Check out a brand new poster and some awesome pics of the highly buzzed about upcoming vampire survivalist pic 30 Days of Night.

Based on the graphic novel by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith, 30 Days of Night is a flat out horror film about a small town in Alaska (with the unfortunate situation of being in the dark for 30 days every year) trying to fight off a group of bloodthirsty vampires.

Fans of the genre have been buzzing about this movie for awhile and yesterday I was part of a small group of journalists invited to watch the very first screening of the film (I also signed a waiver so I can't tell you anything about the details of the movie).

But after the screening, director David Slade (Hard Candy), producer Robert Tapert and co-creator Steve Niles came out to chat with the audience. I discovered a few things that I am allowed to leak out to you.

- The cut of the movie was the 1st time co-creator Steve Niles saw the film in full. "I'm thrilled," admitted Niles, "I'm literally having the anti-Hollywood experience with this whole thing. They have treated my and Ben's baby so well. I just can't believe it."

- Producer Robert Tapert not only admitted to hating vampire movies, but was won over when he heard Niles call his story the 'anti-Buffy' in his pitch.

- Director David Slade wanted a scary movie rooted in reality and was convinced Josh Hartnett would be the perfect lead. Slade met the actor in a vegetarian bowling alley diner, had a really good conversation and took a picture outside the building which he then emailed to Hartnett with a thank you note. Josh took the job based on that picture because as Slade recalls, it was such a malevolent picture of a place that Josh had been to almost every day of his childhood life.

- Actor Ben Foster (X-men: The Last Stand, 3:10 to Yuma) met director David Slade through Ellen Page, star of Slade's feature length debut Hard Candy. Thinking that he was going to play the role of a vampire, Foster delved deeper into his vampire obsession but quickly discovered that he was going to play a human instead. Director Slade admits that Ben was so good that they extended his role. "Ben, I think, carries the first half of the film."

The good news is that I'm going to chat with the cast and director properly in two weeks, but I thought I'd give you guys a nice little teaser of this scary movie first!

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The supposed 'last' of the Resident Evil franchise shot it's way into the top spot of the US box office with a $24 million opening (breaking it's own record of $23 million for their last installment).

Resident Evil: Extinction, based on the wildly popular video game, once again confronted Alice (Milla Jovovich) and her gun toting crew against a backdrop of desert hungry zombies. Though Sony Pictures claims that this is the last of the series, the film leaves an open ended oppurtunity for potential 'spinoffs'.

New in at #2 is the critically panned Good Luck Chuck, starring Jessica Alba and stand up comic Dane Cook. Expectations were low for this film, so the fact that it made $14 million was a bit of a surprise to everyone (who knew there were so many Alba/Cook fans out there?).

Rounding out the top 5 includes The Brave One ($7.4 million), 3:10 to Yuma ($6.35 million) and Eastern Promises ($5.7 million in it's first week of wider release).

Next week, contenders to the #1 spot include:

The Kingdom (dir: Peter Berg) - a tense action thriller about a group of FBI agents (Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner) trying to find a man responsible for a mass killing of American civilians in Saudi Arabia.

The Game Plan (dir: Andy Fickman) - Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson makes his first foray into the world of Disney by playing an egotistical sportman who discovers that he has a 7 year old daughter from a previous relationship. Guess what she loves the most... ballet!  

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There you have it, the first image of Sarah Jessica Parker (aka Carrie Bradshaw) reuniting with her wildly popular paramour Mr. Big (Chris Noth) in the film adaptation of Sex and the City.

Shooting began ftoday in New York City on the top secret plotline and features all your favorite characters including Samantha (Kim Cattrall), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon). Of course all our favorite guys are back too (Steve! The hunky Smith Jerrod! Even bald Harry!) with the addition of Oscar winner, Jennifer Hudson, playing Carrie's new assistant.

Check out some more pictures below (thanks to the LA Times)

 

Summer '08 can't get here soon enough!!!

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It's over! 10 packed days in which I found myself completely immersed in one of the best movie festivals around. I not only have an excellent idea of the 1 mile radius surrounding TIFF, but I've met with some really choice filmmakers, TIFF volunteers and fellow journalists that have truly enriched my whole experience. I can't wait to attend 2008 (well... after a good week of sleep to recuperate please!).

Of course I'll be posting some festival interviews in the coming weeks, but until then, here is the full list of the 2007 winners of the Toronto International Film Festival: 

- Cadillac People's Choice Award (as determined by festival-goers): David Cronenberg's EASTERN PROMISES.

- Cadillac People's Choice Award, the first runner-up: Jason Reitman's JUNO.

