Shared Darkness

Ryan McGarry’s Code Black, which debuted at the Los Angeles Film Festival last year, opens June 20 in New York City at the IFC Center and June 27 in Los Angeles at the Landmark Theater, before expanding throughout the summer in more than a dozen more cities. Turning up the knob on cinematic advocacy to 11, the film unfolds from 2008 through 2012, painting a fairly dire portrait of an American health care system on the verge of outright collapse. For my original review of the movie, click here; for a list of cities and dates, click here to visit the film’s Facebook page.

What producers Moustapha Akkad, Debra Hill and Irwin Yablans, writer-director John Carpenter and stars Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence started in 1978 has transformed into one of the most durable, iconic — and copiously studied — horror film franchises ever created. Over the years, audiences have lived and relived the terrors of Michael Myers through 10 feature films, as well as various re-edits and alternate versions. Yet to date, with rights spread across multiple home entertainment studios, the complete saga of Michael Myers could be told only in pieces, in individual DVD and Blu-ray releases.



Through the unprecedented collaboration of Anchor Bay Entertainment and Scream Factory, however, that changes on September 23, with the arrival of the Halloween: The Complete Collection Blu-ray box set. Alongside a 10-disc version that includes the original theatrical versions of the Halloween films and select bonus features, a deluxe edition release comes spread across a whopping 15 discs, with all of the Halloween feature films to date — Halloween, Halloween II, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Halloween H20, Halloween: Resurrection, and Rob Zombie‘s Halloween and Halloween II. In addition, the latter set includes the never-before-released producers’ cut of Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, as well as the ultra-rare network TV version of the original Halloween, the network TV version of Halloween II, and unrated versions of Zombie’s Halloween and Halloween II.

Again, bonus content from previous releases is ported over, but among the hours of brand new bonus features are updated interviews with cast and crew from the entire franchise. In response to years of fan feedback, the first Halloween will now also include an option for the original mono audio track. The 15-disc release comes with a limited edition 40-page book written by Michael Gingold of Fangoria Magazine; collectible packaging will include a newly commissioned illustration on the outer case, with each film separately stored in its own black Blu-ray case with complementary original theatrical one-sheets as their key art.

Multi-hyphenate Livia De Paolis’ directorial debut, Emoticon 😉 (yep, smiley face included), which played Dances With Films last year, opens this week in New York and Los Angeles, via Indican Pictures. For a reset of my previous review, click here; for more information on the film in general, click here to visit its website.

I’m in Iowa tonight, and among the films playing at the Julien Film Festival this weekend are the tender, poetic My Sister’s Quinceañera and Dear Mr. Watterson, a documentary look at the creator of the beloved Calvin & Hobbes comic stip. Having already met some delightful filmmakers and reconnected with other folks, I’ll be shortly plotting out a screening schedule, and diving into all things Field of Dreams as well.

In what is unsettling news for Stephen Colbert, the DisneyNature doc Bears opens tomorrow. For my earlier review, from Screen Daily, click here.

Frank Pavich’s engaging documentary Jodorowsky’s Dune, about French-Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s mid-1970s attempts to adapt Frank Herbert’s sprawling science-fiction novel to the screen with the participation of folks like Salvador Dali, Orson Welles, David Carradine and Mick Jagger, opens this week in New York City and Los Angeles, and in doing so reaffirms that we can be celebrated for the manner in which we conduct ourselves in defeat. In Los Angeles, look for it at the Landmark Theatre. For my earlier review, click here.

Director Robert Nathan’s NC-17-rated Lucky Bastard, a fairly clever little indie film that marries the popular but well-worn “found footage” framing device to a prurient storyline, re-opens this Friday, March 7, at the Laemmle NoHo 7. For my original review, click here.

Elizabeth Banks, who helped originate the idea for the fizzy, fun Pitch Perfect, and had a costarring role in the $113 million worldwide-grossing 2012 hit, will make her feature-length directorial debut with its sequel, according to the Wrap and other outlets.

Seaworld has recently stepped up its response to the documentary Blackfish (robbed of an Oscar nomination, by the way), so now director Gabriela Cowperthwaite, along with the filmmakers of The Cove, has challenged SeaWorld to a debate.

