The first, explosive, action-packed trailer for the notoriously delayed Red Dawn remake is a time capsule in more ways than one: Not only does it lay on nods to the gloriously cheesy 1984 original, it features three-years-ago Chris Hemsworth before he packed on all that Thor muscle AND cute little Josh Hutcherson before he made it to the big time with The Hunger Games gig. Kids with guns vs. evil Chinese North Koreans after the jump. Red Dawn was initially slated for a 2010 release, but MGM’s bankruptcy threw a kink into those plans. Last March producers opted to take even more time to digitally change the film’s already-shot invading villain force from China to North Korea in a bald, bold bid for more of that Chinese box office, which is just one of a few gambles we’ll see play out come release on November 21. Thanksgiving: a time for family, armed patriotism, and putting firearms in the hands of children! Because as much as Red Dawn promises to be the kind of ubercool explosion-y action pic you’d expect from a remake of an explosion-y ’80s action classic (It’s got rampant violence! It’s what audiences crave!), the kind of straight-faced militancy that made the original Red Dawn so damn heavy at its core doesn’t quite translate to the slick Expendables -esque fetishism of violence of today’s popcorn action flicks. And maybe it’s just me, but in the wake of the Aurora tragedy and last weekend’s Sikh temple attack I’m not too juiced to watch a bunch of kids with an arsenal of assault weapons righteously gun down their ethnic invaders in the name of freedom. The difference between watching Stallone and his beefy cohorts blast their way through nameless baddies and seeing Hemsworth lead his Wolverine pack into battle is that there’s zero seriousness underlying the mindless shenanigans of Sly & Co. (which entertain me to no end, incidentally). Red Dawn , on the other hand, toys with more concerning, actual issues — war, nationalism, geopolitics, self-defense, the Second Amendment, guns, violence in the media ( Red Dawn is rated PG-13). And, benefit of the doubt, maybe the remake is conscious of these things and will turn out to be more thoughtful and thought-provoking than a sexy, attention-grabbing 2 1/2 minute trailer. But you tell me. I’m still in it for the cast and the curiosity factor, and maybe a few months’ time will help me get over myself. Via Yahoo : Synopsis: In Red Dawn, a city in Washington state awakens to the surreal sight of foreign paratroopers dropping from the sky – shockingly, the U.S. has been invaded and their hometown is the initial target. Quickly and without warning, the citizens find themselves prisoners and their town under enemy occupation. Determined to fight back, a group of young patriots seek refuge in the surrounding woods, training and reorganizing themselves into a guerilla group of fighters. Taking inspiration from their high school mascot, they call themselves the Wolverines, banding together to protect one another, liberate their town from its captors, and take back their freedom. Red Dawn hits theaters November 21. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Tony Gilroy ‘s tumultuous history with the Jason Bourne franchise is, as he calls it, “well-documented.” But after penning or co-scripting the first three Matt Damon-starring spy pics in the series — navigating a maelstrom of widely reported behind the scenes beefs, including Damon’s snipe last year at Gilroy’s Bourne Ultimatum script — the writer-director was lured back to this weekend’s The Bourne Legacy by the opportunity to create a new secret agent ( Jeremy Renner ) to build insidious political conspiracies and impossible action sequences and existential questions around. “In a strange way,” he tells Movieline, “I felt more of a personal connection with this character than I ever felt with Jason Bourne.” Prior to Gilroy coming aboard The Bourne Legacy , which introduces Renner’s highly-skilled agent Aaron Cross as Jason Bourne’s gentler, funnier, and more genetically-modified contemporary ( Chems! He needs chems! ), Universal and author Robert Ludlum’s estate were in a bind to find a new, fresh way to continue the lucrative spy franchise. Gilroy, who had left the series behind to helm his own Michael Clayton and Duplicity — and up to that point, he admits, had never even seen the Paul Greengrass-directed The Bourne Ultimatum — took a polite coffee meeting, which turned into a few weeks’ worth of scripting help, which in turn rekindled his interest in the property so much so he signed on to direct. The result is a Bourne “sidequel” that runs parallel to the events of Ultimatum but follows new hero Renner as he and Rachel Weisz’s comely, brainy scientist Dr. Marta Shearing evade a government burn-down of their top secret Outcome program. The action takes the pair from the labs to the woods of Maryland to the streets of Manila, through an assortment of set pieces including one physics-defying sequence inspired, Gilroy reveals, by Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men . Gilroy rang Movieline to discuss those eye-catching stunts and more, including why he returned to Bourne after all that drama, how Renner and Weisz’s crackling chemistry dictated on-set rewrites of Aaron and Marta’s “will they/won’t they?” romantic relationship, and what, if any, master plan is in place to reunite both Damon and Renner as a superspy duo in future Bourne installments. There’s an unusual history between you and this franchise; you’re not just any director who’s been hired, and you’re not just any screenwriter tackling the next sequel in this series. You know, it came about in such a random, incremental way. I turned in the script for Bourne Ultimatum about three weeks before I started pre-production on Michael Clayton and then I couldn’t have been more outside [the process]. They greenlit the script and they started and everyone was happy, then I went to do Clayton and was completely outside, for years. I really didn’t have any involvement whatsoever. I mean, I’d hear anecdotally from people but my main source of information would be whatever was in the press. So the movie came out and it was like, “What are they going to do next?” And a lot of really switched-on people spent a lot of time trying to figure out what to do — I wasn’t part of any of that — and then they all fell apart. They ran out of road. That’s a tough problem. I’m not sure I would have been able to solve that exact problem, of where you go with Jason Bourne. And then they all left! So then you came in with the idea for Aaron Cross? More time went by and I took a very casual meeting with the guys from the estate who were in New York — really, just a cup of coffee, a 20-minute meeting, and they said, “We don’t know what to do! We don’t have Matt, and we don’t have Jason Bourne anymore — somebody has to figure out a way to go forward.” I said, “I haven’t seen the third movie but I’ll go and look at it, and if I can think of a way to help you out, I will.” A couple weeks later I called them back with just the very first idea for [ Bourne Legacy ]: What if there was this larger conspiracy — what if there was another program? What if there was someone, a mastermind, sitting behind all of this? If you’d asked me then I’d have said the last thing I’ll ever be doing was this. Then the idea got a little sexier — Oh my god, you can have Ultimatum playing in the background, you can do all these really cool things that no one’s ever done before! I