I'm still in London, so just a little bit out on a limb, therefore it's difficult to keep up with the news, however I have endeavored to keep looking at the latest headlines on a daily basis so I can, at least, give a rough breakdown. Actually the biggest news stories have all been casting related but a few new rumours have surfaced. Such as:
Gold
Which sees the unlikely marriage of Michael Mann director with Paul Haggis on production duty for this modern tale of obsessions and greed with cues taken from John Huston's masterful The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. We don't know anything else at this point, but investigations into the seamier side of man's relationship with rare stuff from the ground is usually good for a watch - whether we're talking about Bogart in the 1949 film or Daniel Day-Lewis drinking our milkshake. 
The script by Chicago Code/Friday Night Lights alumni Patrick Massett and John Zinman was originally passed to Haggis, who felt he could not direct due to other commitments so in turn offered it to Mann. I suspect this will be right up Micheal's street, the potential mix of dangerous men in dangerous situations will undoubtedly be irresistible to him.
Expect some great names to join the cast over the coming months.
Read on for more revenge, more money, and some casting news.
Low Dweller
I think revenge must be back in fashion. Everywhere you look these days there are violent fantasies where wronged men, and it almost always is men, seek brutal justice for the murder of their wife/child/partner, so it's no surprise to hear of another one. However this is different as it's the blacklisted script by Brad Inglesby which Scott Cooper has been commissioned to re-draft and direct. Which beg's the question why does it need Mr. Cooper to take another look at the script if it was so bleeding good in the first place. In Low Dweller the hero is released from prison wanting some sweet love with his reluctant girlfriend only to find his brother is dead so he seeks revenge - I'm sure there's something interesting about it.
$7Bn Dollar Men
Based on the Wall Street bailout, and more specifically about the Federal Bailout Chief, Neal Kashkari, who lasted in the job for just 6 months, spent unprecedented amounts of money helping the financial services industry, then retired to his Maryland hometown to build a shed. Frankly I'm not sure what this will aim to "say" as a final film but George Clooney and Grant Heslov, who have teamed up on The Men who Stare at Goats, another satirical look at the modern American State, are interested in adapting it so there must be an unusual take to be had.
Casting News
There have been plenty of meetings with casting directors this week, indeed it's largely these assigned parts which has got me going for most of the time. During the last seven days Alec Baldwin, Jesse Eisenberg and Ellen Page have all signed up for the next Woody Allen picture. Joaquim Pheonix has less his semi-exile to work on Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master. Sally Field has confirmed as Mary Todd Lincoln in the upcoming Lincoln movie. That's the real one - not Vampire Hunter. Helena Bonham Carter may end up as Miss Haversham and Ryan Gosling is interested in putting on a mask so as to play the Lone Ranger to Johnny Depp's Tonto.
Sidney Lumet
Of course this week we also heard to the tragic passing of celebrated film director Sidney Lumet. In a career that lasted over 50 years Lumet brought to the screen several groundbreaking and consistently high performing movies from 12 Angry Men to Before the Devil Knows you're Dead by way of Network and Dog Day Afternoon. Each one providing iconic moments in the history of modern cinema. His talent will be sorely missed.
Here is a little bit of Network to remind why Lumet was such a star.
Sunday, 17 April 2011
All that glisten's is not... (Film News - 17/04/11)
Sunday, 3 August 2008
Long Day's Journey into Night
1962. Dir: Sidney Lumet. Starring: Katherine Hepburn, Ralph Richardson, Jason Robards, Dean Stockwell and Jeanne Barr. ●●●○○
Written by Eugene O'Neill in the 1940's, this semi-autobiographical play was first released and produced following his death in 1953. The play was a huge hit and it often regarded as his finest work - praise indeed for the writer of The Iceman Cometh.
The plot, or what there is of one, follows the Tyrone's over the course of the day as they fight and pick at each other and turn to their own habits and rituals for comfort.
There are some additional issues for a transfer from stage to screen tat you don't have with other films, especially when the action all takes place in a single set. In some adaptations there will be additional characters, in other the action moves to different locations. In Night Sidney Lumet merely opens up the house - we see the garden and the dining room, but other than that it's purely as the play is presented.
It's a brave decision, and I think the right one. The spare room and the Doctor's office are described almost as other worlds so it would have been a let down to actually see them. On the other hand this decision makes the film feel very stagey. There's even one device at the end where the camera pans out to reveal the set as a faraway stage. This whole staginess makes the film more boring than it has any right to be.
If Boris Kaufman (cinematographer of such masterpieces as On the Waterfront and 12 Angry Men) had been given more rein to have fun like the point when the camera follows Katherine Hepburn around as she circles the room then the whole film would be improved. Perhaps if the set was interesting this could have helped, but, as Hepburn's character repeats many times it's not a home and it certainly gives no clues to indicate the places is lived in and enjoyed.
All the performances hit the right notes. Katherine Hepburn milks the slow descent into morphine induced madness but only in keeping with the charcter and Ralph Richardson makes a superb hammy miser in a performance that may just be a touch close to home. Making a huge impression as the youngest son with Consumption, and the character that stands in for Eugene himself, is Dean Stockwell.
Stockwell had been a child actor who was now graduating to adult parts, and his performance here is superb as his watches the rest of his family get drunk or high and desperately try to avoid talking about what's really wrong with themselves by blaming everyone else around them. It's certainly a wonder why Stockwell didn't get more film work, looking at his CV it seems TV was a greater calling so a potential matinee idol was lost there.
To conclude I would say that the dialoigue is riveting, the performances good and the haunting piano score of Andre Previn effectively evocative, but Long Day's Journey into Night fails to escape from it's stage past and the overall package is less than the sum of it's parts.
