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Ciaran Hinds and Tom Wilkinson have joined the John Madden-directed Mossad-Nazi thriller "The Debt" for Miramax Films says The Hollywood Reporter.

Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan penned the script which tells the fictional story of how three young Israeli Mossad agents on a secret mission capture and kill a notorious Nazi war criminal in 1965.

Thirty years later, a man claiming to be the Nazi surfaces in Ukraine, and one of the former agents must go back undercover to seek out the truth.

Jessica Chastain has also joined the cast, playing a younger version of Helen Mirren's Mossad agent Rachel Singer. Hinds and Wilkinson play fellow Mossad agents.

Sam Worthington, Marton Csokas, Jesper Christensen and Romi Aboulafia also star. Shooting recently kicked off in London before moving on to Budapest and Tel Aviv.

Anne Hathaway is rumored to be starring in Stephen Chow's new film according to China.org.cn

Plot details are unknown but a rep for Chow's company calls it "a superhero, action-packed, special effects-rich, and of course funny" movie that will resemble "Kung Fu Hustle".

Chow will write and direct the comedy starring himself and Jack Black.

EuropaCorp close to 'One' deal
Besson's film unit eyes English-language remake
By ALI JAAFAR
An English-language remake of French-language thriller 'Tell No One' may soon be on the way.  

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EuropaCorp, Luc Besson and Pierre-Ange Le Pogam's French-based finance, production and distribution powerhouse, is close to inking a deal with two U.S. majors to make an English-language remake of "Tell No One."
Original French-language pic, about a doctor grieving for his dead wife who discovers she may still be alive, was a surprise hit in the U.S., where it grossed more than $6 million for newbie distrib Music Box.

The remake will likely start shooting by the end of the year.

EuropaCorp is also in negotiations with a U.S. partner for an English-language remake of "District B13," about an undercover policeman and former criminal trying to infiltrate a gang armed with a neutron bomb.

The remake will be retitled "Brick Mansion."

The company, which is celebrating the success of its pic "Taken" after it topped the U.S. box office during the Super Bowl weekend, also has a brace of high-profile French projects in the pipeline.

Set to go into production soon is Jean Reno starrer "L'Immortel," a true story about a 50-year-old retiree in Marseilles who was shot 22 times but miraculously survived. Project will follow his attempts to discover the identity and motivation of the perpetrators of the crime against him.

"It's our Clint Eastwood French film," quipped EuropaCorp managing director Le Pogam. "It's a sophisticated film. It's very physical, but it also questions why we like violence so much."

The e20 million ($26 million) revenge thriller will be helmed by Gallic thesp-turned-helmer Richard Berry ("La Boite noire").

EuropaCorp is also prepping a $19.4 million-$26 million French-language adaptation of American author Douglas Kennedy's book "The Big Picture."

Pic's French working title is "L'Homme qui voulait vivre sa vie."

EuropaCorp has been developing the script for two years. Project is about a successful lawyer who finds himself on the run with a new identity.

French helmer Eric Lartigau, who scored a big hit with 2006 romantic laffer "Prete-moi ta main," will direct, with lensing to begin by the end of May.

EuropaCorp has increasingly established itself as one of Europe's premier production powerhouses, regularly financing big-budget projects entirely inhouse.

"In Europe we have beautiful professionals and a structure to help finance and constantly elevate the quality of films," Le Pogam said. "You can see in the last 10 years French cinema has become much more professional than before."

Taylor Momsen (TV's "Gossip Girl") and Jacob Zachar (TV's "Greek") are in talks for the feature film version of "Cavegirl" for The U.K. Film Council and Carnaby International says The Hollywood Reporter.

Based on the 1980s BBC series, the $6 million action comedy is billed as being a film about teenage problems in a stone age world. Thora Birch also stars.

Danny Peacock, who wrote and directed two seasons of the original show, will make his big-screen directorial debut on the project. The filmmakers are in negotiations with "Bee Gees" Robin and Barry Gibb to write the music.

Filming kicks off in South Africa in April. Andy Bell and Tim Woolford will produce.

Gemma Arterton ("Quantum of Solace"), Eddie Marsan ("Happy-Go-Lucky") and Martin Compston ("Doomsday") are toplinig the contemporary kidnap thriller "The Disappearance of Alice Creed" for CinemaNX says The Hollywood Reporter.

"Creed" tells the tale of two kidnappers (Marsan and Compston) who carry out an immaculately planned kidnap after targeting rich girl Arterton.

But things quickly unravel as the scheme plays out, with all three characters revealing an agenda that ends in a tense power play of greed, love, sex and violence.

"The Descent 2" co-scribe J. Blakeson makes his directorial debut on the film which kicks off production tomorrow on the Isle of Man. Adrian Sturges is producing.

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Eva Green has signed to star in the futuristic drama "Womb," Hungarian helmer Benedek Fliegauf's first English-language film.
Produced by Roman Paul and Gerhard Meixner of Berlin-based Razor Film ("Waltz With Bashir") and Andras Muhi of Inforg Studio Budapest, pic tells the story of a grieving widow, played by Green, who decides to clone her late husband. Matt Smith (who has been tapped to replace David Tennant in the BBC's "Dr. Who") co-stars.

Cedomir Kolar and Marc Baschet of Paris-based ASAP Films, ZDF/ Arte and Arte Cinema are co-producing the film.

Fliegauf, who won a Golden Leopard in Locarno in 2007 for his experimental pic "Milky Way," will begin production on the film in March on the North Sea coast.

"'Womb' is one of the most touching and impressive love stories we have read in recent times," said Michael Weber, managing director of the Match Factory, which is handling international sales on the pic.

Bluebeard
Barbe bleue (France)
By LESLIE FELPERIN
'Bluebeard'

A Flach Film, CB Films, Arte France presentation. (International sales: Pyramide Intl., Paris.) Produced by Jean-Francois Lepetit, Sylvette Frydman. Directed, written by Catherine Breillat.

With: Dominique Thomas, Lola Creton, Daphne Baiwir, Marilou Lopes-Benites, Lola Giovannetti, Farida Khelfa, Isabelle Lapouge.
 Having built a career on provocative, sexually explicit yet cerebral fare ("Romance," "Sex Is Comedy"), Catherine Breillat shocked auds with her 2007 period piece, "The Last Mistress," because it was not all that shocking. Now the Gallic helmer's latest, "Bluebeard," features considerable blood but no sex. This offbeat but compelling take on the tale, arguably the first serial-killer yarn, emphasizes sisterly bonds but still gets to the original story's heart of mysterious darkness with impressive results. Low-budget production values will, however, keep pic locked up in arthouse ivory towers.
Once upon a time in the 1950s, somewhere in France, two young sisters, 7-or-so-year-old Catherine (Marilou Lopes-Benites) and Marie-Anne (Lola Giovannetti), who's a couple years older, go to play in the attic. Impish Catherine insists on reading "Bluebeard" to her frightened sister, and as she does, the story unfolds onscreen.

Set in an unspecific time that looks roughly like the early 18th century, pic introduces two other sisters, teenagers Anne (Daphne Baiwir) and the younger Marie-Catherine (Lola Creton), being thrown out of a nun-run boarding school when their father dies and their family is unable to afford the school fees. Back home, the girls watch as the furniture is taken away to pay bills.

With no dowry to offer, the chance to become a bride to the notorious local squire Bluebeard (Dominique Thomas), who'll take a wife with no cash down, starts to look attractive. The only hitch is that his previous wives had a habit of never being seen again.

Nevertheless, Marie-Catherine is literally and figuratively hungry for the good life and agrees to marry Bluebeard, finding him surprisingly gentle at home. He only asks that she obey a single rule: Don't open the one room he forbids her to enter while he's away. Everyone knows what happens next, although there's still a twist in store.

Although the script is roughly faithful to author Charles Perrault's original tale, there's no mistaking that this is a Catherine Breillat film. Characters talk in that slightly stiff, declamatory way they always do in her films, sisters love and hate each other in the same instant (invoking shades of "Fat Girl"), and relations between the sexes are fraught with mutual incomprehension and disappointment. And yet, despite the chamber of horror that reps the pic's climactic reveal, the tone is dreamy, almost breezy, with the childish banter between the two 1950s girls even offering light relief.

Having said that, prospective distribs are hardly likely to market this to family auds, although Breillat perfectly understands how kids, especially girls, crave stories that terrify them. In fact, in the film's press notes, she writes about the autobiographical inspiration for the story.

Shot on HD, pic clearly cut corners in various craft departments, such as costume and sets. Several times, Breillat even uses exactly the same shot of a character going up or down a set of stairs two or three times in a row to suggest the staircase is longer than it really is, although this might have been a deliberate device.

