Posts Tagged ‘first independent pictures’

Paul Verhoeven’s Thriller ‘Surrogate’ is Still A Go.

Earlier this week we wrote about a new project that director Paul Verhoeven (seen above) is working on (an adaptation of the video game The Last Express), but we weren’t sure if that meant he was ditching his other project The Surrogate. Announced last year, The Surrogate is a thriller about a couple desperate to have a child who find themselves in an unbearable position when they find out the surrogate they hired to carry their baby is insane. Not the most interesting concept, but in the hands of Verhoeven, you never know. MTV ran new quotes from their recent chat with Verhoeven and word is The Surrogate is still in the works.

“That’s still in the works,” Verhoeven told MTV. “Halle Berry is attached to the project and we discussed it all. The question is where do we get the $30 million to do a project that includes a lot of things that have to do with abortion and… surrogate mothers.” Good question, but maybe it’s an early sign that no one wants to invest in this. We don’t want another Showgirls, now do we? While Berry is attached (as of June ‘09) to play the mother/wife, they still haven’t found someone for the husband or the surrogate yet. Verhoeven does also promise this will be “provocative and sexual,” which reminds me of Showgirls again. Speaking of which:

“There are nearly no movies anymore with sex clearly in it,” Verhoeven told MTV. “If you look at what’s there, it’s all PG-13. There is really no R anymore.” The plan is for The Surrogate to change all that.

He’s right – the way we treat sexuality and nudity in movies in the US is shameful. But that doesn’t mean he needs to overdo it to prove a point. Verhoeven’s always been an edgier filmmaker who sometimes takes that sexuality a bit too far (I heard more complaints about that “scene” in Black Book than I did compliments) and, well, I don’t think I need to mention Showgirls again, but I will anyway. Then again, I am usually a fan of Verhoeven’s crazier work, which it sounds like this could be, especially with an “insane” baby mama that Halle Berry has to fight. The Surrogate is in development at Fox through GG Filmz and Winter Road. It’s based on a book of the same name by Kathryn Mackel. We’ll keep you updated on its progress. Thoughts?

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Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass

Now that you’ve seen it, what did you think? Its been exactly 2 years, 27 days since we first learned that Matthew Vaughn would be adapting John Romita Jr and Mark Millar’s ultra-violent comic book series Kick-Ass. The finished movie arrives in theaters this weekend and it’s time to hear your thoughts about it. How does it compare to the comics? Is it better or worse? Is the movie as awesome as everyone is saying it is? Is Hit Girl the best character in the movie? Was Roger Ebert wrong to give it 1 star in his review? Or is it not that good? If you’ve seen it, then leave a comment below and let us know what you thought of Kick-Ass!

To fuel the fire, Kick-Ass is currently my favorite movie of the year so far. I’ve seen it twice and I completely and thoroughly love it. It packs a punch from start to finish, transcends the family friendly nature of most comic book movies in the wildest of ways, and is just the perfect bit of cinematic entertainment. My favorite scene was the strobe light fighting scene, which blew me away for being both beautifully shot and incredibly intense at the same time. I loved all of the characters, even Red Mist and especially Hit Girl and Kick-Ass, and I can’t wait to see the sequel. Kick-Ass really was one of the best recent comic book movies I have seen!

What did you think of Kick-Ass? One of the best comic book movies ever or one of the worst?

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WB’s Remake of Snabba Cash Zac Efron Plays Drug Smuggler.

You’re not the only one who doesn’t know what’s up with wacky that title. Heat Vision reports that remake rights to this Swedish thriller sparked a huge bidding war in Hollywood and it looks like the winner is Zac Efron (also attached to star) and Warner Bros (the home of Efron’s new production company) along with producers Charles Roven (The Dark Knight) and Richard Suckle (The International) of Atlas Ent. Snabba Cash is a new Swedish film based on a novel by Jens Lapidus that follows three interconnected storylines involving drugs and organized crime, and would have Efron as a financial wiz who becomes drug runner.

Apparently the property sparked interest at the Berlin Film Festival. Later, filmmaker Daniel Espinosa and his film were showcased to bring in offers and luckily they poured in like “snabba cash,” which apparently just means easy money. This project is so in-demand (Universal, Summit, Paramount, Fox, the Weinstein Company, and Mandate were all bidding on it) that the deal has a “progress to production,” or “short fuse” clause, which means that if Warner Bros sits on it for too long, the rights will revert back to the producers. But with WB’s big move to make Efron their next big action star, I don’t think getting this project off the ground with him attached will be too hard. Sound good? Anybody seen the original Snabba Cash?

