Back in your neighbourhood
The first trailer for the all-female Ghostbusters has been released. While it doesn’t quite have us waving our proton packs in the air, it offers grounds for cautious optimism. In the remake of the 1984 original, due on July 15, the spectre-subduing scientists are played by Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids), Melissa McCarthy (The Heat) and the Saturday Night Live veterans Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones.
If the trailer is anything to go by, we can expect souped-up CGI ghosts, an accent on Exorcist-inspired possession and head rotation, and a new sensitivity to the mechanics of cleaning up after being showered with ectoplasm. “That stuff went everywhere,” Wiig says. “Every crack.”
Unsinkable Matthias
The Belgian man-babe Matthias Schoenaerts continues his bid for movie-wide domination (eight in the past 24 months, including The Danish Girl and Far from the Madding Crowd) by teaming up with Thomas Vinterberg, the director of Festen, for the doomed Russian sub drama Kursk.
It will tell the tragic story of the nuclear-powered submarine Kursk K-141, which sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea in 2000, killing all 118 sailors on board.
Like a sombre, gloop-free version of Titanic, it’s being written by Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan). It is not to be confused with Kathryn Bigelow’s Russian sub drama K-19: The Widowmaker, which told the tragic story of a nuclear-powered submarine that suffered a reactor misfire, resulting in the deaths of 22 sailors. No news yet on what role Schoenaerts is taking, but odds are that it’s not going to end well.
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The Pass scores a festival slot
Russell Tovey, on small screens in The Night Manager, plays a footballer alongside Arinze Kene (EastEnders) in The Pass, part of the forthcoming BFI Flare LGBT Festival. “These highly trained, physical young men are mates and rivals, playing out their insecurities through hilarious verbal exchanges and sexually charged hi-jinks,” reads the programme.
Based on the Royal Court play by John Donnelly, the film is the opening night gala of the festival, which runs from March 16-27. Other notable films include Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures, about the photographer, and Rebel Dykes, a documentary about London lesbians and Greenham Common. The closing night gala is the French love story Summertime.