Posted May 16th 2008 11:40AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Comedy, Independent, Casting, Deals, Newsstand, George Clooney, War
This is officially the greatest movie title ever.
Variety has announced that George Clooney will star in
Men Who Stare At Goats, a big screen adaptation of Jon Ronson's scary-because-its-true book. Clooney's Smoke House partner Grant Heslov will direct, while Peter Straughan has penned the script.
Ronson's book is an investigation into the secret wing of the U.S. First Earth Battalion. It was a paranormal research unit created in 1979 with the purpose of creating "Warrior Monks," soldiers who could walk through walls, become invisible, read minds, and even kill a goat simply by staring at it long enough. One ex-Army employee Ronson interviewed claims that he actually did kill his pet hamster and a goat by staring at them for a very long time. While the book is full of kookiness, it does branch out to discuss how the paranormal project has come to play in the current Iraq war. Not only have some of First Earth's research projects been employed as torture, a few of those claiming to have developed superpowers have reportedly been deployed to Iraq. Our tax dollars at work, people.
It all sounds like one of the funnier episodes of
The X-Files -- a perfect project for Clooney; the right mix of political activism and screwball humor. Frankly, I'm sold by the title alone. Here's hoping they won't change it to appeal to a wider America.
Posted May 15th 2008 6:32PM by Peter Martin
Filed under: Thrillers, Deals, RumorMonger, James Bond
Would you like that shaken or stirred, Leo? Writing in
Los Angeles Times, Jay A. Fernandez reports that
Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way company recently came on board to produce a biopic about Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, based on an original script by Damian Stevenson. Fernandez speculates that DiCaprio might play Fleming: "During the writers' strike, DiCaprio showed interest in Fleming and his world, but he's looking to take the script in a different direction with a new writer."
Leo has produced other films in which he did not appear (
The Assassination of Richard Nixon,
Gardener of Eden) and already has a very full plate of upcoming projects. Still, it's fun to speculate because Fleming was such a fascinating character.
According to
Wikipedia, Fleming was a journalist first, including time in Moscow in 1933, then a stockbroker, before working in Naval Intelligence for Britain during World War II. He personally directed an intelligence-gathering unit that employed "lock-picking, safe-cracking, forms of unarmed combat, and other techniques and skills." He published his first Bond novel,
Casino Royale, in 1953. Stevenson's script started on the eve of Fleming's wedding in 1952 before flashing back to his years as a journalist, playboy and spy planner.
Fleming sounds like it could be a good, thrilling drama. What do you think? Could Leo pull off the part? If not, who would you like to see as Ian Fleming?
Posted May 15th 2008 4:45PM by Peter Martin
Filed under: Thrillers, Deals, Magnolia, Distribution, Cinematical Indie
While David Lynch
prepares to team up with Werner Herzog to make a guerilla-style murder drama, his daughter is doing quite well on her own, thank you very much.
indieWIRE reports that
Surveillance, the first film by
Jennifer Chambers Lynch in 15 years, has been picked up by Magnet Releasing for distribution in the US. The thriller will be playing out of competition at
Cannes next week in one of the three Midnight screening slots.
Surveillance is set in the Santa Fe desert, where a blood-curdling killing spree has been unleashed, according to the
official synopsis. The FBI arrives and listens to three eyewitnesses, including an eight-year-old girl whose family was brutally murdered. It becomes clear that the little girl knows something about the FBI agents ... and then two more bodies are found.
Creepy, eh? But not nearly as creepy as Lynch's first film,
Boxing Helena, in which a surgeon held a woman captive and started amputating her limbs, all in the name of love. Based on the premise,
Surveillance sounds much more straightforward, but perhaps the younger Lynch has some surprises up her sleeve.
The film stars
Julia Ormond and
Bill Pullman (David Lynch's
Lost Highway) as the FBI agents, Pell James, Ryan Simpkins, and Kent Harper as the witnesses, and Michael Ironside as the local police chief. French Stewart and Cheri Oteri are also featured. Harper co-wrote the script with Lynch. Magnet Releasing, the genre arm of Magnolia Pictures, plans a fall theatrical roll-out.