really came on for a couple of weeks; it was like a problem-solving job, it wasn’t even a writing job. And then I got the character and I got sucked in. So there was no master plan. What was your feeling in returning to helm Bourne Legacy given your past relationships with these movies? Feelings-wise, at this point it’s been 13 years. It’s been very good to me in some ways, and it’s been very frustrating in other ways which are well documented. It’s been very successful and certainly helped me get Clayton made. So I’m very happy that I did it all those years ago. Is it gratifying to step into the director’s chair after being a writer for so long on this franchise? The places to be anxious are in terms of the quality of the other films and being beholden to the DNA of the other films in key areas, the really fundamental things that make it what it is. But I never really felt like, wow, this is finally mine! It was interesting to me; I like the character, the story came together, and I thought, wow — I’m really into this. This could be something that would be worth two years of your life, that’s what you’re looking at. You’d never base a decision like that on anything petty or competitive. It’s too big a decision. So the solution to the Bourne series’ problem was creating Aaron Cross. I liked Jason Bourne as a character, but as played by Jeremy Renner, Aaron Cross is pretty much the perfect spy boyfriend you’d want to be on the run with. How did you approach carving this guy out, giving him a different purpose in life, with a personality that’s not only a stark contrast to Bourne but from the other agents we’ve encountered in this world? [Laughs] You know, part of getting here in the script is like math, problem-solving, craftsmanship. And then part of it is wherever dumb luck and inspiration meet up. As excited as everybody else got about it, I was like, this is really empty — you’ve got to have a character here that’s huge. I don’t think we realized in the beginning — we certainly didn’t realize it when we did the first one — what a great problem it was for an assassin to have an identity problem and a morality problem. You could get three movies out of it! But the idea for [Aaron Cross] just sort of dropped one day as I was sketching it. I’ve never worked on a character like this before, I’ve never quite seen this problem and certainly have never seen this problem expressed in an action or adventure movie before. In a strange way I felt more of a personal connection with this character than I ever felt with Jason Bourne — the idea of being alive and losing your awareness, the idea of turning down the dimmer switch on your appreciation of life, even, is such a terrifying thing and something that we all worry about. [Laughs] I was really happy it was sitting in front of me on a piece of paper! You chose to wrap up Bourne Legacy ’s conclusion by not falling prey to the easy romantic moments one might expect from a guy-and-girl on the lam movie like this. Was there a specific intention behind that Aaron-Marta relationship? We had a really big advantage, I think, in that when we started and even while we were shooting — well, we shot Norton’s stuff first, then Rachel came in and did the lab stuff, and then Jeremy came in and they started working together — at the end of our shoot in New York we still didn’t really know how far we would go with [the romance], but we were kind of liberated in that I didn’t feel like a win for us had to necessarily be that. The movie could have been weirdly satisfying if they ended up sort of as brother and sister or co-conspirators. If they’d just been two people that survived it would have been interesting, or if it had ended up with just a doctor-patient relationship — a really strange one. I’ve been on movies where you start off, these two people have to be in love at the end of the movie, or have to be in love in the movie and fall apart and then get back together, and you have to have that. But we didn’t have to have that, so we didn’t have to force it. For instance, the motel scene, where that chemistry really builds. We shot that motel room scene — in point of fact, we did it once and didn’t like it, and went back and did it again a week later. In the rewrite of that, I really had to cop to the idea that this was really happening and really wrote into it, and then we shot it and they were just so kinda hot with each other, in a scene that’s not like that at all. So the rest of the way in we put up the spinnaker and went for it. But it was nice to know that we didn’t have to do that. Well, all that said, I’d still like to thank you for all the male topless scenes. All these half-naked Jeremy Renner shots and not a single gratuitous look at Rachel Weisz. [Laughs] You’re welcome! You shot a number of ambitious action sequences — the motorcycle chase in the Philippines among them — but there’s one particular impossible shot of Jeremy as Aaron free-climbing up the side of Marta’s house, up the walls, and into the second-story window. How did you conceive of that coming together? We had the idea for it and we had the house — there was a real house that we had found, and we went there. You wrote action to fit your locations, right? Exactly. I can’t really do them unless they’re really specific. If we were to say we’re in the Four Seasons hotel right now and we need to do an action sequence, I’d say okay, let’s walk around and figure out what works, and what’s fun, whatever. We saw this house and it wasn’t just all the opportunities inside – we looked at the outside and it was really cool. And filming it in a faux unbroken shot enhances the movie illusion that Aaron is an enhanced human being. I’m a huge fan of Children of Men — I think it’s the greatest action movie in the last many years. And I love how seamless it is, they never make you think about what’s going on. So there’s a little bit of trickery but a lot of reality; you can’t do them unless you really rehearse them. And really, our climbing up the house is a small fractional piece of what they’re doing in Children of Men . I watched it thinking I would love to believe that Jeremy Renner really just crawled up that house. A lot of it really happened! That’s really Jeremy going up the side of that house. I mean, a camera can’t fit through that window and follow him through the window, that’s not physically possible. Was that easier or tougher than filming Jeremy jump straight down perfectly into that skinny alley in the Philippines? Oh that , you do. That’s a real place, a real thing. So that’s him and that’s a real practical thing that we built. It’s actually an easy thing to do — dropping down is easier than going up. There’s been a lot of talk about bringing Matt Damon back to join with Renner in future Bourne installments — has there been any concrete movement in that direction so far? That’s beyond hypothetical. There’s nothing concrete at all, and anytime anybody says anything in print it turns into a whole… no, really, really nothing. Zero conversations. Do you think the chances are good that that’ll actually ever happen? I have no insight into that at all. We’ll be running around gabbing away and doing all this stuff and the audience will tell us what should happen, I should think. But the idea that we have some sort of organized thing here is such an amusing idea. [Laughs] There’s no master plan. Previously: Tony Gilroy (Fondly) Remembers His 1992 Olympic Skating Romance The Cutting Edge The Bourne Legacy is in theaters today. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
