the most anticipated...

[Milosh]

Ako se mnogo ne varam, Ana Feris bi trebalo da je gola ovde!

Naravno da se varaš.

"Rated PG-13 for sex-related humor, partial nudity and brief strong language"

...a svi dobro znamo da fraza "partial nudity" u PG-13 filmu u najboljem slučaju znači: nečija gola zadnjica na nekoliko milisekundi.

[Tex Murphy]

Ha, misliš da nisam obavio research prije postavljanja vijesti?

http://www.mrskin.com/archive/General/10730/Anna-Faris-Talks-Hugh-Hefner-and-Her-House-Bunny-Nude-Scene-20080820

[Milosh]

"...it remains to be seen how much of Faris's frame will make it on the screen."

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/38027

Sudeći po ovoj kritici, nemoj previše da se nadaš...

[Tex Murphy]

Ma možda nećemo vidjeti mnogo u kinima, ali to će da bude samo tizer da bi se ljudi naložili na kupovinu THE HOUSE BUNNY - UNRATED DIRECTOR'S CUT SPECIAL EDITION WITH BOOBS, gdje će u extrasima da budu grudi. Mislim, rekla je da je bila gola pred ekipom, ne vidim zašto ne bi to prebacili na ekran  

[Milosh]

Hm, a da pokreneš specijalizovan topik pod nazivom: the most anticipated nudity...  

[Tex Murphy]

Hm, a da pokreneš specijalizovan topik pod nazivom: the most anticipated nudity...

Hm, takvu prizemnost od tebe nisam očekivao  

[Tex Murphy]

Čak si nadmašio DušMana i mene  

[Tex Murphy]

Ipak nisi, pošto sam te poslušao i pokrenuo pomenuti topik!  

[Milosh]

Ih, nemoj sad da se izvčačiš, kad znam da sam ti upravo pročitao misli...  

[Tex Murphy]

Na pamet mi nije palo!    Otvorio sam topik zato što si me natjerao. In any case, siguran sam da će dotični vrlo brzo da potone u oblivion, kao i ostali neozbiljni topici na ovom forumu.  

[crippled_avenger]

It's not often that you hear a director bad mouthing his own movie before it opens States-side, but today comes one of those exceptions.

French helmer Matieu Kassovitz ("La Haine," "Gothika") tells AMCTV that didn't have a very good time making "Babylon A.D.", the Vin Diesel sci-fi thriller opening this week.

He tells the site that "I never had a chance to do one scene the way it was written or the way I wanted it to be. The script wasn't respected. Bad producers, bad partners, it was a terrible experience."

Why did he do it then? "The scope of the original book was quite amazing. "The author was very much into geopolitics and how the world is going to evolve. He saw that as wars evolve, it won't be just about territories any more, but money-driven politics. As a director it's something that's very attractive to do."

Yet all that political subtext doesn't show up in the final film - "It's pure violence and stupidity. All the action scenes had a goal: They were supposed to be driven by either a metaphysical point of view or experience for the characters... instead parts of the movie are like a bad episode of 24."

He places the blame squarely on distributor 20th Century Fox - "Fox was sending lawyers who were only looking at all the commas and the dots. They made everything difficult from A to Z." What pushed him over the edge though was the re-editing of the film the studio did to bring it down to 93 minutes - "I should have chosen a studio that has guts. Fox was just trying to get a PG-13 movie. I'm ready to go to war against them, but I can't because they don't give a s--t."

[Meho Krljic]

Velkom tu Meksiko, eshol, što bi rekli Pigfejs.

No, pošto sam ja poštovalac Vina Dizela, ovo ću gledati sa velikim zadovoljstvom.

[crippled_avenger]

Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay will adapt Garth Ennis' comic "The Boys" for Sony Pictures and Original Films says The Hollywood Reporter.

The comic follows the adventures of a CIA squad, known informally as "the boys," whose job is to keep watch on the proliferation of superheroes and, if necessary, intimidate or eliminate them.

Neal H. Moritz will produce. Manfredi and Hay also adapted the comic "R.I.P.D." which is in develoament at Universal.

[crippled_avenger]

Russell Mulcahy ("Highlander") has signed on to direct "Give 'Em Hell, Malone", a new actioner starring Thomas Jane and Ving Rhames.

Now in pre-production in Spokane, Washington, the film tells of a a tough as nails private investigator (Malone, played by Jane) who squares off with gangsters and their thugs to protect a valuable secret. Malone goes through hell to protect the information but he dishes some hell as well.

[crippled_avenger]

George Clooney will star in the adaptation of Walter Kirn's novel "Up in the Air" for DreamWorks Pictures says the trades.

Clooney will play a heartless HR executive that has become fixated on earning his millionth frequent flyer mile.

In achieving this meager dream, Clooney becomes disconnected with his family and is essentially left without a homelife.

Jason Reitman ("Juno," "Thank You for Smoking") will direct the film and shooting will kick off early next year.

[crippled_avenger]

Arrow in the Head reports that Dimension is moving forward with a sequel to Rob Zombie's "Halloween" without the helmer's involvement.

Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, who were attached to the "Hellraiser" remake, have confirmed themselves as the co-directors.

Maury tells Rue Morgue Magazine that "Our vision will be done with the utmost respect, with a continuity to Zombie's work. But also a real evolution of the world he set in place."

