Every now and then, when you’re juggling your schedule, things fall together in a way that sounds fun until you actually begin doing it, at which you point you realize it’s just going to be exhausting more than anything. Earlier this year, Warner Bros. asked me if I’d like to visit the set of Paul Feig’s UNACCOMPANIED MINORS in Salt Lake City. I’m a fan of Feig’s work, and I really wanted to see what he was up to, but at the same time, New Line asked me if I wanted to go to Toronto to see Clive Owen working with Paul Giamatti in SHOOT ‘EM UP. Again... that sounded cool to me, and I found myself struggling to get the two trips to work out in terms of timing. Finally, I put New Line and Warner Bros in touch with each other and asked them to figure it out. The resulting schedule made my trip the strangest three days I’ve spent in a row this year, and I’ll be bringing you the full blow-by-blow (and this is Hollywood we’re talking about, so that could me anything) over the course of next week.
Before that, though, I want to point you to some teasers that popped up for the two films online this week. First up, there’s the official Warner Bros. trailer for UNACCOMPANIED MINORS. You can just right-click and "save as" for any of these that you want to see:
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The impression I got is that Feig’s making something like the films John Hughes made early in his directing career. Smart comedy with young leads. I think the trailer’s pretty confident, but I think Feig’s got some stuff up his sleeve that he doesn’t really even hint at there. We’ll get into that next week with the first of the set reports.
SHOOT ‘EM UP is a whole different sensibility, and what I saw of this one makes it look like one of next year’s most deranged films. Next year, Vern may die of joy at all the badassery we’ll see in films like 300 and this one. Hardcore blood and guts badassery on an epic scale. This entire film is one long crazy action sequence with Clive Owen and Monica Bellucci protecting a newborn infant from Paul Giamatti and his army of goons who are all trying to kill the child for some secret reason. It was a great read as a script, fast and funny and completely upfront about its own ambitions.
This promo reel that was posted by the guys over at Latino Review is our first taste of how the film itself is going to play, and it’s a nice one. Again, though... I don’t think this is really indicative of the finished film. I think if you like this, you’re going to love what you’ll see when it’s done. I’ve got a lot of stuff from my time on this set, including a random Guillermo Del Toro sighting, extreme injury on my part, and a face-to-face with producer Don Murphy.
It’ll be fun stuff all next week, so I’ll see you back here then. Tonight, I’ve got reviews of two of this week’s new releases, and I’ve also got pieces brewing about INFAMOUS and THE DEPARTED and LITTLE CHILDREN, so there’s plenty to talk about if I can just get it all finished and posted.
