Posted Jan 7th 2009 3:03PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Classics, Drama, Romance, Deals
They may have been star-crossed lovers, and they might have tied the knot and spent a night together consummating their marriage (even if their warring families didn't know), but I don't think ol' Juliet had time to plop out Romeo's baby before dying. As we've all seen countless times: Romeo went off to banishment, Juliet faked her death, Romeo came back and assumed she was dead and killed himself, then she woke up and killed herself. There was no time for pregnancy and baby delivery.
Nevertheless,
The Hollywood Reporter posts that Universal has grabbed the rights to a novel called
Juliet, from Danish author Anne Fortier. To be published sometime next year, the novel "toggles from medieval Siena to the present day in a story about a woman who discovers she may be descended from the people who inspired one of the most popular and tragic love stories of all time."
Unless they're talking about ol' Shakespeare himself, this is just not possible. Unless ... did both the Capulets and Montagues have new babies that fell in love in the very same way -- and survived? I imagine that the catch-word "inspired" will allow them to twist the Romeo and Juliet story a bit. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but I am intrigued.
First
Hamlet 2, now a descendant of Romeo and Juliet. What's next? A horror movie called
Titus Andronicus 2: Lucius Goes Mad?
Posted Jan 2nd 2009 10:32AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Drama, Independent, Music & Musicals, Romance, Casting, RumorMonger, Newsstand
Here's the first good news of 2009!
Variety reports that
Hugh Jackman is now off the official wishlist for
Cleo, the
Steven Soderbergh musical that will reportedly star
Catherine Zeta-Jones as the legendary Egyptian queen, and feature the music penned by Guided by Voices.
Jackman has apparently left talks not because of the concept, but due to a scheduling conflict. (Maybe it's
Drive, since everything else has vanished from his IMDB page.)
Ray Winstone remains in discussion to play Julius Caesar, and Zeta-Jones is still rumored to be Cleopatra herself.
I may be one of the few celebrating the news. I know Soderbergh is a master of taking preposterous concepts and turning them into cinematic brilliance, but a Cleopatra rock musical just sounds like a spectacularly bad idea. Jackman is a wonderful stage performer, and I've been dying to see him in a movie musical for years. (If you've never seen his pre-Wolverine turn in
Oklahoma!, do yourself a favor and rent it now.) But not this one -- Soderbergh or not, it just sounds too campy to be believed.
Since
Variety is stumped as to what caused the schedule conflict, I'll make a New Year's wish and hope his production shingle has decided to really get moving on that remake of
Carousel. Jackman has had the rights to it for awhile, and to see him singing and dancing in that is ten times better than seeing him as a rocking Mark Antony.
Posted Dec 23rd 2008 8:32PM by James Rocchi
Filed under: Drama, Romance, Paramount, Theatrical Reviews, Brad Pitt, Oscar Watch
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I saw
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button weeks ago, and yet every time I tried to think about it -- whether it was to contemplate a decision in David Fincher's direction, a deviation from F. Scott Fitzgerald's story, a moment in Eric Roth's script or a note in the performances of
Brad Pitt and
Cate Blanchett -- I would soon find myself, invariably, distracted from the large-scale visions and moments of
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and instead contemplating the smaller-scale moments of my own life. This was at best annoying; what did it say about the film that I couldn't hold it in my attention? What did it say about my attention that I couldn't even focus it on a film? But Zen gives us the parable of the master who points to the moon, and the student who looks at the master's finger. Fincher, Roth, Pitt and Blanchett have all, in their way, made a film of true sincerity and (ironically enough in light of its technical achievements) real simplicity; resting your gaze on the film, without directing it onto the things it encourages you to look at, seems like staring at the pointing finger.