The original "Halloween" sequel was set mostly around a hospital, no word on where this sequel will take place.

[Tex Murphy]

Our vision will be done with the utmost respect

Da. Rispekt prema Zombijevom filmu, a ne Karpenterovom (ako su isti uopšte i gledali).  

[crippled_avenger]

Quentin Tarantino's "The Jew Hunter," Hans Landa, will be played by 51-year-old German TV actor Christoph Waltz.

German movie star Bridget Von Hammersmark will be played not by 48-year-old German movie star Nasstasja Kinski (said to have been in talks for the role) but by 32-year-old German movie star Diane Kruger ("Troy," the "National Treasure" movies).

Landa is the chief villain of "Inglorious Bastards," a diabolical Nazi colonel who demonstrates a useful knack for sniffing out hiding Jews in Axis-occupied Europe.

Paul Rust, who played "Wheelchair Darren" in February's Will Ferrell vehicle "Semi-Pro," has also joined the cast, which includes Brad Pitt, Mike Myers, B.J. Novak, Samm Levine, Eli Roth and German-born Michael Fassbender ("300").

Fassbender will inherit the role of British officer Archie Hicox, at different times intended for Tim Roth and Simon Pegg.

With shooting set to begin in less than seven weeks, roles yet uncast include Shoshanna Dreyfus (the movie's Natalie Portman-esque lead Jewess), her projectionist friend Marcel, the German-born maniac Bastard Stiglitz and the wily Gestapo major Deiter Hellstrom.

[cutter]

Trejler za The Informers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2g4jtj4GLA

[crippled_avenger]

Danas sam sa mrkoyem i Kuncem bio na setu B14 pa koga zanima, evo izveštaja i nešto slika:

http://dobanevinosti.blogspot.com/2008/09/b14-set-report.html

[DušMan]

Daj veću rezolucije slike na kojoj su ove cice. Ništa se ne vidi.

[Tex Murphy]

Gdje ti, Tita ti, ovde vidiš cice?

[DušMan]

treća slika, levi ćošak, desno od debele.

[crippled_avenger]

German-born Til Shweiger ("Driven," "Lara Croft II") will play either bloodthirsty maniac Hugo Stiglitz, the German-born member of Lt. Aldo Raine's American squad of angry, vengeful Nazi-killing Jews, or Wilhelm Wicki, an Austrian-born American Jew that Raine has taken into the the same squad.

Both are characters in Quentin Tarantino's World War II epic "Inglorious Bastards," which starts shooting in Germany next month.

Also aboard the project is Daniel Brühl ("The Bourne Ultimatum"), 30-year-old Spanish-born son of German director Hanno Brühl. Brühl may be playing the wily Gestapo major Dieter Hellstrom, or perhaps Nazi sniper-hero Frederick Zoller, or perhaps the German-speaking member of Raine's crew not played by Schweiger.

The cast so far:

Brad Pitt: Redneck Bastards leader Lt. Aldo "The Apache" Raine
Christoph Waltz: Col. Hans "The Jew Hunter" Landa
Michael Fassbender: British officer Archie Hicox
Diane Kruger: German movie star Bridget Von Hammersmark
Eli Roth: Bat-toting Bastard Sgt. Donnie "The Bear Jew" Donowitz
Mike Myers: British General Ed Fenech
B.J. Novak: Bastard Private Utivich?
Samm Levine: Bastard Private Hirschberg?
?: African-Frenchman Projectionist Marcel
?: Jewish heroine Shoshanna Dreyfus

(The press has had Novak as Utivich, but Levine is a much closer match for Utivich physically, so I'm thinking someone might have gotten some wires crossed.)

.

[crippled_avenger]

Seagalogy
A Study of the Ass-Kicking Films of Steven Seagal  (Titan; 352 Pgs.; $14.95)
By ERIN MAXWELL


Vern
 Men like Steven Seagal are not born; they are forged in the heat and hell of Hollywood offices. Unlike his bloodthirsty macho contemporaries, Seagal burst onto the bigscreen with fists blazing, parlaying Ovitzian connections into a starring role in "Above the Law." Ain't-It-Cool's Vern puts the action star on a pedestal in "Seagalogy," a tome that explores all aspects of the man behind the ponytail with utmost respect. Fans will find it irresistible, but those who caught "On Deadly Ground" on cable might well wonder what all the fuss is about.
Scribe covers Seagal's life from his early days in Lansing, Mich., and later as the first American Aikido instructor in Japan, through career lows in straight-to-DVD releases and thwarted musical ambitions. Vern takes the obsessive fanboyapproach to his subject, at times leaving the tongue-in-cheek satire behind as he plunges into the Seagal mythology much like Joseph Campbell dives into the work of James Joyce.

Vern breaks down the man through bar fights, broken ribs and one-liners. This approach elevates the book past mere hero-worship -- he even references the Bible to drive a point home. His irreverent writing style gives the book its edge, although at times he seems lost in Seagal's world and forgets about his audience.

[crippled_avenger]

Guillermo Del Toro booked thru 2017
'Hobbit' director eyes 'Frankenstein,' 'Jekyll'
By MICHAEL FLEMING
Del Toro





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Many top film directors have no idea what their next movie is. But Guillermo del Toro is now booked through 2017. And maybe beyond.
Universal — which has a three-year first-look deal with the helmer inked in June '07 — and del Toro are making a long-term commitment by setting up four directing projects, including remakes of "Frankenstein," "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and "Slaughterhouse-Five."

