UPDATE: Here's the trailer in Quicktime quality.

Of all the films I'm looking forward to this fall, Blindness ranks fairly high up there. Canadian distributor Alliance has just made available a full trailer that proves to be fairly intriguing, as an optometrist (Mark Ruffalo) and his seemingly immune wife (Julianne Moore) cope with an inexplicable epidemic of sight loss.

I'm a sucker for most anything vaguely apocalyptic, and while this very well could turn out to be akin to watching the first act of Children of Men through a milk-filled mask (which I've done, mind you), the prestige behind the project* says otherwise. We have acclaimed screenwriter Don McKellar adapting Nobel-Laureate José Saramago's novel, with Academy Award nominee Fernando Meirelles directing a cast that also includes Danny Glover, Gael Garcia Bernal, Alice Braga, and Sandra Oh.

I must say, going off that taste and last spring's teaser, I still like the look, sound, and feel of this one, especially Moore's little retort (you know the one), and that's not to mention that any trailer which employs John Murphy's underrated score from last year's Sunshine to set a rightfully ominous tone is always fine by me. We'll get to see (sorry) what trials and tribulations await the world on September 19th.

*Not to mention Rocchi's review of the film from its Cannes world premiere.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for Blindness (click to enlarge), which enjoyed its world premiere as the opening night film of this year's Cannes Film Festival back in May. Starring Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover and Gael García Bernal, Blindness tells of a city overcome by a blindness epidemic where its citizens are stricken with instant "white blindness." As folks are quarantined off in an abandoned mental hospital, one woman who remains unaffected pretends to be sick in order to take care of her husband, a doctor, who's now blind. Based on Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago's novel, and directed by the very talented Fernando Meirelles (The Constant Gardener), Blindness definitely looks to bring the creep factor -- and with this outstanding cast, I'm sure it will claim a spot as this fall's first great flick.

Don't close your eyes for too long, because Blindness hits theaters on September 19.

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 ...

When you hear journalists at Cannes bemoaning a lack of outlets, it turns out that, for once, they're not talking about firings and cutbacks in paying gigs; rather, they're talking about the crowded push of the Orange WiFi Press Cafe, where getting a socket to plug into between screenings is well-nigh impossible. That's the press room pictured above; not shown is the upper deck, to the right, crowded with couches and journalists sprawled on the floor with their laptops. At its busiest, the WiFi Cafe looks something like a Civil War hospital, if Gettysburg's fallen had carried laptops and cameras instead of rifles.

It seems hard to imagine it's only the second day of the Festival, but it is; journalists and filmmakers are still coming into town, and the tempo of buzz and anxiety is speeding up subtly under the stately glide of stars down the red carpet. I actually wound up, bizarrely enough, at the Kung Fu Panda press screening -- Kim had to cover the Blindness press luncheon -- and, as I said in my review, "Of course, I may be a little inclined to have liked Kung Fu Panda as it made for a bit of a break; my Cannes viewing before this morning's Kung Fu Panda screening included two stabbings, a riot, several acts of sexual aggression, a few beatings, assault with a deadly weapon, family tension, grinding poverty and child endangerment. (That's not the breakdown for the films before Kung Fu Panda, just to clarify; that's the breakdown for the film before Kung Fu Panda.)" Still, I was able to get out and about to take in the scene today; you'll find the gallery below, with more from the shore to come when I can find a place to plug in for my next Cannes dispatch.

%Gallery-22999%

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.

Cinematical has received two brand new exclusive Blindness images ahead of the film's world premiere tonight at the 2008 Festival de Cannes. Directed by Fernando Meirelles (The Constant Gardener), Blindness was selected as the opening night film for this year's Festival de Cannes, and it stars Julianne Moore as the wife of a doctor (Mark Ruffalo) who suddenly becomes the only one who can see in a town where everyone is struck with a mysterious case of blindness. Based on the novel by José Saramago (adapted by Don Mckellar), Blindness also stars Gael García Bernal, Alice Braga and Danny Glover.

Cinematical is on the ground in Cannes, and both James and Kim have already seen Blindness. We'll have our review of the festival's opening night film later on in the day. Check out our second exclusive photo below, then head to the gallery for more. Blindness arrives in theaters on September 19.



%Gallery-22608%

Each of the trailers we're looking at this week are for a film with an element of the fantastic. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you The Fantastic Five.

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army
As excited as I was after seeing the teaser trailer, this new preview for Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy sequel has me wanting to see the movie right now. There are tons of supernatural beasties on display here, making this kind of look like Pan's Labyrinth on steroids. We hear Abe Sapien talk, and I still miss David Hyde Pierce's voice, but I imagine once I'm in the thick of the film it won't be a problem. Here's what Eugene thought.

Paranormal Activity
The trailer is shown from the perspective of a home video camera, though I'm not sure how much of the film uses this first person perspective. The whole thing looks awesomely creepy. A woman believes she has been followed all her life by a supernatural entity, and her husband sets up his camcorder in hopes of proving or disproving the phenomenon. The idea seems kind of like The Blair Witch Project meets The Entity, and I'm anxious to see this one. The official website for this low budget scare flick carries some promising review excerpts, including one from Cinematical's own Kim Voynar, and you can read her full review right here.

We thought this looked awesome last summer, and now we have some confirmation. MSN has posted a teaser trailer for Blindness, Fernando Meirelles' apocalyptic thriller based on the novel by José Saramago, and it creeps me out. The movie is about a blindness epidemic that sweeps through a city, afflicting everyone except one woman (Julianne Moore) who is apparently immune. She's then forced to feign blindness (Why? If no one else can see, what's the difference?) to care for her husband (Mark Ruffalo) as everything around them goes to hell. The tonal shift at the beginning of the teaser is genuinely startling, maybe because the upbeat music doesn't stop playing as you'd expect, or maybe because it deals with something that is one of this cinephile's worst nightmares.

