Last week's 48-hour press blitz for Marie Antoinette was covered tag-team style by Netscape at the Movies and Cinematical, with the former covering the film's NYFF press conference and the latter covering junket roundtables at Sony headquarters.At both events, the Converse questions came fast and furious.For those who haven't yet seen the film, there's a scene where an impossible-to-miss pair of Chuck Taylor All Star Converse show up at 18th century Versailles. One journalist at the roundtables was so irked by this that she decided to interrogate Sofia Coppola on that and other other points of historical inaccuracy, down to and including Antoinette's panties. Coppola wasn't easily rattled, however. She displayed a relaxed-but-unshakable manner and patiently addressed the charges one by one. The next day at the press conference, however, Coppola was again asked why she decided to include the sneakers. This time she immediately spit back "Because I could." I think that's a pretty great answer.
In addition to Sofia Coppola, stars Kirsten Dunst and Jason Schwartzman, who play the blundering King Louis and Queen Antoinette of France, were also on hand to participate in the roundtables and offer their views on the making of the film. Cinematical's official digital tape recorder was strategically placed to capture all of the best and worst questions from the event. Here's a sampling of what went on:
Eighteen-year-old Haley Joel Osment pleaded no contest in court yesterday, and the judge didn't offer him a chance to Pay it Forward. Osment will serve three years probation, serve 60 hours in an alcohol rehabilitation program, attend 26 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings over a six month period, and pay $1500 in fines. Osment, who fractured a rib and injured his shoulder during an accident in July which involved him flipping a 1995 Saturn after crashing into a brick mailbox outside of Los Angeles, also had a .16 blood alcohol content (twice the legal limit) and a quantity of marijuana.
Osment's film Home of the Giants is currently in post-production and should be released later this year or in early 2007, so what will this mean for the teenage star? He doesn't have a next film lined up, which isn't too uncommon, but his last film was Secondhand Lions, which performed poorly at the box office in 2003 (although I highly enjoyed the Michael Caine and Robert Duvall pairing). He's done a lot of voiceover work since then, but this might put his live-action career on the skids for awhile. He's fallen a long way since his Oscar nominated performance in The Sixth Sense.
While it could bring trouble for the young actor, high-profile arrests in Hollywood have often proven to boost careers, just look at Hugh Grant, Russell Crowe, Robert Downey Jr., Nick Nolte, and Mel Gibson. While the jury is still out on how Mel will ultimately be affected, all of the other actors have enjoyed success after their days in court.
What do you think? Will this hurt or harm his career?
There's an interesting conversation going on over at Hollywood Elsewhere about Sasha Baron Cohen's upcoming film, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, and whether the film is too intellectual for the average moviegoer. Jeff Wells notes that the awareness level of the film in the average movie-goer is not great, even though it's receiving lots of buzz from industry types and critics since it screened at the Toronto International Film Festival. Wells speculates some on why the movie isn't buzzing well with average joes, and wonders whether part of the reason might be that people are hearing that the film basically makes Middle Americans look like a bunch of racist, homophobic dorks.
There's been some interesting discussion in the comments, partly on whether Middle America will be interested in seeing a film that basically mocks them out, and partly on whether Sacha Baron Cohen should have delved into other groups like the Black Panthers or Nation of Islam and gotten them talking about the "white devils," to be more balanced. Maybe Cohen will tackle offending those folks in a future film; I certainly wouldn't put it past him. I saw Borat at Toronto (both at the premiere, when the projector famously broke 15 minutes into sold-out screening, and the following night all the way through), and I laughed non-stop, even when I was cringing at the way Cohen is able to elicit the most amazing responses out of the subjects he encounters in the film.
I may poke fun at Ain't It Cool news from time to time for their overwhelming enthusiasm and use of exclamation points, but like most geeks, I respect Harry Knowles and the crazy, crazy job he does. The same apparently cannot be said for Transformers producer Don Murphy, who in a recent flame post on his message board referred to Harry's site as "Ain't it S**t news." A profoundly witty man, that Murphy ... he can really zing those insults off, and with such clever turns of phrase. At any rate, Murphy was responding to images of Optimus Prime seen on Ain't it Cool News, and the money part of his quote was: "You know -- no one from the production ever confirmed anything that was leaked to Ain't It S**t News. So it may have been actual photos or it may not have been. The bad poet Diabetes has reported on here that Megatron's head will be changed. From what? Did we ever release an official pic of Megs? No sir we didn't. I CAN tell you that Megs' head will not look like he did in the leaked pics."
