the most anticipated...

[crippled_avenger]

Universal Pictures has acquired Mike Sobel's "Towering Inferno"-style disaster epic "Skyscraper" set in a super-skyscraper says the trades.

The story centers on a Donald Trump-esque developer sets out to build a mile-high structure in Chicago. When the tower starts to falter, a crew must rescue the city from mayhem.

Neal Moritz, who worked with former NYC criminal lawyer Sobel on Sony's upcoming creature revenge thriller "Animals", will produce.

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Adrien Brody has been cast in the indie action feature "The Courier" for Arclight Films reports the trades.

Michael Brandt and Derek Haas ("Wanted") penned the script which centers on a daredevil courier who's pursued across the country by corrupt cops and rival crime bosses when he has to deliver a briefcase to a notorious underworld figure who can't be found.

Russell Mulcahy directs the film which is scheduled to start filming in January in Louisiana and Las Vegas.

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Jean Reno has joined the Vince Vaughn Universal comedy "Couples Retreat" says Variety.

The story follows four couples who go to a tropical island resort, where they discover that participation in the resort's couples therapy is not optional. Reno will play a therapist and operator of the resort.

"Iron Man" writer/director Jon Favreau penned and will star in the comedy that Peter Billingsley is helming.

Jason Bateman, Kristen Bell, Malin Akerman, Kristin Davis and Faizon Love also star. Shooting is scheduled to begin shortly.

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Bronson
Fionnuala Halligan in London
29 Oct 2008 17:48

 


Dir. Nicolas Winding Refn. UK, 2008. 92 mins.

With Bronson, Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn (the Pusher trilogy) takes his first director-for-hire job and makes an indelible stamp on it. Bronson is about the UK's most violent prisoner, Charles Bronson, born Michael Peterson, but it's in no way a biography. This is Refn's nihilistic tribute to Kubrick and A Clockwork Orange; a hyper-violent showcase with strong theatrical elements scored elliptically to classical music and classic pop tunes. It is propelled by a muscular – literally – performance from an almost-unrecognisable Tom Hardy, compellingly if repellently watchable in the title role.

Commercially, this will live at the fringes: a violent, often funny cabaret which doesn't really aim to illuminate, it will find buyers but will have a tough trek out of hard-core art house internationally due to its subject matter. Refn's framing can't help but attract: he presents Bronson as a jester on the stage, a showman, a face-painted, elaborately-moustachioed philosopher whose ambition was only ever to be famous. That, coupled with Hardy's show-stopping performance, will draw select audiences to the film. Ratings could be an issue. While Bronson contains no elements of sexual violence, there is always a possibility that it will court controversy in the UK, where Bronson is tabloid fodder, and be adopted by the same right-wing elements that embraced A Clockwork Orange.

Jailed in 1974, when he was 19, for a robbery, Bronson's prison term has been repeatedly extended due to attacks on prison staff and hostage-taking situations, not to mention his famous rooftop protests, and he has only spent four-odd months out of prison in last 34 years, 30 of them spent in solitary confinement. Physically, he maintains a regimen which keeps him in a shape similar to Hardy's, and he currently writes poetry and paints. Refn presents him as a man who found his natural habitat behind prison bars; whose bare-knuckle violence and animalistic physicality resulted in the fame he had long sought.

Refn tells the story episodically, with a loose narrative timeline, interspersed with Bronson as a MC on stage. Visually, Bronson is a stagy, theatrical, claustrophobic affair, set inside darkened, spotlit prison cells with memorable spashes of colour and an intense focus on Hardy's face.

Production companies

Vertigo Films

4DH Films

International sales

Protagonist Pictures

+ 44 (0)207 306 5155
Producers

Rupert Preston

Danny Hansford

Screenplay

Brock Norman Brock

Nicolas Winding Refn

Cinematography

Larry Smith

Main Cast

Tom Hardy

James Lance

Amanda Burton

Matt King

[crippled_avenger]

The Human Contract
Patrick Z McGavin in Chicago
29 Oct 2008 18:40

 


Dir/Scr: Jada Pinkett Smith. US. 2008. 106mins

A seriously-intended dramatic study of erotic obsession, jealousy and violence, Jada Pinkett Smith's debut feature The Human Contract is a messy and frequently furious entwining of the sacred and the profane. Despite some entertaining stretches and compensatory observations about contemporary Los Angeles, the work is finally undone by too frequent lapses into the overwrought or simply incomprehensible .

Produced by Overbrook Entertainment, Will Smith's production company, The Human Contract was directed by Pinkett Smith from her own script. While it attempts to subvert genre and received ideas about erotic gamesmanship, voyeurism and sexual hedonism, these notions are almost exclusively accessed from a male point of view, leaving the movie's more interesting, compelling female lead too dramatically undeveloped to register as a convincing figure.

The movie, which thematically suggests a mélange of of 91/2 Weeks, Basic Instinct and Rising Sun, premiered at the Chicago International Film festival. Its adult material, sexual exhibition and the name recognition of Pinkett Smith (and her husband, a producer) should guarantee it some theatrical traction, especially in urban markets. Internationally, the presence of Paz Vega could pay dividends in the Spanish-language arena.

Visually, Pinkett Smith clearly relished her time working with Michael Mann on the director's Los Angeles crime thriller Collateral. The nighthawk LA imagery has a sensual pull and sometimes intoxicating rhythm. The story unfolds through a network of noteworthy urban architecture, glass and steel corporate offices and ultra sleek, chic high-rise apartments.

The movie's damaged central characters are introduced in the opening seconds. Julian Wright (Clarke) is naturally drawn to the sexually rapacious and highly suggestive Michael (Vega). Although he has been advised by his mentor (Danson) to avoid any personal embarrassment in order to facilitate a business merger by a culturally conservative conglomerate, Julian naturally finds himself straying repeatedly due to his increasing obsession with the mysterious Michael.

Unfortunately both characters are overburdened by a suffocating psychological profile. Michael is a self-mutilator. Julian's corporate rise is harshly contrasted against the personal drudgery of his pious, emasculating mother (Cassidy) and a sister (Pinkett Smith) who has been abused by her estranged husband.

Unraveling a part of Michael's hidden side only intensifies Julian's irrational and violent impulses. The lacerating self-punishment finally becomes too much for the story to bear. At best The Human Contract is unguarded, awkward and blunt. At worst it becomes an assault of the senses. Clarke gets the entitlement and the rage down perfectly; he goes a bit soft in his jealousy and need to possess her. Vega is a beautiful and a sharply carnal presence. Like Penelope Cruz's early roles in English, her lack of fluency and ease with idiom and language dulls her natural expressiveness and vibrancy.

Production companies

100% Woman

Overbrook Entertainment

Tycoon Entertainment

International sales

Lightning Entertainment

+ 1 (310) 255 7999

Producers

Dawn Thomas

Mike Jackson

Miguel Melendez

Cinematography

Darren Genet

Production designer

Carlos Barbosa

Editor

Michael Trent

Music

Anthony Marinelli

Main cast

Jason Clarke

Paz Vega

Idris Elba

Ted Danson

Jada Pinkett Smith

Joanna Cassidy

Tava Smiley

Anne Ramsay

[crippled_avenger]

'Age of Rage' for Searchlight, Webb
Second pairing for the studio and the director
By Steven Zeitchik

Oct 30, 2008, 12:00 AM ET
Fox Searchlight and Marc Webb could be entering a new age.

The specialty division has signed on for a dystopian tale titled "Age of Rage" and is negotiating with Webb to direct and potentially write. The story combines elements of "Children of Men" and "Lord of the Flies," according to those familiar with the project.

"Rage" would mark the second pairing for the director and the studio; Webb is making his directorial debut with "500 Days of Summer," a quirky romantic comedy starring Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt that Searchlight will release next year.

The Gersh- and Anonymous-repped Webb is a noted music-video director who has helmed videos for Snow Patrol, Miley Cyrus and Green Day. "Rage" would add to Searchlight's diverse production slate; the company has such titles as rap biopic "Notorious" and Hess Bros. comedy "Gentlemen Broncos" set for next year.

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Rhys Ifans, Chloe Sevigny and David Thewlis are in final negotiations to star in writer-director Bernard Rose's "Mr. Nice" says The Hollywood Reporter.

Based on Howard Marks' 2002 best-selling autobiography, Ifans will play Britain's one-time most-wanted man, a late-'60s-era Oxford graduate and teacher who turned to drug smuggling to impress his future wife Judy (Sevigny).

While enlisting the help of an Irish Republican Army boss (Thewlis) for a job, he was recruited by a British intelligence officer for a loose network of informants.

The charming criminal assumed the alias Mr. Nice. After encounters with the Mafia and CIA and nearly 30 tons of pot smuggling, he spent seven years in prison.

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Sarah Jessica Parker and Hugh Grant are in negotiations to star in an untitled romantic comedy, previously titled "Buffalo Faith", for Sony Pictures says Variety.

Marc Lawrence ("Music and Lyrics," "Two Weeks Notice") penned the screenplay and will direct the story of an estranged high-powered New York couple who witness a murder and are placed in a witness-protection program in a small Wyoming town.

The project was originally set up at Castle Rock Entertainment with Andrew Fleming ("Hamlet 2") to direct. Filming will begin in March.

