Tuesday, August 05, 2008

A little speculation on Crossing Over


Just now I was scanning the list of films releasing this month and I came across a new Harrison Ford picture called Crossing Over.

This film has nothing to do with psychic dudes who tell you stuff you already know about your childhood.

It's a film by Wayne Kramer, a South African immigrant who wrote and directed The Cooler (yay) and Running Scared (boo). It appears to be based on a short film he once wrote and directed in 1996. The film is about the experience of immigrants in America, both legal and illegal, and how difficult it is to become a part of the melting pot. It's designed the way Crash is, with several intersecting stories about people on different sides of the issue.

So it's right up my alley. I don't get political about much, but I will fight to the death to defend my kids from the anti-immigration sentiment in this country. A lot of the people who rail against illegal immigrants have never actually spent time with any of them and the issues are never as cut and dry as those Minute Men would have you think.

This is one of the reasons I'm writing Fear of Clowns. I assumed a lot of things about illegal immigrants before I moved to California and I have learned a great deal about my ignorance since I started teaching at a school filled with Mexicans and Salvis. I want to try to write a film that looks at their lives as they actually are, not as some melodramatic tale meant to preach at the audience.

And I liked Crash, but it's a damn preachy movie, and there are some obvious similarities to this film.

I fear this film may turn out to be a similar story and I don't know if I want to watch a film that lectures me for two hours. It's hard to tell though, because there isn't much information out there on this film.

The Weinsteins are involved in this but there's no publicity, no posters, no trailers, no nothing. A movie this political and with this big a cast - Harrison Ford, Sean Penn, Ray Liotta, Ashley Judd - and nothing? I only saw it because I was scrolling through impending releases. I also wonder why the top four actors in a film about immigration are all white Americans - but I'm willing to reserve judgement until I see the film.

I'd love to read the script if I could get ahold of it because I'm terribly curious. I'm not worried it will resemble my own script too much because I'm writing about my kids, but I'd still like to see its potential. I can't even find any reviews anywhere. And that's a bad sign.

7 comments:

  1. Word on the street is the release date is now October 24th. Could mean one of two things, one good, one bad. I'm hoping for the good just because I like the cast and The Cooler was a great film.

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  2. Harrison Ford shot this before CRYSTAL SKULL and I remember thinking that they would release it last December, go for an Oscar nomination for him and that would be great publicity for Indiana Jones. Shows you what I know. The release date was originally the end of August, now it's the end of October (which wouldn't be a bad thing) according to imdb posters but Wikipedia says the date is "unknown". So yeah, no poster, no trailer, no official site. It's always possible that it's good but Wayne Kramer and the Weinsteins are fighting over the cut. Your guess is as good as mine.

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  3. Anonymous1:20 PM

    One of the problems they had with CROSSING OVER was what they call an HONOUR KILLING scene in the screenplay.

    An Iranian actor read the screenplay and found a scene that didn't agree with him i.e., an Iranian-American character kills his sister when he finds out she's been doing a Latino dude.

    Apparently, the actor got some Iranian organization involved and everyone says that these kinds of killings never happen...

    IN AMERICA... LOL.

    So of course, let's dumb it down...

    As usual.

    Unk

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  4. Yeah, Weinstein Co. really don't advertise/market very well ... repeatedly.

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  5. Anonymous8:52 AM

    The Jim Sturgess fans have been waiting patiently for this film to be released because Jim has a small but moving part in the film (Gavin Koseff, a British singer who masquerade as a Jewish rabbinical student to gain entry into the US). Weinstein Company website has posted the new release date for Oct 24, so that's a definite. There has been a ton a of controversy over the final cut of the movie, with multiple test screenings and lots of fighting between Weistein and Kramer. A friend saw one of the screenings and commented on Jim's part, saying that he was excellent, but on the whole the movie wasn't that good. I just hope it finally gets released so I can see Jim's performance. :o) FG / Diane

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  6. It's weird you guys are saying Oct 24, because Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango both have it as August 22.

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  7. Anonymous10:52 AM

    Emily...go to http://www.weinsteinco.com/ and click on Film Index > Coming Soon > Crossing Over. You will see the release date as October 24.

    Also you may want to check out this blogger: http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/2008/06/ice_the_movie_d.html (although there's some pretty nasty stuff about Kramer in the blog.)

    And we have a thread on JSO (http://jimsturgess.org) about the whole debacle: http://jimsturgess.org/boards/viewtopic.php?t=757&start=45

    Hope this helps answer some questions. :o) FG / Diane

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