DECEMBER, 9


DEUS EX

Sci-Fi / Action

The Cast: Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Olivia Wilde, Gong Li, Ben Kingsley, Garcelle Beauvais, Jackie Earl Haley, Michael Douglas

The Director: Larry and Andy Warchowski
The Screenwriter: Steve Connors

The Plot:

Year 2027
Adam Jensen (J.Rhys-Meyers) works as chief of security in Sarif Industries’ Detroit headquarters. Sarif Industries is the leading company in the augmentations industry. Augmentations are technological modifications to the human body that allow the user to have superhuman abilities.

The story begins when Adam meets his ex girlfriend, the scientist Megan Reed (O.Wilde) at Sarif’s offices. They still have a friendly relationship after their break up. Megan tells Adam that she is pretty nervous. In only a few days, Megan will take the opportunity to announce at the National Science Board a revolutionary discovery made by her team that will allow people to augment themselves freely without having to resort to anti-rejection drugs. She tells Adam that she fears people will ask about the source of her discovery, a subject she refers to as ‘Patient X’.

Only a couple of hours after he meets Megan, Adam is talking with Sarif Industries CEO, David Sarif (B.Kingsley), when the company is suddenly attacked by a group of highly violent armed soldiers led by three heavily-augmented mercenaries.

Adam reacts and faces one of the mercenaries. The mercenary severely injures Adam. Meanwhile, the rest of the soldiers kidnap Megan and her team of scientists.

Six Months Later…

Adam has survived to the injuries by undergoing extensive augmentation provided by Sarif.

He is called back to action by David Sarif to intervene in a hostage crisis in Sarif manufacturing plant. The plant has been taken over by the radical anti-augmentation terrorist group Purity First.

At the plant, Adam encounters an augmented hacker attempting to steal the Typhoon, an experimental military-purposed augmentation. Upon being found, the hacker shoots himself while pleading for help, apparently forced against his will. Adam confronts the Purity First leader. Before being killed by Adam, the leader denies any knowledge about the augmented hacker, leading Adam to believe that Purity First is being manipulated by a third party.

After the hostage crisis is resolved, Adam visits the Detroit Police Department morgue to investigate the corpse of the hacker and retrieves the hacker's neural hub.

Adam analyses the hub and discovers that the hacker was a literal ‘human proxy’ controlled by someone else. Adam traces the source of the control signal to an abandoned factory complex. There, he finds the augmented mercenaries involved in the Sarif attack. Adam fights them until the only one still alive is the same mercenary that caused his injuries. Adam shoots him. Before he dies, Adam asks him who were they working for. But the mercenary only tells him an address in Heng Sha Island in China before dying.

Adam travels to Heng Sha. The address he has is the headquarter of a private security company, Belltower Associates, the de facto police in Heng Sha. Adam infiltrates the building's penthouse and discovers that it was the residence of the hacker controlling the proxy, Arie van Bruggen (J.E.Haley). Investigating the apartment, Adam learns that van Bruggen is hiding out at a nearby capsule hotel. When confronted, van Bruggen claims he was hired by Zhao Yun Ru (G.Li), CEO of Tai Yong Medical, Sarif Industries's main competitor. Now that Zhao Yun Ru knows that the attack to the manufacturing plant failed and the human proxy was killed, van Bruggen is hiding because he fears of her reaction. Van Bruggen tells Adam that he had left a compromising recording of Zhao inside the Tai Yong Medical headquarters as an "insurance policy" and enlists Adam to retrieve it, claiming it has useful information for him. Van Bruggen forges a Tai Yong access pass for Adam.

Adam recovers van Bruggen’s recording inside Tai Yong Medical's headquarters. The recording reveals that the Sarif scientists were kidnapped by Zhao and had their tracking implants disabled, meaning they, Megan included, could still be alive. It also reveals that Eliza Cassan (G.Beauvais), the celebrity news anchor of media conglomerate Picus, is also involved. Adam finds and confronts Zhao at her private penthouse but she flees into a panic room and sets off an alarm, forcing Adam to escape.

Adam flies to Montreal to visit Picus offices. Adam gets to know Eliza’s home address. He goes there to confront Eliza, only to find a hologram instead. Belltower spec ops soldiers storm the building, prompting Adam to make his way to the source of the hologram's signal in a secret sub-basement. There, he discovers that Eliza is actually a self-aware Artificial Intelligence designed to manipulate public perception through the media. Eliza informs Adam that the scientists' tracking implants were removed by Doctor Isaias Sandoval, prominent member of Purity First. Their meeting is interrupted by the soldiers so Adam has to escape again.

Back to Detroit, Adam goes to Sandoval's apartment where he finds a secret bunker filled with Purity First members, proving his allegiance to the terrorist group. Adam confronts Sandoval, who reveals that he was unable to remove the tracking implants, so he changed the frequency to avert tracking attempts.

Adam manages to track one of the implants belonging to one of the kidnapped Sarif’s scientist to Heng Sha so he decides to return to the island.

Nearing his arrival to the island, however, Adam's aircraft is shot down by Belltower, leading to a massive ambush which may result in the death of the craft's pilot. Adam discovers that Belltower is on a manhunt for him and that augmentation users all over the world are being advised to have their biochips replaced due to a defect. Adam tracks the signal which leads him to Zhao.

When he confronts Zhao again, one of her bodyguards knocks him down. Alan is then stowed away in a high-tech hibernation pod. Adam wakes up three days later and finds that he is currently in the Omega Ranch, a biotech research complex in Singapore.

Zhao faces Adam there. Zhao explains Adam that Purity First is creating a "killswitch" for all augmented people worldwide so they will not challenge their rule. She tells him too that Megan is also held prisoner there until she accepts working for her. Then, Zhao orders his soldiers to kill Adam and leaves. But Adam fights the soldiers with his augmented abilities and kills them.

