(Courtesy: /Film)
Category: Daily
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Anton Corbijn’s next: ‘The American’ with George Clooney
I was a huge fan of “Control” so this sounds like music to my ears. The press release, in part:Academy Award winner George Clooney stars in the title role of The American for director Anton Corbijn (Control). Focus Features holds worldwide rights to the suspense thriller, which begins production this week on location in Italy. Focus CEO James Schamus made the announcement today.
The screenplay by Rowan Joffe is adapted from Martin Booth’s novel A Very Private Gentleman, published in 2005. The film’s producers are This is that’s Anne Carey, who most recently produced Adventureland and The Savages; Smokehouse’s Grant Heslov, an Academy Award nominee as producer and co-writer of Good Night, and Good Luck, and producer/director of this fall’s The Men Who Stare at Goats; Smokehouse’s Mr. Clooney; Ann Wingate, who most recently produced Into the Storm, starring Emmy Award winner Brendan Gleeson; and Jill Green, executive producer of the long-running U.K. television series Foyle’s War. Enzo Sisti, co-producer of the upcoming When in Rome, is executive producer of The American.
Alone among assassins, Jack (played by Mr. Clooney) is a master craftsman. When a job in Sweden ends more harshly than expected for this American abroad, he vows to his contact Larry (Bruce Altman of this fall’s Peter and Vandy) that his next assignment will be his last. Jack reports to the Italian countryside, where he holes up in a small town and relishes being away from death for a spell. The assignment, as specified by a Belgian woman, Mathilde (Thekla Reuten of Focus’ award-winning In Bruges), is in the offing as a weapon is constructed. Surprising himself, Jack seeks out the friendship of local priest Father Benedetto (Italian screen and stage veteran Paolo Bonacelli) and pursues romance with local woman Clara (Italian leading lady Violante Placido). But by stepping out of the shadows, Jack may be tempting fate.
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9/28 Oscarweb Round-up
• Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski arrested in Zurich for 1977 rape charge. [CNN]• Steven Zeitchik reports that Summit was set to be the first out of the gate with awards screeners this year with “The Hurt Locker.” Would it have made a difference? [Risky Biz Blog]
• Nathaniel Rogers considers Julianne Moore’s Oscar chances in “A Single Man.” [The Film Experience]
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“Solipsism” and Moore on Maher
Last night, on Maher, [Michael Moore] talked about wanting to make a movie that was so outrageously honest that no studio would ever fund another one of his movies. Epic Fail, Mike. There is not a single thing exposed in the body of Capitalism: A Love Story that Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, David Letterman, and even Jay Leno haven’t already mocked… and mocked in a more funny way. No one needed a film to tell us that bailing out banks sucks and that people being thrown out of their houses – that they took insane loans on, of their own greedy accord, btw – at the same time feels like a shot in the gut. America gets it.
You used to convert. Now all you seem to want to do is to preach to the converted.
I truly love your work and believe in your gift, Michael Moore. But you need to get further out ahead of the news cycle or you become just another f-ing talking head for the liberals instead of the idiots of Fox News who do the same crap on the other side.
From David Poland’s dismissal of Michael Moore’s latest in a post titled “Solipsism: A Love Story” at The Hot Blog. And from last night, Moore on Real Time, after the jump…
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‘Ajami,’ not ‘Lebanon,’ chosen to represent Israel in foreign language race
Thanks to Anne Thompson for the Twitter heads up here, but Yair Raveh is reporting that the Israeli entry in this year’s Best Foreign Language Film race isn’t the Venice fest’s Golden Lion winner “Lebanon,” but the Ophir-winning crime drama “Ajami.” The foreign submissions page has been updated. Discuss.
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Listen to portions of Cave and Ellis’s ‘Road’ score
The second selection is the overriding theme of the piece that I remember playing throughout the film. Beautiful stuff, aka, the kind of the the Academy’s music branch wouldn’t know how to appreciate.
Also worth mentioning is “White Lunar,” a collection of some of the duo’s film music compositions.
