I'm feeling a little smug right now, mainly because of the first news story. I won't go into it just yet but it proves a theory I put forth several months ago and justifies some expenditure I have made over the last few weeks - in spite of the gentle ribbing I received from my friends. Away from that there have been some nice little stories hanging around under the headlines, and thriller fans will be keen on a couple of the upcoming films. Until then time to stay smug.
The Great Wall
Back in April I wrote about the growing movie market in China and how we should expect to see more collaborations between Hollywood and the Chinese film Industry. Indeed at the time the Yang Guifei movie was cited as a specific example.
Now we've moved and Ed Zwick who has local form with The Last Samurai and will now be heading to Northern China to document the history of the world's most famous piece of masonry.
The oldest sections of The Wall was originally built around the 5th Century BC although it's the Ming dynasty's work in the 14th century AD that is most recognizable. Like most walls it's purpose is mainly defensive, keeping the Monguls from conquering vast swathes of the Northern Provinces. The exact period the film will cover has yet to be decided but expect the Ming Dynasty when the majority of work was done to be the central topic.
The most interesting part of the story though is that this is the first film from Legendary East, the historic spin-off company from Legendary Films, spearheaded by Thomas Tull, that will produce and finance films made in China and Hong Kong with international investors. As I said before this year is marking a major change in the worldwide dominance of Hollywood, and it will take this sort of thinking to keep the studios on top.
If you've lived under a rock your entire life here's a picture of the Great Wall of China.
Read on for FBI love affairs, mysterious cargo, soul singers and a trip to Germany, as well as the latest in casting news and a rundown on the changes to UK release dates over the last month.
Above Suspicion
Our first thriller of the week is this appallingly titled project which sees an FBI agent falling for an informer and getting framed for a murder. Sounds awfully unoriginal but Philip Noyce (left) is potentially behind the camera for this one and with his form on other silly cop films like last years Salt and The Bone Collector it could still end up being a lot of fun.
Line of Sight
Perhaps boasting a more bizarre plot will make this second genre pic look more intriguing, however it's title is just as bland and uninteresting as the the above. Ben Affleck is considering this tale of "an elite commando squad transporting cargo whilst dealing with a global threat". Which has just enough undefined nouns to make the by-line meaningless. So it the cargo a nuclear bomb of a truck of stuffed toys, is the threat neo-fascist terrorists or childhood obesity rates. We'll just have to wait and see!
Untitled Aretha Franklin Biopic
Aretha Franklin (69, right) has been talking up the possibility of her biopic getting made (which frankly smacks of being a touch self-centred to me) including the suggestion that Halle Berry would be the best person to take the role. I'm not going to make disparaging personal comments (feel free to make them in the comments) but Franklin and Berry are hardly similar in body shape are they?
Untitled Woody Allen picture
We don't have much on Woody Allen's next European postcard, other than early indications are he's moving on to Munich for his next picture. Munich's most famous cultural event is of course Oktoberfest (the beer festival) which will hopefully get a cameo in Allen's film, although I suspect it will spend more time in the upper middle class pastimes of looking at the delightful neoclassical architecture.
The last time I can remember Oktoberfest in cinema!
Casting News
Two stories directly relating to cast lists this week, the easier one is the revelation that Chazz Palminteri has signed on to play Paul Castellano in Mafia family drama Gotti: In the Shadow of my Father, oddly though this isn't the first time he's played Castellano having taken the role in TNT's TV movie Boss of Bosses 10 years ago. Perhaps more exciting is Christian Bale's (looking thoughtful in the picture below) upcoming slate, this week it was revealed he has five wildly divergent projects vying for his signature after the next Batman movie. The options include Scott Cooper's Out of the Furnace (Formerly Known as The Low Dweller), Gold, Noah, Oldboy and - most bizarrely - A Star is Born. Mind you when you look at this list there's still a trend of highly driven and obsessive characters which goes to prove even t this level there's type-casting.
Release Schedules
Machine Gun Preacher - The biker cum missionary biopic has shifted it's release date another couple of weeks, each time coming forward which obviously indicates the films at least ready and the producers want it to be seen early in the awards season, so I guess I'll have to do that. Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition on 04 November 2011.
J. Edgar - Talking of biopics one of the most anticipated in that much maligned genre is Clint Eastwoods look at the infamous head of the FBI - with Dustin Lance Black scripting it's going to be fascinating how the film balances old and new Hollywood attitudes to Hoover's sexuality. Get obsessed with communists on 20 January 2012.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Hollywood still remains surprisingly coy about directly addressing 9/11, and the few that have looked at the aftermath have come across as maudlin, so maybe this Stephen Daldry directed drama from a child's eye perspective may buck the trend. Notice the event but struggle with it's meaning on 03 February 2012.
Odd Life of Timothy Green - Over the last month we've seen the trailer, poster and, at Disney's recent convention, and the buzz has been as strange as the concept with the family friendly fantasy being lambasted for it's weird vibe. Bury your wishes in the garden on 17 August 2012.