Adam looks for Megan at the Ranch and finally finds her. Megan reveals that the facility is owned by Hugh Darrow (M.Douglas), a world famous millionaire and the "father" of augmentation technology. Darrow is currently involved with Panchea, a massive geoengineering facility in the Arctic Ocean designed to stop global warming via iron seeding. She also reveals that the basis of her revolutionary discovery is Adam's DNA, who is unknowingly Patient X. At that moment, while giving a press conference from Panchaea, Darrow activates a signal that causes everyone who got the biochip upgrade to turn violently insane.

Adam travels to Panchaea to confront Darrow. There, Darrow explains that he invented the technology to help the less fortunate, but it has since become just another means for the powerful to exert control over the rest of the world, as well as potentially causing humanity to lose its moral center. Darrow used the insanity-inducing signal as an attempt to get the technology permanently banned, but with the correct augmentation, he can reveal that this is not entirely pro bono - he is ironically one of the few people whose DNA is completely incompatible with augmentations which is why he wears a leg brace. He is thoroughly bitter about being unable to enjoy his creation. Adam races to shut the signal down.

Adam later arrives the core of Panchaea, where Zhao merges with the Hyron Project, a hidden bioelectronic quantum supercomputer designed to control all the augmented people worldwide. Adam has a violent final duel with Zhao. Finally, Adams kills Zhao.

While Adam is manipulating Hyron to destroy it, he is contacted through the supercomputer by the hologram of Eliza.

Following Eliza’s instructions, Adam sets the entire facility to self-destruction.

Adam and Megan return to Detroit.

After all the events, Sarif attends a press conference where he announces that Sarif Industries will promote a new regulation about augmentations that will set strict controls on its use and future development.

The movie ends with a conversation between Adam and Megan wondering if the world is condemned to become a less human universe and where should be the limits of scientific advances.


Stark’s Comment:
Quality sci-fi, plenty of CGI, top budget, big marketing campaign, the return to CMP of the Wachowski Brothers… Can anything go wrong with this release?

Behind The Scenes:
-This film is based on the video game ‘Deus Ex: Human Revolution’.
-The only previous film directed for CMP by the Wachowski Brothers was ‘Devil Trigger’. That film made a box office of 248 millions and net gains of 382 millions. It still is the alltimes top 6 highest net gains.
-Keanu Reeves was considered for the lead role but he was finally ruled out to keep a distance from ‘Matrix’.
-Jonathan Rhys-Meyers has only been seen in CMP in ‘Booster Gold’ and ‘Athena’. He also made a voice-only job in ‘The Wind In The Willows’.
-Olivia Wilde’s latest work for CMP was the flopped James Bradley’s film ‘Game Of Truth’. She got two GMA nominations for that movie: Best Actress and Best Starring Couple (together with Daniel Day-Lewis).

THE ALAMOGORDO

Western / Action

The Cast: Eric Bana, Zooey Deschanel, Viggo Mortensen, David Morse, Lucas Black, John C. Reilly, Garrett Dillahunt, Michael Pena.

The Director: Sam Mendes
The Screenwriter: Dwight Gallo

The Plot:

Outlaw Robert Flynn (E.Bana) and his gang: Logan Travers (L.Black), Ben Caruthers (J.C. Reilly), Juarez (M.Pena), and Bledsoe (G.Dillahunt), ride up along side a train. The train is carrying $100,000 in railroad bonds. They’ve been hired to rob the train by the owner of the bonds, a railroad executive named Nate McHale (D.Morse), as the bonds have been insured by the government. In the bank car, Bledsoe impulsively kills a Pinkerton, forcing the gang to eliminate the other two Pinkertons out of necessity. Flynn intends to kill Bledsoe in retaliation for killing the Pinkerton, but Bledsoe escapes.

Flynn and his men go to meet McHale to exchange the bonds for cash, but it is a set up, and McHale tells his men to kill Flynn for stealing his money in the past. Flynn and his men manage to escape with their lives, but they are out the money and the bonds, and Flynn makes a vow to get revenge on McHale.

In El Paso, Flynn stops by a saloon when he hears a woman singing. He goes inside and is instantly smitten with the singer, Carla Jean (Z.Deschanel). He buys her a drink, and they end up spending the night in a room upstairs.

Marshal Harland Garris (V.Mortensen) is brought in to investigate the train robbery and learns through his criminal sources that Flynn and his men plan to rob a gold depot next. Garris and his men wait atop a nearby hill the night of the robbery, but when one of Garris’ men lights a match, Flynn is tipped off, and the gang abandons their plans and escape. Despite knowing that Garris is on their heels, Flynn and his gang decide to rob a bank in Los Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Garris is drinking in a saloon, when Flynn joins him, informing Garris that he knows he’s being followed. The two have a drink together where they talk about personal problems: Garris has discovered that his wife is cheating on him with his boss, Flynn is sick of being constantly on the move and wants to settle down with Carla Jean.

The day of the robbery, Juarez is nowhere to be found. Flynn, Caruthers, and Travers go ahead with the plan down a man, and make their way to the First Bank of Los Alamogordo. As they leave the bank with the money, Caruthers is shot in the head by one of Garris’ men. As Flynn and Travers make their getaway on horseback, Travers takes a bullet to the shoulder. Flynn narrowly escapes with Travers and leaves him with a doctor to treat his bullet wound. Flynn manages to track down Juarez, who he finds in a hotel severely beaten. He admits to working for McHale and tipping Garris. Juarez is guilt stricken and gives him McHale’s location. He then begs Flynn to kill him, which he does. Flynn follows Juarez’s directions and finds McHale.

McHale is playing piano in a saloon, with his men nearby. Flynn quickly, and silently, dispatches McHale’s men before shooting McHale in the back of the head.

Flynn rides all night as fast as his horse will go to El Paso. He plans to pick up Carla Jean and take her with him to Tijuana. When he gets to El Paso, he finds that Garris is already there waiting for him. Garris agrees to let Flynn go for half of the take from the bank robbery, and if he gives up Travers. Flynn agrees to the money, but instead of giving up Travers, he offers up Bledsoe. Flynn has known where Bledsoe has been since his escape, but was just waiting to get back at McHale first. Garris agrees and Flynn tells him where to find Bledsoe.

