Also in this morning’s edition of Biz Break: Sony Classics reunites with an Oscar-winner, Music Box takes a risk with a Hemingway, John Woo gets in on a remake, and more…
Samuel Goldwyn Takes Gyllenhaal’s Grassroots
The distributor has announced from Cannes its acquisition of Stephen Gyllenhaal’s activist dramedy featuring Joel David Moore as an idealist running for office — against Cedric the Entertainer — in Seattle in 2001. Jason Biggs, Lauren Ambrose, Cobie Smulders and Tom Arnold co-star.
Susanne Bier’s Latest Lands at Sony Classics
A year after releasing Bier’s Oscar-winning foreign-language feature In a Better World, the venerable art-house distributor has struck a deal to release her follow-up Love is All You Need. Pierce Brosnan leads the romantic comedy, which is set in Sorrento, Italy, and tells the story of “a group of people all seeking love, about passion and happiness, about jealousy and loneliness. First and foremost, it’s a story about having the courage to change your life – even when you think it’s too late.”
And around the ‘net…
Aaron Sorkin Makes Steve Jobs Deal with Sony
It’s official: Sorkin will adapt Walter Isaacson’s best-selling biography for the screen. “There is no writer working in Hollywood today who is more capable of capturing such an extraordinary life for the screen than Aaron Sorkin,” said Sony chief Amy Pascal in a statement. “In his hands, we’re confident that the film will be everything that Jobs himself was: captivating, entertaining, and polarizing.” Deadline reports.
Morgan Freeman’s Political Comments Irk WB Shareholder
The actor’s claims during the Dolphin Tale press tour that the Tea Party movement and Republican politics are “racist and wants to screw the country” drew fire from a shareholder on Tuesday’s Time Warner conference call. TW CEO Jeff…
Yikes, this is not good: “Law enforcement officials confirm … Stahl’s wife filed a missing person’s report with the L.A.P.D. on Monday … saying she last saw the 32-year-old actor on May 9. [... I]t is believed Stahl had been frequenting the Skid Row area of Downtown Los Angeles recently … and there are concerns he may have gotten himself involved in some bad stuff. Back in February, Nick’s wife had filed court papers, expressing serious concerns that Nick may be using drugs … and sources say she fears drugs may have something to do with his disappearance.” [TMZ]
Paramount unveiled the first poster to its imminent Anchorman sequel, which we’ve all been calling Anchorman 2 forever but will apparently have the brassier if more cumbersome title, Anchorman: The Legend Continues. Did we already know this? Sorry if I missed that, seriously, I’m still utterly transfixed by Peter Berg’s geopolitical aplomb. Ron Burgundy couldn’t hold a candle. Anyway, you’ll still call it Anchorman 2, so whatever, have a look.
There seem to be a couple legs missing on the far side; perhaps there were some amputations in the intervening period between the first and second installments? Or maybe it’s just the angle. We’ll see. The teaser trailer emerges this week ahead of The Dictator, so I imagine we’ll be shoveling that your way in the days ahead. Stay tuned!
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Technically the plot of Prometheus is still fairly unknown from the trailers and clips Fox has unleashed, at least insofar as what it is that befalls the intrepid space crew that ventures into unknown horrors in Ridley Scott’s June sci-fi action thriller. But the latest TV spot seems to reveal an awful lot of said horrors — flashes of frights and things and scenes that seem to give good reason for that R rating — so watch at your own risk, because these 30 seconds are at once both awesome and a tad too revealing.
Spoilers ahead!
Behold, the squirmy delights ahead of us all in the June 8 release. All those times Ridley Scott waved away Alien connections as relatively loose associations seem moot after seeing space snakes crawl up into someone’s head and glimpsing whatever it is that’s going on in Noomi Rapace’s belly. “Get it out of me!” is the new “Cut it out!” of Prometheus promo catchphrases.
And can we just talk about that hulking space man for a second? I have no idea what is actually going on here, but I’m getting flashes of Sunshine, if you know what I mean. Taking all speculations in the comments below.
[via i09]
Now here’s the way to make your run of the mill Battleship junket interview way more interesting: Turn the tables on your talking-head interviewer by grilling him on Israel’s nuclear policy and why he didn’t serve his compulsory service in the military. Which is what Peter Berg did to one unsuspecting journalist for Israel’s Channel 10.
While sitting for an on-camera chat about his summer blockbuster, Berg went off on TV interviewer Jason Danino-Holt about issues that, he admits, are much more important than his movie about aliens adapted from a board game. Instead of talking up his pop starlet cast member or his excitement for the film (okay, he managed to squeeze that in, too — what a pro!), Berg launched into Israeli arms policy as Danino-Holt sat, seemingly befuddled.
By the time Berg asks, “Are you a draft dodger?” and shouts, “You’ve gotta join the army, motherfucker!” this has automatically become the stuff of legend.
Berg’s big shiny summer blockbuster has a heavy military element — it’s very much pro-servicemen and women, and big on international cooperation between nations that, granted, can unite against a common extraterrestrial enemy without dealing with the tricky human realities of real world politics. Does Battleship give Berg the moral ground to badger a perfect stranger for not joining the army? Well, no. Is this 100 times more interesting than hearing him talk about ships and aliens and Rihanna? Hell yes. Make your weekend movie plans accordingly.
