When we were kicking around ideas for year-end superlative Cinematical Sevens, I was proudly tasked with chronicling the year's finest in big-screen mayhem, violence, destruction and other such shenanigans. When I was kicking around ideas for said feature between me, myself, and I, there were too many titles to leave off the list, so instead of highlighting only a mere couple of movies, I've opted to sort these puppies out by specific manner of cinematic excess.

So there.

1. Most pervasive destruction - The Joker may have terrorized Gotham to the tune of a destroyed hospital, a wrecked helicopter, a sunken SWAT truck, a toasty fire engine, and a golden district attorney, but even he can't top the Cloverfield monster's swath of destruction across the real-life Gotham. Statue of Liberty? Gone. Brooklyn Bridge? History. Central Park? Adios. And that's not including all the Hollister stores that our protagonists might've fled to. (On a smaller scale, though, Inside's lady in black terrorizes a pregnant woman on Christmas Eve to the point of all but painting every last wall in her house with the blood of her victims. Gotta love the French!)

Say it ain't so, my European friends: arthouse theaters on the Continent are -- shudder!! -- now showing mainstream flicks like Mamma Mia! and Wall-E alongside their usual specialty fare like the Israeli animated feature Waltz With Bashir. And not just on the Continent, according to Variety, but in Britain too! What is the world coming to? Is this the end of Western civilization?

It's not news that mainstream movies have crept steadily onto arthouse screens in the US. In my neck of the woods (Dallas), for example, Landmark Theatres operates two multiplexes that, once upon a time, showed independent and foreign-language pictures almost exclusively. The Inwood Theatre is currently showing Bedtime Stories in its large downstairs auditorium, with Seven Pounds and Rachel Getting Married screening upstairs in the two small (50-60 seats) rooms upstairs. It's similar at the Magnolia, where The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Yes Man claim three of the five screens. The Angelika Film Center operates two complexes in the area and does a bit better, with 10 of 13 screens dedicated to specialty releases this week.

Similar to the US scene, European exhibitors cite "changing audience tastes, a reduction in the number of single-screen venues that used to favor local fare as well as a glut of specialty pics." Western Europe has about 33,000 screens, of which "roughly one quarter" are single-screen venues. The single-screen houses are finding it tough to compete against the multiplexes, with more than 300 single-screen theaters closing in Italy alone over the past five years.

Okay, maybe Tom Cruise and Valkyrie screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie won't be together forever ... but they are in for a very long haul. Variety reports that McQuarrie is penning no less than three projects for Cruise to star in.

The first up is likely to be The Tourist, which has Cruise and Charlize Theron attached as the leads. A remake of the French thriller Anthony Zimmer, the original script was penned by Julian Fellowes. McQuarrie is quickly rewriting it so that the film can begin shooting by March.

The pair also might be returning to World War II, as McQuarrie and Mason Alley are teaming up to write Flying Tigers, the real life story of a volunteer fighter squadron that was formed to assist the Chinese in fighting the Japanese during WWII. Cruise isn't formally attached, but he has been itching to do another fighter pilot movie since the days of Top Gun.

But the most intriguing film on the McQuarrie-Cruise slate is the UA project The Champions, which McQuarrie is penning and producing alongside Guillermo del Toro. Based on the British television series about super-powered government agents, it's now being developed for Cruise to star in. It was inevitable that Cruise was going to want in on this whole "superhero" trend -- the aura around his Tropic Thunder costar Robert Downey Jr. was espcially hard to miss. How could he not want some of that? Remember, he's already attached to Sam Raimi's Sleeper, so he's obviously waking up to the trend and franchise potential of superpowers. Well, best of luck to McQuarrie and Cruise -- may the relationship be a fruitful one.

Gone is the morally ambiguous costumed vigilante trend for 2009, and in comes the stiff white collars! Just in time to compete with Jonah Hex and Preacher comes the resurrected Priest. According to The Hollywood Reporter, ScreenGems is reviving the project and has brought on Scott Charles Stewart to direct Cory Goodman's screenplay.

