ROLL ON 2012!

It is the curse of the amateur screenwriter to sit through a movie and then come out thinking “I could have done better than that”.  Who didn’t think that when seeing “Drive Angry”, “Season Of The Witch” or basically any Nicolas Cage movie from the last year (come on Nic your better than this!)?  To trawl through the ridiculous levels of sequels, remakes, reboots and adaptations of 2011 to come up with a winner is not easy by half.  “Get Low” and “Blue Valentine” were for me, the cream of original movies in ’11, with “Drive” being the best adaptation.  So how do you go about choosing the best for 2012?  There are three categories – the box office hit (whether it’s crap or not does not matter for the production companies), the middle of the road movie which could be hated or loved, and the critically acclaimed movie which will be on the bones of its arse to scrape the budget back. 

 Let’s get the big box office hits out the way.  The 2 which spring to mind is “The Avengers” and “The Dark Knight Rises”.  Whilst “The Avengers” will go great business, I’m pretty confident in saying that “The Dark Knight Rises” will break the $1billion mark, as well as being critically acclaimed.  Everyone will see this movie, and judging by Christopher Nolan’s previous two efforts, quite rightly so.  The middle of the road hits to look out for, include a Tom Cruise effort.  I’m a big fan, growing up in the 80’s I could lip sync “Top Gun” to perfection, but even I’m not sure how “Rock Of Ages” will be taken.  Definitely one of them “you’ll either hate it or love it” films, I’m backing this one to do well.  Another possible hit that I’m backing is “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” (yes, another adaptation).  I first saw the poster and description of this film back in November in New York and remember getting goose bumps.  Starring Tom Hanks it’s a chance for him to say sorry for the pointless bland that was “Larry Crowne”.  Any movie set against the backdrop of 9/11 is always going to powerful and has to tread delicately, and I think this one does.  Which leaves me with the film that I like personally, probably won’t make much money, but is great in terms of acting and story (hopefully!).  “Shame” would have been written here, but I feel it’s a bit late to shout about it when it’s already been out for a few weeks.  Instead, I’m going for “The Life Of Pi”.  To be released in December, this is based on the 

wonderful story by Yann Martell that I read a decade ago.

 So after I have moaned about adaptations I go and choose one myself.  Well, yes I did, because when adaptations get it right, great movies come out of it, inspiring people to pick up the book.  “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”, “War Horse”, “Drive” and of course all the Harry Potter books, are just some examples of where movies get it right.  It’s a story worth telling, so I will have my fingers crossed that the studios treat it well, and it doesn’t end up with people leaving the cinema shaking their head.  If they can churn out “Scary Movie 5”, “Total Recall” and “Taken 2” (yes, all coming out this year) then they clearly have money to waste.

So all in all, remakes and reboots, sequels and adaptations are once again going to rule the roost.  Let’s just hope we have more movies like “Super 8” and “Drive”, than “Drive Angry” and “Season Of The Witch” (I mean, come on Nic! You’re an Oscar winner! Stop making shit films!).

DARREN RAE