It's been a rough year. With the recession ending for some people (not us!), the divisions caused by inane topics like the mosque in downtown Manhattan and the specter of doom hanging over us in the shape of the GOP's return to power, audiences have to feel pummeled by DEADLY SERIOUS ISSUES. What better time for a "Jackass" movie to come along? The opening number reflects the fact that demand probably wasn't that much higher than for previous installments - the 3D surcharge plus the huge Friday numbers that trailed off, suggest as much.
But Viacom and Paramount was very aggressive, almost desperate, in attempts to make this pre-millennial brand name relevant to today's ticket buyers. The ideal success pattern for R-rated sequels is to draw in the teens who couldn't get into the theaters but devoured the original title on DVD, and the "Jackass" movies were obvious big hits with young fans of the zombie factory known as MTV growing up. It makes sense that some of them are 18 and 19 now, and have been declared mature enough by the MPAA to see a man flung skywards from within a Porta-Potty. In 3D. The success of the movie, which may or may not be the first film in the series to cross $100 million domestic, likely doesn't mean much. These guys are getting too old for this, though a "Grumpy Old Jackass" somewhere down the line would be an amusing one-off. The other alternative is that this sequel goes supernova on the DVD marketplace, prompting these guys to start churning them out at an ungodly rate, until they pretty much destroy their bodies permanently. Either way, no real change to the moviemaking landscape, but mansions for all. Again. Bam Margera's mother must be proud.
Those numbers almost doubled the opening take of the Bruce Willis actioner "Red." You can view this pretty negatively. There's the suggestion that a $20 million superstar like Willis should be outdrawing the likes of Johnny Knoxville, or that the cast (including Oscar perennials like John Malkovich, Helen Mirren and Morgan Freeman) should bring in more than the casual audience this gross suggests. However, the opening falls in line with expectations for the toughest of genre mashups, the comedy-hyphen. It may be a comedy-actioner, or a comedy-horror film, but spiking comedy (specifically Malkovich loaded with PCP and attached to explosives) with anything (action - John Diehard has guns) is always a tough play. This is not your usual studio performer, because it's Summit, so domestically, the film should only require a $60 million gross, because the real money is in worldwide, where Summit has already sold off the rights.
"The Social Network" fell out of first but continues its minor audience loss. "Jackass" is fun, and "Red" has that opening weekend, but "The Social Network" does seem to be the movie on people's lips. With the decent opening, this is now a trek to $100 million, and nearing $65, that number remains a possibility if the weekend drops remain sub-40%. The smallest audience loss belongs to "Secretariat," which lingered right behind after dropping a shade over 25%, which makes sense given the story's appeal to non-first-weekenders. We're sure the early-bird screenings were packed to the brim. Most movies stayed afloat and approached respectability this weekend, even if they really weren't worth seeing in the first place. "Life As We Know It" is nearing $30 million in weekend two, and after a wimpy first session, the film might be leveling off at a respectable $50m, though $40m seems more plausible. Regardless, that one hurts. Speaking of hurt, another WB bomb continues to hang around in "Legend of the Guardians." The studio has to be stung that after four weeks in release, this thing hasn't even crossed $50 million. If "The Town" weren't crossing $80 million this weekend, some heads would be rolling.
There were a couple of limited release surprises that may have not gotten coverage by sites like us. Urban thriller "N-Secure," which looks a lot like "The Room" with a black cast ("The Black Room"?), opened just outside the top ten at 486 locations with $1.4 million, though we wonder exactly how those screens were acquired in the first place. The Tea Party documentary "I Want Your Money," meanwhile, opened up on 537 screens, averaging $520 per-screen, a perfectly fringe-y bomb for a fraud political movement. It barely outdistanced Clint Eastwood's "Hereafter," which pulled in $231k on only six screens, by far the weekend's highest per-screen at $38k. An expansion should follow next weekend.
The biggest indie hit of the moment continued to be "Waiting For Superman," which saw a slight uptick with an expansion, grabbing $753k at 182 engagements. The film gained some nice exposure thanks to President Obama this week, which might help it go from a $2.5 million hit into a $5 million grosser. The future may not be so bright for "Conviction," a dull crowd-pleaser inexplicably given an arthouse platform, that pulled in a decent $110k on eleven screens for a per-screen that Fox Searchlight hopes it can duplicate in coming weeks, though without critic heat that seems unlikely. Support your local indie theater, folks.
1. Rome Is Burning 3D (Paramount) - $50 million 2. Red (Summit) - $22.5 million 3. The Friendster Fanbase (Sony) - $11 million ($63 mil.) 4. Horsies! (Disney) - $9.5 million ($28 mil.) 5. Life As We Know It (Warner Bros.) - $9.2 million ($29 mil.) 6. Legend of the Gangbangers: The Owls Of Compton (Warner Bros.) - $4.2 million ($46 mil.) 7. The Town (Warner Bros.) - $4 million ($81 mil.) 8. My Soul To Take (Universal) - $3.2 million ($12 mil.) 9. Easy A (Sony) - $2.7 million ($62 mil.) 10. Wall Street: Zuul Never Sleeps (Fox) - $2.4 million ($48 mil.)
For this writer, 2010 has been a stellar year at the movies and it's almost entirely thanks to arthouse and foreign cinema. So, yeah, the recent output from Hollwood has been uninspired even more than normal (except for the obvious successes: "Toy Story 3," "Inception," 'Scott Pilgrim', "The Social Network"), but instead of bitching about it, the best idea is to look elsewhere. In the process, director discoveries are often made, and it's one of the most exciting parts of cinephilia.
Shion Sono, from Japan, is one such filmmaker. Thanks to an all-region DVD player (the film is available on Region 2; hopefully it gets a proper release here), I accessed his brilliant four-hour upskirt photography epic "Love Exposure." Sono packs so much meaty subject matter into the film -- love, lust, greed, family, loss, regret, fate, religion -- and breaks it up in chapters as it introduces the key players. If that run time worries you, fear not, there's not an ounce of fat in the film; seriously, it would be worse if it lost anything.
"Love Exposure" is the cure for anyone bored with the empty, over-the-top gore-fests like "Versus," "Tokyo Gore Police" and "Machine Girl" that have gained some level of cult status, but offer little else of interest besides repetitive limb chopping, arterial sprays and a pseudo-transgressive bent. It's a complicated film to summarize: convoluted and melodramatic, the story is ostensibly about Yu, a deeply confused boy who loses his mother at an early age, and his father who, struggling to cope with the tragedy, becomes a devout Catholic priest. Yu wants to reach his dad, but can't lure his attention away from his new found calling. So he begins inventing sins to confess to his father, but he sees through the lies. Yu sets out to commit real sins, and finds his path leading towards theft, fighting and panty-shot photography. Only thing is, he's really good being a pervert, quickly recognized by his new friends as the best at the "art form." All this happens in the first hour, essentially a prologue. Pretty sure this film wins the award for longest time before the opening credits roll, beating out 'Eternal Sunshine' by a long shot.
