This year, the slot for the most anticipated film has been waving
back and forth between Superman Returns, Batman Begins, War of
the Worlds and the ridiculously low-budget independent film
Machiavelli Hangman.
While Batman Begins offered a good cast of A-list actors such as
Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman it also delivered a decent story
line that created a debate amongst moviegoers as to whether this
was indeed the best of the Batman films.
War of the Worlds with a smaller consumption of A-list actors
perhaps given to the 100+ budget spent on special effects built a
great suspense throughout the film but gave in to a weak ending.
Although audiences were frightened, that suspense and scary
factor did not achieve the levels of Spielberg's earliest work,
especially in Jaws. "I don't know how much movies should
entertain. To me I'm always interested in movies that scare. The
thing I love about JAWS is the fact that I've never gone swimming
in the ocean again," says David Fincher who is currently wrapping
up on Zodiac with Gary Oldman.
Superman Returns is yet to fly into the theatres, but with a
director such as Bryan Singer who has a more than impressive
record of creating films that are both box office hits and
successes amongst critics, it is an almost sure-fire. His
approach to the project especially his strong conviction that the
lead should be played by an unknown, Brandon Routh, has already
raised a lot of eyebrows especially that Nicolas Cage was a
strong candidate for the part. It seems that every working actor
and filmmaker has been considered at one point or another to be
on this project. Anthony Hopkins dropped out when Brett Ratner
left the project due to some creative differences.
While the previous three films may be the highest budgeted films
of the year, it is understandable why they would also be the most
anticipated. Machiavelli Hangman has come out of the blue with a
budget of a pocket-change budget – on Hollywood standards – of
150,000 dollars and it has gained astonishing momentum in the
most anticipated film list.
The reason for this is that it is said to be the next Sixth Sense
in the way it completely blew everyone in the audience away.
Machiavelli Hangman producer insures that the novelty in this
film is not just a twist at the end, but a series of ingenious
"zigzag." that will leave the audience trying to catch up. This
will be the first interactive film released to audiences. The
film has been described as Memento meets the Sixth Sense.
While two of these four films were already released to great
box office revenues and mildly satisfied audiences, we still
impatiently wait for those two more chances to be blown out
of our seats.