I honestly believe I may be the only person looking forward to this film. Even with just over a month to go before it slips into cinemas the internet buzz is surprisingly slight, and I've only seen one magazine article about it, but as I said way back when the idea of a mixed martial arts movie was first mooted by Gavin O'Connor this seems like an ideal opportunity to barely conceal inappropriate thoughts about some sexy guys. Now we know it's Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton I'm not sure how anyone can argue with that.
Warrior is released on 23 September 2011.
Tuesday, 2 August 2011
Tuesday Trailers - Warrior
Monday, 1 August 2011
Giancarlo Giannini
Happy birthday to
Giancarlo Giannini
69 today
I've just had a little episode preparing to celebrate Giancarlo's birthday when I nearly downloaded the picture from the last time we went there. Back to the reason we're here though... The Oscar nominated Italian has a fascinating back catalgue in many fields of film production, including as an actor, director and writer - he's also noted for his multi-lingual performances. Nothing coming up that's really jumping out at me though.
Sunday, 31 July 2011
Running (31/07/11)
Fairly average week until today, the normal six mile runs, some hill training and yesterday's parkrun in Heaton Park (I really cannot say how great it is joining in there - any Manc's who read this you must come and say hi!). Today I ran 18 miles as one of the big training runs, I managed a fairly stable running pace, which if I keep that going for the final 8 and a bit miles then I should do a marathon in 3 hours 40, which is good. Just six weeks to go until the Nottingham Marathon....
5 runs
38.9 miles
5 hours 18 minutes
So that's an average speed of 7.33 mph
Saturday, 30 July 2011
Flying through the headlines (Film News - 30/08/11)
We're getting back to normal in the news front, with three stories actually making me raise my eyebrows this week, as well as a couple of casting breakthroughs that make a lot of sense when put into context. We also heard about the deaths of two directors who, whilst minor players in Hollywood, both made iconic movies starring Alan Bates, scroll down to the end of the post to see clips of those collaborations.
Mr. Vertigo
Oh, this sounds good, an adaptation of Paul Auster's novel about levitation being worked on by Terry Gilliam. Just from that brief sentence I'm hooked to the delicious concept. The bad news is Gilliam has declared "And I’m actually working on a script of it at the moment. Doesn’t mean it will be a film; but I’m working on a script." which means that whilst we could be excited there's still a long long way to go and it may never end up being filmed, that said I'm still poised on the edge of my seat trying to find out more.
Auster's novel (cover, pictured below) is written as a first person, by our eponymous hero, [an] account of middle America in the 1920's taking in the upheavals in technology and class structure, the slow death of the carnival circuit and a few momentous historical events. It sounds like a mix of Little Big Man and this years Water for Elephants only with more levitating and with discussions of the complex relationship between art and entertainment.
But I must remember it may never get made. Gilliam's an interesting fish who struggles to get projects off the ground and finally into the can so it could be a long time before he even picks his next film let alone makes it. Patience, my friend, good things always come to those who wait.
Read on for the latest casting titbits, a full update on UK releases and a brief obituary to two well loved film directors.
Here there be Monsters
We haven't heard anything about this Brian Helgeland scripted action adventure for a while but it does appear to be moving closer to being made. Clearly influenced by the continued success of the Pirates movies and the Battleship synopsis the film sees disgraced Royal Naval officer John Paul Jones and his hunt and strategic long running battle against a giant sea serpent. Sounds delicious. Hang on, I'm British and have experience of sailing square riggers, must find out who's casting this.
Storming Las Vegas
Here's another project that literally does what it says on the tin. A Cuban born Soviet trained Commando criminal goes on a 16 month crime spree in Las Vegas in which he steals millions of dollars and is chased by LA veteran cop Lt John Alamshaw who made it his business to stop this man from tarnishing the building reputation of Las Vegas as a family friendly tourist trap. If that sounds far fetched stand by because the whole story is true, based on the book by Miami Herald columnist John Huddy the potential film will also explore the Casino's reluctance to let the crime spree get reported during the 90's boom. Currently Antoine Fuqua is attached to direct - although he's a very busy man so expect at least one of his potential films to get dropped.
