As far as Hollywood's reliably tepid horror output is concerned, Quarantine works as every bit the disposable jolt dispenser it's assembled to be. It's got a nifty enough concept in its favor and a mildly recognizable cast that needs not fear any characterization coming between them and certain death by the time the credits roll, and it's hard to believe that there's not at least one sequence in here that might get even the most cynical horror fan's heart rate to rise a beat or two -- and I say this as a documented fan of the (still superior) source material.

Young news reporter Angela Vidal (Jennifer Carpenter) and her cameraman (Steve Harris) are covering a Los Angeles fire station during their nightly routines when the two tag along on an emergency call to an apartment building. Not terribly long after their arrival, all hell breaks loose and the building's occupants -- Angela included -- find themselves contained within against their will and left to fend off a dangerous virus that causes the infected to become a rabid zombie variant, one aggressively determined to spread the love around.

Despite having previously established my feelings about this weekend's Quarantine, I must confess a new willingness to give it a fair shot later tonight. Regardless, this week's Cinematical Seven is all about first-person horror movies, with a couple of oh-so-subjective stipulations:

• We're leaving The Blair Witch Project (1999) out of this. It might not have been the first of these movies, but it was undeniably the most successful and influential. There are only seven slots here, and I feel like everyone has already made clear whether they find this scary or just stupid (I fall in the former grouping, though I say this having not seen the flick since my teens). If you still feel the need to take BWP to task, comment away.
• Also omitted will be The Last Broadcast (1998), which drew mild controversy at the time of its release for its similarity to Blair Witch. I'm only not writing about it because the copy of it sitting just over on my shelf here has remained unwatched. My bad.
• The previous film by the guys behind Quarantine is The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007), which -- being in the hands of the Weinsteins -- has not yet seen the light of day beyond a couple of festivals. Having not attended any of said festivals myself, I'll just sit here and guess that it'll get dumped to DVD (probably under the Dimension Extreme label), and not any earlier than next year at that.

Now, on with the list...

Stop me if you've heard this one before. It's an American remake of an Asian horror film about ghosts that seek revenge against, or try to pass messages to, the living. And the studio's releasing it in January. But instead of listing the first 20 films matching that description that come to mind, watch the new trailer for The Uninvited, courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes (we've got it embedded below).

The trailer makes the film look relatively promising: Two sisters deal with their father's much-too-young new girlfriend, who it turns out might have murdered the last family she lived with. Casting the marvelous Elizabeth Banks as the potential murderess gets my attention immediately; she can do funny and sexy, but can she do creepy? I bet she can.

By the way, the film apparently has nothing to do with the 1944 movie of the same title. It is, rather, a remake of a 2003 South Korean movie called Janghwa, Hongryeon (or A Tale of Two Sisters, as it was known internationally), which got a very small U.S. release in December 2004. The remake is due Jan. 30. What do you think?

The trailer is after the jump....

Iceland has a more robust film industry than you might expect from a small island nation of only 320,000 people, but still, it ain't exactly Hollywood. So when an Icelandic film gains worldwide attention, it's newsworthy.

Such is the case with Jar City, an excellent mystery thriller that Cinematical's Kim Voynar raved about last year at Telluride. It's the highest-grossing film in the country's history, from one of its most successful (and prolific directors), and it won a top prize at the 2007 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

And now it gets the ultimate honor: an American remake! (There may have been sarcasm in the word "honor.") According to The Hollywood Reporter, Overture Films has bought the remake rights and will employ the original writer/director, Baltasar Kormákur, as a producer. No word yet on who will direct the U.S. version, but a writer has been attached: Michael Ross, who wrote Turistas and who THR says is also penning the Near Dark remake.

The Icelandic setting will be changed, of course, to its logical American counterpart: Louisiana. No, really. I'm curious to see how the story transfers, since some of its details relate to the insularity of those small Icelandic communities. Also, I loved that the detective in the original was a total badass despite looking like a nerdy college professor. (That's him in the picture.) I hope they keep that element for the remake. William H. Macy would be perfect.