The Campaign , the new comedy starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis, faces the challenge that troubles all political satires these days, which is coming up with material that can rival what’s actually happening in the news. And that’s not a point made in some hacky stand-up comedian way — “Those crazy folks in D.C., am I right?” No, it has become a legitimate, daunting task to come up with anything that can surpass, for instance, the wild reality show that was the recent Republican primaries. Director Jay Roach has, of late, mixed HBO dramatizations of contemporary political events like Game Change into a career otherwise dedicated to comedies like the Austin Powers franchise and Meet the Parents . The Campaign should theoretically fall nicely into the Venn diagram intersection between these two realms, but while frequently funny, it’s a film that also feels disconcertingly and disappointingly mild, ignoring all sorts of specific, choice ammunition in favor of a storyline about how far political discourse has gotten from actual issues (while itself skirting any actual issues). The villain in this case is unassailably soulless “big money,” embodied by Dan Aykroyd and John Lithgow, playing scheming billionaires whose real-life counterparts you may just be able to make out from the fact that they’re named the Motch brothers — and even in that, the film doesn’t really have any sting. It feels akin to setting a film in North Korea and then filling it only with jokes about accidentally ordering dog meat at restaurants. There’s a giant elephant (and donkey) in the room. As a goofball comedy, at least, The Campaign generally works, pitting Ferrell at his most obliviously pompous against Galifianakis in full, mincing weirdness. Ferrell’s Cam Brady is the incumbent Congressman in the fictional 14th district of North Carolina, a Democrat (not that, as mentioned, it matters in the least) with a ferociously ambitious wife (Katherine LaNasa), two kids and an apparently steady, unchallenged political career. But after a sex scandal involving a misdirected answering machine message tarnishes his image, Brady’s position doesn’t seem as secure, and the Motchs decide to fund an opponent who’ll favor their interests. Their pick is the cardigan-and-turtleneck wearing doofus Marty Huggins (Galifianakis), who has no experience or anything else to recommend him for the job except that his father (Brian Cox) is a former Republican bigwig. He desperately wants to prove himself to his dad, and with the help of Motch agent Tim Wattley (Dylan McDermott) as his campaign manager, he starts shaping up to be a viable candidate. Most of The Campaign deals with the increasingly absurd escalation in hostilities between the opponents, with Brady launching the first salvo against his naive opponent at a bipartisan brunch and the action quickly upping from there to spite sex and retaliatory “hunting accidents.” There’s a particularly rewarding recurring joke about a misdirected punch, an absurd take on a politician’s nightmare that becomes an amusing twist on just what it would require to end a career these days. In that regard, the film has an entertainingly cynical take on how ridiculous moves, like the release of a sex tape campaign ad, result in a bump in the polls, likability competitions as bread and circuses for the masses. The Campaign gets mileage out of pandering to religious groups — Brady does a press day at a snake handling church, while Huggins salutes Jesus Christ as the “greatest American who ever lived” — but neither that nor the repeated cracks about the candidates’ non-answers, filled with talk of “freedom” and “jobs” and no actual content, are exactly hard-hitting or fresh. Bits about Brady noting that Huggins keeps pugs, which are from China and therefore must be of Communist origin, or Huggins digging up a book Brady wrote in the second grade as evidence of his belief in the redistribution of wealth really don’t seem that far from actual, awful political attacks. There are plenty of practical reasons for The Campaign ‘s choice to remain non-partisan — isolating potential market share is, as the Motch brothers could surely tell you, bad business. But while funny enough, the film feels even smaller than its 85 minute runtime, like it runs through every last bit of the territory deemed safe to tread and just barely makes it to the credits at a credible feature length. Ferrell and Galifianakis both do what they’ve proven they can do so well in the past, while McDermott, clad in all black, is surprisingly good in a comedic role. You wish there was more for Aykroyd, Cox and Lithgow to do in their small and largely symbolic roles — Aykroyd and Lithgow in particular seem like they could have done more with a joke about disguising sweatshop labor that, while lifted from 30 Rock , is still a good one. At a dark moment in his career, Ferrell’s distraught Brady promotes the first person he sees in his office to the position of his campaign manager. The kid turnes out to be an intern, and the first thing the eager poli sci major brings up is that fact that we shouldn’t give tax breaks to corporations that outsource jobs. Brady immediately throws him out in favor of someone with a background in sports marketing. It’s cute, but it’s also what you’d imagine the process of conceiving of and writing The Campaign was like. Having a character land on stage at an election event playing a keytar in the midst of cheerleaders while fireworks go off? It pales in comparison to an actual Herman Cain ad . Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
The Toronto International Film Festival unveiled its Canadian lineup Wednesday, including new work from Sarah Polley , Bruce Sweeney, Xavier Dolan, Michael McGowan and Bernard Émond. Today’s 19 titles will screen in the September festival’s various sections. The lineup also spotlights first-time feature work from Jason Buxton, Brandon Cronenberg, Igor Drljaca and Kate Melville. “Through comedy, thrills, drama and suspense, films in the lineup present stories of youth and violence, coming of age, the environment, dysfunctional families, sex and celebrity,” said Steve Gravestock, Senior Programmer, TIFF. “From intimate, affecting stories with big impact to films with global scope, the Canadian films in this year’s Festival will move audiences.” Toronto’s Canadian lineup with descriptions provided by TIFF : Special Presentations : Antiviral by Brandon Cronenberg, Canada/USA North American Premiere Syd March is an employee at a clinic that sells injections of live viruses harvested from sick celebrities to obsessed fans. When he becomes infected with the disease that plagues superstar Hannah Geist, he must unravel the mystery surrounding her before he suffers the same fate. Starring Caleb Landry Jones and Sarah Gadon. Inch’Allah by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, Canada World Premiere Chloe is a young Canadian obstetrician working in a makeshift clinic within a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank where she treats pregnant women under the supervision of Michael, a French doctor. Facing daily checkpoints and the separation barrier, Chloe is confronted with the conflict and the people it affects. Her encounter with the war draws Chloe into an adventure that’s both deeply personal and as large as the land. From the producing team behind Academy Award®-nominated