Fuqua considers which of the 7 projects he's currently attached to that he's shooting.
Casting News
Nick Nolte is set to increase the wrinkle factor on Robert Redford's journalistic integrity project The Company you Keep, the role hasn't been fully announced but I wouldn't be surprised if he isn't Shia LaBeouf's bullish editor. Meanwhile the Bourne universe is solidifying with the news that Joan Allen and Albert Finney will be reprising their roles from the previous trilogy firmly establishing a connection with the rest of the franchise.
Joan, as Pamela Landy, squares off against Damon's Bourne.
Release Schedules
It's been the most frantic month for changing release schedules in a long time, with 8 new dates set from October this year right through until next December. Among them several films that made it to my top 20 for 2011 so I'm very excited to be announcing that:
Midnight in Paris - The buzz on Woody Allen's latest movie, which is currently storming along in the US box office raking in his best ever take, has been so good we're actually going to get it in the UK on the same year as American audiences. Find out why Paris is the city of romance on 07 October 2011.
Straw Dogs - Depending on your view of Sam Pakinpah's original the release date for this remake will either excite you or appal you, that said it's definitely on it's way to cinemas now. Defend your wife's honour on 04 November 2011.
Machine Gun Preacher - I'm not sure what the moving forward of two months means to this reformed biker biopic starring Gerard Butler, but with it's appearances at Toronto it could well be positioning itself as a major awards player. Fight for child soldiers on 18 November 2011.
Moneyball - Baseball movies are always a tough sell, especially outside of the States, so it's no surprise to see this mix of geeky calculus and man's rounders shifting to a weekend without any high brow competition. Hit a home run on 25 November 2011.
Haywire - Based on the conflicting Soderbergh trailers released this week you would assume Contagion is the serious movie whereas this genre exercise is just a bit of fun, but you never know with Steven's exercises. Don't be a target on 20 January 2012.
Young Adult - So far we know that the second collaboration between director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody, after Juno in 2007, is missing the festival circuit and we've heard it may be tough viewing full of unlikeable characters, oddly that makes me want to see it more. Seduce you're old school friends on 10 February 2012.
Playing the Field - It's Gerard Butler again, this time playing a soccer Lothario sleeping his way through the Moms supporting the team he coaches, the tone could go either way on this. Get right into the penalty zone on 09 March 2012.
Dark Shadows - With two movies coming out in 2012, this and the stop motion animation of Frankenweenie it's hard to know which of Tim Burton's releases seems more interesting, you know though that the combination of Johnny Depp and high camp will propel this to the top of the box office. Go vampire hunting on 11 May 2012.
Anna Karenina - The first prestige costume drama of 2012 out of the gate will be Joe Wright's adaptation of Tolstoy's doorstop novel. Whilst the story speaks to everyone it's muddled and very Russian narrative has resisted classic film status in the past but hopefully this will be the adaptation that bucks the trend. Fall for someone totally inappropriate on 10 August 2012.
Savages - Oliver Stone's hippy revenge movie seems like a curious mix of his influences, potentially a stoner action movie that rips all the cliches apart I know I'll be there. Have a smoke on 28 September 2012.
Life of Pi - Ang Lee's existential kids movie - I know that sounds bizarre - is making the inevitable change to ensure it isn't competing against, and almost certainly getting lost in the mix by The Hobbit. Talk to the animals on 21 December 2012.
Django Unchained - Quentin Tarantino has obviously got the movie making bug back, after having completed Inglorious Basterds in less than a year he's giving himself only a little big longer to make his Southern. Free your wife from bondage on 28 December 2012.
Michael Cacoyannis/Silvio Narizzano
We were saddened this week to learn of the passing of two directors whose impact on cinematic history will probably be forgotten in time but who still managed to craft great moments that remain indelibly on our minds.
Fist up was Michael Cacoyannis who died on Monday aged 89. Following a brief stint as a Law student Cacoyannis instead found himself in love with the stage, his first film was the critical success Stella in 1955 and he ended his career in 1999 with the Chekhov adaptation The Cherry Orchard starring Charlotte Rampling, Alan Bates and Gerard Butler. The highlight of his career was 1964's Zorba the Greek, watch Bates (again) learn to dance in this clip that highlights the exuberance in the face of diversity that the film exhibits.
