So, it really has come to this. Back in 1963, Patty Duke won an Academy Award at the age of 16 for her work in The Miracle Worker. Now, she is shilling for SocialSecurity.gov while wearing Spock ears and an ill-fitting Trekkie costume. George Takei joins her for legitimacy. (Melissa Leo, you have seen your future.) I guess Mo’nique really was right when she eloquently said, “You can’t eat an Oscar.”
[via zap2it]
Scream 4 promises to be one of the scariest Hayden Panettiere movies ever, but it didn’t occur without setback (as Wes Craven, who doesn’t sound thrilled with the process, can attest). Screenwriter Kevin Williamson is finally revealing the details about his fight with Bob Weinstein over creative differences and explains that he never abandoned the series. But you can blame vampires for the confusion!
According to a new interview with EW, Williamson’s tiff with Weinstein was as explosive as you imagined.
There were all these rumors that you were fired from Scream 4. What happened?
Oh, I got in a big fight with Bob. God love him. I’ve worked with the man for 16 years out of my 16-year career. We get in some fights. We’re a very dysfunctional family over there at the Weinstein Co. We got into a massive fight creatively and we hugged it out and then we moved on.
Can you allude to what the struggle was about?
Oh just, you know — I felt strongly about this and he felt strongly about that and then I did this and that wasn’t right. Everyone was second-guessing everything because everyone wanted it to be so perfect. That’s exactly what happened. The one thing that Bob and I connect on very basically, why we’ve worked successfully together for 16 years, is we’re passionate. And no one is more passionate than Bob Weinstein. And it is that passion that allows you to make a movie where he will believe in you and trust in you and it’s also that passion that can cause fights and cause struggle. For 16 years, he’s kept me gainfully employed. I love him. Yes, we got into the fight, but then the big clincher came: Contractually, I had signed on to do The Vampire Diaries [Williamson’s series for The CW]. You know, the little thing called first and second position? I was in first position to do Vamprie Diaries and second position to do Scream 4. So guess what? It was a contractual thing. Warner Bros called up and they said, “Dude where are you? You have a show that’s on the air — where are you?” I did double duty as much as I could but The Vampire Diaries was also very important to me.
So it was basically a contractual parting of ways?
Yeah, but then one blog got a hold of it. It’s fine. What are you going to say? Yeah we got into a massive fight, but at the same time the fight ended and we hugged it out and we continued forward and we tried to make the best movie possible. But it was also very raw and sensitive.
When did you and Bob reconcile?
Oh, I haven’t talked to him yet.
How do you know if he’s over it?
Oh please! Oh come on, it’s Bob. It’s fine!
In all fairness, The Vampire Diaries is a good show. I’d have been happy to abandon Scream 4 for it. Mind you, I might’ve stuck with Scream 4 for a chance to keep fighting with Bob Weinstein. But I guess it’s one or the other!
Deadline reports that visual effects veteran Tim Miller (X-Men, X2, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) has graduated to the helm of Fox’s X-Men Origins: Deadpool, which is currently being written by Zombieland scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. But with its star currently carrying another studio’s comic book tent pole (Green Lantern), how soon will Deadpool happen with Reynolds — and will it be the Deadpool movie that Reynolds wants to make?
Speaking last weekend at WonderCon, Reynolds expressed a desire to reprise his role as Wade Wilson/Deadpool, the disfigured mercenary he played in 2009’s Wolverine, but didn’t reveal anything in the way of when said film would happen. Moreover, Reynolds insisted that if a Deadpool film did come to pass, it would be done the “right” way — as a hard R.
At the time, that kind of candid, crowd-pleasing admission seemed to suggest that either Reynolds had serious input into the future of a Deadpool film, or that his hopes for said film were so unlikely to happen that he could make wild promises in the hypothetical. A few weeks ago, producer Lauren Shuler Donner described Deadpool as an R-rated comedy, adding that Reynolds was closely involved in the scripting process.
Fox hiring Miller on as director moves the project one step closer to fruition, so the good news for those who were skeptical in the face of Reynolds’ promise is that it looks like it really could happen. Screenwriters Reese and Wernick seem to be the right guys to pen a cheeky, violent R-rated Deadpool movie.
