Movie Make-out

After reading the news from Variety that Paramount Pictures has secured the U.S. distribution rights to Area 51—the directorial follow-up by Oren Peli to this year’s surprise hit Paranormal Activity which Paramount will release sometime next year—I can’t help but wonder how Peli’s reinvention of the “found footage” narrative structure that worked so well for Cannibal Holocaust and The Blair Witch Project could work for some of the other movies coming out in 2010:

February 5, 2010: Dear John – The love letters detailing the tumultuous relationship between main characters John Tyree (Channing Tatum) and Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfrieid) are replaced by “recovered” .mov files of their iChat conversations, complete with chat and text messages where John lovingly says to Savannah: “Wanna cyber? lol”

March 19, 2010: Season of the Witch – The tale of a medieval knight (Nicolas Cage) whose mission is to deliver a witch to her ultimate doom would be told entirely through tapestries. Movie tie-in merchandise would include a “do it yourself” shuttle and loom.

May 7, 2010: Iron Man 2 – Played by Robert Downey, Jr., Tony Stark’s vlog would contain lots of references to starlets he dated while he also pouts about that upstart Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) stealing his schtick.

Honestly, the bloom is starting to fall a little bit off of Peli’s rose for me. I thought it was so cool that he reinvigorated that kind of narrative structure for the 21st century (and no, I don’t think Cloverfield counts); however, upon hearing that the second movie he’s making is utilizing the same technique (but was made for more money) I’m starting to wonder if he’s a one-trick pony.

Not to say that one can’t make a perfectly good career out of making the same kind of movie over and over again. Look at Alfred Hitchcock or Billy Wilder, for goodness’ sake. But I think that the forgiveness I extend to Messrs. Hitchcock and Wilder is due to the fact that there’s a huge body of work to examine rather than just two movies.

I guess I’m just going to have to give Peli one more chance, right?

Where one man once tried, two other men will now succeed… or so Columbia Pictures hopes.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sahara screenwriters Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer will now be working on the adaptation of the Naughty Dog videogame Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.

If you’re not playing the PS3 game right now, the story revolves around Nathan Drake, a purported descendant of explorer Sir Francis Drake, who is in search of the lost treasure of El Dorado. Originally, Kyle Ward was attached as the screenwriter when the studio picked up the rights back in June, but as Borys Kit puts it:

[The] very much in-demand scribe has video game adaptations Kane & Lynch at Lionsgate and Hitman 2 at Fox — and with the studio putting the project on a faster track, the decision was made to hire a new writer.

And this is when I ask: Why the need for the faster track? Considering that Paramount has movies like The Last Airbender and Dune on its slate for 2010 and the Star Trek sequel and the fourth Mission Impossible for 2011, you wouldn’t think they’d need another summer action tentpole, would they? Why spend all that production money on a series that might end up being mediocre like the Tomb Raider movies were?

Or better yet, why not use that money to fund some original work instead of videogame adaptations and franchise sequels? Or if one must go the adaptation route, why not bring some much-needed attention to underrated series like Artesia and Finder?

[Insert rest of standard rant here.]

Up in the Air

Directed by Jason Reitman
Starring George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman and more

With the economy just recovering from its second most epic meltdown of the modern age, I’m sure you’ll be wondering if going to see a movie where the protagonist fires people for a living is the smartest choice for your evening’s entertainment. And that’s where you’d be right.

Directed and co-written by Jason Reitman, Up in the Air is not an easy movie to watch. It follows the story of one Ryan Bingham, a “career transition consultant” whose job is to travel all over the country and do what every frightened Human Resources department is afraid to do: fire a whole lot of people all at one time. The job requires one to be impersonal, but engaging; compassionate, but uncaring. It’s requires the finesse of a salesman and the consummate skills of an actor.

Of all the leading men in all the world, Reitman did not choose wrong when he picked George Clooney to play this role. Watching him walk over a dozen people through the stages of grief that follow when they hear they’ve lost their job is almost mesmerizing because Clooney is just so damn charming when he does it. (It’s also interesting to note that according to the San Francisco Chronicle, most of the people depicted being fired were real-life people who had been unemployed and were asked to share their stories of what they wish they could have said to the person who’d fired them.)

He’s also very charming when he picks up a woman named Alex (played by Vera Farmiga) in a hotel bar who travels just as much as he does, and just like that classic scene in Jaws (which Kevin Smith borrowed in Chasing Amy) the two bond over which frequent flier programs are the best, tossing out cards and comparing bonuses the way Quint and Banky compared their scars.

It’s because of what Bingham does for a living that Clooney has to engage the viewer right away and make him and his motivational speaker theories of how a life lived without encumberances is the best life to lead palatable—even enviable. It doesn’t hurt that Clooney’s reputation as a lifelong bachelor helps reinforce the notion that Bingham will never settle down, will never be happy with a stable life, and that’s the way he prefers it.

And that’s another problem with this movie. Read more

According to MTV Movie News, Natalie Portman has let slip the news that Kat Dennings is joining the already massive cast of Kenneth Branagh’s Thor.

Thor stars Chris Hemsworth as the God of Thunder himself as well as Donald Blake, Tom Hiddleston as Loki; Portman as Jane Foster; Anthony Hopkins as Odin; Jaimie Alexander as Sif; Colm Feore; Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury; Stellan Skarsgard; Stuart Townsend, Ray Stevenson, Tadanobu Asano as the Warriors Three; and Idris Elba as Helmdell. Thor hits theaters on May 20, 2011.

Like all the other movie news sites, though, I really just wanted to post a picture of Kat Dennings, because man, she’s pretty.

UPDATE: According to Coming Soon, Dennings will play a co-worker of Jane Foster’s named Darcy.

Just in case you didn’t get enough hot werewolf action this weekend with New Moon or think that The Wolf Man won’t be enough to satisfy your lycanthropic lust, Joel Kastelberg and Etchie Stroh have got you covered.

As reported in Variety, the two producers are re-launching the 1980s Howling franchise as The Howling: Reborn from a script written by Joe Nimziki, a former studio executive. What’s more, Nimziki will be making his directorial debut as well.

Exact details on the plot are being kept very much under wraps, and filming will start next February with a release date for next Halloween.