Still got it. 20. You Don’t Mess With The Woodman- Woody Allen’s latest, after this summer’s “Vicky Christina Barcelona” (which I hear has a Scarlett Johansson lesbian sex scene- please keep reading after that sentence) has started shooting in New York, after Allen ventured off to Europe to refuel his creative batteries hobnobbing with the English with mixed results. This one sounds like vintage Allen, in that it features an older man-younger woman romance. Instead of Allen as the supposedly attractive, vaguely unsettling skinny New York Jew, he’s got Larry David in the role, which is a bummer considering Allen still seems vital, and is always a wonderful presence onscreen. Still, David’s a hilarious performer on his own- it just seems funny that Allen would cast such an obvious surrogate. He’s been moving away from the tendencies to write protagonists like himself, so one wonders if David will sound anything like him. His pretty young thing this time will be Evan Rachel Wood, a starlet known for dating much older men, so this entire operation might be see-through from the start, though Allen deserves another chance to crack romance after his last couples effort, the dismal, poorly cast “Anything Else”. Speaking of poorly cast, Wood’s age-appropriate suitor will be played by bit player Henry Cavill, who may be most famous for a role he didn’t get, as he’s auditioned for Warner Bros. for both “Superman Returns” and “Justice League”.
19. Catherine Zeta-Jones Also Likes ‘Em Young- Bart Freundlich, an independent filmmaker that no one seems to be fond of but who doesn’t deserve your pity due to sleeping with wife Julianne Moore every night, has another project cooking. This time he’s enlisted the suddenly reclusive Catherine Zeta Jones as a supporting character in his next untitled film as a New Yorker neighbor to the twentysomething male protagonist and the object of his affection. Reminds me a lot of the other New York-centric May-December romance, “Prime”, in both cases I call folly. Isn’t the whole “stigma” of being an older woman eliminated when you look like Uma Thurman or Catherine Zeta Jones? I mean, if Dame Judi Dench looked like Zooey Deschanel, I’d be on that like white on rice.
18. Bulgarian Rambo- Whispers abound that new film soundstages being built in Bulgaria have been erected for a couple of Hollywood films, one of them being “Rambo 5”. Stallone seemed wishy washy about another “Rambo”, with both a “Death Wish” remake and an Edgar Allan Poe biopic on the docket, but he recently made comments about working his way through another adventure for John Rambo that distinctly merged into a different genre. Could Stallone have closed a deal for another film in the midst of the film’s so-so $40 million take? The Weinstein Company, who would help bankroll the film, probably have a lot of confidence in the upcoming DVD release, which is said to have a half hour (!) of new footage.
17. Jonah Hex Cranks Up- I must have missed this, but “Crank” guys Mark Taylor and Brian Neveldine, who are in pre-production on “Crank 2” have also turned in a script for a “Jonah Hex” film. They had been attached to the project for awhile now, an adaptation of a popular DC Comics property about a Confederate Western gunslinger with disfigured features who kept getting involved in supernatural matters. I never read Hex and my exposure is limited to a single episode appearance in “Batman The Animated Series” written by Joe Lonsdale, but it’s a well-liked character at DC, and Neveldine and Taylor are a couple of mad geniuses, so this bodes well for everyone. Neveldine/Taylor’s next effort, “Game”, has just wrapped and is being prepped for a late ’08 release.
Gosh, this has Ryan Phillippe's name written all over it, doesn't it, Hollywood?
16. Paul Giamatti Is Duplicitous- Fresh off playing John Adams in HBO’s miniseries event, Giamatti has signed on for “Duplicity”, Tony Gilroy’s second directorial effort after “Michael Clayton”. It’s a cat-and-mouse romance dealie, with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen as corporate spies on different sides of an investigation who end up falling in love. Billy Bob Thornton is in talks to join, while Giamatti and Tom Wilkenson would play the rival bigwigs employing the lovers, essentially turning this into “Mr. And Mrs. Smith” for adults. Gilroy’s “Clayton” debut was promising, but how will he avoid the flashbacks to Owen and Roberts in “Closer”, where Owen called he a “fucked up slag”, completely igniting the theater I was in.
