roman polanski: god of carnage, and a bit about wes anderson’s new project.

So, I’ve been up late tonight, unable to sleep, as usual on a thursday evening. Usually these nights end with no success. Yet tonight was quite a different night. As I was browsing IMDB, i stumbled upon John C. Reily’s page and saw something interesting listed in his most recent films. He is set to be in a film adaptation of the famed Yasmina Reza play God of Carnage. This was most exciting information indeed. As soon as I saw it, i knew I needed to come on here and tell all of you (i’m sure the audience is quite small). 

So, I clicked on the page, oh so very curious as to what was going on with this film. It just so happened that not only is John C. Reily (who is playing Michael in the film), but director Roman Polanski, who wowed audiences earlier this year with his return Ghost Writer (an absolutely fantastic piece of cinema and Polanski’s best since Chinatown). This, excited me even more. And then I looked at the rest of the cast.

Kate Winslet is to play Annete, Jodie Foster is playing Veronica and that oh-so-lovable Nazi Christoph Waltz who charmed us into giving him an Oscar is to play Alan. Well, good god, i thought to myself. This will be something to look forward to. If Polanski (who co-wrote the screenplay with Reza) can pull it off and this cast can really tear it up on screen, this could potentially be one of the best films of this new decade. Now, I understand that is saying quite a lot, but were are looking at a brute ensemble of folks here. Imagine all of these people coming together to create this film explosion. God of Carnage itself is such an amazing piece, however, the question will still remain: can they pull it off on screen? (It’s also a bit ironic that Polanski is Directing this movie, all things considered…)

Sometimes it is difficult to put a play into a cinematic perspective. So many times, the film versions fail to do any justice to the stage version because the play was really meant for the stage and not the silver screen. I still give hope, considering Reza and Polanski are collaborating on the screenplay. Perhaps it will become a completely different version than what we’ve seen. I’m going to keep my hopes up for this one and you certainly should too. This is exciting.

the film is at the moment in “pre production” and is set to release in 2012

In other interesting news, Wes Anderson has something new in the works. It’s a sixties-esque film called Moon Rise Kingdom. Not much has been said about a plot, but the cast is pretty wild. Bill Murray is, of course, listed to be in it. But the interesting ones have got to be Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand (I wonder how the Coen Brothers feel about that) and Bruce Willis. Bruce Willis? Hmmm, Anderson has been known to really bring out the best in people. We’ll just have to see how this one goes. – my thanks for this one to Josh Jaeger and the Criterion Collection for the info on this one.

Criterion discount

My first purchase

If you are like myself and enjoy collecting and exploring the fabulous and film-school-in-a-box Criterion Collection DVDs, then this post is most definitely for you. So, check this shit out. Until august 1st, Barnes and Noble has Criterion DVDs 50 % off on every one of their titles. The majority are around 20 dollars, that’s including the blu-ray titles. The essential Art House discs are mostly 10 dollars and the Akira Kurosawa box set of 25 films is cut completely in half (of course, that is $400 dollars down to $200, but that’s a damn good deal). I’ll be spending way too much money in the next month, but at least my collection will grow enough to make me proud to be a fucken film nerd.

For those who do not know what the Criterion Collection is please refer to this: link

Barnes and Noble’s site!