Garris and his men arrest Bledsoe. Logan Travers recovers from his bullet-wound and starts his own gang. Flynn opens up a saloon down in Tijuana where Carla Jean sings.


Stark’s Comment:
You all know it: westerns never work too well in CMP’s world. I will be satisfied if we avoid here the net losses.

Behind The Scenes:
-This is the 6th movie directed by Sam Mendes for CMP. He won the Best Director GMA back in Season 11 with ‘The Rock Star’.
-This is the second story written by Dwight Gallo after his debut with ‘Atlas Shrugged’.
-Eric Bana and Zooey Deschanel have already worked together in CMP in ‘The Thinking Man’.
-John C. Reilly has already been seen this Season in ‘The Jungle’ while Lucas Black could be seen in ‘Innocence’.

FLICKER

Thriller

The Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Kirsten Dunst, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jon Hamm, Philip Baker Hall, Terence Stamp, John Lithgow, Rooney Mara, Val Kilmer, Ty Burrell

The Director: Francis Coppola
The Screenwriter: John Malone

The Plot:

At the UCLA Preservation Lab, Jon Gates (A. Ehrenreich) slowly works a wet gate optical printer, advancing an old film frame by frame. The light begins to melt the film, which bursts into flame. Jon suffers a serious burn on his hand as he tries to save the film. The reel blows loose, knocking over some bottles. Fluid from one of the bottles ignites. Dr. Gordon Rittenauer (J. Lithgow) rushes into the room, grabs a fire extinguisher, and puts out the fire. That night Jon tags along to a private film screening where his friend Don Sharkey (P.S. Hoffman) is working as the projectionist. Sharkey has also decided to bring along Amy (R. Mara), a girl who works for him at his theater. While the party is in full swing, Sharkey leads Amy and Jon up to the attic to show them that there are film canisters stacked everywhere. Jon is upset that all these great movies are just wasting away in a dusty attic. Time comes for the screening and the host Chip Goldstone (T. Burrell) addresses his guests and introduces Claire Swann (K. Dunst), a film critic for LA Weekly, who tells them about the film they are about to see.

Halfway through the screening Sharkey and Amy notice that Jon isn't with them and look on in horror as they see him whispering in Chip's ear. Chip then gets up and heads for the projection room, with Jon following. Chip tells them that Jon has urged him to take better care of his late father's film collection. Jon goes back up to the attic and decides to steal the incredibly rare print of Murnau's "Faust." He is only able to carry one of the four reels at a time. He makes it out to Sharkey's van, but finds Claire out there smoking a cigarette. She asks him what he's doing, and he claims that Chip is having him restore it, but she isn't buying it, so he comes out and tells her that he's borrowing it just so that he can restore the film as the outer edge is starting to rot and that he is restoration expert for the UCLA Preservation Project. In order to convince her that he merely wants to save the film he tells her that he can follow him, after helping him carry out the other reels. As they are loading the reels into her car, Sharkey and Amy approach. Sharkey sees what movie they're taking and suggests that they all watch it.

Back at Sharkey's theater they go to watch the movie but the first canister is soldered shut. Sharkey digs out a can opener and opens up the canister. Jon and Sharkey carefully lift the first reel out of the first canister and set it on the table. Jon notices an old piece of paper with German writing, accidentally tearing it in two. Jon holds the pieces together and sees a very faint, faded, hand-drawn diagram. It's a asymmetrical pattern of squares, each with a different number inside. Jon pockets the paper and notices a short strip of pure black film running along the edge of the canister. He tries to remove it but its stuck. Sharkey looks at the reel and notices sound strips, but "Faust" is a silent film. Upon further inspection they notice that the credits do not match up to the film. Claire realizes that the film is a lost film made by Max Castle, made before WWII, supposedly a masterpiece, but she's never known anyone who has actually seen it. Jon calls Gordon and tells him that they've found a film called "Judas Jedermann" made by Max Castle and asks him if he know anything about it. Gordon tells him to bring it in the next day.

They watch the film and they all have very strong intense reactions to it. Afterward they discuss it and end up getting into a huge argument that turns physical as they all start slapping each other. Amy gets fed up and runs out of the theater. Once she gets to the street she turns around to flip the others off and is run over by a semi-truck. That night, Jon wakes up sweating. He tries to call Sharkey, but doesn't get an answer. He then calls Claire's work number. They talk and reveal that they both had nightmares about the film. Jon then goes and picks Claire up and they go to the UCLA Preservation Lab.

They head over to Sharkey's apartment over the theater to pick up the film. Nobody answers the door so Jon grabs a spare key and opens the door and they grab the canisters. They then head over to the lab. There, Gordon tells them that he did a little research on Kassel: He directed "Judas Jedermann" in 1938, but no one knew what came of the film and it become the stuff of legend. Max then hid during WWII, and came to L.A. in 1945. In 1952 he directed B-movie "Queen of Venus" - produced by Ira Goldstone (Chip's father). The movie was never released. Max left L.A. for East Berlin, but the plane he was one vanished. They open up the canisters to find that Sharkey has switched the films. Jon and Claire head back to Sharkey's where he tells them that he put the film into cleaner canisters. The three head over to the lab.

During the ride, Sharkey tells them that he plans to have a special screening of the film at his theater. When they arrive they discover that the UCLA Archives Building is on fire. Jon rushes into the building to look for Gordon. He finds him dead in the screening room, his body soaked in blood, his legs aflame. Just then Jon is knocked unconscious by a blow to the back of the head.

Jon wakes up in the hospital. He goes to the Archives building where LAPD Homicide Detective Bracken (V. Kilmer) waits for him. Bracken escorts Jon through the burned-out building, telling him to keep an eye out for anything that may have been stolen. Jon goes to Gordon's office, which is half-burned. Jon tells Bracken that the books Gordon had been researching Castle in are gone. Jon asks Bracken what he thinks happened. Bracken tells him that it is too early to tell, that it could be a break-in, theft, accidental fire, arson, and asks Jon if he deals with a place in Berlin called Bundes Archiv, that Gordon had called them shortly before his death. Jon calls and talks to Friedrich telling him that Gordon is dead. Friedrich tells him to burn the film and leave town for awhile. Jon is convinced that Gordon's death has something to do with the film.

