FEBRUARY, 26
THE FORGOTTEN
Gangster / Action
The Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michelle Williams, Robert Pattinson, Ben Whishaw, Robert Downey Jr., Michael Douglas, Tom Wilkinson, Sharon Stone. Cameo by Robert De Niro.
The Director: Jonathan Demme
The Screenwriters: Chad Taylor & Joey Stark
The Plot:
Harrison Angelo (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is longer a normal young man. He is currently finishing up his college career, but is really off of his game. He was adopted as a child, being told that his real mom died soon after birth. He is alone and lost in the world.
One day, a knock comes on his dorm room's door. Standing there is Detective Michael Robertson (Robert Downey Jr.). He invites him in, and they sit down and talk. He informs Harrison that information has been found about who could be his true father, who was murdered a few years ago. Harrison is supposed to be the result of a short love affair his father had in his younger days. Det. Robertson reveals Harrison a shocking truth: his father was member of one of the most powerful and violent families in the mobster world.
Harrison asks at college about an expert in crime and mafia. He is sent to meet Catherine Collins (Michelle Williams), a student of criminology, who has been reading up on the mafia, and knows much about his grandfather and father. The two share a bit of a bond as they talk it all over. Once they finish up, Harrison decides he will put it into his own hands, and find out more. But just before he leaves, he asks her if she'd like to go get a cup of coffee sometime, and she smiles and nods her head.
He goes back to his dorm and gets on his laptop, studying up on his father's legacy. He reads about his prestigious father, ambitious cousin, and his murdered wife. He becomes highly interested in his ancestry and wishes he could've known his father. He goes to a local weapon store and buys some weapons, and a little bit of alcohol, trying to seem more tough than the nerd he is.
The next day, he meets Catherine at a local coffee shop. They sit at a two-person table, and share stories, with love in the air. They get really close and stare at each others’ eyes for five seconds, then lean in to kiss. But before their lips meet, gunshots pierce through the nearby window. Everyone in the cafe fall to the floor scared. We see a car going by with two people in sitting out of the window with guns in hand. Andrew (Robert Pattinson) and Daniel (Ben Whishaw) Michelli, two sharp-dressed friends part of the growing British mob family, the Michelli's. Feeling he must fulfills his father's image, Harrison jumps up and leaps out the broken window. He pulls out a gun from his jacket, his hands shaking, and shoots at the car. He looks scared, as if he has never shot a gun before. He hasn't.
He tells Det. Robertson about the incident and he tells Harrison about the Michelli family.
Det. Robertson tells Harrison that probably it was the head of the Michelli family, Alexander (Tom Wilkinson), who ordered the hit, fearing the revival of Harrison's past family. Alexander was once a good friend and partner of Harrison's grandfather. After the incarceration of Harrison’s grandfather, Alexander Michelli took control by himself of most of the Harrison’s family’s business. Alexander decided to start a powerful family of his own, with his son Andrew and his friend as his right hand men.
Harrison decides instead of backing down and risking his own death, he wants to fight back. Catherine suggests he seeks help from her father, who is a retired FBI agent. As the two get closer and closer, they decide to meet the parents. When Harrison goes to her parents' house and opens the door, Catherine's father Richard (Michael Douglas) greets him. They go through a normal dinner until Harrison finally brings up the topic of the information he and Catherine have found. And as soon he talks about his father, Richard's mind starts spinning, as sitting at his table across from him, is the son of the man he killed.
As soon as dinner wraps, they all hug and Harrison leaves. Richard had not told his daughter about his past, nor does he want her to find out. He highly suggests that she stop seeing him, but she refuses and leaves.
When Harrison arrives at his dorm, he is shocked to find Dt. Robertson inside. He tells Harrison that he was just passing by to see if he was ok and Harrison buys it.
Meanwhile back at the Michelli’s household, Andrew and Daniel are quietly planning their next attack. Daniel gets a phone call and tells Andrew he must leave. We follow Daniel to his next location, a high-priced penthouse set on the Ocean. Inside he meets Andrea Michelli (Sharon Stone), Andrew's mother and Alexander's wife. She is lying down on her bed, with barely anything on, looking very seductive. Daniel lies next to her, and starts remove his clothes, as they start to make love.
Richard is at home plotting how to stop his daughter from getting too involved with Harrison. But he cannot seem to figure out the way just yet. Meanwhile, Harrison and Catherine keep going on in a romantic relationship.
Daniel and Andrea have another sexual interlude at the Michelli’s home. Alexander unexpectedly arrives and notices something strange in Daniel’s behaviour. Alexander processes the images in his head and figures out what’s going on between his wife and Daniel. He tells Andrew about it, who is livid that his good friend would be romantically linked with his mother. Alexander tells his son Andrew that they will solve together this ‘little problem’.
Harrison goes to the biggest prison in town, where we see a familiar face in the sale. It is his grandfather (Robert De Niro). They share a brief chat as Harrison catches him up on everything. His grandfather tells him he should take care now of the family’s interests and that he is able to help him in that task.
Harrison keeps reading old newspapers to know more about his family. And he finally sees news about his father’s death... and a picture of the FBI agent that killed him: Richard Collins, Catherine’s father.
Harrison goes to Richard and Catherine’s home to talk about this. He faces Richard Collins. He tells Richard he is in love with Catherine. And he wants to go on with the relationship although he killed his father. Richard tells Harrison he will never accept him as Catherine’s boyfriend. After a tense discussion, Harrison leaves.
As he is leaving Richard’s house, Det. Robertson steps on his way. And, to Harrison’s surprise, he pulls out his gun and order Harrison to follow him. Robertson tells him the truth: he works for the Michelli’s family and he was ordered to find him and spy him trying to discover if Harrison was rebuilding the family empire. Andrew and Daniel were ordered by Alexander Michelli to kill him while Det. Robertson’s mission was to find out if he was getting involved in his family’s business. As Andrew and Daniel don’t seem capable of killing him, that’s his mission now.
Det. Robertson takes Harrison to Alexander Michelli’s house. Alexander, his wife Andrea and his son Andrew are there. ‘Before your turn, we want to show you how the Michelli family acts’, tells Alexander to Harrison. A few moments later, Daniel arrives. ‘You wanted to see me’, tells Daniel to Alexander.
With no further words, Andrew shoots Daniel. Before Daniel dies, Alexander tells him: ‘I don’t accept betrayal. I gave you all and you payed me cheating me with my wife’. Daniel dies. Then, Alexander turns and slaps her terrified wife and orders her to go to her bedroom. Then he turns to Harrison: ‘Now’s your turn’, he says, ‘I cannot take the risk of you rebuilding your family empire, my friend. Please, proceed.’
Det. Robertson lifts up his gun to shoot Harrison. A shot is heard. But it is not Harrison who falls down. It’s Det. Robertson. Somebody has shot him from outside the house.
Harrison takes advantage of the surprise. He runs away and jumps out from a window. As he is running away across the garden a car approaches. It’s Richard Collins. Richard tells him to jump it and then drives away. Richard explains Harrison that he saw what happened when he left his home and Robertson took him away. He quickly followed them. It was him who shot Robertson through the house’s window.
‘You killed my father. But now you saved my life’, tells him Harrison.
‘That does not change anything about my daughter’, Richard tells him.
The car leaves the Michelli’s mansion behind.
Next time we see Harrison a few months have passed. He is not at college anymore. He leaves in his own apartment and Catherine and he have just made love. Afterwards, she asks him if everything is fine. ‘Sure’, he tells, ‘The Michelli don’t know where I live now and I am not getting into any trouble, darling. Everything’s over.’
Catherine has to leave. When he is alone, Harrison picks up the phone and makes a call. We only hear him saying these words: ‘Okay. The meeting will be tonight. Remeber what my grandfather told you. The family is back’.
When he hang down the phone, there’s a different look in his eyes. He is not a nerd anymore.
Stark’s Comment:
Nine seasons after ‘The Heirs – Part 3’, Chad Taylor had the idea of revamping this legendary mobsters saga with the story of an unknown son of Sean Penn. I loved this daring and risky idea and decided to bet strongly for it. It is quite a challenge when you decide to resurrect a legendary product like ‘The Heirs’ trilogy but I think it’s a worthy risk to take. By the way, the last 40 minutes of tense action in the movie are pure cinematic gold in my opinion.
Behind The Scenes:
-The idea of writing a sequel to ‘The Heirs’ trilogy was Chad Taylor’s. When Harry Stark received the first draft of the screenplay he showed it to the original writer of ‘The Heirs’, his brother Joey. And Joey got so enthusiastic about the concept that he asked Taylor if he would let him work with him in the screenplay. Finally, the screenplay became a co-written work by Taylor and Joey.
-Chad Taylor offered Martin Scorsese to produce the movie. But Scorsese refused the offer. He explained his rejection this way in a recent interview: ‘I wanted Jonathan Demme to feel free to tell the story the way he wanted. I didn’t want to influence him in any way and I thought that if I was the producer he could feel obliged to respect the way I shot ‘The Heirs’ movies and that could be bad for his creative freedom.’
-As a curiosity, the first draft of the screenplay included a cameo of Demi Moore, who played the lover of Sean Penn in ‘The Heirs – Part 2’. Finally, that cameo disappeared in the final draft.
-The only characters seen here from the original trilogy are the ones played by Michael Douglas and Robert De Niro.
-Chad Taylor and Joey Stark are already working in a sequel of ‘The Forgotten’.
