The Road by Cormac McCarthy is about a father, never named, who is heading south with his son (The Boy) in a post-apocalyptic world where our biosphere has died, no animals or wildlife survive and the few humans still on the planet battle starvation and packs of roving cannibals. With the exception of a brief encounter with a squid, the book is a long, eloquently-written fable about every father in the world trying to raise his son through these times of doubt and uncertainty. The Man is constantly thinking of using one of his last bullets on The Boy, should he have to, much like each father could potentially abandon his son to the real world while their ward is under-prepared.

If the book was a moving experience that compared raising a child to the apocalypse, the movie concerned itself with showing us what raising a child in the apocalypse would look like. Because the novel this film was based on is so entrenched in using text as a means to deliver the story and theme, the movie feels like a parallel experience, where, by observing these characters, director John Hillcoat spends an hour establishing things the book had down in fifty pages. Interestingly, what we, the audience, have gotten out of this are two distinct experiences dealing with the same subject matter. The book is better, but the movie isn’t just reiterating the purpose of the book.

Make any sense?

The Road, the film, is made up of bleak landscapes and a score by Nick Cave that alternates between making itself known and hiding in the background when it should be taking the thematic reins. The visual aspect of The Road, the stark reality of seeing skinny naked-Viggo-Mortenson-butt, is its greatest strength. Power lines pepper the horizon like crucifixes, steam liners burn while beached on highways, abandoned suburbs…well, damn, they’re always creepy.

Viggo Mortenson does a great job, as always, as The Man, even though his main objective in the film is just to stay alive and keep The Boy safe. There isn’t a great deal on screen for Mortenson to work with. His Man is harsh, but is also well aware that his child was born after the unseen apocalypse and thus doesn’t know about things like manners, smoking or alcohol. Hillcoat and Mortenson have a secret pact throughout the film, and that pact is that, up until The Boy argues back for the first time towards the climax, The Road is from the perspective of The Man. When we see flashbacks of The Woman (Charlize Theron is a strong but brief performance), we always hear the conversation, we see what The Man sees. We only get one scene of “romance” between The Man and the long-dead Woman, and that’s in a single-shot-flashback that only concerns itself with healthy-looking hands learning to play the piano.

The Boy, played by Australian actor Kodi Smit-McPhee, matches Mortenson beat-for-beat in an impressive performance by a child actor. Considering The Boy in the book was frequently the physical cipher for emotional and philosophical discussion, Smit-McPhee manages to bring his wide-eyed reactions shots to new levels of emotion, as long as you remind yourself at the beginning of the film that this kid has never seen anything you and I would describe as “the normal world.” In one scene, when Mortenson’s Man is dangerously close to offing his Boy rather than turn him over to cannibal-rapists, The Boy responds to the cocking of the pistol’s hammer with “When will I see you again?” and the tension of the moment gives way to the realization that death means nothing to a child being raised amongst the walking inhabitants of hell.

Appearances by other characters are sparse, but – like all fables – there are a few along The Road to provide context and dialogue. Robert Duvall’s Old Man serves the same purpose as every blind, old man in fables throughout history and The Wire’s Michael K. Williams shows up as The Thief, the character that provides the tipping point for the divide between The Man and The Boy.

All and all, The Road will provide you with a bleak experience you won’t necessarily mind having as long as you follow your screening with a solid meal and a good night’s sleep under a blanket. The sad thing is that the book never left my mind for a good week after I finished it, and even friends who have not read the book seem to be okay with the movie the next day. The book is one experience and the movie is another, but instead of offering high praise, like “each is the other’s equal,” I can’t help but think that I’ll face the apocalypse of fatherhood but the desolate landscape of The Road is as distant to me as most science fiction.

Okay, so here’s the rundown. The Tourist was originally set up for Bharat Nalluri to direct and Tom Cruise to lead. Charlize Theron also joined as the female lead, however Tom Cruise then left to star in some action/comedy with Cameron Diaz. Sam Worthington was then brought on-board to replace him, however Charlize Theron then left and was replaced by Angelina Jolie. Director Bharat Nalluri also left the project, which prompted Spyglass Entertainment to hire Florian von Donnersmarck as director. Since leaving was the ‘in thing’ Sam Worthington bailed, and now according to THR Johnny Depp will be joining the project. Oh yeah, Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men) is now directing.

So that’s Cruise + Nalluri + Theron – Cruise + Worthington – Theron + Jolie – Nalluri + Donnersmarck – Worthington + Depp + Cuaron = The Tourist

And what’s this casting merry-go-round movie about? An female Interpol agent uses an American tourist in an attempt to flush out an elusive criminal with whom she once had an affair.

In conclusion, it doesn’t matter who directs The Tourist, as long as they’ve got 2 A-listers in the lead roles. Although, i’m a fan of Alfonso Cuaron and Jolie and Depp together on-screen could work out quite well.

Last month Columbia hired two writers to start writing Hancock 2, and now director Peter Berg has confirmed that both Will Smith and Charlize Theron will be back for the sequel.

In a conversation before he heads to the Toronto film festival with a Wayne Gretzky documentary, Berg confirmed for MTV News that both Smith and Theron will certainly be returning for more “Hancock” hero-dom.

