AICN DONWUNDER: SUNSHINE, John Hillcoat's Cannibal Movie, And Danny Boyle To Direct 28 MONTHS LATER??

AICN-DOWNUNDER: Sunshine, John Hillcoat's cannibal movie, and Danny Boyle to direct 28 Months Later?

Hundreds left, a handful stayed, only one looked back.

AICN-DOWNUNDER

You may have heard about this already, but the Popcorn Taxi screening of SUNSHINE in Melbourne a few weeks ago was something of a disaster. About halfway through, the film began running backwards, upside down, and back to front. It took people a little while to cotton onto this, as it looked a bit like a dream sequence from earlier in the film. Soon, the movie was stopped, and we were told it would be five minutes to fix it. About forty-five minutes later, the film started up again on the wrong reel, and was stopped about ten minutes later when they decided that there'd be no time for the film and the Q&A with Danny Boyle and Rose Byrne.

Luckily, I got to catch the film in its entirety a week later (see my review below), but the following morning we got the chance to interview Mr Boyle for the upcoming season of "The Bazura Project" (everybody keep June free). He's easily one of the nicest, most good-natured people we've spoken to. Very chatty, too. One tidbit worth noting was when I asked about a possible 28 MONTHS LATER. I was half-joking, but he revealed that there are actually tentative plans for a third film, and the end of 28 WEEKS LATER will have a setup designed for this sequel. (This should also be a lesson for me about tardiness: in the four weeks since the interview, I got scooped. Oh well. My bad.)

He also told us that he'd done a bit of second unit directing on 28 WEEKS LATER, and had enjoyed it so much, he's seriously considering coming back for MONTHS (I don't know if this is the official working title, or if there is an official working title, but it's the sort of presumption I feel comfortable making). So there you have it.

NEWS

Empire Online is reporting that John Hillcoat (the amazing GHOSTS... OF THE CIVIL DEAD and the even-more amazing THE PROPOSITION) is going to direct an adaptation of "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. Apparently the film is about a father and son traveling around a post-apocalyptic world full of cannibals. Yes, you heard that right. Post-apocalyptic world. Cannibals. John Hillcoat. (You can wipe the drool away now.) Cheers to "John".

Rowan Woods will follow up his film LITTLE FISH with WINGED CREATURES, which will star Kate Beckinsale, Forest Whitaker, Dakota Fanning, Guy Pearce and Academy Award Winner Jennifer Hudson. The film will be about a group of witnesses to a murder-suicide trying to come to terms with what they saw. And if the film ends up with the line "You know what? I just realised that murder/suicides are BAD", you'll know that Paul Haggis did an uncredited rewrite. Snap.

Excellent news for fans of grossly underrated filmmaker Clara Law (THE GODDESS OF 1967). I'm exactly sure how it works, but her script/synopsis/project THE MESSENGER picked up two awards at the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum, which makes it extremely likely that the project will be funded very soon. The film, about a woman who can predict the future, is written by Law's long-time collaborator Eddie Fong and produced by mega-producer Sue Maslin (JAPANESE STORY, HUNT ANGELS). With this pedigree behind the camera, the film could be about a wise-cracking dog trying to make it home in time for Hanukkah, and I'd still be first in line. I'll stay on this one like glue and let you know when the light had been greened.

Finally, I'm sorry to have to report on the passing of Will Gibson. Gibson recently shot into public consciousness as one of Australia's best cinematographers. His first big film was WOLF CREEK, and I must admit that one of the first things that struck me about that film was how well it was shot. He also lensed MACBETH, which was one of the better uses of HD in recent memory. ROGUE is yet to be seen, but I suspect it will simply confirm Gibson's supreme talents. Our thoughts are with his family, friends and colleagues.

AWARDS, FESTIVALS AND SCREENINGS

THE WORKS OF GUILLERMO DEL TORO

Melbourne film fans are being given a very nice gift by ACMI. And by "gift", I mean "thing you have to pay for". This month, ACMI is playing all the films of Guillermo Del Toro. Everything from CRONOS to PAN'S LABYRINTH. Check it out by clicking here. (And also check out ACMI's Freaky Fridays by clicking here.) Thanks to "Phil".

NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Big kudos to the nineteen-year-old Kane Christopher, whose film USELESS (in which he both directed and starred) just picked up Best Comedy at NYIFF. The awards ceremony will be held later in the year.

TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL

Queensland short film WHEN THE TIDE TURNS will screen in competition at Tribeca. The film is directed by Campbell Maynes and produced by Kelly Chapman.

EUROPEAN INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL

Alex Frayne is going to need to invest in a new set of shelves. Barely a week goes by without news of his feature MODERN LOVE picking up dozens of awards. The latest is the Best Foreign Feature Award at EIFF on March 18. (By the way, Alex, I'm just going to create a template for future reference, so I can save on precious typing effort by pasting in the name of the festival and the name of the award.)

