Catherine Zeta-Jones

Happy Birthday to

Catherine Zeta-Jones

42 today

It's been a tough couple of years for the gorgeous Welsh star as both her and husband Michael Douglas have suffered from health problems, however the good news is Catherine's back with three big releases coming in 2012. Of those I'm very interested in seeing her cougar soccer mom in Playing the Field and a high-stakes gambler in Lay the Favourite.

Of course I couldn't let her birthday go by without just a little tango to celebrate:

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Sorting out the rubbish - (Movie News - 09/04/11)

I'm in London this week - it's Baby Jesus Freak don't ya know? - so I'm doing one of those tricks where I attempt to complete the news report in an internet cafe - writing up the stories as I hit them. It's so exciting as I want to keep the costs down and writing becomes much more intense!

Trash

The biggest title grabbing my attention is the children's adventure novel by Andy Mulligan which is about to get the multiplex treatment under the watchful eyes of Richard Curtis (writing) and Stephen Daldry (directing). That's a fascinating combo and frankly I'd probably see anything those two would plan to work on together, but this story seems especially intriguing.



Three boys (Raphael, Gardo, and Rat) in an unnamed third world country struggle to survive by recycling rubbish from the vast refuse mountains outside the major city where they live - I'm not trying to offend anyone but I imagine the Jardim Gramacho outside of Rio at this point. When the boys find something special, and then refuse a large bribe from a local policeman to hand it over it sparks a chain of events that will require all their cunning and courage to survive.

Sounds like it could meld a searing attack on modern poverty with the ind of adventure games children like exceptionally well. I'll be keeping an eye on this one.

Read on for controversial mayors, a weird virus, lies-a-plenty, Conrad's muse, a lost architect, a stupid murderer, the Godfather of Soul and our regular review of casting news.



Politics and Pasta

The autobiography of Buddy Cianci, the former mayor of Providence, Rhode Island is stirring up quite a controversy with it's claims of rebuilding the city and constant battle with mobsters as well as a stint inside for racketeering. Expect the big screen version to be along soon.

Prisoners of the Sun

We knew there'd be another one - although the when question is still there, but Spielberg and Peter Jackson will be swapping director/producer roles for the Tintin sequel. The Secret of the Unicorn is not too far off and will be followed by Prisoners of the Sun. The plot involves a mysterious illness affecting explorers and an Incan treasure that may be connected - sounds typical Herge and will likely be a great choice.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

I'm not sure I believe this myself, but the proposed remake of Danny Kaye's serial fantacist 1949 movie may just be back on track. Ben Stiller has seen the script and is very keen to get it made with him in the leading role. I'm ambivalent about Stiller's talents, but hopefully this will be a vehicle that can point him in an interesting direction.

Stanley

Joe Wright is making big plans for the next few years, with Hanna out in cinemas over the next few weeks he'll be turning his attention to Russian epic Anna Karenina. After that he's seriously considering a biopic of Sir Henry Morton Stanley, the explorer and journalist who "found" Dr. Livingston and who's journey into Africa inspired Conrad's "Hearts of Darkness".

The Tomb

Do you remember way back in early 2010 we mentioned a Bruce Willis project where he was a master architect locked in his own prison? Well, Bruce is out and former Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger is in, leading the 63-year-old's bid to return to the Hollywood elite. Apparently Antione Fuqua is still attached to helm, but given he has a Tupac biopic and a Chinese venture to complete first (see last week's news) expect a change of director soon.

True Crime

With Carnage having just wrapped Roman Polanski is already searching for his next challenge and seems to have stumbled on a Polish crime thriller. Based on a 2008 New Yorker article the film will follow the murder investigation after a body was found in the Oder river. The detectives eventually found clues in the published crime thrillers of the victims friend and colleague. Which just seems daft if he had done it..

Untitled James Brown Biopic

In completely regurgitated news is the largely unsubstantiated rumour that's Spike Lee's biopic of the great soul singer is still in the works (some five years since we last heard anything about it). Apparently Eddie Murphy and Usher are being considered to play Brown in various stages of his life.

Casting News

The names are starting to circulate for big screen Musical Les Miserables including Robert Downey Jnr, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard and legendary British tenor Alfie Boe - expect plenty of rumours about this castlist right until the camera starts turning. Will Smith and little Jaden Smith have teamed up on M. Night Shyamalan's next sci-fi bustblocker One Thousnd A.E.. I realise Will wants his son to have all the advantages that he never had as a young actor, but surely he's seen M. Night's work and knows this will be a disaster. Catherine Zeta-Jones is the latest MILF to be wooed by Gerard Butler in Playing the Field. Penelope Cruz is planning to reunite with Woody Allen for his Rome set movie later this year, I can't work out whether that's a good thing for her.

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Film Musical event of a lifetime (Film News - 26/02/11)

Wow, Oscar night already. I'd love to pretend I'll be staying up all night to watch it but it is on exceptionally late and isn't on free view here either, so I guess I'll catch up with the winners in the morning. In the meantime here are some articles that have caught my eye, as well as the monthly update on cinema release dates for films we've covered here in the past.