The fourth project is an adaptation of "Drood," a Dan Simmons novel acquired by U that will be published in February by Little, Brown.

Of course, del Toro's first priority is New Line and MGM's "The Hobbit," to which he has committed the next five years. He has begun writing "Hobbit" with Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, collaborating via video conferencing and trips to New Zealand every three weeks.

While it's difficult, if not impossible, to plan projects five years into the future, at this point U execs think "Drood" is the most likely to be del Toro's first post-"Hobbit" directing vehicle.

If both sides have their way, the helmer will belong to Universal after "The Hobbit" wraps.

In addition to the four pics, the studio still has its sights set on del Toro's pet project, an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness."

As if that is not enough to keep him busy, U also has on the horizon an adaptation of David Moody's apocalyptic novel "Hater" that del Toro will produce with Mark Johnson but not direct, and "Crimson Peak," a gothic romance spec script by del Toro and his "Mimic" collaborator Matthew Robbins, which del Toro will produce but not direct.

While he busies himself with "Hobbit," del Toro will outline the other projects and hire writers. The pics will be supervised at del Toro Prods. by his manager, Gary Ungar, who'll be exec producer of the films and will oversee the slate with development director Russell Ackerman and U exec Scott Bernstein.

"No one expected 'The Hobbit' to come about; it was the most marvelous monkey wrench tossed into my life," del Toro said. "I consider (the new deals) the renewal of my marital vows with Universal."

U production prexy Donna Langley said the helmer's "Hobbit" hiatus will only delay plans to dive into the del Toro business.

"We came out the other side of some tough conversations with a stronger bond and sense of long-term commitment," Langley said. "Guillermo is in the most prolific time of his life ... Joe Johnston on 'The Wolf Man' showed us the importance of entrusting the Universal franchise monsters to experienced filmmakers with voices. That was a big impetus for our decision to go with Guillermo to put his creative stamp on these properties."

Langley said she is intrigued by "Drood," in which Simmons supposes that survival from a catastrophic train crash changed author Charles Dickens, plunging him into the depths of London depravity and possibly turning him to murder before he wrote his final novel, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood."

"It's the fantasy and gothic horror world Guillermo finds comfortable," Langley said. "It feels like a great fit for where (we expect) Guillermo will have evolved as a filmmaker five years from now."

Frankenstein represents a longtime fascination for del Toro, who has made his home a memorabilia shrine to the Karloff monster from the 1931 U film.

"To me, Frankenstein represents the essential human question: 'Why did my creator throw me here, unprotected, unguided, unaided and lost?' " del Toro said. "With that one, they will have to pry it from my cold dead hands to prevent me from directing it."

On "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," del Toro wants to stick more closely to Robert Louis Stevenson's prose and explore the addictive high the repressed Jekyll experienced as his murderous alter ego.

Del Toro plans to provide a more literal interpretation of "Slaughterhouse-Five" than in the 1972 film adaptation, hewing closely to the Vonnegut novel about a prisoner in a German WWII POW camp who travels through time and space.

"There are ways that Vonnegut plays with and juxtaposes time that was perhaps too edgy to be tackled on film at that time," del Toro said.

Meanwhile, del Toro is awaiting word on whether U will embrace a follow-up to "Hellboy 2: The Golden Army." The big-budget film opened in the heat of summer and fell short of blockbuster status in the U.S. but has performed well overseas.

"I think they'll decide when the last euro hits the piggybank," del Toro said. "We laid the groundwork to have a magnificent third act. I'd like to return to an action franchise with 60-year-old actor Ron Perlman, because he'll be scratching at that age when I get to it."

Langley said the studio is interested and may work with del Toro to add a TV series and online segments to broaden the following before making the series finale.

Del Toro is repped by Endeavor and Exile.

[crippled_avenger]

Tom Cruise and United Artists have acquired rights to serial-killer thriller "The Monster of Florence" reports Variety.

Based on the novel by Douglas Preston ("The Cabinet of Curiosities," "The Relic"), the story is a reconstruction of eight grisly double homicides believed to have been committed single-handedly between 1968 and 1985 in and around the Italian Renaissance gem.

Cruise is attached to produce and possibly star in the project which Chris McQuarrie ("Valkyrie," "The Usual Suspects") will pen.

The "Monster of Florence" case had previously inspired the Thomas Harris sequel "Hannibal."

[crippled_avenger]

Robert De Niro has left GK Films' "Edge of Darkness" due to "creative differences" reports Variety.

De Niro had just arrived on the Massachusetts set of the Martin Campbell-directed drama this week and had signed to play an operative sent to clean up the evidence in the murder of a young woman.

Mel Gibson stars as the victim's father, a homicide detective for the Boston Police Dept. who uncovers her secret life, a corporate cover-up and government collusion. Danny Huston, Shawn Roberts and Bojana Novakovic also star.

The filmmakers plan to shoot around De Niro's character's scenes until they cast an actor to replace him. Shooting had been underway since August 18th.

[crippled_avenger]

Mark Pellington ("The Mothman Prophecies," "Arlington Road") will direct the long-gestating mystery thriller "Solace" for New Line Cinema and Contrafilm reports the trades.

