2007 Fall Preview Top 20 picks: 4-1

Okay folks here we have it – the cream of the crop of this fall's movie going season. Coincidently 3 of the 4 picks have the potential to make some viewers squirm and actress Naomi Watts might be part of these nightmares. And now, without much further ado here are IONCINEMA.com's final four…

4. Eastern Promises
Release date: September 14th Limited Release/ Opens wide 21st

Screenwriters: Steve Knight
Director: David Cronenberg
Distributor: Focus Features 
Fests: 3 Falls fest back to back: Toronto, San Sebastián and opening London
Producers: Robert Lantos (Where the Truth Lies) and Paul Webster (Atonement)

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Movie Trailer: Click Here

The Gist: Penned by Steve Knight, this follows the mysterious and ruthless Nikolai (Mortensen), who is tied to one of London's most notorious organized crime families. His carefully maintained existence is jarred when he crosses paths with Anna (Watts), an innocent midwife trying to right a wrong, who accidentally uncovers potential evidence against the family. Now Nikolai must put into motion a harrowing chain of murder, deceit, and retribution.

Fact: Viggo and Cronenberg form a perfect union.

Odds against or odds in favor?: With The Sopranos off the air, there is a need for mafia-related narratives. The film expands on the 21st in a heavy week for varying tastes. This might find less of audience that A History of Violence.

See It: Steven Knight's screenplay for Dirty Pretty Things showed that in the underworld there is plenty of evil that lurks in hearts and minds of men (but not all men).

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3. Funny Games
Release date: October 26th Limited Release

Screenwriters: Original screenplay written by Haneke based on his own 1997 film. 
Director: Michael Haneke  
Distributor: Warner Independent Pictures  
Fests: Maybe the London film festival…but at this point nothing has been confirmed.
Producers: Chris Coen (Wristcutters: A Love Story) and Hamish McAlpine (Batalla en el cielo – as Executive Producer)

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Movie Trailer: No trailer available.

The Gist: This is an English-language remake of his 1997 film, but the setting will now be the Hamptons. The film is about a middle-class family on holiday who are terrorized by two young men.

Fact: The production crew used the blueprints from the 1997 original. The houseset in the 2007 American remake will have the same proportions as that of the 1997 set.

Odds against or odds in favor?: Despite whatever rating it has or will receive, this might be Haneke’s most commercial film only because Watts in on board. 

See It: Curiosity factor is extremely high. Why remake your own brilliant film and not change a thing?

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2. I'm Not There
Release date: November 21^st  Limited Release

Screenwriters: Haynes & Oren Moverman 
Director: Todd Haynes
Distributor: The Weinstein Company  
Fests: In main comp at Venice, followed by Toronto and NYFF.
Producers: John Goldwyn (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty), Jeff Rosen (No Direction Home: Bob Dylan), John Sloss (Starting Out in the Evening), James D. Stern (The Brothers Bloom) and Christine Vachon (From far Heaven).

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The Gist: Formerly going by the title of “I'm Not There: Suppositions on a Film Concerning Dylan”, this is a film about the life of Bob Dylan. The film follows seven characters, each embodying a different aspect of Dylan's life story and music. It's the first biographical feature project to secure the approval of the pop culture icon. The film is about the life of Bob Dylan's early days as a struggling folksinger, the rise to the forefront of the early-'60s folk scene, the controversial switch to rock, the motorcycle accident and the subsequent retreat from public view, and the latter-day de-emphasis of recording and concentration on the concert series known as the Never Ending Tour. Sounes somehow has uncovered some new information in that oft-scanned showbiz legend, mostly about Dylan's childhood and his jealously guarded family life. Some of it actually provides further insight into his songs, particularly those about his wife, Sara. Sounes also blows the lid off Dylan's heretofore unknown 1986 marriage to one of his backup singers. Each story expresses an aspect of Dylan's mercurial personality and each story is to be filmed differently, in a style appropriate to its theme: Woody (Franklin) – an 11-year-old black boy, always on the run; Robbie – a womanising performer, always on the road; Jude (Blanchett) – the young androgynous rock star; John/Jack (Bale) – a folk idol who reinvents himself as an evangelist; Billy (Gere) – the famous outlaw, miraculously alive but growing old.

Fact:  Dylan gave Haynes “carte blanche” – Dylan is very protective of his  life and musical rights.

Odds against or odds in favor?: Mass appeal for this title and Weinstein's might support the musical soundtrack and the artists on board is surreal.

See It:  Apart from the participation of a list long output of artists for the musical soundtrack and the novelty of having six actors play the music icon – see it because Todd Haynes is one of the most talented filmmakers around.

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1. No Country for Old Men
Release date: November 9th Limited Release

Screenwriters: Based on the Cormac McCarthy novel and adapted by Joel and Ethan.
Director: Coen Bros.
Distributor: Miramax Films  
Fests: Cannes, Toronto and New York Film Festival
Producers: Coens and Scott Rudin (The Darjeeling Limited)

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Movie Trailer: Click Here

The Gist: Based on the Cormac McCarthy's novel “Old Men”, The story begins when Llewelyn Moss (BROLIN) finds a pickup truck surrounded by a sentry of dead men. A load of heroin and two million dollars in cash are still in the back. When Moss takes the money, he sets off a chain reaction of catastrophic violence that not even the law – in the person of aging, disillusioned Sheriff Bell (JONES) – can contain. As Moss tries to evade his pursuers – in particular a mysterious mastermind who flips coins for human lives (BARDEM) – the film simultaneously strips down the American crime drama and broadens its concerns to encompass themes as ancient as the Bible and as bloodily contemporary as this morning's headlines.

Fact:  Title of the film is taken from W.B. Yeats' poem, “Sailing to Byzantium”.

Odds against or odds in favor?: The ratings board will make sure not everyone gets to see this film, but this is Miramax's top film of the year – especially with Javier Bardem's award-winning performance.

See It: Instant classic – up there with Blood Simple and Fargo as the Bros. best work. Should be among many critics top ten lists.

See you for the Holiday 2007 preview in November!