Category: Trailers

SPOILER ALERT: NBC’s Politically Charged The Event is … Another Alien Invasion Thriller?

By Jason Apuzzo. A few weeks ago we posted about NBC’s new series The Event, which seems to feature a variety of narrative elements with political overtones.  Specifically, we analyzed the extended trailer for the series (above), and picked out these prominent elements from it:

• Heroic, charismatic young black President.

• CIA conspiracy involving illegal detainees.

• A secret detention facility in Alaska

• Some sort of 9/11-type event (i.e., world-changing, clash-of-civilizations-type encounter)

• A 9/11-type suicide attack with a plane targeting the President

Since that time, there’s been a considerable amount of on-line speculation on the series.  Much of this has to do with the fact that NBC showed the pilot episode of The Event at Comic-Con. See reviews of the pilot episode here, and a review of the pilot screenplay here.

***SPOILERS AHEAD***

'Sophia Macguire' from NBC's "The Event."

The most interesting thing that’s been ‘spoiled’ about the series is that The Event may be another of the many sci fi invasion projects we’ve been posting about here all summer. New York Magazine recently let the cat out of the bag on this one (see here and here). The key element tipping everybody off to the sci-fi component of the series seems to be that the airplane seen hurtling, kamikaze-style toward the President at the end of the trailer above (and at the end of the pilot episode) apparently vanishes into thin air, ostensibly as a result of some advanced/alien sci-fi-type technology. This mid-air vanishing of the plane, however, is not the series’ ‘event’ itself according to the show’s producer, but merely indicative of things to come. For more details, you can find out a lot about the show at a new site called The Event Log.

We’ve been talking all summer here at Libertas about how science fiction projects are currently becoming the ‘accepted’ medium by which filmmakers in both Hollywood and the indie world are dealing with our current wars, and domestic political anxieties. Indeed, I had what I considered to be a very interesting exchange recently on this subject with my friend Patrick Goldstein over at the LA Times. It appears that The Event may be continuing this overall trend of ‘politicized’ sci-fi.

NBC flacks handing out 'secret dossiers' about "The Event" at Comic-Con.

One of the really interesting bits of speculation on the new series concerns the nature of the ‘detainees’ in the series’ Alaska detention center – the same center that our heroic young President fights the CIA in order to open. [I’m trying to image where NBC got that plotline … but I just can’t think of any real world examples. :)] Much of the speculation centers around whether the detainees are either: human visitors from the future, aliens, or human visitors from the future who’ve had contact with aliens.

The leader of this group of detainees is a sober-looking, middle-aged woman named ‘Sophia Macguire’ (played by actress Laura Innes; she’s in the trailer above). Here’s a little insight, from someone who’s written a few screenplays: whenever you have a sober-looking, middle-aged female character named ‘Sophia’ (a name meaning ‘wisdom’) you can rest assured that this character will be used within the storyline to impart some choice nugget of wisdom to the main hero – in this case the President. It’s usually a sure thing in these types of stories.

So expect The Event to present a scenario for its viewers in which the ‘wisest’ character in the show, who knows the most, is a detainee at a secret CIA facility. Well! Isn’t that an interesting plotline in our post-Guantanamo world?

We don’t know many details about this Sophia Macguire character other than what’s in the trailer, but below is a very interesting transcript of a fake, ‘top secret’ document on The Event that some NBC employees (dressed as Secret Service Agents) were handing out at Comic-Con. This is apparently to be considered the ‘official’ backstory for The Event [emphasis below mine]:

TOP SECRET UMBRA

Date: July 21, 2007

To: Agent Simon Lee

From: Blake Sterling, Director

Bureau of Intelligence and Research

Department of State

Subject: Inostranka

The facility at Mount Inostranka remains a top priority to our national security. Recent events surrounding the facility must be remedied immediately.

Handle the first with extreme urgency. A breach of protocol has resulted in the escape of …….. The Agency must seek and extract the escapee to trade for information. The Mission allows for acceptable collateral damage.

