The scribblings of a genius (Film News - 16/07/11)

It's been another weak week for film news with only a couple of projects catching my eye, the first of which won't be see for at least another couple of years. I'm not completely sure why this is - are all the execs on Holiday right now? No need to dally though lets get right into:

In the Hand of Dante

We heard this week that Johnny Depp has found a director for the big screen adaptation of Nick Tosches' head scratching novel in the form of Julian Schnabel. Intertwining fictional and autobiographical accounts of the lives of Tosche, Dante and a mobster named Louis the novel focuses on a manuscript of The Divine Comedy that may or may not be the original version.

It sounds to me like a more literary version of Adaptation so I can't wait to see how the characters intersect and what direction the plot unfolds in. The pyjama wearing auteur has said the book is about everything which may not be strictly accurate but at least gives an idea of how ambitious the project will be.

Unfortunately this is a long way off being made, in a statement Schnabel said nothings been signed and Johnny just wants him to look at it and develop it over the next couple of years. I don't know but it sounds like Depp wants to have something interesting to dig out of his schedules at some point in the far off future (and not now when he's hopelessly busy with box office stinkers). Not that Schnabel has anything to worry about, after their brief but memorable collaboration on Before Night Falls (Depp plays a transvestite smuggler - below - in the 2000 Reinaldo Arenas biopic) I suspect they're both itching to get together again.




Read on for a sequel 20 years out of date and a round up of this weeks casting news.



Red Hook Summer

Appearing seemingly out of nowhere and only really a tweet and some investigative journalism is the news that Spike Lee is making a semi-sequel to his seminal 1989 movie Do the Right Thing (see poster below). It's a sequel in that he will return as the character of Mookie but not continuing the plot, although like the original movie the action will take place over a long hot summer. Obviously Lee decided to make a quick joint before seriously starting pre-production on his Old Boy remake, and I for one am far more interested in what he has to say with this.



Casting News

We may not have seen much excitement in the new films section of this weeks news, but at least the casting section sees plenty to write home about. The most interesting story was hearing Joaquin Pheonix is attached to the forthcoming Spike Jonze and Andy Kaufman collaboration. This is great news as it means Pheonix's career has somehow survived his I'm Still Here stunt and we also picked up the movie will be a political satire concerning world leaders planning future crises - sounds intriguing. Edward Norton is being considered for bad guy duties in The Bourne Legacy, the eclectic cast of He Loves Me is getting more interesting with Elliott Gould, Antonio Banderas and Steve Coogan signing on in support and further to last week Josh Brolin is being consider for the Old Boy remake.

Read More...

Summary only...

Toy Stories (Film News - 18/06/11)

It's been a bumper week for film news, with an extraordinary selection of stories catching my eye, even if some of them appear to be less likely than me winning the lottery this evening. Actually mainly what we've seen this week are stories concerning directors who just can't seem to make their minds up about the next excuse to get behind the camera. In fact for the various big name helmers I'm going to mention this week there are at least 20 projects they've been "attached" to so far this year and given they can't possibly make all of them it seems unlikely that any will be made. Once again we're facing the fact that the Internet will eat itself in it's desperate attempt to create and sustain news feeds. Like a sucker though I just carry on reading and digesting everything for just the slightest indication of what's coming up. So to mix it up this week I'm going to be labeling the projects I've read about against their potential auteurs (although given the range of some of the titles I think we can safely say the director is not the author of the film when it is a studio picture) rather than the titles.

Robert Zemeckis

Having seen his Yellow Submarine remake sank Zemeckis appeared to be going into live action movie making again with Flight with Denzel Washington just having gone into pre-production. However he's now been attached to Major Matt Mason, a 3D extravaganza based on the 1960's Mattel action figure with Tom Hanks in the lead role. Side note, given Hanks's long time association with a different kind of toy do you think he's doing this as a way of competing with Buzz Lightyear?

The action figure's (see below for his lifelike limbs) story was surprisingly complex, given it was a standalone product, with several different coloured suits for his assistants in space and a giant foe who proved to be more help than hindrance against more hostile aliens.