LOST AT SEA
Suspense
The Cast: Michelle Trachtenberg, Anton Yelchin, Jared Padalecki, Ethan Embry, Katarina Hyde
The Director: Brian Trenchard Smith
The Screenwriter: Matt Kubrick
The Producer: Midnight Movies
The Plot:
June 8th
North Carolina, three friends have travelled hundreds of miles to hook up with two friends they're names are Megan (M.Trachtenberg), Tim (A.Yelchin), John (Jared Padalecki), Seth (Ethan Embry) and his girlfriend Amanda (Katarina Hyde), who is a champion boater having won a race. They are all about to spend a few days out on the ocean sailing it was supposed to be a fun little vacation away from everything. All that will come crashing down.
June 9th
They set sail for hours they are having fun, fishing, swimming and playing games. But in the night a storm hits while they are out at sea Megan is seriously injured when a line breaks and knocks her down leaving a nasty gash on her leg. The boat is taking on water quickly and losing power. Seth makes a desperate call on his cb radio to the coastguard but he can't pick anyone up. If they are all to survive they have to gather as much supplies together and quickly. They get two rafts they plan on tieing together to form. One is a life raft with survival equipment and the other is a small boat, they deflate both but when a massive wave hits them Seth loses his grip on the life raft and it floats away with all their important supplies. All they have left is a large raft with enough room for them. The only thing they can do now is watch the boat sink behind them and try to ride out the storm and they hang on the outside staying in the water because if they come out it will be more cold.
June 10th
Early morning the five survivors are seriously worried about Megan whose wound cuts almost right to the bone. Without any care she risks infection and death. They aren't even sure if the coastguard recieved their calls for help. They do their best to band together and keep themselves happy and alive. Still in the water they huddle underneath the boat and huddle together for warmth but then they discover they have a major problem. John and Amanda get into a small yelling fight, he wants her to stop kicking her and she says she isn't but John gets more and more annoyed. Finally Amanda ducks her head in the water to see what is going on and she gets the shock of her life. Hundreds of sharks have been attracted by Megans blood which has been leaking in the water. Panicking Amanda screams IN THE BOAT GET IN THE BOAT RIGHT NOW. As they get into the boat as quickly as possible they see fins on the surface lots of them. This is when they realize that they're situation is much worse.
That night the thirst for water over powers John and Tim start drinking up handfuls of the sea. Megan wakes up seeing them and starts screaming for them to stop. Amanda and Seth wake up because of the screams and have to pull them back from the water, which makes John and Tim's situation much worse.
June 11th
Both John and Tim are severly dehrydrated from drinking the salt water. They are delirious and seeing things and speaking in toungues. The others are weak from not eating and drinking and just lay there trying to survive. Megan is in very bad shape and her leg is infected. Tim thinks he sees land and starts screaming in joy. Seth, Megan and Amanda try to convince him otherwise but Tim gets up and jumps out of the boat and starts swimming. Megan starts screaming for him to come back, John is barely holding on himself. The camera doesn't show Tim swimming but when his screams fill the air it shows the looks on everyones faces. The sharks are still out there. That night there is rainfall which helps take away some of the heat they've been suffering.
June 12th
Their situation is getting worse, Megan's leg is worse and she is now suffering from going into shock. John starts talking about his car being in the parking lot and believes he can go get it. He leaps out of the boat and ends up getting stuck under the boat itself. There are abunch of loud thumps on the bottom of the boat. Seth and Amanda huddle together crying against each other as the sharks eat John. Exhausted they soon fall asleep and when they wake up in the night they find that Megan has died from their injury. With little strength they have they decide that they will take off her clothes and jewelry to give to her family if they live. Seth is sick at the thought of eating her for nourishment but Amanda tells him that she infected and they would both get sick. They push her over board for the sharks and they soon fall asleep.
June 13th
Amanda and Seth wake up they are still hanging on without food and water, but Seth sees a boat, it's close and starts screaming and waving his arms. Amanda doesn't believe him and thinks he is seeing things. But finally she looks and they both get a quick burst of energy and screaming, they realized that the people on the large boat see them to. The credits start rolling as they hauled aboard to safety.
Stark’s Comment:
A different kind of movie here. A highly distressing story based on true events. And a peculiar directing style, as could be expected by someone like Trenchard-Smith. The movie has been made without any music. Instead the sound of waves is a big part of the soundtrack trying to give the feeling that these people are in the middle of nowhere. At some moments, it goes more a documentary type approach with the camera rarely leaving the characters. You only see what the characters can see.
Behind The Scenes:
-Matt Kubrick specifically asked the Studio to not cast big stars for this movie. The final cast was the one chosen by Kubrick himself.
-This is the fourth time that Michelle Trachtenberg works in a movie written by Kubrick. The previous ones were all horror flicks: ‘Blood Beach’, ‘Darkman: Resurrection’ and ‘Silent Night, Deadly Night’.
-At Midnight Movies they designed a great teaser for this movie but, due to a mistake at CMP’s offices, it was never shown at CMP’s blog.
THE LOVERS STAGES
Drama / Comedy
The Cast: Matthew Broderick, Felicity Huffman, Alan Arkin, Vanessa Redgrave, Jena Malone, Paul Dano, Jimmy Bennett, Sammi Hanratty
The Director: Tamara Jenkins
The Screenwriter: Josh Collins
The Producer: Grand Island Movies
The Plot:
The Lovers Stages is about a family of men, all at different ages and stages of lives. The first of the men is Jack (M.Broderick). He's middle aged who loses his wife Karen, to a fatal illness in the beginning of the story. The second is Jack's father-in-law, Ivan (A.Arkin). You can say that Ivan is the next one "out the door" of life. Vincent (P.Dano) is the college-aged son of Jack, while Logan (J.Bennett) is the 12 year old son.
It's so easy for others to say 'Go love another' but it's easier said than done. That's what Jack is going through while mourning the loss of his one loved one. The guilt and being haunted by the idea that he would be cheating on his deceased wife. As his story progresses, he forms a friendship with a middle aged woman, Diane (F.Huffman). He finds that the most common factor in their friendship is the fact that she too is a widow and she knows the difficulty of moving on. On dates they share stories of their trials and tribulations with their departed ones and raising the family that left them behind. Jack's sons particularly are not happy with this relationship being formed. Jack and Diane are both afraid of getting too close because they don't want to feel the pain of loss again. But by the end of their journey they learn there's no sense in worrying about what's going to happen. That it's ok to start a new life with someone else. They avoid marrying though, and the kids on both sides would also see that their living parent's happiness is what their deceased parent is what they wanted.
Vincent is at an age where he takes love for granted. He's uncommitted and shallow. He hunts for the 10s and wants what every horny college kid wants. When he does start wanting to form more serious relationships, the 10s don't seem all that attracted to him. He finds himself gradually falling in love with a plain emotionless girl, Claire (J.Malone), whose seen her own pain after coming out of a bad childhood. When she was a kid and teen she was constantly teased and insulted by people like Vincent, which explains her hostility toward him for a while. She didn't even get to grow up and be a stunning beauty that other "ugly ducklings" get to do in the movies. Claire would eventually warm up to Vincent, he would make up for the rotten treatment she received in her life. She doesn't quite trust him through their story, she thinks he's just using her and he's got to work hard to show her he's not. Their journey ends when she accepts his proposal for marriage.
Logan has reached the point in his life where he starts thinking on a deeper level about girls after he's one of those who thought they were icky. He too took his mother's death a little hard. He didn't even want to go to his mom's funeral. Who wants to stare at their mother's lifeless body, something he says to Jack when Jack gives him a little hell for not wanting to go to that funeral. A girl-scout cookie saleswoman/classmate of Logan, Emily (S.Hanratty), comes into the picture. At first they can't stand the sight and sound of each other, but they eventually go through the same kind of awkward things we've done with members of the opposite sex around their age. Logan wanting to touch her hand or hair but too shy to do so and going only as far as holding the others' pinkie fingers. The phone calls followed by immediate hang ups, the first kiss: true puppy love in all its forms.
One particular conflict in their story is their stupid childish fight that leads to Emily seeing some random boy and Logan being tormented by the sight of it. Logan learns that the boy is doing his own cheating by seeing another girl on the side prompts Logan to defend Emily's honor and make an ass of himself in front of the school and Emily by getting in a fight with the young adulterer. Logan forces him to tell her the truth and it upsets her more. Logan tries to comfort her but she pushes him away, not wanting anything to do with boys. In an effort to make her feel better, and from the advice of his dad, Logan picks some flowers on the way to her house and buys some girl scout cookies. She sees him there with the cookies and flowers and actually smiles and laughs, calling him a big dork and hugs him.
While Logan starts in on the game, Ivan is fixing to leave it. With many years in his life, he's never managed to keep a successful relationship. He's gone through a few marriages and a few divorces. He's lost one of his kids to an illness and feels bad that the time she was alive they weren't very close. He lives in a nursing home, doesn't mind it so much; at least he has friends, people to talk to and don't judge him like the outside world. He finally meets that woman that was missing from entire life, the other piece to his puzzle, Doreen (V.Redgrave). Only one thing, she's as old as him and unhealthy usually spending most of her last days bedridden, dying. Ivan returns to her room everyday to see her, sometimes alone, sometimes when her family is visiting(at first they're a little awkward about him being there but as the film goes on they start realizing their sick elderly likes Ivan and they warm up to him.)