Hyung Min-woo's manga has been kicking around for a few years -- Andrew Douglas was once set to direct, with Gerard Butler and Steven Straight starring, but that version abruptly fell apart around the time 300 was released. (I wish it had taken off now, I would much prefer to see Butler in a horror-Western than another romantic comedy. Well, no one's playing Ivan Isaacs yet ... are you still into taking priestly vows, Mr. Butler?)

Fans of the manga have complained that the story has been simplified to the point of having little in common with the original -- and sadly, that doesn't seem to have changed. The movie will still center on Isaacs as a warrior-priest who turns his back on the church in order to hunt a pack of vampires who have kidnapped his niece. However, considering that Stewart is fresh off filming the biblical thriller Legion, perhaps he'll rewrite it to include those demons, zombies, crucifixions, and evil angels that make Priest something more than a vampire story.

I'm not that attached to the manga, so I shall merely hope they can make an awesome horror-Western out of it. I firmly believe cinema needs a High Plains Drifter with vampires, zombies, and demons.

If you died and went to Heaven and asked for a movie trailer to be made just for you, what would it look like? Would it fuse your interest in Bollywood musicals with your love for classic martial arts fight scenes, reflect your appreciation for beautiful women, indulge your affection for cheesy special effects and inability to resist a cheap gag? Would it look something like the insane trailer for Chandni Chowk to China?

Head on over to Apple's trailers page and take a gander, but be forewarned: I found it addictive and as damaging to my nervous system as stuffing myself with a pound of the sweetest of candies. Describing itself as the "first ever Bollywood Kungfu comedy," Chandni Chowk to China follows Sidhu (Akshay Kumar), a lowly worker at a humble food stand in Chandni Chowk, a famous, crowded market in Delhi, India. Sidhu dreams of a better life, chasing futilely after his dreams, until two strangers from China arrive, claiming that he is a reincarnated war hero and take him to their rural village. Along the way he meets the beautiful Sakhi (Deepika Padukone). Deception abounds, however, and Sidhu soon finds himself pitted against a vicious smuggler, played by none other than the legendary Gordon Liu (Executioners From Shaolin, Kill Bill). Are you freakin' kidding me?

The film opens on January 16 across the US at the usual theatrical venues that play Bollywood films, plus a few additional cinemas, depending on the market (check the web site for theater listings). If it delivers on the promise of its delirious trailer, Chandni Chowk to China could conceivably lure an even broader audience to explore Indian cinema.

[Hattip: Twitch and Kaiju Shakedown.]

(We're reposting our review of Che from the Cannes Film Festival to coincide with the film's theatrical release)

By: James Rocchi

Plenty of people are going to be talking about Steven Soderbergh's Che Guevara biographical films -- The Argentine and Guerrilla, screened at Cannes tonight as one presentation simply called Che -- over the next few months. There will be arguments about the politics of the films; there will be discussions of whether or not the films have any emotional center; there will be questions of if, when the film gets some kind of U.S. distribution deal, exactly how they should be released -- two films released staggered throughout the last half of the year or cut down to one three-hour film or shown as a long, big double bill that presents the separate films back-to-back. There will be talk of if Benicio Del Toro deserves a Best Actor nomination for his work as Guevara, or if Soderbergh's portrait of Che is too flat to engage us; I can easily imagine discussions of the look and feel of the film, shot in high-resolution digital with all the craft and care Soderbergh usually brings to shooting on film. I can't predict how all of these questions and possibilities will play out, but I can say -- and will say -- what a rare pleasure it is to have a film (or films) that, in our box-office obsessed, event-movie, Oscar-craving age, is actually worth talking about on so many levels.

Not that it's any of my business, but are your halls decked? Is your gay apparel donned? Good! Then you have time to go to the movies, and the Indie Spotlight is here to tell you what's playing beyond the multiplexes!

