August movie guide: Detective Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett’s sci-fi
Russell Crowe, who has five films in pre-production or currently filming, plays a detective with dementia in a film made in Melbourne in early 2023. Photo: Paramount Movies
Russell Crowe’s Sleeping Dogs hit cinemas this week.
An adaptation of Romanian author Eugen O Chirovici’s 2017 novel, The Book of Mirrors, it is the latest in a long list of film credits he’s clocked up over the past two years.
He made Poker Face on the NSW south coast, Land of Bad on the Gold Coast, The Pope’s Exorcist (in Ireland mostly) and The Exorcist, The Greatest Beer Run Ever (New Jersey) and is about to star in Kraven the Hunter and Nuremberg.
For Sleeping Dogs, filmed in Melbourne last year, Crowe, 60, has gathered a cast of local and international actors including Scottish co-star and former Guardians of the Galaxy daughter of Thanos (Nebula), Karen Gillan.
He plays former homicide detective Roy Freeman who is getting treatment for Alzheimer’s.
His job is to open the books on a brutal cold case murder from his past – the murder of a college professor, played by New Zealand actor Marton Csokas (Lord of the Rings, The Equaliser).
“A death-row inmate Freeman arrested 10 years prior is proclaiming his innocence. Intrigued, fighting to regain his memory, and always chasing the truth, Roy enlists his former partner (Tommy Flanagan) to help him revive the investigation,” reads the official synopsis.
“Things unfold very differently as they close in on a magnetic, mysterious and elusive woman, Laura (Gillan) … Roy is forced to face a horrific reality that changes his world forever.”
Crowe also worked with Flanagan on Gladiator, and Thomas M Wright, who wrote award-winning film The Stranger, also gets a starring role.
Trap: August 1
The master of suspense, The Sixth Sense’s M. Night Shyamalan’s cinematic universe continues to expand with this chilling thriller, featuring rising music star Saleka Shyamalan.
Starring Josh Hartnett (Oppenheimer), who plays a father to daughter played by Ariel Donoghue, the film starts off innocently enough.
Father and daughter head to a live pop concert inside a stadium somewhere, when suddenly police arrive, looking for a serial killer.
The Fabulous Four: August 1
Starring Susan Sarandon, Megan Mullally and Sheryl Lee Ralph who travel to Key West, Florida, to be bridesmaids in the surprise wedding of their best college girlfriend Marilyn (Bette Midler).
Over the course of the trip, sisterhoods are rekindled, the past resurfaces, and their lives change in unexpected ways.
It Ends with Us: August 8
The first Colleen Hoover novel adapted for the big screen, it tells the story of Lily Bloom (Blake Lively), a woman who overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life in Boston, chasing the dream of opening her own business.
A chance meeting with neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni) sparks an intense connection, and as they fall in love, Lily begins to see sides of Ryle that remind her of her parents’ relationship.
Alien: Romulus: August 15
The sci-fi/horror-thriller takes the phenomenally successful Alien franchise back to its late 1970s roots.
Produced by Ridley Scott (Napoleon), who directed the original Alien starring Sigourney Weaver, once again a group of young space colonisers – Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla) and David Jonsson (Agatha Christie’s Murder is Easy) – come face to face with aliens.
Borderlands: August 8
Based on one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time, Cate Blanchett plays Lilith, a bounty hunter with a mysterious past, who reluctantly returns to her home, Pandora (the most chaotic planet in the galaxy).
Her mission is to find the missing daughter of Atlas (Ramírez), the universe’s most powerful villain. She forms an unexpected alliance with a ragtag team of misfits and together they battle an alien species and dangerous bandits.
Take My Hand: August 22
With a strong cast of Australian actors including Radha Mitch and Adam Demos, this film is a true romance, the story of a mother of three who lives in London and has been diagnosed with MS.
Following the sudden death of her husband and the loss of her job, she moves home to Australia where she meets her high school sweetheart, who gives her renewed hope in love as she battles the disease.
Blink Twice: August 22
When tech mogul Slater King (Channing Tatum) crosses paths with cocktail server Frida (Naomi Ackie) at his charity event, sparks ignite.
Inviting her to his private island getaway, paradise ensues with endless revelry … until there isn’t joy anymore, but blood, death and lots of knives.
Afraid: August 29
In AFRAID, Curtis (John Cho) and his family are selected to test a revolutionary new home device – a digital family assistant called AIA.
Taking smart home to the next level, once the unit and all its sensors and cameras are installed in their home, AIA seems able to do it all and, after learning the family’s behaviours, takes over.
Bookworm: August 29
In the midst of a family crisis, a washed-up American magician and his long-estranged precocious daughter, venture into the New Zealand wilderness in search of a mythical black panther.
Starring Elijah Wood, Michael Smiley and newcomer Nell Fisher, who steals the screen.
Midas Man: August 29
On November 9, 1961, a man named Brian descended the stairs to a cellar in Liverpool and changed the world forever.
Yes, Epstein, and it’s about the Beatles, with a cast including Eddie Marsan, Emily Watson and Jay Leno.
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