'Alice' Delivers Some "Re5ident Evil: Retribution"

Screen Gems have added a numeral '5' to the title of the upcoming Toronto-lensed 3D feature "Re5ident Evil: Retribution", directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, starring Milla Jovovich :

"...the deadly 'T-virus' from the 'Umbrella Corporation' continues to ravage the Earth, transforming the global population into legions of the 'Undead'. The human race’s last and only hope, 'Alice' (Jovovich), awakens in the heart of Umbrella's most clandestine operations facility and unveils more of her mysterious past as she delves further into the complex.

"Without a safe haven, Alice continues to hunt those responsible for the outbreak; a chase that takes her from Tokyo to New York, Washington, D.C. and Moscow, culminating in a mind-blowing revelation that will force her to rethink everything that she once thought to be true. Aided by newfound allies and familiar friends, Alice must fight to survive long enough to escape a hostile world on the brink of oblivion..."

Based on the Capcom video games, director Anderson first came to the "Resident Evil" movie series as writer/director of "Resident Evil" (2002), then writer/producer of "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" (2004) and "Resident Evil: Extinction" (2007). He directed the fourth Toronto-lensed installment, "Resident Evil: Afterlife" (2010) in 3D.

'The Umbrella Corporation' acts as the main antagonist in the series, a company responsible for a 'zombie apocalypse' as a result of the creation of the 'T-Virus'. 'Alice' (Jovovich), who was once a security operative working for Umbrella is granted super-human abilities after being tested on by Umbrella. Through her battle with the corporation, she eventually meets with the main antagonist, 'Chairman Albert Wesker' (Shawn Roberts).

The franchise of movies have collectively earned $700 million worldwide on budgets totalling $183 million.

Sony will release the new film, Sept. 14, 2012.

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Re5ident Evil: Retribution"...

NBC Universal Takes Over Toronto

NBC Universal studios is currently producing five TV series in Ontario, with the Liberal government's 'all-spend' 25% tax credit a deciding factor.

US series include "Alphas", starting up again mid-March 2012, the third season of "Covert Affairs", shooting March to October 2012, "Warehouse 13" and the second season of "Suits".

Syfy's video game-linked pilot "Defiance" will also shoot in the city in 2012, produced by Universal Cable Productions and written by Rockne S. O’Bannon :

"...set on a future Earth, "Defiance" introduces players and viewers to a world where humans and aliens live together on a planet transformed by decades of conflict. The game combines the intense action of a console shooter, with the persistence, scale, and customization of an MMO, while its TV counterpart weaves the rich tapestry of the world into a series with the scope, characters, and drama of a classic sci-fi epic. Because they exist in a single universe, the show and the game will influence each other and evolve together over time, with actions in both mediums driving the overall story..."

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IMAX : Think Big

Toronto-based IMAX Corp., with headquarters in Los Angeles and New York, now has as many as 500 IMAX theaters in 48 countries, with a focus on China, where IMAX plans to increase its screens to 100 in 2012, up from 58 in 2011.

To keep bringing in audiences, IMAX plans to sign more deals with studios for IMAX preview screenings and cameras. The cameras make it possible to expand the sequences to fill an entire IMAX screen.

"The Amazing Spider-Man", "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" and "The Dark Knight Rises", will all be released in the IMAX format in 2012.

In a deal with Eastman Kodak Co., laser projection technology will allow IMAX to install digital projectors at its biggest screens and at domed screens "...to show films with more light and more colors..."

Strong results for "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2", enabled third-quarter box office receipts to rise 53 percent to $149 million in 2011.

