Posted Nov 20th 2009 1:32PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Casting, Deals, Noir, Scripts, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek
Few of us have had the chance to read Rick Remender's upcoming series,
The Last Days of American Crime, but it's already tapped for the big-screen treatment. To sweeten the deal,
American Crime already has a face. An Australian one.
Mania is reporting that
Sam Worthington has signed on to play the series' star criminal, Graham Brick.
American Crime is set in a near-future where the government has found a way to kill the criminal impulse in its citizens. That's good for everyone but the criminals, and chaos erupts as the unsavory element goes mad trying to get in one last job. One of these men is Graham Brick, who is in the midst of planning a big heist, and gets to watch all his best laid plans fall apart in a bloody fashion. I read the preview Radical handed out at Comic-Con this year, and like all previews, it was too short to really get a handle on the story. But the art was incredible, it was ridiculously violent, and it had that slimy feeling of
Sin City. You can check out
three pages here, and Radical has
15 pages up on MySpace. The first issue is scheduled to hit stands in December.
Remender will be penning the screenplay himself, and Radical will be producing it under their film shingle. We'll supposedly be getting a studio, a director, and more cast-members very soon, but it's tough to get excited without having read issue #1. Still, if this is really the mix of James Ellroy and David Mamet's
Heist that Remender promises,
Crime will be something to look out for.
Posted Nov 6th 2009 2:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Classics, Noir, Mystery & Suspense, Scenes We Love
In the Great Coen Debates that occur among film fans, there's one that I never feel gets enough love:
Miller's Crossing. It's probably my favorite next to
The Big Lebowski. The film is deliciously dark and dreary (you can watch this in summer and still feel cold), but punctuated by that startling Coens humor. The dialogue and character quirks are not as exaggerated as they are in other Coen films, and when a character does get theatrical, it's appropriate to the setting. These are thugs who find themselves in positions of great wealth and power, after all, and they'll never know quite how to behave in the real world.
The film has a level of tension I don't think the Coens matched until
No Country For Old Men. Tom's white-knuckle walk into Miller's Crossing is probably my favorite scene (actually, it's difficult to pick just one), but it doesn't appear to be on YouTube. So, here's another moment of violence that just doesn't go the way you think it will, and features the best use of
Danny Boy in history. I really want to believe that the gramophone is a nod to Sean Connery's death scene in
The Untouchables, but I suspect it's a noir standard that ushered many a mobster and cop into his grave.
Continue reading Scenes We Love: Miller's Crossing
Posted Nov 4th 2009 9:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Animation, Comedy, Noir, RumorMonger, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels
As Peter reported a few days ago,
Robert Zemeckis is going forward with
a Roger Rabbit sequel. We all seem to be intrigued by the possibility of returning to Toontown, but Zemeckis' obsession with motion capture really casts a Judge Doom-like shadow over the project. Will he motion capture Roger Rabbit and his Toontown friends? Or will Zemeckis return to the old school of hand-drawn animation?
MTV caught up with Zemeckis, who was quick to assure fans of the bumbling Roger that he will remain his cuddly 2D self. "I wouldn't use it for the cartoon characters, because I think they should stay two-dimensional because that's what - I wouldn't dimensonalize Roger," he said. "And I couldn't dimensonalize Jessica even if I wanted to because she doesn't have a nose. We wouldn't want to give her a nose." But motion capture will be a part of
Roger Rabbit 2. The technology is like Zemeckis' whale, and he's determined to exploit every possibility with it. His current plan appears to involve using motion-capture for the human performances. "All the other characters that [the cartoons] would sort of have fun with would be magnificent in performance capture technology."
There's that Judge Doom shadow again. The clumsy way humans and toons interacted was the point of
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? It was the contrast that was interesting and fun. Having animated humans just seems to take it on a trip into the Uncanny Valley. The project is still in its early stages, so maybe Zemeckis will surprise us, and have the technology be part of the story. Everyone on the interwebs seems to be championing the idea of the toons having to deal with technological advances. We can hope for that, and not that Zemeckis will just shove in a motion-captured cast just because he can't stop himself.
