A animated indie and one big-budget sci-fi remake enter theaters this weekend. The sci-fi fantasy Delgo from Fathom Pictures will be overshadowed by 20th Century Fox’s The Day The Earth Stood Still, which employs tons of visual effects and Keanu Reeves to update the 1951 classic of the same name. Delgo recently qualified to compete for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Two other toons begin their Oscar Qualifying runs in Los Angeles this weekend. The stop-motion Israeli-Australian co-production $9.99 opens at the Music Hall and the French CG fairytale Dragon Hunters from Futurikon bows at Laemmle’s The Grande Theatre downtown.
After playing at the Annecy festival earlier this year, Delgo finally hits the big screen through Freestyle Releasing, which is putting the film out in around 2,160 theaters. The adventure tale takes place in a magical land where two civilizations are brought together by an outlawed romance and the heroics of some unlikely friends. The star-studded voice cast includes Freddie Prinze Jr. (Scooby-Doo), Jennifer Love Hewitt (Garfield: The Movie), Anne Bancroft (The Graduate), Val Kilmer (Batman Forever), Chris Kattan (Monkeybone), Kelly Ripa (Fly Me to the Moon), Eric Idle (Monty Python’s Flying Circus), Michael Clarke Duncan (Planet of the Apes), Malcolm McDowell (Star Trek Generations), Burt Reynolds (Boogie Nights) and Lou Gossett Jr. (An Officer and a Gentleman).
Directed by Jason Maurer and Marc F. Adler from a screenplay by Maurer, Scott Biear, Patrick Cowan, Carl Dream and Jennifer A. Jones, Delgo is the first feature film from Atlanta, Georgia-based toon shop Fathom Studios, which is known primarily for commercial work. The team began production in 1998. Learn more about the movie and watch the trailer at www.delgo.com.
Sure to win the battle for the North American box office, The Day the Earth Stood Still debuts in more than 3,500 theaters. In this latest Hollywood redo, Reeves plays a humanoid alien being named Klatu, who comes to Earth to warn mankind of its impending doom. The film is directed by Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) from a screenplay by David Scarpa (The Last Castle). The extensive visual effects work was completed by Weta Digital, Flash Film Works, Hydraulx, Cinesite, Digital Dimension, Image Engine and Persistence of Vision, among other vendors.
Day stands alone as a major studio event. Trickling into theaters in limited release are a number of Oscar hopefuls, including IFC’s Che, Warner Bros.’ Gran Torino, The Weinstein Co.’s The Reader and Miramax’s Doubt.
Directed by Guillaume Ivernel and Arthur Qwak, Dragon Hunters is a fantasy adventure tale that centers on two fly-by-night dragon hunters, Gwizdo (Rob Paulsen) and Lian-Chu (Forest Whitaker), whose sole ambition in life is to buy a quiet little farm to hang out on. Zoe (Mary Matilyn Mouser) is a precocious little girl who believes in fairytales and decides to help her uncle, Lord Arnold, get rid of a terrible dragon that returns every thirty seasons to spread terror and destruction. She sets out to find some heroes like the ones she reads about in her books, but winds up with Gwizdo ad Lian-Chu. To Gwizdo’s dismay, they begin a perilous journey to the end of the world, where sleeps the most terrifying dragon ever to have stalked the face of the earth, the infamous World Gobbler. The pic has sold roughly 800,000 tickets in its native France, and about 400,000 in Russia. Peach Arch Ent has acquired North American distribution rights and plans the give the pic a wider release. Learn more at www.dragonhunters-themovie.com.
$9.99 marks the feature debut of Israeli-born director/animator Tatia Rosenthal, whose short A Buck’s Worth played at Sundance in 2005. Rosenthal has worked as an animator on such TV series such as Blue’s Clues and The Wonder Pets!. Co-financed by the Israeli Film Fund, $9.99 is based on a collection of macabre short stories by Etgar Keret (Wristcutters: A Love Story, Jellyfish). Australian actors Geoffrey Rush and Anthony LaPaglia provide voices for the production, which revolves around a group of characters living in an apartment complex in Sydney, each searching for meaning in their lives. The film is an expansion of A Buck’s Worth, a Sundance Lab project.