Posted May 15th 2008 1:02PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Drama, Deals, Mystery & Suspense, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand
I'm not sure what they're putting in the water over in Cannes, but some pretty wild deals are beginning to emerge from that fest in France. Only a day after
Werner Herzog signed to
direct Nicolas Cage in a remake of Bad Lieutenant comes word from
The Hollywood Reporter that Herzog and
David Lynch have teamed up on a film called
My Son; a murder drama to be tentatively shot next March. Based on a true story,
My Son will tell of a "San Diego man who acts out a Sophocles play in his mind and kills his mother with a sword."
HR says the film will jump between the murder scene and this disturbed man's story. Nice family film from two completely sane directors.
Additionally, and this shouldn't come as a surprise (considering the two guys we're talking about),
My Son will be shot guerrilla-style with digital video. Herzog, who co-wrote
My Son with Herbert Golder, will first shoot
Bad Lieutenant in July before directing the Victorian-era drama
The Piano Tuner for Focus Features. One can only imagine what the finished product will look like when you've got Herzog and Lynch working together on the same movie -- especially one with a nutty storyline like this one. Not for nothing, but I think I'd rather watch the documentary of them making this film rather than the film itself. You?
Posted May 15th 2008 8:02AM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Independent, Deals, Cinematical Indie
If you're a fan of
Red Road, and were itching for the next part of the trilogy, I'm sorry to say that this isn't it. (Is the trilogy plan even continuing?!) It is, however, the second feature for the film's director,
Andrea Arnold.
Variety reports that Artificial Eye has pre-bought the UK rights to her next film,
Fish Tank.
Unfortunately, the piece then goes on to talk about Eye's other projects and executive info, rather than the film. So, we've got this mysterious second picture. However, thanks to the Internet, I can fill in a tiny hole at least. According to
MoveThat.com, Arnold was/is looking for her female lead for the film. "We're looking for young looking, white 16-19 year old girls who speak with strong London/South East accents who have attitude and who can street dance. Female breakers, poppers, lockers, and krumpers all very welcome."
UK readers out there, you'll have to fill us North American folk in on the slang, but I think it's safe to say that this is going to be some girl-headed film about dancing. Unfortunately, because of the language request, it'll probably also have really annoying English subtitles that don't match up with the words like
Red Road.
That's all Google is allowing me to find right now, but please comment below if you've heard anything else about this feature.
Posted May 14th 2008 9:32PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Deals, Executive shifts, ThinkFilm, Celebrities and Controversy, Newsstand
If you had a slow Mother's Day weekend and were lurking around the net, you might have heard that David O. Russell's upcoming comedy
Nailed hit another snag; this one much bigger than just an actor walking off set (a snag that was NOT because of Russell!). They were shut down by the Screen Actors Guild because they didn't have enough money to pay their actors.
You can check out the story, as it unfolded, at
Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood Daily. Luckily, any of you who are itching to see
Nailed needn't worry.
Variety reports that ThinkFilm (part of Capitol Films) has resumed shooting (and will hopefully have enough cash to finish it).
But this is part of a bigger problem:
Nailed wasn't the only film hit with funding issues.
A number of Capitol projects have been stopped or delayed due to lack of funds. ThinkFilm failed to pay Alex Gibney his owed fees for
Taxi to the Dark Side. Flicks like
Bad Meat were shut down.
Then She Found Me's paper ad campaign hit a snag when there was no money for ads. You know you have serious money issues when you can't even get enough for your ad campaigns.
And now they're heading to Cannes with films from
The Edge of Love to
The Oxford Murders. There's a lot of interesting films attached to this company, but my head has got "Another One Bites the Dust" playing for ThinkFilm and Capitol.
Thoughts?