BOX OFFICE

The reason it's been three and a half weeks since my last column is that I was waiting for WILD HOGS to disappear from the top five. Eventually, I got sick of waiting. Bastards. At least HOT FUZZ is in there. And, by the way, how is MUSIC AND LYRICS still in there?

1. WILD HOGS
2. HOT FUZZ
3. TMNT
4. FREEDOM WRITERS
5. MUSIC AND LYRICS

RELEASED THESE PAST THREE WEEKS

Anne Hathaway grabs one of the last remaining female author biopics left (quick, Ms Winslet, grab Mary Shelley while you still can!), Mark Valley gets shot and left on the cutting room floor, Hilary Swank teachers a group of writers the value of becoming dropout gang members (or something), omg Summer and JD totally hook up lolz, we finally get an example of East German Expressionism, Disney attempts a bold new strategy under John Lasseter's command (ie: not sucking), Rowan Atkinson again refuses to revisit Blackadder, Robin Williams listens good, Adam Sandler looks more like Bob Dylan than anyone in Todd Hayne's upcoming biopic, Ryan Murphy directs the follow-up to TALKING TO STRANGERS and THINGS THAT FIT IN YOUR EAR, the latest in a long string of 1960s-set bar mitzvah/soccer films is released, everyone of my generation pretends not to be really excited, William H. Macy discovers an unpaid gas bill, and a film about soccer completely fails to mention bar mitzvahs or the 1960s.

BECOMING JANE
BOBBY
FREEDOM WRITERS
THE LAST KISS
THE LIVES OF OTHERS
MEET THE ROBINSONS
MR BEAN'S HOLIDAY
THE NIGHT LISTENER
REIGN OVER ME
RUNNING WITH SCISSORS
SIXTY-SIX
TMNT
WILD HOGS
ZIDANE: A 21ST CENTURY PORTRAIT

REVIEWS

TMNT

Okay, I grew up on the Ninja Turtles. I watched the show, dragged my parents to the films, read the spin-off books, bought the toys... my mum even made me a Raphael costume. Unfortunately, she got the dimensions of the front piece a little wrong and it ended up looking like Raphael had two gigantic testicles. Hm. I'm starting to regret telling you that.

Anyway, I'm a fan. Or rather, I was a fan back in the late 80s. Since then, I think I've missed a lot of Turtle stuff. I've missed the new cartoon series and the live action series. I'm not sure if this hinders my involvement in TMNT, though, because the film acts as if we're watching the big screen spin-off of a pre-established series. And perhaps we are. Perhaps we're expected to assume that whichever series we grew up on, this is the continuation of that.

Shredder is gone. Don't expect to see him in this film. Instead, we begin with Leonardo "finding himself" in Central America, Donatello working on a tech phone help line, Michaelangelo doing kids' parties, and Raphael acting the vigilante. It's an interesting tact to take, and certainly frees us from yet another origin story. Or yet another encounter with Shredder. It's something new, and on that level, I appreciate it.

In fact, I think the film's biggest asset is that it's a singular vision. Kevin Munroe wrote and directed the film, and it's refreshing that you can tell this fact. It's not a film that's made by committee. Even if I'm not crazy about some of the choices he made (and I'm not), and even if some of the dialogue (particularly the one-liners) is incredibly lame and cringe-worthy, it's still different to the marketing exercise I was expecting. It's definitely one man's idea of what constitutes a great Turtles movie.

I'm told the idea is that they're no longer teenagers, but it still doesn't explain with Raphael sounds like a reject from "The Sopranos". Seriously, he sounds like a fifty year old guy from Jersey, and given the youthful voices that the rest of the Turtles have, it's a bit odd.

I don't know how much analysis a film like this can stand, but if you're a Turtles fan, I wouldn't tell you to avoid this. It's pretty good. Not great, but good. Worth a look.

SUNSHINE

I was a bit hesitant to go and see this film, to be honest. I only ended up going because we were going to speaking to Danny Boyle and I didn't want to sound retarded. That is, more retarded than normal. The trailer on the web had filled me with apathy, and the whole exercise appeared to be another EVENT HORIZON, a film I didn't particularly enjoy the first time around. Bottom line, I didn't think it was going to be good.

And it's not good.

It's great.

I mean it's really, really great. You know how everything about ARMAGEDDON sucked? Imagine if they changed it all around so that every element was suddenly great.

As a skeptic who has a problem with wild and outlandish science fiction that has no relation to science whatsoever, I soon identified why SUNSHINE is such brilliant science fiction. It doesn't tell us what year it is (other than it's the relatively-near future), it doesn't explain why the sun is suddenly dying, and it doesn't explain how a man-made bomb is supposed to make any sort of impact in something as big as the sun. It doesn't need to. The film itself is aware that it can't possibly explain these things, so it worries about other things.

It's a very visceral film. It revels in the physical world these people live in. There's a practicality to the film that only exists because of how much they've avoided the impossible-to-answer questions of why they're there. Their mundane, everyday tasks are what first concentrate on, and it's surprisingly engaging to watch the pilot press the occasional button with boredom, or another crewmember pick vegetables from the garden. The excitement comes from the believability of the world. It's not all white consoles and uniforms. You really believe they're living on that ship.

