With that in mind, I’ve devised a list of films that I’m excited to see (for the first time or not) and talk about in the coming 12 months. Later in the week, we’ll take a look at some movies we saw at festivals in 2008 which now have a release date in 2009, and also films which have no release date, but which we expect to see show up on the festival circuit in the coming months. But we’re going to get the macro out of the way first: after the jump, you’ll find three Big, Stupid Hollywood Movies which I’m assuming will be awful, but possibly in an interesting way. Do share the titles you have your own eyes on in the comments.
Admittedly, I haven’t seen Kelly Reichart’s Wendy and Lucy since Cannes. But I’m still going to stand by the contention that it seems just a little weird for a film about a girl and her dog–nudity-free, with some moments of tension but very little violence as I recall–-to receive an R rating (for “language”), while Richard Kelly’s horror film The Box, said to contain “some violence and disturbing images,” gets a PG-13.
This is probably not worth getting upset about. I’m not even sure if cutting off a teenage audience will really hurt Lucy’s theatrical success––Michelle Williams’ adolescent fan base has had a good five years to come of age since Dawson’s Creek, although one does imagine that there are a lot of teenage girls following the actresses seemingly unwanted appearances in the tabloids. But at least, it’s testament to that old chestnut about how Hollywood productions have an unfair edge over indies in the ratings game. If anything, Kelly was probably contractually obligated to deliver a PG-13 and engineered his cut of The Box to comply, while Kelly Reichart, who made Wendy and Lucy without a distributor on board, simply made the film she wanted to make. Too bad she had to put so many swear words in it.
As for Southland Tales… we are about halfway through completing all of the new visual effects. We have to deliver everything by the end of summer. I have to tell everyone that the amount of visual effects work being added to the film is SIGNIFICANT… and I am so grateful for the work being done by Thomas Tannenberger and his team at Gradient VFX in Venice Beach.
And I can confirm that a company has been hired by Sony to begin work on a trailer. The release date will be announced very soon.
This post would seem to be carefully designed to telegraph two messages:
1) Those are his caps on SIGNIFICANT. At ComicCon last summer, Kelly distanced himself from the Cannes cut of Southland, insisting that the version shown to critics the previous May lacked the special effects needed to flesh out the story. (Post-Cannes 2006, there were rumors that the stars of Southland were looking for distance, too–rumors which were given credence by the fact that not a single boldfaced name joined Kelly on stage in San Diego.) He’s clearly saying, “This movie looks totally different from the movie that got those crappy reviews.”
2) Based on the phrasing of the final sentence, it;s sounds like Sony isn’t planning on setting a release date until they have a trailer/a better idea of how/when/to whom they can market the film. Considering the time and money they’ve already invested, that would make sense.
The verdict? This news is better than no news, but Kelly fans can hardly breathe easy.
Word hit the web yesterday afternoon that Richard Kelly, the writer/director of cult hit Donnie Darko, has been hired to direct The Box, a PG-13 horror film based on his own script, and set to star Cameron Diaz. “My hope is to make a film that is incredibly suspenseful and broadly commercial, while still retaining my artistic sensibility,” Kelly told Variety.
Okay, fine. But what about Southland Tales? An allegedly unfinished cut of Kelly’s second film (a gonzo sci-fi meta-epic starring The Rock, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Justin TImberlake) was savaged by most critics when it screened at Cannes last year, but staunchly defended by Amy Taubin and J. Hoberman. That summer, the film was acquired by Sony, and Kelly made an appearance at Comic Con promising fans that the studio was committed to releasing the film. Then, in early April of this year, Kelly posted a message on his MySpace page saying that Sony had agreed to fund one last round of special effects. “The film will be completely finished for the first public screening sometime mid-summer,” Kelly promised.
Wouldn’t that be … now? Kelly hasn’t updated his MySpace page since the Variety story hit, but I’ve sent him a message asking for more details. I can tell you one thing: there’s no lack of curiousity about Southland Tales amongst comic book geeks. I’ve been trying to get my hands on the third installment of the Southland Tales prequel graphic novel series, but Forbidden Planet has been sold out for weeks.
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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Oh, 2008 … where has the time all gone to? It seems like just yesterday that we were 
Admittedly, I haven’t seen Kelly Reichart’s Wendy and Lucy since Cannes. But I’m still going to stand by the contention that it seems just a little weird for a film about a girl and her dog–nudity-free, with some moments of tension but very little violence as I recall–-to receive an R rating (for “language”), while Richard Kelly’s horror film The Box, said to contain “some violence and disturbing images,” gets a PG-13.
