Category Archives: Movie Adaptations

Kelly Marcel To Write The Screenplay T Universal Pictures And Focus Features’ Film Adaptation Of “Fifty Shades of Grey”

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Universal Pictures and Focus Features officially announced today that Kelly Marvel is set to write the screenplay for the upcoming adaptation of popular novel, “Fifty Shades of Grey.”  Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti will produce the film based on E L James’ #1 Bestselling book, alongside James.  The announcement was made by Universal Pictures Co-Chairman, Donna Langley and Focus Features’ Chief Executive Officer, James Schamus.

Marcel most recently wrote the 2011 Black List script,  Saving Mr. Banks, the story of Walt Disney’s twenty-year pursuit of the film rights to author P.L. Travers’ novel, “Mary Poppins,” and the rocky relationship that formed between the two. That film is still currently in production at Walt Disney Studios starring Tom Hanks, Emma Thompson and Colin Farrell with John Lee Hancock directing.

Marcel also served as the co-creator and executive producer of the Amblin/FOX-TV series Terra Nova, for which she wrote the series’ pilot episode.  She will also produce The Madonnas Of Echo Park for HBO.

“Kelly’s work demonstrates her flawless structural technique and passionate commitment to emotion, humor and depth of character which is particularly visible in the celebrated screenplay for the upcoming Saving Mr. Banks,” said De Luca.  “We were all taken with the depth and passion of Kelley’s engagement with the characters and world E L James has created and we knew she was the right person to augment our Fifty Shades family,” added Brunetti.

The “Fifty Shades” trilogy was aquired by Focus Features and Universal Pictures earlier this year with Focus Features marketing the film and distributing the film in partnership with Universal. “Fifty Shades of Grey” has become a global phenomenon and the trilogy has been translated in 45 languages worldwide since its release.  In the U.S. alone, the “Fifty Shades” trilogy has sold over 32 million copies in e-book and print making it one of the fastest selling book series ever.

“Fifty Shades of Grey” follows the relationship of 27-year-old billionaire Christian Grey and college student Anastasia Steele.  Subsequent novels in the series, “Fifty Shades Darker” (September 2011) and “Fifty Shades Freed” (January 2012) explore the couple’s deepening relationship.

Marcel was represented in the deal by WME and Casarotto Ramsay & Associates Limited. There is no official word on who is set to star in the principle roles of Christian and Anastasia.

For more information please see the official Fifty Shades of Grey Facebook page.

Summit Launches ‘Area 52’ Adaptation

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The Image comic book titled Area 52 is soon to become a feature film. Summit Entertainment bought the film rights last year, after a handful of studios and production companies juggled the material, but with ultimately unfruitful results. The story is paranormal in nature, as you would expect from the title. Johnny Rosenthal has been hooked to write the screenplay for the live action motion picture.

Rosenthal is also the writer behind Bad Santa 2, the film to be directed by Hot Tub Time Machine director Steve Pink. In case you are curious, Billy Bob Thornton is returning with that title.

Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mark Vahradian are producing the Area 52 adaptation. Di Bonaventura has seen success with thrillers like Angelina Jolie’s spy flick, Salt, and another comic book adaptation, RED. In fact, he’s hard at work with Bruce Willis currently for the sequel, RED 2, which is also a Summit Entertainment title.

Area 52 is about a rag-tag contingent of quirky soldiers stationed at a dreary military base on the continent of Antarctica known of course as Area 52. Tasked with keeping the storage facility secure, things get a little intense for the troops when an alien hatches from one of the top-secret artifacts hidden with the other tech and extraterrestrial memorabilia. Then, much like a good Alien picture, the being starts hunting down the soldiers.

The original Area 52 comic was penned by Brian Haberlin. He also wrote for the popular Witchblade comic series and contributed to Shi, Aria, and Spawn. Yep, he’s a bit of a rock star. He did colors as well as writing.

J.C. Spink, Chris Bender and Jake Weiner will serve as executive producers on the project and production president Erik Feig of Lionsgate and Summit’s vice president of production, Meredith Milton, are keeping their eagle eyes on the progress.

Science Fiction fans no doubt also have their eye on Summit property, Ender’s Game, the disgustingly highly anticipated adaptation of the beloved Orson Scott Card novel. That one is coming November of 2013.

I’m always ready to cheer on a good sci-fi project. We’ll have to wait and see more on the style and tone of this one. Depending on the production value and originality, this could be just another cookie cutter horror film. Cowboys & Aliens was a sci-fi comic book adaptation that had fan boys and girls quite a bit excited until it’s release, which seemed to ring out as a bit underwhelming in the end.