Camera (color, HD), Vilko Filac; editor, Pascale Chavance; set designer, Olivier Jacquet; costume designer, Rose-Marie Melka; sound (Dolby Digital), Yves Osmu. Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (Panorama), Feb. 8, 2009. Running time: 78 MIN.

Berlin
The Yes Men Fix the World
(Documentary -- U.S.-France)
By LESLIE FELPERIN
'The Yes Men Fix the World'

A Common Decency, Article Z (U.S.)/Arte France (France) production, with the support of Renegade Pictures U.K., Charny-Bachrach Entertainment, the Channel 4 Britdoc Foundation. (International sales: Cinetic Media, New York City.) Produced by Andy Bichlbaum, Mike Bonnano, Doro Bachrach, Ruth Charny, Laura Nix. Executive producers, Patrice Barrat, Alan Hayling, Jess Search, Juliette Timsit. Directed, written by the Yes Men (Andy Bichlbaum, Mike Bonnano). Co-director, Kurt Engfehr.
 A follow-up to "The Yes Men" -- the droll, low-budget antiglobalization docu from helmers Chris Smith, Dan Ollman and Sarah Price -- "The Yes Men Fix the World" finds its titular merry pranksters up to yet more capitalist-critiquing chicanery and fat-cat-fooling fun. Helmed this time by the Yes Men collective's most prominent frontmen, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonnano, this deliberately cheap-looking but likable pic finds them again pretending to be representatives for greedy multinationals in order to make outrageous proposals, and thus shame said organizations. Converted auds will say "yes" to this in low numbers theatrically.
The Yes Men's m.o. owes much to Michael Moore's stunts for "The Awful Truth" and "TV Nation," a little bit to novelist/essayist Jonathan Swift, and even more to class-clown-style practical jokery. Their basic schtick is to set up fake websites and the like that supposedly rep large, nefarious corporations like Dow Chemical and Halliburton, then wait for invitations from gullible conference organizers and news organizations to roll in. Once they have an audience, frontmen Bichlbaum and Bonnano suit up and pretend to be executives keen to unveil bizarre new products or strategies (like making fuel out of dead people for Exxon) that take the corporation's ruthless underlying logic to an extreme level.

Here, the pic shows the Yes Men pulling off arguably their biggest coup by having Bichlbaum pose as a Dow Chemical spokesman, an almost plausibly named flack Jude Finisterra. On live television, he promises Dow will accept full responsibility for the deaths of thousands of Indians affected by the chemical leak at Union Carbide's (now a Dow subsidiary) factory in Bhopal 20 years ago, and pay appropriate compensation. The stunt prompts short-lived tears of joy in India and a reflexive storm in the media and financial communities.Staged-looking footage shot in India shows Bhopal residents laughing off the joke, as it allows them to keep their plight in the public eye.

Pic's biggest laughs are generated not from the Yes Men's gags themselves but from the cutaway shots of audience members looking on with barely disguised shock or, even more disturbingly, unruffled acceptance. Editing by April Merl adroitly maintains comic momentum, while use of old cartoons enhances merriment. Use of HD gear means the pic would probably look better on TV than the bigscreen, although this is sure to be a draw at further left-leaning festivals. (In Berlin, the pic's first public screening was mobbed.)

For the record, no d.p. credit appears onscreen. Instead, some 50 names are listed as camera people in the pic's end credits.

More than one option(Co) Renegade Pictures
(Co) Renegade Worldwide
More than one option(Co) Arte France Cinema
(Co) ARTE France
More than one option(Co) Channel Four
(Co) Channel 4
More than one option(Person) Chris Smith
Sound, Director, Director of Photography
(Person) Chris Smith
Catering, Transportation
(Person) Chris Smith
Song, Theme Lyrics, Song Performer
(Person) Chris Smith
Cinematographer, Director of Photography, Assistant Camera
(Person) Christopher Smith
Director, Assistant Director, Assistant Camera Operator
(Person) David Chris Smith
(Person) Christopher Smith
Production Assistant, Stand-In
(Person) Chris Smith
Props
(Person) Christopher Smith
(Person) Christopher Smith
Character Design, Dresser
(Person) Chris Smith
(Person) Chris Smith
Set Dresser
(Person) Christopher Smith
Camera
(Person) Chris Smith
DGA Trainee, Production Coordinator
(Person) Chris Smith
Director, Screenplay
(Person) D. Chris Smith
(Person) Chris Smith
(Person) Chris Smith
(Person) Chris Smith
Production Assistant
(Person) chris smith
(Person) Chris Smith
Key Grip
(Person) Chris Smith
(Person) Chris Smith
More than one option(Person) Michael Moore
Voice, Director, Actor
(Person) Michael Moore
(Person) Michael Moore
Visual Effects, Visual Effects Editor, Graphics
(Person) Michael Moore
Props
(Person) Michael Moore
Projectionist
(Person) Michael Moore
Music
(Person) Michael C Moore
(Person) Michael D Moore
(Person) Michael S Moore
(Person) Michael Moore
Line Producer, Special Thanks
(Person) Michael Moore
Assistant Director
(Person) Michael Moore
Actor
(Person) Michael Moore
Hairdresser, Hair, Hair Stylist
(Person) Michael Moore
Producer, Screenplay
(Person) Michael J Moore
(Person) Michael Moore
Security
(Person) Michael Moore
(Person) Michael Moore
Story By
(Person) Michael Moore
Actor
(Person) Michael Moore
Production Assistant
(Person) Michael Moore
Second Unit DirectorCamera (color, HD); editor, April Merl; music, Neel Murgai, animation, Patrick Lichty; Noisola; sound, John Bucher. Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (Panorama), Feb. 6, 2009. (Also in Sundance Film Festival -- Spectrum.) Running time: 96 MIN.
With : Andy Bichlbaum, Mike Bonnano.

K-20: Legend of the Mask
K-20: kaijin nijumenso-den (Japan)
By RUSSELL EDWARDSRead other reviews about this film

Powered By A Robot Communications presentation of a Nippon Television Network, ROBOT, VAP, Toho, Dentsu, Shogakukan, YTV the Yomiuri Shimbun, Shirogumi Imagica production. (International sales: Nippon Television, Tokyo.) Produced by Chikahiro Ando, Takaya Kurata, Kazuyoshi Ishida. Executive producers, Shuji Abe, Seiji Okuda. Directed, written by Shimako Sato, based on the manga "Kaijin nijumensu-den" by Soh Kitamura.

With: Takeshi Kaneshiro, Takako Matsu, Toru Nakamura, Jun Kunimura, Reiko Takashima, Takeshi Kaga.
 Superhero shenanigans are dished up with style in the rollicking adventure yarn "K-20: Legend of the Mask," based on longtime Japanese literary favorites reinvented for a popular '80s manga. Seasoned thesps go along for the ride in the lightweight but absorbing tale, helped by outstanding special effects and a bountiful budget. Pic opened pre-Christmas to respectable but still disappointing local biz, which could possibly kibosh its prospects as a franchise. But the current superhero fad, and the international profile of star Takeshi Kaneshiro, should rescue some profits from the fanboy ancillary market.
Japanese title is the abbreviated name of a Professor-Moriarty-cum-Irma-Vep-like thief known as the fiend with 20 faces. Story is set in an alternate post-WWII universe where imperialist Japan's regal families are far removed from the plight of a sprawling underclass that struggles in poverty.

In the capital, the government is plagued by a prankster villain known as K-20 (Kaijin Nijumenso-den). Pic opens with the masked man's theft of a prototype device owned by Hashiba Corp. that transmits electrical energy without wires.

Among the lower classes, Heikichi Endo (Kaneshiro) is an adroit circus acrobat with an amusing sideline in magic tricks. Backstage one night, a scar-faced rep from a gossip magazine (Takashi Kaga, from cult TV cooking show "Iron Chef") hires Heikichi to take photos of the celebrity wedding of K-20's longtime nemesis, Det. Kogoro Akechi (Toru Nakamura), and corporation heiress Yoko Hashiba (Takako Matsu). But the assignment is a setup, and fall guy Heikichi is erroneously arrested as the man behind K-20's mask.

Protesting his guilt, Heikichi escapes from police custody with the help of some circus buddies lead by aging, William Demarest-like technical whiz Genji (Jun Kunimura). Using his physical prowess, Genji's gadgets and a handy-dandy book of disguise techniques, Heikichi aims to clear his name by catching K-20 himself.

