WEIRDLAND

Monday, January 04, 2010

Most anticipated 2010's entertainments


Terry Gilliam Interview.
What has been his experience promoting this film. He’s been at Comic-Con and Dragon Con
Tells a great story of how Heath Ledger came to this movie
Heath seemed really alive on camera. What was he like on set
Are there any special editions of his previous movies coming to Blu-ray Don Quixote talk

"Mr. HEATH LEDGER (Actor): (as Tony Shepherd) You know, forgive me, but I have a couple of solutions to your problems. One: I was thinking of, you know, changing the style of the show; and two: I would change the audience, perhaps.

Unidentified Man: Change?

Mr. LEDGER: (as Tony Shepherd) Yeah. You know, but in my opinion, I'd change both but, you know, that's just me.

RAZ: That's the voice of Heath Ledger. "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" turned out to be his last film. Three days after the first round of filming wrapped, Heath Ledger died.
Mr. TERRY GILLIAM (Director, "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus"): And I don't think in the entire history of motion pictures anything like this has actually happened where the lead actor dies literally in the middle of production and managed to get three A-list actors to come in and continue his part.

RAZ: That's director Terry Gilliam. And as he mentioned, three A-list actors, Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell, all stepped in to play little bits of Heath Ledger's role that were incomplete at the time of his death - the parts that took place inside the mirror, the imaginarium.

And to make it work, Terry Gilliam came up with a rather ingenious solution.

Mr. GILLIAM: We'd already established in the script the principle that if you go through the mirror with somebody else, their imagination may be stronger than yours and you become what they want you to be. And with a bit of fiddling a few bits of dialogue, I just made that clearer. And so the initial one was this lady who looks and it's Johnny and she says, ah, I always dreamed you would look like this".
Source: www.npr.org

Listen to
Terry Gilliams' interview

"Model Lily Cole and her boyfriend, Enrique Murciano, cuddle together on the Caribbean island of St. Bart’s on New Year’s Eve (December 31)!
Lily Cole and director Terry Gilliam attending "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" N.Y. premiere at the Crosby Street Hotel on 7th December, 2009.

The 21-year-old beauty, who can be seen in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (out now in New York and L.A. and in more theaters January 8), spent time with her 36-year-old boyfriend relaxing in the sunny weather and ringing in the new year!
Lily recently told the UK’s Daily Mail that she’s hoping to act more than model in the future! “I’d like to act and not really model so much. I wouldn’t want to treat acting as a convenient thing to do now and again”, she said.

“I’ve been doing modeling for years…I’m ready for new things.”
Source: justjared.buzznet.com

3. The Killer Inside Me
(premières at Sundance in January; wide release TBD)
Jim Thompson’s famous noir novel about a psychopathic small-town sheriff who hides behind a mask of banality was adapted once before, in a largely disastrous 1976 version starring Stacy Keach. But you can’t hold down a story this great; now, Michael Winterbottom—who’s shown himself capable of directing great work in almost every film genre—is tackling it, with an eerily calm Casey Affleck in the lead. (The rest of the cast is hit-and-miss; the two female leads being handled by Jessica Alba and Kate Hudson doesn’t inspire confidence, but the supporting roles are rounded out by reliable pros like Ned Beatty, Elias Koteas, and Bill Pullman.)
7. Shutter Island (February 19)
The ’09 fall movie season became a lot less exciting when Paramount decided not to spend Oscar-campaign money on Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of the Dennis Lehane thriller Shutter Island. This February, we’ll finally get to see whether Scorsese has succeeded in turning Lehane’s novel into an amped-up homage to horror movies past and present (and foreign and domestic), or if Shutter Island’s odd plot twists and thick Boston accents have defeated the best efforts of an American master.9. Alice In Wonderland (March 5)
Lewis Carroll’s classic children’s story has been adapted for the big screen countless times, but none of those adaptations (not even the pornographic one) captured the spirit of the original book. Given the trailers and production art that’s been released so far, Wonderland looks like a good match for Burton’s pop-art gothic style, with a cast of excitingly familiar faces. The movie isn’t a straight adaptation of the source, but that could work in Burton’s favor as well; one of the reasons Alice In Wonderland has resisted traditional movie structure is that the novel is basically structure-free, and each new story gives Burton a chance to inject some much-needed momentum. Nightmare fuel, whimsy, and Johnny Depp mad as a hatter?


