Stuck” - Stuart Gordon (“Re-Animator”) creates a provocative, over-the-top experience in “Stuck,” a tabloid-tinged thriller inspired by true events. Brandi (Mena Suvari) is a compassionate young retirement-home caregiver in-line for a promotion. Tom (Stephen Rea) is a victim of the downsized economy, out of work and newly homeless. Their worlds collide when Brandi, driving home from a club after too many drinks and pills, accidentally hits Tom, the impact smashing his body head-first through her car’s windshield. If discovered, this “accident” will extinguish her bright future, so instead of saving him, her plan is to let him pass and dispose of the body later. Faced with this reality, Tom knows he must escape if he wants to survive.
While “Stuck” may be an entertaining piece of trash cinema - loosely based on a true story - poor Mena Suvari. The actress got her ‘big break’ over a decade ago in the Best Picture Oscar winner “American Beauty,” and like her “American Beauty” teen costar Wes Bentley, has seen her career go just about nowhere.
STARRING: Mena Suvari, Stephen Rae
DIRECTOR: Stuart Gordon
STUDIO: THINKFilm
RATING: R (For language, violence, nudity)
THEATER COUNT (Opening Weekend): TBD
RUNNING TIME: 85 minutes
TOTAL DOMESTIC BOX OFFICE: TBD
U.S. DVD RELEASE DATE: TBD
“The Strangers” is a suspense thriller revolving around a couple (Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman) in a remote suburban house who are targeted by three dangerous masked strangers. The resulting clashes force the couple to go well beyond what they thought themselves capable of in order to survive. What will happen in “The Strangers?”
STARRING:Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman, Gemma Ward
DIRECTOR: Bryan Bentino
STUDIO: Rogue Pictures
RATING: R (For violence, language, adult situations)
Chris Noth, who played “Mr. Big” in the hit HBO television series “Sex and the City,” is reprising that role in the big screen adaptation of the series, “Sex And The City The Movie.” The hit comedy series, cum movie, “SATC Movie” is being brought to the screen by New Line Cinema in association with HBO (their sister company).
Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon are all on board reprising their roles and the show’s longtime executive producer, Michael Patrick King, wrote and is directing. “There is no need for funeral arrangements,” says Michael Patrick King. “I assure you that Mr. Big is a very ‘big’ part of the “Sex and the City Movie.”
No details about the exact storyline for the feature film have been disclosed. Noth, who is also a cast member of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for his work on “Sex and the City” in 2000. After launching on HBO in 1998, Sex and the City ran for six seasons before the series finale in 2004. One of HBO’s biggest hits, the series earned 50 Emmy nominations during its run, winning seven of them including acting nods for Parker and Nixon. The series was also nominated for 24 Golden Globes, winning eight including Best TV Series - Musical or Comedy. The “Sex and the City Movie” was produced by King with Parker, John Melfi and Darren Star, who initially created the series based on autobiographical columns written by Candace Bushnell.
“SATC Movie” was being overseen at New Line by Toby Emmerich and production executives Richard Brener and Kathy Busby.
Look for “Sex And The City Movie” at your local multiplex in — 2008. And bookmark this page and check back often for “SATC Movie” updates.
STARRING: Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, Chris Noth, Jennifer Hudson
DIRECTOR: Michael Patrick King
STUDIO: New Line Cinema
RATING: R (For sexual situations, nudity, language, drug use, adult situations)
Savage Grace” - Adapted from the nonfiction book of the same name, “Savage Grace” recounts the true crime tale of the death of Barbara Baekeland. Clive Owen stars as Brooks Baekeland, the son of the man who invented Bakelite, one of the early forms of plastic. As the family fortune begins to decrease after years of wealth, Brooks marries Barbara (Julianne Moore), who desires to mingle in the highest social circles. They have a child, Antony, who is homosexual. Antony grows up to kill Barbara, in part because Barbara takes a personal interest in “curing” her son of his orientation. This is director Tom Kalin’s first film since 1991’s “Swoon,” a film about the infamous Leopold and Loeb murders.
