"We Can't Wait!" A 2007 Countdown

Over the next 10 days, this blog will be counting down 20 heavily anticipated movies that are arriving sometime this year. 'Anticipated by whom?', you ask. Well, rather than just blathering on in my usual style about what I want and what I need [cue Effie White soundbyte: "What about me-eee?"] I thought I'd mix it up this year. So I invited some buddies: ModFab, Joe Reid of Low Resolution, StinkyLulu, and My New Plaid Pants to add their voices to the "I can't wait" mix and we reached a top 20 compromise.

The three movies that were highest on my list that did not make the top 20 (curse those invitees!) were the following:

Savage Grace
What! How come this didn't make the list? I'm the only one who wants to see Julianne Moore in a psychologically f***ed up drama about a doomed heiress in the 70s? How can that be? Anyway. Not sure what to expect here. Tom Kalin, the man behind the camera, once made the excellent gay indie Swoon (1992). But this sophomore effort took him 15 years? He's been making only short films. The project has also gone through several cast changes (but always with Julie in the lead). What to expect, what to expect...

Julie plays Barbara Daly who 'married up'. Stephen Dillane, Nicole's hubby from The Hours is Mr. Baekaland with whom she has an unhappy relationship. She's also a little too, um, close to her only child. Her son is played by Eddie Redmayne (pictured --he should have been on my ubiquitous in 2007 list. He's co-starring in three Actress heavy efforts this year: this one, The Golden Age, and The Other Boleyn Girl). It all ends tragically. Can't wait!

Untitled Kimberly Peirce Project
For all of my issues with 'Beelzebub', which have been well documented on this blog, I love the film that made her a star: Boy's Don't Cry. It was an evocative despairing small town drama of life on the fringe. The director was a novice, but the film felt so well judged that I've anxiously awaited a second film. For 7 years now. Kimberly Peirce finally got another film made. It's a story of a soldier (Ryan Phillipe) who's come back from Iraq and refuses to return. A similar drama is playing out on television's Brothers & Sisters but I'm guessing the movie will go deeper. Ryan Phillipe and Channing Tatum (oh, Channing) are the principals I believe. Critical darling Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Brick, Mysterious Skin), Jay Hernandez (mmmm), Victor Rasuk (Raising Victor Vargas!) and Anthony Mackie (he's been in everything lately, hasn't he?) round out the rather amazing cast, a "who's who" of 20something Hollywood.


30 Days of Night
What can I say? I have a thing for vampires. You may have noticed. 30 Days... is based on the graphic novel of the same name by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith and it springs from a rather ingenious concept: What the hell do you do if you're attacked by vampires and there's no sunlight coming? I get scared just thinking about the concept. Maybe this is because I'm a wuss. But it's probably more because I've lived in a town myself (in Norway) where no sunlight was seen for days on end and let me tell you: it's maximum freaky.

This story takes place in Alaska and the protagonists are a husband and wife played by Josh Hartnett and Melissa George (yet another starlet from Australia) who you may have seen being terrorized in other gruesome movies like The Amityville Horror and Turistas. This girl is always getting herself terrorized! You can see more about the production of the movie here.

The countdown proper starts tomorrow!