Alwin Kuchler (Cinematographer) 

Physiology of space flight 

Zero G 

Spacesuit

Science of the sun 

Danny Boyle intro

Airlock

First Glimpse 

Graphics 

“There’s something wrong with the sheep” …. loving it.

via Black-Magic

In my opinion you can’t beat dogs in movies. They’re always funny and they rarely overact. Tackling some dog action in the upcoming satire ‘Year of the Dog’ is Mike White; a great writer of acerbic one-liners as seen in ‘Chuck and Buck’, ‘The Good Girl’ and ‘School of Rock’. Here he directs his first film, a blackly comic tale of a suburban woman who loses it when she is spurned in love and her beloved dog dies. Once this beagle, named ‘Pencil’ passes she turns into a vengeful soldier funding animal rights groups and targeting her neighbour who she suspects poisoned the ex-pooch.

White has a real way with words and with dark comedy to boot. This film’s concept sounds like an ideal one for him to play around with some funny scenes and off the wall behaviour. To help him out he has a great cast including Molly Shannon (SNL) the awesome John C Reilly, Laura Dern and the ever reliable Peter Skaarsgard. This looks like a lot of fun and will likely be another addition to the quirky indie comedy genre that includes titles like Rushmore and Office Space. It’s unlikely to be a hit until it reaches DVD but it’s already had some decent reviews (although they do mention it is a little bit like a series of sketches).

Check out some Talking Dogs on youtube

I mentioned 'Snow Angels' the other day while discussing the films I was looking forward too from Sundance. David Gordon Green is a director I really admire he's made three previous solid features; 'George Washington', 'All the Real Girls' and 'The Undertow' with 'Snow Angels' being his fourth.

An Adaptation of Stewart O'Nan's popular novel to the screen, that tells the parallel tales of a teenager named Arthur, and his one-time babysitter Annie (Kate Beckinsale) - whose turbulent relationship with her estranged husband (Sam Rockwell) leads the small-town waitress down a troubled path.

There's many reasons i'm looking forward to 'Snow Angels', but mainly I'm just a big fan of Green. David Gordon Green is one of those filmmakers that implicitly trusts his audience, he doesn't feel  the need to explain everything that's happening on screen and is happy to let actors act. I like not being pandered too, and it really forces you to engage with the characters on screen, something few directors can achieve to the same level.

If you haven't already seek out his earlier films. 

There's some stills from Snow Angels over at cinempire here 

A pretty interesting Sundance interview including clips from the film here 

You can read a review of 'Snow Angels' at FirstShowing here

Neil Marshall has very quickly established himself as the new face of british horror, a title he definitely deserves. Marshall's new film 'Doomsday' is apparently more action-thriller than horror film, but certainly sounds like it'll have Horror elements in it.

A lethal virus spreads throughout a major country and kills hundreds of thousands. To contain the newly identified Reaper, the authorities brutally quarantine the country as it succumbs to fear and chaos. The literal walling-off works for three decades – until Reaper violently resurfaces in a major city. An elite group of specialists, including Eden Sinclair (Ms. Mitra), is urgently dispatched into the still-quarantined country to retrieve a cure by any means necessary. Shut off from the rest of the world, the unit must battle through a landscape that has become a waking nightmare.

So a press release yesterday announced that new cast members including a raft of Marshall alumni have been confirmed. Bob Hoskins will play Bill Nelson a policemen who nominates Eden (Rhona Mitra) for the mission. Other castings are in yet un-confirmed roles. From 'Dog Soldiers'; Sean Pertwee, Chris Robson, Emma Cleasby, and Darren Morfitt. From the Descent; MyAnna Buring and Nora-Jane Noone. From both Marshall's previous films; Leslie Simpson and Craig Conway will return.

Fresh actors to the Neil Marshall fold include; Alexander Siddig (from '24') and Adrian Lester (from 'Hustle').

They start filming 'Doomsday' on February the 9th, in the UK (Presumably soundstage shooting), and South Africa (location shoots).

I need to go watch 'The Descent' again.

(via Filmstalker and Bloody-Disgusting) 

This news broke on several sites(via) over the weekend, and is sweet sweet music to most peoples ear's. Katie Holmes (AKA mother of the new messiah) will not be returning to her role in the next batman film 'The Dark Knight'. Apparantly she walked away from the part and turned down the $2 million dollar offer to star in a low budget British comedy remake called 'Mad Money' instead. Pfffff yeah right. Firrrreedddd!

