You couldn’t ask for a more obvious set-up for a sequel than the end of Kick-Ass. Yet director Matthew Vaughn—who cannily set out to make a $50-million commercial hit—won’t count his chickens until the movie opens on 3000 screens April 16. Lionsgate wants to talk sequel—they have first-look rights. But Vaughn, who has plenty of ideas for how to go about reforming his pint-size killer Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz)—think Terminator 2, with Schwarzenegger’s cyborg assassin shooting folks in the knees—isn’t ready to sit down and make a deal. (See two-part flip-cam interview below.)
Why? Remember the guy’s a producer-turned-director. If your movie opens big, you have more leverage.
And believe me, Vaughn’s entertaining comic-book action spoof—which Lionsgate acquired after footage played well at Comic-Con—will do great box office. Nic Cage, Chloe Moretz, Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Platz and a surprisingly comedic Mark Strong all carry the movie. But while the SXSW male demo and fanboys love it, critics will be mixed. Lionsgate wants to encourage women to see the film—they say that it tests well for them—but there’s a difference between showing someone a movie and getting them to show up.
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Festivals, SXSW, Headliners, Nic Cage, Independents, Lionsgate/Roadside, Reviews, Video, Interviews, Writers, Screenwriters on March 16, 2010 at 9:22pm PDT | Permalink | Comments (0)
SXSW has a casual young, male vibe. At the Kick-Ass opener, the fest’s Janet Pierson and director Matthew Vaughn were both wearing jeans and sneakers. So it makes sense SXSW was perfect venue for Kick-Ass, which has a primarily young male—and less female—appeal. It’s a nasty hard-R super-hero spoof designed to outrage and delight. And it will destroy at the b.o. when Liongsate opens it April. (It opens first in the U.K. in two weeks.)
Stars Aaron Johnson and Christopher Mintz-Platz were in attendance; Chloe Moretz’s plane was delayed, while Nic Cage was filming Drive Angry in Shreveport. (A full report later after I talk to Vaughn Saturday.)
Note to SXSW: casual doesn’t mean that the opening night bash (comme toujours, at Buffalo Billiards) has to be utterly inedible!
by Anne Thompson, posted to Festivals, SXSW, Headliners, Nic Cage, Independents, Lionsgate/Roadside on March 13, 2010 at 6:10am PST | Permalink | Comments (0)
Clearly, Austin is Kick-Ass country.
Matthew Vaughn’s R-rated action spoof already rocked Harry Knowles’ Butt-Numb-A-Thon last month. So SXSW fest producer Janet Pierson can be forgiven for banking on a proven winner for this year’s opener. “Kick-Ass is a truly fun ride, with non-stop action, clever humor, and even heart, which is exactly what our audience has come to love and expect from SXSW every year,” stated Pierson, who’s running her second fest. “We feel fortunate to have found such a tailor-made good time to kick off our 2010 event!”
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Festivals, SXSW, Headliners, Nic Cage on January 6, 2010 at 4:00am PST | Permalink | Comments (0)
All of a sudden, with the Thanksgiving Day weekend, there’s more than enough good movies to see.
Must-Sees:
Red Cliff: For action fans and cinephiles of every persuasion, don’t miss this one. Bravura, epic, period war movie, brilliantly executed. Woo’s career best. Tomatometer: 86%. Metascore: 74.
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans: Werner Herzog and Nic Cage are never boring. Put them together and the combustion is exhilarating. On a Telluride panel, Cage bristled at my description of his performance of a drug-addled cop as “over-the-top.” “Look around. You can go to New York City, you can go to New Orleans,” he retorted. “You can look at somebody in a market, and they’re doing something that is so impossibly - as you call it - ‘over the top’ that it would never survive any movie and never make it into any movie. I see things in life that are completely ‘over the top.’ So it just doesn’t work for me.” But isn’t that his defining signature? As far as he was concerned, he was in complete control. OK. Check out this movie, and you will be mightily entertained. Here’s Manohla Dargis’s feature on Cage. Tomatometer: 85%. Metascore: 69.
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Headliners, John Travolta, Nic Cage, Rob Pattinson, Sandra Bullock, Reviews on November 27, 2009 at 6:57pm PST | Permalink | Comments (1)
In this day and age, any indie movie that gets a release at all is lucky, I suppose.
But Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans is getting a raw deal. As I reported all along, it is, contrary to some reports, getting a limited theatrical release in November. When financeer Avi Lerner isn’t able to get the upfront cash he wants on a movie, he puts it out through his micro-distributor First Look. (At least he has that option.)
