Cash, main St, and The Electric Slide promo posters AFM 2009.jpg

By now you've probably noticed that Steve got an ungodly amount of material from this year's American Film Market (AFM).  The place where buyers and sellers do business to bring you the films you'll hopefully be seeing in the near future, AFM has tons of artwork and synopses which are used to promote films but which we will use to bring you news on these films.

Below you'll find images and synopses for Burke and Hare, Cash, Effie, Main St., The Electric Slide, and The Irishman.  Hit the jump to check them all out.  Also, all the synopses are copied down directly from the original materials with no editorial alterations.  You can read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5 by click on their respective links.

BURKE AND HARE, directed by John Landis (An American Werewolf in London)

WILLIAM BURKE and WILLIAM HARE are scratching out a living in 1830s Edinburgh.  After yet another failed business venture, they return to Hare's lodging house to find that their tenant has suddenly died on rent day.  As the boys decide how to dispose of the body over a drink, they discover that a corpse can fetch a hefty price.  Edinburgh is the centre of the medical universe and the city's doctors are crying out for more cadavers for their educational lectures.  First they try the infamous DR. MONRO, but he's not interested, so they sell the corpse to DR. KNOX, his vain and ambitious rival who urges them to bring any more 'unfortunates' they may stumble upon.

Entrepreneurial Hare is quick to realize they've hit on a great money making venture and despite the more sensitive Burke's misgivings, they embark on a series of plans to secure more bodies.  They arrange a series of deadly 'accidents' for the local unfortunates and to celebrate their success, they go out on the town to celebrate.  There, Burke meets GINNY, a beautiful and spirited aspiring actress.

Drive on by the promise of romance, Burke agrees to step up their operation; branching out into "ethical" murder.  The professional rivalry between Knox and Munro is creating a very lucrative trade for the boys as Knox needs extra bodies for his groundbreaking photographic map of the human body.  In a series of hilarious comic misadventures Burke and Hare begin to secure a steady stream of bodies and the cash starts rolling in.

With the authorities closing in, Hare promises Burke he's got a new plan; they just need a bit more money and then they can go legit and open a funeral parlour.

The pressure builds when Knox is arrested after dissecting some well known locals and he immediately implicates Burke and Hare as his supplier of fresh corpses.

Burke and Hare sweat it out in the cells as a crowd gathers baying for bloody.  In a wild, but romantic gesture, Burke volunteers to take the rap to save his friend and the love of his life, Ginny.  As the hangman's noose goes around his neck, our hero is smiling bravely and when asked for his final words, he pronounces "I did it for love."

Burke and Hare promo movie poster AFM 2009.jpg

CASH, directed by Stephen Milburn Anderson (Dead Men Can't Dance)

A financially struggling young couple, Sam (Chris Hemsworth) and Leslie (Victoria Profeta) think their luck has finally taken a turn for the better when they find a briefcase full of money.  But their good fortune quickly turns into a deadly game when the strange and sinister criminal Pyke Kubic (Sean Bean) appears at their doorstep looking to collect on what they found.  CASH is a tumultuous, action-driven adventure through the streets of Chicago, as the threesome are pulled deeper and deeper into a desperate spiral of violence and deception - all in the name of money.

Cash promo movie poster AFM 2009 Sean Bean 1.jpg
Cash promo movie poster AFM 2009 Sean Bean.jpg

EFFIE, directed by Richard Laxton (Grow Your Own)

Written by Academy Award® winner Emma Thompson, EFFIE is a sharp, entertaining and witty story that vividly conjures up passionate characters driven to extremes by the repressive rules of their time.

John Ruskin - the renowned art critic famously dubbed "The Greatest Victorian" takes young Effie Gray as his wife.  Effie is twenty years younger and her expectations of marital love are confounded by her husband's bizarre and troubled personal behaviour.  She must also contend with Ruskin's controlling and snobbish mother.

In an attempt to redraw their relationship, Effie and John move to Venice so John may continue his work as Effie seeks solace in the beauty of the city and its people.  Venice does little to relieve the stress of their already fragile relationship, and so the unhappy couple move to Scotland accompanied by Ruskin's protégé, the handsome artist John Everett Millais.