So now according to batman-on-film 'Racheal McAdams', a much better and much hotter actress has been cast in Katie Holmes's part (or at least a similar role… AKA screencandy). The whos-playing-who conjecture for 'The Dark Knight' has been all over the place for months, so whether the McAdams rumour turns out to be true or not remains to be seen.

Another interesting little Batman titbit (while we're on the subject) cropped up at Movie-Hole yesterday in a transcript of a Q&A session with Darren Aronofsky:

Daniel Estrella, New York City : What was your take on Batman going to be like? Were you going in the direction Chris Nolan went, or would you have retained some of the dark fantasy feel that Tim Burton brought to the character? What villain(s)would have been there to battle Batman, and would you have retold the origin story, or pulled a Singer and made your film a continuation of the past series?

Darren : I was never planning to direct Year One. I was more interested in writing a screenplay with Frank Miller on Batman. My pitch was always very realistic. I wasn't interested in fantasy, I was interested in the psychology of a real man dressing in a disguise to pay out real vengeance. The batmobile was a souped up lincoln continental with a bus engine. It was technical and rusty and extremely violent. They would have never let us have violence.

If you don’t live in the UK, and you don’t recognise these guys yet, i’m sure you will soon as they’re heading the same way as Ricky Gervais and Steven Merchant. They’re even doing the UK versions of the ‘I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC‘ adverts.

Mitchell and Webb are the stars of ‘Peepshow’, and also the ‘Mitchell and Webb Experience’. ‘Magicians’ is a new film that will star the duo and has been written by the same guys that were responsible for ‘Peepshow’. I’ve mentioned it briefly before as this trailer has been playing in UK cinemas for a while, and looks to have been kicking around on youtube since December but slipped under my radar.

I read the script a while ago and really enjoyed it, It’s very much in the same vein as ‘Peepshow’ so if you’re wondering if you’ll enjoy the humour look up some clips on youtube

If you want to see a slightly better quality version of the trailer you can see it here

There's been a really cruddy flash teaser trailer available on the 'Gibraltar Films' website for about 6 months now, but finally we get a full trailer and in glorious quicktime too. Rescue Dawn is the new film from Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man) starring Christian Bale and Steve Zahn.

This film tells the real-life story of U.S. fighter pilot Dieter Dengler, a German-American shot down and captured in Laos during the Vietnam War. Dengler, to be played by Bale, organized a death-defying escape for a small band of POWs, including Duane Martin (Zahn).

It looks really good to me, and reminds me a lot of 'BAT 21' and other similar themed 'escape from Vietnam' movies.

Check out the trailer in normal sized quicktime and HD here

I'm a little late with this so forgive me but I felt it imperative to correct some wrong in the world. I recently explained my utter dislike of Babel which I wont do again but it's enough to say it's as miserly a piece of cinema as you're likely to see. SO to restore some balance to the force I thought I'd recount my experience with Pan's Labyrinth. Written and Directed by Guillermo Del Toro (Hellboy, Blade II, The Devil's Backbone - apparently a mirror image of this film!). 

It's the story of a young girl who is forced to move to the Spanish countryside with her mother, who in turn is pregnant with the child of the villages psychotic Captain. The Capitan is interested in only one thing that of his prospective son. All of this is set against the back drop of Franco's rise and the brutal culture that brought with it.

Okay so that's the basics but what Del Toro delivers is utterly stunning, to escape the madness of the world around her Ofilia the young girl escapes into a fantastical world which by stark contrast to the gray severe  world of Fascist Spain is literally mesmerizing. The fantasy is warm and rich and populated by Fairies, and various magical creatures including the famed Pan. What impresses is the attention to detail how everything conspires to relay the narrative from the stunning sound design, Pan creaks and groans symphonically, to the character design which beautifully blends physical effects with CGI. The fact that he could have used CGI but didn't adds to the magic and the crafted skill with which he tells his tale. Del Toro's visual language is also amazing capturing all the darkness of the Brothers Grimm though what feels like a horror film but skillfully avoiding the gore whilst retaining the tension.  The film is beautiful, beguiling, sublimely acted and an utter delight. Sadly I doubt I'll come across anything like this for a very long time…but if you haven't seen it do, and cross your fingers it cleans up at the Oscars and not the rubbish Babel. It has restored my faith in film making. 

N.B Pan's People where a dance troupe that would grace the set of Top of the Pops back int he 70's and has nothing what so ever to do with this review.