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  • Fitzgerald’s agonizing beauty

    Cover of The Curious Case of Benjamin ButtonI sat down last night to spend a half-hour with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”  It’s been ages since I first gave the story a look and I don’t even think I ever read it throughout until yesterday, but the measured simplicity of it all was striking.

    I don’t count myself one of Fitzgerald’s followers.  I don’t find myself attuned with whatever it is that makes legions of readers consider “The Great Gatsby” to be the greatest American novel, for instance.  I typically find myself leaning toward Hemingway’s brand of the mundane instead, but that’s neither here nor there.

    The structure of “Button” is what stuck out to me.  The strange sort of insight into the stages of one’s life and how Fitzgerald flipped those notions on its ear is incredibly effective.  By the last page, I had that knotted feeling in my stomach, the kind you get after you know you just experienced something that is much more than yourself.  The truth apparent in the final moments, the skewed vision of a life at its end, it was almost too much.

    And I imagine Eric Roth’s adaptation is just as in tune with these notions, albeit in an expanded (well…greatly expanded) format.

    Additionally, the trailer for the film seemed to carry across a similar structure that stuck out to me the moment I saw.  I didn’t know how to address it at the time but reading the original work last night hammered it home.

    All things considered, I think “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” might be my most anticipated film of the upcoming Oscar season.  It seems the easy choice, the obvious one.  No one can argue with the apparent artistry on display from what we’ve seen so far and I find myself watering at the mouth the more I consider its potential.

    I also find myself thankful that a guy as savy and complex as Roth is the one to take the story to adapt the tale for the screen.  Of course he would.

    Roth’s screenplay wil be reviewed here at “Page to Screen” on Tuesday, August 25.

  • Jackie Earle Haley unmasked on set of ‘Watchmen’

    It’s no secret that, despite some nay-saying and general anxiety about Zack Snyder’s upcoming “Watchmen,” I have been on board since we first caught a glimpse of the trailer back in July. I got the sense that Snyder’s visual style might be strangely suited to the material in a surprising sort of way that could make it fresh for even the die hard fans.

    And indeed, when that first still was released almost a year ago, I began to nurture an affinity for the look of the production.

    Anyway, I came across this G4 behind-the-scenes look at the film recently and my excitement level kicked it up a notch.

    The most surprising inclusion was an interview with Oscar nominee Jackie Earle Haley, who takes on the iconic role of Rorschach (a.k.a. Walter Kovacs) in the film. We get our first look at Haley’s look behind the mask and I have to say they stuck the landing. Take a look:

    (from left) Walter Kovacs in Alan Moore\'s Watchmen and Jackie Earle Haley on the set of the film

    Here’s what Haley had to say about Snyder’s approach to the material:

    It’s awesome. The guys is absolutely prepared…he’s previsualized the whole movie. He’s got amazing storyboards. He’s got wonderful depth and understanding for the characters, for the story, for the symbolism. Just everything.

    I’ll be honest. I haven’t come across one piece of news that has turned me off of this production yet. I just hope the inevitable truncation of the graphic novel doesn’t put fanboys up in arms. I’ve never been of the unreasonable mind that portions of the book could be abbreviated or composited.

    And Snyder’s already having a tough time whittling down what he did decide to include. So he’s certainly not out to make it a Cliff’s Notes version from the start.

  • New ‘W’ posters: “A life misunderestimated?”

    The folks at Film School Rejects stumbled across a couple of new teaser posters for Oliver Stone’s “W” recently. They were sent in from a reader who scoped them out on the streets of Denver and they feature the tagline “A life misunderestimated.”

    Interesting. I like the one on the right a lot:

    W posters

  • Oh yeah, the ‘Half-Blood’ bump

    Michael Gambon in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood PrinceI received the press release regarding Warner Bros. pushing “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” to 2009 earlier today when I was out and about. And frankly, four hours later, it had already slipped my mind.

    So what does this mean in the awards landscape? I’m not sure, since WB isn’t one of the awards-obsessive studios that makes decisions based only on “the season.”

    Maybe the movie is crap and needs some work. Maybe the studio smells blood after “The Dark Knight” and feels that “Terminator Salvation” isn’t enough of an ace in the hole next summer. I don’t know. But the wizard’s out of the derby now and that frees up some budget dollars for “Knight” and “Body of Lies.”

    That’s all I’m saying…

    Anyway, bravo to Steve Kloves for whoring it out on seven straight projects after an artistic showcase like “Wonder Boys.” The checks must be substantial. And his cut-and-paste function must be wearing out by now.