Narrative is a tad tardy as it works to its conclusion, though a jaw-dropping climactic battle between Heikichi and the real K-20 atop a skyscraper is a winning combo of two parkour doubles and impressive visual effects by Kiyoko Shibuya. (Effects guru Takashi Yamazaki, who recreated an authentic postwar Tokyo for the "Always" franchise, receives a separate credit for vfx supervision.)

Never taking itself too seriously, the script allows the cast plenty of latitude. Matsu, especially, shows off the comedy chops she previously demonstrated in the Billy Wilder-like "Suite Dreams" (2006).

In contrast, pan-Asian heartthrob Kaneshiro shows a handsome blandness that's more Michael Keaton's serious Bruce Wayne than Robert Downey Jr.'s charismatic Tony Stark. Supports, particularly the dry Kunimura, offer a solid base.

The division of duties between U.K. film school-trained helmer Shimako Sato (TV cop show "Unfair") and her team of action and special effects directors is not entirely clear, but the overall package is seamless. Lensing by Kozo Shibasaki uses the widescreen frame to full advantage, and the rousing score by Naoki Sato is nobly rambunctious in the movie superhero tradition.

K-20 and Det. Akechi characters are revamps of 1920s creations by Japanese crime writer Edogawa Rampo, but the script sets up the possibility of sequels that could go in a completely new direction.

More than one option(Person) Naoki Sato
Associate Producer, Producer
(Person) Naoki Sato
Original MusicCamera (color, widescreen), Kozo Shibasaki; editor, Ryuji Miyajima; music, Naoki Sato; production designer, Anri Jojo; sound (Dolby Digital), Hitoshi Tsurumaki; visual effects supervisor, Takashi Yamazaki; action directors, Makoto Yokoyama, Tatsuro Koike. Reviewed on DVD, Ichikawa City, Japan, Jan. 3, 2009. (In Santa Barbara Film Festival.) Running time: 137 MIN.

Special Correspondents
Envoyes tres speciaux (France)
By JORDAN MINTZERRead other reviews about this film

Powered By A EuropaCorp Distribution release of a Les Films Manuel Munz, Malec Prods., EuropaCorp, MG Films production, in association with Sofica EuropaCorp, with participation of Canal Plus, TPS Star, M6. (International sales: EuropaCorp, Paris.) Produced by Manuel Munz. Directed by Frederic Auburtin. Screenplay, Simon Michael, Jacques Labib.

With: Gerard Lanvin, Gerard Jugnot, Omar Sy, Valerie Kaprisky, Anne Marvin, Serge Hazanavicius, Bertrand Lacy, Guillaume Durand.
 A hilarious wartime satire that mocks the media's obsession with all things jihad, "Special Correspondents" reps a welcome alternative to typical mainstream Gallic comedies. With a more pertinent message and smarter scripting than expected of a film that, like most French farces, kicks off with an act of adultery, the pic dishes out a witty and inventive tale of two radio reporters who pretend they've been kidnapped in Iraq, although they never actually leave Paris. Hefty late-January release should reach a fair number of local listeners; overseas, these "Correspondents" deserve to be heard, even if only through remake.
While Hollywood -- from "Three Kings" to the latest "Harold and Kumar" -- has produced several Middle East- and terrorism-themed comedies over the years, the French film industry (like its government) has been more prudent when it comes to handling such issues. But scribes Simon Michael ("The Very Very Big Company") and Jacques Labib go straight for the jugular here, clearly taking inspiration from the much-publicized kidnappings of several French journalists that took place in Iraq in 2004-05.

The premise is quickly set up in an understated comic tone that delivers laughs within the absurd (but almost believable) situations. Radio news star Franck (Gerard Lanvin), whose talents lie more in storytelling than in factual reporting, is sent with sound man Poussin (Gerard Jugnot) to cover the war in Iraq. When Poussin accidentally throws away their travel money, the two decide to lie low in a friend's Parisian apartment, broadcasting "live" from Basrah and Baghdad via a satellite phone and lots of cleverly inserted sound effects.

The routine gets out of hand when Franck's so-called war stories begin affecting the actual conflict. Things also get complicated by Franck inadvertently sleeping with Poussin's wife (Valerie Kaprisky) before their mission. As the team's antics come dangerously close to being uncovered, Poussin's marital crisis places an immovable wedge between the two "correspondents."

Pic's funniest moments reveal, to a troubling degree, how easy it is to bluff a listening public that's all too ready to be plunged into the treacherous conflict. As Franck's smooth voice and poetic rhetoric cleverly bring Iraq's streets to life, Poussin mixes in a soundtrack of plucking chickens, rattling Kalashnikovs and general explosions. Another knockout sequence has the two producing a faux terrorist ransom video, which winds up making them national heroes.

Lanvin acts his scenes absolutely straight-faced, and Jugnot is the quintessential working-class lump. Thesps are a terrific comic duo, underplaying the gags and revealing their characters' mutual admiration as the action advances.

Smooth camerawork by Pierre Aim ("Welcome to the Sticks") thankfully resorts to little trickery, allowing the situations to speak for themselves.

More than one option(Co) Canal Plus
Filmography, Year, Role
(Co) Canal Plus
Filmography, Year, RoleMore than one option(Film) Three Kings
(Tv) Three Kings
Camera (color), Pierre Aim; editor, Beatrice Herminie; music, Jean-Yves d'Angelo; production designer, Jean-Luc Raoul; costume designer, Karen Muller-Sereau; sound (Dolby Digital/DTS Digital), Dominique Lacour, Herve Guyader, Eric Tisserand; assistant director, Nathalie Engelstein, casting, Gerard Moulevrier. Reviewed at UGC Cine Cite Les Halles 4, Paris, Jan. 24, 2009. Running time: 92 MIN.

Prvi kadrovi iz BASTERDSA!

http://dobanevinosti.blogspot.com/2009/02/prvi-kadrovi-basterdsa.html

Uchitel to hunt Lions with Sokolovsky
Martin Blaney in Berlin
11 Feb 2009 06:00

 

Russian director Alexey Uchitel's company Rock Films has lined up local filmmaker Vadim Sokolovsky to direct thriller Hunting The Lions.

Written by the Ukrainian-born Anastasia Sarkisyan, the film is set among a group of Nazi-style nationalists planning an Oklahoma-style bombing in St. Petersburg.

An experienced TV drama director, Sokolovksy previously directed the children's adventure The Book Of Masters as Walt Disney's first locally produced film last year.

Russian director Alexey Uchitel's company Rock Films has lined up local filmmaker Vadim Sokolovsky to direct thriller Hunting The Lions.

Rock Films' Kira Saksaganskaya told ScreenDaily that she has approached a German company to become a co-producer on Hunting The Lions which is scheduled to begin shooting later this year.

Kevin James, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider and David Spade are in negotiations to star in an untitled comedy for Columbia Pictures.
Frequent Sandler collaborator Dennis Dugan ("You Don't Mess With the Zohan") will helm, with the studio gearing up for a summer start date.

Sandler's Sony-based Happy Madison shingle, which recently teamed with James and the studio on the box office hit "Paul Blart: Mall Cop," is producing.

Sandler penned the screenplay with "Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star" scribe Fred Wolf. High-concept story is a comedy about five best friends from high school who reunite 30 years later on a Fourth of July weekend.

The five actors have worked together on a number of comedies, though never all on the same project. Sandler and James most recently starred as the title characters in "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry." Schneider co-starred in "Zohan," while Rock and James made cameo appearances in the film.

Rock and Sandler's relationship dates back to their days as cast members on "Saturday Night Live," where Schneider, Spade and Wolf also cut their comedic teeth. Sandler and Rock also toplined the 2005 remake of "The Longest Yard."

The Shock Doctrine
(Documentary -- U.K.)
By LESLIE FELPERIN
'The Shock Doctrine'

A Channel 4, More4 presentation of a Revolution Films, Renegade Pictures production. (International sales: E1 Films Int.l, Toronto.) Produced by Andrew Eaton, Alex Cooke, Avi Lewis. Executive producers, Alan Hayling, Hamish Mykura. Directed by Michael Winterbottom, Mat Whitecross. Screenplay, Winterbottom, based on a book by Naomi Klein.

