Solomon Kane - Poster is out for Robert E Howard's non-barbarian hero

I have been looking forward to the Solomon Kane film for a long time. Word has it the Michael J. Bassett directed film is badass with James Purefoy doing a great job in the title role.

The film also stars Pete Postlethwaite, Max von Sydow, and Rachel Hurd-Wood.

How cool does it look? I can't wait.

Source: FSR

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Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island - Trailer

The story of two U.S. marshals, Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), who are summoned to a remote and barren island off the cost of Massachusetts to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a murderess from the island's fortress-like hospital for the criminally insane.

But nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is what it seems. And neither is Teddy Daniels. Is he there to find a missing patient? Or has he been sent to look into rumors of Ashecliffe’s radical approach to psychiatry? The closer Teddy and Chuck get to the truth, the more elusive it becomes, and the more they begin to believe that they may never leave Shutter Island. Because someone is trying to drive them insane. . .

Directed by Scorsese this is looking very good and a bit Hitchcockian methinks.

As well as the two main leads it also stars Ben Kingsley, Emily Mortimer, Michelle Williams, Max von Sydow, and Jackie Earle Haley. Let me know what you think of the trailer.

Could this be in the running for an Oscar?

Discuss in the forum or leave a comment below.

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Solomon Kane - It is finished and has been seen. Sounds hardcore nasty

Way back in September 2008 I posted some lovely pieces of concept art for a Solomon Kane movie. Being a fan of Robert E Howard's work I was very excited to see a film being developed for the 17th Century Puritan.

Then in December, the teaser poster was released and James Purefoy was mentioned as playing Kane.

After that we had to wait until February 2009 for an update from the director, Michael Bassett.

Since then it has been quiet on the Solomon front. Until now.

Harry Knowles over on AICN has seen the film and loved it. Here is a little of what he had to say.

SOLOMON KANE begins with an awesome shot of two great buccaneer style ships shelling the hell out of a strange Moorish city. We see English buccaneers and adventurers killing Moors as they make their way to find a great treasure of some kind.

The man in front is a man possessed. Cutting men down like they're nothing. He's enjoying what he's doing and it is bloody, it is brutal, it is tough. As they make their way into the heart of this great kingdom, there's a hall of black mirrors at weird angles - and as he and his men make their way through - demons begin grabbing the men into the mirrors... And as Solomon makes his way, alone, to the main chamber - something belched from Hell is waiting. Satan's Reaper (see the concept art below). And this reaper has come for an evil man's soul. An evil man named SOLOMON KANE.

This ties in with the synopsis I posted a while back.

We next find Solomon Kane living the life of a monk essentially. Completely and painfully dedicated in utter repentance to GOD. So intensely so that he scares nearly everyone there. The Abbott had a vision that God wanted Solomon Kane to go forth in the world and return home.

His body is covered with sacred symbols and his back branded with a crucifix that covers his entire back. It's brutal. this isn't modern scarification. This is curdled skin. You only see it in this brief sequence, but it is the image of a man that has tormented his body as he can only imagine his soul would be tormented for eternity. He does not wish to go to hell.

NOW - something you should know - throughout everything this film is BEAUTIFULLY SHOT. Not with filters and bullshit color tones - No. This film feels dirty, feels frigidly cold, life does not look easy. The actors don't look like actors with shiny white teeth and perfect hair. They look like people that have lived lives without air-conditioning, dentistry, exact surgeons and doctors. No - this is a hard time in life. If you've ever read Robert E Howard's stories about SOLOMON KANE you get a picture of the world he inhabited.

This film is an origin and an introduction to SOLOMON KANE. When Solomon's violence is unleashed, it is brutal and doesn't feel choreographed so much as it is what is required in the given situation. He uses the weapons of the period, musket style hand guns and swords. He throws himself into battle without regard for his safety or those he fights. And make no doubts about it, the evil in this world is true evil.

My favorite demonstration of this is a little village they come across. There's a stake in the middle of the village - and surrounding it are all these dead bodies. They all had their eyes burnt out from the inside out. Holy hell, this is evil looking. They surmise that they were attempting to burn a witch at the stake and she killed all that were attempting to watch her die. This ain't the fucking CRUCIBLE - this is the world of SOLOMON KANE!

Evil is real and thank god we have Solomon Kane out there in it.

Now - about the performances - they're all dead on. James Purefoy is a movie star. His Solomon Kane is the animal we wish Wolverine was in fights. He's fantastic as Kane. He sells everything about the character - this isn't a film about one liners and unbelievable action. This is the purest film introduction to a new screen star since I saw George Clooney in FROM DUSK TIL DAWN. I had the exact same feeling watching Purefoy here.

And so is everyone else... Pete Postlethwaite, Alice Krige, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Max von Sydow (wow), Jason Flemyng, Mackenzie Crook... everyone. They all sell this story so well.

There is lots more in Harry's article, but it does sound like it could well be an incredible piece of film, dark, moody, nasty and full of adventure. I really cannot wait to see some footage from it.

Are you excited about the Solomon Kane film?

