Screener

Oliver Stone and Michael Douglas will return for 'Wall Street 2'

Perhaps you recall that last October, Fox planned to fast-track a sequel to 1987's Wall Street.  Well, six months later, they've resurfaced to announce that two of the originals are on board: Oliver Stone has agreed to direct, and Michael Douglas will reprise his Oscar-winning performance as Gordon Gekko.

Allan Loeb, who adapted the screenplay for 21 as well as upcoming film The Baster, has been writing the sequel, and apparently the strength of the story he turned in helped win over Stone to the project.  THR mentions  that this project has been in development for some time, and a quick check of IMDB reveals a project called Money Never Sleeps, which may be the script Allan Loeb rewrote, or chucked. 

While details of the movie, now titled Wall Street 2, have not been revealed, six months ago the plan was to pick up Gekko's story after he is released from jail.  Shia LaBoeuf is in talks to play a newbie, Charlie Sheen-like character that Gekko mentors, much like in the original film.  No word on where the movie will position itself in the financial crisis.  Will it dial back a couple years and let the audience revisit the collapse of all the major banks, or position the characters as looking to profit from the recession?  Production is on track to start this summer, which puts the film at a 2010 release, and Edward R. Pressman, who produced the first film, will also handle the second.

Still, one of the greatest liabilities of this project is what I'll call the Iraq War effect.  Movies like The Lucky Ones were being put into production constantly when the war was a hot topic, only to open in empty theatres because the movies either seemed not relevant enough to someone totally separated from the war, or too close to home for those with friends and family involved in the war.  Or, perhaps, maybe they just weren't good enough?

I saw the original Wall Street long after 80's excess had waved good-bye, but the film still worked for me because it made the 80's seem as epic and recognizable as the considerably more distant Roaring 20's.  Plus, the film wasn't dependent on being a homage to the age: it had a great script, direction, and unforgettable performances.  Will the sequel to Wall Street be able to position itself as timeless even as views on the financial crisis and recession continue to change?  Stone's most recent film, W., managed to do well even when though it released October 17th, on the eve of the election, during a time when public opinion of the President could have swung in any direction.  If anyone can handle a story that's giving a historical perspective on the modern day, it's Stone.

Tales of Downtown decline at Tribeca: The end of CBGB, the collapse of Wall Street

One of the strengths of the Tribeca Film Festival has always been its selection of documentaries, which play a prominent role in its programming. The Festival's quest for a New York connection in its films is also on display in two revealing documentaries that deal with very different aspects of the Downtown Manhattan scene: Burning Down the House, the story of the rise and fall of the legendary Bowery rock club CBGB, and American Casino, an incisive look at the short-sighted thinking and exploitation of minority communities that led to the subprime mortgage fiasco and the collapse of Wall Street.

Burning Down the House is directed by Mandy Stein, the daughter of Sire Records founder Seymour Stein and Linda Stein, the onetime manager of seminal punk band The Ramones, who was found murdered in her penthouse in October 2007. Both of her parents are interviewed in the film. On the scene at CBGB from the age of three, Mandy Stein began this project four years ago when she first learned the club was in danger of closing due to its back-rent dispute with its landlord, the Bowery Residence Committee, a homeless-outreach organization.

Opened in 1973, CBGB was the launching pad for some of rock's most influential artists of the 1970s and 80s, including The Ramones, The Police, Talking Heads, Patti Smith, Blondie and Television. Many of those colorful musicians appear in the movie, paying tribute to the club's iconoclastic founder, Hilly Kristal. There's plenty of nostalgic footage of performances and the club's dessicated decor, including its notoriously gross bathrooms (which give the men's room in Trainspotting some pungent competition).

Despite an aggressive campaign to save the club from eviction and have this "filthy hole" declared a city landmark, the fate of CBGB apparently came down to bad blood between Kristal and Muzzy Rosenblatt, the director of the Bowery Residence Committee. The club closed in October 2006 (after a final concert including Patti Smith and Blondie documented here), and now its awning and part of its zany interior are poignantly on display at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Annex in New York's Soho. Kristal died of lung cancer in August 2007. In true punk spirit, Talking Heads bassist Tina Weymouth is filmed on closing night shouting, "Whoever takes over this space is cursed!"

