‘Giant plants attack people’. Now, there’s a high concept idea from a time when Simpson and Bruckheimer were barely into puberty, let alone slipping Tom Cruise into a fighter jet. It’s also the premise for the BBC commissioned, modern day remake of the (somewhat iconic) 1962 sci-fi flick, The Day of the Triffids. Itself an adaptation of John Wyndham’s 1951 novel, the film is one of those camp relics that, though known well by title and poster, is disproportionately famous when compared to the number of people that have actually seen it. I suspect, much like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Planned as a two part drama for BBC1 the script will come courtesy of Patrick Harbinson, the writing talent behind ER and Law & Order. The Beeb has had a go at a Triffids remake in the past – a 1981 version was set in the late 20th Century – but this version promises to update the story with a topical twist involving the search for fossil fuels in 2011. Earlier this year The Ruins had a go at making flora scary again, but for all its ancient-civilization-with-savage-rituals and copious blood letting, the sorry fact is that giant, angry plants just aren’t that scary. Comical maybe. Scary? Not so much. Hopefully the powers that be will err on the side of sci-fi over horror, and if it comes to budget CGI versus a guy in a rubber plant suit, the latex wins every time.
[Twitch-O-Meters will remain at the top of the page for the duration of the day they were published. Please scroll down for today’s film news]
Time flies when you’re having fun, especially if you can’t count.
I expected that shortly we’d have to do a special Twitch-O-Meter because number 100 was coming up. But when I finished counting them all, guess what: I was already too late. Last week was actually the hundredth of these that got published.
Which makes this Twitch-O-Meter number 101.
And that gave me the idea to put up a list with links to all the 100 which had come before.
Sometimes we do get asked what the Twitch-O-Meter is supposed to be, or what its purpose is. What it is is quickly answered: it’s a weekly column, mostly (but not always) in the form of a list or a countdown.
What the purpose is takes a bit longer to explain, but it basically amounts to this: here at Twitch, most of the time we write about news. New movies, new plans from actors and directors, new DVDs…
But we didn’t become film fans because of news. We started to love films because of specific titles, specific events, specific genre highlights. The Twitch-O-Meter was invented so we had a chance to write about things we love and hate. And to share opinions and other stuff which does not necessarily constitute news.
These are our labors of love, or at least they should be. And what have we done with the freedom this column grants us? Find out after the break!
Continue Reading "What Came Before 101: A Big List Of All Twitch-O-Meters So Far"...
In the beginning there was Wallace And Gromit and, yes verily, it was good. And Wallace and Gromit begat Shaun the Sheep - though not literally because that would be impossible for both species and gender reasons - and, also verily, that was also good. And now Shaun shall beget Timmy Time, a new fifty two episode television series featuring Timmy, the little lamb who made it’s first appearance as part of Shaun‘s flock.
Yep, the shows are getting progressively younger as they go but I’m a sucker for anything Aardman Animation does so I’ll be keeping an eye out for this once it hits the air in 2009.
Knocking around the festival circuit since Jan 2007, and picking up some positive reactions, Trade is getting a UK release on 12th December. Inspired by Peter Landesman’s article in The New York Times Magazine, “Sex Slaves on Main Street,” the film explores the international sex trade which ensnares over 800,000 people a year. Focusing on the story of Adriana, a 13 year old girl from Mexico City, whose kidnap by sex traffickers prompts her brother Jorge to embark on a desperate bid to save her, Trade features a pretty diverse range of talent. Kevin Kline headlines as the ostensible star, a friendly policeman who aids Jorge in his hunt, whilst the script was written by Jose Rivera, Oscar-nominated for The Motorcycle Diaries. It is, perhaps surprisingly, produced by Roland Emmerich of Independence Day fame and directed by fellow German, Marco Kreuzpaintner in his US feature debut. No doubt Emmerich has added some much needed clout to the production and marketing, and it’s nice to see Kevin Kline in a meatier role for once. The trailer very much pushes this as an ‘issue’ movie with a frustratingly earnest and preachy tone, but there’s still much to get enthused about – the trailer can be found below the break.
Continue Reading "TRADE reaches UK shores"...
How on earth did Sean Connery survive the Zardoz period of his career? No particular reason for this post other than that I just found a nice, high res version of the trailer and it’s gloriously trashy 70’s pulp. And it’s got breast, so definitely of the not safe for work variety. Trailer’s below the break in the Twitch Player.
Continue Reading "Just Because We Can. It’s The Trailer For ZARDOZ."...
