For Agent 47 -- raised in an institution and trained as a nameless, faceless weapon-for-hire -- the assassination of high-profile political powerhouse Mikhail Belicoff is all in a day's work. But when he is assigned to the elimination of one of Belicoff's call girls who allegedly witnessed the hit on the politician, he realizes the young woman has never seen him before and refuses to take the shot. Whether through a sudden paroxysm of conscience or simply the cold, hard logic of a seasoned contract killer, he begins to question his handlers at an agency know only as "The Organization."

Who was the client who ordered the hit on Belicoff? How could the dead man appear on television a day later, claiming he was only grazed by the hit man's bullet? And what does this alleged witness know that could be worth killing for?

Pursued by Interpol, the Russian military, and fellow Organization operatives, Agent 47 kidnaps the call-girl, Nika, and arranges a deal with the CIA: If the American government will back him, he will find and eliminate Belicoff's slave-trafficking brother Udre, and thus lure the masterminds out of hiding.

Lewellyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is no ordinary schlub who stumbles across a fortune while hunting antelope one day. He knows the bloody remains of a drug deal gone horribly awry when he sees it, and knows that someone will be looking for the truckload of heroin and the satchel of cash waiting to be claimed there, in the middle of the barren valley. He grabs the cash, a couple of firearms, and heads home after telling the lone survivor, who's barely hanging on for dear life, "No agua."

He hides the guns and the cash in his trailer, where his wife is full of questions about where he's been and what he's found. Later that night, Lewellyn remembers the thirsty dying man, fills a milk jug with water, and heads back to the site of the carnage. Once there, he finds that man dead---and spies a truck on the ridge that also spots him.

 

From there, Lewellyn's a man on the run, a poor but resourceful man who nonetheless has no idea how dark the path he has set upon will truly become. The man he learns that he's running from, Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), is beyond relentless in his will to retrieve everything than he is. Joining that chase is Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), a small-county lawman close to retirement who is mystified by the apparent overkill Chigurh leaves in his wake. He's hardly alone in that regard. 

"We do not draw people to Christ by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it."
-- Madeleine L'Engle

I'm not upset that best-selling author Phillip Pullman loathes C.S. Lewis and The Chronicles of Narnia. If I remember correctly, J.R.R. Tolkien also criticized Lewis' Narnia series. Rather, what upsets me is that with all the hype and controversy surrounding Pullman's The Golden Compass, the movie fails to put me in the front seat of an exciting adventure and capture my imagination.

What I saw was a watered-down Hollywood adaptation of the book. For example, the movie is conveniently missing Chapter 21 of the book, where a character corrupts Biblical passages (similar to what The Da Vinci Code did fictionally) to explain a phenomenon. Instead, we have a colorful movie full of eye-popping set pieces and an aeronaut cowboy that seems very out of place in a winter wonderland.

If there is a wild card in the current Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike for better contract terms with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP), it's the Directors Guild of America (DGA), whose contract with AMPTP expires June 30, 2008.

While the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) has been out front in supporting the WGA, the DGA has been very quiet. Some industry insiders speculate that DGA will strive to

Of course, all creative unions will face the same issues as the WGA is currently negotiating with AMPTP -- chief among them, a greater share of new media revenues (particularly streaming media and downloads, where many think home video is heading).

But DGA got the go-ahead to begin contract talks with AMPTP at any time this week, and a start date for official talks could come any day, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

DGA President Michael Apted, negotiating committee chair Gil Cates, and executive director Jay Roth will handle talks for the DGA. If history is any indicator, an agreement could come fairly quickly.

SAG's contract also expires June 30, but that union's leadership has aligned itself closely with WGA's, so the actors are unlikely to begin negotiating with AMPTP until the writers end their strike.

What effect a quick DGA deal would have on WGA's actions are hard to forecast. Before the strike began, it was expected that DGA would inadvertently exert pressure on WGA by moving to sign a new contract early, as has been its practice -- typically six months ahead of the current deal's expiration. But the acrimony between WGA and AMPTP have dampened those expectations, and SGA's strong support of WGA's strike further complicates matters.
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In spite of a Black Friday bump for HD DVD player sales and Blu-ray's continued lead in hardware market share, standard DVD continues to dominate DVD hardware and software sales, Video Business magazine reports.

That trend is expected to continue for the next few years, according to new research from Screen Media Digest and Adams Media Research. Their report forecasts stagnant sales for high-definition in both formats, even as Blu-ray retains its dominance in hardware presence.

As the HD DVD vs. Blu-Ray format battle continues, many consumers are simply opting out, it seems. One interesting point of comparison: In 1998 -- the second year after standard DVDs were introduced -- households with DVD players purchased an average of 8.9 discs. But in 2007, those households equipped with high-definition DVD players (including standalone units and game systems that play high-def discs) have purchased only 3.6 discs apiece on average.