On days when she's feeling up to it, Ivan takes her out and around, spending as much time with her as he should have all those many years ago. His depth stems from cherishing the moments he could have had all those years ago but took forever to get to her, all the way to her inevitable death, one of the best things he did for her was break her out of the nursing home so she can die in her own bed, something she wanted her entire life but the doctors wouldn't give to her. His great tragedy is finding true love too late in life. Fortunately for Ivan, he knows his time is coming very soon, so when Doreen is at her last breaths of life, Ivan lays in her bed, holds her hand and waits for both of their deaths to come.
In a moment when the love of all the characters are harmonious between each other, there's flashes of love scenes between all, except Logan and Emily. However they share a beautiful slow dance...or try with funny remarks(you keep stepping on my feet, put your hand right there, stop leading, i wanna lead) while the flashes of love scenes occur between Vincent/Claire, Jack/Diane and yes an implied 'under the sheets with Ivan on top' scene of Ivan/Doreen.
The denouement of the stories connect when Vincent and Claire are at their wedding when Vincent and Claire get into the limo. Claire takes one last look at the happy supportive crowd, she's never felt so alive and more beautiful. Jack and Diane are there for support and so is Logan who has no other than Emily standing next to him. She plants a quick peck on his lips after they hold hands together. The last image of the denouement shows the graves of Ivan and Doreen, buried next to each other.
Stark’s Comment:
This screenplay has stayed in my office’s drawer for years and I’m glad it finally sees the light. Collins writes so many screenplays that sometimes they have to wait months and even years before being green lighted. Here is a pleasant look at the different ways people love according to life times. A movie mainly based on dialogues and acting works. Not expected to be a blockbuster but I think it can find its audience.
Behind The Scenes:
-During the long period of time that this story has been waiting for green light, Collins wrote different draft versions, introduced some cast changes and even changed the title several times.
-GMA Winner Jena Malone works in a Collins’ pitch for the third time after ‘Lyra’ and ‘After The Storm’.
-The cast includes other regulars in Collins’ movies: Jimmy Bennett (‘Babes In Toyland’, ‘A Man Called Dan’) and Sammi Hanratty (‘The Dead Walk’). Matthew Broderick’s voice was heard in the Collins’ animated feature ‘Bird Of A Feather’.
-Alan Arkin was already cast for this movie before his personal success with ‘The Pitiful Plight Of Tom Collins’, other Collins’ story.
-As he usually does, Collins has also included some debutantes in CMP in this cast. This time: Vanessa Redgrave, Paul Dano and Felicity Huffman.
UNCOMMON VALOUR: ONLY THE VALIANT: His last work for CMP was back in Season 9,
putting his voice to an elderly knight in ‘The Land Of Nod’. He is retired now from the industry. But he has decided to return at least for once to make a cameo in this movie. Yes, we are talking of no other than Sean Connery. This won’t be the first time that we see him in a CMP’s historical adventure, as he has visited the genre before in movies like ‘The Crusades’, ‘The Bridge’, ‘The Misadventures Of Harry Flashman’ or ‘1066’.
THE DARK TOWER: WOLVES OF THE CALLA: Green light at last for the fourth movie of one of the most popular and prestigious CMP’s sagas. Matt Kubrick is signing again the screenplay of this adaptation of Stephen King’s fantasy books. And this fourth installment comes with some novelties. First, change of director. As you all know by now, Sam Raimi will remain as producer of the movie. But moving the cameras will be French director Jean Pierre Jeunet in his debut for CMP. Another novelty is that this movie will include an animated segment. The origins of Roland, the gunslinger played by Russell Crowe, will be finally revealed in an animated segment of the movie. Jeunet won’t appeal to classic animation ala Disney or Dreamworks for this segment but to an animation technique closer to the one used in movies like ‘A Scanner Darkly’.
JUSTICE LEAGUE: Superheroes already known in CMP were announced to be joining the
Justice League (Batman, Superman, The Flash and Wonder Woman). But there will also be a new one. The Green Lattern makes his debut in this movie. And the star chosen to play him is a rising star lately in CMP. Two Seasons ago, he succeeded with ‘Crossovers’. Past Season, he was the voice of the Karate Kat. Yes, it’s him: Ryan Reynolds joins the Justice League as the Green Lattern.
COEN & WARSHINSKI: David Schwimmer is directing Ben Stiller and Will Ferrell in this comedy about the return of a peculiar disco music duo. And the greedy manager who puts up their revival concert looking for big profits will be no other than GMA Winner Philip Seymour Hoffman, trying luck with comedy for the first time in CMP. We’ve been told that the shooting dates of this movie have been reduced as Hoffman is committed to join another CMP’s production pretty soon.
MS. JORDON: Edward Norton is the man whose life and reputation will turn upside down when the
femme fatale played by Cameron Diaz steps into his life in this film noir being directed by Tom Hanks. This way, Edward Norton retakes his CMP’s career after definitely leaving The Avengers. And his wife in the movie will be played by Katie Holmes. Katie had not been seen in a CMP’s movie since Season’s 6 ‘Omega’, when she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.
BEDTIME STORIES 2: Back in Season 9, Matt Kubrick put up an innovative experience in CMP with ‘Bedtime Stories’, a three short horror stories movie directed by Alexander Aja, Eli Roth and Kubrick himself. Now, Midnight Movies produces again a sequel to that experiment with three new stories. This time, it is not Kubrick but Josh Collins who has written the stories. And they will be directed by three specialists in horror: Wes Craven, John Carpenter and David Slade. Craven and Carpenter have already worked together in CMP when Craven produced and Carpenter directed ‘The Grotto’. Slade will make his debut in CMP here.
OUT PARTYING: Best Screenplay GMA winner Trent Nielsen is finishing the shooting of this teen comedy that will mean his first directional job in CMP. More talents included in the cast are Emma Stone (‘Psycho: Bloodline’, ‘The Miracle Men’) and two talents making their debut in the Studio: Lauren Storm and Jason Bateman.
ZOIDS: EVE: Talents already seen before in the first movie of this Dawson Edwards’ franchise, return in the sequel. Jason Patric, Cole Hauser and Meagan Good are back in this second installment being directed like the first one by Alfonso Cuaron.
NUDE!: James Bradley has always liked to write comedies based on peculiar premises. This new
comedy written by him will tell the story of an ordinary girl that wins a contest to pose nude at the Playboy magazine and the scandal it creates in all the neighbors of her conservative hometown. Ellen Page will play this shy and not particularly attractive girl that will end up at the cover of Playboy. This movie will also be the fourth directional job of James Bradley after ‘Celebutantes’, ‘The 6th Avenue Castaways’ and ‘Crossovers’, where he already directed Page.
L.A. WOLF 2: Gabriel Macht plays again the tough police detective David Wolf in this sequel directed by David Ayer. And he won’t be too happy to have a newcomer partner, a police woman played by GMA Winner Natalie Portman, already seen past Season in the award winner ‘Running On Empty’.
MATT KUBRICK – LOST AT SEA
Still recent his GMA nomination for Best Director for ‘Teenage Wasteland’, Kubrick is back at work what this new concept of horror different from his usual slasher movies, the claustrophobic and disturbing survival adventure of ‘Lost At Sea’.
1.I have read somewhere that your new story, Lost At Sea, is based in true events. Can you tell us something more about this?
I would love to I based it on events that took place on an episode of the documentary series I
shouldn't be alive which is about people surviving incredible odds. Everything that happened to these people is how it played out in real life. I just changed the names.
2.Brian Trenchard-Smith is such a peculiar choice to direct this movie. What took you to choose him?
Brian is a great director but he hasn't had a movie in theater's since the mid 80s. Since then he has been stuck doing straight to video and TV work. I wanted him to get a chance to be able to have another movie that plays to a large audience.
3.I also read that you deliberately avoided big names in the cast. Why?
Because I don't really want people to see names. People might be able to relate to the characters more if they're not thinking about the actors and actresses.
4.The 12th GMA Edition took place just one week ago, so I have to ask you
about it. Did you ever expect Logan Lerman to win for his work in 'Teenage Wasteland'? And how do you felt about your second nomination for Best Director?
Actually yeah I did expect him to win he turned in an amazing performance and we were all proud of him. I feel honored to be nominated with the likes of Clint Eastwood and Martin Scorsese. It was a great time.
5.The fourth movie of 'The Dark Tower' saga is on its way. There are some changes in it, like Jean Pierre Jeunet replacing Sam Raimi behind the cameras. How do you see the future of this main CMP's franchise?
I really hope we can make it to number 7 and I believe that it has a bright future. I think for the last couple of movies we should give different directors a shot at making the next movies. Maybe JJ Abraham could make one. He was at one point going to make his own franchise, he had bought the rights to all the books and said he would start work on them after Lost was done but now he says he isn't doing it. I guess we beat hollywood to it!
TRENT NIELSEN
BEST SCREENPLAY GMA WINNER
Following the tradition, here is an in-depth special interview with the latest Best Screenplay GMA Winner, Mr. Trent Nielsen.
1.First Season, four movies released, strong support from movie critics, winner of the Best Screenplay GMA… Things are going pretty fast for you in CMP. How do you feel about it all?
Four movies released in one season... I feel good about it. Strong support from movie critics... I love it. Best Screenplay GMA... I'm not sure if I should be happy for this or not. Seriously, Chad and James wrote better stories than I did. I just got lucky, that's all.