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Full 63rd Cannes Film Festival Official Selection Announced

The 63nd Cannes Film Festival official selection was just announced this morning. A total of 46 films this year are featured in four categories: Competition, Un Certain Regard, Out of Competition and Special Screenings (including those Midnight Screenings). The festival kicks off on May 12th next month and last for 11 days until May 23rd. I will be attending for my second year in a row. It was previously announced that Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood would be opening the festival. Highlights from this year’s selection include Mike Leigh’s Another Year and Jean-Luc Godard’s Socialisme among many others. Read on for a full list!

Lists below are alphabetized by title and include the director’s name and a quick and easy reference link.

OPENING NIGHT FILM:
Robin Hood – Dir: Ridley Scott

COMPETITION:
A Screaming Man – Dir: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
Another Year – Dir: Mike Leigh
Biutiful – Dir: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Burnt by the Sun 2 – Dir: Nikita Mikhalkov
Certified Copy – Dir: Abbas Kiarostami
Fair Game – Dir: Doug Liman
Housemaid – Dir: Im Sang-soo
La Nostra Vita – Dir: Daniele Luchetti
Of Gods and Men – Dir: Xavier Beauvois
Outrage – Dir: Takeshi Kitano
Outside the Law – Dir: Rachid Bouchareb
Poetry – Dir: Lee Chang-dong
The Princess of Montpensier – Dir: Bertrand Tavernier
Tournée – Dir: Mathieu Amalric
Uncle Boonmee – Dir: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
You, My Joy – Dir: Sergei Loznitsa

UN CERTAIN REGARD:
Adrienn Pál – Dir: Ágnes Kocsis
Angelica – Dir: Manoel de Oliveira
Aurora – Dir: Cristi Puiu
Blue Valentine – Dir: Derek Cianfrance
Chatroom – Dir: Hideo Nakata
Chongqing Blues – Dir: Xiaoshuai Wang
The City Below – Dir: Christoph Hochhäusler
Hahaha – Dir: Hong Sang-soo
Heartbeats – Dir: Xavier Dolan
Life Above All – Dir: Oliver Schmitz
The Lips – Dir: Iván Fund & Santiago Loza
Octubre – Dir: Daniel Vega
R U There – Dir: David Verbeek
Rebecca H. (Return to the Dogs) – Dir: Lodge Kerrigan
Simon Werner Disappeared… – Dir: Fabrice Gobert
Socialisme – Dir: Jean-Luc Godard
Tuesday, After Christmas – Dir: Radu Muntean
Udaan – Dir: Vikramaditya Motwane

OUT OF COMPETITION:
Tamara Drewe – Dir: Stephen Frears
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps – Dir: Oliver Stone
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger – Dir: Woody Allen

SPECIAL SCREENINGS:
Abel – Dir: Diego Luna
Chantrapas – Dir: Otar Iosseliani
Draquila: L’Italia Che Trema – Dir: Sabina Guzzanti
Inside Job – Dir: Charles Ferguson
Nostalgia For The Light – Dir: Patricio Guzmán
Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow – Dir: Sophie Fiennes

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS:
Blackhole – Dir: Gilles Marchand
Kaboom – Dir: Gregg Araki

Cannes president Thierry Fremaux did say that the “official selection is not complete yet” and currently six films are missing, so expect to see a few more added to the line-up before the start of the fest in May.

This looks like a fascinating line-up this year, with a few films I’m excited to see, and a whole bunch that I’ve never heard of before. Last year had as strong of a selection, including Inglourious Basterds, Fish Tank, Un Prophete, The White Ribbon, Thirst, and the controversial Antichrist (and I was there when it all began). I’m really looking forward to heading out to France in May and I will be joined by first-timer Peter Sciretta from SlashFilm as well as Cannes veteran and my very good friend Eric Lavallee from IONCinema. We’ll do our best to bring you the finest coverage we can straight from Cannes 2010! Anything catch your eye?

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French Actress Astrid Bergès-Frisbey Joins the Cast of Pirates 4

Surely there is someone who is disappointed by the fact that Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley will not be returning for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, but there are also still plenty that don’t mind, especially with people like Ian McShane coming on-board. Well since there’s been recent development on finding a suitable young actor to fill Bloom’s shoes as the young heartthrob in the flick, surely there must be a comparable young beauty to fill Knightley’s shoes and it looks like Disney found her, as they announced that the young French actress Astrid Berges-Frisbey will be making her US feature debut in the sequel.

