In the Land of Blood and Honey isn’t actually Angelina Jolie’s first film as a director — that distinction goes to A Place in Time, a little-seen 2007 documentary showcasing life in different locations around the globe at the same moment, shot with the help of some of her famous friends, including Djimon Hounsou and Anne Hathaway. But like that film, Jolie’s narrative debut arrives surrounded by a halo of good intentions and the sense that celebrity is being used as the spoonful of sugar to make the didacticism go down.
Per the activist and star’s own statement in the press notes, with this new feature she “wanted to make a film that would express, in an artistic way, [her] frustrations with the international community’s failure to intervene in conflicts in a timely and effective manner.” The conflict on-screen is the Bosnian War of the ’90s, which puts new lovers Ajla (Zana MarjanoviÄ
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In the Land of Blood and Honey isn’t actually Angelina Jolie’s first film as a director — that distinction goes to A Place in Time, a little-seen 2007 documentary showcasing life in different locations around the globe at the same moment, shot with the help of some of her famous friends, including Djimon Hounsou and Anne Hathaway. But like that film, Jolie’s narrative debut arrives surrounded by a halo of good intentions and the sense that celebrity is being used as the spoonful of sugar to make the didacticism go down.
Per the activist and star’s own statement in the press notes, with this new feature she “wanted to make a film that would express, in an artistic way, [her] frustrations with the international community’s failure to intervene in conflicts in a timely and effective manner.” The conflict on-screen is the Bosnian War of the ’90s, which puts new lovers Ajla (Zana Marjanović) and Danijel (Goran Kostić) on opposite sides of a clash that left 100,000 dead and led to accusations of genocide.
Despite those austere intentions, In the Land of Blood and Honey is gratifyingly short on lectures and, interestingly, on history lessons. The drama, which was also written by Jolie, is set very specifically during the Bosnian War without delving deeply into the complications of the reasons for the bloodshed. Ajla is a Bosnian Muslim, an aspiring painter who lives with her sister; Danijel is a Bosnian Serb, a policeman whose family has a…
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A Croatian author has filed a lawsuit suit accusing Angelina Jolie of lifting parts of his 2007 novel for her writing-directing effort In the Land of Blood and Honey, basically arguing that the female protagonist in both works is subject to “being raped continuously by soldiers and officers” before becoming “a servant at the camp headquarters, a duty assumed by very few of the captives.” Having seen Blood and Honey, I can tell you this isn’t even an especially accurate description of the film or the context of the woman’s servitude, but hey. No such thing as bad publicity, etc. etc. [Radar]
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Alan Ball’s never-ending quest to fill True Blood with more man meat than John Travolta’s Scientolohole continues. The True Blood men’s gym, where Pam cracks a whip at man pieces while they do a million crunches in between takes, is about to get another member. TVLine is saying that Chris Meloni is in talks to return to HBO where he can proudly get dick out nekkid without censors clutching their rosaries.
TVLine’s source says Chris might play an “incredibly powerful vampire” who is a major part of next season. HBO is closing their lips to this rumor.
Every time I blink, True Blood’s moved in a new damn character. Characters are falling out of the sky on that show. Bong smoke has eaten away most of the memory chip shoved into my dead brain, so I have a hard time keeping track of all those new bitches. BUTT! I will approve of this if Alan Ball does the right thing by casting Chris as Count Cockula, a powerful vampire who only wears a cape and can only receive nourishment from sucking on the dick veins of werewolves (see: Joe ManJello). What I’m getting at is that Alan Ball better not give us another hot piece who slobbers over Sookeh’s fairy pussy. I can’t.
Madge’s Halloween party was a hit, until the guests realized that the Virgin’s Blood fountain wasn’t a joke… – Sexy Pants
Runners-up:
The Anna Paquin menstrual fountain was a big hit at the True Blood Xmas party. – treasure
Rosie O’Donnell definitely wants her Kardashian wedding gift back. – Aphid
via Break
American audiences came to love English actor Stephen Moyer as sexy, small-town vampire Bill Compton on HBO’s hit show True Blood. But when the award-winning Alan Ball series goes on hiatus — as it is now between its fourth and fifth seasons — the accomplished stage actor fits in as many film projects as he can. The latest being The Double, Michael Brand’s directorial debut which co-stars Moyer as a Soviet psychopath assassin who is locked behind bars with only a gruesome facial scar and a secret — a secret that Richard Gere and Topher Grace try to wheedle out of him as they investigate the murder of a senator in this political thriller.