- Cadillac People's Choice Award, the Second runner up is Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro's Body of War.

- Best Canadian Short Film: Chris Chong Chan Fui's POOL.

- Citytv Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film: Stéphane Lafleur's CONTINENTAL, UN FILM SANS FUSIL.

- Toronto-City Award for Best Canadian Feature Film: Guy Maddin's MY WINNIPEG.

- DIESEL Discovery Award, voted on by the festival press corps: Israel Cárdenas and Laura Amelia Guzmán's COCHOCHI.

- Artistic Innovation Award, for a film in the Visions program: Anahí Berneri's ENCARNACION.

- Prize of the International Critics (FIPRESCI Prize): Rodrigo Plá's LA ZONA.

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Let me get it out in the open, Colin Geddes is my god! Throughout TIFF 07, with it's gala premieres, interviews, screenings and running back and forth to the press office, I knew that at the end of the night I could find solace (and loads of blood) at the popular Midnight Madness series.

Formed two decades ago as an alternative showcase for cutting edge and well, horror-filled mayhem, the Midnight series hit onto the mainstream zeitgeist when a little film called "Borat" was chosen to world premiere there.

This year, the choices ranged from zombies ("Diary Of the Dead" by George Romero) to a Japanese western ("Sukiyaki Western Django" by Takashi Miike) and a pair of post punk gore fests from France of all places ("Frontiere(s)" by Xavier Gens and "A L'interieur" by Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury).

I just had to chat with this guy and fawn a bit over how much I enjoyed the whole experience. Here is my 5 minutes with Colin Geddes:

Stevie: I see you saved the best film for last to close the Midnight Madness series.

Colin: Well, I won't say it's the 'best' film, but "A L'interieur" definitely ranks up there as one of the bloodiest movies of the year.

S: It's just CRAZY bloody! Just when you think it will pull back...

C: ...the film actually goes there. It's a great film to end the festival with and I can't wait for the audience to see it tonight.

S: Did you first see the film at Cannes, where it premiered?

C: Yes. A filmmaker friend of mine tipped me on the film and at my screening at Cannes, a quarter of the audience walked out. I knew that I was onto something when I saw that (laughs).

S: Is shocking your audience one of the main factors of choosing your films?

C: No, the main reasoning we've chosen these films is because they're just good films, period.

S: I have to admit that I love coming here at the end of the night and just be among the Midnight Madness crowd.

C: Aren't the fans great? They really make the evening a fun experience. You know, every night, a large part of our audience has already seen maybe three or four films that day. This is their last stop. And it's my mission to wake them up.

S: That's why I love finishing up my TIFF experience with you. So I guess I'll be seeing you around the festival circuit in the coming year?

C: Definitely, I'm basically starting to watch films for 2008 as of... tomorrow! Also feel free to drop by my personal blog kung fu fridays and the TIFF Midnight Madness blog for more information of the movies we screened this year plus personal updates throughout the year.

S: Thanks again Colin.

 

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After immersing myself in loads of movies by western directors, I thought I'd give myself a nice break and check out the film 1930's Shanghai gangster film Blood Brothers (directed by first time director Alexi Tan).

Produced by John Woo and his partner Terence Chang, Blood Brothers features a who's who in current Asian cinema, led by Daniel Wu, Chang Chen (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2046) and Shu Qi (who didn't make it) brought together under a lush stylized presentation filled with song and violent gunplay.

At the Gala Presentation, the cast (who had just flown in from their world premiere at Venice Film Festival) looked totally sharp and well... sexy!

I got to talk to both Daniel and Chang Chen the next day and here's what they had to say about the film and showing at Toronto Film Festival.   

 And here's some more:

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How does one explain falling in love with a movie about a socially disassociated young man (Ryan Gosling) who finds his soul and his community via their  acceptance of his 'girlfriend' played by a... ahem... sex doll?

Oh yes, quirky (and surprisingly heartwarming) is the way to go with the film Lars and the Real Girl, in which director Craig Gillespie gathers together a smart cast who avoid the potential 'wink wink' aspect of Nancy Oliver's original screenplay and play the film with utmost respect.

The end result is a crowd pleaser that many didn't expect to see when they sat down at my packed screening.

It's a hard sell (trust me, when I talk about this film to my festival peers, some of them glaze over when they hear the words 'sex doll'), so I'm really hoping that proper word of mouth will take this film to an audience that will fall in love with it like I did.

At the press conference, Ryan admitted that he now owns one of the dolls (Bianca) because he really grew fond of it during the shoot (get your head out of the gutter please!).

In response to the laughter, Ryan quickly added, "laugh all you want, but I challenge all of you to spend 20 minutes in Bianca's presence and not fall in love."

