Next Movie - Review

Based on the novel “The Golden Man” by Philip K. Dick and Directed by Lee Tamahori (Die Another Day), NEXT features Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore, Jessica Biel, Thomas Kretschmann, Tory Kittles, and Peter Falk. NEXT is also co-produced by Cage, who has starred in such box office hits as National Treasure, Gone in Sixty Seconds, Con Air, and Face/Off. NEXT is slated for theatrical release on April 27, 2007.
A potpourri of magic, terrorism and a built-in nuclear holocaust threatening to unleash itself, NEXT is focused around Cris Johnson (or should we say, “Magic” Johnson?) – a showroom magician from Las Vegas.
Cris has a secret gift which is not as menacing as the multiplier-effect of “The Prestige,” but equally tormenting with its limitations as well as potential. Cris Johnson has the ability to peek into the future, but only a few minutes into it. It’s difficult to change the future if all you got are a few minutes, right? Still there are things he can influence the outcome of, hence the extreme interest of certain organizations in his abilities, with their own vested interests.
Fed up by the interest-overkill in his unnatural gift by the outside world – government and medical establishment, and the numerous examinations he underwent as a child -- he goes underground. Maintaining a low profile under an assumed name in Vegas, he gets by, performing cheap tricks and living off small-time gambling “winnings”. But especially gifted people are also especially “wanted” -- in this case, for a big-time requirement.
Everything is fine until a terrorist group threatens to detonate a nuclear device in Los Angeles. The countdown to extinction begins and time is running out. Government agent Callie Ferris uses all of her smiles and wiles to weed out and corner Cris to convince the tormented hero into helping her stop the imminent cataclysm and beat the ticking clock. Cris is ultimately faced with the daunting choice of saving the world or -- hold your breath -- the woman he loves. Ah, is that cliché or what? And all that in just under a couple of hours!
An action thriller, NEXT was shot in Los Angeles. Gary Goldman, Executive Producer, told Variety, “This is a movie that translates the excitement of the videogame experience into cinema.”
NEXT, is a Saturn Films/Broken Road Production, with Gary Goldman, Jason Koornick, and Ben Waisbren as Executive Producers. It is produced by Nicolas Cage, Norm Golightly, Todd Garner, Arne L. Schmidt and Graham King.