Fitzgerald's tale is a brief fantasia, the story of Benjamin Button, a man who, born old, ages backward; at the same time, the slenderest books often become the best films, the lush drapery of moviemaking lending their slight grace weight, the stark simplicity of the plot a place for a director's vision to find purchase and grow. Within moments -- as an old woman lies dying in a modern New Orleans hospital, slate-gray rain battering the windows, her daughter (
Julia Ormond) paging through her diaries and scrapbooks as the old woman fades in and out of consciousness, flickering between past memory and present reality -- we know we're not in the world established in Fitzgerald's 1922 short story. The woman's diaries are not just hers, and as the daughter reads, we learn about the birth and exile of Benjamin Button, born old in New Orleans in 1918 just after the Great War. ...
Continue reading Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Posted Dec 21st 2008 5:32PM by William Goss
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Horror, Independent, Romance, Thrillers, Noir, Mystery & Suspense, Paramount, Sony, Sony Classics, Warner Brothers, RumorMonger, Fandom, Distribution, Exhibition, The Weinstein Co., Comic/Superhero/Geek
Coming up on the new year, it's interesting to see which films we had thought would've been released by this point. In the summer of 2007, I recall myself and several colleagues showing up for a press screening of Jonathan Levine's lauded slasher,
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, only to discover it was canceled just that morning and the film had been sold from the Weinstein Company to Senator that afternoon. (The film has since landed at Sony, whose indie arm, Sony Classics, already saw Levine's follow-up,
The Wackness, to a proper theatrical reception.)
At least the Weinsteins gave something up for a change. The oft-shuffled
Killshot and
Fanboys are tentative January and February releases at the moment, respectively, and I just want to see for myself if
The Poughkeepsie Tapes has been worthy of its modest reputation following a BNAT '07 screening -- the same BNAT that featured the reportedly sweet
Trick 'r Treat that WB continues to hoard.
A perhaps more morbid curiosity has me keeping an eye on Paramount's
Case 39, just to see if it's really that bad, and who knows what similar straits
Assassination of a High School President,
The Accidental Husband (originally last March), and
Possession (originally last February) are in following Yari Film Group's bankruptcy -- not that I have much invested in the last two, but
Assassination is a perfectly release-worthy noir take-off that deserves a home.
So what do you guys and girls think? Which of these are you most dying to see? What was the longest you ever waited to catch something, and were you ultimately disappointed or satisfied by the time it came your way?
Posted Dec 19th 2008 9:45AM by William Goss
Filed under: Comedy, Romance, Warner Brothers, Theatrical Reviews
Yes, I consider myself a
Jim Carrey fan. No, I do not consider myself an apologist for anything he's done. Yes, his latest --
Yes Man -- is amusing. No, it's not his big comeback to live-action fodder since 2005's
Fun with Dick and Jane (apparently, last year's
The Number 23 wasn't supposed to be funny...), but rather a minor lark in the Canadian comedian's career that attempts to wedge together the wisest cracks and broadest mugging of his
Tom Shadyac comic fantasies,
Bruce Almighty and
Liar Liar, with the exceedingly conventional rom-com efforts of director
Peyton Reed (
The Break-Up,
Down with Love). Yes, the combination (substitution?) leaves something to be desired, although no, it's not exactly a painful sit because of it...
Oh, and yes, the rest of the review will read just like this.
Continue reading Review: Yes Man
Posted Dec 18th 2008 5:02PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Comedy, Romance, Fandom, Movie Marketing, Images
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The first image from the comedy
Couples Retreat has popped up over at
USA Today, and it shows our four happy couples posing for the camera, all excited to be working on their relationships.
Peter Billingsley (aka Ralphie from
A Christmas Story) makes his directorial debut here (off a script written by Jon Favreau) after working as producer on several projects -- and the film stars his friends Vince Vaughn and Favreau (who've teamed up on screen plenty of times now), as well as Jason Bateman, Kristen Bell, Malin Akerman, Kristin Davis, Faizon Love and Kali Hawk.