This material also reminds me of Vin Diesel’s upcoming Riddick film. Due out sometime next year with Karl Urban and Katee Sackhoff, there should be plenty of aliens in that one, too.

Lynne Ramsay’s ‘Mobius’ is ‘Moby Dick’ in Space

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Moby Dick is Herman Melville’s great American classic. It takes place aboard the Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab, a man obsessed with avenging the loss of his leg and a previous vessel to Moby Dick, a giant sperm whale. It’s written from the point of view of Ishmael, a sailor aboard the ship. Now, Hollywood has plans to transform the 1851 drama into a space-age motion picture.

Watch your back Prometheus, Mobius is coming.

Scott Pictures is run by Scott Steindorff, who has just agreed to finance Mobius, Lynne Ramsay’s pet project. The science fiction tale is inspired by Moby Dick. It’s so far described as a psychological thriller with loads of action, which takes place in deep space, where one ship’s captain is consumed by the need for vengeance. Never mind the expense of the crew or the fact that his war against a mysterious alien is basically suicide. No word yet on what shape this key alien will take. Will he look like a whale? Will he have the capacity for speech?

Ramsay is working with Rory Kinnear on finishing the script for Mobius. The pair worked together on the script for We Need to Talk About Kevin, as well. Ramsay helped write, produced and directed the film adapted from the Lionel Shriver novel. Starring Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin follows the aftermath of a terrible and tragic massacre at a high school.

Steindorff, who produced The Lincoln Lawyer, has also worked with Lynne Ramsay before. This was news to me until I did some research on the upcoming film, Jane Got a Gun. It inspired lots of buzz as it was shopped around during Cannes. Scheduled to begin filming in early 2013, the picture stars Natalie Portman as a woman who asks her ex-lover for help when her new outlaw husband is threatened by a gang out for his blood. This sounds a bit like Ryan Gosling’s Drive plotline. Jane Got a Gun is a Western; however, and will be very high profile, so we should hear much more about it soon. Michael Fassbender is Portman’s co-star and I think that’s a very hot match-up. The pair should really sizzle.

I also think it is good timing to feature another space opera at the box office and for a Moby Dick tale as well. So many people I spoke to where chomping at the bit for a chance to see Prometheus when it premiered.

Shamefully, I never read the classic, Moby Dick. My experience with it comes entirely from pop culture. Recently, in the Mixed Martial Arts film, Warrior, Nick Nolte is listening to the book on tape. In the X-Files, Scully reveals her father, a former Navy Captain, used to call her Starbuck. When she inherits a pet dog for a time, she calls him Queequeg. And of course Battlestar Galactica featured Starbuck and Boomer, names you’ll hear aboard the original Pequod. This much is true: The material lends itself well to sci-fi.

Dredd Is The Perfect Blockbuster To Close The Summer – Review

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Directed by Pete Travis

Based on 2000 AD‘s character of Judge Joe Dredd

Why are you interested in this adaptation?

Elena-

I…am not?  Can I admit that in a column about going to see a film?

I’ll be honest here, when Rachel said she wanted to see this movie I thought she was joking.  Then she demanded it in exchange for Lawless and I knew she wasn’t.

It looks terrible. Derivative, mindless dystopian action flick with the requisite battle-hardened commander who has to learn to believe in his troops and rookie girl who will be the only one of the team to survive.

Also the premise is a blatant rip-off of The Raid: Redemption, in that it’s a small group of soldiers going into a building full of criminals that gets locked down until they either fight their way to the top, and out, or die trying.

I will be generous and say some of the effects look like they could be interesting, but I will have to see how they are played out in the wider context of the scene.  Let’s hope this one is better than I think it will be.

Rachel –

I’m interested in Dredd because IT IS THE LAW!

Okay, because it’s a comic. A long-lived, crazy, sometimes brilliant comic that examines and critiques modern ideas of law and justice in the most hyperbolic way imaginable. In a way that could only be done via comic book (and now that the world accepts them…comic book movies). Plus, anything to get the Stallone version out of my consciousness.

What would make it awesome?

Elena-

If it’s got as much absolute badass action as The Raid: Redemption and as little concern for the plot and characterization.  Seriously, that film managed to set up in about 2 minutes the rest of the movie, and while it did manage to make you care a little about a couple of the characters—and learn not to care about others—mostly it was about how many different kinds of badass fights they could fit into 87 minutes.

