What, When, Where this Weekend - Tetro, Moon, Betty Blue: The Director's Cut, Taking of Pelham 123

What, When, Where is a weekly guide to select screenings, discussions and events in the NYC-area of interest to screenwriters. Have an event you'd like to see listed here? Give us a heads-up at info@screenwritersleague.com.

Opening this weekend...

TETRO, written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola


PREMISE: Bennie travels to Buenos Aires to find his long-missing older brother, a once-promising writer who is now a remnant of his former self. Bennie's discovery of his brother's near-finished play might hold the answer to understanding their shared past and renewing their bond.

PLAYING: Landmark Sunshine

Notably, this is Francis Ford Coppola's first original screenplay since The Conversation, which was way beyond awesome. I heard he's not a shabby director, either...

MOON, written by Duncan Jones and Nathan Parker, dir. by Duncan Jones


PREMISE: Astronaut Sam Bell has a quintessentially personal encounter toward the end of his three-year stint on the Moon, where he, working alongside his computer, GERTY, sends back to Earth parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our planet's power problems.

PLAYING: Loews Lincoln Square, Landmark Sunshine

Sure, it sounds a bit like 2001 or Solaris. But I really like both of those movies, and it's directed by David Bowie's son? I'm intrigued.

BETTY BLUE: THE DIRECTOR'S CUT, written and directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix


PREMISE: Zorg is a handyman working at in France, maintaining and looking after the bungalows. He lives a quiet and peaceful life, working diligently and writing in his spare time. One day Betty walks into his life, a young woman who is as beautiful as she is wild and unpredictable. After a dispute with Zorg's boss they leave and Betty manages to get a job at a restaurant. She persuades Zorg to try and get one of his books published but it is rejected which makes Betty fly into a rage. Suddenly Betty's wild manners starts to get out of control. Zorg sees the woman he loves slowly going insane. Can his love prevail even if it comes to the worst?

PLAYING: Cinema Village

I don't usually highlight re-releases, but this is a really good one. (And Beatrice Dalle sure is purty, ain't she?)

THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123, written by John Helgeland, dir. by Tony Scott


PREMISE: Armed men hijack a New York City subway train, holding the passengers hostage in return for a ransom, and turning an ordinary day's work for dispatcher Walter Garbe into a face-off with the mastermind behind the crime.

PLAYING: Everywhere

Here we've got a remake of a remake of a film based on a Morton Freedgood novel. There's a lot of talent involved in this one, but has this story been beaten into the ground already?

What are you doing/seeing this weekend?