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Samuel L. Jackson and Maggie Cheung have joined the cast of Quentin Tarantino's WWII film "Inglourious Basterds" says The Playlist.

Cheung plays Madame Mimieux, the French matron of the Cinematheque that takes in the protagonist Shosanna (Melanie Laurent) when she is homeless and being sought by the Nazis. Despite being born in Hong Kong, Cheung speaks fluent French.

Jackson will provide his voice for the narration which is sporadicly used throughout the film.

[crippled_avenger]

Gary Oldman will join the Denzel Washington-led post-apocalyptic action film "Book of Eli" for Warner Bros. Pictures' reports Variety.

The story revolves around a lone warrior (Washington) who must fight to bring society the knowledge that could be the key to its redemption.

Oldman has been set to portray the despot of a small makeshift town who's determined to take possession of the book Eli's guarding.

Allen and Albert Hughes direct while Joel Silver, Andrew Kosove, Broderick Johnson and Washington himself will produce.

Shooting begins in February in New Mexico with a release set for January 15th 2010.

[Tex Murphy]

Cimino Returns
31 October 2008 2:32 AM, PDT


Michael Cimino, who won the 1978 Oscar for best director for The Deer Hunter but who fell from Hollywood's grace after his 1980 film Heaven's Gate became a costly flop, expressed his frustration over been shunned by his peers during a news conference at the Rome Film Festival on Thursday. "It's horrible," Cimino said after he was greeted by the assembled news writers with a standing ovation. "It's like being unable to sing." (His last film, 1996's The Sunchaser, was panned by critics when it opened in limited release and earned just $23,107.) Cimino had been invited to attend the festival as a "special guest" and is presenting a documentary that features classic dance numbers from movies. There was no indication whether it includes any scene from Footloose, which Cimino was originally hired to direct. (He parted company over "creative differences" with producer Craig Zadani, who later said, "Cimino wanted to make a darker movie. We wanted to make an entertainment.") He told the Rome news conference that he had written numerous screenplays that he was unable to sell to producers. "But I have just finished a new script and perhaps now is a good time. I believe we will shoot it soon, and I will bring it to the festival."

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Wild Bunch AFM slate mixes major buzz titles and new film-makers
Nancy Tartaglione-Vialatte in Paris
03 Nov 2008 06:00

 

Wild Bunch is heading into the AFM with a series of new projects from young film-makers; the first images from Woody Allen's latest; and at least one film that could spark a bidding war among US distributors.

The company will screen Largo Winch, its $35.6m (Euros 28m) comic book adaptation about the eponymous vagabond billionaire. Shot mostly in English, the Jerome Salle-directed film is generating a lot of buzz, with a sequel already in preparation. Both Salle and star Tomer Sisley are on board for the sequel and each have already been signed to US representation at CAA and Endeavor, respectively.

Other hot properties on Wild Bunch's slate include the timely Move On! Storming The Gate, a documentary from Alex Jordanov and Scott Stevenson about progressive grassroots movement MoveOn.org which has been a major player in the upcoming US presidential election.

With the film nearly completed, the film-makers will shoot reactions to the outcome of next week's election day, says Wild Bunch chief Vincent Maraval. A screening is planned for the AFM while the completed film could be a Sundance entry.

Whatever Works , the latest from Woody Allen, stars Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson and Adam Brooks. A teaser will be shown for the first time at the AFM.

New films on the block

Regarding new films on the slate, Maraval told Screen Daily, "The new AFM projects correspond to what have been our greatest successes and created our brand – projects from young, irreverent, provocative, original and modern talent. It's the marriage of genre films and modernity within a very strong universe and films that are entirely unique."

New titles on the line up include:

· The Bunny And The Bull from director Paul King, known to UK audiences for BBC series The Mighty Boosh. A road movie set entirely in an apartment, the film is "a mix of the best of US buddy movies with the poetry and emotion of Michel Gondry. It is like nothing that's been done before," says Maraval.

· Dagur Kari's The Good Heart stars There Will Be Blood's Paul Dano and the Bourne series' Brian Cox in a dark comedy set in New York. Kari previously directed the acclaimed Noi Albinoi. Images will be available from the film which will be ready for Cannes.

· Soundtrack From A Revolution tells the story of the American civil rights movement through music. Executive produced by Danny Glover and with the participation of Wyclef Jean, John Legend, Joss Stone and The Roots, the film is directed by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman. A promo reel will be available at the AFM.

· Wild Bunch will also commence sales on the newly-acquired Valhalla Rising, a violent genre film from the director of the Pusher trilogy, Nicolas Winding Refn. The film stars Mads Mikkelsen and will be released in France by Le Pacte.

· The first scenes will be available from the Jan Kounen-directed love story of the two artistic giants Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky. Mikkelsen also stars in Coco along with Anna Mouglalis. Maraval calls it, "the film of maturity of one of the greatest hopes in French cinema, who, after stumbling with Blueberry, came back to form with 99 Francs and should define himself with this film."

· Continuing its relationship with Kim Chapiron, director of cult hit Sheitan, Wild Bunch will present a demo reel of Dog Pound. The film, which will shoot in the US in English, is a harrowing story of kids in prison who fight for their lives while fighting to keep hope alive. Somali-Canadian hip-hop artist K'Naan stars and is expected to release his latest album at the completion of the film.

Rounding out the slate of new projects is Spanish film Hierro, directed by first-timer Gabe Ibanez and produced by the makers of Pan's Labyrinth and The Orphanage. When a woman's young son vanishes, she is forced on a journey that leads her into a nightmare of horror and loss. Mararval points out that the film is not just an exercise in horror and has a strong emotional core.

Wild Bunch market screenings at the AFM include Javier Fesser's Camino, Hayao Miyazaki's mega-hit Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea and Fabrice du Welz's well-received Vinyan.

A teaser of Radu Milhaileanu's The Concert will be available for the first time – the Weinstein Co. acquired the film in Cannes – as will a promo for Rintaro's Yona Yona Penguin, a teaser for Laurent Tirard's Petit Nicholas and a teaser for Ken Loach's Eric Cantona film, Looking For Eric.

[crippled_avenger]

Hayden Christensen in talks for lead in HandMade's remake of Mona Lisa
Wendy Mitchell in Santa Monica
07 Nov 2008 06:00

 

Hayden Christensen is in formal negotiations to take the lead in HandMade's remake of Mona Lisa. He will take on a younger version of George, the character made famous by Bob Hoskins in the original.

Larry Clark will direct the project, budgeted at about $8m and set to shoot in New York from March 2009. Clark also wrote the script with David Reeves.

Further cast will be announced in the next few weeks.

The original 1986 Mona Lisa, directed by Neil Jordan, won Hoskins as Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a small-time chauffeur who delves into the London underbelly with a high-class call girl.

"The original film still stands up. HandMade has a lot of little gems in its library, but not all of them will stand up for a remake," said Michael Ryan, HandMade Films International director. "A lot of people do remember the original movie and it's a great story. The original film was a long time ago, and it did huge business in the UK. A lot of people remember it as an iconic film but never even saw the original."

Ryan said Christensen, who is currently shooting Bone Deep for Screen Gems, was at the right career point for such a meaty role. "The character has got a tough edge to him but he's got to have some of that vulnerability," Ryan said.

Clark had been pursuing a Mona Lisa remake for several years. "Larry wanted it to be about this underbelly of New York," Ryan said. "I think that works, it sets it up differently than the original. Larry is the right sort of director and he's wanted to do it for years. It's a down and dirty story."

HandMade has done some pre-sales already but none are ready to be announced. Other partners could come on board in the future, but for now the project is wholly produced and owned by HandMade.

HandMade has another hot remake in the works, with Paul WS Anderson's The Long Good Friday set to shoot in March/April 2009 in Miami. Anderson has just delivered the first draft of the script; HandMade and partners Sony and StudioCanal are discussing cast now.

HandMade's slate also includes Toronto hit 50 Dead Men Walking, which recently closed 17 new deals including Metrodome for the UK; animation Planet 51; Jordan Scott's Cracks and Charles Shyer's Eloise In Paris.

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Elle Driver goes zombie with Dead Snow pickup
Geoffrey Macnab in Santa Monica
07 Nov 2008 06:00

 

Fledgling French sales outfit Elle Driver has added a Norwegian Nazi zombie movie to its AFM slate.

Tommy Wirkola's Dead Snow, now in post-production, is a comedy horror film about a group of eight medical students who are attacked in their cabin by a battalion of German zombie soldiers. All rights are available excluding Norway. Elle Driver will be screening a promo reel during the market.

Cold Snow, scripted by Wirkola and Stig Frode Henrikse, is Wirkola's follow-up to Kill Buljo - The Movie in 2007. It was produced by Tomas Evjen and Terje Strømstad through Miho Film AS.

Coproduction companies are Yellow Bastard Productions, News on Request, Euforia Film and Zwart Arbeid.

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Following their successful collaboration on the global hit Rambo,
Sylvester Stallone and Nu Image/Millennium Films are reuniting on
action thriller The Expendables.

Stallone wrote and will direct and star alongside Jason Statham with
Jet Li in final negotiations to join the story of mercenaries who
embark on a mission to overthrow a South American dictator. Statham
redently starred opposite Li in the revenge thriller War.