Alternatively, if the filming is really interesting and shows me something I haven’t seen before with slow motion effects or relies on film technique instead of CG, then I will probably not feel like the whole thing was a waste of my time.  That is as close to awesome as I expect this one to reach barring some amazingly creative fight scenes.

Rachel-

Judge Joe Dredd IS awesome. This movie will be awesome if they just…let him kill bad guys and be really grim. I’m hoping it’s not a rehash of the super dramatic (and used for fodder in the Stallone version ((sobs))) storyline about Joe’s brother Rico being BAAAAD. I haven’t seen that in the trailer, mostly I’ve seen a set up for a Rookie and Dredd party. I’m okay with that.

What would make it suck? 

Elena-

If this movie tries to focus on a story that turns out to be cliché, predictable, and something SF fans have seen done better elsewhere.  There is nothing wrong with being a pure action movie; that is, a movie of pure action.  As long as you recognize that’s what you’re making and commit to it, the results can even be objectively good.  But you have to commit to that.  Alternatively you have to build a really compelling story and characters and sacrifice some of your action.  If you try that, and fail, it’s going to suck.  Actually if you try for straight action and fail it will also suck.

I really hope the people who made this movie watched Shoot ’Em Up and Sukiyaki Western Django a few dozen times before they started filming….

Rachel-

Aside – I don’t know what Sukiyaki Western Django is…but I assume it was extremely important to Tarantino’s latest Django Unchained…and that makes me want to watch it because I love me some Tarantino but I like to be able to watch his movies AND get the references. So put that on my list. Where does one acquire it?

Elena-

Actually it has nothing to do with Django Unchained, although it is a film Tarantino was connected to. But you would love it—lots of crazy, choreographed, over-the-top action. So Netflix it anyway.

Ahem.  Carry on.

Rachel-

Back to the question at hand – It’s going to suck if it’s too fluffy. If it’s one of those boring, plodding, predictable action movies. BUT I would love if this were a straight up action movie. Robocop is coming out, the Expendables franchise is a clear nod to the 80s/early 90s action movie golden age, so if it’s a liiiitttle cheesy 80s action grind, that would be fine.

Additional thoughts on production or casting?

Elena-

Well, it has been a while since I watched a good bad movie. I’m kind of hoping that even if this one is shit, it’s at least the kind of awful that is super-fun to mock.

Rachel-

EOMERRRRR! I love me some Karl Urban. That guy loves a role in which he is utterly unrecognizable. Remember his part in The Chronicles of Riddick? With the Snape-punk hair-do and the 40 pounds of armor? Plus he’s got a sexy voice. And when it comes down to it…Dredd is going to be all about an actor comfortable in armor with a sexy voice. DONE, MR. URBAN. DONE AND DONE.

Reaction to film?

Elena-

I have to eat my words on this one. Dredd was actually really enjoyable. Legitimately good, if you are down with retro sci-fi dystopian action, which I am.  I think the preview for this movie was terrible—it made it seem cliché but unaware of its triteness, whereas this was obviously a throwback movie.

What it reminded me of in tone and approach was Doomsday.  I loved that movie.  It was obviously derived from Mad Max, but it took pride in getting the small things right (since everyone knew the big idea going in).  Dredd pulled off a similar feat, treading familiar ground in a way that was pure existential enjoyment.  After seeing it I do think there was a connection to The Raid: Redemption…as with Hunger Games and Battle Royale, there was just one scene too many that was staged the same way for me to think this was convergent creativity.  But Dredd could have done much worse for inspiration—for example, the original Judge Dredd movie.

So what did this movie do especially right?

First, I loved the slow motion scenes.  I expected them to be kind of lame (I mean, “slow-motion lame” is not a saying for nothing), but instead they were a visual treat.  I did not see the movie in 3D, so I can’t speak to how the scenes of water or shattering glass looked through the glasses, but I thought they were quite beautiful in digital 2D. I have not seen very much digitally enhanced slow motion like this, with such a focus on the small things.  Those scenes were really quite fantastic.

Another bonus was that they left Dredd an inscrutable badass (Badass Alert!) and let the rookie be the character you sympathized with and got a backstory on.  The truth is, whatever drove Dredd to become what he is will diminish him as a character.  Does anyone in the universe think Vader is more of a badass now that we know his story?  Fuck no.  Dredd is the same kind of figure.  If you know the human emotion or loss or anguish that drove him to become the best and most honorable judge in the mega-city, he will seem kind of pathetic for not being able to get over it and move on with his life.

