Paraphrasing Jack Lipnick in Barton Fink, “The writer is king here at Dimension!” You should recognize that as a joke of the highest order, at least in the context of Barton Fink. Turns out to be a cosmic gag in the context of real life, too. Because Dimension and Miramax, which are working together to make sequels to a few films produced under the old Miramax order, have hired not one, but two screenwriters to script a sequel to Bad Santa.
Two screenwriters: no big deal, right? Well, they’re writing two scripts, which will eventually be dressed in strappy leather fetish outfits, slathered in pig grease and thrown into some executive Thunderdome, where they’ll do battle to see which becomes Bad Santa 2. Read More »
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Last year Billy Bob Thornton started to talk about a late ’60s-set family drama called Jayne Mansfield’s Car. He and Tom Epperson wrote the script, in part as a response to the fact that Mr. Thornton wasn’t all that taken with a lot of the films being made lately, and he plans to direct it this year. Robert Duvall was announced as one primary player, and now it looks like he’ll be joined by Dwight Yoakam and Dennis Quaid. Read More »
In a casting break from a week or so back we announced quite a few names for The Baytown Disco, which has Billy Bob Thornton and Eva Longoria starring in a story of ” three redneck brothers who get more than they bargained for when agreeing to help a woman get her son back from his seemingly abusive father.”
Daniel Cudmore and Travis Fimmel were just cast as two of those brothers; the previously cast Clayne Crawford will be the third. Andrew Barugher has also been added, but we don’t know for what role. Barry Battles co-write the script with Griffin Hood, and he’ll direct the film in Lousiana starting next week. [THR]
After the break, Amanda Seyfried gets company in Gone and Jane Levy (pictured above) joins a comedy. Read More »
Summit is pinning some hopes on Stephen Chbosky‘s adaptation of his own novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The project has been waiting for Emma Watson to be finished with Harry Potter so she can play a lead role, and also has Logan Lerman, Mae Whitman and Paul Rudd in the cast. (Logan Lerman is the titular wallflower.) Now Nina Dobrev is going to jump into the cast from The Vampire Diaries as a character named Candace. [Deadline]
After the break, Billy Bob Thornton goes to the disco, and Fox hires more cast for Chronicle. Read More »
Last year, The Weinstein Company announced that it would partner with Miramax to make some sequels to titles in the Miramax library. One that was mentioned, and which has come up previous to that announcement, was Bad Santa 2. Billy Bob Thornton is often asked about the possibility of a sequel, and has said he’d be willing to do one.
Now that seems to be happening. as both Mr. Thornton and a spokesperson for The Weinstein Company says the actor is in talks to make the film. Read More »
We haven’t heard a great deal about Jayne Mansfield’s Car in the couple months since the first details came out. We know that Billy Bob Thornton is directing, and that he co-wrote the script with his One False Move collaborator Tom Epperson.
Now Robert Duvall has announced that he’ll be in the film, and he’s given up the fact that Billy Bob Thornton will also appear. (No real surprise there.) He’s also divulged a bit of story info. Read on for more details. Read More »
Faster has a hell of an opening. Dwayne Johnson — imposing, singularly determined and looking like The Rock for the first time in quite a while — is released from prison. On foot, he trucks over to an auto scrap yard containing a shrouded Chevelle. As the car is revealed, the song ‘Goodbye My Friend‘ by the De Angelis Brothers kicks in. The man, the car and this theme from a ’74 Italian police thriller called Street Law make as good a statement of purpose as any. The suggestion is that Faster will be a movie that plays like The Rock looks: muscular, mean and single-minded.
If only that were true. While the Rock cuts an impressive figure as a violent anti-hero, the movie around him is as misconceived as they come. There aren’t enough auto wreck metaphors to get across how thoroughly Faster demolishes a simple revenge movie premise. Read More »
Billy Bob Thornton hasn’t written and directed a film in almost ten years, and to hear him tell it, that’s in part because he’s a bit detached from the current film scene. But he and prior collaborator Tom Epperson (with whom he wrote The Gift and One False Move) have written a new script called Jayne Mansfield’s Car, which Mr. Thornton plans to star in as well as direct. In a new interview to promote Faster, he gives up the first details about the new project. Read More »
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