“Everybody’s going to come back for a sequel,” Berg said in response to a question about the two megastars.

If you didn’t see the first film and don’t want to be spoiled then stop reading now. At the end of the first film it turned out that both Smith and Theron’s characters are immortal gods who become vulnerable when near each other. Berg has said recently that he we can expect the appearance of at least one more all-powerful god in the sequel, and he already has his eye on who he wants to play him/her.

“We have [someone in mind],” Berg said. “I’m not gonna tell you who, but we have!”

It’ll still be a while before we see Hancock 2 but it’s cool that the main cast are returning (although we expected Smith to return anyway).

Sam Worthington is continuing his quest for worldwide domination and has replaced Tom Cruise in The Tourist, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He will be joining Charlize Theron who has been attached to the film for a while. Cruise left and instead decided to play an undercover agent in action-comedy Wichita with Cameron Diaz.

In The Tourist Theron will play a female Interpol agent who uses an American tourist (Worthington) in an attempt to flush out an elusive criminal with whom she once had an affair. Filming is scheduled to begin in January.

We were first introduced to Sam Worthington in Terminator Salvation and he is quickly becoming Hollywood’s new leading man. He will next be seen taking the lead in James Cameron’s Avatar and next year he’ll be battling mythological beasts in Clash of The Titans, chasing Nazi war criminals with Dame Helen Mirren in The Debt, and he’ll be playing around with Keira Knightley and Eva Mendes in Last Night. If he’s not careful he’ll become the envy (if he’s not already) of other lead actors for getting all the good roles, and for starring alongside all of these beauties.

A great first trailer for The Road has appeared online. The Road is a post-apocalyptic tale of a journey taken by a father and his young son across a barren landscape that was blasted by an unnamed cataclysm that destroyed civilization and most life on earth. The cast includes Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Guy Pearce.

The Road will be released in October in the US.

Yep, you read that right. According to THR Nicole Kidman will be playing the world’s first post-op transsexual alongside Charlize Theron in The Danish Girl.

Kidman will star in and produce “The Danish Girl,” based on the true story of Danish artists Einar and Greta Wegener. Their marriage took a sharp left turn after Einar (Kidman) stood in for an female model that Greta (Theron) was set to paint.

When their portraits become wildly popular in 1920s Copenhagen, Greta encouraged her husband to adopt the female guise. What began as a harmless game led Einer to a metamorphosis and landmark 1931 operation that shocked the world and threatened their love.

Kidman and Charlize Theron are quite familiar with lesbian love, having won Oscars for their roles as lesbians in The Hours and Monster. No doubt this film will cause quite a stir and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was being treated as Oscar bait.

USA Today got our first look at The Road, which stars Viggo Mortensen, Robert Duvall, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce and Kodi Smit McPhee (who would have played a young Wolverine in X-Men Origins: Wolverine if filming didn’t get pushed back)

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food–and each other.

Having watched the recently released Hancock I came to a random conclusion that Halle Berry and Charlize Theron have a lot in common. Some are rather big things such as movie roles and their personal lives, however some are rather small. For example, they are both born in August.

(Contains Hancock spoilers)

Careers

1. Both actresses have won an Oscar for Best Actress. Halle won hers in 2001 for her role in Monsters Ball, and Charlize Theron won hers in 2004 for her role in Monster. If the bold didn’t make it clear enough, both actresses won their Oscars for staring in movies with ‘Monster’ in the title.

2. After their Oscar wins both actresses stared in female lead action films. Halle Berry stared in Catwoman that currently has 10% on Rotten Tomatoes and Charlize Theron stared in Aeon Flux which is on 11%. Both films were bashed by critics. Coincidently, both movies were the actresses 4th project after their Oscar winning film.

Both actresses also ended up in hospital during accidents on the sets of their rubbish films. Halle collided with a piece of stage equipment during a chase scene and Charlize suffering a fall while filming a series of back handsprings which required her to wear a neck collar for a month.

3. (Hancock spoilers) Both actresses play superheroes with the power to manipulate weather, but more specifically tornadoes. Halle Berry played Storm in the X-Men trilogy, and in X-Men 2 created tornadoes to escape fighter jets.

In Hancock Charlize Theron’s character creates tornadoes and lightning for a big special effects battle with Hancock.

Personal Lives

1. Both actresses had abusive fathers. Halle’s left when she was four years old, then returned some years later but not for long. When Charlize was 15 her father attacked her mother, and her mother shot and killed him in self-defence.

As a result, both actresses have campaigned against domestic violence. In South Africa, Charlize filmed TV commercials urging no tolerance for rape or domestic violence and Halle recently held a celebrity golf tournament with all money raised going to a domestic violence charity.

2. Both actresses are determined not to get married. After two divorces Halle has gone off the idea, dispite just having a baby with her new partner. Charlize said she refuses to get married to Stuart Townsend until same-sex couples are able to have their marriages recognized.

Conclusion
They have a lot in common and should team up for a film. I suggest Brokeback Mountain 2 so they can get more Oscars and redeem themselves for Catwoman and Aeon Flux. Alternatively, they could do a Hancock/X-Men spin off involving their characters. Two good looking ladies firing lightning bolts at each other will surely be a box office smash as well as highly arousing.