2009 Preview Baby

Well, 2009 is here and us dedicated types at MyFilmVault have disregarded our hangovers, put off clearing up the beer cans and shaken off our disappointment at the lack of football today to bring you this preview of the year ahead. And what a year it promises to be. As I was putting this together I was struck by the amount of quality that will be coming our way. I could easily have doubled this list and, further, have made one for January alone, such is the quality coming our way over the next 31 days. We have the first part of Che (though not in Leicester, sadly), Sam Mendes' Revolutionary Road (a GREAT book), Australia, The Wrestler and Slumdog Millionaire all to look forward to. So, I'll leave these off my preview, even though I've earmarked Che as my most mouthwatering prospect over the next 12 months. That said, a number of other tasty morsels are being offered up. The question is...how many of these will I actually go and see at the cinema? A market will shortly open up on Betfair.

1. Watchmen

Although this is in no particular order, watching Hancock (see next review...) has really put me in the mood for this forthcoming, bound-to-be-brainy, superhero film. Set in an alternate 1985, an age still riddled with cold war paranoia and despair, being a superhero is not uncommon. However, superhero status has now become outlawed and 'vigilantes' have been discredited and run underground. But when one of their number is brutally murdered, a rag-tale band of former heroes reunites to track down the murderer and uncover further sinister goings on...

If this sounds like a novel take on a superhero movie, it is. This is bound to be dark, claustrophobic, deep, thoughtful and brutal. Having been knocking around Hollywood in one form or another for a number of years, it is amazing it has even been made at all. Both Stallone and Schwarzenegger were reportedly attached at one time or another, but directed Zack Snyder has thankfully gone for a bunch of by-and-large unknowns, although I note Patrick Wilson has been getting some love from my colleague's lists and reviews of late.

In a way (and discounting the January flurry of promising movies), I'm most looking forward to this in 2009 as it promises something different and something interesting, following on from the equally interesting and brave Hancock from 2008. And we don't have to wait too long for this. It should be with us on March 6th.



2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Okay, a somewhat dull choice I know, and perhaps an inevitable one given that I've posted on it before. It's worrying that it was put back a year (this should have been released this past November) and I haven't yet heard an explanation as to why it has been put back, but I still hold out hope.

This is the best of the Potter books (which I've read), and that's saying something given that book 7 is also superb. But Book 6 has even more than the thrilling climax and, if done well, this should be dark, claustrophobic, tense, compelling and thrilling (a bit of a theme emerging here...). There are signs that the actors are getting better, that Gambon is beginning to fill Richard Harris' rather large wizard-shaped shoes as Dumbledore, and that things are beginning to come together. Film 5 (Order of the Phoenix) wasn't great, but, then again, neither was the book. Book 6 is almost as long, but not a word is wasted. They'll do well to cram it all in, and cram it all in effectively, but this is the moment I fell back in love with Potter. For those who hate the books and the films, this is the time to give it a second chance.

Another look at the trailer...




3. Where the Wild Things Are



Oh dear, only at number 3, and two 'children's' films already previewed. And, like Watchmen and Potter 6, this is also courting controversy, particularly among the fanboys of Maurice Sendak's book. I've never read it so I can't comment. I don't understand, however, the hostility fans of books, comics, theatre productions have to the very idea of their beloved artistic treasures being made into a film (not that they can't be disappointed with the final result). Isn't it good that a piece of genuine art will reach a larger audience? Give the filmmaker a chance. After all, if it wasn't for Spielberg (with a little help from Messrs Scheider, Dreyfuss, Shaw et al), where would Jaws be?

And director Spike Jonze (whatever else you may feel about him) can hardly, in all fairness, be called cynical. Add that to the fact that the screenplay was penned by the brilliant Dave Eggers, you just have to call on people to give this a chance. Please...

Anyway, the film centres on Max, a young boy sent to his room without any supper. Angry, he creates an imaginary world inhabited by creatures, who crown him their ruler. We are promised more darkness, more scares, more fear. This just sounds very interesting and well worth a look, particularly for someone like me who works with children and particularly enjoys working with their imaginations. Well worth a look.

4. Drag Me To Hell

Moving away from children's films onto horror movies...



This also sees Sam Raimi move away - briefly - from his Spiderman baby to this tale of a Loan Officer (Christine) ordered to evict an old woman from her home. The old woman then places a supernatural curse on Christine, who is forced to turn to supernatural forces of her own to help liberate her from the curse.

This sounds, in all essentials, like a genuine, old-fashioned, chiller which, like this years brilliant REC, will aim to bridge an unsettling gap between modernity, superstition and religion. And if the result is anything like that achieved by REC, the results could be fantastic and genuinely chilling. This one is heading our way in May (a shame it misses Halloween, which seems to be devoid of decent, even promising, films year on year).