The film tells of one couple (Bateman and Bell) in need of relationship therapy who, in order to save costs, invite three other couples to join them at a couples retreat. Vaughn says this of the plot: "Jason and Kristen are Type A's struggling to have kids. Faizon and his wife (Kali Hawk) have just separated, and he is dating a young girl from Foot Locker. Me and my wife (Malin Akerman of
27 Dresses) are swamped with the kids and work. Favreau and Kristin Davis are secretly not completely faithful to each other." Vaughn also stressed that while there will be sexual gags, this won't be an R-rated foul-mouthed parade.
USA Today says to expect a PG-13. No release date yet, but expect this to hit theaters sometime next year.
Posted Dec 17th 2008 7:45PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Comedy, Romance, Casting, Deals, Scripts
Man, Roger Dodger/Campbell Scott should have continued his teachings, rather than setting
Jesse Eisenberg loose on the school cafeteria. It looks like he hasn't learned the delicate intricacies of women and romance quite yet!
The Hollywood Reporter posts that
Jason Reitman and Daniel Dubiecki are producing a new romantic comedy called
The Wedding, which will star Eisenberg and
Pushing Daisies star
Anna Friel. Eisenberg will play a young man who is so infatuated with Friel's 30-something character that he crashes her wedding. Hmm. Maybe Roger should've steered completely clear of the kid, since escorts and Elizabeth Berkley seem to have led the kid right to Benjamin Braddock territory.
Reitman has cooked up a lot of interest for the film, but as of yet, no studios have signed to get this project in gear. I imagine it's only a matter of time. Reitman has a knack for picking solid films, and I've got a feeling that Eisenberg and Friel will play well off each other. But at the very least -- it'll give her something to do post-
Daisies.
Posted Dec 16th 2008 8:15PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Comedy, Romance, Casting, Scripts
Gigli might have tanked as one of the crappiest films of all time, but that's not stopping
Jennifer Lopez's attraction to rom-coms. Her romance-centric comedies barely garner 5 out of 10 in the thousands of votes on IMDb, and she can't even come close to the likes of old pros like Sandra Bullock, but she keeps coming back for more.
The Hollywood Reporter posts that Lopez has signed on to star in CBS Films' new rom-com called
Plan B. Coming from a spec by Kate Angelo, the film focuses on a single woman itching to have kids. Since she hasn't met a man she can settle down with, the woman decides to go for "Plan B" and get artificially inseminated. However, the same day that she conceives twins, she meets the man of her dreams (Plan A). (I'm sniffing a
Baby Mama sort of scenario...)
Amusingly, the piece also notes that Amy Baer of CBS Films says that this project "would take Lopez back to her core strength of the romantic comedy," and it's being boasted as a comedy that will cross gender lines, a la
Knocked Up. While I wouldn't be surprised if she could make an
Out of Sight sort of comeback, methinks this won't kick her into wide-appeal rom-com land. Between this and the
kid-centric Governess, do any of you out there really want more Lopez-led romance?
Posted Dec 16th 2008 11:32AM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Drama, Romance, Fandom, Movie Marketing, Images, Posters
Cinematical has received this exclusive poster for
Two Lovers, starring
Joaquin Phoenix (in
his final movie role?),
Gwyneth Paltrow and
Vinessa Shaw. Directed by James Gray (
We Own the Night),
Two Lovers is a Brooklyn-set romantic drama that follows a troubled man who returns to his childhood home and falls for two very different women: the lovely and caring family friend (Shaw) and the mysterious, volatile neighbor (Paltrow). Which woman will he choose, and will she set him on a course for happiness or turn him in the complete opposite direction?
Two Lovers also stars Isabella Rossellini and Moni Moshonov, and it will arrive in theaters on February 13, 2009.
Click below to view entire poster.