15. Sony Makes A Deal With Satan- The worst film I have ever seen in my entire life is getting a sequel, and Sony is bankrolling it. “Boondock Saints 2: All Saints’ Day” is set to head in front of the cameras later this year, and Sony has finally come aboard with financing. Troy Duffy, revealed by the documentary “Overnight” to be an egomaniacal freakshow of a monster, will return to writing and directing duties, and its believed he’ll bring back the entire cast, save for Willem Dafoe, because he’s smart enough to not make the same mistake twice, but also, y’know, because he died in the first one. Though I would imagine continuity isn’t the most important thing people making a “Boondock Saints” movie with Duffy should worry about. Please God, let this be the last time I refer to “a Boondock Saints movie” as opposed to “the Boondock Saints movie”.
14. The Chronicles Of Director Probation- David Twohy, last seen flushing $150 million of Universal’s money down the drain for the gross miscalculation that was “The Chronicles of Riddick”, has dialed things down a bit for “The Perfect Getaway”. The story concerns a happily newlywed couple who gets entangled with a couple of freelance killers. I imagine this will be a suspenseful offering, but wouldn’t it be fun if this were a comedy? Maybe it is, if we’re going by the casting of Steve Zahn this week. Still, Zahn’s got dramatic chops aplenty, particularly if you’ve seen “Rescue Dawn”, and its unclear whether he’s playing half of the newlywed couple or one of the killers (“Hitman”’s Tim Olymphant is the other killer- fancy that). Or maybe they’re gay newlyweds! The story takes place during their honeymoon in Hawaii, which I hope is the beginning of a renaissance in Hawaii shooting- “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” is bound to sell quite a few plane tickets if it’s a hit.
13. No Justice In Australia- I’m of two minds about the proposed “Justice League: Mortal” movie (terrible working title, btw). On one hand, the production has been troubled from the start, with tons of false starts and rescheduling issues, while the cast really hasn’t passed muster in geek circles, mainly because some of the larger-than-life heroes appear to have been cast using model agencies and college dorms. When the WB lines up Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman for a series of “Batman” films, can they really expect to sneak a cast like this past viewers? Common, Adam Brody and Megan Gale led into battle by the dominating duo of Rupert Evans and Armie Hammer as Superman and Batman? If you read that sentence and asked, “Who?”, well, I’m mostly joining you. That being said, if done right, who’s to say a movie where Batman and Superman meet for the first time doesn’t have the potential to give me goosebumps? Isn’t that the sort of moment you make these movies for, a meeting between the World’s Finest? Whatever happens, it’s not going to be in Australia. Director George Miller was recently informed that the Australian tax cuts available to a heavily Aussie crew would not be granted to “Justice League: Mortal” (yes, that’s the title), throwing the budget in doubt once again and forcing the production to migrate to Canada, again in search of savings. Miller’s fighting the decision, believing it responsible for possibly putting the Australian film industry in jeopardy, and the WB are steadfast about meeting an ’09 release date, though if this movie happens, I’ll bet we don’t see it until 2011.
There's a way to make this look awesome osncreen, there HAS to be.
12. Very Bad Things For Paul Atriedes- Director Peter Berg has officially signed on to a “Dune” remake. This time, the studio is going to try to stay closer to the source material than either David Lynch’s version or the Sci-Fi Channel adaptations. I’ll cop to this, I have no knowledge of “Dune” whatsoever, and if this turns out to be a trilogy situation, I can’t tell you whether the studio has “Star Wars”/”Lord of the Rings” expectations. Berg’s last film was the dangerously stupid “The Kingdom”, but his stock will rise by summertime with the release of Will Smith’s “Hancock”, even though it makes no sense to evaluate a director based on how much business his film generates.
