Thanks for coming back for PART II. With pictures this time!!
Films That Have Not Yet Secured a Release Date
The Beaver
Why I'm on the Hook - Might I just start by saying that Mel Gibson is one lucky bastard that this is his next project and that it was filmed before the tapes of his controversial telephone rant were leaked. I don't think that there is much question within the industry that this is going to be a beast nasty film. Do you remember the Hollywood Black List that I spoke about in Part 1? Well, this was 2008's #1 Script. Industry insiders are saying that this is the best script to come along in years. You've got a director and star who is considered one of the best actresses of all-time and you have another star who is no slouch himself, having directed a Best Picture and garner multiple Oscars. Gibson's problems certainly aren't going to go away, but if there's one thing that can get him back into having a working career it's a critically-acclaimed masterpiece of a film. And no matter how mad people are at Mel Gibson...I don't think they're going to hold it against Foster and film because she appears to be universally loved as much as he is despised. I certainly won't hold it against the film and think that it will be fantastic even if I don't understand how this premise translates to genius.
Butter
The Plot - A depressed CEO of a toy company dons a beaver hand puppet to better communicate with his wife and his two sons.
The Who -
- Director = Jodie Foster (Silence of the Lambs, The Accused)
- Depressed CEO = Mel Gibson (Braveheart, Lethal Weapon franchise)
- Son = Anton Yelchin (Star Trek, Terminator: Salvation)
- Son's girlfriend = Jennifer Lawrence (The Bill Engvall Show, Winter's Bone)
Films I Hope it Can be Likened to - Maverick meets Lars and the Real Girl
Why I'm on the Hook - Might I just start by saying that Mel Gibson is one lucky bastard that this is his next project and that it was filmed before the tapes of his controversial telephone rant were leaked. I don't think that there is much question within the industry that this is going to be a beast nasty film. Do you remember the Hollywood Black List that I spoke about in Part 1? Well, this was 2008's #1 Script. Industry insiders are saying that this is the best script to come along in years. You've got a director and star who is considered one of the best actresses of all-time and you have another star who is no slouch himself, having directed a Best Picture and garner multiple Oscars. Gibson's problems certainly aren't going to go away, but if there's one thing that can get him back into having a working career it's a critically-acclaimed masterpiece of a film. And no matter how mad people are at Mel Gibson...I don't think they're going to hold it against Foster and film because she appears to be universally loved as much as he is despised. I certainly won't hold it against the film and think that it will be fantastic even if I don't understand how this premise translates to genius.Butter
The Plot - A young orphan discovers her uncanny talent for butter carving in an Iowa town where her adoptive family lives. The talent pits her against the ambitious wife of the reigning champion in the annual butter-carving competition.
The Who -
- Young Orphan = Yara Shahidi (Imagine That, Salt)
- Ambitious Wife = Jennifer Garner (Alias, Juno)
- Reigning Champion = Ty Burrell (Modern Family, The Incredible Hulk)
- Also featuring Hugh Jackman (X-Men franchise, The Prestige)
- Also featuring Olivia Wilde (House MD, The O.C.)
- Also featuring Ashley Greene (Twilight franchise)
- Also featuring Alicia Silverstone (Clueless, Batman and Robin)
- Also featuring Rob Corddry (The Daily Show, Hot Tub Time Machine)
- Also featuring Kristen Schaal (Flight of the Conchords, The Daily Show)
Films I Hope it Can be Likened to - Little Miss Sunshine meets Election
Why I'm on the Hook - Here we have another film that was in the Top 3 on 2008's Black List. While the director of this film is not that established...he did put the significantly better than expected She's Out of My League. And if the Weinsteins trust him with this ridiculously high profile script, then so do I. It will also be nice to see some of my favorite actors and actresses that I haven't see in a while. Jennifer Garner has been playing a mom recently and her acting a appearances have been too few and far between. Even fewer and farther betweener are the appearances of 1993's It Girl Alicia Silverstone. It's good to see her back on the big screen in a relevant role. We also might be seeing the break-out of young star Yara Shahidi whose career almost ended before it started because she starred in a movie with Eddie Murphy. However, she has since landed roles in two high-profile pictures, Salt and Butter. Can a role in the film Popcorn be far away? Throw in 2009's PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive and MAXIM's Sexiest Woman Alive and there is sex appeal to get 100% of non-asexual Americans into the theater.