Nu Image/Millennium Films has commenced talks with buyers here on The
Expendables, set to begin shooting in Costa Rica and Louisiana in
February with Avi Lerner, John Thompson and Kevin King Templeton
producing and Danny Dimbort, Trevor Short and Boaz Davidson serving as
executive producers.

"We can always count on Sly to write a great script and follow his
instincts directing the film," Millennium president Boaz Davidson
said. "And the bonus of having two of today's top action stars, Jason
Statham and Jet Li, co-staring with Stallone is going to make a
fantastic hi-powered film."

"Making films with Nu Image/Millennium gives me as a film-maker the
freedom to make the films I envision," Stallone said. "That doesn't
happen in the business anymore. I am happy to be partnering with them
again and looking forward to working with Jason and Jet."

Nu Image/Millennium's AFM slate includes Solitary Man starring Michael
Douglas and Mary Louise Parker, Robert Rodriguez's Red Sonja with Rose
McGowan, Tim Blake Nelson's dark comedy Leaves Of Grass starring
Edward Norton, Holocaust drama My Friend Anne Frank and family title
Rin Tin Tin In New York to be directed by Danny Lerner.

[crippled_avenger]

Buyers, sellers navigate perils at quiet AFM
Jeremy Kay in Santa Monica
10 Nov 2008 06:00

 

Caution has been the watchword of the AFM as buyers and sellers navigated a course through a perilous landscape in the wake of the global financial collapse.

As the market headed into its final stages, only the bigger US sales agents were selling out as buyers sought to fill 2010 slots with sure bet product.

Beaten back by a resurgent dollar and fears over Hollywood's shaky independent production and financing base, international distributors inevitably migrated towards completed product and projects with key elements attached. Others came but didn't buy, unwilling to take any risk before they know how the economic crisis would pan out.

Many avoided pre-buys, doubting that in a market bereft of equity that some of the agency-packaged pictures will ever get made.

Films already financed were obvious hot sellers. Thus Paramount Vantage International sales chief Alex Walton reported a "sensational" response to the crime thriller remake 13 backed by Barbarian, Oceana Media and Magnet Media Group and starring Jason Statham and Mickey Rourke.

Walton said he was close to selling out on completed titles like Overture pictures Traitor and Last Chance Harvey, while IM Global virtually sold out on Paranormal Activity which DreamWorks will release in the US.

Meanwhile stars continued to drive sales. There was frenzied business for Summit International's The Book Of Eli starring Denzel Washington and Nu Image/Millennium's Sylvester Stallone mercenary romp The Expendables in which he will star alongside Statham and Jet Li.

Mandate International did a roaring trade with a roster that includes the George Clooney-starrer Men Who Stare At Goats, Tarsem's War Of Gods and the Nicolas Cage supernatural thriller Season Of The Witch, the last two falling under the supply arrangement with Relativity Media.

Jere Hausfater of Essential Entertainment struck a cautious note when he said it was generally no longer feasible to kick-start financing with a few pre-sales, while Walton said the tendency to launch sales solely on the basis of a screenplay was not always a viable option.

"We need Valkyrie and Twilight to open well in the US too," Hausfater added. "That will provide a big boost to the independent business."

[crippled_avenger]

Ealing goes gravedigging with John Landis comedy
Wendy Mitchell in Santa Monica
06 Nov 2008 06:00

 

John Landis will direct black comedy Burke And Hare for Ealing Studios and Fragile Films.

Based on a true story, Burke And Hare is about two 19th century graverobbers who find a lucrative business providing cadavers for an Edinburgh medical school.

Piers Ashworth and Nick Moorcroft, who previously wrote Ealing hit St Trinian's, wrote the script.

Ealing/Fragile's Barnaby Thompson will produce and James Spring will executive produce.

Casting is underway now for a shoot in spring 2009 in Edinburgh, London and at Ealing Studios.

Barnaby Thompson said: "We are thrilled that John Landis is coming to Ealing Studios to make a film. Nobody has a track record like him. Burke And Hare is a black comedy in the tradition of such Ealing classics as The Ladykillers and Kind Hearts And Coronets, and I think John's sensibility will be perfect for the material."

Landis, famed for films such as Trading Places, An American Werewolf In London and The Blues Brothers, most recently directed the Emmy-winning documentary Mr Warmth: The Don Rickles Project.

Landis added: "I am thrilled to be making a picture for Ealing. Burke And Hare have inspired a number of movies over the years, but Piers Ashworth and Nick Moorcroft have written a unique and terrific screenplay which offers me a tremendous chance to make an historically accurate, very black, romantic comedy!"

Brenner said: "At a time when independent films are struggling to flourish in a particularly tough climate I'm really thrilled to have such an exciting, commercially appealing project."

Ealing has a particularly active slate currently including Stephan Elliott's Easy Virtue starring Jessica Biel, Richard Eyre's The Other Man starring Antonio Banderas, Oliver Parker's Dorian Gray (now in post) starring Ben Barnes, and Julian Fellowes' From Time To Time (now shooting) starring Maggie Smith.

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Affleck and Alba star in Winterbottom's Killer Inside Me for Wild Bunch
Geoffrey Macnab in Santa Monica
08 Nov 2008 08:00

 

Prolific UK director Michael Winterbottom is to hit the film noir trail with The Killer Inside Me, a $13 million adaptation of a novel by Jim Thompson (The Grifters) starring Casey Affleck and Jessica Alba.

Wild Bunch has worldwide sales rights on the film excluding the US which Endeavor is handling. A third major actor will be announced shortly. Shooting will begin in Jan.

A relentless psychological thriller, the film follows West Texas sheriff Lou Ford's descent into violent psychosis. As murder victims begin to pile up in his town, suspicion falls on Lou. He will do anything to escape but he cannot escape what he is.

The film is being produced by Chris Hanley, Robert Weinbach, Bradford Schlei and Winterbottom's regular partner Andrew Eaton.

Production entities are Hanley's Muse and Cyclone. Financing comes from Barbarian Film, Oceana Media and The Indion Entertainment Group.

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Sergei Bodrov to direct Marco Polo movie for Endgame, Hollywood Gang
Jeremy Kay in Santa Monica
09 Nov 2008 21:45

 

After bringing the life of the Asian warrior Genghis Khan to the big screen, Mongol director Sergei Bodrov is training his sights on Marco Polo for Hollywood Gang Productions and Endgame Entertainment.

Hollywood Gang's Gianni Nunnari and Endgame's James D Stern will produce The Silk Road: The Adventures Of Marco Polo and Hollywood Gang's Craig Flores and Endgame's Adam Del Deo and Douglas E Hansen will serve as executive producers. Flores and Hansen will oversee production.

The story will recount the adventures of the 13th century Italian explorer as told through the eyes of his prison mate, the romantic writer Rustichello Da Pisa.

"The life of Marco Polo is an amazing story rich with detail that will make an astonishing film," Stern said. "Sergei is a great film-maker and the perfect candidate to breathe life into a story about a man whose determination and courage resonates with audiences around the world."

"Sergei is the perfect visionary director to tell this Titanic love story set against the heroic journey of the greatest adventurer of all time," Nunnari added. "We are excited to embark on this mission with Sergei and our partners at Endgame."

Bodrov is represented by the William Morris Agency and The Arlook Group.

[crippled_avenger]

Edgar Ramirez ("Che," "Vantage Point," "The Bourne Ultimatum") has signed on to star as the infamous 'Carlos the Jackal' in "Ilich: Story of Carlos" for Film en Stock, Canal Plus and Egoli Tossell says The Hollywood Reporter.

The story centers on the true story of Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, a Venezuelan-born leftist revolutionary who worked for radical Palestinians and groups in Syria, Libya, Iraq and communist Romania.

Famously raiding the OPEC headquarters in Vienna in 1975, 'Carlos' founded a worldwide terrorist organization and eventually ended up ridiculed and alone in exile in Sudan before being picked up by French police. He is currently serving a life sentence in France.

Ramirez will tackle four to five languages for the complex role and Olivier Assayas will helm the project which will be released as a feature as well as a three-part TV series.

Shooting will take place across France, Germany, Hungary, Austria, Lebanon, Yemen and possibly Sudan starting in January.

[crippled_avenger]

Chevy Chase, Burt Reynolds, Vinnie Jones and Michael Madsen are set to star in the dire sounding satire "Not Another Not Another Movie" according to Reuters.

This spoof of spoof films has Madsen playing the ex-con son of studio executive Chevy Chase. When Chase up and leaves his failing studio, Madsen and his idiot gangster friend (Jones) take over, assigning a PA (David Leo Schultz) to direct a spoof of spoof movies.

Burt Reynolds will play an actor playing the director of this movie within a movie. Several actors will play themselves spoofing their most memorable roles including Richard Tyson (the villian in Kindergarten Cop) and Wolfgang Bodison (the African-American Marine on trial in A Few Good Men).

Stuttering" John Melendez, Ellie Gerber, Tim Piper, Jennifer Sciole and James Duval. Filming is almost complete and a Spring 2009 release is planned.

[crippled_avenger]

Joe Johnston ("Hidalgo," "The Rocketeer," "Jurassic Park III") is set to direct "First Avenger: Captain America" for Marvel Studios says The Hollywood Reporter.