11. Jitterbug Encounters WOLF MAN- Official stills for Joe Johnston’s “The Wolf Man” have been released and they feature Benicio Del Toro looking… like a wolf, I guess. It’s thick makeup and you can’t see the actor under the makeup, which suggests that when he transforms, he’ll mean business. However, it also suggests there may be a lot of time in the film with human Benicio, which would be fairly dull in the hands of Joe Johnston, a special effects guy who doesn’t really excel when the camera slows down.
10. Jason Vs. Supernatural?- Jared Padalecki is signing on to Marcus Nispel’s “Friday the 13th“ remake/sequel/reimagining/waterboarding/reconsideration. The script is by Mark Swift and Damian Shannon, the eggheads who earned this gig by slaving over stacks of awful “Freddy Vs. Jason” drafts before being credited. There’s an odd connection to be made here- Paldalecki is playing an investigator according to the press releases. He also plays a supernatural investigator in the CW show “Supernatural”, a show that was in talks with producers over a chance to feature Jason on the show. Is it possible that the next “Friday” film will be a crossover event?
9. Tintin To Be Played By Precocious Moppet- Thomas Sangster, who has been seen as the “adorable moppet” in both the insufferable “Love Actually” and also “Nanny McPhee”, is actually 17 years old. Surprised, right? Kid stars seem to grow up quickly (anybody see “Heavenly Creatures”’ Melanie Lynskey chopping up innocent people on “The Shield”?). The one person who seemed to notice is Steven Spielberg, who backed away from “Interstellar”, “The Trial of The Chicago Seven” and “Lincoln” to take the helm of an ambitious trilogy of performance-capture “Tintin” films. Sangster has been chosen as the famous pulp hero lead, a young globetrotting boy always getting himself in various scraps, something like that. This stuff has never been big in America, so I’m curious to see Spielberg’s approach, considering he’s expecting big financial rewards from this. Spielberg’s got a grand plan for this Tintin series, as the second film is to be directed by Peter Jackson, and the third film may be a collaboration, though they are on the hunt for a director of a similar caliber- would it be too much to suggest Harmony Korine? And of course, being that Jackson is involved, Andy Serkis has also been cast, as the barnacle-bashing Captain Haddock.
8. Michael Cera’s Precious Lead Role- It’s a Michael Cera world and we’re all just living in it. With “Nick And Nora’s Infinite Playlist” and “Year Zero”, Michael Cera will be pretty huge, and it’s quite possible “Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life” will roll out around the time he’s a big enough megastar to get a greenlight for an “Arrested Development” movie. I’m the hopeful sort. But if not, that’s still a pretty promising slate. Edgar Wright (“Hot Fuzz”) is going to make this comic book adaptation his next film, with shooting set to start in the fall. “Pilgrim” deals with an oblivious Canadian hipster who finds his kung-fu skills tested when he has to face off against all of his new girlfriend’s exes. It’s a pretty tongue-in-cheek comic, filled with the sort of bizarre, goofy details that made the margins so worth watching in Wright’s other films, and the combination of action and comedy is exactly the sort of stuff Wright has shown he can handle in spades.
7. Truly, Madly, Missed- Lots of tears this week for acclaimed director Anthony Minghella, who passed away at the age of 54. Minghella was a Best Director Oscar winner in ’96 for “The English Patient”, and he was considered a very literate man who had his hands on several prestige pictures in Hollywood. He was no phony, however- “Truly, Madly, Deeply”, his first film, deals with the ghost of a lover, and while it’s been a long time since I’ve seen it, I do remember it as a pretty sober-headed meditation on grief. His scope expanded as his career continued, and he was able to follow up “English Patient” with his strongest statement, the Patricia Highsmith adaptation “The Talented Mr. Ripley”. That film is such an embarrassment of riches, with it’s gorgeous locales and moody, plaintive tone, and Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwenyth Paltrow haven’t been better, so much so that sometimes it’s forgotten that the film also features Phillip “World’s Best Actor” Seymour Hoffman. And “Cold Mountain” drew him some criticism because of the wet blanket romance at the heart of it- and especially Renee Zellweger’s terrible, scenery-chewing work- but it’s probably one of my favorite movies. Indeed, I am a member of the “Cold Mountain” fanclub, as it is a romantic fable with an unusual sincerity not found in modern romantic movies. Also, it helps to feature a phenomenal cast, included but not limited to Phillip “World’s Best Actor” Seymour Hoffman. His last film, “Breaking And Entering”, seemed to fall victim to the negative reactions to Jude Law’s ubiquity, a shame since no one wants to go out in their prime with a last film roundly ignored by everyone. He was 54.
