I sat in on a roundtable luncheon for the film Blindness the other day; as far as roundtables go, it was a nice affair; there were four tables of journalists, and they rotated the talent through the tables, giving us about 15 minutes with each set. It's always interesting to me to talk to the actors and filmmaker about a film like this; it gives you a different perspective that you have from just watching the film.

A word of caution: There are spoilers in these interviews about certain aspects of the film, but I'm including them because they provide a good deal of context about the film and the motivations of the characters. If you prefer to go into seeing the film blind, as it were, you'll not want to read this until after you've seen it. If you do want to learn more about the film, the interview writeup is after the jump ...

This morning James and I and a couple thousand other press folks took in a screening of the Opening Film at Cannes 2008, Fernando Meirelles's Blindness, starring Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover and Gael Garcia Bernal. You can check out James' review here, and tomorrow I'll be attending a luncheon/roundtable for the film. And in related Cannes news, Jack Black arrived at the 2008 Festival de Cannes in style. He's here to promote Kung Fu Panda, which premieres later in the week. Check out our gallery of Black and tons of panda bears down below.

Meantime, though, my take on Blindness is that it's ambitious and good, but falls short of being great. In part, I think, this is because the source material was challenging to adapt to a visual experience, but it's also due to some clunky expositional voiceover that detracts from the experience more than it adds. I don't want to be told how this or that person feels or reacts, I want to see it.

%Gallery-22842%

Fernando Meirelles's new film Blindness begins with the rush and push of urban life; traffic, crowds, activity, purpose. And then, one man cries out: "I'm blind." He eventually makes it to an ophthalmologist, but there's nothing physically wrong with his eyes; he simply can't see. "It feels like I'm swimming in milk," he explains, and we see, through his eyes, the blank, empty swirl of what used to be the world. And then another person says they are blind, and then another, and soon those few, frightened voices form a chorus of chaos as "the White Sickness" spreads like wildfire and leaves a ruined world in its wake.

Adapting Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago's novel, Blindness feels like a curious mix of highbrow literary aspirations and lowbrow genre fiction; as the White Sickness spreads from person to person in a clear chain of connection and things fall apart, it'd be easy to dismiss Blindness as Dawn of the Dead for NPR listeners or Outbreak for grad students. Meirreles has taken a similar two-pronged approach before -- The Constant Gardener is an excellent critique of the failings of modern capitalism that also works as a strong, suspenseful thriller -- and while Blindness may not work as well as that film, it's also a clear case of a film, and filmmaker, failing to hit the mark occasionally only because they've set the bar so high for themselves.

When David Mamet's Redbelt was announced, the initial simple summary seemed bizarrely incongruous: A noted playwright and dramatist making a film about martial arts? But while Redbelt involves the worlds of Jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts, it's really just another way for playwright, screenwriter and director Mamet to look at the world. As martial arts instructor Mike Terry (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) is taken from his noble (but underfunded) studio and plunged into the greed and glitz of Hollywood and commercial fighting.

As Mike tries to hang on to the things that matter to him in a world that dismisses honor as unprofitable, Mamet's script and direction create a film that somehow puts a philosophical twist on traditional fight films while also embodying everything we love about them. Cinematical spoke with Mamet and Ejiofor in Los Angeles.

One of the challenges of being a great artist is that not all of your art is going to be great. The Beatles wrote several songs that lesser acts would have turned into careers, but that nonetheless lack the power of "Yesterday" or the joy of "I Wanna Hold Your Hand"; George Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier is an excellent work of journalism, but not nearly as good as Homage to Catalonia. Redbelt, the latest film from writer-director David Mamet, is not as impressive or thought-provoking as some of his other dramatic works, like Glengarry Glen Ross or House of Games or Oleanna; at the same time, it's an exciting, engaging mix of drama and action supported by an immensely appealing lead performance by Chiwetel Ejiofor (Dirty Pretty Things, Children of Men).

