Thandie Newton‘s latest film, ‘Vanishing on 7th Street‘ will be shown on video-on-demand on January 7, before its theatrical release on February 18, 2011.

Directed by Brad Anderson and co-starring Hayden Christensen and John Leguizamo, the film will be distributed by Magnet Releasing, states Shocktilyoudrop.com .

An unexplained blackout plunges the city of Detroit into total darkness, and by the time the sun rises, only a few people remain – surrounded by heaps of empty clothing, abandoned cars and lengthening shadows. A small handful of strangers that have survived the night each find their way to a rundown bar, whose gasoline-powered generator and stockpile of food and drink make it the last refuge in a deserted city. With daylight beginning to disappear completely and whispering shadows surrounding the survivors, they soon discover that the enemy is the darkness itself, and only the few remaining light sources can keep them safe. As time begins to run out for them, darkness closes in and they must face the ultimate terror.

Newton is currently starring in Tyler Perry’s ‘For Colored Girls,’alongside Whoopi Goldberg, Janet Jackson, Tessa Thompson, Kimberly Elise, and Phylicia Rashad.

Source

ReelzChannel Spotlight – Toronto International Film Festival

A look at some of the darker films that premiered at the Midnight Madness portion of the festival. (The movie coverage for “Vanishing on 7th Street” begins at 1:10.)

If you’re not afraid of the dark now, you just might be after seeing ‘Vanishing on 7th Street.’ The new post-apocalyptic thriller by director Brad Anderson (‘The Machinist’) stars Hayden Christensen, Thandie Newton, John Leguizamo and newcomer Jacob Latimore as a group of survivors trying to figure out how to sustain themselves in a world where everyone has inexplicably vanished.

The movie doesn’t have a traditional villain. An ambiguous “dark” entity engulfs anyone who doesn’t have his or her own source of light, whether it be from a flashlight, a candle, a lighter, a glowstick, or exposure to the ever-shrinking bursts of daylight. The four survivors take refuge in a bar that’s powered by a back-up generator, but the sinister shadows are never far away.

‘Vanishing’ had its world premiere as part of the Toronto International Film Festival’s Midnight Madness line-up. We caught up with Christensen and Newton the following day at the Windsor Arms Hotel, where a crowd of onlookers lurked outside trying to catch a glimpse of the stars.

This is a pretty unusual concept. What was your reaction when you first saw the script?
Newton: I really liked how spare the script was. And you could tell straight away that it wasn’t going to be looking for shocks and thrills. It was much more a kind of meditation on fear and –

Christensen: And death.

Newton: Yeah, and death. And it would rely heavily on what the actors brought to it, which I thought was… you don’t get those very often.

Did you have any idea about how you were going to get into character and approach it?
Christensen: What I liked about the script was the containment of it and how that would allow for real character exploration. We spent a lot of time in that bar. Just Thandie, John, Jacob and myself. And it really felt like we were putting on a play.

Newton: We had lots of night shoots in the freezing cold. It was like an endurance test. We had a lot of stuff to get through, so it was also everyone very keen to get the work done. So there almost wasn’t time to think about how cold it was. I love all of that.

Christensen: I think it also lends itself to the work. The nature of having to make a movie in such tough conditions in such a short period of time gave us all this sort of frantic feeling that we’re just trying to keep up with in the movie.

Read the rest of this entry »

Some new information about “Vanishing on 7th Street” has surfaced! It will be screened at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival which runs from September 9th to 19th. The film will be a part of the Midnight Madness lineup.

Also, the first trailer for the film has been released! You can watch it below.

The Vanishing on 7th Street Synopsis: A mysterious, seemingly global blackout yields countless populations to simply vanish, leaving only their clothes and posessions behind. A small handul of survivors band together in a dimly-lit tavern on 7th Street, struggingl to combat the apocalyptic horror. Realizing they may in fact be the last people on earth, the darkness hones in on them alone.