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Forget The Hunger Games and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn. I know what movie event you’re really psyched to see: the Jennifer Aniston and Demi Moore-directed Lifetime film Project Five. Because nothing says movie event like a dramatized breast cancer compilation! So grab your extra large soda and jump ahead to see the trailer, which features Rosario Dawson, Lyndsy Fonseca, Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, Bob Newhart and Patricia Clarkson.
Aniston, Moore, Alicia Keys, Penelope Spheeris and Patty Jenkins co-directed Project Five, which follows five women’s stories, all interconnected by Jeanne Tripplehorn’s character — a cancer-stricken oncologist. What’s that? You want to pre-order tickets right now? That’s the best part! No ticket necessary. Project Five premieres October 10 on Lifetime and will mark the feature directing debuts of Aniston, Moore and Keys.
[via E! Online]
We’ve all wondered it before in moments of clarity and repose: ‘Why the hell do I know what a Kardashian is?’ In the latest installment of Verbal Vogueing, Movieline staff editor Louis Virtel dares to ponder the inexplicably famous, many-headed pop culture monstrosity that is the Kardashian brood, led by the one known as Kim. Join him and jam — turn it up! — with Episode 4, and chime in with any #RejectedOlympicEvents you’ve got. Just be warned: with “Kerrigan Wailing” and “STD Relay,” the gauntlet’s been thrown.
I admit, I can tolerate remakes. Everything from Fame and Footloose to Dirty Dancing and that globetrotting version of Clue are fine by me, even if they’re terribly executed. I just don’t have to see some of them! But something about the news of NBC’s planned TV series adaptation of Romancing the Stone just hurts. Romancing the Stone, of course, is the 1984 action/adventure romantic comedy starring Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas. Could you stand to watch a Romancing the Stone series?
Here’s what made the original movie work: great action sequences and Kathleen Turner’s immensely enjoyable performance. You can recreate the former on an NBC budget (remember Undercovers?), but I just don’t see Turner’s magic translating to the small screen in any way.
Deadline notes that at one point, a rumor spread that The Ugly Truth director Robert Luketic wanted to try a feature remake with his stars Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler. Confession: I like both of those people and wouldn’t hate them on the series. But since both parties probably aren’t game for TV gigs, I’d suggest Ari Graynor and any Spartacus: Blood and Sand castoff.
Would you watch a Romancing the Stone TV series? Or would you sooner die?
• Romancing The Stone TV Adaptation Lands At NBC With Penalty, Shawn Levy May Direct [Deadline]
Greetings from Venice, and from the 68th Venice Film Festival! I arrived here too late to catch the press screening of the festival’s opening film, George Clooney’s The Ides of March, which I’ve been looking forward to for months. That will have to wait until Toronto, next week. But I did happen to catch two spectacular visions my first night here: First a red-carpet sighting of George Clooney, cheered on by a noisy gang of delighted Italian fans, and a lightning storm over the lagoon, sans rain, unlike any I’ve ever seen.
As fabulous as George Clooney is, I was even more awestruck by the lightning storm, so majestic and benign after last week’s earthquake-hurricane combo in New York. I noticed it as I was walking along the pathway along the lagoon just after nightfall, toward my hotel: Sometimes the lightning streaks manifested themselves as casual, impressionistic squiggles; other times, all I could see was a flash of backlighting behind soft gray clouds. Apparently, these types of storms aren’t uncommon here, but I’ve never seen one like it, and I sat on a set of stone steps and watched for a good half-hour. Perhaps it was a harbinger of great moviegoing in the coming week.