Monsieur Lazhar and Incendies. Laurence Anyways by Xavier Dolan, Canada Toronto Premiere In the 1990s, Laurence tells his girlfriend Fred that he wants to become a woman. In spite of the odds — and in spite of each other — they confront the prejudices of their friends, ignore the counsel of their families, and brave the phobias of the society they offend. For ten years, they try to live through this transition, and embark on an epic journey which, unbeknownst to them, may cost Fred and Laurence their love. Starring Suzanne Clément and Melvil Poupaud. Liverpool by Manon Briand, Canada Toronto Premiere A coat check attendant in a bar decides to take an unclaimed coat back to its owner, but soon finds herself in the middle of criminal intrigue. A regular of the bar has long harboured a secret love for the attendant — enough to put his life on the line to help her. Starring Stéphanie Lapointe, Charles-Alexandre Dubé and Louis Morissette. Rebelle by Kim Nguyen, Canada Toronto Premiere Komona, a 14-year-old girl, tells her unborn child the story of how she became a child soldier. A tale set in Sub-Saharan Africa, Rebelle is also a love story between two young souls caught in a violent yet beautiful and magical world. Starring Rachel Mwanza (winner of Silver Bear for best actress at Berlin International Film Festival), Alain Bastien and Serge Kanyinda. Still by Michael McGowan, Canada World Premiere Based on true events and boasting a veteran cast, Still is a heartfelt story about an 89-year-old New Brunswicker (James Cromwell) who faces jail time when the government tries to stop him from building a more suitable house for his wife (Geneviève Bujold), whose health is beginning to fade. Stories We Tell by Sarah Polley, Canada North American Premiere In this inspired, genre-twisting film, Academy Award-nominated writer/director Sarah Polley discovers that the truth depends on who’s telling it. Polley is both filmmaker and detective as she investigates the secrets behind a family of storytellers. She playfully interrogates a cast of characters of varying reliability, eliciting refreshingly candid, yet mostly contradictory, answers to the same questions. As each relates their version of the family mythology, present-day recollections shift into nostalgia-tinged glimpses of a lively, fun-loving past and the shadows just beneath. Polley unravels the paradoxes to reveal the essence of family: a messy, intense and loving tangle of contradictions. Discovery : Blackbird by Jason Buxton, Canada World Premiere An alienated teenager’s online threat ignites fear in a small community, in this disturbing and perceptive look at how our media-fuelled, post-Columbine culture can transform typical teen angst into intimations of murder. Krivina by Igor Drljaca, Canada World Premiere Miro, an immigrant from the former Yugoslavia, lives in Toronto. He has a hard time relating to others and he never stays in one place for too long. When he finds out that his pre-war friend Dado, who has been missing for almost two decades, is now wanted for war-era crimes, his life starts to unravel. Upon hearing that Dado still visits Zljebovi, a village on the outskirts of Sarajevo, Miro embarks on a trip to Bosnia to find his friend. Picture Day by Kate Mellville, Canada World Premiere Forced to repeat Grade 12, Claire’s reputation is sliding from bad-ass to bad joke. At night, she escapes to would-be rock star Jim (aged 33), while at school, she bonds with Henry, a nerdy freshman she used to babysit. Eventually, Claire learns the difference between sex, intimacy and friendship. Tower by Kazik Radwanski, Canada North American Premiere Kazik Radwinski’s debut feature Tower is about a single and career-less man who lives at home with his parents in Toronto. He wanders alone in search of companionship and suddenly finds himself in an intimate relationship. Irritated by a raccoon that tears up his garbage, he sets out to catch it. Contemporary World Cinema : Camion by Rafaël Ouellet, Canada Toronto Premiere After being involved in a road accident causing the death of a woman, truck driver Germain’s world collapses as he feels an overwhelming sense of guilt and remorse. His state of mind starts to worry his younger son Samuel, who puts his own janitor job in Montreal on hold to track down his older brother, drifter Alain, in New Brunswick, hoping to head back together to their hometown to give some support to their father. The Crimes of Mike Recket by Bruce Sweeney, Canada World Premiere Bruce Sweeney (Last Wedding) returns to the Festival with this neo-noir police procedural — set against the backdrop of economic hard times — about a failed real estate agent (Nicholas Lea) whose recent attempt to turn things around makes him a suspect in a criminal investigation. Home Again by Sudz Sutherland, Canada World Premiere Home Again is about three adults raised “foreign” (in the USA, United Kingdom and Canada) from childhood and deported back to their birth country, Jamaica. Back “home” each discovers a different Jamaica from the paradise in vacation ads. We follow these three deportees on a journey for survival that surprisingly is filled with hope. My Awkward Sexual Adventure by Sean Garrity, Canada World Premiere To win back his unsatisfied ex-girlfriend, conservative accountant Jordan Abrams enlists the help of Julia — an uninhibited exotic dancer — to guide him on a quest for sexual experience, leading him into a world of strip clubs, sensual massage parlours, cross-dressing and S & M. The Lesser Blessed by Anita Doron, Canada World Premiere The Lesser Blessed is a powerful coming-of-age story about Larry, a Native teenager balancing his romantic heart with a dark past that threatens to unravel his life. Vanguard : I Declare War by Jason Lapeyre and Robert Wilson, Canada World Premiere A group of friends play an innocent game of capture the flag in the neighbourhood woods, arming themselves with nothing more than sticks, their imagination and a simple set of rules. One afternoon, the game takes on a more serious tone and the quest for victory pushes the boundaries of friendship, giving the would-be warriors a glimpse of the darker side of human nature. Masters : Tout ce que tu possèdes (All That You Possess) by Bernard Émond, Canada World Premiere A disgruntled academic refuses a substantial inheritance because the fortune was amassed dishonestly. Soon after, he is reunited with his teenage daughter whose mother he had abandoned when she was pregnant. From the filmmaker responsible for La donation and La neuvaine. Previously announced in the Masters programme: Peter Mettler’s The End of Time. TIFF Docs : Revolution Rob Stewart, Canada World Premiere The much anticipated follow-up film from the filmmakers of internationally acclaimed, box office hit Sharkwater, Revolution follows Rob Stewart on an adventure from photographer/filmmaker to environmental activist trying to change the world. Stewart faces danger, conflict and drama in his struggle to find the key to empowering the conservation movement so it can affect change on a global scale. Canadian films previously announced in the TIFF Docs programme include: Simon Ennis’ Lunarcy! , Jamie Kastner’s The Secret Disco Revolution and Barry Avrich’s Show Stopper: The Theatrical Life of Garth Drabinksy . Previously announced Canadian features include: Denis Côté’s Bestiaire (Wavelengths), Ruba Nadda’s Inescapable (Gala) and Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children (Gala).
