THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX - (no image provided)

December 19, 2008

Genre:                             Animated Adventure  

Cast:                               Matthew Broderick, Robbie Coltrane, Frances Conroy, Tony Hale, Ciaran Hinds, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Kline, Christopher Lloyd, William H. Macy, Stanley Tucci, Tracey Ullman, Emma Watson and Sigourney Weaver

Directed by:                      Sam Fell

Writers:                            Gary Ross, Will McRobb & Chris Viscardi

Based on the Book by:        Kate DiCamillo

Once upon a time, in the faraway kingdom of Dor, there was magic in the air, raucous laughter aplenty and gallons of mouth-watering soup.  But a terrible accident left the king broken-hearted, the princess filled with longing and the townsfolk despondent.  All hope was lost in a land where sunlight disappeared and the world became dreary gray.  Until Despereaux Tilling was born...

A brave and virtuous mouse, Despereaux is simply too big for his small world.  Though tiny, wheezy and saddled with comically oversized ears, Despereaux refuses to live a life of weakness and fear...believing he was destined to be celebrated in the tales of chivalry he so adores.

When he’s banished from his home for not following the rules that society expects of a mouse, Despereaux befriends fellow outcast Roscuro, a good-hearted rat who can’t bear to look in the mirror and hopes to live far from the grim underground of his kind.  While Despereaux begins his noble quest to rescue Pea—a princess who can’t see beyond her distorted view of the world—his pal Roscuro receives a painful rejection from her highness that sets him on a course of self-destruction. 

Along their parallel adventures, the two encounter colorful characters from a serving girl who wishes to be a princess to the evil leader of the sewer rats, who plots revenge on humans from his fiefdom in the subterranean shadows he relishes but Roscuro can’t abide. 

From the highest turrets of the glittering castle to the dankest dark of Dor’s sewers, friendships will be tested as Despereaux and Roscuro embark upon a journey that will change the way they look at their world—and themselves—forever.  In this tale of bravery, forgiveness and redemption, one tiny creature will teach a kingdom that it takes only a little light to show that what you look like doesn’t equal what you are.

FROST/NIXON

Genre:                              Drama

Cast:                               Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Rebecca Hall, Toby Jones, Matthew Macfadyen, Kevin Bacon, Oliver Platt, Sam Rockwell

Directed by:                      Ron Howard

Written by:                       Peter Morgan                    

Oscar-winning director Ron Howard brings to the screen writer Peter Morgan’s (The Queen, The Last King of Scotland) electrifying battle between Richard Nixon, the disgraced president with a legacy to save, and David Frost, a jet-setting television personality with a name to make, in the untold story of the historic encounter that changed both: Frost/Nixon.  Reprising their roles from Morgan’s stageplay are Frank Langella, who won a Tony for his portrayal of Nixon, and Michael Sheen, who fully inhabited the part of Frost onstage in London and New York.

For three years after being forced from office, Nixon remained silent.  But in summer 1977, the steely, cunning former commander-in-chief agreed to sit for one all-inclusive interview to confront the questions of his time in office and the Watergate scandal that ended his presidency.  Nixon surprised everyone in selecting Frost as his televised confessor, intending to easily outfox the breezy British showman and secure a place in the hearts and minds of Americans. 

Likewise, Frost’s team harbored doubts about their boss’ ability to hold his own.  But as cameras rolled, a charged battle of wits resulted.  Would Nixon evade questions of his role in one of the nation’s greatest disgraces?  Or would Frost confound critics and bravely demand accountability from the man who’d built a career out of stonewalling?  Over the course of their encounter, each man would reveal his own insecurities, ego and reserves of dignity—ultimately setting aside posturing in a stunning display of unvarnished truth.

Frost/Nixon not only re-creates the on-air interview, but the weeks of around-the-world, behind-the-scenes maneuvering between the two men and their camps as negotiations were struck, deals were made and secrets revealed…all leading to the moment when they would sit facing one another in the court of public opinion. 

Frost/Nixon is a collaboration between Imagine Entertainment and Working Title Films, with Academy Award® winners Brian Grazer and Ron Howard joining Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner as producers.  Joining Langella and Sheen as the colorful real-life personalities who provide the men counsel is a formidable roster of actors including Kevin Bacon, Oliver Platt, Sam Rockwell, Toby Jones and Matthew Macfadyen.