Posted May 14th 2008 8:02PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Drama, Deals, Scripts, Cinematical Indie, War
Baby, when I met you there was peace unknown. I set out to get you with a fine tooth comb..Okay, sorry. I couldn't resist. Like
Ryan back in January, I had to start this with a little "Islands in the Stream," Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers style. (Btw: Did you know it was written by the Bee Gees?) Anyhow, back in January, we learned that
Tommy Lee Jones was circling a new adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's first posthumous novel,
Islands in the Stream. Now
The Hollywood Reporter posts that Jones has signed on to adapt, direct, produce, and star in the project, which will be presented to buyers at Cannes.
Stream follows an American painter, Thomas Hudson, tucked away in the Bahamas. Through three acts, the reader is introduced to Hudson's life, from the arrival of his sons to his island getaway, to alcoholism and naval reconnaissance during WWII, to Hudson's desire to pursue a ship of German soldiers who killed an entire village. At one point, there was also a fourth part, but it was removed and became the epically popular
The Old Man and the Sea.
Continue reading Tommy Lee Jones Signs On for 'Islands in the Stream'
Posted May 14th 2008 5:35PM by Jessica Barnes
Filed under: Drama, Thrillers, Deals, Disney, Politics
Thanks to
Bourne, the spy-fi genre is alive and well and every studio is on the lookout for a franchise of their own -- even Disney.
Variety reports that super-producer
Jerry Bruckheimer (along with the Mouse) has purchased the screen rights to David Ignatius' spy thriller,
The Increment. Ignatius is an associate editor for
The Washington Post and
Increment will be his seventh novel. An adaptation of his 2007 book,
Body of Lies, has already finished shooting with
Ridley Scott at the helm, and
Leonardo DiCaprio starring as a CIA agent hot on the tail of a terrorist.
The Increment centers on a "shadowy, elite group of British undercover intelligence operatives who are conscripted by a CIA agent to help a weapons scientist defect from Iran." Early reviews of the manuscript praised the story, citing the wealth of facts about the CIA and the international intelligence community. But insiders were shocked that Disney would want the property considering the amount of 'hot button' issues in the book, like Islamic politics and an invasion of Iran.
Ignatius' novel has not even been published yet, so it's
very early days for the adaptation -- and leaving plenty of time for Disney to water down the story. In the meantime, look for
Body of Lies to arrive in theaters on October 8th, 2008.
Posted May 14th 2008 4:35PM by Peter Martin
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Foreign Language, Independent, Deals, Cannes, IFC, Distribution, Cinematical Indie
The deals are already flying fast and furious in
Cannes. As befits an international marketplace, most of the action involves far-flung territories, but we're keeping an eye out for US distribution deals too.
indieWIRE has a great round-up of the first day's activity, which includes the news that IFC Films has acquired distribution rights to two films.
Good buzz about 24-year-old Joshua Safdie's feature debut
The Pleasure of Being Robbed began when it world premiered at
SXSW in March. Somehow, the
Cinematical crew missed seeing it (hey, we're only human, we miss things sometimes), but
David Lowery at Spout raved: "It's pure cinema, and as such it's one of the best films I've seen this year." The comedy revolves around a kleptomaniac, played by co-writer Eleonore Hendricks, with a philanthropic streak.
Pleasure is the only US title in the Director's Fortnight this year.
In 2005,
Tom Hall declared: "There is not a more important filmmaker working today than
Arnaud Desplechin." He previously made
Kings & Queen and
Esther Kahn, among other critically-acclaimed work. The French filmmaker's latest,
A Christmas Tale (
Un conte de Noël), features Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Paul Roussillon and Mathieu Amalric "in a contemporary family drama set in France." The film plays in Official Competition and has its first screening on Friday night before opening theatrically in France next week.
We'll have to wait to hear about IFC's specific plans for distribution.
