Jason Lee hasn’t entirely abandoned all semblance of self-respect. Sure right now he’s in the middle of a string of awful, water-down kids movies, but there’s hope for him in the future. HR says that Jason Lee, Giovanni Ribisi, Woody Harrelson, and Mrs. Scientology 2007 Katie Holmes have signed up for an oddball comedic fantasy adventure movie called The Other Side.
In a world where everything is either a remake, reboot, sequel, prequel, or an adaptation it’s nice to see something genuinely original and strange getting made. The Other Side sounds like it may be one of those rare original oddities. It’s about a female grad student who spends a summer studying fish for her scholarship in a remote place called Destiny Island. While there, she “discovers a strange world of unusual characters hiding a dark secret”. IMDB’s description calls it “Beetlejuice, Alice in Wonderland, Amelie, and A Very Long Engagement - with a bit of Moulin Rouge” A strange mix, but Jason Lee is set to play multiple roles in the movie which should be interesting. Katie Holmes is the grad student, Giovanni Ribisi is her love interest, and Woody Harrelson also plays multiple roles as a father and son who fund Katie’s scholarship. Also in the cast is the likes of Jim Broadbent, Tim Roth, Anjelica Huston, and Eddie Izzard. The Other Side is loaded with coolness.
The script is co-written by David Michaels and Phil Reeves, who apparently based it on something they call their “thoughts”. I’m not sure what that means. Was that an obscure comic book? Even more refreshing is that this is a fantasy movie which doesn’t seem to involve children. Since Lord of the Rings there’s been a flood of fantasy filmmaking, but unlike Rings almost all of those have followed around pre-teen brats. The ones that haven’t, Stardust for instance, have been flops… which may not bode well for I>Other Side but sounds pretty good for people over 20 who still have some shred of imagination.