The film is daring in its style and storytelling. Sono is uninterested in anything resembling mainstream, but that's not to say the film isn't entertaining because it's smart, thrilling, funny as hell; the kind of thing that, if you need a cinematic shot in the arm, will work as the antidote to "normal movies." 'Exposure' is stylish and violent, but will not wear your patience because Sono's such a visceral, uncompromising filmmaker (apparently he wanted to release the film in a six-hour cut, was then forced to cut it down to two, and eventually compromised back to four after that cut was deemed an incomprehensible mess). As a storyteller, Sono seems interested in characters on the fringe, but he really loves them, or at least empathizes with them all. "Love Exposure" is ultimately about the consequences of our actions, among many other things; it firmly asserts there's a reason for people being the way they are, and we should take the time to understand those reasons, even if you find them weird. That's a philosophy I can get behind.
Wouldn't you know it, four months after falling in love with the first film I'd seen from Sono, he's got a new title at Vancouver. "Cold Fish" shows the writer/director still interested in manipulation, religious iconography, weak-willed fathers, dead mothers and horribly cartoonish, hateful stepwives amongst all the blood-letting. Shamoto, an owner of a tropical fish shop, is struggling to find pleasure in his life. He's in a loveless marriage with his stepwife. Her effort in preparing a family meal says it all: she throws a bunch of processed food in the microwave. His teenage daughter is at a difficult age, unmoved by his attempts at reaching her, and never hangs around the house for long.
Shamoto (Mitsuru Fukikoshi gives a transformative, phenomenal performance) then meets Murata (former comedian Denden, also lights out, having a lot of fun in a terrifying role), a business rival with his own much more successful tropical fish shop. At first seeming like a nice guy who wants to help Shamoto and his family move up in the world, Murata offers a job at his shop to the daughter (he curiously has a lot of good-looking young girls working there), and quickly weasels his way in the family's life. The story kicks in when it's revealed that Murata is a serial killer and gangster, and along with his crazy wife, enjoys being a nasty sonofabitch who's very good at disposing of dead bodies.
What Sono does so well, at least in "Cold Fish" and "Love Exposure," is show the reasons behind everything the characters do. He is incapable of making a stock character; even if they seem one-note (like both of the wife characters) they're revealed eventually to be as complex as any living, breathing human being. When Shamoto's life begins spiraling out of his control as he gets sucked further along in to Murata's brutal wake, the film becomes horrific, but even more comedic.
Just when the film looks like it may spiral out of control (things get really, really messed up), Sono, like any good storyteller, pulls out a doozy of a scene and firmly places the audience back in his palm. You can never know where the story is going -- so rare these days -- but boy does it ever end memorably, in gore and viscera, as our hero, once a restrained, feeble man, becomes a monster himself. "Cold Fish" is bold, bleak and intense, but also thrilling. In short, nobody is making movies quite like this. [A-]
As a writer or director, the temptation to engage with your on-line critics must be enormous. While most stay above the fray, correctly assuming they'll be called a Nazi within three posts, some, like "Transformers" producer Don Murphy, seem to be spend as much time on message boards as they do producing shitty movies.
Following the release of "The Social Network," a minor controversy has been brewing about the depiction of women in the film, with commentators at the likes of The Daily Beast, Salon and Jezebel all taking the film to task for its portrayal of womanhood. While writer Aaron Sorkin has had plenty of defenders (Alison Willmore at IFC wrote a particularly strong response), the "West Wing" creator, who's more or less a lock for an Oscar for his work on David Fincher's film, even this far out, has finally responded personally, in a somewhat unlikely forum.
A commenter on the blog of TV comedy writerKen Levine ("Frasier") raised the issue, saying that the women "were basically sex objects/stupid groupies" and that Sorkin "failed the women in this script." Sorkin himself (seemingly via an assistant) responded in the comments section, and it's no surprise that it's an eloquent defense of his work. Some select extracts are below.
"It's not hard to understand how bright women could be appalled by what they saw in the movie but you have to understand that that was the very specific world I was writing about"
"Facebook was born during a night of incredibly misogyny. The idea of comparing women to farm animals, and then to each other, based on their looks and then publicly ranking them"
"These aren't the cuddly nerds we made movies about in the 80s. They're very angry that the cheerleader still wants to go out with the quarterback instead of the men (boys) who are running the universe right now. The women they surrond themselves with aren't women who challenge them (and frankly, no woman who could challenge them would be interested in being anywhere near them)."
"I invented two characters -- one was Rashida Jones's "Marylin," the youngest lawyer on the team and a far cry from the other women we see in the movie. She's plainly serious, competent and, when asked, has no problem speaking the truth as she sees it to Mark... And Rooney Mara's Erica's a class act."
You can read the full text over at Levine's site, but it's a gracious, smart response, and should hopefully close the book on a 'controversy' that's always seemed a little thin to us, or anyone else who paid attention in the film itself.
Like a horse race, this weekend had three photo finishers, with a Sunday winner possibly being a bit too premature to call - expect some Monday morning jostling, especially with the holiday. As in many equestrian events, there was a former first place finisher, a starry upstart, and a stoic newcomer with success painted all over its face. And like a few horse races in the past, “Secretariat” was involved.
The Randall Wallace drama, however, was a definite underperformer, and with numbers still in debate, it does look like Disney’s proud thoroughbred is going to bow before last week’s top picture, “The Social Network.” The critically-lauded internet drama has definitely won over a few fair-weather fans with a muscular second weekend hold. Those dubious about a movie garnering success by dealing with a website grown adults should be ashamed of using have reason to reassess their thoughts. Critics don’t really matter anymore unless, in the very rare case of films like “The Social Network” and “Toy Story 3,” the deafening consensus of go-alongs and reverent homers (in this case, a large number of uncritical writers and commentators blindly banging the drum for David Fincher and Pixar as if they were on studios' payrolls) pushes a film’s Q-rating into Joe PBR declaring, “This movie sounds like something Jesus would pay to see!” Not to say “The Social Network” isn’t an interesting picture, mind you, but the talk has transformed the film from “great picture” to “event movie” status. A second weekend pull isn’t a major factor against weaker competition like this, but if this picture is still doing double-digit weekends by the late October horror boom, it’s time to upgrade from a Strong Success to a People’s Choice, and the year’s first genuine Oscar lock. At this juncture, nothing can be forecast until the film reaches $100 mil., and after two weekends, it still lies on the other side of $50.
There’s a smaller margin of error for actresses than there is for actors, so while some leading men can survive a number of bombs, it only takes a small failure to sink the brand name of a leading lady. And this is two in a row for Katherine Heigl, as “Life As We Know It” landed at #2. It drew enough business to lead the pack on Friday night, but Saturday wasn’t as date-worthy, and the picture looks to land behind Heigl’s “Killers” in the realm of frail openers. While she was starring alongside human wallpaper Josh Duhamel, and the title and premise suggested a vague bummer aura, Warner Bros. used a serious marketing push to get this out to the public. The core audience for a movie where Christina Hendricks dies so Katherine Heigl gets to raise a baby in her empty house liked the film enough to give a strong Cinemascore rating, but others likely realized that it sounded like a premise from Hell and stayed far away.
