Boston, U.S.A. - In the two-way mirror that often is a reflection of life or art, another trend is forming. The worlds of literature and Hollywood are colliding again, this time with a focus on cryonics, the science intended to reanimate people after death and freezing.

The debut novel from Bruce E. Spitzer, Extra Innings , about baseball great Ted Williams returning to life through cryonics, was published last month by Bear Hill Media. Extra Innings was featured recently in Sports Illustrated Magazine and ranked in the top 25 on the Amazon Kindle bestseller list for sports fiction.

A cryonics movie, Freezing People is Easy, is in pre-production in Hollywood and will shoot in the fall, reportedly starring Paul Rudd, Kristen Wiig, Owen Wilson and Christopher Walken.

Inspired by Bob Nelson’s memoir We Froze the First Man and an episode of Chicago Public Media and Public Radio International’s This American Life, Freezing People is the story of Nelson’s first cryonics attempts in the 1960s. Errol Morris will direct. Producers include Steven Zaillian and Garrett Basch of Film Rites. Toronto-based Entertainment One announced that it will distribute the picture worldwide.

TV got into the act last winter when Larry King announced on CNN that he wanted to be cryonically preserved. Can reality TV be far behind?

Unlike Freezing People, which looks back at the beginnings of cryonics, Spitzer’s Extra Innings looks forward, featuring Ted Williams reanimated in 2092. In real life he was cryonically preserved after death in 2002. In his imagined return, Williams plays again for the Red Sox, bats against a robot “Botwinder” pitcher that he abhors pilot’s jets for the Marines, and struggles in a future world beset by global warming and flooding.

“The narrative resonates with the consequences of the major issues we face in our world today—the steroids debate in sports, global warming, corporate greed, technology run rampant, and the moral ambiguity of war,” says Spitzer. “It’s a societal and personal journey. Flawed in his first life, Williams must decide in the second, what’s more important: the chance to win his first World Series or the chance to be a better man?”

Extra Innings, adds Spitzer, is not only about science, baseball, redemption, and the quest for meaning in this life and the next, it’s humorous as well. “Similar to what we’re likely to see in Freezing People, you can’t help but poke a little fun at the idea of returning to life after being frozen.”

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Midnight in Paris is the second occasion when Rachel McAdams and Owen Wilson co-starred as a couple, after ‘Wedding Crashers’ in 2005. “I was so excited to work with Owen again because we had so much fun when we worked together a few years ago,” says McAdams.

“As this was a much more antagonistic relationship than the one we had in the other film, I was curious about how that would play out. So our characters aren’t getting along this time around— but we did again.” Says Wilson: “I loved working with Rachel again. She came in during the second half of filming, and I think she brought this burst of energy and got everybody renewed, got us charged up for the final push.”

While in Paris, Gil encounters Adriana (Marion Cotillard), an exquisitely beautiful aspiring fashion designer who has been the lover and muse to a series of famous artists. “Adriana doesn’t know where she belongs. She is searching for her place,” says Cotillard. “She admires artists because their world is wide and their imagination takes them to some marvelous places.

She needs to dream.” Says Allen: “There are always special women that artists painted a number of times, women that lived with the artists and provided an enormous amount of support for them. Adriana is not only lovely, she’s also very intelligent, someone who can provide a very strong artistic force for them to bounce things off, to support them when they’re down, to encourage them when they need it, and to tell them when they’re wrong. In many cases this can provide a rich partnership with the artist.”

The role of Adriana fits Cotillard, an Academy Award winner for ‘La Vie en Rose’, like a lace glove; one look at her leaves little doubt about Adriana’s ability to become an object of desire for so many formidable men. “Marion has got a built-in charisma,” say Allen. “She makes the most ordinary kind of moments and dialogue sound interesting because she herself is such an interesting movie actress.

And she’s got a very lovely and interesting face to look at; I never get tired of looking at it. I also noticed that she’s able to call up any kind of emotion she wants quickly and easily.” When Adriana hears the first sentences of Gil’s novel-in-progress, she is almost instantly drawn to him. “She has always felt she didn’t belong to the era she lives in and she feels Gil is the same kind of person,” says Cotillard. “She recognizes herself in him.”