Ever since 1944, ……. them, The Agency has maintained complete secrecy surrounding the detainees and the facility;….survivors that were apprehended, one demonstrated to be their leader and is……….. Sophia Macguire can not be allowed to communicate with anyone from outside the facility and must be monitored at all times. She must be questioned about the disappearance of……

Even though we have suspected substantial differences…..the source……have we been able to pinpoint to believe the detainees are…..leads the Agency……but we need further information. For this cause,…….

Valid information is still required to confirm……must not allow any further information to be leaked.

Execute orders immediately. A team led by General Whitman will be joining you in Alaska tomorrow.

No action is to be taken in updating the President. This information is on a need-to-know basis and the President should not be briefed on the existence of the facility. This must remain a matter for the intelligence services, which have been managing this without interference for decades. And as you know, we have our reasons.

These recent developments are all unquestionably related to increased activity among the detainees. The Agency needs you to address this, immediately.

By authority of: Blake Sterling

Signature: B. Sterling

Note that this Sophia character “can not be allowed to communicate with anyone from outside the facility” and “must be questioned about the disappearance of” something/someone. In other words: she knows a lot.

Blair Underwood as The President.

My guess here? Looking beyond the series pilot, my sense is that Sophia Macguire and her fellow detainees, who have apparently been in captivity in Alaska since 1944, are some sort of human time travelers who’ve had alien contact. [I assume they’re human because if they were aliens they presumably wouldn’t let themselves be captive for 60+ years!] As a result of this contact, they have insight into advanced technologies that allow them to do things or comprehend things like … planes vanishing, and perhaps the extending of lifespans.

So what we have here, ultimately, is the following: the mythologizing of people in a CIA detention facility, who might actually be ‘wiser’ than we are, and who are possessed of esoteric insights we cannot fathom – i.e., how planes vaporize in thin air, so to speak. And the heroic Obama stand-in is there on the spot to free them.

What a charming gift NBC’s giving us, just on the heels of the 9/11 anniversary. Thanks, NBC, but I think I’ll be watching V instead.

Posted on September 12th, 2010 at 2:10pm.

Pappy Boyington Field on DVD

By Jason Apuzzo. This is a melancholy weekend. The ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is upon us – and it is natural, I think, to reflect not only on the victims of that day, but on the people whose lives are continually put in the line of fire in order to prevent those sorts of attacks from happening again. So for this reason I want to tell you about a little documentary that recently came to my attention, called Pappy Boyington Field. You can see the trailer for the film above.

Who was Pappy Boyington? Pappy Boyington is what America was – and I dearly hope still is – made of. He is the sort of man who made this country the most powerful force for democracy and freedom this world has ever seen. If Homer walked our streets today, he is the kind of man the poet would likely write epic poems about. As it turns out, John Wayne more or less did play Pappy in the classic film Flying Tigers, and Robert Conrad certainly played Pappy in the famous TV series Baa Baa Black Sheep.

'Pappy' Boyington.

So in his lifetime, Pappy certainly got his due. And in our lifetime? Let’s just say that remains to be seen. Boyington’s present-day legacy is the subject of Kevin Gonzalez’s fine new documentary Pappy Boyington Field, and certainly Gonzalez’s film takes us great strides forward in understanding and appreciating this extraordinary American.

Gregory ‘Pappy’ Boyington was a Marine Corps fighter ace during World War II, who had the distinction of being awarded both the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross. With between 22 and 28 kills (depending on the source) Pappy was not quite America’s top scoring ace – that distinction belongs to Air Force Maj. Richard Bong (with over 40) – but Pappy was likely the most brash and daring. Boyington initially flew with Claire Chennault’s Flying Tigers in China (often clashing with Chennault), and later commanded the famous Marine Corps Black Sheep Squadron. Boyington would later become a prisoner of war – a ‘guest of the Emperor’ – before returning home in triumph, after he’d more or less been given up for dead.

He was called ‘Pappy’ because during the War he commanded men who were, for the most part, about a decade younger than he was.