The story revolves around a former doctor with psychic abilities who is drawn into a serial killer case only to find that the killer also is a psychic, leading to a showdown between the two who can detect each other's every move.

Penned by Sean Bailey and Ted Griffin with revisions by Jamie Vanderbilt, the project was long being thrown about as, with some minor retooling, a sequel to the David Fincher-directed 1995 hit "Se7en".

[crippled_avenger]

Denzel Washington will star in and produce the post-apocalyptic drama "Book of Eli" for Warner Bros. Pictures reports the trades.

Washington will portray a lone hero in a not-too-distant apocalyptic future who must fight across America to bring society the knowledge that could be the key to its redemption.

Allen and Albert Hughes ("From Hell") will direct from a script by Gary Whitta and Anthony Peckham. Filming starts in January in New Mexico.

[crippled_avenger]

Story  


Sauna
Sauna
06 Sep 2008 03:55

 

Dir: Antti-Jussi Annila. Finland. 2008.  83mins.

Finnish director Antti-Jussi Annila (Jade Warrior) invokes slavishly two masters, Andrei Tarkovsky and Stanley Kubrick, with this intensely baroque and religion-inflected period horror movie. The severely grotesque atmosphere and mannered style suffocate the promising ideas and results in a dramatically incoherent work more punishing than frightening.

Consistently echoing two hallmarks of modern movies, Stalker and 2001: A Space Odyssey, the movie also borrows heavily from the visual palette of Ridley Scott's opening section of Gladiator.  To be sure, Annila never suffers from a lack of confidence. The widescreen photography is boldly muscular and the movie contains some strikingly composed, isolated portraiture. This is also the kind of work where every image constitutes a cry for attention. The stylization is too blunt and the director never quite finds his own personality or sensibility to bear on the increasingly overwrought material.

Commercially, the movie's best prospects are clearly in Scandinavia and in the Eastern European markets that made a great success of the Night Watch cycle. Internationally, the movie's best exposure is likely in the niche programming of horror-themed festivals.

The story's unfolds in 1595; the action follows the uneasy truce following 25-years of brutal war between Russia and Sweden. Two Finnish-born brothers are part of a Russo-Swedish commission dispatched to the outreaches of the disputed territories to outline new border accords. Eric (Virtanen) is a brutal warrior-nationalist clearly damaged by the atrocities he has committed. Knut (Eronen) is the intellectual, a rationalist interested in science and order.

Already unhinged by the disfigured cries of a beautiful young girl they mistreated during their journey, the brothers are increasingly undone by the inexplicable actions and irrational behavior afflicting a strange and mysterious village located in the swamps. The movie's title parallels the oblong black monolith in Kubrick's masterpiece. It is a white, columned, marble structure that rises out of the shallow edge of a river. It provides the movie's most intriguing image, a reverse silhouette of the interior that is the source of either absolution or complete annihilation.

As a horror movie, the film has an unusual provenance. Despite the movie's late 16th century setting, the visual look is unmistakably medieval. In the opening, Annila impressively draws on landscape, weather and the horizontal line to create some visually arresting moments. The tone is both fractured and overemphatic. The suggestively eerie moments of violence and retribution of the opening are never adequately woven into the sketched framework that underpins the daily existence of the mysterious villagers.

As the story becomes more muddled and murky, the direction becomes more violent and unstable. From the too-literate rhapsodizing of the voice-over to the serious works of art the images are poached from, the movements, imagery and storytelling prove ultimately too solemn and pretentious to create a compelling and satisfactory world of its own.


Production companies
Bronson Club

International sales agent
Blind Spot Pictures

Producers
Tero Kaukomaa
Jesse Fryckman

Screenplay
Iiro Kuttner

Cinematography
Henri Blomberg

Cast
Ville Virtanen
Tommi Eronen
Viktor Klimenko
Sonja Petäjäjärvi
Kati Outinen

[crippled_avenger]

JCVD

Posted: Sun., May 18, 2008, 6:50am PT
A Gaumont (France), Artemis Prods. (Belgium), and Samsa Films (Luxembourg) production of a Gaumont release. (International sales: Gaumont.) Produced by Sidonie Dumas. Co-producers, Jani Thiltges, Arlette Zylberberg, Patrick Quinet. Executive producers, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Marc Fiszman. Directed by Mabrouk El Mechri. Screenplay, El Mechri and Frederic Benudis with Christophe Turpin, based on concept by Frederic Taddei and Vincent Ravalec.

With: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Francois Damiens, Zinedine Soualem, Karim Belkhadra, Jean-Francois Wolff, Anne Paulicevich.