In a move that should cause some shockwaves through the indie filmmaking world, one of independent film’s most recognizable producers, Ted Hope, will takeover as Executive Director of the San Francisco Film Society. The organization annually produces the April San Francisco International Film Festival – the oldest such event in the Americas – in addition to other year-round programming events and filmmaker support services. A long-time figure in New York where he produced films through his companies Good Machine, This Is That and Double Hope Films, he will head west to San Francisco where he will take on the position beginning September 1st. Hope succeeds fellow indie veteran Bingham Ray , who tragically died January early in his tenure at SFFS. Hope has produced dozens of films that are among the staples of any year’s indie stars, eagerly watched by film festival attendees including industry, press and beyond. Recent work includes Todd Solondz’s Dark Horse , Sean Durkin’s Martha Marcy May Marlene and Greg Mottola’s Adventureland . In 1990 he cofounded with James Schamus the production and sales powerhouse Good Machine, which was sold to Universal in 2002. Hope’s films are regularly among the year’s most honored at award ceremonies and throughout the festival circuit. The Savages (2007) received two Oscar nominations as did 21 Grams in 2001. He also holds a Sundance record with three of his 23 Sundance entries ( American Splendor [2003], The Brothers McMullen [1995] and What Happened Was… [1994]) winning the Grand Jury Prize at the festival. It is not immediately clear if Hope’s new role at SFFS will mean he’ll end his role as a producer, though any step back will leave a significant vacuum that will not easily be filled. In recent years Hope has lamented through his blog Hope for Film the challenges facing indie film while also proposing possible remedies. He alluded to the industry’s evolution in commenting about his new position at SFFS in a statement: “The film world – be it in content, creation, business or audience — has changed significantly over the last twenty years and we all must change with it,” said Hope. “It’s time that the film industry looked not just to Hollywood but instead to the Bay Area and Silicon Valley, and San Francisco Film Society is a major artistic voice positioned right in the heart of this vibrant cultural location. This unique opportunity to work with the Film Society’s diverse communities is an extension of producing in the fullest of ways – allowing me to engage with the art form as a whole, at every level of activity. I am deeply honored and humbled to continue the extraordinary legacy of Bingham Ray and Graham Leggat, which is evident in SFFS’s dedication to empowering artists to get their work not just made but also truly appreciated, and by their support for the complete cinematic enterprise, process and community.” Hope will be the third person to hold the Executive Director title at SFFS within the span of just over a year. The organization’s head Graham Leggat served from 2005 to 2011 until his death last August from cancer. Bingham Ray, also a prominent figure in the indie film space in his own right, succeeded him last October until his untimely death during this year’s Sundance Film Festival. “Ted is obviously as engaged as we are in thinking about how movies can continue to thrive and be a vital, dynamic force moving forward and has the knowledge and expertise to ably lead us into the future.” said SFFS Director of Programming Rachel Rosen. “It’s been an incredibly sad and challenging year for the Film Society, so we’re especially excited to enter the next stage of the organization working with someone who clearly shares our sense of mission about this art form that we all love.”
“Obamacare.” “Romney Hood.” The political name-calling sounds like campaign season is well under-way (though does it ever end or begin?). The art of the possible will get a comical twist this weekend with the release of The Campaign , starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis. The pic follows two rivals who clash in an election that will decide who will head to the U.S. Congress from their North Carolina district (Ferrell appears to even flash a not-so-subtle coif similar to former V.P. candidate John Edwards). The film, which opens this weekend, prompted ABC’s Political Punch reporter Jake Tapper to offer up his Top 10 political films of all-time (documentaries were excluded) and “political film” was kept to a narrow definition. See if you agree with this list and let the campaign begin. 10. In The Loop , directed by Armando Iannucci (2009) Starring Tom Hollander, Peter Capaldi and James Gandolfini, the 2009 Sundance premiere is a satirical play on the build up to the war in Iraq and the relationship between the U.S. and the U.K. In the film both countries are on the verge of launching a Middle Eastern war and the story follows a behind-the-scenes drama in which there are officials trying to promote armed action and those trying to stop it. A British government minister tells a radio interviewer that war may be inevitable, but is then shot down by the Prime Minister’s aide, played by Peter Capaldi. But then, the aide himself makes a further mistake saying there may be a need to “climb the mountain of conflict,” further muddying a delicate situation. 9. The Parallax View , directed by Alan J. Pakula (1974) Based on the 1970 novel by Loren Singer, Warren Beatty plays a newspaper reporter who takes on a dangerous investigation into a corporation that engages in political assassination. Presidential candidate Senator Charles Carroll (Bill Joyce) is assassinated atop the Space Needle in Seattle and one witness, journalist Lee Carter (Paula Prentiss) tells her former boyfriend, reporter Joe Frady (Beatty) that she believes there is more to the killing since six of the witnesses have died and she fears she may be next. The Parallax View is the third in director Alan J. Pakula’s political paranoia trilogy including Klute (1971) and All the President’s Men (1976) (and also the only one not to receive an Oscar nomination or win). 8. Z , directed by Costa Gavras (1969) Also based on a novel, this time the 1966 book of the same title by Vassilis Vassilikos, the French political thriller is a vaguely fictionalized take on the events around the assassination of democratic Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis in 1963. Starring Jean-Louis Trintignant as an investigator, the film combines dark humor and a satirical view of politics though it managed to be the 10th highest-grossing film of the year in the U.S. in 1969. It also received both an Oscar-nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Picture. 7. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb , directed by Stanley Kubrick (1964) Starring Peter Sellers, George C. Scott and Sterling Hayden this black comedy takes on the nuclear scare and the Cold War. Based on Peter George’s novel Red Alert , the story revolves around a rogue U.S. Air Force general who orders a nuclear assault on the Soviet Union. The President of the United States and his staff as well as a Royal Air Force officer attempt to return the planes as they head to deliver their apocalyptic payload, while separately the film follows the crew on one of the planes as it heads to its target. The U.S. Library of Congress called Dr. Strangelove “Culturally Significant” in 1989 and is preserved in the National Film Registry. 