In the theater basement, Jon and Sharkey record a copy of the film onto video. They then hide the film canisters in a secret compartment in the theater where Sharkey hides drugs. Jon goes over to UCLA and gets a German graduate student, Susan, to translate the film into English. Claire talked to Chip and takes Jon to go dig through Chipsey's father's film collection. Jon finds a lobby card for "Queen of Venus" discovering that Arnold Zipsky (P.B. Hall) was the cinematographer on the film. They track down Zipsky and go to see him. They tell him that they've seen "Judas Jedermann", he doesn't believe them, so they invite him to come see the movie at the theater.

Sharkey lets Jon into the closed theater. Jon tells him that Zipsky should be coming. Claire arrives with a companion, Colby Mathers (J. Hamm), who she introduces as a good friend and a major film collector. Zipsky then arrives. An old woman is behind him, but doesn't come in, and Zipsky assures them that he doesn't know her. They play the film. Jon notices that Mathers keeps his head down for the entire movie. After the movie, Zipsky shouts that its a masterpiece before quickly leaving, not answering any of Jon's questions. Jon, Claire, and Sharkey get into another fight, and Mathers leaves. Claire tackles Jon into a shelf of movies in Sharkey's office.

Jon wakes up in his apartment and notices that two videos on his shelf are out of place. He gets a call from Sharkey who says that somebody broke into the theater. Jon goes there and suggests that they call Det. Bracken. Sharkey says no cops, as they might find his drugs, along with several fire violations. Jon goes to see Claire at the L.A. Weekly offices and tells her about the break-in and asks her where Mathers is. She tells him that Mathers is in New York. They determine that the film was the reason for all the fighting, and that they have had the same nightmare where people stab each other. They then go to see Zipsky, who shows them that he has the third reel of "Queen of Venus."

After they watch it, Claire excuses herself to the bathroom, and Jon follows. They start groping and kissing each other, and rip each other's clothes off. They then have passionate sex on the bathroom floor. They then notice that Zipsky is watching them from the doorway, masturbating. Afterward they accuse Zipsky of spiking their drinks, but Zipsky tells them that it was the film that caused it through subliminal images, that "Judas Jedermann" causes people to be mean and "Queen of Venus" causes a sexual reaction. Jon asks him if he thinks anyone would be willing to kill to steal a Max Castle film. Zipsky says that Max was part of a cult before telling them to leave.

Jon and Claire get a call from Sharkey telling them that there was another break-in at the theater. Jon goes to see Sarah, the German grad student, to get the translation from her. He finds her door open and enters, only to be attacked by Susan. He quickly grabs the tape and her notebook and runs out of there. He then goes to Claire's apartment. She reads the notebook and tells Jon that it is pretty much the story of Christ from Judas' point of view. Jon watches the tape with the notebook in front of him. He goes over to Sharkey's and looks at each frame of the film through a powerful optical viewer. Jon finds one of Castle's subliminal images: the face of a demon. Jon then receives a call from Friedrich who tells him that some people approached him and asked if he had any Max Castle films, specifically his ‘experimental films’, and once again urges Jon to burn the film and suggests that he come on over to the Berlin Film Festival.

Jon goes to convince Claire to go to the film festival with him. They then discover that Zipsky has died in a freak accident on his staircase. They go to Zipsky's house, break in, and find that it's been ransacked. They hide in a closet when they hear the sound of a key unlocking the front door. It's the old woman from the theater, who Jon now realizes is Olga Tell, star of "Queen of Venus." They tail her car to a house, wait for her to go inside, and then ring the doorbell. They tell her that they were friends of Zipsky. She only lets them in when they tell her that they know she is actually Olga Tell. She tells them that she isn't Olga Tell, just a friend of hers. They ask her about Max Castle, but she doesn't say anything. Jon says that they have a print of "Judas Jedermann". He then lies and says they also have one of Castle's experimental films. She tells him that he's lying, because if he had seen it he'd be dead, and orders them to leave.

Claire and Jon fly to Berlin. They head over to the Bundes Archiv to find that Friedrich has quit and that an American policeman keeps calling. Jon talks them into giving him Friedrich's address. Jon and Claire then go there and find that his apartment has been ransacked. Friedrich then attacks them. Jon and Claire flee the apartment and go back to their hotel room. Mathers knocks at their door to tell Claire that there is a screening at 7pm. Jon heads to the Berlin Library and looks at a microfilm of a newspaper, finding an article mentioning a triple murder in Paris and the name "Max Kassel."

Jon tells Claire that he's going to Paris and shows her a copy of the article, and tells her that a man in Paris named Rosensweig killed three men in a theater in 1943. During the trial, Rosensweig said that Max Castle showed him a film. Jon takes a train to the prison. Jon waits in the visitation room as two guards bring in the elderly Guillaume Rosensweig. A guard tells Jon that he doesn't speak but can interpret. Jon asks about the night at the theater and Max Castle. He asks if it was "Judas Jedermann". The old man simply says "noir" and the name of the cult, "The Orphans of the Storm." Rosensweig grabs Jon's pen, yells in English that the film will kill everybody, and stabs himself in the throat with the pen.

Jon goes back to the hotel and tells Claire about the visit. He asks Claire to put out an announcement to the festival director that Friedrich Heller from Bundes Archiv is going to give a talk about the lost films of Max Castle, when everyone gets there they will announce that the event has been canceled. Jon hopes this will draw out the killer. Jon scans all the faces, when one catches his interest. The man, Dr. Byx (T. Stamp) leaves and gets into a taxi. Jon gets into another taxi and follows Dr. Byx to a house that has been turned into a place of business. The front sign says "Orphans of the Storm." Jon goes inside and tells Dr. Byx that he is doing research on Max Castle. Dr. Byx claims not to know of him, but offers to tell him about their group and leads him to their meditation room - an auditorium. On the screen is a blown-up video of Byx talking into the camera in German.