Catch .44
The Plot - Tes, Dawn and Kara are three girls working dead end jobs barely getting by in Vegas. Their lives radically change when Tes has a run-in with an interesting stranger named Mel. When Mel offers the girls a chance at a better life through crime, they take him up on the offer only to find themselves thrust into a life or death situation involving a psychopathic hit-man, a grizzly trucker, and a delusional line cook.
The Who -
- Tes = Malin Akerman (Watchmen, Couple's Retreat)
- Dawn = Deborah Ann Woll (True Blood, My Name Is Earl)
- Kara = Nikki Reed (Twilight franchise, Thirteen)
- Mel = Bruce Willis (Die Hard franchise, The Sixth Sense)
- Also featuring Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland, The Shield)
- Also featuring Brad Dourif (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Lord of the Rings trilogy)
- Also featuring Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville, Sorority Boys)
Films I Hope it Can be Likened to - The Hangover meets Lucky Number Slevin
Why I'm on the Hook - As opposed to the two above movies, I have heard absolutely no word that this film has a good script. However, I have it on very good authority that it has three smokin' hot leading ladies and that's a start in the excitement category. Not only are all three of the leading ladies hot but they also have a nice little Neapolitan ice cream sandwich thing going with 1 blonde, 1 brunette, and 1 red-head. Throw in Bruce Willis and and Forest Whitaker and you've got a whole lot to love. It also takes place in Vegas. Everything is better in Las Vegas when it comes to movies. The Hangover was great, Leaving Las Vegas was great, and What Happens in Vegas was better than it would have been in Kansas City. Also, I find the premise of three debaucherous young gals running around Vegas on the wrong side of some mysterious crime boss' intentions to be like the female version of The Hangover...and I can definitely get behind that.
Cedar Rapids
The Plot - Tim Lippe, a small town insurance salesman heads off to the 'big city' of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to try and save his company at a regional conference when his boss dies in an auto-erotic asphyxiation accident.
The Who -
- Director = Miguel Arteta (The Good Girl, Youth in Revolt)
- Tom Lippe = Ed Helms (The Office, The Hangover)
- Also featuring John C. Reilly (Chicago, Talladega Nights)
- Also featuring Anne Heche (Donnie Brasco, John Q)
- Also featuring Kurtwood Smith (That 70s Show, Dead Poet's Society)
- Also featuring Sigourney Weaver (Aliens, Working Girl)
- Also featuring Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development, Whip It)
Why I'm on the Hook - This movie might be more than marginally ridiculous. The personnel and the plot don't shout great film to me, but I have it on more than good authority from industry insiders that the script is excellent. I think Ed Helms is a great comedic actor and while I might not think that he is the next big thing...he's a big thing. I also love Kurtwood Smith and am at a loss for why more people don't use him in films. It might be because whenever you look at him without facial hair you are destined to see Red Foreman. However, I'm really on the hook here because Cedar Rapids was on the Top 5 of the 2009 Black List and for a script to get green-lit and made with less than a year and a half of total turn-around means that it has to be pretty exciting stuff.
The Conspirator
The Plot - The film follows the story of Mary Surratt, the only female co-conspirator charged in the Lincoln assassination and the first woman to be hung by the United States federal government. She is defended by reluctant lawyer Frederick Aiken, who realizes that his client may be innocent and is being used as bait to capture the one fugitive from the conspiracy that still alludes federal marshals, her son, John Surratt.
