Two pictures our Most Anticipated Films of 2010 list, “Cyrus” and “Eagle Of The Ninth” now have release dates.
“Cyrus,” the creepy, but apparently sweet mumblecore-ish indie comedy directed by the Duplass brothers (“The Puffy Chair”) will now arrive in theaters July 9. A Fox Searchlight picture and a huge, crowd-pleasing hit at Sundance this year, the film tells the story of a mother (Marisa Tomei) who hasn’t dated in almost 20 years and then meets the seemingly perfect guy (John C.Reilly). But the relationship is threatened by the wedge created by her strange, weirdly-too-close son Cyrus (played by Jonah Hill), who is oddly too overprotective of her and hates her new boyfriend. Judging by the trailer it looks like a more realistic version of “Step Brothers,” which Reilly was also in, but far less off-the-reservation absurd. Whether it will be Fox Searchlight’s breakout hit of the year remains to be seen — look how everyone flipped for “Choke” at Sundance ’08 and it went nowhere — but at this point its probably their best shot at being 2010’s “(500) Days Of Summer” a 2009 Sundance film that audiences flipped for and did do well.
Another film that secured a firm release date is Focus Features’ “Eagle Of The Ninth” which was set last week to a slighty vague September release and now has a concrete release date of September 24. It took us awhile to come around to this picture — before we knew much about it, it seemed like a generic swords and sandals pic — but a deeper look reveals a strong director (Kevin McDonald of “State of Play,” “The Last King of Scotland”) even if the material seems to be ostensibly outside his wheelhouse.
The cast is also venerable as well with Jamie Bell and Channing Tatum looking to possibly stretch himself and work with stronger auteurs than he has in the past. However, we will say Focus’ choice of September worries us. Last year, September proved to be a pretty weak release season, as if the strength of August (strong releases and numbers by “G.I Joe,” “Inglourious Basterds”) had turned the following month into the dumping ground that audiences don’t care about. Last year’s September releases like “Extract,” “Jennifer’s Body,”Bright Star” and “The Informant!” were all ignored for the most part (though the latter film did go on to make money). Focus is also apparently going to release what smells like potential Oscar bait – “The American” starring George Clooney as directed by Anton Corbijn — on September 3 which feels far too early (the first week of September last year being one of the slowest box-office weekend on record in 2009). Like Anne Thompson recently posited about “Bright Star” — a would-be awards winner that came up basically empty-handed during yesterdays Oscar nods save one nomination — the picture was released far too early and audiences became indifferent to it while critics forgot about it. So will it be counter-programming genius or an ill-conceived move? We’ll have to wait and see.