It seems like we've been waiting for the feature film adaption of Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road forever now having been pushed back far too often with it finally reaching our eyeballs at the end of this year. Now usually when a film is shelved or pushed back people usually wonder if the final product was too awful for human consumption but that, strangely enough, has been absent from the discussion about this film. People want to see it no matter what it seems. It is still a few months away but Tom Chiarella over at Esquire has taken a peek at it and doesn't hold back on the praise. So for now my fears that the film just simply sucked and that was the reason for its delay have been put to rest for a while but it also makes you wonder why the hell it was done in the first place. My guess is Weinstein money problems with an incredible uncommercial and bleak film wanting to at least spread their losses a bit.
Take a gander at the review over at Esquire.com.
Well. That is encouraging! Been waiting with antici...............pation for this movie forever! I remember hoping it would be at TIFF 2008, and now not until August '09! Well, you can't rush quality...hopefully that's the case!
Either the poor reception of Grindhouse has put a damper on Weinstein's wallet and as a result, they couldn't pick up the tab to market their other films or its like you said before about them not having much faith on its commercial value. Its not a surprise really when considering their history of delaying and launching poor marketing campaign. Fanboys has been shelved for years and it got re-edited and then was given a limited theatrical release.
I'm surprise they didn't give Outlander a big push. The story of Vikings vs Alien has commercial written all over it and they gave it the lousy direct-to-DVD treatment. Its a shame really because its a solid enjoyable sci-fi flick that deserve a wide-theatrical release. I feel sorry for the guys who pour their heart into the film and then watch their baby not receive any sort of publicity because of their distributor screwing them over.
I'm just happy the Weinsteins haven't pulled it away from Hillcoat yet and completley retooled it themselves. I don't really trust Esquire and the article sounds like bought publicity, something the Weinsteins are good at as well as buying oscars.
But Travis Crawford with Fangoria/Independent Filmmaker magazine wrote some pretty amazing things on it and I know people doing color correction on it over at Shooters in Philadelphia (I'm only upset that I didn't know it was filming in PA, I woulda jumped at the chance to crew on it), and they say it's incredible.
But it should be noted that there were test screenings of the film that went TERRIBLE!
(SPOILER)..... One of the most memorable scenes in the book is when the father catches the man who stole their clothes and supplies off of the beach and father forces the man to strip naked and leaves him for dead. They casted a black man for the role. I don't nessecarily find anything inherently wrong with it. I do think it could be an intentional comment on race rather than being racist itself given Hillcoat's Propisition and its unflinching protrayal of the treatment of aboriginals in Austrailia.
But still, it pissed/really upset a lot of test audience viewers. You have a thieving, ebomic speaking/illiterate, cowardly black man stealing from a dying white man and his child and than begging/crying while being stripped nude. Not sure if that was the best choice of casting.
A lot of viewers also found the flashback scenes with Charlize Theron to be really intrusive/lame with wooden, expositional dialouge. I heard some even laughed at her scenes.
I'm still really, really stoked for this. There were production stills released back during shooting of the infamous "basement" scene and they BLEW me away. Can't find those anymore.
I do think the Weinsteins are scared of the dark material though. They bought the rights before the book was even published just to have em and then greenlit the movie almost immediately after it became an Oprah, book of the month club selection. Betcha they never read anything apart from the script treatments.
I wish the Weinstein Company would hurry up and die already.
I second Rhythm-X
and if the Weinstein's had actually seen Hillcoat's three previous films, they'd know he doesn't make em happy & family-oriented.