Relativity Media announced today that Peter Farrelly (of the famous comedy directing team The Farrelly Brothers), Brett Ratner, actress Elizabeth Banks, Bob Odenkirk and Griffin Dunne (The Accidental Husband) are directing a sketch comedy feature film. More directors are expected to be announced shortly. Originally set up at Overture Films, the yet-to-be-titled comedy project takes a unifying storyline for a series of sketch comedies in the vein of the 1970s hits Kentucky Fried Movie and Groove Tube. Not much more is known about the premise.
The growing cast includes Elizabeth Banks, Gerard Butler, Kieran Culkin, Hugh Jackman, Johnny Knoxville, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Moretz, Liev Schreiber, Sean William Scott, Tony Shalhoub, Emma Stone, Matt Walsh, Patrick Warburton, Naomi Watts, and Kate Winslet. The producers will announce additional cast members as further deals are solidified, and production will continue thru late May 2010.
I expect that we’ll be seeing more and more movies like this after the success of Valentine’s Day, which was able to cram an impressive ensemble cast into a modestly budgeted romantic comedy. And a Sketch movie allows you to cram even more stars and directors into a two hour feature for a low cost and time commitment. You can read the full press release after the jump.
Posted on Friday, February 26th, 2010 by Russ Fischer
I’m excited about the upcoming version of Mildred Pierce to be directed by Todd Haynes. Already set to starKate Winslet in the title role, the HBO mini-series has just added a couple more good names: Guy Pearce and Evan Rachel Wood. Sure, Wood’s career has been spotty, but there’s something that suggests she can do a lot more than what we’ve seen her manage recently. I really liked her in Woody Allen’s Whatever Works, for example.
The obvious guess is that Pearce will play the husband from whom Mildred Pierce splits and that Wood will play their daughter. But that’s unconfirmed for now. [Production Weekly]
After the break, it’s buddy comedy time again, and the Hugh Laurie/Catherine Keener indie gets another cast member. Read More »
Posted on Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 by Russ Fischer
Brief news on Contagion, the recently announcedSteven Soderberg viral thriller penned by Scott Z. Burns. The film already has a hell of a cast: repeating Soderbergh star Matt Damon plus Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard and Jude Law are all in the lineup. Now Gwyneth Paltrow has joined as well, making this a cast that is sizable enough to span continents as a deadly virus spreads around the globe.
Burns and Soderbergh hatched the story while making The Informant!, and the script was inspired by the swine flu outbreak and discussions about “germs and how the nature of a virus could be used to deal with issues of sovereignty and as a metaphor for the way information and misinformation travel in contemporary society.”
The film isn’t sold to a distributor yet, but Soderberg & Co. are shopping it around based on a $60m budget. [DHD]
Posted on Friday, February 12th, 2010 by Russ Fischer
This is really just confirmation of a story that broke last August: director Todd Haynes is adapting the classic James M. Cain novel Mildred Pierce into a television mini series starring Kate Winslet. That’s the old news. The new stuff, which confirms speculation from last summer, is that HBO has bought into the project and will broadcast the eventual result, which Haynes will begin shooting in April.
This is awesome news. Most should know the 1945 movie version of the book at least by reputation — it’s among the most iconic Joan Crawford roles, and the one which won her an Oscar.
But the film simplified the novel’s plot, contracted the timeline, cut out plenty of sex and skewed the whole thing to be more of a thriller. All reasonable — do whatever you want to a novel when adapting, as long as the result is good — and very much in keeping with trends at the time. But given five hours to play with, there’s ample reason to expect Haynes to be a lot more faithful to the original text. Far From Heaven proved he has total control over melodrama; this is one I can’t wait to see. [Variety]
Posted on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 by Russ Fischer
Steven Soderbergh is putting off his Liberace biopic in favor of something with a little more heat and conventional appeal. Instead of Liberace, this fall Soderbergh will now shoot a script called Contagion by his The Informant! writer Scott Z. Burns. Said to be “an action-thriller about the outbreak of a deadly virus,” the script reportedly is constructed in a style much like that of Traffic. So expect several narrative strands that run parallel, with some of them finally (possibly) intertwining in some measure. Read More »
[Safe] and Far From Heaven director Todd Haynes is moving to television for his next project, a mini-series adaptation of James M. Cain’s classic noir novel Mildred Pierce. He’s given Kate Winslet the nod to take the title role, a woman struggling to survive the depression and protect her daughter amidst a complex set of betrayals and even murder. It’s the character that gave Joan Crawford her only Best Actress Oscar win, courtesy of Michael Curtiz’ truly splendid 1945 feature film.
Curtiz and his screenwriters Ranald MacDougall, William Faulkner and Catherine Turney took a number of creative liberties with Cain’s novel, most notably changing its entire structure and set-up. Unlike the linear novel, the film recounts the story in flashback after Mildred Pierce has been arrested on suspicion of murder. It works quite wonderfully, and definitely creates even more of a sweaty and desperate tone than the novel has, and I’m very curious to see if Haynes will, or even can, adopt the same strategy. Personally, I’m hoping he returns to the chronological ordering of the novel and lets the pressure build steadily. I can see him doing a bent-out-of-shape soap like that quite superbly.
The Inglourious Basterds publicity continues apace with Quentin Tarantino now speaking to members of the UK press. With a sweet appreciation of Brit cinema culture, Tarantino decided to tell us which actors of ours he likes, and just what UK-set film project he’d like to tackle.
Forbes Magazine has released their list of the highest earning actresses, once again proving that Hollywood is sexist. Angelina Jolie tops the list with $27 million, almost two and a half times less than the highest earning male actor (Harrison Ford with $65 million - remember, Crystal Skull was a huge payday). The top 10 actresses earned $183 million, less than half of the $393 million total that makes up the top 10 actors. Check out the top 15 after the jump.
Did you miss any of the important Oscar speeches from last night’s Academy Awards? Well you have a second chance to catch them now on YouTube. After the jump we’ve embedded the speeches from Danny Boyle (Best Director), Kate Winslet (Best Actress), Penelope Cruz (Best Supporting Actress), AR Rahman (Best Sound, Best Score), Heath Ledger’s Family (Best Supporting Actor), and Sean Penn (Best Actor). Read More »
The Weintein Co has released the first trailer for Stephen Daldry’s adaptation of The Reader. The romantic drama is set in a post-World War II Germany, and tells the story of “a man whose life has been shaped by an illicit affair with a passionate, elusive older woman during his youth.” The film stars Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes.
Bernhard Schlink’s The Reader has been translated into 39 languages, has garnered numerous awards, and is the first German novel to reach number one on The New York Times Bestseller List. The post production quibbles have been well documented, and Harvey Weinstein hopes to have the film in theaters on December 10th. Watch the trailer in High Definition on Apple.com, or embedded below.