As far as I can determine, this is the first time an Icelandic film has officially gotten an American remake. If anyone knows differently, let me know. Otherwise, I'm marking this as a historic first for our friends in the North Atlantic.

The first time I came across a trailer for the Diane Lane/Thomas Jane/Mickey Rourke hitman thriller Killshot (only remaining on an AICN archive page and the errant DVD release), it was back in September of 2006. Since then, the Elmore Leonard adaptation has endured reshoots in January of 2007 and countless changes in release dates after that. Of course, there's also at least three test screening reviews that bring to light the entire removal of a character played by Johnny Knoxville from the film.

Now, not long after the Weinstein Company issued its latest round of supposed scheduling, Killshot's most recent date -- November 7, 2008 -- has been dashed away by this Los Angeles Times piece, and as pointed out, how does one struggle to release anything that John Madden, Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack and Quentin Tarantino all had hands in at some point? How does one struggle to even sell off domestic distribution rights to a film with this cast and that crew? The obvious answer is, of course, that the film is a downright dud, though the general pedigree and harshest reviews seem to suggest that it's not a total turkey.

The best-case scenario at this point is that the film rides the awards buzz of Rourke's performance in December's The Wrestler as suggested and gets a theatrical release in the early winter dumping grounds (through the Weinsteins' Third Rail arm, I'd bet), while the worst-case scenario is the film being directly downgraded to the level of a Blockbuster-exclusive curio. We shall see...

Usually it's not too hard to imagine what a film will be like. This is not, however, the case with Sherlock Holmes. First, it was a challenge to try and imagine just how Guy Ritchie would handle the material, even with the suggestion of a "slightly stylized 1891." Robert Downey Jr. was an intriguing choice for Mr. Holmes, and now as the bigger casting pieces begin to fall into place, I'm dying to see what Ritchie makes of it.

Jude Law IS in as Watson, and The Hollywood Reporter posts that Rachel McAdams has signed on to play Sherlock's love interest, Irene Adler. THR says the character showed up in only one story -- 1891's "A Scandal in Bohemia," but should the film become part of a series, she'll be there for the ride. As Elisabeth pointed out when Mark Strong signed on, Ritchie isn't interested right now in a sequel, but that doesn't mean the studio isn't salivating over the thought. Oh yes, and Strong, who was cast in a few roles through the rumor mill -- he'll play Blackwood, Holmes' main villain. There's some excellent talent in here, and after RocknRolla, I'm dying to see Strong go head to head with Downey Jr.

Dear readers of Cinematical, what say you? Will these four work well together, or are you hoping for a little recasting? And for more of this week's big casting news, check out the gallery below ...

For the first time in its four-year history, Austin's Fantastic Fest decided to premiere a handful of its titles on the internet, thereby giving the hardcore genre fans of the world a chance to sample what this festival is all about. One of those titles was South of Heaven, which I decided to watch online, so as to give myself the option of seeing something else once the festival began. Plus I figured, hey, if the movie's are already posted (albeit temporarily) on the net, then how "top-grade" could they be? Surely the FF crew would save the BEST stuff for the actual festival, right?

Wrong.

I finished the film at about 3:30am and I immediately dropped the following email to the Fantastic Fest programmers, and this is a censored-yet-direct quote from yours truly:

"Just finished watching South of Heaven, and I can't remember the last non-horror flick I was this jazzed about. It's the Coens meets Sam Fuller while watching Looney Tunes and making an '80s mix tape full of The Smiths and Depeche Mode. I (freak)ing loved it."

(from left to right) Fantastic Fest programmer Zack Carlson, Fantastic Feud co-hosts Devin Steuerwald and Scott Weinberg, and Not Quite Hollywood director Mark Hartley

With the weekend came no sure rest for Fantastic Fest attendees. Saturday kicked off with, among other things: a screening of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes shown from an HD master of a cut unseen in over thirty-five years; initial screenings of the very popular Tiffany stalker doc I Think We're Alone Now and the very anticipated Swedish vampire drama Let the Right One In (which can now fall firmly in the former category); and a boat party held in honor of Donkey Punch, in which several youthful types face some serious consequences after their high behavior on the high seas. Did life end up imitating art on that front...?