The Who -
- Director = Robert Redford (Ordinary People, All the President's Men)
- Mary Surratt = Robin Wright (Forrest Gump, The Princess Bride)
- Frederick Aiken = James McAvoy (Atonement, Wanted)
- John Surratt = Johnny Simmons (Jennifer's Body, Evan Almighty)
- Also featuring Justin Long (Live Free or Die Hard, Dodgeball)
- Also featuring Evan Rachel Wood (Thirteen, The Missing)
- Also featuring Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton, In the Bedroom)
- Also featuring Norman Reedus (Boondock Saints, American Gangster)
- Also featuring Alexis Bledel (Gilmore Girls, Sin City)
- Also featuring Kevin Kline (A Fish Called Wanda, Dave)
Why I'm on the Hook - Sure this film has an Oscar-winning director and a cast who it's easy for me to get excited about, but the thing that gets me really excited about this film is the story. It's a true story and one that I think is the most interesting to tell. How a full-scale movie hasn't been made about the Lincoln assassination already is beyond me. There are so many juicy misconceptions and sub-plots. Did you know that it was actually a three-pronged assassination to plan to get the Secretary of War into office...only the attempts on Andrew Johnson and William H. Seward failed? It's a pretty sweet story and now a small part of it is being told. And not through some rosy lens by the God Bless America types. This is a story told by the Lincoln cynics like me who know that the war was not fought over slavery and that the North were not conquering heroes but consisted of just as many conniving, manipulative fear mongers as the South per capita. Of course I'm glad that the North won and that we preserved the Union and did away with slavery, but this movie will likely show the cost of how they handled the aftermath.Haywire
The Plot - A black ops super soldier seeks payback after she is betrayed and set up during a mission.
The Who -
- Director = Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Erin Brockovich)
- Writer = Lem Dobbs (The Hard Way, Dark City)
- Black Ops Super Soldier = Gina Carano (American Gladiators)
- Also featuring Michael Douglas (Wall Street, Fatal Attraction)
- Also featuring Ewan McGregor (Star Wars franchise, Moulin Rouge!)
- Also featuring Channing Tatum (GI Joe, Dear John)
- Also featuring Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds, 300)
- Also featuring Antonio Banderas (The Mask of Zorro, Shrek franchise)
- Also featuring Bill Paxton (Twister, Big Love)
Why I'm on the Hook - Steven Soderbergh has a knack for not doing shit for several years and then putting out two big masterpieces in the same year as he did in 2000 with Erin Brockavich and Traffic. And this year he is back to doing what he does best: movies without George Clooney. They have worked together seven times and there best showing was still their first: Out of Sight. However, this is not Soderbergh's Oscar-bait for this year. That would be the film Contagion which I introduced you to in the first half of this post. This is just going to be a kick-ass film. The star is a mixed martial arts fighter and former American Gladiator with very limited acting experience and the rest of the cast is a bunch of dudes who have made successful films within the action/intrigue genre. Let's just hope that with Antonio Banderas here that this film is a little more Once Upon a Time in Mexico and a little less Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever.
Hysteria
The Plot - A romantic comedy about the invention of the vibrator.
The Who -
- Featuring Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Dark Knight, Crazy Heart)
- Featuring Hugh Dancy (Black Hawk Down, Ella Enchanted)
- Featuring Rupert Everett (My Best Friend's Wedding, Shrek 2)
The Ides of March
The Plot - An idealistic staffer for a newbie presidential candidate gets a crash course on dirty politics during his stint on the campaign trail.
The Who -
- Director = George Clooney (Syriana, Good Night and Good Luck)
- Featuring Ryan Gosling (The Notebook, Half Nelson)
- Featuring Evan Rachel Wood (Thirteen, The Missing)
- Featuring Phillip Seymour Hoffman (Capote, Mission Impossible III)
- Featuring Marisa Tomei (My Cousin Vinny, The Wrestler)
- Featuring Paul Giamatti (Sideways, Cinderella Man)
Why I'm on the Hook - It's a close battle between this film and Rampart, but because this film is more of a sure thing I am going to make this the film that I am most excited for in 2011. Here it is. My #1 pick for 2011 and my way in advance Best Picture favorite is this move. It's got that Oscar-pedigree. It has a Top 5 Black List Script (see also: Juno, Lars and the Real Girl, Traffic), an A-List actor both starring and directing (see also: Dances with Wolves, Braveheart, Good Night and Good Luck), three Oscar-winners (as well as Clooney re-uniting with the man whose Oscar he stole...you my boy Giamatti), and a story that is loosely based on real life (the Presidential campaign of Howard Dean). The acting talent is tremendous, the director is proven, the script is fantastic, and Clooney is determined to erase his legacy as the worst Batman ever so that his obituary will have to focus on the multiple Oscars that he has won.
Kane and Lynch
The Plot - A pair of Death Row inmates, a mercenary named Kane and a schizophrenic named Lynch, escape during a prison transport and team up to retrieve a stolen fortune.