With: Naomi Klein, Janine Huard.
Narrator: Kieran O'Brien.
 A handy cinematic summary of radical-left pundit Naomi Klein's bestseller of the same name, polemical docu "The Shock Doctrine" attempts to connect the dots between shock therapy and torture, Milton Friedman's economic theories and catastrophic recent events. Judged against the many other recent docus that also critique the machinations of modern capitalism, Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross' "Doctrine" looks eminently sober, polished and persuasive. Stauncher critics, however, on both the left and right will have the same beefs with the film they did with the book. Limited release and airings on upscale TV are sure to follow.
Something of a poster girl for the antiglobalization movement, Canuck journalist Naomi Klein has built a formidable following for her lively, accessible, detail-rich books, particularly the antibrand tome "No Logo" (2000) and her latest, "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism," on which this film is closely based. Klein appears oncamera here (although not as frequentlyas some might expect), mostly giving lectures to packed halls of worshipful students, one group of which gives her a standing ovation at pic's end.

To summarize brutally, both book and film postulate a connection between psychological techniques such as shock therapy developed in the 1950s to "brainwash" subjects, more extreme forms of torture (used now by the American military), Friedman and the Chicago school of economics' free-market-boosting philosophy, and the way in which repressive regimes since the 1970s have sought to "shock" and coerce whole countries into perpetuating pro-privatization, anticommunitarian social orders with the backing of the CIA, the U.S. military and multinational corporations. This, in essence, is the Shock Doctrine.

Using a mix of well-researched archive footage and animation, co-helmers Winterbottom and Whitecross (who together co-directed Berlinale Silver Bear winner "The Road to Guantanamo") work through case studies of how this doctrine was put into practice over the past 40 years, starting with Pinochet's Chile. Pic traces explicit lines between Friedman's neoliberal disciples in that country, the denationalization of its industries, the Nixon administration's support of Pinochet and the murder of thousands of Chilean citizens. Parallels are drawn with Iraq and Afghanistan today, as well as what happened in Blighty after the Falklands War and in Russia under Yeltsin.

Niftily integrated blend of voiceover narration (spoken by Brit thesp Kieran O'Brien) and visuals is fluent and mesmerizing enough to sound persuasive, as well as offering a freshman-level refresher course on recent history, albeit with an unabashedly left-wing slant.

However, there's a certain wooliness about Klein and Co.'s argument here, which rests more than it ought on a rhetorical sleight-of-hand. Listen really closely and the link between the shock tactics (let alone "shock and awe" tactics) exercised by governments and armies, and actual shock therapy as practiced on victims like Janine Huard (interviewed here by Klein) by psychological experimenter Ewan Cameron in the 1950s, seems based on nothing much more than metaphor. Similarly, the use of Friedman as the whipping boy for so many of the world's ills necessitates a vast oversimplification of what happened in, for instance, Russia in 1996. Still, compared with the usual comicbook level of discourse in so many antiglobalization docus, "The Shock Doctrine" looks as rigorous as John Kenneth Galbraith's prose.

Pic was presented in Berlin as a work in progress, and the version shown lacked end credits.


Camera (color/B&W, HD), Ronald Plante, Rich Ball; editors, Winterbottom, Whitecross; sound designer, Joakim Sundstrom. Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (Panorama), Feb. 9, 2009. Running time: 85 MIN.

The Countess
(Germany-France)
By BOYD VAN HOEIJ


An X Verleih release (in Germany) of an X Filme Intl. presentation of an X Filme Intl. (Germany)/Celluloid Dreams Prods. (France) production, in association with X Filme Creative Pool, Fanes Film, with the participation of Social Capital Films. (International sales: Celluloid Dreams, Paris.) Produced by Andro Steinborn. Executive producers, Skady Lis, Christian Baute, Chris Coen, Martin Shore, Gordon Steel. Co-producers, Hengameh Panahi, Matthew Chausse, Christopher Tuffin. Directed, written by Julie Delpy

With: Julie Delpy, Daniel Bruehl, William Hurt, Anamaria Marinca, Sebastian Blomberg, Charly Huebner, Anna Maria Muehe, Frederick Lau, Adriana Altaras, Andre Hennicke. (English, French dialogue.)

 A 16th-century noblewoman turns to an unusual moisturizer for comfort after she's been abandoned by her much younger lover in "The Countess," multitasker Julie Delpy's stab at a biopic of Erzebet Bathory. Marred by unnatural English dialogue and a plethora of different accents, this wacky tale of a woman who killed virgins for their blood to keep her skin wrinkle-free in a pre-Botox age might get some traction in a dubbed version in Central Europe, where it is set, but won't make it past the Europudding label elsewhere. Pic's best chances are as a cult item.
Bathory is sometimes dubbed "the Blood Countess" on account of her fame (or infamy) for bathing in virgins' blood to retain her youth. Like the recent "Bathory" by Slovak helmer Juraj Jakubisko, the pic tries to have it both ways, reveling in the gothic horror aspects of the story but also suggesting the countess might have been the victim of a conspiracy. And as in that film, the psychology of the title character is the pic's biggest victim.

After an opening heavy on exposition, the plot finally springs into motion when the husband of Countess Bathory (Delpy) dies. Attending a dance as a widow, she meets the young Istvan Thurzo (Daniel Bruehl), and a love affair develops. But the scheming Count Thurzo (William Hurt) sends his son abroad to get married there, and Bathory remains behind, heartbroken, not knowing why Istvan abandoned her.

Already revealed to have a cruel streak and convinced that the age difference might have something to do with Istvan's departure, Bathory starts applying the blood of young virgins to her face in the belief it will keep her from aging.

Though some individual moments work, Delpy's screenplay lacks psychological connective tissue. It never becomes clear why a powerful and intelligent woman was brought to her knees by a cute kid, only to turn murderous and possibly insane when deprived of her object of affection.

But the pic's biggest hurdle for English speakers is the dialogue, which oscillates between faux-Shakespearean grandeur and contempo street talk, and is delivered by an international cast in a hodgepodge of accents.

In "Before Sunset," which Delpy co-wrote, and her previous directorial effort, "2 Days in Paris," the small cast of contempo characters was close to her own experience, and the off-the-cuff philosophizing and banter felt true. But a historical drama with a large cast and a plot-driven story -- especially one as outlandish as this one -- requires a strong, coherent vision and sense of purpose that "The Countess" sorely lacks.

As a thesp, Delpy fares only slightly better, while the unlikely father-son pairing of Hurt and Bruehl is just odd. Anamaria Marinca (Berlin competition entry "Storm"), in the small role of a potionmaker and Bathory's spurned lesbian lover, is the cast's only bright spot.

Shot on various locations in Germany, the pic looks handsome in an austere way, with only Pierre-Yves Gayraud's costumes adding some extravagant touches. Lensing by d.p. Martin Ruhe ("Control"), in very composed shots and muted colors, is aces and confirms him as a name to watch. Delpy's work on the classical but effective score might be her finest contribution to the project.


More than one option(Person) Gordon Steel
Executive Producer
(Person) Gordon Steel
ActorCamera (color), Martin Ruhe; editors, Andrew Bird, Julie Delord; music, Delpy, Mark Streitenfeld; production designer, Hubert Pouille; costume designer, Pierre-Yves Gayraud; sound (Dolby SRD), Dirk Bombey; associate producers, Stefan Arndt, Manuela Stehr; casting, Anja Dihrberg, Jacqeline Rietz. Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (Panorama), Feb. 9, 2009. Running time: 99 MINS.

Sam Raimi's remaking horror
Ghost House to redo pair of European films
By TATIANA SIEGEL
'Room 205'


Raimi


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Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures is remaking a pair of European horror films.
First up is "Anguish," a remake of the 1987 Spanish pic that was written and directed by Bigas Luna. The company behind such horror hits as "The Grudge" films has also acquired the remake rights to the Danish movie "Room 205."

"Anguish" follows two girls who, while watching a scary movie, find themselves in a horror film of their own when their life starts to mirror the pic's plot.

Jake Wade Wall ("When a Stranger Calls") penned the screenplay.

Ghost House's Raimi and Rob Tapert are producing "Anguish" alongside Vertigo Entertainment's Roy Lee and Doug Davison ("The Strangers"). Ghost House and Vertigo previously worked together on "The Grudge" and "The Grudge 2." Mandate Pictures' Nathan Kahane and Vertigo's Sonny Mallhi will exec produce, and George Ayoub will co-produce.

Ghost House has tapped "Room 205" director Martin Barnewitz to helm the English-language remake, which is being redubbed "The Dorm."

Story centers on a college freshman who moves into a dorm only to find that her room is haunted by sinister forces. Stephen Susco, who wrote "The Grudge" and "The Grudge 2," is adapting.

Raimi and Rob Tapert will produce "The Dorm," and Kahane will exec produce.

Wall, whose credits include "The Hitcher," recently penned "Amusement" for Picturehouse.

Ghost House's upcoming slate includes the Raimi-helmed supernatural thriller "Drag Me to Hell" for Universal.

