In the last decade Denis Lehane has consolidated himself as the go-to writer when American directors look for superior crime stories. Clint Eastwood took his Mystic River to the big screen, so did Scorsese with Shutter Island and Ben Affleck with Gone, Baby, Gone. This time Lehane adapts his own short story for Michaël R. Roskam’s first English language film, the follow-up to his Oscar nominated debut ‘Bullhead’. The Belgian director successfully changes the illegal hormone trade in his country’s underworld for mean Brooklyn streets populated by small time crooks under the rule of Eastern European mafia.
2009 promises to be a good year for the fantastic genre, even if it has begun with Zach Snyder’s long awaited adaptation of Alan Moore’s classic graphic novel “Watchmen” not living up to its expectations. Snyder’s attempt to be faithful to the source it’s worth praising, even if it often fails to translate its relevance to the big screen. After a year of excellent comic adaptations, all hopes were on him to carry on that excellence. “Watchmen” unfortunately didn’t get there.
However, there are enough interesting projects scheduled as to make everyone forget this slip and embrace a fantasy-tinged year in movies. The first one in arriving to the UK will be “Let The Right One In”, a Swedish vampire movie who’s earned rave reviews in the US where it was launched at the end of last year. Thomas Alfredson’s classy film transcends the limits and stereotypes of the genre and presents an innovative take on the vampire tales whose cinematography and screenplay have also earned him a good deal of acclaim.
Other high profile revisit of the traditional myths in the horror genre will see Benicio Del Toro, fresh from his ground breaking, Cannes awarded portrait of Che Guevara, back to fantasy land in a new version of The Wolf Man that also includes Anthony Hopkins and Emily Blunt as part of its cast, with Joe Johnston of “Jumanji” fame behind the camera.
