I Am Link

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--- May I Again - Saw this news at the end of the day on Friday, but perhaps y'all missed it - May director Lucky McKee is reteaming with May star Angela Bettis for a horror film based on a story by horror writer Jack Ketchum. It's a sequel to a movie that apparently came out last year called Offspring, which McKee and Bettis had nothing to do with but was also written by Ketchum. The sequel will be called Offspring: The Woman. So the title's not exactly lighting my hopes on fire, and my fire was dampened by what a dreary wreck Roman was (where Bettis directed McKee in a weird inverse of May), but here's to hoping these two can capture lightning in a bottle again, cuz May is genius.

--- Ra Ra Romans - Nat needs convincing over at The Film Experience to see (or to even want to see) Neil Marshall's Centurion. He's sharing my Michael Fassbender obsession these days (it seems to be a communal contagion, spreading quick), but isn't so keen on the violence that will surely occur within... here's the trailer from last week if you missed it. Supa-psyched!

--- Bring Back The Real Bob - The news from Marty Scorsese's own mouth that he and Robert DeNiro are considering teaming up for another film (mobsters, natch) makes me a happy boy, because it's a sad state, what DeNiro's become lately, and it'd make me happy to see him try this thing called "acting" again.

--- In The Genes - Rumors were swirling last week that Vincento Natali's film genetic-horror flick Splice, which stars Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley and that I've been following for ages now, might get a big as in huge release this Summer. Opinions were mighty mixed on it when it played at Sundance, but everybody seemed to agree that the visuals, and the bizarre-looking critter at its heart, are truly something to behold.

--- And finally, io9 does a good job rounding up some rumors circling (the drain of) Christopher Nolan's third Batman film. Robin! Riddler! And.. Lex Luthor? Oh, my.
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Roman's Release

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Via Film Ick comes news on the long-delayed semi-companion- piece to Lucky McKee's semi-genius film May, called Roman.

I've spoken briefly of Roman before, right here - in a bit of a flip-flop, it's directed by the star of May, Angela Bettis, and in the main acting role is May's director, Mr. McKee. Got that?

Oh, and it also stars Kristen "Veronica Mars" Bell. Sigh.

But according to Film Ick, the film's getting the Straight-to-DVD treatment:

"Today, Fangoria and Dread Central have both reported that the film will finally be released by Echo Bridge Entertainment [on March 27th]. Unfortunately, this will be direct to DVD, but fortunately, the film will come with a nice set of special features: a group commentary, deleted scenes, interviews and outtakes."

You can watch the trailer for Roman right here.

McKee's own directing follow-up to May, called The Woods and starring Patricia Clarkson, also went straight-to-DVD, I believe; I reviewed that one here.
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The Woods - Review

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This is a movie that lives and dies in the amazing Patricia Clarkson's capable hands. I kept being reminded of Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada - Clarkson took this sinister role of a possibly deranged school headmistress and played it as quietly as she could, until you can barely stand it. Is she evil incarnate? Or is she a sweet put-upon lady who is trying her hardest to be there for her charges? Clarkson has it both ways and every scene she's in is a study in cool tension. And director Lucky McKee's smart enough to put her in nearly every, or every other, scene.

I'm a fan of McKee's previous film, the undervalued May with Angela Bettis; he's got some kinks he's still working through and I do think he's got a great horror film in him Unfortunately The Woods is not it. It does have its moments of greatness, but they belong to Clarkson. Watching this made the probably-false rumors of her playing Mrs. Voorhees in a Friday the 13th reimagineering all the more bittersweet. Because, again like Streep in Prada, there is one moment here where Clarkson's facade of coolness is broken through and it's downright chilling, and then to imagine Clarkson becoming as completely unhinged as Mrs. Voorhess does, all the time with that deranged smile, well that's to imagine something truly scary.

McKee does have the important skill of crafting and displaying good roles for women in horror, though, as he's proven with Bettis in May and now Clarkson here, so I'm glad he's out there doing his thing. Why this film didn't get any real release I can sort of understand - it's a pretty old-fashioned brand of horror here; no excessive gore, just that sinking feeling that something is off. I was reminded at a couple of moments of Dario Argento's masterpiece Suspiria - specifically the early scenes where we arrive at the school in the rain and see the girl running through the woods that goes unexplained; specifically not the scenes where girls are thrown into pits of razor wire - but this film is nowhere near as great as that one.

The Woods does carve out it's own notch in the bedpost of "Girls Terrorized At Boarding School By The Supernatural" films, though, due mostly to Clarkson's diabolically subdued performance. I can't express how thankful I was for Clarkson in the final scenes which would've, in less assured hands, probably gone totally over the top, but in Patty's we are treated to nothing more than a terrifying blaze of whispers.

Oh, and anything that gives Bruce Campbell some work can't be bad. It's like a rule.

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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

May (2002)

May: So many pretty parts and no pretty wholes.

