Cannes continues, for everyone except Lars von Trier that is. And yes I'm going to briefly mention that elephant in the room before moving onto the real film news. Seriously what do the Cannes bigwigs think they're doing and what they're going to achieve. Lars von Trier has always been a joker, with every film he makes you know he's courting for controversy, desperate to chase the headlines from the festival. The critics seemed to like Melancholia and not find it headline grabbing other than it's quality so of course they had to bait him in the press conference and of course he positively glowed when he started on the Nazi comments, knowing the effect that would have. The Committee should have just told him off whilst ensuring they are aware it was poor taste humour not a real political diatribe. Why not watch it here and let me know what you think:
And now onto the real news...
Byzantium
Vampires remain inexplicably popular right now, largely due to the Twilight franchise, although that doesn't seem to explain why so many non-teenage projects are getting the green light and basically picking up middling box office receipts. Never mind because the latest project coming out of the blocks will a mother/daughter vampire tale starring Saoirse Ronan and Gemma Arterton (they're both fine actresses and worth the ticket price but surely the age difference isn't enough, although the synopsis includes the suggestion they sometimes pretend to be sisters). The script, an original piece by Moira Buffini (Jane Eyre), has caught the attention of experience vampire filmmaker Neil Jordan (remember the faintly unsettling Interview with the Vampire) and producer Stephen Wooley. With that group of talent involved it's hard to resist even when the genre is so overdone.
Here is Kirsten Dunst in Neil Jordan's last foray into the world of Vampires, which is lovely as it links nicely to Lars above, and if Jordan can get performances as good as he gets from Kiki that Byzantium will definitely be one to watch.
Read on for Martial Arts competitions, fairy tale private eyes, evil step mothers, treks from Egypt, Court intrigues, Cold war meetings, school buses and Audrey Tatou as well as a minor casting story. 
Bloodsport
Certainly the most bizarre story to come out of Hollywood this week is the proposed remake of the 1988 Jean-Claude van Damme martial arts vehicle (left). Essentially a disaster on release the win or death knockout adventure gained a whole new lease of life on DVD, emerging as a cult favourite for the van Damme nuts out there. It's hard to imagine this sort of bruiser hero taking the box office lead today either, even after The Expendables proved there's still a market for pumped up leads. That said I am fascinated by whoever will want this potential albatross around the neck of their career.
The Defective Detective
Can Terry Gilliam catch a break in the fickle world of film financing? With The Man who Killed Don Quixote spiralling once more into the history of abandoned projects there's been little news from the former Python. Never one to let it get him down Terry's hinted that he may return to a Richard LaGravenese script they worked on around The Fisher King and 12 Monkeys and which never gathered the necessary funding. The story is curiously close to the Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus following a detective on the hunt for a missing girl in a fantasy world. If it has the same manic energy and resourceful plotting as those other films from that period then I will certainly be booking a ticket should it ever gets made!
Maleficent/Moses
This week saw the high profile departure of Tim Burton from Disney's live action origin story for Melficent, the evil step-mother from Sleeping Beauty (right), which is set to star Angelina Jolie. There doesn't seem to be a big fight with blame and recrimination about the tone or content or directorial vision just a run of the mill scheduling issue. It's partly a shame because I'd love to see Burton handling a villain front and centre, although maybe the studio would constrain him too much and keeping it firmly in the PG wheelhouse. So the potential replacements are being discussed on the net with David Yates (Harry Potter) currently the favourite, but Darren Aronofsky also being linked by Badass Digest - I suspect it's bunkum, if we consider Burton as being held back in his relationship with Disney then surely Aronofsky would be ever more so. They also say Warner Bros. are interested in recruiting him for the upcoming Exodus picture which might be more interesting form an audience point of view but isn't he more concerned with the earlier Biblical story, that of Noah and his Ark?
Music and Silence
Danish director Lone Scherfig will be returning to her roots with the latest literary adaptation she's taking on. Set in the 17th Century Danish court the story charts an illicit romance between two servants, one of whom works for the noble King Christian IV, the other for his philandering wife. The script is being written by Martin Sherman, based on Rose Tremain novel, with BBC films stumping up the cash.
Reykjavik
Every once in a while a high profile director known for big cast, big budget movies takes on an unlikely character pieces. Ron Howard did it a couple of years ago with the powerful Frost/Nixon and now, jumping a few Presidents into the future, Ridley Scott will be helming a reconstruction of the head to head between Reagan and Gorbachev that paved the way for the end of the cold war - that's them on the left but I'm not sure of the location. Ridley has already got a massively overcrowded slate but this could be a quickie to be filmed in between the more complex productions he's currently working on including the single film adaptation of the excellent Red Riding trilogy that he's been mentioned with again this week.