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HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

Seasons Greetings

A special personal Holiday thanks this year to the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Anchor Bay Canada, AM PR, BigGameHunter, Brigitte Berman, Canadian Film Centre, DC Comics, DW Communications, GAT PR, IMDB, Jake Dolgy, Jay Leno, Joe Medeiros, Kale & Nori Culinary Arts, Lauren Mote, Mary-Catherine Snelgrove, MVD Entertainment Group, Marvel Entertainment, NEXTMedia, OneStopMedia, Shelly Faber, Sony Pictures Releasing Canada, Squigly Media Corp, Toronto International Film Festival, Touchwood PR, Union Of British Columbia Performers, VancouverFilm.Net, Wizard World and a whole lot more !

From all of us @ TorontoFilm.Net, wishing you and yours a Happy Holiday !

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Rooney Mara Is Stunning As "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo"

At first glance, the street-wise, leather-jacketed computer-whiz 'Lisbeth Salander', played by Rooney Mara in director David Fincher's English-language adaptation of Swedish author Stieg Larsson's "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo", appears hostile and unapproachable.

She has a 'Gyro Gearloose' haircut, skanky complexion, goth-lined, chihuahua eyes, shaved eyebrows, facial piercings and an obviously anti-social demeanor.

But when Salander teams up with Daniel Craig's crusading dog-faced journalist 'Mikael Blomkvist' in the search for a missing girl from a prominent family, putting her survival, killer instincts on hold, her rough edges slowly soften into a sensuality as smooth and slick as Fincher's no-nonsense direction, with Rooney Mara's beauty, quite evident in some nicely shot love scenes, endearing the character with the audience.

It is this love that Salander develops for Blomkvist that makes the thriller, "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" come alive, complimented by effective performances from Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgard and Robin Wright.

"...'Harriet Vanger', a scion of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle (Plummer) continues to seek the truth.

"He hires 'Mikael Blomkvist' (Craig), a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate.

"He is aided by the pierced and tattooed computer prodigy 'Lisbeth Salander' (Mara).

"Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption..."

"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" opens in North America, December 21, 2011.

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo"...

"Cosmopolis": How Far Can He Go Before He Goes Too Far ?

Sneak Peek the new poster supporting the Toronto-lensed feature "Cosmopolis", directed by David Cronenberg, starring Samantha Morton, Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, Paul Giamatti and Mathieu Amalric , based on the novella "Cosmopolis" by author Don DeLillo.

The Canadian-France co-production is being produced by Paulo Branco through his Paris-based Alfama Films Production and Martin Katz of Toronto-based Prospero Pictures.

"...'Cosmopolis' is a contemporary thriller about a hedge fund trader who is stalked while his fortune evaporates under the weight of his cynical bets against the survival of the global economy..."

Grégoire Melin's Paris-based Kinology will handle International Sales, Entertainment One will handle distribution in Canada and RAI Cinema SpA will distribute in Italy.

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"Roman Polanski" @ TIFF Bell Lightbox- December 17-25, 2011

The TIFF Bell Lightbox run of director Roman Polanski's "Carnage", opens Friday December 30, 2011.

TIFF will also host a retrospective looking back at specific films during Polanski's career, tracing the recurring themes that have shaped his vision.

"ROMAN POLANSKI" runs December 17 - December 25, 2011, including special screenings of the features "Knife in the Water", "Cul-de-sac", "Chinatown", "Repulsion", "The Tenant", "Rosemary's Baby", and "The Ghost Writer" :

"...In a career spanning more than fifty years, Roman Polanski has firmly established himself as one of the contemporary masters of cinema with his nerve-wrackingly suspenseful and darkly comic portraits of cruelty, violence, claustrophobia and madness.

"Often confining his characters within suffocatingly cloistered locations—a sailboat on a lonely lake, a crumbling castle, an isolated beach house and a succession of ominous apartment houses—Polanski observes with cynical, diabolical glee as the thin pretenses of civilization are quickly stripped away in the face of human vanities, anxieties, pettiness and weakness..."