The original 1940's comic dealt with Steve Rogers, a rejected Army candidate who undergoes an experiment involving a sort-of 'supersoldier serum' that takes him to the pinnacle of human form.

The character was revived in recent years and reintroduced as part of the Avengers team, his body having been in suspended animation since the end of World War Two.

The new film is a period piece set during the Second World War, though the upcoming "The Avengers" movie in which he plays a key role will be set in the modern day. That film is also scheduled for Summer 2011.

No writers are yet attached though the project is scheduled for a May 6th 2011 release. Kevin Feige is producing.

Johnston's next film is "The Wolfman" remake which is already complete and scheduled for release early next year.

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Krivična prijava zbog stavljanja filma Turneja na Internet

BEOGRAD, 11. novembra 2008. (Beta) - Protiv Ivana Jelića iz Beograda podneta je krivična prijava jer je na Internet neovlašćeno postavio piratsku kopiju filma "Turneja" Gorana Markovića, koji se trenutno prikazuje u srpskim bioskopima.

Kako je danas saopšteno iz Ministarstva unutrassnjih poslova, Služba za borbu protiv organizovanog kriminala podnela je prijavu protiv Jelića (21) zbog neovlašćenog iskorišćavanja autorskog dela.

"Osumnjičeni je bez odobrenja nosilaca autorskih prava, scenariste i reditelja Gorana Markovića i producenta Svetozara Cvetkovića, umnoženu kopiju 'Turneje' postavio na sajt www.rapidserbia.com i na taj način omogućio korisnicima ovog sajta da neovlašćeno preuzmu kopiju filma", navodi se u saopštenju.

Markovićeva "Turneja" je srpski kandidat za Oskara, a prema poslednjim podacima Filmskog centra Srbije (od 5. novembra - prim Jor), za četiri nedelje prikazivanja imala je 23.047 gledalaca.

Jelić je na sajt Rapidserbia.com postavio i kopije domaćih filmova "Čitulja za Eskobara" Milorada Milinkovića, "Četvrti čovek" Dejana Zečevića i "Hadersfild" Ivana Živkovića, dodaje se u saopštenju.

Takođe je tamo postavio i epizode domaćih TV serija "Vratiće se rode", "Moj rodjak sa sela", "Selo gori, a baba se češlja", "Bila jednom jedna zemlja", "Mješoviti brak", "Neki novi klinci", "Gorki plodovi" i "Bela lađa".

Ivan Jelić će uz krivičnu prijavu biti priveden nadležnom istražnom sudiji, navodi se u saopštenju Ministarstva unutrašnjih poslova.

[crippled_avenger]

New Year's Day release for Russia's most expensive film
Olia Hercules
11 Nov 2008 17:08

 

Russia's most expensive film, the $36.5m Inhabited Island, will be released on January 1.

The New Year's Day opening comes against a background of financial difficulties which have led to other local films being delayed.

"None of our projects were put on hold. We only have a couple of films in the pipeline anyway, and those were all very carefully and securely financed," said Alexander Rodnyansky, the film's producer and President of CTC Media.

"The crisis did however have a negative impact on Inhabited Island's promotion budget," he added. Large companies and banks that were supposed to invest in the promotion campaign pulled out, forcing CTC to cut the promotion budget.

The film will premiere in Russia, the C.I.S., and the Baltic states on January 1, said Rodnyansky. Ukraine will have 150 copies, and the Russian release will be across more than 1,200 screens.

The film, based on the Strugatsky brothers' 1969 novel Prisoners Of Power, is a sci-fi dystopian tale about a totalitarian planet, set in the distant future.

The first film adapted from a novel by the brothers was Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker in 1979. And although Inhabited Island is an epic, full of special effects unprecedented in Russia and packed with action, the film is promising to be more than just another run of the mill sci-fi flick.

Rodnyansky explains, "This film is a combination of breath-taking action and a strong social ethos, the latter being more important than the spectacle aspect to a lot of people."

"It will definitely be understood outside Russia. In fact, films like this will appeal for as long as totalitarian power remains topical," added Rodnyanskiy.

On attendance numbers, the producer commented, "the crisis might actually have a positive affect on cinema attendance, as it is one of the cheapest types of entertainment there is."

"Besides, this crisis will hopefully lower production costs, which have been sky high in Russia recently. It was more expensive to shoot a film in Russia than in Germany," added Rodnyansky.

Inhabited Island will be shown in two parts in Russia and the C.I.S, with the second part due to be released in October, 2009.

The film which is four hours long, will be edited into a single film for its release in Europe, the US and Asia.

The film's international release is due to take place in the second half of 2009.

[crippled_avenger]

Many Australian actors struggle to make it big in Hollywood, but not Sam Worthington. Those international audiences unfamiliar with his Aussie efforts like "Gettin' Square," "Macbeth," "Rogue" and "Somersault" will get your first big squizz at him in next year's "Terminator Salvation".

I hope you like him because his post-Terminator resume is filling up fast. Not content with James Cameron's "Avatar", the "Clash of the Titans" remake, and the Keira Knightley drama "Last Night", the Aussie boy will star alongside Dame Helen Mirren in the John Madden-directed actioneer "Debt" for Miramax Films and Marv Films says Variety.

An English-language remake of the Israeli thriller Ha-hov, Worthington and Mirren will play Israeli Mossad agents hunting a Nazi war criminal. "Stardust" scribes Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman wrote the screenplay. Vaughn will also produce.

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Forster joins in Paramount's 'War'
Film based on Brooks novel 'World'
By MICHAEL FLEMING, TATIANA SIEGEL
Forster


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Paramount has set "Quantum of Solace" director Marc Forster to helm "World War Z," based on the Max Brooks bestselling novel about a worldwide infestation of flesh-eating zombies.
"Changeling" scribe J. Michael Straczynski is writing the screenplay, and Brad Pitt's Plan B is producing.

Brooks -- the son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft -- wrote a detailed tale in which a researcher for the U.N. Postwar Commission interviews survivors from countries all over the world, 10 years after the crisis, to gather a first-person post-mortem on a war that obliterated every country on the map.

Forster is unlikely to return for another James Bond installment.

As for "WWZ," "The genre always fascinated me, and when they pitched it to me, it reminded me of the paranoid conspiracy films of the '70s like 'All the President's Men,' " Forster told Daily Variety.More than one option(Co) Daily Variety
Filmography, Year, Role
(Co) Daily Variety

Par bought the book for Plan B in 2006, and it is one of several high-profile projects for the company headed by Pitt, who next stars for the studio in the David Fincher-directed "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

Plan B is also prepping an adaptation of the novel "Eat, Pray, Love," with Ryan Murphy directing and Julia Roberts expected to star; the Fincher-directed projects "The Killer" and "Black Hole"; and a film about drug addiction based on two nonfiction tales: "Beautiful Boy" and "Tweak."

Forster is repped by CAA and Management 360.

[crippled_avenger]

Warner Bros. Pictures has picked up Ari Rubin's Delta Force prison action thriller spec script says The Hollywood Reporter.

Francis Lawrence ("I Am Legend," "Constantine") is attached to direct the true story of the riots and siege of Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in 1987. Cuban and American prisoners seized control of the maximum security facility and took more than 100 federal prison staff members hostage.

The situation was so extreme that the FBI's hostage rescue team was ill-equipped to handle the riots, and Delta Force, the Special Forces detachment, was called in to retake the prison.

Michael De Luca, David Keane, Mark Bowden and Aaron Bowden will produce.

[crippled_avenger]

Pamela Pettler ("Corpse Bride," "Monster House") will pen the screenplay for Hasbro/Universal's feature film take on the board fame Monopoly says The Hollywood Reporter.

Shaping a narrative out of the iconic real-estate game, Ridley Scott will direct the project and plans on giving it a futuristic sheen along the lines of his famed 1982 feature "Blade Runner".

Scott, Giannina Facio and Hasbro's Brian Goldner are also producing.

[crippled_avenger]

Martin Campbell ("Casino Royale," "Goldeneye") is set to direct the action thriller "Nagasaki Deadline" for Alcon Entertainment, Lightstorm Entertainment and 8:38 Productions reports Variety.

The story is centered on an emotionally damaged FBI agent who must decipher historic events in a desperate race to avert a terrorist plot.

David and Peter Griffiths ("The Hunted," "Collateral Damage") penned the original screenplay which William Broyles Jr. ("Cast Away") is currently working polishing.

James Cameron is one of several producers on the project. The project is aiming to begin production next year after Campbell wraps up the American film remake of his own 80's BBC mini-series "Edge of Darkness".

[crippled_avenger]

Jim Caviezel is going on the hunt for Samuel L. Jackson in the London-set espionage thriller "Blown" says The Hollywood Reporter.

The story centers on Will Matlock (Caviezel), a top MI5 operative whose routine investigation of a global corporation leads him to discover an imminent terrorist attack on the UK.

Jackson will play Julian Lezard, the businessman who engages him in a high-stakes game of wits and deception.

Martha Fiennes directs the film which George Tiffin penned and will produce.