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Shutter Island - Teaser poster for Martin Scorsese's next film

RopeofSilicon user “Friends of Eddie” last sent in scans from Cahiers du Cinéma’s January 2009 edition with a diary written by Argentinean filmmaker Celine Murga based on her experiences on the set of Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island and today he returns with a piece of teaser art from the film scanned out of the Berliner Zeitung newspaper as part of a story about TMG/Concorde, the film’s distributor.

Since it is a scan you can slightly see some of the words bleeding through on the lighter areas but for the most part it is a top quality image, but I can’t help get the feeling it is still an early piece of artwork since the font used to write “Whatever happened to patient 67?” on the wall is just a generic font and isn’t exactly up to final art quality.

Shutter Island is currently due out on October 2 and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Max von Sydow, Patricia Clarkson, Emily Mortimer and Jackie Earle Haley. The official site is also live, but merely with placeholder information.

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Three Days of the Condor, 1975 - Movie Review

Director: Sydney Pollack
Starring: Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Max Von Sydow, Cliff Robertson
Running Time: 117 minutes
Score: 8 / 10

This review by Johnnyboyz. Spoilers ahead for this brilliant film

Whatever meek fondness I had for the Bourne films prior to seeing Three Days of the Condor has almost all but vaporised and this is due to the engrossing and engaging film that is Three Days of the Condor, an espionage film made at a time when espionage was at the peak of its existence and when film-making was, arguably, film-making. It's easy to see the film now and recognise with the added aid of history what it was trying to say. It's also easy now to point out more recent films that have been influenced by it. But I feel Three Days of the Condor is one of those films that most people should see for this reason alone; for the reason that you don't need a cut a second approach to get across the feeling of urgency and it is possible to write a film that doesn't have its protagonists always rely on technology.

The 'Condor' of the title refers to Robert Redford's character and how earlier examples of the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time can still seem afresh. Joseph Turner (Redford) leaves his post at a CIA run building which scans and analyses most written texts in the world for secret, encrypted clues. Here is the film setting up its predominant theme of suspicion. At a time when the East and the West were at loggerheads, the CIA must recruit people to read and scan seemingly random books in order to uncover clues and conspiracies, most of which will not even be present. It's this sort of paranoid, 'reading too much into something' atmosphere and situation the film carries the entire time. This is aided by the films constant air of ambiguity shown toward who Turner's character can trust and who he cannot. But the film establishes this hero as a problem solver, albeit a solver for problems and equations that perhaps don't exist before placing him in this situation where a massive problem has erupted and he must deal with it – we as an audience feel he is up to the task.

Then there are the little things you notice thanks to viewing it in the 21st Century. Back in the day when narratives and screenplays actually needed brains and couldn't rely on technology and modernity, films like this were made. When Turner discovers the initial incident in his office building, he cannot use a cell phone so runs to the nearest phone booth. He has to actually get a grip of the situation, leave the establishment without giving anything away and then calmly find a public phone. Likewise later on, when he catches up Kathy Hale (Dunaway) he must wait for the news to start at a certain time. At this point, she doesn't trust him and he has to use his brain to devise a way to keep her from escaping while he can rest and wait for the news. In today's post-modern environment, a 24 Hour News Channel would've cured the problem in a second and we would've been robbed of a scene that not only furthers the forced intimacy of Turner and Hale but one that also enhances Turner's intellectual qualities as he thinks up a solution to his problem of resting/waiting.

These sorts of things are a far cry to the junk we have produced today when technology and gadgets do it for the characters. Take Michael Mann's 2006 stinker 'Miami Vice' and look at how cell phones and laptops do most of the work as the two lead stars strut about with blank expressions on their faces. Then there are the times when you realise this film has been done more recently but with lesser success. The CIA chase idea; the not knowing who's your enemy and who's your friend and more noticeably the character of Hale in this film who's character later resurfaces in The Bourne Identity under the guise of Franka Potente's German character Marie. But Three Days of the Condor retains a certain mysterious atmosphere, it cuts back on itself but when it does so, it never feels like a gimmick and nor do you feel cheated out of an action set piece or a character's death. The primary strand the film has going is its USA vs. USA ideas, especially brave during The Cold War. As a hero, Turner is a blonde haired, upstanding guy who doesn't seem as if he'd hurt anyone and he battles a massive organisation on his own. Then there is the secondary strand running parallel with this involving Dunaway's character and her relationship with Turner which covers all the areas you'd expect it to but it never becomes the primary focus. There is dialogue, there are scene involving just the two of them and they do make love on one occasion but it never overtakes the espionage: they are here, this is what happens, this is how they feel and then 'bang', we move on.

Furthermore, I think the film's other theme as opposed to hunting and looking for things that elude certain individuals is that of watching and point of view. Hale comments that Turner has the sort of eyes which 'don't look away'. They are 'kind' eyes and this scenes while furthering the feeling between the two once again highlights the film's primary ideas about point of view and the constant looking, searching and finding of someone or something. The scene seems unnecessary bar to further the relationship but as I said, the film never gets distracted with the romance and thus even the scenes that seem most obvious in doing so are actually linked with strand one. With a brooding atmosphere, good performances from talent you'll recognise and a series of themes, Three Days of the Condor is a winner.

Then there is this snippet from Rockwell Lestrange

The film ends up being incredibly ironic and a foreshadow for the future of the American government when Redford puts everything together and realizes that everything that's happened is due to oil.

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