Here's a little about the movies that I'm most looking forward to through the 2005 Holiday Season:
- Jarhead (11/4): Sam Mendes, the director of American Beauty and Road to Perdition takes on Operation Desert Storm with Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead role. Hopefully, Mendes can bring the same insight into the American mind that he showed in Beauty. With Jamie Foxx supporting, and the haunting "Jesus Walks" trailer, I'm hoping this one will rival Three Kings as the best Persian Gulf War movie to date.
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (11/18): Mike Newell (Donnie Brasco) takes the helm for the forth installment of the Hogwarts Chronicles. The kids are older and the stakes are higher than the previous films. Look for an intense ending to a movie that should play more as a tense thriller than a fantasy children's movie.
- Walk the Line (11/18): After last year's hit and Oscar winner Ray, biopics of the architects of modern music seem to be the hot subgenre. This one takes on Johnny Cash's early carreer, leading up to his emergence as "The Man in Black," and focusing on his relationship with his future wife, June Carter. Joaquin Phoenix is getting rave advance notices as Cash, and Reese Witherspoon should bring some down-home charm to her role as Carter. Walk one-ups Ray in at least one respect: Phoenix and Witherspoon actually sing on the soundtrack.
- Rent (11/23): This is one I'm cautiously anticipating. The play is an electrifying look at "La Vie Boheme" and AIDS in 90's New York, but in the hands of Chris Columbus (Home Alone, the first two Harry Potters) and with a PG-13 rating, it may lack the edge of the show on which it's based. Here's hoping that the emotion of the "Seasons of Love" video carries over into the film.
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (12/9): C.S. Lewis's classic allegory comes to the big screen courtesy of Andrew Adamson (Shrek). If you think you're likely to be put off by the Christian elements of the story, don't fret- the story (not to mention the visuals) works brilliantly as a children's fantasy. Besides, this may be the first in a seven-part franchise, so now's the time to get in on the ground floor.
- King Kong (12/14): Pete Jackson leaves behind Hobbits (for now) for the great ape. I've never really understood the grand appeal that this story has for so many people, but hopefully Jackson can bring the same master storytelling and emotional truth to Kong that he did to LOTR. Helping out are Oscar winner Adrian Brody, Naomi Watts, Jack Black and Andy Serkis as the title character. Who knows, they may even make a few bucks along the way.
Also on the radar: 50 cent gets the 8 Mile treatment in Get Rich or Die Tryin', George Clooney goes spying for the CIA in Syriana, Charlize Theron gets animated in Aeon Flux, Rob Marshall goes far East of Chicago with Memoirs of a Geisha, Speilburg follows up on the '72 Olympics with Munich, and Lane & Broderick bring thier lauded performances in Broadway's The Producers to the cinema.
Happy Viewing!
So now I need to confess. I've always scoffed at the fanboys/girls who lost thier shows. Poor souls who held on to the past, who fought in vain to save the stories and characters that they held dear. I've always tended towards the geeky, but I always thought it was a bit sad for them to hold on to the past so desperately, to dress up and re-enact and create fanfic to try to fashion pale imitations of the objects of thier affections.
That was then, and that was before I saw Firefly. As this
story (probably) ends, I find myself finally understanding the plight of the desperate fanperson. Maybe it's because I've not connected to a story on such a deep level, or maybe it's that Firefly was just truly special, but I find myself actually mourning these characters. I've laughed at people for saying what I'm about to say, but here goes: I mourn because they were real to me. Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kaylee, Inara, Book, Simon and River were so well drawn and shaded in the dozenish episodes of this TV show and in the film that they jumped off the screen.
But just because I understand now, doesn't mean that I want to join up. I belive in letting sleeping dogs lie. I plan to watch the show and the film on DVD whenever it strikes my fancy. I plan to wear my T-shirts proudly. I plan to celebrate what a wonderful story it was and continues to be. But I won't be whining and begging and annoying people with endless obsession, and futile hope for sequels. I won't try to hang on for dear life, long after the life has gone.
Besides, there are other stories to discover, other characters to meet and fall in love with, and other T-shirts to make.
I'm back after taking a break last week to savor the magic of
Serenity's opening weekend. Unfortunately, the magic didn't carry over to the ticket receipts. The big screen
Firefly continuation made only
$10 million dollars opening weekend, placing it behind Disney's Flightplan. No matter how you slice it, this was a disappointing opening.
As I mentioned
before, Universal experimented with this film's marketing, attempting to use the power of the internet to harness the enthusiasm of the film's built-in fan base. I don't know if they undercompensated in the traditional marketing media- running less TV ads and placing the trailer more selectively- in the hopes that the fans would pick up the slack. I also don't know if the fans turned people off with the same enthusiasm that was supposed to spread.
I don't know what went wrong, but I have a suspicion: this film was doomed from the start. It's smart, funny, heartfelt, riveting, and (god forbid) set in the future- who wants to see that? I'm being flippant, but if what if we take that question at face value? There is sadly only a small segment of the population who wants to see a quality movie that isn't a straight forward drama or doesn't have the words Cruise or Spielberg on the poster- and this segment is cordoned off from the mainstream with words like geek and fanboy.
I'm not sure where the line is drawn between Spider-Man and Hellboy, between Star Wars and Star Trek, but there is a line that a vast majority of the population is unwilling to cross. Maybe it was because of a bad experience- they caught Highlander:Endgame or Battleship Earth, and decided that Sci-Fi was not for them. Maybe it was because of the fear of the geek nation. But somewhere along the line, middle America's Moms and Pops decided that anything involving space (but not involving Tom Hanks) is not worth the time.
So where does this leave us? I envision a future where smart "genre" films are saddled with a budget ceiling, or worse- not made at all. Maybe direct-to-DVD is the future of geek-films. Who knows? But I, for one, hope beyond hope that the mainstream wakes up and smells the quality.
P.S. If you haven't seen Serenity yet (or if you want a taste to tide you over before the next time you see it), the first 9 minutes are now available on
iFilm. It's only a ten minute, zero dollar investment. Check it out- you might be surprised.
