Trailer report: 'In Time,' set in a world where money buys immortality

By Sarah Sluis

Now that there's talk of a double-dip recession, movies that touch on class differences and offer revenge fantasies will be perfectly poised to scoop up the people responding to the zeitgeist. Into this environment comes In Time (formerly titled I'm.Mortal and Now), positing a world in which the rich can live forever and the poor die young, to prevent overpopulation. Yes, now is indeed a great time for class antagonism. Andrew Niccol, the auteur behind the most emotinally resonant futurisic movies, Gattaca (writer/director) and The Truman Show (screenplay), writes and directs the futuristic sci-fi tale. Here's the trailer:

Five things to know about In Time

1. It's coming out in a not-so-good time slot, October 28. I can't explain why, since that weekend is usually reserved for horror films taking advantage of the pre-Halloween weekend. Then again, Niccol's movies have a history of being dumped. His best, Gattaca, played for just three weeks, yet it's among the finest sci-fi movies I've seen--watch New York Times movie critic A.O. Scott's revisiting of the film to learn more.

2. Casting! Vincent Kartheiser, who plays "Mad Men"'s Pete Campbell, plays a spoiled villain, a role we already know he's good at. After Justin Timberlake turned in an excellent performance in The Social Network, it's great to see him building his career further. Amanda Seyfried, who's mostly played charming, wields a gun in this flick, a welcome addition to her star image.

3. The creepy opening introduction. Seconds into the trailer, Kartheiser indicates three nearly identical 25-year-old women, introducing them as his wife, mother-in-law, and daughter. It hits just the right unsettling note I look for in my dystopias. And could it be a coincidence that the countdown clocks are located on the left forearm, the same place where the Nazis tattooed serial numbers on their Jewish prisoners?

4. Roger Deakins is the cinematographer. The recepient of the 2011 American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Lifetime Achievement Award, Deakins is known for his longtime work with the Coen Brothers and his mastery as a cinematographer. Gattaca also had a strong visual look, which In Time appears to continue.

5. Niccol as an auteur. As solid as The Truman Show and Gattaca are, I haven't seen Lord of War or S1mOne, which seemed like such a laughable concept--a virtual actress! That was one road I didn't want to go down. But then again, people just discovered that a new member of a Japanese pop band was created by a computer. She will "perform" in concerts via hologram. Could Niccol simply be ahead of his time? After all, The Truman Show released well before reality shows took over our televisions.

Niccol's work also has consistency from film to film, and repetition is one mark of an auteur. Gattaca and The Truman Show both use travel into the unknown space of the ocean as turning points for the characters and powerful metaphors. In Time (what I know from the trailer) and Gattaca both feature suicidal rich people who give what they had at birth to a scrappy poor person who can actually use the gifts. These stories feel personal, a rarity in Hollywood. Though the trailer features gun fights and car chases, which Niccol's previous movies have been light on, I hope his moving insights into futuristic societies shine through. I'll take that over Paranormal Activity 3 any day.

'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' summits the top ten

By Sarah Sluis

With little advance awareness, most prognosticators were cautious about Rise of the Planet of the Apes' prospects. The appeal of dystopian futures in movies, and, let's face it, CG primates, drew more viewers than predicted, to the tune of $54 million. Though the opening weekend was less than 2001's Tim Burton remake Planet of the Apes, and both had similar production budgets (around $100 million), most seem to be calling Rise the success. The current release has had better reviews, receiving an 81% positive aggregate rating on Rotten Tomatoes to the 2001 film's 45% positive rating. Warm ratings and a decent box office could make Rise the first of many Planet of the Apes reboots.

The Change-Up, however, was not as lucky as Apes. The comedy's $13.6 million opening weekend was the lowest of any R-rated comedy this summer. Paring an R-rating with the Freaky Friday set-up, which has mainly been used in kid-friendly PG tales, appears to have confused audiences and turned them off. Frankly, the movie's posters made my nose wrinkle in disgust instead of laughter. They were offensive in the most boring, tired way possible, which didn't bode well for the comedy. Surprisingly, 59% of the audience was women, with all ages represented.