Not finding what he was looking for, Jon goes to a government building to look up old records about religious cults from the 1920-30s. The clerk provides Jon with a list of members of "Orphans of the Storm" from 1923. Jon races back to the hotel and shows Claire the list which features the name "Maximilian Kassel" and "Robert Weine", another filmmaker. Jon then recalls that Gordon had watched Weine's film "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" before he was killed. Jon heads back to L.A. while Claire stays to cover the remainder of the festival.

Jon enters his apartment and finds a package - from Rosensweig. Inside is a film canister. He goes to Sharkey's to watch it. It's an outtake from "Judas Jedermann" where the actor playing Judas breaks character as a group of men in robes with occult symbols walk into frame and gather around a seated actor wearing a crown. The seated actor goes into a trance. His head lowers, then raises and his expression is one of sheer evil. The film then runs out. Jon looks at a frame with an optical viewer - Judas is reaching for a doorknob, casting a shadow over the door. Inside the shadow is the demon's head -- with the same crown on his head. Jon and Sharkey realize that the subliminal images in the film were created on set during shooting. Jon suggests that the actor actually channeled a demon.

Jon goes to the UCLA Research Library and does some research. Jon takes a thick folder of research back to the theater where he finds that Sharkey is now wearing combat fatigues, and a holster around his waist with a handgun - and is on acid. Jon reads his research aloud about various members of the cult - who were all involved in film. Jon says that the cult grabbed onto the invention of motion pictures and formed it, shaped it to do what they wanted it to do.

Jon wakes up back at his apartment to a knock at his door. It's Claire. Jon tells her that the cult has been trying to replicate what Castle was able to do for the last 60 years. After they have sex, Claire tells Jon that she went to the Orphans of the Storm headquarters in Berlin. She says that they are a film preservation society that finds and saves "orphaned" films. She gets up and leaves for a press screening. Jon then receives a call from Detective Bracken telling him that they need to talk in person. Bracken tells Jon that the forensics investigation concludes that Gordon Rittenauer committed suicide.

At the theater, Jon, Sharkey, and Claire watch the outtake footage. Claire tells Jon that Mathers will pay for Jon to go back to France and talk to Rosensweig about Max Castle's experimental film and find it. Jon believes that the film makes you kill yourself. They go to the charred UCLA Archives building and to Jon's office and grab the grabs "Caligari". Jon looks at the film in light. Jon grabs the black strip from the canister and removes the leader section from the front of "Caligari." He goes to a viewing table but can't see anything so they go to Sharkey's. They go down to get a new bulb for the projector, thinking its burned out, but an employee of Sharkey's, Kirk, gets the projector working and watches the film. When they come back to the projection room, they find that Kirk has killed himself. Jon quickly sets the film on fire. While Claire is talking to a detective Jon answers her cell phone and its a call from Dr. Byx.

Jon decides to follow Claire and finds that she's going to the LA Weekly offices. He decides to go home. When he gets there he finds Colby Mathers waiting for him in his apartment. Sharkey is with him and reveals that Mathers has been working against the cult. Mathers reveals that he helped put Dr. Byx's brother in prison for stealing rare films. After Sharkey's screening of "Judas Jedermann" Mathers is going to destroy it. Mathers has been trying to find Castle's blind "noir" film for twenty years to destroy it. Mathers believes that the cult wants to broadcast it during the Olympics, causing mass suicide. Claire then calls and claims that Mathers is a liar and that he is a suspect in murders and art thefts all over Europe. Mathers, Sharkey, and Jon race to Olga's house. They break in and find the place ransacked and the old woman dead. Jon notices a piece of glass art that looks similar to the sets of "Caligari". The sky portion of the art which is all white is shaped just like the diagram Jon found earlier. Mathers picks up a stone statue and is about to smash the glass to destroy the negative when Sharkey stops him and smashes Mather's head with the statue. Sharkey pulls out his gun and pistol-whips Jon, knocking him out.

Sharkey makes prints of film from the glass negatives. Jon wakes up in the theater's basement, but finds that he's locked in. Jon bashes the doorknob and lock and escapes the basement. The theater is full of moviegoers. Jon then sees Claire and several cops enter the theater. Jon runs up the stairs as cops chase him. Jon and Claire convince a cop to break down the projection room door just as Sharkey starts the projector. Jon leaps at Sharkey, rips off the take-up reel and lights the film on fire. He tosses the burning film onto the print negative Sharkey made. Some people saw a couple seconds of the film though. Sharkey saw the film though, grabs a knife and tabs himself in the throat. One woman breaks her compact mirror and uses the pieces to slice her throat. The cop uses his gun to kill himself. Claire grabs the cop's gun, and before Jon can stop her, kills herself. Jon looks in the lobby and sees Byx standing with a cop at the door. Jon eats the diagram while the cop and Byx try to stop him. Suddenly a nitrate explosion occurs in the projection room. Jon passes out. He wakes up in a hut. He can hear the ocean. With difficulty he walks outside and sees a beach. He turns and sees an old man - Max Castle.


Stark’s Comment:
This week, we release a western and a thriller. Two genres always difficult at box office in CMP’s world. So here we go with a very risky week…

Behind The Scenes:
-This movie is based on a book by Theodore Roszak
-Coppola has directed two movies before for CMP: ‘The Toymaker’ and ‘Prison Letters’. He was also the producer of Stephen Frears’ ‘A View From The Bridge’.
-This is the second story signed by John Malone after ‘Sub-Mariner’.
-The shooting dates of this movie had to be reduced as some of its stars - Alden Ehrenreich, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Kirsten Dunst - were committed to join other CMP’s shootages.
-This is the first time to see John Lithgow in a CMP movie. His only previous work for the Studio was a voice-only job in the record-breaker animated feature ‘The Ice Princess’.
-Rooney Mara could be seen this Season in ‘The Caped Crusader’. Ty Burrell was seen in ‘The Jungle’.


HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING: Just finished her work in this week’s release ‘Flicker’, Kirsten Dunst has joined the cast of this musical comedy being directed by Frank Oz and adapted by Josh Collins. Another star to be seen in this week’s releases, Zooey Deschanel, lead female character of ‘The Alamogordo’, could also be free on time to work in this movie too. Together with them, Robin Williams, last time seen in CMP playing a minor role in ‘Lemieux’, and Bradley Cooper, only seen before in CMP in ‘Amedia’, will also be in this one. Very interesting additions to a cast leaded by the CMP’s debutante John Krasinski.

NETWORK: Philip Seymour Hoffman, also to be seen this week in ‘Flicker’, could find time too to urgently join this cast. And another talent already seen this Season in ‘Grand Theft Auto II’, Mark Ruffalo, will be another member of the top-notch cast of this film. David O. Russell directs this remake with a screenplay written by Chad Taylor.

BACK TO BROOKLYN: Dawson Edwards has written the original screenplay of this very violent story about a mafia assassin played by Matt Damon. Damon returns to the Studio after quite some time away. His latest works for CMP were playing Bobby Kennedy in ‘American Tabloid’ and a voice-only job in ‘Karate Kat’. Mandy Moore, who made her CMP’s debut only a few weeks ago with ‘Tell Me You Love Me’, works again with Dawson Edwards here, playing a childhood ex-girlfriend of Damon now in trouble. After considering other options like Doug Liman, Edwards has finally chosen Guy Ritchie to direct the film. The only previous directional job of Ritchie for CMP was the action thriller ‘One Night Stand’.

BLACKWATER: Firs release scheduled for Season 20 greenlighted. Dwight Gallo has written this crime story about a Mississipi’s Sheriff with severe marital problems. Australian director Andrew Dominik is going to make his debut in CMP directing this dark and violent story. And GMA Winner Leonardo DiCaprio will be playing the lead character. Last time we saw DiCaprio in CMP was playing one of the main characters in Chad Taylor’s ‘Amedia’.

ALADDIN: Luke Evans, seen out of CMP in movies like ‘Clash Of The Titans’, makes his debut in the Studio playing Simbad in this fantasy adventure feature written by John Malone and being directed by Tarsem Singh. Mark Strong, seen past Season in movies like ‘The Goonies II’ and ‘Frontier’, and Rosamund Pike, seen in past week’s blockbuster ‘Alan Wake’, have also joined the cast. Alden Ehrenreich, who can be seen in this week’s release ‘Flicker’, also written by Malone, is the one playing Aladdin himself.

BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING: Two talents make their debut in CMP with this remake written by Dwight Gallo and being directed by Rodrigo Cortes. Academy Award Winner Melissa Leo and Jimmi Simpson have joined the cast leaded by Mila Kunis and including Robert De Niro and the also CMP’s debutante Dominic Cooper.

Y: THE LAST MAN: More actresses joining the cast of this comic book adaptation focused on the adventures of the only male human still alive on Earth, played by Shia LaBeouf. Julianne Moore, not seen in CMP since ‘John Wayne Must Die’, and Diane Kruger, a regular in Dawson Edwards’ movies like ‘Packing Up London’, ‘Lemieux’ or the ‘Mouse Guards’ movies, join the list of actresses to be seen in the film. Francis Lawrence is directing what is meant to be the first installment of a trilogy written by DR.Cobb.

THE QUESTION: DARK TOMORROW: Peter Stormare, not seen in CMP since he played a minor role in one of the stories of ‘Tales Of The Unexpected’, and Kevin Pollack, making here his CMP’s debut, will be seen in this sequel being directed by Duncan Jones with a screenplay written by D.R.Cobb. Zack Snyder is producing again this new installment of Vic Sage’s adventures.

THANK YOU & GOODBYE: James Bradley has built up a cast full of talents seen before in movies written by him. That’s the case of these two actresses: Carey Mulligan and Scarlet Johansson. Carey has worked in only two CMP movies before, Bradley’s ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’, and Taylor’s ‘A Farewell To Arms’. And, amazingly, she has won 3 Golden Moon Awards (Starring Couple, Supporting Actress and Actress) with her two only works for the Studio. The also GMA Winner Scarlet Johansson has been a regular in Bradley’s movies. This will be the 6th time they meet. The last time they worked together was when Scarlet made a cameo playing herself in the comedy ‘Queens’. Tom Hanks is directing this movie starred by Jesse Eisenberg.

IMAGINE: Probably, this is the most experimental movie ever produced by the Studio. Chad Taylor is not only the writer and director of the film but he is also going to play the lead character. This is the second time that a CMP’s writer stars a movie after Matt Kubrick and ‘Raise Of The Darkman’. This is a most artsy film. There is no speaking throughout 99% of the film and it won’t be longer than seventy minutes. Again, Taylor has taken a John Lennon’s song to title the film, like he did with ‘Grow Old With Me’. But, besides that, most of the original soundtrack of the movie has also been composed by Taylor himself. That makes this movie a one-man-show in all senses. As it can be imagined, ‘Imagine’ will have very low production costs so the Studio has accepted to take the risk of greenlightning the experiment. Chad Taylor has directed before the CMP films ‘Amedia’, ‘Gaga’, ‘Mario’ and ‘L.A. Wolf’ and he could be seen making minor acting works in Matt Kubrick’s ‘Sam & Twitch 2’ and Trent Nielsen’s ‘Based On Real Life’.


DWIGHT GALLO – ‘THE ALAMOGORDO’

Dwaight Gallo is one of the screenwriters making his debut in CMP this Season. His debut with the interesting ‘Atlas Shrugged’ has not been too satisfactory in terms of box office. He will have a second chance to succeed at box office this week with ‘The Alamogordo’ and still a third one with the upcoming thriller ‘Bunny Lake Is Missing’. We have talked with him about all these movies.

1.It is funny how, at some point of their writing careers, many CMP's authors have wanted to try luck with western. Why is it that you decided to write 'The Alamogordo'?