Redbelt's subject and setting may make it seem incongruous -- Why is one of America's greatest playwrights making a film about mixed martial arts and Jiu-jitsu? -- but it's actually in keeping with Mamet's other recent entertainments like Spartan, his work as a co-creator of The Unit and his pseudonymous work on the screenplay for Ronin. Redbelt fits in with these projects: They have a kind of heroic stoicism under them; they're stories of honorable men in a dishonorable world. They've all got a kind of muscular poetry, too, a hard-bitten nobility that's still a little sad about the edges.

I don't think I'm alone when I say that I Am Legend was a little bit of a disappointment. Although there were a lot of good things going on (mainly in the performance of Will Smith), it wasn't a great film, and something was missing. Based on Richard Matheson's sci-fi classic, Smith stars as Dr. Robert Neville, a scientist who is immune to a "vampiric plague" that has wiped out humanity. Now an alternate ending to the film has been leaked to the net (thanks to Slash Film for the heads up), which you can check out above, and it gives you the chance to play 'What If?' If you haven't already seen the film, you might want to stop reading now, because I am about to give you one heck of a spoiler.

You know, if this movie had been made by anybody else but David Mamet then I would have fully expected to catch this flick late at night on the USA network and for it to star Michael Dudikoff. One look at the trailer above, though, and you know you are not dealing with the usual action cheese.

Redbelt stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as master of Ju-Jitsu who has dropped out of the unscrupulous world of professional fighting. After he helps out a mouthy movie star in a bar one night (as played by Tim Allen) he is eventually forced back into the ring of UFC fighting to defend his honor. There is also a hint of a freaky fighter selection process involving marbles and tying your hands behind your back, but that explanation is best left to the trailer.

Appearing alongside Ejiofor are Emily Mortimer (aka, the woman with 'Avian Bone Syndrome' on TV's 30 Rock), Alice Braga (I am Legend), Ricky Jay (who you might recognize as the cameraman from Boogie Nights and a few million other films), and Joe Mantegna. Mamet, who is a big fan of Ju-Jitsu and UFC fighting, wrote the script himself, and besides a few photo releases this trailer is our first chance to see what the film is actually about. Like many, I was having a hard time reconciling a master like Mamet with this kind of subject matter, but luckily it looks like it is all going to turn out for the best. Redbelt will hit theaters in a limited release on April 25th of this year.

Keeping things fresh, Liev Schreiber has signed on for another role. He's already working on Defiance, which has him playing one of three Jewish brothers who escape Nazi-occupied Poland and join the Russian resistance. To balance these cinematic good deeds, he's also getting into the body parts business. Variety has reported that the actor has signed on for Repossession Mambo. No, this isn't Repo! The Genetic Opera, but rather the non-musical version that stars Jude Law and Forest Whitaker.

Schreiber will play Law's boss at the futuristic, artificial organ credit union where Law works. That is, until he gets an organ, can't pay, and goes on the lam with his ex-wife (Alice Braga), who also owes money. The back story -- it is twenty years into the future, and Law and Whitaker have fought in a war in Africa, and have returned as "disturbed veterans." They settle down in Toronto, working as repossession agents until the money/implant kerfuffle happens. So, I imagine Whitaker as co-star has to hunt Law down when he doesn't pay. Now, it seems to me that it would be cheaper to just insert some sort of tracking system into these guys, so that running away won't do any good. It'd be cheaper than an army of repossession agents. Anyway, Liev's a good addition, but we're still going to have to wait and see if this turns out to be successful, or just another Jude stinker. Before we dig into people's insides, however, you can see Schreiber in Love in a Time of Cholera.

Have you seen Black Book yet? It's on DVD now, and with Ryan and I raving about it and especially its star, Carice Van Houten, all year, I hope you got the hint. It's really worth seeing. And once you do check it out, you'll understand why we are so smitten by Van Houten. And you'll understand why Hollywood can't get enough of her these days, casting her opposite many of the most prestigious actors, such as Tom Cruise, who she's linked up with in Bryan Singer's Valkyrie, and Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, both of whom she's appearing with in Ridley Scott's Body of Lies. Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the Dutch actress is confirmed to play opposite Jude Law in Repossession Mambo. She will play wifie to Law in the film, which is a sci-fi thriller about a guy who can't afford his most recently installed artificial organ. Directed by Miguel Sapochnik, a former storyboard artist who worked on Trainspotting, the film is said to also star Alice Braga, who actually plays Law's love-interest in the form of an ex-wife he reunites and goes on the lam with.