I enjoyed Lena Headey in the role of head gangster bitch in charge.  If I had seen her in this before starting GOT I might have been less skeptical of her as Cersei.

I liked the ending.  It was not what I expected—minor spoiler, I expected a huge fight the way martial arts movies build up to, and the final conflict was not that—but it was a satisfying climax.

I really don’t have a lot of complaints about the movie.  I’m sure I could find plot holes, but I walked out disinclined to dwell on them.  Judge Joe Dredd took me out and showed me a good time and never pretended like he was going to be more than a quick and dirty fling.  There’s a time and place for that kind of film, and this was mine.

Rachel-

“MOMMY I WANNA BE A JUDGE JUST LIKE DREDD!” I screamed the moment the film was over. And then went home to practice my frowney-face.  What do ya think?

For swears. That flick was awesome! And yes, it was a straight up action movie. For those of you unfamiliar with the comic, don’t worry. You will not be required to know any of the story-line or characters. All you need to know is what you are presented with, and you will enjoy yourselves. It’s a hyper-violent, live-action video game of a movie. It’s funny in parts but not silly. I defy you to watch it and not think Dredd is the coolest dude in the universe and to wish for a sequel so you can get to know him better. It’s the perfect adaptation. It totally stands on its own, it’s true to the feel and characterizations of the comic for fans, and it allows for the adaptation of more complicated storylines should the movie be a hit.

For a Dredd fan the movie is pretty perfect. It was SOOO Judge Dredd! It wasn’t a direct adaptation of any Dredd story-line I know of. It was more like “Here’s a day in the life of Judge Dredd.” Perhaps a direct adaptation of the CHARACTER of Dredd. Someone on Twitter said that they liked Dredd more than The Dark Knight Rises, and I think the reason for that is that Dredd felt like the character from the comic book, while TDKR didn’t really feel like Batman. Not really. I’ve read that the original scripts were populated with all the robots and villains from the comic but that they ended up being a bit surreal and hard to introduce to a new audience quickly. This approach is smart. Most of the people I know have no idea who Judge Dredd is and establishing this character, who he is when he isn’t in some dramatic story arc, is the best way to start what I assume the studio hopes will be a franchise. Reviews are good for the film, though the box office gross was disappointing in its opening weekend. The franchise idea may be killed, but at least we’re left with a film that stands on its own.

Dredd does a lot of showing instead of telling. What do Judges do in Mega-City One? They are police. Police that can arrest, sentence and carry out that sentence all in one go. They have rules. They have standards of procedure. They even go through training to find out if they have what it takes to be a Judge. This may be post-apocalypse, but by God order will be restored via the Law. This is where they introduce Judge Anderson (a character from the comics) as a Rookie who is shadowing Dredd for the day in a field test to see if she can rise above her substandard test scores. Off they go to a mega block 200-storey complex. A buildng so large residents can live and work inside of it for their entire lives. The particular mega block they are called to has been taken over by a gang run by a woman named Ma-ma who is flooding Mega-City One with a unique drug called slo-mo. Their drug is in high demand, so Ma-ma and her gang have a lot of fire power. Once Dredd assesses the situation, he decides to go get Ma-ma for sentencing, and our movie commences.

The plot is pretty simple, and you won’t see Dredd go through any revelations about himself or what it means to be a Judge. That’s the Rookie’s job. In fact in an interview in Empire writer Alex Garland talks about how slowly the character of Dredd changes over time that he evolves “in the way that a glacier moves: you look a year later and something actually has shifted! I tried to be true to that.” Even the structure of the film itself reflects the unyielding, unbreakable march of Judge Dredd. The action comes fast and hard.

There ARE a few low spots in the film. I was hoping Judge Anderson’s psychic abilities would be integral to the plot (considering the character eventually heads up her own title), but I see that the writers wanted to keep the focus on Dredd. He is the hero of this story. Lena Heady, who I thought would be fantastic as the psychopath drug lord Ma-ma, was actually a letdown. I do not find her to be a particularly subtle actress, and Heady chose to play Ma-ma quietly, to let her malice exist in her silence and slow movements—but she just kind of came off as sleepy.

Elena-

I disagree…I thought she came off as drugged-out and yet still malicious enough to slaughter people.  None of her henchmen seemed like they were using, so the fact that she was became a testament to her badassery and why she was running the gangs and the building.