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Genres, Comedy, Headliners, Nic Cage, Independents, Marketing on October 26, 2009 at 7:23pm PDT | Permalink | Comments (9)
I am surprised by the film industry and the media’s continued willingness to give a free pass to entrepreneur Carlos de Abreu’s Hollywood Film Festival, a cannily constructed facade which honors stars, filmmakers and craftspeople and lines the pockets of de Abreu.
He’s created an awards show timed perfectly at the height of the awards season, which he presents inside the context of a film festival. While it is not considered to be a bonafide quality film fest curated by top programmers, like Telluride, Sundance or New York, and its premieres are often less than stellar, Hollywood players participate because it supports the award cause. It gives vying award season contenders yet another opportunity to grab attention. If de Abreu gives an award, why wouldn’t any self-respecting self-promoting player show up for their five minutes of PR? This years award-winners include Hilary Swank (Amelia), Robert DeNiro (Everybody’s Fine) Julianne Moore (A Single Man), Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) and Relativity mogul Ryan Kavanaugh.
Here’s some background.
[Photo: courtesy Getty Images]
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Awards, Golden Globes, Oscars, Directors, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Festivals, Headliners, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Nic Cage, Tom Cruise on October 19, 2009 at 5:31pm PDT | Permalink | Comments (7)
It was a solid if not stellar year at Telluride. Co-directors Tom Luddy and Gary Meyer persevered through the crazy economy by cutting back their budget (due to sponsor fall-offs) without sacrificing their high programming standards. “We made a commitment to figure out how to do more with less,” says Meyer. After the well-publicized Into the Wild/Juno year of 2007, festival attendance broke records in 2008 but fell off slightly this year; passes sold more slowly, and absent sponsors didn’t import the usual squads of corporate clients.
Films that emerged from Telluride with significant Oscar buzz include Sundance holdover An Education, Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air and John Hillcoat’s The Road, mainly for tributee Viggo Mortensen’s raw performance. (A list of post-Variety reviews are on the jump.) Jane Campion’s Bright Star and Michael Haneke’s White Ribbon, which is Germany’s Oscar submission, earned mixed reaction. (Austria wanted to submit the Cannes film as well, but Germany filed their application first.) UPDATE: Here’s a new Up in the Air Apple clip.
Popular new film faves were Up in the Air, Bad Lieutenant, Life During Wartime and The Last Station, which was in play with attending distributors. Last minute booking Paranormal Activity, a low-budget horror flick, scored with Telluride crowds. Also well-received were A Prophet, Coco Before Chanel, Farewell, Fish Tank, Gigante, Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno, Room and a Half, The Jazz Baroness, Waking Sleeping Beauty, Red Riding trilogy and Vincere. And Telluride audiences welcomed the rich selection of classics, especially a series of jazz films. A tribute to French archivist Serge Bromberg included rare footage of Stephane Grappelli playing with Django Reinhardt.
Here’s a snippet of folks arranging themselves for the annual group photo shot:
[Top, group photo; Scherfig and Mulligan; Luddy with Taylor Hackford and The Last Station‘s Helen Mirren] by Anne Thompson, posted to Awards, Oscars, Festivals, Telluride, Headliners, Nic Cage on September 7, 2009 at 10:17pm PDT | Permalink | Comments (2)
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I’ve been running around seeing movies, doing interviews, attending the terrific Viggo Mortensen tribute and going to various social events with filmmakers. IFC and SPC held back-to-back dinners Saturday night, while Sunday night the Steinbergs hosted their annual closing night bash.
Sunday is the closing brunch in the town park, where I’m conducting a panel called The Edge of Humor: Where Does the Laughter Start and Stop? The panelists should know: Nic Cage’s performance as a drug-addicted out-of-control police lieutenant in Werner Herzog’s remake of Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, is one of his best: outrageous, over-the-top and hilarious. And you’re rooting for him, no matter how far off the edge he goes, no mean feat.
Writer-director Alexander Payne (Oscar-winner with Jim Taylor of 2004’s Sideways) was Telluride’s guest director this year. His program included one of the festival favorites, Leo McCarey’s 1937 tearjerker Make Way for Tomorrow and the 12-minute Caroll Ballard 1969 short The Perils of Priscilla, which Payne had seen as a UCLA student and wanted to see again. It’s about a cat left behind. Payne contacted Ballard, who no longer had a print. So Payne posted a query on eBay, and some months ago, it turned up. Nobody else wanted it and he purchased a 16 mm print for six dollars. Audiences at Telluride adored it.