6. Trailer Roundup
-Fans finally got their first glimpse of “Tropic Thunder” this week, and the results were pretty positive. It does seem to operate on the broad side of Ben Stiller’s career, as opposed to the esoteric earlier work, but that’s probably the result of blockbuster concessions made for an MPAA-approved trailer. Stiller seems to be in Zoolander mode here, and Jack Black seems to be dialing up the slapstick, but the trailer’s main selling point seems to be Robert Downey Jr., playing Kirk Lazarus, an actor who undergoes surgery to play the black soldier his character in this movie-within-a-movie is based on. Also onboard is Steve Coogan and Nick Nolte, though the trailer avoids mentioning Danny McBride, Matthew McConaughey or Tom Cruise- admirable restraint I suppose, given that this won’t be the final trailer.
-“Mamma Mia!” is based on the Broadway musical of the same name, dealing with a young girl who tries to suss out her real father when three separate contenders emerge at her wedding. The hook is that the songs are all old Abba standards did I just type “Abba standards”?), but otherwise it looks like same old same old. Amanda Seyfried, looking nicely tanned, takes the lead, while the mother is played by a dowdy, pratfalling Meryl Streep. This trailer is edited oddly enough to make the three fathers look like they spend all their screentime standing together awkwardly in reaction shots, which is humbling considering only two of them (Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth) are billed in the trailer, leaving the excellent Stellan Skarsgaard looking like a fool for hire. Shame.
-Typical to his usual work, the trailer for Errol Morris’ new documentary “Standard Operating Procedures” also hit the web. It looks like another gorgeous, dreamlike voyage into the heart of darkness, replete with first person interviews, canny found footage and Phillip Glass’ haunting strings. The subject matter is not only human rights violations occurring at Abu Girhab, but what many Republicans dismissive of the cruel treatment to prisoners don’t realize. The negative reaction to abuse of captives at US-run detainment camps is not an example of a few people getting uppity about our poor manners but, as revealed in the trailer, evidence that there is little leadership and skewed multiple perspectives to the shadowy methods of engaging the War on Terror that are more damaging to troop morale than any opinions by liberal mouthpieces in America.
5. Terminator Series To Get Progressively Stupider- Lot of news surrounding the new Terminator film, which no longer goes by the title “Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins” (though I’ve got my money on simply “Terminator Salvation”). Stan Winston, who famously designed the original Terminator robots and was minimized by the third film recently as they went heavy with CGI, is back working on the ‘bots for the ’09 release. Also announced was the casting of sudden it-boy Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese, the freedom fighter sent by rebellion leader John Connor into the past to save and impregnate Sarah Connor with… John. Yeah, that’s always been the stickiest bit of the mythology, and considering what information was leaked this week, it’s about to get stickier. Apparently, the next three planned Terminator flicks will lean heavily on the mentor-student relationship between the two, bringing the film’s biggest time travel conundrum to the forefront, not to mention complicating a humans-vs.-robots story that really needs no father-son material. And finally, as if things couldn’t be any iffy for this installment, the studio is bringing on Paul Haggis for a re-write.