Posted Oct 26th 2009 10:25PM by Jen Yamato
Filed under: Drama, Gay & Lesbian, Thrillers, Noir, Mystery & Suspense, Cinematical Seven, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Lists
We love it when our heroes fall for the suspicious types: the wolves in sheep's clothing, the dangerous femme fatales. It happens often in film noir and a heckuva lot in comics, and provides some of the best last-act twists and turns as our hearts palpitate along with those of our protagonists... up until the bitter end. Can't that evil love interest turn out to have a heart of gold, so we can all have a happily ever after? Sometimes, yes. Most of the time, no.
What is it about these doomed romances that we love so much? Perhaps it's the futility of it all; you can't have your cake and eat it when you're a superhero or a (wo)man on a mission to right wrongs, even if you'd rather be kissing that beguiling bad guy than fighting them, arresting them, or foiling their evil plans. Turning down a chance at love is the ultimate sacrifice for a hero or heroine to make -- it proves their commitment to the side of good. Hence, loving a villain makes a hero even more heroic. How tragic!
In what will surely spur controversy, I've whittled my favorite villain-hero romances down to the seven best pairings in cinema. No,
Phantom of the Opera didn't make it. That would have been too easy. Instead, find odd couples, would-be perfect pairs, star-crossed lovers, and yes, the world's most legendary bromance after the jump.
Continue reading Cinematical Seven: Best Villain-Hero Romances
Posted Oct 26th 2009 5:40PM by Scott Weinberg
Filed under: Independent, Thrillers, Noir, Mystery & Suspense
I'll give you a few details and some material from the press release right here ... but I've made an executive decision to place the brand-new poster for Frankie Latina's
Modus Operandi beneath the jump -- but only because it's slightly "adult" in nature. Anyway, this flick sounds like a weird one, and of course I mean that in the nicest way possible.
Described by the Las Vegas Weekly as "
a James Bond film directed by Ed Wood," the 8mm
Modus Operandi is about ... heck, I'll let the press notes tell you: "Two briefcases with mysterious contents are stolen from top Presidential candidate Squire Parks, setting off a deadly series of double-crosses and betrayals. Desperate warring factions of subterranean organizations will stop at nothing to gain possession of the sensitive material. A covert branch of the CIA calls on notorious black ops agent Stanley Cashay, who has been barely existing in a semi-comatose twilight since the murder of his wife. Cashay is offered the identity of his wife's killer in exchange for locating and returning the cases." And it gets even crazier after that! (More post-jump.)
What has me intrigued is the responses from folks like Eric Kohn at
IndieWire ("
A mondo B-movie that holds nothing back ... Modus Operandi is a movie utterly content with its own insanity.") and Stephen Zeitchik of
The Hollywood Reporter ("
It bursts with campiness and odes to '70s movie outrageousness.") Sounds right up my alley.
Check post-jump for the poster premiere and more of that rather amusing plot synopsis...
Continue reading Poster Premiere: Ed Wood Meets 007 in 'Modus Operandi'?
Posted Oct 24th 2009 9:02AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Classics, Drama, Independent, Thrillers, Noir, Mystery & Suspense, RumorMonger, Scripts, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels
An intriguing remake rumor has popped up on
CHUD. Devin Faraci is reporting that longtime friends
Tobey Maguire and
Leonardo DiCaprio might star in a remake of Carol Reed's classic thriller
The Third Man. Canal Plus is said to be shopping around the project, which includes a screenplay penned by
Steven Knight.
The details are scarce (and it may not happen at all), so it's not known whether this would be a straight up-remake or a rewrite, or who Maguire or DiCaprio would be playing. But the idea is enough to undoubtedly cause reactions of anger and panic around film fans, but think about this calmly. It's not as though Maguire, DiCaprio, or Knight are untalented slouches, and it's the kind of story that
could be given a modern rewrite and stand on its own feet. I would actually love to see this rewritten, and set in Iraq or Afghanistan. I'd love to see it set it in years immediately preceding the Soviet Union, putting Harry Lime and Holly Martins in the dangerous, free-for-all Yeltsin economy. (Faraci suggests making it sci-fi, which would be very brave and very awesome.)