A curse of a different kind was cast on the many poor suckers who fell for the lure of subprime mortagages during the home-ownership frenzy that fueled the collapse of our financial system. Leslie Cockburn's aptly titled American Casino chronicles the unconscionable scam of speculation that played with and profited from the lives of naive first-time home buyers. Pointing out the illusory nature of the mortgage boom, Bloomberg reporter Mark Pittman notes, "I don't think most people really understood that they were in a casino. When you're in the Street's casino, you've got to play by their rules."

Cockburn's film contrasts the young Turks of Wall Street with a group of victims of the subprime shell game in an African-American neighborhood in Baltimore. According to the film, African-Americans were 3.8 times more likely to be given subprime loans in 2006, even though more than 60% of these same people actually qualified for less risky prime loans. One of the most affecting of the victims is Patricia McNair, an elegant clinical therapist at Johns Hopkins, whom Cockburn follows throughout her failed attempt to hold onto her home.

By contrast, an anonymous Bear Stearns analyst points out that agents along the real-estate value chain were always paid upfront and had "no skin in the game." In fact, some speculators profited handsomely from betting against people's ability to pay off their loans.

The film at times gets too caught up in the minutiae of financial schemes for anyone without an MBA degree, but it's an often devastating history of the greed, cynicism and short-term myopia that got us all into this current mess. "The Party's Over" plays sardonically on the soundtrack; let's hope American Casino adds to the sobriety.

Russell Brand becoming 'Drop Dead Fred'

One of my favorite childhood movies, Drop Dead Fred (1991), is being remade for the next generation.  Phoebe Cates, who I only now  recognize as the "Fast Times at Ridgemont High girl,"  starred in the original as a down-and-out grownup who loses her job and her husband and moves back home, only to be greeted by her very real, very invasive, long-lost imaginary friend, Fred, played by Brit Rik Mayall.  The premise understates the totally bizarre, gross, and comic interactions between Cates and Mayall that ensue, so I'm not surprised to hear that the movie was "critically drubbed and commercially unsuccessful."  However, the repeated viewings of my cousins, brother and me did not go unnoticed, as THR pointed out that "it did achieve a certain cult status and is considered a film that fell short of its full potential."

I can see why.  At the time, the movie really bothered me, both because Cates vacillated between covering for her imaginary friend Fred so she wouldn't appear crazy, and unsuccessfully explaining his presence, and, most importantly, because Drop Dead Fred would be so mean to her and cause so many problems in her life.  The very fact that these choices made the film so uncomfortable to watch also made it appealing to see again and again, as if finally, this time, it wouldn't bother you so much.

What really makes this project sparkle is the choice of British funnyman Russell Brand to play Drop Dead Fred.  I can't think of a better star to lead this project.  For those who haven't seen him in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, watched a red carpet interview, or paged through his bestselling memoir My Booky Wook, Brand is Drop Dead Fred: self-involved to the point that he's destructive to others, irreverent and insulting, but absolutely entertaining to be around.  Like many great comedians, he is a bit unhinged, just like the imaginary friend.  Dennis McNicholas (Land of the Lost, "SNL") will write the screenplay, which plans to expand the idea of "imaginary friends" into a universe.  I think the film could be helped by having a more complete cinematic world, since the first film played very loose with the "rules and regulations" of imaginary friends.  Still, that openness that drove me nuts was the very reason I watched the film again and again.  I'm sure the choice will make the remake more likely to be a commercial hit this time around, but feeling satisfied, instead of maddened, at the finish might preclude it from becoming a cult hit.

Clips abound on YouTube, check out the British-accented Fred wreaking havoc here.

Audiences 'Obsessed' with Beyoncé

This weekend’s top draw at the box office was Obsessed, a thriller about a married man and his workplace stalker.  Star Beyoncé helped draw in female viewers, nudging the Sony Screen Gems picture to $28.5 million, its second-highest open after another kind of horror film, The Exorcism of Emily Rose.  Obsessed earned over double the gross  of the runner-up, 17 Again.  The Zac Efron starrer dropped 50% from last week to finish at $11.6 million.

