Tom McCarthy’s ‘Win Win’ Also Gets A Date
“Clash of the Titans” was a fairly big risk for Warner Bros. The swords-and-sandals genre had faded since its “Gladiator” revival a decade ago, and the Greek myths have never really been box office manna, plus it was the first test of freshly-formed star Sam Worthington after the massive success of “Avatar.” But it was a risk that paid off handsomely, commercially if not creatively, with a near $500 million dollar haul worldwide.
A sequel was put into development almost immediately, with promises from all concerned that the second film (which may or may not be called “Wrath of the Titans“) would mark an improvement — “Battle: Los Angeles” director Jonathan Liebesman was hired to direct, and hot writers David Leslie Johnson (“Orphan,” “Red Riding Hood“) and Dan Mazeau (“Jonny Quest“) were brought on board to work on a new script that would hopefully, you know, make sense.
The pic has been tentatively set to film early next year, and now news comes from Box Office Mojo that it has confirmed a release date, of March 30th, 2012, almost exactly two years after the original hit theaters. Much is still under wraps, although Worthington, Gemma Arterton and Liam Neeson are all likely to return, while rumors were circulating that Javier Bardem and James Franco had been offered roles. All we want from the sequel? An actual Titan.
In other release date news, a film that we’re looking forward to rather more, Tom McCarthy’s indie drama “Win Win,” also has picked out a place on the calendar — March 25th, 2011. The much-anticipated third effort from the writer-director of “The Station Agent” and “The Visitor,” stars Paul Giamatti as an attorney and volunteer high school wrestling coach forced to look after a client’s errant grandson, and is set to make its debut at the Sundance Film Festival in January, before getting its limited roll-out a couple of months later, via Fox Searchlight.
As we revealed a few days ago, cult band The National are contributing an original song to the soundtrack, and with Searchlight’s marketing nous behind the film, it stands every chance of being a real crossover hit for McCarthy. Hopefully a trailer will appear sooner rather than later.