The Third Man is one of those stories like Dashiell Hammet's
Red Harvest that is flexible enough to work in another adaptation and lose nothing of its original power. I'm very curious to see if this comes together, and in what form. DiCaprio would be the perfect actor to play the smirking Lime. I just hope they don't mimic
my favorite scene. Some things are better left to Welles.
Posted Oct 16th 2009 11:35PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Classics, Drama, Horror, Noir, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking, Trailers and Clips
Any time is the perfect time to visit the films of
Alfred Hitchcock, but October seems a particularly good time to indulge in some of his creepier offerings. The only thing better might be spending an hour with the man himself -- and thanks to YouTube, you can come close. In 1973,
Tom Snyder and his
Tomorrow program conducted an hour long interview with the legendary director, who talked candidly about his career. The interview was believed to have been lost, but was discovered on a VHS tape and has now been put up on YouTube.
It's rare to actually hear Hitchcock speak for himself. He's now become one of those directors who is heard about
more than he was ever heard
from. While he was definitely in his twilight years here, his wit was still very much intact, and he talks about everything from his films, to his Jesuit training, his public image as "a monster," and the longevity of his career. In a delicious sign of the times, there's a glass of wine at his elbow the entire time. They certainly don't do interviews like this anymore! It's fascinating stuff, and a must see for any fan of Hitchcock, or anyone aspiring to create films in his image.
Pop below the jump for the embedded videos (and if they don't work fast enough, they can be found on
this YouTube page), and thanks to
Slashfilm for pointing it out. Enjoy!
Continue reading Watch This Rare One-Hour Interview with Alfred Hitchcock
Posted Oct 12th 2009 9:18PM by Jen Yamato
Filed under: Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Foreign Language, Music & Musicals, Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Noir, Mystery & Suspense, Celebrities and Controversy, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Lists
Hot on the heels of his controversial psychological horror tale,
Antichrist (Hey, it pulled him out of a deep depression!)
Lars von Trier has
revealed that his next film will be Planet Melancholia, a science fiction-romance-disaster movie that will combine von Trier's Dogme-style leanings with minimal special effects, and involve a plot that producing partner Peter Aalbaek Jensen called "romantic, in a Lord Byron sort of way." (Von Trier would only comment, "No more happy endings!" Because really, he's made way too many cheerful films.)
On the one hand, tackling the realm of science fiction seems totally uncharacteristic of the Danish auteur, who's known best for his association with the minimalist Dogme 95 movement and for making some wildly dark and provocative films. But on the other hand, what has von Trier's career been but a series of genre exercises? Even when he abandoned the stringent rules of Dogme filmmaking (to date he's only really made one true Dogme film,
The Idiots) he kept the idea that creativity comes with constraint – and after all, what is a genre but a thematic constraint?
Never mind the fact that genre films are strictly no-nos in the Dogme world; some of von Trier's best films have been genre pics. Behold, after the jump:
Continue reading Movie Genres Lars von Trier Has Already Pwned
Posted Sep 7th 2009 8:03PM by Eugene Novikov
Filed under: Drama, Thrillers, Telluride, Noir, Mystery & Suspense
If you've ever been to a film festival, you know the age-old dilemma: do I opt for early sneaks of high-profile releases that will roll out all over the country in a few months, or do I try to catch the obscurities that I may never see again? For me, this choice is frequently dictated by reviewing obligations, but even when it is not, I tend to opt for the former, as I am both impatient and -- sadly -- skeptical of the unfamiliar. I don't know what happened to me at Telluride this year, but for some reason I decided to commit to a
trilogy of films made for British television at the expense of several higher-profile options that I will now have to see when they hit theaters later this fall.
Let this be a lesson to you.
