Director Terrence Malick suddenly prolific, with three movies in queue

By Sarah Sluis

After waiting years for writer/director Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, I was a bit underwhelmed when it came out this May. What's wrong with a little narrative? Even so, Malick remains my favorite working director. No one else captures (or even cares about!) natural imagery the way he does. His films are like watching a "Planet Earth" that's subsumed to the narrative of the humans around the creatures and vistas.

Malick is famously private and refuses to give interviews to the press. Until The Tree of Life, he also had a perfect track record (at least in my book). Given how few films he's created, I suspect he's a perfectionist. I wonder if mixed opinions about his latest work somehow freed him from a fear of failure, because he now has three projects in the works.

The first has already filmed and supposedly will be edited by 2012 (though Malick is a notoriously slow editor, often using the cutting room to transform the work).Today, the Los Angeles Times was able to scrounge up details about the plot. Ben Affleck stars as a philanderer who goes to Paris, encounters a European woman (Olga Kurylenko) and brings her home, marrying her for visa reasons. With the romance fizzling, he takes up with a hometown girl (Rachel McAdams) with whom he has a history. Javier Bardem plays a priest Affleck's character consults about his raffish ways.

Malick's other two projects will shoot back-to-back in 2012. Lawless stars Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara and Haley Bennett, who may be Malick's latest ingnue (he has cast unknowns such as Sissy Spacek and Jessica Chastain in the past). Knight of Cups, the second project, will also star Bale and Blanchett, though the movies reportedly do not relate to each other. That picture would also star Isabel Lucas, another young, relatively unknown actress.

None of the pictures has a U.S. distributor, though FilmNation has been serving as a sales rep and production company. Malick has reportedly already received offers for the first movie, though he has turned them down--an enviable position to be in. Let's hope his first movie squeezes into the end-of-year 2012 releases, but knowing Malick, such an optimistic timeline will be a longshot.

Teaser 'War Horse' trailer quintessential Spielberg

By Sarah Sluis

Steven Spielberg hasn't directed a film since the meh sequel Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. His next film, War Horse, is coming out this Christmas, intent on grabbing audiences during what's often a sentimental, entertainment-heavy time of year. The teaser trailer for the movie just came out, but I wasn't immediately impressed.

The movie is based on the novel and play War Horse. I have heard nothing but raves for the play, so I was expecting the trailer to pull me in. It didn't. One key difference: The play received the most word-of-mouth praise from its incredibly life-like horse puppets. The movie uses a real-life horse, so it's hard to compare. The only hint of how the movie might give the horse humanizing attributes is at :50, when we see a close-up of a girl's reflection in the horse's eye. Gorgeous.

The trailer doesn't reveal the plot, just the settting and a loose sense of the emotional register. Since movies have been giving way too much away lately in trailers, I'm pleased that there's some mystery about the story, but at this point all we're seeing are shots of WWI and a horse. The actual story involves a boy who goes on a journey to find his horse, which is fighting in the battlefields of Europe in WWI. It's the kind of rescue mission that's implausible and melodramatic, but wasn't Saving Private Ryan founded on the same premise?

For a trailer that's based entirely on looks, it doesn't do a whole lot to draw you in. It took me a couple of viewings before I could appreciate the visuals of the trailer, my favorite being when a group of soldiers hiding in a wheat field collectively mount their horses. It made me reflect on Spielberg himself, who's always been nearly invisible in terms of style. People talk about Spielberg's frequent themes, like children of divorced parents and friendly aliens, but can't put a finger on his style. Spielberg's always followed the tenets of classical Hollywood style, as this discussion of his cutting style drives home.

