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Sunday, May 27, 2007

KITE RUNNER Production, and Cannes

The Kite Runner, a best-selling novel by Afghan-born Khaled Hosseini, is now in production as a movie. It is scheduled to be released this fall. The 2003 novel and the movie are set in Afghanistan under the brutal radical Islamist, the Taliban.

Marc Forster (FINDING NEVERLAND) directs. Khalid Abdalla, who played the pilot/hijacker Ziad Jarrah (UNITED 93), stars as Amir who returns to his native Afghanistan after years in the U.S. to help his boyhood friend Hassan. The novel was on the best-seller list for four years and has sold over four million copies in the U.S. After a summer of predictable movie pabulum, this movie will be welcomed by the millions of adults who read the book and, hopefully, most movie goers. Hosseini's new novel A Thousand Splendid Suns was recently published.


The summer movie season officially kicked off this weekend with PRIATES 3, the Cannes Film Festival just wrapped where the Romanian movie, 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS, AND 2 DAYS (Cristian Mungiu, dir.), won the Palme d'Or and the FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) prize. See link on right sidebar for Mimi's Film Festival Page.

Monday, May 07, 2007

SPIDEY OPENS SUMMER MOVIE SEASON EARLY

The traditional opening of the summer movie season is the Friday of the Memorial Day weekend. However, the movie gate has been swinging open for the summer season earlier and earlier each year.

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: At World's End will open on the traditional date this year, 25 May. Traditional season: Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Oops! SPIDER-MAN 3 opened 4 May and set the bar for the "official" season by grossing over 150 million in the U.S. alone, breaking all box office records. Sympathy to the other films that opened the same time, such as the Eric Bana, Drew Barrymore, Robert Duvall cutesy LUCKY YOU, and the multi-directed, critically well-received PARIS, JE T'AIME. THE WAITRESS opened two days earlier, but caught a pie in the face anyway.

Next big blockbusters of the season? How about OCEAN'S THIRTEEN (June8), HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX (13 July), HAIRSPRAY (20 July), THE SIMPSONS MOVIE (27 July), and THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM (23 August)?

Some long-distance runners not mentioned above may be GEORGIA RULE (11 May), NANCY DREW (15 June), RUSH HOUR 3 (10 August) that is scheduled to open against STARDUST, and THE INVASION (17 August). One that critics think will not have legs? J-Marc's EL CANTANTE (The Singer), and some have dubbed it "CAN-NOT-A".

We'll see how they all shakes out come September.