Exclusive: The hot movie package du jour is Scandalous! This is a drama that has Jeremy Pope — freshly minted Emmy nominee for the Netflix series Hollywood — to play Sammy Davis Jr and Janet Mock (Hollywood and Pose) to direct a drama about the interracial love affair between the entertainer and actress Kim Novak, who at the time was the top box office draw in Hollywood.
Pic will be produced by Jonathan Glickman, who is producing the upcoming Aretha Franklin film Respect, and Jon Levin. Glickman has an MGM deal and Mock one at Netflix, but they are shopping this one wide and the plan is to shoot this fall in Los Angeles and set it up with a distributor as they are locking an actress to play Novak. Mock, who is writer, director and EP on both Hollywood and Pose, will polish the script by Matthew Fantaci.
The drama is...
Pic will be produced by Jonathan Glickman, who is producing the upcoming Aretha Franklin film Respect, and Jon Levin. Glickman has an MGM deal and Mock one at Netflix, but they are shopping this one wide and the plan is to shoot this fall in Los Angeles and set it up with a distributor as they are locking an actress to play Novak. Mock, who is writer, director and EP on both Hollywood and Pose, will polish the script by Matthew Fantaci.
The drama is...
- 7/30/2020
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Danish documentarian Michael Madsen’s The Visit premiered in Sundance and chronicles humanity’s first hypothetical meeting with extraterrestrial life.
The Visit utilises interviews with experts from Nasa, United Nations and the Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Seti) Institute to support a realistic thesis of how an interaction between Earth and an alien race would play out. The interaction is primarily told through the eyes of the alien race.
“It is not difficult to predict that the encounter with alien intelligent life would be the single most significant event in human history,” said Madsen.
“However, the real task for The Visit is to venture beyond this question and discover, what such an encounter would really mean… [the film] is the dress rehearsal, the emergency plan, that the United Nations has voiced concerns about not being in existence. From more earthly experiences we know what can happen when cultures find themselves alien to each other.”
Random Media plans...
The Visit utilises interviews with experts from Nasa, United Nations and the Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Seti) Institute to support a realistic thesis of how an interaction between Earth and an alien race would play out. The interaction is primarily told through the eyes of the alien race.
“It is not difficult to predict that the encounter with alien intelligent life would be the single most significant event in human history,” said Madsen.
“However, the real task for The Visit is to venture beyond this question and discover, what such an encounter would really mean… [the film] is the dress rehearsal, the emergency plan, that the United Nations has voiced concerns about not being in existence. From more earthly experiences we know what can happen when cultures find themselves alien to each other.”
Random Media plans...
- 5/6/2015
- ScreenDaily
He was once labeled “a man so great he needed two names” on The Hills. But when Us Weekly editor Rachel McRady sat down with Justin Bobby Brescia in an East Village coffee shop on a freezing New York City day, he was much friendlier and more animated in person than his reality TV, metaphor-spouting persona of years past. With his sincere passion for both hair cutting and his new two-man band, Bobby Rock (@bobbyrockmusic), Brescia, now 32, is nothing like the man who supposedly broke Audrina [...]...
- 3/6/2015
- Us Weekly
The distributor has acquired Us rights to Camilla Dickinson and The Jokesters.
Cornelia Duryée Moore’s Camilla Dickinson (pictured) stars Adelaide Clemens as the sheltered daughter of a well-heeled Manhattan clan in 1948 who meets a rebellious young man.
Gregg Sulkin, Cary Elwes, Samantha Mathis, Margaret Colin, Camryn Manheim and Robert Picardo also star in the adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s novel of the same name.
Random Media svp of acquisitions Bobby Rock negotiated the deal with producer Larry Estes. Camilla Dickinson premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2012.
Aj Wedding’s 2014 comedy-horror The Jokesters centres on a group of pranksters whose farewell surprise on a departing member spirals out of control.