So then is Van Houten just a minor character who is left behind? That's what it sounds like, and if you look at most of these American roles she's getting they're either labeled simply as wife or love-interest. Considering all that she got to do in Black Book, it seems Hollywood could be missing the boat on why she's worth casting. If Van Houten does end up wasted or underused in these roles, it wouldn't be the first time a young European actress came into flavor and was then miscast. I'm thinking mostly of Audrey Tautou being put in The Da Vinci Code, of course. I have to admit that after falling in love with her in Amelie, I gradually grew out of my crush by watching the rest of her available films, none of which featured her in quite the same way. For Van Houten, I've already gone and looked at one of her earlier films, and was similarly disappointed -- though it could have been the fact the movie, Minoes (aka Undercover Kitty), is only available here in a terribly dubbed version. All I can hope is that I won't ever see her in a worse movie than that, but with Hollywood's track record of late, such hopes are really difficult to hold on to.

While I'm sure you wanted nothing more than the mamboing couple of Jude Law and Forest Whitaker, The Hollywood Reporter has posted that Universal has added a woman -- Alice Braga -- to the mix of their futuristic thriller called Repossession Mambo. (Ryan Stewart threw all sorts of love to the film back in June, when the two men were cast.) The film, which is being directed by Miguel Sapochnik, comes from the brains of Eric Garcia and Garret Lerner, who wrote the script based on Garcia's novel. Now, don't get this confused with the musical genetic repossession flick called Repo! The Genetic Opera -- that one stars Paz Vega and Paul Sorvino.

In this telling, the film follows a guy named Remy (Law), who is a repo man made up of artificial organs. (How many transplants can you get before you stop being you?) When he adds a new heart to the mix, he struggles to pay for it, and has to go on the run to avoid his former partner. (I assume this is Whitaker?) Braga will play a woman named Beth who married Remy but -- lost touch with him while he was in the Army. It gets better -- apparently, she's not upset about losing touch, and now ten years later she's had a hard batch of luck and a whole slew of new organs herself, so she reunites with Remy to go on the run. Hopefully we'll have more word on this strange flick soon -- it starts production in Toronto on October 15.

I have to say that I'm pretty psyched about Blindness. It sounded cool with Julianne Moore, and even better when Mark Ruffalo took over for Daniel Craig. Somehow, in the increasing news, I'd missed one of the most delectable bits -- Jose Saramango's novel was adapted by Canadian actor/writer/director Don McKellar. If you have no idea who he is, you really need to run out and rent Last Night and Childstar, his two big features. You can also check him out in films like eXistenZ and Where the Truth Lies. But I digress. The Hollywood Reporter has posted a few more names that have been added to the production, continuing to make Fernando Meirelles apocalyptic pot sweeter.

We already know that Ruffalo is the doctor who is one of the victims of the blindness epidemic, and Moore is his wife who hasn't been stricken. Now Gael García Bernal has been cast as the "King of Ward 3," Alice Braga is "the girl with the dark glasses" and Danny Glover will narrate the story. Bernal is, of course, the star of The Science of Sleep, Braga recently had a starring role in Journey to the End of the Night and Glover was most recently in Shooter. The story is about the social breakdown of one city as it is swept with an epidemic of blindness. The main group, which includes the doctor and his wife, have come together as a make-shift family to survive. Meanwhile, the blind are quarantined while chaos and hysteria ensues. I'm sure it will be a hard-hitting thriller, but I'm wondering how long it will take for one of the spoof-crazy filmmakers to take on an adaptation. A horde of blind people who have no idea how to function without sight is both horrifying and potentially humorous.