By ROB NELSON
Van Damme is back! Combined with recent news that the Muscles from Brussels will soon turn auteur with "Full Love," Gaumont's "JCVD," a French-language meta-movie parody par excellence, constitutes the headiest stretch of the beefy star's career since, well, ever. Playing "himself," i.e., an international action stud whose bruising child custody battle has him literally going postal , exec-producing Jean-Claude Van Damme reveals heretofore hidden third dimension to his monosyllabic persona. Ho-hum hostage crisis mayhem serves to buttress co-scripting helmer Mabrouk El Mechri's more experimental stunts, including a tonally opposite pair of longish takes -- one a wonderfully absurd ode to star's martial-arts moves, the other a tear- and prayer-filled Van Damme monologue that must be seen to be believed. An adventurous U.S. minimajor could reap modest B.O. following a June 4 French release.
Playful from its first moments of a balloon-toting cartoon tot kickboxing in Gaumont logo, "JCVD" pumps up "I'm too-old-for-this-crap" cliches via shrewdly deployed in-jokes. Title character is revered for having "brought" John Woo to Hollywood with "Hard Target" in '93 ("He'd still be shooting pigeons in Hong Kong," an industry player opines), but on-set colleagues find fault with 47-year-old's mark-hitting skills. Worse, prosecuting attorney in hero's L.A. custody case dissects icon's eye-gouging oeuvre by DVD to assert dad's history of violence.

Freshly spurned by preteen daughter, jetlagged from trip back to Belgium, and electronically dissed at the hometown ATM, JCVD loses his cool while seeking a post-office wire transfer of euros, only to find he has stumbled into in-progress heist for which he'll be blamed by cops -- and credited, oddly or not, by hordes of placard-waving fans (e.g., "Free Jean-Claude!").

As before, bulky thesp's acting is as flat as his pecs are sculpted, but here said limitations are more clearly part of joke within hollow mirror world, where JCVD loses key role to Steven Seagal because latter negotiated to topline sans ponytail.

Script's sharpest running gag has the concept of celebrity trumping human life in media coverage if not public estimation; even JCVD's sweet old Maman hints at worries of son's marquee rep while mistakenly urging him to release "his" hostages.

Incalculably superior in tone, attitude, intent, and intellect to bulk of bodybuilder vehicles, shrewdly produced pic limits limber star's acrobatics to first and last scenes without great detriment to whole. Gast Waltzing's horn-heavy score is pleasingly old-school and subtly parodic; Philippe Kohn's sound mix is crisply immersive; Pierre-Yves Bastard's widescreen lensing does the job despite de rigueur color-bleaching and scant closeups with which to flaunt Van Damme's near-Buster Keatonesque deadpan. Exception to that to is aforementioned long take wherein weeping JCVD flexes existential about his status as global-screen limb-snapper with backend points.

No kidding.

Camera (Panavision, widescreen), Pierre-Yves Bastard; sound (Dolby Digital), Philippe Kohn; editor, Kako Kelber; art direction, Andre Fonsny; set decoration, Francois Dickes; music, Gast Waltzing; music supervisor, Varda Kakon; casting, Francoise Menidrey. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (market), May 17, 2008. Running time: 102 MIN.

[crippled_avenger]

Dir. Paul Schrader. Germany/USA/Israel. 2008. 106 mins.

The drama will play widely on the festival circuit before a theatrical run. In the US, the film should rally Jewish audiences and fans of Jeff Goldblum, in the lead role of an entertainer who survives by playing a dog for a Nazi. As a German co-production, interest in Germany could be strong. The adaptation of Kaniuk's 1968 classic should give the picture a firm berth in home video and revive interest in the original book.

The films begins as medical attendants escort Holocaust survivor Adam Stein out of a Tel Aviv boarding house where he tried to kill a woman. They bring him to a Bauhaus-style rehabilitation center for survivors in the Israeli desert with modern art on the walls, endowed by an American philanthropist and run by a Dr. Gross (Derek Jacobi).  The asylum is full of survivors with endearing quirks, but the story flashes back to Berlin, where Stein's popular cabaret clown act is shut down by the Nazis and his family is sent to a concentration camp, where he is separated from them.

Camp commander Klein (Willem Dafoe), the butt of a cabaret joke years before, has a special job for Stein, whom he forces to walk on all fours and live as a dog, which enabled the humiliated clown to survive. Back in the asylum the affable and amorous Stein discovers young David (Tudor Rapiteanu), who barks and lives in filth. His mission is to save the dog/boy, while haunted by his days in the camp and the loss of his family.

The Holocaust is a new subject for director Paul Schrader, a Calvinist from Michigan, who infuses drama and physical comedy into Yoram Kaniuk's matter-of-fact tone in the novel. Yet the subject is not entirely foreign. As with the protagonists of Taxi Driver and Affliction, Adam Stein is consumed by grueling inner turmoil – in this case, by the guilt of a survivor whose family perished. Shrader navigates this emotional territory effectively.

The script by Noah Stollman (preceded by decades of unmade scenarios for the story) distills a complicated novel, preserving the dark humor while considering the darker ordeal that has driven these survivors insane.

The story of a clown who survived by playing a dog to entertain a camp commander gets the odd laugh, especially in flashbacks and in Stein's romps with sexy nurse Grey (Ayelet Zurer). Yet comic moments never fall into the facile blandness of Roberto Bennigni's  motivational Life Is Beautiful.

As Stein, Goldblum has echoes of Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, with some generic movie insanity from the supporting cast. Yet his performance expands as the film tells its story, with surprisingly few false notes, given the character's complexity. This role will bring the versatile actor new job offers, even from those who aren't won over by Adam Resurrected.  

Dafoe, who played a Jewish boxer in Auschwitz in Triumph of the Spirit, brings a nasty sadism to his character, who rules over a camp created for the production in Rumania. The film's credible look – Rumania as Germany and Israel -- is the work of production designer Alexander Manasse.