Even when there are explosions (:10, 1:00), beautiful sunsets (1:35), and epic battle sequences (1:32), Spielberg has our eyes trained on the boy or the horse. It's pretty incredible. I put Spielberg with James Cameron in the category of filmmakers who are true masters of invisible filmmaking. In fact, it's enough to make me pull out my nerd hat and offer you this example, thanks to Hulu. In the T-Rex scene in his 1993 film Jurassic Park, look how clearly Spielberg establishes the space, opening with a wide shot and then moving in. Also notice how he pans to connect places. This short sequence has a half-dozen pans. Modern directors would just cut all over the place, and would also do some lame cut-ins, as if we wanted to see a close-up of a hand holding a flare when there's a T-Rex around. I'm being harsh on War Horse, but seeing the movie is a given. Even with tons of war scenes, the focus will be on the boy and the horse. It's directed by Steven Spielberg, the king of classical Hollywood style.

Wes Anderson grabs stellar cast for 'Moonrise Kingdom'

By Sarah Sluis

Focus has announced that it will distribute Moonrise Kingdom, writer/director Wes Anderson's latest project. The low-profile movie has already started filming, with a pretty incredible cast. Anderson film veterans Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman will appear, along with Tilda Swinton, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, and Frances McDormand. I'm particularly excited about seeing Willis in an Anderson movie. I think he should be able to rein in Anderson's quirk and provide a good foil for the other characters.

Set in the 1960s, the action starts with a 12-year-old couple (fresh faces Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward) who decide to run away together. The folks in their small New England town (which is also on an island) notice, predictably. Willis plays the sheriff orchestrating the search, and McDormand and Norton play the kids' parents. Anderson knows how to use ensemble casts. Even Fantastic Mr. Fox was filled with a menagerie of rats, weasels, badgers, and otters. Anderson has also created memorable child characters, from the flashbacks to the Tenenbaum children to the incredibly human Max Fischer in Rushmore. Like Fantastic Mr. Fox, this film might be another chance for Anderson to shed his title as "Most Imitated Director in Student Films."

Since 2005, I've been convinced by this Slate essay that Wes Anderson's best work came when Owen Wilson co-wrote his screenplays, giving the work a more common touch and grounding the quirk. For Moonrise Kingdom, Anderson has teamed with Roman Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay for The Darjeeling Limited. Wilson may make his mark on the film, but probably in a cameo, since he's been a bit cagey about his involvement in the press.

Anderson's previous three films were distributed through Fox Searchlight, so this will be the first chance for Focus to take a crack at marketing to Anderson's audience. Since the film's already in production, it will come out in 2012 at the latest, giving Anderson fans plenty of time to hope that his next film will be a home run, and not some of the doubles and triples he's been hitting lately.

Analysis of an awesome trailer: 'The Social Network'

By Sarah Sluis
So far there have only been posters and teaser trailers for The Social Network. While movie geeks like me are already sold by the combination of the screenwriter (Aaron Sorkin) and director (David Fincher), it's hard not to get a little tingle on your spine when you hear the tagline, "You Don't Get to 500 Million Friends Without Making a Few Enemies." Who would have thought the story of Facebook would sound more like Wall Street meets The Skulls and less like an underdog winning gold at the Olympics?

Here's the trailer:

The #1 reason this trailer is awesome is that it doesn't introduce any characters until 48 seconds into a 2 minute, 30 second trailer. Instead, the trailer reels the audience in by forcing us to reflect on how we, the viewers, use Facebook. Screenshots of parties, profile pictures, weddings, and babies are edited to the lyrics of Radiohead's "Creep," sung by women with high voices and a melancholy tone (the Vega Choir). The lyrics pretty much say it all: "Don't care if it hurts/Wanna have control/Wanna perfect body/Wanna perfect soul/I want you to notice/When I'm not around/You're so very special..."

The latter, story part of the trailer emphasizes Ivy League intrigue, decadence, and excess among the rich. I counted nine scenes of drinking/partying, including liquor swilled straight from the bottle, champagne spraying, puking during fraternity hazing, and post-success imbibing of appletinis. Will these kind of storylines ever go out of style? I give the trailer one point for an unconventional but oh-so-Ivy scene with an indoor erg rowing machine that uses actual water (never seen one of those, but where else but Harvard?). However, Fincher loses points for a shot of Jesse Eisenberg as the Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg writing a formula on a window. We've already seen A Beautiful Mind and Good Will Hunting, thankyouverymuch.