Also in Tuesday afternoon’s Biz Break, Exclusive Media takes rights to Zac Efron/Dennis Quaid starrer; Universal picks up rights to Kathryn Bigelow’s untitled bin Laden film; and with the initial craze over 3-D fading comes scrutiny over the medium.
Weinsteins Take Rights to Cannes’ The Sapphires
Starring comedian Chris Dowd and Deborah Mailman, The Sapphires will screen at the 65th Cannes Film Festival this Saturday. Wayne Blair directed the feature which is inspired by a true story about four young and talented Australian Aboriginal girls from a remote mission as they learn about love, friendship and war when their all girl group The Sapphires entertains the U.S. troops in Vietnam in 1968.
10 Win 39th Student Academy Awards
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 39th Annual Student Academy Awards were unveiled; the organization will host an awards ceremony June 9th. The winners in the Narrative category: Nani, Justin Tipping (American Film Institute); Narcocorrido, Ryan Prows (American Film Institute); Under, Mark Raso (Columbia Unviersity). Documentary: Dying Green, Ellen Tripler (American Unviersity); Hiro: A Story of Japanese Internment, Keiko Wright (NYU); Lost Country, Heather Burky (Art Inst. of Jacksonville). Animation: Eyrie, David Wolter (Calif. Institute of the Arts); The Jockstrap Raiders, Mark Nelson (UCLA); My Little Friend, Eric Prah (Ringling College of Art and Design. Alternative: The Reality Clock, Amanda Tasse (USC).
Exclusive Media Nabs Rights to Dennis Quaid, Zac Efron Starrer At Any Price
The film, directed by Chop Shop director Ramin Bahrani, also stars Kim Dickens and Heather Graham and revolves around rebellious Dean Whipple (Efron), who wants nothing more than to pursue his dream of becoming a professional race car driver, whilst trying to avoid the obligations to his family’s farming empire. But Dean’s ambitious father Henry (Quaid), whose manic pursuit…
A trailer for Tom Hooper’s upcoming Les Miserables film leaked onto the interwebs today, revealing looks at Hugh Jackman in action in the musical adaptation. But nevermind the handsome, jaunty period stylings of 19th century France in turmoil as envisioned by Hooper; get an earful of Anne Hathaway’s warbly voice singing a tearful rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream”… and sound off on her Fantine. Are you excited or worried, theater nerds?
To be completely fair, this is the worst-quality video you could imagine for a trailer, which appears to have been filmed off of a computer. Even so, the footage looks great to me — sweeping shots, dynamic camera moves, Jackman’s Jean Valjean disappearing into the shadows. What’s most concerning is also the most important element of the film: The singing.
According to reports from CinemaCon (where similar footage from the film was screened, including portions of Hathaway’s “I Dreamed a Dream” number), Hooper’s plan was to film most of the musical numbers with his cast singing live, which might explain why Hathaway’s voice sounds a bit unpolished. Or maybe that was intentional. Or maybe it’s just me.
[Video removed at studio's request.]
Perez Hilton first posted the video today, along with fawning words for Hathaway’s performance: “If we had any doubts about this, they are GONE now!!!” Over at The Atlantic Wire, Richard Lawson called it “unsettling,” a reaction more in line with my own.
My theater nerd pal (and Popular Mechanics editor) Erin McCarthy immediately sent over this video of stage goddess Lea Salonga singing the same number with a much stronger, yet still deeply emotional voice, but perhaps the comparison — or any comparisons,…
Opening early overseas helped this week’s Battleship quietly amass $215 million before its domestic debut, and a few international markets (including Japan, Hong Kong, and New Zealand) may similarly see emphatic pre-U.S. openings for Sony’s July 3 tent pole The Amazing Spider-Man when it opens in countries like India days before hitting theaters stateside. Shall we call it, as one Sony Pictures India rep suggests, the “neener-neener” bump? “Each of the Spider-Man franchise films has broken records on its release in this territory. We are very confident that Indian audiences will enjoy the new reboot of the franchise even more because they are watching it before the U.S.” [THR]
Looks like that first steamy image from Brian DePalma’s femme thriller Passion was just the tip of the erotic iceberg! New images from the film have emerged from Cannes, where the film is seeking buyers, showing more of stars Rachel McAdams as a businesswoman and Noomi Rapace as her assistant, who become locked in a deadly power struggle that will involve lingerie, showers, and kinky masks. If these pics don’t get this movie sold, I don’t know what will.
Passion is a remake of the 2010 French film Love Crime, which starred Kristen Scott Thomas and Ludivine Sagnier; it’s DePalma’s first film since 2007’s Redacted, and judging from the stir the first image has created, should mark a return to DePalma’s wheelhouse. And, really: Has there been a single film still in recent memory as immediately enthralling and dangerous and seductive as the Passion mask shot below? Sign me up.
The new images were posted to the film’s Facebook page (via The Playlist and De Palma A La Mod), which adds this synopsis:
The offices of a prominent multinational corporation is the setting for this story of a power struggle between two contemporary women. Isabelle has unlimited admiration for her direct superior, Christine, a woman well-schooled in the ways of power. Christine enjoys holding sway over Isabelle, leads her one step at a time and ever more deeply into a game of seduction and manipulation, of dominance and servitude. The game is played for keeps, and there is no turning back.
[via The Playlist]