Of course the toys must have had a large, albeit unsung, cultural influence. They were released around the same time as the original "Star Trek" series and with them popularised the idea of colonization of space by a future collective of humans able to put former nationalistic ideas of Earth to one side. Although these days it will probably feel too much like a throwback, the plot could be a retread of Star Trek only for a much younger audience with elements of John Carter of Mars thrown in for good measure, so it might struggle to build up it's own identity in a crowded genre field. I also suspect the trend for 3D presentations will be well and truly dead by the time the film is made.

Read on for more debunking of the auteur theory, the latest casting gossip and my reaction to the latest group of actors inducted into AMPAS.



Ben Affleck

Currently in pre-production for his CIA mission movie Argo, including chucklesome plans to lock the actors up for a couple of weeks together to give them an idea of what's it's like being in captivity, Affleck has also been named as the go to guy for the American remake of French thriller Tell No One (see poster, left). Going back to Harlen Coben's source novel, itself American, the story focuses on a doctor who begins to suspect his wife is still alive several years after her murder at the hands of a known serial killer. The French version, written and directed by Guillaume Canet, was a huge success in both Europe and the States so any remake will have to work very hard to survive the inevitable comparisons.

Ethan and Joel Coen

At the opening of the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center earlier this week the Coen brothers and Noah Baumbach were discussing film openings in front of an invited audience when a small clue about the Coen's next project was revealed, in that it involves music but little playback (the comments were in response to a question about their dislike of the cumbersome process of playback recording). Of course without anything else we're completely in the dark, although it's worth noting earlier this year they said one of their potential projects was a mockumentary - or rather a fake documentary in that it won't be openly comedic. Could that be focused on a musician?

Catherine Hardwicke

I hope she's liking her wounds following my scathing review of Red Riding Hood (unlikely I know, and in the picture on the right she's still smiling so I guess Catherine hadn't heard my views then) and hopefully she's taking my advice about returning to pubescent girls for the subject of her next movie. Regardless of whether she is it's still what she's going to do with the announcement of a Scandinavian set crazy, raw and gritty true story of which more will be announced over the next few weeks (hang on why didn't I wait for that...)

Sean Penn

The only name here is isn't pimping himself out to the highest bidder is actor and sometime director Sean Penn, who doesn't go behind the camera often but when he does it's a fascinating thing. This week we've been asking whether he's going to take on the Art Linson script The Comedian which has already grabbed the attention of Robert De Niro. The project was originally intended for Martin Scorsese but it looks like he's passed leaving Sean Penn free to pick it up, if so this seems like a unlikely but hopefully fruitful combination of talent involved.


David O. Russell

I wish this guy would just make up his mind over what he wants to do. So far this year he's been linked to Cocaine Cowboys, Fighter 2, Joe, Politics and Pasta, Silver linings Playbook (currently in pre-production), Uncharted: Drake's Progress (which he's ruled himself out of) and a Russ Meyer Biopic. Not to mention his Nailed which is languishing in post-production vaults waiting for the money to finish the cut. So imagine my surprise to see two more projects land on his desk including Disney's Cinderella spin-off Maleficent (surely not what someone like Russell should be concentrating on) and The Mission which may be about the rescue of 15 FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia, left) hostages in Columbia in 2007 by cross-national agencies working together and certainly will be produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura.


Steven Spielberg

I've been keeping the two I least suspect of making it to multiplexes under the directors I've attached them to until last - it's not just because it's his name last alphabetically - which stems from the difficulties in separating Spielberg the producer from Spielberg the director. Anyway over the last few days there have been stories in connection to Jurassic Park 4 and Transformers 4 both of which could have the beard in control, and both of which would be interesting to see, but I suspect a less-assured name will be found soon to take over both projects.

