Release Date Change: Chuck Palahniuk’s Choke
Fox Searchlight has just informed us that the big screen adaptation of Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk’s Choke has been pushed back to September 26th 2008. When the company snapped up the film for a hefty $5 million at Sundance, they immediately announced an August 1st release date.
The last Friday of July/first Friday of August is Fox Searchlight’s magic date. They opened films like Little Miss Sunshine and Garden State in that calendar spot to much success. The plan usually is to open the film in a couple markets, slowly expand throughout August, and open wide in September. But for some reason, Searchlight has decided to move the release back to late September. And this might not be a bad move. This will give Choke breathing room from the other high-buzz late Summer indie releases like American Teen, Towelhead and The Wackness. Palahnuik also has a huge young adult following, so opening the film up right after College is back in session might help the film’s marketing strategy.
Official Plot Synopsis: Victor Mancini (Sam Rockwell), a sex-addicted med-school dropout, keeps his increasingly deranged mother, Ida (Anjelica Huston), in an expensive private mental hospital by working days as a historical reenactor. At night he runs a scam where he deliberately chokes in upscale restaurants to form parasitic relationships with the wealthy patrons who “save” him. When, in a rare lucid moment, Ida reveals that she has withheld the shocking truth of his father’s identity, Victor must enlist the aid of his best friend, Denny (Brad William Henke), a recovering chronic masturbator, and his mother’s beautiful attending physician, Dr. Paige Marshall (Kelly Macdonald), to solve this mystery before the truth of his possibly divine parentage is lost forever.
DGA and SAG Awards Announced
The award winners for the Directors Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild have been announced.
DGA AWARDS
Winner for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film 2007
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen - No Country For Old Men (Miramax Films/Paramount Vantage)
Winner for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary 2007
Asger Leth - Ghosts of Cite Soleil (Sony BMG Feature Films)
SAG AWARDS
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Daniel Day-Lewis / Daniel Plainview – There Will Be Blood (Paramount Vantage)
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Julie Christie / Fiona – Away From Her (Lionsgate)
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
Javier Bardem /Anton Chigurh – No Country For Old Men (Miramax Films)
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
Ruby Dee / Mama Lucas – American Gangster (Universal Pictures)
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
No Country for Old Men (Miramax Films)
Javier Bardem / Anto Chigurh
Josh Brolin / Llewelyn Moss
Garret Dillahunt / Wendell
Tess Harper / Loretta Bell
Woody Harrelson / Carson Wells
Tommy Lee Jones / Ed Tom Bell
Kelly Macdonald / Carla Jean Moss
Sundance Movie Review: Choke
I liked the last two Harry Potter films more than people who hadn’t read the books. I’ve also noticed that the only people that seemed to like The Da Vinci Code were those who had read the Dan Brown books. Is it because they were hardcore fans with too much time invested, or is it that they could fill in all the wonderful blanks which were cut to take the story to screen?
Chuck Palahniuk is my favorite author, and I’ve been waiting a long time to see Choke adapted to the big screen (and even longer for my Palahniuk favorite Survivor). Most people know Palahniuk as the author of Fight Club, which was adapted to the screen by David Fincher. A favorite of many people of my generation, Palahniuk has developed a huge cult following among young men and women. Choke is probably my fourth favorite book of the bunch, yet I’m shocked that this is the second movie adaptation. Especially considering the dark nature of the book which includes sex addiction and religious themes that is likely to upset any serious catholic.
Truth is that you couldn’t make Choke into a movie unless you did it independently on a small budget. And that is what they did. Made for $3.4 million, and filmed over the course of 25 shooting days in New Jersey, Choke looks nothing like Fincher’s film. I must admit, it doesn’t look like anything I ever imagined it would be, probably due to the budgetary limitations. That said, I loved every minute of this movie.
Sam Rockwell is everything I imagined Victor Mancini would and could be. He plays the part perfectly, and is the reason why this film works so well. Kelly Macdonald is wonderful as Paige Marshall. The cast is the best it ever could have been.
As a fanboy of the book, I’m finding it easier to voice my minor nitpicky complaints over offering up praise. So let me get through a couple of my issues. The book’s opening chapter is one of the best opening chapter’s I’ve ever read. The narrator attempts to convince the reader not to read the book. That his life is not worth reading about. I think they missed a huge opportunity by not translating this into a “Leave the theater now, shut off the DVD, this movie isn’t worth watching” opening voiceover. Also, writer/director Clark Gregg decided to abandon use of the voiceover shortly after the first act. I think this is a big mistake as the voiceover in the novel is one of the reasons it was so great. And this is evident in the sequences which involve voice over early on in the film. I’m not quite sure that the flashback sequences to Vincent’s childhood was well explained for those who had not read the book. And I also found some of the musical score (not soundtrack) to be too loud and corny. I hope they also get rid of the interstitial they use between flashbacks and flashfowards, as it seemed way too cheesy for this type of movie.
Choke shocks, offends, entertains and might even make you cry. Clark Gregg’s adaptation will please fans and non-fans alike. At only 85 minutes, I only wish the film could have been longer. I hope that some distributor has the guts (no pun intended) to pick this film up and give it a proper release.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Danny Boyle talks Trainspotting Sequel, Porno
It’s been 11 years since Trainspotting burst onto the scene. Scottish writer Irvine Welsh’s sequel titled Porno was released five years back. So will Sunshine director Danny Boyle ever get around to making the movie?
“That’s the thing. We’ve been given the rights to do the sequel to it, and there is a script - a very early script from John Hodge, the writer of the first one. And we got the idea of doing it, but it depends on [the actors] being quite a bit older than they are at the moment. They need to have a bit of age,” admitted the director to IGN. “Our take on it is, their headiness - these guys who lived at the absolute brink, felt they were invincible and felt they could abuse themselves to the absolute limit - suddenly hit middle age. They’re in their forties and they look it - but they don’t really look it, those actors, yet. They’re a bit moisturised up and looked after. So when they get a bit older, we’ll have a go at sassing it up a bit, yeah.”
Trainspotting starred Ewan McGregor (now age 35), Ewen Bremner (35), Jonny Lee Miller (34), Kevin McKidd (33), Robert Carlyle (45) and Kelly Macdonald (31).
Porno follows the characters of Trainspotting nine years after the events of the earlier book, as their paths cross again in, this time the pornography business being the backdrop rather than heroin use. The novel is divided into 3 sections, each of which comprises chapters with different narrators. Unlike Trainspotting which had more narrational diversity, Porno is reduced to just 5 narrators: Sick Boy, Renton, Spud, Begbie and Nikki.
If Boyle decides to make it, let’s hope he does it soon.