2.Did you ever expect ‘Running On Empty’ to become an award winner story?
Never. I wrote Running On Empty one sleepless night in late September and when I was writing it, it never came to my mind that this would get a GMA. Man, when I found out it received a nomination, I could have gotten a heart attack if only I had heart problems. And when I saw that it won the GMA, I went like "what the f*ck is wrong?" and it took me a little while to process all that information on my brain.
3.Watching Keira Knightley and Rachel Weisz winning their awards for ‘The Princess And The
Captain’ must have been such a thrill for you too…
Well, I was happy to see Keira and Rachel pick up awards because after all, they have done a good job and deserved it fully.
4.’The Blacksmith’s Sword’ picked up a Most Wanted Sequel nomination. Will there ever be a sequel of that one?
At the moment, I am thinking about it. I'm writing ideas for the sequel and if my ideas turn out good, a screenplay may not be far off.
5.Bob Felton wrote at CMP’s blog about his disagreement with your Best Screenplay win. Any answer to him?
I'm with you, Bob.
6.After such an amazing debut Season for you, you must feel a certain pressure about what to do next…
Well, the pressure is crushing me. I think people expect me to write much more better movies and I don't think I can do that.
7. I have the feeling that you don’t care much about box office, right?
If I wanted to work with stuff like gross revenue and box office gains, I should have became a producer and not a screenwriter. If a movie fails in the box office, I like to think of it as the marketing department's fault and not the screenwriter's fault.
8.You are going to try something as risky as teen comedy with ‘Out Partying’… That’s a genre movie critics usually look down on and a peculiar choice for an award winner screenwriter. What made you want to give the genre a try?
I wanted to try teen comedy simply because there hasn't been one on the CMP history.
9.Also, you are making your debut as movie director with ‘Out Partying’. Will directing your own stories become something regular for you in the future?
Not sure about this stuff. I'm just experimenting around with this film because the film is an experiment itself.
10.I have got to know that you have slowed down your production lately and there are not many Nielsen’s screenplays at the CMP’s waiting list. What can we expect from you in the future?
I'll give you the title of the most promising screenplay I'm working and I'm sure it'll be a good teaser. I'm working on a romantic comedy called 'Sunshine On Lonely Street' and I'm not giving out any plot summary until I finish the screenplay since there may be changes. I'm also working on two comedies and a Kurt Cobain biopic.
MARTIN SCORSESE
Past week, Martin Scorsese made history in CMP becoming the first moviemaker to win two Best Director GMA. Scorsese has been involved both as director and producer in CMP’s movies almost since the Studio was born. As a homage to this recent triumph, we take a look this week at his CMP’s career.
THE HEIRS – PART 1, 2, 3
Seasons 1 & 4
Director & Producer
Written by Joey Stark
Scorsese made his debut in CMP directing the very first trilogy from the Studio. A mafia saga ala The Godfather written by Joey Stark. The war of power between a father (De Niro) and his son (Penn) became a box office success and a CMP’s icon. Scorsese won the Best Director GMA with the first movie of this trilogy. This week, ‘The Forgotten’ resurrects this saga. As it has been said, Chad Taylor offered Scorsese to produce the movie but he refused the offer (Movies available in a CMP’s DVD box set).
THE TOYMAKER
Season 3
Producer
Directed by Francis Coppola – Written by James Bradley
Before directing ‘The Heirs – Part 3’, Scorsese teamed up with Francis Coppola and became the producer of this top budget historical movie sited in the French Revolution. De Niro was around again. ‘The Toymaker’ meant also the first collaboration between Scorsese and James Bradley. The movie didn’t make a spectacular box office (62 millions, net gains of 48 millions), but it picked up 5 GMA nominations (Scorsese was nominated as producer for Best Picture) and won Best Screenplay.
AMERICAN HEARTLAND
Season 5
Producer
Directed by Sean Penn – Written by Matt Kubrick
Scorsese kept working regularly for CMP during the first Seasons of the Studio. This time, he accepted to produce this directional job of his star from ‘The Heirs’, Sean Penn. The movie told the real story of the so called Memphis 3, three teenagers accused of murder. The movie worked well enough at box office (67 mill., net gains of 31 mill.) and brought a Best Supporting Actor GMA for Shia LaBeouf.
FIVE THUNDERBOLTS
Season 7
Producer
Directed by Ang Lee – Written by Josh Collins
In Season 7, Scorsese kept working only as producer of CMP’s movies with this very interesting movie about Chinese triads. He read the screenplay written by Josh Collins and liked him so much that personally asked Collins to let him get involved in the movie. The movie made a decent box office of 49 millions (net gains of 25 millions).
TENDER IS THE NIGHT
Season 10
Director & Producer
Written by James Bradley
After three Seasons away, Scorsese finally returned to CMP and this time he directed the movie too and not only produced it. His second collaboration with James Bradley was the classy adaptation of the Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel. The movie made outstanding numbers for a drama (box office of 101 millions, net gains of 85 millions) and Angelina Jolie won the Best Actress GMA with it.
AMERICAN TABLOID
Season 12
Director
Written by James Bradley
Third teaming up for Bradley and Scorsese. Most nominated movie ever at the GMA, second Best Director GMA for Scorsese, Best Picture GMA winner… Scorsese proves again that he is one of the most interesting moviemakers of our time. And he confirmed another thing: his CMP’s movies usually do not make outstanding box offices but after such a long CMP’s career none of his CMP’s movies has ever made net losses.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the toughest guy in town? It seems so as he will become the latest Don at the NYC’s mafia scene in ‘The Forgotten’. Gordon-Levitt’s meteoric career in CMP remains at full speed after winning the Best Actor GMA with his CMP’s debut, ‘Weigh Anchor’, and ‘Running On Empty’, his second work for the Studio, winning past week the Best Screenplay award. So we dedicate this week’s pic to the hottest – and maybe toughest – guy in town.
Season 13 begins in CMP and it looks like a revival Season. Some iconic CMP’s sagas from its first Seasons will return during the next weeks. This week, ‘The Forgotten’ resurrects the universe of ‘The Heirs’, one of the first CMP’s trilogies. In coming weeks we will see new installments from
CMP’s acclaimed classics like ‘Uncommon Valour’ and ‘Game Boy’. But not only pioneer franchises are coming back. Also, veteran CMP’s authors might be returning soon. It all seems like Marcus Trax is coming back to CMP. Trax – better known in CMP for his Star Wars’ trilogy and for teaming up with David Mamet and Johnny Depp in five different movies – has contacted Harry Stark announcing his return to the Studio. Trax’s last release for CMP was the megahit ‘The Land Of Nod’, back in Season 9. According to rumors, he is working in quite a bunch of stories looking for a splendorous return to CMP’s world.
Some CMP’s screenwriters return or get very active while some others seem to relax. On the active side, John Daws has also returned from a long hiatus with the announced third movie of his successful ‘Game Boy’ franchise. Robert Zemeckis and George Lucas are already working in the pre-production of the movie, said to be the most spectacular one of the saga. Dawson Edwards can also been mentioned at the highly active side. Edwards has a long list of screenplays waiting for green light right now. And same could be said about Chad Taylor. No need to mention here the always hyper-active Matt Kubrick and Josh Collins.
On the other side, some CMP’s authors seem to have taken a break. Do not expect too many movies coming from David Makalaster in the near future. The man behind the ‘Magic-The Gathering’ franchise seems to have taken a pause in his production of new stories. And same goes for Trent Nielsen. After his impressive first Season, GMA’s triumph included, Nielsen has slowed down his writing rhythm lately. Everybody at CMP is looking forward to see more pitches coming from both. But you know how artists are: they all need sometimes to stop for a while before retaking their creativity.
In a middle activity level stays a group of screenwriters who usually release one or two movies per Season, like Joey Stark, Jack Hammer, James Bradley, Max Arilius, Richard Franzwa or Steve Connors. Talking about Connors, I have been told from CMP that he has finished the writing of his most ambitious screenplay ever. He has stopped adapting console games for a while and has returned to original stories. No other than James Cameron, returning to CMP in his new life post-Avatar, is working on the pre-production of this new story, a hyper-epic sci-fi story, for what I know. Together with Cameron, Robert Zemeckis is also said to be involved in this project, combining it with his work in ‘Game Boy 3’. I’ll keep you informed about it.
More news about what’s coming up this new Season. Tarantino – always more active in CMP than out of it – is already working too in the pre-production of his new CMP’s movie. Once finished his Golden Dragon Trilogy, Tarantino has decided to try luck in an always difficult genre in CMP: western. My CMP’s confidants tell me that this new CMP’s movie will mean to western what ‘Inglorious Bastards’ meant for the war genre. So expect Tarantino taking to extremes the clichés of the genre and adapting them to his very own peculiar style. I’ll keep you informed too about this other interesting project.
And I end up this week confirming that the idea of creating a new Marvel’s franchise reuniting a new group of superheroes has been frozen by Harry Stark. Steve Connors, too busy with the project I mentioned above, has definitely rejected the offer to assume this plan. The so-called ‘Ultimate Alliance’ – the name chosen by Harry Stark for the new group – will have to wait as the project hasn’t got a screenwriter to develop it. Maybe, the Studio is waiting to see how ‘Justice League’ works before defrosting the idea. In the meantime, Marvel may feel satisfied enough with the upcoming release of the third Silver Sable’s movie.