'Tis the season for limited-release pictures that are sort of indie films and sort of studio productions. For example, this weekend there's Doubt (in NY, LA, Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco), The Reader (NY and LA), and Che (NY and LA) -- but you've heard plenty about those films elsewhere. There's also Delgo, which is a truly independent animated film -- but it's opening on 1,800 screens, so you don't need me to tell you about it here.

Our focus is the stuff that might be under the radar, which this week includes: Adam Resurrected, Dark Streets, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Timecrimes, What Doesn't Kill You, Where God Left His Shoes, While She Was Out, and Wendy and Lucy. For the details, read on!

Wendy and Lucy (pictured)
What it is: A quiet drama about a penniless woman (Michelle Williams) whose car breaks down in rural Oregon while she's heading West to find a job. Lucy is the name of her dog and traveling companion. The film is not, as I previously believed, a biopic about the red-haired girl from the fast food place and Linus' older sister.
What they're saying: Cinematical raved about it at Cannes earlier this year, and 89% of the critics at Rotten Tomatoes agree. The consensus is that it's a tender, beautifully shot, emotionally intimate little film.
Where it's playing: New York City (Film Forum), Los Angeles (Laemmle Sunset 5).
More info: The official site has a list of release dates for a few dozen other cities.

Eight years ago, Zhang Ziyi soared into public consciousness as the tempestuous heroine in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. She's continued to score in sumptuous epics like Hero, House of Flying Daggers, and The Banquet, as well as off-beat pleasures such as Seijun Suzuki's Princess Raccoon. (Let's all try to forget Memoirs of a Geisha, shall we?) In her latest film, which opened in China last week, she plays a Peking Opera singer.

Forever Enthralled is the English title of Mei Lanfang; the name of a real-life, internationally-recognized opera star well-known for playing female roles over the course of a career that lasted more than 50 years. Leon Lai, a veteran Hong Kong actor and pop singer, takes on the challenging assignment to play the legendary character, while Zhang plays fellow performer Meng Xiaodong, who was known for playing bearded men (?!). The two singers met, married, became parents, and divorced, all between 1925 and 1931.

At a press conference (pictured above, thanks to Ziyifilms), Zhang said: "The hardest thing is walking, wearing these really tall boots ... I practiced that for a very long time." All that practice paid off. Variety Asia Online reports that the film is "on course to quality for a hit," though it probably won't break any records.

Chen Kaige directed; years ago he made Farewell My Concubine, * also set in the opera world. More recently he ventured into epic action territory with the spectacular misfire The Promise. My friend Todd Brown at Twitch posted the Forever Enthralled trailer, which looks like a great match of stars, director, and material. IMDb lists Miramax as having US theatrical rights, though it's not listed on their site. I hope we get to see this one without having to wait forever.

* UPDATE: Title corrected. Thanks to Larry for pointing out my mistake.

Living up to expectations, at least at the box office, Ong Bak 2 opened in Thailand last Friday and did big business. The action flick, starring Tony Jaa, is on track to become the biggest local hit of the year, according to Variety Asia Online.

The production ran into trouble earlier this year when Jaa walked off the set and disappeared into the jungle to think things over. Rumors were that the stunt man turned martial arts star, who came to worldwide prominence with Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior and The Protector, had bitten off more than he could chew with his first turn in the director's chair. Jaa indicated that it was all about the production company providing enough money to make the movie he wanted to make. Old friends came back on board, differences were ironed out, and the result was a big opening.

Wise Kwai provided links to stills, a synopsis, and a translation of a press conference, so head over there for the pre-release publicity. What about the film itself? I haven't found any reviews yet, though a commenter named Brad at the blog Enjoy Thai Movies wrote: "I saw the film last night. It's terrific with a great story and amazing action. Tony Jaa commands the screen with a towering performance. Given his much publicized recent problems, it's great to see Jaa pull through with such a wonderful film. It will be major hit, I am sure."

