Posted on Jan 31, 2008 under Main |
Ryan Stewart
Filed under: Action, Romance, Casting, Sony, Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom, Newsstand, James Bond, Remakes and Sequels, Daniel Craig
Is Gemma Arterton feeling the heat for having recently (apparently) blurted out a key plot point involving her character in Quantum of Solace? Seems that way. “You have to work out what you can say and cannot say,” Arterton tells Reuters in a recent article. “It’s quite hard for me who has a bit of a motor mouth. I’ve been learning for the last six months to think before I speak.” As she continues to work on her problem, Arterton also continues to give away more plot details for the upcoming film, intimating in the same Reuters piece that oil — “a lot of oil” — is what the villains are after this time, and South America is apparently where they’re looking for it. Arterton also tells IGN in another new interview that her character does become sexually involved with Bond — there’s a kiss, at least — and that something happens to her in a “scene which is an homage to something iconic, but I cannot tell you what that is. But it will be remembered.”
What is she talking about? Let’s speculate. Given what Arterton has already let slip about her character’s destiny and given that in this IGN interview she mentions Diana Rigg more than once — noting her as one of her favorite Bond girls and saying “my hair is reminiscent of Diana Rigg’s hair” the most obvious answer is that perhaps the “homage scene” is a climactic one for her and is something similar to the climactic scene in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. That would fit in with everything she’s saying, but it wouldn’t seemingly fit in with Bond’s journey at this point, since it would be so similar to the ending of Casino Royale. Although, it might work if Arterton’s Agent Fields is only a minor character, which she appears to be. A minor character could be resolved in such a way. Gemma, you’re making my head hurt!
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Posted on Jan 31, 2008 under Main |
The G.I. Joe casting news marches on, blankly. The main villain in the film, the silver-headed Destro, will be played by theater actor David Murray [iesb.net], previously seen in Batman Begins as…”Jumpy Thug.” A face you will recognize, actor Dennis Quaid’s, is now set for General Hawk, the unkempt elder leader of the Joes. There’s your marquee value. The Cobra-backed villain, Zartan, who is a dead ringer for the old school wrestler the Ultimate Warrior, will be played by South African actor Arnold Vosloo [iesb.net]. How much more of this do we have to take? In what seems like a move directed at all of the Internet moaning, G.I. Joe creator Larry Hama [latinoreview] has signed on as a consultant to the film. Late, much?
Three years have passed since her last forgotten supernatural mystery, The Forgotten, so the lovely and veddy talented Julianne Moore is set to top-line a new $25 million supernatural mystery entitled Shelter. Plot details are under wraps, but Swedish directors Mans Barlind and Bjorn Stein are aboard. Peter and John are not.
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Posted on Jan 31, 2008 under Main |
Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Casting, Family Films
If you were wondering how a group of teens could find themselves partying alone in a Maine vacation home, and then have to fight off aliens who invade from upstairs, we have our answer. Ashley Tisdale’s dad in They Came From Upstairs is going to be played by Doug Wilson, err — Kevin Nealon, who has been co-starring on Weeds as the pot-smoking ex councilman Doug for a few years now. Of course, there’s a chance that the teens are not alone, and that mom and pops are sleeping upstairs, but since they haven’t been mentioned in previous news releases, I’m going to guess that the parents either went out for the night, or don’t know where their rabble-rousing children are.
So yes, The Hollywood Reporter has Gillian Vigman (Mad TV and one of the speed dating women from 40-Year-Old Virgin) has been cast as his wife and Ashley’s mom. Since Tim Meadows already nabbed himself a role earlier this month, the adventure comedy will be a bit of a reunion for the SNL alumni. With these adults in place, you’ve got your comedy, and I guess the kids will provide the adventure. Now, if only we could hear something more about the film other than it being a comedy adventure about kids trying to defend a vacation home from aliens who invade from upstairs. Production is getting into gear, so maybe we’ll hear soon. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Jan 31, 2008 under Main |
Brokeback Mountain just keeps getting better. The more I look at it the more classically and perfectly structured, shot, acted, and edited it is. Since I’m still reeling from the tragic loss of Heath Ledger, I was looking at the movie this morning. Ang Lee’s deliberately quiet and langorously paced drama introduces Ennis Del Mar in longshot as he walks to his destination and waits. And waits some more. He rarely lifts his head up, but stays all stiff and internal. We get our first closeup at the sixth cut to him as Jack Twist’s (Jake Gyllenhaal) sputtering vehicle disturbs his peace and quiet. But when Jack gets out of the truck and looks at him, Ennis immediately shrinks back into himself, head bowed, staring at the boots (the bottom right highlighted image, which is the eighth).