[crippled_avenger]

8
(France)
By JAY WEISSBERGRead other reviews about this film

Powered By An LDM Films presentation of an LDM Films production, in association with Ace & Co., Media Screen. (International sales: Films Distribution, Paris.) Produced by Marc Oberon, Lissandra Haulica. Reviewed at Rome Film Festival (noncompeting), Oct. 23, 2008. Running time: 103 MIN.
TIYA'S DREAM
Produced by Franck-Nicolas Chelle. Directed, written by Abderrahmane Sissako.
THE LETTER
Produced by Gael Garcia Bernal, Pablo Cruz, Finni Johannsson. Directed, written by Gael Garcia Bernal.
AIDS
Produced by Marc Oberon, Lissandra Haulica. Directed by Gaspar Noe.
HOW CAN IT BE?
Produced by Mira Nair, Ami Boghani. Executive producer, Anadil Hossain. Directed by Mira Nair. Screenplay, Rashida Mustafa, Suketu Mehta.
THE WATER DIARY
Produced by Christopher Gill. Directed, written by Jane Campion.
MANSION ON THE HILL
Produced by David Cress, Neil Kopp. Directed, edited by Gus Van Sant.
THE STORY OF PANSHIN BEKA
Produced by Marc Oberon, Lissandra Haulica. Directed by Jan Kounen. Screenplay, Regine Abadia, Kounen.
PERSON TO PERSON
Produced by In-Ah Lee, Philipp Steffans. Directed by Wim Wenders. Screenplay, Erin Dignam, Wenders.


INTRODUCTION
Narration: Catherine Deneuve.
TIYA'S DREAM
With: Nigist Anteneh, Tefera Gizaw, Fekadu Kebede.
THE LETTER
With: Ingvar E. Sigurdsson, Hringur Ingvarsson.
AIDS
With: Dieudonne Ilboudo.
HOW CAN IT BE?
With: Konkona Sen Sharma, Ranvir Shorey, Birsa Chatterjee.
THE WATER DIARY
With: Alice Englert, Tintin Kelly, Isidore Tillers, Harry Greenwood, Genevieve Lemon, Miranda Jakich, Justine Clarke, Russell Dykstra.
THE STORY OF PANSHIN BEKA
With: Loydi Hucshva Haynas, Olivia Aravelo Lomos, Denis Rafael Barbaran; Auristela Brito Valles.
PERSON TO PERSON
With: Pendo Duku, Tsehaie Abraham Kidane, Megan Gay, Bhasker Patel, Robert Seeliger, Ian Dickinson, Thomas Spencer, Gerhard Gutberlet, Aminata M. Kalokoh, Mena Z. Kalokoh.
 It's difficult to know who's the targeted audience for the ultra-worthy omnibus compilation "8." Helmers including Gael Garcia Bernal, Jane Campion and Gus Van Sant were asked to tackle the eight Millenium Development Goals established in 2000 to halve world poverty by 2015, including eradicating hunger, promoting gender equality and guaranteeing universal education. The results are often didactic, occasionally simplistic, and only rarely genuinely affecting. "8" is a good tool to get high schoolers thinking globally, but beyond classrooms and fests eager to promote the string of top names, pic has little hope for wider release.
An intro, voiced by Catherine Deneuve, runs through a potted history of the U.N. as newsreel images are projected onto body parts. Segue to the first short, Abderrahmane Sissako's "Tiya's Dream," shot by the Mauritanian helmer in Ethiopia to illustrate the goal of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. As the only African in the group, it's unsurprising that Sissako expresses doubt, through Tiya (Nigist Anteneh), that eliminating poverty is a realistic goal.

Bernal's short "The Letter" is inexplicably set in Iceland and deals with the right to universal primary education; a scene with a class learning about world cultures through a kind of fun fair reinforces the globalized village theme, though the entry is one of the weakest. Gaspar Noe's "AIDS," originally presented as an independent short in Cannes in 2006, is the most stylized, composed largely of fixed shots of Dieudonne Ilboudo, a man from Burkina Faso recounting his struggle with the disease in voiceover.

Gender equality and women's empowerment are the themes of Mira Nair's "How Can It Be?," in which a Brooklyn-based Muslim woman (Konkona Sen Sharma) leaves her husband (Ranvir Shorey) and son to seek fulfillment with a married man. Nair's choice of story is certainly brave in this context, but it's not the best illustration of the struggle for equal rights and feels unsatisfying.

More worked through is Jane Campion's "The Water Diary," which stars her daughter Alice Englert and, like the Noe, preemed as an indie short at Cannes in 2006. Tackling the goal of environmental sustainability, Campion sets her contribution in the Australian outback, where global warming has created extreme drought conditions and water conservation leads to drastic measures. Story, the longest of the group, has a satisfying narrative arc that incorporates its primary theme without didacticism.

Not so Gus Van Sant's lazy "Mansion on the Hill," featuring his now tedious skateboarder fetish via images of middle-class kids rolling down streets, intercut with titles explaining infant mortality statistics. It would take a sophistical character out of Moliere to package this as a meaningful device, and Van Sant doesn't bother mentioning that the U.S. has the second highest infant mortality rate in the developed world.

Best of the bunch is "The Story of Panshin Beka," by Jan Kounen ("Darshan: The Embrace"). Handsomely shot in sharp black-and-white, pic incorporates the folklore of the Peruvian Amazon in its tale of a pregnant woman (Loydi Hucshva Haynas) unable to get medical attention when deadly complications arise. On all levels, from narrative involvement and sensitivity to local culture to the superb tech aspects, Kounen's entry easily stands alone.

Wim Wenders' "Person to Person" sets itself apart in a different way, playing like an infomercial for micro-credit. Aiming to illustrate the Millenium Goal of a global partnership for development, Wenders has the Third World subjects of cynical and apathetic journalists pop off the screens to take back their identities, much like the toys in "The Nutcracker" coming to life. Blatant proselytizing pulls the entire pic into the realm of an upbeat instructional manual for community organizers.

Visuals throughout are varied and generally strong, from Sissako's rich tonalities to Noe's grainy, deep saturations. Lengths vary, though none of the pics is longer than 15 minutes.

More than one option(Person) In-Ah Lee
Ah Lee - Executive Producer, Producer
(Person) In-Ah Lee
Ah Lee - Production ExecutiveMore than one option(Person) Konkona Sensharma
(Person) Konkona Sen Sharma
More than one option(Film) The Letter
Chiara Mastroianni, Manoel De Oliveira
(Film) The Letter
2005, Ziad Hamzeh
(Film) The Letter
(Film) Tegami
More than one option(Film) The Imax Nutcracker
(Film) Nutcracker: The Motion Picture
(Film) Schelkunchik
(Film) The Nutcracker Prince
(Film) George Balanchine's The Nutcracker
INTRODUCTION
Music, Nicolas Jorelle. French dialogue.
TIYA'S DREAM
Camera (color), Dominique Gentil; editor, Nadia Ben Rachid; sound (Dolby Digital), Philippe Welsh. Amharic dialogue.
THE LETTER
Camera (color), Rain Kathy Li; editor, Alex Rodriguez; sound (Dolby Digital), Gunnar Arnason. Icelandic dialogue.
AIDS
Camera (color), Noe; editors, Noe, Marc Boucrot; sound (Dolby Digital), Issa Traore, Boucrot, Cyril Holtz; assistant director, Olivier Thery-Lapiney. Original title: SIDA. French dialogue.
HOW CAN IT BE?
Camera (color), Declan Quinn; editor, Allyson Johnson; music, Mychael Danna, Rob Simonsen; sound (Dolby Digital), Dominick Tavella. English dialogue.
THE WATER DIARY
Camera (color), Greig Fraser; editor, Heidi Kenessey; music, Mark Bradshaw; costume designer, Jane Patterson. English dialogue.
MANSION ON THE HILL
Camera (color), David Hupp, Rick Charnoski, Buddy Nichols, Tristan Brillanceau-Lewis; sound (Dolby Digital), Leslie Shatz; casting, Simon Max Hill.
THE STORY OF PANSHIN BEKA
Camera (B&W), David Ungaro; editor, Anny Danche; music, Jean-Jacques Hertz, Francois Roy, Nadine Kaiser. Original title: Panshin Beka winoni. Shipibo-Konibo dialogue.
PERSON TO PERSON
Camera (color), Franz Lustig; editor, Toni Froschhammer; production designer, Sebastian Soukup. English dialogue.

[crippled_avenger]

British funnyman Simon Pegg spoke with Empire Magazine this week and went into detail on his forthcoming self-written comedy "Paul".

Directed by Greg Mottola ("The Daytrippers," "Superbad"), the story has Pegg and his regular cohort Nick Frost as Graham and Clive – two British geeks on a pilgrimage to the annual San Diego Comic-Con.

While travelling across the Midwest in a hired RV, the pair come across a small alien named Paul who escaped from Area 51 who enlists them to find his way home. Pegg teases him as "not your average alien" and says despite the high concept the film will have "a more lo-fi indie feeling."

At the moment he's not sure whether Paul will be entirely CG or not - "We're figuring it out at the moment and having real fun, working closely with Double Negative who did Shaun and Hot Fuzz and Cloverfield and Hellboy II. We're looking to really work to find the best way to do it and to create something which is utterly believable and sympathetic and has gravity and presence and is somebody that you totally buy. He's the eponymous hero, so he has to be amazing."