Rachel-

The design for the film is pretty great. They made the Judge Uniform cool but didn’t adhere so slavishly to the comic designs as to appear…well…hilarious (see the Stallone version if you don’t believe me). The weapons were cool, the helmet was plausible, and the ghetto interiors of the mega blocks were claustrophobic. Dredd was shot in Cape Town, South Africa, and it actually LOOKS hot and sweaty even in the interiors.

Besides the faithful adaptation of character and intent, Dredd is amazingly violent, but the violence is so over the top that it’s not disturbing. The script plays with the idea of justice, it’s not totally mindless, but the over the top violence was more action movie and less horrifying shit I never want to see again. Just the way I like it.

The perfect kind of action blockbuster to close out the summer. I hope you like it too. Embrace the LAW!

Seed

Amazon Studios Options Ania Ahlborn’s ‘Seed’

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Seed

Horror is coming to Amazon, hopefully in a very good way. Amazon Studios is the department of the web giant where original content is fostered. It has also just optioned the rights to Seed, from author Ania Ahlborn. Seed began as a very popular horror novel for 47North, which is Amazon Publishing’s science fiction, fantasy, and horror imprint.

Seed first made its debut in 2011 as a self-published work of scary fiction. Amazingly, it soon became Amazon’s #1 best-selling horror novel. There was no real advertising campaign in place either. Seed‘s popularity is due to its genius and to word of mouth.

After the initial run, Seed was re-released in 2012. This occurred after some re-tooling by Ahlborn, who also added over six thousand words to the original manuscript.

The story of Seed‘s success sounds an awful lot like the story of Hugh Howey, who self published his short story/ novelette, Wool, also through Amazon and gained uncommon notoriety through word of mouth. Howey reportedly fixed typos along the way thanks to readers’ feedback. Wool is now an entire series and may have a big screen adaptation in its future as well.

That’s the big news this week. Amazon Studios wants to make Seed into a feature film. They have already began the testing phase for an adaptation.

The novel takes place in the deep South and centers around a man who unfortunately has a demon who won’t get off of his back, literally.

This is the first time Amazon Studios has ever optioned a novel in its circulation before. Usually only movie scripts and episodic series projects are funneled through Amazon Studios.

Our primary objective at Amazon Studios is to develop great, commercial projects that our customers love,” said Roy Price, Director, Amazon Studios. “Ania Ahlborn’s Seed has been a top seller for Amazon Publishing’s 47North so we already have a sense of the mainstream attraction of the story and are excited to keep the project in-house for movie development.”

A trailer contest was recently held, allowing fans of the horror novel the chance at creating what would be chosen to be the official Seed book trailer. The winning entry is called “Grinning Demons”. It’s makers won $3,000, and was personally selected as the best by the author Ania Ahlborn. Her other big news is that her second book, The Neighbors, premiers November 27.

Here’s the synopsis for Seed:

With nothing but the clothes on his back—and something horrific snapping at his heels—Jack Winter fled his rural Georgia home when he was still just a boy. Watching the world he knew vanish in a trucker’s rear-view mirror, he thought he was leaving an unspeakable nightmare behind forever. But years later, the bright new future he’s built suddenly turns pitch black, as something fiendishly familiar looms dead ahead.

When Jack, his wife Aimee, and their two small children survive a violent car crash, it seems like a miracle. But Jack knows what he saw on the road that night, and it wasn’t divine intervention. The profound evil from his past won’t let them die…at least not quickly. It’s back, and it’s hungry; ready to make Jack pay for running, to work its malignant magic on his angelic youngest daughter, and to whisper a chilling promise: I’ve always been here, and I’ll never leave.

Writer Danny Strong Joins ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay’

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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay

I’ll admit I was hoping the circumstances behind The Hunger Games movie could be repeated for all the sequels. The screenplay for that film, the first adaptation based upon the series of best sellers penned by Suzanne Collins, was written by the man who was also the director, Mr. Gary Ross. He had some help from Collins, the author herself, and screenwriter Billy Ray. That’s the writer behind Hart’s War and State of Play, not the country music singer.

I guess keeping this formula was a wish that couldn’t be granted. When we look back at the Twilight movies and The Harry Potter series, directorial duties often changed hands from sequel to sequel. It’s probably a lot to ask of one director to commit so many years to one franchise. Of course, the actors do it, don’t they? And in these particular cases, they are young actors, so there’s a bit of a rush to push these film adaptations out before they age too much and can’t believably portray their characters anymore. The nice thing is, we do see characters like these grow up as their stories unravel, so a little aging is natural and it works.

