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“I’m going to Groundhog Day this bitch!” While the found-footage sub-genre is seen as a stain on genre movies, there are quite a few that have transcended the category. Movies like Chronicle, Europa Report, and Cloverfield are considered the best found-footage movies in science fiction. Will the sci-fi found-footage time travel movie Almanac measure up to that standard? That remains to be seen, but for now the flick has gotten a name change and released a first teaser trailer.
According to Deadline, Almanac will now be titled Welcome to Yesterday. This is the debut feature film from director Dean Israelite, with action auteur Michael Bay producing the film for Platinum Dunes and Paramount Pictures. Although the new title feels kind of generic, it’s at least less vague than Almanac. It also seems that early plot descriptions of the found-footage time travel film might have been wrong, or else the final version of the sci-fi film has undergone some changes.
Originally, the film was supposed to center on a group of teens finding a time travel device and an old sports almanac, which they used to travel back in time to bet on sporting events. Yes, that’s basically straight from the plot of Back to the Future Part II. Based on the new trailer, it doesn’t look like that’s what the movie is about anymore. Here’s what Bleeding Cool said about the film back in November 2012:
David’s late father was a scientist and so he looks through his Dad’s stuff for ideas — and he finds two things of note. One gives him the ability to time travel…and the other is a sports almanac. Anybody who has seen Back to the Future 2 can guess where this is headed.
Two more of David’s friends travel back through time with him to abuse the almanac. Timelines get messed with, we learn more about David’s Dad’s research and there’s apparently a couple of pretty big twists…
As for the new trailer, Welcome to Yesterday looks like it will be a lot of fun. It mixes elements of Chronicle and the found-footage movie Project X with time travel. Now it looks like a group of teens find a time travel device and go back in time to have fun with the space-time continuum. Doc Brown would be very upset with these kids. It also looks like the Butterfly Effect might have gotten the best of the kids, as they have to go back in time to restore the timeline.
Welcome to Yesterday will be released at the end of February, which was the same week of release for the aforementioned Chronicle and Project X. Interestingly, Cloverfield was released the end of January in 2008. It looks like movie studios like to release their found-footage genre movies at the beginning of the year.
Welcome to Yesterday stars Jonny Weston, Sofia Black D’Elia, Amy Landecker, Michelle DeFraites, Ginny Gardner, and Sam Lerner. Screenwriters Andrew Stark, Jason Pagan, and Andrew Deutschman wrote the film, while first-timer Dean Israelite directed.
Welcome to Yesterday will hit theaters everywhere on February 28, 2014.
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