Expected winner “Secretariat” was a non-starter, possibly shutting the door on a potential awards push. Nobody thought the movie was genuinely good (Ebert did, but he’s very good friends with the author of the book), but with a strong box office showing, “Secretariat” was poised to take the Movie White People Like slot filled by “The Blind Side” last year. A better comparison, obviously, is “Seabiscuit,” which benefited from having Gary Ross (as opposed to Randall Wallace, Oscar-winning writer but oblivious behind the camera), as well as a strong cast that included "Spider-Man" and The Dude. “Secretariat” could only muster chick flick star Diane Lane (playing old, therefore nixing males) and John Malkovich (playing himself, scaring children).
The smallest audience loss in the top ten belongs to “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls Of Ga’Hoole.” That opening was considered disastrous, but in its third weekend, the film is inching towards final numbers that at least hint at profitability, though this looks like a money-loser in the long run. Again, 3D helps, as it makes an average hold look muscular, but there isn’t exactly a huge kid market to compete with right now. 3D couldn’t save “My Soul To Take,” which debuted in “Piranha 3D” territory. Studios need to consider that the lure of taking a generic thriller and adding the extra visual dimension doesn’t outweigh the audience’s realization that they have to pay a premium price. Ideally, this development should lead to lowering, or maybe getting rid of, the surcharge altogether, as it’s a cynical process that potentially alienates viewers, but when the format is attached to a hit, it artificially raises grosses so a $50 million weekend becomes a $60 million weekend. Studios will never ditch a tool that helps inflate grosses, mostly because of vanity. But they might stop tagging it on tepid-looking Wes Craven thrillers that have sat on the shelf for a couple of years.
The WB's “The Town” was close behind, itself losing a small audience from last weekend, and after four weekends, it's threatening to hit $90 million provided weekday grosses remain robust. The possibility of “The Town” entering the Oscar race remains small, but the box office will likely keep Ben Affleck’s heist drama in the race. No such hope for "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” which is quickly making its way out of the top ten. Even during its first weekend, it was looking less like a bonafide hit/event, and more like a smash-and-grab based on brand name recognition. In other words, a typical Fox picture. But getting this over $50 million isn’t bad at all, and there should be a DVD profit if international receipts remain strong. “Easy A” is staving off small audience losses as well, close to hitting $50 million: another Screen Gems winner. It again outpaced “You Again,” which has hung around in the top ten only to be backslapped weekly by the Emma Stone comedy. Did anyone know "It's Kind of a Funny Story" had a semi-wide release this weekend? In a seeming last-minute decision, Focus Features pushed the indie into 742 engagements for a feeble per-screen, and a $2 million total to place outside of the top ten. The premise is a definite turn-off, and the title is more than a little vague, so a hard sell was needed, and Focus' strategy was more than questionable. Zack Galifianakis has been racking up the credits, but like "Hangover" co-star Bradley Cooper, he hasn't exactly broken through yet, despite a colorful mix of roles. Galifianakis, to his credit, is at least extending his range and doing some occasional quality work, while Cooper is not exactly working as leading man superhero. Both of them need "The Hangover 2."
In indie cinemas, "Waiting For Superman" is starting to break through, with a $1.4 million gross after three weeks of aggressive platforming. The per-screen returned to a solid level after spectacular showings in previous sessions, but the film is poised to be one of the year's biggest docs, if not on a par with Davis Guggenheim's previous work. "Catfish" is swimming downstream, however, and while screens are still being added, the approach by Rogue Pictures remains tentative, as the film continues to bleed viewers. The highly-buzzed doc might close under $5 million.
There were a couple of larger debuts on the indie stage. "Stone" and "Nowhere Boy" hit on six and four screens, respectively, and both had steady per-screen averages, landing at $73k and $56k. Success could come if the expansion is played right, but Overture and the Weinsteins aren't exactly in the best shape. The best per-screen average came from Charles Ferguson's "Inside Job," which exploded on only two screens with a strong $21k per. The news wasn't so good for the noxious "I Spit On Your Grave" remake, which sneaked onto twelve screens and stole $33k, while Stephen Frears' "Tamara Drewe" was lost in the shuffle, with $19k at four engagements. Meanwhile, it might be bad news for "Buried" - the Ryan Reynolds drama did $200k in weekend three, but has registered terrible per-screen numbers in each week, likely threatening the planned expansion Lionsgate was eying. Support your local indie theater, boys and girls.
1. The Social Network (Sony) - $15.5 million ($46 mil.) 2. Life As We Know It, Judging From Terrible TV Shows (WB) - $14.6 million 3. Horsey Movie (Disney) - $12.6 million 4. Legend Of The Owls: The Hooting Of Ga'Hoole (WB) - $7 million ($39 mil.) 5. My Soul To Take (Universal) - $6.9 million 6. The Town (WB) - $6.4 million ($74 mil.) 7. Wall Street: Money Presses Snooze (Fox) - $4.6 million ($44 mil.) 8. Easy A (Sony) - $4.2 million ($48 mil.) 9. Case 39 (Paramount) - $2.6 million ($10 mil.) 10. You Again (Disney) - $2.5 million ($21 mil.)
A quick glance at the career of Richard J. Lewis tells a lot about his approach to "Barney's Version," an adaptation of revered Canadian author Mordecai Richler's prize-winning last novel. He's something of a TV journeyman, having directed episodes for more than a dozen series, and he seemed to have found a good fit for his style in "CSI," helming some 49 episodes from 2000 through 2006. However, his latest project, 'Version' was the opening gala selection at VIFF, a wise and somewhat obvious choice since it's a Canadian production and comes with a level of Oscar-bait, mainstream-appeal prestige.
It's a crowd-pleaser, through and through, and also a manipulative, weepy film. Lewis isn't afraid to tug at the heart strings, too often content with going the easy route to make the audience cry. Where it, and star Paul Giamatti, shines, is in the comedy. It's often quite funny and breezy, whisking through its main character's life in the rote style of a biopic. We get all the big moments with none of the nuance. That's not to say it's a bad film, just one this writer can't drum up all that much excitement for. Lewis' aspirations are high; he wants us to really feel something, to be moved, but when stacked against other big Oscar contenders released already this year ("The Social Network," "Toy Story 3" and "Inception" for example) his talents seem better suited to the standard TV fare.
But it would be unfair to withhold the fact that this film played like gangbusters at the screening. The overall mood of the packed house was almost overwhelmingly positive. They laughed, they cried and all that other good stuff. Those looking for more artful, interesting (read: something fresh) fare will likely at best find the film to be an adequate piece of entertainment, with some great performances.
Barney Panofsky (Giamatti, by no means stretching here, but he knows this kind of lovable schlub inside and out, and delivers) is the subject of the film. He's a character, described in the VIFF synopsis of the film, as a "romantic, politically incorrect and fearlessly blunt creature subject to his impulses," and while this is true, and makes for some solid drama and comedy, I imagine he must have seemed more original on the page.