THE FORGOTTEN
Gangster / Action
The Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michelle Williams, Robert Pattinson, Ben Whishaw, Robert Downey Jr., Michael Douglas, Tom Wilkinson, Sharon Stone. Cameo by Robert De Niro.
The Director: Jonathan Demme
The Screenwriters: Chad Taylor & Joey Stark
The Plot:
Harrison Angelo (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is longer a normal young man. He is currently finishing up his college career, but is really off of his game. He was adopted as a child, being told that his real mom died soon after birth. He is alone and lost in the world.
One day, a knock comes on his dorm room's door. Standing there is Detective Michael Robertson (Robert Downey Jr.). He invites him in, and they sit down and talk. He informs Harrison that information has been found about who could be his true father, who was murdered a few years ago. Harrison is supposed to be the result of a short love affair his father had in his younger days. Det. Robertson reveals Harrison a shocking truth: his father was member of one of the most powerful and violent families in the mobster world.
Harrison asks at college about an expert in crime and mafia. He is sent to meet Catherine Collins (Michelle Williams), a student of criminology, who has been reading up on the mafia, and knows much about his grandfather and father. The two share a bit of a bond as they talk it all over. Once they finish up, Harrison decides he will put it into his own hands, and find out more. But just before he leaves, he asks her if she'd like to go get a cup of coffee sometime, and she smiles and nods her head.
He goes back to his dorm and gets on his laptop, studying up on his father's legacy. He reads about his prestigious father, ambitious cousin, and his murdered wife. He becomes highly interested in his ancestry and wishes he could've known his father. He goes to a local weapon store and buys some weapons, and a little bit of alcohol, trying to seem more tough than the nerd he is.
The next day, he meets Catherine at a local coffee shop. They sit at a two-person table, and share stories, with love in the air. They get really close and stare at each others’ eyes for five seconds, then lean in to kiss. But before their lips meet, gunshots pierce through the nearby window. Everyone in the cafe fall to the floor scared. We see a car going by with two people in sitting out of the window with guns in hand. Andrew (Robert Pattinson) and Daniel (Ben Whishaw) Michelli, two sharp-dressed friends part of the growing British mob family, the Michelli's. Feeling he must fulfills his father's image, Harrison jumps up and leaps out the broken window. He pulls out a gun from his jacket, his hands shaking, and shoots at the car. He looks scared, as if he has never shot a gun before. He hasn't.
He tells Det. Robertson about the incident and he tells Harrison about the Michelli family.
Det. Robertson tells Harrison that probably it was the head of the Michelli family, Alexander (Tom Wilkinson), who ordered the hit, fearing the revival of Harrison's past family. Alexander was once a good friend and partner of Harrison's grandfather. After the incarceration of Harrison’s grandfather, Alexander Michelli took control by himself of most of the Harrison’s family’s business. Alexander decided to start a powerful family of his own, with his son Andrew and his friend as his right hand men.
Harrison decides instead of backing down and risking his own death, he wants to fight back. Catherine suggests he seeks help from her father, who is a retired FBI agent. As the two get closer and closer, they decide to meet the parents. When Harrison goes to her parents' house and opens the door, Catherine's father Richard (Michael Douglas) greets him. They go through a normal dinner until Harrison finally brings up the topic of the information he and Catherine have found. And as soon he talks about his father, Richard's mind starts spinning, as sitting at his table across from him, is the son of the man he killed.
As soon as dinner wraps, they all hug and Harrison leaves. Richard had not told his daughter about his past, nor does he want her to find out. He highly suggests that she stop seeing him, but she refuses and leaves.
When Harrison arrives at his dorm, he is shocked to find Dt. Robertson inside. He tells Harrison that he was just passing by to see if he was ok and Harrison buys it.
Meanwhile back at the Michelli’s household, Andrew and Daniel are quietly planning their next attack. Daniel gets a phone call and tells Andrew he must leave. We follow Daniel to his next location, a high-priced penthouse set on the Ocean. Inside he meets Andrea Michelli (Sharon Stone), Andrew's mother and Alexander's wife. She is lying down on her bed, with barely anything on, looking very seductive. Daniel lies next to her, and starts remove his clothes, as they start to make love.
Richard is at home plotting how to stop his daughter from getting too involved with Harrison. But he cannot seem to figure out the way just yet. Meanwhile, Harrison and Catherine keep going on in a romantic relationship.
Daniel and Andrea have another sexual interlude at the Michelli’s home. Alexander unexpectedly arrives and notices something strange in Daniel’s behaviour. Alexander processes the images in his head and figures out what’s going on between his wife and Daniel. He tells Andrew about it, who is livid that his good friend would be romantically linked with his mother. Alexander tells his son Andrew that they will solve together this ‘little problem’.
Harrison goes to the biggest prison in town, where we see a familiar face in the sale. It is his grandfather (Robert De Niro). They share a brief chat as Harrison catches him up on everything. His grandfather tells him he should take care now of the family’s interests and that he is able to help him in that task.
Harrison keeps reading old newspapers to know more about his family. And he finally sees news about his father’s death... and a picture of the FBI agent that killed him: Richard Collins, Catherine’s father.
Harrison goes to Richard and Catherine’s home to talk about this. He faces Richard Collins. He tells Richard he is in love with Catherine. And he wants to go on with the relationship although he killed his father. Richard tells Harrison he will never accept him as Catherine’s boyfriend. After a tense discussion, Harrison leaves.
As he is leaving Richard’s house, Det. Robertson steps on his way. And, to Harrison’s surprise, he pulls out his gun and order Harrison to follow him. Robertson tells him the truth: he works for the Michelli’s family and he was ordered to find him and spy him trying to discover if Harrison was rebuilding the family empire. Andrew and Daniel were ordered by Alexander Michelli to kill him while Det. Robertson’s mission was to find out if he was getting involved in his family’s business. As Andrew and Daniel don’t seem capable of killing him, that’s his mission now.
Det. Robertson takes Harrison to Alexander Michelli’s house. Alexander, his wife Andrea and his son Andrew are there. ‘Before your turn, we want to show you how the Michelli family acts’, tells Alexander to Harrison. A few moments later, Daniel arrives. ‘You wanted to see me’, tells Daniel to Alexander.
With no further words, Andrew shoots Daniel. Before Daniel dies, Alexander tells him: ‘I don’t accept betrayal. I gave you all and you payed me cheating me with my wife’. Daniel dies. Then, Alexander turns and slaps her terrified wife and orders her to go to her bedroom. Then he turns to Harrison: ‘Now’s your turn’, he says, ‘I cannot take the risk of you rebuilding your family empire, my friend. Please, proceed.’
Det. Robertson lifts up his gun to shoot Harrison. A shot is heard. But it is not Harrison who falls down. It’s Det. Robertson. Somebody has shot him from outside the house.
Harrison takes advantage of the surprise. He runs away and jumps out from a window. As he is running away across the garden a car approaches. It’s Richard Collins. Richard tells him to jump it and then drives away. Richard explains Harrison that he saw what happened when he left his home and Robertson took him away. He quickly followed them. It was him who shot Robertson through the house’s window.
‘You killed my father. But now you saved my life’, tells him Harrison.
‘That does not change anything about my daughter’, Richard tells him.
The car leaves the Michelli’s mansion behind.
Next time we see Harrison a few months have passed. He is not at college anymore. He leaves in his own apartment and Catherine and he have just made love. Afterwards, she asks him if everything is fine. ‘Sure’, he tells, ‘The Michelli don’t know where I live now and I am not getting into any trouble, darling. Everything’s over.’
Catherine has to leave. When he is alone, Harrison picks up the phone and makes a call. We only hear him saying these words: ‘Okay. The meeting will be tonight. Remeber what my grandfather told you. The family is back’.
When he hang down the phone, there’s a different look in his eyes. He is not a nerd anymore.
Stark’s Comment:
Nine seasons after ‘The Heirs – Part 3’, Chad Taylor had the idea of revamping this legendary mobsters saga with the story of an unknown son of Sean Penn. I loved this daring and risky idea and decided to bet strongly for it. It is quite a challenge when you decide to resurrect a legendary product like ‘The Heirs’ trilogy but I think it’s a worthy risk to take. By the way, the last 40 minutes of tense action in the movie are pure cinematic gold in my opinion.
Behind The Scenes:
-The idea of writing a sequel to ‘The Heirs’ trilogy was Chad Taylor’s. When Harry Stark received the first draft of the screenplay he showed it to the original writer of ‘The Heirs’, his brother Joey. And Joey got so enthusiastic about the concept that he asked Taylor if he would let him work with him in the screenplay. Finally, the screenplay became a co-written work by Taylor and Joey.
-Chad Taylor offered Martin Scorsese to produce the movie. But Scorsese refused the offer. He explained his rejection this way in a recent interview: ‘I wanted Jonathan Demme to feel free to tell the story the way he wanted. I didn’t want to influence him in any way and I thought that if I was the producer he could feel obliged to respect the way I shot ‘The Heirs’ movies and that could be bad for his creative freedom.’
-As a curiosity, the first draft of the screenplay included a cameo of Demi Moore, who played the lover of Sean Penn in ‘The Heirs – Part 2’. Finally, that cameo disappeared in the final draft.
-The only characters seen here from the original trilogy are the ones played by Michael Douglas and Robert De Niro.
-Chad Taylor and Joey Stark are already working in a sequel of ‘The Forgotten’.
