Written by Emile Hirsch

Chuck Church as Tom
Emile Hirsch as Jerry

Special Thanks to Ace Norton

Shot on location in Runyon Canyon
Diesel Films Inc.

Summit Entertainment will release the alien invasion thriller The Darkest Hour from director Chris Gorak and writer Jon Spaihts in Blu-ray 3D, 2D and DVD configurations on April 10.
The Darkest Hour stars Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby, Rachel Taylor, Joel Kinnaman and Max Minghella as part of a group of American tourists in Moscow who come under attack by mysterious, invisible alien creatures. They soon discover the aliens affect electricity when close by and use this knowledge to both survive the attack and fight back.

Summit opened The Darkest Hour on Christmas Day, 2011, and has earned $21.2 million from the thriller since its release.

No additional details about The Darkest Hour coming to home video are available at this time. I’ll pass along disc features and the Blu-ray 3D cover art when it’s available.

The folks at Austin’s South by Southwest (SXSW) festival have unveiled their 2012 film lineup, and the slate is looking diverse and amazing as usual. Movies.com reminds us that we’re still waiting on names for the Midnighters and Short Film programs, but with nearly 130 films already announced, there’s still plenty to get excited about.

Two of the biggest must-sees that pop out immediately are Jonah Hill and Michael Bacall-written 21 Jump Street adaptation (we chatted about it here) and the Joss Whedon written and produced The Cabin in the Woods. Both got excellent early reviews at press screenings, which is why the Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator’s genre feature will be opening the fest on March 9. The Hill, Channing Tatum and Nick Offerman-starring remake of the Johnny Depp high school cop TV series will follow on March 12. Find out what else we’re digging, and check out a few trailers past the break.

Other movies of note are French Connection director William Friedkin’s violent crime comedy Killer Joe, starring Texas native Matthew McConaughey, Juno Temple, and Emile Hirsch.

SXSW Schedule
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In a bold move, Universal is now planning a July 6th release for Oliver Stone’s Savages, saying the film’s action and heat are better suited for summer than for fall.

Set in Laguna Beach, the crime pic–originally set to open Sept. 28–stars Blake Lively, Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Johnson.

Savages is based on Don Winslow’s book of the same name and follows two pot growers whose shared girlfriend is kidnapped by a Mexican drug cartel.

Universal made the move after screening the film last week. One studio insider said the movie, with its decidedly hard R rating, is more along the lines of a Pulp Fiction than a film like Traffic (Pulp Fiction stars John Travolta and Uma Thurman also star in Savages).

Savages’ cast also includes Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, Joel David Moore, Emile Hirsch and A Separation star Demian Bichir, who is nominated for the Oscar for best actor.

Universal is hoping that Stone’s pic serves as counterprogramming to superhero tentpole The Amazing Spider-Man, which opens three days earlier on July 3.

Moving up the release date also allows Universal to piggyback on the exposure Kitsch will receive for his starring role in two high-profile films, Disney’s John Carter, which opens March 9, and Universal’s own Battleship, which bows in theaters May 18.

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How did you get involved with the project?
HIRSCH: Well my agent sent me the script, and he doesn’t normally send me action scripts or science fiction scripts…

Why is that?
HIRSCH: He just doesn’t. There are just not very many of them that get made, in general, where there are parts that I could play. And he didn’t tell me anything in advance; he just goes “Just let me know what you think. This is kind of insane.” I didn’t know what it was about or anything. And I just had a great time reading it. I think I enjoyed the way that the movie was kind of set in reality and used the whole idea of the electricity with the aliens and also that there was this kind of relationship with the members of the group, with Shawn and Ben, and with Shawn and Natalie, and Natalie and Ann. I just kind of liked that, you know?

Your career has taken a really kind of interesting trajectory, you have not gone after the roles that most young Hollywood actors tend to start out in. Has that been by luck? By design? What was it about this project that made you thought you might want to do something on this scale?
HIRSCH: Well, Avatar for me was a really big element in me wanting to do this film. Because I saw Avatar and it just blew my mind. I walked out of the theater after I saw it and was like, “I would really love to make a science fiction movie in 3D.” I literally said that, I was like “That’s what I want to make.” Then this script came along and I didn’t know it was going to be 3D at the time, but it still really excited me. And then I found out it would be 3D and that blew my mind. I don’t really know about like why actors choose certain roles. I just usually gravitate to stuff that I would want to watch. I think that’s probably my biggest thing.

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