Part of the Boyington legend is that Pappy would actually goad the enemy into coming up to fight him and his men. Over the Kahili airdrome, for example, Pappy and two dozen of his fighters circled a Japanese airfield where 60 aircraft were based. The Japanese took the bait, and sent up a large squadron. In the battle that followed, 20 Japanese aircraft were shot down. Among the Black Sheep? None.

At one point during the war, Boyington’s Black Sheep squadron offered to shoot down a Japanese Zero for every baseball cap sent to them by baseball players playing in the World Series. They received 20 caps – and shot down 20 Zeros … and just kept going. At one point during the squadron’s first tour of combat duty, Pappy actually shot down 14 enemy fighter planes in 32 days. Boyington’s war record is studded with such colorful tales of bravado and triumph.

One of America's greatest heroes.

Flash forward to today. A group of Marine veterans in Boyington’s birthplace of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, wanted to rename that small town’s airport “Coeur d’Alene Airport–Pappy Boyington Field” in his honor. You would think this sort of thing would be a lock, a no-brainer. When you accomplish the sort of things Pappy accomplished, you would think that naming a small airfield in his name would sort of be the minimum his country might do for him. For all I’m concerned, they could’ve renamed Idaho ‘Pappy’ and I personally would’ve been fine with it.

But we don’t live in the World War II era any more, of course, and so the city fathers of Coeur d’Alene stalled and made excuses. They asserted that it might be ‘dangerous’ to pilots to change the airport’s name, because it might confuse them(!). They hid behind amorphous accusations of Boyington’s drinking and philandering. Essentially they stalled and evaded … for three years. They did so until a variety of media people got involved and took up Pappy’s cause. One key figure in this fight was Fox News’ Oliver North. I won’t tell you how the story panned out.

Pappy Boyington Field is a documentary that tells the story behind the effort to rename the Coeur d’Alene Airport in Pappy’s honor. In so doing, the film subtley tells the story of two Americas: the World War II America in which Boyington was a hero who received a hero’s welcome after his return from the Pacific theater (including a massive downtown parade in San Francisco, and receiving the Medal of Honor from President Harry Truman); and, of course, the America of today … when faceless, politically correct bureaucrats do everything imaginable to erase the memory of this genuine hero. So there’s a melancholy quality to Pappy Boyington Field that is unmistakable. How in hell has our country changed so much, in such a relatively brief period of time?

Receiving the Medal of Honor, from Pres. Truman

Kudos to filmmaker (and fellow USC Trojan) Kevin Gonzalez for putting together this compelling documentary about the fight on Pappy’s behalf. Pappy Boyington Field is a film about the type of old-fashioned, small town activism – precisely the sort of the fueling the current Tea Party movement – that is trying to halt the wholesale erasing of America’s freedom-loving heritage. Except in this case, the activism is coming from Marines, who were simply trying to honor a man whose valor in combat on behalf of his country is already the stuff of legend.

Please pick up a copy of Pappy Boyington Field and watch it. Take some time to learn something about an American hero, who put his life on the line for you. Once you’ve done that, pick up another copy for your local library – and make sure they stock it, so that young people can learn something about their country’s heritage. Demand that it be seen. Make some noise. Little acts like these will prevent our shared history from slipping away.

As a footnote here, I understand that John Woo will soon be doing a large-scale Flying Tigers movie, to be released in IMAX. I think that’s great … but I’m hoping there’s a character named Pappy Boyington in it – and that he gets the props he deserves. Men like Pappy are what made this country what it is – or what it can be, when we continue to live up to his example.

Posted on September 12th, 2010 at 1:02pm.

The Reagan Movie in Theaters Right Now

Fred Ward as Ronald Reagan in "Farewell."

