A traditionally lucrative time for the nation’s theater chains, the Thanksgiving holiday yields three big, new movies including Disney’s partially animated fairytale spoof, Enchanted. Also debuting in wide release today is 20th Century Fox’s take on the popular Eidos video game Hitman, and MGM’s vfx-laden adaptation of the Stephen King novella The Mist. Enchanted seems a shoo-in to replace Beowulf as the top pic, but the four-day weekend may yield some surprises.
Starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden and Susan Sarandon, Enchanted is a romantic comedy about a fairytale princess whose run-in with an evil queen finds her plucked from the animated world and dropped into moder-day New York City. The film opens with classic Disney-style animation. James Baxter and Andreas Deja served as supervising animators on the sequences, which are designed to pay homage to such timeless favorites as Snow White and Sleeping Beauty.
Directed by Kevin Lima (Tarzan, A Goofy Movie), the pic also features CG animation for non-human characters that are brought into the real world. Visual effects were provided by Tippett Studio, Reel FX, Radium and Weta Digital.
Enchanted is one of the best-reviewed films in release. The Mist is also scoring points with a lot critics, who didn’t even get a chance to see Hitman because Fox didn’t grant any press screenings. Hitman stars Deadwood‘s Timothy Olyphant as a man who was bred to be an elite assassin. On assignment in Eastern Europe, he finds himself ensnared in political controversy and pursued by Interpol and the Russian Military. Director Xavier Gens (Fronti’re(s))worked from an adaptation of the video game by Skip Woods, who previously wrote Swordfish and turned in a script for Paramount’s upcoming live-action G.I. Joe movie.
A mysterious fog rolls into a town in Maine, bringing with it stange and dangerous creatures in The Mist, Director Frank Darabont’s third Stephen King adaptation after The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. The film stars Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden and Andre Braugher as members of a group of survivors who hole up in a supermarket and fend off CG monsters created by CafeFX. Look Effects and Digital Dream also contributed to the show.
