Press release from The Publicity Dept.
Head of Film, Richard Sheffield, announces Pinnacle Film’s theatrical line-up for distribution this year.
“We are thrilled to have a unique cross-section of international and Australian films for release in our first year of operation.
“It is also my pleasure to announce Jim Morgan recently joined our team as Head of Theatrical Sales. Jim has substantial experience working in distribution and exhibition including Reading, Columbia-Tri-Star, Greater Union Cinemas, United International Pictures and Hoyts Cinemas.
"Jim is well-known and respected within the industry and is welcomed warmly to the Pinnacle team.
“We look forward to further establishing Pinnacle Film’s reputation within the industry and developing successful partnerships with exhibitors Australia-wide.”
2011 Titles and brief synopses:
THE REEF – March 17
Australian Thriller. Rated M. Running Time: 88 Mins.
Director/Writer: Andrew Traucki (Black Water)
Cast: Gyton Grantley, Damien Walsh-Howling, Zoe Naylor, Adrienne Pickering; and..The
Great White…
Website: www.reefmovie.com.
Luke (Damian Walshe-Howling) offers to take his three friends sailing for a week on a boat he has to deliver to Indonesia. Dawn, the next day. Suddenly the boat flips. On top of the hull they see that the keel has been ripped away. They decide to try and swim to an island, and soon become aware they are being stalked by a huge shark. Based on true events, The Reef is a tense survival thriller that begs the question, what would you
do in this situation?
CANE TOADS; THE CONQUEST 3D – May
Non-fiction. Rated: TBA. Running Time; 85 Mins
Director/Writer: Mark Lewis.
Cast: Millions of Cane Toads, Australia-wide.
Website: www.canetoadstheconquest.com.
A comic yet provocative account of Australia’s most notorious environmental blunder. Shot against the harsh and beautiful landscape of northern Australia, Cane Toads: The Conquest tracks the unstoppable journey of the toad across the continent. Director Mark Lewis (Cane Toads: An Unnatural History, The Natural History of the Chicken) injects his trademark irreverence and humour into the story as he follows a trail of human conflict, bizarre culture and extraordinary close encounters. Cane Toads; The Conquest is Australia’s first digital 3D film.
THE HOLE – 3D – May
Adventure/Thriller.
Director: Joe Dante (Gremlins).
Writer: Mark L. Smith
Cast; Chris Massoglia, Hayley Bennett, Bruce Dern, Teri Polo
From visionary director Joe Dante comes a 3D suspense thriller that explores the fears and secrets buried deep in the human mind. 17-year-old Dane and his 10-year-old brother Lucas move with their mother from New York City to the sleepy little town of Bensonville. For Dane the only exciting thing about their new town is the beautiful girl next door, Julie. But then everything changes when they find a sinister bottomless hole under a locked trap door in the basement. When the hole is exposed, evil is unleashed. With strange shadows lurking around every corner and past nightmares coming to life, the trio will have to come face to face their darkest fears to put an end to The Hole.
LARRY CROWNE – July
Romantic Comedy
Director: Tom Hanks
Writer: Tom Hanks, Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding)
Cast: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Bryan Cranston, Wilmer Valderrama, Pam Crier, Nia
Vardalos, George Takei.
US Release: 1 July, Universal Pictures.
When appealing everyman Larry Crowne (Tom Hanks) is inexplicably fired from his job as a big box store clerk, he realizes it’s time for some meaningful change in his life. Deeply in debt and without direction, he returns to college where he befriends a group of scooter-riding students and eventually develops a real affection for his beautiful speech class instructor, Mercedes Tainot, (Julia Roberts). Charming and smart, Larry Crown reminds us of life’s small surprises. Sometimes clouds really do have a silver lining. It’s also about the power of new beginnings like the time
Larry Crowne, an ordinary man with a gentle heart, was forced to downsize his world…and ended up expanding his life.
SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN – TBA
Drama. Director: Wayne Wang (The Joy Luck Club)
Writer: Angela Workman, Robert Bass and Michael Ray – based on Lisa See’s novel
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Gianna Jun, Li Bing Bing.
Producers; Wendi Murdoch, Florence Sloan.
US Release: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Inspired by the bestselling novel "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" by Lisa See, the film is a timeless portrait of female friendship. In 19th-century China, seven year old girls Snow Flower and Lily are matched as laotong – or "old sames" – bound together for eternity. Isolated by their families, they furtively communicate by taking turns writing in a secret language, nu shu, between the folds of a white silk fan. In a parallel story in present day Shanghai, the laotong's descendants, Nina and Sophia, struggle to maintain the intimacy of their own childhood friendship in the face of demanding careers, complicated love lives, and a relentlessly evolving Shanghai. Drawing on the lessons of the past, the two modern women must understand the story of their ancestral connection, hidden from them in the folds of the antique white silk fan, or risk losing one another forever. What unfolds are two stories, generations apart, but everlasting in their universal notion of love, hope and friendship.
OAKIE’S OUTBACK ADVENTURES – August
Australian Animated family feature
Director/Writer: Troy Dann
Voice Cast: Jack Thompson, Alan Jones, Cate Ceberano, Troy Dann.
Oakie, a young blue heeler pup, is supposed to be delivered to Texas, USA, but through a courier bungle he ends up in Texas, Queensland, in Outback Australia. Oakie is quickly befriended by Action Dann and they embark on a series of adventures, meeting many wonderful and quirky characters in the rugged and unique beauty of the Australian Outback. Oakie along with his new friends, relives many of the poems and stories that define the Australian culture (incl. Waltzing Matilda, Mulga Bill’s Bicycle, The Man from Snowy River, Bush Christening by AB “Banjo” Patterson and The Loaded Dog by Henry Lawson). A story that combines adventure, humour and a good dose of Aussie culture.
DRIVE – October
Action/Drama
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Writer: Hossein Amini bases on novel by James Sallis
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman.
Drive is the story of a Hollywood stunt driver-by-day (Gosling), a loner by nature, who moonlights as a top-notch getaway driver-for-hire in the criminal underworld. He finds himself a target for some of LA’s most dangerous men after agreeing to aid the husband of his beautiful neighbour, Irene (Mulligan). When the job goes dangerously awry, the only way he can keep Irene and her son alive is to do what he does best—Drive!
THE BANG BANG CLUB – TBA
Drama
Director: Steven Silver
Cast: Malin Akerman (Watchmen, Couples Retreat), Ryan Phillipe, (Cruel Intentions, 54), Taylor Kitsch (XMEN: Origins).
‘The Bang Bang Club’ was the name given to four young photographers, Greg Marinovich, Kevin Carter, Ken Oosterbroek and Joao Silva, whose photographs captured the final bloody days of white rule in South Africa and the final demise of apartheid. The film, based on the book of the same name, tells the remarkable and sometimes harrowing story of these young men – and the extraordinary extremes they went to in order to capture their pictures.
THE DECOY BRIDE – TBA
Romantic Comedy
Director: Sheree Folkson
Cast: David Tennant (Dr Who), Kelly McDonald (No Country For Old Men, Trainspotting), Alice Eve (She’s Out Of My League).
After lovelorn Katie (Kelly MacDonald) is dumped at the altar, she returns home to her windswept Scottish island, thinking she will never walk down the aisle. Little does she know that Hollywood superstar Lara (Alice Eve) has chosen the island as the secret venue for her marriage to her gorgeous boyfriend James (Dr Who’s David Tennant). But – with the paparazzi hard on her tail, Lara needs to throw them off the scent. Katie agrees to dress in white and walk-down the aisle as Lara’s ‘decoy bride. Wedding bells ring, love blooms, but who ends up happily ever after?