The next day, I was lucky enough to get some 1 on 1 time with him to find out more about his special movie and his love for Bianca.  

Honestly, go check out Lars and the Real Girl. This film and Juno are my two favorite movies of TIFF 2007!

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I'm in love with a pregnant girl... and it all happened at TIFF!

No... my life altering experience happened in a dark room shared with 500 other viewers who probably had the same conclusion after watching the crowd pleasing comedy Juno.  

Starring Ellen Page as a smart alecky teen who discovers she is pregnant, Juno quickly transforms into a moving, hilarious and insanely smart film directed by Jason Reitman (who had a great debut at TIFF two years before with "Thank You For Smoking").

Flawlessly written by 1st time screenwriter Diablo Cody (pic above), my gut feeling is that big things will be happening for her in the coming months. Heck, during the Q&A section after the screening, all Jason and Ellen talked about was Diablo!

Check out some pics of the premiere below:

I also then dropped by the Sutton House to catch a bit of their press conference in which the ever quotable Diablo Cody gave this as a reason to write this movie:

“America needed a black comedy about the scourge of teen pregnancy, and I’m here for them.”

If you want to take a look at the whole funny press conference click on the TIFF website link and look for JUNO under press conference. 

As I mentioned before, Juno quickly became THE movie of the festival for me, so it was a real pleasure to be able to nab an exclusive 1 on 1 with Ellen Page where we were allowed to chat freely (and for a good 10 min!) about her experience with the film. 

Isn't she just darling? I know I'm not supposed to make sweeping statements showing my opinion, but I think I've seen one of the best movies of the year.

Thank you TIFF!

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I have to admit that when you spend 2 weeks being in the midst of directors, actors and industry people, you kind of forget that there is a world outside of it all. But every now and then something so surreal happens that you have to just take a step back and enjoy the fact that you're in film festival land.

May I present some oddities that I've experienced in the past few days:

 

- Bumping into actor / director Gael Garcia Bernal ("Y Tu Mama Tambien", "The Motorcycle Diaries") en route to the bathroom of the Metropolitan Hotel and saying "hi" to him like I knew him (well, I know him... but only through his films, so therefore I was a total loser for forgetting our non-existant relationship).

Funnily enough, when I sat down for my meal, I saw that he kept on looking over to figure out if we did indeed know each other.  

- Watching Michael Cera ("Superbad") completely surrounded by a group of teenage girls who gave him their best flirt forward after the Juno press conference. Funnily enough, he looked totally horrified by the attention.

- Director Gus Van Sant sitting two rows in front of me watching the musical Across The Universe by himself. Fans would go up to him and say how much they loved his work, but he too looked weirded out by the attention.

Finally, I leave you with a little blind item:

Which major independant studio boss/player, notorious for being a hard edged negotiator/bully, was overheard sitting on the toilet shouting into the phone saying, "Steve, f**k you for talking to me like that"?

I was the only one in the bathroom when I heard it and thought he was saying it to me! Needless to say, I ran out pretty quickly!

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Founded by the esteemed Filipinio film director, Amable "Tikoy" Aguiluz, Cinemanila held in (where else?) Manila, boasts one of the most interesting film programs every year.  Dedicated to creating connections, nurturing young Filipino talent and introducing dynamic, notable films from Asia and beyond, Cinemanila, now in it's 9th year, brought a very special guest to the Philippines to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award.

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Like most kids growing up, I wondered if my generation would ever be the ones who made the big decisions in life.  Everything was decided by grown ups.  With bad taste.  You always heard golden era hits from the 1950s on the radio, Happy Days was still considered a landmark in television, and basically nothing good was ever created before 1970.   Unless you loved disco.  Then that was the one good thing to come out of the 70s.

Now it seems that we're finally in charge.  It's true that geeks are the current ringleaders with pushing out endless adaptations of childhood heroes like THE DARK KNIGHT, SUPERMAN: MAN OF STEEL,WOLVERINE, THE SPIRIT, THE INCREDIBLE HULK, etc.  The list goes on and on.  Every pimply-faced comic book reading teenager back in the 1980s appears to be developing multi-hundred-million dollar films nowadays.

Thankfully, some of the old-school action actors/producers are also crawling back into the game.  How many of you were initially suspicious that a 52-year old Bruce Willis could strap on a shoulder holster and yippie-kai-yay his way through another DIE HARD movie?  It's almost universal opinion that  Willis kicked ass in DIE HARD 4.0, and if he could get his old bones up again a sequel would be guaranteed money.  (Rumor has it that Willis has it in his contract to work only works 4 hrs a day, so a sequel is pretty doubtful).  DH4 was a welcome return to some old-school 1980s style action.  So who's next?  Schwarzenegger -- otherwise known as the Governator -- is too busy running the state of California to partake in the revival.

