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timespace coordinates: New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina
Déjà Vu (stylized onscreen as Deja Vu without accents) is a 2006 American science fiction action film directed by Tony Scott, written by Bill Marsilii and Terry Rossio. The film stars Denzel Washington, Paula Patton, Jim Caviezel, Val Kilmer, Adam Goldberg and Bruce Greenwood. It involves an ATF agent who travels back in time in attempts to prevent a domestic terrorist attack. (wiki)
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timespace coordinates: 2000’s – 2010’s LA
Destroyer is a 2018 American crime film directed by Karyn Kusama and written by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi. It stars Nicole Kidman, Toby Kebbell, Tatiana Maslany, Scoot McNairy, Bradley Whitford, and Sebastian Stan, and follows an undercover LAPD officer who must take out members of a gang, years after her case was blown.
timespace coordinates: 2000’s Vietnam / Golden Triangle
Tropic Thunder is a 2008 action comedy film directed by Ben Stiller. It stars Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Jay Baruchel, and Brandon T. Jackson as a group of prima donna actors who are making a Vietnam War film. When their frustrated director (played by Steve Coogan) drops them in the middle of a jungle, they are forced to rely on their acting skills to survive the real action and danger.
The film had an extensive marketing promotion, including faux websites for the three main characters and their fictional films, airing a fictional television special, and selling the energy drink advertised in the film, “Booty Sweat”.
The film received generally positive reviews, with critics praising the film’s characters, story, faux trailers, and the performances of Stiller, Downey, Black and Tom Cruise, though the depiction of the mentally handicapped and usage of blackface makeup were seen as controversial. (wiki)
timespace coordinates: 2000’s Hermosa Beach, California / The Dolphin, a hotel on Lexington Avenue in New York City
1408 is a 2007 American psychological horror film based on Stephen King‘s 1999 short story of the same name. It is directed by Mikael Håfström and stars John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Mary McCormack, Tony Shalhoub, Len Cariou, Isiah Whitlock, Jr., and Jasmine Jessica Anthony.
timespace coordinates: 2000’s. north of Iran, Caspian Sea
About Elly (Persian: درباره الی, translit. Dar bāre-ye Elly) is a 2009 Iranian drama film directed by Asghar Farhadi. It is the fourth film by Farhadi. The film is about middle class relationships in Iran. One year after its release, it was voted the 4th greatest Iranian movie of all time by the national society of Iranian critics. (wiki)
timespace coordinates: 2000’s small town of Bridgton, Maine
The Mist (also known as Stephen King’s The Mist) is a 2007 American science-fiction horror film based on the 1980 book The Mist by Stephen King. The film was written and directed by Frank Darabont. Darabont had been interested in adapting The Mist for the big screen since the 1980s. The film features an ensemble cast including Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Samuel Witwer, Toby Jones, and future The Walking Dead actors Jeffrey DeMunn, Laurie Holden, Melissa McBride, and Juan Gabriel Pareja. Darabont has since revealed that he had “always had it in mind to shoot The Mist in black and white”, a decision inspired by such iconic films as Night of the Living Dead (1968) and the “pre-color” work of Ray Harryhausen. While the film’s cinematic release was in color, the director has described the black and white print (released on Blu-ray in 2008) as his “preferred version.”
The director revised the ending of the film to be darker than the novella’s ending, a change to which King was amenable. Darabont also sought unique creature designs to differentiate them from his creatures in past films.
Although a monster movie, the central theme explores what ordinary people will be driven to do under extraordinary circumstances. The plot revolves around members of the small town of Bridgton, Maine who, after a severe thunderstorm causes the power to go out the night before, meet in a supermarket to pick up supplies. While they struggle to survive, an unnatural mist envelops the town and conceals vicious, Lovecraftian monsters as extreme tensions rise among the survivors.
A meta-reference to this film appears in one of Stephen King’s later novels, Under the Dome. (wiki) / [The Mist (TV series) imdb]
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