Despite his almost-married status, Gil is amazed at his good luck in having attracted the attention of such a beautiful woman, and flattered that someone who has been the muse for so many virtuosic artists would admire his writing. But as Gil’s interest in Adriana deepens, his doubts about his relationship with Inez increases.

“While Gils’s very smitten with Inez,” says Wilson, “he also sees that there’s a disconnect about where they want to live their lives, what he would like to do, and even if she’s the right person for him.” In a way, Gil and Inez are both caught up in illusions: he dreams of being somewhere else, and she expects a status quo that might not exist.

“I don’t think they’re seeing each other anymore,” says McAdams. “They’re both just going through the motions, and carrying on—nobody wants to rock the boat. But I don’t think they could be any further apart than they are at the moment.”

While Gil is otherwise engaged, Inez spends time with Paul (Michael Sheen), a handsome intellectual visiting Paris with his wife Carol (Nina Arianda), while he lectures at the Sorbonne. While Inez sees Paul, who she has had a crush on since college, to be as charming as he is cerebral, Gil finds Paul to be an insufferable know-it-all, and can’t stand to be around him. As Gil is increasingly absent, both with his novel and with Adriana, Paul makes a move and starts flirting with Inez.

While Gil sees Paul as an annoying stuffed-shirt, he does possess a substantial body of knowledge, which presented a balancing act for Sheen. “Michael had to do the pseudo-intellectual, the genuine intellectual, the pedant, and he came in and nailed it from the start,” says Allen.

Perhaps the height of Paul’s pompous actions is when he argues with the tour guide at the Rodin Museum, played by none other than France’s First Lady, Carla Bruni. Allen offered Bruni the role almost as a lark when he and his wife and sister were invited for breakfast with Bruni and her husband Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the French Republic.

While chatting with Bruni, Allen found her so charming and beautiful, and knowing that she is a celebrated singer/songwriter and performer, he decided at the spur of the moment to offer her the part. “I told her, ‘I won’t take much of your time, you won’t have to rehearse—just come in for a couple of days and shoot,’” says Allen. “And she said, ‘Yes, it would be fun. I’d like to be able to tell my grandchildren I was in a movie, just for the experience.’”

Allen adds: “She did all the scenes very well, and I think if I cast her in a larger part, she would have been just as good, but I don’t think it would have been practical for her to take seven weeks off to shoot a movie.” Owen Wilson was impressed by how down-to-earth First Lady Bruni-Sarkozy was. “She was so gracious and nice to me and to all the crew,” he says. “She’s a great ambassador for the country.”

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After a decade of complicated neuroticism, Woody Allen returns this year with Midnight in Paris, a refreshingly delightful romantic comedy. Albeit incomparable to his comedy classics Annie Hall and Sleeper, Allen succeeds in combining a witty script, professional cinematography, and quality acting against the stunning backdrop that is Paris.

Gil (Owen Wilson) is a struggling novelist with a fiancee (Rachel McAdams) who seems more interested in her pretentious friend Paul (Michael Sheen) than in him. To make things worse, his parents-in-law (to be) hate him, and we all know that never bodes well. All of this is compounded by the fact that he feels out of place, and I don’t mean physical location. Gil, as he walks through the beautiful jardins of Paris, yearns for the 1920′s and the bohemian artists and writers who lived and loved at that time.
Suddenly, by way of an old-time motorcar, Gil is transported back in time to his beloved era, and meets the famed greats like F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston), Cole Porter (Yves Heck), Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll) and Pablo Picasso (Marcial Di Fonzo Bo). One takes enjoyment watching Gil party with literary heroes, where, thanks to Owen Wilson’s splendid acting, you can see the excitement dancing in his eyes.

Johanne Debas and Darius Khondji make movie magic with their cinematography, sweeping the audience up in the quiet cobblestone streets   of the culture capital. Throw in a warm lighting and flapper couture, and one could swoon for the City of Romance right then and there.

All in all, the charming simplicity at the heart of Midnight in Paris leaves the audience with butterflies and a few simple questions in their conscience. What would you do if you could time travel into a world so different then your own? if you could meet your hero? Gil has a chance for self-exporation through artistic creation, inspiration, and criticism, thus realizing his life is made better through art, thanks in part to his larger-than-life heroes.

That sweet reminiscence and Woody Allen’s characteristic wittiness brings together an all-in-all great star-studded film, a perfect date night movie.

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