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)
Friday, 1 January 2010
20 for 2010 - Numbers 17 to 20
It seems hard to believe that I've been blogging so long that I'm returning to a theme I've already covered, that of the films I'm most looking forward to in 2010. In case you don't remember (or more likely weren't reading last year) on 1st January 2009 I counted down the top twenty films I was anticipating.
In retrospect it wasn't a great list. I have, so far, seen 11 of the films and only one of these made the top ten of films I actually saw - admittedly it was the final number 1 - Where the Wild Things Are. Therefore 10 were just not good enough. Of the remainder I'll be seeing The Lovely Bones and Brothers in January, Whatever Works has no sign of a UK release date, My Own Love Song has disappeared and Hachi looks like it's going striaght to video. The rest have been bumped into 2010 schedules and will be listed below as part of the countdown.
You could extrapolate that experience and try to second guess which of the top 20 will move to 2011 or drift off (I already know that one of the list has a UK release date in Jan '11), alternative you could tell me in advance which of these will make the year end top ten. There will actually be a competition later in the rundown with a bag of minstrels as the top prize (It's my cinema snack of choice).
The rules are simple.
1. I use the US release dates and schedules. I know this flies in the face of the way I do my top ten, but it's impossible to estimate how long it will take between releases here and there and it's often easier to find those details in the states. This means that It's Complicated and Precious aren't eligible even though I will see both of them.
2. On IMDB the filming must have started, and it must be recorded as a 2010 film. It's arbitrary I know, but it helps to reduce the likelihood of a film slipping into next years schedule.
3. (New Rule Alert) Films that made the list last year will be shunted to the back of this years list no matter how excited I am about them. I call this the Shutter Island rule because last year Shutter Island was the top film and I am still looking forward to it more than any other film on this list - but it wouldn't be fair to lead 2 years in a row so that, and all the other projects that have been delayed are at the back.
So, with that in mind, here are the films 20 to 17 that I am most looking forward to seeing in 2010.
17. Shutter Island Dir. Martin Scorsese. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Kingsley and Michelle Williams.
18. Love Ranch Dir. Taylor Hackford. Starring Helen Mirren, Joe Pesci and Sergio Peris-Mencheta. (No, I couldn't find any decent screen pics apart from the one I used last year)
19. The Tempest Dir. Julie Taymor. Starring Helen Mirren, Russell Brand and Djimon Hounsou (below as Caliban).
20. Biutiful Dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu. Starring Javier Bardem, Rubén Ochandiano and Blanca Portillo.
If you want to know a little more about why I was interested in these films then take a look at the labels below and you'll see last years posts.
Look out for number 16 in the 20 for 2010 countdown tomorrow.