Les Miserables

It's one of the most successful and popular musicals of all time, last year it past it's 26th anniversary on Broadway and it's 10,000's performance in London, and yet there hasn't been a film adaptation for Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg's work. Not that they haven't tried both Alan Parker and Bruce Beresford have had high-profile attempts to put it together but it's all come to nothing, until now. With the world at his feet, and the prospect of a surprise best Director oscar this evening, Tom Hooper is seriously considering taking it on as his next project. You know damn well that it will be massively popular, but will it be any good?



I confess I've never seen the musical, in spite of the exhortations of a number of my friends, for me it seems to be a monumental folly, an extraordinarily overlong retelling of an already padded out novel (Victor Hugo, not known for his brevity). However it has won numerous Olivier and Tony awards, a few of the tunes are catchy and I don't know anyone who's really hated it. It's also pretty clear that a movie with this sort of heritage will produce a much better box office return than, say Nine even if recreating the French revolution will cost significantly more and may thereby resurrect the moribund musical genre.

Another factor going for the adaptation is the central relationship between petty criminal Valjean and obsessive policeman Javert which should create an interesting dynamic for the two actors who takes these roles, and as we've all seen recently Hooper is a master at dissecting male relationships. Keep our fingers crossed for this I think.

Read on for timeless romance, Miami vice, more dream levels, an old mans love, unsolved murders, soccer and a fast and loose biopic. As well as the usual round-up of castings and release schedules.



Adaline

Gabriele Muccino is obviously gutted at losing Passengers from his schedule as he's now considering another sci-fi inflected romance, this time about a woman who stops aging at the turn of the 20th century until she meets the right man. The project previously has Andy (Hitch) Tennant and Katherine Heigl attached but with them dropping out it seems the film may be leaning more to the weepie audience. It's a difficult combo to get right, but I wish them the very best.

Cocaine Cowboys

The dramatic retelling of 2006's documentary (left) hit might still be in the works, according to David O. Russell and Mark Wahlberg. It focuses on 70's crime icon Jon Roberts and his aspirations and experiences with drug cartels in Miami. Right now it looks like we'll have Russell and Wahlberg collaborating for the fourth time soon whatever film he decides to make.

Inception 2

Tom Hardy has waxed lyrically this week about his forthcoming role in The Dark Knight Rises for which he plans to bulk up (what, even more you say) but he also let slip that his contract for Inception included a lock-in clause for a sequel. I very much hope that's a legal machination to prevent the rights falling into the wrong hands and not an indication that the story will continue. I quite like the open-ended ending it currently has.

Old Mans War

I always see to be writing about sci-fi movies here, yet exceptionally few of them ever get made. Really at the moment there's only Prometheus and the Avatar sequels on the horizon. So please read on with a healthy dose of scepticism as Paramount have picked up the rights to John Scalzi's highly praised novel (left). The memories and personality of a septuagenarian are transplanted into a genetically enhanced body of a young soldier. The plot then gets weird when he meets a woman who reminds him of his dead wife. On board to direct is Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot, Poseiden) which seems like an odd choice so expect some changes before it goes before the cameras.

Paperboy

It looks like Precious director Lee Daniels has finally settled on his next project, and the bad news it's a thriller (I'm still trying to forget Shadowboxer). Based on the Pete Dexter's Florida set novel it meanders through a complex plot involving investigative journalism and unsolved murders whilst touching upon the seedy underside of the popular holiday destination. He's been talking to Bradley Cooper, Sofia Vergara and Alex Pettyfer about heading up the cast.

Seigneurs

Football doesn't often make it to the big screen, the latest attempt Goal was seen as a horrendous failure, but that hasn't stopped this latest French comedy from getting the go ahead. It will focus on a former star player who coaches his local amateur team in an isolated fishing community in Northern France. Combined with Zebras and Playing the Field it looks like soccer is beginning to ascend in cinema.

Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft

A couple of years ago we heard about a fictional biopic of sci-fi author H.P. Lovecraft (there he is on the right, and you can kind of see why he wrote sci-fi novels) but then the trail ran cold. The latest update is that Big Fish/The Nines scribe John August has been brought on to revise the script. August has a solid genre background so he should be a nice addition to this dreams unleashed project.

Casting News

There's been the usual round of casting speculations including a (very)longlist of actors vying to replace Matt Damon as the central character in Bourne Legacy including Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton, Garret Hedlund, Kellen Lutz and on and on for 10 more possible actors! Robert Downey Jnr is all but confirmed as Paul Thomas Anderson's private eye in Inherent Vice, Uma Thurman and Jessica Biel will be among the ladies Gerard Butler will woo in Playing the Field, and Rachel Weisz, Naomi Watts and Rebecca Hall have all been linked to roles in the Matt Damon/Ben Affleck wife swap drama The Trade - that is providing the wives and players in the New York Yankees who inspired the story don't manage to prevent it from even happening in the courts.

Release Schedules

Not much going on with the latest release changes. I guess we're still consolidating after the winter. Mind you summer's beginning to look less empty - I now have two movies I want to see between 20 May and 02 September - shame they're both out on the same date.

