Posted on Monday, January 23rd, 2012 by Angie Han
On paper, Lawrence Kasdan‘s Darling Companion sounds promising. Kasdan, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter and filmmaker, directed the drama from a script he co-wrote with his wife Meg Kasdan, also an Oscar nominee. The star-studded cast, as the trailer is happy to remind you, includes two Academy Award nominees (Richard Jenkins and Sam Shepard) and three Academy Award winners (Diane Keaton, Dianne Wiest, and Kevin Kline), as well as promising younger actors like Elisabeth Moss and Mark Duplass. But at the end of the day, no number of collective accolades can guarantee an interesting picture, and unfortunately, the trailer for Darling Companion looks pretty cringeworthy.
The Kasdans’ screenplay revolves around a dissatisfied older woman named Beth (Keaton) who adopts an abandoned dog she finds on the side of the road and finds contentment in her bond with him. But when Beth’s self-absorbed husband (Kline) loses the dog, the couple pull together a search party to find him and everyone finds that they’re affected by the experience in unexpected ways. Watch the video after the jump.
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Posted on Friday, January 20th, 2012 by Angie Han
I know already I’ve gone on and on about how excited I am by HBO’s adaptation of Jonathan Franzen‘s The Corrections, but considering the talent signed on — Noah Baumbach, Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, Dianne Wiest — can you blame me? Today the good news continues with the report that Maggie Gyllenhaal and Rhys Ifans could be up for parts in the series as well. More details after the jump.
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Posted on Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011 by Angie Han
Hollywood’s had a long history with botched adaptations of beloved novels, but from here it looks like fans of Jonathan Franzen‘s acclaimed book The Corrections have nothing to worry about. After years of attempting to bring the story to the big screen, producer Scott Rudin eventually turned to HBO — and things have been shaping up nicely from there.
The Squid and the Whale writer-director Noah Baumbach signed on to helm and (with Franzen) pen the drama pilot earlier this fall, while Chris Cooper and Dianne Wiest joined the project several weeks later. Now Ewan McGregor has boarded the series as well, in the role of Cooper and Wiest’s screwup middle child. More details after the jump.
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Posted on Friday, November 4th, 2011 by Angie Han
Though the small screen retains an unfair reputation as a lesser medium — think of all the snobby types who’ll brag about not owning a television, but would never be so dismissive about books or movies — the truth is that the medium varies as much as any other. Today’s TV Bits runs the gamut from highbrow (a literary adaptation on HBO) to lowbrow (a modeling industry reality show on The CW), with plenty of stuff in between. After the jump:
- Noah Baumbach’s Jonathan Franzen adaptation The Corrections is a go at HBO
- HBO will offer an early look at its highly anticipated Luck next month
- Fox puts new eps of Alcatraz on hold while it goes back for reshoots
- Burt Reynolds signs on to guest star on FX’s Archer
- Summer Glau joins Tricia Helfer on TNT’s Scent of the Missing
- The CW announces start dates for its midseason shows
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Posted on Wednesday, October 19th, 2011 by Angie Han
Last month, I got very excited about reports that Noah Baumbach would be adapting The Corrections for HBO. The Squid and the Whale director struck me as a perfect pick to bring Jonathan Franzen‘s unhappy family tome to life. Today’s news makes me even more certain that HBO will do right by Franzen. The project, which is being directed by Baumbach and penned by Baumbach and Franzen, has now moved into casting — and the first two choices seem like truly fantastic ones.
Dianne Wiest has signed on to play the part of put-upon wife Enid, while Chris Cooper has entered talks to play her husband Alfred, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease. More details after the jump.
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A test screening for the new Judd Apatow-produced Paul Feig-directed comedy Bridesmaids took place tonight in southern California. The film is written by Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, and tells the story of two feuding bridesmaids played by Rose Byrne and Kristen Wiig. Also starring Maya Rudolph as the bride, and a supporting cast that consists of Jon Hamm, Matt Lucas, Ellie Kemper, Dianne Wiest and others.
And despite the Bridewars sounding logline, the reunion of Apatow and Feig (who worked together on the now cult classic television series Freaks and Geeks) and the hilarious female cast, has many excited. So what is the early word? Find out now after the jump!
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Though he’s been announced as attached to a few projects over the past couple years, Lawrence Kasdan hasn’t written or directed a produced film since Dreamcatcher in 2003. (He has done script work, like the polish on the script for the action version of Paradise Lost that Alex Proyas just signed to direct.)
But now Kasdan will direct Darling Companion from a script he wrote with Meg Kasdan, and he’s just added Mark Duplass, Dianne Wiest and Sam Shepard to the cast. Read More »
Since the great success of Mad Men, we’ve been waiting to see Jon Hamm break into movies in a huge way, but with the show still going, he’s primarily taken supporting roles. He’s shot parts for a couple forthcoming projects, like Ben Affleck’s The Town, and Sucker Punch and Howl. Now he’s in talks for the currently untitled wedding comedy that Kristen Wiig wrote and will star in.
Also in talks are Dianne Wiest (lately of In Treatment, in addition to many classic Woody Allen films and more) and Matt Lucas (Little Britain, Alice in Wonderland). Judd Apatow is producing and Paul Feig is directing. Between that re-teaming and the fact that this could be Wiig’s biggest project to date, this was already worth paying attention to. With Hamm and Wiest, it could get even better. [Production Weekly]
After the break, a trio of excellent names for the exorcism film The Rite, and an open casting call for the new David Chase feature project. Read More »