Zombies are seemingly everywhere. In addition to anchoring one of the country’s most popular television series in The Walking Dead, in just the last 14 months they’ve done big-screen battle with British East-Enders in Cockneys vs. Zombies, served as the backdrop for a funky tale of blossoming young love in Warm Bodies, been given the John Hughes treatment in Detention of the Dead, worked their way into a hijacked indie film production in Zombie Hamlet, and chased Brad Pitt to the highest theatrical receipts of his career in the form of World War Z.

It’s only fitting, then, that they also inspire a tale of obsessive twentysomething romance taken too far. After all, what are zombies if not the perfect metaphor for that lurking, ever-present ex-significant other who will just… not… leave… you… alone? Burying the Ex, scripted by Alan Trezza and directed by Joe Dante, is that tale. The movie centers on Max (Anton Yelchin), whose ex-girlfriend Evelyn (Ashley Greene) dies and then becomes reanimated. Along with the attendant desire for human flesh, though, she also wants to get back together — idealizing their relationship and taking her zombified state as little more than a sign that their love is meant to be, as Outkast would say, forever-ever. Understandably, this complicates things for Max, with both his new girlfriend Olivia (Alexandra Daddario) and just his life in general.

On a balmy day this past December that represented part of the home stretch of this independent production’s 20-odd day principal photography schedule, I had a chance to visit the set of Burying the Ex, tucked away in a small studio just off a Los Angeles freeway, to observe filming and chat with cast and crew. For some thoughts on the experience, trip on over to ShockYa, by all means.

Sad but hardly unexpected news, the passing today of Peter O’Toole at 81 years of age, after a protracted illness. The lanky, sonorous-voiced actor, an infamous off-screen hell-raiser as well, was of course best known for Lawrence of Arabia, for which he received the first of his eight Academy Award nominations (while never notching a win, a record). But his filmography is deep with other characters brimming with the same sort of wide-eyed intensity he brought to T.E. Lawrence — and his life in general, it seemed.

There’s not much to say about the sudden and altogether tragic passing of Paul Walker yesterday, as a passenger in a single car accident in Santa Clarita, except that it seems extra shocking and senseless, presumably unattached as it was to any sort of riskier behavior. He was best known for the hugely popular and profitable Fast and Furious franchise, of course, but for me Wayne Kramer’s underrated Running Scared was always one of the best uses of Walker’s talents. I had a chance to interview Walker a couple times, and he had an easygoing charm and candor that stood in contrast to the demeanor of his of peers who’d accomplished a lot less. He was a simple and straightforward guy — he liked to surf, and spend time with his daughter — who had no problem sharing dark family anecdotes to illuminate a point in conversation.

A nice documentary that throws a spotlight on the overlooked profession of casting directors by way of celebrating Marion Dougherty and Lynn Stalmaster, director Tom Donahue’s Casting By opens in Los Angeles tomorrow, November 8, exclusively at the Laemmle Royal. For a gander at my previous review, click here.

Tom Donahue’s Casting By, a documentary that throws a warm and deserving spotlight on casting directors, opens in New York City this Friday, at the Film Society Lincoln Center, Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center and the Cinema Village. For a look at my previous review, click here.

A well acted little indie, and a character study about damaged souls whose orbits begin to exert a further destabilizing influence upon one another, director Nate Taylor’s Forgetting the Girl, starring Christopher Denham and Anna Camp, sees release this week — opening in New York City and Los Angeles (at the Downtown Independent), as well as across VOD platforms. For more information on the movie, click here to visit its website; for my previous review, click here.

The Future Starts Here, a new AOL original series from Tiffany Shlain, Webby Awards founder and an acclaimed filmmaker in her own right, will bow on October 11, it was announced today. For more information, click here.

The fourth film in the Jurassic Park franchise, Jurassic World, has laid claim to June 12, 2015 as its release date, the Wrap and other outlets reported today, following Universal’s press-release announcement of the same. Colin Trevorrow, in a big step up, budget-wise, from the delightful Safety Not Guaranteed, will direct the action adventure from a screenplay written in tandem with Derek Connolly.