Rock brokered the deal with Eastgate Pictures president Ronna Wallace on behalf of Reinventing Films.
Cornelia Duryée Moore’s Camilla Dickinson (pictured) stars Adelaide Clemens as the sheltered daughter of a well-heeled Manhattan clan in 1948 who meets a rebellious young man.
Gregg Sulkin, Cary Elwes, Samantha Mathis, Margaret Colin, Camryn Manheim and Robert Picardo also star in the adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s novel of the same name.
Random Media svp of acquisitions Bobby Rock negotiated the deal with producer Larry Estes. Camilla Dickinson premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2012.
Aj Wedding’s 2014 comedy-horror The Jokesters centres on a group of pranksters whose farewell surprise on a departing member spirals out of control.
Rock brokered the deal with Eastgate Pictures president Ronna Wallace on behalf of Reinventing Films.
- 2/20/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
For the first time ever, Toronto International Film Festival along with Telefilm Canada had a pre-Toronto reception for the trade. Held at Soho House on a flawless L.A. day, with views of West Hollywood and Beverly Hills all the way to the Pacific Ocean, the trade had the happy hours to greet and catch up with each other and to preview trailers of the films Canada will be showing at the festival. And best of all, Tiff gave everyone a 2 lb. 4 oz. catalog (even more than one to gift to other colleagues) to take home instead of having to pack them into our suitcases to take back from Toronto.
Maybe it’s the drought here in L.A. that gives me the yearning for rain, but the films on my must-see list include a couple about rain: the Tiff Doc, “Monsoon” by Surla Gunnarsson and “October Gale” by Ruba Nadda (“Cairo Time”) starring Patricia Clarkson and Scott Speedman, a Special Presentation being sold by Myriad.
Canada has the most coproduction treaties of any other nation, and Seoul Korea is the chosen city in this year’s City to City program. The coproduction between Canada and So. Korea, “In Her Place” by writer-director Albert Shin, showing in the Discovery Section looks very compelling. Elle Driver is selling this drama about a wealthy couple secretly seeking to adopt the unborn child of an impoverished and troubled rural teenager.
Other trailers we watched included Contemporary World Cinema entries, “Felix and Meira” by Maxime Giroux, being sold by Udi – Urban Distribution International, “Love in the Time of Civil War” by Rodrigue Jean (Isa: Les Films du 3 Mars) and “Heartbeat” by Andrea Dorfman.
In Midnight Madness, “The Editor” looks pretty good. Park Entertainment is selling it. Xavier Dolan, Bruce Greenwood and Catherine Keener star in “Elephant Song” by Charles Biname which is a Special Presentation. Another Special Presentation is “Preggoland” by Jacob Tierney (“The Trotsky”).
Trailers from Discovery included “Guidance”, the debut film by Pat Mills, “Big Muddy”, “The Valley Below” by Kyle Thomas, “Wet Bum” by Lindsay Mackay, (Isa: Traction Media), “Backcountry” by Adam MacDonald, (Isa: Event Film Distribution, Us: contact Cinetic), “Bang Bang Baby” a surreal, fever-dream fusion of small-town musical and 1950s sci-fi debut feature which writer-director Jeffrey St. Jules developed from his own short at the Cannes Film Festival Residence Program.
Peter Goldwyn of The Samuel Goldwyn Company and Matt Dentler of iTunes, talked up the unprecedented (for a foreign language film) success reaching the top 20 films on iTunes of “ The German Doctor” directed by Lucia Puenzo.
Paul Federbush and I spoke of new horizons of the international labs of Sundance Institute. Sundance Industry’s Rosy Wong introduced me to Lisa Ogdie, Sundance Ff’s Shorts Programmer. Strand’s Marcus Hu, who has two films in the festival (Films Distribution’s “Girlhood” and Pyramide’s “Xenia”) was there, Frank Wuliger looking at the Gersh trailer of “October Gale”, Rebecca (Bec) Smith of UTA as were so many others.
