Furious on Film Movie News Report 03.26.08

Posted by Arnold Furious on 03.26.2008

Hugh Jackman’s comic, Kristen Bell, Bond news, Johnny Depp goes gangster, GI Joe, The Tick, Cary Grant, Nelson Mandela, Cate Blanchett and a whole load of whores courtesy of Sin City!

Furious on Film Movie News 03.24.08

Hugh Jackman's comic, Kristen Bell, Bond news, Johnny Depp goes gangster, GI Joe, The Tick, Cary Grant, Nelson Mandela, Cate Blanchett and a whole load of whores courtesy of Sin City!

Issue 132

Big shout out to Chad Webb, who does a fine job of running the movie zone, for spotting my fuck up last week where I got the date wrong. I seem to do that a lot. Never fear Chad, I've actually got it right this week.

HERE IS THE GNUS



Be warned folks. Slow news day.

Jackman aims to repeat Wolverine success

Credit: Variety.

Hugh Jackman is teaming up with writer Marc Guggenheim (Wolverine, The Amazing Spider-Man) for the upcoming new comic series, Nowhere Man. The story will be set in a future where mankind has traded privacy for safety, and the main character will be reminiscent of the one Will Smith played in I Am Legend. Virgin Comics will publish the series and is hoping to turn it into a big screen movie with Jackman as the star. Speaking of the project, Jackman said: "I've had so much fun in the graphic novel world with the X-Men franchise that I wanted to get even more involved. I'm excited to work with Virgin and Marc and create a compelling character and story that hopefully will also make it to the big screen."



Well it's nice to see Jackman continuing his involvement with comics. I remain hopeful the success of Marvel's movie adaptations will bring more interesting people into the comic book world and improve the quality of comic books in general. Not that they were bad in the first place but seeing Joss Whedon and Kevin Smith write books has shown successful writers that you can contribute to the comic book world. Jackman is merely an addition to those ever swelling ranks.

When in Rome. I'm not sure I understand that yet.

Credit: Hollywood Reporter.

Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) and Josh Duhamel (Transformers) have joined When In Rome, a new romantic comedy staring Kristen Bell. Angelica Huston and Dax Sheppard have also joined the cast. The story reportedly centres on Bell's character, a New York curator who is unlucky in love until she steals magical coins from the famed Trevi Fountain in Rome. She soon finds herself pursued by a band of aggressive suitors whose coins she took. The script was penned by David Diamond and David Weissman. Heder will play a street magician who becomes one of Bell's suitors, while Duhamel is the movie's romantic lead. Shepard will portray an aspiring model. And Huston will play Bell's boss, the curator of the Guggenheim.



Now, you have to ask yourself – do I actually care about this news item or did I just include it so I could sneak in a picture of Kristen Bell?

The movie sounds fine. Kristen Bell is quickly growing a reputation. The star of Veronica Mars also plays the lead in forthcoming Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which promises to do for her movie career what Knocked Up did for Katherine Heigl. She also has Fanboys coming up, hopefully, which George Sirois will have more on tomorrow on the UBS Evening Movie News.

Bond debuts new gadget

Credit: Hollywood Reporter

"Quantum of Solace," the 22nd film in the James Bond franchise, will feature a complex visual effects shot captured digitally in 4K resolution, which offers four times the amount of picture information typically captured by most digital cinematography cameras. The shot for the Marc Forster-helmed title is being lensed using eight shutter synchronized 4K Origin cameras from Dalsa, one of only two companies now shipping 4K digital cinematography cameras. Specifics are being kept under wraps, but the shot will feature Daniel Craig in his role as James Bond and Olga Kurylenko as the film's lead Bond girl, Camille.



That's going to look damn fine if you ask me. Sometimes using more technology than is needed will create a film that looks better than the rest out there. With HD there's a chance using 4K will provide one hell of a pretty looking cinematic and DVD experience. I saw Daniel Craig working on stunts for the movie just last week and I don't think there's ever been a person in a major role SO shunned leading up to their debut only to completely turn that around immediately on release of the film. Dubbed "James Blond" and mocked for wearing a life jacket on route to a press meeting across the Thames he's just completely turned it around with an amazing performance in Casino Royale. There are some who already rate him as the best Bond, ever. I personally think he has some way to go before he has the humanity of Sean Connery to go with the ice cold external attitude but he's better than all the rest. Really looking forward to the Quantum of Solace too.

Depp starts off as Dillenger

Michael Mann's period gangster drama "Public Enemies" starring Johnny Depp as John Dillenger started filming last week. It's due for a 2009 release. Seeing as we're underway here's an updated cast courtesy of IMDB.com.

