Here’s the third and final part of Jim Emerson‘s video editing masterclass, In the Cut which he has titled, I Left My Heart in My Throat in San Francisco. In this video, Jim uses William Friedkin’s “The French Connection” (1971), Peter Yates’ “Bullitt” (1968) and Don Siegel’s “The Lineup” (1958) to clearly show how editing and using motion works for the viewer while watching a movie.

If you’ve missed the first and second part of the series, you can catch up here for The Dark Knight and here for Salt. If you’re a budding filmmaker or just want to find out more about how cutting a movie all comes together. Jim uses easy to follow was of explaining things which suits me just fine!

Click play and enjoy and once again, thank you Jim for bringing us all this series.

Matthew McConaughey did a bit of a one-eighty in his career this year, subverting people’s expectations of him with his leading role in the film adaptation of Michael Connelly’s novel, The Lincoln Lawyer, which was very well received.

One of his next films, Killer Joe, could well be more of the same, and this first poster, via ComingSoon.net, looks fairly promising for the project.

We got our first look at Killer Joe back at the end of July with a few nice images showing off its leading cast. The film is directed by Oscar-winner William Friedkin, whose credits include The Exorcist, The French Connection, and To Live And Die In L.A., which gives the film a certain amount of credibility just in itself. And starring alongside McConaughey will be the excellent Emile Hirsch (Alpha Dog), whose problems are the focus of the film, as well as Thomas Haden Church (Easy A), Gina Gershon (Face/Off), and the rising star, Juno Temple (Year One).

“When 22-year-old drug dealer Chris (Hirsch) has his stash stolen by his mother, he has to come up with six thousand dollars quick or he’s dead. Desperate, he turns to “Killer Joe” (McConaughey) when he finds out that his mother’s life insurance policy is worth $50,000. Although Joe usually demands cash up front, he finds himself willing to bend the rules in exchange for Chris’ attractive younger sister, Dottie (Temple), who will serve as sexual collateral until the money comes in… if it ever does.”

The film gets its world premiere at Venice Film Festival tomorrow, if you’re lucky enough to be there then, before heading off to the Toronto International Film Festival later this month. No word on a wide UK or US release date yet, but hopefully we won’t have to wait that long to see it. Without further ado, here’s Killer Joe’s first poster. As usual, click to enlarge.

Here’s a bunch of new images from yet another film set to play at the Toronto Film Festival. It’s called Killer Joe, is directed by William Friedkin and stars Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch, Thomas Haden Church, Juno Temple and Gina Gershon.

Emile Hirsch plays a desperate Texas debtor who plots to kill his mother, with help of his family (Thomas Haden Church, Gina Gershon). They hire a crooked cop (Matthew McConaughey) to do the job, but Killer Joe asks for their teenage daughter (Juno Temple) as a “retainer.”

Source: TIFF

The west coast cultural melting-pot that is Los Angeles goes by the nickname “the city of angels”, although throughout many of its representations on the big screen, it appears to be somewhat lacking a population which could be described as heavenly.

Whether it be the backdrop for a futuristic tale of a world-wearily cop hunting down humanoids or the exploits of a Detroit-based detective who finds his presence extremely unwelcome in one of city’s more affluent areas, it’s a place that has always dealt with the other side to the glitz and glamour it loves to showcase, and this 1986 tale of flamboyant criminals and compromised cops is no exception.

It’s a dazzling story of an arrogant Secret Service man, Richard Chance (William L. Peterson, the year before his role of FBI agent Will Graham in Manhunter) whose determination to bring a master counterfeiter to justice is further exacerbated when his partner is murdered while working on the case. This sets in motion a series of increasingly dangerous and ill-advised attempts to get his man, which see’s Chance not so much straddle the line between right and wrong, as trample on it completely, leaving no evident that it once existed.

Perhaps to be expected with a Hollywood crime thriller from that era, it does have its fair share of well-worn clichés, with one in particular standing out during the pre-credit sequence as Chance’s doomed partner (who is also days away from retirement before he meets his demise) admits to his trusted colleague that he’s “getting too old for this shit”. You half expect Danny Glover to walk into shot and give him a knowing, weary nod.

It’s a misleading opening really, suggesting the scene is being set for a more familiar and formulaic cop thriller. Thankfully, the film has more surprises up its sleeve that that, playing with many of the archetypes found in that genre back then, and very much evident early on in the introduction of the villain, Eric Masters. Played by a young, androgynous-looking Willem Dafoe, Masters is far from your usual Hollywood heavy.

He balances his role of a tough, no-nonsense money launderer with that of a serious, tortured artist, prone to setting alight and destroying his newly produced pieces of art. Dafoe perfectly captures both sides of this complex character, whose actions on paper would probably look a little pretentious and implausible.