New acquisitions gigs were discussed: Bobby Rock looking for international sales agent,Cinema Management Group ( Dene Anderberg, Cmg’s VP of Sales and Operations, was also there schmoozing) and for Random Media, the new U.S. distribution company founded by Eric Doctorow (formerly head of Paramount Home Video) in November 2013, which will release films through Cinedigm.
Telefilm and Tiff have held a similar soiree for four years in NewYork. I’m sure Andrew Karpen, former Co-ceo of Focus Features, who is launching the new distribution company Bleecker Street was there in N.Y.
Rachel Shapiro, also happily working on many projects at once and her friend, producer Melanie Backer, Laurie Woodrow of RightsTrade a global online marketplace for film, television and digital rights licensing whose “Market On Demand” streamlines film, television, and digital rights sales and acquisitions for content owners, sales agents and distributors who can reach thousands of industry buyers, and buyers can search, screen, and license rights from sellers of thousands of titles.
Bonnie Voland with her hands full for Im Global and its many lines, reminisced with Carolle Brabant, Executive Director of Telefilm Canada and Brigitte Hubmann of Telefilm about the five (!) regimes of the Toronto International Film Festival she has known…from before Helga Stephenson all the way to Cameron Bailey who was there talking up the upcoming festival and hearing peoples’ raves or rants.
Also reminiscing with Brigitte about their days at Goethe Institut was Margit Kleinman who is now director of Villa Aurora, the artist-in-residence program for artists in Germany housed in the Pacific Palisades former home of German émigré, the novelist Lion Furchtwanger. I didn’t have time to ask if they would host the German Academy Award party this year for their submission for Best Foreign Language film, Dominik Graf’s “Beloved Sister”. Since its premiere at the Berlinale this year, international sales agent Global Screen has sold the rights to Music Box for U.S. who will release it in December, and to Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Poland and Croatia thus far.
Our dear friend, Ian Birnie, programmer for Mumbai Film Festival and the Louisiana International Film Festival was there with so many others. It was a wonderful moment to catch up and to forget the pressure we are all under preparing our screenings and meetings for Tiff.
Even though he wasn’t there, I want to mention a brief interchange I had with producer rep Cassian Elwes of Elevated Film Sales, who is repping “Black and White” with Kevin Costner and co-repping the Paul Bettany movie with Jennifer Connelly, “Shelter”, with UTA at Tiff. “In Venice I have Bogdanovich’s ‘She's Funny that Way’ which is in a three way split between me, CAA and UTA and Joe Dante's movie ‘Burying the Ex’ which I'm doing with CAA.”
Steven Raphael and Mj Pekos were fronting for the reception and also are repping “Voiceover” and “Dark Horse” at Tiff.
There was no need to show trailers to the buzz films like the Gala film “Foxcatcher”, which has Oscar expectations are already swirling around it and which premiered in Cannes and is being sold by Kimberly Fox’s Panorama Media and Annapurna (already sold to Sony Pictures Classics for U.S. as well as to Canada-Métropole Films Distribution and Mongrel Media Inc., France-Mars Films, Germany-Koch Media Gmbh, Japan-Longride Inc. So. Korea-Green Narae Media, Switzerland-Ascot Elite Entertainment Group, Taiwan-Long Shong International, United Kingdom- Entertainment One Uk. The film has already earned Bennett Miller the Best Director prize at Cannes.
Another not previewing was Benedict Cumberbatch starring in the much talked about Alan Turing biopic “ The Imitation Game”, and his portrayal of the legendary British code breaker and mathematician is generating talk of a Best Actor nod at this year's Academy Awards. FilmNation is repping this and has already sold it to The Weinstein Company for U.S., Belgium to Paradiso Filmed Entertainment, Greece to Seven Films, Hong Kong (China) to Edko Films Ltd, Israel to Lev Films (Shani Films), Italy toVidea - Cde S.P.A., Japan toGaga Corporation, So. Korea to Medialog Corp., Sweden to Svensk Filmindustri, Ab, Switzerland to Ascot Elite Entertainment Group, Taiwan to Applause Entertainment Ltd. Taiwan Branch, Thailand to M Pictures Co., Ltd.