Production Companies/Backers
Bleiberg Entertainment
3L Filmproduktion

International Sales
Bleiberg Entertainment  
+1 323 632 6850

Producer
Ehud Bleiberg
Werner Wersing

Executive Producer
Ulf Israel
Marion Forster Bleiberg

Screenplay
Noah Stollman
based on the novel by Yoram Kaniuk

Production Designer
Alexander Manasse

Cinematographer
Sebastian Edschmid

Editor
Sandy Saffeels

Sound
Guido Zettier

Music
Gabriel Yared

Main Cast
Jeff Goldblum
Willem Dafoe
Derek Jacobi
Ayelet Zurer
Moritz Bleibtreu
Tudor Rapiteanu

[crippled_avenger]

French actress Mélanie Laurent ("Days of Glory," "Don't Worry, I'm Fine") has apparently joined Quentin Tarantino's "Inglorious Bastards" reports Monsieur Cinema.

A source close to Laurent indicates the actress has already flown to Los Angeles to work with Tarantino.

Which role isn't specified, though considering her appearance it's believed to be that of the female lead chatacter Shoshanna Dreyfus, a French Jewish girl who flees the Nazis as a teenager and later inherits a Parisian movie theater.

[crippled_avenger]

Producer Don Carmody is in negotiations with Sam Raimi to adapt stage play "Evil Dead: the Musical" into a 3D movie reports Screen Daily.

Conceived by George Reinblatt, Christopher Bond, Frank Cipolla and Melissa Morris, the camp stage interpretation of Raimi's cult classic horror trilogy was originally mounted in Toronto and Montreal and has since gone off-Broadway.

Bond and choreographer Hinton Battle will co-direct the 3D film version which they hope to shoot in Toronto next Spring with some of the original cast.

At the moment however serious rights issues still need to be resolved.

[crippled_avenger]

Michael Caine will star in Marv Films' contemporary British crime thriller "Harry Brown" reports Variety.

Caine plays an elderly former serviceman drawn to vigilantism while living in a run-down suburb rife with gangs, guns and drugs.

Emily Mortimer also stars as a policewoman. Daniel Barber ("The Tonto Women") helms the project from a script by Gary Young ("The Tournament").

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According to sources for JoBlo, Irish hunk Colin Farrell is in talks to star as Dr. Watson in Guy Ritchie's upcoming reinvention of "Sherlock Holmes".

As of right now no one is "officially" signed on to play Watson, a role that Russell Crowe was erroneously linked to the other week. Certainly Farrell seems an odd choice to play Holmes less incisive documentarian.

Robert Downey Jr. is officially set as Holmes, Mark Strong is pretty much set for a key role, and rumors of Crowe as Professor Moriarty are still out there and have yet to be officially commented on.

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"28 Days Later" and "Trainspotting" Director Danny Boyle, currently winning rave reviews for "Slumdog Millionaire" at the Toronto Film Festival, tells ComingSoon.net he's considering an animated movie based on Terry Pratchett's children book "Truckers" for Dreamworks.

The first part of Pratchett's "Bromeliad Trilogy", the story follows a race of tiny people from another world called Nomes, living and trying to survive among humans, who discover their secret history, which prompts them to try to return home.

Boyle hopes he and "Millions" screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce will reunite on the project, but due to the complexity of doing an animated film he's unsure if he'll do it yet - "It's a weird different discipline, it's very strange."

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Paul Verhoeven ("Total Recall," "Basic Instinct) is in talks to direct the untitled Wendy Miller thriller for Relativity Media reports Variety.

The story centers on a college intern who finds himself trapped in a dangerous affair with the boss's wife.

Filming is scheduled to begin in the first-quarter of 2009. Miller is penning a rewrite under Verhoeven's direction.

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Story  



FIfty Dead Men Walking
11 Sep 2008 06:00

 

Dir. Kari Skogland. UK/Canada. 2008. 118 mins.

It was only in the aftermath of the Vietnam War that filmmakers were able to create a substantial body of work reflecting the complexities of what had happened there. The same is proving to be true of the recent "Troubles" that tore Northern Ireland apart for the best part of forty years. This year has already seen Steve McQueen's triumphant debut with Hunger. Now, Canadian director Kari Skogland brings her eye to bear on the heat of the conflict with a slick thriller that plays like Scorsese lite. A confident production, it has the dynamism and commercial instincts to connect with a mainstream audience and can only benefit from the rising profile of 21 star Jim Sturgess.

A true story, inspired by events in the life of Martin McGartland, Fifty Dead Men Walking begins in the Canada of 1999 where Martin (Sturgess) is gunned down in a hail of bullets. The film is a lengthy flashback to his life in 1988 as a cocky, unemployed ne'er-do-well in Northern Ireland. A youngster who seems fearless and indifferent to the politics that define the region, he is identified as a prime target for recruitment by a British Special Branch operative known as Fraser (Ben Kingsley).

Martin's concerns appear to be making a living and looking after his pregnant girlfriend (Nathalie Press). If the British are willing to pay him money then he is not going to refuse it. That is the first step in a relationship with Fraser that gradually deepens as Martin becomes a high-level informer. He wins the trust of the IRA as he starts to advance through their ranks to a position of power. He would later assert that fifty dead men were alive because of his actions, hence the title of the film.