World War Z - The zombie apocalypse will be coming soon, by the end of next year we'll be recovering with Brad Pitt talking to the survivors finding out what really happened in those dark days. Begin the fight back against the shuffling hordes on 04 January 2013.
Bad news though for some other films I had high hopes for. Release dates for both The Dark Tower and The Lone Ranger has both come and gone, just another step for both of those projects on the road to complete abandonment. The football rom-com Playing the Field might be looking at a similar fate with it's March release being pulled, however at least the Gerard Butler vehicle has been made. That's something that Nikita Mikhalkov must be content with too with the knowledge his Burnt by The Sun 2 (sequel to the 1994 Oscar winner) has gone straight to DVD in the UK - perhaps avoiding the wrath of critics who've been queueing up to vent their vitriol.
In spite of how rubbish the films reception seems to have been there's no denying the retro look of this poster really works.
Saturday, 27 August 2011
Seeing the film news from Space (Film News - 27/08/11)
Saturday, 2 July 2011
Taking all that pain away (Film News - 02/07/11)
Not exactly a classical week for film news, given half of the stories I'm running with are retreads with slight updates of projects I mentioned just two weeks ago (both of which turn out to be biopics of musicians), nevertheless if the other two movies we mention in the main news get made rest assured they will be culturally significant enough to have them queuing round the block. I've also had a catch up on IMDb, looking for the latest developments on a number of projects we've mentioned here before and quite a few have entered the early production stages, which is all good news for film fans. So without further ado:
The Giver
Jeff Bridges has been repeatedly behind attempts to film Lois Lowry's Newberry Award winning 1993 novel for at least 15 years. Originally envisioning his father in the role of a sage within a Utopian future who alone has the knowledge of the true pain and pleasures of life Bridges now feels he is old enough to take the role himself so he and producer Nikki Silver has obtained the screen rights and are trying to put together cobble together funding. I doubt that will be a struggle, whilst I don't know the book it is a young adult sci-fi novel (see the cover below) - the protagonist is a 12 year old boy being trained to take over from "The Giver" - and the first of a trilogy which in these uncertain times with Harry Potter and the Twilight franchises about to end and The Hunger Games still untested could well be what's needed to keep some of the studios cash flow going.
On the other hand the book contains some very adult themes such as the suppression of emotions and the physical and psychological effects of puberty and even state-sponsored euthanasia. As well as some tricky visual constructs such as only the Giver being able to see colour.
In spite of these problematic sections I expect the funding will eventually be found, and the significant task of casting the 12 year-old Jonas will begin.
Read on for American heroes and two very diverse singers, as well as the latest casting stories and an update on which of the stories we run here actually happen.
American Can
Whilst a number of movies have skirted around the effects of Hurricane Katrina so far Hollywood has yet to confront the issue head-on (ignoring of course Spike Lee's excellent documentary When the Levees Broke) so it's refreshing to hear that Will Smith's production company is still pushing on this project so much the script is currently with Denzel Washington with the hope of Denzel taking the role - originally considered for the busy Smith - of ex-marine John Keller who helped take of the residents of the titular New Orleans apartment complex, ensuring the seven feet of flooding wasn't followed by a wave of looters.
Untitled Dave Van Ronk biopic
It seems the Coen brothers next movie will be based on the life of coffeehouse folk singer and political activist Dave van Ronk, whose legacy both as an artist and as a spotter of talent (he paved the way for Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell among others) is certainly significant. This ties up with the rumours of the single instrument music based movie and will be a sidestep and unique addition to their canon. Take a listen to van Ronk here:
Untitled Anita Lindblom biopic
Meanwhile Catherine Hardwicke has revealed her European jaunt will look at the turbulent relationship between Swedish singer Anita Lindblom and boxer Bosse Hogberg with Noomi Rapace on board as Anita. Unfortunately I cannot find anything other than Lindblom's music on the net so I know nothing else about the topic - so it could be intriguing. Take a listen to Lindblom here:
Casting News
We've got three major stars picking up some intriguing projects this week. Firstly Leonardo DiCaprio may be the washed up actor taking Beyonce under his wing in Clint Eastwood's Star is Born remake and Brad Pitt might be going into the South American jungles for The Mission, for the ladies Nicole Kidman is leading the field, somehow getting entangled with crime drama The Paperboy. We also heard this week David Strathairn will be joining Steven Spielberg's Lincoln as William Seward (hopefully getting more time than the unfortunate extra who took the role in The Conspirator).
Production News
I've been catching up with the latest production shifts, and there's an exciting range of films that we've already mentioned here on RunsLikeAGay which have entered the pre-production stage so we can hopefully look forward to seeing them at some point in the future.
First up I'd just like to welcome back James Foley's nativity reinvention Mary Mother of Christ, a project he's been trying to get underway for some time and which left IMDb earlier this year, only now o return. Also Paani - the sci-fi based on the premise of extreme water shortages - and The Wolverine both of which seemed to become mired in production woes.