Two other hot films are Lone Scherfig's “The Riot Club” repped by Hanway and already sold to Universal Pictures for No. America, Belgium-Lumière, France-Selective Films, Germany-Prokino Filmverleih Gmbh, Hong Kong (China)-Golden Scene Company Limited, Italy-Notorious Pictures, Benelux-Lumiere, Poland-Kino Swiat, Switzerland-Pathe Films Ag, United Arab Emirates-Front Row Filmed Entertainment and the U.K. Kingdom-Universal Pictures International and Noah Baumbach's “ While We're Young”, produced by Scott Rudin and repped by FilmNation (again!), with no sales on record yet.
See Cameron Bailey on CBC News discussing Tiff:
Video | TIFF2014: 4 buzz-worthy films at the fest If you want to know more about sales in Toronto, please check back with www.SydneysBuzz.com/Reports for the Toronto By Numbers Report and after the festival for the Toronto Rights Roundup.
Maybe it’s the drought here in L.A. that gives me the yearning for rain, but the films on my must-see list include a couple about rain: the Tiff Doc, “Monsoon” by Surla Gunnarsson and “October Gale” by Ruba Nadda (“Cairo Time”) starring Patricia Clarkson and Scott Speedman, a Special Presentation being sold by Myriad.
Canada has the most coproduction treaties of any other nation, and Seoul Korea is the chosen city in this year’s City to City program. The coproduction between Canada and So. Korea, “In Her Place” by writer-director Albert Shin, showing in the Discovery Section looks very compelling. Elle Driver is selling this drama about a wealthy couple secretly seeking to adopt the unborn child of an impoverished and troubled rural teenager.
Other trailers we watched included Contemporary World Cinema entries, “Felix and Meira” by Maxime Giroux, being sold by Udi – Urban Distribution International, “Love in the Time of Civil War” by Rodrigue Jean (Isa: Les Films du 3 Mars) and “Heartbeat” by Andrea Dorfman.
In Midnight Madness, “The Editor” looks pretty good. Park Entertainment is selling it. Xavier Dolan, Bruce Greenwood and Catherine Keener star in “Elephant Song” by Charles Biname which is a Special Presentation. Another Special Presentation is “Preggoland” by Jacob Tierney (“The Trotsky”).
Trailers from Discovery included “Guidance”, the debut film by Pat Mills, “Big Muddy”, “The Valley Below” by Kyle Thomas, “Wet Bum” by Lindsay Mackay, (Isa: Traction Media), “Backcountry” by Adam MacDonald, (Isa: Event Film Distribution, Us: contact Cinetic), “Bang Bang Baby” a surreal, fever-dream fusion of small-town musical and 1950s sci-fi debut feature which writer-director Jeffrey St. Jules developed from his own short at the Cannes Film Festival Residence Program.
Peter Goldwyn of The Samuel Goldwyn Company and Matt Dentler of iTunes, talked up the unprecedented (for a foreign language film) success reaching the top 20 films on iTunes of “ The German Doctor” directed by Lucia Puenzo.
Paul Federbush and I spoke of new horizons of the international labs of Sundance Institute. Sundance Industry’s Rosy Wong introduced me to Lisa Ogdie, Sundance Ff’s Shorts Programmer. Strand’s Marcus Hu, who has two films in the festival (Films Distribution’s “Girlhood” and Pyramide’s “Xenia”) was there, Frank Wuliger looking at the Gersh trailer of “October Gale”, Rebecca (Bec) Smith of UTA as were so many others.
