Hot on the heels of the release of a massive batch of films that will appear in the Toronto Film Festival, we’ve got the main lineup for the 68th Venice Film Festival, which runs from August 31 to September 10.
We knew that George Clooney‘s The Ides of March would open the fest (the trailer premiered last night and you can see it here) and this list confirms quite a few films that we imagined would be playing Venice. Our very much anticipated spy thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy from Let the Right One In director Tomas Alfredson is on the list, as is Roman Polanski‘s tense closed-room drama Carnage, starring Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly and Christoph Waltz. And there is Alps, the second film from polarizing Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, whose film Dogtooth shocked, entertained and angered festival audiences in 2009.
The full list is after the break. Read More »
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Some few years ago the Coen Brothers scripted a remake of the ’60s romantic caper comedy Gambit (originally starring Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine) and the remake is finally shooting now under the direction of Michael Hoffman (The Last Station). Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz star in the key roles, and Stanley Tucci and Cloris Leachman have joined Alan Rickman and Tom Courtenay in the supporting cast. The first image of the leads is out now, and you can see a larger version after the break.
Also lurking below the jump is the first image from Abel Ferrara‘s new film, 4:44 Last Day on Earth, which stars Willem Dafoe. Neither of these images are quite earth-shaking, but they’re minor teases of what is to come. Read More »
One of the most unappealing film projects being assembled right now is the comedy version of the baby-birthing manual What to Expect When You’re Expecting. The book is frequently called out as being alarmist and a poor lesson plan for expectant mothers, but why not use the very recognizable title (recognizable to the target audience, at least) to sell a movie? Not much different from what’s happening with Akira, really.
Cameron Diaz is now looking like the lead for this particular movie, which Kirk Jones will direct from a swcript by Heather Hach and Shauna Cross. The picture is meant as a Love Actually-style film in which five couples experience the joy and surprises of impending parenthood. The film will hit on Mother’s Day weekend next year — in other words, a year from today. [Deadline]
After the break, Kelly Preston becomes a mob wife and Willem Dafoe is in a mystery movie directed by Abel Ferrara. Read More »
It’s a crazy, mixed up world and we are thankful for movies, excluding The Tooth Fairy starring The Rock, that offer proof. /Film’s Weekend Weirdness examines such flicks, whether in the form of a new trailer for a provocative indie, a mini review or…”what do you mean Merlin wasn’t real?!“ Attention hosers: it’s the return of FUBAR! And much more after the jump in this double-deep installment…
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UPDATE: According to a publicist who represents the producers and emailed me regarding the rumor.: “No - we have a slow 35 city roll out.” So, it appears many people beyond NY/LA will have a chance to dance in the moonlight with a cracked out Nicolas Cage.
It’s hard both to deny and describe the crazy cinematic potion that has flowed off the marketing materials and clips for Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans thus far. I cannot align these entertaining yet toxic vibes with another recent film, and many critics who see it—and like it—seem to share the task. It’s as if the voodoo weirdness that floats throughout pockets of the troubled region seeped into the dailies and into the gainfully employed skin of star Nicolas Cage. Much of this can be chalked off to the film’s publicized equation of iguana hallucinations, wild-man director Werner Herzog, and crack rocks, the math of which has stirred up semi-ironic anticipation for the film within movie culture. Unfortunately, it may be that a wide theatrical release for this anomaly is no longer happening; First Look Pictures, the film’s U.S. distributor looks to rush the film to DVD/Blu-ray for a February 2010 release.
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Things haven’t been so great for Wesley Snipes post-Blade 3. He appeared in a string of direct-to-video action movies, ran into a bit of tiff with the federal government, and pretty much seemed to fall of the radar. Now it looks like Snipes’ luck could be changing for the better: He has a role in Antoine Fuqua’s upcoming Brooklyn’s Finest, and today we’ve learned that he’s reteaming with Abel Ferrara (who directed Snipes in King of New York) for a new action thriller, Game of Death.
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Possibly the best thing about Werner Herzog doing his own Bad Lieutenant film (which got a poster today) is the fireworks that have erupted between he and Abel Ferrara, who directed the Harvey Keitel-starring film that Herzog hasn’t remade. Both directors are at the Venice Film Festival this week, where it wasn’t beyond possible that some sort of confrontation, or at least conversation would take place. (Ferrara once suggested Herzog and his cast should die in hell, and Herzog responded “Wonderful, yes! Let him fight…I have no idea who Abel Ferrara is.”)
There may not be a director alive who is as open to confrontation as Herzog, but who is also open to reconciliation. (This is the guy who pledged to eat his shoe if Errol Morris made a movie, and then did, on stage.) Now the Guardian reports that Herzog said at Venice that the two “should meet up soon over a bottle of whisky,” which is kind, but also less explosive than I was hoping for.
And, wait, what’s this noise about iguanas? Is this also Herzog’s mini-budget Godzilla homage? Potentially spoilerish details after the jump. Read More »
Last week it was announced that Keanu Reeves would star in Nicolas Winding Refn‘s Jekyll, the Justin Haythe-scripted modern day retelling of The Strange Case of Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for Universal Pictures. Apparently there is another Jekyll and Hyde movie in development. King of New York/Bad Lutenant director Abel Ferrara is moving forward with his contemporary reimagining of Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 classic novella.
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