April 11, 2006
By Jeff Roedel
Stop what you’re doing and watch the trailer for United 93. It’s the first major studio release about the events of 9/11, out in theatres April 28. From what I’ve read, the filmmakers used as much real-life detail as possible in the screenplay. The movie is also in “real time,” which should only add to the suspense. But is America ready to watch movies about the destruction of the World Trade Center? Leave some feedback with your thoughts. If you’re planning on protesting United 93 on grounds that it’s exploitation, save your placard for August, when Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center starring Nicholas Cage will hits theaters. That said, the United 93 trailer has me wanting to experience the story of the oft-forgotten fourth plane that was hijacked on 9/11 and the heroic passengers who thwarted terrorist attempts to crash land the jet into the U.S. Capitol.
My movie pick for the week is The Lucky Number Slevin. It may have shades of a Pulp Fiction knock-off, but it also has a stellar cast and just looks like a fun Friday night at the movies. See the trailer here.
You know, Michael Douglas really needs to become aware of a device called a notebook. Dear Michael, journalists often use notebooks when talking to celebrities to record the actual insertion of foot into mouth. Last month Douglas spoke to GQ and had some condescending remarks about Brad Pitt’s divorce of Jennifer Aniston and subsequent relationship with Angelina Jolie, who happens to be a fellow Celebrity Ambassador to the U.N.* (Douglas probably cracks snarky remarks about Jolie’s adopted kids around the U.N. water cooler with the delegation from Micronesia). Of course, Douglas is now claiming poor Jeanne Marie pulled a Stephen Glass and made the whole thing up. (More).
Finally, check out the first photo from dark thriller Deja Vu that is filming now in New Orleans. Looks to me like the Algiers Ferry near the French Quarter that’s being blown to smithereens. I wonder what was on the ferry that made it explode? Of course, in a Tony Scott/Jerry Bruckheimer movie, a bicycle could bump into a horse-drawn carriage and trigger a mushroom cloud.
Deja vu is the first major film to shoot in the city since Katrina, and stars Denzel Washington, Paula Patton, Val Kilmer and Jim Caviezel. I attended the press conference announcing Déjà Vu’s return to New Orleans, and plot details there were few and far between. Word is the script includes time travel and occurs during the first Mardi Gras after a “major hurricane” has crippled the Crescent City.
*How many “Celebrity Ambassadors” does the UN need? And, for that matter, WHAT!?!
Comments
Posted by perfessor on April 12 at 6:04 p.m.
My daughter attends college with the daughter of one of the principal characters in the movie (the daughter was offered a bit part, but could not afford the time away from school). Her family is fully supporting the movie as it is a vehicle for the memories of the heroes of this day to be memorialized. I understand people are concerned about exploitation, but that does not seem to be the case here and any medium (film, book, etc.) will always have a cost someone has to front and a return is reasonable if the production is purchased by the public. We want to avoid government-produced, taxpayer paid media, right? Remember John Wayne made movies about WWII battles, TV shows, etc. I think it would be different if famlies themselves were excluded, but this project seems to not be doing that.
Peace.
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