In anticipation of The Double’s release, Moyer met with Movieline in Beverly Hills this week to discuss why he volunteered for solitary confinement on set, the art of eating a battery and his dream to direct.
What made you want to play a Russian psychopath?
He’s just a great character. It’s so interesting — in the [True Blood] hiatus we get five months. This year, I think it was only four and a half months to try and do something that is different from what you have been doing and to weave a tapestry. In this particular year, I also did a film with Rachelle Lefevre called The Caller in which I was playing a very straight character. I played a British politician in a British series called Ice and I also did some work for Anna [Paquin]’s brother in another thing. I wanted to broaden my horizons. Who wouldn’t want to play a Russian psychopath? It’s an awful lot of fun. You got to chew the scenery a little bit and learn some stuff.…
The trailer for St. Angie’s directorial debut In The Land of Blood & Honey (or In The Land of Blood & HUUUUUUNTY as my favorite YouTube star will undoubtedly call it) is here and watching it will make you ejaculate sunshine and burp up warm hearts. Of course, I mean it will make you do the opposite of that since this looks about as dark and depressing as how I’m going to spend my Friday night (hint: crying on the toilet while eating frozen grapes will happen at one point). If you don’t want to go there, then the only way to watch this trailer is to hit mute and let the musical masterpiece below be its only soundtrack.
Collider says that this feel good movie of the holiday season is about a Serbian soldier (let’s call him Private Brag Tipp) who falls in love with a Muslim prisoner (let’s call her Angela Jolli) and the two struggle to keep their love together as the war (let’s call it The Anistonian War) he’s forced to fight in tries to tear them apart. Sound familiar? Subtle bitch is subtle as always. The reviews are in and here’s just a few:
“A cinematic triumph that exquisitely uses the perfect metaphor to explore the heartbreaking struggles between Brangelina and Jennifer Aniston. You know, the only war any of us care about.” – Next week’s cover of Star Magazine
“This trailer is really uncool.” – Beanie Babies Weekly
“Michael, you’re stretching that plot out so much that it’s almost as loose as your asshole.” - You
“Despite [Dark Blood director] George Sluizer’s claim that he has been communicating with River Phoenix’s family in regard to releasing River’s last film, Joaquin Phoenix and his family have not been in communication with the director nor will they participate in any way.” Bummer. That said, the Lying Dutchman is a pretty good nickname if Sluizer wants it. [Deadline]
Happy Tuesday! Also in today’s edition of The Broadsheet: Liam Hemsworth is Expendable… The Brits take on screen smoking… The Americans take on the Brits… A True Blood co-star takes on an American crime legend… Michael Winner is somehow still in the news… and more.
· The real shame about Lars von Trier stringing out this whole Nazi non-troversy is just how much it undercuts what a total fucking masterpiece he has in Melancholia. Anyway, this happened: “To say I’m sorry for what I said is to say I’m sorry for what kind of a person I am, (and that) I’m sorry for my morals, and that would destroy me as a person. It’s not true. I’m not sorry. I am not sorry for what I said. I’m sorry that it didn’t come out more clearly. I’m not sorry that I made a joke. But I’m sorry that I didn’t make it clear that it was a joke. But I can’t be sorry for what I said — it’s against my nature.” Whatever. Just keeping you up to speed. [GQ via Toronto Sun]
· Liam Hemsworth is joining the macho mega-ensemble also known as the cast of The Expendables 2. No word yet on his role, unless producer Avi Lerner referring to him as “the cheap Hemsworth” counts. [Deadline]
· Now the U.K. is wading into the automatic-“R”-for-smoking debate, with a new recommendation that any films depicting the consumption of cigarettes receive an “18” rating. “Our results confirm an association between this exposure and youth smoking in this country, indicating that raising the certification to 18 in the UK is likely to lower smoking rates among youth,” says…
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One of the more mysterious curios of the fall movie season is Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut In the Land of Blood and Honey. In an interview with Vanity Fair (on newsstands in New York and Los Angeles this week), Jolie says that she wrote the script for the Bosnian War-set romance while she was ill and quarantined from her children. “I don’t watch TV and I wasn’t reading anything. So I started writing. I went from the beginning to the end. I didn’t know any other way.” Afterward, she passed the draft to Brad Pitt; what did her super-famous husband think? “He called and said, ‘You know, honey, it’s not that bad.’” Oh. Maybe leave that one off the poster. [VF.com]