Indie mumblecore darling Greta Gerwig ("Baghead," "Hannah Takes the Stairs") has landed the female lead opposite Ben Stiller in the relationship drama "Greenberg" says The Hollywood Reporter.

Noah Baumbach ("The Squid and the Whale") penned and directs the Los Angeles-set story which centers on relationship intimacies. No further specific plot details have been revealed.

Scott Rudin will produce for Focus Features. Shooting is expected to begin in March.

Baumbach remains tapped to write and direct the 9/11 tale "The Emperor's Children," based on Claire Messud's acclaimed novel, at Universal.

Carnaby also has sealed a deal with Sony for the U.K. rights to Jake West's comedy horror "Doghouse," starring Danny Dyer, Stephen Graham and Noel Clarke. Currently in postproduction, the movie centers on a group of men who head to a remote village to help one of their friends get over his divorce. When they get there, they discover that all the women have been infected with a virus that makes them man-hating cannibals.

And Carnaby is in final negotiations with German star Franka Potente to take the lead in its action thriller "The Long Weekend," from writer-director Julian Gilbey. Currently budgeted at about $4 million, Gilbey's script details the story of a group of average joe rock climbers who stumble on a kidnap victim being held hostage underground. They help her escape and are then chased by the kidnappers as well as killers hired by her father to kill the kidnap perps.

We just finished chatting with director Tom Tykwer earlier today at the press day in Los Angeles for his latest film, The International. At the end, we asked him what he had coming up next and while he said he wasn't ready to talk much about it, Tykwer did reveal that he's adapting a novel called Cloud Atlas. Here is what he said: "I'm trying to adapt a novel called Cloud Atlas, which is a novel by David Mitchell that I'm really completely excited about. And I'm sitting down with the Wachowski Brothers and trying to adapt that for a screenplay. It's very interesting." How's that for one hell of an exciting team up?

Cloud Atlas, published in 2004, is a novel comprised of six separate but loosely related narratives that weave together history, science, suspense, humor and pathos. Tykwer didn't reveal which of the six he would be focusing on, which is the next big question to be answered, because the book spans a variety of genres: "from Melvillean high-seas drama to California noir and dystopian fantasy." I'm already very curious to hear a lot more about this, especially with the Wachowskis involved as well. Before The International, Tykwer wrote all of his own scripts for his films, although we're not sure if he'll be directing this.

Given this is the very first we've heard of this, we're not sure if Tyker will be directing, or if the Wachowskis will be directing, or if they're only just collaborating on the screenplay, for someone else to direct. Whatever the case, we'll see if we can dig up some additional details and we'll keep our eyes open. Thoughts?

Tom Cruise is in talks to star opposite Denzel Washington in "The Matarese Circle" for MGM Films reports the trades.

David Cronenberg directs this adaptation of the thriller by author Robert Ludlum ("The Bourne Identity"), while Michael Brandt and Derek Haas ("Wanted") adapted the script which contemporizes the original Cold War premise.

The pair will play two bitter enemy spies who, after spending two decades trying to kill one another, find themselves in the crosshairs of the Matarese, a powerful group at the root of a conspiracy.

Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Nick Wechsler will produce. A 2010 release is expected.

Between "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight", director Christopher Nolan made "The Prestige" for Warner Bros. Pictures.

Now in what looks likely to be between "The Dark Knight" and his third Batman film, he'll be doing it again with plans to shoot the sci-fi action film "Inception" this Summer for release mid-2010 says The Hollywood Reporter.

The story, an original idea from Nolan which he is scripting, is described only as a "contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind"

Nolan will produce with Emma Thomas. The move pushes back potential filming on a third Batman film, but it seems likely that it will follow the pattern of the franchise so far with the next entry likely to film in 2010 for release Summer 2011.

"Saw 2-4" and "Repo! The Genetic Opera" helmer Darren Lynn Bousman will next direct the heist thriller "Akula" for Constantine reports Variety.

Mark Distefano will pen the project set on a submarine. Jeremy Bolt and Paul W.S. Anderson are producing while Alex Litvak is doing a rewrite.

"The tone is dark, but very different from the films I've directed recently" says Bousman.

full teaser BASTERDSa

http://dobanevinosti.blogspot.com/2009/02/full-teaser-basterdsa.html

Shozo brte, sta bi sa onim prevodom za MESRINEA 2 ? Nije valjda da su se tolko izbrezobrazili ti francuzi da nece to da prevedu ladno ?

An Englishman In New York
Lee Marshall in Rome
11 Feb 2009 18:36

 

Dir: Richard Laxton. UK-US. 2009. 74mins.

The sole calling card of this pedestrian made-for-TV biopic is John Hurt's screen-hogging central performance as historic British gay icon Quentin Crisp over thirty years on from his previous, career-making Crisp incarnation in The Naked Civil Servant. Charting Crisp's later life in New York, the film suffers dramatically by comparison with its groundbreaking predecessor. There is nothing in late-period Crisp to match the sheer bravura of his flamboyant defiance of English society in his youth, the downbeat 'years of decline' mood will be a turn-off to many, and even some of the witty aphorisms that were Crisp's stock-in-trade fall a little flat.

Commissioned, like The Naked Civil Servant, by British broadcaster ITV, the film has the conventional look and leisurely pacing of a television drama, and although the 'festival version' which premiered in the Panorama section of the Berlinale runs four minutes longer than the TV cut, it is difficult to see theatrical distributors taking the bait. Though further festival action looks likely, especially in the LGBT niche, An Englishman In New York belongs on the small screen.

Briefly sketching in the late fame that came to Crisp after The Naked Civil Servant was broadcast in 1975, the film soon cuts to his move to New York in 1981 at the age of 72. Here in Manhattan, surrounded by roller-blading men in pink shorts and girls with early-Madonna haircuts, the extravagant Crisp feels at home. His one-man show, a mix of autobiographical monologue and arch Q&A, is a hit (cue cheesy rent-an-audience ovations) and Crisp gets himself a feisty agent (Kurtz) and begins writing film reviews for gay magazine editor Phillip Steel (O'Hare).

The first real hint of tension on the rather flat dramatic monitor comes when Crisp is ostracised by the gay community (and briefly ditched by Steel) for quipping that Aids is a 'fad'. The message is that Crisp was once persecuted by straight society and is now a victim of an increasingly conventional and rule-bound gay community. But the script never quite gets its teeth into the conflict, or Crisp's internal contradictions, as it glides episodically through the facts and friendships – like his platonic relationship with Aids-afflicted painter Patrick Angus (Tucker) or his association with avant-garde performance artist Penny Arcade with whom Crisp did some of his last shows.

Hurt inhabits his subject just as convincingly as he did in The Naked Civil Servant; the idea that in some ways his Crisp is as real as the persona invented by Denis Pratt (Crisp's birth name) is dallied with in a scene where we see Crisp played by Hurt playing Queen Elizabeth in Sally Potter's Orlando. But the material Hurt is given to work with lacks the brilliance that the persona deserves. By the time the Crisp-inspired title song by Sting unspools predictably over the end credits, we don't really feel we've learned a lot more about this remarkable one-off than we did first time round.

Production companies
Leopardrama

International sales
Leopard International
(44) 207 704 5334

Producer
Amanda Jenks

Executive producers
James Burstall
Joey Attawia
Susie Field

Screenplay
Brian Fillis

Cinematography
Yaron Orbach

Production design
Elizabeth Mickle

Music
Paul Englishby

Editor
Peter H Oliver

Main cast
John Hurt

Denis O'Hare
Jonathan Tucker
Swoozie Kurtz
Cynthia Nixon

Anyways, here in Berlin i had the good fortune of watching a year in review on RTL1. The show was about upcoming movies in 2009. There was a segment on Ninja Assassin a film being directed by James McTeigue and being produced by Hollywood heavy weight Joel Silver. McTeigue spoke about filming in Germany and the many highlights of shooting in a huge city like Berlin. The interviewer spoke about future plans and James spilled the following tidbets!

- Ninja Assassin is locked and complete. Awaiting a suitable marketing strategy and release from WB. Looking likely to be a late summer release.

- Action scenes are absolutely brutal, unbelievable vision from the Wachowski's in blocking the fights with the Hong Kong stunt team.

- Spoke about the benefits of tax breaks received from the German and British Governments in making the film.

BRACE YOURSELVES FOR THIS....

- McTeigue confirmed that Plastic Man was the next project in the pipeline for the Wachowski's and he had been signed on to provide Second Unit support. Says the movie has been delayed indefinitely due to a major shake up of projects at WB.

