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“Eagle Eye” screenwriter Travis Adam Wright is bringing his “Harlem Hellfighters” to France in a World War I drama directed by Canadian helmer Yves Simoneau, Wright said Tuesday.

“Lord of the Rings” producer Rick Poras has signed on to co-produce with Wright and help secure financing for the project.

Co-written by Robert Davenport, “Hellfighters” tells the true story of black soldiers from Harlem who brought jazz music to France when they were sent there during World War I.

Wright hopes to shoot the project in the U.S. and Gaul with a cast assembled of “the greatest living black actors,” he said.

Wright, currently in France as part of Ile-de-France/Franco-American cultural fund’s “Autumn Stories” program, is shopping for a French co-producer and scouting locations.

Wright is in talks with the French Ministry of Defense to recreate half a mile of trenches and hopes to begin shooting in July. [thr]

Cinema’s obsession with superheroes is to get a Kiwi twist with a new movie to be shot in New Zealand next year.

The film will be based on Kiwi writer Anthony McCarten’s 2005 novel Death of a Superhero.

McCarten, best known for the hit play Ladies Night, will write and direct the film, a New Zealand and German co-production. Shooting is likely to begin in March.

McCarten’s latest film, Show of Hands, starring Melanie Lynskey, was shot in New Plymouth late last year.

The $2.4 million film opens in New Zealand next month after a premiere in New Plymouth on November 4. Show of Hands is McCarten’s first feature since Via Satellite, based on his play, was released 10 years ago.

McCarten said he was pleased Death of a Superhero was going into production so soon after Show of Hands.

“I’m really excited about the fact. It shouldn’t be 10 years between projects, it shouldn’t be a year between projects …

“We are hoping to start shooting in March in New Zealand with an international cast and a much bigger budget [than Show of Hands].”

McCarten’s novel, much of it written in the style of a movie script, centres on 14-year-old Donald Delpe, who is dying of cancer. Donald is a virgin who wants to have sex once before he dies.

Rather than face the real world, he escapes into a fantasy world of superheroes and villains.

A psychologist, Adrian King, tries to help the teenager, but instead becomes involved with his fantasies.

McCarten said the film would have a strong visual effects component.

He also expected interest in who would land the pivotal roles. [stuff]

Inspired by the music and many lives of Bob Dylan, I’m Not There attempts to tell a story about the many facets of Dylan’s schizophrenic life, but in doing so becomes a train wreck of confusion and disjointed narrative.

Whilst this may or may not sum up Dylan’s life, it doesn’t make for easy viewing. Fortunately the performances of Blanchett, Ledger and Bale make enduring this muddled fare worth it, even though some sever editing would have made it less of a marathon event.

Admittedly, I went into this film not knowing much about Dylan (and came out knowing even less) and was expecting to be educated as well as entertained, with a musical soundtrack to die for. These expectations were never met, and only tantalisingly teased me through the entire two hours and fifteen minutes.

To make you think that I’m Not There is a waste of time would be a colossal lie, because on some levels it’s pure genius, it’s just hard to really appreciate something so different from what you were expecting.

One thing that I’m Not There has in crystal clear clarity is the struggles Dylan went through every time he re-invented himself, having to let go of who he was to embrace who he wanted to become. A part of him would have to die in the process of this re-birthing, and in the end (in this movie atleast), I’m not sure he really know who he was.

Reviewed by: Jonathan Read.
Rating: M – Contains Sex Scenes & Offensive Language.
Duration: 135 mins.
Genre: Drama, Music, Biography, Folk, Indie & Festival.
Director: Todd Haynes.
Actors: Julianne Moore, Heath Ledger, Richard Gere, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, David Cross, Michelle Williams, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Ben Whishaw, Marcus Carl.
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Release Date: Available now.

The film stars Michael Fassbender as Bobby Sands, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) member who led the 1981 Irish hunger strike and participated in the no wash protest (led by Brendan “The Dark” Hughes) in which Republican prisoners tried to win political status. It dramatises events in the Maze prison in the six weeks prior to Sands death.

The film opens with prison guard, Raymond Lohan (Stuart Graham) preparing to leave for work; checking under his car for bombs, putting on his uniform in the locker room and ignoring the camaraderie of his colleagues.

Davey (Brian Milligan), a new IRA prisoner arrives at the gaol, following his refusal to wear the prison uniform, he is labeled “non-cooperative.” His new roommate, Gerry (Liam McMahon), has smeared the cell with faeces from floor to ceiling and we witness their resistance to the prison regime.

Sands is the focus of the film. He deeply believes in the cause that he was imprisoned for and in the righteousness of dying for political prisoner status. In one of the film’s most notable scenes Sands debates the morality of the hunger strike with a visiting priest (Liam Cunningham). [imdb]

Could Treyarch soon be joining Infinity Ward on the list of developers who’ve left World War II behind? Activision’s senior producer on Call of Duty: World at War, Noah Heller, seems to be hinting at just that in a recent interview with the U.K.’s Official Xbox Magazine.

Heller said, “I won’t let your readers read into the comment too much, but we are showing the final battles of the Pacific and the European Theatre and that lets us put a close to the war. I’m sure game companies will be making World War II games for years to come and World War II is a very classic war. But we’re happy that we put the war to bed.” [joystiq]

[REC] is the much-hyped story of Spanish TV reporter Angela, whose show “While You Sleep” decides to follow a group of Barcelona firemen through their night shift. Not a lot seems to be happening and Angela is struggling to get enough material, when a call comes in; a report of a screaming woman in an apartment block. Angela, her Cameraman and two firefighters are dispatched to the emergency. It sounds like its going to be a routine call and they hook up with two policemen when they arrive at the apartment. After trying to pick the lock, the firemen decide to use brute force to open the door. They discovered a blood covered, hysterical woman, who, whilst being restrained by the police officers, attacks one, biting a chunk out of his neck.

