Although not quite horror, Mandate Pictures has acquired the remake rights to Danish helmer Ole Bornedal's THE SUBSTITUTE, which enters on a sixth-grade class and its substitute teacher who turns out to be an alien. The film has been set up at Columbia and is being developed separately from the main Mandate slate, under Ghost House Pictures, the genre label Mandate runs in concert with Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert. The original film arrives on DVD October 14th from Ghost House Underground and Lionsgate. Raimi and Tapert will produce and Josh Donen, Nathan Kahane, Bornedal and Michael Obel will exec produce. Andrea Giannetti is overseeing for Columbia.
- 9/19/2008
- bloody-disgusting.com
Mandate Pictures is going Danish.
The production banner has acquired remake rights to a pair of films from Danish helmer Ole Bornedal -- "The Substitute" and this year's Sundance buzz film "Just Another Love Story."
"The Substitute" has been set up at Columbia and is being developed separately from the main Mandate slate, under Ghost House Pictures, the genre label Mandate runs in concert with Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert. Raimi and Tapert will produce and Josh Donen, Nathan Kahane, Bornedal and Michael Obel will exec produce. Andrea Giannetti is overseeing for Columbia.
"The Substitute" centers on a sixth-grade class and its substitute teacher who turns out to be an alien. "Love Story" centers on a man who, after pretending to be the boyfriend of a woman who has amnesia, must elude the woman's revenge-bent actual boyfriend.
The projects marks the second time a U.S. studio could remake a Bornedal film.
The production banner has acquired remake rights to a pair of films from Danish helmer Ole Bornedal -- "The Substitute" and this year's Sundance buzz film "Just Another Love Story."
"The Substitute" has been set up at Columbia and is being developed separately from the main Mandate slate, under Ghost House Pictures, the genre label Mandate runs in concert with Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert. Raimi and Tapert will produce and Josh Donen, Nathan Kahane, Bornedal and Michael Obel will exec produce. Andrea Giannetti is overseeing for Columbia.
"The Substitute" centers on a sixth-grade class and its substitute teacher who turns out to be an alien. "Love Story" centers on a man who, after pretending to be the boyfriend of a woman who has amnesia, must elude the woman's revenge-bent actual boyfriend.
The projects marks the second time a U.S. studio could remake a Bornedal film.
- 9/18/2008
- by By Steven Zeitchik and Jay A. Fernandez
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Film review: 'Nightwatch'
"Nightwatch" is a serviceable serial-killer-themed mystery that will give some audience members a dose of the heebie-jeebies. But the Dimension Films release won't draw crowds for long, with video and cable releases perhaps showing a little more life.
Set primarily in a morgue that is all but haunted by ghosts at night, Danish writer-director Ole Bornedal's American feature debut boasts once and future star Ewan McGregor as the proverbial patsy under the nose of a devious sociopath.
Based on Bornedal's 1995 film "Nattevagten", a boxoffice hit in Denmark, "Nightwatch" is a moody, atmospheric shocker with a morbid appetite for bloody details about stiffs. But there's not much of a plot, and the material is not as challenging or unsettling as another European chiller, George Sluizer's "The Vanishing" (1988), which unfortunately lost a lot of its impact when remade in Hollywood by its original director.
A serious law student in need of an income, Martin (McGregor) is involved with a nice girl (Patricia Arquette), but his best friend James (Josh Brolin) is borderline demonic in his misanthropic outlook and loathsome behavior. An emotionally numb manipulator and player of dangerous games, James is the primary suspect when Martin is drawn into the mystery surrounding a serial killer who murders prostitutes and cuts out their eyes.
The film is strongest when Martin first starts working at the morgue, with every sound and dark corner keeping the affable Young Turk on edge. Lonny Chapman is marvelously demented as the old watchman Martin replaces, and such devices as an alarm that should never go off lead to a few crowd-pleasing frights.
On the trail of the serial killer is somber Inspector Cray (Nick Nolte), who becomes Martin's pal and then problem. A ghoulish veteran with a cool demeanor and theory that the fiend wants to be caught, Cray lets loose with a creepy monologue while examining a victim's body. But it's James who really draws attention to himself by introducing Martin to Joyce (Alix Koromzay), a prostitute he has gotten to know.