As Millais witnesses Ruskin's disdain for Effie and how truly disconnected the couple are, he begins to feel for her in a way that her husband cannot.

Effie must attempt to escape her poisonous marriage without alerting the scandal mongers and attempt to secure romantic fulfillment in the arms of her husband's young artist friend.

This is a powerful and affectionate take on an extraordinary, true story from the pen of Emma Thompson who also plays Effie's ally, confidante and saviour, Lady Eastlake.

Effie promo movie poster AFM 2009.jpg

MAIN ST., directed by John Doyle (the Tony Award®-winner Sweeney Todd)

The final screenplay from Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award®-winner Horton Foote is a luminous and timely tale of a down-and-out small town that receives a mysterious visitor - a stranger with a promise to turn things around and bring the town back to its former pride and glory.

Georgiana (Ellen Burstyn) is a stately tobacco heiress faced with a real estate problem; she has an empty warehouse on the town's foundering Main Street.  She rents the facility to the visitor, Texas businessman Gus Leroy (Colin Firth) - sight unseen and no questions asked - and she has no idea that his risky business will soon impact her friends and neighbors.  From her niece Willa (Patricia Clarkson), to the local police officer (Orlando Bloom) and the girl he has his eye on (Amber Tamblyn), everyone in town begins to question the trucks arriving in the middle of the night unloading cargo into Georgiana's warehouse.

When it is finally revealed that the material being stored is hazardous waste, there is an uproar.  Leroy explains to the Mayor that several towns throughout the south are experiencing full economic recovery as a result of doing business with him, and the town must face the ultimate question - to do what is needed, or do what is right.  The new business could enrich their economy, but put all its inhabitants in peril.

Main St. promo movie poster AFM 2009 1.jpg
Main St. promo movie poster AFM 2009.jpg

THE ELECTRIC SLIDE, directed by Tristan Patterson

Based on the article "The Yankee Bandit: The Life and Times of Eddie Dodson, World's Greatest Bank Robber", written by Timothy Ford and published by GEAR Magazine, THE ELECTRICE SLIDE tells the true story of suave hipster and celebrity-magnet Eddie Dodson, who in 1980s Los Angeles owned and ran one of the city's most stylish art deco furniture stores.  Celebrities flocked to buy the latest pieces and Eddie was living the high life along with the Hollywood elite.

But when Eddie met cool and unimpressed Jenny, he decided to do the most outrageous thing he could think of to win her attention - he robbed a bank.  Eddie discovered in himself the uncanny ability to charm pretty bank tellers into emptying their drawers of cash and getting away with it.  And Jenny discovered that a boyfriend who robbed banks was about as hot as it got.

Over a period of months, Eddie and Jenny robbed over 70 banks in the Los Angeles area, often narrowly escaping the increasingly frustrated FBI.  When the authorities interviewed the tellers who had been robbed, each of the described Eddie "like a movie star, the most charming man they had ever met."  The media, jumping on the story, dubbed him "The Gentleman Bandit."  But Eddie's criminal lucky streak would not last forever as the FBI closed in and angry loan sharks with unpaid debts threatened his life.

The Electric Slide promo movie poster AFM 2009.jpg

THE IRISHMAN, directed by Jonathan Hensleigh (The Punisher, 2004)

An orphan from the tough streets of Cleveland, Irish Danny Greene (Ray Stevenson) rises from working longshoreman to union leader to mob ally.  Forced out of the union by the feds, Danny starts anew as an enforcer for loan shark Shondor Bims (Christopher Walken), while still maintaining influence with mafia boss John Nardi (Vincent D'Onofrio).

With Detective Joe Manditski (Val Kilmer) in pursuit, Danny rapidly acquires his own power and places himself at odds with the Italians, who find him to be a very difficult man to kill.  What follows is a bloody war that breaks out on the streets of Cleveland and gives it the name "Bomb City, U.S.A."

Based on a true story, THE IRISHMAN is the saga of one man who embodied the Irish warrior mentality with a mixture of pride, brutality, ambition, and principle, as became a central figure in the 70s mob war that forever changed organized crime in America.

The Irishman promo movie poster AFM 2009 1.jpg
The Irishman promo movie poster AFM 2009.jpg