At any rate, film two in The Hunger Games series is called Catching Fire. It premiers November 22, 2013 from Lionsgate and has a screenplay by Simon Beaufoy and Michael Arndt. Beaufoy won both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay when he penned Slumdog Millionaire, which means two things. For one, the Catching Fire script is in wonderful hands. For another, this man knows adaptations. He wrote the big screen adaptation of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, which was one of the most believably adorable romances I’ve seen in years. Catching Fire will be directed by Water for Elephants director Francis Lawrence.

It is the third film in the franchise, Mockingjay, which is making headlines this week. The writer doing the adapting for the screenplay for that installment will be Danny Strong.

I recognized Strong’s face right away as belonging to the actor who was Paris Geller’s boyfriend Doyle McMasters on the set of Gilmore Girls. Remember him? Well he also writes screenplays. In fact, he wrote the film adaptation of Game Change, which was based on the book written by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin called Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime. I know that’s a mouthful, but just remember it’s the film Julianne Moore portrays Sarah Palin. Strong has two Emmy Awards. That’s nothing to sneeze at. Rumor has it he was approached about doing an adaptation of Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol, too.

The Hunger Games is on DVD now. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire opens on November 22nd, 2013 and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 is slated for November 21st, 2014. It will be followed by Part 2 on November 20th, 2015, provided there’s no apocalypse before that time, and we don’t find ourselves living in a real life dystopian society like the one in The Hunger Games.

Psychos and Silver Linings: Toronto Film Festival Awards Winners

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The 2012 Toronto International Film Festival is a highly anticipated and followed showcase that exhibits some of the world’s best and brightest in the film community. Original stories are on display and producers vie for the hottest ticket on the ballot. Of the 239 films shown, eleven took home official awards. With a fantastic lineup of movies– some touted as sure Oscar bait this year– the festival was filled with chills, thrills, and psycho pills, proving that the Toronto knows how to differentiate itself from the rest of the festivals.

BlackBerry People’s Choice Award Winner: “Silver Linings Playbook”

This award is for the most popular film as voted on by audiences at the festival. David O. Russell (“The Fighter”) directs acting school alum Bradley Cooper as a teacher who returns home to live with his folks (Robert De Niro, Jackie Weaver, “Animal Kingdom”) in Philly, following his release from a mental hospital. While coping with returning to reality, Cooper gets involved with a young widow (Jennifer Lawrence, “The Hunger Games”) who is just as off-kilter. The dramedy also stars Julia Stiles and Chris “Where Have You Been” Tucker.

BlackBerry People’s Choice Documentary Award Winner: “Artifact”

Bartholomew Cubbins examines the nature of the music business today though intimate access to actor/musician Jared Leto and his band 30 Seconds to Mars. The film covers the band as they record their album “This is War,” and fight record label EMI in a nasty lawsuit. No one gets in the way of an artist and his music.

BlackBerry People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award Winner: “Seven Psychopaths”

A veritable dream team of actors bring this quirky, sure-to-be cult hit, to life. Writer/director Martin McDonagh follows a struggling screenwriter (Colin Farrell) as he tries to complete a script. His best friend, an unemployed actor who could probably use a stint in acting school (Sam Rockwell), wants to help and the pair quickly get involved in a dognapping scheme gone awry, mixed up with serial-killers who prey on serial-killers and other off the wall characters. Weedy Harrelson, Christopher Walken, Tom Waits and Harry Dean Stanton also lend their talents to this “wacky, blood-spattered commentary on the psycho-killer thriller.”

City of Toronto & Canada Goose Award for Best Canadian Feature: “Laurence Anyways”

A jury of industry professionals chose Xavier Dolan’s French-language romance as the best feature film by a Canadian filmmaker. Described as “Wuthering Heights relocated to the wilds of Montreal, with a transgender Heathcliff and a punked-out Catherine” the film is visually breathtaking and a daring examination of the nature of love and sexuality.

Award For Best Canadian Short Film: “Keep a Modest Head”

One of several French-language winners, this Deco Dawson short film is a unique eulogy for Jean Benoît, the last official French Surrealist.

The SKYY Vodka Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film: “Antiviral” & “Blackbird”

Brandon Cronenberg’s “Viral” is a satirical examination of our celebrity and spectacle-obsessed culture set in a dystopian future. In “Blackbird,” Jason Buxton examines the culture of fear and social media that has evolved in the wake of the Columbine tragedy and other school shootings.

International Critics’ Prize (FIPRESCI Prize) – Discovery: “In the House”

This French-language film from François Ozon is an adaptation of Juan Mayorga’s “The Boy in the Last Row” and is described as a “chilling, crystalline thriller.”

NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) award: “The Land of Hope”

Director Sion Sono tells the tale of a (fictional) rural family’s struggle to survive after the nuclear crisis resulting from the Thoku earthquake.

Grolsch Film Works Discovery Award: “Detroit Unleaded”

Rola Nashef took home an award for her first feature-length film about a Lebanese-American youth coming of age as he takes over the family business.

For a closer look at other TIFF hits, watch the video below from The Guardian UK.

Article written by Sarah Owens

Sarah loves music, theater, films and books. She is a multi-media guru who is always hungry for information. She is originally from Akron, Ohio, and now calls the Denver area home.

The Walking Dead

More ‘The Walking Dead: Cold Storage’ from AMC

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The Walking Dead

Guess what, zombie fans! October is finally here. You know what that means. AMC’s killer series, The Walking Dead, Season Three, is almost here. This thrilling new season is cut in half, which is what happens if you shoot a Walker with a shot-gun at close range. I’m just sayin’. But the first half begins on October 14th. That’s still many moons from now, but the makers of the hit show won’t leave you hanging. Their gift to you comes in the form of action-packed new webisodes from their web series called The Walking Dead: Cold Storage.

We reported right here that Cold Storage would be coming to a computer screen near you starting October 1st. The side project is helmed by special-effects guru and director Mr. Greg Nicotero. To watch Cold Storage, get yourself over to the AMC-TV website. Episode one is titled “Hide and Seek”. That’s a darkly humorous title.

You see, Cold Storage is set at the start of the zombie apocalypse, which comes chronologically before the events of the show’s third season. The webisodes are each five-minutes long, but the format is really close to the comic book series upon which the series is based. Comic books are basically really nice storyboards anyway, so they make excellent material for adaptations.

The Cold Storage storyline follows Chase, acted by Josh Stewart. He’s trying desperately to find his missing sister and winds up hiding for a while inside a storage facility run a character acted by Daniel Roebuck, or Lost‘s Dr. Leslie Arzt.

The character of Chris is a side-kick, at least for a bit. We all know how short lives can last during the zombiepocalypse. What’s funny is, the actor who portraying Chris has another really, really short part. He was Uma Thurman’s groom in Kill Bill Vol. 1.

Cold Storage is written by John Esposito and Nicotero. These fellas won the inaugural Writers Guild of America award this year for outstanding achievement in writing derivative new media. Looks like they are in the right profession!

Hard core fans will remember a similar offering which accompanied Season Two. That batch of six webisodes was aptly titled, Torn Apart and delved into the origins of the unforgettable Season One zombie lovingly referred to as “bicycle girl.” Not a bad idea for a spin-off web series at all.

Episode one of The Walking Dead, Season Three has the title of “Seed”. It is written by Glen Mazzara. Lori, Carl, Daryl, Carol, T-Dog, Beth, Hershel, Rick, Maggie, and Glenn are all back. Actor David Morrissey will play “The Governor”. I think it’s safe to say he’ll be a bit of a villain. In fact, he once won a place on IGN’s list of the Greatest Comic Book Villains of All Time. Okay, he came in 86’s, but its an honor just to be mentioned.

The Care and Feeding of Exotic Pets

Ken Kwapis Options ‘The Care And Feeding Of Exotic Pets’

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The Care and Feeding of Exotic Pets

The Care And Feeding Of Exotic Pets is an upcoming novel by Diana Wagman. IG Publishing releases the thriller on November 13th, but it must be especially exciting, because there is already a film adaptation in the works.

Ken Kwapis and Alexandra Beattie run the production company called In Cahoots. Cute name, yes? In Cahoots has won the rights to adapt The Care And Feeding Of Exotic Pets. Kwapis will direct the motion picture and it appears he is also working on the adapted screenplay.

The Care And Feeding Of Exotic Pets follows main character Winnie Parker, the mother of a teenage daughter who is quite the handful, and the ex-wife of a popular and well-known game show host who has left her for a hot, young contestant, whom he met on air. Winnie’s life feels pretty mundane and probably a bit unlucky, until she kicks off a brand new day by leaving her car with a mechanic. She accepts a ride to the rental car place, but she isn’t actually getting a ride at all. It dawns on her that she’s been kidnapped. Talk about things going from bad to worse.