The Who -
- Director = F. Gary Gray (The Negotiator, The Italian Job)
- Kane = Bruce Willis (Die Hard franchise, The Sixth Sense)
- Lynch = Jamie Foxx (Ray, Collateral)
Films I Hope it Can be Likened to - Sin City meets Cool Hand LukeWhy I'm on the Hook - I stated on the last film that the Ides of March was my #1 film. Well, consider this to be #40. It is by far the one that I am least sure about. The casting is incomplete and it is based on a video game. Most people would stay away...but I'm intrigued. The game seems like there is enough there for you to mine a plot out of...unlike some other films that have been made from video games. I'm talking to you BloodRayne, Doom, and Hitman. You're okay, Resident Evil. However, this film has managed to rope in two big-time stars to fill out the title roles and given the premise of the games...I am intrigued. This one stands the best chance of nuking my cumulative score, but as of right now...I'd go see it.
The Low Dweller
The Plot - Set in Indiana in the mid-1980s, a man tries to assimilate into society after he's released from jail, only to find someone from his past pursuing him to settle a score.
The Who -
- Director = Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Black Hawk Down)
- Man = Leonardo DiCaprio (Titanic, Inception)
Why I'm on the Hook - This is yet another of the seven Black List Top 5 films that will be appearing on this list. This one gives me a serious A History of Violence feel and I mean that in the best way possible. This film might be lurking in top 5 but the reason that it isn't up with the Big 3 (Ides of March, Rampart, and The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made) is Body of Lies. Body of Lies got my hopes up huge time. It was a good book which was being made into a movie that re-teamed Scott and Russell Crowe from Gladiator and DiCaprio and Crowe from The Quick and the Dead, both awesome collaborations. And yet somehow the film fell a little flat. It wasn't bad. As a matter of fact, on Rotten Tomatoes 51% of critics liked it...but it wasn't anywhere near my expectations. However, I am still holding out big hopes for this one. When you've got a top ten script with, a top ten director, and an undisputed top five actor you have to give the film the benefit of the doubt and I think this one could hit huge if it's release date doesn't get pushed to 2012.
The Oranges
The Plot - Nina Ostroff doesn't know, but coming back for a Thanksgiving dinner after five years will turn her family's and the Walling's friendship upside down. Living across the street from each other both families seem to have been friends forever. After Nina broke off with her fiancé the two families are silently hoping that she might fall in love with Toby Walling. But an unexpected interest arises for David, the father of Toby, and it's the same with him. As the attraction between the both of them gets too obvious to ignore, the both families are facing a hard time.
The Who -
- Director = Julian Farino (Entourage, Big Love)
- Nina Ostroff = Leighton Meester (Gossip Girl, The Roommate)
- Toby Walling = Adam Brody (The O.C., Thank You For Smoking)
- David Walling = Hugh Laurie (House MD, Monsters vs. Aliens)
- Also featuring Catherine Keener (Being John Malkovich, Capote)
- Also featuring Oliver Platt (The Three Musketeers, Deadline)
- Also featuring Allison Janney (The West Wing, American Beauty)
- Also featuring Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development, Whip It)
Passengers
The Plot - A spaceship passenger is prematurely thawed from a cryogenic slumber a century before anyone else.
The Who -
- Director = Gabriele Muccino (The Pursuit of Happyness, Seven Pounds)
- Passenger = Keanu Reeves (The Matrix trilogy, Speed)
Why I'm on the Hook - Here we have yet another film on the list that is roping me in with it's great script. It's the fifth Black List Top 3 script to come out in 2011 along with Ides of March, The Beaver, The Oranges, and Butter. I can't say that the prospect of Keanu Reeves doing Castaway in space intrigues me but you don't argue with the Black List. It's got an accomplished director and there's no telling if he'll actually be wandering around alone up there the whole time. There might be a Pandorum thing going on. However, I can't tell you in great detail why I'm excited because this project is not very deep into development and is shrouded in secrecy.
Rampart
The Plot - The plot centers on the widespread corruption in the anti-gang unit of the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Division in the late 1990s.