And then there was Clooney, strolling the red carpet outside the festival complex’s Palazzo del Cinema at twilight, just before his movie’s world premiere. I love Clooney as an actor, and so far, it’s been fun to watch his evolution as a director. But I think I love him best as a movie star, considering we have so few of them these days. I’m not talking about mere celebrities, but human beings with real star power, an aura of casual charm and glamour that glows…
20th Century Fox and star Bruce Willis have settled on a director for Die Hard 5: John Moore (Behind Enemy Lines, The Omen), who most recently helmed the 2008 shooter pic Max Payne. The John McClane five-quel will film in Russia with a rumored $100 million budget, according to Deadline, which reports that Moore is currently in negotiations. The real question is, with the 56-year-old Willis still going strong in action hero mode 23 years after he first cracked wise in the inaugural Die Hard, will these film ever truly die, hard or otherwise? [Deadline]
Don’t pretend like a new American Pie movie couldn’t work. You sit through the sequels when they’re on Encore or TeenNICK, or whatever. Horniness is a watchable thing! In this new photo, we see the class of ‘99 crowd the photo booth for old times’ sake. Don’t deny the cuteness.
Aw, little Thomas Ian Nicholas is still wearing his Please Give scruff. Chris Klein is showing no trace of his Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li past, and Tara Reid doesn’t seem to be thinking about The Big Lebowski 2 at all. This is just damn fun. And Jason Biggs is already my reigning king of cool, so I don’t care if he’s utterly catatonic in this movie. Bring it all on.
Click through to People for a charming video montage of the Pie stars set to James’s “Laid.”
Children of the ’90s were aghast to hear there was a live-action Captain Planet film reboot in the works, courtesy of the producers behind the Transformers movies. Even the good people at Funny or Die took heed, making their own version of what a live-action Captain Planet movie would look like… if Don Cheadle (in horrifying blue face paint and the Captain’s trademark green mullet) played the part of the eco-friendly superhero, with folks like Brenda Song and Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite onboard as his multi-culti band of annoying young do-gooders.
It all starts out innocently enough. The Planeteers summon Captain Planet to help stop evil loggers from cutting down the forest. But before you know it, people are turning into trees and Captain Planet’s hump-blasting his way through a magical murder spree in the name of environmental justice. If only the Captain Planet movie turned out like this!
(Also: Cheers to Efren Ramirez for so closely conveying everything that was always so damn annoying about the “heart” kid.)
• Don Cheadle is Captain Planet [ Funny or Die]
Labor Day weekend has come to mean a number of things over the years. It used to be a tribute to working men and women and now it’s a three-day excuse to make irresponsible decisions while simultaneously saying farewell to the summer and hello to football season. Ever since 2001 though, it also marks the eve of 9/11 newscasts and commemorative events. Before we break for the party weekend, let’s start remembering those lost in the September 11 attacks with this montage of the Twin Tower’s best moments in movie history, courtesy of web wizard Dan Meth.
Twin Tower Cameos from Dan Meth on Vimeo.
[via Yahoo!/The Projector]
It’s not often that I’m intrigued, bothered, titillated, confused, and exhilarated after watching a trailer, but A Dangerous Method does the trick. In the new preview for the dazzling Keira Knightley/Michael Fassbender Freud drama, we watch as Knightley begs to be beaten (not sexy), Fassbender reinvents Talented Mr. Ripley sailboat glamor (sexy), and Freud (Viggo Mortensen) drops in for some insight (id-tickling sexy)!
Well, if that wasn’t enough magnificent costuming and intense violin music for you, I suppose you’ll have to don Romanov furs and conduct the Boston Pops yourself. A pretty lovely trailer, no? We’re certainly getting the old-school Marnie vibes from Knightley here, as she wigs out over untapped psychological trauma. The gents are in fine form too, even if they’re as dandied out as the lion from The Wiz. Then again, Vincent Cassel is part of the movie, so I expect some arch behavior.
I don’t remember the last time a “case study” filmed moved me, but I’m sensing 100% commitment from all parties involved. I’m in.
Verdict: Freudian hip!
Watch the trailer in HD over at Apple.
In case you haven’t noticed, it is unofficially Al Pacino celebration month here at Movieline. Last week, we attended a gaudy, Scarface-themed Blu-ray release party where Pacino and the cast discussed the making-of their 1983 cult classic; Monday, we watched the actor go a little crazy in his upcoming documentary Wilde Salome; and now, we present you more Pacino via never-before-seen Scarface outtakes.
There. You like that? You want more? You’re going to have to wait for Universal to release the Blu-ray on Sept. 6.
