Cholera has been defined as ... nope, I'm not going to spell it out -- I've got a weak stomach -- but if you don't know, here's the Wkipedia entry that will tell you more than you probably wanted to know about this particular affliction. Is the thought of cholera what's keeping people away from the new film by Mike Newell? Anne Thompson of Variety theorizes that Love in the Time of Cholera has not been helped by its title, which, when shortened, tends to be a word that "is not exactly a box office lure." The film opened this past weekend and earned $1.9 million, or about $2,247 per screen, according to Box Office Mojo.

Love in the Time of Cholera is an English translation of the original title of Gabriel García Márquez's novel "El amor en los tiempos del cólera." My Spanish isn't very good, but I'm pretty sure that's an accurate translation. Producer Scott Steindorff worked for more than two years to secure the rights to the book and the blessing of the Nobel Prize-winning García Márquez, according to the film's official site. After the first draft was completed, Steindorff and writer Ronald Harwood consulted with García Márquez, who reportedly told them: "The problem is that you and the writer have done too true of an adaptation -- you need to depart from the book." Steindorff says that García Márquez has "a great sense of humor," so they all laughed.

No one's laughing now, though the poor critical reception probably hurt as much or more than the title. I wonder if Steindorff ever brought up the idea of changing the title with the author? I'm certain somebody did at some point -- it's too obvious a potential marketing problem to ignore. Cholera may not be well-known today, but it's like smallpox or polio; it simply doesn't sound good, at least to me and, evidently, many other people. Yet the full title does have its supporters, like Cinematical's Erik Davis, who says it's one of his "favorite titles of all time for a number of reasons -- love is but a disease, after all." Did the title keep you from seeing this movie?

One of the most beloved literary classics of the 20th century -- and rightfully so -- the 1985 novel Love in the Time of Cholera by the Colombian-born Gabriel García Márquez made its first cinematic appearance in 2001. In Peter Chelsom's Serendipity, it was the book in which the playful Sara (Kate Beckinsale) wrote her name and phone number, in the hopes that her would-be lover Jonathan (John Cusack) would find it. He spends years searching for it, flipping through every copy of the book that he can find. That movie doesn't have many fans, but I'm fond of it, and in a way, it's truer to the spirit of Márquez's novel than Mike Newell's more straightforward movie adaptation that opens in theaters this week. Whereas Chelsom's film attempted to capture the feel of the novel, Newell's film attempts nothing more than a translation.

That's a big problem right there. The novel was originally written in Spanish, and though the English translation is quite beautiful, it's still a translation. The new movie is filmed in English, so it's an adaptation of a translation. Then, we have a director from England, Mike Newell, who has absolutely no cultural connection to the Caribbean, where the story is set. Of course, no director could perfectly, accurately represent the novel on the screen, but it's possible to start from a slightly better vantage point. On top of that, the story takes place over fifty years, which in a novel is no problem. But in a movie it requires layers of age makeup, a process that, as movie technology gets better and better, seems to get worse and worse (imagine how awful this will look on HD-DVD or Blu-Ray six months from now). And, on an emotional level, stories that cover that kind of immense time span tend to leave out life's most innocuous, but telling and truthful, moments in favor of great plot lurches and story highlights. It becomes like a Reader's Digest "condensed novel."

In the time I've been doing this feature I don't think this has ever happened before: last week's number two film is number one this week. None of the new films from last week were up to the challenge of outselling Bee Movie and American Gangster, and the animated Jerry Seinfeld comedy managed to outdo the Denzel Washington/Russell Crowe crime drama and usurp the top spot. Don't believe me? Look for yourself:

1. Bee Movie: $26 million.
2. American Gangster: $24.3 million.
3. Fred Claus: $19.2 million.
4. Lions for Lambs: $6.7 million.
5. Dan in Real Life: $5.9 million.

Escape from modern life seems to be the key to this week's releases with one taking place in the past, another taking place in a contemporary fantasy world and a third in a fantasy version of the 8th century.