Posted Dec 15th 2008 9:02PM by Scott Weinberg
Filed under: Action, Animation, Classics, Comedy, Drama, Horror, Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Mystery & Suspense, Disney, IFC, Lionsgate Films, Universal, Warner Brothers, Festival Reports, Fandom, Focus Features, Family Films, Brad Pitt, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, War
I don't need much of an excuse to visit Austin, Texas. Find me an event that A) strings more than four movies together, and B) takes place at one of the
Alamo Drafthouse movie theaters, and there's a good chance I'm checking my bank account, desperately scrambling for flight money. But despite the fact that I've done five
SXSW visits, three
Fantastic Fest trips, and a few more Austin journeys just for the heck of it ... I'd never attended a BNAT shindig. But I made it to the tenth annual
Butt-Numb-a-Thon, and of course I had a damn good time once it got rolling.
Let's just do a quick run-through, chronologically speaking, and I'm listing just the FULL movies here. At the end I'll go over the various clips we were treated to...
Continue reading Tales of a BNAT Newbie
Posted Dec 15th 2008 1:00PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Horror, Independent, Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery & Suspense, Scripts, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
Everything old (or at least "old" in the Hot Topic sense) is new again -- and so The Crow is going to be reborn.
Variety reports that
Stephen Norrington has signed on to write and direct a "reinvention" of
The Crow, based on the comic written by James O'Barr.
Norrington is hoping that resurrecting
The Crow will do something similar for his career, which has been dead in the water since
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. (Tangle with Alan Moore at your peril, directors.) He was once attached to direct
Clash of the Titans for Warner Bros, but fell out with the studio over his inability to "excite" the studio with his take. Louis Leterrier got the job instead.
Norrington promises the film will be a different take than Alex Proyas' version -- which, you remember, went down in cult-Goth history for claiming the life of its star, Brandon Lee. "Whereas Proyas' original was gloriously gothic and stylized, the new movie will be realistic, hard-edged and mysterious, almost documentary-style." Now I've never read O'Barr's book -- but isn't it quite gothic and stylized? There's a lot of agony, and despairing self-mutilation, and the titular crow plays a bigger part. Does the material lend itself to the approach Norrington wants to take?
I know I should be more annoyed that they're actually remaking
The Crow because it's not that old ... but in a world where Hulk was rebooted after a mere five years, fourteen years between "reimaginings" is an eon. You have to wonder, though -- after the original launched so many forgettable sequels, will audiences even pay attention to a remake?
Posted Dec 14th 2008 1:02PM by Peter Martin
Filed under: Action, Foreign Language, Independent, Music & Musicals, Romance, New Releases, Warner Brothers, Fandom, Cinematical Indie
If you died and went to Heaven and asked for a movie trailer to be made just for you, what would it look like? Would it fuse your interest in Bollywood musicals with your love for classic martial arts fight scenes, reflect your appreciation for beautiful women, indulge your affection for cheesy special effects and inability to resist a cheap gag? Would it look something like the insane trailer for Chandni Chowk to China?
Head on over to Apple's trailers page and take a gander, but be forewarned: I found it addictive and as damaging to my nervous system as stuffing myself with a pound of the sweetest of candies. Describing itself as the "first ever Bollywood Kungfu comedy," Chandni Chowk to China follows Sidhu (Akshay Kumar), a lowly worker at a humble food stand in Chandni Chowk, a famous, crowded market in Delhi, India. Sidhu dreams of a better life, chasing futilely after his dreams, until two strangers from China arrive, claiming that he is a reincarnated war hero and take him to their rural village. Along the way he meets the beautiful Sakhi (Deepika Padukone). Deception abounds, however, and Sidhu soon finds himself pitted against a vicious smuggler, played by none other than the legendary Gordon Liu (Executioners From Shaolin, Kill Bill). Are you freakin' kidding me?
The film opens on January 16 across the US at the usual theatrical venues that play Bollywood films, plus a few additional cinemas, depending on the market (check the web site for theater listings). If it delivers on the promise of its delirious trailer, Chandni Chowk to China could conceivably lure an even broader audience to explore Indian cinema.
