This Week: Summer Movie Reshoot Drinking Game!
1. Rachel Weisz as Jackie Kennedy?
When Robert Downey Jr. was cast an Sherlock Holmes, the iconic British sleuth, there were plenty of grumblings to be heard from jolly old England. It seems as though they’ve struck back as the part of American icon Jacqueline Kennedy is headed Rachel Wiesz’s way. The story evidently only takes place over the course of four days, the period directly after the assassination of JFK. So, no, it’s not a “feel-good” film, but with fiancée Darren Aronofsky directing it should at least be well done.
2. I Cannes Just Barely Hear You …
The 2010 Cannes lineup has been announced. The highlights? Robin Hood and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps are standouts from a buzz standpoint, though Woody Allen’s You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger will be a hot ticket as well. The rumors coming from France indicate it’s a down year for Asian entrants, but the overall international offerings are strong with Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Biutiful looking as Oscar-y as his previous effort, Babel.
Bonus Random Thought: I’ll be at The Cannes Film Festival this year, and I plan to eat my weight in Crepes. Stay tuned!
3. The Summer Movie Reshoot Drinking Game.
This summer could end up feeling highly flawed. The films that have gone into reshoots (industry code for “something’s not quite right here”) include The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (info), Iron Man 2, The Last Airbender, and Jonah Hex. Then there’s Gondry’s Green Hornet project, which is likely already hopelessly doomed.
A snap judgment on each film, based on the talent alone, without any prior knowledge:
1. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse — It already would have been the toughest adaptation to pull off because it’s a melodramatic love triangle. Then you add David Slade into the mix, a guy who simply isn’t meant for this sort of material, and you have a recipe for disaster. Luckily, Twilight fans are pretty forgiving so the overall quality shouldn’t hurt Summit too much.
2. Iron Man 2 — This one should be fine. Jon Favreau executed a coherent vision the first time around, (though the ending was weak) so there’s not much cause for concern. Plus, the reshoots were months ago.
3. The Last Airbender — Oh, it’s going to be a disaster, no doubt. M. Night’s vision for the adaptation is clearly at odds with everyone else who has seen the original animation. Good times.
4. Jonah Hex — I’m not sure how flawed it could be, given the scope. It’s pretty much just Megan Fox vamping with Josh Brolin killing everything in site, right? It would be like messing up a cheeseburger. Not likely.
5. The Green Hornet — Anyone who saw Be Kind, Rewind has to realize what a stretch it was to hand Green Hornet over to Gondry. The man’s work is visually stunning, no complaint there, but he isn’t capable of bringing a fantastic story to the big screen without a Charlie Kaufman script involved. Nice guy? Yes. Great eye? Certainly. Awful choice for Green Hornet? No doubt.
On the bright side our next director-movie combo is worth getting excited about!
4. Joss Whedon: A Man You Can Believe In!
Deadline New York recently reported that Joss Whedon was in final negotiations to direct an Avengers film, and the initial verdict wasn’t positive. Yeah, he’s had some failed shows. And sure, his Wonder Woman project didn’t come together. But what’s not to like about how the man builds story and character? Serenity is wildly underrated, and you could make the case Buffy foretold of a decade of vampire fare. Even Dr. Horrible has its charms.
The main complaint against Whedon seems to be his lack of commercial success, but will that really be an issue where The Avengers is concerned? The marketing push will be massive, and with Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America prominently involved it’s not exactly an unknown quantity. You just need a director to impart the maximum amount of emotion and character development so the story doesn’t get buried in silliness. Who would you rather have do that? Rooting against Whedon here is akin to cheering for shallow superhero films. Just poor form.
Bonus Random Thought: Okay, okay, I also could have seen Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake, Kick-Ass) helming. Which brings us to …
5. Kick-Ass Invades Your Personal Space.
Oh my, this movie is just big fun. It’s epically violent, bullets to the face galore, with certain scenes filmed in a first-person shooter video game style. Overly sexual? Certainly. Needlessly brutal? Of course. But Chloe Moretz is delightful as a murderous twelve-year-old girl, proof positive that parenting is more nurture than nature. Plus, it’s the return of Nicolas Cage, and he’s not even wearing a bear suit! If you’re a fan of films like Kill Bill and V for Vendetta then you’ll enjoy the righteous revenge factor of Kick-Ass. It’s Falling Down meets Battle Royale. A highly entertaining effort.
On that note, I hope you all have a solid weekend, with only dreams of capes and catchphrases dancing in your head.
Check out last week’s Movie Musings here
Laremy is the lead critic and senior producer for a website named Film.com. He’s also available on Twitter.