"Knife in the Water" was shot by Polanski in 1962 using only three performers, marking his debut as a feature-length director. Two of the actors, Jolanta Umecka and Zygmunt Malanowicz had virtually no previous professional acting experience. The film won the 'Golden Wolf' at the 1963 Bucharest Film Festival and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 1963 Academy Awards :

"...A journalist, his wife and a hitchhiker spend a day aboard a sailboat, with the underlying menace of sex and violence in a tense psychological drama..."

"Cul-de-Sac" was shot in 1965 on location on the island of Lindisfarne off the coast of Northumberland, England @ Lindisfarne Castle. The feature was awarded the 1966 'Golden Bear' at the 16th Berlin International Film Festival :

"...gangster 'Dickie' pushes his broken-down car through rising seawater while his companion 'Albie' lies inside, bleeding from a gunshot wound after a bungled robbery. Cut off by the unexpected rising tide, they are on the only road to a bleak and remote tidal island where, in a dark castle on a hilltop, 'George' lives with his young wife 'Teresa'. Dickie then proceeds to hold the two hostage while awaiting rescue by his boss, the mysterious 'Katelbach', even throughout an unexpected visit from one of George's old work colleagues..."



"Chinatown" was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, winning in the category of Best Original Screenplay for Robert Towne. In 1991, Chinatown was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

The story, set in Los Angeles in 1937, was inspired by the 'California Water Wars', the historical disputes over land and water rights that had raged in southern California during the 1910's and 1920's, in which William Mulholland acted on behalf of Los Angeles interests to secure water rights in the Owens Valley :

"...private detective 'Jake Gittes' finds himself overwhelmed in a scandalous case involving the rich and powerful of Los Angeles where everybody thinks they know what's going on, but really have no idea of what they are getting into..."

"Repulsion", Polanski's first film in English is the first of his "apartment trilogy" (the other two being "Rosemary's Baby" (1968) and "The Tenant" (1976). The film was shot in black and white, increasingly adopting the perspective of its protagonist. At the 15th Berlin International Film Festival in 1965, "Repulsion" won both the 'FIPRESCI' Prize and the 'Silver Berlin Bear-Extraordinary Jury Prize :

"...a young French girl who is repulsed and attracted by sex, is left alone when her sister goes on vacation. Her facade of stability begins to crack, with violent and bizarre results..."



"The Tenant" (1976), is a psychological thriller, based on the 1964 novel "Le locataire chimérique" by author Roland Topor. Polanski received no acting credit, despite the fact he plays the lead character. While the main character is clearly paranoid to some extent, the film does not entirely reveal whether everything takes place in his head or if the strange events happening around him exist at least partially :

"...'Trelkovsky' (Polanski) rents an apartment in an old residential building, where his neighbors eye him with suspicious contempt. Upon discovering that the apartment's previous tenant, a beautiful young woman, jumped from the window in a suicide attempt, Trelkovsky begins obsessing over the dead woman. Growing increasingly paranoid, Trelkovsky convinces himself that his neighbors plan to kill him and 'Stella', a woman he has fallen in love with is in on the 'plot'..."

"Rosemary's Baby" (1968), written and directed by Polanski, produced by William Castle, based on the bestselling 1967 novel "Rosemary's Baby" by author Ira Levin, was a massive commercial success during its release, earning over $33 million in the US on a budget of $2.3 million. The film also earned an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Ruth Gordon, with Polanski nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay :

"...a young woman, innocent and religious, and her husband, ambitious and agnostic, move into a new apartment. Soon the woman is pregnant, but she begins to realize that she has fallen into a coven of 'witches' and 'warlocks' and that they claim the child as the 'antichrist'..."

"The Ghost Writer" (2010) is an adaptation of author Robert Harris' novel, "The Ghost", with the screenplay adapted by both Polanski and Harris. The film has won numerous European film awards including the 'Silver Bear' award for Best Director at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival :

"...a ghostwriter, hired to complete the memoirs of a former British prime minister (Tony Blair) uncovers secrets that put his own life in jeopardy..."



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