Rachel Weisz's star turn in The Whistleblower averaged $8,300 per screen on seven screens, a modest debut for the movie, which will probably grab more viewers once it hits Netflix. Gun Hill Road, which centers on a released prisoner who discovers his son is transitioning to female, boasted the highest per-screen average for a specialty release, $12,600. Oscilloscope's Bellflower, a "stew of dark fantasies and youthful gonzo ambition," according to THR's John DeFore, also did well, averaging $12,000 per screen.

A number of specialty releases gained ground this week as they expanded their releases. The Future rose 213% as it went from one to 17 locations, averaging $5,000 per screen. Sony Pictures Classics' The Guard remained strong, rising 152% and only dropping its per-screen average by half, to $10,000, at each of the 19 locations. Fox Searchlight's Another Earth more than doubled its locations and rose 51% while maintaining a $3,000 per-screen average. Finally, Weinstein Co.'s Sarah's Key enjoyed a 45% boost when it doubled the number of locations, finishing with a $7,900 per-screen average and $532,000, the highest of any of the expanding specialty releases.

This Wednesday, female-dominated historical pic The Help will release, offering a breath of fresh air in a summer market dominated by broad comedy and action. The comedy 30 Minutes or Less, horror sequel Final Destination 5, and Glee the 3D Concert Movie will round out the offerings on Friday.

'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' heads off against 'The Change-Up'

By Sarah Sluis

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (3,648 theatres) bills itself as an origin tale. The "primate revolution" alluded to in the 1968 film gets the full treatment here. Unfortunately, the unraveling of this mystery is a hollow experience, says our critic. "Whereas the first films...[held] a mirror up to human society's failings like slavery, war-mongering and intolerance, this one reflects nothing but a failure of the imagination," Chris Barsanti concludes, calling it a "by-the-numbers prequel" with James Franco's performance limited to a furrowing of the brow and occasional confused looks. Older males are showing the most interest in the film, which should earn in the $20 millions. You can count me out. I don't want to ruin the feeling of the 1968 original's spectacular ending, one of the best, most satisfying conclusions of all time.

I'm pretty sure the pitch for The Change-Up (2,913 theatres) went something like this: Let's do Freaky Friday, but R-rated! With guys! Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman play two guys, one a single player, the other married with kids, who switch bodies. Critic Marsha McCreadie rejoiced in the "somewhat sadistic fun [watching] guys obsessing over stuff that used to worry cinematic women," like "parenting, how to treat women, handle sex, fulfill career commitments and keep it all in balance." The Change-Up may not be too original, but there are "amusing bits" amidst the "gross-out humor."

Starring Rachel Weisz as a "a working-class Nebraska cop turned U.N. law-enforcement monitor in Bosnia," The Whistleblower "eschews light escapist touches to deliver a hard-hitting message of man's inhumanity writ large." That inhumanity involves Weisz's character's discovery of sex slave trafficking, with young women tricked into thinking they will find work in such innocent occupations as waitressing.

Magic Trip (4 theatres), from prolific documentarian Alex Gibney (who co-directed with Alison Ellwood), covers Ken Kesey's famous 1964 road trip on a bus loaded with LSD and the very first hippies. The footage, culled from their amateur efforts, didn't have sync sound and "shots are blurry, shaky, often poorly exposed, and almost never long enough to understand what is going on." That didn't stop critic Daniel Eagan from declaring that "Kesey may have had some wrong-headed notions, but in Magic Trip at least he comes off as a true adventurer with noble goals."

On Monday, we'll see if The Change-Up continues the trend of overperforming R-rated comedies, and if Rise of the Planet of the Apes attracted a $20+ million opening.