On a final note, Fincher's Citizen Kane-like epic is also worth seeing for its strong cast composed of rising stars: Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake, Rashida Jones, and Andrew Garfield, the next Spider-Man. And if you're wondering, like I did, why Zuckerberg hasn't sued, it's because he's a public figure and therefore open to portrayal. Also, it might potentially be more embarassing to sue than to keep things quiet. As for suppression, it doesn't look like The Social Network will be advertised on Facebook due to their advertising rules, but everywhere else is fair game. Zuckerberg doesn't have quite the influence of William Randolph Hearst.

Today's Film News: Moving On, Moving Up

By Sarah Sluis

Moving On to more adult roles, Zac Efron has decided to star in a remake of the Swedish film Snabba Cash. I checked out the trailer on YouTube (there's also one with English subtitles) and was hit first with a Gatsby-esque, classy version of excess (lawn party!) followed by the plumbing vans, violence, and dark lighting typical of drug movies. Over the next two minutes, there's more violence, sex, some chase scenes and people fighting with each other, all lit with saturated, luminous cinematography and accompanied by a Swedish music soundtrack. No wonder it inspired a bidding war. After bowing out of Footloose for fear of being typecast into singing and dancing teen roles, Efron has found a project that's exactly the opposite of tweeny-bopper. While fellow Disney star Miley Cyrus recently starred in a PG "transition" movie with a family-oriented, romance-lite plot, The Last Song, Efron has chosen the complete opposite route. Which one will work? Since the project has a "short fuse" clause (the best dealmaking tool ever for impatient fans) and must be made within a certain time period, or the rights expire, we'll get to see Efron soon.

Moving Up: Joss Whedon, creator of the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" series, "Firefly," "Dollhouse" and others, the kind of series that inspired fan backlashes upon their cancellation, has a huge cult following. I should know, because he's an alumnus of my university and when he visited, people started waiting in line hours before he showed up for a talk, and isn't waiting in line ridiculously early a hallmark of geek culture? The geek approval makes him that much more valuable of a commodity. As of this week, he's attached to direct The Avengers, and, today in the blogosphere, little voices say he's involved in Captain America too (they're both Marvel projects). With the support of the fan community, his work will be treated with additional reverence and considered a step above the usual product--that is, if he isn't done in by the sky-high expectations his fans will have created. The choice of Whedon is a great move. He has done serialized and spin-off work and created original, memorable characters. His only feature directing credit, Serenity, was a spin-off of "Firefly." Since The Avengers is kind of a meta-superhero tale, with all the stars (Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, The Fury, and maybe The Hulk) of other comic books coming together, it would be a good idea to have a creative person with their hands in more than one film, and who has experience extending stories across different mediums.

No one wants 'New Moon' to end

By Sarah Sluis

The success of New Moon has brought the Twilight franchise to a whole new level. Among franchises, there are the ones that do better the second time around (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) and then there are the ones that do worse. By amassing a two-week total that exceeds the gross of the first film, New Moon is firmly among the franchise winners. Predictably, Summit is trying to stretch out the amount of Twilight movies it can make, and supernatural romances are in hot demand.

Today, for example, Warner Bros. picked up a series of five books in the "supernatural romance" category--the first one was just released today. Richard LaGravanese (writer/director of P.S. I Love You) is set to write and direct the first in the series, entitled Beautiful Creatures. An extension of Harry Potter and Twilight, the novel is told from the perspective of a popular high school boy in the South who secretly wants to get out of his small town. He has dreams of a girl, who suddenly arrives as a transfer student. They go through all the usual motions of falling in love, but she is the heir to a terrible family curse (not revealed in synopses) that gets in the way of their love. It sounds like a winning plot, but the success of Twilight and Harry Potter over, say, The Golden Compass has to do with fanbase. Is this project going to remain in a holding pattern until it ignites among young adult audiences? Or will it be moved swiftly into production before (or even if) the series turns into a phenomenon?