So there you have it, folks. Your friendly neighborhood producer Don Murphy reminds you "don't trust the internets." Thanks, Don!
The guy's killed a hundred terrorists, slayed a thousand vampires and infuriated more than one co-star along the way ... but former movie star/recent Video Shelf King Wesley Snipes, has just been indicted on eight counts of tax fraud. Seems the guy's been (allegedly) cooking his books to the tune of 12 million smackers over the past six years. Yowch.
Unfortunately this is not the first time that Mr. Snipes has been in trouble with the law: Tax Evasion in 2002, allegations of domestic violence and a paternity suit in 2004, the use of a fake South African passport in 2005 ... Plus the guy's been guilty of non-stop assaults on moviegoers the past three years. Following the weak Blade: Trinity, Snipes starred in 7 Seconds, Unstoppable, The Marksman, Chaos, The Detonator, Hard Luck and the impending The Shooter. And if you've never even heard of those movies, then congratulations: You officially have good taste in action flicks.
Anyway, yep: Eight counts of tax evasion, and the federal government is pissed. Somewhere I bet Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal are clapping their hands and calling their agents.
I'm not sure howmanytimeswe'vetalked about the film Jumper here on Cinematical, but trust me -- if they jump, we write about it. Rachel Bilson is now set to jump in and replace Teresa Palmer in one of the film's starring roles opposite Hayden Christensen. This marks the second swap-a-roo for Jumper, as earlier this year Christensen (who's more well-known) took over the lead from Tom Sturridge. In the pic (which may or may not turn into a trilogy), Samuel L. Jackson plays an NSA agent placed in charge of tracking a boy with the ability to teleport places. Sweet! Looks like Jackson finally managed to teleport himself into a good role.
Wayyy back in August of 2005, we told you about Dirty Tricks -- a pic based on the play by John Jeter. The real-life story revolves around the wife of Richard Nixon's attorney general and how she defended her husband following the Watergate scandal. Oh yes, Capote had his turn and now the flavor of the year is Dicky Nixon. Well, director Ryan Murphy (Nip/Tuck, anyone? Running with Scissors?) recently spilled some casting tidbits, noting that Brad Pitt, Sharon Stone and Jim Broadbent will now star alongside Meryl Streep, Annette Bening,Gwyneth Paltrow and Jill Clayburgh. Beat that cast Ron Howard! Murphy hopes to begin shooting next fall with plans to release the film at some point during the fall of 2008.
[In my best Sly Stallone impersonation]: "Um, yo -- like why you wanna go and sue me? What I ever do to you, huh?" That's right, Rambo is set to face off against his toughest (and dare I say, largest) opponent yet -- those dangerous Weinstein boys. In a suit filed Friday, The Weinstein's contend that they've owned distribution rights to a Rambo sequel since 2004 and, supposedly, producers Nu Image had recently offered distribution to Lionsgate instead. This one looks hot and heavy folks, and we'll be sure to let you know what happens at the next rose ceremony.
Towards the end of last week, Mel Gibson sat down with Diane Sawyer and, throughout the course of a two-part interview, finally answered questions regarding "the incident" this past summer. For those of you who either don't remember or don't feel like waiting for "the incident" to re-appear once all those end-of-the-year top ten lists hit the streets (all of which are bound to include Mel Gibson in some way, shape or form), let's recap: Mel Gibson got drunk, drove a car, got pulled over by the cops and subsequently felt the need to blame the Jews for everything. Yeah, that about covers it.
At one point during his "conversation" with police, Gibson blamed the Jews for all the wars in the world. However, when Sawyer brought up that comment, Gibson replied, "Let me be real clear, here. In sobriety here, in front of you, national television ... that I don't believe that Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world. I mean, that's an outrageous, drunken statement." It sure was, and it's a good thing the guy decided to finally speak on national television, what with his movie coming out in a little over a month. A movie whose release date was conveniently pushed back from August to early December -- right around the time when folks will be buying Christmas gifts and renting movies like The Santa Clause and The Passion of the Christ in order to get into the spirit of things. I'm curious though: If Mel didn't have a movie coming out in December, would he still have sat down with Diane Sawyer?