Casting News

Plenty of exciting stuff going on in the casting couches of Hollywood including Darren Aronofsky courting Christian Bale as the lead in his Noah's Ark picture and the curious news that Annette Bening has signed onto to He Loves Me, the writers block movie from Valarie Faris and Jonathan Dayton, the directing duo behind Little Miss Sunshine, which explains why she's dropped from Rob Reiner's similarly themed movie. Elesewhere Ed Harris has signed on to World War Z, Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin are circling Jason Reitman's Labor Day and John Hurt and Kevin Bacon will be passing through Jayne Mansfield's Car. Finally there's been the surprise sighting of Liam Neeson on the set of Dark Knight Rises in the costume of Ra's Al Ghul, the character he played right up until he drove a train off it's tracks in Batman Begins, so of course the fans on the net have been trying to figure out how that will affect the plot (and how he got out of the predicament). Personally I suspect the truth is less exciting, we already know Josh Pence is playing Ra's in flashbacks, surely it's not to difficult to make the leap to more recent flashbacks with Neeson in the role?



How they know Neeson was in costume confuses me as he wore a variety of clothes in the first film, maybe he's dressed for a fight like in this picture.

AMPAS

Another year and another cohort of inductees find themselves offered membership into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. As ever it's a fascinating list that says as much about the Academy as it does about those invited. In terms of the actors (I'll be honest it's the group I'm most interested in) there's been 27 performers who've received invitations, up 7 on last year, with a large number of younger members whose tastes are hopefully more hip and in touch with public tastes than the older conservative members. None of those invited this year have riled me as much as Ryan Reynolds and Seth Rogen did over the last couple of years, although you do have to question the wisdom of letting Russell Brand and John Corbett identify quality movies. Anyway here is the full list of actors and the films that probably formed part of the reason for their invitation, in order that I think they deserve that honour.

John Hawkes - Winter's Bone; American Gangster; Miracle at St. Anna; Miami Vice; Identity; Perfect Storm; Flesh and Bone

Jesse Eisenberg - Social Network; Cursed; Village; Emperor's Club

Ellen Page - Juno; Inception

Jacki Weaver - Animal Kingdom; Picnic at Hanging Rock

Jennifer Lawrence - Winter's Bone;

Vincent Cassel - Black Swan; Eastern Promises; Elizabeth; Ocean's Thirteen; Ocean's Twelve; Jefferson in Paris

Anthony Mackie - Hurt Locker; Half Nelson; Million Dollar Baby; She Hate Me; Manchurian Candidate; 8 Mile

Lesley Manville - Vera Drake; Secrets and Lies; Another Year; Christmas Carol; All or Nothing; Topsy-Turvy; High Hopes; Sammy and Rosie Get Laid; Dance with a Stranger

Jennifer Garner - Juno; Catch Me if You Can; Valentine's Day; Deconstructing Harry

Rosemarie DeWitt - Rachel Getting Married; Cinderella Man;

Robbie Coltrane - Mona Lisa; Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; Ocean's Twelve; World is not Enough; Message in a Bottle; Nuns on the Run; Henry V; Revolution; Loose Connections; Krull; Britannia Hospital; Death Watch

David Duchovny - Chaplin; Full Frontal; Zoolander; Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead; Bad Influence; Working Girl

Gerard Butler - Mrs Brown; Game of Their Lives; Phantom of the Opera; Timeline; Cherry Orchard

Connie Nielsen - Gladiator; Return to Sender; Hunted; Mission to Mars; Devil's Advocate

Wes Studi - Dances with Wolves; Avatar; Heat; Last of the Mohicans; Doors

Dominic Monaghan - Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring; The Two Towers; The Return of the King

Mia Wasikowska - Kids are All Right; Alice in Wonderland; Defiance

Beyonce Knowles - Dreamgirls; Fighting Temptations

Mila Kunis - Black Swan;

Rooney Mara - Social Network;

Natassja Kinski - Inland Empire; One Night Stand; Crystal or Ash, Fire or Wind, As long as it's Love; Revolution; Maria's Lovers; Hotel Blue Hampshire; Unfaithfully Yours; Cat People; One from the Heart; Tess