  • Is ‘Basterds’ [sic] developing the worst cast ever?

    Mike MyersThe on-going saga of Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglorious Bastards” seems to be one fumble after another as far as I can tell.

    It makes you wonder why Brad Pitt would slum it in a screenplay this abysmal to begin with, but he’s finding himself on screen with Eli Roth of all people. Simon Pegg is a hell of a comedic commodity on some level, but he’s painfully out of place here.

    Meanwhile, B.J. Novak is a heck of a writer and pulls some stellar weight on NBC’s “The Office,” but he’s quite a distracting addition to the cast, while the rumors that Adam Sandler was on deck made me want to shoot myself in the face. Twice.

    And now I’m hearing that Mike Myers has been cast in this farce of an ensemble from the master of exploiting any and everything around him……eesh.

    Apparently this will be a small role — nothing major. Expect Variety to reveal that bit of info later this evening, FYI.

    (UPDATE, 6:00 p.m.: And on cue, the trade does just that. According to Michael Fleming, “Myers will play British Gen. Ed Fenech, a military mastermind who takes part in hatching a plot to wipe out Nazi leaders.”)

    Anyway, hey — who am I to say? Maybe this is the greatest blend of “talent” ever assembled and I’m just out to lunch. Maybe this will be a full-blown masterpiece of comedic absurdity. Maybe monkeys will fly out of my butt…

  • ‘Batman 3’ poster…

    Okay, so it’s fan made. But it’s pretty friggin’ sweet:

    Fan made poster for The Dark Knight sequel

    Oh, and by the way: Hahahahahaha!

    (Courtesty: /Film)

  • More announcements from TIFF

    Toronto International Film FestivalPaul Dano and Zooey Deschanel are to be featured in “Gigantic” with John Goodman in a supporting role. In “Lovely Still,” acting icons Martin Landau and Ellen Burstyn portray two seniors who find love late in life struggling with the baggage that comes with a life so long lived.

    “Lymelife” looks interesting, a film seen through the eyes of a young boy, portrayed by Rory Culkin, and what happens when an outbreak of Lyme disease hits a small town. Alec Baldwin portrays the boy’s loud mouth father with strong support from Cynthia Nixon, Timothy Hutton and Kiran Culkin in a film executive produced by no less than Martin Scorsese.

    One of the more intriguing films of the fest will be the US film, “The Stoning of Soraya M”, a study of an Iranian woman falsely accused of adultery which is a crime punished with death by stoning. Oscar nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo stars in the film.

    Mark Ruffalo is back in town with more than one film, co-starring with Ethan Hawke in “What Doesn’t Kill You” about two friends looking out for one another in a tough Boston neighborhood. The film was produced by filmmaker Rod Lurie, who’ll be in the thick of the Oscar hunt this year with his own “Nothing But the Truth.”

    The other titles include “Rain” from the Bahamas, “Cold Lunch” from Norway, “Vacation” from Japan, “Apron Strings” from New Zealand, “Better Things” from the United Kingdom, and “Daytime, Drinking” from South Korea.

  • More Eastwood…

    These must be hard times for anyone who doesn’t like Clint Eastwood, and I realise that we at In Contention aren’t doing much to reduce the saturation. But with two pictures coming up in the space of four months, and a massive retrospective at the BFI Southbank (formerly the National Film Theatre, for those of you who haven’t been in London recently), he is – again – the man of the moment.

    To tie in with the retrospective, the UK press has been awash with Eastwood coverage, but this piece in last week’s Independent was only just brought to my attention, and rather nice it is too. It’s more in line with the idolising tone of Sight and Sound’s recent profile than Alex Cox’s hastily executed contrarian view in the New Statesman (a missed opportunity, to say the least). Writer James Mottram doesn’t really have anything new to add, but in true Independent fashion, it’s considered and thorough, with a nice sprinkling of typically pithy Clint quotes. This one in particular raised a smile:

    Now he is 12 years into his second marriage, to former journalist Dina Ruiz, some 35 years his junior. And with seven children by five different women, it’s no surprise that he says: “I still feel film-making is the second most fun thing to do.”

    (more…)

  • First look at ‘The Burning Plain’

    As I mentioned in my Venice preview, “The Burning Plain,” the directorial debut from screenwriter extraordinaire Guillermo Arriaga, is one of my most anticipated titles of the year. Now a new series of images from the film has been revealed – check them out here.