10. Greenberg (March 12)
A new film by Noah Baumbach (The Squid And The Whale, Margot At The Wedding) is always cause for anticipation: No one else is currently as adept at milking comic misanthropy and abrasion for all it’s worth. But Greenberg promises more than usual, if only for the number of flashpoints it brings together:
Ben Stiller exploiting his squirmy self-deprecation for pathos rather than annoying attempts at getting laughs opposite Greta Gerwig, break-out It Kid of the mumblecore scene (Hannah Takes The Stairs, Baghead) and seemingly a potential legit Hollywood star. Plus an original score by LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy. Given his prowess in the wordless realm as shown by 45:33, it’s about time this happened. Fingers crossed.
22. The Green Hornet (December 22)
A svelte Seth Rogen is the titular lead.
Michel Gondry is going to direct so the film’s visuals might blow some minds.
Edward James Olmos is making an appearance, hopefully with Battlestar Galactica-like stoic intensity.
The band Anvil is in there, too.
Christoph Waltz from Inglourious Basterds plays the villain who tries to get every crime boss in Los Angeles to work together.
Cameron Diaz, who actually wasn’t all that bad in The Box.
25. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (TBD)
It’s a pretty safe bet that Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim series will make an easy transition to film, what with the comic books’ relatable twentysomething slacker milieu and a youthful pop-culture sensibility that draws heavily on indie-rock and videogame references. But factor in director/co-writer Edgar Wright (Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz), who has shown a remarkable aptitude for the comedy-action hybrid that characterizes the books, and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World has the potential to be something more than a likeable adaptation. Michael Cera as the tweaky, bumbling lead, and Jason Schwartzman as the “big bad”; a rumored mix of live-action and animation done by O’Malley himself; and glowing early buzz from directors Jason Reitman (Juno, Up In The Air) and Greg Motola (Superbad, Adventureland) after seeing an early cut.
Jake Gyllenhaal on the Set of 'Nailed' in Columbia, South Carolina on 17th April 2009.

29-30. Nailed/The Fighter (TBD)
After the notoriously difficult shoot of I Heart Huckabees resulted in screwball comic triumph, David O. Russell was deep in purgatory. Nailed—a D.C. satire—was set to bring him roaring back, but production shut down after Capitol Films imploded financially with the film nowhere close to done. Jessica Biel claimed there wasn’t enough footage to bring it together in post, but now the money’s been raised and the movie’s allegedly on track for the 2010 Cannes market.
Meanwhile, Russell managed to shoot a whole other movie—The Fighter, a boxing movie starring the perfectly cast Mark Wahlberg—that’s also on track for release soon. Assuming the currently all-shook-up indie market can get its act together and buy/distribute the movies quickly, 2010 should give us not one but two Russell movies—even as the man himself prepares to do Pride And Prejudice And Zombies.32. The Pale King, by David Foster Wallace
(TBD, now maybe 2011?)
Posthumous releases always represent a moral quandary for an artist’s fans. There’s the understandable interest in seeing new work from someone who won’t be producing anything new ever again, but it’s a ghoulish feeling, like going through the pockets of a corpse that’s still warm. When David Foster Wallace committed suicide in 2008, he left behind an unfinished manuscript called The Pale King about a group of IRS workers struggling to deal with the massive boredom of their jobs.
But Wallace’s fractal-like attention to detail makes for surprisingly compulsive reading, profound in its minutiae, beautiful in its tedium. The Pale King will, at best, be a depressing reminder of an abbreviated life, but at worst, it should have at least a little of Wallace’s insight and level-headed passion. And it will also have footnotes, and they will be excellent". Source: www.avclub.com

Zooey, Natalie & Maggie's next films


Zooey Deschanel / Ms Independent videoclip.