Silvio Narizano (died on Tuesday, aged 84) career is much harder to define, a TV director who only made a few films directly for cinemas, and oddly he's most fondly remembered for a BBC adaptation of Miss Marple's Body in the Library starring Joan Hickson. Still going with a theme here's a clip from Georgy Girl with the Oscar nominated Lynn Redgrave being told she's loved by Alan Bates in 1966.
Laurence Fishburne
Happy Birthday to
Laurence Fishburne
50 today
Laurence has been slumming it the last few years with a lucrative but questionable role in CSI, however with the contract running to an end we're going to be lucky enough to see him back on the big screen. Next up is Steven Soderbergh's killer virus thriller Contagion, pictured.
Friday, 29 July 2011
It's a Big World out There (Out this week - 29/07/11)
I won't be going to the cinema this weekend, frankly I'm exhausted it's been a heck of a week what with rehearsing, classes and the 24/7 fringe festival. Not to mention having to do "real work" during the day. However if I were to go the decision might be a tough one, there's a couple of interesting looking foreign language releases and a new Superhero is coming to town, but in the end I'd have to choose, as the RLAG film of the week, Arrietty.
Arrietty
Studio Ghibli take the unusual step of adapting an existing, European story (Mary Norton's "The Borrowers") then still imbue the film with a unique Japanese feel and the traditional acceptance of the absurd. Saoirse Ronan and Mark Strong lead the voice cast as daughter and father in a family of miniature people living behind the skirting board.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●○○○○
Captain America: The First Avenger
I have heard some great things about Joe Johnston's contribution to the pre-Avengers story, with many US critics calling it the best superhero movie of the summer. Chris Evans certainly looks hot in the trailers, and backed with a serious and exciting cast that includes Tommy Lee Jones, Stanley Tucci and Samuel L. Jackson what's not to like.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
Light Thief
A rare example of Krggyzstani cinema that examines the stature of ordinary technicians who restore electricity in the turmoil since the break-up of the Soviet Union. It helps that the main character seems a bit of a happy go lucky type.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
Poetry
Low-key existential Japanese movie about an old woman contemplating the meaning of life as she comes wearily to the end of hers. Heartbreaking and ultra-real this may still test the patience of most casual cinema-goers.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
Better Life
Slightly buzzed about immigration drama following an illegal gardener, Damien Bichir, in East L.A. trying to do right by his son whilst avoiding the criminal gangs and the authorities. Looks promising, but not exceptional.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Zookeeper
Given it's poor pedigree and mediocre box office performance in the US it's hard to see why this Kevin James vehicle deserves 4 blobs. To be frank it probably doesn't however it does boast Nick Nolte as a gorilla as well as Sylvester Stallone and Cher as a pair of Lions. Sounds like prime crap at least.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Horrid Henry: The Movie
There's clearly a market for this big screen translation of the very British kids stories, and no doubt it will clear up during the school holidays, but I don't think it's for me. What persuaded Anjelica Huston to play the stern headmistress I'll never know.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Our Day will Come
Bonkers looking French pic starring Vincent Cassell as a ginger therapist who runs away with one of his patients (mmm ethical issues there) to find freedom in Ireland - the land of the red heads.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Jihne Mera Dil Luteya
Bollywood love triangle with two best friends falling for the same girl at Patiala University. Cue comedy hijinks and much singing and dancing.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Wednesday, 27 July 2011
Beginners
2010. Dir: Mike Mills. Starring: Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Melanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic and Mary Page Keller. ●●●○○
I expect that my soul is dead inside, with nothing approaching a warm fuzzy core, otherwise wouldn't the whiny and emotionally cloying spectacle of Mike Mills sophomore directorial effort, Beginners, have had me aching for the pain of the characters instead of checking the time throughout the screening and finding my mind wonder what the point of individual scenes was whilst watching them. Especially annoying as certain elements dragged down the positive and balanced view of sexual orientation and a beautifully judged father son relationship.
