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2009 | 2004

9 articles from 2009

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Is this the end of the line for the impartial documentary? | David Cox

9 November 2009 8:58 AM, PST | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »

At Sheffield Doc/Fest, a heated debate that pitched campaigning documentary features against films as impartial documents has thrown the future of the form in sharp relief

This year, the normally clubby atmosphere of Sheffield's documentarists' convention has been shaken by a genuine row. The intensity of the debate at the Campaigning Documentaries: The Thin Line Between Passion and Propaganda session reflects the seriousness of what's at stake. It's not just the future of the genre that hangs in the balance, but its very identity.

One side maintains that documentary-making must be open-minded, impartial and journalistic. Its purpose should be to help people understand, not to encourage them to emote. The other side insists that the whole point of documentary-making is to effect desirable change. Campaigning is to be relished, not shunned.

In the eyes of the journalists, committed films don't deserve to be called documentaries. They're propaganda, corporate video or advertising. »

- David Cox

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Danny Boyle to Direct Stranded Mountaineer Story 127 Hours

5 November 2009 2:15 PM, PST | FilmJunk | See recent FilmJunk news »

2008 was quite a year for Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle, and as he has been winding down from the roller coaster ride that was Slumdog Millionaire, he has also taken some time to carefully choose his next project. He had been attached to possibly direct a handful of projects including Johannesburg (a movie about South Africa based on the novel Ponte City by Norman Ohler), and Solomon Grundy (which has since been shelved due to its similarity to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). There had also been rumours [1] about him possibly returning to direct another sequel to 28 Days Later. This week, Variety [2] has confirmed that his next movie will be none of these. Instead, Boyle will helm a project called 127 Hours, about a mountain climber named Aron Ralston. Ralston had a pretty harrowing experience during a climb in Utah in May, 2003, when his right arm was accidentally pinned under a boulder. »

- Sean

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Searchlight and Boyle Have '127' Hours To Go

5 November 2009 | ioncinema | See recent ioncinema news »

- Not sure about you cinephiles out there, but I feel as if Kevin MacDonald's Touching the Void said everything that had to be said on why ice/rock climbing isn't all it's cracked up to be. But if you're into dull knifes and further endurance tests, then you might want to seek out Danny Boyle's next project which comes with the title/amount of time mountaineer Aron Ralston's right forearm was pinned under a boulder. 127 Hours will begin production shortly for a late 2010 release by Fox Searchlight who is financing the project with Pathe. Simon Beaufoy should take over from the treatment written by Boyle. Those following the project's development at ThePlaylist know that Ryan Gosling has been mentioned as the possible candidate to play Ralston. We want to see cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle join the pic as well.  ... »

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Danny Boyle To Direct 127 Hours

4 November 2009 11:16 PM, PST | EmpireOnline | See recent EmpireOnline news »

Danny Boyle already directed 28 Days Later, but now he's giving himself a shorter time-frame in 127 Hours, the squirm-inducing true story of mountain climber Aron Ralston, some do-it-yourself amputation and one-armed cliff-scaling. Please excuse us a minute while we shudder.Yes, if you were wigged out by Touching the Void, then this is one to thoroughly avoid. Ralston was climbing in Utah in 2003 when a boulder dislodged itself and pinned his lower right arm. He was stuck there for five days, during which time he finished all his water, started drinking his own urine and prepared to meet his maker.Half-delirious and with the arm already dead, he realised he could get free if he lost it. So he broke his own bones and sawed it off with a tool he describes as "what you'd get if you bought a $15 flashlight and got a free multi-use tool" (go ahead and wince »

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Tahar Rahim Joins The Eagle of the Ninth

19 October 2009 7:04 AM, PDT | MovieWeb | See recent MovieWeb news »

Tahar Rahim, the star of one of this year's most acclaimed films, Un Proph&#232te (A Prophet), has joined the cast of the Roman epic adventure The Eagle of the Ninth, currently being directed by Academy Award winner Kevin Macdonald and produced by Duncan Kenworthy. The film is co-financed by Film4 with Focus Features, which holds worldwide rights excluding U.K. free-tv.