New acquisitions gigs were discussed: Bobby Rock looking for international sales agent,Cinema Management Group ( Dene Anderberg, Cmg’s VP of Sales and Operations, was also there schmoozing) and for Random Media, the new U.S. distribution company founded by Eric Doctorow (formerly head of Paramount Home Video) in November 2013, which will release films through Cinedigm.
Telefilm and Tiff have held a similar soiree for four years in NewYork. I’m sure Andrew Karpen, former Co-ceo of Focus Features, who is launching the new distribution company Bleecker Street was there in N.Y.
Rachel Shapiro, also happily working on many projects at once and her friend, producer Melanie Backer, Laurie Woodrow of RightsTrade a global online marketplace for film, television and digital rights licensing whose “Market On Demand” streamlines film, television, and digital rights sales and acquisitions for content owners, sales agents and distributors who can reach thousands of industry buyers, and buyers can search, screen, and license rights from sellers of thousands of titles.
Bonnie Voland with her hands full for Im Global and its many lines, reminisced with Carolle Brabant, Executive Director of Telefilm Canada and Brigitte Hubmann of Telefilm about the five (!) regimes of the Toronto International Film Festival she has known…from before Helga Stephenson all the way to Cameron Bailey who was there talking up the upcoming festival and hearing peoples’ raves or rants.
Also reminiscing with Brigitte about their days at Goethe Institut was Margit Kleinman who is now director of Villa Aurora, the artist-in-residence program for artists in Germany housed in the Pacific Palisades former home of German émigré, the novelist Lion Furchtwanger. I didn’t have time to ask if they would host the German Academy Award party this year for their submission for Best Foreign Language film, Dominik Graf’s “Beloved Sister”. Since its premiere at the Berlinale this year, international sales agent Global Screen has sold the rights to Music Box for U.S. who will release it in December, and to Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Poland and Croatia thus far.
Our dear friend, Ian Birnie, programmer for Mumbai Film Festival and the Louisiana International Film Festival was there with so many others. It was a wonderful moment to catch up and to forget the pressure we are all under preparing our screenings and meetings for Tiff.
Even though he wasn’t there, I want to mention a brief interchange I had with producer rep Cassian Elwes of Elevated Film Sales, who is repping “Black and White” with Kevin Costner and co-repping the Paul Bettany movie with Jennifer Connelly, “Shelter”, with UTA at Tiff. “In Venice I have Bogdanovich’s ‘She's Funny that Way’ which is in a three way split between me, CAA and UTA and Joe Dante's movie ‘Burying the Ex’ which I'm doing with CAA.”
Steven Raphael and Mj Pekos were fronting for the reception and also are repping “Voiceover” and “Dark Horse” at Tiff.
There was no need to show trailers to the buzz films like the Gala film “Foxcatcher”, which has Oscar expectations are already swirling around it and which premiered in Cannes and is being sold by Kimberly Fox’s Panorama Media and Annapurna (already sold to Sony Pictures Classics for U.S. as well as to Canada-Métropole Films Distribution and Mongrel Media Inc., France-Mars Films, Germany-Koch Media Gmbh, Japan-Longride Inc. So. Korea-Green Narae Media, Switzerland-Ascot Elite Entertainment Group, Taiwan-Long Shong International, United Kingdom- Entertainment One Uk. The film has already earned Bennett Miller the Best Director prize at Cannes.
Another not previewing was Benedict Cumberbatch starring in the much talked about Alan Turing biopic “ The Imitation Game”, and his portrayal of the legendary British code breaker and mathematician is generating talk of a Best Actor nod at this year's Academy Awards. FilmNation is repping this and has already sold it to The Weinstein Company for U.S., Belgium to Paradiso Filmed Entertainment, Greece to Seven Films, Hong Kong (China) to Edko Films Ltd, Israel to Lev Films (Shani Films), Italy toVidea - Cde S.P.A., Japan toGaga Corporation, So. Korea to Medialog Corp., Sweden to Svensk Filmindustri, Ab, Switzerland to Ascot Elite Entertainment Group, Taiwan to Applause Entertainment Ltd. Taiwan Branch, Thailand to M Pictures Co., Ltd.