Red Riding -- the trilogy to which I'm referring -- is, collectively, the greatest thing I've seen since I discovered the first season of
Twin Peaks on DVD. Granted, featuring actors like Peter Mullan, Andrew Garfield, David Morrissey, Paddy Considine and Mark Addy, and directed by name-brand filmmakers Julian Jarrold, James Marsh and Anand Tucker, this isn't some ultra-independent obscurity. But man, am I grateful for the Telluride powers-that-be for bringing it here, and for whatever possessed me to check out the first one on Saturday morning.
Continue reading Live From Telluride: Hooked on 'Red Riding'
Posted Sep 6th 2009 4:03PM by Jeffrey M. Anderson
Filed under: Noir, Sony
One of the best parts of this job is when you're granted a look at some rescued or restored gem from the past. It's one thing to review a film when it's new, but it's something else altogether to be given a chance to weigh in on history. Seeing films like
Beyond the Rocks (1922),
Army of Shadows (1969) and
Killer of Sheep (1977) and getting to write about them is very satisfying. A film that was once ignored or maligned can now be re-established as a classic, and established classics can also be debunked.
This past week I had the opportunity to see two out of 22 films that have recently been cleaned out of the Columbia Pictures vaults, dusted off, refurbished and re-struck. All 22 of them are classic examples of film noir, stories about
femmes fatale, detectives, criminals, gamblers, lowlifes, killers, or just generally luckless souls who find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time; the genre more or less officially started at the tail end of WWII, as soldiers returned home to find America a very different and not altogether friendly place. Some of these 22 films are cult classics that have remained tantalizingly unseeable over the years, and many others are virtually unknown and waiting to be discovered.
Continue reading 22 Classic Columbia Pictures Film Noirs Restored
Posted Aug 24th 2009 2:02PM by Peter Martin
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Foreign Language, Horror, Independent, New Releases, Noir, Exhibition, New on DVD, Home Entertainment, Cinematical Indie
Ratings History: Opening in theaters in Thailand this past weekend, Yuthlert Sippapak's Buppah Rahtree 3.2: Rahtree's Revenge made history as "the first Thai film to be classified under Thailand's new motion-picture ratings system," reports Wise Kwai at his Thai Film Journal. The latest installment of a series that began with one of my favorite comedy / horror films of all time, Rahtree's Revenge is "suggested only for viewers aged 18 and older." Wise Kwai points out that Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds probably has the honor as the first film from any country to be rated under the new Thai system.
Classic Film Noir on DVD: The next edition of Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, is fast approaching; meanwhile, one of my personal highlights from two years ago will finally be released on DVD tomorrow. Eclipse Series 17: Nikkatsu Noir, a five-disc box set from the Criterion Collection, features Takashi Nomura's A Colt is My Passport, "a vivid hitman drama that anticipates [Seijun Suzuki's] Branded to Kill," as I wrote previously. It's "not as brassily discordant as the Suzuki film, yet it too stretches the limits of its genre framework ... the action is staged in such dynamic bursts that it provoked giddy laughter and applause at the screening."
Nikkatsu Noir also includes Suzuki's Take Aim at the Police Van, Toshio Masuda's Rusty Knife, Koreyoshi Kurahara's I Am Waiting, and Takumi Furukawa's Cruel Gun Story, all released by Japanese distributor Nikkatsu between 1957 and 1964. Few have seen the flicks since their release, since they've been languishing in film vaults for many years, but this is one fan who's eager to catch up. You can't see my heart bursting out of my chest with joy, but I assure you that it is.
Posted Aug 17th 2009 2:32PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Classics, Noir, Trailers and Clips, Scenes We Love
I am someone who is relatively ignorant about the finer points of filmmaking. While I recognize costume and make-up work immediately, when film fans start talking about camera work, lighting and long takes, I feel incredibly stupid. It's not that I don't
recognize good work when I see it, but I rarely spot a certain person's signature, or see the strings that point to how it was done. I envy those who do, and I certainly hope I can join the ranks of the very very knowledgable. But for now, I'll just have to say "Well, that certainly was done well" and look the responsible parties up on IMDB.