Astrid has landed the key role of Syrena, a beautiful and alluring young mermaid. A full press release for an actress almost entirely unknown to American audiences is totally unheard of, so she’s either such a treasure of France that her working stateside is quite the catch, or Disney really believes she’ll be the next big thing. Bergès-Frisbey’s credits include the following French films: La Fille du Puisatier, Bruc, Extase, La Premiere Etoile and Un Barrage Contre le Pacifique. This casting of a character who is a mermaid in the movie goes hand in hand with a recent casting call that was looking for professional dancers who are also swimmers.

Disney is certainly pulling out all the stops with trying to cast naturally beautiful women, with the previous casting of Penelope Cruz, and that other casting call that stated they were looking for “fit” female models who have real breasts (no floaters on these high seas). Anyone familiar with Astrid Berges-Frisbey?

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James Mangold My Direct Gyllenhaal’s Joe Namath Biopic

Back in 2007, it was announced that Jake Gyllenhaal would play football quarterback Joe Namath in a feature film about his life that was being put together. Jump to today and, well, no progress has been made. However, Pajiba says they’ve heard that James Mangold (of Kate & Leopold, Walk the Line, 3:10 to Yuma, Knight & Day) may have just landed this directing gig, which makes them (and us) wonder if Universal may actually be trying to get this into production as Gyllenhaal’s next big film following Duncan Jones’ Source Code (which he is already shooting). It all makes sense, and I won’t be surprised if this actually happens.

The project was originally setup with David Hollander (“Heartland”, “The Cleaner”) attached to write the screenplay. Namath himself approved of the movie after a “strong pitch” from Hollander and a belief that the “athletic” Gyllenhaal was the right actor to play him. This is an approval that the studio doesn’t want to let go of, which is probably why they’re keeping Gyllenhaal out in front while moving forward. Universal does want to take another pass at David Hollander’s script before it moves into production, though, and knowing them this means it could probably get shelved just as quickly, especially if the budget is too high.

Joe Namath was one of the first football players to achieve a “rock star” status in the NFL. This biopic will tell the story of how the golden-armed kid from Beaver Falls, PA became “Broadway Joe,” the New York Jets quarterback who became a ’60s cultural figure. “Most of the stuff you saw in Forest Gump, Joe lived through all of it,” producer and friend Jimmy Walsh said about Namath and his life. Namath played for 11 years with the New York Jets, from 1965 to 1976, and was the first to pass more than 4,000 yards one season. You can read up on all of his stats on his biography at Pro Football Hall of Fame. We’ll let you know what happens.

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1914 Video Game Adaptation In The Works For Paul Verhoeven.

I’ve been waiting to see Paul Verhoeven return to his “roots” with more insanely violent action flicks like those he used to make back in the 80s and 90s, but that hasn’t happened yet. Last we heard, Verhoeven was supposed to working on a thriller called Surrogate, but not anymore. MTV talked with Verhoeven recently who told them: “I am working on a movie now that is… situated in 1914. We are scripting it. It’s an idea that exists already… from another medium, and so we are making it now into a film narrative.” He wouldn’t say the name, but did confirm that it’s a video game that they’re adapting the script from. So what could it be?

Verhoeven adds that the story is “basically, Indiana Jones-ish you could say, but also Hitchcockian.” Well that’s no help. How many games can you even think of that are set in 1914? Peter from SlashFilm seems to think it could be an old 1997 PC game called The Last Express, a real-time adventure game created by Jordan Mechner, the same guy who recently broke into Hollywood with Prince of Persia (he created that game and also wrote the script). The game takes place on the Orient Express days before the start of WWI and was even described at the time as “a mix of Indiana Jones and Alfred Hitchcock.” We’ve got a winner!

So Verhoeven is finally returning to the war genre again, or at least he’s adapting an adventure video game that’s set entirely on a train (I think?) in 1914 before WWI. Sounds like a very unique concept and as long as it’s as crazy violent and fun as Verhoeven’s work from the 80’s and 90’s, then I’m in. I don’t think Verhoeven has lost his touch recently, he just hasn’t been working on any movies that are as risky and, to be honest, as entertaining as his earlier work. And whenever I re-watch an old Verhoeven movie, I always hope that we’ll see more like it again soon. Has anyone played The Last Express? Will it make for a good movie?