Really? PETA gives award to 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes'

By Sarah Sluis

A standard part of ending credits on a movie is the American Humane Association's seal of approval: "No animals were harmed during the making of this movie." Since Rise of the Planet of the Apes uses CG monkeys, it's unclear if the AHA even had to give the movie its seal of approval. Yet PETA is giving an award to this Fox pictures. The animal-loving organization's strategy is trying to encourage the use of CG animals, so they've made a special fuss and given the movie a "Proggy" award (that's progress + award). I wouldn't be rolling my eyes so much, except I doubt that the movie would have used live-action apes anyway. The first movie was famous for having humans in ape suits with makeup. Even the 2001 remake of the 1968 film used makeup, not CG. The only primates being helped out by the CG are the human actors who no longer have to sweat in ape suits.

The things is, most of the time there isn't really a choice about whether a production goes with CG or live-action. If it's possible to film animals in live-action, like with domesticated animals, most productions choose that route. Should Lassie be CG? No. Should Mr. Popper's Penguins use CG animals? Probably. Talking animal films/TV shows used to be achieved by training horses to randomly flex their mouths, and it actually looked pretty good. Oh man, did I love watching "Mister Ed" on Nick at Nite. Instead of creating CG horses, the technology is used to employ weirder, non-trainable animals like the guinea pigs in G-Force. Movies like Beverly Hills Chihuahua will still use real dogs (maybe with CG lips) because audiences know it is possible to shoot a film like that live-action, and they demand it.

However, I also admire PETA for going the positive route. The organization gets most of its press attention from its protests, like the one it did for this summer's Zookeeper after a giraffe died shortly after filming. By singling out movies that do a better job, they can be associated with the maintenance of good practices instead of constantly having to act as a police officer.

What will Paul Schrader and Bret Easton Ellis do with a horror movie called 'Bait'?

By Sarah Sluis

How's this for a curious project? Bret Easton Ellis and Paul Schrader are teaming up for a psychological horror movie called Bait. With sharks. The plot reads like any B movie, but I imagine this duo will be able to bring a little something extra to the table. A man who despises rich people secures an invitation onto a yacht. He then pilots it into shark-filled waters, and lets the carnage begin. Both are working on a final version of the script, and Schrader will direct. Here are three reasons why this idea, in the hands of Ellis and Schrader, could end up being something special.

1. Ellis writes rich people very, very well. His novels Less than Zero and Rules of Attraction were tales of empty hedonism and jaded excess. He can be so deliciously cruel to his subjects, but this kind of biting humor is often married with a shred of compassion or psychological analysis into his characters.

2. Schrader and Ellis are both experienced writing psychopaths. Schrader wrote Taxi Driver, that messed-up tale of vigilante justice. Ellis wrote (and adapted for the screen) American Psycho, a murderous Wall Street tale. There's no doubt in my mind that this yacht club worker will have a personality that's unusually rounded, compelling, and scary.

3. Now is a really good time to hate rich people. Recession-themed tales have been seeping into Hollywood over the past couple years. Everything from documentaries (Inside Job) to maudlin tales of unemployment (The Company Men), movies based on real events (Margin Call) and even other horror tales (Drag Me to Hell) have hit screens. There's something primal about horror movies that let people experience and live out their fears and revenge fantasies. If Bait can resonate with peoples' lizard brains, I predict an unlikely hit.

Will director Cary Fukunaga graduate to the big league with 'Spaceless'?

By Sarah Sluis

Director Cary Fukunaga made an assured debut in 2009 with Sin Nombre, the tale of poor Honduran who hitches rides on trains in an attempt to make it to the U.S. Shot with beautiful cinematography, the movie had a socially conscious premise and a thoughtful arthouse plot along with one of those maddening endings that refuse to let everything settle at the most comfortable conclusion. It was hard to believe this was his first feature (not including his student work, which won an award at the Sundance Film Festival). He followed that well-regarded movie with 2011's Jane Eyre, a higher-profile picture from the same distributor, Focus. With up-and-comer Mia Wasikowska as his lead actress, Fukunaga again showed himself to be a poised, competent director. Not many people could adapt a book that's been done close to two dozen times before, confident that they could bring something new to the table. But he did.