Posted May 14th 2008 3:02PM by Jessica Barnes
Filed under: Comedy, Deals, Distribution
I know
I'm not the first person to come to this conclusion, but
Matthew McConaughey really does seem to have a charmed existence. Sure, he makes some
crappy movies, but they keep paying him to star and we keep paying to see them in theaters. Coming Soon
reports that the perpetually shirtless actor (I'm not complaining, mind you) has struck a deal with Anchor Bay Entertainment to release
Surfer Dude, a comedy that he produced.
McConaughey stars as Steve Addington, a surf bum who returns home to Malibu after a world tour. The good times don't last long, and when the waves disappear for the whole season, Addington starts to go off the rails. In true stoner fashion, producer Mark Gustawes was quoted as saying, "Matthew plays a character who's a throwback to the '70s: Peace, love, and a righteous wave is what 'Surfer, Dude' is all about. Anchor Bay dug it -- and we decided to surf it, together."
Classic, brah. McConaughey scored some (kinda) big names for the film including
Woody Harrelson and
Willie Nelson -- I can only imagine the dust clouds of smoke coming out of those trailers.
Anchor Bay will release the film in theaters this summer, but they're also planning to release the film onto DVD shortly after. Back in the old days, when a studio jumped on the home video release it meant the movie was no good. Luckily, these days a studio can spin it into a bright shining example of the new face of film distribution.
Surfer Dude will coast into theaters in late summer.
Posted May 14th 2008 2:02PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Deals, RumorMonger, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking
Ever since director
Jason Reitman knocked one out of the ballpark with
Juno, folks have been itching to see what the man takes on next. Yes, he's taken to producing a few things (like the Diablo Cody-penned
Jennifer's Body), but what, exactly, will be his next directorial project. Well, according to
Latino Review, they've heard from a source that the younger Reitman will direct an adaptation of the novel
Up in the Air, written by
Thumbsucker author Walter Kirn. Apparently, some digging reveals that Jason's dad Ivan Reitman is already executive producing the film after picking up a script from Sheldon Turner back in 2003.
Recently, Reitman told
MTV that he was "writing something" and would "direct it at the end of the year." When pushed to reveal something, anything, Reitman said "it's a comedy and a drama [book adaptation]. Think
Thank You For Smoking, but instead of political it's corporate." And if you look at the synopsis for
Up in the Air over on
Amazon (I've never read the book personally), it fits right into the above description.
Here's a taste: "Officially, Bingham is a management consultant, specializing in the lugubrious field of career transition counseling (i.e., he fires people for a living). But what Kirn's airborne protagonist is really doing is pursuing his own private passion, his great white whale: accumulating one million miles in his frequent-flyer account. As
Up in the Air opens, Bingham has set out on a final, epic traveling jag. He intends to visit eight cities in six days, thereby achieving his own vision of Nirvana somewhere over Sioux Falls, South Dakota."
No official word on this one yet, but the pieces definitely seem to be coming together. Anyone read the book? Is it a good fit for Reitman?
UPDATE: LR provides the following update:
I just got off the horn with Jason Reitman's publicist. She did in fact confirm that Jason is adapting the book but that no deal is YET in place for him to direct.Posted May 14th 2008 9:32AM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Casting, Deals, RumorMonger, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking, Remakes and Sequels
We've been hearing about a possible
21 Jump Street movie for awhile now, and if
Entertainment Weekly is to be believed, it looks like that film might be happening with Apatow love child
Jonah Hill, who's in negotiations to work on the screenplay and executive produce. We assume Hill would also star in one of the lead roles, though that probably depends on whether they go the strict comedic route with this.
21 Jump Street, the TV show, was a pretty big hit during the '80s, and it starred Johnny Depp as one of a group of young cops who went undercover in high schools to help troubled kids.
I dig it. Something like this would only work today if it was done with a sense of humor, I think, and so bringing in Hill to sprinkle on some Superbad-ish jokes might work well for the film ... even though all the raunchy stuff would make it a completely different monster, and when it was all said and done, would probably have nothing whatsoever to do with the original TV show (besides the name and the premise). Could you see
21 Jump Street: The Movie working as an Apatow-esque comedy? Does it work better as a drama? And who would you like to see joining Hill as a fellow undercover officer?