- Bryan Singer has refused to undertake a re-boot of the Superman franchise and has left the Executives at WB with no choice but to take a fresh creative direction.

This is it....

- He stated the Wachowski Brothers had been approached to re-boot the franchise as a trilogy and they are currently reviewing their options as its like being asked to take the final play in a superbowl final. Says if they do agree, he will likely either succumb to providing second unit support on the movie or will champion the directorship of Plastic Man - He started to giggle as he stated its like a young child for the Brothers and they wont give that up easily.

- Says, the very thought of the brothers making a superman movie is unbelievable as they have grown up in the world of comic books and they would be ideal for the project.

- Stated that Bryan Singer is looking to move on to Logan's Run a movie to be produced by Joel Silver.

Polanski Unauthorized
By TODD MCCARTHYRead other reviews about this film


'Polanski Unauthorized' takes a lurid look at the filmmaker's tale.

An Amadeus Pictures presentation. Produced by Damian Chapa, Edmund Druilhet, Silvia Suvadora. Executive producers, Sara Sanchez, Michael Chapa, Octavio Armando Ortega. Co-producer, Melissa Mullins. Directed by Damian Chapa. Screenplay, Chapa, Carlton Holder.

With: Damian Chapa, Tom Druilhet, Leah Grimsson, Brienne De Beau, Silvia Suvadora, Paul Saunders, Elena Talan, Jeff McCreedie, Charles Berg, Gilbert Azzafrani, Kevin De Ridder, Monica Ramon, Christian Serritiello, Charles Power, Kerry Winchester.
 Roman Polanski won't lose any sleep over "Polanski Unauthorized," a basement tape-quality slum through the most famously traumatic episodes in a sensation-riddled life. Straight-to-DVD auteur Damian Chapa invested little money, and less talent, in depicting the subject's escape from the Nazis, flirtation with devil worship on "Rosemary's Baby," relationship with Sharon Tate and arrest for raping a 13-year-old girl, moments from all of which are shuffled together almost at random. With production values no better than homemade porn -- most scenes are played in front of drapes -- and dialogue that makes you feel sorry for the actors, this Friday the 13th Los Angeles vanity release isn't even fun in a bad-movie way. Paying customers will feel gypped.
Too tall and too thick through the middle to play Polanski, Chapa does have something of the horny ferret about him that convinces on that level. Sight of Polanski coming on to the underaged model while plying her with drugs and drink is particularly gross, while representations of Frank Sinatra (mulling breaking Polanski's legs) and early producers Gene Gutowski and Martin Ransohoff are ultra-ludicrous.


Camera (color, video), Pierre Chemaly; editor, Keita Ideno; music, Mark B. Buys, Vladimir Martinka; production designers, Madla Hruza, Lode Geens; costume designer, Hruza. Reviewed on DVD, Los Angeles, Feb. 7, 2009. English, French, German dialogue. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 89 MIN.

Curtis Hanson's sign: 'Gemini'
Director in negotiations to helm Touchstone's action thriller
By Jay A. Fernandez and Borys Kit

Feb 12, 2009, 09:15 PM ET
The stars may finally be aligning for "Gemini Man."

"L.A. Confidential" director Curtis Hanson is in negotiations to helm the long-gestating action thriller taking shape at Touchstone Pictures.

David Benioff ("The Kite Runner") wrote the script, about a brilliant, aging assassin trying to leave the game whose employers dispatch a clone of his younger self to take him out. The concept allows for some techno-wizardry whereby an older actor with a long career would be cast, and his younger likeness would be digitally grafted onto a stuntman's body. A similar trick was employed with Jet Li in "The One," though not with the generational twist.

Jerry Bruckheimer is producing. Bruckheimer execs Mike Stenson and Chad Oman will executive produce along with Angry Films' Don Murphy, who set the project up originally in 1997 off an original pitch from Darren Lemke.

Several writers worked on the script over the years, including Jonathan Hensleigh, who collaborated with Bruckheimer on "Con Air," "Armageddon" and "Gone in Sixty Seconds."

The UTA-repped Hanson most recently directed and co-wrote "Lucky You." He also is the director of "In Her Shoes," "8 Mile" and "Wonder Boys" and won an Oscar for co-writing "L.A. Confidential" with Brian Helgeland.

Universal Pictures has acquired "Superbad" actor Jonah Hill's comedy script "The Adventurer's Handbook" reports Entertainment Weekly.

Taking inspiration from the book by Mick Conefrey, the story follows a quartet of pals go on a global adventure, inspired by the hardcore stories of explorers whose tales are chronicled in Conefrey's book.

Hill co-wrote the script with Matt Spicer and Max Winkler while Akiva Schaffer ("Hot Rod") is in negotiations to direct. Hill and Jason Schwartzman will star.

Production kicks off later this year.

Universal Adapts Luldum's "Parsifal Mosaic"
By Garth Franklin Thursday February 12th 2009 11:47PM

Move over Michael Crichton, Stephen King and John Grisham - there's no hotter author right now than espionage thriller bestseller Robert Ludlum.

The late author of "The Bourne Identity" series already has four of his books in development at various studios, a list that has grown today with the addition of a fifth.

Universal Pictures is eyeing Ludlum's 1982 Cold War novel "The Parsifal Mosaic" as its next project with Imagine Entertainment onboard as a potential producer reports the trades.

The project marks the first one announced since Captivate Entertainment, who owns screen rights to Ludlum's works, made a first look deal with Universal late last year.

'Mosaic' focuses on US Intelligence agent Michael Havelock who believes he's just witnessed the execution of his partner and lover Jenna Karas off the Spanish coast for being a KGB double agent.

Retiring from the service, he soon sees her alive at a train station before she quickly flees. As he sets out to track her down, his superiors believe he's become too much of a liability and order his termination.

Meanwhile the much loved US Secretary of State, who has become the real driving power in the US administration, has gone insane. Before that, he secretly negotiated a 'first strike' treaty with both Russians and Chinese representatives who turned out to be employed by a mysterious figure named 'Parsifal' who threatens to leak the documents.

A flashback to a Nazi attack during World War II serves as a linchpin of the story which moves from Italy to Greece and the former Czechoslovakia. Ludlum's work often focused on the rise of Neo-Nazi's in the post-WW2 era but 'Mosaic' is an entirely Cold War-centric work.

The various other Ludlum books in the works are all planning contemporary spins on the material and notable departures from the source, no word if this one will keep the original setting. The "Bourne" film series similarly bore little relation to Ludlum's original work aside from the first hour of 'Identity' which stuck relatively close to the material.

Other Ludlum film adaptations in the works include "The Sigma Protocol" at Universal, "The Matarese Circle" at MGM, "The Chancellor Manuscript" at Paramount and "The Osterman Weekend" at Summit Entertainment.

Universal is also planning a fourth "Bourne" movie which producer Frank Marshall at one time said was considering using the storyline of 'The Parsifal Mosaic' for its plotline.

Scribe Ed Solomon ("Men in Black") has been hired to pen the comedy based on the classic young-adult mystery novels "The Hardy Men" for Fox 2000 says The Hollywood Reporter.

The Hardy Boys adventures revolved around the mystery-solving efforts of teenagers Frank and Joe Hardy, amateur detectives who often helped their father, a private investigator.

The film adaptation would explore the reunion of the estranged, grown-up brothers, who work together to solve a new mystery.

Ben Stiller and Tom Cruise remain lined up to star in the project with "Night at the Museum" helmer Shawn Levy attached to direct. Stiller and Stuart Cornfield are producing.

Match Factory floats with Vinterberg's Submarino
Martin Blaney in Berlin
12 Feb 2009 06:00

 

The Match Factory has taken on sales for Thomas Vinterberg's low budget feature Submarino which is based on the novel of the same name by Jonas T Bengston.

The deal continues Match's collaboration with Danish production house Nimbus Film after handling international sales on their previous productions of Ole Christian Madsen's Flame & Citron and Soren Kragh-Jacobsen's What No One Knows.

Starring Jacob Cedergren and Peter Plaugborg, the film, which is described by Vinterberg as "a very dark film" delving into the dark heart of Scandinavia, started shooting in Denmark in mid-January.

Liev Schreiber is in talks to join Angelina Jolie in the action-thriller "Salt" reports Moviehole.

Jolie plays the title character, a CIA officer who's accused by a defector of being a Russian sleeper spy and must elude capture long enough to establish her innocence.

Phil Noyce directs the thriller and shooting kicks off next month in New York City.