Now Fukunaga's signed on to direct Spaceless, a sci-fi tale from Universal. Could this be his chance to bring his cinematic sensibility to a wider audience? The plot is more 2001: Space Odyssey than Star Wars. An assassin wakes up, floating through space. A computer stands by to keep him company before his air supply runs out. He doesn't remember much about what happened before, just some fuzzy memories about being ordered to carry out a hit on a space station. As he continues to amble through space, he wonders if he's actually in space, or part of a simulated reality. Any plot that blurs the lines between reality and virtual reality is a win in my book. In this sense, the plot reminds me of Moon, the 2009 low-budget sci-fi tale with a twist ending. Besides Fukunaga, another plus for the project is the screenwriter, Jeff Vintar. As expressed in his Wikipedia page (which actually feels like it was written by Vintar himself, just saying), his work is firmly in the camp of sci-fi. I, Robot was based on his screenplay, and Spaceless itself has been in development for over a decade at Fox. He's the kind of screenwriter who has a ton of unproduced work and gets rewrite work, but has yet to see much of his work actually hit the big screen. Perhaps because of this, Vintar recently reacquired the rights to the movie and set it up at Universal, where it's finally moving forward. Gore Verbinski, a longtime fan of the screenplay, will executive produce.

A few "smart" sci-fi pictures have been released in recent years (such as Moon), with more on the way. Alfonso Cuaron is directing Gravity, a sci-fi romance with a "two people alone on a desert island" kind of concept. The author Daniel H. Wilson has seen a number of his sci-fi tales acquired. Steven Spielberg is directing Robocalypse, and the more comedic How to Survive a Robot Uprising has Jack Black attached. If there are two types of sci-fi movies, cerebral (2001: Space Odyssey) and action-filled (Star Wars), it appears, for the time being, that the cerebral ones are winning out.

'Cowboys & Aliens' earns narrow win over 'Smurfs'

By Sarah Sluis

Cowboys & Aliens was hailed by many critics as the rare sci-fi/western genre mash-up that worked. Audiences turned out, but the $36 million fell short of the $40+ million the studio had hoped for. On the bright side, over 63% of audiences were over 30, a demographic that often sees movies weeks after their release. The $160+ million film will have to hold well at the box office to recoup its blockbuster budget.

I put the live-action/CG hybrid The Smurfs in the same category as Alvin and the Chipmunks and Yogi Bear. Critics called the movies stupid and terrible, but parents shrugged their shoulders and indulged their children in the lowbrow fun. More audiences than predicted turned out to see the blue cartoon characters in their very own movie, giving The Smurfs an estimated $35.6 million opening weekend, just under Cowboys & Aliens. Other kid-friendly titles in the top ten fell heavily (50-70%) due to the animated competition. Even Harry Potter "7B," as it's nicknamed on movie marquees, barely leveled its fall, diving another 53% to $21.9 million.

The intergenerational romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love landed in fifth place with $19.3 million. The variety of ages paid off: 71% of audiences were over the age of 25, which also bodes well for coming weeks. The opening is below Carell's summer pic from last year, Dinner for Schmucks, but far ahead of this summer's flop Larry Crowne, which also targeted an older audience.

This week was a busy one for specialty releases. Actor/writer/director Miranda July's The Future, which premiered on just one screen, had the highest screen average, $28,000. Sony Pictures Classics' crime drama The Guard followed, with a $20,000 average on four screens. A couple of big studios went with smaller releases for their films, and succeeded in drawing audiences. Lionsgate's Scarface-styled treatment of Uday Hussein, The Devil's Double, did admirably, using five screens to accumulate a $19,000 per-screen average. Screen Gems' Attack the Block, a would-be cult horror comedy, averaged $16,000 on eight screens. The two latter ones should expand in coming weeks and will be films to watch.

This Friday, the R-rated Freaky Friday-style comedy The Change-Up will release, along with Rise of the Planet of the Apes.