Oh, and sidenote- AICN recently found this website which details research into technology that allows a photo taken in the present day to reflect incidents of the future. The videos on the site seem to suggest that something’s afoot, and let’s just say, without evidence, that it seems to speak to the “Terminator” mythology even if it’s tied more directly to the television show than the upcoming movies. I think you can get the same impact by only watching the last of the seven videos, which, dodgy effects aside, was pretty cool. And AICN couldn’t resist by complementing the story with this footage of new robot technology which, real or not, is pretty much the most terrifying thing I’ve ever fucking seen.
4. Neil Marshall, Hugh Jackman To Make Perfect Movie- On the heels of the announcement of the development of “Sacrilege” comes word that Neil Marshall’s set to start shooting his next film this summer. Fueling the bizarre talk that he’s only interested in movies that start with D, he’ll follow “Dog Soldiers”, “The Descent” and “Doomsday” with “Drive”. From the James Sallis novel, it’s the first time Marshall will be working with someone else’s (Hossein Amini) script, an action thriller about a Hollywood stunt driver who moonlights as a getaway car driver. His life gets turned upside down when he becomes the target of a hit when he botches a deal, sparking what Marshall promises is a car chase-heavy script. Hard to not be excited about this- Marshall’s car chase sequences in “Doomsday” are b far the best bits of that movie, and it’s even better that he might have a hit on his hands with the involvement of star Hugh Jackman. Both parties will need a hit, especially since Jackman’s Wolverine cred vanishes every time a non-X-Men film surfaces- see the trailer for the new Ewan McGregor thriller “Deception”.
3. This Side Of Excellent Casting- “This Side Of The Truth” is looking like the real deal- Ricky Gervais starring in a bigtime Hollywood comedy he also wrote. While a lot of England’s funniest people are content to operate on the fringes of American society, Gervais is taking square aim at stardom, and early opinion in the script is highly positive. The screenplay concerns an alternate reality where everyone consistently tells the truth, at least until one man decides to mess with the order of things and fibs in order to win the heart of a gorgeous woman. It sounds dicey, but Gervais has managed to grab a snazzy cast for this effort, a call sheet that will read permutations of Jennifer Garner, Jonah Hill, Louis C.K., Rob Lowe, Christopher Guest, Tina Fey, Jeffery Tambor, John Hodgman and Jason Bateman. That’s a once-in-a-lifetime collection of funny, and while better casts have made worse movies, the odds are against this becoming a tank.
2. Dirty Harry Drives A Gran Turino- Very quietly, Warner Bros. announced a December release date for “Gran Turino”, the latest film directed by Clint Eastwood. Eastwood will star in this soon-to-be-shooting film, which has no plot details released to the public. Tantalizing! This hasn’t stopped fan speculation, much of which has predicted this was the latest “Dirty Harry” movie. One scooper revealed that someone from “Turino” producers Village Roadshow Pictures came to him to purchase his own 1972 Gran Turino, saying it was the exactly make needed for a film about a killer who drives this particular car. The report suggests the film deals with the murder of Harry Callahan’s grandson, leading him to emerge from retirement to dish out justice. This has been meted out by many as bullshit, but still no word from Eastwood himself, so who knows?
1. Jack Ryan Gets Groovy- After turning down “Spider-Man IV”, “Clash of The Titans”, “The Hobbit” and, to fans’ chagrin, “Evil Dead IV”, Sam Raimi’s set to cash in big time, uniting with Paramount Pictures on three proposed Jack Ryan films. The Jack Ryan series, while not having much connective tissue, has proven to be surprisingly durable, to the point where the poorly received last film “The Sum Of All Fears” overcame Sept. 11th sentiment and a lead performance by Ben Affleck to gross over $100 million. A new Ryan film has been in development for a long time and recently grabbed the interest of Fernando Merielles and Ryan Gosling, though this series will start from scratch with the character that’s been played by Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford previously. One hopes they take cues from the ludicrous-sounding books, which had Ryan eventually become President. With trhat I’d like to start my Bring Alec Baldwin Back To Jack Ryan Petition.
Mr. Raimi, my close-up is ready for ME.