Ellen Barkin, Famke Janssen and French-Canadian actor Marc-Andre Grondin ("Che") have joined the cast of the psychological thriller "The Chameleon" says The Hollywood Reporter.

Jean Paul Salome directs and co-wrote the story which revolves around the reunion of a young man (Grondin) and his family after being positively identified in an unsolved missing-persons case.

The reunion turns bittersweet when suspicions arise about whether he really is their son.

Barkin will play the mom, and Janssen is an FBI agent. Nick Stahl and Emilie de Ravin also star.

The story is inspired by a New Yorker article about a man named Frederic Bourdin who assumed at least 39 identities, three of them missing teens.

Bill Perkins, Cooper Richey, Ram Bergman and Marie-Castille Schaar are producing.

Enzo G. Castellari, the director of the original 1978 "Inglorious Bastards" (aka. "Deadly Mission"), talked with magazine Il Venerdì di Repubblica (via Screen Week) about his role in Quentin Tarantino's upcoming "Inglourious Basterds" which takes an entirely new spin on his classic WW2 exploitation film.

"I play a Nazi General in the movie. In one scene we are in Paris, during the War, and I have to take a lady into a movie theater. Inside the theather there are all the big Nazis like Joseph Goebbles.

They are there to see a new propaganda movie Stolz der Nation ("The Pride of a Country") that actually is a movie inside our movie, directed by Eli Roth and played by Bo Svenson - my actor in the first "Inglorious Bastards".

At the screening, you also meet the famous German actress Bridget Von Hammermark (Diane Kruger) and a small group of people who introduce themselves as Italian filmmakers. Brad Pitt says his name is Enzo Girolami and that is my real name! Right in that moment, I am in the same shot, behind Brad."

Castellari went on about his scene and revealed what sounds like a big moment in the ending and the fate of at least once character.

Ashton Kutcher is taking on the football comedy "Traded" for Paramount Pictures says Variety.

The story centers on a superstar NFL quarterback and a 12-year-old middle school geek who magically trade bodies, then quickly learn valuable lessons about humility and courage.

David Stem and David Weiss ("They Came From Upstairs") penned the most recent draft. Dreamworks originally developed the project which was handed over to Paramount in the Fall.

Brian Robbins, Jason Hoffs and Mike Tollin are producing.

Finally Diablo Cody and Mason Novick are producing a big screen adaptation of S. G Browne's upcoming darkly comedic novel "Breathers: A Zombie's Lament". Geoff LaTulippe ("Going the Distance") will adapt the story of a recently deceased everyman, shunned by his friends and family due to his new zombie status, who finds himself in love with a sexy recent suicide and friends with a car crash victim.

Will Smith may star in the family film "Monster Hunter" about a child psychiatrist who can actually see and does battle with the monsters in children's closets. Smith was previously attached as producer and Kevin James ("Hitch") was set to star.

Robert Rodriguez ("Sin City," "Spy Kids") will reteam with Dimension on the futuristic thriller "Nerverackers" says Variety.

Set in 2085, the story centers on a character named Joe Tezca who is part of an elite unit dispatched to quell a crime wave in a theoretically perfect future society.

Rodriguez will write and direct the feature which is aiming for a release on April 16th 2010.

Who do you get to play an adventurous 12-year-old? Why 21-year-old "High School Musical" star Zac Efron of course.

The IESB reports that Efron is being linked to the titular character in Warner Bros. Pictures upcoming adaptation of "The Adventures of Johnny Quest".

The site also reports that Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson is up for the role Johnny's bodyguard Race Bannon and asked him about the project. Johnson says "There's no one else who can be Race Bannon than me. There's no one else... don't know if you've read the latest one but it's awesome and it's badass"

Johnson's "Race to Witch Mountain" director Andy Fickman is also linked to be helming the project. Announcements on the project are expected sometime next month.

Evan Jones ("Jarhead," "October Road") is set to star in Warner Bros.' futuristic western "The Book of Eli" says The Hollywood Reporter

In "Eli," Jones will play the leader of a quartet of bikers who tussle with Eli (Denzel Washington).

Gary Oldman, Jennifer Beals and Mila Kunis also star in the Joel Silver-produced film which Albert and Allen Hughes ("From Hell") are directing.

Jones will also join Maya Entertainment's independent drama "Tragic" as an old friend of James (Ryan O'Nan) who works in a slaughterhouse. June Raphael, Melissa Leo and America Ferrera also star.

Pierce Brosnan 's Irish DreamTime is developing a story about famed Hungarian photojournalist Robert Capa says The Hollywood Reporter.

The colorful journo captured memorable images from many conflicts including the Spanish Civil War and World War II. He was one of the few photographers to land on the beach in Normandy during the D-Day invasion.

He was also a high society player being friends with John Steinbeck and had an affair with Ingrid Bergman. Hewas killed in 1954 when he stepped on a land mine during the Indochina War.

Paul McGuigan ("Push," "Lucky Number Slevin") is attached to direct

"Inside" producers Franck Ribiere and Verane Frediani, Annette Wullems ("King Kong") and actor Elijah Wood are set to produce the creature feature "The Home" for Overlook Entertainment.

Eric Vespe and Matt Ward have penned the script which unfolds after a young man is nearly killed during a horrible accident that leaves him physically and emotionally scarred. To recuperate, he is taken to a secluded nursing home where the elderly residents appear to be suffering from delusions.

But after witnessing a violent attack, he soon realizes that the screams behind the walls are caused by more than hallucinations, and the residents are being preyed upon by twisted, monstrous nightmares that lurk within the home itself.

Weta Workshop will do the creature effects for the film with pre-production getting underway next month in New Zealand with filming to kick off in May.

Kristoffer Aaron Morgan helms the project which is currently casting out of the UK and New Zealand.

David Koepp ("Ghost Town") has signed on to two projects for Sony Pictures - "Billionaire's Vinegar" and "Shelley's Heart" reports Variety.

'Vinegar' is loosely based on the Benjamin Wallace book about a scandal that erupted when an auctioned cache of wine purported to have been culled from the stocks of Thomas Jefferson were deemed fakes by some.

Koepp will write the script with John Kamps and direct. James Lassiter, Will Smith, Ken Stovitz, Todd Black, Steve Tisch and Jason Blumenthal will produce.

Koepp will then adapt the Charles McCarry novel "Shelley's Heart" into a political drama called "Article II" that he'll direct for the studio.

The story follows two friends who become bitter rivals for the presidential election, which is won by computer fraud. Gavin Polone is producing.

Katherine Heigl will team with Ashton Kutcher in the Lionsgate thriller "Five Killers" says Variety.

The story kicks off when a woman meets the man of her dreams while on vacation. Married bliss is turned upside down when they discover that their neighbors may be assassins hired to kill them.

Robert Luketic ("The Ugly Truth," "Legally Blonde," "Monster-in-Law") directs the film which begins shooting next month in Atlanta and the south of France. Scott Aversano and Jason Goldberg will produce.

British tabloid reports that Guy Ritchie's upcoming "Sherlock Holmes" film was undergoing an extensive five-week series of reshoots have been shot down by the studio.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. Pictures has officially refuted reports, saying in a statement that "It is not true that Warner Bros. has asked for any reshoots on 'Sherlock Holmes'" about The Sun-originated report which claimed Ritchie had to recall cast members for reshoots.

There is some more filming about to take place however - "The inserts and pickup shots being completed next week, which have long been part of the schedule, do not involve any cast, and are a standard part of filmmaking."

In the project Robert Downey Jr. stars as the British sleuth while Jude Law is his trusted sidekick Dr. Watson. Filming on the project wrapped up recently in the UK.

The statement added that "It is still early in the production process, and the studio has not yet seen the movie. Both Warner Bros. and Guy Ritchie are very pleased with the footage they have seen thus far."

Aaron Rapke and Stewart Kaye ("The Money Shot") are set to pen the action comedy "School for Scumbags" reports Variety.

Based on Danny King's novel, the story centers on a teen who, after being expelled from a long list of schools, lands at a campus for "misdirected" teens where the teachers are actually professional thieves who teach them to execute the heist of the century.

David Matalon and Andy Vajna will produce.

Tokyo!
(France)
By JUSTIN CHANG
Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon-ho contribute to omnibus 'Tokyo!'