Rushing the officer downstairs to call for an ambulance, they discovered that the building has been sealed off and they can’t get out. Panic starts to set in, welcome to the beginning of the thrill ride that is [REC].

Essentially a single location movie, [REC]’s main play is in a small apartment building, with a single staircase and nowhere to run or hide. I don’t think there has ever been a better place to locate a zombie outbreak! It’s a perfect set up for the claustrophobic, terror infused journey that follows as we slowly witness the number of infected increase and the survivors slowly dwindle.

[REC] borrows from The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield in its use of a video camera (albeit it operated by a ‘professional’), but manages to nail the concept without millions of dollars of special effects. The superbly crafted plot and careful pacing, with restrained use of frights and gore make [REC] an edge of your seats experience better than anything else I have seen this year.

Being a Spanish movie (with English subtitles) might put some people off, but I think it helps create the atmosphere and keeps you more on edge as you have to concentrate rather than being a passive viewer.

[REC] makes some interesting observations on the human condition, showing how extreme stress uncovers our true character, and how we tend to rust only people we know.

Reviewed by: Jonathan Read.
Rating: R16 – Contains Violence, Offensive Language & Horror.
Duration: 85 mins.
Genre: Horror, Zombie, Foreign, Spanish.
Director: Jaume Balaguero, Paco Plaza.
Actors: Manuela Velasco, Javier Botet, Manuel Bronchud, Martha Carbonell, Claudia Font, Vicente Gil.
Distributor: Vendetta.
Release Date: Available now.

The action packed sci-fi thriller involves a group of young American ex-pats with telekinetic and clairvoyant abilities, hiding from a clandestine U.S. government agency. They must utilize their different talents and band together for a final job enabling them to escape the agency forever.

Action-packed “Max Payne” shot its way to the top of the North American boxoffice, grossing $18 million during the video game adaptation’s first weekend in theaters, according to studio estimates on Sunday.

Walt Disney Co’s family comedy “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” fell to the No. 2 spot with $11.2 million, while civil rights era movie “The Secret Life of Bees” was just behind with $11.1 million.

“W.,” Oliver Stone’s portrait of U.S. President George W. Bush, debuted at No. 4 with a take of $10.6 million. The biopic was released by Lionsgate, a unit of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.

“Max Payne” was released by Fox, a division of News Corp., while “The Secret Life of Bees” was released by the same company’s Fox Searchlight. [thr]

Sidney Young is a disillusioned intellectual who both adores and despises the world of celebrity, fame and glamour. His alternative magazine, Post Modern Review, pokes fun at the media obsessed stars and bucks trends, and so when Young is offered a job at the diametrically opposed conservative New York based Sharps magazine its something of a shock! It seems Sharps editor Clayton Harding is amused by Young’s disruption of a post-BAFTA party with a pig posing as Babe. Thus begins Sidney’s descent into success – his gradual move from derided outsider to confidante of starlet Sophie Maes – and a love affair with colleague Alison Olsen, that will either make him or break him.

Selected reviews:
It’s silly but mostly entertaining, and Pegg’s open, expressive face is always funny. Perhaps without entirely realising it, the movie provides a through-the-looking-glass satirical version of Ugly Betty and The Devil Wears Prada. -Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

Not as smart or as satirical as you might hope, but an enjoyable and often funny look at a mad, mad, mad, mad world. – Helen OHara, Empire Magazine

It was funny watching Iron Man again, this time on DVD and just after hearing that Terrence Howard is being replaced by Don Cheadle. Don’t get me wrong, I love Don Cheadle, it was just weird seeing Howard and thinking about Don.

Now that I’ve spouted on about replacing actors, it’s time to think about the unlikely casting of Robert Downer Jr. No one in his or her right mind would cast him in the role of a superhero, but then in reality this isn’t a superhero movie, it’s a movie about a man who has to realise that he must change, and in this role Downey Jr excels.

Being the rich, successful, lady magnet, son of a rich industrialist with a brain the size of Manhattan, it’s easy to see why Tony Stark (Downey Jr) is an egotistical party boy at the start of the movie, but a near death experience and having to face the reality of what Stark Industries actually does, initiates rapid change in Stark’s life, cumulating in the creation of Iron Man.

The strength of Iron Man is that this is the movie where we see the transformation and the creation of a new hero. There is a palatable change, one that we can in some ways relate to.

But the human drama alone would not make for an action packed thrill ride that Iron Man is. For that you need the CGI excess that is the red and gold suit of super abilities, the robotic endoskeleton that turns Tony Stark into the all-capable Iron Man.

“I shouldn’t be alive unless it’s for a reason.” –Tony Stark

It’s a change of attitude formed by a (literal) change of heart that is the genesis into Tony’s life, and whilst the change isn’t a 100% turn around (as you will see at the end of the movie) it creates in Tony Stark a more likable character, some one we can look up to. A hero.

“I’ll give you a new heart; put a new spirit in you. I’ll remove the stone heart from your body and replace it with a heart that’s God willed, not self willed.” -Ezekiel 36:26 (The Message)

They say that the eyes are the window to the soul, but it’s the heart that powers the body, and as Stark continually tries to improve his heart, so his attitude changes to everyone around him and he starts putting other people before him, to the extent that he’s willing to risk his life for those who he loves; thus the transformation from Industrialist to Superhero is complete.

Reviewed by: Jonathan Read.
Rating: M – Contains Violence.
Duration: 126 mins.
Genre: Action & Adventure.
Director: Jon Favreau.
Actors: Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges, Hilary Swank, Terrence Howard.
Distributor: Paramount.
Release Date: Available now.