Well, you've seen all the big studio summer line ups (check out the links below if you missed out) now it's time to see what the smaller groups are sending into the fray.
Focus Features has a habit of pulling together some pretty impressive films. Very few of their projects have been misses and with big success like The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the controversial Brokeback Mountain they're quickly becoming a big player in Hollywood. Their summer selections seem a little "iffier" than usual. A Sarah Michelle Gellar thriller and Jet Li's "last ever marial arts film" don't seem quite the normal Focus fare.
They're bound to get eaten up by the major summer blockbusters but some of them may catch your eye and your box office dollar. Take a look and see if you find anything that will give you that "I saw an indie" film feeling.
OTHER SUMMER 06 PREVIEWS: UNIVERSAL | SONY | FOX | WB | WEINSTEIN
Waist Deep (Rogue Pictures)
Release Date: June 23
Synopsis: An urban action thriller with a sexy 21st-century Bonnie and Clyde. Ex-con O2 (Tyrese Gibson) is suddenly plunged into a life-or-death situation; trying to go straight for the sake of his young son Junior, O2 is forced to go back outside the law when Junior is kidnapped in a carjacking. His son is now in the hands of a vicious criminal leader, Meat (hip-hop superstar The Game). O2’s shady cousin Lucky (Larenz Tate) is caught between loyalties, and so the only person who can or will help O2 now is wily street-smart hustler Coco (Meagan Good). With the clock ticking down, the heat between them rises as they become a lawbreaking couple, on an action-packed tear through town to save Junior and outwit the underworld.
Scoop
Release Date: July 28
Synopsis: In Woody Allen’s new contemporary comedy, a student journalist (Scarlett Johansson) for a college paper visiting friends in London happens upon the scoop of a lifetime. Along the investigative trail, she finds magic, murder, mystery – and perhaps love, with a British aristocrat (Hugh Jackman).
Jet Li's Fearless (Rogue Pictures)
Release Date: August 4
Synopsis:Superstar Jet Li headlines this action-packed film, his final martial arts epic. The film reteams him with producer Bill Kong (“Hero”) and action director and choreographer Yuen Wo Ping (“Unleashed”). Li plays real-life martial arts legend Huo Yuanjia, who became the most famous fighter in all of China at the turn of the 20th Century. Huo faced incredible personal tragedy but ultimately fought his way out of darkness and into history, forever defining himself at a tournament for the honor of his country and the true spirit of martial arts.
“I believe JET LI’S FEARLESS is my most personal and important martial arts movie. This film captures the martial arts beliefs and philosophies I have learned and experienced over the past 30 years.” – Jet Li
The Return (Rogue Pictures)
Release Date: September 1
Synopsis: A new supernatural thriller starring Sarah Michelle Gellar (“The Grudge,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) as Joanna Mills, a tough young Midwesterner determined to learn the truth behind the increasingly terrifying supernatural visions that have been haunting her. Joanna has made a successful career for herself, as sales representative for a trucking company. But her private life has been difficult; estranged from her father (Sam Shepard), stalked by an obsessed ex-boyfriend (Adam Scott), and with few friends, Joanna fears that she is losing control. She sees and feels the brutal murder of a young woman she’s never met, at the hands of a heartless killer – a man who appears to be making Joanna his next target. Determined to fight back, Joanna is guided by her nightmares to the murdered woman’s hometown. Once there, she will discover that some secrets can’t be buried; some spirits never die; and that the murder she is trying to solve may be her own.