Tea Leoni - Spanglish; Hollywood Ending; Flirting with Disaster; Wyatt Earp; League of Their Own; Switch

Thomas Jane - Killshot; Mist; Dreamcatcher; Magnolia; Boogie Nights

Peter Dinklage - Death at a Funeral; Find Me Guilty; Station Agent; Human Nature

Bradley Cooper - Valentine's Day; New York I Love You

Russell Brand - Tempest

John Corbett - Raising Helen

The other Academy news story this week was the twist in the number of films the Academy will nominate for best picture this year, it will now be a variable figure between 5 and 10 based on the number of films getting over 5% of the vote for the best films. It's an odd way of doing things, but it sure will make the announcement of the nominations more exciting.


Yes, this man, holding his hand out to the Academy in the dreadful Sex and the City 2 now has more of a say about what the best films of the year are than you do, reader.

Read More...

Summary only...

The roar of the Engine - (Film News - 28/05/11)

It's not a classic week for film news. So much so that I'm leading with a particular sports movie from a genre with a long history of failing it's subject that is one of many potential jobs for it's high profile director. Of course post-production news has been much more exciting with Terence Malick's Tree of Life triumphantly carrying off the Palme d'Or last Sunday, to the delight of many fans of serious arthouse fare. I am still wary about the movie, which by all accounts forgoes narrative for lyricism, however I have promised Tom at Reinvention that I'll give it a go when it comes out over here and I am certainly curious about it as a piece of art.

Go Like Hell

Next week we have the UK cinema release of Formula 1 documentary Senna, you probably watched the trailer a couple of weeks ago, but as anyone who is even remotely a fan of motor racing will know that Hollywood has always failed to capture the beauty and excitement of the sport. It's therefore a muted curiosity that greets this true-life Le Mans movie about the rise of Ford as a champion constructor beating Ferrari in 1966 and focused around the relationship between the owner, engineer and design visionaries Henry Ford II, Carroll Shelby and Lee Iacocca respectively.

Of course from that synopsis it seems the movie will be less interested in the race than the power struggles between the three men, however Michael Mann is potentially signing on to direct so there could well be some thumping sound design and carefully constructed visuals intercut with scenes of tinkering with spanners and fuel injection systems.



Steve McQueen starred in the most successful motor racing film to date (above) which also featured France's infamous 24 hour race.

Of course it's the Monaco Grand Prix tomorrow for anyone who really wants to see some real action, I know it's what I'll be doing tomorrow afternoon.

Read on for Euro money shots, wish-fulfilling collaborations, hairy superheroes and supermodel stares as well as the latest casting and release date news.



Le Capital

Standby for a satirical European take on the Financial crisis with firebrand political director Costa-Gavras with Vincent Cassel in the central role rushing between the major international financial centres and drowning himself in a hedonistic mix of sex, drugs and massive deals. And if that doesn't raise your pulse then your heart has probably stopped.


The Comedian

We can call this a serious long shot, however it's a curious set-up. The King of Comedy (left) producer Art Linson as put together another darkly comic script about the life and stand-up routines of an insult comedian (such as Don Rickles or Joan Rivers) which he's currently sending to Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese in a brave attempt to recruit them onto it. I would love to see the trio working together again, but frankly I think it's highly unlikely.

The Wolverine

Fox have a (long) short-list of potential directors for the Wolverine sequel now that Darren Aronofsky has left it in order to avoid going abroad. I'm not sure I like the principle of the studio releasing a list of names willy nilly - it's worse than the current vogue for talking about every stage of the casting process - and the range of candidates is extraordinary and all-encompassing. There are 8 names in contention, from the workmanlike (James Mangold, Antoine Fuqua and Gavin O'Connor) to the arthouse (Mark Romanek) to the mystery (commercial director Gary Shore). Doug Liman (Bourne Identity) looks to be the bookies favourite.

