Trailer for 'We Bought a Zoo' surprisingly sappy

By Sarah Sluis

Director Cameron Crowe hasn't made a feature film in six years. 2005's Elizabethtown fell flat on its face, a huge disappointment for those looking for another one of his memorable movies with heart, like Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous, or Say Anything... The trailer for his next movie, We Bought a Zoo, just released, but the movie footage portends a filmi that's more tears-and-hugs than anything else he's done before. Think Marley & Me, but with zoo animals instead of a pet dog. For that reason, I actually think this movie may be a commercial success on par with Jerry Maguire, though for different reasons. 20th Century Fox certainly seems to think so, too, giving the movie a prime Dec. 23 release date, the more perfect to capture intergenerational audiences in search of warm-fuzzies around the holidays.

Matt Damon plays a widower with two children. He buys a house that comes with a backyard menagerie addition. Scarlett Johansson appears to be his love interest, who may have come on initially to help out with the zoo animals. Elle Fanning is a sympathetic next-door neighbor and Thomas Haden Church Damon's father.

The trailer serves us classic Crowe-esque elements. Damon quits his job in a public way, a la Jerry Maguire. His father, giving Damon advice--"Attempt to start over. Sunlight. Joy"--reflects the spare, affected dialogue that Crowe has always done so well. Where the movie gives me pause is during this voice-over from Damon: "You don't even need a lot of special knowledge to run a zoo. What you need is a lot of heart." Okay, Crowe is a sensitive filmmaker who specializes in poignancy, but that crosses the line into cheesy. In general, I wasn't totally happy with the pacing of the trailer, especially when it came to the beats between jokes. As a big fan of Crowe's films, I hope that the trailer was overplaying the sensitive and the actual movie will be hiding more nuanced emotional content.

Cameron Crowe to make first film in five years, 'We Bought a Zoo'

By Sarah Sluis

Cameron Crowe is one of my favorite directors. I love his sensibility, his mix of humor and sadness combined with an eye towards reality. His (successful) movies are also immensely entertaining crowd-pleasers: Say Anything, Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous are included in many people's favorite film lists. But he hasn't

been on his game lately. Neither Elizabethtown nor Vanilla Sky electrified audiences or critics, so it's been over a decade since he directed a well-received movie. Let's hope this streak changes when he takes on an adaptation of the British memoir We Bought a Zoo, which is planned for a Christmas release in 2011.

The story follows a man who buys a dilapidated zoo in England. Besides the hazards and challenges of running a zoo, his wife is dying of a brain tumor, leaving behind him and their two children. The British novel was published (at least in the U.S.) by Weinstein books, so although Fox will produce the project, rights probably originated with the Weinstein Company. The release date has been planned for a year and a half from now, so production will probably start within the next six months. Crowe will now be on a search for an A-list star for the role of the zoo-buying man. On IMDB, Ben Stiller is "rumored" for the role. I could see him working in the part, though let's hope he can create a more likable character than the mope he played in Greenberg.

In its favor, the movie will draw animal-loving audiences with its menagerie of cute animals. Because of the success of Fox's Marley & Me (which also has some sad moments), the studio was reportedly excited for another animal-themed project. But figuring out how to balance the sad aspects of the movie against the comedy might be tricky. The book opens with the family finding out that the wife has a brain tumor while they are living in Southern France. It appears that the tumor recurs after the family has moved back to England and bought a zoo. Watching someone die slowly on screen, while making jokes? I loved Patch Adams but this tone will be extremely difficult to nail. From checking out reviews of the book on Amazon, it appears the book solves this problem by focusing mainly on the ins and outs of the zoo. Readers seemed to like the emotional weight of the scenes with his wife, but they didn't dominate the narrative.

I hope Crowe can come up with a great film with unforgettable dialogue and imagery--maybe for the scene when the jaguar escapes from the zoo? We need another image of John Cusack holding a boombox over his head or "Show Me the Money." Make it memorable, Cameron!

Lopez takes on 'Plan B,' Witherspoon fills schedule gap with James L. Brooks comedy

By Sarah Sluis

In what a high-concept pitchster might term Knocked Up meets Baby Mama, Jennifer Lopez will star in Plan B, a rom com about a woman who finally gives up finding a man and pursues Plan B, her local artificial insemination clinic.  As "luck" would have it, the same day she jubilantly pees on a stick turns out to be the day she meets the man of her dreams.  Although "Plan B" refers to the
children-without-a-man idea, it's also the trademarked name of an emergency contraception (not an abortion pill) on the market---do I hear a cease-and-desist coming up?

For an actress like Reese Witherspoon, a five-month gap in projects just. cannot. be.  With production on her Cameron Crowe film pushed back to July, Witherspoon will team up with James L. Brooks, who is busily writing an ensemble comedy screenplay that he also plans to direct. 

In the early days of Crowe's career, it appears that he reached out to Brooks as a mentor, making the hand-off between the
two natural.  Since Columbia has not released any details about the project other than the "ensemble comedy" I previously mentioned, as well as a working title, How Do You Know?, let's review some of his previous work to guess what a Brooks-written Reese Witherspoon character would be like in the comedy:

• A Helen Hunt-type role, like in As Good as it Gets?: Signs point to no.  Nicholson was the main event there, and Witherspoon's film persona has too much "spunk" to be stymied in a waitress role.  She's a career girl--a lawyer (Legally Blonde), singer (Walk the Line), social/political climber (Vanity Fair, Sweet Home Alabama, Election)



• So if she's a career girl, does that mean she'll be like Mary Tyler Moore?  In some ways.  The one
  
  thing about "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," though, was that it was very "workplace as family."  Although I know the show more from TV Land than real time, she was still subordinate to her boss and he was very much a father figure to her, barring the occasional romantic overtones.



• Where does this leave us?  Broadcast News.  A hole in my film knowledge, the movie centers on a career woman who falls for a shallow, pretty-boy entertainment news producer (No, I'm not talking about the upcoming The Ugly Truth, though now that you mention it...), while, of course, the insecure correspondent, who's probably a better fit for her, languishes. 

Reese Witherspoon mentioned in a recent interview that the news drama is one of her favorite films, so my guess is that Brooks will draw on Broadcast News and a Mary Tyler Moore-type character and/or ensemble for the film.  Mark your calendars, this one sounds worthy.