At number three, Fighting brought in $11.4 million from the genre audience, and, despite a title ripe for mocking, earned a 38% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.  Earning $8.5 million, Earth bragged the best open ever for a nature film, a boon for the new Disneynature label, which already has a follow-up, Oceans, planned for Earth Day 2010.  Even with a star-studded cast, a pedigree director, and little competition, The Soloist earned a light $9.7 million.  The music tale failed to hit the right note, and had little to entice audiences.

At number six, Monsters vs. Aliens continued to enjoy the long box-office ride characteristic of animated children’s films, and especially 3D ones.  In its fifth week of release, it earned $8.5 million while dropping just 35%, the smallest decrease of any top ten film.  Compare that to third-weeker Hannah Montana: The Movie, which dropped 58% its first week, and slightly curbed its fall this week to 52%, grossing $6.3 million.

On the specialty side, Bret Easton Ellis adaptation The Informers, Sundance’s “designated punching bag,”  continued its beating, earning just $622 per theatre to bring in $300,000 at #19.  On the flip side, Tyson earned $7,818 per theatre across eleven locations, an auspicious open for the documentary.  This Friday, X-Men Origins: Wolverine opens alongside romantic comedy Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and 3D animated Battle for Terra.

Are you 'Obsessed,' 'Fighting,' or in the mood for 'The Soloist'?

Leading the pack of this week's releases is The Soloist (2,024 theatres).  The feel-good story of a friendship between a newspaper reporter and a talented schizophrenic homeless man comes off as "sensitive but surprisingly unmoving," according to our critic Wendy Weinstein.  While the story may fail to move, you can spend your time observing the technical expertise behind the project.  The cinematography is impeccable, and the use of sound is Raging Bull-level, all the more fitting given the troubled musician at the center of the film.  The acting of Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr., too, stirs up no objections.  Still, this drama was moved from awards season for a reason, so I doubt that the film will be the number one finish of the week.

Also in wide release are Obsessed (2,514 theatres) and Fighting (2,310 theatres), two exploitative-sounding films with titles that seem to sum up the plots.  Obsessed, which didn't screen for critics, is  a Fatal Attraction-type movie that pits Ali Larter of TV's "Heroes" against Beyonce.  Larter, a temp worker, seduces Beyonce's husband, then uses all the violence and sex she can muster to destroy the couple.  Fighting, more specifically, is about underground fights in New York City, the kind "around which ungodly amounts of money float in terms of bets and a winner-take-all purse," and "nobody's very smart."  They join Disneynature's Earth (1,804 theatres), which has already racked up $4 million since it released on its Earth Day opening.

On the specialty front, the stylistic tale of a real-life corrupt Italian politician, Il Divo, releases in Manhattan, joined by Buenos Aires-set drama Empty Nest (NY), a Bret Easton Ellis adaptation, The Informers (482 theatres), a Korean drama that offers a "glowing reminiscence of a difficult childhood," Treeless Mountain (NY), and Mike Tyson documentary Tyson (11 theatres).

Next week kicks off the summer movie season with the release of X-Men: Wolverine, so check back for the start of the blockbuster rollout.

David Slade directing 'Eclipse'; Diaz, Banks to star in workplace comedies

Busy filming the follow-up to Twilight, New Moon, Summit is wasting no time putting together the third film, Eclipse.  Trying to capture their teen audience before they age out of the series (not that the Harry Potter films have had that problem), they've brought on a different director for each film to speed up the process.  David Slade will direct the third installment.  He's no stranger to vampires, having recently directed horror film 30 Days of Night.  A more interesting part of his resume is Hard Candy.  At the time, our reviewer Frank Lovece called it a "low-budget gem" that starred "a little-known American actor and an award-winning 17-year-old Nova Scotian actress," otherwise known as Patrick Wilson (Watchmen) and Ellen Page (Juno)  The plot, which seems reminiscent of Japanese torture-romance horror films, involves an online romance between the two actors, one playing a fourteen-year-old, the other a thirty-two-year-old photographer.  When they meet, the young girl drugs and abuses the photographer, who she wants to punish for being a pedophile.  With horror and torture under his belt, Slade seems an unusual choice for the director spot.  However, when you're dealing with a love triangle where one character must resist his urges to murder his girlfriend, Slade's background sounds right on target.