LOST AT SEA
Suspense
The Cast: Michelle Trachtenberg, Anton Yelchin, Jared Padalecki, Ethan Embry, Katarina Hyde
The Director: Brian Trenchard Smith
The Screenwriter: Matt Kubrick
The Producer: Midnight Movies
The Plot:
June 8th
North Carolina, three friends have travelled hundreds of miles to hook up with two friends they're names are Megan (M.Trachtenberg), Tim (A.Yelchin), John (Jared Padalecki), Seth (Ethan Embry) and his girlfriend Amanda (Katarina Hyde), who is a champion boater having won a race. They are all about to spend a few days out on the ocean sailing it was supposed to be a fun little vacation away from everything. All that will come crashing down.
June 9th
They set sail for hours they are having fun, fishing, swimming and playing games. But in the night a storm hits while they are out at sea Megan is seriously injured when a line breaks and knocks her down leaving a nasty gash on her leg. The boat is taking on water quickly and losing power. Seth makes a desperate call on his cb radio to the coastguard but he can't pick anyone up. If they are all to survive they have to gather as much supplies together and quickly. They get two rafts they plan on tieing together to form. One is a life raft with survival equipment and the other is a small boat, they deflate both but when a massive wave hits them Seth loses his grip on the life raft and it floats away with all their important supplies. All they have left is a large raft with enough room for them. The only thing they can do now is watch the boat sink behind them and try to ride out the storm and they hang on the outside staying in the water because if they come out it will be more cold.
June 10th
Early morning the five survivors are seriously worried about Megan whose wound cuts almost right to the bone. Without any care she risks infection and death. They aren't even sure if the coastguard recieved their calls for help. They do their best to band together and keep themselves happy and alive. Still in the water they huddle underneath the boat and huddle together for warmth but then they discover they have a major problem. John and Amanda get into a small yelling fight, he wants her to stop kicking her and she says she isn't but John gets more and more annoyed. Finally Amanda ducks her head in the water to see what is going on and she gets the shock of her life. Hundreds of sharks have been attracted by Megans blood which has been leaking in the water. Panicking Amanda screams IN THE BOAT GET IN THE BOAT RIGHT NOW. As they get into the boat as quickly as possible they see fins on the surface lots of them. This is when they realize that they're situation is much worse.
That night the thirst for water over powers John and Tim start drinking up handfuls of the sea. Megan wakes up seeing them and starts screaming for them to stop. Amanda and Seth wake up because of the screams and have to pull them back from the water, which makes John and Tim's situation much worse.
June 11th
Both John and Tim are severly dehrydrated from drinking the salt water. They are delirious and seeing things and speaking in toungues. The others are weak from not eating and drinking and just lay there trying to survive. Megan is in very bad shape and her leg is infected. Tim thinks he sees land and starts screaming in joy. Seth, Megan and Amanda try to convince him otherwise but Tim gets up and jumps out of the boat and starts swimming. Megan starts screaming for him to come back, John is barely holding on himself. The camera doesn't show Tim swimming but when his screams fill the air it shows the looks on everyones faces. The sharks are still out there. That night there is rainfall which helps take away some of the heat they've been suffering.
June 12th
Their situation is getting worse, Megan's leg is worse and she is now suffering from going into shock. John starts talking about his car being in the parking lot and believes he can go get it. He leaps out of the boat and ends up getting stuck under the boat itself. There are abunch of loud thumps on the bottom of the boat. Seth and Amanda huddle together crying against each other as the sharks eat John. Exhausted they soon fall asleep and when they wake up in the night they find that Megan has died from their injury. With little strength they have they decide that they will take off her clothes and jewelry to give to her family if they live. Seth is sick at the thought of eating her for nourishment but Amanda tells him that she infected and they would both get sick. They push her over board for the sharks and they soon fall asleep.
June 13th
Amanda and Seth wake up they are still hanging on without food and water, but Seth sees a boat, it's close and starts screaming and waving his arms. Amanda doesn't believe him and thinks he is seeing things. But finally she looks and they both get a quick burst of energy and screaming, they realized that the people on the large boat see them to. The credits start rolling as they hauled aboard to safety.
Stark’s Comment:
A different kind of movie here. A highly distressing story based on true events. And a peculiar directing style, as could be expected by someone like Trenchard-Smith. The movie has been made without any music. Instead the sound of waves is a big part of the soundtrack trying to give the feeling that these people are in the middle of nowhere. At some moments, it goes more a documentary type approach with the camera rarely leaving the characters. You only see what the characters can see.
Behind The Scenes:
-Matt Kubrick specifically asked the Studio to not cast big stars for this movie. The final cast was the one chosen by Kubrick himself.
-This is the fourth time that Michelle Trachtenberg works in a movie written by Kubrick. The previous ones were all horror flicks: ‘Blood Beach’, ‘Darkman: Resurrection’ and ‘Silent Night, Deadly Night’.
-At Midnight Movies they designed a great teaser for this movie but, due to a mistake at CMP’s offices, it was never shown at CMP’s blog.
THE LOVERS STAGES
Drama / Comedy
The Cast: Matthew Broderick, Felicity Huffman, Alan Arkin, Vanessa Redgrave, Jena Malone, Paul Dano, Jimmy Bennett, Sammi Hanratty
The Director: Tamara Jenkins
The Screenwriter: Josh Collins
The Producer: Grand Island Movies
The Plot:
The Lovers Stages is about a family of men, all at different ages and stages of lives. The first of the men is Jack (M.Broderick). He's middle aged who loses his wife Karen, to a fatal illness in the beginning of the story. The second is Jack's father-in-law, Ivan (A.Arkin). You can say that Ivan is the next one "out the door" of life. Vincent (P.Dano) is the college-aged son of Jack, while Logan (J.Bennett) is the 12 year old son.
It's so easy for others to say 'Go love another' but it's easier said than done. That's what Jack is going through while mourning the loss of his one loved one. The guilt and being haunted by the idea that he would be cheating on his deceased wife. As his story progresses, he forms a friendship with a middle aged woman, Diane (F.Huffman). He finds that the most common factor in their friendship is the fact that she too is a widow and she knows the difficulty of moving on. On dates they share stories of their trials and tribulations with their departed ones and raising the family that left them behind. Jack's sons particularly are not happy with this relationship being formed. Jack and Diane are both afraid of getting too close because they don't want to feel the pain of loss again. But by the end of their journey they learn there's no sense in worrying about what's going to happen. That it's ok to start a new life with someone else. They avoid marrying though, and the kids on both sides would also see that their living parent's happiness is what their deceased parent is what they wanted.
Vincent is at an age where he takes love for granted. He's uncommitted and shallow. He hunts for the 10s and wants what every horny college kid wants. When he does start wanting to form more serious relationships, the 10s don't seem all that attracted to him. He finds himself gradually falling in love with a plain emotionless girl, Claire (J.Malone), whose seen her own pain after coming out of a bad childhood. When she was a kid and teen she was constantly teased and insulted by people like Vincent, which explains her hostility toward him for a while. She didn't even get to grow up and be a stunning beauty that other "ugly ducklings" get to do in the movies. Claire would eventually warm up to Vincent, he would make up for the rotten treatment she received in her life. She doesn't quite trust him through their story, she thinks he's just using her and he's got to work hard to show her he's not. Their journey ends when she accepts his proposal for marriage.
Logan has reached the point in his life where he starts thinking on a deeper level about girls after he's one of those who thought they were icky. He too took his mother's death a little hard. He didn't even want to go to his mom's funeral. Who wants to stare at their mother's lifeless body, something he says to Jack when Jack gives him a little hell for not wanting to go to that funeral. A girl-scout cookie saleswoman/classmate of Logan, Emily (S.Hanratty), comes into the picture. At first they can't stand the sight and sound of each other, but they eventually go through the same kind of awkward things we've done with members of the opposite sex around their age. Logan wanting to touch her hand or hair but too shy to do so and going only as far as holding the others' pinkie fingers. The phone calls followed by immediate hang ups, the first kiss: true puppy love in all its forms.
One particular conflict in their story is their stupid childish fight that leads to Emily seeing some random boy and Logan being tormented by the sight of it. Logan learns that the boy is doing his own cheating by seeing another girl on the side prompts Logan to defend Emily's honor and make an ass of himself in front of the school and Emily by getting in a fight with the young adulterer. Logan forces him to tell her the truth and it upsets her more. Logan tries to comfort her but she pushes him away, not wanting anything to do with boys. In an effort to make her feel better, and from the advice of his dad, Logan picks some flowers on the way to her house and buys some girl scout cookies. She sees him there with the cookies and flowers and actually smiles and laughs, calling him a big dork and hugs him.
While Logan starts in on the game, Ivan is fixing to leave it. With many years in his life, he's never managed to keep a successful relationship. He's gone through a few marriages and a few divorces. He's lost one of his kids to an illness and feels bad that the time she was alive they weren't very close. He lives in a nursing home, doesn't mind it so much; at least he has friends, people to talk to and don't judge him like the outside world. He finally meets that woman that was missing from entire life, the other piece to his puzzle, Doreen (V.Redgrave). Only one thing, she's as old as him and unhealthy usually spending most of her last days bedridden, dying. Ivan returns to her room everyday to see her, sometimes alone, sometimes when her family is visiting(at first they're a little awkward about him being there but as the film goes on they start realizing their sick elderly likes Ivan and they warm up to him.)