Next, Winnie ends up inside the kidnappers house, which is most unusual. You see, the home is tropically heated. The kidnapper keeps it this way for the betterment of his house pet, Cookie, a seven-foot long Iguana with attitude. Now that’s a sinister setting for what has been described as a riveting psychological game of cat and mouse. Apart from having a penchant for exotic pets, the kidnapper gets more and more crazy as Winnie tries both to free herself and figure out why she’s been taken in the first place.

According to Amazon, the novel is, “An engrossing, darkly humorous, edge-of-your-seat story, [that] explores the dynamic between kidnapper and kidnapped, bizarre reptile lore, and the absurdity of the celebrity lifestyle.”

I’m ready to watch this one. They ought to cast Michael Shannon as the kidnapper.

Ken Kwapis’ bread and butter thus far seems to be in chick lit adaptations. Some people think of chick lit as a four-letter word, but I think He’s Just Not That into You, which he directed, is a bit of a new classic. We don’t get too many When Harry Met Sally type films these days. Although ensemble romantic comedies can be terrible, I thought He’s Just Not That into You was entertaining and fun. He also directed The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, which also had it’s charm and appeal. Casting for both those women-centric dramadies was excellent.

It will; however, be interesting to see Kawpis direct something with bite. There’s a dark edge to The Care And Feeding Of Exotic Pets.

If you want to read the story before the film debuts, it is available for pre-order at Amazon and through Barnes & Noble. Wagman’s previous novels are called Bump, Spontaneous and Skin Deep. Spontaneous won an award for literary fiction in 2001.

Kwapis and Beattie also work in television. They shopped two half-hour comedies to NBC and have two Showtime pilots in development. We all know the quality for which the Showtime network is usually known, so those will be shows to track. They are also working on a film called Alive And Well, written by David Hubbard.

The Amazing Spider-Man

Andrew Garfield and Marc Webb Re-Team for ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’

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The Amazing Spider-Man

Do you think The Amazing Spider-Man was buried beneath The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers? Well, if you’re a fan of Andrew Garfield’s portrayal of America’s favorite wall crawler on screen, then you’ll be delighted to learn he’ll be putting on the tights at least one more time. That’s right. There will be an Amazing Spider-Man sequel, and part two has Garfield right back in Marc Webb’s…web.

The appropriately named director, Marc Webb, may just have been born to make these movies. He was behind (500) Days of Summer and the first Amazing Spider-Man film, which introduced Andrew Garfield to playing a super hero. It was released June 30th of 2012 and raked in a worldwide total of $748,974,838. It was the fourth highest-grossing movie of 2012.

President of Columbia Pictures, Doug Belgrad, made the announcement that Garfield and Webb would re-team for The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

We could not be more confident in the direction we are taking this new Spider-Man storyline and we are tremendously excited to be ramping up production again with Marc at the helm and Andrew continuing on as Peter Parker,” said Belgrad. “We can’t wait to share what we have in store for Peter and Spider-Man with audiences worldwide.”

The new screenplay will be tackled by dynamic duo Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci with some help from Jeff Pinkner. Work on the script for The Amazing Spider-Mnn 2 will begin with a previous draft, written by James Vanderbilt. If the names Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci seem familiar to you, then you get a gold star. They co-wrote The Island, starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson; as well as Cowboys & Aliens, and worked together on TV’s Alias and Fringe and much more.

Spider-Man 2 will be produced by Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach. That’s not surprising. In fact, you want to see Avi Arad’s name associated with a comic book movie. He produced the previous Tobey Maguire Spider flicks, as well as the Ghost Rider films and more. If there was a Marvel hero in it, Arad was probably involved. The sequel is already scheduled for a release date of May 2, 2014 and will be in 3D format.

The beautiful actress Emma Stone is in discussions to return as Gwen Stacy. Production begins next year.

No comic book movie fan should be surprised by this headline. Comic book story lines make it easy to make sequels. Spider-Man is one hero to which just about anyone can relate. I thought this reboot was a little weird because it dealt quite a bit with Peter Parker’s parents. Critics agreed that Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man was intimate and very human. He brought a lot of the “Aww” factor, as in, “Aww, isn’t he adorable?”

Claudia Puig of USA Today said in her review:

As a new chapter in the superpowered arachnid saga, it stands on its own quite nicely, focusing more on human emotions than on a panoply of special effects. …Where Tobey Maguire in the original Spider-Man trilogy was earnest, Garfield’s Spider-Man is whip-smart and likably cheeky, with an undercurrent of teenage angst. [The film is] as much a coming-of-age story as a crime-fighting action saga.”