Everything you need to know about what drives his criminal career is captured in an incredible montage sequence near the beginning (that showcases some of the blistering electronic score by eighties one-hit wonders Wang Chung) as we follow the exhilarating creation and laundering of counterfeit currency. It’s an early precursor to the now overly-familiar CSI style of throwaway mini-montages, and succeeds here in making this illegal practice look like an art form in itself.

For all the film’s stylistic flourishes, it’s known chiefly (if a little unfairly) for its famous car chase which occurs towards the end of the film, and comes after the disastrous intervention of a sting operation which has been interrupted by the FBI. This chain of events causes Chance (with his new partner in tow and now truly living up to his name), to take drastic measures and force his car into the path of incoming traffic on a busy freeway in a desperate attempt to escape being apprehended.

Having managed to capture what is arguably the greatest car chase on celluloid with 1974’s The French Connection, it’s no surprise here that director William Friedkin was able to pull it off again. It’s a truly gripping sequence which manages to remain pretty feasible throughout and it also acts as a nice reminder that you don’t necessarily need a boatload of digital effects and A-Team-esque logic-defying lunacy to deliver the goods. Its success is derived from a reliance on some incredible in-camera stunt driving, a good spatial awareness of the action, and the audience’s empathy towards Chance’s partner, who by the end of the chase is a whimpering wreck in the back of the car.

For a film teeming with memorable scenes, watching this as a thirteen year-old, it was the ending which really had a lasting effect on me. Without giving too much away (actually, spoiler ahead), imagine Han Solo unexpectedly succumbing to a stray bullet on Endor or Snake Plisskon failing to make to back in time over that huge security wall, and you’re somewhere close to the initial shock I felt by the unexpected (yet justifiable)  outcome of one major character.

Revisiting To Live and Die in L.A recently, I was struck by just how successfully it manages to capture that alternative side to this sprawling city, coming off like a sleazy, pulpier version of Heat, as written by Bret Easton Ellis.

There are no such things as angels here – just a driven lawman whose determination to bring down his prey, no matter what the costs, results in actions which are anything but saintly.

To Live and Die in L.A is available to buy on Region 2. Sadly, the extras from the Region 1 disc (including a fantastic 50 minute retrospective) are missing on the European version.

Matthew McConaughey seems to have allowed himself to settle into a rut lately. By-the-numbers rom-coms such as Failure to Launch, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days and The Wedding Planner have all served to blight the memory of some genuinely varied and successful character work in Frailty, Amistad, A Time to Kill and Lone Star.

Now, Bleeding Cool have a scoop on a new role for McConaughey in “Killer Joe”, a black comedy from director William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist, Rules of Engagement), which looks like being a welcome departure from McConaughey’s said rut.

According to THR, the plot centres around a brother (played by Emile Hirsch) and sister who plot the murder of their mother for an insurance payout. Although Bleeding Cool speculate on McConaughey playing the father of the murderous siblings, THR say he is in line to play the eponymous Joe Cooper, a cop and contract killer hired to do the deadly deed.

To be honest and perhaps like many people, I have grown a little tired of seeing McConaughey trot out predictable romantic comedy roles, relying too heavily on his shiny white smile and endearing southern drawl. When he has stepped outside his rom-com niche, as with the earlier work listed above, the results have been fantastic and it would be great to see him try his hand again at a less clichéd role.

Filming is due to start on November 8th in and around New Orleans, working from a script by Tracy Letts. Letts is a Pulitzer-Prize and Tony award winning writer and previously worked with director William Friedkin on his paranoid infection drama, Bug. We will bring you further casting news and hopefully some on set shots, in due course.

What do you think? Had enough of McConaughey, or keen to see him try to spread his wings? Let us know below.

Perhaps one of the most notorious horror films ever made, William Friedkin’s The Exorcist will have its Blu-ray debut in October in both the US and the UK. Warner Brothers have put together a very tempting package for the release which will feature both the theatrical cut and the ‘director’s cut’, which was previously released as ‘The Exorcist: The Version You’ve Never Seen’.

The Blu-ray is released in the US on the 5th of October and the UK on the 25th and the only difference between the two Blu-rays appears to be the packaging, the American release comes in a ‘digibook’ rather than a plastic case (although I have been unable to verify the definite specifications for the UK release).

Below you can see the feast of extras on offer in this release (including Blu-ray exclusives) and below that there are screenshots and trailers to get you even more excited.