By Jason Apuzzo. Mark Joseph’s planned Reagan biopic, Reagan, is getting a lot of attention right now. James Brolin, who played Reagan in the Showtime miniseries The Reagans, is suddenly claiming that he loves Reagan (don’t tell Babs that); Mark Joseph is also telling Fox News that his film will deal with Reagan’s “plan to defeat the Soviets” (which certainly jibes with what he’s told me); and the film’s screenwriter talks today to the Wall Street Journal about the transformation of his own attitude toward Reagan.

I think all this discussion is great, and I very much wish the best for this film project – but I just want to caution everybody that Reagan has thus far not secured its financing yet, or a cast, or a director, or distribution. What this means, practically, is that this film is a long way from hitting theaters. I’m assuming that announcements about financing and cast/crew are imminent, but until then it’s hard to judge all this properly.

The irony here is that there’s actually quite a good film in theaters right now featuring Reagan called Farewell (starring Fred Ward as Reagan, and featuring Willem Dafoe, David Soul and others) – that depicts Reagan respectfully and intelligently – during one of the most decisive moments of his Presidency. Farewell deals with the famous Cold War spy case ‘L’Affaire Farewell,’ an episode which Reagan himself called “one of the most important espionage cases of the 20th century.”

We really liked Farewell here at Libertas, including its depiction of Reagan (see Joe Bendel’s LFM review here), and we encourage Libertas readers to go see it since it’s still being rolled out nationwide. The realities of the business are that the better a film like Farewell does, the more likely Reagan will actually get made – and receive the distribution it deserves.

As LFM’s Joe Bendel said about Farewell, “[I]t is an engrossing film.  It also might be the fairest shake Pres. Reagan has gotten on screen since his inauguration in 1981 …” So go check it out. I’ve put the trailer below.

Posted on September 9th, 2010 at 3:33pm.

Four Lions Gets Distribution!

By Jason Apuzzo. I am very pleased to report that a movie we loved here at Libertas – Chris Morris’ Islamic terror satire Four Lions – has just picked up U.S. distribution. We’ve been covering the progress of this film for months, and we’re so happy that Alamo Drafthouse – a great cult movie distribution outfit (for DVDs) that will now be entering theatrical distribution under the banner of Drafthouse Films – has selected Four Lions as its first theatrical venture. Four Lions will apparently be kicking off a 10 city promotional screening tour with Chris Morris in mid-October, and the film is otherwise slated for release this fall in New York, Los Angeles and Austin – with other cities in following weeks. This is great news.

Total morons.

We got a chance to see Four Lions at the LA Film Festival a few months ago, and we thought it was fantastic. [Read my review of Four Lions here.] We also had fun meeting actor Kayvan Novak, who plays the clueless ‘Waj’ in the film. After Four Lions’ big debut at Sundance, the film closed the South by Southwest Film Festival, won the Independent Camera Award at Karlovy Vary – and was voted Best Narrative Feature by audiences at the Los Angeles Film Festival.

Having been at one of those LA Film Fest screenings, I can tell you that the place rocked. Why? Because Four Lions breaks all the rules and says things that need to be said about contemporary Islamic terror … but are never allowed to be said in current Hollywood cinema.

As we’ve been reporting here for months, Four Lions is part of a recent wave of narrative films that are finally starting to look honestly at the phenomenon of Islamic terror … and doing so through the subversive medium of humor. Joining Four Lions in this new wave are Omid Djalili’s absolutely hilarious new film The Infidel (see our review of it here), the popular British web series “Living with the Infidels” (see our review of that here), and … am I allowed to mention this? … my own film Kalifornistan, which will be opening the Free Thinking Film Festival on November 12th.

The most obvious thing to say about this phenomenon is that all of these are indie projects. Studios still won’t touch this subject. Frankly, I don’t expect that to change. My sense is that Hollywood feels the War on Terror winding down, and is simply going to sit it out on the sidelines and let the indies take care of this stuff.

That’s fine by me. We don’t need the studio people ruining our fun.

[UPDATE: You can read a great interview with Drafthouse’s CEO Tim League here. His outfit will be distributing Four Lions here in the U.S.]

Posted on September 9th, 2010 at 12:26pm.