Heading the cast are Channing Tatum (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, the upcoming Dear John), Jamie Bell (Defiance, Jumper), two-time Golden Globe Award winner Donald Sutherland, and Mark Strong (the upcoming Sherlock Holmes and Robin Hood). Mr. Macdonald is reunited on the new film with Jeremy Brock, BAFTA Award-winning screenwriter of his 2006 film The Last King of Scotland, who has adapted the screenplay of The Eagle of the Ninth from Rosemary Sutcliff's classic novel of the same name.

The Eagle of the Ninth is set in »

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Video Game Review: ‘Cursed Mountain’ Brings Survival Horror to the Wii

15 September 2009 3:03 PM, PDT | HollywoodChicago.com | See recent HollywoodChicago.com news »

Chicago – The Nintendo Wii has never really been a system designed for atmosphere. It’s a party console, a machine built around social experiences that usually involve making fun of how silly your relative looks waving a controller around the room like he’s actually holding a tennis racket. “Cursed Mountain” attempts to work within those constraints to make something fresh and new, which is admirable, but it only half-succeeds.

Of course, there have been a few adult, horror, shooter games for the Wii, most notably a brilliant port of “Resident Evil 4” that’s basically a must-own for anyone with the system. But the reason that game worked so wonderfully was not due to the chills created by its atmosphere. That game thrived thanks to its action component and that’s where “Cursed Mountain” goes a bit wrong. Despite some effective elements that show promise for the survival horror genre on the system, »

- adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)

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Top 25 Brit Flicks From the Last 25 Years!

2 September 2009 9:53 AM, PDT | FilmShaft.com | See recent FilmShaft.com news »

Now this is a list we probably do not see often, at least state-side, but I thought it was a pretty solid one! The Guardian asked their “expert panel of film-makers and critics” to name their top 10 British films since 1984, instead they put together a list of 25 top British films from the past 25 years.

Films like Trainspotting, Four Weddings and a Funeral to newer films like Shaun of the Dead and Man On A Wire made the list. A few of these seem to be bordering on being British (only made by British filmmakers or about British people, not actually set in England, like Man on Wire) but they are all great films (those that I have seen).

Take a look below or click here for the full write-up! Perhaps my favorite on the list is Slumdog Millionaire and Shaun of the Dead, those have literally been my two most »

- Kevin Coll

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Like Movie Lists? Here are Four to Scrutinize

2 September 2009 1:27 AM, PDT | Rope of Silicon | See recent Rope Of Silicon news »

Do you like lists? Well, how about these options? Wired's Favorite Sci-Fi Flicks of All Time - Pre-Star Wars A Trip to the Moon (1902) The Thing From Another World (1951) The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953) Them! (1954) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) The Fabulous World of Jules Verne (1958) The Creation of the Humanoids (1962) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) Fahrenheit 451 (1966) Fantastic Voyage (1966) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Planet of the Apes (1968) Solaris (1972) Silent Running (1972) Soylent Green (1973) Day of the Dolphin (1973) Zardoz (1974) A Boy and His Dog (1975) Logan's Run (1976) Lassie Come Home (1943) Richard Roeper's Top Five of Summer 2009 (500) Days of Summer Inglourious Basterds Up The Hurt Locker District 9 ...and his worst... Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen G.I. Joe: the Rise of Cobra Land of the Lost Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian The Ugly Truth He has more, click here for the rest. »

- Brad Brevet

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Fresh Release: State of Play

1 June 2009 4:07 AM, PDT | Daily Film Music Blog | See recent Daily Film Music Blog news »

Based on a popular 2003 mini-series by the BBC, Kevin Macdonald's State of Play is fast becoming one of the most popular thrillers of the last few years. Reviewers never fail to point out that while most thrillers resort to red herrings and impossible plot twists to keep up the tension, State of Play has a tighter script which manages to keep the suspense without resorting to cheap gimmicks.

The music is courtesy of Alex Heffes, the regular composer partner of Macdonald who've been scoring the director's movies since the humble beginnings of doing documentaries. Their feature films didn't stray too far away either: Touching the Void told the story of a dangerous mountain expedition while The Last King of Scotland was based around the character of Uganda's fearsome dictator Idi Amin (although this latter film contained fictionalized elements as well).

In the following interview Alex talks about working with Kevin, »

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2009 | 2004

9 articles from 2009

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