Zooey Deschanel in The Book Fahsion by Taschen.New film with Natalie Portman and Zooey Deschanel, "Your Highness":

Your Highness (October 1st)
Thadeous (McBride) has spent his life watching his perfect older brother Fabious (Franco) embark upon valiant journeys and win the hearts of his people. Tired of being passed over for adventure, adoration and the throne, he's settled for a life of wizard's weed, hard booze and easy maidens. But when Fabious' bride-to-be, Belladonna (Zooey Deschanel), gets kidnapped by the evil wizard Leezar (Justin Theroux), the king gives his deadbeat son an ultimatum: Man up and help rescue her or get cut off.Joined by Isabel (Natalie Portman)-an elusive warrior with a dangerous agenda of her own-the brothers must vanquish horrific creatures and traitorous knights before they can reach Belladonna. If Thadeous can find his inner hero, he can help his brother prevent the destruction of his land. Stay a slacker, and not only does he die a coward, he gets front row seats to the dawn of an all-new Dark Ages.

Maggie Gyllenhaal as Mrs. Green and Rhys Ifans as Uncle Phil on the set of Universal Pictures' Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang (2010).

Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang (TBA)A sequel to the popular Mary Poppins-esque tale.
In Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, Oscar®-winning actress and screenwriter Emma Thompson returns to the role of the magical nanny who appears when she's needed the most and wanted the least in the next chapter of the hilarious and heartwarming fable that has enchanted children around the world.
In the latest installment, Nanny McPhee appears at the door of a harried young mother, Mrs. Isabel Green (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who is trying to run the family farm while her husband is away at war. But once she's arrived, Nanny McPhee discovers that Mrs. Green's children are fighting a war of their own against two spoiled city cousins who have just moved in and refuse to leave.Relying on everything from a flying motorcycle and a statue that comes to life to a tree-climbing piglet and a baby elephant who turns up in the oddest places, Nanny McPhee uses her magic to teach her mischievous charges five new lessons". Source: www.examiner.com

"Brothers" in NPR's Top 13 Films List

1. Summer Hours The premise is simple: A matriarch who inherited the estate and collection of her artist uncle dies, and two of her three children vote to sell it all instead of keeping the house and work in the family. The next hour is mostly about inventory, pricing, discussions of tax deductions, and an auction. But director Olivier Assayas evokes the sadness of the passing of the Old World and its indigenous forms of culture, the rise of globalization, and the weakening of family ties.2. Everlasting Moments Jan Troell's entrancingly beautiful drama centers on a turn-of-the-century woman who finds an old camera in a cabinet and discovers that she has what another character calls "a gift for seeing." Troell uses surfaces — light, texture, faces — to hint at another world, a shadow realm.3. Brothers Jim Sheridan's melancholy drama (with superlative performances by Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman and Sam Shepard), explores not just the horror of the "war on terror," but the chemistry of families — the connections that shape our actions even when separated from loved ones by continents.4. The Fantastic Mr. Fox In this stop-motion adaptation of Roald Dahl's book, Wes Anderson's ultra-composed frames are magically, mischievously alive.6.A Serious Man A Jewish joke with a sting, Joel and Ethan Coen lampoon traditions and folklore, along with the sanctified notion of moral "seriousness." Underneath, another note creeps in — existential dislocation and dread, and the impossibility of discerning divine motives.10. The Hurt Locker Director Kathryn Bigelow's adrenaline-soaked Iraq film evokes both the charge and the terrifying disorientation of a war in which death can come from any direction at anytime from anyone.12. Where the Wild Things Are With some computer work but largely with live action, Spike Jonze brings Maurice Sendak's wondrous world of giant beasts and bestial little boys to life — with all its rage and longing and even depression intact.
13. Avatar With the help of a brontosaurian budget, James Cameron creates a pantheistic virtual world with such thrilling, vertigo-inducing depth that as you watch you barely notice it's a dumb, guilt-assuaging parable in which Native Americans and their living ecosystem best their capitalist-imperialist invaders". Source: www.npr.org

Sunday, January 03, 2010

New stills of "Inception" & "Shutter Island"

Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page and Christopher Nolan filming "Inception" in Paris.
New still of Leonardo DiCaprio in "Shutter Island".

“Shutter Island” by director Martin Scorsese (The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, The Departed) and starring Leonardo DiCaprio (Revolutionary Road, Body of Lies), Mark Ruffalo (Blindness, Zodiac), Ben Kingsley (Number 13, The Love Guru), Emily Mortimer and Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen).