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Cast in Kubrick’s Lost Film include Scarlett Johansson and Sam Rockwell

Wait, wait, wait – Stanley Kubrick had a long lost project? Apparently so. The film is called Lunatic at Large and is based on a treatment by pulp author Jim Thompson that was commissioned by Kubrick in the late 1950s, after the two worked together on The Killing and Paths Of Glory. The script was discovered the a few years ago (read a NY Times article on it) and has been floating around for at least a few years. However, Production Weekly is reporting today on their Twitter (via The Playlist) that both Scarlett Johansson and Sam Rockwell are attached to star in Lunatic at Large. They’ve got a few good actors for now. Read on!

Set in New York in 1956, Lunatic at Large tells the story of Johnnie Sheppard, an ex-carnival worker with serious anger-management issues, and Joyce, a nervous, attractive barfly he picks up from a Hopperesque tavern scene. It’s described as “a dark and surprising mystery” about a person who is “the true escapee from a nearby mental hospital.” Kubrick was supposed to follow up Spartacus with this, but the only copy of the manuscript was lost and later found in his library. The latest draft of the script was finished by Stephen R. Clarke in 2006, but we don’t know too much else, including production details (when will it start shooting?).

It’s not surprising that Johansson and Rockwell were interested in this. Any and everyone in Hollywood is probably jumping at the opportunity to work on a project that has the late Stanley Kubrick’s name attached, even if it’s just as a writer. If it’s true that both actors have signed on, I’m sure a director is close behind, as they wouldn’t be this far along without one. Chris Palmer has been attached since 2006, but no word if he’s still involved at this point. This sounds like it could be a great project with touch of Kubrick, who hasn’t left any mark on the big screen since Eyes Wide Shut in 1999. We’ll keep you updated best we can. Stay tuned!

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Joss Whedon to Direct The Avengers!

This a fanboy dream come true. I don’t think anyone thought they’d ever wake up and read a headline saying that Joss Whedon, the geek creator of TV shows like “Buffy” and “Firefly”, would be directing the first big superhero team-up movie to ever hit the big screen – The Avengers. Deadline has confirmed the big news of the day: “Marvel Studios is in final negotiations for Joss Whedon to direct Marvel Studios’ The Avengers.” Earlier this month, it was rumored that Whedon was on the shortlist to direct, but no one seemed to believe it would actually happen. Joss Whedon’s The Avengers will hit theaters the first weekend of May in 2012.

Fleming lists a few confirmed superheroes that will be a part of the team: Iron Man ((Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and SHIELD agent Nick Fury (Samuel Jackson). “Other signature superheroes” will be involved, but haven’t been announced yet. Whedon’s background is perfect for this movie, as he’s worked at Marvel before, specifically on the Astonishing X-Men series and a number of other comics. This is most certainly surprising news, but definitely good news. If there’s anyone who’ll be able to handle an immense cast of superheroes, it’s Joss Whedon. I just hope he doesn’t cast Eliza Dushku in this. What do you think of this? Will Joss Whedon do a good job with The Avengers?

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Official Trailer for Jesse Eisenberg Drug Drama Holy Rollers

First Independent Pictures has debuted the official trailer for Kevin Asch’s Holy Rollers starring Justin Bartha and Jesse Eisenberg as two Hasidic Jews who helped bring millions of ecstasy pills in from Europe. As good as this trailer may look, this is not a good film, as I saw it at Sundance and it’s pretty boring. I was expecting a comedy going in, but it was a straight drama with no direction, and it’s all over the place with its story. Sadly, Holy Rollers is one of those Sundance films you don’t want to admit you saw because it was so bad. I’m featuring this anyway in case a few of you are interested, but I don’t suggest seeing this in theaters.

Watch the official trailer for Kevin Asch’s Holy Rollers:

In Brooklyn, a youth from an Orthodox Jewish community is lured into becoming an Ecstasy dealer by his pal who has ties to an Israel drug cartel. This also features Ari Graynor, Jason Fuchs and rapper Q-Tip.

Holy Rollers is directed by aspiring first-time feature filmmaker Kevin Asch of only the comedy short film Characters from 2005 previously. The screenplay was written by Antonio Macia, of only the drama Anne B. Real previously. This first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and was later bought by the micro-indie company First Independent Pictures for US distribution. They are bringing Holy Rollers to limited theaters starting on May 21st this summer, with an expansion planned, but I doubt it’ll pick up.

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