Disc 1: – Extended Director’s Cut (2000) plus Special Features

• Commentary by William Friedkin
• Raising Hell: Filming the Exorcist – set footage produced and photographed by Owen Roizman, camera and makeup tests, and interviews with director William Friedkin, actress Linda Blair, author/screenwriter/producer William Peter Blatty and Owen Roizman (new; Blu-ray exclusive)
• The Exorcist Locations: Georgetown Then and Now – Featuring a tour of the iconic locations where the film was shot (new; Blu-ray exclusive)
• Faces of Evil: The Different Versions of The Exorcist – with director William Friedkin and author/screenwriter/producer William Peter Blatty discussing the different versions of the film and featuring outtakes from the film (new; Blu-ray exclusive)
• Trailers, TV spots & radio spots from the film’s 2000 release

Disc 2 – Theatrical Cut (1973) plus Special Features

• Introduction by William Friedkin
• Commentaries:
  • William Friedkin
  • William Peter Blatty with Special Sound Effects Tests
• The Fear of God: 25 Years of The Exorcist [1998 BBC documentary]
• Additional interviews with William Friedkin and William Peter Blatty:
  • The Original Cut
  • Stairway to Heaven
  • The Final Reckoning
• Original ending
• Sketches & storyboards
• Trailers & TV spots from the 1973 version

Thanks to this Exorcist fansite we have comparison screenshots that compare screen grabs from the Blu-Ray trailer to the 1997 DVD and the 2000 DVD. Click on the image to make it bigger.

Check out the green band and red band trailers for the Blu-ray below. I’d recommend skipping to the red band (the second one) as I’m sure that if you want to watch a trailer for The Exorcist you can probably handle the red band.

Trailers and specs sourced from IGN and Blu-ray.com

Halloween is a time quite custom designed for tricks, treats and terror.  In the world of cinema, there is no film as notoriously terrifying as William Friedkin’s The Exorcist.  As a special treat to Orange Film Club members, the tree-lined depths of Tower Hamlets Cemetery came alive tonight with clergy, fog, spirits and curious lights – all leading the way to a cinema screen in a clearing.  The eyes and ears of HeyUGuys were there in the dark, peering down the spooky paths, heart jumping in our dry throat waiting for something to go bump in the night.  And what a night it was!

Before the screening we spoke with Empire Magazine’s horror expert, Mr Kim Newman*, who echoed our awe over the astonishing location.  Kim had no hesitation in accepting Orange’s invite to come along and introduce the audience to their evening’s entertainment:

“I had many offers of something to do tonight” he told us, “this was by far the best – just look at it!”

We couldn’t help but look, it was utterly breathtaking.  There is something extraordinary, in the truest sense of the word, in watching a film outdoors.  To watch with your own personal headset, undisturbed by man, mobile or popcorn is sheer nirvana!  I have always lamented the death of the drive-in, I cannot think of anything more cool than seeing a favourite film under the stars.  Tonight though, aptly, the stars were smothered by a canopy of fog as we sat back to enjoy The Exorcist.

There is a reason The Exorcist still tops horror lists year on year, a reason over and above pea soup vomit and crucifix masturbation.  It is a chilling film – chilling because it is such a human story.  I thought I knew The Exorcist off by heart (indeed I had half considered the audio alternative of listening to the Director’s commentary despite my preference not to look behind the curtain of Oz) - I did not remember the film I watched tonight.  As a teenager I was obsessed by the pitch black bound novels of Stephen King and James Herbert but my favourite by far was William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist.  Time had contrived to make me forget Blatty himself adapted his novel for the screen.  Every heartbreaking human reaction and every regret, and moment of inaction, remains.  The themes of male friendship, pride and defeat are there and, in spite of the demonic melodrama, they still pack an earthly punch. 

This is not to say that pea soup puke doesn’t rock.  It was fabulous to sit among a crowd who cheer when a little girl vomits in the face of a priest.  The laughs of recognition when the-bad-man-who-lives-in-Regan declares: “the sow is mine”, alone were worth the journey!  Halloween is supposed to be a time to celebrate the gross and the ghoulish, it was just nice to find a gem among the gore.  The enthusiastic crowd seemed to agree, the closing credits were greeted with a huge cheer and excited whispers were heard stirring the cemetery long after the people began to disperse. 

When we caught up with Silent Cinema creator Damian Barr he was delighted by the reaction and still buzzing from the film.  It was amazing how much difference the wireless headphones made to the whole experience.  Pesky noisy people factor aside, it gave such a sense of proximity to the characters to hear them speak directly to you.  It made the film personal and I have fallen in love with the story all over again.  As well as turning HUG into something of a diva (who may demand that all our future cinema-going experiences take place in such exotic environs) this evening has reminded us to take time to rediscover the movies we think we know so well.  It seems they, like us, only improve with age!  

*We gave the traditional HeyUGuys question a Halloween spin and discovered that Kim’s favourite ’80s ‘horror’ movie is Blue Velvet.  As if we would forget to ask…