Johnny Depp ... John Dillinger
Christian Bale ... Melvin Purvis
Channing Tatum ... Pretty Boy Floyd
Marion Cotillard ... Billie Frechette
Giovanni Ribisi ... Alvin Karpis
David Wenham ... Pete Pierpont
Rory Cochrane
Stephen Dorff ... Homer Van Meter
John Ortiz ... Frank Nitti
Stephen Graham ... Baby Face Nelson

I don't know about you but that makes Public Enemies one of the most anticipated movies of 2009 and certainly one of the few times I've actually looked forward to a Michael Mann film. Hopefully Cotillard can speak English. And how many movies is Christian Bale in? Does he not sleep? He's going to end up looking like his character in the Machinist if he's not careful.



Depp on set.

Snake Eyes: first pics from the set of GI Joe



Credit: Ain't It Cool.com.

For those who used to read the GI Joe, or Action Force as it was known in the UK, comics you'll notice that's pretty accurate to how the character looked in the book.



See? Apparently Ray Park is donning the mask to play the facially scarred ninja. Seeing as I did a full cast from IMDB.com for Public Enemies here's the cast for the 2009 Stephen Sommers GI Joe movie…

Channing Tatum ... Duke
Dennis Quaid ... General Hawk
Joseph Gordon-Levitt ... Cobra Commander
Sienna Miller ... The Baroness
Rachel Nichols ... Shana 'Scarlett' O'Hara
Christopher Eccleston ... Destro
Ray Park ... Snake Eyes
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje ... Heavy Duty
Arnold Vosloo ... Zartan
Marlon Wayans ... Ripcord
Jonathan Pryce ... U.S. President
Saïd Taghmaoui ... Breaker

Some interesting casting there but as long as they get all the make-up right then it could work. I was always a big fan of Zartan so seeing one of the better actors playing him is nice. People have been heavily critical of Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Cobra Commander but I can see where they're coming from. He was always quite whiny and I got the feeling that behind the mask he was a lot younger than he wanted people to know. Gordon-Levitt has been striving really hard to get into adult roles and did a great job with Brick. I realise the book had a lot of characters but wasn't Flint one of the main good guys? Maybe the American readers didn't see it that way. I'll keep looking out for these costume shots because appearances could change the nature of how people look at this movie.

And that's your news for this week. Like I said at the top it's a slow news day. George has you covered tomorrow. Hopefully he gets more stuff to talk about.

SHILL – This week I share with you my unhealthy obsession with The Tick. Not the live action one, which never quite worked out. Some of the lines were good ("Arthur is broken, I need 20CC of TLC stat") and in the spirit of the cartoon but there was no escaping how stupid it all looked. Still the cartoon remains one of the best ever designed for kids. This is the first third of the best Tick episode "The Tick vs The Tick" featuring the insane genius of the Mad Midnight Bomber What Bombs At Midnight. Bad is good baby, down with government.



"Can you destroy the Earth?"

"Egad, I hope not. That's where I keep all my stuff!"

What do you mean you've never seen…?

Remember in High Fidelity where the potential record buyer is confronted by Jack Black? "Don't tell anyone you don't own Blonde on Blonde?" Well, if you were to enter a serious film buff's rental place, which sadly doesn't exist nowadays thanks to Blockbuster and online rentals, and happened to make a comment about liking movies then I like to think somewhere out there that a clerk still exists who would chastise you for not having seen certain movies. Seeing as that place doesn't exist you'll just have to imagine you're walking into my rental place and happened to mention the likes of Cary Grant in the Hollywood old school system. The kind of actor who never played bad guys. Never did anything unpleasant. Although that very nearly happened when Alfred Hitchcock got his way with Cary Grant. But what's that? You've never seen…

#2 Suspicion (1941)



