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THE ROOMMATE<br />
HOMIES IN HEAVEN<br />
DISTRIBUTOR Screen Gems CAST Cam Gigandet, Leighton Meester, Minka Kelly, Aly Michalka, Danneel Harris,<br />
Matt Lanter, Frances Fisher DIRECTOR Christian E. Christiansen SCREENWRITER Sonny Mallhi PRODUCERS Doug<br />
Davison, Roy Lee, Irene Yeung GENRE Thriller RATING R for drug use, violence, language and some sexuality<br />
RUNNING TIME TBD RELEASE DATE February 4, 2011<br />
MY BEST FIEND<br />
Somebody’s not getting a seat saved for them in the<br />
cafeteria …<br />
> This thriller about a pair of college roommates whose insta-BFF infatuation<br />
turns deadly was meant to hit theaters in October—perfect timing for fall freshman<br />
looking for a tension-breaking night out with their new dorm buddy. February<br />
is odd timing for the scholastic release, but hey—maybe one semester deep<br />
into the school year kids can really identify with the two gals as they bludgeon<br />
each other in the shower.<br />
Minka Kelly and Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester star as Sara and Rebecca, incoming<br />
freshman on this sunny, red brick campus. (Filming took place at Los Angeles’<br />
Loyola Marymount.) The two pretty, big-cheekboned starlets could pass for sisters<br />
and immediately, they form a two-girl clique—what’s scarier than facing a big new<br />
school alone? But when Sara finds a boyfriend, Rebecca takes the news hard. And<br />
her depression starts to make more sense when Rebecca’s mom asks Sara those<br />
dreaded words: “Is she taking her medication?”<br />
Screen Gems is hoping for campy fun with some genuine chills, and they’ve got<br />
good reason to think The Roommate is worth its $8 million investment—the last<br />
time they pitted two hot women against each other with 2009’s Obsessed, starring<br />
Ali Larter as Beyonce’s deadly stalker, they scared up $68.2 million from fans of<br />
giddy schlock melodramas.<br />
DRIVE ANGRY<br />
SPEED DEMON<br />
DISTRIBUTOR Summit Entertainment CAST Nicolas Cage,<br />
Amber Heard, Billy Burke, William Fichtner, Katy Mixon<br />
DIRECTOR Patrick Lussier SCREENWRITERS Patrick Lussier,<br />
Todd Farmer PRODUCERS René Besson, Michael De Luca<br />
GENRE Action/Thriller RATING TBD RUNNING TIME TBD<br />
RELEASE DATE February 25, 2011<br />
> How hardcore is Nicolas Cage? When his<br />
daughter is murdered by a cult, he’s so bent<br />
on vengeance that he literally breaks out<br />
hood to record a song for the soundtrack.<br />
(Sir Elton believes so strongly in the<br />
cartoon charmer, he’s a producer and<br />
happily traveled with it to Cannes.)<br />
Don’t underestimate screenwriters<br />
Kevin Cecil and Andy Riley. Though<br />
the comedic pair have cut their teeth<br />
in straight-to-DVD films, Riley gained<br />
underground fame as the author of a<br />
series of books about rabbits who have<br />
lost their will to live: The Book of Bunny<br />
Suicides, Return of the Bunny Suicides, The<br />
Bumper Book of Bunny Suicides and Dawn<br />
of the Bunny Suicides, not to mention his<br />
more recent book, Great Lies To Tell Small<br />
Kids. If Gnomeo can straddle smart and<br />
sweet, he’ll have charmed parents into<br />
being repeat customers.<br />
of hell. But his quest to track and kill the<br />
killers who’ve kidnapped his baby granddaughter,<br />
Cage is pursued by two other<br />
supernatural forces: a hot-blooded blonde<br />
(Amber Heard) and the Devil’s accountant<br />
(William Fichtner), an undead, all-powerful<br />
bounty hunter entrusted to bring him back<br />
to the great beyond.<br />
Director Patrick Lussier climbed the<br />
ranks in Hollywood as Wes<br />
Craven’s go-to editor<br />
for thrillers like<br />
New Nightmare,<br />
Scream and Red<br />
Eye. But he made<br />
a real splash two<br />
springs ago with My<br />
Bloody Valentine 3D,<br />
the $15 million<br />
killer miner<br />
remake that<br />
made over<br />
$100 million<br />
at the<br />
worldwide<br />
box<br />
office—<br />
and that<br />
was before<br />
the<br />
major 3D<br />
roll out.<br />
What made Hollywood take notice<br />
of Lussier’s underground slasher was his<br />
skillful use of 3D. He knew how to wield it<br />
for shock and for ghastly tension. The most<br />
memborable shot in Valentine wasn’t the<br />
eyeball popping off the screen on a pick ax; it<br />
was the deep unease of watching a flashlight<br />
cast a long beam down a dark shaft. Naturally,<br />
Drive Angry was also<br />
shot for 3D, and if<br />
the flick makes good<br />
on its $75 million<br />
investment, Lussier<br />
will be the biggest<br />
name in 3D terror.<br />
BIKER OUT OF HELL<br />
David Morse sizes up Nicolas Cage’s menace<br />
DECEMBER <strong>2010</strong> BOXOFFICE 63
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