Zoolander 2

A lot has been made this week of an interview in Empire where Ben Stiller dished the dirt on a planned sequel to the 2001 cult comedy hit, including juicy titbits about the finished script and berating Paramount execs who have yet to greenlight the project. Frankly this is simply retreading stuff we've heard thousands of times, however if you reading this and following the link to imdb gets hits up and shows there's an interest in seeing it get made then I'm happy to write it up.


Ben Stiller - in full Blue Steel mode - as Derek Zoolander.

Casting News

It's not official, but we're short of casting news this week so I'm gonna mention that Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton are after Jeff Bridges for He Loves Me, their novelist version of "Pygmalian". Virginia Madsen may be replacing Annette Bening in Rob Reiner's take on writer's Block, The Third Act which might now be called Summer at Dog Dave's, but I'm mainly curious as to why.

Release Schedules

If you thought there was little going on on the news front just try finding anything interesting to say about UK release schedules. It's been four weeks since the last update and the only change is for a movie that should have come out but hadn't so all you lovely readers have already worked out that it's been delayed!

The Messenger - The Oscar nominated Iraq war drama has taken an unfeasibly long time (it'll be 581 days since it's limited US release) to make it to British cinemas. It's a shame as it's filled with powerful performances from a cast that includes Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson and Samantha Morton. Prepare for bad news on 17 June 2011.

I also noticed that Claude Lelouch's latest First World War romance Ces Amours La, or What War May Bring has gone straight to DVD here in the UK. That's not very surprising given the general audience antipathy towards the Great War but given the first I heard was finding it on the shelves of the local supermarket there was a little gasp of confusion.


The French poster of Ces Amours La clearly accentuates an iconic kiss central to the plot.

Read More...

Summary only...

Honouring the writers (Film News - 12/02/11)

It's been a fantastic week for film fans, every day we've been treated to valuable nuggets of information all building up to exciting propositions for future cinematic releases. Some have been for the sort of box office behemoths that dominate the front pages however there has also been a tsunami of reportage for more high brow fare, including some projects that may bother the Academy over the next couple of years.

The Third Act/He Loves Me

We start this week with two very different projects that share a similar starting point: Writer's Block (something I imagine most bloggers are familiar with). In The Third Act we have a sucessful author of Western novels - set to be played by Morgan Freeman - He Loves Me will star Paul Dano as a former child prodigy trying to break into serious adult fiction (that's fiction for adults nothing saucy).

That's where the similarities end. Whilst the former involves Freeman meddling with the lives of the local inhabitants of the small town he retreats to for inspiration and the latter will riff on Pygmalion and see Dano writing up hs ideal girlfriend into existence. Behind the cameras will be Rob Reiner and Little Miss Sunshine duo Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris further highlighting the divergent styles.



You wouldn't have thought tht writer's block (as visualised above) would be such a hot topic in Hollywood, but with these two and Jason Reitman's upcoming Young Adult there definitely seems to be a trend forming. I would be tempted to say theres been a lot of it about but you could hardly argue the output has dwindled over recent years or that the quality of high end writing has dimished either in la-la-land or on the Waterstone's shelves. Maybe it's just an outpouring of nostalgia for the printed word before it finally gets subsumed by the instant gratification of the computer screen.

Read on for tragic siblings, runaway princesses, gospel singers, assassins, hypnotherapy, bible stories, werewolves, The Coen brothers, mad millionaires and the usual helpings of casting news.



Back Roads

Andrew Garfield (left) clearly has a good head on his shoulders, or at least a clever agent, as he's already signing onto the indie options tht will prove invaluable once the Spider-man cash cow has met it's untimely end. Once filming on the web slinger is over he'll be raising his youg sisters all by himself as a result of his domestically abused Mum murdering his Dad. Expect lots of wrought emotions, as well as steamy encounters with neighbour Jennifer Garner, in Adrian Lyne's film.

Girl's Night Out

The King's Speech has reminded everyone that good old-fashioned Royalty mixing with commoners is still as popular as ever so it's no surprise to see the tale of young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret sneaking out of the Palace on VE day and having a high old time in London. Expect Margaret (due to be played by Dakota Fanning!!!) to be having much more fun than her upright sister, now The Queen.

