Pixar Delays The Good Dinosaur and Finding Dory to 2015 and 2016

Since 2006, Pixar Animation Studios has been churning out film after film after film. Some have been sublimely good (see: Ratatouille, Up, Wall E) and some may have slightly missed the mark for some (see: Cars 2) but whatever the case was, it was treat to see a Pixar film on the release calendar.

Next year however, there will be no Pixar film out in theaters due to two developments this summer.  The Good Dinosaur was supposed to release on May 30, 2014 but as director Bob Peterson has stepped down from the project, the film will now release on November 25, 2015. No new director has been named yet and co-director Peter Sohn, Mark Andrews, Lee Unkrich and John Lasseter will oversee things until then.  

This has happened before in the studio’s history, most recently with 2012’s Brave when original director Brenda Chapman was replaced with Mark Andrews.  Story is king at Pixar and they will leave no stone unturned to make sure the film they want to release is up to their standards.  Toy Story 2 (1999) was scrapped in totality and it still remains (in my opinion, the best animated sequel ever).  This is not worrying at all. I’d be worried if Peterson had left and the film still released next May.

But what happens to the film that was supposed to release on November 25, 2015? That would be a big little film called Finding Dory.  The anticipated sequel of Finding Nemo might be facing a few script changes. In early August, there were stories that Blackfish director Gabriela Cowperthwaite had shown the film at Pixar and the documentary's content caused the heads at Pixar to rethink their ending that involved the fish ending a marine park similar to Sea World, which is featured in Blackfish.  This too would push production back a bit. Now the film will release on June 17, 2016.

At the D23 expo in early August, Disney unveiled the voice cast for Finding Dory with actors Diane Keaton and Eugene Levy as Dory’s parents, Ty Burrell as a whale (remember Dory can speak whale) along with returning cast Ellen DeGeneres and Albert Brooks as Dory and Marlin.  Meanwhile, The Good Dinosaur voice cast features John Lithgow and Frances McDormand as Poppa and Momma, Bill Hader, Neil Patrick Harris and Judy Greer as their kids and Lucas Neff as the lead Arlo.

While it will be strange not to see a Pixar film at your theaters next year, it leaves the door wide open for other animation studios to step up their games in an open field.  As for the two films themselves, despite this delay, I'm sure they'll bounce back quickly. 

12 Years A Slave is TIFF Audience Award Winner!

And so it begins.  Unofficially, Oscar season begins this early with several big name films that screened at the big North American festivals, Telluride and Toronto.  Today, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) announced their winners of the festival, the most important of them being the audience award winner.  Last year's winner was Silver Linings Playbook which was nominated for Best Picture and Director and its leading lady, Jennifer Lawrence, won the Best Actress Oscar.  The runner up? A little movie named Argo that eventually ended up winning Best Picture! 

This year, the popular award goes to Steve McQueen's 12 Years A Slave starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender and Brad Pitt.  The runners up are Philomena and Prisoners.  Qissa, directed by Anup Singh and starring Irrfan Khan and Tillotome Shome, was also recognized winning for best Asian film from a first or second time director.

Here are the rest of the winners: 

• BlackBerry People's Choice Award: 12 Years a Slave
• Runners Up: Philomena & Prisoners
• BlackBerry People's choice Documentary Award: The Square
• Runners Up: Hi-Ho Mistahey! & Beyond the Edge
• BlackBerry People's Choice Midnight Madness Award: Why Don't You Play in Hell?
• NETPAC Award for World or International Asian Film Premiere: Qissa
• Prize of the International Critics (FIPRESCI) for Special Presentations: Ida
• Grolsch Film Works Discovery Award (FIRPRESCI): The Amazing Catfish
• The City of Toronto + Canada Goose Award for Best Canadian Feature Film: When Jews Were Funny
• Best Canadian First Feature: Asphalt Watches
• Best Canadian Short: Noah
• Grolsch Film Works Discovery Award: All The Wrong Reasons

Around the World in Posters: The Book Thief, Her, The Monuments Men and more!

