Edward Norton’s latest film Stone opens nationwide today.  The film was one of the featured Gala screenings at Fantastic Fest last month and you can check out our review of the film right here. We got a chance to sit down with Norton and some other film journalists for  a round-table discussion of the film during that time.

In the movie, Edward Norton plays Stone, a man serving a prison term for arson.  He is going through a series of interviews with a parole officer (Robert De Niro) who is responsible for determining whether or not Stone should be eligible for parole.  Milla Jovovich and Frances Conroy co-star.

Round table: I feel that if a different actor had played the character [of Stone] with the cornrows, and the profane language, that it might have come across as a stunt. Could you articulate how you bring a character to life without falling into any traps like that?

Edward Norton: (laughing) I don’t think I can.  John Curran and I were on the fence about many aspects of the character, but then I met a couple of guys in this prison north of Detroit.  I was really having a hard time figuring out what I felt the specifics of Stone should be.

I got John’s themes and his sense of these characters crossing each other on their path,  in a way, but I didn’t know what we were channeling it through in terms of the character.

Less than a week before we started, I happened to meet a guy I was  hypnotized by and  I had John come over and meet him.  Then we walked out and John was like,”If you can get anything like that, that would be amazing.”  I ended up miming a couple of people in particular, but that look and voice were one guy in particular.

The character, the thing about him,  is that superficially he doesn’t  look or seem like he would  be a strong candidate for a spiritual transformation.  But the thing I think anchored it for me is that the things he is saying are really at odds with that  sort of presentation that you sort of could laugh at or dismiss.

Mainly because his anxiety is so real, and I think the way you can take something so audacious and ground it is if you are not being condescending to the character. His anxiety and desperation are very real, and his conviction that he deserves to be listened to and he deserves to be reconsidered is real.  You’re going to have to look at him from different angles and he is going to be hard to reduce.

If you’ve been following the marketing for Stone, you are no doubt poised to see a psychological thriller, of sorts. Unfortunately, Stone plays more like a  psychodrama than a psychological thriller.  The movie does a bang-up  job of establishing that something very, very  bad is going to happen.

Through music, imagery and a frightening  flashback we are conditioned to believe that there will be a showdown between good and evil.  I found myself on the edge of my seat, waiting for the proverbial shoe to drop, but it never does.

A strangely meandering story just sort of sputters out, and the film ends abruptly, prompting a “huh, you mean that was it?” It’s a pity, because there was a lot of potential in the movie.

Robert De Niro stars as Jack Mabry, a parole officer who works in a prison, reviewing cases to determine which inmates are qualified for a parole hearing.  He pores over the minutiae of each case, studies the files and conducts in-depth interviews with the potential parolees.  He is about to retire from his position when he is given one last case to review.

Edward Norton plays Gerald Creeson, who goes by the moniker “Stone.”  He is Jack’s last case. He has served ten years for arson, and he is starting to lose his mind within the confines of prison.  He is desperate to get out.  His sex-kitten wife Lucetta (Milla Jovovich) is also eager to have him back in her bed, and she is more than willing to use her sexuality to influence Jack’s decision.

By Shannon Hood and Jane Almirall

On day two, we got several screenings in, and an interview.  Here’s how it all went down.

Mother’s Day Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman.  Starring Jaime King, Rebecca De Mornay, and Deborah Ann Woll.

Jane’ thoughts: Mother’s Day is an interesting remake of the 1980 Charles Kaufman feature.    Bousman updates the original by changing the story from a camping trip gone wrong (in which several campers are held hostage and terrorized by a criminally insane family) to a horrifying tale of home invasion – based on actual events – (in which friends at a birthday party are held hostage and terrorized by a criminally insane family).

Mother’s Day maintains a palpable tension throughout it’s running time as the party-goers turned hostages are humiliated, tortured and killed by this extremely dysfunctional family.  There are several nods to it’s roots in Troma – particularly Rebecca De Mornay’s performance, which is peppered with camp – though for the most part the torture and kill scenes play without a wink.  This film went on a little bit long for my tastes, but to it’s credit kept my heart rate up for it’s entirety.

Interview: Edward Norton

Shannon:  I got to attend a round table interview with Edward Norton, who was in Austin to promote Stone, co-starring Robert De Niro and Milla Jovovich.

Edward was charming and intelligent, and gave us some insight into how he prepared for his role as an inmate, why ambiguity is not a bad thing in movies, and gave us some details regarding the creative process that director John Curran worked through to bring the movie to fruition.  Interview is forthcoming.

By Shannon Hood and Jane Almirall

Each day we will provide you with capsule reviews and impressions of the films we see at Fantastic Fest, along with any activities or interviews we attend.  Complete reviews and interviews can be found on the site in upcoming weeks.

Day one of fantastic fest we hit the ground running and went straight from the airport to pick up our press badges.  We managed to cram in three screenings for the day, starting at 4pm.  Not too shabby.

Screening: Stone. Directed by John Curran and starring Edward Norton, Robert De Niro, Frances Conroy, and Milla Jovovich.  Summary: A convicted arsonist (Norton) looks to manipulate a parole officer (De Niro) into a plan to secure his parole by placing his beautiful wife (Jovovich)  in the lawman’s path.

Jane’s thoughts:  This was an unusual experience for me.  I was half expecting this to play out like a thriller-but instead I watched a slow (but evenly paced) meditative, existential character study.

The performances were great, but I can’t say I enjoyed the film (to its credit,we discussed it a great deal afterwards.)

The characters in Stone never quite feel like actual people, rather they represent certain characteristics of humanity.  Their stories slowly unfold to reveal that in the end, we are back at the beginning and haven’t moved an inch.

I have to admit, as we get closer to Fantastic Fest I’m getting more and more excited. It’s a great festival full of an incredible mix of films from around the world that can satisfy even the most demanding critic’s taste for something new, unusual and entertaining.

Previously, we brought you news of the fist films selected for the Fest and more. Now, the Fest’s organizers have announced a new wave of films that will be showcased during the event. Some of these films include the Gala premiere of Buried starring Ryan Reynolds (which was announced last week), the US premiere of the Edward Norton starer Stone, the world premiere of 30 Days of Night: Dark Days, the US premiere of Tony Jaa’s Ong Bak 3, the US premiere of Andrew Lau’s  Legend of the Fist and so much more.

With these new films announced, and even more still to come including, I’m sure, a few surprise screenings, the Fest looks to be even more amazing than last year. If you’re a fan of films and a great time, you don’t have an excuse not to be in Austin from September 23-30. For more on the great lineup of films announced today, check out the full press release after the jump.

This should be interesting. Take two of the best actors working today, Robert De Niro and Edward Norton, put them together in a film where they are forced to be together and their lives and character’s stories are inexorably linked, throw in some action, suspense and gunfire and you will more than likely have a recipe for a hit.

The upcoming film Stone could just be one of those hits. It has the right elements and the story of a seasoned corrections official and a scheming inmate whose lives become dangerously intertwined seems like the perfect way to get De Niro and Norton back together again.

Not convinced? Well, we’ve got a trailer for the film to share with you that may just do the trick. In it we see both De Niro and Norton in action as they battle for supremacy and try to outwit and out-think each other. It makes for some intense scenes for sure.

Check out the trailer after the jump. Stone, which is directed by John Curran, also stars Milla Jovovich and Frances Conroy, It hits theaters on October 8th.