Although I labeled May as a 2002 movie above, this Lucky McKee horror classic didn't actually hit movie theaters until 2003 -- June 6th 2003 to be precise, making today its 20th anniversary! Happy 20, May! And coincidentally (or maybe not, I had nothing to do with its making) Second Sight, the UK boutique blu-ray distributor, just announced they are finally, FINALLY, putting May onto blu-ray -- this movie has been out of print for ages and I have bitched about that fact for ages, so this news was met with a whoop-whoop and an immediate pre-order from me. The set is out on July 24th and it looks as spectacular as the perfect movie deserves! Hopefully it can enter the canon proper-like now. Angela Bettis is an icon!

I Am Link

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--- Dalton Ross at EW wants to know - What's your most embarrassing DVD purchase? I've cut way back on my own DVD-buying since becoming a pyscho Netflix fan, but I've still got shelves upon shelves clotted with movies I'll probably never watch again... for some reason, the first one that pops to mind is Troy - sure, looking at Eric Bana in a skirt is always good for a little stimulation, but am I really ever going to sit through the rest of that epic mess again?

--- I wanna be the lucky bastard who's got their hands on Charlie Kaufman's newest script! Unfortunately, this dude at the LA Times is said lucky bastard. Here's what dude's got to say about the script for Synecdoche, New York :

"If this film gets made in any way that resembles what's on the page — and with the writer himself directing, it will likely gain even more color and potency in the translation — it will be some kind of miracle. "Synecdoche" will make "Adaptation" and "Eternal Sunshine" look like instructional industrial films. No one has ever written a screenplay like this. It's questionable whether cinema is even capable of handling the thematic, tonal and narrative weight of a story this ambitious."

--- Lars Von Trier is going to make a horror movie next. I've had The Kingdom sitting beside my TV for weeks and just haven't been in the mood, so I've no clue how his previous foray into spooky-land is but, love or hate the man, he's always provoking some sort of response which is a swell characteristic for a director to have when tackling the genre built for creating a visceral response. Oh, and also, the genre often responsible for torturing women! He's awfully adept at that, as well.

--- Models doing construction. Ahh. Blah blah charity blah; I wanna know how you hire these guys to come and like hang up pictures or change lightbulbs.

--- Twitch Film rocks my world with looks at two Lucky McKee (May) films - The Woods and the May-companion piece Roman, which was directed by May-star Angela Bettis and stars McKee and KRISTEN FREAKING BELL and which I already spoke of here - as well as a link to the trailer for the new film by Park Chan-Wook (Old Boy) called I'm A Cyborg But That's O.K., - love that title! - which is the first I've even heard of it.

--- Speaking of The-Love-Of-My-Life Kristen Bell, you can watch the Veronica Mars 3rd season premiere right here right now. I am undecided whether I should or not... I think I might wait til Tuesday. It's ratings need the boost!

--- The New York Press takes a longer look at the Michel Gondry exhibit that I saw last weekend. And here's the pic (below) that I promised of the Cardboard City from The Science of Sleep:

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Must See Roman

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I was skimming through AICN's descriptions of films to be shown at Austin's Fantastic Fest, which I find myself salivating over every year, when I stumbled upon this description of the film Roman:

"Angela Bettis helms in her directorial debut, and Lucky McKee, who directed Bettis in the cult horror hit MAY, takes a turn in front of the camera as Roman, a lonely guy who has nothing in his life except for looking out a window after work. He watches the same girl go by every day, but he never talks to her, until he meets her by chance. Unfortunately, he's obsessed so much with her that things go horribly wrong. "The Girl" is played by the ever-enchanting Kristen Bell (VERONICA MARS, PULSE)."

Now, May's not a perfect movie, but I do enjoy it a lot, and that team reuniting and flipping roles (director to star, star to director) for a semi-companion piece to May sounds very interesting indeed.

And then, well, you throw the object of my sexually-confused advances Kristin Bell in there and you've got me very interested. Must find this film!
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May For May

Here's a bit of amazing news that dropped while I was away that I didn't realize was as amazing as it is until just now -- Lucky McKee's magnificent 2002 horror flick May is finally getting a U.S. blu-ray release! Starring Angela Bettis, Jeremy Sisto, and Anna Faris, I've long sung this flick's praises so you'd think I'd have been right on this, but I got confused by the film having gotten a U.K. release like last year-ish that I snapped up the instant it went on sale -- this blu from Vestron, which is released on May 13th, is the first for our little pile of states though. For the moment you can pre-order the blu right here, although I can't imagine this will stay limited to Lionsgate's website. But it's loaded to the gills with special features -- as well it should be. What a movie! Here's its trailer if you're unfamiliar:

She Is Woman, Makes Us Roar

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I've been so busy posting today - today has been a crazy prolific day, too much, too much - that I haven't even gotten around to watching this the trailer for Lucky "May" McKee's new movie, The Woman. (via)

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The film's become infamously associated with the screening where some dude freaked out at a Q&A at Sundance that supposedly almost turned into a fight, so offended was the viewer by what he perceived as rampant misogyny. Several of the actresses in the film, inlcuding McKee's muse since May Angela Bettis came to the film's defense. Point being, I've been dying to see this movie since it was first announced and the hoopla only made me die a little bit more. I've been waiting for a New York screening for ages but haven't seen a single one pop up anywhere. Boo! I'll keep on keeping my eyes peeled. According to the film's website it's out on August 18th but it's an Aussie web address so it's confusing. IMDb doesn't have a date listed at all so I'm inclined to wonder. Wonder I will!