Kalifornistan to Open Free Thinking Film Festival on November 12th

By Jason Apuzzo. Today we bring some special news to Libertas readers. Kalifornistan, a film starring LFM Co-Editor Govindini Murty, and which I wrote and directed, will be opening the Free Thinking Film Festival in Ottawa, Canada this November 12th.

The Free Thinking Film Festival is designed by its founder Fred Litwin to celebrate “limited government, free market economics, and the dignity of the individual.” We’re very honored that Kalifornistan was chosen to open the festival for its Opening Night Gala, an event which will also serve as a fundraiser for the Military Family Resource Centre – which helps military families in Canada. Tickets for this event are available here.

Other films in the festival include: Cyrus Nowrasteh’s The Stoning of Soraya M (Closing Night Gala, with Cyrus attending), Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s The Lives of Others, Andrzej Wajda’s Katyn, HBO’s documentary For Neda (which we showed in its entirety here at Libertas) and a multitude of interesting documentaries including: Crossing the Line, Outside the Great Wall, Decryptage, The Cartel, Generation Zero, Do As I Say, Mine Your Own Business and others.

The full festival line-up is available here.

We want to thank Fred Litwin and his team for choosing Kalifornistan to open the festival. We’re very honored to have Kalifornistan in the company of the many exceptional films and filmmakers being gathered together for this exciting event. I’ve put the trailer for Kalifornistan above, and you can visit Kalifornistan’s website here.

I also want to congratulate Fred for putting on this festival to begin with. Freedom of thought within the film world is something that needs to be promoted at every opportunity; it is, indeed, the very basis for our having started The Liberty Film Festival back in 2004 and Libertas back in 2005, and for bringing Libertas back in its current form earlier this year. It isn’t sufficient to simply complain about the state of free speech in the film world; action and activity are required to foster and encourage emerging voices. So we applaud Fred for putting this event on, and encourage everyone to attend. Having done the Liberty Film Festival ourselves, we know how challenging these events can be – and also how necessary they are, given the current state of our film culture.

Here’s a description of Kalifornistan from the Free Thinking Film Festival website:

In the shadowy Port of Los Angeles, an insane terrorist stalks a beautiful dancer … while plotting the nuclear apocalypse he hopes will make him a celebrity. KALIFORNISTAN is a darkly comic satire on terrorism made by Canadian actress and filmmaker Govindini Murty and American filmmaker Jason Apuzzo. KALIFORNISTAN follows the deranged leader of a terror cell called ‘Glorious Jihad of Kalifornistan’ as he plots to destroy Los Angeles with a nuclear bomb – while being distracted by a sultry exotic dancer. KALIFORNISTAN fuses film, video, documentary and surveillance footage into a cutting-edge narrative on the violence, narcissism and delusional fantasies that fuel contemporary Islamic terrorism. KALIFORNISTAN takes viewers on a twisted journey of the post-9/11 world from Gitmo to Iran, from the dark corners of LA harbour into the mind of a terrorist too deranged even for Al Qaeda.

Human Events says of KALIFORNISTAN: “The film clicks as strong, effective satire … Kalifornistan … dares to see the average terrorist for what he truly is — a laughably warped soul with a world view shaped by Islamic radicalism — and too many extremist blogs … and once you meet the terrorist at the heart of the film you’ll wonder why more filmmakers haven’t taken this approach before.” LA’s Daily Breeze says that “Kalifornistan may be the South Bay’s 21st century cinematic equivalent of Gone in 60 Seconds, the 1974 cult classic.” Online journal Rational Review says that KALIFORNISTAN “is beautifully shot” and “it’s Fellini meets Kubrick.”

Govindini Murty of "Kalifornistan."

We had a lot of fun making Kalifornistan. And I’d like to think that Kalifornistan is imbued with the same kind of spirit that we bring here to Libertas every day: a spirit of fun, good humor, edginess, a completely uncompromising look at very controversial subjects … and really sexy women. 🙂 Kalifornistan is basically an art-house/cult film on a subject that most people in Hollywood are too afraid to touch: the sexual fantasies that fuel many young Islamic terrorists. You can check out an extensive interview I did about the film here.

