'Wreck-It Ralph' picks up the pieces post-Sandy

In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, there is some concern that the
weekend box office will be impacted. With its high ticket prices and
dense population, New York City theatres often post the highest returns
of any locationin the U.S., and are critical launching points for indie releases. In the New York metro area, twenty AMC theatres and seven Regal theatres remain out of commission,
along with other independent theatres. Number crunchers predict the
East Coast storm won't have too large of an effect on the overall box
office. In areas that were once closed and now have reopened, there may
be robust demand for the comfort of a movie.

Appealing to nostalgia-seeking adults and their video game-loving children, Wreck-It Ralph
(3,752 theatres) could open to over $40 million this weekend, making it Disney Animation's highest non-holiday opening. 2,911 of the locations will show the animated feature in 3D.  The "homage to classic
videogame culture wrapped in an adventurous road movie" should "sweep the family-friendly demo in the first few weeks of
the month before any significant challengers emerge," predicts THR's Justin Lowe. The story of a video game villain who decides he's sick of being the bad guy "bears a distinct Pixar DNA
signature," Lowe notes, a sign that post-acquisition of Pixar, Disney's team is either collaborating or picking up the animation studio's tricks.

Denzel Washington plays a drug-addled pilot who miraculously saves a malfunctioning plane in Flight (1,900 theatres). Washington just led Safe House to a $124 million total this February,
but Flight is more challenging fare, offering a complicated and well-acted portrait of an addict. That may dissuade Washington's
fans who prefer him in more breezy action diversions. Paramount hopes
it will pick up other viewers drawn in by the pedigree of director
Robert Zemeckis, who has directed emotionally stirring crowd pleasers like Forrest Gump and Cast Away. FJI critic Doris Toumarkine dubs the release "one of the strongest adult dramas to come out of Hollywood in a long time," praising Zemeckis' move from "motion capture to emotion capture," referencing the director's previous focus on works like Polar Express.

"Hardcore action fans" will probably get the biggest rise out of The Man with the Iron Fists (1,868 theatres), predicts THR's
Todd McCarthy. "This is the sort of film where the main characters are
defined first and foremost by what type of weaponry they favor," he
says, and
"very few minutes go by without some sort of combat." The
stylized martial-arts mash-up can have a "concocted, secondhand feel."
There's a certain type of audience that loves these kinds of films, but unlike, say, the work of Quentin Tarantino, it will be unlikely to expand to a broader audience, so a debut in the $7-10 million range is expected.

The black comedy The Details (12 theatres), which centers on a couple's unraveling in the wake of a household pest, will lead the specialty pack this weekend, with the support of stars Tobey Maguire and Elizabeth Banks. Sean Penn plays an aging rocker in This Must Be the Place (2 theatres). It earned critic David Noh's endorsement. He praises the "compellingly unpredictable
entertainment, laced with wry humor and that essential,
all-too-rare element these days, surprise." Finally, the epidemic thriller The Bay (23 theatres) will scare you, assures critic Maitland McDonagh. With a don't-mess-with-nature message, it "pulls off the harder-than-it-looks feat of tucking food for thought inside a very scary wrapper."

On Monday, we'll see if Wreck-It Ralph held up to the aftereffects of Superstorm Sandy, and if Flight and The Man with the Iron Fists attracted the demographics they need to drive a strong debut.

Sundance Film Festival a hot market for pickups

By Sarah Sluis

Recently, all the talk has been about how slow the indie film market has been. Well, that stops with Sundance 2011. This year there has been pickup after pickup. Indie film lovers, it's time to get excited, because many of these movies will hit theatres this year.

The Details: The Weinstein Co. picked up this spiraling-out-of-control comedy, in which a couple's battle with raccoons in their home escalates, threatening their marriage and also leading to "extortion, organ donation, and murder." Elizabeth Banks, Tobey Maguire, and Laura Linney star. One of my biggest gripes is comedies that aren't funny, so if this film charmed the Sundance crowd I'm willing to bet it will give me some chuckles. Also, doesn't the dark comedy kind of sound like Election, in which Matthew Broderick's attempt to sabotage Reese Witherspoon's class president campaign ends up sabotaging everything in his own life?

Another Earth: Fox Searchlight was the recepient of this drama, which centers on a young woman who's looking up at the stars (another planet) and crashes into another car, killing a man's family. She's imprisoned, but later seeks redemption and contacts the surviving patriarch of the family. The storyline doesn't really sum up well, and sounds rather morbid in summary, but its "standing ovations" at Sundance mean this film will be one to watch (while keeping your eye on the road!).

Homework: Fox Searchlight is definitely releasing this high school comedy this year. It's about a boy who doesn't do his homework all through high school, and the girl who loves him (Emma Roberts). What more can you say, but hope that this follows in the footsteps of zeitgeist-y movies like Mean Girls and last year's well-regarded Easy A, starring Emma Stone.

Like Crazy: This romance, which will release through Paramount, has been described as a lighter version of Blue Valentine, one of my favorite moves from 2010. A girl and boy fall in love, but she violates her visa and is trapped in England, leading to a series of just-misses and just-in-times. Star Felicity Jones has received praise along the lines of "the next Carey Mulligan," and Winter's Bone Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence and Anton Yelchin also star.

Of these four films, The Details and Homework look most like they're treading a familiar path, albeit with a fresh look at a story whose outline is somewhat familiar. Like Crazy has a little bit of a Crash/Babel feel to it by bringing visas and politics into the story (though this is hardly the kind of immigrant that inspires political debate, much like the Canadian book editor who overstayed her visa in The Proposal). Another Earth tackles mourning, not one of my favorite movie subjects, but after comparing the film to loss-of-a-child drama Rabbit Hole, critic Kirk Honeycutt also calls this movie "science fiction at its best." With young casts, and off-the-beaten-path plots, this year's Sundance pickups have me eagerly waiting for their release dates.

Tobey Maguire focuses on 'The Details'

By Sarah Sluis

Tobey Maguire will star opposite Elizabeth Banks in The Details, a dark comedy. Filming will start later this summer in Seattle, before Maguire goes off to shoot Spider-man 4. Jacob Estes, the writer and director, previously took on the dual role in 2004's Mean Creek, which took place one state south, in Oregon. It earned a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and has some thematic similarities to the described plot of The Details.

In Mean Creek, a bully and his friends decide to punish a boy by humiliating him out in the Oregon wilderness, but the actions escalate out of their control and the stakes suddenly become life-or-death. In The Details, Maguire and Banks will play a couple bickering about infidelity and the strength of their marriage, and who must deal with the added annoyance of pesty raccoons destroying their backyard. They have a disagreement over how to get rid of the animals, which (like in Mean Creek) spins out of control and results in death (apparently by bow-and-arrow). Laura Linney will play an "eccentric" neighbor, and Ray Liotta, Anna Friel (Land of the Lost), and Dennis Haybert ("24," "The Unit") are also on the cast list. While Mean Creek was more serious, this is being billed as a "dark indie comedy"

Over the past year, Elizabeth Banks was in one release right after the other (Zack and Miri Make a Porno, W., Role Models, The Uninvited), which really highlighted her versatility (or just her willingness to pick up anything and everything). Tobey Maguire is stepping into the role previously held by James McAvoy, who left due to scheduling problems. With its high-profile stars, and prolific producer Mark Gordon (who was nominated for an Oscar on Saving Private Ryan), The Details certainly has the potential to take on an awards-season sheen. Or, perhaps, be another War of the Roses.