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Get Lucky

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Are you a fan of the horror director Lucky McKee? He made a stir, rightfully, right out of the gate with May, his fantastically effective 2002 chiller about Angela Bettis and her wandering eye coveting Jeremy Sisto's big manly hands and Anna Faris' lesbian thighs. He followed that up with The Woods, with Patricia Clarkson and Bruce Campbell, and then Red with Brian Cox, and most recently The Woman, which caused a lot of controversy with its tale of a seriously effed up family taking in a stray lady. Well if you are a big fan of him you should go vote on this Facebook poll for Chiller TV and tell them what your favorite Lucky McKee movie is. They're showing The Lost, which Lucky produced, tonight at 9pm. So go, do it. Suzy says you should do it. You wouldn't want to make Suzy angry.

I Am Link

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--- Mo Better Boy - I have to admit that the prospect of a Spike Lee directed remake of Park Chan-wook's Oldboy is an interesting idea. Spike certainly isn't afraid to be controversial (ha, understatement) and could possibly be ballsy enough to take this movie where it needs to be taken, unlike somebody like Spielberg, who momentarily talked about doing this. Would Denzel Washington inevitably star? Hrm dunno about him in the role. It's a shame Morgan Freeman's too old - he'd be perfect considering outside concerns, ahem. I know this is a really weird suggestion, but I can't stop thinking Eddie Murphy now. Oh Dae-su should have a "broken clown" quality to him.

--- Deeper Than Deep - A lovely little observation about a moment in Dario Argento's Profundo Rosso from Arbogast here.

--- Cold Flesh - Apparently Bruce La Bruce decided he wanted to take the wound-fucking scene from his last movie Otto, or Up With Dead People (a movie I liked) and turn that into a whole movie, and that's what LA Zombie is. Which well obviously I'll see this at some point. Go read Adam's take on the film.

--- Wack-a-duo - Reunited and it feels very fine - Michel Gondry will direct the new Bjork video for her new song "Crystalline." Yes, that is a good thing. Sad story: I was grooving to this song at a dinner we had at my house over the weekend when I realized everyone's conversation around me had turned to how much they hate Bjork. Awww. Cue my deflated face and head-hung trip to skip to the next track on the iPod. Rejected!

--- RoboStatham - There's some probably entirely baseless speculation going about that Jason Statham could star in a 4th Transformers film which - post-Bay and LaBeouf - would take the series into a darker direction. Can't really get much darker than being a signal of the end of times like the entire franchise has been so far, can ya? And I doubt there's much space for half-naked field fucking in a Transformers movie so I says pass, Jason!

--- Fall's For Rimming - Guillermo Del Toro is set to begin shooting his giant monster movie Pacific Rim in Toronto on Halloween of this year for a July 21st, 2013 release. This is the future!
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--- The Woman Beat - Ever since an audience member freaked out at a screening of Lucky McKee's The Woman (starring his May star Angela Bettis) I've been jonesing to see it (good press, that), so I'm happy to hear it's been picked up for distribution finally. I was hoping it'd play here in NY some time before officially getting released but it's been months and no go so I guess I'll have to stick it out with the rest of y'all plebes!

--- Hey It's Hooper - Apparently Texas Chain Saw Massacre director Tobe Hooper has written a horror novel called Midnight Movie in which he is the star. STYD has the details - it's fairly reminiscent of Wes Craven's script for New Nightmare in a lot of ways. Now he just has to direct and star in an adaptation and we can slide right on down the rabbit hole.

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It Is Woman Hear Them Roar

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It's been nearly a year since I last mentioned The Woman, Lucky McKee's reteam with his May star Angela Bettis, written by Jack Ketchum. In that time I've seen little bits of news here and there but nothing substantial enough to post about. Until now! The film screened at Sundance and apparently freaked people right the fuck out. You can read a substantial take on what went down at this link (thanks Joe), including videos of said freak-out, but basically I guess the film pushes some buttons with regards to depictions of abuse and misogyny. Because god forbid such topics ever be addressed!

Anyway you can see I'm already staking out my stance, but since I've seen nothing of the film yet I'll step back for now. Still I don't know why you'd go to see a movie about what this movie's about expecting to not be disturbed. I find that desire, the desire to have the topic of abuse addressed in a non-disturbing manner, more disturbing than the idea of a movie about abuse actually, ya know, disturbing. I think that sentence sort of got tangled.
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