WiReD Magazine has been blogging the process of their profile on screenwriter turned director Charlie Kaufman. Not only is it amazing to see how much work goes into one of these WiReD cover stories (we’re talking about months and months of work for one story) but the interactions with Kaufman are insanely interesting.
I caught Kaufman’s directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York, last week and I’m still not sure what to make of it. It’s either brilliant or a disaster, I’m not sure which. I think I’ll need to watch the film a few more times before I even begin to understand some of the complexities and develop my final opinion. I also got the the chance to interview the man while in Toronto, and can attest that he is a very nervous and difficult interview (look for that interview in October).
Jason Tanz has posted the audio file for his complete 2 and a half hour interview with Kaufman. If you’re at all interested in the man behind such movies as Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, then you might want to check this out. I was going to post this interview last week, but forgot in the madness of my travel. Thankfully AICN reminded me, or it probably would have been forgotten.
Listen to the Five-Part Interview Here
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Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut Synecdoche, New York just premiered at the Cannes Film Festival (read about the reaction here). In the last couple weeks, we’ve brought you production photos and video clips, and now IonCinema brings us the movie poster. I love the imagery of Hoffman overlooking the endless tables of papers. It gives you the feeling of exactly how much of an undertaking it would be to recreate New York City inside a warehouse.
Synecdoche, New York stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as a theater director named Caden Cotard, whose life in Schenectady, New York is looking bleak. His wife Adele has left him to pursue her painting in Berlin, taking their young daughter Olive with her. A new relationship with the alluringly candid Hazel has prematurely run aground. And a mysterious condition is systematically shutting down each of his body’s autonomic functions. Worried about the transience of his life, he moves his theater company to a warehouse in New York City. He directs them in a celebration of the mundane, instructing each to live out their constructed lives in a growing mockup of the city outside. Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton and Tilda Swinton co-star.
Here is a round up of stories that just didn’t make the /Film front page, or what we like to call…. Page 2!
Lobster Johnson created this custom Heath Ledger-version Joker Munny.
Patrick Read Johnson has found financing to complete post production on his autobiographical indie “77,” (formerly titled 5/25/77) which chronicles the director’s journeys in Hollywood with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. [THR]
William Shatner claims JJ Abrams never called him back. [trekmovie]
Warner Bros has scheduled a September 19th release date for Whiteout. [shock]
JustJared has new photos from the set of Crank 2: High Voltage which show star Jason Statham with some nasty fake scars on his back.
WALL-E was given a G-Rating by the MPAA. [animatednews]
Cineleet takes a look at the influences of Star Wars in a column titled Before the Galaxy Far, Far Away.
The Incredible Hulk has invaded New York City. Head over to Marvel for more images.
Eric Lively, Tony Todd and Gil Bellows have been cast in the “24” prequel. [THR]
MTV has the first chapter of Vern’s new book Seagalogy: A Study of the Ass-Kicking Films of Steven Seagal.
Sony Pictures Classics is in final negotiations for James Toback‘s boxing documentary “Tyson,” which chronicles the life of former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson. [THR]
MovieMistakes has a list of over 70 mistakes from the original Indiana Jones series.
Blockbuster is advertising on Pizza boxes?! [Gizmodo]
Rotten Tomatoes takes a look at the top 20 sequels they’re still waiting for.
The Disney Movie Surfers have taken a behind-the-scenes look at WALL-E, and new footage is featured.
Fanboy has a look at all the Indiana Jones Knock-Offs in a segment they call The Hall of Shame.
Jim Hill blogs about the lost action sequences where Indiana Jones battled samurai and a machine-gun toting warlord, that was cut from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The Daily Mail has the first photo of a bald Cameron Diaz on the set of My Sister’s Keeper. Scary!
Star Wars: The Clone Wars will be rated PG for "sci-fi action violence throughout, brief language and momentary smoking." [io9]
NBC will air a special Incredible Hulk-themed episode of “American Gladiators” with guest star Lou Ferrigno. [SHH]
Madonna‘s newest film, a documentary about the struggles of Malawi, titled I Am Because We Are, will screen at Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival in August. [variety]
One of NECA’s comic con exclusives is an action figure three pack from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles featuring a set of three Mousers. [mechzilla]
FestivalCentral asks people at Cannes how to pronounce the title of Charlie Kaufman‘s directorial debut Synecdoche, New York. Jeff Wells reports that Kaufman says the pronunciation is “Syn-ECK-duh-kee.”
Blogwarts has yet another new (but way too small) photo from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Twentieth Century Fox paid $550,000 to the Smithsonian Institution for the right to use its name in Night at the Museum 2: Escape From the Smithsonian. [sci-fi]
Build your own cubecraft Indiana Jones and Golden Idol on Cubecraft.com.
Fangoria reports that actor Glenn Morshower is set to return to Transformers 2. Morshower is best known for playing a secret service agent in 24, and appeared in the original movie as a military Sargent at the US Soccent.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine has wrapped principal photography. [iesb]
Check out these two videos from Sundance, director, writer and actor Clark Gregg discusses his new film Choke. [searchlight]
Cannes2008 has released thre first three clips from screenwriter Charlie Kaufman‘s (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation., Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind) directorial debut Synecdoche, New York. The three clips don’t reveal much. The first screening of the film happened at Cannes on Saturday. Anne Thompson writes that those who have seen it describe the movie as “ambitious, arty and brilliant, if not entirely accessible.” Others have said that like Eternal Sunshine, Synecdoche stays with you for a few days.