We've also seen movement on Al Pacino's black (sex) comedy The Humbling, portmanteau picture Jayne Mansfield's Car, children's western The Lone Ranger and the Denzel Washington as a drunk commercial pilot movie Flight. Charles Dickens adaptation The Great Expectations is moving forward with BBC films, although I understand it may become a TV mini-series. The biopic of British explorer George Mallory is moving ahead as is Jason Statham vehicle Parker, Recession themed European movie Le Capital and - almost finally - lacrosse movie Crooked Arrows.
Balladem Om Marie
I'm actually going to end with this completely new project of which I had heard nothing until spotting it on IMDb. The Danish movie, set to be directed by Bille August (Pelle the Conqueror) looks at the relationship with renowned painter P.S. Krøyer and his long-suffering wife Marie who sticks by him through bouts of manic depression and psychotic rage. It sounds like the sort of high-class suffering that could get awards attention so look out for this in the 2013 foreign language Oscar race.
A self portrait of Krøyer with Marie.
Sunday, 23 January 2011
Never marry an aspiring star (Film News - 22/01/11)
We're definitely back in the throes of real news now, with more stories hitting the headlines than can be comfortably described, although let's face I'm going to try. And that's not to mention the continuation of the awards season stories like the Golden Globes results and Ricky Gervais's career changing performance.
A Star is Born
It's a timeless story of changing fortunes in the world of entertainment that's been memorably played out on three occasions on the big screen (with countless others that use it as a starting point) and a tidy reminder that in la-la-land there can only be a limited number of stars, for every on that rises to the top another must make way for the to shine. It's no surprise to anyone that a new incarnation is on it's way, and Beyonce has been set to take the title role for several months, and whilst Russell Crowe was considered as the alcoholic has-been who marries and then is surpassed by his latest find the latest reports don't mention Crowe so I suppose he's out.
This week we also learnt that Clint Eastwood is set to direct the latest version. This seems like a bizarre choice, mainly because I would've thought they wanted a studio hack to take the reins. No offence to whoever does direct the piece, but A Star is Born, or at least both the 1954 and 1976 versions, were star vehicles designed to highlight the prespective talents of Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand. Eastwood, as a director, has shown little interest in allowing his leading actresses room to manouvre themselves into the spotlight, and how will this fit into his overarching themes of natural justice and redemption unless this version focuses more on the waning talent. 
Judy is surprised as I am by Eastwood's news.
There's a touch of sceptism about this news for another reason: Eastwood is not a young man anymore. Does he need to be making films unless he really believes in them? What do you think?
Read on for title changes, Italian Singers, underused States and Darren Aronofsky's very big plans.
American Bullshit
Ben Affleck still has the pick of projects coming off his success with The Town, the latest rumour sees him picking up this Black List entry from Eric Warren Singer (for anyone who doesn't know the Black List is an annually publised list of promising unproduced scripts knocking around the studios). It's about a convoluted FBI sting in the late 1970's which aimed to root out corruption in the US political system. Sounds like it's the sort of multi-character crime thing that Affleck likes and it might be an opportunity to get some mates like Matt Damon involved. By the way I can't see this title lasting long.
Mina
After the quasi-horror of The Skin I Inhabit it looks like Pedro Almodovar is returning to more familiar terrain with his next picture, a biopic of Italian singer Mina who gave it all up to have a child with a married man. You just know Almodovar does his best work wih female leads so I can't wait to see what he does with a story already in the public eye.
Nebraska
I'll be honest I know little about most of the States except what I've seen in movies, so when a film comes along with the state in the title I know I'll have to watch it for general geography research purposes (see map below if you weren't aware of it's location). To be fair Alexander Payne's road movie is mostly set in Montana (go North two then West one) with the destination of an overly optimistic prize draw winner in the titular state. Payne's been planning this project for years, but only now he's taken a break from road movies (the forthcoming Descedents) does he feel he can give it the justice it deserves.
Untitled Comic Book Adaptation for Darren Aronofsky
Aronofsky's been rustling some feathers this last week with anti-method acting comments and admitting a dislike for Robert Altman's The Company but he's also let slip that the next film he's planning to make after The Wolverine has such a complex script he's turning it into a comic book in order to sell it to executives. Frankly that seems bizarre, but I guess that's the nature of the business right now. I'm not sure if this comic book is any of the seven different projects he was circling last year, or even a Batman movie as some sites have suggested, is unclear.
Casting News
Anne Hathaway has been confirmed as the Catwoman in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Rises which whilst fine casting does beg the question of whether she'll be able to eradicate any memories of Michelle Pfeiffer's puurfect (sorry) performance in the role. It's all change at Cosmopolis with Colin Farrell and Marion Cotillard stepping out of the limosine for Robert Pattinson and Keira Knightley. The supporting cast of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, the 9/11 influenced family drama, has swelled following the addition of Viola Davis and Jeffrey Wright. Dianne Wiest has joined The Odd Life of Timothy Green and Johnny Depp now looks to be the eponymous wizard in Oz: The Great and Powerful. Shudder.