So, I ask you: Was Gibson's apology on national television convincing enough? Are there still people out there who refuse to see Apocalypto because of what happened in July? Or will you be staying away from the film simply because it's just not your cup of tea?
I feel it necessary to declare right up front that I put my complete faith in Christopher Nolan. After the geek-out gift of Batman Begins, the man could be the godfather of my children. Well, if I had children, anyway. Unless and until he does something to revoke said trust, I'm willing to give the man every last benefit of the doubt. He could tell me he was making a G rated Batman in stop-motion claymation with Uwe Boll co-scripting and as long as it still involved Christian Bale I'd be gladly forking over my money for a chance to see. Although I was initially taken aback by the casting choice of Heath Ledger for the Joker, I supported the move on faith. After a rather ... confused and negative reaction from the general geek public, Nolan has come out swinging. He told Sci Fi Wire "It's going to be a huge challenge for us to create it, and he's exactly the guy you want to be in the trenches with."
In other news, Jake Gyllenhall himself has joined everyone who is in any way close to him in officially denying Two-Face rumors. Although I love Gyllenhall as an actor, this news is profoundly relieving. Nobody wants Brokeback Batman jokes, and I definitely don't want to spend the next year reading cheesy headlines filled with such jokes. And let's face it ... you know I'd have to make one or two myself, and that would just be unfortunate. So hats off to you, casting directors of The Dark Knight, for saving me from a bad-pun-filled fate.
In the wake of Sacha Baron Cohen's alter-ego Borat trying to gain access to the White House, MTV has listed ten other publicity stunts for films -- including Kevin Smith's truly grovel-worthy MySpace friends-for-a-movie-credit exchange. Although probably most disturbing on the list is the 1988 film Mac and Me which was partially financed by Coca-Cola and McDonalds, and features a musical number that finds Mac dancing with Ronald McDonald. Holy hour and a half long commercial, Batman!
However, I'm reminded of several stunts that didn't make the list. Remember when Clue was released in theaters, and they featured three different endings, so people would go see it more than once? What a fiasco, as finding out which theater was showing what ending proved to be too much work. Don't forget about the "unauthorized" documentary about M. Night Shyamalan that aired on the Sci-Fi channel. It turned out to be a fake created to get more viewers in to see The Village. Of course, the most memorable publicity stunt, real or fake (the jury is still out) has been Tom Cruise jumping up and down on Oprah's couch. Although given Tom's downward slide lately, that one appears to have backfired on him as well. Of course, leave it to MTV themselves to have Steve-O going number one on the carpet at the premiere to promote Jackass: Number Two. They just seem to be getting classier, don't they?
What do you think about publicity stunts? Do they make you want to see the movie or avoid it like the plague? Do you have any personal favorites that didn't make the list?
Deliver Us From Evil, director Amy Berg's scathing indictment of Father Oliver O'Grady, a pedophiliac priest who was transferred around northern California for over 20 years while he preyed on young children in his parishes, has created quite a furor in Los Angles and revived interest in the actions of Cardinal Roger Mahony, who directly supervised O'Grady for five of the years he was actively molesting young children. In the film, O'Grady, who now lives in Ireland after being deported from the United States upon completion of a prison sentence for the molestation of two young boys, says that he was able to abuse children for so long in part because of the actions of Cardinal Mahony, who now heads the Los Angeles Archdiocese -- the largest in the country.
William Hodgman, top deputy of the target crimes division in Los Angeles, said in the report in the New York Times that the doc "will fuel ongoing consideration as to whether Cardinal Mahony and others engaged in criminal activity." Michael Hennigan, an attorney for the archdiocese, fired back that "If Mr. Hodgman is suggesting in any way that the cardinal is the subject of a criminal investigation, he is being irresponsible and in our judgment is committing prosecutorial misconduct."
I could understand if StudioCanal (co-producer and international sales agent for Inland Empire) wanted to pull the film out of a festival because they were nervous about negative buzz hurting its distribution chances and total box office take. However, that's not the case at the Sitges Film Festival in Catalonia, as Empire was pulled from the fest lineup by StudioCanal for fear people may like it too much. Oh yes, you heard that right.
