SIFF now.

The 2007 schedule has only been out for a week but SIFF madness and the premature wearing of lanyard passes already seems to be in full effect, regardless that it's still 2 entire weeks before the opening Gala.. Before I continue, I'd like to direct the following comment at SIFF programmers and ask, "what the heck happened to the Drive-in portion of SIFF??!" This makes 3 consecutive years in which the event has been absent from the festival (one that in year's past was the highlight of the Midnight Adrenaline series and quite possibly the entire festival itself).. While the Gala screening of Son of Rambow was announced before the main calender and actually seems pretty entertaining (let's just say it's no Illusionist), I noticed an entire slew of other films I've also been excited to see. Here's a list of things I'm personally looking forward to watch! The Signal - The Sundance fave that seems almost identical in plot to the Stephen King penned Cell (soon to be directed by Eli Roth). I don't know how many more post modern "zombie" films I can handle, but the word on the street for those fortunate to have seen the film is good.. Rescue Dawn- Werner Herzog's newest narrative, starring Christian Bale and based on his documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly. Like Fitzcarraldo, the stories and events behind the actual making of the film border on the insane. The Last Winter- The other films of director Larry Fessenden's i've seen were horrible. So terrible that I swore to myself to never, ever watch another one of his movies. And let's face it, we all love actor Ron Perlman, but he's been in some equally stupid movies (ahem, Primal Force). But then Fessenden made Wendigo (which was supposedly not too bad) and then this thing about supernatural forces in Antartica came along.. I really want this to be my surprise hit of the festival, but then again, I'm probably setting myself up for disappointment. Great World of Sound- While this may appear as a conflict of interest being that our very own ex-employee, David Wingo (George Washington, All the Real Girls) scored it, the premise of shady con men posing as record execs and swindling midwesterners out of money sounds pretty awesome. From the creator of Homestar Runner (not that it matters to me). Along with the above, early festival screenings of Knocked Up, Paprika, Severance and Superbad also seem appealing despite the fact that they open with regular theater runs weeks (and in some cases, days) later.