The film plays as a set of extended flashbacks, kicked off with the release of a book by a police officer who's convinced Barney shot and killed his best friend, a free spirit writer played by Scott Speedman (his shit-eating grin and natural charm is perfectly suited to the character, easily the best work he's ever done). So right away, the film is treading in Oscar bait cliches: bookended structure, an older character looking back on his life with regrets and actors aging onscreen with unconvincing makeup. The murder subplot is never handled all that well, at times feeling as if Lewis forgot all about it, but he does pay off the "mystery" in the conclusion, though it's a fairly obvious ripoff of the prologue sequence in Paul Thomas Anderson's "Magnolia." The rest of the film jumps back and forth through Barney's three marriages (Minnie Driver, as his second wife, will drive you crazy), leading up to another annoying goddamn cliche that would be wrong to spoil here. Suffice to say, a certain disease comes in to play for a major character, designed to procure maximum tear dropping. Barney is not that likable of a guy, but this late reveal comes off as a lazy technique to make us forget all the bad things he did, and all the people he's wronged. At first the film seems brave and willing to give us a complex human being of a main character, but all that is put aside in the sentimental finale. We're sure it's a moving part of the book (which the kindly gentleman sitting next to this writer said was "fantastic"), but onscreen it feels trite.
In the end, it's a success, but not one to inspire fervent affection. Look for the awesome cameo by David Cronenberg as a TV director (ironic that Lewis is directing a film and casts Canada's best filmmaker as a TV guy). Other things to appreciate: it's lovingly shot on location in Montreal, hockey is a major part of Barney's life (it's a great sport), an onion is used successfully as a reoccurring motif, and Dustin Hoffman, as Barney's father, is delightful. And Paul Giamatti; how I love thee, let me count the ways. It's easy to see why he took this lead role as it's perfectly suited to him, if not a little bit been-there-done-that. Though the hairy-backed actor carries the film on his shoulders, the director seemed too comfortable going through the motions. [C+]
Reports peg “The Social Network” costing Sony $40-$60 million, which means this number one opening should be more than solid. But then you have to consider prints and advertising - a movie about angry nerds staring at computer screens and occasionally yelling at each other with maximum verbosity doesn’t sell itself. The picture might count as “relevant” and “important” but with a likely costly Oscar campaign coming, Sony’s going to pray this has enough legs to get to $100 million and not settle for $60m. In Facebook terms, this isn’t an Eduardo Saverin opening, but it is a Mark Zuckerberg opening. Sony was probably banking on a Sean Parker-type weekend.
The numbers suggest the film did extremely well on the coasts and weak in the Midwest, South, and various flyover regions*. There could be the nugget of a possibility that “The Social Network” is something more cerebral, even esoteric. Perhaps it’s the notion that this is a story where no one is really worth rooting for, and at heart, the film explores the complexities of truly godless individuals. Or maybe it’s the very real possibility that “Network” was snobbishly pushed harder on the coasts, while the rest of the nation was left to tune out from this movie about people tapping on their keyboards to create a waste of time website that serves no real, practical purpose. Let us not forget that sometimes, being a “good” movie isn’t enough of a hook for some viewers. Conventional wisdom says that kiddie flicks have legs, even when they aren’t heavily attended, and “Legend of the Guardians” won't buck that trend. Still, this thing has flop written all over it, whether it’s a $100 or $150 million expenditure, even if it was a Legendary Films/Warner Bros. co-production, and even if they paid the voice cast in trinkets and tchotchkes. Even though there's no relation between the projects, WB didn't gain any promotional traction by pushing this film a week after their own Ben Affleck bank robbing caper, something most studios usually know to avoid. It looked more nature-film than action picture, and those early ads, with laughably terrible guitar rock over the cuddly CGI images, probably turned off parents hoping they could take their kids to something a bit less somber-looking. “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” had a hearty fall from its perch, losing about half its audience. An expected fall for this type of film, this sequel is still projected to perform right at expectations, landing at $50-$60 million easily. You could have argued that all parties involved needed this to be bigger, but that case is dubious now - failing to become a zeitgeist grabber and, likely, an awards contender keeps Shia LeBeouf in the Brand Name sweepstakes, but not in the Real Actor department. And Oliver Stone likely buys himself some time and a chance to be director-for-hire yet again despite a serious declining Q rating based on diminished skill and reliance on hefty budgets. Of course, this sadly might be the last time we see Michael Douglas strutting his stuff on the big screen, and for a former box office lion like him, that likely carries weight for the people who have added to “Wall Street 2” tallies. At the WB, they reward success not with fruit baskets or gift certificates but with a chance to helm “Superman.” However, all reports suggest Ben Affleck would rather have the fruit basket, free massage and chaise longue that come with the success for “The Town,” which held remarkably well in week three and looks poised to challenge $90 million domestic. A movie that makes $100 million in the September-October time period has a serious effect on your cred, but it’s oodles better if the film has legs and benefits from what appears to be word-of-mouth. “The Social Network” and “Wall Street” may have topped the box office recently, but “The Town” still carries a lot of “I’ve gotta see that” heat from the general public.
“Easy A” continues to stick around, a stellar hold getting the film over the likely $40 million domestic target, with more ground to cover. $60 million isn’t out of the question, a number that can turn a bit player into a star. Emma Stone, this is your moment: don’t work with CGI owls. Screen Gems had a rocking summer, and with this sub-$10 million film generating significant theatrical profit (providing p&a wasn’t out of control - always a possibility), all parties involved could pull in serious dough by association. More than likely, director Will Gluck has now atoned in the eyes of studios for “Fired Up,” one of last year’s biggest flops.
When a film sits on the shelf for more than a couple of years, it’s a terrible sign for everyone. But Paramount knows when God gives you lemons, you make applesauce, and was able to get Paramount Vantage's leftover “Case 39” into a couple thousand theaters years after that boutique label closed. Most studios would treat a film like this as radioactive and it would go straight-to-DVD, but Paramount rolled the dice on a likely cheap ad campaign (and no press screenings) and will get the film to a potential $15 million gross. Overture have to be smarting that “Let Me In” was taken out by the knees partly because the horror dollar was being squeezed by not only “Case 39” and “Devil” but also “Hatchet II” and “Chain Letter.” The last two were quiet indie releases though, so Paramount, who could have shat out “Case 39” on any weekend to similar results, comes out looking like a dick. Viewers, meanwhile, had to be confused by the fact that Bradley Cooper no longer looked so buff and Renee Zellweger didn’t resemble a Shoggoth.
We don’t wish to hate on this decision, but what kind of Tranya does one have to sip to think that they would make serious money by remaking “Let The Right One In”? Overture somehow saw dollar signs in remaking a “beloved” recent horror classic that made $2 million domestically on the art house circuit, imagining they got brownie points for staying close to the source material. “Let Me In” is as alienating as major releases get, a dark, snowy, somber adult film starring kids and ostensibly featuring horrific violence. “Let Me In” had no recognizable faces, a hard-R rating and ads that (appropriately?) showcased vampirism as a disease, when audiences have already declared that they prefer their vamps with guns (“Underworld”), smoking hot (“Twilight”) and generally sans real tragedy. No matter how strong Matt Reeves’ vision for this remake was (and it's an excellent effort), it was DOA as soon as it was announced, and most of us are just stunned they got it into 2000 theaters. Of course, more people will have seen “Let Me In” than “Let The Right One In” by the time the dust settles, but this material just isn’t for everyone. Which is our condescending way of saying that lots of people have terrible taste.
