Category: Hollywood

Target Number One (Canadian film on Zeeplex); Cast: Antoine Olivier Pilon, Josh Hartnett, Jim Gaffigan, Stephen McHattie, Don McKellar, JC MacKenzie, Amanda Crew; Direction: Daniel Roby; Rating: * * and 1/2 (two and a half stars)

It starts off on a quiet, lazy note but by the time the film has reached its halfway mark, you realise Target Number One is trying to be gritty, slowburn fare, based on a shocking true story.

Daniel Roby’s Canadian crime drama draws inspiration from the real-life story of Alain Olivier, a drug addict in Quebec who ended up in a Thailand jail for years after a sad twist of events. Alain had become a pawn in a top secret operation of the Canadian law enforcers that went wrong.

Olivier is reimagined here as Daniel Leger, played by Antoine Olivier Pilon. Leger’s arrest becomes the focus of an obsessive probe by Victor Malarek (Josh Hartnett), an investigative journalist who wants to crack the case of the drug addict.

Maintaining a parallel narrative structure, the story unfolds through two sub plots. The first is about Leger, who gets involved in a drug sting of the Canadian police in Thailand. The sting operation bombs and Leger lands in a Thai jail.

The other storyline follows Malarek, high-profile television journalist who ends up probing the Leger case only to become obsessed about it.

Roby sets out to balance the contrasting characters of the two sub plots — Leger’s life in the Thai prison bears struggles that are vastly different from Malarek’s as he goes about trying to crack the case. The parallel narratives are woven seamlessly, but in doing so Roby does not give due focus on Leger. Somewhere, the pace of the film falter too, simply failing to pick up.

There is an element of pathos about Leger’s life despite his criminality, and writer-director Roby brings it alive on screen without resorting to melodrama. Roby’s credibility lies in making his characters humane. Malarek, for instance, may be top star in his field of work, but his frenzied and undivided attention towards work creates room for discord at the home front. His marriage lurches on the brink of failure.

Yet, you get a feeling Roby wasted too much time training his camera on Malarek’s family woes. The track only serves to act as distraction from what should have been the film’s focal point — a story of the Canadian man who was forsaken by his own government to cover up an elaborate gaffe.

The setting of the storyline is the nineties and Ronald Plante’s cinematography is suitably rendered in a way that it imparts a feel of the era and also gives the narrative an impact of realism, without getting too loud about it. Hartnett and Pilon topline a cast that exudes their roles effectively, in a film that harks back to the way thrillers used to be made once upon a time.

Target Number One is slightly off target owing to inadequate storytelling treatment.

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The sequel to the superhit superhero film Black Panther will begin filming in July next year, in Atlanta.

The sequel was temporarily put on hold after the sudden demise of Chadwick Boseman, who played the titular superhero, last year. Initially, the plan was to start production in March next year, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Now, several sources state that Marvel is looking at readying the sequel for a shoot, which will start in Atlanta in July and last for six months.

Mexican actor Tenoch Huerta is in talks to play one of the antagonists. Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke and Angela Bassett are expected to return for the next chapter, with many hinting that Wright’s character Shuri may take on a more prominent role.

There has been no update yet on who might take over late Boseman’s central role and neither has the studio revealed its plans on how they will proceed without Boseman, although they have indicated that they will not use CGI to include the late star in the film.

Boseman shot to global superstardom playing Black Panther and his alter ego, T’Challa, in the 2018 film. He was diagnosed with stage III colon cancer in 2016. In August, the actor died at home in Los Angeles, with his wife and family members by his side.

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Veteran actress Dimple Kapadia has announced that her much-awaited Hollywood film “Tenet”, helmed by Christopher Nolan, will release on December 4 in India.

“I’m extremely delighted to announce the release of Christopher Nolan’s ‘Tenet’ on December 4 all across cinemas in India. It has been an honour for me to be associated with this project. The film has some spectacular action sequences, turns and twists that you can best enjoy only on the big screen,” Dimple said.

The sci-fi action film also stars Robert Pattinson, John David Washington, Elizabeth Debicki, Martin Donovan, Michael Caine and Kenneth Branagh.

Nolan wrote and directed the film, which is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures in theatres.

“Tenet”, which was shot in India, the US, the UK, Denmark, Estonia, Italy and Norway, will be available to the Indian audience in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu languages.

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While there is no clarity yet on the release of Wonder Woman 1984 in India, the Gal Gadot-starrer superhero film looks set to open in theatres and on OTT on the same day in the United States.

Gadot was happy to announce the decision, saying “we’ve all waited a long time”.