Analysts point to the continued popularity of the regular-format DVD, as well as the backward compatibility/up-converting capability of most high-definition DVD players, as a drag on high-def disc sales. Rather than spending to upgrade their DVD libraries to the newer formats, consumers are opting to settle for the next best thing, by and large. Certainly, the lack of a clear direction in an industry standard for high-def discs isn't helping matters, either.

Adams Media Research analysts predict that Blu-ray will continue to lead in market share at a 55-45 split in the U.S., and by a 60-40 split globally.

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This just in! Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Tim Burton's film of Stephen Sondheim's musical, is also a musical. Most of the dialogue is, in fact, sung.

That might not be obvious from the promotional trailers currently running on TV and in theaters, and that has Chicago Sun-Times media critic Lewis Lazare wondering if Burton fans who aren't musical buffs won't be a little peeved at the apparent deception.

"From what we know about the movie from its marketing strategy to date and from a small body of critics and VIPs who have seen the film ...," Lazare wrote in his column yesterday, "This 'Sweeney Todd' also might be remembered for being the subject of one of the biggest bait-and-switch marketing schemes in movie history ... to ensure the film generates an opening weekend box office figure substantial enough to suggest 'blockbuster' to the moviegoing public."

 

Lazare goes on to wonder if a negative backlash might ensue from those who feel they were duped by the promotional campaign.

Granted, Sondheim is no ordinary musical composer. Neither his music nor his lyrics make for the kind of hummable ditties that characterize most movie-musicals. But those expecting a stylish Burton horror outing had best be warned: Most of Sondheim's original music has been preserved by the film.

The film stars Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.

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The Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men won Best Picture from the New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C., film critics' associations, along with a host of other honors, over the weekend.

The New York Film Critics Circle also gave No Country its Best Director (to the Coen Brothers) and Best Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem) awards. Daniel Day-Lewis won the Best Actor award for his role in Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood, while Julie Christie won Best Actress for Away From Her. Amy Ryan won Best Supporting Actress (for Gone Baby Gone).

The Boston Society of Film Critics and Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association followed suit, for the most part. No Country snagged Best Picture from both organizations, and the Coens won Best Director from the D.C. group. But the Boston critics went with Julian Schnabel as Best Director for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

The Los Angeles Film Critics Circle broke with the trend. There Will Be Blood swept Best Picture, Director, and Lead Actor there, with Marian Cotillard taking Best Actress (for La Vie en Rose). Ryan won Best Supporting Actress from all four organizations.

The Coen Brothers' film may be the flick to beat for the headline awards, if these early honors are any indication. The Golden Globes announce their nominations this Thursday.
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Michelle Williams is in the final stages of negotiating for a key role in Martin Scorsese's next film, Shutter Island. The film, based on Dennis Lehane's 2004 novel, will star Ben Kingsley, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Mark Ruffalo.

 

Shutter Island tells the story of two U.S. marshals searching for an escaped patient from a hospital for the criminally insane.

 

Williams was nominated for an Academy Award for her supporting role in Brokeback Mountain (2005). She has also received plaudits for her work in independent films, such as The Station Agent (2003). She's also in the upcoming Charlie Kaufman film, Synecdoche, New York.

Shooting for Shutter Island is scheduled to begin in March 2008.

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Imagine the place where you grew up -- whether it's among the spindly pines of North Carolina, on the rocky coast of Maine, or somewhere equally distinct in your memory. Think of your fondness of it and how much it's a part of you. Now imagine you're 11 years old again. Attackers just executed your dad and your uncles in front of you. They have kept your mother and sisters for unimaginable purposes, and, at your mother's bidding, you escape. It is the last time -- at least for many decades -- that you will ever see those pines, that coast. And it is the last time you'll ever see your mother.

But you don't have time to take it all in and say goodbye; it's merely a blur as you run for your life. And you stay on the run for years -- with other children like yourself. You eat mud and drink urine to stay alive. You watch others die of starvation or wild animal attacks, and you dig their graves. You are still only a child. But now you are also an orphaned skeleton without a country, walking through the desert of an unknown land.

Thomas Purifoy, Jr., is the writer and director behind Modern Parables: Living in the Kingdom of God, an innovative series of short films that illustrate the parables of Jesus Christ in a series of modern settings. The films are part of a teaching curriculum of the same name and are available through the website www.modernparable.com, but they stand on their own as films, too. One of the films, Samaritan, recently won the "Best Narrative" award at the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival.

Infuzemag.com talked to Thomas about this first volume of Modern Parables, what drives him as a filmmaker, and where his production company, Compass Cinema, will go from here.

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Tell me about your background, and how you got started as a filmmaker.
I was involved in -- I'm from Arkansas -- I was involved in Bill Clinton's Governor's School, back when he was governor. It was a six-week summer school for unusual kids from around the state. I took the class on film and literature. I had never considered film as a source of critical study, and we watched classic films -- Citizen Kane, and many others. When I got back home, I rented film after film and watched great films all summer long, three or four per day.