The folks over at io9.com got some really good tidbits on the upcoming found footage superhero film, "Chronicle."
Warning: *Possible Spoilers Ahead*
With less than a month away from release, "Chronicle" combines the found footage genre and the superhero genre, will it work?
The three friends all gain the power of telekinesis, which they soon find out that they can use it like a muscle to allow them to perform many feats, such as flight, creating a force field around them (seen in the trailer where Andrew tries to stab Matt's hand with a fork) and lifting objects of immense size and manipulating them (Andrew crushes a car with a mere gesture). They first use their powers for silly things, but as we have seen from the trailers, Andrew slowly begins to descend into a darker character as his friends try to stop him.
Check out this scary clip of Andrew playing not so nice with a spider:
Io9.com interviewed Josh Trank, who makes his directorial debut with "Chronicle," this is what he had to say:
"The movie opens up with the first time [Andrew] has ever turned on this camera. He got his camera, originally, to document what's going on in his home. His mom is suffering from a terminal illness, and his dad has been an alcoholic for many years, and it's been getting worse and worse. He originally starts filming for that purpose, and then it slowly turns into something else... They have that relationship where Andrew... He's — I hate to use the term — a loner. He doesn't like to be very social, and his cousin is the polar opposite. He's very relaxed, calm, and confident. Matt both loves him as a cousin and is annoyed with him at the same time. He's always obligated to drive him around and do things with him. There's a lot of depth and complexity to that relationship we show in the movie, which is central to everything that unfolds."
Trank states that his inspiration for the film came from his own childhood dreams of telekinesis.
"As far as the modern teenage experience, this movie plays wish fulfillment without any cynicism attached to it. We have these scenes with our main characters out there having fun and doing things, they're doing it without any shame. It's not age-based or generational. If these kids were in their 20s, I think they'd be doing the same thing they're doing here. I wanted to shoot all of these scenes with these actors and keep everyone in the present and in the moment, without doing filmmaker techniques where you overtly foreshadow or try to imply things about the story or theme and just let this play out naturally. When they're having fun and flying, we're up there with them, and when things go dark, they feel very dark because this is what it would be like."
Although we've seen found footage films before and had to endure shaky cam (I'm looking at you Cloverfield and Blair Witch Project), Trank promises that the camera will be perfectly handled without the shakiness. He mentions that Andrew learns how to control the camera using his telekinesis in order to film himself.
Thanks to io9.com for the scoop.
Three high school friends gain superpowers after making an incredible discovery. Soon, though, they find their lives spinning out of control and their bond tested as they embrace their darker sides.
Directed by Josh Trank, and starring Michael B. Jordan, Dane DeHaan and Alex Russell, Chronicle is set to hit theatres on February 3, 2012.