Alfred Hitchcock has made many famous films over the years. Psycho, Rear Window, North by Northwest, Vertigo, the Birds…I could go on all day. He was the master of suspense but in 1941's Suspicion, the first film he also produced as well as directed, he tried something entirely different. He made Cary Grant a bad guy. A lying cad and a degenerate drunkard and gambler Johnnie Aysgarth was Grant's edgiest role. Originally the film was cut with Grant committing several acts of murder only to be changed because the audience simply didn't believe that Grant would kill someone. Amazing how cinema was back in the day. But of course he was just coming off a run of screwball comedies like Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday and Arsenic and Old Lace. He wanted to play a part that'd change public perception of him somewhat. The studio weren't happy and though Suspicion might ruin Grant's career and their investment in him. They ordered Hitchcock to remove all scenes where Grant's character was aggressive or threatening. The film was reduced to 55 minutes. Hitchcock had shot all his footage in such a way there was only one way to edit it together. So he got his own way, albeit without the murderous ending, and Grant played a borderline villain for the first time in his career. He'd never come close again and retired in 1966 believing his style of acting belonged in the past and that Marlon Brando and the ‘method' had taken over. Frequently overlooked when discussing Hitchcock's leading ladies is Joan Fontaine. She's perhaps overshadowed by Janet Leigh's shower scene, Tippi Hedren's battle with birds or Grace Kelly. However she remains the only actor to win an Oscar under Hitchcock's direction. Fontaine won for Suspicion and was nominated for Rebecca. So this movie contains Hitchcock's only acting Oscar AND Cary Grant ALMOST playing a bad guy. For me he's a bad person, which makes him a bad guy. Either way this is essential viewing for Hitchcock and Cary Grant fans. And will arm you with plenty of ammo when discussing either.

BEST BIT – Cary Grant quizzing a crime novelist and a cop on their methods while all the time hinting at wanting to know how to kill someone. Joan Fontaine looks on nervously.



THIS WEEKS REVIEWS

Goodbye Bafana, Notes on a Scandal

Goodbye Bafana (2007)



EXPECTATIONS – Nelson Mandela is such an iconic person and one with so much possibility for a biopic that it's almost a shock that Hollywood hasn't gone full force on doing a Mandela biopic while the man himself is still alive. This is as close as we have so far; a biopic of Mandela's prison guard James Gregory from the book he wrote about his time guarding Mandela at several prison facilities. The cast seems pretty strong too featuring Joseph Fiennes, Diane Kruger and 24's US President Dennis Haysbert. Danish director Billie August is best known for his big screen version of Les Miserables in 1998. The year before he made Smilla's Feeling for Snow an attempt to make Julia Ormond a leading lady worldwide that failed.

TRAILER –



PLOT – In the 60's prison guard James Gregory (Joseph Fiennes) is given the special detail of censoring letters at the prison on Robben Island because he speaks the native language. This position specifically gives him access to Nelson Mandela (Dennis Haysbert); at the time considered South Africa's most dangerous terrorist. To begin with Gregory and his wife Gloria (Diane Kruger) hate the blacks for wanting to take their land. But over time James gets to know Mandela as a man and truly understand his vision for a unified South Africa.

OPINION – There's something about Goodbye Bafana that doesn't sit well with me. And I think it's this mentality; behind every successful black man there is an uncredited white man fighting in his corner. Goodbye Bafana tries to make a hero of a man who guarded Mandela rather than Mandela himself. There has been a suggestion that Gregory's book embellished his relationship with Mandela, although Mandela himself appears on a DVD interview saying he respected Gregory, and made James Gregory into someone he wasn't. Mandela's friends were critical of Gregory's autobiography claiming he'd used information in letters he censored in order to create a relationship with Mandela that simply wasn't there. Mandela mentions him a couple of times in his book the Long Walk to Freedom in pleasant terms but mostly just in passing. Of course Mandela was so important to so many people. Perhaps Gregory was being honest in his own assessment because Mandela was his entire life. That said the performances in Goodbye Bafana are pretty good. Diane Kruger is ice-cold as a racist white South African and turns in some great work opposite Fiennes. Joseph himself struggles a little with the accent but turns in a powerful performance. Haysbert himself has the hardest role because playing someone who everyone already knows is hard work. He brings a dignity and presence to the role that few men could. But despite playing the President of the United States in entirely convincing fashion Mandela's finer points are somewhat beyond the actor. To be fair I think they'd be beyond every actor. So the three main performances are all very good but sadly screenwriter Greg Latter doesn't deliver much of a script and director Billie August doesn't push enough of the right buttons. The result is a somewhat flat and disinteresting film with good acting in it. It's an unfortunate contrast. Hopefully one day we'll get that biopic of Mandela that charts his life before prison and follows through showing us everything. Using Gregory's writing as a source gives us a film where Mandela is merely a prop not the centre of attention that he should be. Which is why Goodbye Bafana is merely an interesting failure and not the success it could have been.

BEST BIT – The vicious police assault on local "kaffirs" that leaves Gregory somewhat stunned and his young daughter distraught. There wasn't enough of this to really convince us that Gregory was concerned about the future of South Africa to change his attitude.