As for US viewers, we're waiting on The Weinstein Co., which, as far as I know, still holds distribution rights. Their web site still doesn't list the film, and I'm not terribly optimistic about a theatrical release. *

* UPDATE: Our friend Wise Kwai has just posted his (almost entirely) positive review -- check it out -- and also says below that the Weinsteins bowed out of distribution some time ago. Here's hoping someone else picks it up.

In limited release, Frost/Nixon, Ron Howard's adaptation of Peter Morgan's stage play, had the highest per-screen average of the weekend ($60,000 each at three screens), according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo, but it's not an indie. Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire ($18,026 per screen at 78 theaters) and Gus Van Sant's Milk ($17,071 per screen at 99 theaters) held up very well as they expanded in their fourth and second weeks, respectively, but we talked about them last week.

Instead, let's look at the resiliency of Philippe Claudel's I've Loved You So Long. Now in its seventh week, the French-language drama starring Kristin-Scott Thomas still had the 7th-highest per-screen average among all movies ($3,020 average, 51 screens). The film's cumulative take is a modest $1.76 million, which likely is a good return for distributor Sony Pictures Classics, and it will undoubtedly do very well when it's released on DVD in a couple of months.

My personal opinion is close to what Jeffrey D. Anderson expressed: "These characters are always subservient to the furthering of the story; the story itself squashes them." The popular appeal of the film is readily apparent, though: (1) Kristin Scott Thomas has a degree of name recognition in the arthouse world; (2) she gives an exquisite, finely-tuned performance; (3) it's in French, which is the default language for anguish and loss; (4) it revolves around a mother and her family, not a romance, which is a huge, refreshing relief; (5) it's rarely cinematic and feels much more like a televised stage play, which is oddly reassuring for some audiences; (6) it features a closing twist, which I found infuriating rather than enlightening, but twists always drive word of mouth.

Have you seen any films in limited release that you're recommending to friends?

The votes for top honors at the 2008 International Documentary Association (IDA) Awards were split between two very different docs: Man on Wire, about the whimsical Frenchman who walked a tightrope between the Twin Towers in 1974; and Waltz with Bashir, a memoir of life in war-torn Lebanon that's completely animated.

The IDA Awards were held Friday night in Los Angeles, hosted by everyone's favorite doc-maker Morgan Spurlock (perhaps a consolation prize for his own 2008 film, Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?, not being nominated). The other nominees for the top prize, called the Distinguished Feature Award, were Kassim the Dream, Stranded: I've Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains, and Young@Heart. That last one took home a separate prize, the Alan Ett Music Documentary Award.

Man on Wire has been earning raves ever since it premiered at Sundance in January, where it had the rare distinction of winning both the grand jury prize and the audience award. Rotten Tomatoes has declared it the best-reviewed film of all time, scoring positive reviews from 100% of its 133 critics. It's a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination and a good bet for the win.

Waltz with Bashir, on the other hand, won't be getting an Oscar nod, at least not in the documentary category -- it's ineligible because it didn't open theatrically before the Aug. 31 deadline. (The doc eligibility period is September-August, not January-December like it is for other awards.) It may still be nominated in the foreign-language and animated categories, however.

The IDA Awards also included a career achievement prize for Werner Herzog and a "pioneer award" for Rob Epstein, whose films The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) and Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989) both won Oscars. IndieWIRE has the complete list of IDA winners here.

Just yesterday I was inspired to write "Everyone should watch District B13" on my Facebook page, and then I watched the dang movie AGAIN! Basically I think it's one of the most entertaining action flicks of the past ten years, so when I came across THIS PIECE during my regular Twitch-surfing, I got very excited indeed. Looks like District B13: Ultimatum will reunite the amazing ass-kickers known as David Belle and Cyril Raffaelli; Luc Besson is on solo screenwriting duty; and the director is a Frenchman namd Patrick Alessandrin.

