Adaptations Opening Today
It may seem crazy to open a movie today, debut day for Star Wars: The Force Awakens debuts, but the studios hope there will be audiences looking for different fare. For kids, theres Alvin and the Chipmunks The Road Chip (see our listing for tie-ins) and for comedy fans, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler play Sisters.
It’s also an ideal time to release movies with Oscar buzz, barely within the deadline late enough to be fresh in the Academy’s mind. Two such movies open today, both adaptations [CORRECTION: We jumped the gun on both of these films, 45 Years opens on Wed. Dec. 23 and The Revenant opens in limited released on Friday, Dec. 25]:
45 Years, an adaptation of David Constantine’s short story “In Another Country,” was just selected by The Guardian as #1 on their list of the 50 best films of 2015 in the UK . Stars Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay already won best actress and actor awards at the Berlin International Film Festival. The movie explores what happens when a long-buried secret shakes up a 45-year-long happy marriage and is getting kudos for daring to feature older actors.
The story it is based on is in the collection, In Another Country, (Biblioasis, June, 2015).
Opening in limited number of theaters on Dec. 25, expanding to more on Jan. 8, is The Revenant starring Tom Hardy and Leonardo DiCaprio, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman).
Early preview screenings brought a shiver of internet excitement when the Drudge Report claimed that the movie contains scenes of Leonardo DiCaprio being raped by a bear (unfounded, although the process of filming the movie has been described as “a living hell“).
Based on Michael Punke’s 2002 debut novel of the same name, it is a vengeance tale set on the 19th-century American frontier, based on a true story, as The Tekegraph reports “Best served cold: the terrifying true story behind The Revenant.”
A tie-in edition is scheduled for Dec. 29., The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge by Michael Punke (Macmillian/Picador; OverDrive Sample).