Two other hot films are Lone Scherfig's “The Riot Club” repped by Hanway and already sold to Universal Pictures for No. America, Belgium-Lumière, France-Selective Films, Germany-Prokino Filmverleih Gmbh, Hong Kong (China)-Golden Scene Company Limited, Italy-Notorious Pictures, Benelux-Lumiere, Poland-Kino Swiat, Switzerland-Pathe Films Ag, United Arab Emirates-Front Row Filmed Entertainment and the U.K. Kingdom-Universal Pictures International and Noah Baumbach's “ While We're Young”, produced by Scott Rudin and repped by FilmNation (again!), with no sales on record yet.
See Cameron Bailey on CBC News discussing Tiff:
Video | TIFF2014: 4 buzz-worthy films at the fest If you want to know more about sales in Toronto, please check back with www.SydneysBuzz.com/Reports for the Toronto By Numbers Report and after the festival for the Toronto Rights Roundup.
- 9/1/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Echo Bridge Entertainment has acquired Slamdance documentary audience award winner My Name Is Faith. Separately, Phase 4 Films and Samuel Goldwyn Films will team up on The Short Game.
Jason Banker, Jorge Torres-Torres and Tiffany Sudela-Junker directed the story of a tough young teenager who suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Ptsd) and Reactive Attachment Disorder (Rad
Echo Bridge plans a worldwide digital and TV release in early 2014 after Bobby Rock and Cj Laychak negotiated the deal with Ebe executive producer Jonathan Dana and attorney Michael E Morales.
Phase 4 Films and Samuel Goldwyn Films announced on Friday [9] that the companies are jointly releasing Emmy award-winning director Josh Greenbaum’s The Short Game on 20 September.
The Short Game follows seven-year-old golfers and their families as they participate in the World Championships of Junior Golf. Josh Braun of Submarine represented the filmmakers in the deal.
Jason Banker, Jorge Torres-Torres and Tiffany Sudela-Junker directed the story of a tough young teenager who suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Ptsd) and Reactive Attachment Disorder (Rad
Echo Bridge plans a worldwide digital and TV release in early 2014 after Bobby Rock and Cj Laychak negotiated the deal with Ebe executive producer Jonathan Dana and attorney Michael E Morales.
Phase 4 Films and Samuel Goldwyn Films announced on Friday [9] that the companies are jointly releasing Emmy award-winning director Josh Greenbaum’s The Short Game on 20 September.
The Short Game follows seven-year-old golfers and their families as they participate in the World Championships of Junior Golf. Josh Braun of Submarine represented the filmmakers in the deal.
- 8/10/2013
- ScreenDaily
Echo Bridge Entertainment (Ece) has acquired the rights to "My Name is Faith," a documentary from filmmakers Jason Banker, Jorge Torres-Torres and Tiffany Sudela-Junker and executive producer Jonathan Dana that garnered the Audience Award at this years Slamdance Film Festival. The doc chronicles the life of Faith, a 13-year-old adopted child who suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Reactive Attachment Disorder, and her struggle to heal from the trauma inflicted on her by her birth mother and develop trust for her new adoptive parents. "We were incredibly moved by this film, and have no doubt that its story of family challenges and inspirational love will resonate across the globe," said Echo Bridge Entertainment's Bobby Rock. Echo Bridge plans to release the film on television and digital platforms in early 2014, working in accordance with Sudela-Junker on her national tour of speaking engagements and targeted, non-theatrical educational outreach. ...
- 8/9/2013
- by Clint Holloway
- Indiewire
Bobby Rock has joined Echo Bridge Entertainment to head its acquisitions efforts.
Echo Bridge chairman, president and CEO Michael Rosenblatt said the company, with new financing arranged by JPMorgan Securities, is looking to acquire feature films, TV series and film libraries for domestic and international distribution.