Posted May 13th 2008 10:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Classics, Deals, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels
Life sure has a sick sense of humor , doesn't it?
From Cannes comes the news that
Jan de Bont, last seen behind the camera of
Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (and currently filming
Stopping Power), is going to be filming a sequel to Kathryn Bigelow's 1991 film.
According to
The Hollywood Reporter, the sequel will be given the poetic title
Point Break: Indo, and will be based somewhere in Asia. It will take place 20 years after the original, which you will remember ended with the disappearance of Bodhi, Patrick Swayze's character.
No word on the plot, or if any of the original characters will appear, though the script is being penned by the same scribe, W. Peter Iliff. (
We reported this last year, actually.) I think it's safe to assume it will be the same characters; what sense would a sequel make if it was about
another gang of criminal surfers? (Actually,
IESB says there is another band of criminal surfers, and they're called -- gulp -- The Bush Administration. Um, yay?) And what of the actors? Will someone manage get Keanu Reeves to reprise his lead role? So many questions, none of them good.
Just when you think there is no film they can resurrect for a sequel. I'm at a loss. Why can't they make more Russian mafia movies instead of resurrecting surfing criminals? Oddly, the lingering question in my mind is how
Danny Butterman will react to the news, and how this movie really should have come out before all that nastiness in Sandford. Then I would know if he preferred it to the original and could rest easy.
Posted May 13th 2008 7:36PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Drama, Deals, Scripts, Politics, Cinematical Indie
Fidel Castro might be showing up as a character in Steven Soderbergh's Che flicks, but it looks like his daughter,
Alina Fernandez, is getting a bit more involved in the movie biz.
The Hollywood Reporter posts that
Crash co-writer and Oscar winner
Bobby Moresco is bringing her story to the big screen. Fernandez will consult, Moresco will possibly direct it, and the project is currently out to writers. However, this won't be a straight biopic.
It seems that her story will somehow be intertwined with the stories of others, like
Crash, to "show the Cuban and American perspectives and ideologies along with Fernandez's story." Basically, she's the product of an affair Castro had while married to his first wife. She "spent her childhood in the country's shadow, only learning at age 10 that the man who visited her at night and whom she saw on TV every day was her father." In the '90s, she disguised herself as a Spanish tourist and fled to Spain, and then the US, where she now lives.
Fernandez is involved to try "to make people be a little more aware of how glorious we are and how many limitations we have." I'm sure that will depend on how the film is portrayed and then perceived by audiences. I happened to really dig
Crash, but many people were put off by it, so it'll be interesting to see if this project takes on a different tone to circumvent comparisons.
Posted May 13th 2008 6:32PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Drama, Casting, Deals, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand
As soon as this story hit, I had to check to make sure a) it wasn't April 1st, and b) we all still lived on the planet Earth. Yes, I'm not kidding about this one --
The Hollywood Reporter tells us that
Werner Herzog is remaking Abel Ferrara's gritty, NC-17-rated cult classic,
Bad Lieutenant, and none other than
Nicolas Cage is going to star. Nic Cage! Werner Herzog! Am I the only one who's completely blown away by this bizarre news? (Though, to be fair, we
did kinda see this coming ...)
Cage will take on the role originally played by
Harvey Keitel; he'll slip into the part of a drug and sex-addicted corrupt cop, though there's no word on how far they'll take this version of the film. However, exec producer Avi Lerner did promise this new take will "deliver as much filth as the original." Wonderful! We'll look forward to it Avi! Nu Image/Millennium Films will finance, with Pressman Film Corp. producing. When asked about his opinion on this new project,
Cinematical snark expert Scott Weinberg said "Awesome, let's hope it's as funny as his last remake.
The Wicker Man as a comedy ... brilliant!" (Oh man, this is such a nasty, nasty film.)
Okay, now it's your turn: I know you folks are dying to sound off on this one below ...
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