Our ‘Libertas pin-up’ in Kalifornistan is Govindini, of course – although she provides a great deal more than just eye candy in this film … not that that isn’t important, by the way. But I’m also quite proud of her performance in the film – which required her to be believable not only as an exotic dancer, but as someone who can realistically confront a terrorist. [Of course, as anybody who knows Govindini will tell you, it’s not hard to imagine her doing that.]

Govindini was also the film’s executive producer, story editor, and was invaluable in the final shaping of the film’s retro-‘documentary realist’ style – a style which she and I are both quite passionate about. She was a vital force behind this film, and there’s quite simply no way I could’ve made it without her.

One other note: LFM Contributer Steve Greaves wrote and performed the cool, retro-60s music score in Kalifornistan, which you hear in the trailer above. Steve did a great job on Kalifornistan’s soundtrack, on a very tight deadline, and I’m looking forward to working with him again in the near future.

Even though Kalifornistan was shot on a modest budget, the film has a lot of personality – which, in my opinion, is what an indie film always needs to have. If you haven’t had the chance to see Kalifornistan, we encourage you to pick up a copy here.

Of course, if you think Kalifornistan has a lot of personality, wait till you see the next film we’re doing …

Again, our thanks to Fred Litwin and the Free Thinking Film Festival, and we encourage everyone to get their tickets for this great event today. We expect tickets for this event to go fast. The Free Thinking Film Festival will be taking place at the National Archives – adjacent to Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, Canada. Incidentally, Govindini is a proud Ottawa native, and is delighted that free thinking films are coming to the fine citizens of Canada’s capitol.

Posted on September 8th, 2010 at 11:23am.

Review: Mesrine Part 2: Public Enemy #1

By Joe Bendel. Gangster and self-styled revolutionary Jacques Mesrine never lacked for nerve, but he might have started to believe his own hype. That never turns out well. At least we have good reason to believe he will not go quietly at the conclusion of Mesrine: Public Enemy #1, the second part of Jean-François Richet’s two-film bio-epic, which opens today in select theaters nationwide.

After his notorious detour through Quebec, Mesrine is back in France, plying his chosen trade.  A celebrity criminal who assiduously cultivates the media, his capture becomes the top priority of Police Commissaire Broussard. Actually, catching the flamboyant Mesrine seems relatively easy – keeping him behind bars was the tricky part. When he teams up with François Besse, an unassuming but equally slippery fellow inmate, all bets are off.

Largely eschewing the personal drama of Killer Instinct, Public features two shoot ‘em up escape sequences, a number of mostly disastrous capers, some cold-blooded killing, and the brilliantly edited conclusion. Essentially, Public delivers the pay-off on Instinct’s emotional investment. Yet all the really juicy supporting turns come in the second, action-driven film. As Besse, the perfectly cast Mathieu Amalric (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) is an intense counterpoint to blustery Mesrine. Likewise, Dardenne Brothers regular Olivier Gourmet brings some heft to Broussard, making him a worthy antagonist for Mesrine. Instinct standout Michel Duchaussoy also makes a brief but touching return appearance as the gangster’s meekly loving father.

Of course, it’s problematic using terms like “hero” or even “anti-hero” with regard to the Mesrine films. While most of his outright misogynistic episodes come in the first installment, he is consistently presented as a problematic figure, albeit one not without charm. Arguably, though, it is his effort to preserve his good press that contributes to his undoing. Vanity—it’s a killer.

While Instinct had the occasional slow patch, Enemy speeds along like an escaped fugitive. It is all held together by Vincent Cassel’s dynamic lead performance and the film’s cool, retro-70’s look. Of course, the Mesrine films are best seen as a whole, but of the duology Enemy is definitely the superior film.  It opens today in select theaters nationwide.

Posted on September 3rd, 2010 at 10:21am.