In indie theaters, "Catfish" and "Waiting For Superman" remained the top attractions, with "Catfish" expanding to the tune of $607k on 34 screens and the Davis Guggenheim doc pulling in $407k with the week's best per-screen average ($11k per). While "Catfish" isn't showing the kind of breakout potential people expected, "Superman" could play pretty strongly if this expansion is managed the right way, and potentially it could be a rarity, the $1 million doc. "It Might Get Loud" and "An Inconvenient Truth," Guggenheim's previous, crossed that barrier with ease (particularly the latter), but "Superman" is a noticeably tougher sell. Still, the impetus behind a film like this is, as long as one person sees it, it has made a difference. Also, the people who made "Waiting For Superman" are already millionaires.
In a crowded indie marketplace, Woody Allen's "You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger" averaged $8k per-screen, with $232k on 29 screens. "Get Low" continues to bring in audiences, bringing its total to $8.6 million with a strong $204k in its tenth weekend, while super-doc "Freakanomics" barely made a dent with $33k on seventeen screens. The big loser for this weekend? The horror genre. In addition to "Case 39" and "Let Me In" bellyflopping, two smaller releases had debuts on the frail end of the spectrum. "Hatchet II" pulled in only $62k on 68 screens, while "Chain Letter" was one of the year's biggest tanks at 406 venues, pulling in $143k, a meager average of $352 per-screen. Pass this on - support your local indie theaters, folks.
1. The Friendster Lounge (Sony) - $23 million 2. Legend Of The Guardians: Owly! (WB) - $10.9 million ($30 mil.) 3. Wall Street: Money Takes A Knee (Fox) - $10.1 million ($36 mil.) 4. The Town (WB) - $10 million ($64 mil.) 5. Easy A (Sony) - $7 million ($42 mil.) 6. You Again (Disney) - $5.6 million ($16 mil.) 7. Case 39 (Paramount) - $5.4 million 8. Let Me In (Overture) - $5.3 million 9. Devil (Universal) - $3.7 million ($28 mil.) 10. Alpha And Omega - $3 million ($19 mil.)
*Bear with us; Hollywood considers anything that isn’t New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago “flyover regions.”
In general, when we pen a retrospective on a director's oeuvre , we try and save them for when a filmmaker is deep into his career and has a least 15-plus films under his belt. But we're making an exception here for David Fincher, who is obviously considered to be one of the most estimable modern auteurs working today, in the league of Christopher Nolan, if not higher and generally seems to be destined to have a career that will be looked back on with great admiration and panegyrics if it isn't already.
Known for his impeccably stylish, technically meticulous and resoundingly tenebrous films that tend to gravitate towards anti-heroes, flawed protagonists and forsaken souls, Fincher's films are always intensely dark, hyper-detailed, always challenging and never really fit for mass consumption. Yet, with each of his films arriving via a major studio, Fincher's oeuvre does resonate with a strong contingent of mainstream audiences and "The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button" — his most accessible film — earned him the attention of the Academy that ignored his less embraceable, but much better, previous efforts.
The modern horror of his serial killer film " Se7en" placed him firmly on the map, the anarchic "Fight Club" became a cult-classic basically the day it was released in theaters and the filmmaker has been highly in demand ever since. With "The Social Network" logging into theaters — and having already looked at 5 of his films (and more) that have yet to to the screen — we take a look back on an already impressive body of work that is only growing in stature with each new addition.
“The Game” (1997) “The Game,” the “Twilight Zone”-y thriller about a wealthy businessman (Michael Douglas) who is engaged in an elaborate, possibly nefarious role playing game by his delinquent brother (Sean Penn), is probably David Fincher’s coolest cool-for-coolness-sake pop outing, but also his most hollow. No matter how deeply Fincher wants to connect the material (written by the geniuses that gave us “Terminator 3”) to resonate themes of loss, regret and legacy (since Douglas’ game begins on the anniversary of his father’s suicide), the movie is too slick and polished to be anything more than it is. Thankfully, what it is is a really fun rollercoaster ride, one with plenty of twists and turns and some extremely weird flourishes (like the fact that a large section of the film’s last act takes place in Mexico), anchored by two fine performances by Douglas and Penn (in a role written for Jodie Foster, hence his name - “Connie”). The film is a trifle for sure, with Fincher working comfortably within the flashy boundaries of his music video days and possibly stifled by the resounding critical and commercial approval of “Se7en,” but it’s hard to fault a movie in which Spike Jonze shows up in the last scene as a concerned EMT technician, because that’s just funny. [C+] “Zodiac” (2007) Though he was coming off the box-office success of “Panic Room,” David Fincher’s knack for ambitious material didn’t necessarily make him a studio favorite and so it’s no surprise his next effort, a talky, two and a half hour procedural had Paramount scratching their head. Released to a box-office death in the spring of 2007, the film confounded Fincher-heads who expected the serial killer plotline to bring back the flashy, fleshy pleasures of “Se7en” and while it was praised by critics and landed on numerous top 10 lists, by awards season it was unjustly forgotten. While on the surface, an exhaustive retelling of the search for the famed Zodiac killer, the script by James Vanderbilt slowly spins a tale about the toll and cost of obsession as Robert Graysmith’s (Jake Gyllenhaal) fascination with the case turns into a decades-long hunt that never comes to a satisfactory end. A film that is entirely about the journey and not the destination, “Fight Club” fanboys dismissed the film and also failed to notice Fincher’s jaw dropping technical work on the film. Shot digitally, Fincher utilized a staggering number of digital effects to seamlessly and accurately recreate the 1970s San Francisco skyline and neighborhoods with this own obsession going right down to recreating facsimile newspaper in the San Francisco Chronicle offices that had accurate headlines and articles for the era though they were never on camera. It’s no wonder Fincher related to the material. But the technical wonders would be empty if the film wasn’t so fascinating. Vanderbilt does a wonder job of transferring Graysmith’s obsession to the audience, leading down numerous theories, pathways and puzzles that are both compelling and thrilling. Featuring a wonderful, pre-"Iron Man" turn by Robert Downey Jr. as Graysmith’s smoking, drinking, quipping newsroom colleague Paul Avery and solid turns by Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards as cops tasked to the case, “Zodiac” quietly demonstrates that the terror caused by random and senseless acts of violence can resonate for years. [A]
“Panic Room” (2002) It's probably not surprising that David Fincher’s biggest hit since “Se7en” came with his least cerebral, most straightforward effort, the slick b-movie "Panic Room." It should be noted that the film faced a major stumbling block when original star Nicole Kidman stepped aside a knee injury attained during the filming of “Moulin Rouge” sidelined her (though you can see some early footage with Kidman on the ridiculously stacked triple disc DVD edition of the film). Luckily, Jodie Foster came in (pregnant too, no less) to save the day and she was probably a better choice for the desperate, tough as nails mother who has to protect herself and her daughter when home invaders crash the posh Upper West Side home they've just purchased. If the single-setting film is pure Hitchcock, then so is the Macguffin; an enveloper containing valuable bearer bonds that are really of no consequence and just there to drive the plot. Again displaying his digital virtuosity, Fincher sets up some bravura set pieces (particularly the single-shot, triple-level break-and-enter sequence early in the film) and some clever approaches that open up the static environment. The film relies strongly on its performances and Fincher gets them from Foster and particularly Dwight Yoakam as the delightfully deranged Raoul. Forest Whitaker is solid as the baddie with a heart but less convincing is Jared Leto as the cocky mastermind who does a bad Brad Pitt impression for most of the film. But if the mechanics are on the place, the heart isn't. While the nods to “Rear Window” and “The Killing” are nice, the closing shot of the film finds the sympathy somewhat misplaced and the film’s relentless movement doesn't always keep the steam it works so hard to build up. [B-]
