No going ‘Into the Wild’ this weekend

Seems like you just can’t trust the movie-release schedule. “Into the Wild,” for example, is supposed to open on Friday. But the movie, which is director Sean Penn’s adaptation of Jon Krakauer ’s true-life story of the doomed Christopher McCandless, is opening only in four theaters across the entire country.

That, not to stress the obvious, leaves Spokane/Coeur d’Alene out of the picture.

It appears we aren’t getting “The Hunting Picture” either. That film, which is an imaginative take on another real-life story – it involves some journalists going in search of a Bosnian war criminal – simply isn’t scheduled to come here. Nor is “Across the Universe,” Julie Taymor’s visual-minded look at 20-odd Beatles songs.

Not at this point, in any event.

It’s not as if we’re out of luck. Seven different movies are scheduled to open locally, and at least a couple look pretty good. They range from the two Magic Lantern offerings, the documentary “The 11th Hour” and the French-language “La Vie en Rose,” the AMC Select choices “Moliere” and “Eastern Promises,” plus the three other mainstream releases: “Good Luck Chuck,” “Resident Evil: Extinction” and “Sydney White.”

But that’s life in our part of the world. Movies sometimes come, and they always go – often before self-proclaimed fans have taken the time to go and actually see them.

Below: Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts co-star in David Cronenberg’s “The Brave One,”one of seven movies scheduled to open in area theaters on Friday.

Associated Press