Public Enemies - What Did You Think?
This is the sort of story that we’d often relegate to Page 2, but I’m interested enough in Howl, the upcoming picture about poet Allen Ginsberg, that I want to take the chance to highlight the first photo of James Franco in character as Ginsberg as published by EW. I’ve been following Franco’s Ledger-like emergence as a serious actor with great interest, and this could be a key project in his career. Written and directed by the team of Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (who also made doc The Celluloid Closet over a decade ago) the film focuses on the publication of the poem Howl and the landmark obscenity trial that ensued. Sharing the frame with Franco there is Aaron Tveit, playing his longtime partner Peter Orlovsky; compare this shot to actual photos of Ginsberg and Orlovsky after the jump. Read More »
Joseph Gordon-Levitt Cast in Christopher Nolan’s Inception
Posted on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Joseph Gordon-Levitt has been cast in Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi action film Inception, taking the role which James Franco was originally signed to play. Franco was forced to bow out due to scheduling issues. Levitt is an incredibly talented actor, and I’m happy to see him cast in a Nolan film.
Leonardo DiCaprio plays the lead, a CEO-type, Marion Cotillard (La Vie en rose, Public Enemies) is his wife, Ellen Page (Juno) is a young college grad student and DiCaprio’s sidekick, and Levitt plays an associate working for DiCaprio. Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins, Sunshine) is also signed on, but no details are known about his character. Details about the project are being kept tightly under wraps. All we know so far is that the movie is a contemporary science fiction action movie “set within the architecture of the mind.” If anyone has any details about this project, please shoot me an email.
All we know is that Nolan approached Warner Bros with the project, and they preemptively snapped it up before Nolan could approach other studios. Which is kind of obvious, because they want/need him to return for a third Batman film. Inception hits theaters on July 16th 2010.
source: THR
Everybody’s Having a Date Night With Tina and Steve
Posted on Monday, April 13th, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
Mark Wahlberg, James Franco, Common, Kristen Wiig, Taraji P. Henson and Leighton Meester have all signed up for roles in Shawn Levy’s Date Night. The headline stars, already announced, are Steve Carrell, who I love, and Tina Fey, who most people love and I kind-of-like-a-bit. The films seems set to be some kind of rom-com take on After Hours, or maybe an inverted version of Adventures in Babysitting.
Variety have indicated who the various new cast additions will be playing, and I’ll bullet point that for you after the ever-essential break.
David Gordon Green and Danny McBride’s Your Highness Moving Forward with James Franco!
Posted on Thursday, March 19th, 2009 by Hunter Stephenson
While David Gordon Green and Danny McBride’s trippy fantasy movie, Your Highness, has been sizzling on my radar for many months now, the project now sounds like it’s happening sooner than later. Hell yes. When I spoke to these dudes last year, they were hopeful, but Green also had a lot of plates spinning (Suspiria remake, Freaks of the Heartland). I also got the impression that if their HBO series, Eastbound & Down, was successful and claimed its place in pop culture—and boy, has it—that it might serve to launch such a high-concept R-rated flick with McBride at the lead. One thing more people are starting to admire is that these guys make sure to do things their way, no “one for them” studio fluffing.
According to Knowles at AICN, McBride confirms that the film has been greenlit by Universal, will shoot soon in Ireland, and the creature effects will be handled by Spectral Motion (Hellboy 1 & 2). In ode to its myriad inspirations, the film won’t feature heavy CGI but more traditional, weirder effects. Moreover, McBride let out that James Franco will co-star, in a Pineapple Express trifecta reunion of sorts. Many of you might be like, “So WTH is Your Highness?” Here are some quotes from my interviews that didn’t see light until today…
/Film: Can you go into Your Highness? Judging from the title and from what you guys previously did on Pineapple Express, is this a true-blue stoner genre film?
Green: It’s not really a weed movie. [Danny's character] smokes shit [weed] in it, yeah, but it’s whatever they had in olden times. This is an R-rated adventure, it’s ridiculous, played with lo-tech effects. I looked at Army of Darkness recently for it, but it’s not campy. Krull has Juliard actors, it’s really ‘80s. At the same time, Danny ain’t Orlando Bloom.
