Day: October 17, 2008

Given the word about Joe Wright‘s The Soloist possibly being a bit “schmaltzy” and boilerplate concerns about Ed Zwick‘s Defiance that I presume don’t need explaining, I wasn’t completely surprised to read a 10.17 story by the Hollywood Reporter‘s Carl DiOrio that both pics have had their wide-release dates delayed into ’09.
The Soloist‘s postponement seems particularly dramatic with its 11.21.08 wide opening being pushed back to 3.13.09. Defiance, which had a previous release date of 12.12.08, will now open wide on 1.16.09.
Defiance will be given a late-December Oscar-qualifying run, reports DiOrio, and it’s possible (though not likely) that The Soloist might be given a similar limited unveiling. But from HE’s perspective it’s looking as if both films have been all but yanked from the Oscar race by their respective distributors, DreamWorks/Paramount and Paramount Vantage.
The Shine-like story of Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez‘s relationship with a homeless musician, The Soloist — a DreamWorks/Universal co-production — was looking at the very least like a possible uptick opportunity for costars Robert Downey and Jamie Foxx regarding possible year-end acting honors and distinctions.

I’m afraid there’s something I don’t understand, Alexsei. It’s widely believed (though not absolutely dead confirmed) that there was a test screening of Zack Snyder‘s Watchmen last night at the Regal Lloyd Center 10 theater in Portland, Oregon. And yet there are no reader reviews posted at AICN yet. What’s up with that?
Any notepad-and-shoe-leather reporter might regard this silence as an indication that reports of the alleged test screening were incorrect. If the screening happened, though, this is inexcusable fan-boy behavior. How long does it take to sit down and post a quick-draw response? Man up, grim up, turn on the Powerbook, tap something out (but make it thorough) and send it off.
Update: A Portland guy informs that “people seem to have been pre-invited and needed to show up with some sort of document they’d been asked to print out. Plus the local rep who works for the Seattle office of the WB reps and who routinely checks the press into screenings here was working the door. So none of the usual media guys got anywhere near the place, and the theater showing the film was locked down and guarded well before 7pm.”

Max Payne (20th Century Fox, opening today) “is a nap-inducing special-effects fest, minus even the excitement of watching someone else play a game. Mark Wahlberg, who appears to have been hypnotized before each scene, plays Max, a cop whose family has been murdered by junkies. Or so it appears: In fact, his wife was eliminated for knowing too much about a new drug being manufactured at the corporation where she worked. Max spends his days filing in the cold-case department and his nights tracking her killers. Until he finds them. Yawn. This is as cardboard as action-movie-making gets: slo-mo bullets and breaking glass, big explosions, rows and rows of dead bodies.” — Marshall Fine at Hollywood and Fine.

At last night’s Al Smith Memorial Dinner in Manhattan:

And last night’s crazy McCain rally lady skit on SNL’s Thursday show. And some real-life rocket scientists at a recent political gathering in Ohio, dated. 10.13.08.

Two days ago the legendary, famously cantankerous Armond White, film critic for the New York Press, was (a) re-elected as the 2009 chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle, and (b) also elected 2008 vice-chair. The Hollywood Reporter‘s Gregg Goldstein reported yesterday that the NYFCC will vote on the year’s best Dec. 10 vote on 12.10, and that the awards ceremony will happen on 1.5.09.
When I think of White, I think of his uniform approvals of (to the best of my recollection) just about every Steven Spielberg film ever made, including “the excellent, excellent” Munich. I’m also reminded of White’s attempt last year to dissuade the NYFCC from giving to give Sidney Lumet a Life Achievement Award, by way of an impassioned speech in front of the group.