By Katey Rich
I wasn't so crazy about Craig Zobel's Great World of Sound, but I'm apparently in the minority: not only did Zobel's film earn three Gotham Award nominations, but Zobel's latest project, Turkey in the Straw, is set to begin production at Plum Pictures. Barlow Jacobs and Zobel co-wrote the script, a dark comedy about a political race in a small Southern town.
Great World of Sound earned Gotham Award nominations for best feature, breakthrough director and breakthrough actor Kene Holliday, an actor who did mostly regional work before playing fast-talking music industry representative Clarence in Zobel's film. The movie really did have a lot going for it, and Holliday was by far one of the best parts, a live-wire counterpart to the film's main character, Martin (Pat Healy), who reluctantly gets into the song-sharking business and sees its downsides long before Clarence does.
As much as Great World of Sound left me unsatisfied, its sense of place and keen ear for dialogue indicated that Zobel is a real talent. A Southerner myself, I loved the film's true Charlotte-area accents and great expanses of pine-fringed highways. Zobel is sticking with what he knows for Turkey, which is good, and seems to have picked a story with a little more narrative force, which is even better. And best of all, Turkey in the Straw is shooting in my home state of South Carolina! Given that the most recent SC-filmed projects to come out were Death Sentence and Who's Your Caddy?, we could use a little indie panache. Granted, no one will have ever heard of Craig Zobel when he gets down there, but with all that Southern friendliness, he might not even notice.
=
No comments:
Post a Comment