 

Poster for Markus Zusak's novel adaptation The Book Thief. One of my favorites in the past few years, hoping the film adapts the book's themes well.

 J.C. Chandor's All is Lost starring Robert Redford - Basically Life of Pi for old people and without the tiger!

Simple words on the poster for Her, A Spike Jonze Love Story. 

Daniel Radcliffe has left Harry Potter far, far behind. Here he is in Kill Your Darlings as Allen Ginsberg.

 Directed by Oscar-magnet George Clooney, the all-star cast features Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Cate Blanchett, Jean Dujardin and of course, Clooney.  It's The Monuments Men.

Philomena is in my top 5 of movies I want to see by the end of this year. 

The always lovely Judi Dench and Steve Coogan star.

 Thor (Chris Hemsworth) vs. some guy. 

Actually it's Daniel Bruhl as Niki Lauda in Ron Howard's F1 racing thriller Rush.

In his fantasies, Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) can go anywhere. 

Welcome to The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

You had me at Mark Ruffalo.  The poster for Thanks for Sharing featuring Ruffalo,
Tim Robbins, Gwyneth Paltrow, Josh Gad, Pink and Joel Richardson.

The first film made in Saudi Arabia by a woman with a young lead who enters a competition 

so she can win a green bicycle. I'm definitely rooting for Wadjda.

JK Rowling and Warner Bros. Team Up for More Movies

This is unexpected news but still thoroughly delightful.  A mere two years after the last Harry Potter film, we fans mourned the end of an era.  We consoled ourselves with the possibility of 'that Scottish book', a rumored Harry Potter encyclopaedia that would reveal all.  Meanwhile, JK Rowling went on to write other novels, last year's A Casual Vacancy and a secret crime novel, The Cuckoo's Calling, published under a pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

Today, Warner Bros. and JK Rowling announced they were teaming up again to bring more movies set in the wizarding world.  This time, JK Rowling is turning screenwriter for the first film based on one of the school books written for charity relief, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. 

Here's what Rowling had to say:

“It all started when Warner Bros. came to me with the suggestion of turning Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them into a film. I thought it was a fun idea, but the idea of seeing Newt Scamander, the supposed author of Fantastic Beasts, realized by another writer was difficult. Having lived for so long in my fictional universe, I feel very protective of it and I already knew a lot about Newt. As hard-core Harry Potter fans will know, I liked him so much that I even married his grandson, Rolf, to one of my favourite characters from the Harry Potter series, Luna Lovegood. As I considered Warners’ proposal, an idea took shape that I couldn’t dislodge. That is how I ended up pitching my own idea for a film to Warner Bros. Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for 17 years, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world. The laws and customs of the hidden magical society will be familiar to anyone who has read the Harry Potter books or seen the films, but Newt’s story will start in New York, 70 years before Harry’s gets underway. I particularly want to thank Kevin Tsujihara of Warner Bros. for his support in this project, which would not have happened without him. I always said that I would only revisit the wizarding world if I had an idea that I was really excited about and this is it.”

 Just think of the possibilities... And now we await for further casting and release details!

Sequel Update: Jurassic World, Pirates of the Caribbean 5 and The Avengers: Age of Ultron!

(Photo: Entertainment Weekly)

• Dinosaurs are coming back to rule the world in the summer of 2015 with the fourth film in the franchise.  Jurassic World releases in theaters July 12, 2015. The team behind one of my favorite films of this year, Safety Not Guaranteed, director Colin Trevorrow and writer Derek Connolly
• Disney drops one blockbuster in its 'year-that-can-do-no-wrong' by moving the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean to summer 2016.  Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales was originally due to release in the crowded market of 2015 but as the film is facing script issues, it has been pushed back.  The directors of the Oscar-nominated Kon-Tiki are set to captain the ship and Jack Sparrow aka Johnny Depp will also return.  No other cast has been announced as yet although I think it's time they brought back Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley). 
• The Avengers: Age of Ultron will feature Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and rest of the Avengers facing off against James Spader! Yup, that's who's been cast as main villain Ultron in the next saga of the Marvel powerhouse will hit theaters May 1, 2015.