Got to Tell It: Mahalia Jackson, Queen of Gospel

If you think one American Idol reject winning an Oscar is not enough then stand by for Fantasia Barrino (to be honest I have no idea who she is, but apparently she's well known on that side of the pond). She's taking the lead role in the biopic of the Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson (right - in full flow). Unlike most biopics there's very little dirt to dig up on Mahalia, raised in an abusive household she found the Church fairly early on and never looked back. On the other hand she sung at the March on Washington in 1963 and at Martin Luther King's funeral as well as being the first Gospel artist to perform at the Carnegie Hall. So it should be a fairly affirming movie at least.

Headshot

I wouldn't normally go for Stallone movies, especially one where he plays a hitman lest it be a sort of sequel to the horrific Assassins. However the graphic novel has been adapted by The Messenger scribe Alessandro Camon which, given how powerful and nuanced his previous work is, makes me very interested indeed.

The Hynotist

Dragon Tattoo fans rejoice there's a new Swedish thriller set to ake the leap to the big screen, and even better it's not being made as a TV miniseries then being butchered into feature length episodes. On the other had Lars Kopler's first novel (left) in his Det. Joona Linna books is hardly Steig Larsson levels of notoriety. The plot involves a near dead boy being hypnotised to reveal details of who murdered his family in order to protect the other surviving siblings. Probably gory.

Noah's Ark

A few weeks ago we had speculation about Darren Aronofsky writing a comic book in order to obtain finance for his next projet. This week we found out that comic is for his Noah's Ark story. The odd thing is it's not even a metaphor. Darren Aronofsky really wants to make a biblical epic about the most famous boat in Genesis, covering themes of environmentalism and survivors guilt, it's the sort of film they definitely don't make anymore. Not sure how middle America will respond - but then I guess they didn't watch Black Swan.

Sharp Teeth

Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy may be joining forces for the third time running (after Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours) with the adaptation of the Werewolves in gangland LA novel by Toby Barlow (right). It's had some very good press and won the Alex award for young adult literature. Clearly Boyle's highly acclaimed National Theatre production of Frankenstein has persuaded him to make the leap to onscreen horror.

The Coen Brother's next movie

Joel and Ethan Coen are in an virtually unheard of position as they have no project on the go, and as much as I'd like them to return to some of their abandoned ideas (The Yiddish Policeman's Union first and foremost) it seems they're going to bemoving on. During a recent webchat with Empire magazine they hinted a full blown horror may be on the cards - with Frances McDormand as the monster - or a faux documentary might make it first (according to Roger Deakins). Frankly, with the financial and critical success of True Grit I imagine the studios will make them make whatever they want to make this time.

Christopher Nolan's Howard Hughes biopic

Apparently Christopher Nolan (left) fancies making a small movie after Dark Knight Rises, aiming to follow the increasing bizare behaviour of reclusive Billionaire Howard Hughes. I'm not sure how much more needs to be said about the man, between Scorsese's The Aviator and the Melvin and Howard cameo I think we've seenit all, however Nolan clearly wants an Oscar and it might be that biopics are the only way for him to get one.


Casting News

Some interesting addtions to projects already in the pipeline including Richard Jenkins joining the card cheat fallout out in Cogan's Trade, Nicolas Hoult will be Jack, The Giant Killer out to dispose of the Bill Nighy and John Kassir's two headed giant whilst being manipulated by Stanley Tucci. Bruce Willis, Justin Timberlake and Catherine Zeta-Jones will all be gambling on Lay the Favourite. Oscar nominees James Franco is the latest Wizard in Oz: The Great and Powerful and Jennifer Lawrence will be involved with drug cartels in The Savages. Finally - and I know this isn't cating - David Frankel (Devil wears Prada) is the latest diretor attachedto Meryl Strep marital therapy comedy Great Hope Springs.

Read More...

Summary only...