Shooting is scheduled to kick off next April in New Mexico. His long awaited third Frost/Pegg/Wright team-up is currently titled "World's End" and is in the works, but no details are yet out.

[crippled_avenger]

Sammo Hung is negotiations to star in "War Monkeys," a horror comedy shaping up to be the biggest feature yet from the independent arm of Dark Horse Films.

UTA-repped Kevin Munroe ("TMNT") is in negotiations to direct the film for Dark Horse Indie.

The horror comedy follows two janitors who, during a Christmas holiday, get trapped in an underground research facility after accidentally unleashing military-trained Rhesus monkeys. Hung is one of the janitors who battles the rabid simians.

Cleve Nettles wrote the script, based on a story by DHI producer Chris Patton. Robert Sanchez is also producing.

"Monkeys, guns, explosions. As a genre freak, I couldn't ask for anything more," said Munroe, who became obsessed with the project after initially agreeing to read a friend's work.

"Monkeys" is eying an early 2009 start. The monkeys will be a combination of real monkeys, animatronic puppets and CGI.

Ruben Arizpe with partner Faith Zuckerman of Infinite Filmed Entertainment/7 Renegades Entertainment will produce and finance the project in association with an Asian co-production entity.

DHI recently celebrated an Emmy win for its John Landis-directed documentary "Mr. Warmth," based on the life of Don Rickles, and is gearing up to release "My Name Is Bruce," starring and directed by Bruce Campbell.

Hung, repped Blue Stone Entertainment, is a veteran of the Hong Kong kung fu scene, directing, acting and choreographing dozens of movies.

[crippled_avenger]

Thor Freudenthal ("Hotel for Dogs") is in negotiations to develop and possibly direct "Measle and the Wrathmonk" for Warner Bros. Pictures says The Hollywood Reporter.

Evan Dunsky penned the initial adaptation of the children's book by Ian Ogilvy, the story centers on a young boy who, after his parents go missing, is sent to live with an eccentric uncle who turns out to be a crazy wizard known as a wrathmonk.

Before the boy knows it, he is shrunk and banished to be a villager in his uncle's toy train set and must figure out how to survive in the hostile environment.

Robert Zemeckis and Jack Rapke will produce the film using performance-capture technology.

[crippled_avenger]

Profile: Ole Bornedal
Jacob Wendt Jensen reports
14 Nov 2008 00:00

 

Director Ole Bornedal is enjoying something of a comeback. After the success of his debut film Nightwatch in 1994, Bornedal went to Hollywood to remake the thriller with Ewan McGregor for Miramax.



But the film disappointed on its release and Bornedal decided to focus on theatre work at home in his native Denmark. He directed the 2002 English-language film I Am Dina, which was at the time the most expensive Scandinavian film ever made, but the film struggled to live up to its high expectations.

However, last year saw two Bornedal films hit the radar with a bang, catapulting Bornedal back into the league of European directors to watch.


Just Another Love Story is a mistaken-identity drama about a family man who is assumed to be the boyfriend of an accident victim, while The Substitute is a children's genre film about a teacher possessed by an alien. Both impressed audiences and critics at home and on the festival circuit, including Sundance.

Mandate Pictures has picked up English-language remake rights to both projects and will co-produce with Bornedal's regular partner, Michael Obel of Thura Film. Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures will executive produce The Substitute.

Now Bornedal is in post-production in Copenhagen on his next film, Free Us From Evil, a thriller about an immigrant from the Balkans wrongly accused of murder in a small Danish town. The locals decide to take the law into their own hands in the middle of a party celebrating the town's 400th anniversary.

"I wouldn't say you were wrong if you told me the film sounds like a sharp allegory on the hatred of strangers we are witnessing a lot these days," says Bornedal. "I try to take the European tradition of character study and blend it with the American tradition of storytelling."

Bornedal makes a point of casting little-known Danish actors in his films. Free Us From Evil stars Lene Nystrom, the former lead singer of 1990s pop group Aqua and stand-up comedian Lasse Rimmer as a couple trying to protect the accused man.

"On set, using newcomers gives us a stronger ensemble," Bornedal explains. "On the other hand with amateurs you have to be prepared to save them more than the professionals. I had a lot of lifebuoys at hand with inspiration from my time in theatre in order to bring the amateur up to the level needed."

Thura Film is producing Free Us From Evil, and TrustNordisk is handling international sales. The film is due for release in Denmark in March 2009.

Bornedal is also working on a handful of projects with different international companies and scriptwriters. Maldeeds, for one, is a thriller set in luxurious surroundings - and in broad daylight.

"I got the idea on a sunny vacation I had," Bornedal explains. "Why not use the opposite setting of a thriller? Usually there is a dark house in one of the leading parts. Not in my film. I usually get my ideas from an image, a curious thought or some absurd detail of everyday life."

[crippled_avenger]

Transporter 3
Tim Grierson in Los Angeles
19 Nov 2008 07:00

 


Dir: Olivier Megaton. US/UK/France. 2008. 103 mins.

A perfunctory action film which drives around in noisy circles but goes nowhere, Transporter 3 is neither compelling enough nor outlandishly goofy enough to leave much of an impression. Series star Jason Statham supplies ironic cool as the titular tough-guy courier, but first-time director Olivier Megaton shows little grasp for pacing or action-sequence construction.

Transporter 3 opens on November 26 in the US, where its primary action competition will be the weighty Quantum Of Solace. Transporter 2's $85m worldwide gross nearly doubled the original's box office, and with Statham's visibility boosted by recent turns in The Bank Job ($62m worldwide) and Death Race ($66m), this third offering hopes to be a sturdy theatrical performer. But since Statham remains a second-tier action star, ancillaries will go a long way towards determining the ongoing financial viability of this franchise, which has now changed hands from Fox to Lionsgate.

Frank Martin (Statham) is summoned by a shadowy government official (Knepper) to transport Valentina (Rudakova) from Marseilles to an undisclosed location. Though they initially dislike one another, Frank and Valentina start to bond during their transcontinental journey while fending off those who want her dead.

The Transporter series demands a total suspension of disbelief in order for the knowingly over-the-top action sequences to be both viscerally engaging and audaciously funny. Statham is the perfect antihero for these films since his chiselled face and detached air give the ludicrous plots a necessary grounding in reality.

Unfortunately, though, even though Statham retains the right mixture of force and charm, everything else in Transporter 3 feels slipshod. Producer Luc Besson reteams with co-writer Robert Mark Kamen on the screenplay for a third go-round, but the story's odd-couple love story and strained commentary on the evils of corporate environmental pollution has very little teeth.

Narrative thinness could be forgiven if the action scenes compensated, but the colourfully named Olivier Megaton proves to be anything but explosive as an action director. Even with famed martial-arts choreographer Cory Yuen overseeing the fisticuffs, Transporter 3's hand-to-hand fights generate little excitement. Part of the problem is that Megaton speeds up or slows down the action so often, he undermines the whole momentum. But in a larger sense, the movie simply doesn't have enough moments of inspired preposterousness. A chase involving a car and a moving train is as close as Transporter 3 gets to the giddy excesses of past entries in the franchise.

Statham's supporting cast varies from the solidly professional to the truly irritating. Acting veteran François Berléand returns as Frank's sarcastic French-inspector friend, and he does his best with a generic sidekick character. As the film's villain, Robert Knepper tries to embody quiet menace, although his dialogue hits all the predictable beats. But the real disaster is newcomer Natalya Rudakova. Portraying an immature young woman, Rudakova can't make Valentina's impetuousness either sexy or endearing. And while her sparring with Statham is meant to create sexual tension, it instead only makes her a thoroughly unlikable love interest and not someone you'd want to be stuck transporting anywhere.

Production companies

EuropaCorp

TF1 Films

Grive Productions

Apipoulaï Productions

Current Entertainment

Canal+

US distribution

Lionsgate

Producers

Luc Besson

Steven Chasman

Screenplay

Luc Besson

Robert Mark Kamen

Cinematographer

Giovanni Fiore Coltellacci

Production designer

Patrick Durand

Main cast:

Jason Statham

Natalya Rudakova

Francois Berleand

Robert Knepper

[crippled_avenger]

Twentieth Century Fox is gearing up to continue its "X-Men" franchise with a younger set of mutants.
Studio has tapped "Gossip Girl" creator Josh Schwartz to write "X-Men: First Class."

Schwartz, the creator and exec producer of CW's teen sudser hit as well as Fox's youth-centric "The OC" and NBC's "Chuck," is expected to inject a next-gen sensibility into the superhero series, which has earned $1.2 billion worldwide.

Writing assignment has also included the possibility of directing the pic, but so far Schwartz has opted not to take the helm.

Lauren Shuler Donner, who produced all three "X-Men" pics, as well as next summer's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," is producing "First Class" alongside "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" scribe Simon Kinberg.

Fox is keeping quiet on plans and declined to confirm details of the project. The studio has been considering ways to continue its successful series of "X-Men" movies after the third installment, the Brett Ratner-helmed "X-Men: The Last Stand," collected $459 million in 2006.

Fox has been leaning toward using the younger characters introduced in the previous pics in future installments -- teenagers with powers taught at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning.