The other news on the supernatural romance front is Summit's proposal to extend the success of the Twilight series by splitting Breaking Dawn, the 756-page finale to the series, into two movies. That would bring the total amount of movies to five. It's an expensive move that will require raises among cast and crew (the Harry Potter series went through the same series of renegotiations), but the payoff could be big. Summit has already made a smart move by releasing the movies in quick succession. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse will come out not next Thanksgiving but this summer (June 30th). While the Twilight series, like the Harry Potter series, is strong enough to bring in new fans as older ones age out of the series, holding onto an audience is always a concern. Teen girls are only teen girls for so long. I've heard of kids who were into Star Wars but lost interest by the time the third film was released. As for myself, after seeing the first five Harry Potter movies on opening day, I missed the sixth one in theatres (though I'm anxiously awaiting its DVD release). It just wasn't as much of a priority anymore. Summit will be counting on the "Twihards" to retain their fanaticism for at least a few more years.

Casting underway for Coen Bros.' 'True Grit'

By Sarah Sluis

The Coen Bros.' remake of True Grit, a classic Western follow-up to their modern Western hit, No Country for Old Men, has lined up two more actors. Matt Damon is in talks to take on the Texas Ranger role, and Josh Brolin is in talks to play the hunted man. In the movie, a fourteen-year-old girl (who has not been cast) enlists the ranger and a U.S. Marshal to help her track down her father's killer. The role of the marshal, an Oscar-winning role for John Wayne in the 1969 original, will be taken on by Jeff Bridges (The Dude in The Big Lebowski). With top producers Scott Rudin and Steven Spielberg behind the film, and a fast-track from Paramount, this movie is scheduled to head into production this spring, for a release the following year.

Why has the 40-year-old film, based on the novel by Charles Portis, interested the filmmaking duo? Let's consult the archives.

1. Weird, affected dialogue. In Roger Ebert's review of the original, he notes that "Portis wrote his dialog in a formal, enchantingly archaic style that has been retained in Marguerite Roberts' screenplay." The Coen Bros. are known for utilizing accents and unusual speech, which is already present in the original work.

2. The Eye Patch. George Clooney has his pomade in O Brother, Where Art Thou? Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men has his bowl cut hairstyle. The Dude has his bathrobe and his white Russian in The Big Lebowski. This irresistible bit of costuming (working in tandem with Wayne's star image) just amplifies the characterization of Wayne as an "unwashed, sandpapered, roughshod, fat old rascal with a heart of gold well-covered by a hide of leather" (from Ebert's review).

3. Cash, Crime, Cover-ups and Complications. The U.S. Marshal and the Texas Ranger are both in it for the money. According to Ebert's review, the ranger "claims he has a reward for the killer (who also, it appears, plugged a state senator in Texas)." Sounds like an ulterior motive could come in play--a complication--in Coens' treatment.

Many of the Coen Bros.' films include journeys to either find the booty or hide it (the baby in Raising Arizona, the buried treasure in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the kidnapping/money in Fargo, the money in No Country for Old Men). Inevitably, things do not go according to plan, and Coen Bros. take pleasure in piling on the complications and twists to make things interesting.

The Challenge: According to many reviews, John Wayne makes the movie. The absence of Wayne's star presence could be a problem. In fact, both Roger Ebert and the Variety review use the same word, "tower," to describe Wayne's presence. Ebert notes that "one of the glories of True Grit is that it recognizes Wayne's special presence...He is not playing the same Western role he always plays. Instead, he

can play Rooster because of all the Western roles he has played. " He also mentions a parodic scene that works because of Wayne's star image. Making this movie without Wayne will require screenwriting and directing magic.