It isn’t until Jack’s back is turned that Ennis Del Mar finally allows himself a peek…
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Posted on Jan 31, 2008 under Main |
Erik Davis
Filed under: Drama, Fandom, Images
Is it me, or does someone look like he needs either a joint or a bath? Slashfilm has snagged the first photos of Sean Penn from off the set of the new Gus Van Sant flick, Milk. Penn plays Harvey Milk in the biopic, who, back in 1977, became California’s first openly gay official when he was voted to the city supervisor’s board of San Francisco. One year later — and this may be a spoiler warning for those not in the know — Milk, along with the city’s mayor George Mascone, were assassinated by another city supervisor, Dan White. Also starring in the film are Josh Brolin (White), Emile Hirsch (Cleve Jones), Victor Garber (Moscone), Denis O’Hare (Senator Brigg) and James Franco is rumored to be playing Scott Smith (according to the IMDb).
As Slashfilm points out with their photos, parts of the Castro District in San Francisco have been magically given a 70’s-style facelift, including one such storefront that’s housing Milk’s campaign headquarters (see photo after the jump). At one point, director Bryan Singer wanted to direct his own Harvey Milk biopic called The Mayor of Castro Street, but there’s been no word on that for awhile (apparently it needed a rewrite). Milk is due out later this year. Check out more photos after the jump …
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Posted on Jan 31, 2008 under Main |
Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: RumorMonger, Comic/Superhero/Geek
I’ve had a thing for lounge covers of popular songs ever since I heard Jaymz Bee’s take on Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” and Loverboy’s “Turn Me Loose.” But those were all Canadian covers. Stateside, Richard Cheese & Lounge Against the Machine take care of the big lounge covers, and Watchmen filmmaker Zack Snyder really likes them. He likes them so much, in fact, that he just wrote a blog post about them for MTV.
Considering the fact that he is in the final weeks of shooting the film, I would say that he’s probably got a lot on his mind. Maybe it’s a jump, but I wonder if he would be writing an 880 word blog post right now that isn’t, somehow, specifically linked to the film. Snyder mentions the feature, and thinking about music for the film, but doesn’t specifically connect the two and state that lounge covers will appear in the movie.
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Posted on Jan 31, 2008 under Main |
Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Comedy, Romance, Casting
After being a bit unhappy with some of the portrayals in Knocked Up, what does Katherine Heigl do? She signs on to star in a new romcom called The Ugly Truth, which Christopher Campbell told you about in November. The flick will focus on a “romantically challenged” morning show producer who deals with a chauvinistic correspondent trying to teach her how to find love. There’s nothing like saying Knocked Up is sexist and then signing up for a movie where she gets taught love by a chauvinist.
Now Variety reports that Gerard Butler will be the guy to “guide” her. He’s going to play a man called Mike Alexander, who is the “host of a TV segment titled ‘The Ugly Truth.’” Heigl’s character is “reluctantly embroiled by her chauvinistic correspondent (Butler) in a series of outrageous tests to prove his theories on relationships and help her find love.” Well, I guess he was just done with all that uber thoughtfulness from P.S. I Love You.
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Posted on Jan 31, 2008 under Main |
“We are, like, major.”
The day all hardcore Kimya Dawson fans and Chan Marshall’s Miami hangers-on have dreaded is here, as the Juno Soundtrack has taken Soundscan’s gold medal, with 65,000 units sold. And take note, because this is the first time a soundtrack for a Best Picture nominee has dangled its legs from atop the flagpole since Titanic did it a decade ago. And in a possible Juno-boost, soundtrack artist Cat Power’s latest album, the swell Jukebox, debuted at number 12, her highest sales week in a long career.
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Posted on Jan 31, 2008 under Main |
I always hope to see the 13-15 ish films that are nominated each year in the short film divisions at the Oscars (live action / animated / documentary) but this year I’ve seen but one from the Live Action division: the humorous Italian entry The Substitute which is about a very wild teacher who causes chaos in a high school classroom one day (screened at the IIFF). So I’m turning this report over to Brian Darr who writes the informative Hell on Frisco Bay blog (which focuses on the cinephile scene in San Francisco) and who recently completed a stint covering Sundance for GreenCine Daily.
Take it away Brian…
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Posted on Jan 30, 2008 under Main |
Kim Voynar
Filed under: Sundance, Festival Reports, Cinematical Indie
For those of us who were at Sundance until the very end, 2008 will be remembered as the Year of That Blizzard. James Rocchi and I finally made it home safely today after getting stuck in Park City when the highway was shut down from 22″ of new snow and winds up to 60MPH.
If you’ve never been in a blizzard, it’s kind of cool if you’re safe indoors, and incredibly scary if you’re not. Our good friends over at indieWIRE made the drive through the storm and got through just before the shutdown. Eugene Hernandez (always on the ball, even in an emergency) shot video of the indieWIRE crew’s harrowing drive through the blizzard. Check out the video right here to see why James and I, much as we wanted to get home, ended up being glad to be stuck at the Yarrow. Yeesh. Read the rest of this entry »