Resulting film would likely draw from elements of the Marvel comic of the same name, launched in 2006, and enlist such characters as Iceman, Rogue, Angel, Colossus, Jubilee and Shadowcat, who have appeared prominently or made cameos in prior pics.

Given Hollywood's penchant for reboots with new actors playing familiar roles, pic could also reintroduce characters. Comicbook revolves around the Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Iceman, Angel and Professor X.

Naturally, "First Class" could also result in its own series of sequels.

Pic joins other "X-Men"-related projects already in the works at the studio. Fox is actively developing a standalone "Magneto" pic, as well as considering a "Deadpool" spinoff, based on a character played by Ryan Reynolds in "Wolverine." Shuler Donner is producing "Magneto."

Regular slate of "X-Men" pics would provide Fox with a reliable series of movies that perform at the B.O. and not repeat a dismal summer sesh like the studio experienced this year.

Although Schwartz has enjoyed smallscreen success, he has yet to crack the world of film with a significant project. He wrote and is attached to direct the coming-of-age comedy "Looking for Alaska" for Paramount.

Tackling a new "X-Men" installment will likely give Schwartz instant credibility within the studio world

[crippled_avenger]

Warner Bros. has snapped up "The Days Before," a sci-fi action spec by tyro scribe Chad St. John, and set up the project with Gianni Nunnari ("300") at his Hollywood Gang shingle.
Story centers on aliens invading Earth by traveling backwards through time and wiping out humanity -- yesterday by yesterday -- while one man stays a yesterday ahead of them, trying to convince the world that the end is coming again.

Craig Flores of Hollywood Gang will exec produce.

Nunnari's teamed with "300" partner Mark Canton of Canton Prods. on Greek mythology epic "War of the Gods," with Relativity's Ryan Kavanaugh producing and financing. Hollywood Gang and financier Endgame Entertainment recently joined to produce Sergei Bodrov's period epic "The Silk Road: The Adventures of Marco Polo."

St. John has previously penned "The Further Adventures of Doc Holiday" for Bruce Willis.

[Ugly MF]

, as well as considering a "Deadpool" spinoff, based on a character played by Ryan Reynolds in "Wolverine."

       

neki put bi ovog kripleta castio sa ovoliko piveta!!!!

[crippled_avenger]

'Arrested Development' film gets closer
Mitch Hurwitz, Ron Howard ink deals for feature treatment
By Nellie Andreeva

Nov 21, 2008, 12:00 AM ET

"Arrested Development"

The "Arrested Development" feature has moved closer to reality, with Mitch Hurwitz and Ron Howard reportedly closing deals for the long-gestating project from Imagine and Fox Searchlight.

The possible migration of the critically acclaimed but short-lived Fox series to the big screen has been a hot topic among fans for the past year. Speculation has been fueled by cast members of the show, including Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Jeffrey Tambor, who have been frequently quoted in interviews that a feature adaptation is in the works.

Hurwitz, who created and exec produced the Emmy-winning series, is on board to write the film as well as direct with help from Howard. The series, from Imagine TV and 20th TV, was a pet project of Howard, who had a lot to do with its distinct visual style. In the final episode, Howard, playing himself, heard the Bluth TV family's pitch of their story and liked it for a movie.

Leslie Simmons contributed to this report.

[crippled_avenger]

Anna Kendrick ("Twilight," "Rocket Science") has landed the coveted female lead role opposite George Clooney in Paramount and Montecito's comedy "Up in the Air" says The Hollywood Reporter.

Kendrick beat out the likes of Ellen Page and Emily Blunt for the role of a young woman who finds herself pulled into the orbit of a "career transition counselor" (i.e. professional firer) careening through the airless world of business travel.

"Juno" director Jason Reitman adapted and will direct the film version of Walter Kirn's 2001 novel.

Ivan Reitman, Joe Medjuck, Tom Pollock, Dan Dubiecki, Ted Griffin and Jeff Clifford are producing.

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Mila Kunis has joined the cast of action thriller "The Book of Eli" for Warner Bros. Pictures, Silver Pictures and Alcon Entertainment says The Hollywood Reporter.

The centers on a lone hero named Eli (Denzel Washington) who must fight his way across the wasteland of a near-future America to protect a sacred book that might hold the key to saving the future of humanity.

Kunis plays a woman named Solara, at first enlisted to betray Eli, she ultimately joins him in his quest. Anthony Peckham has performed a rewrite of Gary Whitta's script.

Albert and Allen Hughes are directing which begins shooting in February in New Mexico.

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It's been an interesting last month or so in terms of early footage presentations. "Watchmen" and "Star Trek" have both kicked off presentations with screenings of about 20 minutes of footage in London, New York, Los Angeles and Sydney in recent weeks.

Now it looks like next year's "Terminator" sequel may be doing something similar - albeit on a smaller scale. The film's director McG was on hand in London's West End to see around seven minutes of scenes from the film along with an interview session talking about the work which is currently in early pre-production.

Comparing the franchise with the recent Batman and Bond reinventions, McG tells Time Out Magazine that the plan was to take the popular franchise back to basics and "strip away any sense of glitz or irony and focus on character, drama and gritty, intense action."

When he approached actor Christian Bale about doing the role of John Connor, the Batman actor "told me to fuck right off, he didn't want to do it. He said, 'Write it so that it could be read cold on stage and I'll think about doing it.'" McG staged a 'cold table reading' of the script to prove to the star that it could work as a serious drama without the benefit of special effects and stunts.

The film is said to chronicle Connor's journey from "unloved wanderer in the wilderness to humanity's saviour, as he uncovers the machines' plan to harvest human DNA and develop the android 'T-800' model".

McG confirms both Bale and scribe Chris Nolan have signed on for two more films. Did he get James Cameron's blessing? "I did go to see James Cameron. He didn't give us his blessing, but he didn't shit all over our movie. When Jim was making Alien, he was following the great Ridley Scott, so he knows how we feel."

Will Schwarzenegger make an appearance? "We're trying to synthesise a human character with a CGI character and that may or may not have something to do with the T800...At the moment it's not good enough and we're running out of time."

Finally he shot down claims of an ending that leaked online which had a 'good Terminator' becoming John Connor - "That is not the ending. John Connor is not the machine. We did discuss that idea, but that is not the ending, I can say that right now."

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When the time comes to close the door on the hit animated series "South Park", creator Trey Parker tells The Los Angeles Times that they may do it with another feature film.

"We talked about maybe some day doing a movie to sort of end it all, and that seems like the best idea. That's been a big thought to do the last show as a movie" says Parker.

He admits that we've already seen many of the ideas they had been saving for the movie last year. "We came up with this pretty good idea for a movie, and then of course what happened was we got in the middle of a South Park run, and were completely out of ideas and we were like, well, we've got to use the movie idea. And that became [the three-part episode] 'Imaginationland.'"

As of now though there's no end planned for the TV show incarnation currently in its twelfth season. The previous film was 1999's "South Park: Bigger, Louder, & Uncut" which became famous for its foul language and memorable musical numbers including the Oscar-nominated "Blame Canada."

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Paramount Pictures has picked up the life rights of 51-year-old Missouri journalist Linda Trest. Anthony Walton and Andrew Dresher wil pen a script inspired by her story says The Hollywood Reporter.

Trest was a reporter for the Gasconade County Republican in the town of Gerald, she began hearing stories about a federal agent nicknamed "Sergeant Bill" who was rousting people from their homes.

Since Gerald had been ravaged by methamphetamine abuse, local law enforcement was happy to assist the fed's efforts to clean up the town with arrests, home searches and investigations.

The only hitch: Bill A. Jakob turned out to be just an unemployed cop and former trucking company owner from a different town with no actual law enforcement credentials. Trest eventually exposed Jakob's bizarre con.

Brad Pitt and David Benioff are producing.

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Robert Schwentke ("Flightplan, "The Time Traveler's Wife") is attached to direct the thriller "Venus Fixer" for New Line and Mandalay Pictures reports Variety.

Based on a true story, the project centers on a Holocaust survivor recruited by the American military to track a serial killer on the rampage in postwar Berlin.

He must partner with a German cop who had been his friend and colleague before the Nazi regime came to power.

Author J.C. Pollack (aka. James Elliott) penned the screenplay. Cathy Schulman is producing.

Mandalay is also developing the Universal Pictures remake of "The Birds" with director Martin Campbell attached.

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Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson has joined the cast of Alex de Rakoff's indie London gangland movie "Dead Man Running" says The Hollywood Reporter.

Set in London, de Rakoff's script centers on an ex-con trying to go straight who is given 24 hours to raise 100,000 pounds ($150,000) to pay off a loan shark (Jackson) or become a "dead man running."

The mission takes him from the dog tracks of East London to the underground drug scene of rural Manchester as they try every trick and scam in the book to get the cash before it's too late. The project is set in a criminal world as hard hit by the recession as Wall Street.

Tamer Hassan ("Layer Cake"), Danny Dyer ("The Business"), Brenda Blethyn ("Secrets and Lies") and Monet Mazur ("Stoned") also star.

UK soccer players Rio Ferdinand and Ashley Cole are serving as executive producers. Shooting began yesterday.

