Saying goodbye to 'The Booth'

Earlier today, Slate published a brief spread of gorgeous photos from Joseph O. Holmes’ ongoing exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image, “The Booth: The Last Days of Film Projection.”

The exhibit’s themes are neatly summarized within the title: Intimacy and farewell, the former a natural byproduct of those small working spaces, the projection booths, often made homey with “family pictures [and] notes between the projectionists;” the latter an implied echo behind the word “last.”

“These things are going away, so I wanted to preserve what I think is a really beautiful setting,” said Holmes. “Those reels and the projectors and the film and the editing equipment almost feel like they could come from any decade in the last hundred years… It feels like tapping into something ancient.”

Which is precisely how your kids will feel when they flip through these photos, bound in a coffee-table book (should those still exist), only a few short years from now.

To view Slates’ full spread and interview with Holmes, click here, or keep scrolling for Holmes’ own moving-image paean to the projection booth, a 12-minute compilation of film clips where the space serves as a key setting, below:

 

An early look at 'How to Train Your Dragon,' 'Shrek Forever After' and 'Megamind'

By Sarah Sluis

In the world of animation, Pixar may be getting most of the press and awards, but DreamWorks Animation is sneaking up on them. While Pixar is releasing an average of one film a year, DreamWorks Animation has three movies lined up for 2010, all in 3D.

At a presentation in New York yesterday, I saw 10 minutes of Megamind (releasing November 5th), 30 minutes of Shrek Forever After (releasing May 21st) and a feature-length version of How to Train Your Dragon (releasing March 26th).

How to Train Your Dragon is the most Pixar-esque of the bunch, eschewing pop culture references and humor in favor of a universal story and an intricately conceived world. The cinematography is stunning, and represents a huge step forward in CG animation. As directors Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders explained to us, the animation and lighting teams are typically separate departments that do their work without even talking to each other. They brought in frequent Coen Brothers cinematographer Roger Deakins (who is also listed as a visual consultant for Pixar's Wall-E) to give a talk on linking the lighting and animation steps--he ended up staying to supervise the whole project.

The end product has a dynamic use of light that reflects the dim, candlelit world of the Vikings in the story. While CG animation started out with very flat lighting (think: Toy Story), How to Train Your Dragon at times looks like an animated version of Barry Lyndon. Because of the cinematography and story (and perhaps the fact I got to see the whole thing), this movie impressed me the most. Even in an unfinished version, with the score and certain scenes only roughly animated, it had the most epic, timeless feel. Later, we found out that Steven Spielberg was responsible for one cluster of scenes at the end that were only barely sketched out in animation. The ending had recently been tweaked based on Spielberg's comment after a viewing--a change the directors quickly incorporated.

Beyond the cinematography, little details like hair were rendered with incredible detail. The odd thing with animation is that the closer it approaches

reality, the more hyperreal it looks. Getting the kind of definition

you'd see on natural hair makes it stand out instead of blend in.

Storywise, producer Bonnie Arnold called Hiccup, the film's protagonist, a "teaching hero," an "Obama-type" character because of his emphasis on change--a rather timely comparison. Because the movie is based on a series of children's books by Cressida

Cowell, the team had a J.K. Rowling level of detail to work with. At the press lunch, everyone from Jay Baruchel (voice of the lead, Hiccup) to producer Bonnie Arnold showed an

expansive knowledge of the film's world beyond what appears in

the movie. If How to Train Your Dragon is a success--and it should be--expect a sequel or two in the works.

Shrek Forever After continues to do what the franchise does best: pleasing both children and the parents sitting with them in the theatre. The fourth installment takes its inspiration from It's a Wonderful Life. The filmmakers

even have gambling, corrupt townspeople and partying witches (the PG

allusion to the prostitutes populating Pottersville). But instead of intervention-by-angel, it's all motivated by an evil creator of magical contracts in fairy tales: Rumpelstiltskin. For those that have watched the first three Shrek movies, the "what if" scenario will be a huge payoff, rewarding viewers for their investment in Shrek's world.

Megamind takes the trio of superhero, villain, and damsel in distress and turns it on its head. In this version, the villain is the center of the story, and it was hinted that he, not the superhero, ends up with the damsel in distress. With its snappy dialogue and voice performances from Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, and Brad Pitt, this movie appears to be the next step forward after last year's superhero tale Monsters vs. Aliens, which also played with the genre.

With so many movies in the works, DreamWorks Animation is poised to take advantage of the rising sucess of 3D movies at the box office. With a final sequel and two original titles releasing this year, one with definite franchise potential, the studio will be one to watch.

Oscar-nominated films expand alongside 'Inkheart' & 'Underworld' sequel

By Sarah Sluis

Oscar nominations were announced yesterday, giving the non-film-obsessed a month to head to their

local theatres and squeeze in a film or two to make the whole Oscar broadcast more entertaining. Studios, of course, try to predict what films will receive nominations, and expand or resurrect the films accordingly.