That's an odd way of introducing this clip, though if you know your
The Third Man in and out, I'm sure you'll know the scene I picked and why. It's one of those scenes that immediately thrilled me with its trickery of light and shadows, and it's so simple and classic that I'm certain I shouldn't
be impressed. But even without the effects, it's still a pretty wonderful, cat-driven character introduction, startling not just because of the lighting, but because Harry Lime is
supposed to be six feet under. You're not sure if he's a ghost or if he's real, but you can't help smiling at
Orson Welles' smirk, even as you want to wipe it off his face.
Continue reading Scenes We Love: The Third Man
Posted Jun 16th 2009 5:03PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Classics, Noir, Mystery & Suspense, Scenes We Love
I've been on a film noir kick lately (recommendations are welcome), because if there's a stock character I enjoy nearly as much as a loose cannon cop, it's a hardboiled private detective. (No, they're not the same thing.) I'm kind of weird in that I can only watch it late at night, as afternoons just don't lend themselves to the sweaty tension and gloom.
Despite my fondness for a fellow in a sharp suit and fedora, it's the women characters that have me hooked. I'm not talking about the femme fatales who hook our private dick, and then triple cross him. I'm fascinated by the secretaries, taxi drivers, and witnesses that pepper these stories. They're always there in the nick of time, or possessing some vital bit of information that cracks the case. They're impeccably dressed, well-informed, hard drinking, and they never encounter Spade or Marlowe without trading a few sarcastic quips.
The Big Sleep is particularly full of them. From the Sternwood sisters to the taxi cab driver, every single one has a sexy quip for Marlowe, and he eats it right up. My absolute favorite is the bookstore clerk, who knows her antique tomes, pays attention to creepy neighbors, and is more than willing to close shop, and get drunk with Marlowe. Femme fatales are a dime a dozen ... but geeky bookstore girls? She's a treasure.
Continue reading Scenes We Love: The Big Sleep
Posted Jun 4th 2009 2:03PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Independent, Noir, Mystery & Suspense, Newsstand, Movie Marketing, Remakes and Sequels, Trailers and Clips
Last year, Michael Douglas
boarded Peter Hyams'
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, a remake of the 1956 Fritz Lang classic. It's fallen off the radar a little bit, and taken some time to get a release date, but here it is.
The trailer is online in glorious Quicktime over at Apple, and the film is set to hit theaters on September 11, 2009.
I'm ashamed to say I've never seen the original, and unfortunately it doesn't seem to be available on Netflix, so I'll have no basis for comparison for awhile. I'm not against a remake neccessarily, and the story lends itself to an update, particularly as fates can be sealed on a shred or two of DNA. (How you could fake
that kind of thing though, that's tough to say.) But I'm afraid I'm not getting a very good feeling off the trailer. I want to say that it's purely because the trailer is cut as though it's an '80s action film rather than a tense courtroom thriller, an odd marketing choice considering they evoked Saul Bass with the poster design. I'll continue to hope it's a taunt thriller, and not just slick and youth driven. I can't help but think
Jesse Metcalfe and
Amber Tamblyn are just far too young to be a reporter and an assistant D.A., respectively.
Posted May 27th 2009 7:45PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Noir, Mystery & Suspense, Trailers and Clips, Scenes We Love
I feel like my Scenes We Love offerings are always appallingly obvious (Sidney Lumet!
Goodfellas!) but you just can't go wrong with a classic. Plus, there could be a reader out there who has never encountered
The Lady from Shanghai except via
The Simpsons, and will be blown away by this. Or you might think "Wow, I should see that again!" It's currently playing on Netflix Instant Watch and let me tell you, there's nothing better than spending all night with some film noir. It's how I spent my Memorial Day weekend -- and yes, it was kind of creepy but it was also very glamorous.
So, without further ado, here's the famous hall of mirror sequence from
The Lady of Shanghai. This is the end of the film, so it's spoiler filled ... but it's noir, so if you actually expect it to have a happy ending, I'm sorry. Watching it again, I can't help but be struck with how
Rita Hayworth loses her unearthly luminosity in this scene. Her endless beauty shots were forced on
Orson Welles, but I think they lend themselves wonderfully to the ending, where she suddenly looks hard and false, and unworthy of all Welles' hero has done for her.
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