RATING - **3/4. Mandela's biographer Anthony Sampson called Goodbye Bafana the work of a man with "quite the imagination". I doubt it has any worth as a historical document but it does have some good performances by the three stars even if the accents are a little off.

Notes on a Scandal (2006)



EXPECTATIONS – I've really not seen enough of Cate Blanchett. I hear how great she is all the time but off the top of my head the only film I can remember her in was Lord of the Rings and she's only in about 3 scenes in that. In fact it seems she's developed this huge reputation as an actress without really making much in terms of mainstream waves. Think about it, aside from Galadriel, what's she done that's made a tonne of money? Mainstream audiences don't see her as a star yet. Key word in that sentence being "yet" but that'd probably be down to her not selling out. She seems to do films she finds interesting. Here's a chance for me to catch up with one of her more low profile roles that gained four Oscar nominations including both Cate and her co-star Judi Dench.

TRAILER –



PLOT – Barbara Covett (Judi Dench) is a bitter history teacher at the end of career when she becomes friends with rookie art teacher Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett). Sheba quickly confides in her disappointments from life including her children and her marriage to her former lecturer Richard (Bill Nighy). She doesn't confide about her illicit affair with 15 year old student Stephen (Andrew Simpson) and when Barbara finds out about it the friendship begins the crack.

OPINION – There are a couple of great performances in Notes on a Scandal. Cate's is perhaps the better showing subtle nuances as she falls apart. While Judi Dench is terrific her mood swings are a little hard to cope with. But then that's more down to the uneven script, another tremendous failure from Closer scribe Patrick Marber, than the actors. And it was Oscar nominated too! Amazing what some people think of as good. Marber's script for Closer was loaded with profanity and bad lines. Notes on a Scandal is a much improved piece of work but that'd be down to good source material. This is after all an adaptation of Zoe Heller's book. Although the great ending to the book hasn't been retained, which is pretty typical of both Hollywood and film writers in general. Ambiguity doesn't sell to cinemagoers. What does sell Notes on a Scandal is the terrific acting performances from Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett and the great support from a motivated and in vogue Bill Nighy. It seems he pops up everywhere in British films these days and usually steals the show. He can't in Notes on a Scandal however because he's surrounded by willing sparring partners. Cate shows herself to be a genuine heavyweight by hanging with Judi Dench and Bill Nighy in the same film. And the scenes are very different. She and Richard are lovers while she and Barbara are something else altogether. And the performance changes depending on who the character is with, which is very like life. Whether it's blazing rows or quiet glances Cate's Sheba Hart is a rich character who grows from her past and her bad decisions. What really impresses me about Cate Blanchett is she seems to change personalities depending on the film. She's a chameleon. Which is why she'll never be a massive star. After all the truly big stars play the same character in every film, give or take a few roles, so the public can easily recognise them. Cate shows so much weakness and fragility in Notes on a Scandal that it couldn't be the same person who played Elizabeth I could it? Or Galadriel? Or Katherine Hepburn? It's a relief because it makes Cate Blanchett feel more…human. I was beginning to think she might be some sort of acting machine sent backwards in time to out-act a potential saviour for humankind.

BEST BIT – "The future plumbers, shop assistants, and doubtless the odd terrorist too. In the old days, we confiscated cigarettes and wank mags. Now it's knives and crack cocaine. And they call it progress" – Barbara Covett's opening scene where she derides the schoolgoing population.

RATING - ***. Falling a wee bit short in terms of direction (the relatively inexperienced yet veteran theatre man Richard Eyre) and finished script. Neither of which keep the main characters on a tight course from A to B. The actors seem perfectly happy though and deliver when they're called upon to do so. Especially Cate Blanchett who puts on a virtual showreel of variety during the film. Had the film retained the book's conclusion however all may have been saved and we'd be looking at a possible masterpiece. That's Patrick Marber for you. Tosser.

HOLLYWOOD WHORES!

To compensate for the lack of whore last week I bring you a collection of them for this week's segment. In 2005 Robert Rodriguez adapted Frank Miller's Sin City for the big screen. In doing so he gave us a bevvy of beautiful ladies from Miller's whore-filled book. The Old Town girls were headed up by Gail played by Rosario Dawson.



And again…



And this time for the ass fans out there…



The movie also featured Devon Aoki as Miho. She was the violent one but that doesn't make her any less of a whore.



Old Town also featured a gaggle of other whores. Here's them raining down justice on the outsiders.



And of course the movie also stars Jessica Alba…



She played a stripper rather than a whore BUT I'd hate to deprive you all of some Jessica Alba photos.



That'll do it for another week of whores in Hollywood.



You stay classy…The World.