Since expansions must be planned weeks in advance, it's easy to tell what films met (and failed) a studio's expectations. Revolutionary Road, which expands to 1,058 screens, is the big loser here, earning only one major nomination: Supporting Actor for Michael Shannon as a mentally ill mathematician (hey, it worked for Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind), and two minor nods for art direction and costume design, a gimme for any period film. Turns out just like April and Frank Wheeler, Revolutionary Road thought it was more special than it really was.

Universal also planned a big post-Oscar expansion for Frost/Nixon, which will release on 1,097 screens, and up until now has done pretty light business. Fox Searchlight is expanding The Wrestler (566 screens) and Slumdog Millionaire (1,411 screens). Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei both received nominations for The Wrestler, making this film well-worth its expansion. Searchlight has done a controlled, slow rollout of Slumdog (and earlier actually had to scale up their planned expansion to meet demand), so this expansion caps an extremely well-executed release.

October's Rachel Getting Married, which Sony Pictures Classics hoped would receive a Best Actress nomination for Anne Hathaway (it did!), will show up on 345 screens, although without an accompanying nomination for screenwriter Jenny Lumet. The Dark Knight will also appear on 350 screens, giving audiences one more chance to see Supporting Actor nominee Heath Ledger in IMAX. The most nominated film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, will continue its wide release but will likely see a significant boost in business.

For those with an elementary school child in tow and a brain ready to mentally prepare grocery lists, take your child to see Inkheart (2,655 screens). It's muddled, confusing, poorly executed, but, at the very

least, will inspire you to imagine all the ways this film could have been so much better. Fans of horror film Underworld can rejoice in sequel Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2,942 screens). Just a guess, but those that don't know exactly what "Rise of the Lycans" means should probably stay away, and catch one of those films the Academy has deemed likely-to-be-the-best.

Other films playing on just a few screens this weekend include a worn Jack the Ripper/Hitchcock remake The Lodger, horror-movie-on-a-boat Donkey Punch, and Terence Davies' documentary Of Time and the City.

Kids rule at the major studios

By Sarah Sluis

Alice in Wonderland adds Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway has played a princess before, but for her next project she's graduated to queen, signing
on to play the White Queen in Tim Burton's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.  Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, two of his recurring casting choices, are already in place as the Mad Hatter and the Red Queen, respectively.  Eighteen-year-old Mia Wasikowska, who has a role in this winter's Defiance, will play the part of Alice--no doubt her girlish look combined with her over-eighteen status informed the decision, since she won't be restricted by the laws limiting the hours of child actors.  Using a combination of live action and performance capture, Burton's film will likely work off the dark but family-friendly style of his film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but I am curious about how Burton will integrate the performance capture.  Will he use it for animal characters like the Cheshire Cat, or will the film have a Roger Rabbit look?

Tom Thumb film in works
Continuing in the vein of children's folk stories, Warner Brothers plans to adapt Tom Thumb, and has attached Enchanted and Tarzan director Kevin Lima to the project.  Under development through the Red Wagon label, the producers hope to spin the story by focusing on the beginnings of Tom Thumb.  They're enlisting Robert Rodat to write the screenplay.  While best known for his screenplay Saving Private Ryan and war follow-up The Patriot, he got his start writing family pictures Fly Away Home and Tall Tale, and will serve as a good choice if the producers want to emphasize the battles and adventures of the thimble-sized hero.  The producers are also undecided about representation of the little man, with live action and CGI both being thrown around as options.

Studios' production slate rich in kid and teen pictures
While Tom Thumb is still in the development phase, Alice in Wonderland will join other a large number of projects going into production now that some of the uncertainty surrounding the renewal of the SAG contracts has blown over.  Variety compiled a list of over forty projects going into production.  A substantial amount target child and teen audiences:

• Ramona, the classic children's book by Beverly Cleary



• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows



• Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, a Harry Potter knockoff based on a book series about a boy who realizes he is the descendant of a Greek god (directed by Harry Potter alum Chris Columbus)



• Tooth Fairy, which looks to be an Elf-like comedic riff on the coins-for-teeth fairy (if you replace Will Ferrell with stone-faced Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson)



• Diary of a Wimpy Kid, an adaptation of a series of cartoon books



• Mars Needs Moms, another illustrated storybook adaptation



• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, a live action adaptation of the anime-styled comic book



• Footloose remake, starring Zac Efron and sure to draw in tweens and teens



• Fame remake, another song-and-dance high school film

One trend in this slate of films is the popularity of graphic or comic novels as a literary source.  With adaptations of action and superhero comics doing so well in the box office, there has been an increased demand to develop books that mine the comic book format, using panels or incorporating illustrations and letters into their stories.  Spielberg, for example, is directing animated Tin Tin, based on the French comic.  The richness and depth of plot in these stories, however, can be as much help as hindrance, as writers must sift through and delete material over the course of the adaptation.  Of all these projects, however, I am most enthusiastic about Burton's Alice in Wonderland, which will be much more about the actors' interpretations of the characters rather than the plot of the original (and rarely read by children anymore) Alice Adventure's in Wonderland.