I grew up watching westerns. It's a really underrated film genre. It's the only genre that is quintessential American. And I think it's kind of sad that interest in them has gone down.

2.Is there any innovation for the western genre in your film or is it more a revival of the classic elements of the genre?

I would view Alamogordo as a fairly traditional western, but I wanted to add in modern crime story elements. Another thing I wanted to do was make the characters less black and white and paint everyone more in various shades of gray.

3.You have also released this Season 'Atlas Shrugged'. Sadly, it didn't go well at box office. But I have the feeling we are going to hear a lot about that movie when the GMA time comes. What are your expectations about awards?

Atlas Shrugged was built as a prestige film, although I hoped the star power involved would end up with it making decent money. I don't really have any expectations although I have to imagine Charlize Theron will end up with a Best Actress nomination.

4.You are releasing soon too the remake of 'Bunny Lake Is Missing'. Why were you interested in making a remake of this film?

It's a great story at its core, and I have changed very little of the plot. But sadly the film itself is dated in the techniques and technology. Some of the acting in the original isn't very great either. So I wanted to update it with a good cast and crew and let the story do the rest.

5.What other stories can we expect from you in the future?

I actually just wrote another western. Generally my stories are fairly dark, at least my originals. A lot of crime, thrillers, and mysteries. I've never been super big into comic books so I haven't written a bunch of those, but I do have my Batman movie once Chad Taylor's series is over.


ERIC BANA

For so long in CMP, Eric Bana could be considered as one of the official Action Heroes of the Studio. Anytime any CMP’s author had to choose an actor to play an action movie hero, Eric Bana and Gerard Butler showed up as first choices. Although the popularity of Bana in CMP seems to have lowered down lately, that cast type as action hero has allowed him to build up a long and pretty successful career in the Studio. So let’s take a look at it…

THE AVENGER
John Woo / Matt Kubrick
B.O.: 56 / N.G.: 31
Before he put up the superheroes saga ‘The Avengers’, Kubrick wrote this action movie about a kind of lone rider that travelled on a bike facing villains and seducing sexy women like the now forgotten Elisha Cuthbert titled ‘The Avenger’. John Wood directed this routine action flick, Eric Bana made his debut in CMP with it and box office responded in a pretty cold way.

THE LIBRARY
Anthony Minghella / Marcus Trax
B.O.: 3 / N.L.: 41
Just a few months before he passed away, Minghella directed for CMP this historical drama set in the Roman times. Anthony Hopkins starred the movie but Bana played one of the main characters, together with Natalie Portman. This quality movie was mistreated by audiences. It was the time when CMP could not find the way to make historical movies work. The extremely poor box office does not make justice to the quality of this film.

PAPERBACK STORY
Woody Allen / James Bradley
B.O.: 59 / N.G.: 42
Before definitely focusing on action heroes, Bana joined the cast of one of the usual Bradley’s ‘relationships movies’, as he calls them. Here, he played Sean Connery’s son and shared with him the love of women like Susan Sarandon and Scarlet Johansson. Bana got his first and so far only GMA nomination for his work in this movie at the Best Supporting Actor category.

PLANETSIDE
James Cameron / Marcus Trax
B.O.: 93 / N.G.: 65
Marcus Trax chose again Bana to be part of the top-notch cast of this ambitious sci-fi production directed and produced by James Cameron, together with big names like Connery (his cast mate in ‘Paperback Story’), Ewan McGregor, Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Garner, Liam Neeson or Rachel Weisz, among others. This story about the colonization of a new planet didn’t work as well as expected at box office and, although it was conceived as the beginning of a franchise, Trax never developed the sequels.

BULLET WITCH
McG / David Makalaster
B.O.: 95 / N.G.: 56
Bana accepted to be in this video game adaptation. Hillary Swank – who is returning now to CMP with ‘Network’ after being away from CMP since this movie was released – played the lead character of this action flick. As it happened with ‘Planetside’, the film made correct box office’s numbers but it didn’t even reached the always dream 100 millions.

CIVILIZATION M
Roland Emmerich / Josh Collins
B.O.: 150 / N.G.: 153
Still looking for his first blockbuster in CMP, Bana had already set his typecast as action hero. Finally, this sci-fi top budget production meant his first ‘+100’ release. Brendan Fraser, Halle Berry and Harrison Ford shared with Bana this success.

THE THINKING MAN
David Mamet / Marcus Trax
B.O.: 56 / N.G.: 25
Mamet, Trax and Johnny Depp were a stable creative team quite a few CMP’s Seasons ago. They made together five movies and this one was the last of them. Bana joined them playing here a minor role in a dramedy starred by Johnny Depp and Jim Carrey. Also in the cast we find Zooey Deschanel, her cast mate now in this week’s release ‘The Alamogordo’.

METAL GEAR SOLID
John Woo / Dawson Edwards
B.O.: 26 / N.L.: 21
This game adaptation was one of those projects where nothing can go wrong. But everything went wrong… It was the second time that Bana worked with John Woo after his debut in ‘The Avenger’ (and Gary Oldman, also seen in ‘The Avenger’, was also in this one). The movie had a top budget to finance the luxurious production design and CGI’s display. The original source was a most popular console game. The Studio wanted to develop a franchise out of this film. But audiences turned their back to it. Second and so far last box office’s flop in Bana’s career in CMP.

BLOOD MERIDIAN
Ang Lee / Dawson Edwards
B.O.: 44 / N.G.: 14
First foray for Bana in the western genre. After the disaster of ‘Metar Gear Solid’, Dawson Edwards and Bana teamed up again with this adaptation of a bestselling Larry McMurtry’s book. Daniel Radcliffe played the lead role and Gerard Butler, another official action hero in CMP like Bana, was also in the cast. The film made decent numbers and critics very much supported this author-esque approach to western.