While it doesn't arrive in theaters until December, Fox feels pretty confident in their The Day the Earth Stood Still remake -- so much so that they aired roughly seven and a half minutes of footage last night during a repeat of the Fringe pilot. Seems a bit odd to show that much footage this far in advance of the film's release date, but apparently Fox wants to build good buzz now ... and, thankfully, it would appear the film warrants it.

The footage (which you can see after the jump) is not comprised of one, long extended scene. Instead, we're taken through a whole bunch of scenes from what would appear to be the first half of the film, with some playing out a bit longer than others. Essentially, The Day the Earth Stood Still tells of an alien visitor (Keanu Reeves) and a giant robot who land on earth and turn the place upside down. Jennifer Connelly, Jaden Smith, Kathy Bates and John Cleese also star. Check out the seven-minute clip after the jump.

The Day the Earth Stood Still hits theaters on December 12.

As we've started to get our fair share of trailers for the coming prestige projects -- Frost/Nixon, The Soloist, Zack and Miri Make a Porno -- I was curious as to why we'd yet to get one for Clint Eastwood's period drama, Changeling, if it were set to open by the end of next month. Particularly after Kim's Cannes review, I wanted to get a proper glimpse beyond a brief clip...

Perhaps hearing my prayers or just tiring of my complaints, Yahoo! Movies saw fit to post the trailer (watch it after the jump as well), in which a young mother (Angelina Jolie) in 1928 Los Angeles finds herself standing up against a corrupt police department when her missing son is returned, or rather replaced by a different child altogether.

Even if the same piece of score hadn't been used in both of their trailers, I'd still have felt a need to draw a correlation between this and last October's missing-kids-and-corrupt-cops powerhouse, Gone Baby Gone (of course, it doesn't hurt that Amy Ryan shows up in both of them). From Eastwood's end comes a particular tinge of Mystic River, and so far as I'm concerned, all of those signs point to something substantial waiting for us when Changeling opens in limited release on October 31.

Whatever you do, don't throw Michael Mann's Heat (or God forbid, The Godfather II) into the DVD player prior to venturing off to your local theater to see Righteous Kill. Part of you might want to watch the film that last featured Robert De Niro and Al Pacino opposite one another to get you in the mood, but you'll surely be disappointed when the popcorn's run out and what you're watching on the big screen doesn't even belong in the same conversation as the film you just watched at home. That's because Righteous Kill is a predictable pile of pass me the paycheck, with both De Niro and Pacino phoning in a combination of past performances -- of men with tough, no-nonsense New York City exteriors and sly, slickly-delivered one-liners. This isn't the De Niro and Pacino of old ... it is, unfortunately, the older De Niro and Pacino.

Since Righteous Kill was written by Russell Gewirtz, there are definitely similarities between this and his last script, Inside Man -- both films are about men who do bad things for the good of the people. Righteous Kill opens with a voice-over from Detective Turk (De Niro) against some grainy, black-and-white video. Turk tells us he's killed 14 people during his years as an NYPD cop ("most people respect the badge ... everyone respects the gun"), but they were all lowlife thugs who deserved it. After some quick-yet-stylish (and somewhat annoying) cuts back and forth through time, we finally arrive at a pretty standard whodunnit with both Turk and his partner Rooster (Pacino) hot on the tail of a serial killer who leaves the equivalent of third-grade poetry with each of his victims. Roses are red, violets are blue ... I guessed all of Act III and so will you.

Remember how Clive Owen showed up in The Bourne Identity as a fellow/rival assassin to Matt Damon's butt-kicking amnesiac? After watching the trailer for his new film, The International, I feel like director Tom Tykwer decided that he wanted to make something like that guy's own movie.