Synopsis: Drama is set in 1954, U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels is investigating the disappearance of a murderess who escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane and is presumed to be hiding on the remote Shutter Island.
Source: www.shockya.com

Michael Angarano reading "An American Dream"

Michael Angarano and Kirsten Stewart on 1st December 2008.

"Michael Angarano looks too young to buy the cigarettes he smokes. And the 22-year-old actor, star of the recent Gentlemen Broncos, admits it’s not just his fresh face that makes him appear underage.
Mike White and Michael Angarano in "Gentlemen Broncos", September 2009.

“As a kid, I was able to distract myself and not have work take over my life completely,” says Angarano, who found himself splashed across tabloids when he was still dating his ex-girlfriend, actress Kristen Stewart. “If I didn’t have that experience growing up, I don’t know that I would be able to keep work from taking over now.”
Eddie Redmayne, Kristen Stewart and Michael Angarano at Sundance Film Festival Entertainment Weekly 17th Year on 19th January 2008.

“If I wasn’t acting, I’d just be coming out of college,” he says. “I would already have had four years of being on my own, but now I’m kind of just starting.” Anganaro is successfully making the transition from child to adult actor (he’s been working since he was 5, and his résumé includes supporting roles in Almost Famous, Lords of Dogtown and Will & Grace). Michael Angarano as Sid in "Lords of Dogtown" (2005).

In his next film, Ceremony, Angarano plays a young Turk intent on destroying an older crush’s wedding (Uma Thurman plays the object of his desire).
Uma Thurman in "Ange ou Demon, Le Secret de Givenchy".

“It’s a coming-of-age story about a boy realizing he’s a boy,” Angarano says, “Instead of a boy realizing he’s a man.”
-Do you feel like a part of “young Hollywood?”
-I just do what I like doing. And that sounds very arrogant, but in a way it’s all I can do. I have no thoughts about being anything.-But it’s good to be you.
-Of course it is. Acting is like a trade, like any other trade, so when people appreciate it for what it is and understand what you’re doing and what you’re going through, that’s what you do it for. Of course you like being acknowledged but at the same time it means nothing really.
Michael Angarano as William Miller at age 11 in "Almost famous" (2000).

-Can you talk about making the transition from child to adult actor?
-It gets harder as you get older. The roles get harder. Life gets harder as you get older. As a kid I always had distractions, even when I was on set I was always worrying about school. My mind was always very busy. But as an adult when I’m on set it’s all I have to do and when I’m off set that’s also all I have to do. As a kid it’s easy not to have work take over your life completely. And it’s very important to live outside of your career.
-What do you do for fun?
-I like traveling a lot. And I’ve been doing a lot of reading. The second I stopped going to school, I started reading exponentially more. I never read and now I read a lot. I’m reading a book called An American Dream by Norman Mailer and it’s really good. I’ve read Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead and it changed my life completely. I love those books so much.
-Tell me about Ceremony. -In Ceremony my character is kind of a complete sociopath. The kind of person who really doesn’t care about anyone’s feelings except his own. The plot of the movie is that he tricks and manipulates his best friend into coming on this vacation with him for a weekend. But unknown to his friend, the only reason he wants to go is to break up the wedding of an older woman. The guy is maybe 22 years old, but just by the way he dresses and talks you would think he’s like 35 yeas old. He’s one of those people that, the major elephant in the room is how this person is acting. You feel like if you say something about what they’re doing, how false it is, it would pull the rug out from under them completely. That’s the kind of line that he walks.-Forbidden Kingdom was a success in the box office. Did you think it would be?
-I think a movie like that is really rare, because you know it’s going to be somewhat successful. You know what you’re doing is going to get at least some kind of default profit because of the people involved, like Jackie Chan and Jet Le. You know it’s going to do semi-fairly well. But by no means when I signed on to that movie did I do it because it was going to be a big movie or anything. It was just like anything else; an incredible challenge. Independent movies are character driven and really simple and no special effects, but they can still be so ambitious, with the story they’re trying to tell. But a movie like that, that’s like the most ambitious movie you can make, because you’re really trying to make something people will revere and be surprised and entertained with".
Source: www.blackbookmag.com