Hanna - Who'd've thought that Joe Wright would be making a summer tent pole movie - well the latest release shift for his hit girl thriller has shifted straight into the mid May onslaught. Seek revenge through your children on 06 May 2011.

Conspirator - Robert Redford's historic-political drama about the trial of Mary Surratt shuffled out of Toronto last year with little support but it should still pick up an audience in a dull looking summer. Join mob mentality on 01 July 2011.

War Horse - Spielberg's still settling on a final release pattern for his patented serious and silly combo with this latest tiny shift. Follow your pet across Europe on 25 March 2011.

Bourne Legacy - It's yet to really enter into the pre-production phase, in fact as you can see above they're still 14 stars to disappoint before they can even begin, however the latest Bourne movie has a release. Forget your past on 17 August 2012.



No, Damon won't be appearing in this.

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Dinner fit for a bride (Film News - 05/02/11)

There's been some interesting headlines this week with a couple of new titles coming our way which look very watchable, in fact the beauty of my first title is it will provide casting opportunities to hundreds. This is on top of the usual rounds of casting rumours and our monthly check of upcoming movies on imdb.

Great Expectations

If watching Derek Jacobi intone a few lines of Little Dorrit in the third act of Hereafter made you salivate for more Charles Dickens then you're in luck. It's looking like a version of his classic tale of class envy and redemptive guilt is set to make a foray into the big screen. Naturally this isn't the first time Pip, Magwitch and Miss Haversham have been in cinemas, most notably in the 1946 David Lean version with John Mills, Finlay Currie and Martita Hunt in those memorable roles.

I won't go into the plot details here, like all Dicken's it's long and meandering and with characters disappearing and reappearing with alarming regularity. There are also some magical moments of descriptive writing including fog shrouded escaped convicts and uneaten wedding cakes that could easily become iconic shots from the film.

The key thing is to try to imagine the casting. It's a film that practically begs for the brightest and best of British acting talent to be assembled. I'm saying Andrew Garfield for Pip and Helen Mirren as Miss Haversham. You heard it here first. Any casting ideas you have?


An early illustration of Miss Haversham's Wedding feast.


Read on for an unlikely true story, an surprising director says his next film will be an epic and the usual News segments.



Argo

The hunt for Ben Affleck's next directorial task continues with this bizarre true-life tale set to be produced by Men who Stare at Goats colleagues George Clooney and Grant Heslov. Like Goats it's an expose on one of the weirder moments in US military history focusing on the CIA operation to release the American Embassy hostages in 1979. Their ultimate plan involved disguising the operatives as a film crew scouting for locations. Whether Affleck can produce the satirical edge a project like this might need remains to be seen but if he pulls it off this could be hilarious.

Place beyond the Pines

Derek Cianfrance has been talking up his follow up to Blue Valentine to almost epic proportions. In an interview with indiewire he used terms like "the transformative power of fatherhood", "a Darwinistic idea of survival through ancestry" and (if that wasn't enough "I’ve had people tell me they feel like its ‘The Deer Hunter’ meets ‘The Godfather." Proof that he's certainly willing to enthuse about the project. The story focuses on a motorcycle stunt driver (Ryan Gosling's already practising in Cage's of death like this one to our right) who has to learn how to be a father and will cross generations. If it taps into even half as much honest human emotion as his latest then it will definitely be one to watch.

Casting News

The usual suspects have been hogging the casting rumours with Javier Bardem and Ralph Fiennes both close to signing on for Bond 23 - which could just become the starriest Bond ever - and Eva Green and Jackie Earle Haley may be hiding in Tim Burton's Dark Shadows. Robin Williams continues to be a possibility for Hugo Strange in Dark Knight Rises, although the main issue seems to be are three villains too many for the film to cope with. David O. Russell may be inviting Amy Adams back for his next project, the big screen adaptation of Playstation 3 game Uncharted: Drake's Progress although Scarlett Johannsson is another name in the mix. Finally Samuel L. Jackson has surprised nobody by exclusively revealing he'll cameo in Thor, frankly I was surprised when it was rumoured he wasn't going to.


Production News

Every month I like to update on the latest films moving into the pre-production stage, essentially as a way of monitoring which of the stories I've previously covered have actually come to fruition. This time we're seeing movement on David Cronenberg's limousine set thriller Cosmopolis, 60's crimecaper remake Gambit, hyperlink love story 360, and big budget big effects movies The Wolverine, Prometheus, Oz, Th Great and Powerful and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. The last four of which are bound for box office glory if nothing else. One movie though caught my eye even though I hadn't imagined it would.

Playing the Field

Gerard Butler obviously believes he's a big star, and I expect the studios think the same, why else would he continue to get high profile roles. So to follow his "acting" turn in Machine Gun Preacher there will be this black comedy about a soccer coach working his way through the Mums from his son's team. Whilst this doesn't scream high quality there's something intriguing about the notion and I expect they'll be some fun to be had when they start joining the dots.



You get some very odd results if you search for Soccer Moms on google, but this pic's relatively tame. Apparently there's a whole subculture relating to the term. Anyone want to clue me up on it?

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