We’ve written in the past about the Cinema 16 series of short film collections and the series returns with a collection titled simply World Short Films that may very well boast the most recognizable collection of names yet on this impressive, eclectic series. Who’s involved? Guillermo Del Toro, Park Chan Wook, Andrea Arnold, Sylvain Chomet, Alfonso Cuaron, Guy Maddin, Jane Campion, Alexander Sokurov, and while you may not recognize the film makers’ names you’ll certainly have heard us talking about stunning Canadian stop motion short Madame Tutli-Putli in these pages if you’ve spent much time around here at all.
Continue Reading "Cinema 16 Travels The World"...
Twitch readers in the United Kingdom should be pleased (hopefully) about the following news. Jasper Sharp, author of Behind the Pink Curtain and co-founder of Midnight Eye web site, will present a special lecture entitled The History and Development of Japanese Pink Film at the Japan Foundation in London. The lecture will occur on December 3, 2008 at 6:30 pm. The event is a part of the British Film Institute’s Wild Japan film series, which commences on December 1st. The program of 35mm ultra-rare screenings includes such titles as In the Realm of the Senses, Blue Film Woman, Gushing Prayer (represented by the still image at the left), Watcher in the Attic and Woods are Wet. Interested viewers should note that Blue Film Woman and Gushing Prayer are being screened from newly struck 35mm English-subtitled prints. Until the September 2008 screenings at Fantastic Fest, neither film had screened outside of Japan since they were released in the late 60s-early 70s.
Jonás Cuarón’s début is an exciting, charming and genuinely touching coming-of-age movie that defies conventional generic boundaries. The son of Alfonso, Cuarón Jr. draws on many notions from his father’s work and indeed the broader context of recent Mexican cinema; a cross generational relationship, the trials of puberty and the fleeting moments that shape young lives, so intense and affecting at the time yet painfully short-lived. But here they are shaped into an experimental and fresh piece of work that resembles the exotic child from a union between La Jetée and Y Tu Mamá También. A documentary spliced with coming-of-age drama composed entirely of still photographs edited into a narrative that spans a year in the lives of Molly (Eireann Harper), a 21 year old American travelling through Mexico, and Diego (Diego Cataño), a typically and perpetually horny 14 year old – naïve, romantic and troubled by a persistent ingrowing toenail.
Continue Reading "Año Uña (Year of the Nail) Review"...
The 7th Discovering Latin America Film Festival kicks off in November promising excitement, passion and unrivalled vitality. Anyone who’s seen recent examples of Latin American cinema that have made it to our shores will know that whatever you’re expecting, you’re probably wrong - and therein lies the pleasure. Showcasing the best in shorts, features and documentaries from across Latin America between 27th November and 7th December, this year’s festival is screening at a variety of great venues in central London; the ICA, Tate Modern and Ritzy amongst others. The schedule opens with Chilean director Andrés Wood’s The Good Life (La Buena Vida) on the 27th.
All the details you could want can be found at the official website here.
My interview with San Francisco Film Society associate programmer Sean Uyehara regarding the 3rd edition of the International Animation Festival is up at SF360. Unbeknownst to me, my editor at SF360 lopped off the tail end of the interview, which I offer here for posterity’s sake (though I don’t know why I should; to quote Woody Allen: “What has posterity ever done for me?"):
SF360: With the San Francisco Film Society’s recent partnership with the Film Arts Foundation, will you be teaching any of their film courses?
Uyehara: Yes, I’m teaching an introductory class on basic concepts in film criticism: why critics take certain positions, what it is that they’re falling back on, what their assumptions are. What acumen do writers bring to this kind of writing, what are their goals, and how do they evaluate a movie? What is their criteria?
SF360: Are these classes being held at the Ninth Street Film Center?
Uyehara: Some of the classes are being held there and some are being held in the Presidio.
SF360: Well, Sean, to wrap up, thanks for the insightful preview. I’m genuinely looking forward to this year’s edition of the International Animation Festival and, once again, congratulations on your expanded, multi-faceted efforts.
Cross-published on The Evening Class.
I’m looking at the schedule for the 6th annual 3rd i (as in “eye") San Francisco International South Asian Film Festival, starting this Thursday November 13. The festival kicks off Thursday evening at the Brava Theater, continuing there Friday evening, and moves to the Castro for longer programs over the weekend. I’m reviewing nine and a half of the fifteen offerings to see what I would choose if I had only one full consecutive day and night to devote to it. Don’t get me wrong—I personally think it’s worth following around all weekend, but most people have non-festival lives to lead and errands to run.