On a lighter note, Cameron Diaz is in final talks to play an ambulance-chasing lawyer in workplace comedy Bobbie Sue.  She goes from the streets to a gig at a prestigious law firm when they decide the tough, pretty blonde would be a strategic face for a sexual discrimination suit.  I can only hope this means Diaz has abandoned her plans to play an "acerbic" wingman in Swingles, the obnoxiously titled film that had me groaning.  While I suspect there's a romance in the film along the lines of Gerard Butler-Katherine Heigl in upcoming The Ugly Truth, the details of the plot have not been released.  Since workplace comedy seems to be the new romantic comedy, Elizabeth Banks announced she will star in Forever 21 for DreamWorks.  Though the high-concept plot has not been released, there are no indications that it is related to discount clothing store Forever 21.

Summer season gets some competition

Hollywood used to have a scheduling formula: blockbusters and tentpoles in the summer, awards films in the winter, and more blockbusters to cover the winter holidays and Easter/spring break.  While the logic makes sense, it's left many moviegoers high and dry when they want to see a good film at an off time.  There's nothing worse than wanting to catch a movie with a friend in late January, only to be faced with stale awards fare or some unappealing horror film or teen comedy.

However, just as television stations colonized the rerun space of summer a few years back, studios are looking hard at the recent succeses of "off-time" movies that opened, like 300, Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Taken.  In a model that pits quality films against quality and junk against junk, these films managed to rise above the pack, doing consistent business week after week because they were more than "just junk," they (arguably) were films that people would have seen at any time of year.

Fox is jumping on this strategy, and recently moved several of its upcoming films  to these less competitive but more and more lucrative slots.  Tooth Fairy, the Dwayne Johnson movie planned for a pre-Thanksgiving November 13th release in 2009, has been pushed back to January 22, 2010.  Race to Witch Mountain, which Johnson recently starred in, also opened on a slightly off time, March 13 of this year, and racked up $63 million, so the studio can expect similar results.

The comedy Date Night will open on April 9, 2010, also a light time at the box office, but one that coincides with the television schedules of Tina Fey and Steve Carell--expect many commercials for the film during "30 Rock" and "The Office."  In another off spot (though coming in around when some lucky students have mid-winter break), the kid fantasy adventure Percy Jackson will release on February 12th.

Like Paramount last year with Iron Man, Fox is pushing the boundaries of "summer movie season."  While, like the color white, tentpoles were taboo before Memorial Day,  X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which has all the markers of a tentpole, will release on May 1st, weeks before the kick-off holiday.  The studios's not abandoing the Memorial Day slot, as it's positioned Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian there against Terminator Salvation, but it's front-loading its films that can easily be classified as tentpoles, leaving movies like Fox Searchlight's Jennifer's Body (September 18) to finish up the summer, a time when back to school leads to a temporary drop in the box office.

For me, evenly spacing quality films will lead to more trips to the box office.  While I certainly go to the movies more in the summer and the winter, it's because there are more  films I want to see, not necessarily because I have more spare time.  While I do have some nostalgia for childhood trips to air conditioned theatres during summer break, and seeing a special film the day after Thanksgiving,  nostalgia alone does not sell movie tickets (unless we're talking about a drive-in theatre).  Making movie marquees appealing year-round is an excellent decision by Fox, and one that many studios will likely follow.

Tribeca preview: 'In the Loop' and 'Still Walking'

The eighth annual Tribeca Film Festival, founded by Robert De Niro and his producing partner Jane Rosenthal to help reinvigorate Lower Manhattan after the Sept. 11, 2001 attack, opens tomorrow night with the world premiere of Woody Allen's Whatever Works. Allen's return to his native city after a movie retreat to London and Barcelona is an appropriate kickoff for this very New York-oriented event, even if L.A. transplant Larry David is the ultra-curmudgeonly mouthpiece for Allen this time out. The comedy, which has the bald, aging David marrying 21-year-old Evan Rachel Wood, may offer some queasy parallels to Allen's personal life, but its general attitude is that when it comes to romantic relationships...hey, whatever works.

