TITLE: Black & White
Release Date: Summer 2013
Director: Michael Ray
It's been a few years since an interracial dating film has hit Hollywood and this one comes in the form of a visually provocative drama from first time filmmaker Michael Ray, a young music video/commercial director from New York. The small budget 2 hour and 15 minute long feature film stars mostly unknowns but has already caught the attention of the industry for it's fresh vision and take on what was once controversial material. According to the director, who also wrote the film loosely based on his own life story, "The goal is to get audiences comfortable with black men and white women on screen together in romantic and sexual situations. You don't see that very much in movies. It's always white couples and that's not a realistic depiction of the dating scene today in the world. And the way we're shooting it is very, very avante garde and aggressive. As crazy as it sounds my biggest visual influences were Tony Scott's "Domino", Steven Soderbergh's "The Girlfriend Experience", 90's R&B music videos, and Mark Romanek's iPod commercials, haha. I'm using all my music video tricks on this one. Think Spike Lee meets Spike Jonze." The rated R drama focuses on a black man in his late 20's living in New York with an obsession for finding love from a white woman, the multiple women in his life, and the dark places he goes to satisfy this need. "I wanted that 'Michael Fassbender goes to the gay nightclub in Shame' moment" says Ray. "I wanted the audience to physically become ill when they see what he does after all the women in his life leave him. It's not a love story. It's not a happy ending. It's a story about addiction and the lengths someone will go to feed that addiction. Many of the characters we follow in the movie are addicted to something, not just our lead. Every good drug addiction movie has that rock bottom moment in the story when you truly see how pathetic the character has become. White women are his drug and this movie has that moment."
TITLE: Booked Out
Release Date: May 2013
Director: Bryan O'Neil
Written and directed by newcomer Bryan O’Neil, Booked Out is a low-budget comedy drama about a young artist, Ailidh, who spies on her neighbours in her block of flats using a polaroid camera, and builds a relationship with boy-next-door Jacob and a woman convinced her dead husband is still with her.
Those turned off by the signifiers of indie quirk (typewriters, girls with pixie-ish haircuts wearing berets, jaunty acoustic guitar, comic books and Juno-style typography) may want to give this one a miss, but we’re very much looking forward to seeing what O’Neil’s promising debut has to offer.
Release Date: August 2013
Director: David L.G. Hughes
Hard Boiled Sweets (formerly known as Crikey Villains) comes from former editor David L.G Hughes, who’s written, directed and edited the picture. Set amongst a group of criminals all of whom are targeting the same suitcase of loot in Southend, Essex, the film’s title references the US hard-boiled crime novels it’s taken inspiration from (why does that ring a bell? We’re thinking Pulp… Pulp something?).
As a stylised gangster tale with seriously good character posters and a strong visual identity, comparisons with Tarantino and Guy Ritchie are perhaps inevitable for Hughes’ film. What’s piqued our interest though are the character nicknames Hughes has opted for, with gangsters going by the name of The Gobstopper, Sherbet Lemon, The Rhubarb and Custard and more. Tasty.
Universal picked up distribution rights to Hard Boiled Sweets late last year.
TITLE: Hunky Dory
Release Date: TBD
Director: Marc Evans
From the duo behind Welsh relationship drama Patagonia comes Hunky Dory, a 1970s Swansea-set feel-good drama starring Minnie Driver as a secondary school teacher attempting to put on a David Bowie-infused rock opera version of Shakespeare's The Tempest.
Marc Evans’ film previewed at the 2011 London Film Festival where some received it as a post-Glee take on the small town themes of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s Cemetery Junction. Since then the picture has been involved in extensive re-edits but a few positive test screenings have given the filmmakers enough courage to finally release the movie. If that sounds like your cup of tea, Hunky Dory comes out on general release in 2013.
Release Date: April 2013
Director: Jonathan Glendening
The ironic joke title may have worn thin, and but that hasn’t stopped people from using it. Strippers vs. Werewolves is yet another comedy horror which requires little explanation: there will be strippers, there will be werewolves. Wouldn’t you have thought everyone would have learnt their lesson with Lesbian Vampire Killers?
We thought it was worth a mention though for its quality film geek casting, with lead roles going to Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund, and Lyssa from Krull (a.k.a Lysette Anthony) with supporting parts filled by Martin Kemp, Page 3 girl Lucy Pinder and Hollyoaks’s Ali Bastian. Possibly not a keeper, this one.
TITLE: Trishna
Release Date: March 2013
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Nominated for Best Film at the 2012 London Film Festival (losing out to Lynne Ramsay’s well-deservingWe Need to Talk About Kevin), Michael Winterbottom’s Trishna transplants the story of Thomas Hardy’sTess of the D’Urbervilles to modern day India.
Slumdog Millionaire’s Freida Pinto plays the updated Tess character opposite Four Lions’ Riz Ahmed as the new take on Alec D’Urberville. Since premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival last September, Trishna has picked up critical praise and marks Winterbottom’s third adaptation of a Thomas Hardy novel, after 1996’s Jude and 2000’s The Claim.