Rock, who most recently headed American Zoetrope’s Los Angeles offices, will be assisted by Leonard Shapiro, a consultant to the acquisitions team.
Founded in 2003, Echo Bridge Entertainment acquires content for sale and distribution to theaters, television networks and stations, home entertainment, cable, VOD and the Internet.
The company owns or controls a library of more than 3,600 titles. In 2007, Echo Bridge shipped more than 15 million DVD units.
Echo Bridge chairman, president and CEO Michael Rosenblatt said the company, with new financing arranged by JPMorgan Securities, is looking to acquire feature films, TV series and film libraries for domestic and international distribution.
Rock, who most recently headed American Zoetrope’s Los Angeles offices, will be assisted by Leonard Shapiro, a consultant to the acquisitions team.
Founded in 2003, Echo Bridge Entertainment acquires content for sale and distribution to theaters, television networks and stations, home entertainment, cable, VOD and the Internet.
The company owns or controls a library of more than 3,600 titles. In 2007, Echo Bridge shipped more than 15 million DVD units.
Opens
Friday, Aug. 29
As he demonstrated with his 2001 sleeper "Jeepers Creepers", writer-director Victor Salva can establish spine-tinglingly creepy atmosphere with the best of them.
The problem once again remains an inability to sustain those de rigueur elements of tension and suspense much beyond those first 20 minutes.
Even with a bigger budget at Salva's disposal, "Jeepers Creepers 2" will still save seat edges from excessive wear and tear.
It looks great and the special effects are decent, but its scare tactics leave a lot to be desired.
Given the Labor Day weekend placement, the MGM release should attract a substantial young male audience looking for some last-gasp-of-summer kicks, but the picture's shortage of both terror and gore will likely keep it from doing much more business than its predecessor.
Having already established the grotesque Creeper character in all his Gothic, bat-winged, razor-taloned glory (picture a cross between Freddy Krueger and a pterodactyl), Salva cuts to the chase for the next chapter, which pretty much picks up where the original left off.
Still hungry after 22 days of its feeding frenzy and with a scant 24 hours remaining before it goes into hibernation until the next 23rd spring, the Creeper (played by Jonathan Breck and a whole lot of special effects makeup) makes an early appearance posing among a cornfield full of scarecrows.
It's a terrific, grotesque image (effectively shot by Don E. FauntLeRoy) and, up until he/it drags a boy (Shaun Fleming) screaming through the tall golden stalks before sweeping the prey up into the late-afternoon sky, one holds out hope that "JC2" might have the stuff to go the distance.
But then the action shifts -- more or less permanently -- to a school bus of particularly irritating varsity basketball players and cheerleaders en route home from a championship game.
Instantly taking to the meals-on-wheels concept, the creature selectively dines out on the captive students, and any remaining inventiveness and suspense has exited quicker than the air in the stranded vehicle's tires.
In constraining much of the film to inside that bus, Salva was evidently going for a bit of Hitchcock's "Lifeboat" to accompany "The Birds" motif. But while it may have minimized location setups, the concept gets old really quickly, and it certainly doesn't help matters when those bickering kids are so annoying that the Creeper can't seem to pluck them away fast enough.
By the time Billy's farmer dad (an amusing Ray Wise) shows up with his reconfigured post hole puncher in a bid to stop the creature in his tracks, "Jeepers Creepers 2" is already creeping to a tiresome close.