The Tribeca Festival itself has been taking a hard look at what works (and doesn't) and has slimmed down considerably from its past excess of screening choices. The Fest has been criticized for not being selective enough (especially in its programming of low-budget indies), and for being rather too eager to host Hollywood fluff (the Olsen Twins' New York Minute in 2004 being an especially regrettable choice). The jury's still out on whether something like Nia Vardalos' My Life in Ruins, this year's closing night attraction, is festival-worthy, but this edition's trimmer schedule of 85 features (including 45 world premieres) and 46 shorts, seems to have a healthy ratio of strong and intriguing contenders.

I've already seen two exceptional Tribeca selections, both from IFC Films and both slated for release this summer: In the Loop and Still Walking.

The BBC production In the Loop is one of the most consistently funny films I've seen in years. The feature debut of director and co-writer Armando Iannucci, this droll political satire is an offshoot of an award-winning BBC TV series, "The Thick of It," which centered on a British government minister and his team of wily spin doctors. For the big-screen incarnation, the scope widens to explore the relationship between Britain and the U.S. in the leadup to an unnamed war (think Iraq).

In a radio interview, the incompetent Minister for International Development, Simon Foster (Tom Hollander), declares that war is "unforeseeble," then muddies the waters to a murky shade when he tries to revise his comment in a subsequent encounter with the press, proclaiming that Britain "must be ready to climb the mountain of conflict." Before long, Simon becomes a pawn in the campaign of State Department honcho Linton Barwick (David Rasche) to fire up support for an invasion in the Middle East.

The film is a true transatlantic ensemble effort, with great comic opportunities for its entire Brit and U.S. cast. Peter Capaldi (Local Hero) is hilarious as the volatile, profane Director of Communications for the Prime Minister, who takes the seething insult to a new level of artistry. Mimi Kennedy, best known from TV's "Dharma and Greg," shines as a high-powered, liberal-leaning diplomat with major dental problems, and James Gandolfini, Tony Soprano himself, gets to show his comic side as a general skeptical of the push toward war. (Well-read, he calls himself "the Gore Vidal of the Pentagon" until someone notes that Vidal is gay.)

Iannucci's film is partly improvised, which is hard to fathom since the witticisms here seem to flow endlessly. The performances straddle that fine line between the absurd and the utterly credible, giving the impression that this outrageous satire isn't really that far from the awful truth. In the Loop debuts at Tribeca on April 27 and opens in theatres on July 24.

IFC was also smart to acquire Still Walking, the latest film from accomplished Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-Eda (Nobody Knows, After Life). This subtle, poignant and charming drama all takes place in one day, as a 40-year-old art restorer returns for a visit to his elderly parents' home with his new wife, a widow, and her ten-year-old son. The occasion is the 15-year anniversary of the accidental drowning death of his older brother.

Nothing much happens plotwise apart from the tensions revealed within this family of complex and often ornery individuals. Over the course of the film they bicker, make tentative connections, and ultimately reveal the sad distance that will be regretted once the elders are gone forever. Kore-Eda wrote the film in response to the death of his own parents, and there's a refreshing, clear-eyed lack of sentimentality to this portrait that is yet a moving reflection on mortality."We're not normal," one character observes of the family's dysfunction. "These days we're not abnormal," another replies.

Still Walking debuts at Tribeca on April 28 and opens in theatres on August 21.

Teens turn out for Efron's #1 finish, '17 Again'

Catching the last wave of students on Spring Break, 17 Again won the weekend with $24 million.  While the teen comedy opened lower than last week's tween topper Hannah Montana: The Movie, which brought in $32 million in its opening weekend, both Disney-bred stars were able to open a film in the #1 spot, something the Jonas Brothers failed to do this February. 

Because Miley Cyrus fans make it a priority to see the film opening weekend, her film dropped 61% from last week, finishing at #4 with $12.6 million.  Her next project, The Last Song, penned by Nicholas Sparks, will have almost the same set-up (she will play an out-of-line teen sent to live with her estranged father, instead of her grandparents), so hopefully her fans won't be weary of the premise.