STARRING: Julianne Moore, Clive Owen, Hugh Dancy
DIRECTOR: Tom Kalin
STUDIO: TBD
RATING: R (For violence, nudity, sexual situations, language)
War Inc” - “War Inc” is an audaciously funny and surprisingly poignant film in the vein of “Grosse Point Blank.” Co-written by Mark Leyner, Jeremy Pikser and producer/star John Cusack, the film also stars Hilary Duff, Marisa Tomei, Joan Cusack, Sir Ben Kingsley and Dan Aykroyd. “War Inc” is a political satire set in Turaqistan, a country occupied by an American private corporation run by a former US Vice-President (Dan Akroyd). In an effort to monopolize the opportunities the war-torn nation offers, the corporation’s CEO hires a troubled hit man, played by John Cusack, to kill a Middle East oil minister. Now, struggling with his own growing demons, the assassin must pose as the corporation’s Trade Show Producer in order to pull off this latest hit, while maintaining his cover by organizing the high-profile wedding of Yonica Babyyeah (Hilary Duff) an outrageous Middle Eastern pop star, and keeping a sexy left wing reporter (Marisa Tomei) in check.
STARRING: John Cusack, Hilary Duff, Marisa Tomei, Joan Cusack, Ben Kingsley, Dan Aykroyd
DIRECTOR: Joshua Seftel
STUDIO: First Look
RATING: R (For language, violence, sexual situations)
THEATER COUNT (Opening Weekend): 2
RUNNING TIME: 110 minutes
TOTAL DOMESTIC BOX OFFICE: TBD
U.S. DVD RELEASE DATE: TBD
Postal” - “Postal” - directed by the world’s worst director, Uwe Boll, (remember “Bloodrayne”)? - is insulting, irreverent, politically incorrect and funny as hell. POSTAL follows two days in the life of the Postal Dude, in the regrettably named town of Paradise. Just when he thinks he has hit rock bottom, things get worse. Sharing a trailer with his ever-expanding wife, Bitch, Dude is in a bad way. After a humiliating job interview and a nearly lethal trip to the welfare office, Dude finds himself on the doorstep of his Uncle Dave. Despite being the successful leader of the town cult, Dave is also finding himself in financial difficulties. Together, Dude and Dave hatch a plan to steal some valuable merchandise. Unfortunately for them, the much better organized and much better equipped Taliban has converged on Paradise for more sinister reasons. Things spiral out of control when Osama Bin Laden is forced to call in his friend George W Bush as back up. Few are left standing by the time Dude turns his back on Paradise. Dude quickly learns how liberating it can be when there is nothing left to lose. He learns never to trust a messiah, especially when that messiah has written his own bible. He learns that you can find love in the most unlikely places, even when the object of your affections is holding a gun to your head. Most importantly, he learns that there is nothing that a well timed nuclear explosion can’t solve.
STARRING: Zack Ward, Dave Foley, Chris Coppola, Verne Troyer
DIRECTOR: Uwe Boll
STUDIO: Freestyle Releasing
RATING: R (Language, violence)
Mandy Lane” - “All The Boys Love Mandy Lane.” Beautiful. Untouched. High school royalty waiting to be crowned. Since the dawn of Junior year, men have tried to possess her. Some have even died in reckless pursuit of this 16 year-old Texas angel. Chloe and Red invite Mandy out to Red’s family ranch for the weekend. Mandy sees it as an excellent opportunity to cement her new friendships. The boys see it as an opportunity to finally get with Mandy Lane. Driving across the Texas landscape, the kids begin to gently chip away at the wall that surrounds her. Joints are smoked. A keg is stolen off a beer truck. Pills are crushed to fine powder and inhaled. Mandy observes it all with the gentle interest of a foreign tourist. And they love her for it. At the ranch, all the boys start to make their move - each one hoping to be the first to attain the unattainable Mandy Lane. However, as night falls and the booze, drugs, and hormones take over, things are said and advances made which can never be reversed. Suddenly, sweet Mandy finds herself pit in a brutal struggle for survival against someone whose interest she has rejected. Forget reading, writing and arithmetic. In high school, learning to be yourself and not succumbing to peer pressure is the ultimate test. And this is one exam that Mandy is determined not to fail.