A Liberation Entertainment (in North America) release of a Comme des Cinemas production, in co-production with Kansai Television Corp., Bitters End, Sponge Entertainment, Arte France Cinema, Coin Film, WDR/Arte, in association with Backup Films, Wild Bunch, Champion Top Investment, Vap, Hakuhodo DY Media Partners, Wowow, Asahi Broadcasting Corp., Picnic. (International sales: Wild Bunch, Paris.) Produced by Masa Sawada, Michiko Yoshitake.
Interior Design
Executive producers, Yuji Sadai, Hiroyuki Negishi. Directed by Michel Gondry. Screenplay, Gabrielle Bell, Gondry, adapted from the comic "Cecil and Jordan in New York" by Bell, from an idea by Sadie Hales. Camera (color), Masami Inomoto; editor, Jeff Buchanan; music, Etienne Charry; production designer, Yuji Hayashida; sound, Takeshi Ogawa.
With: Ayako Fujitani, Ryo Kase, Ayumi Ito.
Merde
Executive producer, Kenzo Horikoshi. Directed, written by Leos Carax. Camera (color), Caroline Champetier; editor, Nelly Quettier; production designer, Toshihiro Isomi; costume designer, Celine Guignard; sound, Fusao Yuwaki.
With: Denis Lavant, Jean-Francois Balmer, Renji Ishibashi.
Shaking Tokyo
Executive producer, Yuji Sadai. Directed, written by Bong Joon-ho. Camera (color), Jun Fukumoto; music, Lee Byung Woo; production designer, Mitsuo Harada; sound, Hironiro Ito.
With: Teruyuki Kagawa, Yu Aoi, Naoto Takenaka.

INTERIOR DESIGN
With: Ayako Fujitani, Ryo Kase, Ayumi Ito.
MERDE
With: Denis Lavant, Jean-Francois Balmer, Renji Ishibashi.
SHAKING TOKYO
With: Teruyuki Kagawa, Yu Aoi, Naoto Takenaka.
(Japanese, French dialogue)
 Two Frenchmen and a South Korean make a great deal of mischief in "Tokyo!," an uneven but enjoyable trio of films that take affectionate (and sometimes literal) aim at the Japanese capital. Fittingly enough, horror and sci-fi rep the primary building blocks of these Tokyo stories, though the ingredients aren't always doled out in the proportions one would expect from filmmakers Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon-ho. Their names should secure the witty omnibus a place on the shelves of cinephiles and genre buffs after a solid fest life and limited theatrical release through Liberation Entertainment.
Like a nastier Eastern sibling to "Paris, je t'aime," "Tokyo!" reps a playfully ragged attempt to capture (and skewer) the multiple shifting identities of its eponymous city.

First and arguably best of the bunch is Gondry's deviously titled "Interior Design," which opens on a dark and stormy night as young, self-deluded aspiring filmmaker Akira (Ryo Kase) and his supportive but directionless g.f. Hiroko (Ayako Fujitani) arrive in Tokyo. Hiroko's attempts to find them an apartment (experiencing firsthand the surreal horrors of low-end Tokyo real estate) leads only to frustration, as does her search for a job.

Akira says early on that people define themselves by what they do, a maxim that takes on startling new meaning when Hiroko undergoes a bizarre but not entirely unwelcome transformation. Gondry handles the light intrusion of Cronenbergian body-horror with minimal f/x and old-fashioned visual sleight-of-hand, keeping his camera focused on Fujitani's engaging performance. The Gallic helmer may have a reputation for dazzling directorial whimsy, but his restraint pays off here in a work at once poignant and slyly Kafka-esque.

Less subtle in moniker and execution, monster-movie parody "Merde" may prove the most intriguing offering to viewers, as it's Carax's first film since 1999's "Pola X." Taking a page from "Godzilla" and its countless cine-spawn (and perhaps paying tribute to fellow helmer Bong's "The Host"), Carax unleashes a hideous, Gollum-like humanoid (a freakishly made-up Denis Lavant) from the sewers onto the cosmopolitan streets of Tokyo.

After wreaking some mild havoc (followed by some explosive references to Nanking that crystallize the pic's return-of-the-repressed subtext), the creature is captured and interrogated by the authorities, his guttural ravings decipherable only by an eccentric French attorney (Jean-Francois Balmer, having a ball). Merde, as this terrorist calls himself, baldly indicts the people of Japan as "disgusting" (a bit rich, given the source), though the ending suggests future cities are ripe for harassment.

Engaging any number of satirical targets, from the amusing politesse of Japanese news anchors to the culture's willingness to turn anything and everything into a mass-marketed phenomenon, "Merde" is the collection's roughest-looking and most thematically barbed effort -- which makes the beguiling simplicity of Bong's "Shaking Tokyo" all the more welcome.

Teruyuki Kagawa (also appearing in Un Certain Regard selection "Tokyo Sonata") plays a self-described hikikomori, or shut-in, who hasn't left his apartment in more than a decade. It takes a visit by a beautiful pizza delivery girl (Yu Aoi) and a random earthquake to lure the hermit out of his cave, whereupon he finds he's not the only agoraphobe in town.

Deploying smooth, supple camera movements that capture the flat's warmly lit and impeccably maintained interiors, as well as wider establishing shots of the city, Bong and d.p. Jun Fukumoto effortlessly pinpoint the sense of isolation that so often permeates even the world's most densely populated metropolitan centers. Mild sci-fi inflections aside, "Shaking Tokyo" finds one of South Korea's most creative talents working in a delicate minor key. Some viewers may want more Bong for their buck, but it's a lovely sorbet with which to end a piquant three-course meal.

This review was updated on May 21, 2008.

More than one option(Co) Liberty International Entertainment Inc.
(Co) Liberation Entertainment
More than one option(Person) Jeff Buchanan
(Person) Jeff D Buchanan
More than one option(Person) Takeshi Ogawa
Sound
(Person) Takeshi Ogawa
CameraMore than one option(Film) Godzilla
1998 - Matthew Broderick, Josef Rusnak
(Film) Gojira
(Film) Godzilla
1956 - Raymond Burr, Inoshiro Honda
(Tv) Godzilla
More than one option(Film) The Kiss
(Film) The Host
Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard), May 15, 2008. Running time: 112 MIN.

Berlin
Short Cut to Hollywood
(Germany)
By ALISSA SIMONA Schiwago Film, Bavaria Pictures, Bavaria Film, Muxfilm production in co-production with Artdeluxe in association with Capture Film. (International sales: Bavaria Film Intl., Munich). Produced by Marcos Kantis, Philipp Kreuzer. Executive producers, Matthias Esche, Jan S. Kaiser, Martin Lehwald, Michal Pokorny, Marcus Mittermeier, Jan Henrik Stahlberg. Co-producers, Robert Hofferer, Andrea Balen, Corina Danckwerts. Directed by Marcus Mittermeier, Jan Henrik Stahlberg. Screenplay, Stahlberg.

With: Jan Henrik Stahlberg, Marcus Mittermeier, Christoph Kottenkamp, Marta McGonagle, Allison Findlater-Galinsky, Asli Bayram
(German, English dialogue)
 Three best friends from Berlin take extreme measures to become famous in the absurdly horrific media satire "Short Cut to Hollywood." Co-helmers Marcus Mittermeier and Jan Henrik Stahlberg ("Quiet as a Mouse") gleefully (albeit sophomorically) send up the voyeuristic world of live TV and its ability to turn ordinary, no-talent folks into superstars, gloriously subverting conventions of the road movie and musicvideo while they're at it. Both endearing and repulsive, the pic could fill midnight slots offshore. But as the type of thing that's improved by a couple of beers, best bets are for ancillary.
Tired of their life in Germany, thirtysomething losers Johannes/aka John D. Salinger (scribe Stahlberg), Mattias (Mittermeier) and Christian (Christoph Kottenkamp) try for fame and fortune in America through a high-concept TV show in which John will die on air. Lead up involves several limb amputations. In between, the boys sing (badly), get it on with hot chicks, and generally ham it up in locations including New York, Miami, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Surprisingly beautiful cinematography leads a strong tech package with pacey editing providing plenty of momentum.

More than one option(Person) Michal Pokorny
Set Dresser, Props
(Person) Michal Pokorny
ProducerCamera (color, HDV-to-35mm), David Hofmann; editors, Sarah Clara Weber, Christian Lonk; music, Rainer Oleak; set designers, Peter Naguib, Peter Dang; costume designer, Juliane Maier. Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (Panorama), Feb. 12, 2009. Running time: 95 MIN.

Though its been rumored for a while now, actress Linda Hamilton has confirmed she's in talks to reprise her legendary Sarah Connor role for "Terminator Salvation".

"We are talking. I haven't read it yet. I don't know what direction they will go in" Hamilton told MTV News, though confirms that whatever the case she won't appear on screen.

"My contribution would be voiceover. I would probably be very happy to loan my voice depending on what the material is. Wait and see. They're already writing it. We've been negotiating it" she says.