Martin Scorsese has always shown a fascination with the life of the informer; a trusted insider who eventually betrays the people he has come to know and even respect. It is a primary theme in Goodfellas and The Departed. It is
also the means to provide an almost forensic examination of how an organisation works. It is a similar approach that Kari Skogland takes here as Martin's experiences in the IRA allow us an unflinching view of the torture, rough justice and vengeful violence deployed in the name of a cause.

Fifty Dead Men works best as a conventional but politically charged thriller. A heavy-handed use of music and a fondness for burnished visuals tends to over-egg the film, making it feel glossy rather than gritty.

Sturgess once again confirms his ability to carry a film with a performance that is just as commanding but very different from his most notable roles in Across The Universe and 21. Kevin Zegers is virtually unrecognisable and sports an entirely convincing Irish accent as his closest friend and die-hard IRA supporter. Only Ben Kingsley seems miscast as  British handler Fergus, although he does invest the character with a dry humour.

Production Companies
Brightlight Pictures
Future Films

International sales
Handmade Films International

Producers
Peter La Terriere
Kari Skogland
Stephen Hegyes
Shawn Williamson

Exec prods
Stephen Margolis
Guy Collins
Michael Ryan
Nicole Carmen-Davis
Karyn Edwards
Kyle Lundberg
Cindy Ciwan
Elsie Choi

Screenplay
Kari Skogland
based on the novel by Martin McGartland and Nicholas Davies

Cinematography
Jonathan Freeman

Main cast
Jim Sturgess
Ben Kingsley
Kevin Zegers
Nathalie Press
Rose McGowan

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Ray Winstone will replace Robert De Niro in "Edge of Darkness" for GK Films says Variety

Winstone is negotiating to play an operative sent to clean up evidence in the murder of a woman.

Mel Gibson plays her detective father, who wants answers after his daughter is shot on his doorstep.

After two days on set, De Niro left the project over "creative differences" last week.

Danny Huston, Shawn Roberts and Bojana Novakovic also star in the Martin Campbell-directed drama based on the 1985 BBC miniseries.

Shooting began in Massachusetts on August 18th.

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Relativity Media has acquired rights for a film adaptation of Robert Graves' classic Roman Empire-set novel "I, Claudius".

Acclaimed filmmaker Jim Sheridan will direct and co-write the script with longtime collaborator Nye Heron.

Graves' 1934 novel recounts the internecine plots and counterplots surrounding Claudius, the fourth emperor of Rome who ruled from 41-54 A.D and is considered one of the best novels of the 20th century.

The stuttering and handicapped Claudius, born into a murderous, imperial family, used his cunning mind and rivals' misjudgment of his disability to not only survive but eventually become one of Rome's greatest emperors.

The story runs through Claudius' life and the various emperors who reigned before him including Augustus, Tiberius, and the mad Caligula,

Although previously adapted onto film in 1937 film, though is best known via the 1976 BBC ten-episode miniseries adaptation.

That project had a stellar cast that included Derek Jacobi, John Hurt, Brian Blessed, Patrick Stewart, Sian Phillips, John Rhys-Davies, Bernard Hill and Kevin McNally.

Along with stellar reviews and many awards, it drew controversy for its dark elements such as the scene where Caligula (John Hurt) off-screen cuts out and ingests the fetus of the sister he impregnated.

No production date has been set for the new film version.

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Danny Boyle has revealed that not only is he considering an animated film, but has already taken some preliminary steps to develop a musical with the English band I Am Kloot.

He tells MTV News that "I talked to I Am Kloot about doing a small musical - It would be original with the Kloot guys writing the songs. It's very difficult."

"I think it's the most difficult thing to do as a film [but] it's the Holy Grail if you can do it

. I would love to do a musical. I've done on stage plays with substantial musical sections in it and I loved it. I love editing to beat and contradicting the beat. I'm useless on music technically but I know when some thing is good and not." says Boyle.

Regarding what the musical would be about, or what kind of style it would be shot in, Boyle remained quiet. He did admit that he loved Tim Burton's recent "Sweeney Todd" adaptation.

He also says that he has an idea for a second sequel to "28 Days Later" but "I've got to present it and see what people think really because it might be silly really."

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Company  
Foresight Unlimited  


Cast  
Bruce Willis  


Director(s)  
Bruce Willis  


Producer(s)  
Moshe Diamant, David Willis, Bruce Willis, Mark Damon  


Production Status  
Pre-Production  


Completion Year  
2009  



Synopsis  
At age seventeen, JOAN loses her virginity.

At age 21, she loses her virtue.

At age 25, she loses her vices.

Or did she lose nothing .... but her mind?

THREE STORIES ABOUT JOAN interweaves the three phases of a young womans struggle to retain her faith in a love borne out of need, destroyed by a madness, and restored by a ghost.

Bruce Willis character is the center of Joans life. He is egocentric, paranoid, tender, and brutal and madly in love with the Joan he wants her to be.

He is also her father.

THREE STORIES ABOUT JOAN is a tautly structured fable that weaves in the surreal with the real, the supernatural with the unnatural, and the triumph of young love in all its exhaltation, and its desperation.

And it is brilliant in its deception, as nothing ever is what it appears to be.  


