A couple of films fall off the release schedule this week, Paramount yanking the remake of The Gambler, in which Mark Wahlberg stands in for James Caan, as well as the surprisingly-funny-lookin’ Hot Tub Time Machine 2, saying “the marketplace is not conducive to the films’ release”. Easy to say while lying propped up on all that Fifty Shades cash while being fed grapes, we figure.
In more positive news, however, Rialto Distribution are bringing Florian Habicht’s awesome documentary Pulp: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets back to the big screen. Fresh from winning Best Music Film at the NME Awards in London, Pulp will play select cinemas in March, with Habicht taking part in Q&As about the film in Dunedin (March 17th), Wellington (March 19th) and Auckland (March 26th).
Rialto Distribution should also be encouraged to continue their moves to get a couple of intriguing genre films onto screens, with brilliant horror, and NZ International Film Festival fave It Follows looking like receiving an April release, while The Guest (from the makers of You’re Next and starring Downton Abbey‘s Dan Stevens) could be inviting itself into cinemas at any point – currently listed to release this year, but undated. Check out their respective trailers:
As one wag put it, “Fifty shades of grey-haired moviegoers send sex flick toppling from atop box office”. OK, that was us… But it sums up a transition in ticket sales from titillation to something a little more measured – and praised by Flicks’ Dominic Corry in his four-star review. Meanwhile, a few folks are still lapping up Jupiter Ascending, but as with other markets, its performance is falling well short of what this big budget sci-fi pic needs to be anything other than a massive financial disappointment. We considered it a bit of an artistic disappointment too…
Knights. Honor. Clive Owen, Morgan Freeman, and…. Cliff Curtis? More of you watched the trailer for Last Knights than anything else last week. Bring on the swords and speechifying! Wonder if Curtis will get a look-in on any medieval chess matches, or possibly just “burn the school down”? Yep, that last one makes more sense.