BULLET WITCH 0
Renny Harlin / David Makalaster
B.O.: 223 / N.G.: 249
A few Seasons after the release of the first movie, Makalaster wrote this sequel. The character played by Hillary Swank did not show up in it and Bana’s character was now the leading one. Kate Hudson, still hot his GMA triumphs with ‘Velcro’ and ‘Mary’s Dark Side’, accepted to play ‘the girl’ of the story. And, this time, everything went right. The film made outstanding numbers, becoming Bana’s biggest success in CMP.

THE BLACKSMITH’S SWORD
Alfonso Cuaron / Trent Nielsen
B.O.: 101 / N.G.: 54
Paradoxically, the mega-successful ‘Bullet Witch 0’ was the starting point of Bana’s fading away as a regular action hero in CMP. After some time not showing up in any CMP’s movie, Bana accepted a minor role in this pirates movie, the first story written by Trent Nielsen for the Studio. The film made a nice box office but didn’t add much to Bana’s prestige in CMP’s world.

HEAVY RAIN
Peter Jackson / Steve Connors
B.O.: 60 / N.G.: 36
Bana wasn’t anymore as demanded by CMP’s authors as he used to be when he accepted to join the cast of this interesting serial killer movie adapting a bestselling video game. Although the lead character was played by David Duchovny, Bana’s character was pretty important too. After all, this was mainly a ‘whodunit’ movie and Bana played the serial killer of the story himself. The film wasn’t the box office’s success expected but it won two GMA and critics very much praised it.


Although her jump to play lead characters in CMP with the espionage thriller ‘Game Of Truth’ turned into a hard disappointment, Olivia Wilde returns to the Studio this week with another ambitious bet, the new Wachowski Brothers’ top production ‘Deus Ex’. And to celebrate her return, ‘Premiere’ magazine takes her to its cover. Also in this week’s issue, an inside look at the new Coppola’s film for the Studio, ‘Flicker’, and at Sam Mendes’ approach to the western genre with ‘The Alamagordo’.



From time to time, I dedicate my column to write exclusively about sequels coming up in CMP. That’s what I call my Sequelmania Articles. And here goes another one of them! (yeah, I know, it is not that exciting, but I have to write about something anyway…)

Everything’s ready to begin the pre-production of what is expected to be another record-breaker: the third installment of the mega-successful ‘Metroid’ franchise. Dawson Edwards has written again the screenplay (and I still wonder why Josh Collins abandoned this juicy franchise…) and Zack Snyder will begin working on it as soon as he finishes his work as producer of ‘The Question: Dark Tomorrow’. Only thing I know about this project is that Snyder and Edwards have decided to strengthen the cast for this third movie adding some popular faces in CMP’s world. If this will be the end of this saga or not is still unknown… but considering the net gains the two previous movies have made, I doubt Harry ‘The Greedy’ Stark will allow Edwards and Snyder to stop writing new sequels.

He has been talking about it in all his interviews but now it is finally a reality. The sequel of James Bradley’s hit ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ is ready for green light. Bradley has adapted the prequel written by Steve Hockensmith to the original book written by Seth Grahame-Smith he already adapted. But he has made big changes in Hockensmith’s story. The main one is that Bradley’s story won’t be a prequel to ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ but a sequel. The second one is that the main characters of the first movie – played by Natalie Portman, Johnny Depp and Carey Mulligan – won’t show up in the sequel, although they do in Hockensmith’s book. Now, the story will focus on a younger Bennett sister, Lydia – played in the first movie by Emma Watson -, following her new life after her husband was killed by zombies during their honeymoon in the first film. And another novelty is that Bradley has confirmed that the sequel won’t be directed by Tim Burton, director of the first movie.

Some CMP’s writers are so convinced that their projects will be a box office’s success that they often begin writing sequels even before the first movie of a potential franchise is released. That’s the case of the upcoming ‘Y: The Last Man’. Cobb has already written a complete trilogy not knowing yet if audiences will support the first film or not. And another surprising example is ‘Jonny Quest’, the live action adaptation of the popular animated character. Dawson Edwards does not even know yet when the first movie will be greenlighted. But he feels so sure that it will be a blockbuster that he has already written a sequel. And what will happen if those movies flop at box office? Many writing hours lost and many hours visiting the therapist to overcome the frustration…

Does anyone remember the two ‘Dr. Jones’ movies Joey Stark wrote and Steven Spielberg directed in CMP many Seasons ago? The movies – ‘Dr. Jones and the Sword of Faith’ and ‘Dr. Jones and the Cursed Treasure’ - told the adventures of Henry Jones, father of Indiana Jones, years before we met him in ‘The Last Crusade’. Ewan McGregor played the young Dr. Jones and both movies made nice but not particularly remarkable box offices. For years, Joey Stark has been planning to write a third Dr. Jones’ adventure. And it seems that now is for real. Stark has announced that he has begun working on a screenplay based on two of the Indiana Jones’ novels written by Rob McGregor. Stark wants this project to be a brand new revamp of his franchise (And does he expect us to stand up and shout ‘Yay!’?).

And I end up this thrilling (?) article jumping from sequels that will be to one that may never be. I’ve been told that the greedy Harry Stark wasn’t happy with the end of the profitable ‘Assassin’s Creed’ franchise after the latest third installment. So he asked Steve Connors to write an adaptation of the recently released new game of the saga, ‘Assassin’s Creed: Revelations’. Connors’ answer? No way. Connors answered CMP’s President that three is enough and that he has no interest at all in writing another ‘Assassin’s Creed’ movie by the moment. Among other projects, it seems like Connors is more interested in finally writing a third movie of the ‘Invasion’ / ‘Freedom City’ saga now that he has finished the screenplays of another two sequels coming up from him: ‘The Revengers 2’ and ‘Fantasy World 2’.

That’s all about sequels by now… But I am sure that I will write another Sequelmania Article in the future. And my prediction is that I will be writing in it about nice guys like Namor ‘Somerhalder’ the Sub-Mariner, Rafi ‘Batman’ Gavron, Vic ‘Gosling’ Sage, Green ‘Garrett’ Arrow or Alan ‘Cruise’ Wake… Just you wait and see.