See, David Lynch's new film is not only three hours long, but it's also one of the strangest films this writer has ever seen. The best way to describe it would be to say it involves a cursed movie, prostitutes and a bunch of Polish folks ... with a dance number or two thrown in. Surreal? Yes. Easy to follow along? No way. Though, since Sitges is a huge fantasy film festival in Europe, StudioCanal felt the film would play so well among hardcore Lynch fans, it would make it that much harder to persuade Lynch to cut down the pic's running time which, honestly, desperately needs some trimming.
Regarding distribution for the film, Lynch hinted at a possible deal while speaking at a press conference at the New York Film Festival this past Friday. When asked whether Inland Empire had secured some sort of distribution, Lynch replied (with a sly smile on his face), "Technically, no." Stay tuned to Cinematical for my NYFF review of Inland Empire later this week.
The Departed opened in theaters on Friday, and the stars are about beating the bushes in an effort to pack the audiences in. However, Jack Nicholson won't be one of them. He is apparently suffering from a mysterious neck injury sustained at the New York premiere of the film, and a close friend said, "We don't know exactly what is wrong, but something is wrong with his neck."
It's a bit odd that this was even reported, because Jack normally shuns the whole talk-show circuit when he has a new film to promote, and rarely grants interviews. Can you remember the last time you saw him chatting with Regis or Leno? While not exactly Greta Garbo, he does take up residence behind his Ray-Ban sunglasses frequently and cuts off the world. He's not exactly camera shy, but he's not that gabby with the press either.
Anyhow, we've attended quite a few movies, and unless Nicholson was sitting in the front row, we're not sure how he injured his neck. When big event films like this come out, there are press junkets, radio interviews and TV appearances galore. Is Jack just trying to duck out like normal and leave it all to Matt and Leo? Hopefully he's fine, because things just wouldn't be the same without Nicholson around.
Netscape's Karina Longworth gamely edited down 40 minutes of Warren Beatty talking at the New York Film Festival into nine minutes of fascinating commentary on why contemporary audiences are better able to appreciate Reds, his 1981 epic drama about John Reed, the American journalist, Communist and American war activisist who was buried in the Kremlin Wall than audiences when the film was made. You can watch the video right here, above, or pop on over to Netscape if you want to download it.
Orlando Bloom's character in the now-juggernaut Pirates of the Caribbean series will not survive through the inevitable fourth installment -- so says a Disney insider who spoke to the British paper Daily Star. According to the source, the script for the fourth film is currently being written, and Disney bean counters are already examining ways to cut its massive costs. They have concluded that although both Johnny Depp and Keira Knightley are essential to the continued success of the series, Orlando's character is human NyQuil and "not necessary" to maintain the gravy train (I could have told them that). Whether or not he will be killed in the third movie, due next summer, or be bumped off early in the fourth is not specified.
The report also states that the films' minor characters, who were faithfully brought back for the first sequel, are also on the chopping block. Given that both Kingdom of Heaven and Elizabethtown -- the only films you could credibly call "Bloom vehicles" -- underperformed at the box office, this report sounds credible to me. There's almost certainly a parity clause in Bloom's contract that assures him a salary in the same league as the other two leads, which will make him cost-prohibitive the longer the series goes on.
I enjoyed the first Pirates film, but thought the second one stunk of doubloons. I doubt I'll be standing in line for the third, let alone the fourth.
There's an interesting conversation going on over at Hollywood Elsewhere about Sasha Baron Cohen's upcoming film, 
I may poke fun at Ain't It Cool news from time to time for their overwhelming enthusiasm and use of exclamation points, but like most geeks, I respect Harry Knowles and the crazy, crazy job he does. The same apparently cannot be said for 
The guy's killed a hundred terrorists, slayed a thousand vampires and infuriated more than one co-star along the way ... but former movie star/recent Video Shelf King 
Odds and ends from Monday:
Towards the end of last week, 
I feel it necessary to declare right up front that I put my complete faith in 
Deliver Us From Evil, director Amy Berg's scathing indictment of Father Oliver O'Grady, a pedophiliac priest who was transferred around northern California for over 20 years while he preyed on young children in his parishes, has created quite a furor in Los Angles and 
I could understand if StudioCanal (co-producer and international sales agent for 
The Departed opened in theaters on Friday, and the stars are about beating the bushes in an effort to pack the audiences in. However, 
.jpg)