'Avatar' trailer igniting fans

By Sarah Sluis

Fox released the trailer for Avatar this morning, and it's confirming that this movie will be the must-see event in the holiday movie season. Since 25 minutes of the film were released at Comic-Con, and 15 minutes

of footage will be previewed tomorrow to those who received their IMAX

tickets, awareness and twittered first impressions are already rising, a good four months before its release.

The trailer opens with a technically stunning image of a space station and plane (a more polished version of Star Wars), and then segues into a series of aerial shots over the Na'vi planet, covered in acacia trees. Then we see Sam Worthington, who plays a paralyzed ex-Marine, rolling out of a ship in a wheelchair. In a laboratory, he sees his animated avatar floating in liquid before undergoing a process by which he inhabits the form. The rest of the trailer is a build-up montage of battles and hints of Worthington's relationship with a Na'vi woman (Zoe Saldana). Cameron claims to have had the idea for over fourteen years, but held back from making the movie until he could create a believable alien that audiences could identify with. The blue aliens in the trailer are tinged with the patina of CGI, but those who have seen the 3D images at Comic-Con, on a big screen say they look more realistic in a theatrical setting.

Cribbing from an Internet-supplied plot synopsis (potential spoilers included), the story of Avatar is strikingly similar to that of Pocahontas: a man befriends the natives (or, in this case, becomes one), and is won over to their viewpoint as he also becomes romantically involved with one of them. When the two sides enter into a conflict, he's forced to make a decision.

The story of a mole who changes his sympathies is a familiar one, and can be found in every genre, from spy movies to romantic comedies. There's a reason it sticks around: beneath a superficial premise there's an opportunity to make deep, thought-provoking commentary on the groups involved. Sci-fi movie District 9, which opened last week, also involves a human who becomes alien, and in the process starts to advocate for the "others."

James Cameron is working off an incredibly strong template, and this focus on story and action should broaden the appeal of Avatar to a wide range of viewers. Fox is marketing the movie with the tagline "by the director of Titanic," which

alludes not only to his most successful film, but also its

similarity to the new one. After all, Titanic, is as much an action film as a historical romance, just as Avatar seems to be not just a sci-fi action film, but a story about the perils of technology and colonialism.

IMAX showing a 16-minute first-look at 'Avatar'

By Sarah Sluis

In an unusual but not unprecedented move, a 16-minute sizzle reel of Avatar footage will be shown in over 100 IMAX theatres next Friday, August 21. A similar, slightly longer reel was recently shown at Comic-Con in San Diego. While originally 20th Century Fox's plan was "Show up, and we'll show you the clips," they have wised up to the potential crowds, and opted for an Internet-based clicking contest. Tickets will be given away at 3pm EST Monday, August 17th to the fastest clickers.

Why would a studio give away so much footage? From one perspective, it clearly shows they're confident about Avatar. I also suspect that this is a move to combat studio fears about having a big-budget movie that's not based on a "pre-sold" title. There was no Avatar comic book, best-selling novel, historical event, or television show. The idea is unproven, and people often don't want to risk the unfamiliar. Teased with sixteen minutes of Avatar, people will start talking more about the premise. Maybe part of the surprise will fade, but more people will be interested in seeing the film. It's a double-edged sword. I love the buzz and anticipation that comes before seeing a much-hyped movie, but when it fails to deliver, I'm more disappointed at seeing a "good" movie that was supposed to have been "great." Going into a film assuming it will be horrible, or a straight-up genre picture, can often make you appreciate the ways it has gone above and beyond your minimal expectations. While I hope to catch a glimpse of some Avatar footage before its release, for me, the pre-sold aspect of this movie is writer/director/producer James Cameron. I loved Terminator, Aliens and Titanic. Cameron's movies have connected with fans, who see them again and again, and most people in America have seen these films, no small feat. That he was able to achieve success with both a historic romance/disaster and sci-fi action films makes me respect him even more. 20th Century Fox will release the film during the winter movie season, December 18, 2009, so hopes are high that Cameron can deliver an unforgettable film that will become part of our cultural shorthand.