Jeepers Creepers 2
MGM
United Artists presents
in association with Myriad Pictures
an American Zoetrope production
A Victor Salva film
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Victor Salva
Producer: Tom Luse
Executive producers: Francis Ford Coppola, Bobby Rock, Kirk D'Amico, Lucas Foster
Director of photography: Don E. FauntLeRoy
Production designer: Peter Jamison
Editor: Ed Marx
Costume designer: Jana Stern
Visual effects supervisor: Joanthan Rothbart
Special effects makeup: Brian Penikas
Music: Bennett Salvay
Cast:
Taggart: Ray Wise
The Creeper: Jonathan Breck
Billy Taggart: Shaun Fleming
Scott Braddock: Eric Nenninger
Deaundre "Double D" Davis: Garikayi Mutambirwa
Minxie Hayes: Nicki Aycox
Andy "Bucky" Buck: Billy Aaron Brown
Rhonda Truitt: Marieh Delfino
Chelsea Farmer: Lena Cardwell
Running time -- 106 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Friday, Aug. 29
As he demonstrated with his 2001 sleeper "Jeepers Creepers", writer-director Victor Salva can establish spine-tinglingly creepy atmosphere with the best of them.
The problem once again remains an inability to sustain those de rigueur elements of tension and suspense much beyond those first 20 minutes.
Even with a bigger budget at Salva's disposal, "Jeepers Creepers 2" will still save seat edges from excessive wear and tear.
It looks great and the special effects are decent, but its scare tactics leave a lot to be desired.
Given the Labor Day weekend placement, the MGM release should attract a substantial young male audience looking for some last-gasp-of-summer kicks, but the picture's shortage of both terror and gore will likely keep it from doing much more business than its predecessor.
Having already established the grotesque Creeper character in all his Gothic, bat-winged, razor-taloned glory (picture a cross between Freddy Krueger and a pterodactyl), Salva cuts to the chase for the next chapter, which pretty much picks up where the original left off.
Still hungry after 22 days of its feeding frenzy and with a scant 24 hours remaining before it goes into hibernation until the next 23rd spring, the Creeper (played by Jonathan Breck and a whole lot of special effects makeup) makes an early appearance posing among a cornfield full of scarecrows.
It's a terrific, grotesque image (effectively shot by Don E. FauntLeRoy) and, up until he/it drags a boy (Shaun Fleming) screaming through the tall golden stalks before sweeping the prey up into the late-afternoon sky, one holds out hope that "JC2" might have the stuff to go the distance.
But then the action shifts -- more or less permanently -- to a school bus of particularly irritating varsity basketball players and cheerleaders en route home from a championship game.
Instantly taking to the meals-on-wheels concept, the creature selectively dines out on the captive students, and any remaining inventiveness and suspense has exited quicker than the air in the stranded vehicle's tires.
In constraining much of the film to inside that bus, Salva was evidently going for a bit of Hitchcock's "Lifeboat" to accompany "The Birds" motif. But while it may have minimized location setups, the concept gets old really quickly, and it certainly doesn't help matters when those bickering kids are so annoying that the Creeper can't seem to pluck them away fast enough.
By the time Billy's farmer dad (an amusing Ray Wise) shows up with his reconfigured post hole puncher in a bid to stop the creature in his tracks, "Jeepers Creepers 2" is already creeping to a tiresome close.
Jeepers Creepers 2
MGM
United Artists presents
in association with Myriad Pictures
an American Zoetrope production
A Victor Salva film
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Victor Salva
Producer: Tom Luse
Executive producers: Francis Ford Coppola, Bobby Rock, Kirk D'Amico, Lucas Foster
Director of photography: Don E. FauntLeRoy
Production designer: Peter Jamison
Editor: Ed Marx
Costume designer: Jana Stern
Visual effects supervisor: Joanthan Rothbart
Special effects makeup: Brian Penikas
Music: Bennett Salvay
Cast:
Taggart: Ray Wise
The Creeper: Jonathan Breck
Billy Taggart: Shaun Fleming
Scott Braddock: Eric Nenninger
Deaundre "Double D" Davis: Garikayi Mutambirwa
Minxie Hayes: Nicki Aycox
Andy "Bucky" Buck: Billy Aaron Brown
Rhonda Truitt: Marieh Delfino
Chelsea Farmer: Lena Cardwell
Running time -- 106 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 9/18/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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