On days when she's feeling up to it, Ivan takes her out and around, spending as much time with her as he should have all those many years ago. His depth stems from cherishing the moments he could have had all those years ago but took forever to get to her, all the way to her inevitable death, one of the best things he did for her was break her out of the nursing home so she can die in her own bed, something she wanted her entire life but the doctors wouldn't give to her. His great tragedy is finding true love too late in life. Fortunately for Ivan, he knows his time is coming very soon, so when Doreen is at her last breaths of life, Ivan lays in her bed, holds her hand and waits for both of their deaths to come.
In a moment when the love of all the characters are harmonious between each other, there's flashes of love scenes between all, except Logan and Emily. However they share a beautiful slow dance...or try with funny remarks(you keep stepping on my feet, put your hand right there, stop leading, i wanna lead) while the flashes of love scenes occur between Vincent/Claire, Jack/Diane and yes an implied 'under the sheets with Ivan on top' scene of Ivan/Doreen.
The denouement of the stories connect when Vincent and Claire are at their wedding when Vincent and Claire get into the limo. Claire takes one last look at the happy supportive crowd, she's never felt so alive and more beautiful. Jack and Diane are there for support and so is Logan who has no other than Emily standing next to him. She plants a quick peck on his lips after they hold hands together. The last image of the denouement shows the graves of Ivan and Doreen, buried next to each other.
Stark’s Comment:
This screenplay has stayed in my office’s drawer for years and I’m glad it finally sees the light. Collins writes so many screenplays that sometimes they have to wait months and even years before being green lighted. Here is a pleasant look at the different ways people love according to life times. A movie mainly based on dialogues and acting works. Not expected to be a blockbuster but I think it can find its audience.
Behind The Scenes:
-During the long period of time that this story has been waiting for green light, Collins wrote different draft versions, introduced some cast changes and even changed the title several times.
-GMA Winner Jena Malone works in a Collins’ pitch for the third time after ‘Lyra’ and ‘After The Storm’.
-The cast includes other regulars in Collins’ movies: Jimmy Bennett (‘Babes In Toyland’, ‘A Man Called Dan’) and Sammi Hanratty (‘The Dead Walk’). Matthew Broderick’s voice was heard in the Collins’ animated feature ‘Bird Of A Feather’.
-Alan Arkin was already cast for this movie before his personal success with ‘The Pitiful Plight Of Tom Collins’, other Collins’ story.
-As he usually does, Collins has also included some debutantes in CMP in this cast. This time: Vanessa Redgrave, Paul Dano and Felicity Huffman.
UNCOMMON VALOUR: ONLY THE VALIANT: His last work for CMP was back in Season 9,
putting his voice to an elderly knight in ‘The Land Of Nod’. He is retired now from the industry. But he has decided to return at least for once to make a cameo in this movie. Yes, we are talking of no other than Sean Connery. This won’t be the first time that we see him in a CMP’s historical adventure, as he has visited the genre before in movies like ‘The Crusades’, ‘The Bridge’, ‘The Misadventures Of Harry Flashman’ or ‘1066’.THE DARK TOWER: WOLVES OF THE CALLA: Green light at last for the fourth movie of one of the most popular and prestigious CMP’s sagas. Matt Kubrick is signing again the screenplay of this adaptation of Stephen King’s fantasy books. And this fourth installment comes with some novelties. First, change of director. As you all know by now, Sam Raimi will remain as producer of the movie. But moving the cameras will be French director Jean Pierre Jeunet in his debut for CMP. Another novelty is that this movie will include an animated segment. The origins of Roland, the gunslinger played by Russell Crowe, will be finally revealed in an animated segment of the movie. Jeunet won’t appeal to classic animation ala Disney or Dreamworks for this segment but to an animation technique closer to the one used in movies like ‘A Scanner Darkly’.
JUSTICE LEAGUE: Superheroes already known in CMP were announced to be joining the
Justice League (Batman, Superman, The Flash and Wonder Woman). But there will also be a new one. The Green Lattern makes his debut in this movie. And the star chosen to play him is a rising star lately in CMP. Two Seasons ago, he succeeded with ‘Crossovers’. Past Season, he was the voice of the Karate Kat. Yes, it’s him: Ryan Reynolds joins the Justice League as the Green Lattern.COEN & WARSHINSKI: David Schwimmer is directing Ben Stiller and Will Ferrell in this comedy about the return of a peculiar disco music duo. And the greedy manager who puts up their revival concert looking for big profits will be no other than GMA Winner Philip Seymour Hoffman, trying luck with comedy for the first time in CMP. We’ve been told that the shooting dates of this movie have been reduced as Hoffman is committed to join another CMP’s production pretty soon.
MS. JORDON: Edward Norton is the man whose life and reputation will turn upside down when the
femme fatale played by Cameron Diaz steps into his life in this film noir being directed by Tom Hanks. This way, Edward Norton retakes his CMP’s career after definitely leaving The Avengers. And his wife in the movie will be played by Katie Holmes. Katie had not been seen in a CMP’s movie since Season’s 6 ‘Omega’, when she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.BEDTIME STORIES 2: Back in Season 9, Matt Kubrick put up an innovative experience in CMP with ‘Bedtime Stories’, a three short horror stories movie directed by Alexander Aja, Eli Roth and Kubrick himself. Now, Midnight Movies produces again a sequel to that experiment with three new stories. This time, it is not Kubrick but Josh Collins who has written the stories. And they will be directed by three specialists in horror: Wes Craven, John Carpenter and David Slade. Craven and Carpenter have already worked together in CMP when Craven produced and Carpenter directed ‘The Grotto’. Slade will make his debut in CMP here.
OUT PARTYING: Best Screenplay GMA winner Trent Nielsen is finishing the shooting of this teen comedy that will mean his first directional job in CMP. More talents included in the cast are Emma Stone (‘Psycho: Bloodline’, ‘The Miracle Men’) and two talents making their debut in the Studio: Lauren Storm and Jason Bateman.
ZOIDS: EVE: Talents already seen before in the first movie of this Dawson Edwards’ franchise, return in the sequel. Jason Patric, Cole Hauser and Meagan Good are back in this second installment being directed like the first one by Alfonso Cuaron.
NUDE!: James Bradley has always liked to write comedies based on peculiar premises. This new
comedy written by him will tell the story of an ordinary girl that wins a contest to pose nude at the Playboy magazine and the scandal it creates in all the neighbors of her conservative hometown. Ellen Page will play this shy and not particularly attractive girl that will end up at the cover of Playboy. This movie will also be the fourth directional job of James Bradley after ‘Celebutantes’, ‘The 6th Avenue Castaways’ and ‘Crossovers’, where he already directed Page.L.A. WOLF 2: Gabriel Macht plays again the tough police detective David Wolf in this sequel directed by David Ayer. And he won’t be too happy to have a newcomer partner, a police woman played by GMA Winner Natalie Portman, already seen past Season in the award winner ‘Running On Empty’.
MATT KUBRICK – LOST AT SEA
Still recent his GMA nomination for Best Director for ‘Teenage Wasteland’, Kubrick is back at work what this new concept of horror different from his usual slasher movies, the claustrophobic and disturbing survival adventure of ‘Lost At Sea’.
1.I have read somewhere that your new story, Lost At Sea, is based in true events. Can you tell us something more about this?
I would love to I based it on events that took place on an episode of the documentary series I
shouldn't be alive which is about people surviving incredible odds. Everything that happened to these people is how it played out in real life. I just changed the names.2.Brian Trenchard-Smith is such a peculiar choice to direct this movie. What took you to choose him?
Brian is a great director but he hasn't had a movie in theater's since the mid 80s. Since then he has been stuck doing straight to video and TV work. I wanted him to get a chance to be able to have another movie that plays to a large audience.
3.I also read that you deliberately avoided big names in the cast. Why?
Because I don't really want people to see names. People might be able to relate to the characters more if they're not thinking about the actors and actresses.
4.The 12th GMA Edition took place just one week ago, so I have to ask you
about it. Did you ever expect Logan Lerman to win for his work in 'Teenage Wasteland'? And how do you felt about your second nomination for Best Director?Actually yeah I did expect him to win he turned in an amazing performance and we were all proud of him. I feel honored to be nominated with the likes of Clint Eastwood and Martin Scorsese. It was a great time.
5.The fourth movie of 'The Dark Tower' saga is on its way. There are some changes in it, like Jean Pierre Jeunet replacing Sam Raimi behind the cameras. How do you see the future of this main CMP's franchise?
I really hope we can make it to number 7 and I believe that it has a bright future. I think for the last couple of movies we should give different directors a shot at making the next movies. Maybe JJ Abraham could make one. He was at one point going to make his own franchise, he had bought the rights to all the books and said he would start work on them after Lost was done but now he says he isn't doing it. I guess we beat hollywood to it!
TRENT NIELSEN
BEST SCREENPLAY GMA WINNER
Following the tradition, here is an in-depth special interview with the latest Best Screenplay GMA Winner, Mr. Trent Nielsen.
1.First Season, four movies released, strong support from movie critics, winner of the Best Screenplay GMA… Things are going pretty fast for you in CMP. How do you feel about it all?
Four movies released in one season... I feel good about it. Strong support from movie critics... I love it. Best Screenplay GMA... I'm not sure if I should be happy for this or not. Seriously, Chad and James wrote better stories than I did. I just got lucky, that's all.
