The festival season is here, which means studio marketing teams are turning from hyping up the latest superhero movie, to getting audiences interested in movies that run the gamut from ambitious sci-fi offerings to biopics on British singing sensations, so let’s dive in, shall we?
Having now had its first airing at the Venice Film Festival, the word has come in on Alfonso Cuaron‘s “Gravity” and it’s very positive. Our own Oliver Lyttleton raved that the film “is about as visceral an experience as you can have in a cinema, it’s a technical marvel, and it’s a blockbuster with heart and soul in spades.” So yeah, he liked it. And the movie will undoubtedly continue to pick up praise, highly rumored to hit Telluride this weekend, and officially hitting TIFF next week before docking in theaters on October 4th.
Meanwhile, a different kind of adventure is on the way with “All Is Lost,” featuring Robert Redford front and center, by himself, struggling to survive. The movie comes from “Margin Call” director J.C. Chandor, and praise for this one out of Cannes was strong, with Jessica Kiang noting it’s “a taut, superbly crafted addition to the survival story genre.” Hitting Telluride and NYFF first, “All Is Lost” opens on October 18th.
Remember Paul Potts? No? Then you might not be British. He’s the reality TV singing sensation that made brief waves internationally but became more of a U.K. thing, but nonetheless he’s got his own biopic, “One Chance.” James Corden takes the lead role as the ordinary dude with opera singing skills to boot, and the new poster pretty much sells it as a big, (bland?) crowd pleaser. We’ll see the results at TIFF or, if you live overseas, in theaters on October 25th.
Lastly, Ti West is returning to scare you with “The Sacrament,” presented by none other than Eli Roth. Starring AJ Bowen (“The Signal,” “House of the Devil”), Amy Seimetz (“Tiny Furniture”), Kentucker Audley (“V/H/S”), and Gene Jones (“No Country for Old Men”) the story follows two Vice media correspondents (!?) who join some people looking for their missing friend and wind up on a compound run by a dude named “Father” and shit probably gets fucking weird. This will hit TIFF but no release date yet. [IMPA/Yahoo/EW]
