“Sparling will direct Falling Slowly, which will star Mandy Moore and Rodrigo Santoro, a supernatural thriller about a couple whose apartment is haunted by a dark presence. “

I have to admit I’m a little bit disappointed. Given the fact that Sparling wrote Buried, I thought maybe Falling Slowly would be 90 minutes of Mandy Moore falling slowly, perhaps in an abandoned space station. Oh well, dark presences are cool too. (via The Playlist)

I really love high concept movies. Cinema is most exciting when there’s some crazy idea that demands to be a movie. “Guy in a coffin” is one of those concepts.

The film really tests the audience’s limits immediately after the opening credits. I mean wow, it holds on for a long time. I’m sorry for folks in regular theaters where idiots will fill the effective silence with obnoxious chatter.

More after the jump…

Director Rodrigo Cortes revels in the visual discovery of the situation Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds) wakes up, and the camera conveys the length of his tomb and the cramped limits confining his movement. Cortes and cinematographer Eduard Grau find a lot of shots in the limited space. Frankly, it was hard to write my notes in this lighting, but I managed to whenever he flicked the lighter or the cell phone rang.

The movie never cheats. There are no shots from outside of the coffin. No cute prologue about how great Paul’s life was before. No cutaways to the crack team of agents going all Jack Bauer on everybody’s asses. You would hope they wouldn’t need filler, but you can’t take it for granted, so props for really sticking with the coffin.

It is a phone game for a while. Paul calls a lot of people with the phone he finds in the coffin with him. That’s used for suspense too because it’s piecing together information, it’s got its own limits and it plays with all the humor and frustration inherent in all of our phone interactions.

The really important parts are when Paul is by himself with no one to talk to, piecing things together and trying to save himself. The film saves its best tricks for later, towards the end. They definitely didn’t blow their wad early. There’s good escalation in the series of complications that befall Paul.

The explanation for why Paul is in this situation is not entirely brilliant. You’ll either like the explanation or not but it shouldn’t ruin the experience. It holds the story together and it pays off in some of the film’s better thrills. Engendering sympathy for Paul is no problem though. The film plays some obvious cards (maybe most blatantly his mom), but the basics work.

There’s also no unnecessary talking. They cram a lot of information into his cell phone conversations, but Paul doesn’t say anything a person wouldn’t reasonably say to himself. Cast Away cheated by letting him talk to that volleyball. The film still needs a cell phone. They couldn’t pull this off pre-1990 but with that magic instrument, we have our high concept thriller.

Ultimately, I don’t think it’s enough to simply sustain the premise for an entire film. I think they could have taken it to the next level Buried is certainly good and worth watching, but it could have been the definitive high concept movie. Instead it’s just one that doesn’t suck.

The new international trailer for Buried may cause claustrophobia and an overall icky feeling. It shows much more than the previous trailer, which could be a good or bad thing depending on you feel about being buried in a coffin six feet under ground. Considering that’s a personal nightmare of mine…I loved it! Any trailer that makes me piss myself must be doing something right.

The story follows a private contractor (Ryan Reynolds) who is kidnapped in Iraq and buried with only a phone and a lighter. He has 90 minutes to solve how the eff to get out before he dies. I’m very much looking forward to seeing this film at Fantastic Fest later this month, as everyone who had the opportunity to screen it at this past Sundance raved about it, in between their taunts of, “Ooooh, look at me. I’m at Sundance.” Sorry, but SOME of us can’t tolerate thin air!

Watch Ryan Reynolds get buried below below…

Buried International Trailer – Watch more Funny Videos

If you’ve ever wanted to put Ryan Reynolds in a coffin, then we’ve got a trailer for you.

Reynolds stars in Buried, the story of a man who wakes up in a coffin and must use his cell phone to piece together who put him there, why, and how he can escape. It’s kind of like Oldboy meets Phone Booth, with a hint of The Proposal thrown in for the ladies. (Collider)

Watch Ryan Reynolds squirm around in a coffin after the jump.

M. Night Shyamalan is set to produce, with Chris Sparling set to write, Twelve Strangers, a thriller that involves a jury deliberating a case involving the supernatural. Ah see, now the picture makes sense. Sparling wrote Buried, the movie where Ryan Reynolds is stuck in a coffin underground for ninety minutes. 

There’s also additional details on the script that Shyamalan is currently shopping around town. The other day we reported that Bruce Willis, Bradley Cooper, and Gwyneth Paltrow are set to star, but we had no idea what the project’s about, except that it’s probably something mysterious. Deadline enlightens us: "Bradley Cooper would play a father on a desperate search for his missing child.  It might stray into Taken terrain, but the father taps into some supernatural powers to aid the search." Maybe he taps into the supernatural powers of Juror Number 5 in the aforementioned project. Whoa. Meta. A studio has yet to scoop up the script, but it’s likely someone will bite. No exec wants to get their nose broken by Paltrow while Willis and Cooper watch from afar in horror.

No stranger to being up to his neck in starlets and superhero movie offers, Ryan Reynolds is calling upon that practice for his role in Buried. The film, directed by Rodrigo Cortés, stars Reynolds as an American kidnapped by terrorists and buried alive with a 90 minute supply of oxygen. And a cell phone that works underground. Because they have those.

The new teaser captures the excitement of "Rescue 9-1-1" and combines it with the ignorance of accidentally leaving the lens cap on. Buried was picked up for wide release at Sundance and opens in theaters September 24th, 2010. Though I feel like if they really want the experience to be immersive, it should be screened in state-of-the-art theater coffins. This post sponsored by FlickCrypts™.

Dig into the trailer after the break…

Chris Sparling attracted a lot of buzz with his script for Buried. After landing on the Black List, the film wooed Ryan Reynolds and was screened at Sundance to rave reviews. Lionsgate quickly bought the film and plan to distribute. Now, the screenwriter has parlayed that success into the sale of another script to the Safran Co. and Gold Circle Films. Newcomer David Brooks will direct.

ATM is an action script that doesn’t center around licking someone’s butt. Actually it’s about three co-workers who — on a routine stop at an ATM — unexpectedly end up in a desperate fight for their lives. I’m assuming this means they get held up or car-jacked. But I’m hoping it’s a story about a guy’s necktie getting caught in a killer, man-eating ATM.

Could happen. (Variety)

Director Rodrigo Cortés unveils Buried this week at Sundance and now we have a short trailer. Well, it’s more of a Flip video really. Whereas most YouTube journals discuss cute boys or the tedium of schoolwork, this one gets a lot more bummerific by discussing being buried alive in Iraq with only 90 minutes to live. LOL, I guess. It’s still funnier than Lisa Nova.

No word yet on a wide release date but expect one soon. It seems like an interesting movie with a strong premise. Haven’t we all wanted to see Ryan Reynolds in a coffin at some point? (MTV)

Dig the trailer up after the jump…