Judd Apatow’s Pineapple Express Oscar Short Film
Posted on Monday, February 23rd, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
I’ve done a bit of personal polling, and it seems like most everyone agrees that Judd Apatow’s Tribute to the comedy films of 2008 short film was the best moment of the 2009 Academy Awards. For those who didn’t catch it, Seth Rogen and James Franco reprise their roles from Pineapple Express — two stoners sitting on a couch, watching all the great and not so great comedy films of the last year. If you missed it, watch it embedded after the jump.
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The DVD release of Pineapple Express claims to have an “alternative ending”, but it pretty much seems like something that was created specifically for the home video release or maybe for an unused after credits sequence button. So what really happened to Dale and Saul after the big climactic action sequence that concludes the film? Check it out after the jump.
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When watching a movie with an overt political message at its core, it’s sometimes difficult to divorce the movie from the cause. The film Milk espouses a lot of messages that I believe in, including equal rights for everyone and a belief in the transformative power of community organizing. But does the film succeed at creating a nuanced and fascinating portrait of its subject? Or does it rely too heavily on the conventions that are characteristic of the biopic genre?
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/Film reader Zack T sent over the above video of James Franco’s tribute to Wonderglen co-founder, Aidan Weinglas. It’s too funny to be real, but not funny enough to be “Just a stand-alone gag”. Seems like it is part of a new viral web game, possibly for an upcoming movie?
After searching Google, you will find Wonderglen.com, the official website for Wonderglen Productions. The employee login and password is already filled in, allowing you direct access to the site’s employee-only intranet. The Wonderglen production Intranet site lists a show called “Hobbit House” as in production. You can read the project synopsis below:
“Do little miniature mans have their own home-repair issues? You bet, and they need remodeling just like a full size persons. Wonder Glen productions take a close-up look at some of the small dwellings where a Hobbit might live: burrows, bungalows, tunnels, and hovels and bunkers. You don’t have to be a Hobbit to savor the fine art of fancying up a tiny house, and the little guys want to make it eco friendly, to realize the green dream of the hippies. It’s a half hour of green building, underground living and smashing down a Hobbit house then constructing it back up into the American dream. If you like The Lord of the Rings movie or book, get ready for a sensational something. Imagine a house with circle shape doors plus a three foot tall man!”
The founders, Aidan Weinglas and Pieter Voorhees both have Linked In profiles and facebook pages. There is a wordpress blog titled “WonderGlen, give me a job!”. MetaCafe has a video tribute to WonderGlen CEO Pieter Voorhees.
So, does anyone have a clue who Aidan Weinglas is? What is WonderGlen?
Focus Features has released 13 new production photos from Gus Van Sant’s Milk. The film will premiere in San Francisco next week at the historic Castro Theatre. Check out 12 more photos after the jump.
Allen Ginsberg Biopic, Howl, Adds Paul Rudd, Alan Alda, Mary-Louise Parker, Jeff Daniels, David Strathairn
Posted on Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 by Hunter Stephenson
The Allen Ginsberg biopic, Howl, starring James Franco as the American weird beard beatnik poet and intellectual has filled out a lovely cast: Paul Rudd, Alan Alda, Mary-Louise Parker (so tempestuous on Weeds), Jeff Daniels, and David Strathairn have all signed. The actors will portray real-life characters involved in a 1957 obscenity trial, which saw the publisher of Ginsberg’s epic, landmark poem, “Howl,” forced to defend the work’s graphic descriptions of homosexual acts and its merit to society. The court ultimately decided in the publisher’s favor.
The indie feature marks the debut of documentarians, Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, who co-directed the homosexuality-in-film doc, The Celluloid Closet. Epstein also directed The Times of Harvey Milk, which won the 1985 Oscar for Best Documentary, and Gus Van Sant, who directed Franco in this year’s Milk, is producing Howl. Got all that? As if Paul Rudd needed yet another posse. It’s been noted that Franco resembles a young Ginsberg, before the beatnik took on his chubby, bald-yet-hirsute appearance—as played by David Cross in I’m Not There—and joined NAMBLA.
