After what seems like a very long time talking about his impending retirement, Steven Soderbergh is nearly there. He’s shooting his final film now: the made-for-HBO film Behind the Candelabra, which looks at the life of musician/entertainer Liberace. Playing the beringed pianist is Michael Douglas, with Matt Damon on board as Scott Thorson, Liberace’s long-time lover whose book Behind the Candelabra: My Life With Liberace provided the raw material for screenwriter Richard LaGravenese (Water for Elephants, The Fisher King).
The first image of Douglas and Damon in character has shown up, via E!, and it is almost as ’70s spectacular as one might hope. We know there will be some much more outrageous costuming coming up for Douglas, but this is a good start. Dan Aykroyd, Debbie Reynolds, Scott Bakula, Rob Lowe, Cheyenne Jackson, Boyd Holbrook, and Nicky Katt are all in the film as well, which we’ll see on HBO in 2013.
After the break, see an set images of Brad Pitt in Ridley Scott‘s new film The Counselor, scripted by The Road and No Country For Old Men writer Cormac McCarthy.
Ridley Scott is putting together The Counselor as he can for the time being, grabbing actors when and where they’re available. Despite a presumed setting in the American Southwest, Scott is currently shooting scenes with Brad Pitt in London. Pitt plays Westray, who advises the film’s title character (played by Michael Fassbender, still shooting Twelve Years a Slave) as the counselor gets into a drug deal.
The pics above show Pitt in a getup that seems so very suited to a McCarthy story. Also in the cast are Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, and the just-added John Leguizamo. [JustJared and Yahoo]
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Posted on Thursday, June 7th, 2012 by Angie Han
With shooting already underway, Joshua Michael Stern‘s Steve Jobs biopic is filling in some key supporting roles. (For clarification, this is a distinct project from the Aaron Sorkin-penned Jobs movie set up at Sony, which has yet to begin casting.) The latest addition to the cast is Matthew Modine, who’s slated to play former Apple CEO John Sculley. He was hired by Jobs (Ashton Kutcher) for the post in 1983, but the two men famously struggled to get along. Two years later, Sculley removed Jobs from from his managerial duties, leading Jobs to resign from the company shortly afterward.
In addition to Modine and Kutcher, the picture also stars Josh Gad as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Ahna O’Reilly as Jobs’ girlfriend Chris-Ann Brennan. Stern’s film is due to hit later this year, but first Modine will be seen grappling with another eccentric visionary — Batman (Christian Bale) — in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises. [THR]
After the jump, Dan Aykroyd goes Behind the Candelabra.
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Posted on Thursday, May 17th, 2012 by Angie Han
While youth tends to rule in Hollywood, the next pack of legendary onscreen partiers looks to be neither the rowdy teens of the Project X films nor the thirtysomethings of The Hangover franchise, but the senior citizens of Last Vegas. Morgan Freeman has just joined Robert De Niro and Michael Douglas in the “Grumpy Old Men meets The Hangover” comedy, directed by Jon Turteltaub (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice) from a script by Dan Fogelman (Crazy, Stupid, Love.). More details after the jump.
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It’s The Hangover meets Grumpy Old Men and now it’s got some real star power too. Robert De Niro and Michael Douglas have joined the cast of Last Vegas, a comedy written by Dan Fogelman (Crazy, Stupid, Love) and directed by Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice). The film follows four friends who head to Las Vegas for the bachelor party of a friend marrying a woman half his age. Read more after the jump. Read More »
Relativity Media unveiled Steven Soderbergh‘s action movie Haywire this past weekend at the AFI Fest, to mixed/positive reviews. The idea behind the movie is that Soderberg saw MMA fighter Gina Carano in action, and wanted to build a movie around her. He and screenwriter Lem Dobbs (The Limey) came up with a story about a betrayed covert ops specialist out for revenge, dropped Carano in the middle and surrounded her with actors like Channing Tatum, Ewan McGregor, Antonio Banderas, Bill Paxton, Michael Douglas and Michael Fassbender.
The trailers we’ve seen so far tried to balance action, dialogue, tension and character, but this new trailer basically goes all out for action. Consequently it looks great. Read More »
Odds are when you first saw the trailer for Haywire, Steven Soderbergh‘s action film starring MMA fighter Gina Carano, you thought, “Why is a Steven Soderbergh movie starring Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas, Channing Tatum and Antonio Banderas coming out in January?” January is an odd movie month as it’s generally a place studios can release films they’re unsure about. It doesn’t necessarily mean they’re bad, just without obvious award or blockbuster potential and such is the case with Haywire. It’s an understated, down-the-middle action/spy film elevated by Soderbergh’s direction. Haywire basically comes off as an exercise to watch an attractive woman beat the crap out of a bunch of famous guys.
The film had its world premiere in Grauman’s Chinese Theater Sunday night as part of the 25th annual AFI Fest Presented by Audi. Read some thoughts after the jump. Read More »
The Liberace movie that Steven Soderbergh has talked about making for a couple years is finally going to happen. Once slated to shoot earlier this year with Michael Douglas playing LIberace and Matt Damon playing his lover Scott Thorson, the project was put on hold when Douglas had to dedicate time to his affliction with cancer. But the actor is in good shape now, and the film is moving forward once more.
Douglas and Damon are still starring. We’ve got a title for the film, Behind the Candelabra, and a financier. In something of a surprise turn, the film won’t be a theatrical feature, as HBO has stepped up to finance. A shoot is tentatively planned for summer 2012. Read More »
Last summer we saw the first trailer for Steven Soderbergh‘s B-movie action experiment in which MMA star Gina Carano beats the hell out of an big-name cast that includes Channing Tatum, Ewan McGregor, Antonio Banderas, Bill Paxton, Michael Douglas and Michael Fassbender.
The action looks fantastic and there’s a definite appeal to seeing this cast and crew making film powered by what could easily be a direct-to-DVD story. But the first trailer also suggested Carano’s limitations as an actress, as her dialogue scenes didn’t seem nearly as powerful as the action.
A UK trailer has hit that seeks to fix that issue by paring down the same basic trailer into something that is a minute shorter. It dispenses with some dialogue and some plot revelations, and focuses on action and atmosphere. And were it not for a truly terrible voice-over, it would be a big improvement on the first US version. Check it out below. Read More »
