Bryan Singer’s directorial career may be still off the rails, at least if the latest move by MGM and United Artists is any indication: his next film, Valkyrie, is being moved from a potential Oscar berth in October to the dumping grounds of February, where it will compete with Friday the 13th. Ouch.
Buzz on the film, which stars Tom Cruise with an apparently dismal German accent, has been negative, but I couldn’t tell how much of that was just the general noise that surrounds Cruise these days. Apparently that buzz has some meaning and the studio doesn’t think this film stands a chance in the awards race, even with a pretty damn decent cast besides Lord Xenu’s biggest enemy.
Looking back at Cruise’s filmography, Valkyrie is his first movie to get such a dumping… and it’s his own company! Listen to this spin by UA’s Dennis Rice, President of Worldwide Marketing and Publicity. “We’re delighted that MGM has agreed to hold the release until the very strong holiday weekend.” Yeah, because President’s Day is the next big holiday after October. There’s just no way to read this except that the film is not strong enough to be an end of year contender.
By the way – this is Valkyrie’s second move. The film was originally slated for this summer.
10 comments
The film should be marketed as a comedy. Those poofy pants are hilarious.
Cruise attempts a German accent? Judging from the trailer it appears that nobody is using any sort of accident but their own. And that is even worse, in my opinion.
Klaus Schenk was not 12 inch tall.
I actually believe that taking on a Cruise project will do far more damage to Singer's career then the lackluster response to Superman Returns.
This looks like something out of TOP SECRET! I expect Omar Sharif and Val Kilmer to make an appearance as well…
Cruise has an accent in this film? It sounded like he was speaking in default American accent in the trailer. Maybe that's the problem.
Tom doesn't even try to have an accent, and that's hardcore distracting where everyone else does!
I remember watching a QT movie with the commentary track (Jackie Brown, maybe) and QT mentioning how there are some directors that are given a chance to make a dream film, blow it, and never seem to recover from that. Brian DePalma and Bonfire of the Vanities as an example. I've long wondered if Superman Returns would have that same effect on Singers career as it is clear that so much of what went wrong with that film has to do with Singer's "vision" of the character.
Wow, I was pretty pumped about this. I generally find Cruise the anti-Ben Affleck, in that I like Cruise's movies but hate Cruise himself.
Re: SUPERMAN RETURNS
Singer made an overlong drab, tedious, sombre religious 'allegory' when he should have made a rousing, action-packed and thrilling film.
For an almost 3 hour flick, the film was devoid of much action – even SUPERMAN THE MOVIE had much moe action than that (Superman rescue montages, train derailment, bridge crash, damn bursting, etc)
I still cant believe the climax of SUPERMAN RETURNS consisted of Supes lifting a large kryptonite island and then spending a day in hospital – this on the heels of him getting beaten up by thugs.
Singer cant handle action worth shit nor is he interested in it – I hope WB gets another director for the sequel.
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