That leaves only the third leg of the holy trinity of 1980s action stars, Sylvester Stallone.   He was hanging onto credibility with his TV series, "The Contender" until the surprisingly compelling ROCKY BALBOA was released this year and made people think Stallone might still have some life in him.  Striking while the iron is hot, he's now strapping on the headband, grabbing his bow and arrow (sans explosive tips, it appears) and holstering his handy gut-spilling knife.  Ladies and gentlemen, John Rambo is back.  And oh yes, there will be blood.  Oops, sorry, that's for another franchise.

Who's war is it this time?  Judging from the international sales teaser, Johnny R is living near the Burmese border when a humanitarian group asks for help to cross into Burma.  The military/junta/next-in-line-to-be-killed-by-Rambo are terrorizing the local populace in horrific ways, and these peace-loving do-gooders are going to stop them.  With no guns.  Hello?

Well, even if they did come strapped, it wouldn't seem to matter.  Next thing you know, Rambo is once again dragged back to fight someone else's war.  But you don't really care about that, do you?  You want to see the killing.  Well, here you go.  [If you're at all sensitive to violence or the least bit squeemish, check out Stevie's reports from the Toronto International Film Festival--one of the biggest film festivals in the world (probably behind only Cannes and tied with Venice or Berlin) and easily the most fun, warm and hospitable.]

International sales teaser (watch this if you're interested in the story):


Not-so-well-edited montage of action scenes (watch this if you're interested in non-stop, completely insane action):

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The remake of the classic 1957 western 3:10 to Yuma starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, rode straight into last weekend's #1 spot with a higher than expected $14.1 million box office take.

Many predicted a smaller opening only because westerns haven't proven to be box office draws in the past few years (you can expect to see more cowboy flicks to be green lit in the coming months with this films success!).

If horsebacking wasn't your cup of sandy tea, then the murderous Halloween might have been another choice. Taking in $10 million, the John Carpenter remake (see a theme here with all the remakes?) continues to hack away with it's successful run.

Rounding out the top 5 include Superbad with $7.5 million (they broke $100 million yo!), the dead on contact Shoot Em Up with $5.7 million and The Bourne Ultimatum with $5.6 million.  

This weekend we'll get the vigilantism of Jodie Foster in The Brave One and the uber violent flick Eastern Promises, reteaming Viggo Mortensen with director David Cronenberg after the success of The History Of Violence.

Come back next Monday to find out who will be #1!

 

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We buzzed about French director Xavier Gens and his blood infested debut Frontiere(s) last month. So imagine my total joy to see the film as part of TIFF's wildly popular series Midnight Madness this year.

Premiering the most extreme lineup of pure action, horror and sci-fi, Midnight Madness has introduced western audiences to the likes of Peter Jackson, Takashi Miike and even Borat.

Definitely the kind of movie and crowd that I like to hang with at the end of each night, I zipped over to catch the public premiere of Xavier's crazy pic.

The synopsis of the film? Well... a group of young thieving left-wing radicals stop off at a country motel en route to Amsterdam. As you can see from the picture below, the evening turns into an over the top bloody nightmare. Oh, and did I mention that the motel owners are a family of Nazi cannibals?

Though there are a few scenes that resemble other horror films of recent release (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes), the surprisingly solid performance of his female lead Karina Testa, is a real discovery.  

A bit of interesting information, turns out that Xavier was a production assistant to HK directors Ringo Lam and Tsui Hark during his early days. You can see elements of their fast pacing in his films, but the level of adrenaline that Xavier pumps into Frontiere(s) is something all his own.

Can't wait to see more from this series in the coming nights!

Also, I'm going to be chatting with head programmer Colin Geddes later next week as I get his first hand take on the choosing process and how he feels about these 10 movies for this year!

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Let me get it out of the way, I am a Jodie Foster fan.

Whatever my opinions about the movies that she stars in, I know that Jodie will approach the character with a level of intelligence and steely determination that other actresses don't have in them.

Which is why I wasn't surprised about hearing the level of props that Ms. Foster got from director Neil Jordan and co-star Terence Howard during The Brave One inteviews.

Both agreed that this film wouldn't have been made without her being attached to it (a fact that she modestly denies). Both also talked about the level of intense professionalism and character immersion that Jodie would have when the cameras rolled, but would drop it immediately and talk about her kids when 'cut' was announced.