Okay, so maybe it's a bit more generic than that, with Owen playing an Interpol agent teaming up with a partner/potential love interest/possible traitor* (Naomi Watts) to take on some big bad bank with ties to all sorts of global espionage, and probably some ridiculous withdrawal fees to boot.

I'm not so hot on the prospect of the February "dumping ground" release date (see: Jumper, Vantage Point), but it'll be nice to have a more testosterone-fueled offering to counter-program all that other Valentine's Day fare. Besides, if Tykwer (Run Lola Run) decides that a big-budget thriller is worth his while, maybe it'll show past the paycheck -- I mean, if the director of Swingers can show us...

*Come on, he's even fed that adage of "Everyone is involved." Think about it...

In a combined effort to boost its box office receipts enough to become the highest-grossing film of all time (which it won't) and boost its awards profile enough to garner some Oscars (which it might), That Juggernaut Which We Call The Dark Knight will be re-released this coming January, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

It's the month when the awards rush is high and the mainstream competition is low, and any chance to see it in the IMAX format (had ye missed it, for shame) should be relished regardless of the DVD's December arrival.

And no, even if it doesn't best Titanic, director Christopher Nolan and the Brothers Warner are still looking at the cusp of a billion bucks worldwide. Yeah, so far as consolation prizes go, I've actually heard of worse. Hell, with numbers like that, maybe they could still sway Phillip Seymour Hoffman to climb aboard -- or at least help Michael Caine get his story straightened out...

I am getting a terrible sense of deja vu -- I skimmed this Variety article very quickly, thinking as I read "Oh, I remember reading the reviews of this book, and I always meant to pick it up." But then I saw the word "preemptively" and realized it hadn't been published yet. So either there's a novel out there that's eerily similar, or I'm no longer existing in space or time, like a red-haired and clothed Dr. Manhattan. What if I came up with the story first and never wrote it down?

Anyway, according to the aforementioned article, producer Michael De Luca has snapped up the rights to Richard Doetsch's not-yet-published novel, The Thirteenth Hour. It hasn't even been taken to publishers yet, but De Luca's got it, and is taking it to his old New Line stomping grounds. It's described as a cross between The Bourne Identity and The Time Traveler's Wife, following a man who is accused of brutally murdering his wife. He's given a chance to save her by going back in time, but only in one hour increments, where he must put together clues leading to who killed her, and why. "It has a great cinematic structure that unfolds in reverse," says De Luca. So far, no director or starting date has been attached to the project.

Maybe my memory is ringing because of its faint resemblance to Memento or Deja Vu? It sounds like a combination of those two more than anything else. I'm always up for a time traveling story that isn't by Michael Crichton, though, and I'll be happy with a sci-fi version of The Fugitive. And just think of how many actors out there who are dying to do a Harrison Ford impression!

I'm just over a week away from experiencing my very first Fantastic Fest at the fairly awesome Alamo Drafthouse in the fairly awesome town of Austin, Texas. Word from attendees of the past couple of years, including our own S. Weinberg, suggests that this year's Fest will itself be -- you guessed it -- fairly awesome.

On the one hand, FF is infamous for selling, and selling out, its badges for the following year during the current year's festivities. On the other, they've teamed up with sponsors AMD and B-Side to offer up five short films and five full features for free upon their website from September 14th through the 20th. You must sign up for the B-Side community in order to partake, but that's easy enough (and similarly free of charge), and then you get to cast a vote for the 'online audience favorite' award to be given out at the formal ceremony come the 22nd.

As far as the features offered go -- Dr. Infierno, I Think We're Alone Now, La Creme, Rule of Three, and South of Heaven -- I've only seen the second one, and when it comes to the shorts, among them is a killer Christmas tree short from the minds behind Hobo with a Shotgun that sounds too tempting to wait a week for. Should any of you indulge in the whole nine well, ten yards, do let us know what you think of which titles.