Also on the panel is American Paul Schneider (Lars and the Real Girl), who plays a pivotal role in Jane Campion’s Bright Star as poet John Keat’s Scottish friend Mr. Brown, who fights the romance between Keats and his neighbor Fanny Brawne.
Writer-director Jason Reitman just finished Up in the Air; his follow-up to Juno expertly balances humor and emotion as Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) moves from a life of blissfully controlled isolation to starting to make real human contact.
Australian George Gittoes is a self-described “war artist” who puts himself in dangerous places around the world. In his third film, The Miscreants of Taliwood, the filmmaker took his cameras and one 23-year-old Pashtoon assistant into Islamabad and the Northwest frontier town of Peshawar. He documented the Taliban fundamentalists opposed to freedom of creative expression, at war with the West and with Peshawar’s filmmaking center, Taliwood, which churns out popular entertainment. He even stars as a journalist villain in one of the films. This movie is terrifying—he’s in real danger of getting killed—and it’s also colorfully entertaining. Gittoes puts himself front and center, in more ways than one.
Here’s a clip:
by Anne Thompson, posted to Festivals, Telluride, Genres, Remake, Headliners, Nic Cage on September 7, 2009 at 9:34am PDT | Permalink | Comments (4)
It’s hard to narrow down the must-see Toronto Film Fest list to 30. After all there are 335 films at TIFF09. (I’m including movies that I’ve already screened in L.A., Sundance or Cannes.) Some fall openers are launching at TIFF, 100 pictures are available for acquisition, and a select few will emerge with their Oscar hopes intact. Reaction from media and audiences will determine which films earn a full-on Oscar push. And I’m listing the pictures in alphabetical order.
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Werner Herzog directs this unlikely remake starring Nic Cage as a homicide detective addicted to sex, Vicodin and cocaine in post-Katrina New Orleans. (First Look)
The Boys Are Back
Scott Hicks directs Clive Owen as a widower dealing with two sons. (Miramax)
Bright Star
Jane Campion’s romantic tragedy stars Abbie Cornish as a young woman who falls madly in love with poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw), who has just two years to live before he succumbs to consumption. (Cannes, Apparition)
Capitalism: A Love Story
Michael Moore never fails to entertain, educate, challenge and provoke. This examination of Wall Street greed will be no exception. (Overture)
Chloe
Atom Egoyan’s romantic triangle sounds sexy: Julianne Moore plays a doctor who suspects her music prof husband Liam Neeson is cheating on her. So she hires younger woman Amanda Seyfried to test his fidelity. (acq)
Creation (opening night)
Jon Amiel’s psychological thriller stars Paul Bettany as evolutionist Charles Darwin, a man of science in love with a religious wife (Jennifer Connelly, who is married to Bettany). (acq)
The Damned United
Tom Hooper (John Adams) directs Michael Sheen, Colm Meany and Timothy Spall in Peter Morgan’s entertaining bromance about rival soccer coaches. As ever with Morgan, it’s about power, ambition and love. (SPC)
Dorian Gray
Oliver Parker’s adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s classic stars Ben Barnes as the hedonist who will do anything to keep his looks. Colin Firth co-stars. (acq)
An Education
Nick Hornby and Lone Scherfig’s relationship comedy about a young girl (Carey Mulligan) who falls for sophisticated roue Peter Sarsgard is tipped for Oscar consideration. (SPC)
by Anne Thompson, posted to Awards, Oscars, Directors, Coens, Michael Moore, Steven Soderbergh, Festivals, Toronto, Headliners, George Clooney, Nic Cage on August 27, 2009 at 1:12pm PDT | Permalink | Comments (7)
Now that Tom Hanks is no longer in the running for Steven Spielberg’s remake of the Universal classic Harvey—because he was understandably leery, I hear, of the inevitable comparisons with James Stewart in the original role—who could pull this off? Hanks is probably too close to Stewart on some level—people have been comparing them his entire career. The role should be played by a warm and likable man who can convince us that he is talking to a six-foot rabbit. That means a top-notch actor who can hold the screen and pull in audiences. Here’s my list: vote! And write in anyone you think I’ve overlooked.
Here’s a clip from the original:
by Anne Thompson, posted to Directors, Steven Spielberg, Genres, Remake, Headliners, Brad Pitt, Denzel Washington, George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio, Nic Cage, Will Smith on August 17, 2009 at 4:28pm PDT | Permalink | Comments (28)
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