5. The Road


I finished reading this novel, by current literati darling Cormac McCarthy (fully deserving of adoration by the way), a few months back and loved it. Set in a post-apocalyptic nightmarish America, the entire landscape of which is awash with black ash and ruin and which is ravaged by roving bands of carnivorous, brutal, survivors.

It sounds fairly by the by from that description, yet it is anything but. For, through the ash and charred remains of humanity and human landscapes, walk a father and son, desperately striving, against all hope and against all the odds, for some form of redemption.

Don't get me wrong, this is such an emotionally note perfect book it will be very difficult to pull off well. But the signs are promising. Helmed by John Hillcoat, who did a great job with The Proposition (which, vitally, looked great, as this will have to as well) and starring Viggo Mortenson (who is, believe me, perfectly cast), this also features cameos by Guy Pearce, Robert Duvall and Charlize Theron, a cast that certainly gets my juices going. And the noises coming out of the camp, particularly about the key relationship between father and son (the latter played by the largely unheralded Kodi Smith-McPhee), are equally promising. This will be probably be very good, but, if pulled off, could be great. I await with great interest.

Well, that's my first five, the next five will follow later. A fairly eclectic bunch of films and no doubt some surprising and controversial choices, but we here at MyFilmVault like to keep you on your toes, so I hope you enjoy perusing this little selection. January promises to be a great month and I hope I'll actually manage to see some of the cinematic fare served up in the post-Christmas period. So, enjoy, and back soon with more previews.

Cormac McCarthy

American author Cormac McCarthy is the man of the moment. Tipped in some quarters to win the Nobel prize for literature, McCarthy's talent has not escaped Hollywood either. Last year saw his novel No Country For Old Men work cinematic wonders for the Coens and next year promises more from the Viggo Mortensen fronted 'The Road', McCarthy's 2006 novel about a desolate, ash-strewn, post-apocalyptic America.

I've just finished reading The Road as well as McCarthy's most celebrated novel, Blood Meridian, so thought I'd pen a quick post to this man of the moment and some of the challenges that will arise from bringing his difficult novels to the big screen.

The post was mainly inspired by this:

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/article/cormac_mccarthys_blood_meridian_cant_possibly_become_a_movie"

It's an article, which I agree with, about the difficulties that will be involved in bringing Blood Meridian to your local Odeon. Ridley Scott was linked to the project but, equally rightly, pointed out that the trouble with making Blood Meridian into a film is that it is unbelievably violent. Having just finished it, I can testify that Scott is not lying or exaggerating. Were it to be made, it would almost certainly be the most violent film ever made, at least by any mainstream filmmaker. And yet, IMDB reports, a version of Blood Meridian is in production.

Blood Meridian is a great book, a truly great book, totally unlike anything I've ever read. Violence is endemic to it, like it was to the world it depicts. Based on real events, the novel focuses on a time, at the beginning of the 1850's, when a rebel group of American soldiers, under the command of General Glanton, himself under the sway of the unbelievably abhorrant, amoral and fascinating Judge, head out to procure for themselves as many scalps of native American Indians as they can get, as the trade in them is thriving. If that sounds violent, even that gives no true picture of what actually goes on in this book (take a look at the quotes in the article I've hyperlinked above), it is honestly hard to see this passing any censorship test without losing the tone, the drive, the message, (all of) which make the book so powerful and unforgettable. I would almost dread seeing a cinematic version of Blood Meridian and yet feel compellingly drawn to the idea that I'd like someone with uber-talent to give it a go. We'll have to wait and see. But who would have the talent - and the physical presence - to play the role of the Judge, in Hollywood today, is beyond me. One blogger suggested Vincent D'Onofrio, and he - a hugely talented and underrated actor with great physical presence and menace (just think back to how unforgettable the toilet block scene in Full Metal Jacket is) - would be a great choice and would add another layer of potential interest to the idea of Blood Meridian the film.

McCarthy's is a rare talent. His worlds are always seemingly unbearably bloody and you would be forgiven for thinking that he has a very negative view of the human condition. Until you read The Road. In a way, The Road and Blood Meridian are perfect partners, the one demonstrating the worst, the other the best, of the human condition and they strike an absolute contrast between innocence and sin. I can't wait to see The Road though I remain hugely sceptical that any director will be able to reproduce its vast emotional landscape on screen. I wait to be corrected. As I do about Blood Meridian. Like the novel, a film version would have the potential of being one of the greatest ever made, were it done properly and the added pull of rewriting the Western myth in the Hollywood mainstream is restelessly compelling. Yet I pity the directors of each. For they must not only deliver great films, but must also deliver films fully worthy of the enigmatic, relentless, rare talent of Cormac McCarthy.