“Fifty years later, Ginsberg’s vision is as relevant as the year he wrote it,” Friedman said in a statement to the trades. “It resonates with issues of free speech, government censorship, militaristic empire building, fear-mongering, sexual conformity and the co-opting of religion.”
The Allen Ginsberg Trust sought the directors for the project. This is def a film to keep an eye on, though I’d prefer to see a full-fledged and objective biopic rather than a damn-the-man flick a la The People vs. Larry Flynt. Franco’s is a role that could have been filled by Johnny Depp in the ’90s, smart career trajectory.
via Yahoo
Discuss: Looking forward to Howl? Do you agree with the director’s remarks? Any thoughts on Ginsberg?
James Franco + Fake Wang = Gus Van Sant’s Milk
Posted on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 by Hunter Stephenson
Actor James Franco, already being anointed the “new” Heath Ledger thanks to his pop-cult crossover in Pineapple Express, will likely draw comparisons to Dirk Diggler come this December. With a supporting role in Gus Van Sant’s Oscar-buzzing Milk, Franco will join the magical club of major actors who have rocked fake dicks on screen. Here’s a classy story from the set via Flawed Hollywood…
“This scene went on for a long time, like half the day, and it’s getting old… and I go over to Sean and I guess he didn’t know that I was wearing a prosthetic. I go, `Sean, you’re such a great actor but you wouldn’t do a scene like this if they asked you; you wouldn’t dive into a pool naked.’ And he said… `Well James, if I was built like you, I would.’ A couple of weeks later we did this scene, where we’re both dancing and we’re naked, and we both have prosthetic penises. He finally put it together that I’m wearing, like, the Boogie Nights prosthetic.”
Funny. Someone will recall that he does the reverse of this gag in Pineapple. In Milk, Franco plays Scott Smith, the lover and supporter of the nation’s first openly gay politician, San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk, played by Sean Penn. Milk was assassinated in 1978 by a man who had previously held his city office. Prior to Milk’s release, Franco will be seen this September playing the son of Richard Gear’s character in the family drama Nights of Rodanthe, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook, tissue sales).
Discuss: What is the bear thinking in the above photo? Who else is in the “hey, look” club? Before certain limp imps throw food below, let me add that this item was recommended by Peter.
Hunter Stephenson’s Movie Review: Pineapple Express
Posted on Thursday, August 7th, 2008 by Hunter Stephenson
Seth Rogen just got a free pass. I mean, a 9.5, CHUD? Really? FirstShowing declares Pineapple Express “breaks new ground” and implies it’s the “best stoner comedy ever made.” I’m not really sure what movies one must zoom past to make the best stoner comedy of all time. Is The Big Lebowski king? Garnering this superlative is sort of like being the world champion at MAPPY in The King of Kong. More accurately, Rogen’s film might be the best stoner comedy by default, because it will make you wish you stayed home, packed a huge bowl and watched Caddyshack, or Fletch, one of the hazy ’80s 10.0 action-comedies this aspires to be. The first scenes with Rogen in PE are a pale, if loving, homage to that Chevy Chase classic’s aliases like Dr. Rosenpenis, likewise with the adrenalized, instrumental theme music.
Pineapple Express stumbles as an original comedy, a stoner movie and a buddy action film. It lacks the liquid-bowel laughs of last summer’s Superbad, which was also written by Rogen and Evan Goldberg. And remember the awesome fan-made Superbad: The Action Movie trailer we posted? That two-minute clip exuded the superior goofball tension and ratatat gunfire I expected when Seth Rogen expressed surprise at getting the greenlight for this “risky” blend of inhales and mayhem.