[Hattip: Twitch and Kaiju Shakedown.]
Posted Dec 13th 2008 5:20PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Mystery & Suspense, Fandom, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels
Well, the
rumors were true, and Summit Entertainment has confirmed that
Golden Compass director
Chris Weitz will indeed direct
New Moon, the follow-up to this year's biggest teen-vamp flick,
Twilight. It's important to note that nowhere in the press release does it mention
Eclipse, which means the two sequels probably won't be shot at the same time. A release date for
New Moon was not mentioned, only that the film will arrive in late 2009 or early 2010. Check out the official press release below:
Summit Entertainment announced today that filmmaker Chris Weitz has been hired to direct the second film in the studio's TWILIGHT film franchise. The film, NEW MOON, is based on the second book in author Stephenie Meyer's blockbuster book series. The announcement was made by Erik Feig, Summit's President of Production.
Weitz, an Acadamy Award®-nominated writer, director and producer, has a proven track record working with a broad range of material dealing with youth-oriented characters, fantasy and action. As such, he has the potential to bring alive in NEW MOON the dimensions and depth that fans will demand in the next installment.
Feig stated, "We love Stephenie Meyer's fantastic TWILIGHT series. Thinking long and hard about how to turn NEW MOON into the amazing movie we know it will be, and working with Stephenie Meyer to find the right candidate, we are thrilled to announce Chris Weitz as director of the film. Chris very much understands the world of NEW MOON and has the skill set required to bring the book to glorious life as a movie. We think he will be an excellent steward of Stephenie Meyer's vision."
Continue reading Confirmed: Chris Weitz Directing 'Twilight' Sequel (aka 'New Moon')
Posted Dec 11th 2008 4:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Warner Brothers, Scripts, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Religious
Darren Aronofsky's
Noah movie is on every sensible film fan's wish list, and it seems to inch a little closer to reality every day. In September, he revealed that he had
finished the script -- and now comes news as to what he's doing with it. Aronofsky told
Ropes of Silicon that he's currently in the process of turning it into a graphic novel. Considering the one he did for
The Fountain, we'll be in for a very special read.
But fear not, film fans, he's still planning to put it on the big screen: "Eventually we'll set it up, but we're just figuring it out. It's a very difficult film to get made and we're slowly working on it to get it put together." And how's this for a tease? "There is an actor attached, but I'm not going to say who, but he's a big movie star."
Continue reading Aronofsky's Plans for 'Noah' and 'The Fountain' Redo
Posted Dec 10th 2008 10:32AM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Comedy, Romance, Casting, Scripts
I don't know about you, but when I play the "actors who could be related game," like
Jeffrey M. Anderson did back in July, I always start with Marisa Tomei being the perfect person to play Jonah Hill's mom. Really. Don't they look alike? The long, lean ... okay, forget it. I never dreamed of pairing the two up, but Fox Searchlight has.
The Hollywood Reporter posts that
Marisa Tomei,
Jonah Hill, and
John C. Reilly are in talks to star in a new intergenerational comedy. (Note: I originally misread "intergenerational" as "intergalactic." Those three in space would have been so much cooler, but I digress.) Right now, the
Jay and Mark Duplass (who are making their studio debut after several successful indie mumblecore-ish movies) film is without a name, but it was once called
Safety Man. Tomei will play a woman starting a new relationship with Reilly, only to have her pesky son (Hill) try to foil the romance.
I love the idea of this trio, and can't wait to see what it would bring. However, why does Tomei always get paired with the less sexy of Hollywood? I know that it happens a lot in Tinseltown -- men who would be looked over normally become prime pieces of arse when they transform into successful actors. But did getting paired with Joe Pesci back in '92 curse her? Mickey Rourke with a face lift. Philip Seymour Hoffman. William H. Macy. Even the love interest of George Costanza on TV. Now, Reilly. Hollywood: Pair her with a sexy leading man in a really good film already, would ya?
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