The TV Addict 

Much like my previous installment of this column, I found out about this film because I was looking up someone’s IMDB credits to see what they were up to. In this case the person I was looking for was one of the best living action directors we have: Kathryn Bigelow.

Bigelow is hardly a director one would call prolific, but she is undoubtedly one that has made an impact. That’s all the more impressive given that her reputation as one of Hollywood’s finest action directors rests almost entirely on the films NEAR DARK, BLUE STEEL, POINT BREAK, STRANGE DAYS, and K-19. Heck, I consider her one of my favorite directors based solely on NEAR DARK, one of the best vampire movies ever made. In my students days I even picked up this book (one I highly recommend) to satiate my Bigelow fixations.

Ever since STRANGE DAYS in 1995 her output has reduced dramatically giving me little to fixate on though. Aside from a very brief short film (MISSION ZERO with Uma Thurman) her last feature film was K-19 in 2002. Now supposedly sometime this year we’re getting another Bigelow film, this one called THE HURT LOCKER. Excitingly enough the story does appear to be Bigelow’s on concoction, making it her first writer/director credit since BLUE STEEL in 1990. The actual screenplay is written by Mark Boal who wrote the article IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH was based on. The film stars Ralph Fiennes in an apparent small role, with Guy Pearce, David Morse, and Jeremy Renner also starring along a slew of young up and comers.

As for what the actual story is, based on a handful reports across the net it seems to take place in Iraq and centers on an elite Army bomb squad just trying to survive. It doesn’t sound that far removed from the recent film THE KINGDOM, and even though I surprisingly enjoyed the film (even if it was a bit ideologically muddled), I imagine this kind of subject matter might fare slightly better in the hands of Bigelow than a Peter Berg. I also expect this will turn out to be a slightly more dramatic, even anti-war affair, than THE KINGDOM was, which is fine given that Bigelow has always proven herself adept at handling the drama in many of her films.

Much like last week’s film, MARGARET, there’s little promotional info about THE HURT LOCKER. IMDB has it marked as in post-production, and as a 2008 film, but there seems to be no indication as to when this year it’ll hit screens. Heck, aside from a teaser poster and scattered bits of very old news across the net, you’d be hard pressed to even know this film was coming out this year, let alone existed.

But it has to come out at some point, and needless to say I’ll be there opening weekend to warmly welcome back Kathryn Bigelow and her work.