Six Highly Anticipated Films You May Never Get to See
By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under Guides | Comments (38)
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane: The debut of Jonathan Levine, who later directed the marvelous The Wackness, and who has high-profile cancer comedy starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, and Anna Kendrick due to be released later this year, screened this horror flick first in 2007 at the SXSW film festival, and most recently, at the 2010 International Comic-Con. But, the film — which stars Amber Heard — is still sitting on a shelf, and at this point, may never be released. It’s not too hard to find, however, as I did a couple of years ago, providing this review:
Levine has taken the slasher film blueprint and, without necessarily doing anything particularly original with it, has created a dead teenager movie that you can appreciate not for its campy gloriousness, its machete gore, its body count, or the T & A. In fact, he’s done something I’d never even considered before: He’s crossed Friday the 13th with … Heathers. Actually, the film’s scribe, Jacob Forman, should get credit for the ’80s mash-up, but it’s Levine that sells it. And, my dearest cockswallows, does he ever sell it. Mandy Lane is the tits.
Nailed: The temperamental genius, David O. Russell, who quits as many projects as he directs (most recently, Uncharted and before that, Pride & Prejudice and Zombies), began Nailed even before The Fighter. The film centers on a waitress (Jessica Biel) who gets a spike lodged in her head, and when she can’t get it removed because she doesn’t have health care, she heads to Washington, D.C., to quarrel for health rights. There, she befriends congressman (Jake Gyllenhaal) and from what I understand, there’s a lot of sex involved. Shooting started and stopped several times, as financing dried up. Apparently, there’s only a few scenes left that need to be filmed. There are reports that someone else has edited their own version of the film, from which David O. Russell has dissociated himself. Other reports suggest that the film will be buried for good. It’s too bad, as Paul Reubens — who was in the film — had some very nice things to say about the leads, according to The Playlist:
“And I’ve never seen anybody be so successful with something that complicated [as Gyllenhaal was]. And Jessica Biel is literally—I hate this word, but I can’t think of another word to use—is like a revelation. She’s so incredibly good in the movie, and again, no one’s ever seen her do anything like this… This is like an ingenue. It’s almost like Dorothy in The Wizard Of Oz.”
Margaret: Filming on Kenneth Lonergan’s follow-up to You Can Count on Me finished back in 2005. But Margaret, which stars Matt Damon, Mark Ruffalo, and Anna Paquin has still yet to be released. In fact, editing is not fully finished. A legal battle erupted over editing; Lonergan can’t seem to get it under three hours, while Fox Searchlight wants a two hour film. Yesterday, it was revealed that Martin Scorsese has been brought in to arbitrate the cut, and there’s some hope that the film may be released by the end of the year. But considering the way things have gone so far, don’t get your hopes up about seeing Margaret — which follows the ramifications of a tragic bus accident as seen through the eyes of a high school student — anytime soon.
Cabin in the Woods: Joss Whedon’s tongue-in-cheek horror film, which stars Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford, Chris Hemsworth and Amy Acker was originally set to be released in February 2010. Then it was postponed so it could be converted into 3D. Then it was delayed indefinitely due to the financial problems of MGM. It’s been sold to Lionsgate. There’s some speculation that it may finally arrive of Halloween this year, but after two years of postponements and delays, who the hell knows.
Tucker and Dale vs. Evil: The movie, which first screened at Sundance and then at SXSW in 2010, wasn’t as good as the due of Taylor Labine and Alan Tudyk would promise. It was a one-joke movie. But it was a funny joke. Despite our somewhat tepid reception, the film does have a 100 percent rating on the Tomatometer and it is the epitome of the kind of horror comedy that plays well at midnight screenings. And yet, Tucker and Dale still has no distribution. It will be released on DVD in June. In Sweden. Here in the States, you can only find it on the Torrents.
77: I have no idea what happened to Patrick Read Johnson’s ‘77, a coming-of-age movie slash tribute to Star Wars starring John Francis Daley (“Freaks and Geeks”). We first premiered the trailer here in 2009; at that time, it’d already been in development for years. Johnson purportedly even submitted a cut to a film festival in 2006, and it played at a small film festival in 2008. Every year or so, someone brings it up again, the trailer floats around the Internet, and then it’s forgotten. I don’t even know if the film is any good, but the trailer is one of the best I’ve seen.
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Comments
Posted by: Darcy at May 27, 2011 11:13 AM
My pants highly anticipate that header picture.