The number of films in November lightens up a bit, but the talent sure doesn’t. For the November portion of the 2012 Fall Movie Preview we’ll be taking a look at 15 films, but within those films there is some serious talent and box-office power to be accounted for.
We have the new James Bond film, the final chapter in the Twilight Saga, Steven Spielberg delivers his long-awaited Abraham Lincoln biopic and Ang Lee brings Yann Martel‘s “Life of Pi” to life. Stars such as Denzel Washington, Marion Cotillard, Daniel Day-Lewis, Keira Knightley, Daniel Craig, Kristen Stewart and Sean Penn are on display with directors that include the aforementioned Steven Spielberg and Ang Lee, Robert Zemeckis, Sam Mendes, Joe Wright, David O. Russell and Jacques Audiard.
Like I said, there may be fewer films, but there is talent to spare. Let’s take a look.
NOVEMBER 2
I just got done writing about the potential 2013 contenders for Oscar’s Best Animated Feature category and one of the films mentioned that I am really looking forward to is Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph, a video game-inspired, CG-animated feature centered on an 8-bit video game character that’s tired of being the villain so he escapes his own game and goes out on his own. When I first heard about the project I had my doubts, but I managed to catch the first trailer (watch it here) and it quickly won me over.
And without hesitation, we go from big animation to a couple of smaller releases with Bradley Rust Gray‘s lesbian werewolf feature Jack and Diane and This Must be the Place with Sean Penn hunting the ex-Nazi war criminal that executed his father. No, neither of these films are “traditional” but I’ll be damned if they don’t sound like they would make for one hell of a double-bill.
Getting a little closer to the mainstream we run into none other than Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA who is stepping into the director’s chair for what has to be a dream come true for the kung fu-loving rapper turned actor turned director. The film is The Man with the Iron Fists and not only was he able to direct and star in his own movie, he co-wrote it with Eli Roth and it’s being presented by Quentin Tarantino. Oh, yeah, and it features Russell Crowe as Jackknife and Lucy Liu as Madame Blossom. Yeah, this is a flick I have got to see.
Finally, we come to what may or may not be a solid Oscar contender as Robert Zemeckis puts away the performance capture animation techniques and gets back to live-action directing with Flight starring Denzel Washington. The film is set to close this year’s New York Film Festival and features Washington as an airline pilot who miraculously crash-lands his plane after a mid-air catastrophe, but as more is learned about the situation, more questions than answers arise as to who or what was really at fault, and what really happened on that plane?
People were excited about the trailer and some are predicting it may have a chance at an Oscar. I’ve added the trailer below, give it a look and wee what you think.
