Film News (19/09/09)

Sometimes I do get mad with myself, I'm stuck in a cycle of self loathing as I continuously get interested in the product of a limited number of filmmakers, then get really angry when they turn up time and time again in the film news. This week I'm reporting on projects from 5 directors, who between them have been connected to 14% of all the stories I've run this year. I must find some other people to idolise.

Hereafter

I like Clint Eastwood. Sure he's no auteur, but he is a proficient, efficient director who does a good job more often than a bad. What I especially like is his willingness to try new things, and play with different genres whilst retaining the use of themes - in the past we've has Westerns, Romances, Sports movies; all of which have dealt with guilt and redemption. Now that his Mandela biopic is completed next up is a horror film, reuniting him with Invictus star Matt Damon. Press releases indicate it's like the Sixth Sense, by which I hope they mean it's a slow burner and not that it turns out he's a ghost which really spoils the film if they tell us know. I'm betting Damon has caused the death of someone in the past, and is now haunted by them, but is it a real ghost or just his fevered imagination?

Yes, I;'m expecting a full length adaptation of this road safety advert:





Harvey and Lincoln

Steven Spielberg has come out this week to assure everyone that his long gestating Lincoln biopic is not dead in the water, and that it can peacefully co-exist alongside Robert Redford's Conspirator about the aftermath of his assassination. I believe that the two films can work together, but I can't believe, with everything else Spielberg's working on that Lincoln will be made this side of 2015.

Tucked away in the Variety article was the hint of a casting rumour with Robert Downey Jr. linked to the Harvey remake. I'd just like to say I like that, very smart casting choice, provided that Sherlock Holmes and Iron-Man 2 don't lead to over-exposure.

Liberace

Matt Damon (again) has been spilling the beans on his association with the up-coming Liberace biopic from Stephen Soderbergh. Michael Douglas will play the flamboyant pianist, Damon his younger lover who outs the star to the press. It seems to unbelievable that people didn't know he was gay, but Liberace did manage to successful sue anyone who suggested it so there must have been plenty of housewives who thought they had a chance. Douglas has been trying on costumes, so that's a good sign that things are on their way.

Netherland

The critically acclaimed 2008 novel by Joseph O'Neill which takes in 9/11, cricket and the impact of an international community is being adapted by Christopher Hampton (Atonement, Dangerous Liaisons). Description as a Great Gatsby for the modern age it should make an interesting film.

The Passage

Anyone like vampires? C'mon hands up. There are hundreds of vampire fans judging by the extraordinary output of vampiric movies coming from Hollywood. Even Sir Ridley Scott is getting in on the act, circling as he is the adaptation of the Jordon Ainsley novel. Part blood sucking apocalypse, part government conspiracy picture it concerns medical experiment with death row inmates and vampire bats before it all goes wrong... If you fans didn't go and see this sort of rubbish then I wouldn't have to write about it.

Quite cute, really.