By the time I got to Ms. Foster herself, I was just curious to know why she chose these roles of character empowerment through extrodinary circumstances. Was it living out a fantasy? Or is she just strong in real life?

Surprisingly, Jodie was totally unguarded, talked about being able to escape from being a 'mom' for a few hours every day and that yes, playing these strong roles makes her live out her fantasy world of being invincible (which she openly admits to being 'not' in real life).

Can't wait for you guys to see the whole unedited interviews with Jodie Foster, Terence Howard and director Neil Jordan right here very very soon!

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Turned out that my Day 1 of TIFF was strictly a movie day for me. With no press conferences or gala events lined up that day, I was allowed to squeeze in as many movies as my brain could possibly handle! 

 

Fugitive Pieces (dir: Jeremy Podeswa) - Opening the Toronto International Film Festival is this dramatic and often touching film about a Polish writer named Jakob (Stephen Dillane) who is so haunted by his childhood memories that he has to learn to embrace them in order for him to live in the present. 

Though the flashbacks are often moving and powerful (Young Jakob escapes to Athens in which a gentle historian takes him in), the eventual lessons that adult Jakob goes through border on melodramatic and therefore loses much of the emotional punch of the 1st half of the film.    

The Brave One (dir: Neil Jordan) - I'm not sure why Jodie Foster is the goto actress for plots that basically go like: woman in peril = woman overcomes peril through personal wit and/or determination. I'm actually talking to Ms. Foster in a few hours, so I'll definitely ask her why she's drawn to these characters.

In the case of The Brave One, the issue of taking individual vigilantism when the law can't help you, is quite interesting. The transition from observer to violent participant is explained pretty thoroughly, but I'm not that sure it works in the end.

Young People F**king (dir: Martin Gero) - No, i'm not a pervert! One of the more eye-catching titles of the festival is actually about the relationships people have (ex-lovers, friends, one night stand, boring couple) as opposed to the act of sex itself (though we get some of that too).

Deftly directed by Canadian filmmaker Martin Gero, five vignettes between couples are intercut with each other, showing you the various perspectives of people when they are their most, ahem... naked. My personal favorite are the best friends (played hilariously by Carly Pope and Aaron Abrams) who decide one night to try each other out.  

And yes, it's a cute fun comedy!

Jar City (dir: Baltasar Kormakur) - I wasn't actually planning on seeing this film, but the fact that all public screenings of this film were sold out, I decided to give this Icelandic film a go.

I have to be honest, the dry humor mixed in with CSI drama didn't really work with me. But the Icelandic landscape (oh, it's depressing out there!) and weaving plotlines about two deaths (a young father trying to track down the source of  his deceased daughters genetic disease and detective trying to solve a murder of an old man) was enough to make me watch the whole way through.

Lust, Caution (dir: Ang Lee) - My last movie of the day was also my latest (clocking in a 157 minutes, my screening didn't start until 9:45pm!). But I just had to decide for myself if the film merited it's negative reviews. Well, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised.

Lush in both it's visual and cinematic style (some moments felt like I was actually watching a classic film from the 30's), a young wannabe actress (played fearlessly by newcomer Tang Wei) is sent on a mission to seduce a Chinese military official (Tony Leung) who is a known Japanese collaborator.

Though everyone has been focusing on the infamous sex scenes (and they are very nude indeed), you quickly understand that these moments are completely integral in the breakdown of Tony Leung's seemingly impenetrable wall and Tang Wei's supposed ruse.

Lust, Caution does take awhile to get to the point (and even then, some will question if it was worth it), but by the end, like Tang Wei's character, I was caught up in the web of their lies and emotional truths.       

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I'm here in Toronto!!!

After waking up at the ungodly hour of 5am, then hoping for a bit of serious sleep on the plane ride from NYC to here, I was woken up by the announcement of our landing just a measely hour later.

By the time I dropped off my bags and grabbed my press pass, my whole pre-festival experience was over by 11am. Trust me, I'm not usually that time efficient! Since the festival itself doesn't officially begin until tomorrow, I'm left to my own devices and currently twiddling my thumbs!

I did stop by the Toronto Film Festival public screenings box office to check out some pre-screening buzz and not only saw (at least) 50 film fans lining up for tickets outside, but also a heavily crossed out film board with loads of movies sold out through the 1st weekend! 

(the yellow marks are sold out!)

I grabbed my notepad and took down the hot titles (to see if I was missing any from my own viewing list) and just in case you were wondering, the hot films through the weekend seem to be:

Jar City / Fugitive Pieces / Young People F**king / Disengagement / Edge Of Heaven / Iron Ladies of Liberia / Lust, Control / Secret Sunshine