Only 261 Days Until "GRAVITY" Drops
Wednesday, January 16, 2013 at 6:01PM 
Solaris (2002)Remember that blissful time a year ago when we thought we would have Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity in theaters for 2012. It was not to be but the film finally has a release date in October 4th, 2013. There are still no official photos of this movie so enjoy this still of George Clooney in Steven Soderbergh's remake of Solaris (2002), his only previous sci-fi outing. ... unless you'd like to count Return of the Killer Tomatoes (1988).
The release date is already crowded with the Vince Vaughn sperm donor comedy The Delivery Man (another sperm donor comedy... I thought we were done with those!), the 3D conversion of Revenge of the Sith, and the corporate thriller Paranoia which pairs young Liam Hensworth with Gary Oldman and Harrison Ford.
Gravity, in case you've forgotten, is an expensive 3D technological marvel (we're told) which is also an experimental dramatic two hander about a medical engineer (Sandra Bullock) and an astronaut (Clooney). The space travellers become stranded, tethered only to one another, when their shuttle is destroyed. Naturally, you need mega stars when your movie is going to cost a fortune and basically stare at the same two faces the whole time. Strangely given the synopsis it's always been reported that this is primarily the actress's show.
2013 is a big comeback year for Bullock after her, uh, big comeback year of 2009 for which she won the Oscar with the mega-hit The Blind Side. She's only made one movie in the interim (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) and she wasn't its selling point. Now she has two potential blockbusters looming. The other is the comedy The Heat (79 days away) from the director of Bridesmaids which pairs her as an FBI agent with cop Melissa McCarthy for an action comedy about two women after a drug lord. Last time Bullock led a female FBI comedy, Miss Congeniality, it was so popular a sequel followed.
Gravity might be a trickier sell.
Reader Comments (9)
Jennifer Lawrence reminds me a lot of her...except Jennifer has had better career direction.
I just saw Extremely Loud for the first time...the movie would have been so much better if it followed Sandra and the boy throughout the entire film...Thomas Horn was in EVERY scene...the audience needed some relief from him...Sandra's character needed a major step-up...can we do a rewrite, a re-shoot and a re-cut?
I would have nominated Sandra in BSA though. And what exactly did Max von Sydow do to warrant a nom?
I still think she could get an Oscar nod for Gravity. I can't wait for it; it sounds so interesting.
Maybe she'll have another year where she gets nominated in comedy and drama at the Globes. :p
So Sue: There's probably FAR worse as far as child actors go. However, after seeing it, I have to concede it's not THAT bad on the overall (not Best Picture worthy, but not a brain-meltingly horrible movie (Superman Returns, War Inc and Norbit are, in my view, among that pantheon)) but that the last ten seconds are (genuinely) AWFUL and go against what you could reasonably surmise the conclusions of the picture are, in regards to establishing that over paranoia is a bad thing and that the universe deserves to cut him a break after his massive tragedy. As for Von Sydow's success: It was in some ways due to the "degree of difficulty" of conveying emotion through gesture and others due to a performance that was easier to understand as great than Albert Brooks in Drive. For Bullock: Tight year, like it usually is.
I actually liked the film and I liked Thomas Horn. I commend him for going for it and not being afraid to be unlikable in his grief, even though his acting was always at full throttle (maybe the script and the director could have guided him to a more nuanced performance and given him some more peaks and valleys in the emotion they wanted him to convey). But I think as a whole the film would have resonated more if the audience had a little more of Sandra (and her charm & charisma) to offset Thomas.
Of course Lawrence has better career trajectory, she's about to (probably) win an Oscar, she's 22, and involved in two big franchises. She's on top of the world.
That said, I"m really excited to see Sandra step it up with Gravity after her Oscar win. I've always been a fan of hers.
I would guess the film is the actress's show because the actor does not make it to the end, or gets separated.
The first time I saw that trailer for The Heat, I was shocked that it wasn't called Miss Congeniality 3: The Heat. A second viewing has done nothing to change that perception.
I thought I couldn't be more excited about Gravity. And then Guillermo Del Toro said that in the rough cut, the first third of the movie is done in one take. One take! I'm so in.