I can't be the only who is just a little disappointed with the first poster for the vampire-apocalypse flick I Am Legend. ComingSoon.net is hosting a first look at the poster that, for me, falls just a little flat -- especially since the cover of the book gave me the willies when it was laying on my coffee table. The film, based on the novel of the same name by Richard Matheson, has been a high-profile project for Warner Bros since back when rumors had Johnny Depp in talks for the villainous lead. Since then, we've had word that Depp is no longer in the running and some fans of the book still aren't convinced that action star Will Smith can carry it off alone -- hey, it could've been worse, the project was originally made for Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The film centers on Smith's character, who as the sole survivor of a "vampire" plague, battles it out in Omega Man style. Directed by Francis Lawrence, the project has been playing casting musical chairs for a while, but we finally have a confirmed cast that includes Alice Braga as a fellow survivor, and Salli Richardson as Smith's wife Ginny. There has been talk that a trailer will make an appearance in front of Ocean's 13, when that film hits screens this Friday -- and, as always, we'll keep the updates coming until December 14 when Legend hits theaters.

When David Mamet is on, he is one of our finest writers. His script for Glengarry Glen Ross should be required reading for anyone aspiring to write for stage or screen. Mamet has put words in the mouths of some of the greatest actors in film history: Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Jack Nicholson, and now ... Tim Allen? It's true, Allen will star in Mamet's Redbelt. And it gets stranger -- the film is a "martial arts drama." I'm quite serious. Mamet wrote and will direct the film, which co-stars Children of Men's Chiwetel Ejiofor. Rounding out the cast are Emily "Brittle Bones" Mortimer, City of God's Alice Braga, 300's Rodrigo Santoro, Crank's Jose Pablo Cantillo, and Mamet regulars Ricky Jay, David Paymer, Joe "Fat Tony" Mantegna and Rebecca "Mrs. Mamet" Pidgeon. If that cast isn't crowded enough for you, the film also stars "martial artists and fighters" Randy Couture, John Machado, Danny Inosanto, Enson Inoue, and Ray Mancini.

According to imdb, Redbelt is "the story of Mike Terry (Ejiofor), a Jiu-jitsu master who has avoided the prize fighting circuit, choosing to instead pursue a life of honor and education by operating a self-defense studio in Los Angeles. Terry's life is dramatically changed, however, when he is conned by a cabal of movie stars and promoters. In order to pay off his debts and regain his honor Terry must step into the ring for the first time in his life." Allen will play "a troubled action star with marital problems who meets the master when he is getting pummeled in a street fight." I'm sorry, doesn't this sound like something Jean-Claude Van Damme and Gary Busey would have starred in back in 1988? And, you know, I was just about to close this article with a line about how I'm not worried because you can usually trust Mamet to deliver the goods, but then I noticed his next project is something called Joan of Bark: The Dog that Saved France! If this is an Air Bud sequel, we'll know the guy has officially lost his mind.

Lower City, which made its first appearance last year at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard sidebar, is the feature film debut of Brazilian writer-director Sérgio Machado. In terms of content, Machado's story is as old as the hills: Two friends fall in love with the same girl; complications ensue. What makes his film original is its setting and context. Lower City takes place and was shot mostly in Salvador, Brazil, the capital of the north-eastern state of Bahia (the "Cidade Baixa" -- Lower City -- is literally the lower half of the city, separated from the "Cidade Alto" by a vertical distance of nearly 300 feet). The city is built around a natural harbor, and water is ever-present in the film, lending it an often heart-stopping beauty, despite the grinding poverty with which the movie and its story are permeated.

Beneath the blanket of that poverty live Machado's main characters. Deco and Naldinho (played, respectively, by Lázaro Ramos and Wagner Moura) are life-long friends who have rarely been apart. They grew up together, have seen one another through unspecific dark times, and at the moment the film begins, they own a small boat and scratch out a living making short freight runs in and around Salvador's harbor. There's a tremendous, unforced warmth between the two men, possibly aided by the fact that Ramos and Moura are best friends off-screen, as well. Deco and Naldinho call each other "brother," drink together, protect one another, and are close enough to share sexual experiences without tension or awkwardness -- at least at first. They are also from different races (Deco is black, while Naldinho is white), but in the glorious racial patchwork that is Salvador, no one even notices.