Opening with Ewan McGregor's Oliver clearing the apartment of his recently deceased father Hal(Christopher Plummer) the film flits between timeframes, falling back to the last five years of Hal's life, a period when he is finally able to come out to his adult son and yet a period where he must battle and - ultimately lose - the fight against cancer, and pushing forward to Oliver dealing with the grief and forming a blossoming romance with Melanie Laurent. A relationship that fully underlines the cultural shift in social conventions; emphasising that Oliver and Anna may experiment sexually and emotionally with other without redress whilst Hal had to deny his sexuality - acknowledged but suppressed - in order to conform.
It was only with the passing of Hal's wife and Oliver's Mother (played in obscure flashbacks as a 40 something liberal housewife by Mary Page Keller) that Hal is able to be true to his feelings and live the gay lifestyle he had been denied. He guts his wardrobe, thrusts himself into promoting LGBT equality and enters a relationship with the fey, sensitive Andy (an unrecognisable Goran Visnjic), a gay stereotype always on the hunt for homophobia and battling with abandonment issues since being rejected by his family.
The relationship between Plummer and McGregor is easily the best thing in this movie, as Hal painfully recounts the tough choices he had to make to keep the family happy Oliver moves through indifference to respect to a new level of devotion to his father. Both of the actors reach levels of performance quality that simply can't be sustained elsewhere.
Not that necessarily a fault of the other actors, but mainly of the twee and self-consciously kooky screenplay. The romance between Oliver and Anna is particularly vexing, as they meet as a fancy dress party, he's recovering from his fathers death by dressing as Freud and bringing his father's Jack Russell. She's hiding her laryngitis by dressing as Charlie Chaplin. They literally "sleep" together before eventually developing a better understanding of the history of melancholy (and trust me they leave little out of that) whilst roller skating in the lobby of a top hotel.
This indie spirit, with is cutesy repetitive narration (complete with on-the-nose graphical depictions), alluring sub-titled performance from the Jack Russell and all the best of intentions eventually became as fussy and cluttered as the over-dressed sets. The worst thing is most of the moments relating to the romance seemed either forced or horribly derivative. Even the glimpses we get of Oliver as a child, being dragged round galleries by his free spirited, extroverted mother doesn't work as the third wheel of Hal barely gets a shadow.
I would have preferred a movie which skipped Plummer's reminiscences (as perfect as he is in the role) and skipped straight to the truth of the past, showing how marriage worked for the unlikely couple. I understand the film was a form of therapy for writer/director Mills, like his central protagonist he experienced his father's outing late in life with just a few years before his passing.
Ultimately I would have to say the film fails for me, especially in the romantic plotline, but it's not without it's charms and may be worth watching if the issues presented are in anyway applicable to your life.
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
Helen Mirren
Happy Birthday to
Helen Mirren
66 today
There was a time, not that long ago, when I was on the edge of my seat in anticipation for a whole string of forthcoming movies with Helen Mirren, unfortunately most of them have passed by without really making an impact on box office - including the direct to DVD ignominy of Love Ranch. Next up is spy thriller The Debt (pictured - with apologies to any one affected by recent news stories that the image may bare passing resemblance) and domestic drama The Door which should give Mirren the chance to shine as a monosyllabic and awkward yet fiercely loyal housekeeper.
Monday, 25 July 2011
Blowing Whistles update (Personal News - 25/07/11)
Just a quickie to let you all know that rehearsals for Laced Banana's production of Blowing Whistles are coming along very well, as a cast we're really clicking into place and there are some very exciting touches coming from the director Amy Derber.
Tickets are now available from the website: http://www.lacedbanana.webs.com/ and I really do urge you pick them up before they sell out! (But of course I would say that!)
I also attended Surviving Actors convention on Saturday, which was a great way to Network and see some interesting and varied presentations from various arms of the business including casting directors and Spotlight professionals. If you're an actor and it's running in a city near you I can heartily recommend.
Barbara Harris
Happy Birthday to
Barbara Harris
76 today
Ms Harris's body of work is far more fascinating than she is probably remembered for, even though she rarely stepped away from comedic roles even when performing in movies with very serious themes. Her highlights includes Nashville and Grosse Point Blank. She's now retired from film acting.
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