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The Box
After months of anticipation, the trailer for Richard Kelly’s third film, The Box, is ready for your viewing pleasure. Naturally, there are questions. Like, is the plot caked with confusion? Can Kelly relive his Donnie Darko glory days? Will you be able to tolerate Cameron Diaz for two hours (Southern accent and all?)
Let’s start from the top. One thing to note is this is Kelly’s first venture without the R-rating. The PG-13 stamp makes it more marketable. If it was going to be as convoluted as, say Southland Tales, he would’ve at least thrown in one “fuckass.” Nah. This time, the plot is actually explainable. My guess — most quiet, thoughtful middle schoolers will understand… Oh, wait.
To answer the second question, no, I don’t think there’s any way this inducts Kelly back to the cult superstatus he enjoyed after his debut. Darko was a coming-of-age story wrapped in a creepy sci-fi flick. Jaded emo kids literally owe their existence to this film. The Box, judging by the two-minute glimpse, looks more like a modern-day Twilight Zone episode. In no way does this imply it won’t be good or successful. It just won’t save the scenesters from doing bad things to themselves with their broken Chris Carrabba CDs.
Lastly and perhaps most importantly, Cameron Diaz — I have no problem with her starring in a Richard Kelly movie. Why? Both Seann William Scott and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson turned in great performances in Kelly’s Tales. But will she be able to pull of a fake accent? Find out that and more below:
Marsden and Diaz in The Box
His first film made him a cult sensation. His second release saw him become a critical punching bag. Finally, after numerous delays, we have the third movie from writer/director Richard Kelly slated for Oct. 30.
The Box, starring Cameron Diaz and James Marsden, is a horror tale of sorts based on a short story by Richard Matheson. The premise: A married couple is given a box in 1976. If they press the button on the box within 24 hours, they become instantly wealthy. Not a bad deal, right? Except there’s a catch. One random person they don’t know will die simultaneously.
Kelly, who first made his mark with the 2001 sci-fi thriller Donnie Darko, announced on his MySpace page Friday evening that he, Diaz and Marsden will head to Comic-Con Friday, July 24. The three will sit on a panel discussing the new movie at the annual convention in San Diego. Kelly will also unveil the long-anticipated trailer.
Other fun stuff. Win Butler and Regine Chassagne of Arcade Fire along with Owen Pallett have recorded about 80 minutes of original music for the film.
David Carradine (1936-2009)
In the spirit of being fair and sensitive to all sides, I feel obligated to update my previous story on the unexpected death of actor David Carradine. In the headline, I stated suicide was not ruled out. However, Entertainment Tonight is reporting that a rep for the Kung Fu star isn’t even considering this as a cause of death.
In response to these reports, the anonymous rep says, “David would never have taken his own life, he would never have committed suicide and the investigation is at the highest level to find out the cause of the death.”
Also from ET, the autopsy results are expected to be released within two days, which should give us a better idea of what happened.
In the meantime, the official David Carradine website has updated its main page. It’s saying Carradine passed June 3, not June 4. Other than that, you can now send donations to the family and post comments.
David Carradine in Kill Bill
If you’re looking at the RSS feed on the left side of the screen, you can already see numerous sites have already reported this. Yes, David Carradine, an icon to both older and younger generations, was found dead in Bangkok, Thailand, early Thursday. He was 72.
Though the official cause is unknown at this time, a Thai news agency is reporting a hotel maid found the actor hanging by a curtain rope in his closet. The Associated Press is also citing this information, so I don’t think it’s in bad taste to report it here. But I will caution by saying neither Carradine’s personal manager, Chuck Binder, nor the U.S. embassy in Thailand is confirming this.
Carradine was in Bangkok shooting his latest movie, Stretch. The American actor is probably best known for his work as Kane in the ’70s TV drama Kung Fu, and more recently as the mysterious Bill in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill.
Gloria Grahame and Glenn Ford in The Big Heat
I told you we’d eventually get to movies on here, so let’s get right to it. A few days ago, I noticed, much to my surprise, that Columbia Pictures was releasing a film noir boxset. Amazon gave no indication of the titles to be included, and a quick Google search yielded only a rumored lineup. After searching Barnes & Noble‘s website, it seems to have confirmed the five previously speculated titles: Fritz Lang’s The Big Heat (starring Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame), Edward Dmytryk’s The Sniper, 5 Against the House (Kim Novak), Murder By Contract and Don Siegel’s The Lineup. These will all be packaged in a set called Film Noir Classics of Columbia: The Collector’s Choice, available July 14. Only one of these flicks, The Big Heat, has been available on DVD. Although there are five films, B&N is saying it’s a four piece set. Hmm. Hopefully, we don’t get screwed on the packaging.
Although I cannot confirm this, an IMDb user posted an item a few days ago about these Columbia noir boxsets, saying a second volume will be available the same day. According him/her, it will include Pushover (Fred MacMurray and Kim Novak), Nightfall (Anne Bancroft), The Brothers Rico (Richard Conte), City of Fear and In a Lonely Place (Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame). In a Lonely Place, like The Big Heat, is also currently available. Again, I can’t say one way or another whether this second collection will be released the same day, or if those are the titles.
However, if it goes down like this, might we be seeing a pattern here? Perhaps — assuming there are more collections to come — they will build each collection around one popular noir already in stores and on the shelves. The next one, then, could include Gilda, starring Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth, or Orson Welles’ The Lady From Shanghai, starring said director and Hayworth. Both of those are also Columbia Classics DVDs. I’m sure sales will play a big part in whether we’ll see more sets in the future, but one can only hope.
