Here’s a little film I’ve loosely been following for a couple of months now, after reading an interview with director Mark Palansky (Shutter) in which he talks about how after reading the script, several images flooded his mind. Some of them the images of his favorite painter Mark Ryden who can create “a unique, magical, hyper-real world that conveys the beauty in this world and the sadness that can hide beneath it.” When the producer called Palansky and asked if he could meet with the Ricci for the part of Penelope, apparently it was fate. Palansky showed Ricci the Rydel paintings and she said, “hey! That’s me!”

Call it a coincidence, call it fate or call it a complete load of BS; either way, it’s a pretty good story and was enough to get me interested in the project.

So after seeing Ricci’s fun performance in Black Snake Moan and knowing what MacAvoy can do (underappreciated and overshadowed by Whitaker inLastKing of Scotland and a likely Oscar nod this year for Atonement), I’m kind of looking forward to this humorous look at the “ugly duckling” storyline. Add to the mix the great Peter Dinklage, Catherine O’Hara and an unusually different cameo from Reese Witherspoon and I’m officially in.

Anyway, here are some new clips released to the web recently along with a cheesy trailer…

see the other clips after the warp: