There's a -- well, some would say odd, some would say rather cool -- idea for a thriller heading to a cinema near you in 2014. The trailer is just out for Grand Piano. Elijah Wood and John Cusack star in the everyday tale of a famous concert pianist who finds messages from a demented nemesis scribbled on his score.
Unfortunately, they're of the "Play one wrong note and you die" variety and he reads this in the middle of a high-pressure concert. That, we guess, is what could happen to any musician who doesn't bother to memorize his pieces.
A highlighted quote in the trailer calls this "the best Brian de Palma movie he never made," but, in fact, it seems more up Joel Schumacher's street -- one might call it Phone Booth in a concert hall.
The actual director is Eugenio Mira.
Wood plays the tormented artist, as it were. And all those who saw him in the Lord of the Rings movies will know that he does a nice line in sympathetic stress. But for Cusack, a villainous role is a departure. Not an obsessive love of music though, that we got from him in the wonderful High Fidelity (rock music, but, you know, music is music is music). Reviews from the new movie's festival showings have been mainly pretty positive, with some dubbing it "SPEED with a piano."
The film goes on release in US movie theaters on March 7, 2014 and on iTunes/On Demand on Jan 30, 2014.