“The Social Network” (2010) The defining film of a generation? Not quite. But don’t get us wrong, there is much to love about David Fincher’s tale about the founding of Facebook. Largely ditching the camera trickery of his previous efforts, “The Social Network” finds Fincher’s focus squarely on the dialogue-heavy text of Aaron Sorkin’s rapid-fire script, and he delivers a thrilling, always-moving narrative that whips through 160 plus pages of screenplay in two hours that feels more like 90 minutes. His ensemble of young talent step up to plate with Jesse Eisenberg delivering a career best performance and Armie Hammer stealing every scene he’s in as the privileged Winkelvoss twins. But even though the story is complex and riveting, the characters aren't always as rich. With key relationships underdeveloped and thinly drawn — between Mark Zuckerberg (Eisenberg) his best friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) and his ex-girlfriend Erica Albright (Rooney Mara) — the film lacks the emotional resonance it strives for in the latter half of the film. And structurally, the film is more or less the best episode of “Law & Order” you’ll ever see in your life. But, lucky for us, the film was guided by the immaculately-composed hand of Fincher. It's almost like an in-the-moment "All The President's Men" surging forward in real time, and propelled by a wonderfully minimal and minor key score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, “The Social Network” is grand, populist entertainment at its best. [A-]
“The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button” (2008) Fincher’s seventh feature-length effort is his beautiful folly: a sprawling epic about a man who ages backwards (Brad Pitt), set against the backdrop of an ever-changing America and formed from the relative noodle of a F. Scott Fitzgerald story that never quite finds its emotional footing. The film is peppered with some unbelievable moments (like the opening clock tower story/backwards war sequence) and delicately calibrated performances (particularly from Cate Blanchett), but Fincher seems more interested in the technology of aging (and then de-aging) a wonderfully detached Pitt than anything else (that technology is, admittedly, impressive and quite cutting edge). Additionally, Eric Roth’s script falters (if Benjamin narrates, how, exactly, does he know the unconnected aspects that surrounded Blanchett’s accident in that really wonderful sequence?) as often as it connects (Benjamin’s extended affair with Tilda Swinton), leaving the entire enterprise to feel off kilter and wobbly, full of amazing highs and crater-ish lulls. Maybe the film is best read as a time travel story, with Benjamin Button a displaced journeyman forced to watch the world change while he remains untouched. It would certainly explain why Benjamin, and Fincher himself, keep such a distance from the emotional core of the story, and place emphasis where Fincher thought it belonged: on technology, not people. [C+]
“ Se7en” (1995) Perhaps Fincher's still most fully-realized and haunting picture, "Se7en," is an unforgettable modern crime classic and a landmark film that essentially made the careers ofBrad Pitt, Gwyneth Paltrow and the filmmaker (Pitt's first leading role was only the year before in "Legends of the Fall"). Grisly, dark and dank, the mood and aesthetics of this seminal serial killer film are second to none and the entire film carries the weight of a rotten, festering wound that's about to burst. Unless you're somehow unaware, the film centers on two detectives, a disillusioned old-timer counting down the days of his upcoming retirement (Morgan Freeman) and the naive, aggressive newbie trying to make his mark (Brad Pitt), in their search to stop a psychotic serial killer (Kevin Spacey) who is picking off his victims using the seven deadly sins as a guide. The dichotomy of the cops' two trajectories in life is just one simple rich texture in what is a layered tapestry of various unsettling psychological elements. And while this might sound like standard Hollywood fare, Fincher largely bypasses the buddy-cop and action cliches to deliver a twisted and disturbing thriller that irrevocably scars both the audience and its character in its unbelievable, jaw-dropping conclusion (one, that Brad Pitt had to fight for, threatening the studio he'd bail on doing publicity for the film if Fincher's cut wasn't kept intact). Fincher's been accused several times of his coldness and his aloofness, but here that distance allows his dour message about humanity's inhumanity and depravity to land with shocking, arresting and enduring impact. "Se7en" is ultimately about the corrosion of morality and the decay of the human soul across society and Fincher has never been so comfortable than within this condemning milieu. The term "What's in the box?" will never be the same for many. [A]
“Fight Club” (1999) "Overrated"? Adored by the most mongoloid of male filmgoers. Goes off the rails in the third act; throw whatever censure you want at "Fight Club," — and you might not be wrong — but David Fincher is nowhere more at home (aside from maybe "Se7vn") than he is with the devilish, mischievous comedy and psychosocial disturbed mien of his 1999 paean to nihilism, shit-disturbing destruction and male emasculation. Adapted from (and deeply expanded upon) Chuck Palahniuk's novel, in its superficial bare bones form, "Fight Club" is about an everyman (Edward Norton) so despairing and paralyzed with his mundane life that he develops an acute from of insomnia that leads him to Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt); an uber-charming and Machiavellian soap-maker and a prophet of chaos who proselytizes the ultimate form of salvation — perhaps reincarnation — in the form of basement, bare-knuckle fighting. But Fincher's violent and deeply acidic picture uses this premise as a launching pad to explore American male masculinity, identity, and the sickening homogenization of culture; the central problem of this protagonist might just be the societal ennui-like disease that's rotting us all from the inside as we act like spectators and tourists in our own lives. "Fight Club" is ultimately the grandest (and fascistic) carpe diem, a brutal and yet often hilarious, self-created wake-the-fuck-up call birthed from one of the most ambitious self-delusions ever demonstrated from an unreliable narrator. [A-]
“Alien 3” (1993) There’s a reason that the documentary about the making of “Alien 3” on the forthcoming Blu-ray box set is called “Rape and Wreckage;” this wasn’t what you would call a smooth shoot. Originally conceived as a film about monks living in a wooden planet, it became, under the creative guidance of Fincher (as his first feature film), about a prison colony of murderers, thieves, and rapists who take in the marooned Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver, sans hair) and help her fight the drippy alien beast from the previous films. Well, not exactly like the previous films. This beastie was born from a dog, so it was slicker and sleeker and moved around the tight corridors like a rocket, which is a good metaphor for the young director that oversaw the project. Working from a compromised conception, not to mention an ill-negotiated premise (the film’s misleading teaser, riffing on the famous tagline of the original film, promised that “On earth, everyone can hear you scream”) and an impossible release date, and the results are a fascinating muddle: every actor, their head closely scalped, looks exactly-the-fucking-same; intriguing subplots (like a prison worshipping the alien as a dragon) were sheared away; and Fincher’s unerring cynicism turned a summer escapist romp into a tortured examination of the nature of death. His keen eye was already present (the drippy facility, the bar-codes on the back of the prisoners’ necks), but his sense of story still needed sharpening. If Fincher's reputation for control precedes him, all one needs to do is look back on the disastrous results of this film — and the experience which he described as his worst — to understand why. [C]
— Kevin Jagernauth, Oliver Lyttelton, Drew Taylor, Danielle Johnsen
For the bulk of his career, David Fincher wasn't exactly prolific. After his debut with "Alien³" in 1995, like Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott, he's attached himself to dozens of projects over the years, often ones that prove to be difficult to get green lit. Not that there's any sign of this letting up now. Entering a purple patch in his career (next Christmas' "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" will be his fourth film in five years) the director has a wide array of potential projects on the horizon including "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea," "Heavy Metal," "The Girl Who Played With Fire," HBO series "Mindhunter" and who knows what else percolating further down the line.