(Courtesy: The Playlist)
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WEEKLY WRAP: Festival pick-ups, the season’s fetes and the PGA’s 10
• We wrapped up Toronto as Lee Daniels’s “Precious” took the festival’s audience award, putting it on a solid track for Oscar.• We got a look at the first trailer for “Harry Brown,” which may or may not be an awards film for actor Michael Caine. John, you’ll recall, isn’t feeling it.
• We saw ‘Meatball’ dominance at the box office in this weekend’s Sunday Cents column.
• This week’s Off the Carpet column kicked off our weekly Oscar coverage with a call for perspective on the perceived Best Picture frontrunners, while a new weekly column from across the pond — The Long Shot — introduces a different perspective mid-week.
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More foreign language film submissions
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Sony Classics holding ‘Get Low’ until 2010
Those of you anticipating Aaron Schneider’s “Get Low” and a potential second lead actor Oscar for Robert Duvall will have to wait a little longer. Sony Pictures Classics will not be releasing the film this year and is priming it for a mid-2010 release. No Oscar qualifying run is planned for 2009 either.Sony Classics, as you’re well aware, has a pretty full slate of films this year. This could have something to do with the move. It costs money to put films out into the marketplace, and while SPC might be one of the few dependents able to stay afloat in this economy, it’s not a company made of money. But I’m just spit-balling here.
Then there’s the consideration of an Oscar campaign, which is also costly. The studio has a number of opportunities for the 2009 race as it is. “Coco Before Chanel,” “An Education” and “Broken Embraces” represent a stacked trio of lead actress hopefuls, but Tahar Rahim’s brilliance in “A Prophet” aside, I kind of thought SPC could use a contender like Duvall to amplify its lead actor profile.
But it’s not going to happen. Not this year, at least, so tidy up your charts and contender lists, folks. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.
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No Oscar Talk today
With Anne in New York, me in San Francisco and relatively little to discuss (though we can wax for 20 minutes on anything, really), we figured we’d rest up, reload and hit it again in a week’s time. Until then…
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9/25 Oscarweb Round-up
• Pete Hammond suggests Steven Spielberg as Oscarcast producer. [Notes on a Season]• Steve Pond likes the idea, tries to turn over some news as to who might have been tapped, comes up with nothing. [The Odds]
• Kyle Buchanan chats with “Coco Before Chanel” star Audrey Tautou. [Movieline]
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Gothams tap Bigelow, Portman, Tucci, Bevan/Fellner for career tributes
The Independent Film Project has announced this year’s Career Tribute recipients for the 19th annual Gotham Independent Film Awards.The feted will be: Kathryn Bigelow, whose film “The Hurt Locker” is on a steady awards season course; Natalie Portman, who is said to give a pretty solid performance in Jim Sheridan’s upcoming “Brothers”; and Stanley Tucci, who is already a delight opposite Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia” and could be an awards contender at season’s end for his performance in Peter Jackson’s “The Lovely Bones.”
Working Title Films executives Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner are also set to be honored — WELL-deserved.
Michelle Byrd, executive director of IFP, is quoted in the press release. On Bigelow:
Kathryn Bigelow’s unparalleled ability to portray thrilling action and stomach churning suspense have been a mainstay of her work as a director…What sets her apart, however, is her ability to bring those talents to bear on films of any budget while also presenting characters with emotional gravity.
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Newmarket nabs ‘Creation’ for December release
The press release, in part:Newmarket Films announced today that it has acquired U.S. rights to director Jon Amiel’s CREATION, a film which focuses on Charles Darwin and his family as he struggles to finish his legendary book “On The Origin of Species,” which went on to become the foundation for evolutionary biology. The screenplay was written by John Collee, based on the biography “Annie’s Box” which was penned by Darwin ‘s great-great grandson Randal Keynes using personal letters and diaries of the Darwin family. The film was produced by Jeremy Thomas at Recorded Picture Company (The Last Emperor, Sexy Beast), with BBC Films and Ocean Pictures.
CREATION stars real-life couple Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World) and Academy Award winner Jennifer Connelly (Requiem for a Dream, A Beautiful Mind) as Darwin and wife. Newmarket ’s Chris Ball and Robert Fyvolent negotiated the deal for Newmarket , and HanWay Films CEO Tim Haslam negotiated on behalf of the producer. Newmarket plans to release the film in December.
Meh…