The real surprise of the film is Chris Evans. I loved the rest of the cast, but I was expecting to love them. Beforehand, Chris Evans was, to me, one of the very few things that didn't suck in FANTASTIC FOUR. He was one of the few beats they actually got right, but it wasn't the biggest acting stretch in the world. So here's the big surprise: Chris Evans is a really good actor. I mean he's really, really good. There's a lot of small work required here, a lot of subtle moments, and he more than holds his own against an incredibly strong cast. The cast was specifically chosen from different parts of the world to echo the international worldly feel of the piece, but they all work really well together as an ensemble.

The moment that really sold me, however, is when Mercury orbits the sun. I won't go into detail to ruin the moment for you, but those who have seen it will know what I'm talking about. To see scientists so excited about the event, and on top of that to see the event depicted in a realistic fashion instead of overstating its effects to up the wow factor... I grew up being shown a lot of cool astronomical things, and this felt like a really spot-on depiction of what it feels like to watch an amazing astronomical event.

I actually feel it's a great companion piece to THE FOUNTAIN. Not just because Cliff Curtis is in both, but because of the completely different approaches that each film takes to the same basic subject. (After arriving at that conclusion, I discovered The Astor Theatre in Melbourne is playing them as a double on June 12th. If you're in the area, mark the date in your calendar.)

For my money, this is one of the first great films of 2007. And for those of you in North America, don't worry; it'll be worth the wait.

MEET THE ROBINSONS

I don't want to alarm you, but this film is actually pretty good.

I know, I thought it looked like crap as well. I only really went because the screening was near my house and I had the opportunity to take my young cousins to a film they might enjoy. Surprise surprise, I enjoyed it too.

We saw it in 3D, and it was incredibly effective. There's no "here's the bit where a juggler throws things at the screen", nor is it done as an afterthought (a la NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, which admittedly didn't look too bad in 3D). It's not a gimmick, and even thought I'm skeptical about any new cinematic breakthrough that requires the audience to wear something, it's the best 3D I've ever seen.

The plot itself is quite engaging. There's a mystery to be solved, and the eventual revelation of this mystery manages to unravel it in an interesting way to those who haven't figured it out, and simultaneously credit those who had. It's really well done.

I hate having to make this comparison in every animated review I write (as if someone's twisting my arm), but it's not Pixar. Pixar is the gold standard in animation, and the benchmark with which we compare everything else. Actually, I consider it a good thing that there's someone out there doing such consistently perfect work that we're compelled to namecheck them constantly. But ROBINSONS does fall a little short of this standard, mostly due to its non-sequitorial humour. There's a strange phenomenon that pops up occasionally in animated films, where lines of dialogue and jokes seem to come out of nowhere. If I spend a minute or so thinking about it, I can usually figure out what the writer intended with the line, but a fair bit just falls flat. The most entertaining part of ROBINSONS should be the crazy family, but not enough is done to set them up. We're constantly thrown into cer-razy situations caused by these people doing insane things, but the filmmakers jump to the punchline far too often, without bothering to properly establish the situation.

It's a little irritating, but it doesn't interfere with the film too much. If you're one of those people who's going to be forced to take small people to see something during the school holidays, try to push for this film. It's definitely worth the time.

300

Writing a review on 300 feels a little redundant at this point. There's the fact that it's already made more money than god over in the States, there's the fact that it's one of those films that knew if you were going to see or not from the logline, and there's Neill Cumpston's definitive piece on the subject, which should really be placed in a museum somewhere.

See, what I really want to do is gloat about the fact that I got to see it for the first time on an Imax screen. And because I didn't have my contact lenses in that day, I had to position myself so I could view the entire screen within the frames of my glasses without having to move my head back and forth. I ended up in a very interesting position that -- a quick consultation with the Karma Sutra revealed -- was actually called the Viewing-300-on-Imax.

I guess what I wanted to talk about what how oddly unengaged I felt by it at the time. And it's strange, because it's close to perfect. I honestly wouldn't change a frame of it. I just didn't connect with it all that much, and I'm not sure why. What's odder is that it's been nearly a week since I've seen it, and I'm actually connecting with it retroactively. Does that make sense? If not, keep it to yourself. But it's actually, and surprisingly, a film that grows on you after you see it. In fact, I'm quite eagre to see it again.

One of the most amazing spectacles of the year.

NEXT WEEK (FROM THE ARCHIVES)

- John Cusack and Dianne Lane sign onto polytheistic rom com MUST LOVE GODS

- M. Night Shyamalan to play himself in Sidney Lumet's drama about a man who unsuccessfully attempt to join a lesbian militia group, in NIGHT FAILS IN MAN-HATIN'

- Lasse Hallstrom signs on to the multi-language Italian/Spanish/English bullfighting/rockclimbing-themed biopic LA TAURO ROCKS!

Peace out,

Latauro
AICNDownunder@hotmail.com