After last week’s flurry of great big casting stories, we’re going to start small today. Paul Dano will appear in For Ellen, from director So Young Kim, who last made In Between Days. Dano will be “a struggling indie rocker who, after nearly wrecking his car during an overnight long-distance drive, arrives in a small Midwestern town to deal with his impending divorce.” I’m OK with all that, despite a logline that sounds like it covers such familiar and self-conscious indie ground, but less so with the word that Jon Heder will co-star. [Variety]
After the break, new stuff for Gerard Butler and a possible replacement for Keira Knightley in My Fair Lady. Read More »
American Splendor directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini return to Sundance with The Extra Man, a comedy which will screen in the Premieres section. Based on a novel by Jonathan Ames (Bored to Death), the film tells the story of a down-and-out playwright who escorts wealthy widows in Manhattan’s Upper East Side takes a young aspiring writer under his wing. The cast includes Kevin Kline, Paul Dano, John C. Reilly, and Katie Holmes. After the jump we have photos, a poster, and a very extended plot synopsis from this upcoming film.
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It’s a crazy, mixed up world and we are thankful for movies, sans New Moon, that offer proof. Weekend Weirdness cocks its disoriented, nappy head to examine such flicks, whether it’s a new trailer for a provocative indie, a review, or news of an excavated cult classic. The works discussed herein tend to make cinema a little more interesting, and in the best and worst cases do the same for life. In this installment: Final Flesh is a real life Videodrome with porn actors from the co-creator of Wonder Showzen; Dirty is the forthcoming, surprisingly solid doc on the late Wu-Tang Clan rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard; [adult swim]’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force plops out a spicy Meatwad of a Xmas album, and more, G. The “G” is courtesy Nic Cage’s bad lieutenant.
Nearly a decade after he worked as a writer for Late Night with Conan O’Brien, the career of Vernon Chatman continues its fascinating flush-parade down and around comedy’s perverse bowels. With a new film, Final Flesh, he subverts the acting prowess of real life porno D-listers to match the success of his respected twists on tween teevee (MTV’s Wonder Showzen) and low-rent, fantasy animation (Xavier: Renegade Angel). The irony is that even though the DVD for Final Flesh arrived at my door with a tie-in golden condom packet filled with antibacterial lotion, Chatman ostensibly kept his hands clean of the filth. Flesh is what resulted after he commissioned four online companies that produce adult movies from scripts submitted by paying customers. Instead of sending the companies various scenarios too obscene for Roller Girl, Chatman’s screenplays mostly ditch sex in favor of a murky end days subplot complete with an Atomic Bomb.
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This just in: Tom Cruise still does his own stunts and Mary Hart still thinks it’s goddamn amazing. Ever since Cruise’s romantic action comedy changed its title from the serious-sounding Wichita to the jump-out-a-castle-windowish, Knight & Day, I don’t think any of our readers have wondered, “How is that film going?” And even though the current title befits a high concept Matt LeBlanc comeback vehicle, the lack of awareness is odd since Knight is due next summer and directed by James Mangold, who can aptly do the macho-thing (3:10 to Yuma), the girl-thing (Girl, Interrupted), and in between (Walk the Line). In a Vanilla Sky reunion, Cameron Diaz co-stars with Cruise as the romantic interest. She has plenty of happy things to say about him (and the flick’s dangerous stunts with footage!) after the jump…
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John Hillcoat’s adaptation of the Matt Bondurant novel The Wettest County in the World isn’t happening yet. It was set up at Columbia for some time, but put into turnaround by the studio. Now producers Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher (who did Jarhead and Memoirs of a Geisha and are working on Nicolas Winding Refn’s Jekyll at Universal) are trying to make the film work as an indie. Because there is interest from a bevy of young stars (including, ahem, Shia LaBeouf) it might actually happen. Read More »
James Mangold is shooting his ‘untitled Wichita project’ in and around Boston right now with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz starring as a couple who are brought together on a blind date and then launched into one of those big action-packed conspiracy thriller sort of scenarios that never seems to happen to me. Oh, and now Paul Dano is in the cast, too. Read More »
More images that bottle a sense of “child-like wonder” and “child-like terror” have washed up on the ‘nets courtesy of the New York Times. They nicely compliment a post yesterday on Sonny Gerasimowicz, the unlikely art director on Where the Wild Things Are. Grab a child-like blanket and prepare to curl up in the fetal position inside your man-like cubicle after the jump…
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Update: Buzz continues to build as the film just won Best Screenplay at the Venice Film Festival.
I like how Todd Solondz talks. In the below featurette—ideal for a Saturday afternoon in both length and Puerto Rico palm casualness—the writer/director of Welcome to the Dollhouse discusses his new film, Life During Wartime. Yep, titled after the Talking Heads’ classic. You may or may not know that Wartime is being cited in early reviews as a return to form for Solondz, the rare American director who is unwaveringly committed to exploring the fringes and norms of society.
There was a time in the mid ’90s when I actually confused Solondz and Wes Anderson, due to their media-buzz indie predilection and similar disheveled nerd-artist appearances. Funny that in 2009, that seems like such an odd and off mix-up. Perhaps tellingly so. Wartime stars Paul Reubens, in sickly make-up, the swell Allison Janney, a dour-looking Ally Sheedy, and Little Boston’s Paul Dano, and finds Solondz revisiting and reimagining several characters from his controversial pedophile study Happiness, in addition to ones from Dollhouse. Variety has called it Solondz’s best.
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Earlier this month, we posted a video of Quentin Tarantino listing off his top 20 movies to be released since he became a filmmaker. The video was actually party of a special series on the British television channel Sky Movies. Tarantino presented some movies of his choice films including Taxi Driver, Sunshine, There Will Be Blood, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, and even his own Death Proof, accompanied by short sit down introductions.
What follows after the jump is Tarantino’s 10-minute review of Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. Of course, Anderson is one of Quentin’s good friends, so the review is glowing. But Tarantino’s insights are always worth my time. Check out the review after the jump.
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The movie trailer for Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock premiered tonight on Important Things with Demetri Martin. Based on Elliot Tiber’s memior, Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life, the comedy tells the story of Mr. Tiber, who played an unexpected but pivotal role in making the 1969 Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the famed happening it was. Watch the trailer after the jump, and leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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