Beowulf
What's It All About: The epic poem believed to have been penned around 700 A.D. is adapted for the big screen using an all digital approach with the actors performances being rendered via motion capture.
Why It Might Do Well: The action looks spectacular.
Why It Might Not Do Well: I can't be the only person who thinks that, despite the remarkable technical achievement at work here, it still looks like a video game.
Number of Theaters: 2,800
Prediction: $30 million

Love in the Time of Cholera
What's It All About: The story of a love triangle in South America at the turn of the 20th century from the director of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Four Weddings and a Funeral.
Why It Might Do Well: Because love and infectious diseases go together like peanut butter and jelly.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Period drama is a tough sell, and the relatively small release will keep it out of the top five.
Number of Theaters: 800
Prediction: $3.5 million

I know I'm relatively alone on this, but my favorite Harry Potter movie is Goblet of Fire, which was directed by Mike Newell. I thought Newell, who also gave us Four Weddings and a Funeral and Enchanted April, got a lot of great stuff out of the cast and also seemed to inject a Britishness that I felt was missing from the series. Now, I'm not sure if either character development or Anglo-ization is something needed in an adaptation of the video game Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, but I'm still happy to see that Newell could be hired to direct the movie. According to Variety, Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney have offered Newell the project, which is expected to spawn a new franchise for the producer and studio -- likely as a replacement for the maybe-done Pirates of the Caribbean series. The Prince of Persia script has been written by Jeffrey Nachmanoff (The Day After Tomorrow) and had earlier been offered to blockbuster director Michael Bay.

I probably know the least about video games than anyone (I only like playing Rampage at my favorite arcade-bar), and Wikipedia's detail of the storyline of Prince of Persia makes my head spin. So, all I can really tell you about the story is that it involves an ancient Persian prince, a "Dagger of Time" that allows the prince to control time, and some undead creatures made of sand. Hopefully a game-playing reader can give a more concise plot description in the comments. It sounds a little more action-packed than Newell is used to, and I suspect many fans of the games will be skeptical of his ability to handle the material. I think I like Newell more than most people -- though I couldn't bring myself to watch Mona Lisa Smile -- and I look forward to seeing what he does with it. I'm still anxious to see his upcoming adaptation of Love in the Time of Cholera (out 11/16), despite the few bad reviews I've seen, and I really wish he'd be called back for the final Potter movie.

The complete lineup for the latest edition of AFI Fest was announced last week -- indieWIRE was among the first to report on it -- and I've been mulling it over ever since. I've worked at the festival in the past and so it's difficult for me to be completely objective, but even though I won't be attending this year, I can't help but feel intense interest. When it comes to film festivals in general, I prefer to be unreasonably optimistic rather than smugly pessimistic.

Under new Artistic Director Rose Kuo, the programming team has made some adjustments. The Asian New Classics section is gone -- the Asian films have been integrated into other sections -- but other regional sidebars remain (American Showcase, Latin Cinema Series, African Showcase) and a new documentary showcase has been introduced, as well as Milestones, devoted to retrospective films. Beyond the already-announced titles, including Robert Redford's political drama Lions for Lambs as the opener and Jason Reitman's much-loved comedy Juno as the centerpiece gala, Mike Newell's romantic drama Love in the Time of Cholera, starring Javier Bardem (pictured), has been named as the closing night presentation. Tributes have also been announced for Laura Linney and Catherine Deneuve.

North American Premieres include Noise, directed by Henry Bean (The Believer), in which Tim Robbins stars as a New York attorney who takes the law into his own hands when life in the city gets too noisy for him, and The Searchers 2.0, the latest by Alex Cox (Sid and Nancy), featuring two aging actors in search of revenge on an even more aging screenwriter. Doghead stars Juan Jose Ballesta (the excellent Seven Virgins) as a young man suffering from an odd disease who starts a romance that encompasses "the endearing and the bleak," according to the program notes. Please Vote for Me is a documentary from China about eight year olds (!) running for class monitor. AFI Fest runs from November 1-11.

We have only a month and a half until Mike Newell brings Gabriel García Márquez's Love in the Time of Cholera to the big screen on November 16. Between a script from The Piano scribe Ronald Harwood, and a cast that includes Javier Bardem, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Benjamin Bratt, Liev Schreiber, and John Leguizamo, the picture should be well-worth the admission price. Last month, Erik Davis unveiled the wet rose one sheet for the film, that included a naked, lounging woman and a strategically-placed rose petal. Now, following the new trend of seeing film openings before the release date, the title sequence for the film has been put on Submarine Channel. This time around, however, there's no spoilers or plot, just lots of hand-made, moving art.