But what of the projects that slipped through the cracks? As soon as "Se7en" pushed him onto the A-list, there have been a number of intriguing projects linked to Fincher that never saw the light of day. Whether falling apart just as they seemed ready to go, or never quite getting the support from those who hold the Hollywood purse strings, they provide an fascinating look at avenues and genres Fincher has yet to explore on screen (sci-fi and comedy) as well as material that fits very much into the thematic and aesthetic wheelhouse that is associated with his name. With "The Social Network" hitting theaters today, we've rounded up five that we'd still love to see some day.
"Rendezvous With Rama" Let's face it, should Fincher ever make this movie it will be his Stanley Kubrick-esque science-fiction space epic. Not only was the project based off Arthur C. Clarke's novel (he wrote '2001'), the picture has space odyssey written all over it. Shepherded under the aegis of actor Morgan Freeman for over a decade, the actor admitted to MTV in 2007, "it's a very intellectual science fiction, a very difficult book to translate cinematically." Making the sell even harder he said, "There are no guns, no explosions. Although it's fiction, it's all based on pure science."
An opaque sci-fi novel about mankind's awakening relationship with the universe and zero action? Paging Terrence Malick maybe? Otherwise yeah, we see how it would incredibly difficult to get a studio on board. The novels (four of them in total) focused on a 30-mile-long hollow cylindrical alien spaceship that is discovered in our solar system and a group of space explorers sent out to investigate, who find out its intentions and unlock its mysteries. But since the novels had little action to speak of, the project could have ended up more "Solaris" then "Sunshine" (and neither project was very profitable at the box-office) and it never got off the ground.
Freeman spent years developing the passion project (he once wanted to direct himself) until he convinced his "Se7en" director to take a crack at it in 2007, but by the following year Fincher had pronounced the project dead. Freeman had been in an auto accident a few months prior and the filmmaker had said even after all this time there was no script.
Our only hope is that Alfonso Cuarón's action sci-fi film "Gravity" gets made and somehow does gangbusters at the box-office and then studios start rifling through their drawers for similar projects. But one really can't imagine the slow, arty and hypnotic "2001: A Space Odyssey" being green lit in this day and age, let alone a picture that sounds like its not-too-distant cousin, that is unless some superstar cast comes on board and those names will sadly have to be much bigger than Morgan Freeman. "They Fought Alone" aka "Fertig" David Fincher, "Chinatown" scribe Robert Towne, Brad Pitt and WWII -- can we see this film made like, tomorrow, please?
Originally titled "Fertig" and then changed to "They Fought Alone," the story centered on Wendell Fertig, a civil engineer and American Colonel who led a rogue American-Filipino "barefoot" guerrilla force on the Japanese-occupied, southern Philippine island of Mindanao during World War II. The script was written by Willam Nicholson, a co-writer of "Gladiator," and while it was supposed to be Fincher's post-"Panic Room" project, the film obviously never materialized. One has to wonder with "The Thin Red Line" and HBO's "The Pacific," has this WWII setting been done too much? Then again, this tale is about a bare-bones outfit — they allegedly made bullets from curtain rods; telegraph wires from iron fence — and how they took to the jungle to survive and fight the war on their own terms after the U.S. Army forces had already surrendered.
Yes, Brad Pitt was in QuentinTarantino's revisionist WWII comedy "Inglourious Basterds," but we would like to end our lifetime seeing Pitt in one gritty and visceral WWII film, and who better than under the direction of Fincher. Yet "They Fought Alone," has been kicking around since late 2001, so the chances of it ever being made seem slim. There was a glimmer of hope in 2009 during discussions of the deluxe DVD edition of "Chinatown" — Fincher did a commentary track — when Towne noted the two were mutual admirers of each other's work and said, "we're" trying to make a movie together" (and Fincher had revealed months earlier that "Fertig" was indeed that project). But it's been almost a decade (Tom Cruise was interested at one point) and as Fincher keeps piling on new projects and Towne continues to age, we're not sure this one will ever happen. Though to be honest, simple premise alone, we're there the day it hits screens and months before as its champion.
"Torso" On the surface, the "Torso" project — a true-crime graphic novel about Eliot Ness' post-Untouchables/Al Capone days — would entrench Fincher deeply back into his familiar serial-killer world. Written by Brian Michael Bendis and Marc Andreyko, the novels placed Ness in Cleveland years after Capone had been brought to justice and centered on a true-life serial killer taunting the detective with notes regarding the hacked-off and lifeless torsos that had been popping up in the city. While ostensibly about a psychotic murderer, the project also sounded more in line with Fincher's interest in obsessions, among other themes. "I'm not interested in the serial killer thing," he told MTV in 2007. "I'm interested in Eliot Ness and the de-mythologizing [of him] because 'The Untouchables' was only two-three years of (his) story. There's a whole other, much sinister downside to it. We want to make the 'Citizen Kane' of cop movies."
Gestating since 2004, "Torso" looked like it had found its missing body parts in late 2008 when it appeared like Matt Damon would be taking the lead and Rachel McAdams, Casey Affleck, and Gary Oldman would be joining the cast (though Fincher once called most of the casting names "rumors"), but the film fell victim — like many do — to studio politics. Fincher was warring with Paramount at the time over the exorbitant running time of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," and in a game of retributive who-would-fold-first, the studio let the rights to 'Torso' lapse in a reported "fuck you" to the director. Fincher responded by taking his "Heavy Metal" project (which Paramount had already dropped as an earlier slap on the wrist) to Sony where it looks like he's found a new home ('Social Network' and 'Dragon Tattoo' are set up there and it's the first studio where he's made back-to-back projects). Last we heard, while 'Torso' rights had lapsed, the producers — Bill Mechanic, the former Fox exec ballsy enough to green light "Fight Club" — still felt the film would be made, and a few months later, Bendis (who now owns the rights again) said the same thing, but there's been little movement in over a year. Whether Fincher ever decides to return to the material remains to be seen, but the cast alone is enough for us to buy a ticket years in advance.
"Seared"/"Untitled Chef Project" You wouldn't take Fincher to be a closet foodie, somehow; everything that's been reported about his working practices suggests he's probably a food-is-fuel kind of guy. But he's twice come close to directing films set in the culinary world, and it's not difficult to see why it appealed to the helmer: the high-pressure hierarchy of a restaurant kitchen isn't a world away from a film set. More importantly, both scripts, like "Zodiac," and to some degree "The Social Network," dealt with obsession — in this case, people driven, over-and-above all else, by a desire to achieve perfection, and you can see why David "99-Takes" Fincher might identify.