James, who also has an amiable girlfriend (Lauren Graham), is a devious, unhealthy person, and he sets up Martin and Joyce at a restaurant with her instructions to get to work right away. Mostly an eager Boy Scout with bad judgment, Martin puts up with such unsociable antics and more serious tomfoolery like a switching of names that helps set up his swift downfall.
The energetic performances by McGregor and Brolin keep the film on track, while Richard Hoover's production design and Dan Laustsen's widescreen cinematography are exemplary for a fairly ordinary genre rehash.
NIGHTWATCH
Dimension Films
A Michael Obel production
A Bornedal film
Writer-director: Ole Bornedal
Producer: Michael Obel
Executive producers: Bob Weinstein,
Harvey Weinstein, Cary Granat
Director of photography: Dan Laustsen
Production designer: Richard Hoover
Editor: Kant Pan
Costume designer: Louise Mingenbach
Casting: Rick Pagano
Color/stereo
Cast:
Martin: Ewan McGregor
Inspector Cray: Nick Nolte
Katherine: Patricia Arquette
James: Josh Brolin
Marie: Lauren Graham
Joyce: Alix Koromzay
Old Watchman: Lonny Chapman
Running time -- 101 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Set primarily in a morgue that is all but haunted by ghosts at night, Danish writer-director Ole Bornedal's American feature debut boasts once and future star Ewan McGregor as the proverbial patsy under the nose of a devious sociopath.
Based on Bornedal's 1995 film "Nattevagten", a boxoffice hit in Denmark, "Nightwatch" is a moody, atmospheric shocker with a morbid appetite for bloody details about stiffs. But there's not much of a plot, and the material is not as challenging or unsettling as another European chiller, George Sluizer's "The Vanishing" (1988), which unfortunately lost a lot of its impact when remade in Hollywood by its original director.
A serious law student in need of an income, Martin (McGregor) is involved with a nice girl (Patricia Arquette), but his best friend James (Josh Brolin) is borderline demonic in his misanthropic outlook and loathsome behavior. An emotionally numb manipulator and player of dangerous games, James is the primary suspect when Martin is drawn into the mystery surrounding a serial killer who murders prostitutes and cuts out their eyes.
The film is strongest when Martin first starts working at the morgue, with every sound and dark corner keeping the affable Young Turk on edge. Lonny Chapman is marvelously demented as the old watchman Martin replaces, and such devices as an alarm that should never go off lead to a few crowd-pleasing frights.
On the trail of the serial killer is somber Inspector Cray (Nick Nolte), who becomes Martin's pal and then problem. A ghoulish veteran with a cool demeanor and theory that the fiend wants to be caught, Cray lets loose with a creepy monologue while examining a victim's body. But it's James who really draws attention to himself by introducing Martin to Joyce (Alix Koromzay), a prostitute he has gotten to know.
James, who also has an amiable girlfriend (Lauren Graham), is a devious, unhealthy person, and he sets up Martin and Joyce at a restaurant with her instructions to get to work right away. Mostly an eager Boy Scout with bad judgment, Martin puts up with such unsociable antics and more serious tomfoolery like a switching of names that helps set up his swift downfall.
The energetic performances by McGregor and Brolin keep the film on track, while Richard Hoover's production design and Dan Laustsen's widescreen cinematography are exemplary for a fairly ordinary genre rehash.
NIGHTWATCH
Dimension Films
A Michael Obel production
A Bornedal film
Writer-director: Ole Bornedal
Producer: Michael Obel
Executive producers: Bob Weinstein,
Harvey Weinstein, Cary Granat
Director of photography: Dan Laustsen
Production designer: Richard Hoover
Editor: Kant Pan
Costume designer: Louise Mingenbach
Casting: Rick Pagano
Color/stereo
Cast:
Martin: Ewan McGregor
Inspector Cray: Nick Nolte
Katherine: Patricia Arquette
James: Josh Brolin
Marie: Lauren Graham
Joyce: Alix Koromzay
Old Watchman: Lonny Chapman
Running time -- 101 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 4/13/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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