Budget  
10M-25M

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Millennium Films has set Michael Douglas to play a car magnate with a runaway libido in "Solitary Man."
Susan Sarandon, Danny DeVito and Jenna Fischer are in talks to co-star.

Brian Koppelman and David Levien are directing a script written by Koppelman. Production begins in November in New York.

Douglas plays a former owner of a car dealership chain whose career and marriage were destroyed by his business and romantic indiscretions.

Paul Schiff and Steven Soderbergh are producing. Avi Lerner, Danny Dimbort, Trevor Short, Moshe Diamant and Joe Gatta are exec producers.

Koppelman and Levien previously directed "Knockaround Guys" and the 2005 TV series "Tilt."

Koppelman and Levien wrote Soderbergh's next film, "The Girlfriend Experience."

Douglas will topline a Liberace film that Soderbergh is developing to direct at Warner Bros. with script by Richard LaGravanese.

Coming off the release of "Righteous Kill," Millennium recently wrapped "Brooklyn's Finest" and is about to begin production on the Tim Blake Nelson-directed "Leaves of Grass," with Edward Norton, Sarandon, Keri Russell and Richard Dreyfuss.

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"The Transporter" and "Crank" star Jason Statham tells Empire Online that his next film will be a project currently titled "The Grabbers".

Describing it as in the vein of the Bogart classic "The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre", it deals with "relationships and how greed contaminates the relationships these three people have."

Statham of course plays a "crazy Brit that is quite charismatic" and David and Janet Peoples ("Twelve Monkeys," "Unforgiven") have penned the script.

Of course its early days yet and the project may not happen - "Hopefully we'll get that made. We're trying to put the finance together now and hopefully do it before the end of the year."

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Comedian Zach Galifianakis has snagged the lead role in Todd Phillips' comedy "The Hangover" for Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures says Reuters.

In "Hangover," Galifianakis, Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms play best buddies at a wild Las Vegas bachelor party who lose the groom just hours before his wedding. Shooting is set to begin this weekend.

Galifianakis has also been cast in the lead role in HBO pilot "Bored to Death". In that he plays a struggling comic book artist and best friend to Jonathan (Jason Schwartzman), an alcoholic writer who pretends to be a private detective.

Ted Danson also stars in the project from writer Jonathan Ames and director Alan Taylor.

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Gil Kenan and Robert Zemeckis, who teamed for the ani Oscar-nominated "Monster House," are partnering again for a big-screen version of "Airman," a children's adventure book by "Artemis Fowl" author Eoin Colfer.

Kenan will direct the adaptation, which will be done using performance-capture technology. Zemeckis will produce with his ImageMovers partners Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey.

The swashbuckling scientific story centers on Conor Broekhart, a young man born in a hot air balloon to a family close to the king who has a penchant for looking to the skies for inspiration. After his tutor and king are murdered, Broekhart spends two years in prison, escapes and must decide whether to should turn his back on those who abandoned him or fight those who plot to overthrow the government.

The book was released in January.

No writer is on board.

Kenan, repped by ICM, directed 2006's "Monster House," which Zemeckis exec produced along with Steven Spielberg. His next directorial effort is the upcoming "City of Ember," Playtone and Fox-Walden's adaptation of the Jeanne Duprau book.
'Airman' flies to big screen
Gil Kenan, Robert Zemeckis to reunite for swashbuckler
By Borys Kit

Sept 18, 2008, 01:00 AM ET

Gil Kenan and Robert Zemeckis, who teamed for the ani Oscar-nominated "Monster House," are partnering again for a big-screen version of "Airman," a children's adventure book by "Artemis Fowl" author Eoin Colfer.

Kenan will direct the adaptation, which will be done using performance-capture technology. Zemeckis will produce with his ImageMovers partners Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey.

The swashbuckling scientific story centers on Conor Broekhart, a young man born in a hot air balloon to a family close to the king who has a penchant for looking to the skies for inspiration. After his tutor and king are murdered, Broekhart spends two years in prison, escapes and must decide whether to should turn his back on those who abandoned him or fight those who plot to overthrow the government.

The book was released in January.

No writer is on board.

Kenan, repped by ICM, directed 2006's "Monster House," which Zemeckis exec produced along with Steven Spielberg. His next directorial effort is the upcoming "City of Ember," Playtone and Fox-Walden's adaptation of the Jeanne Duprau book.

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Iconic Crime writer Robert Randisi has sold the films rights to "Everybody Kills Somebody Sometime" to Sandy Hackett, son of the late comedian Buddy Hackett says Crime Spree.

The novel features the legendary Rat Pack (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop) and is set in Vegas in 1960.

The story centers around threatening letters that being sent to Dean Martin. The pack assisted by pit boss Eddie Gianelli, work to figure out who is sending them.

The novel is the first in a series, with the fourth being slated for 2009. Randisi will adapt the book and filming is slated to begin January 2010.

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Luke Wilson and Giovanni Ribisi are teaming for the indie drama "Middle Men" about the birth of online porn says Variety.

The film centers on a straight-and-narrow businessman who builds the first online billing company dealing exclusively with adult entertainment.

He soon finds himself in the middle of a whirlwind filled with starlets, conmen, Russian mobsters, federal agents and international terrorists -- all while trying to hold on to his marriage and family.

George Gallo directs from Andy Weiss' script. Shooting gets underway October 20th in Phoenix.