Right below 17 Again, State of Play came in at #2 with $14 million.  The journo-political thriller was expected to suffer the same fate as Crowe's fall film Body of Lies, which opened at $12 million, but tacked on another $2 million to the earlier film's non-intriguing open.

Sequel Crank: High Voltage opened at #6 with $6.5 million, a slightly disappointing performance.  The first film, which opened on Labor Day weekend of 2006, brought in $12.8 million.  Still, its performance might be enough to greenlight a Crank 3.

Among returning films, Monsters vs. Aliens dropped 40% to earn $12.9 million at #3.  Fast & Furious brought in $12.2 million, and Observe and Report slid 60% to $4 million.  The controversial comedy's #7 finish will probably be its last in the top ten.  The oldest film to make the list, I Love You, Man, brought in $3.3 million in its fifth week in release.

Among specialty films, Every Little Step had the highest per-screen average, earning roughly $9,000 per screen.  Second-runner-up Is Anybody There?, which stars Michael Caine and posted a $7,000 per-screen average.

This Friday, no film will release above 2,400 screens, which is on the small side for a wide release.  In honor of Earth Day, Disney releases Earth this Wednesday.  On Friday, it will be joined by romance-thriller Obsessed, director Joe Wright's The Soloist, and Rogue Pictures' Fighting.

Zac Efron competes for teen crowds in '17 Again'

Teen girls must be in heaven.  Hannah Montana one week, and Zac Efron the next?  The hunky star from High School Musical appears in switcheroo tale 17 Again (3,255 theatres).  The Warner Bros. comedy borrows a plot familiar to those who have grown up on the iterations of Freaky Friday and Disney TV movies: in this case, Matthew Perry transforms into his 17-year-old self (Zac Efron), using these rather extraordinary circumstances to meddle in his children's lives--when his daughter isn't trying to make out with him.

A star-laden film with highly managed expectations, State of Play (2,803 theatres) offers audiences a bit of that old-school journalism, the kind that had budgets to sniff out corruption.  Its reviews have been middling, and it sounds as if the plot has some vertiginous plot twists.  If you're less into expose journalism and more into your columnists, you can hold out until next week, and see Robert Downey, Jr. in The Soloist,  playing a journalist who befriends a homeless, mentally ill musician (Jamie Foxx) and writes about it in his heartwarming columns.

Perhaps you've seen Bai Ling's outfits, but have you ever seen one of her movies?  There's a chance to fix that with Crank: High Voltage (2,223 theatres), directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor’s sequel to their frenetic 2006 actioner. This time around, the chaos begins when muscular Jason Statham’s heart is stolen and replaced with an inferior model.  Also, there are car chases.

On the specialty front, the documentary Every Little Step releases in Manhattan and Los Angeles.  It follows the making of the revival of A Chorus Line, a musical about the difficulties of casting and typecasting in the theatre business.  The whittling down of the cast is a decidedly more subtle version of "American Idol" and its family of reality competition shows: slight changes in pitch, movement, and line delivery send some people to the next round and others home, and trying to figure out exactly what the casting directors notice is a process intriguingly maddening to both the viewer and the actors.  Also opening on 20 screens is The Golden Boys, a period "indie romantic comedy" centered on three old men, an unusual premise if I ever heard one.

What if those gooey cocoons in The Matrix were something people--marginalized people, mind you--entered and left willingly to do manual work overseas, while still "safely" situated abroad.  In sci-fi thriller Sleep Dealer (18 screens), Mexican workers do their work remotely via giant robot coccoons.  Also political without being metaphorical, American Violet (61 screens) tells the real-life story of "a racist raid in rural Texas during the 2000 Presidential election."  Oh, and despite this film, the perpetrator is still employed.  If you prefer your political films to  "[eschew] the violence and agit-prop that inform similar politically themed films, " perhaps Lemon Tree (NYC) will entice you: Director Eran Riklis uses a "strong sense of story, empathy with problems all too human, and a reasoned approach to issues and emotions that feed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."  Monday, we'll be back to see whose film has better captivated the teen audience--  Will it be Miley Cyrus or Zac Efron?