6. Bananas , directed by Woody Allen (1971) South American politics take the focus in this comedy in which Allen stars with Louise Lasser and Carlos Montalban. Allen plays Fielding Mellish, a bumbling blue collar guy who wants to impress his activist love interest Nancy (Lasser) by getting involved in a revolution in a fictional South American country. He shows concern for the locals, but after he’s nearly killed by a military chief, he is saved by the revolutionaries and he finds himself in their debt. Soon, he learns to be a revolutionary himself, but when the revolt succeeds and their Castro-esque leader goes mad, he inadvertently finds himself as their new top figure. Back in the U.S., he faces trial and he reunites with his love… 5. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , directed by Frank Capra (1939) This classic has shown up on lists throughout the decades. Starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart and based on an unpublished story by Lewis R. Foster, the film proved a controversy when it was released back in ’39, but received 11 Academy Award nominations and a win for Best Original Story. The story revolves around an unnamed Western governor who by chance chooses Jefferson Smith (Stewart) to serve out a term in the U.S. Senate following the death of the sitting incumbent. The governor believes he’ll be able to manipulate the naive Smith. His good intentions soon collide with an apparatus of political corruption and then all hell breaks loose. 4. Charlie Wilson’s War , directed by Mike Nichols (2007) Aaron Sorkin adapted for the screenplay based on a true story by George Crile III’s 2003 book Charlie Wilson’s War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History . The drama recounts how U.S. congressman Charlie Wilson, a Texas Democrat, played by Tom Hanks, teamed up with the C.I.A. to support the Afghan mujahideen during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Also starring Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman along with Amy Adams, Ned Beatty and Emily Blunt, Wilson’s political maneuvering and his allies in the spy agency’s Afghanistan task force results in the mujahideen being armed to the teeth complete with stinger missiles which can shoot down Soviet choppers. The result is a Soviet quagmire and ultimately a triumph for the mujahideen, but the unintended consequences imply an unwieldy Afghanistan that was left to fend for itself after the Soviet withdrawal. 3. Wag the Dog , directed by Barry Levinson (1997) This film came out before the Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal broke, though the film is often identified with it. The black comedy stars Dustin Hoffman and Robert DeNiro about a Washington spin-master who hires a Hollywood producer to create a fake war with Albania (of all places) in order to distract the electorate with a sex scandal just days before a presidential election. The caption at the beginning of the film says it all: “Why does the dog wag its tail? Because the dog is smarter than the tail. If the tail were smarter, it would wag the dog.” 2. All the President’s Men (1976) Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein The 1976 Oscar-winning political thriller is based on the non-fiction work of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, better known as the The Washington Post journalists who blew the lid off the Watergate scandal. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman play Woodward and Bernstein respectively. The crisis that ensued ended in the resignation of President Nixon, the first U.S. head of state to resign and the subsequent inauguration of Vice President Ford in 1974. 1. The Candidate , directed by Michael Ritchie (1972) Robert Redford also stars in this film about an unlikely and idealistic Democratic candidate from California. Bill McKay (Redford) is initially more interested in espousing his liberal views publicly than winning and decides to take to the campaign trail to vocalize his opinion since his challenger, the incumbent Republican is a given as the victor. McKay wins the party nomination, but then finds out he’s likely to be overwhelmingly trounced in the election. He figured he’d lose, but not by such a humiliating margin. So, in order to avoid embarrassment, he broadens his appeal by dousing his ardently liberal message resulting in a rise in the polls. He also appeals for his father’s help (a former governor) to endorse him since the media is speculating that his silence is a tacit thumbs up to the opposition. As the debate looms, more compromises are made and the result entrenches McKay in the political establishment. [ Sources: ABC News , Wikipedia ]
“Obamacare.” “Romney Hood.” The political name-calling sounds like campaign season is well under-way (though does it ever end or begin?). The art of the possible will get a comical twist this weekend with the release of The Campaign , starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis. The pic follows two rivals who clash in an election that will decide who will head to the U.S. Congress from their North Carolina district (Ferrell appears to even flash a not-so-subtle coif similar to former V.P. candidate John Edwards). The film, which opens this weekend, prompted ABC’s Political Punch reporter Jake Tapper to offer up his Top 10 political films of all-time (documentaries were excluded) and “political film” was kept to a narrow definition. See if you agree with this list and let the campaign begin. 10. In The Loop , directed by Armando Iannucci (2009) Starring Tom Hollander, Peter Capaldi and James Gandolfini, the 2009 Sundance premiere is a satirical play on the build up to the war in Iraq and the relationship between the U.S. and the U.K. In the film both countries are on the verge of launching a Middle Eastern war and the story follows a behind-the-scenes drama in which there are officials trying to promote armed action and those trying to stop it. A British government minister tells a radio interviewer that war may be inevitable, but is then shot down by the Prime Minister’s aide, played by Peter Capaldi. But then, the aide himself makes a further mistake saying there may be a need to “climb the mountain of conflict,” further muddying a delicate situation. 9. The Parallax View , directed by Alan J. Pakula (1974) Based on the 1970 novel by Loren Singer, Warren Beatty plays a newspaper reporter who takes on a dangerous investigation into a corporation that engages in political assassination. Presidential candidate Senator Charles Carroll (Bill Joyce) is assassinated atop the Space Needle in Seattle and one witness, journalist Lee Carter (Paula Prentiss) tells her former boyfriend, reporter Joe Frady (Beatty) that she believes there is more to the killing since six of the witnesses have died and she fears she may be next. The Parallax View is the third in director Alan J. Pakula’s political paranoia trilogy including Klute (1971) and All the President’s Men (1976) (and also the only one not to receive an Oscar nomination or win). 8. Z , directed by Costa Gavras (1969) Also based on a novel, this time the 1966 book of the same title by Vassilis Vassilikos, the French political thriller is a vaguely fictionalized take on the events around the assassination of democratic Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis in 1963. Starring Jean-Louis Trintignant as an investigator, the film combines dark humor and a satirical view of politics though it managed to be the 10th highest-grossing film of the year in the U.S. in 1969. It also received both an Oscar-nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Picture. 7. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb , directed by Stanley Kubrick (1964) Starring Peter Sellers, George C. Scott and Sterling Hayden this black comedy takes on the nuclear scare and the Cold War. Based on Peter George’s novel Red Alert , the story revolves around a rogue U.S. Air Force general who orders a nuclear assault on the Soviet Union. The President of the United States and his staff as well as a Royal Air Force officer attempt to return the planes as they head to deliver their apocalyptic payload, while separately the film follows the crew on one of the planes as it heads to its target. The U.S. Library of Congress called Dr. Strangelove “Culturally Significant” in 1989 and is preserved in the National Film Registry. 6. Bananas , directed by Woody Allen (1971) South American politics take the focus in this comedy in which Allen stars with Louise Lasser and Carlos Montalban. Allen plays Fielding Mellish, a bumbling blue collar guy who wants to impress his activist love interest Nancy (Lasser) by getting involved in a revolution in a fictional South American country. He shows concern for the locals, but after he’s nearly killed by a military chief, he is saved by the revolutionaries and he finds himself in their debt. Soon, he learns to be a revolutionary himself, but when the revolt succeeds and their Castro-esque leader goes mad, he inadvertently finds himself as their new top figure. Back in the U.S., he faces trial and he reunites with his love… 5. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , directed by Frank Capra (1939) This classic has shown up on lists throughout the decades. Starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart and based on an unpublished story by Lewis R. Foster, the film proved a controversy when it was released back in ’39, but received 11 Academy Award nominations and a win for Best Original Story. The story revolves around an unnamed Western governor who by chance chooses Jefferson Smith (Stewart) to serve out a term in the U.S. Senate following the death of the sitting incumbent. The governor believes he’ll be able to manipulate the naive Smith. His good intentions soon collide with an apparatus of political corruption and then all hell breaks loose. 4. Charlie Wilson’s War , directed by Mike Nichols (2007) Aaron Sorkin adapted for the screenplay based on a true story by George Crile III’s 2003 book Charlie Wilson’s War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History . The drama recounts how U.S. congressman Charlie Wilson, a Texas Democrat, played by Tom Hanks, teamed up with the C.I.A. to support the Afghan mujahideen during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Also starring Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman along with Amy Adams, Ned Beatty and Emily Blunt, Wilson’s political maneuvering and his allies in the spy agency’s Afghanistan task force results in the mujahideen being armed to the teeth complete with stinger missiles which can shoot down Soviet choppers. The result is a Soviet quagmire and ultimately a triumph for the mujahideen, but the unintended consequences imply an unwieldy Afghanistan that was left to fend for itself after the Soviet withdrawal. 3. Wag the Dog , directed by Barry Levinson (1997) This film came out before the Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal broke, though the film is often identified with it. The black comedy stars Dustin Hoffman and Robert DeNiro about a Washington spin-master who hires a Hollywood producer to create a fake war with Albania (of all places) in order to distract the electorate with a sex scandal just days before a presidential election. The caption at the beginning of the film says it all: “Why does the dog wag its tail? Because the dog is smarter than the tail. If the tail were smarter, it would wag the dog.” 2. All the President’s Men (1976) Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein The 1976 Oscar-winning political thriller is based on the non-fiction work of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, better known as the The Washington Post journalists who blew the lid off the Watergate scandal. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman play Woodward and Bernstein respectively. The crisis that ensued ended in the resignation of President Nixon, the first U.S. head of state to resign and the subsequent inauguration of Vice President Ford in 1974. 1. The Candidate , directed by Michael Ritchie (1972) Robert Redford also stars in this film about an unlikely and idealistic Democratic candidate from California. Bill McKay (Redford) is initially more interested in espousing his liberal views publicly than winning and decides to take to the campaign trail to vocalize his opinion since his challenger, the incumbent Republican is a given as the victor. McKay wins the party nomination, but then finds out he’s likely to be overwhelmingly trounced in the election. He figured he’d lose, but not by such a humiliating margin. So, in order to avoid embarrassment, he broadens his appeal by dousing his ardently liberal message resulting in a rise in the polls. He also appeals for his father’s help (a former governor) to endorse him since the media is speculating that his silence is a tacit thumbs up to the opposition. As the debate looms, more compromises are made and the result entrenches McKay in the political establishment. [ Sources: ABC News , Wikipedia ]
You need only utter the words “Rocky loves Em-ily” or “Light up the eyes!” to transport me to the wondrous time known as the early ’90s, when timeless classics — timeless, I say ! — such as Touchstone’s tale of Rocky, Colt, and Tum Tum opened up new worlds for 11-year-old me . Hollywood.com’s Michael Arbeiter knows what I’m talking about: “[As] rich and dense as the history of the ninja might be, it wasn’t until the date of August 7, 1992, exactly twenty years ago today, that the identity of the Japanese spy and soldier really hit its potential in terms of relevance in the canon of American film. For on this date, the great Jon Turtletaub bequeathed unto the world his third directorial feature: 3 Ninjas .” Preach . Thanks to Arbeiter for bringing this ’90s kid-cinema essential back into the conversation with his open letter ( 3 Ninjas: 20 Years Later ? Sign me up!), which today rekindled my decades-long love affair with the 1992 ninja pic. Oh, who am I kidding? That flame never went out. A few years back I committed my 3 Ninjas love to the internet in an ode to star Michael Treanor, archived at the old Cinematical , but my passion for the erstwhile Rocky endures: Treanor, 13-years-old when 3 Ninjas debuted, played Rocky with a fresh-scrubbed, clear-eyed honesty and one heckuva smile. It helped that cinematographer Richard Michelak shot his preteen actors in the dreamiest light possible (he also lensed White Wolves: A Cry in the Wild II , AKA White Wolves: The One With Mark-Paul Gosselaar ). And that Rocky protected his little brothers and never gave up, even when all seemed lost. When Colt wanted to karate chop the mean kids at school, who was the voice of reason who calmed him down? Rocky. When idiot surfer-kidnappers invaded the boys’ house, who came up with the plan to take them down, Home Alone -style? Rocky did. Most of all, I loved Treanor because he rocked a dreamy, short on the sides/long in the front early ’90s hairdo that stayed perfectly coiffed even when Rocky ninja-jumped ten feet into the air to dunk on a pair of bullies in a basketball game to win his girlfriend’s bicycle back! Which brings me to the bane of my eleven-year-old existence: Rocky’s girlfriend, Emily. Ugh, Emily. The worst. It took a good few decades for me to get over my Emily-hate; it helped that by High Noon at Mega-Mountain , Rocky had wisened up and gotten himself a girlfriend named Jennifer, even if by that fourquel I’d already moved on to Team Colt. But I digress! Happy 20th, 3 Ninjas . Hollywood never quite made ’em like they made you. (Except for all those sequels. And those other ’90s kid flicks I wore out on VHS.) So good. So ’90s. The best thing Turteltaub ever made, and yes, that includes Cool Runnings . Never forget. [ Hollywood.com ]
