This week on The Collision, we talk about expectations both financial and cinematic as they relate to Cloud Atlas.  We examine possible reasons why the film failed at the box office, and how the movie challenges conventions of storytelling and style.  As always, we finish up with our recommendations.

Click here to listen to the new episode of The Collision, click here for the previous episode (“American Cinema on the Global Stage and Argo“), click here to add the podcast to your RSS, and click here to find us on iTunes. To keep up to date with The Collision, you can follow us on Twitter at @MattGoldberg, @AdamChitwood, and @DrClawMD (Dave Trumbore). Hit the jump to check out the trailers for this week’s recommendations.

Christopher Nolan’s longtime cinematographer Wally Pfister is set to make his directorial debut. Having recently wrapped on The Dark Knight Rises with Nolan, the Oscar-winning cinematographer will next direct an untitled screenplay from newcomer Jack Paglen. The film will be financed and produced through Alcon Entertainment, who is keeping the logline under wraps for the moment. Pre-production is expected to start immediately while principal photography will begin early this fall. Pfister is best known for his collaborations with Nolan since the pair has worked together on seven films since 1999. His track record includes four Oscar nominations and one win for Best Achievement in Cinematography for Inception. Although this film marks Pfister’s feature directorial debut, he has been directing commercials for a number of years. Hit the jump for a look at his work throughout the years.

I’m a huge fan of Guy Pearce.  If you’ve seen his work in such films as Memento, L.A. Confidential, The Hurt Locker, Animal Kingdom, The Proposition, and The King’s Speech (he play’s Colin Firth’s brother), I’m sure most of you agree that he’s a hell of an actor.

Anyway, I recently talked with him on the phone and we discussed how he got involved in The King’s Speech, what’s the last few years been like for him, and he talked about a few of his upcoming projects like Luc Besson’s sci-fi action-adventure Lockout (Besson produced it) and Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark – which was produced by Guillermo del Toro.  Hit the jump to either read or listen to the interview:

Tattoo it on your body if you have to, but make a note that Christopher Nolan’s Memento is coming back to theaters for one night only on February 17th.  The new high-definition digital print is being released to 11 select theaters in the U.S. and Canada to mark the film’s 10th Anniversary and upcoming special edition Blu-ray.  The screenings will also feature a taped Q&A between Nolan and Guillermo del Toro (you can check out our coverage of that event here).

Hit the jump to check out a list of theaters that will be hosting screenings.  The special edition Blu-ray of Memento arrives February 22nd.

To promote the upcoming 10^th anniversary Blu-ray release of Memento, the Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles held a special 35mm screening of the film followed by a Q&A with Christopher Nolan moderated by Guillermo del Toro.

During the Q&A the filmmakers discussed the literary influences of the film, the use of subjective perspective, and why he won’t reveal the meaning of the last scene in Inception.

Read on for the details.

Warner Catalog! Christopher Nolan is now the most beloved director of the fanboy set for realizing a dark and realistic take on the Dark Knight. For the critical community he was already championed for having directed one of the masterpieces of the 21^st century with Memento, and now it seems both parties are coming together to celebrate Inception. Insomnia was Nolan’s transition film into the big leagues to show that he could handle a larger budget and big names. It’s more important as a transitioning film, than as an actual piece of art.  Al Pacino stars as Will Dormer, a Los Angeles detective flown to Alaska to help hunt a possible serial killer (Robin Williams), only to accidentally shoot his partner (or perhaps not)?

This has little to do with Bruce Willis, who was at his peak with Tony Scott’s The Last Boy Scout, and biding time in Walter Hill’s Last Man Standing. The former has Willis’s Joe Hallenbeck paired with ex-football star Jimmy Dix (Damon Wayans) as they have to uncover the mystery of who killed Dix’s girlfriend (Halle Berry).  Last Man Standing has Willis stepping into the role made famous by both Toshiro Mifune and Clint Eastwood as the hired gunman who gains or displays his conscious and destroys two rival gangs by playing them against each other. My review of all these films on Blu-ray after jump.

Audiences are still baffled by Memento, a decade after the film premiered to hundreds of rave reviews & thousands of debates between filmgoers over what they’d just seen.  You can count some of its stars among those still scratching their heads.

The Tribeca Film Festival celebrated Memento’s 10th anniversary with a sold-out screening & panel on the film & all of its neurological complications on Saturday at the School of Visual Arts Theater.   National Public Radio’s Robert Krulwich moderated the Q&A between: the film’s stars Guy Pearce and Joe Pantoliano; Jonathan Nolan (whose short story Memento Mori was the basis for the film & led to a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination for him & his brother/director/screenwriter Chris), New School professor of psychology Dr. William Hirst & MIT professor of psychology Dr. Suzanne Corkin.  Jonathan Nolan said Iceland’s volcanic ash kept the film’s director Christopher overseas.

Afterwards, Collider pressed Jonathan for details after the event about his involvement with the upcoming Dark Knight sequel, The Man Of Steel, & Justice League, but he politely declined on all fronts.  Nolan clearly wants to keep us guessing about his work that we haven’t seen, as much as the one we did on Saturday.  He would only re-confirm his work with Steven Spielberg on the sci-fi film Interstellar.  Hit the jump for all the panel’s highlights, including: why Pearce thinks he was hired, why viewers of the DVD don’t have the whole story, whether Nolan thinks Memento had an impact on Lost, & why Pantoliano suffers his own memory loss over his sex life.

Leonardo DiCaprio has broken the first rule of starring in Inception, “Do not talk about Inception (or you’ll be destroyed by writer-director Christopher Nolan’s secret robot ninja army).”  Speaking to Empire, DiCaprio didn’t reveal anything major about the film (so he’ll only be a little destroyed), but said that it’s like “Memento but on a much grander scale with more spectacle to it.”  He continues,

“This is a plot-structure that’s working on multiple layers simultaneously – and quite literally when I say simultaneously, I do mean multiple narratives simultaneously. So everyone’s going to be in for a treat when they see it, including me.”

Sorry, Leo.  You won’t be around to see it.  You knew the rule and you broke it.  Inception hits theaters on July 16th.  Hit the jump to see the trailer that gives away practically nothing about the movie.

I’ve really enjoyed the lists I’ve posted this week and I hope you have too.  I keep notes year-round on everything I feel is worth noting about particular movies so I don’t forget and I can compile it into what (hopefully) makes or an informative read.  However, this list I’ve been dreading.  Unlike the other lists, there’s no real recommendation at work here.  It’s a list designed to highlight mostly beloved and established films.  It’s also difficult to factor in films of 2008 and 2009 because I don’t know their staying power.  Finally, it’s a list that will ultimately please no one because there’s no way I can narrow the hundreds of great films that have come out over the last ten years into twenty that I’ve determined are better than all the rest.  So why am I doing it?  I have my reasons.  They’re not very good ones, but I have them.

The decade is ending, these films left an impact on me, and so I’ll call them out for their greatness and accept that there were plenty of other movies that could have filled in just as easily.

Hit the jump to start the countdown.