CHANGELING

Genre:                             Thriller

Cast:                               Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Jeffrey Donovan, Colm Feore, Amy Ryan, Michael Kelly

Directed by:                      Clint Eastwood

Screenplay by:                  J. Michael Straczynski

Clint Eastwood directs Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich in a provocative thriller based on actual events: Changeling.  In the film, Christine Collins’ (Jolie) prayers are met when her kidnapped son is returned.  But amidst the frenzy of the photo-op reunion, she realizes this child is not hers.  Facing corrupt police and a skeptical public, she desperately hunts for answers, only to be confronted by a truth that will change her forever. 

Los Angeles, 1928: On a Saturday morning in a working-class suburb, Christine said goodbye to her son, Walter, and left for work.  When she came home, she discovered he had vanished.  A fruitless search ensues, and months later, a boy claiming to be the nine-year-old is returned.  Dazed by the swirl of cops, reporters and her conflicted emotions, Christine allows him to stay overnight.  But in her heart, she knows he is not Walter.

As she pushes authorities to keep looking, she learns that in Prohibition-era L.A., women don’t challenge the system and live to tell their story.  Slandered as delusional and unfit, Christine finds an ally in activist Reverend Briegleb (Malkovich), who helps her fight the city to look for her missing boy.  Based on the actual incident that rocked California’s legal system, Changeling tells the shocking tale of a mother’s quest to find her son, and those who won’t stop until they silence her.

FLASH OF GENIUS

Genre:                              Drama

Cast:                              Greg Kinnear, Lauren Graham, Dermot Mulroney, Alan Alda

Directed by:                      Marc Abraham

Writers:                            Philip Railsback, Scott Frank, Marc Abraham

Based on The New Yorker Article Flash of Genius by: John Seabrook 

Based on the true story of college professor and part-time inventor Robert Kearns’ (Greg Kinnear) long battle with the U.S. automobile industry, Flash of Genius tells the tale of one man whose fight to receive recognition for his ingenuity would come at a heavy price.  But this determined engineer refused to be silenced, and he took on the corporate titans in a battle that nobody thought he could win.

The Kearns were a typical 1960s Detroit family, trying to live their version of the American Dream.  Local university professor Bob married teacher Phyllis (Lauren Graham) and, by their mid-thirties, had six kids who brought them a hectic but satisfying Midwestern existence.  When Bob invents a device that would eventually be used by every car in the world, the Kearns think they have struck gold.  But their aspirations are dashed after the auto giants who embraced Bob’s creation unceremoniously shunned the man who invented it.

Ignored, threatened and then buried in years of litigation, Bob is haunted by what was done to his family and their future.  He becomes a man obsessed with justice and the conviction that his life’s work -- or for that matter, anyone’s work -- be acknowledged by those who stood to benefit.  And while paying the toll for refusing to compromise his dignity, this everyday David will try the unthinkable: to bring Goliath to his knees. 

DOOMSDAY

Genre:                             Action-Thriller         

Cast:                               Rhona Mitra, Bob Hoskins, Adrian Lester, Alexander Siddig and Malcolm McDowell

Written and Directed by:     Neil Marshall

In the action-packed new thriller DOOMSDAY, from writer/director Neil Marshall (The Descent, Dog Soldiers), authorities brutally quarantine a country as it succumbs to fear and chaos when a virus strikes.  The literal walling-off works for three decades—until the dreaded Reaper virus violently resurfaces in a major city.

An elite group of specialists, captained by Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra), is urgently dispatched into the still-quarantined country to retrieve a cure by any means necessary.  Shut off from the rest of the world, the unit must battle through a landscape that has become a waking nightmare.

And finally… Universal didn’t provide any synopsis or info on Kids in America, or what they’re calling Untitled Mentor Project. But they did provide images.

But at Comic-Con I managed to interview Dan Fogler – one of the stars of Kids in America – and he talked a lot about it. Actually, he called it a “lost John Hughes movie” as the film takes place in 1988.

 

And for all you Superbad fans...notice anyone in the last image.... it's McLovin's next movie.