I like Meirelles' City of God as much as the next guy, but the real reason I'm excited for this is that the screenplay is written by Don McKellar, whose previous stab at depicting the end of the world, Last Night, is one of my favorite films (with one of the most perfect endings of all time). Blindness is expected to play the Toronto Film Festival this September, with a US release slated for October. Can anyone who's read the book give us some (non-spoiler) hints of what to expect?

[hat tip: comingsoon.net]

We've been tracking Blindness, the upcoming Fernando Meirelles film, for months. To recap, Erik Davis first reported that Don McKeller had adapted the novel by Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago, which "revolves around a blindness epidemic that sweeps through a contemporary city, paralyzing its citizens to a point where society is on the verge of breaking down." Julianne Moore and Daniel Craig were in talks to star as a doctor and his wife, the only person unaffected by the epidemic. Two months later, Jessica Barnes told us that Craig dropped out. He was replaced by Mark Ruffalo shortly thereafter, as noted by Jennifer DeFilippo. Just a week after that, Monika Bartyzel enthused about the cast members who were added: Danny Glover, Gael Garcia Bernal and Alica Braga. And now the point of the recap: Miramax has secured US distribution rights to the film, as reported by indieWIRE and The Hollywood Reporter. The deal was finalized Saturday morning in Toronto.

In his indieWIRE item, Eugene Hernandez says that Blindness has been shooting locally in Toronto before moving to Brazil. He reports Miramax's description, which adds a positive phrase to the otherwise dire premise: "A small group of the afflicted band together to triumphantly overcome the horrific conditions of their imposed quarantine." Well, that's certainly more cheery, isn't it? With so many fall/festival films described as depressing and dark, perhaps Miramax wants to set Blindness apart as more upbeat, though still serious fare. Will they change the title to Temporary Blindness?

All kidding aside, the dynamic and talented creative combination of Meirelles (City of God, The Constant Gardener), McKellar, and that cast sounds irresistible. The purchase price was $5 million, according to Gregg Goldstein in his Hollywood Reporter story. If you can read Portuguese, you can follow along at the director's blog. Maybe we'll see the completed film next year at Toronto?

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.

It's official, Mark Ruffalo will pretend to be a doctor with no sight in the upcoming film Blindness. See, he doesn't start out with no sight but is struck with the devastating ailment during the film -- actually, that's what the flick is about. Ruffalo takes over for Daniel Craig who dropped out of the project due to scheduling conflicts. Blindness is based on the novel by Jose Saramago, and revolves around a town that erupts with a blinding epidemic. Everyone is affected except Ruffalo's wife, played by the oh-so-wonderful Julianne Moore (someone please hand her an Oscar!)

Ruffalo's senses are far from taking a break anytime soon. He's been working non-stop since Zodiac (probably before that even) and will begin filming Blindness in Brazil following the three films he just wrapped. He is currently working with the likes of Terry George and Spike Jonze. Blindness will be directed by Fernando Meirelles who is responsible for 2005's Constant Gardner and the sad but beautiful film about Brazilian street gangs City of God. With the stellar cast and more than able director you would have to be blind not to see something good in the making.

It appears that Daniel Craig is holding Bond typecasting at bay by keeping busy on a variety of different projects. But, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that Craig has officially dropped out of Blindness, a dark drama from the Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles. The film will tell the story of a doctor in a village where everyone has been struck blind, and Craig was to play the doctor. Meirelles is known for his somewhat "harrowing" subject matter as the director of City of God and The Constant Gardener, and doesn't seem fazed by the loss of his lead -- he is already in the process of re-casting. Considering his reputation as director, I doubt he will have much trouble in finding his new leading man.

Craig has attached himself to several films recently, including Ed Zwick's war film Defiance, and Flashbacks of a Fool for music video director Baillie Walsh, where Craig will play a washed-up actor dealing with the death of a friend. We'll also get a chance to see Craig with his "Blond Bond" look again soon, with his obvious commitment of Bond 22 about to come into play when the film gears up for a shooting start at the end of this year, but first, he has the sci-fi thriller The Invasion with Nicole Kidman on the way this fall, and the highly anticipated fantasy film The Golden Compass (also with Kidman) which will have a big release this Christmas. There was no word given by HR on exactly why Craig left Blindness, but judging by his schedule lately it's no surprise that something had to give.

Though he'll most likely be playing James Bond for the next several years, Daniel Craig has not stopped that franchise from letting him secure a slew of other roles to take on in between his adventures as 007. The actor currently has two pretty big films (The Invasion, The Golden Compass) coming out later this year, and is now in talks to star in Blindness -- adapted from Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago's novel -- and to be directed by Fernando Meirelles (The Constant Gardner). Also in talks to co-star alongside Craig is the very beautiful (and very talented) Julianne Moore.

Adapted by Don Mckellar, Saramago's book revolves around a blindness epidemic that sweeps through a contemporary city, paralyzing its citizens to a point where society is on the verge of breaking down. Craig and Moore will likely play book's two lead characters, a doctor and his wife. This whole "society on the verge of madness" storyline is familiar to Moore; the actress recently starred in Children of Men, which shares similar themes with Blindness, but on a much larger scale. Currently, there's no word on where the film will be set; the book takes place in an unnamed city in an unnamed country. Focus Features is handling all foreign sales, but there's no U.S. distribution deal in place as of now. Apart from Blindness, Craig is also set to reprise his role as 007 in the untitled Bond 22.