“It’s time. We’ve all waited a long time for this one to come. I can’t tell you how excited I am for all of you to see this movie. It wasn’t an easy decision and we never thought we’d have to hold onto the release for such a long time but COVID rocked all of our worlds,” she posted on Instagram.

“We feel the movie has never been so relevant and we hope that it’ll bring some joy, hope and love to your hearts.’Wonder Woman 1984′ is a special one for me and I can only hope it’ll be as special to you too. We’ve put our hearts and souls into it. So.. you can watch it IN THEATERS (they’re doing an amazing job keeping it safe) and you can also watch it on HBOMAX from your homes. Sending you my love. Please keep safe and wear a mask. Happy holidays to all of us! Let the light shine in,” she wrote.

After much speculation, Warner Bros. has announced that the superhero sequel will release on the streaming service HBO Max on December 25, the same day it opens in US movie theatres. The film will stream on HBO Max for a month at no additional cost to subscribers.

In countries where HBO Max is not available, the film will premiere in cinemas one week earlier, on December 16, reports variety.com.

The India release date has not been announced yet.

The $200 million-budgeted film was originally supposed to release earlier this year, but got delayed time and time again amid the coronavirus crisis.

Filmmaker Patty Jenkins, who directed “Wonder Woman” and this sequel, took to Twitter to talk about the new release plan.

“The time has come,” she wrote on Twitter, adding: “At some point you have to choose to share any love and joy you have to give, over everything else. We love our movie as we love our fans, so we truly hope that our film brings a little bit of joy and reprieve to all of you this holiday season.”

She urged fans to seek out the movie where they feel is safest.

“Watch it in theatres, where it is made safe to do so (check out the great work theatres have done to make it so!) And available in the safety of your home where it is not. Happy holidays to all of you. We hope you enjoy our film as much as we enjoyed making it,” she added.

The much-awaited Wonder Woman 1984 teases the beginning of a “new era of wonder” with a new battle, a new armour, new villains, edgier action and a reunion with her long-lost love.

Gadot is reprising her role as Diana Prince, aka Wonder Woman, in the sequel of the megahit 2017 DC film. Other returning stars include Chris Pine as Steve Trevor (Wonder Woman’s love interest), Robin Wright as Antiope and Connie Nielsen as Hippolyta. It also stars Pedrol Pascal as Max Lord.

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The Korean zombie thriller, Peninsula, a sequel to the 2016 hit, Train To Busan, will release on the big screen in India on November 27.

An official Cannes Film Festival 2020 Selection, the film was set to make its world premiere at the festival. Directed by Yeon Sang-ho, who also directed the prequel, the movie stars Gang Dong-won and Lee Jung- hyun.

The sequel is set four years after the virus outbreak in Korea as shown in Train To Busan, and follows a former soldier who is sent along with his team to retrieve a truck full of money from the wastelands of the Korean peninsula, which is now inhabited by zombies.

“I imagined what Korea would look like after the outbreak depicted in ‘Train To Busan’ and what kind of scenarios would unfold. It is also the culmination of all the anticipation from fans all over the world. I wanted to tell the story of modern people who live in a rational society, and how they react to a new world enveloped in barbarism and contrasted humanism,” said the director while talking about creating his own Zombie universe.

The film is being released in India by Zee Studios and Kross Pictures.

“Korean films have a growing fanbase in India and going by the popularity of its predecessor ‘Peninsula’ promises to top that experience. We are confident that this film will be one of the best theatrical experiences our audiences will have this year,” said Shariq Patel from the Zee Studios.

To this, Hyunwoo Thomas Kim, CEO of Kross Pictures, added: “We hope the film will be a great cinema experience for Indian audiences coming out of the long lockdown.”

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Actress Elisabeth Moss says she has a ridiculous job but then makes a point by calling her chosen career path as “pretty great”.

“My job is pretty great. I have these scripts that are written and I get to pretend and I get to imagine. It’s a ridiculous job and I make money at it and I feel invigorated by it.

“I’ve just never felt that it was a dark place, I’ve always felt that it was a light place,” Moss told independent.co.uk, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

The actress says her characters can help people.

Citing an example of her role in “The Invisible Man”, where she essays a woman escaping an abusive partner, Moss said: “I would have friends who I didn’t know had gone through an experience like that say to me that it was cathartic to watch.

The actress added: “I think we all have experiences where we feel like we were gaslit or taken advantage of or told that we were crazy for thinking or feeling something. That story of abuse is not something that has arisen in the last five years. It’s not a bandwagon anyone can jump on – it’s a tale as old as time.”

Moss calls herself a loner.

“I’m very much a loner. Lockdown for me was kind of a breeze because I have no problem staying at home for long, long periods of time, and I have no problem not seeing anybody. And I also bury myself in my work,” she said.

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