2.Did you ever expect ‘Running On Empty’ to become an award winner story?
Never. I wrote Running On Empty one sleepless night in late September and when I was writing it, it never came to my mind that this would get a GMA. Man, when I found out it received a nomination, I could have gotten a heart attack if only I had heart problems. And when I saw that it won the GMA, I went like "what the f*ck is wrong?" and it took me a little while to process all that information on my brain.
3.Watching Keira Knightley and Rachel Weisz winning their awards for ‘The Princess And The
Captain’ must have been such a thrill for you too…Well, I was happy to see Keira and Rachel pick up awards because after all, they have done a good job and deserved it fully.
4.’The Blacksmith’s Sword’ picked up a Most Wanted Sequel nomination. Will there ever be a sequel of that one?
At the moment, I am thinking about it. I'm writing ideas for the sequel and if my ideas turn out good, a screenplay may not be far off.
5.Bob Felton wrote at CMP’s blog about his disagreement with your Best Screenplay win. Any answer to him?
I'm with you, Bob.
6.After such an amazing debut Season for you, you must feel a certain pressure about what to do next…
Well, the pressure is crushing me. I think people expect me to write much more better movies and I don't think I can do that.
7. I have the feeling that you don’t care much about box office, right?
If I wanted to work with stuff like gross revenue and box office gains, I should have became a producer and not a screenwriter. If a movie fails in the box office, I like to think of it as the marketing department's fault and not the screenwriter's fault.
8.You are going to try something as risky as teen comedy with ‘Out Partying’… That’s a genre movie critics usually look down on and a peculiar choice for an award winner screenwriter. What made you want to give the genre a try?
I wanted to try teen comedy simply because there hasn't been one on the CMP history.
9.Also, you are making your debut as movie director with ‘Out Partying’. Will directing your own stories become something regular for you in the future?
Not sure about this stuff. I'm just experimenting around with this film because the film is an experiment itself.
10.I have got to know that you have slowed down your production lately and there are not many Nielsen’s screenplays at the CMP’s waiting list. What can we expect from you in the future?
I'll give you the title of the most promising screenplay I'm working and I'm sure it'll be a good teaser. I'm working on a romantic comedy called 'Sunshine On Lonely Street' and I'm not giving out any plot summary until I finish the screenplay since there may be changes. I'm also working on two comedies and a Kurt Cobain biopic.
MARTIN SCORSESE
Past week, Martin Scorsese made history in CMP becoming the first moviemaker to win two Best Director GMA. Scorsese has been involved both as director and producer in CMP’s movies almost since the Studio was born. As a homage to this recent triumph, we take a look this week at his CMP’s career.
THE HEIRS – PART 1, 2, 3
Seasons 1 & 4
Director & Producer
Written by Joey Stark
Scorsese made his debut in CMP directing the very first trilogy from the Studio. A mafia saga ala The Godfather written by Joey Stark. The war of power between a father (De Niro) and his son (Penn) became a box office success and a CMP’s icon. Scorsese won the Best Director GMA with the first movie of this trilogy. This week, ‘The Forgotten’ resurrects this saga. As it has been said, Chad Taylor offered Scorsese to produce the movie but he refused the offer (Movies available in a CMP’s DVD box set).
THE TOYMAKER
Season 3
Producer
Directed by Francis Coppola – Written by James Bradley
Before directing ‘The Heirs – Part 3’, Scorsese teamed up with Francis Coppola and became the producer of this top budget historical movie sited in the French Revolution. De Niro was around again. ‘The Toymaker’ meant also the first collaboration between Scorsese and James Bradley. The movie didn’t make a spectacular box office (62 millions, net gains of 48 millions), but it picked up 5 GMA nominations (Scorsese was nominated as producer for Best Picture) and won Best Screenplay.
AMERICAN HEARTLAND
Season 5
Producer
Directed by Sean Penn – Written by Matt Kubrick
Scorsese kept working regularly for CMP during the first Seasons of the Studio. This time, he accepted to produce this directional job of his star from ‘The Heirs’, Sean Penn. The movie told the real story of the so called Memphis 3, three teenagers accused of murder. The movie worked well enough at box office (67 mill., net gains of 31 mill.) and brought a Best Supporting Actor GMA for Shia LaBeouf.
FIVE THUNDERBOLTS
Season 7
Producer
Directed by Ang Lee – Written by Josh Collins
In Season 7, Scorsese kept working only as producer of CMP’s movies with this very interesting movie about Chinese triads. He read the screenplay written by Josh Collins and liked him so much that personally asked Collins to let him get involved in the movie. The movie made a decent box office of 49 millions (net gains of 25 millions).
TENDER IS THE NIGHT
Season 10
Director & Producer
Written by James Bradley
After three Seasons away, Scorsese finally returned to CMP and this time he directed the movie too and not only produced it. His second collaboration with James Bradley was the classy adaptation of the Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel. The movie made outstanding numbers for a drama (box office of 101 millions, net gains of 85 millions) and Angelina Jolie won the Best Actress GMA with it.
AMERICAN TABLOID
Season 12
Director
Written by James Bradley
Third teaming up for Bradley and Scorsese. Most nominated movie ever at the GMA, second Best Director GMA for Scorsese, Best Picture GMA winner… Scorsese proves again that he is one of the most interesting moviemakers of our time. And he confirmed another thing: his CMP’s movies usually do not make outstanding box offices but after such a long CMP’s career none of his CMP’s movies has ever made net losses.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the toughest guy in town? It seems so as he will become the latest Don at the NYC’s mafia scene in ‘The Forgotten’. Gordon-Levitt’s meteoric career in CMP remains at full speed after winning the Best Actor GMA with his CMP’s debut, ‘Weigh Anchor’, and ‘Running On Empty’, his second work for the Studio, winning past week the Best Screenplay award. So we dedicate this week’s pic to the hottest – and maybe toughest – guy in town.
Season 13 begins in CMP and it looks like a revival Season. Some iconic CMP’s sagas from its first Seasons will return during the next weeks. This week, ‘The Forgotten’ resurrects the universe of ‘The Heirs’, one of the first CMP’s trilogies. In coming weeks we will see new installments from
CMP’s acclaimed classics like ‘Uncommon Valour’ and ‘Game Boy’. But not only pioneer franchises are coming back. Also, veteran CMP’s authors might be returning soon. It all seems like Marcus Trax is coming back to CMP. Trax – better known in CMP for his Star Wars’ trilogy and for teaming up with David Mamet and Johnny Depp in five different movies – has contacted Harry Stark announcing his return to the Studio. Trax’s last release for CMP was the megahit ‘The Land Of Nod’, back in Season 9. According to rumors, he is working in quite a bunch of stories looking for a splendorous return to CMP’s world.Some CMP’s screenwriters return or get very active while some others seem to relax. On the active side, John Daws has also returned from a long hiatus with the announced third movie of his successful ‘Game Boy’ franchise. Robert Zemeckis and George Lucas are already working in the pre-production of the movie, said to be the most spectacular one of the saga. Dawson Edwards can also been mentioned at the highly active side. Edwards has a long list of screenplays waiting for green light right now. And same could be said about Chad Taylor. No need to mention here the always hyper-active Matt Kubrick and Josh Collins.
On the other side, some CMP’s authors seem to have taken a break. Do not expect too many movies coming from David Makalaster in the near future. The man behind the ‘Magic-The Gathering’ franchise seems to have taken a pause in his production of new stories. And same goes for Trent Nielsen. After his impressive first Season, GMA’s triumph included, Nielsen has slowed down his writing rhythm lately. Everybody at CMP is looking forward to see more pitches coming from both. But you know how artists are: they all need sometimes to stop for a while before retaking their creativity.
In a middle activity level stays a group of screenwriters who usually release one or two movies per Season, like Joey Stark, Jack Hammer, James Bradley, Max Arilius, Richard Franzwa or Steve Connors. Talking about Connors, I have been told from CMP that he has finished the writing of his most ambitious screenplay ever. He has stopped adapting console games for a while and has returned to original stories. No other than James Cameron, returning to CMP in his new life post-Avatar, is working on the pre-production of this new story, a hyper-epic sci-fi story, for what I know. Together with Cameron, Robert Zemeckis is also said to be involved in this project, combining it with his work in ‘Game Boy 3’. I’ll keep you informed about it.
More news about what’s coming up this new Season. Tarantino – always more active in CMP than out of it – is already working too in the pre-production of his new CMP’s movie. Once finished his Golden Dragon Trilogy, Tarantino has decided to try luck in an always difficult genre in CMP: western. My CMP’s confidants tell me that this new CMP’s movie will mean to western what ‘Inglorious Bastards’ meant for the war genre. So expect Tarantino taking to extremes the clichés of the genre and adapting them to his very own peculiar style. I’ll keep you informed too about this other interesting project.And I end up this week confirming that the idea of creating a new Marvel’s franchise reuniting a new group of superheroes has been frozen by Harry Stark. Steve Connors, too busy with the project I mentioned above, has definitely rejected the offer to assume this plan. The so-called ‘Ultimate Alliance’ – the name chosen by Harry Stark for the new group – will have to wait as the project hasn’t got a screenwriter to develop it. Maybe, the Studio is waiting to see how ‘Justice League’ works before defrosting the idea. In the meantime, Marvel may feel satisfied enough with the upcoming release of the third Silver Sable’s movie.
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