Synecdoche, New York stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as a theater director named Caden Cotard, whose life in Schenectady, New York is looking bleak. His wife Adele has left him to pursue her painting in Berlin, taking their young daughter Olive with her. A new relationship with the alluringly candid Hazel has prematurely run aground. And a mysterious condition is systematically shutting down each of his body’s autonomic functions. Worried about the transience of his life, he moves his theater company to a warehouse in New York City. He directs them in a celebration of the mundane, instructing each to live out their constructed lives in a growing mockup of the city outside. Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton and Tilda Swinton co-star.
Kaufman described the film to the hollywood reporter: “it’s about people’s losses and death and fear of death and intimacy and relationships. Romance and regret and struggle and ego and jealousy and confusion and loneliness and sex and loss — all those things are in the movie. I wanted it to be an all-inclusive experience of a person’s life. It’s this guy’s world.”
Check out the three video clips after the jump.
Read More »
Here is a round up of stories that just didn’t make the /Film front page, or what we like to call…. Page 2!
TotalFilm has a batch of production photos from Pixar’s WALL-E.
David Poland calls Sex and the City: The Movie “the Lord of the Rings of Chick Flicks… not that it’s anywhere near as good, emotional, artistically made or worthy of box office or awards… IT’S 2 HOURS AND 25 FUCKING MINUTES LONG!!!!”
With news of yesterday morning’s decision by the California Supreme Court, Screenwriter John August has announced he is getting married. Congrads.
France’s MK2 and Britain’s Film4 will produce “Satisfaction,” the second film by U.S. writer-director Miranda July (Me and You and Everybody We Know). [Variety]
Universal Pictures has launched a viral site for the Timur Bekmambetov’s Wanted – FraternityofWeavers.com
Blogwarts has the third official photo from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, but it’s very low resolution and not very revealing.
Rotten Tomatoes‘ Total Recall column focuses on movies with talking live-action animals. This, naturally, is in anticipation of the new Narnia movie.
Variety continues to STEAL stories from movie news websites. How unprofessional. [collider]
Producer Daniel Dubieki says he would like to make a sequel to Jennifer’s Body: “I could see [a sequel] in the future if this movie does well and I think it will. As long as we can bring the right ingredients back to the table, I could totally see that happening. We’re not making it for that reason, but it could work. I’d love to do that.” [shock]
ThePlaylist has a small review of Pineapple Express: “The movie was bloody and hysterical. It was definitely like no other movie I’ve ever seen. [There's] lots of killing, at least 12 on camera deaths, and lots of blood. Insane. PS Danny R. McBride is a scene stealer.”
Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who represented the Al Gore team during the 2004 Florida recount, has denounced the HBO drama Recount, scheduled to air on May 25. [imdb]
io9 explains How Superhero Movies Made Comic Books Cooler (If Not Better).
ComingSoon has a new poster for Paramount’s The Love Guru, and no one cares.
PixarBlog has the track-listings for the WALL-E soundtrack.
Film School Rejects has the trailer for Don Cheadle‘s Traitor.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is currently getting a 73 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
Jon Brion is scoring Charlie Kaufman‘s Synecdoche, New York. [playlist]
Tom Cruise is in talks to star in director Phillip Noyce‘s thriller 28th Amendment, about a U.S. president (Cruise) who discovers that a secret committee (run by Denzel Washington) has controlled the U.S. government since WWII. [moviehole]
Six Flags Great Adventure announced the grand opening of The Dark Knight coaster which will feature new customized footage of Aaron Eckhart as District Attorney Harvey Dent. The ride also incorporates audio and visual elements from the film which will debut July 18, 2008, offering guests a sneak peak. [SHH]
The Movie Blog theorizes that Paramount might have botched the marketing for Indiana Jones 4.
Rob Corddry has landed his first starring role, a part in “Project A,” an action comedy from Ben Stiller’s production company about a man trained by the U.S. government as a Cold War experiment to become the world’s biggest jerk. [reuters]
Next up we bring you new photos from screenwriter Charlie Kaufman‘s (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation., Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind) directorial debut.
Synecdoche, New York stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as a theater director named Caden Cotard, whose life in Schenectady, New York is looking bleak. His wife Adele has left him to pursue her painting in Berlin, taking their young daughter Olive with her. A new relationship with the alluringly candid Hazel has prematurely run aground. And a mysterious condition is systematically shutting down each of his body’s autonomic functions. Worried about the transience of his life, he moves his theater company to a warehouse in New York City. He directs them in a celebration of the mundane, instructing each to live out their constructed lives in a growing mockup of the city outside. Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton and Tilda Swinton co-star.
Running time is 124 minutes. I love the imagery in the background of the life-size replica of New York City which is being housed in a large warehouse.
You might recognize Charlie Kaufman as the screenwriter of some of the strangest films in the last decade: Being John Malkovich, Human Nature, Adaptation., Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind. Now the Academy Award-winning writer makes his directorial debut with Synecdoche, New York.
Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a theater director named Caden, who ambitiously attempts to put on a play by creating a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse after finding out something is wrong with him on a trip to the dentist. The city model inside the warehouse gets bigger and bigger, as Hoffman’s character continued to age and with a mysterious disease that shuts down his autonomic functions one by one.
Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton and Tilda Swinton co-star. The project was originally written for long time collaborator Spike Jonze. More information on the film can be read in our earlier post.
Synecdoche, New York is set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this month.
source: Anne Thompson
Ioncinema has the first photo from Academy Award-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman‘s directorial debut Synecdoche, New York. Click on the image to enlarge.
Many of you will recognize Kaufman’s name from his unique screenwriting credits: Being John Malkovich, Human Nature, Adaptation., Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind. The movie stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton and Tilda Swinton. Hoffman plays a theater director named Caden, who ambitiously attempts to put on a play by creating a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse after finding out something is wrong with him on a trip to the dentist. The project was originally written for long time collaborator Spike Jonze. More information on the film can be read in our earlier post.
Synecdoche, New York is currently scheduled for a March 21st release, and will likely premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
