#2Trailers no. 11, 'Act of Valor' & 'The Raven', a #Preview of upcoming films by Kev
This week before Immortals, there were extended trailers for Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, The Grey and The Avengers. Just when I was beginning to think of online trailers to write about instead, two emerged from the digitally brightened screen, Act of Valor and The Raven, and demanded my attention.
Act of Valor
Act of Valor is the ‘true story’ of a Navy Seal team and what happened on one of its missions. Filmed with unprecedented access and active duty Navy Seals, this movie looks to be the closest thing most of you will ever get to combat.
The adverts for this film began with the trailer being shown at the Battlefield 3 release party and a cross-promotional campaign offering free special in-game dog tags for those North American Gamers who view the trailer and have an EA account.
The screenplay is by Kurt Johnstad, the writer who adapted 300 and has written the original screenplay 300: Battle for Artemisia.
Act of Valor is co-directed by documentary film maker/stuntman Mike McCoy (Navy SWCC, Dust to Glory) and Scott Waugh, another prolific stuntman.
I am going to go out on a limb, after seeing the trailer, and say that this unconventional duo and crew could be the major move towards a new genre that blurs the line between fact and fiction, documentary and pure fabrication, that has been threatened by the proliferation of smart phones with cameras and, really, has been possible since the advent of the handheld movie camera.
Oh, one last thing, the Cinematographer is Shane Hurlbut, the Director of Photography for Terminator Salvation.
Who will join me on February 17th, 2012?
The Raven
As long as I can remember, I have always loved Edgar Allen Poe’s poetry and stories. Now the man himself has moved beyond being just a literary creator into the realm of film as a character himself.
What follows is a fictionalized account of Edgar Allen Poe’s last days where he assists in the pursuit of a serial killer who has patterned his victims’ demises after Poe’s writing.
I am going to focus on the positive here.
The Director is James McTeigue who also directed V for Vendetta.
I like V for Vendetta.
John Cusack (Better Off Dead, One Crazy Summer) stars as Edgar Allen Poe. Luke Evans (Immortals) stars as Detective Emmett Fields.
I am a huge fan of Cusack and Evans was good in Immortals.
Let us be realistic, I really like the trailer, I do not believe John Cusack needs to take a bad script and, though, there are an awful lot of TV/first time moviemakers involved and it has a release date of March 9th, 2012, I still have high hopes for The Raven.
Put raven trailer here