The title sequence was created by Paul Donnellon of VooDooDog, and it consists of a bunch of bright flowers that have the feel of a moving oil painting. He says: "The idea was to give a feeling of the colors and atmosphere of South America for the audience. The animation was a bit painstaking to produce as each frame of the beautifully rendered flowers had to move in a different way, rather than some mechanical animation." While they look like some simple flowers and ivy, the team studied time lapse footage and went for painting-like foliage with an accurate moving feel. Unfortunately, the moving art is all too brief before the film heads into still picture of flowers with the names of those involved in the production. If funky art title sequences are up your alley, the site also includes bits from projects like Lemony Snicket and The Starter Wife.

[via Movie City Indie]

In the last ten years or so, the popularity of Gabriel García Márquez's work has increased exponentially. Oprah made him a sensation with her book club, but One Hundred Years of Solitude isn't his only buzzing tale. Love in the Time of Cholera has gotten its fair share of media attention as well -- most notably in two John Cusack movies. In Serendipity, he had to find the novel to get Kate Beckinsale's number, and in High Fidelity, Rob Gordon says that he understands the book (along with The Unbearable Lightness of Being) and says: "They're about girls. Right?" Just a week ago, Erik Davis shared the film adaptation's one sheet, and now The Hollywood Reporter has posted that it will get its world premiere during the Rio International Film Festival -- one of Latin America's biggest fests.

You still have a little bit of time to get in on the action, that is, if you have a schedule where spur-of-the-moment fest trips can be fit in. Rio runs from September 20-October 4, and the film is slated to close the fest. In case you're not familiar with the story -- it's a late 19th and early 20th century love triangle between Fermina Daza (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), Florentino Ariza (Javier Bardem) and Doctor Juvenal Urbino (Benjamin Bratt), which spans 50 years in Colombia.* Sweetening the screening, director Mike Newell, Bardem, and some of the film's producers will be there on closing night. I can only hope this film does well and brings some of García Márquez's lesser-known works to light. I'd love to see what cinema could do with his non-fiction, first-person recreation -- The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor. We'll find out soon enough -- the movie opens on November 16.

*Thanks to Lauren for the catch!

New Line was nice enough to provide Cinematical with the exclusive one-sheet for Love in the Time of Cholera (click on the poster for a larger version), based on Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez's novel of the same name. Adapted for the screen by Oscar winner Ronald Harwood (The Pianist) and directed by Mike Newell (Donnie Brasco, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), Love in the Time of Cholera tells the tale of two lovers, Florentino Ariza (Javier Bardem) and Fermina Daza (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), one more obsessed than the other, who part ways at an early age to live two very different lives. The film then tracks each over the years (we're talking late 19th century through the first decades of the 20th century), while Fermina settles down with a doctor (Benjamin Bratt) her father forces her to wed and Florentino engages in 622 affairs (not kidding about that) in an attempt to mask the pain he feels due to the one that got away. Also starring in this sure-to-be-an-Oscar-contender are Liev Schreiber, John Leguizamo, the very lovely (and talented) Catalina Sandino Moreno and Hector Elizondo. Love in the Time of Cholera (which also happens to be one of my favorite titles of all time for a number of reasons -- love is but a disease, after all) arrives in theaters on November 16.

It's taken several years, but it looks like Mike Newell's screen version of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's classic, Love in the Time of Cholera, is finally coming together. Back in February, New Line had screenwriter Ronald Harwood hard at work on the script, and quickly signed Javier Bardem to star as "Florentino Ariza, more antihero than hero, a mock Don Juan with an undertaker's demeanor, at once pathetic, grotesque and endearing." With that fantastic casting move under its belt, the studio went mostly quiet for a while (Benjamin Bratt and Giovanna Mezzogiorno were both brought on board during that time), presumably working on the boring parts of pre-production that the trades don't report.

Now, though, the casting department is back at work, and John Leguizamo (YAY!), Hector Elizondo and Brazilian actress Fernanda Montenegro have all signed the dotted line and agreed to take part in the film; production kicks off in a couple weeks in locations from England to Columbia Colombia, and the movie is due out some time next year.

Edit: ARG. The country name has been corrected, sorry. Some day we will get it right the first time.