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The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Mike Goodridge in Los Angeles
24 Nov 2008 01:14

 


Dir: David Fincher. US. 2008. 166 mins.

One of the most eagerly anticipated end-of-year studio films, David Fincher's The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button is a wildly ambitious fantasy which contains many intriguing elements and superb production values but ultimately fails to cohere as the epic tragedy it wants to be. Buoyed by Fincher's name and the star pairing of Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, the film will attract intense media and public interest at first, but the extended running time and convoluted story will prove problematic when it hits thousands of multiplexes around the world.

Paced elegantly, but with determined leisure by Fincher over 166 minutes, this elongated whimsy is not easy to engage with emotionally, even while it frequently recalls writer Eric Roth's own 1994 effort Forrest Gump in its story of a fictional misfit caught up in 20th century history. It even comes with stunning Gump-like special effects. But as you might expect from David Fincher, Button is far less accessible than the blockbusting syrup-fest that was Gump; its deadpan, surreal tone is more reminiscent of Big Fish, Amelie or the John Irving adaptations Hotel New Hampshire and Cider House Rules.

With Paramount handling domestic and Warner Bros on international and a budget close to $100m on the line, the film will be released with careful expertise and is sure to develop a fanbase. But in a competitive season of period epics – Australia, Defiance, Valkyrie among them – and high-end literary and stage adaptations (Doubt, Revolutionary Road, Frost/Nixon, The Reader), Benjamin Button might find itself falling between the cracks as neither mainstream enough for the multiplex crowd nor meaningful enough for arthouse purists.

Roth and Robin Swicord wrote the "screen story" here, taking the title and basic concept of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story and creating an entirely different Gump-eqsue odyssey for the titular hero.

The story is told in flashback by Caroline (Ormond), the daughter of a woman called Daisy (Blanchett) who is withering with old age on her death bed in a New Orleans hospital. The TV overhead warns of an impending hurricane hitting ("Katrina", no less). As Daisy lies dying, she instructs Caroline to read to her from the diary of one Benjamin Button.

Button, it emerges, was born to a wealthy couple. The mother dies in childbirth while the father Thomas (Flemying) is horrified to discover that the baby is a wrinkled old creature with ossified bones, arthritis and other symptoms of old age. Disgusted by the sight, he leaves the baby on the door stoop of an old people's home run by sassy black servant Queenie (Henson) who takes Benjamin in, names him and raises him.

As Benjamin grows in size, he also becomes less withered and it becomes apparent that he is aging backwards. He meets the young Daisy (Fanning) and plays with her, even while her grandmother scorns the unusual friendship.

When he hits 17, Benjamin leaves the home and travels the world on the tugboat of boozy Irish captain Jared Harris, spends time in Murmansk where he has his first love affair, with a diplomat's wife (Swinton), and watches his friends die in a World War II sea battle.

Back in the US, he again meets Daisy who has matured into Cate Blanchett and eventually after a series of near misses and misadventures, the two become lovers in a period where their bodies are roughly the same age. But after the golden years, she starts aging while Benjamin keeps getting younger.

Benjamin Button is played by Pitt throughout, with the help of impressive prosthetic makeup and digitally imposing his head onto other actors' bodies. Pitt gives his best performance to date, capturing the weariness of old age as convincingly as the vigour of youth. Blanchett (who is also given a digital rejuvenation for her teenage years) is as superb as ever, although the chemistry between the two is muted to say the least.

The real star of the movie is Fincher, whose imagination has run wild here – from a bizarre prologue about a clockmaker who designs a railway clock that goes backwards, to a sequence of seven shots in which a man is hit by lightening in different circumstances, to a Jeunet-esque sequence of "what ifs" revolving around the events leading up to a tragic car accident.

The curious thing about Benjamin Button is the questionable profundity of this lengthy saga. Is it a meaningful parable about love and time or is it just a gigantic shaggy dog story? With that in mind, you can't help but look at your watch occasionally and wonder whether some plot meanderings, while always pleasant, have any bearing on the story whatsoever.

Production companies

Kennedy/Marshall

North America distribution

Paramount Pictures

International distribution

Warner Bros Pictures International

Producers

Kathleen Kennedy

Frank Marshall

Cean Chaffin

Screenplay

Eric Roth

Screen story by Eric Roth & Robin Swicord

From the short story by F Scott Fitzgerald

Cinematography

Claudio Miranda

Production designer

Donald Graham Burt

Editor

Kirk Baxter

Angus Wall

Music

Alexandre Desplat

Main cast

Brad Pitt

Cate Blanchett

Taraji P Henson

Tilda Swinton

Julia Ormond

Jared Harris

Jason Flemying

Elias Koteas

Elle Fanning

[crippled_avenger]

WE ARE FROM THE FUTURE Review
Posted by Todd Brown at 2:39pm.
Posted in Film & DVD Reviews .


[When we first linked to the trailer for new Russian time hopping action film We Are From The Future back in January I commented on how I always find it interesting to watch an emerging film culture - and make no mistake, despite Russia's long cinematic history and entirely new film culture is emerging there now - find it's footing and settle into the balance of commerce and art that will, hopefully, sustain it into the future.  My feeling at the time was that this film in particular would end up being a fairly disposable piece of pop fluff but it looked like very well made pop fluff and fluff run through a distinctly Russian filter as opposed to simply recycling tired American plot lines.  And so it was a pleasant surprise when I spotted the film riding the top of Russia's box office charts and now here's our regular Russian contributor Andrey with his thoughts on the film.]


The topic of the time traveling has been overused so much that nowadays hardly any director would risk applying it again since so many movies that were dealing with time traveling either had a complete fiasco or were a product of mediocrity and boredom. Bad examples are too many to list; good ones are just as few as two that come to my mind: "Terminator" and "Back to the Future". Other than that, movie producing companies were trying to stay away from this subject.

Who could expect that a new flick about time transportation would come from the land of reviving movie industry – Russia, with straight to the face name that says it all...almost all: "We are from the future".

When I first saw the poster with four young Russian guys depicted on it all looking cool and dynamic I imagined it would be some teen comedy a-la "American Pie", Russian "Back to the Past" cheap version. Later when I had a chance to see it I was pleasantly surprised by the whole tonality and atmosphere of the movie. After it had ended, I was sitting still for about ten minutes because it made me thinking, it was the same feeling I had after watching American Beauty or Crash, the feeling of peaceful silence, calmness and sorrow. And here's why...

The story is about four young guys from Saint-Petersburg who make their living by digging out and selling anything that relates to WW2: medals, arms, ammunition, utensils and so on. One day they go for a big hunt, hoping to find a revolver or a machine-gun. As they dig deeper and deeper somewhere away from the cities and society they decide to take a break and cool down swimming in a lake they found in the area. Once they dive and get back to the surface they find themselves in the middle of the battle back in 1942, right next to the frontier close to the German battalions. Confused, scared, and anxious they get found by Russian soldiers and have no choice but to play according to the strict military rules of that time.

They go through constant fights, quarrels, hard personal decisions, love, and friendship to the understanding of simple truths that cannot be found back there in Russia of 2008. Eventually they found their way back to the future....Shortly, that's what the movie is all about, sounds simple, doesn't it? It could be, if only not the message it conveyed so sharply and boldly...

One of four is a skin-head, huge, muscled Russian racist with a swastika on his shoulder, who admires Hitler, and wishes U.S.S.R. had cooperated with Wermacht. That's what he was like before getting into the oven of WW2...

The movie is basically based on comparing the spirit and courage of Russian soldiers during WW2, and racist moods in modern Russian society. It's not stated explicitly, the message is quite subliminal, but it shown so powerfully and non-judgmentally that it gets right to the core of human perceptions.

There is a scene in the movie where the four guys became prisoners and are locked up in a barrack with a tortured, bleeding Soviet soldier who was hardly alive. At some point one of four who's pissed with his friend's racist background, whispers into the ear of the soldier: "Do you know that in the future there will be crowds of Nazis in Moscow? They will be walking tall around the town screaming:" Hi Hitler!" The soldier screams:"It will never happen!" and putting all his energy in the effort starts choking the guy who told him that.

The subject of WW2 is very close to all Russians; almost every family lost someone during those four years. Millions lives had perished, millions of children became orphans. It was all a sacrifice, one huge sacrifice in sake of the victory. They thought that Nazism was conquered forever. In their mind the words Russian and Nazism never had a place to be together. Who knew that new Russia would become such a fertile ground for neo-Nazis proudly showing off their identity right in the center, in the heart of the Mother-Land.

The movie poses many questions; it reaches straight to the core making one think about our general responsibility for the society where we live, and for our personal responsibility to improve this world for better...

Review by Andrey Korzh

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Vera Farmiga ("The Departed," "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas") has joined "Up in the Air" for Paramount Pictures and Montecito, reports Variety.

The story centers on a human resources executive whose only joy in life comes from the prospect of notching his millionth frequent-flyer mile, a goal he pursues with zeal as the rest of his life falls apart because he is constantly on the road.

Farmiga will play a businesswoman who develops a romantic relationship with George Clooney's lead character through meetings in airports and hotels around the country.

Jason Reitman adapted the screenplay from Walter Kirn's novel of the same name and will direct. Shooting starts in late February in St. Louis, Miami and Las Vegas.