STARRING: Amber Heard, Anson Mount, Michael Welch, Aaron Himelstein, Edwin Hodge, Whitney Able, Luke Grimes, Melissa Price, Adam Powell
DIRECTOR: Jonathan Levine
STUDIO: Senator International
RATING: R (For violence, nudity, sexual situations, drug use, language)
The Children Of Huang Shi” - Based on real events, “The Children of Huang Shi” is a sweeping but intimate story set against war-torn China in the 1930’s. The film centers on a young English journalist (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), an American nurse (Radha Mitchell) and the leader of a Chinese partisan group (Chow Yun Fat) who meet in desperate and unexpected circumstances. Together they rescue 60 orphaned children, leading them on an extraordinary journey across hundreds of miles of treacherous terrain, through snow-covered mountains and an unforgiving desert. Along the way they discover the true meaning of love, responsibility and courage.
STARRING: Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Radha Mitchell, Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Li Guang
DIRECTOR: Roger Spottiswoode
STUDIO: Sony Classics
RATING: R (Violence, sexual situations, nudity, language)
THEATER COUNT (Opening Weekend): 2
RUNNING TIME: 114 minutes
TOTAL DOMESTIC BOX OFFICE: TBD
U.S. DVD RELEASE DATE: TBD
Trailer: The Children of Huang Shi (Official U.S. Version)
The Foot Fist Way” - Self-control, perseverance, integrity, indomitable spirit - that’s what it’s supposed to be all about at the Concord Tae Kwon Do Studio, where boys are turned into black-belts and suburbanites are chiseled into great warriors, all under the watchful tutelage of proud sensei Fred Simmons. That is, until Fred discovers his wife has been unfaithful and instantly descends into a blubbering mess. OK, so maybe Fred is far more blowhard than kick-ass hero. But when he sets out on a last-ditch quest to meet his kung-fu idol — the 8-time undefeated champ and star of the “Seven Rings of Pain” trilogy, Chuck “The Truck” Wallace - Fred winds up on a wild, comic journey that will take him from egomaniacal bluster all to the way to becoming the stand-up man of his delusional dreams.
The result is “The Foot Fist Way,” an uproarious, full-contact comedy featuring one of this year’s least likely of heroes. Shot in just 19 days on a credit card-financed micro-budget with a cast of mostly newcomers, the film became an overnight smash at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. There, audiences fell madly in love with the seriously self-deluded Tae Kwon Do instructor Fred Simmons, who talks a big, macho game but falls to whimpering pieces when his wife Suzie betrays him. Featuring the debut of North Carolina native Jody Hill as writer, director and producer and two hilariously tough-yet-tender performances from co-writers Danny McBride as Fred and Ben Best as Chuck “The Truck,” the film helped Hill, McBride and Best garner a place on Variety’s “Ten Comics to Watch” list.
STARRING: Danny R. McBride, Ben Best, Mary Jane Bostic
DIRECTOR: Jody Hill
STUDIO: Paramount Classics
RATING: R (Language, sexual content)
THEATER COUNT (Opening Weekend): TBD
RUNNING TIME: 87 minutes
TOTAL DOMESTIC BOX OFFICE: TBD
U.S. DVD RELEASE DATE: TBD
Indy 4″ - Steven Spielberg, whom Wild About Movies interviewed two summers ago, before the release of his version of “War of the Worlds,” has completed shooting the fourth, and presumably final, installment of “Indiana Jones,” starring Harrison Ford. “Indiana Jones 4″ hits movie theaters on Memorial Day 2008 - worldwide - nearly twenty years after “Indiana Jones 3,” aka “Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade” was released. Frank Darabont’s script, which had been one of the earlier drafts of “Indiana Jones 4,” was not chosen as the final draft. Forty-four year old David Koepp, who wrote the screenplay of Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds,” and first “Jurassic Park,” turned in the final “Indiana Jones 4″ screenplay, based on a story by Jeff Nathanson, who has previously written “Rush Hour 3.”
Stay tuned to Wild About Movies for “Indiana Jones 4″ updates, and of course, interviews with Spielberg, Harrison Ford, and the rest of the “Indiana Jones 4″ cast, closer to the film’s release date - “Indiana Jones 4.”
Filming of “Indiana Jones And The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” ended on October 11, 2007.
Sean Connery did not reprise his role in “Indiana Jones 4″ as Indy’s dad.
“Indy 4″ hits movie theaters - worldwide - including on IMAX screens, Memorial Day weekend 2008.
STARRING: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, James Broadbent, John Rhys-Davies, Kate Capshaw, Karen Allen, Shia LaBeouf, Cate Blanchett, Ray Winstone
DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg
STUDIO: Paramount Pictures
RATING: PG-13 (For mild language and comic book violence)