But another thing: Deadline’s report notes that Reynolds is “expected to star,” but with this summer’s Green Lantern leading into potential sequels, he might be very busy juggling his other comic book movie obligations. Plus, as the only actor starring in both DC and Marvel comic book film franchises in the near future, how will he ever pick a side?
· ‘X-Men’ VFX Wiz Tim Miller To Direct ‘Deadpool’ [Deadline]
Upright Citizens Brigade co-founder Matt Walsh (Outsourced) called on a dozen of his fellow comedians to act in his directorial debut High Road, an improvised film about a weed dealer (James F. Pumphrey) torn between his “career,” his musical aspirations, and his pregnant girlfriend (Abby Elliott). Hit the trailer after the jump and see how many of your favorite comedy players, including veterans of The State, Saturday Night Live, and Walsh’s short-lived series Players show up in the lo-fi indie comedy. (Well hello, Horatio Sanz!)
Okay, here’s a cheat sheet: Lizzy Caplan, Abby Elliott, Rob Riggle, Ed Helms, Joe Lo Truglio, Kyle Gass, Horatio Sanz, Andrew Daly, and more co-star with Pumphrey in the film, which is based loosely on a drug dealer Walsh knew once in Chicago who went on to enjoy a successful career as a writer.
Walsh, who has appeared in every single Todd Phillips movie to date, co-wrote High Road with Josh Weiner and gathered so much footage that he reportedly began editing with an eight-hour cut of the film. The 83-minute final version premieres at the Newport Beach Film Festival on April 29.
This weekend brings us Soul Surfer, the inspirational true story of teen surfer Bethany Hamilton, who continued pursuing the sport even after a shark made off with one of her arms. And while the latest in CG effects allow actress AnnaSophia Robb to appear to be missing a limb for most of the film’s running time, Hollywood’s fascination with amputees predates such elaborate digital trickery. Check out our favorite limb-lacking characters after the jump, and add your own suggestions in the comments.
Captain Hook in Peter Pan
The antagonist in this beloved Disney cartoon is probably most people’s first exposure to a movie character who has a prosthesis. (Why, exactly, did pirates get hooks after losing a hand? It seems like the sort of thing that would only be useful in very specific circumstances. And was his name Captain Hook before the accident? Was he renamed after the tragic event, or did his surname suddenly become ironic?) Obsessed with and terrified by the crocodile that took his hand away, Hook makes for a flamboyantly fascinating character. (Not fascinating enough to excuse the existence of Steven Spielberg’s Hook, but that’s another story.)
An unnamed Confederate soldier in Gone with the Wind
Old movies get a bad rap for sanitizing the grittiness of the world at large, but through implication and suggestion, they were often able to go to dark places. Take the classic scene where Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) is asked to assist in an amputation at a bombarded army hospital in the waning days of the Civil War. We never see the details, but we know that the operation is going to take place with no anesthesia, and between the pleading wails of the patient and the horrified look on Scarlett’s face, the intensity of the moment is captured perfectly.
Homer Parrish in The Best Years of Our Lives
Actor Harold Russell didn’t need any special effects to play a double amputee in this classic tale of soldiers coming home from World War II — in 1944, while making a training film as an Army instructor, Russell was holding a bomb that went off due to a defective fuse, blowing both of his hands off. But it’s more than his physical qualifications that made him perfect the role; he brings a real emotional heft to the role of a young man who keeps his pre-war fiancée (Cathy O’Donnell) at a distance, thinking she won’t want to love him anymore. Russell won two Oscars for his work in the film, and 65 years later, Best Years still packs a dramatic punch and remains one of the greatest films ever about veterans and their readjustment to home life.
Drake McHugh in Kings Row
The role that was arguably the apex of Ronald Reagan’s acting career, McHugh was a small-town ladies’ man who flirted with the wrong doctor’s daughter and woke up after a minor accident with both legs removed, leading to the famous line, “Where’s the rest of me?” While this film about the twisted secrets of a placid-on-the-surface small town couldn’t be as explicit as the novel on which it’s based, viewers who read between the lines can pick up on all the sin and psychosis on display here.
The Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail
One of the most memorable scenes in this brilliant medieval comedy — Your Highness isn’t fit to carry its coconut shells — involves King Arthur (Graham Chapman) doing battle with the formidable Black Knight (John Cleese), with the latter refusing to concede victory even after the king has removed all four of his limbs, one at a time. You’ve got to admire his moxie.
Gobber the Blacksmith in How to Train Your Dragon
The village’s smithy and dragon-fighting instructor (voiced by Craig Ferguson) may be missing a foot and a hand, but he’s one of the vikings’ fiercest warriors. And thanks to his adeptness with tools, he’s got any number of replaceable attachments for his hand that turn out to be convenient in a great many situations. (The bad guy in the kung-fu parody segment of Kentucky Fried Movie, “A Fistful of Yen,” has a similar Swiss Army quality to where his hand used to be, screwing in everything from a buzzsaw to an electric toothbrush.)
Lt. Dan in Forrest Gump
This officer (played by Gary Sinise) goes through the wringer — he loses his legs in combat in Vietnam, goes into a drunken depression, gets a second chance when Forrest (Tom Hanks) gives him a job on a shrimp boat, and by the end of the movie, he’s got snazzy new titanium legs that allow him to walk again. Although his new legs are functional, they’re still not as cool as the ones belonging to…
Lady Helen Port-Huntley in The Saddest Music in the World
Canadian director Guy Maddin is known for his outrageous flights of fancy, and one of his oddest creations would have to be this tormented beer heiress (Isabella Rossellini), who lost her legs in a car accident and now wears glass ones, filled to the top with the sudsy beverage that made her family rich.
One of the characters in Hustler White
There’s no remotely safe-for-work to describe what this guy does. Google it if you really want to know.
Movieline’s favorite purveyor of black stereotypes, Tyler Perry, has secured himself a place in heaven this week by tackling his own real-life house of pain project. The prolific writer/director/playwright rebuilt and furnished a home for an 88-year-old woman who lost her Georgia house in a fire a week before Christmas. After hearing about the story, Perry vowed to reconstruct the dwelling for her and her seven grand- and great-grandchildren who live with her. Perry and the family celebrated the finished product with a ceremony today in Coweta County. Congratulations. [AP]
Kind of. This weekend’s Saturday Night Live guest host is making the rounds in a pair of new promos featuring the Oscar-winner in various states of comic congress with Fred Armisen, Andy Samberg and Foo Fighters. The move-busting is positively mythical. Watch after the jump.
[via EW]
In this week’s Hanna, 16-year-old knife enthusiast Saoirse Ronan joins the illustrious ranks of the lethal young women who’ve taken up arms (or fangs, or machine gun-arms) in the movies in the name of raining down righteous fury upon their enemies. Whether raised as assassins or transformed by tragic circumstance, these ten adolescent girls and teens don’t take crap from anyone — and they have the combined body count to prove it. If you run into any of these fierce misses in a darkened alley, let’s hope they’re on your side.
Click here to meet the deadliest young ladies in the movies.
The Olsen twins were busy making ironic kerchiefs out of hundred-dollar bills, so the new teen romp Monte Carlo is forced to star Selena Gomez, Katie Cassidy, Leighton Meester, and Cory Monte(carlo)ith. Let’s take a glamorous trip to Paris!
Who knew movies like this were made anymore? Why isn’t it just called Winning Paris? And who knew mid-20somethings Katie Cassidy and Leighton Meester were game to topline this kind of stuff? Those two represent the finest in post-elementary school melodrama, and Monte Carlo’s obviously middling summer fare for kids. I’m confused. Ah, wait: Nicole Kidman is an executive producer. That’s a big deal. I’d shut up and dance on the Champs-Ãlysées too.
Of course, this script used to be something much different. Originally, the story centered on middle-aged women (Kidman was set to play a leading role) who go to Paris and meet a quartet of gigolos posing as wealthy playboys. That might’ve been too interesting, so I’m glad the movie found its true potential as a bizarre time capsule of ’90s Disney Channel cinema. So strange. At any rate: Andie MacDowell’s in this! I’m always hoping she’ll gain back the Francophile cred she forfeited in Green Card.
Verdict: Paris is burning with shame.