The Who -
- Director = Oren Moverman (The Messenger, I'm Not There)
- Writer = James Ellroy (LA Confidential, Dark Blue)
- Featuring Steve Buscemi (Fargo, Reservoir Dogs)
- Featuring Robin Wright (Forrest Gump, The Princess Bride)
- Featuring Woody Harrelson (The People vs. Larry Flynt, Zombieland)
- Featuring Sigourney Weaver (Aliens, Working Girl)
- Featuring Anne Heche (Donnie Brasco, John Q)
- Featuring Ben Foster (3:10 to Yuma, 30 Days of Night)
- Featuring Ice Cube (Friday, Boyz N the Hood)
- Featuring Cynthia Nixon (Sex and the City, Amadeus)
Why I'm on the Hook - As has been mentioned above...I am exceedingly excited for this film. Corruption within the same police department that we rely on to serve and protect us makes for great material. One of my three all-time favorite television shows and one of my three all-time movies deal heavily with police corruption. If you guessed that those are The Shield and LA Confidential then you are clearly an astute observer of the human condition. If you have no clue how you were supposed to know that...then I worry about you, slightly. This movies combine the best of both of those worlds. Rampart is about the real-life Rampart police scandal that took place in LA in the 1990s. This was also the basis for The Shield (in early production the show was going to be called Rampart). And this movie is written by James Ellroy who wrote LA Confidential. How the two unproduced books from The LA Quartet, The Big Nowhere and White Jazz, haven't been made into movies by now is beyond me. You've also got a very capable director working with a cluster of veteran stars. Watch out for this one...it's not Street Kings.
The Rum Diary
The Plot - Paul Kemp is an itinerant journalist who tires of New York and America under the Eisenhower administration and travels to Puerto Rico to write for The San Juan Star. Kemp begins the habit of drinking rum and becomes obsessed with the woman Chenault.
The Who -
- Paul Kemp = Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Edward Scissorhands)
- Chenault = Amber Heard (Hidden Palms, Stepfather)
- Also featuring Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight, Thank You For Smoking)
- Also featuring Giovanni Ribisi (Saving Private Ryan, Avatar)
- Also featuring Richard Jenkins (Six Feet Under, The Visitor)
Super 8
The Plot - Abrams has refused to reveal the plot of the film as he wants to keep it a mystery and let the images speak for themselves. What has been confirmed is that it will take place in 1979 and it will be a homage/tribute to Spielberg's '70s and '80s science fiction films with a mystery and supernatural feel from Abrams.
The Who -
- Director = JJ Abrams (Alias, Star Trek)
- Featuring Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights, Early Edition)
- Featuring Elle Fanning (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Babel)
- Featuring Noah Emmerich (White Collar, The Truman Show)
Why I'm on the Hook - Obviously the name to be excited about here is JJ Abrams. The acting features a lot of relative unknowns...though many of them solid character actors with the only real draw being Coach Taylor himself, Kyle Chandler. But Abrams has a very solid track record with very few missteps. Four of the five shows that he created were hits and were very good. Depending upon your opinions on Fringe, three to four those were phenomenal. Undercovers was just him trying something new and it wasn't bad. His movie track record is not as flawless but is nothing to scoff at. He re-booted the Mission Impossible franchise to the point where I'm excited again after John Woo took a huge misstep with MI2. He made Star Trek relevant enough to people who live above basement level to the point where I actually saw it and enjoyed it, and Joy Ride was one of the best horror films of the 2000s. Armageddon made a bajillion dollars (a secret between you and me: I've never seen it so I can't say whether it's all that or not). He has yet to have a major misfire and he has some exceptional work, so count me in for Super 8...and I'll save you a seat.
Tree of Life
The Plot - The story centers around a family with three boys in the 1950s. The eldest son witnesses the loss of innocence.
The Who -
- Director = Terrance Malick (The Thin Red Line, The New World)
- Featuring Brad Pitt (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Fight Club)
- Featuring Sean Penn (Mystic River, Milk)
Why I'm on the Hook - This project has excited a lot of people. You have proven director with two of the most sought-after actors in show business in a script that those with knowledge of what it's actually about say is awesome. True this was another film that got bumped back, but it's scheduled release was December 2010...so that isn't a huge worry. The same thing happened to Shutter Island and that movie turned out to be really good. Word on the street is that it has already found distribution abroad and we might get early word on this one before it hits American soil.
NOTE: I will be tracking my own predictions as they come out and will let you know what my aggregate Rotten Tomatoes score is from time to time. I'm shooting for a 75+% by year's end.
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