Billy Bob Thornton Co-Wrote A Creepy Supernatural Thriller Directed By Sam Raimi
Director Sam Raimi is finest identified for his horror motion pictures and his superhero motion pictures. His newest movie, “Ship Assist,” is a depraved and enjoyable horror comedy about workplace employees trapped on a abandoned island, and it possesses all the goop and violence that Raimi has grow to be identified for. The director’s followers can simply see echoes of Raimi’s famed “The Evil Useless” nonetheless lurking within it.
Raimi, nevertheless, is completely able to extra grownup materials and proved his directorial chops with his first grown-up drama, “A Easy Plan,” launched in 1998. “A Easy Plan” was a dour and cynical crime story a couple of small group of distant Minnesotans — together with Invoice Paxton, Bridget Fonda, and Billy Bob Thornton — who uncover a suitcase full of money within the woods. Having the money of their presence, nevertheless, introduces paranoia and resentment, and it tears all of them aside. It was nominated for 2 Academy Awards, together with for Thornton’s efficiency.
In 2000, Raimi made what is likely to be his most underrated movie, a Southern noir with a supernatural twist known as “The Present.” It additionally marked a further collaboration between Raimi and Billy Bob Thornton, who additionally co-wrote the screenplay. In “The Present,” Cate Blanchett performs a lady named Annie who’s possessed of gentle clairvoyant powers. The plot follows Annie after she has a imaginative and prescient of an area homicide. The movie’s spectacular forged additionally included Hilary Swank, Keanu Reeves, Katie Holmes, Greg Kinnear, Giovanni Ribisi, and J.Okay. Simmons.
Thornton doesn’t seem within the film, however plainly “The Present” was very expensive to him. On Thornton’s official web site (handily archived in its early 2000s type), it’s famous that Thornton wrote “The Present” to be primarily based on his mom’s personal psychic experiences.
Billy Bob Thornton primarily based The Present on his mom
Billy Bob Thornton’s mom, born Virginia Faulkner, was a self-proclaimed psychic, one thing he mentioned in his episode of the interview present “Contained in the Actor’s Studio” (handily archived on-line). The present’s host, James Lipton, requested Thornton fairly straight about his mom’s “present,” and Thornton was frank in response, saying:
“She has the present of E.S.P. Folks can consider what they need, however I’ve seen it in motion. […] My mother was known as a witch and every little thing. That occurred fairly a bit at college. However all people got here to see her. And ultimately folks from New York and different locations got here to see her. […] We have been poor. I used to be raised with no electrical energy or working water. And we ate what my grandfather killed till I used to be six or seven.”
In line with the Thornton web site, his mom used the identical patterned psychic playing cards — known as Zener playing cards — that Blanchett’s character, Annie, may be seen utilizing in “The Present.” Thornton’s father died in 1974, and Thornton has famous that he by no means actually talked with him, so his mom took up the job of elevating Billy and his brothers. It is not said if Annie’s persona carefully matches Thornton’s mom, however the parallels are clear, provided that she’s a widow who can also be elevating three youngsters and making a residing on the aspect as an expert psychic.
Additionally on the web site, it is said that Thornton’s mom predicted that he could be a profitable actor. Particularly, she mentioned that Billy would develop up and star on display with Burt Reynolds. This prediction astonishingly got here true when Thornton, approach again in 1990, had a bit half as a flower deliveryman on the sitcom “Night Shade.” “Night Shade” starred Burt Reynolds.
How is The Present?
It must be famous that Billy Bob Thornton wrote “The Present,” and several other different screenplays, together with his longtime writing associate, Tom Epperson. Epperson and Thornton penned the scripts for “One False Transfer” (which starred Thornton’s “A Easy Plan” so-star Invoice Paxton), in addition to “A Household Factor,” the TV film “Do not Look Again,” “Camouflage,” and “Jayne Mansfield’s Automobile,” which Thornton additionally directed. They’ve had an extended and profitable profession collectively.
“The Present,” in the meantime, is nearly a forgotten movie in Sam Raimi’s filmography. Maybe as a result of, like “A Easy Plan,” it’s devoid of the kind of wild, fashionable camerawork that’s extra sometimes Raimi’s trademark. “The Present” is a downbeat character drama about Annie and her trials, whereas additionally being a sweaty airport-style potboiler about homicide and corruption in small-town Georgia. It is about abusive husbands and the destiny of the city’s “dangerous woman.” I’ll stay imprecise on plot particulars, because the script is twisty and the movie deserves to be found by way of its thick Southern ambiance. “The Present” was additionally a modest hit, making $46.6 million on its modest $10 million price range.
Critics weren’t super-kind to “The Present,” because it presently solely holds a middling 57% approval ranking on Rotten Tomatoes (primarily based on 123 critiques). Roger Ebert gave the movie three stars, admiring that Annie took her psychic duties with a realistic air, presenting them as very matter-of-fact. He additionally famous, nevertheless, that the characters all reside in a “swamp of melodrama,” presenting numerous Southern Gothic archetypes with out a lot variation from the clichés he was used to. Curt Fields, in the meantime, writing for the Washington Put up, wrote in his quote detrimental assessment that “The Present” had no originality in any respect.
/Movie, nevertheless, thinks it is wholly underrated.
