Out Of The Ether 2/27/10

It's been a little while since I've posted an edition of Out Of The Ether. What with the holidays, my birthday, the attack of the repeated snow storms in sunny, warm Virginia, I haven't really made time to collect any movie news. And frankly, there hasn't been all that much worth talking about until recently. SO, now that there is, I pass it on to you.

It seems excitement for the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street is growing, especially with the performance by Jackie Earle Haley in Shutter Island. In case you didn't already know, Haley is putting on the fedora and glove and having a go at playing Freddy Krueger. The movie's due out in April, and the newest one sheet can be found here.

In other Scorsese related news, AICN is reporting that the master has decided his next film is going to be an adaptation of a 533 page children's book named The Invention Of Hugo Cabret. I'm not familiar with the book, so if you are, get in touch and let me know what this means to you. 

This is a month old already, but I'm looking forward to it, so I'm passing it on. There's been word circling round the netz about a zombie flick set in Africa for a good while. Bloody Disgusting has the trailers..... HELL YES! 

Yet again there are rumors of a Vampire Hunter D live action film. If you've never heard of it, Vampire Hunter D is an influential anime about a character aptly named D, who is a vampire hunter in a world over run by supernatural creatures. The mix of Japanese sensibilities and gothic literary characters/ folklore was interesting and made for a pretty cool anime. It was one of the first I saw. Now there's news of another anime starring the titular D and a live action film based around the original film. Details are all here.

There were a number of films screened at Sundance Film Festival which sound interesting as well. I've grabbed up some reviews and synopsis on those for you all.

Frozen is the latest from Hatchet writer/director Adam Greene. If you hated Hatchet, this is apparently a very different film, so it seems like it would be worth a shot. If you loved Hatchet, this is apparently not Hatchet 1.5. It's in limited release right now. 

7 Days has been getting the kind of mixed reviews I look for. The only negative reviews are complaining that it's "too violent" and referring to it as "torture porn". The positive reviews happen to be more literate, and are actually talking about the movie as a whole. Needless to say, I'm interested.

One film generating an extremely strong word of mouth is Buried. There have been articles and podcasts all over the place talking about this film, and nobody has yet to say anything less than glowing about it. I've heard a few instances of this being the film people at the festival were pestering and badgering others at the festival to go see. Considering the hardened insider cynicism that's infected Sundance, that's saying something. I'm interested in this one, and apparently Lionsgate has bought the distribution rights and plans to release it sooner rather than later.

The Australian underworld sounds to have taken a good working over in Animal Kingdom. This is something I'd like to catch as well, though I doubt any of the local Richmond theaters are going to be showing it.

For something a little less sensational and a little more realistic and probably closer to home, there's been a lot of good word on The Company Men. From what I've been reading and hearing, apparently a very good film, on the more somber and serious side, but everyone is unsure of the box office possibilities for a film like this.

Then there's The Killer Inside Me. This years most controversial Sundance submission apparently had one woman stomping out of a screening and yelling that the film maker had no right to make the film. Michael Winterbottom, the films director has been taking heat since it's first screening. It apparently caused quite a stir at the European Film Market as well. There's a story on one of the commentary tracks for Se7en about two older women "who looked like school teachers" according to David Fincher, walking passed him and saying to each other, "The people who made that movie should be shot." I take these things generally as a good sign.

Lastly, there have been some great reviews floating around for A Prophet, apparently a French film about an Arabic man youth who ends up in the French prison system and begins his criminal education. Always an interesting subject, as far as I'm concerned anyway. Here's a review from the New York Times as well.

I think that about covers it for this edition of Out Of The Ether. I hope you've found something of interest here. If not, try again next time.