When a big-budget film starring an Academy Award-winning actress opens during the prestigious holiday season, one would expect its studio to do everything to trumpet its arrival in theaters.
That’s mostly been the case for the action film “Aeon Flux,” which opens Friday and stars Charlize Theron as a futuristic assassin, except for one notable difference–there have been no advance screenings for critics.
To be accurate, the film was scheduled to screen 10 p.m. Thursday in some cities, which is too late for most reviewers to make Friday edition deadlines. When studios decline to make a movie available for review prior to its opening, it’s generally taken as a de facto admission that the film is a dud.
Still, with a star like Theron and a dedicated fan base, the movie could perform well for Paramount Pictures.
“Aeon Flux” debuted on MTV in 1991 as a series of short animated films and gradually evolved into a cult favorite. The nearly dialogue-free cartoon series chronicled the exploits of Aeon Flux, a super-sexy, thong-wearing, ultra-acrobatic secret agent and killer whose motives remained as mysterious as her back story. Some of those mysteries are sorted out in the movie.
“It was a very foreign genre to me,” Theron said during an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, where she was promoting the possibly more Oscar-worthy “North Country.”
“I wasn’t raised on ‘Star Wars.’ I was raised on ‘Sophie’s Choice’ and ‘Kramer vs. Kramer,’ yet when I go to see these films, I really quite enjoy them. But the genre is very foreign for me as an actor. I really didn’t know the process.”
That process involved training with a Cirque du Soleil gymnast, learning stage combat and weaponry, wearing slinky black cat suits and leather chest plates, and doing a lot of stunts. (Theron sustained a neck injury that delayed production for months.)
“It’s a very physical process, which is something I always wanted to do since I came from a ballet background, and I really like telling stories with my body,” said the actress. “And I like that she barely spoke in this film–everything came from a physical aspect.”
Theron’s co-star, British actor Jonny Lee Miller (perhaps better known as the ex-Mr. Angelina Jolie), was a fan of the animated shorts before he joined the project.
“I thought it was an excellent cartoon, pretty on-the-edge, and I remember it being quite violent, actually,” says Miller, who stars as Oren Goodchild, brother of the movie’s villain.
“I don’t think there was necessarily a story or a plot to the animated series,” the 33-year-old Miller says, speaking by telephone from L.A. “They were pretty much on-their-own, one-off cartoons, I think, and there wasn’t really a thread or a plot, really. That’s why it was difficult to develop that into a film. That was the big challenge, and I think they did a really good job.”
In the big-screen version, Aeon Flux is called upon by the Handler (Frances McDormand) to bring down Trevor Goodchild (Marton Csokas), leader of a utopian society that may not be as perfect as it appears.
Oren may seem to be a peripheral character, but the London-based Miller says that Oren has some ideas of his own.
“And they’re not always the best ideas, without giving too much away,” Miller says. “They are in keeping with his brother’s ideas, but he’s a lot less understanding, really, than his brother, and a lot more impulsive. He’s very loyal to his brother, but he thinks his ways are better for everyone.”
Because he was playing a supporting role rather than the lead, and didn’t have the grueling stunt work that Theron did, Miller had ample free time to roam around Berlin, where “Aeon Flux” was filmed, and to hang out with his co-stars, particularly Theron and Csokas.
Miller says he was impressed with Theron’s abilities. “Charlize is a wonderful person to have around on a set, because she’s great fun, and she’s very hardworking. She hurt herself quite badly early on in the shoot, but she got herself sorted out and came back. She’s a tough cookie,” he says.