No solid word yet on when D-B13:U will be completed (or even who'll be distributing in this part of the globe, athough Magnolia did a fine job with the first flick), but if you spend a few minutes at Twitch then you'll find four behind-the-scenes clips to flicker through. (The most recent one is the coolest, and it's the one I've embedded below.) And then after the jump, a bonus that just never gets old. (Previous reports on this movie can be found here and here.)

Toss this one right into the "unproven" files, but it's amusing enough to warrant some exploration: According to this tabloid (along with The Guardian and our pals at Spout), it seems that spouses Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes may be gearing up to remake Bernardo Bertolucci's controversially sexy romance drama Last Tango in Paris. The last time we saw Tom Cruise nail a spouse on camera was in 1999's Eyes Wide Shut, and I'm sure he probably groped Mimi Rogers in a movie once or twice. (Say what you like, but the guy does have good taste in women.)

"They need to have sex on screen, to prove their love" is what The Guardian's Xan Brooks had to say, which only serves to make the whole thing sound more like an April Fool's gag. The paragon of journalism that is Now Magazine indicates that the couple simply wants to star together in something sexy. I believe the title Basic Instinct was tossed out as an example. Yikes. In Mr. Brooks' tongue-in-cheek piece, he proposes a remake of Betty Blue. Double yikes. But if this entirely goofball story turns out to be 100% true, and Cruise / Holmes are intent on making a "sek-say" remake together ... Lolita makes a little more sense. Or maybe The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Seriously, that I'd go see.

But the question of the day is now this: Does it creep you out to see married couples "doin' it" in a movie? Hmmm, I think I smell a new Cinematical Seven topic.

Could you see Paul Scrader in Bollywood? See, this is much more than merely Hollywood delighting in all things Bollywood. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Paul Schrader, the pen behind Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, is heading to Mumbai to helm a Bollywood action flick called Extreme City.

What's convinced him to head overseas? He says: "I've been getting indie movies made for 20 years. But I take a good look around and what I see is a barren, barren place -- in terms of the financial community, in terms of audiences, in terms of distribution. It's cold out there." So in this non-barren Bollywood, what will he direct? It's the story of an American man who goes to India to aid in the resolution of a kidnapping case for his father-in-law, and gets stuck in a gangster plot. Schrader admits that there will be a mix of dialogue and musical numbers, but it's "not a Masala movie."

I wonder... Will this continue to be a trend? If indie filmmakers can't get love here, will they take it elsewhere? And if they do, imagine the headaches the Oscar committee will get with an influx of overseas projects with mixed dialog by Americans!

Trailers? Oh yeah, we got your trailers here.

Star Trek
Like a lot of people, I got my first glimpse of this one when it played with Quantam of Solace last weekend. While this will obviously play hell with Star Trek continuity, I am one Trek geek who is looking forward to the J.J. Abrams take on the franchise. It opens on May 8.

Astro Boy
Here's a teaser for the CGI animated adaptation of the classic anime about a robot boy built by a scientist to replace the son he lost. The trailer doesn't give us much to go on, but the impressive voice cast includes Freddie Highmore, Nicolas Cage, Kristen Bell, Donald Sutherland, Eugene Levy, and Nathan Lane. Things get cosmic on October 23.

Coraline
I find it odd that Neil Gaiman's name isn't mentioned in the trailer, since the film is based on his novella. Gaiman isn't a household name but I would have figured he was well enough known to catch a few people's attention. Nevertheless, this stop-motion animated feature from Henry Selick, the director of A Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach, deals with a young girl who finds a pathway to a parallel world in which duplicates of her parents sport buttons for eyes. This deliciously creepy looking film will be in theaters on February 6.

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
All of our favorite characters return for this third installment of the series, and this time it's in 3-D. The only one we see in this new trailer is Scrat, on the trail of not just another acorn but apparently romance as well. The one hits on July 1.