So, where the hell is this film’s totes awesome “exploding toilet”-like action sequence set to MIA’s “Paper Planes”? Where is “Paper Planes”? That song’s inclusion in the trailers undoubtedly netted this movie an extra $5-10 million, but it’s MIA. It would have loaned the by-numbers fisticuffs and explosion at the climax a passable sense of peril. Never before has a chubby guy doing generic action moves been this overblown. An argument against this review and in defense of the movie will be: “Well, it’s not supposed to be as funny as Superbad” and “it’s not supposed to be as action-y as Lethal Weapon.” And therefore the movie is not supposed to be really funny or really thrilling, correct? And the justification is, “it’s a stoner movie, OMG, it’s not supposed to be that good in general”? Okay.
Pineapple Express is essentially a party sub in which all of the dead and bloody stuff is unevenly packed into the last third; followed by endless amounts of lazy meta-improv between James Franco, Rogen and Danny McBride (who almost saves the movie) sitting on their self-gratified asses telling us how amazing the movie we just watched was. In the Judd Apatow-produced and much funnier, Step Brothers, Will Ferrell & Co. go out with a bang with a rock opera, some unclassic Billy Joel, and the affable phrase “Fucking Catalina Wine-Mixer!” If PE is the new gold standard for American comedy as proclaimed by every glossy magazine this month, I’m going to go take a shit and read my collection of National Lampoon magazines for the next year like the black dude in Summer School.
CHUD says that James Franco deserves an Oscar nomination for his “breakout role” Saul Silver. Why? For stealing Brad Pitt’s resin-torched laugh in True Romance and pronouncing the word “man” like it’s made out of taffy (or “God’s Vagina,” one of the only good lines here)? The chemistry and the bromance Franco and Rogen shared 10 years ago on Freaks and Geeks felt genuine and was far more impressive. Their aimless stoners were similarly brought together by the randomness of life i.e. high school. And Franco gives great performances in that series—he’s consistently hilarious and inventive throughout. When his Freak apologized to Rogen’s Freak after making a joke at the expense of the latter’s tuba-playing girlfriend having a baby cock, viewers cried (many were high)! It was brilliant. When Rogen and Franco have their falling out in Pineapple Express, followed by a stilted apology, it doesn’t mean anything, even for a “lowbrow action comedy” in the spirit of Lethal Weapon or 48 Hours. Clearly, the filmmakers want and need us to be invested, but it plays like two kids with lobotomies walking in opposite directions after an argument. You could debate that these characters are supposed to be exactly that (and you’d feel tainted), and you could debate that this describes many American moviegoers when they exit the theater (and you’d be right, or Hollywood Elsewhere).
In contrast, we believe that Harold and Kumar depend on each other because they’re both insecure about their futures, girls, unpredictable off-road trips, white people and NPH’s ecstasy habit. And they both really enjoy good weed. Cheech and Chong are bonded by alliteration, road trips, stupidity, poverty, broads, and the carefree fuck-the-man fumes (nice dreams?) of the ’60s and ’70s. And they both really enjoy good weed and blow. In Smiley Face, Anna Faris is the modern, funny but troubled girl (and all guys have dated one) who goes it solo, smokes herself out and simultaneously symbolizes the answer and problem to everything today (which is why “that girl” tends to ultimately disappear or become a doctor or lawyer). Stoner comedies tend to reflect and subvert the day’s culture. Rather than subverting our culture, Pineapple Express blows it back at us, to the point where a promising indie director named David Gordon Green is being cheerleaded by critics for making a just-average crowdpleaser and “adequately handling action.”
In place of the timeless comedic duo we expected from the “New Kings of Funny,” we’re offered a wannabe M. Fletch Fletcher and a talented actor who’s impersonating an actor playing a stoner and seems secretly bored. And why Rogen and Franco’s characters aren’t shot in the head by the film’s goons, nicely played by Kevin Corrigan (a great stoner in Freaks and Geeks) and Craig Robinson (The Office), before this overhyped comedy goes soggy Black Rain is a valid question not worth wasting good weed on.
6/10 (Adam Sandler’s Bulletproof x High Times porn = Overhyped, Subpar Apatow Flick)
P.S. Nikki Finke just referred to Slashfilm as “pothead fanboys.”