Still enthrallingly spooky after all these years, the soundtrack to David Lynch ‘s groundbreaking — and mind-blowing — 1977 film Eraserhead got a lovingly produced limited-edition vinyl release on Tuesday that, I hope, refocuses attention on the life and tragic death of one of its key contributors, Peter Ivers. Sacred Bones records released a sweet deluxe edition of the soundtrack that initially was limited to just 1,500 copies, but after that first edition sold out, the Brooklyn, NY-based indie label has agreed to press a second edition of just 1000 copies, which it’s selling for $25.00. The package includes the soundtrack in vinyl and digital form — a convention-shattering soundscape of industrial bleeps, buzzes and hums that Lynch and sound designer Alan Splet spent years perfecting. Also included: a 16-page booklet featuring beautifully reproduced production stills that show Lynch dressed like a 20th-Century iteration of Johnny Appleseed. For me, the cornerstone of the release is Ivers’ work, not only the movie’s eerily old-timey theme song, “In Heaven,” which was sung by the Lady in the Radiator in Lynch’s film, but a previously unreleased Ivers composition, “Pete’s Boogie,” that was discovered during the transferring of the original soundtrack audio tapes. The Illinois-born, Brookline, Mass.-raised Harvard graduate was a musician whose close friends included National Lampoon founder Douglas Kenney and Saturday Night Live and Animal House star John Belushi. In the 1970s, Ivers recorded for Epic and Warner Bros Records, and beginning in 1981, he amassed a fervent cult following as the free-associative poetry-spouting host of New Wave Theatre on the USA cable network’s Night Flight program block. A kind of underground SNL , the show featured comedy and alternative bands such as the Dead Kennedys and the Angry Samoans that were really not ready for prime time. Like his friends Kenney and Belushi, who died, respectively, in 1980 and ’82, Ivers would not make it to mid-decade. In March 1983, he was found bludgeoned to death in his Los Angeles apartment. According to Wikipedia, new information in a book about Ivers’ life prompted the L.A, Police Department to reopen the investigation into his death. I contacted the LAPD to see what the status of that investigation is, and am waiting on a reply. Stay tuned. In the meantime, here’s an example of Ivers’ inspired New Wave Theatre work — further proof,if you ask me, that his life is worth reexamining. Watch It On YouTube . Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Last night’s landing of the Mars Science Laboratory, also known as the rover Curiosity, had all the excitement, drama and pathos of a major Hollywood film. Or, at least, the pre-title sequence of a major Hollywood film. If we do soon find ourselves re-living the historic moment on the big screen, we’ve got some casting suggestions for last night’s adventure. Big shot producers, you don’t owe us a thing — just save us a room on the Ark when it’s time to move to Venus, m’kay? (I don’t know about you, but while everyone was cheering and hugging I expected a quiet guy in the back to rise up from his seat, point at his screen and say, “Guys? Guys? I’m picking up something that I can’t quite— ” And then the lights would flicker, the floor would buckle, all the scientists’ eyes would bleed out and a grotesque voice would shout “WHO DARES DISTURB ME?!?!!?!?!?”) Tom Sizemore as Adam Steltzner Known as the “face of the Mars Science Laboratory,” this media-friendly genius is the designer of the “sky crane” that got Curiosity safely to the otherworldy ground. According to an NPR interview, Steltzner’s career as a scientist came after an adolescence studying sex, drugs and rock and roll. As such, we think Sizemore fits Steltzner like a glove. Taylor Lautner as Bobak Ferdowsi If Steltzner is the face then Ferdowsi is the hair. It isn’t just the mohawk, it’s the colored stars on the side that made him an instant Internet sensation. He went from around one thousand Twitter followers to twenty thousand Twitter followers in as much time as it takes to bounce a radio signal back from Mars. Ferdowski is was known as the “activity lead” on the landing. We’re not 100% sure what that is, but we know what his next mission will be: PR. With Ferdowski’s meme-ready ‘do, NASA got handed its biggest, fattest wet kiss since Alan Shepherd played golf on the moon. As we type, Good Morning America and the Today Show are no doubt engaged in an old school Cold War space race to get Ferdowsi on the air. Let’s throw the guy a bone and cast Taylor Lautner in the role (though we could also see Sanjaya from American Idol doing the job.) Brent Spiner’s Dr. Brackish Okun as Steve Collins Proving that not ALL of NASA are post-racial hipsters with awesome hair, Steve Collins is an old school dork and God love him for it! His position is that of “Attitude Control Engineer,” which means that it’s his job to go up to Miss Thangs that think they’re all that and say “Uh-uh, you BEST adjust your attitude before I come in and need to take control.” Then he snaps his fingers. Clearly the man for the role is Brent Spiner, who already played Steve Collins’ twin brother in Independence Day. Austin Pendleton as Miguel San Martin Miguel San Martin is the Chief Engineer of Guidance, Navigation and Control for the Mash Science Laboratory. In his spare time he’s warning puppets everywhere about the proliferation of frogs legs on fast food menus. Michelle Monaghan as Jennifer Eigenbrode Now that Curiosity has landed it has to collect all sorts of Martian data, right? And somebody back on Earth has to look at that and figure out what it all means. That person clearly isn’t going to be Damon Lindelof , who can’t even give us straight answers for a planet he makes up in his own mind. It’s going to be biogeochemists like Jennifer Eigenbrode . In the role of Dr. Eigenbrode, we cast the sweet and chipper Michelle Monaghan. And we’re totes shippers for an Eigenbrode/Ferdowski love affair. She’s supporting him as he anxiously tries to land the rover, then he frets his brow as she analyzes data. Ahhhh, young smart love!!! Have your own NASA dream stars? Leave ’em below. Follow Jordan Hoffman on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter . [Photos courtesy NASA, Getty Images]