The first project was "Seared," a loose adaptation of renegade New York chef Anthony Bourdain's memoir "Kitchen Confidential." Around 2001, Brad Pittwas attached to star as Luke Casdin, the infamous hard-living chef at top Manhattan restaurant Horatio's, with Benicio Del Toro also linked to the role of Bobby, his sous chef. The tone's not unlike "Shampoo" as directed by Martin Scorsese, as Luke juggles relationships with his 17-year-old girlfriend and with an older restaurant critic, while trying to keep his kitchen going over a busy weekend. The script, by Jesse Wigutow ("It Runs In The Family"), is strong and well-observed, capturing the controlled chaos of a top kitchen perfectly, and it's full of the kind of hijinks that Bourdain's excellent book is full of — snorting coke off worktops, sleeping with a newly-married woman on her wedding day. But Fincher was burnt out after "Panic Room," and New Line decided to instead turn the book into the short lived Fox sitcom of the same name, which starred Bradley Cooper in an early leading role.
"Untitled Chef Project" was a later, separate project, written by Steven Knight ("Dirty Pretty Things," "Eastern Promises"), although there's plenty in common with the earlier film — a coke-addled, driven chef protagonist, for instance, who was set to be played by Keanu Reeves. Fincher told MTV in 2008 that, "It's good and chewy. It's like a celibate sex comedy if that means anything. It's really about the creative process. It's truly an aromatic art-form, making food. I love that idea. And I love Keanu's passion for that world." Knight's script is more conventional — a protagonist in search of a redemption, a more formal romance with his fish chef (albeit one that involves Reeves' character threatening her with a knife at one point), and the structure is almost like a caper movie in places — but it's also a strong piece of work.
In the end, Fincher focused on "Torso," and then took on "The Social Network," so the project hit the backburner: it's still theoretically an ongoing concern, but we'd be surprised if it saw the light of day in the same form. Having said that, it's clear that haute cuisine is a particular interest of Fincher's, his having circled the subject for close to 10 years now, and we're sure he'll find a way to scratch that itch in the future. A live-action "Ratatouille" remake, anyone?
"Black Hole" Of all the grown-up, post-"Watchmen" graphic novels, Charles Burns' "Black Hole" (unrelated to the batshit-crazy Disney space adventure of the same name) is one of the most acclaimed. Published between 1995 and 2005, and collected in a complete volume in that final year, Burns' work is set in 1974, and follows a group of Seattle teenagers who contract a sexually-transmitted-disease that causes physical mutations. A cure-all metaphor for sexual awakening and adolescence, it picked up all kinds of praise when finally collected, and unsurprisingly swiftly picked up attention from Hollywood, with Paramount picking up the rights.
Alexandre Aja ("Haute Tension," "Piranha 3D") was the first to be attached, with the promising team of Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary (whose script for "Beowulf" is much better than the film deserved) hired to pen the script. The pair worked on it for a couple of years, until, in February 2008, shortly before the release of "Zodiac," it was announced that David Fincherwould direct the film. Gaiman related on his blog shortly afterwards that, with the helmer likely to demand multiple rewrites, Paramount had hired a cheaper scribe, and that Gaiman and Avary had left the project.
That cheaper writer turned out to be D.W. Harper, who's behind the currently-buzzed about projects "All You Need Is Kill" that Doug Liman will direct and "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters," which Jeremy Renner and Noomi Rapace may star in. It's unclear in the February 2009-dated draft we obtained how much of Gaiman and Avary's work Harper retained, but it's very good work — David Cronenberg-meets-"Dazed and Confused," respectful of the source material and with a keen sense of period, with all the horror and angst it should have, and a neat sense of poetry.
With Fincher showing a surprising affinity for the dark nuances of under-25 relationships in "The Social Network," it would have been fascinating to see the finished product, but as ever, he's a busy man, and Pajiba reported in August that he was no longer attached to the project, and it seems likely that "Black Hole" will pass into the annals of the great movies never made.
Honorable Mentions Ever since "The Game" was completed, Fincher's had one particular passion project: "Mank." It's unsurprising that he had such a particular interest in the project, a biopic of "Citizen Kane" writer Herman Mankiewicz with Kevin Spacey set in the lead, as the script was written by his father, Howard Fincher, a former journalist. The Ridley Scott-produced TV movie "RKO 281" killed the project for a while, and Fincher Sr. passed a way a few years back, but this may well reappear down the line. Fincher also came close to re-teaming with Spacey on "Chemical Pink," a drama set in the world of female body building, based on the novel by Katie Arnoldi, with a script by "Fight Club" writer Chuck Palahniuk, but he passed it off to Jonas Akerlund ("Spun") and the film never materialized.
Despite his bad experience with his "Alien" film, Fincher has come close to returning to franchise/tentpole territory: Nicolas Cage persuaded him to develop an adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel "Hard Boiled" for some time, which would have been a fully CGI-feature, although that seems to be long dead now. And like fellow serial-attachee Joe Carnahan, the director spent a year prepping for "Mission Impossible 3," with a dark, violent script involving organ trafficking in Africa, but bailed in favor of skateboarding drama "Lords of Dogtown" — which did eventually hit the screens, as directed by Catherine Hardwicke.
Fincher was also attached to "Stay," the much buzzed about spec from David Benioff, which also was eventually made by another director: in this case, Marc Forster ("Quantum of Solace"), who, despite a strong cast including Ryan Gosling, Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor, botched it so badly that the film barely saw a release. He's also briefly flirted with other big name projects — including, strangely enough, future Oscar-winner "Chicago" (which may sound like an odd match, but Fincher's a hugeBob Fosse fan, counting "All That Jazz" among his favorite movies, and he's already said he'd love to direct a musical, so it would have been an interesting one to watch).
There was also the bizarre body-snatching alien parasite thriller "Passengers," regularly named as one of the great unmade scripts (it's written in the first person, unusually); David Ayer's Cold War submarine drama "Squids," which was scuppered by 9/11; the graphic novel adaptation "The Killer"; a remake of "Strangers On A Train" for Joel Silver; and another remake, of one of Fincher's favorite movies, "The Reincarnation of Peter Proud." The latter's one of the longest-running projects on the director's slate: it's been in development with Scott Rudin since 2001, but as late as last year, "Se7en" writer Andrew Kevin Walker was hired to give it another stab.
Most, if not all of these projects seem to be dead, although it's possible that one could be resurrected. It seems likely that the Scott Z. Burns-penned version of "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" or 'Dragon Tattoo' sequel "The Girl Who Played With Fire" will be next, and we'd put money on it being the former. But, as we've demonstrated, you can never quite guess with David Fincher...
It's been a rough year. With the recession ending for some people (not us!), the divisions caused by inane topics like the mosque in downtown Manhattan and the specter of doom hanging over us in the shape of the GOP's return to power, audiences have to feel pummeled by DEADLY SERIOUS ISSUES. What better time for a "Jackass" movie to come along? The opening number reflects the fact that demand probably wasn't that much higher than for previous installments - the 3D surcharge plus the huge Friday numbers that trailed off, suggest as much.