The We and The I/Untitled Michel Gondry/Audrey Tatou collaboration
Visionary director Michel Gondry is currently serving on the short film Jury in Cannes and has been chatting to the New York Times about all the projects hanging around on his plate. Next up is The We and the I which appears to to be inspired by his previous Be Kind Rewind and features a child only cast on a school bus, seems slight but it could be interesting. On the new film front he's been courting Audrey Tatou - for a French language picture - by making short films and animations or her. Obviously I'm holding back the vomit as I type, but at least the combo of Tatou and Gondry seems like it could be worth a look.
Casting News
I'm always fascinated when additional cast members, especially quite famous ones, appear in the press releases after the camera has started rolling - have there been drop outs, were their agents not ballsy enough to force a comment on their casting? - who knows. Anyway Stanley Tucci and Cloris Leachman have both been added to the cast of the Coen brothers scripted Gambit. Just when you thought Christopher Nolan's third Batman film The Dark Knight Rises couldn't possibly pick up more characters stand by for Matthew Modine, Tom Conti and Joey King joining in - so at least we now know Modine is still alive.
Obviously I couldn't mention The Dark Knight Rises without having the first publicity shot released, showing Tom Hardy in full Bane look. One picture down, 14 months to go:
Saturday, 21 May 2011
Do the Can(nes)-Can('t) (Film News - 21/05/11)
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
The Green Hornet
2011. Dir: Michel Gondry. Starring: Seth Rogen, Jay Chou, Cameron Diaz, Christoph Waltz and Tom Wilkinson. ●●●○○
Is the lure of a large budget just too much for some of cinemas most idiosyncratic directors? Do these often visionary and talented helmers think they will be the one to tame the studio system and allow their ideas shine? How else can you explain Michel Gondry signing for The Green Hornet, the latest in a long line of comic book style superheroes brought to the big screen? Gondry's done what he could with the material, but it's still a mishmash of styles and themes with an inescapable feeling the writers, director and producer all had different ideas of what the final product should be like.
The hornet started life as a radio series in the 1930's, moved into theatres as a supporting serial for a while before finding it's ideal location in 1960's TV where it is mostly remembered for introducing the world to Bruce Lee as the enigmatic chauffeur/martial arts expert Kato. On it's way to the screen this version of the story has had as many amendments and personnel changes with directors, stars and villains bailing at every opportunity.
Britt Reid (Seth Rogen, looking almost sexy now he's lost a bit of weight) is the lounging Lothario son of media mogul Tom Wilkinson with whom there is a complex father-son relationship. No sooner than can you say expositionary scenes Wilkinson is lying dead on the veranda and Rogen most take over the family business. Through a chucklesome and clever drunken prank Rogen and Jay Chou (playing Kato) end up being identified (largely by his glamorous secretary Cameron Diaz) as a pair of small time gangsters with the ultimate aim of muscling in on Christoph Waltz's criminal empire.
As the whole appears to be three different films tacked together I'm going to try and break this review into those separate slices:
The Script by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg is in the same vein by the work they've done together in the past on Superbad and Pineapple Express with it's fair share of homoeroticism and un-PC banter between the fighting duo. The one-upmanship and petty jealousies that form the backbone of their relationship make perfect sense in respect to their respective childhoods and the nature of their employer/employee background. Unfortunately the further away from this bond the less competent the writing, Diaz's Lenore Case is little more than a receptacle for T&A comments and her comic potential is utterly wasted and characters like Edward James Olmos's sub editor and David Harbour's DA are simply there to advance the plot.
The Direction by Gondry is recognisable, with delightful touches like Kato time, the garage kissing and the moment where Rogen works it all out that recall the practical effects and quirky style we've come to see from him. The opening scene also nicely sets up the different ways Rogen and Wilkinson view the world and wholey explains what will happen later in the movie. On the other hand we're not in the Gallic helmer comfort zone, some of the fight scenes are frantic and poorly lit with key mobsters just disappearing in the dark - I'm still not sure what the final fate of Waltz's Chudnofsky. There is also a strange disconnect between scenes, with rarely a flow from one section to another - you could easily walk out to get a coke and come back and not need to know what happened in between.
The Studio probably bear the biggest brunt for the failures of the film, so far we have a flawed but fun action flick with adequate central performances from Rogen, Chou and Waltz (reprising his Inglorious Basterds schtick but with more self doubt) and then it's gets spoiled with a shoddy and unnecessary 3D conversion which has the bizarre consequence of making the special effects look cheaper. When flaming lumps of building are coming towards you they oddly look less real than when they're not.
Overall I would say this is one third a good film, one third OK and one third unforgivable. Watch it for the first two, and enjoy the good parts.