Whatever Happened To... Renée Zellweger?

Remember Renée Zellweger who became a household name after starring with Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire (1996) and uttering those unforgettable words, “You had me at hello.”? 

Her breakout role led to more high-profile roles with big names stars such as One True Thing (1998) with Meryl Streep and Me, Myself and Irene (2000) with Jim Carrey.  She was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Actress for Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) and Chicago (2002) before eventually winning a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the civil war saga Cold Mountain (2006).  Her Oscar nomination for Bridget Jones’s Diary was a triumph in every way; very rarely do actors get nominated for comedic performances.  It was also the rare case of an American nailing the very difficult British accent.

More parts came but didn’t do much for Zellweger.  She played Russell Crowe’s wife in Ron Howard’s Cinderella Man (2005) and portrayed author Beatrix Potter in 2006’s Miss Potter.  The movies on her resume after that are quite forgettable including the George Clooney directed Leatherheads (2008).  Her last film release was My Own Love Song (2010) which played at the Tribeca Film Festival that year. 

What’s next for Zellweger? The third Bridget Jones book, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is due out this fall.  Will Zellweger’s name be considered when and if the book is commissioned for a movie? Time will only tell. The recent years haven’t been kind towards Renee who has quietly stepped into the shadows. There used to be a time when she was up for most A-list roles. For now, IMDb lists her sole project (also her directorial debut) as 4 ½ Minutes (2014) starring herself, Johnny Knoxville and Ed Harris.

Update: Ever since her much talked about return to the red carpet, Zellweger is back in the news. She is currently filming The Whole Truth co-starring Keanu Reeves and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. The film is due for 2015 release. That's not all, she also has another film due next year, Same Kind of Different as Me along with Jon Voight, Greg Kinnear and Djimon Hounsou. Welcome back Renée! We missed you.

Movie Review: Ship of Theseus

It took me a while to write down this review mainly because this is the kind of film that requires you to introspect after you've seen it. Anand Gandhi's Ship of Theseus is the story of three different protagonists whose struggles will make you question what would you do if you were in their places?

We are first introduced to Aaliya (Aida Elkashef), a young Egyptian photographer who just happens to be blind.  She shoots images based on sound and instinct; the results are these wonderful slices of life that would be vastly different if a sighted photographer were to take them.  Aaliya turns her photographs in highly contrasted vectorized images that she can feel by hand.  While in Mumbai, she undergoes an eye transplant that allows her to see again.  At first, she is overjoyed.  She can see her family, her boyfriend, her art and so much more. But how will her photography be affected now that she can see?

The second story focuses on a monk Maitreya (Neeraj Kabi) who is pursuing a legal case against animal testing in India, something he believes very strongly in.  However, when he himself is diagnosed with liver cirrhosis and has to resort to taking medication that might very well be tested on animals.  This section of the film has some stunning visuals but also some very difficult scenes to watch as Maitreya struggles with his decision.

And finally, the final story is the film is about a stockbroker Navin (Sohum Shah) who just undergone a kidney transplant.  When Navin comes across a poor man who has his kidney stolen through an appendix operation, he goes to many lengths to make sure he gets justice. The film asks us through the characters about our beliefs and social conscience (if we do have one).  

The film opens with the story of the actual ship of Theseus. If piece by piece, all the parts of a ship are replaced, is it still the same ship? Or has it been irrevocably changed forever? You will be thinking of this film and its characters long after you leave the theater.  This movie has stayed with me still. Ship of Theseus is the best Indian film I have seen this year and it makes me so glad to think that films like this can exist.  Indian films are not just about Bollywood only. We have so many stories to tell.  I can't wait to see what story Anand Gandhi will tell us next. 

Written and Directed by Anand Gandhi; Written by Anand Gandhi, Pankaj Kumar, Khusboo Ranka; Cinematography by Pankaj Kumar; Edited by Adesh Prasad, Sanyukta Kaza, Satchit Puranik; Music by Naren Chandavarkar and Benedict Taylor

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