What makes both Saturday and Sunday long but rewarding slogs is the excellence of their morning films. (My thinking is, if you’re at the Castro for an 11:30AM screening, why not stay the entire day and night?) Saturday’s is the lovely 1929 silent film A Throw of Dice (Pranpancha Pash), directed by German director Franz Osten, who made Hindi films with Bombay Talkies producer (and Dice villain) Himanshu Rai. Osten/Rai’s previous works Prem Sanyas (1925) and Shiraz (1928) have been shown at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. Dice, a UK-India-Germany co-production that predates Bombay Talkies, dramatizes episodes from the Mahābhārata in which gambling junkie King Ranjit loses his kingdom and fiancée in a crooked wager instigated by a jealous rival. When Ranjit’s loyal vassals learn of the cheat dice, they storm the vast deserts and majestic forts of Rajasthan (where the film was shot) in epic numbers.
Continue Reading "3rd i 2008—Frako Loden Previews the Line-up"...
What is it with retitling Australian movies for the US market? I can make sense of it when you’re talking about different languages, but from English to English? Last week I reviewed “Strange Behavior”, of which the Australian version had the title “Dead Kids”, and this week I review “Dark Forces”, of which the Australian version had the title “Harlequin”.
I didn’t mind it so much last week as I thought the US-version actually had the better title, but this time it’s different.
Because “Dark Forces” is a very generic name for a very un-generic thriller, while “Harlequin” more or less sums it up nicely (so I’ll keep calling it that). The movie itself is a bag of tricks, defying each genre you try to fit it in. When forced to come up with one I’d call it a supernatural thriller, but “Harlequin” encourages you (challenges, even) to try and debunk the supernatural aspect. And this film definitely is worth looking close enough at to do some scrutinizing.
More after the break…
Continue Reading "DARK FORCES aka HARLEQUIN DVD Review"...
While fans of Adam Mason and Simon Boyes are still waiting for their chance to check out Blood River - a film that has just recently found it’s final form - the duo have not been idle. Nope. In the time it has taken Blood River to make its way through post-production the duo have re-teamed with actor Andrew Howard to shoot Luster. Howard, of course, stars in both Blood River and The Devil’s Chair and he once again takes the lead here is a story sure to surprise fans.
Thomas Luster is a troubled businessman who tries to make sense of a life being driven out-of-control by a force closer to home than he first realizes. When he discovers that the man working against him is another side of his own personality he is forced to fight back against his manipulative alter-ego as murder, madness and mayhem combine to take Thomas Luster on the most bizarre and terrifying ride of his life.
The film has a strong - though very dark - comic element to it and Howard has undergone enough of a physical transformation that it took me a good little while to realize that it was him I was watching in the promo reel even though I knew he had been cast in a major role. The poster to the left is freshly released and you can see a larger version by clicking the link below.
Steven Sheil’s Mum and Dad has gotten a good amount of notice in these parts - you can find James’ review here - tanks to its particularly nasty take on family dynamics and with the film’s UK release jsut around the corner it should come as no surprise that there are new trailers and the like in the works. What does come as a bit of a happy surprise is that we’ve got an exclusive early look at the brand new trailer - not due to roll out to the UK public for another day or two - here at Twitch. You can check it out below the break in the Twitch Player.
Continue Reading "An Exclusive Early Look At The New Trailer For Brit Horror MUM & DAD"...
Alright, this is an interesting combination of talent. Hideo Nakata has directed some very good J-Horror films. He has a good eye. And you don’t win the Cannes Camera d’Or by submitting your diary. So including the writing talents of scribe Enda Walsh adds more credibility to the project.
Hideo Nakata, the Japanese helmer of “The Ring Two,” “Ringu” and “Dark Water,” will direct “Chatroom,” a psychological thriller about teenagers who encourage each other’s destructive behavior. Pic, being sold by new sales company WestEnd Films, will be Nakata’s first original helming effort in English. “Chatroom” was written by Enda Walsh as an adaptation of his own stage play. The Irish playwright won the Cannes Camera d’Or for first film in 2001 with his “Disco Pigs” and recently penned Steve McQueen’s “Hunger”. “Nakata has come up with something very visual, very conceptual, and situated somewhere between ‘Disturbia’ and ‘Cube,’ “ said WestEnd founder Eve Schoukroun.
Now, if their new film Chatroom lives up to the heralding of the sales company’s founder, well, at least the strong>Cube part, I wouldn’t go around touting that your film can be compared to the film Disturbia. That film is under hot water as it is and the studio is being sued because the lawsuit claims it ripped off another far superior suspense film. Poor choice.
Lensing will begin in the spring in the U.K.
