Martin Cuff Consulting

A year in movies.

The new Simon Pegg / Nick Frost comedy. Hm. Yes? No?

On another personal note, the Three Gorgeous Fairies at the fantastic Serbia Film Commission (that’s Ana, Milica and ZsaZsa-Dahling) have being doing a bang-up job promoting Film in Serbia – and international business has already grown six times since we started just last year.

It’s therefore really, really satisfying to be back in Belgrade as the huge film trucks crowd the streets and the period hansom cabs are rolled out and the period costumes are donned for the filming of The Raven, starring John Cusack.

Set in 1849 Baltimore, The Raven is a fictionalised tale about Edgar Allen Poe who, aided by a detective, tries to track down a serial killer who’s been inspired by his gruesome short stories and has now kidnapped his girlfriend. I’m not entirely convinced by the plot but it’s directed by the same chap who directed the visually magnificent V for Vendetta so I’m sure it’ll be fantastic to look at.

I head back to Cape Town tomorrow, the last commute of the year, so thank you to Belgrade and Serbia and all my friends and colleagues here, for another great year on location.

More South African movie news. (I’m a little slack jawed with incredulity by this point: viva South Africa viva!) Word is out that SA-born District 9 helmer Neill Blomkamp is working on an original sci-fi flick called Elysium and that Sharlto Copley has signed to star. According to Firstshowing.net, Blomkamp’s pitch to studios includes a graphic novel as part of the presentation – which is interesting, because it’s how District 9 snuck onto the scene way back when.

Little more is known about Elysium, except that the story is set in the far future on another planet. Adding to the mystery though is a little Blomkamp teaser snippet called “AGM Heartland” that I found at Indiwire, which snuck in on the digital pages of the latest issue of Wired for the iPad. Again, not much is given away but it’s seems to be of rather more earthly (though still kind of gross) pursuits. What do you think?

Still on a SethEffriken theme (will this joy know no abatement?) the new Judge Dredd film – with the understated if unimaginative working title Dredd – is currently shooting in Cape Town, starring the groovy Karl Urban (who so impressed in Red). Dredd is Africa’s first 3-D movie production and the first to use the Cape Town Film Studios, a precinct I was closely involved with whilst at the Cape Film Commission. But I digress…… Dredd is currently out and about, filming on location in the Mother City – and Live for Films has some pics.

This one is taken at the strikingly grotesque sixties Civic Centre. Check the African Hat. Anyway, LFF also includes a casting list from the film – check out the fairly specific racial requirements. How do you do that and avoid god-awful Hobbit-esque embarassment?

Red stars Bruce Willis as a retired CIA spook – Retired Extremely Dangerous, geddit? – who’s trying to bland in (sic) to civilian life. The only thing that keeps him from killing himself from boredom and loneliness, basically, is his telephone relationship with his pension officer. So when his home is invaded by a black ops hit squad (SethEffriken hit squad, no less), he packs his guns and his fake passports (again, SethEffriken – what gives? I was beginning to sense a theme) and sets out to find out why. Or more precisely, why now? To do so he has to enlist the help of several other retired but bored old spy mates.

So what to tell you? (more…)

It kind of exciting when there are a couple of SethEffriken films on the way and you’ll actually pay to see them. This is Spud, based on the hugely-popular local novel of the same name, and shot on location in glossy green KZN.

Cowboys and Aliens: Comedy or thriller? Who actually cares, when it’s got Daniel Craig?

Live for Films introduced me to Eternity, a glossy SethEffriken vampire movie starring just about everybody of drama-ey reknown in the home country save Arnold Vosloo and Ons Eie Charlize. Some of the acting looks well dodgy (what do you expect? Christina Storm is essentially SA’s original Footballer’s Wife, famous mostly for being famous) but I’ll probably see it anyway. Baie lekker, ne?

One more thing: the director’s called Christopher-Lee Dos Santos. Christopher-Lee. Really.

In Children of Men, it’s the near-future and society has collapsed following the startling infertility of the entire human race. Duck-footed Clive Owen plays Theo, an unambitious academic who becomes embroigled unwillingly in the idealistic plans of his terrorist ex-wife. It is one of the most visually striking, thought-provoking films of recent years, with some of the most visceral action scenes yet seen, but also threaded with incisive social commentary on everything from immigration policy to income disparity. It’s a fascinating and thoroughly intelligent movie.

I was reminded of it again when I came across this truly groovy set of fake ads and news footage – from suicide pills to expensive doggy clothing – created by an obviously very bright and clever team, that help establish a phenomenally vivid sense of a dystopian, nightmarish time and place as well as any film location. Excellent.