    Not much to be gleaned from them that you hadn’t suspected already – it’s clearly an intimate piece focusing on actors rather than visual fireworks, and Charlize Theron is in dressed-down (but still beautiful) mode. The synopsis provided indicate that Arriaga is playing typically complex structural games:

    “The Burning Plain” weaves together two storylines taking place in the past and present. Kim Basinger will play Gina, the mother of Charlize Theron’s character as seen in childhood. Theron will play Sylvia, who tries to find common ground with her parents after a turbulent childhood. The two narratives eventually converge.

    So far, so good. Meanwhile, the announcement that the film will also play at Toronto only emphasises that this is one to watch. Arriaga has yet to misfire in my view – incidentally, his novel, “The Night Buffalo,” is excellent too.

    We all know by now how great an actress Theron can be when she connects with her material, and Basinger, rather like her ex-husband, is a more interesting character player than she ever was a star. (I’ve squeezed the former actress into my list of predictions – you can take a look at them here.) Here’s hoping the momentum keeps building.

  • iPhone posting…

    Giving this a shot. Maybe I’ll make a habit of it, maybe not. Brave new world though.

  • ‘Valkyrie’ changes tack

    Well, I’ll be. In what appears to be Tom Cruise Week in showbiz newsland, the most surprising development is the return of the long-suffering “Valkyrie” to the 2008 release slate. Bryan Singer’s WWII thriller, a project that has been maligned virtually from the get-go, will now bow on US screens on 26 December.

    That will go some way towards raising public and critical expectations for the film – which honestly couldn’t have been any lower after MGM shifted it to the February graveyard shift months ago. However, I wonder whether it can be saved. As Kris has pointed out before, the script isn’t much to write home about (regrettably so, since Chris McQuarrie can be a hell of a writer) and that trailer that mysteriously started doing the rounds in April or so didn’t really set many pulses racing.

    Most of all, I think Tom Cruise may ironically be the film’s trickiest selling-point – I simply have no idea how many people out there will pay to see him carry a film these days. There’s no denying he’s a massive media presence (as the “Tropic Thunder” hoopla has made abundantly clear), but there comes a point sometimes where the roles of celebrity and movie star are no longer synonymous. Of course, he could turn it all around if he and the film are actually – gasp – good, but he could just as easily be on the cusp of becoming the Michael Jackson of screen acting. “Valkyrie” will be an interesting litmus test to see if audiences still want to see him as someone else.

    Why the scheduling change, incidentally? The studio seems to be playing the gosh-darn-ingenuous card there, with sources saying it’s a “purely commercial” decision made after positive test screenings. The awards season is “not a factor,” apparently. Actually, I believe them – though I wonder if that isn’t a hint of an admission that the film isn’t award-worthy. We shall see.

    Finally, I had to chuckle at the other stated motivation for the move: that MGM believes the film to be a “holiday pic.” Nothing says Christmas like Nazis, right?

  • Speaking of comic book lists…

    …this one is pretty lame.  Though #8 is a big “YES” in my book.  Who has the rights anyway?  Paramount?  Can’t remember.

  • The Reel Geezers ride the ‘Express’

  • Empire’s 50 greatest comic book characters

    For the most part, this list is refreshing.  Lots of balls putting certain characters as high as they are (John Constantine at #3?), but I like the originality.

    That said, I’ve had it up to HERE with my boy coming in silver all the time.  Come on…

  • New ‘Body of Lies’ trailer drops

    The latest trailer for Ridley Scott’s “Body of Lies” is a giant step up from the first crack Warner marketing took at it.  It simultaneously injects complexity and amplifies the scale of the pic.  The concentration on the DiCaprio/Crowe dynamic is certainly front and center here, showing us more of the material Crowe has to chew on.

  • ‘Che’ and ‘Porno’ among 20 new films announced for Toronto

    Benicio Del Toro in CheJohn hasn’t addressed this yet, so I’ll put it out there…

    Variety’s Anne Thompson is reporting on 20 new films added to the line-up of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Following suit with yesterday’s New York fest news, Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler” and Steven Soderbergh’s “Che” (listed as “Part One” and “Part Two” for Toronto) will make the trip up north.

    Other special presentations of note include Rian Johnson’s “The Brothers Bloom,” Richard Linklater’s “Me and Orson Welles,” Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire,” Kevin Smith’s controversial “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” Guillermo Arriaga’s “The Burning Plain” (could be Oscar bait for actress Charlize Theron), Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York” and Marc Abraham’s “Flash of Genius” (which could be an awards vehicle for Greg Kinnear).

    The big news, however, seems to be that Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling” will not be heading to the fest. Here’s Thompson on that front:

    Clint Eastwood’s Cannes Fest entry “Changeling,” which will be the centerpiece of the New York Film Festival, will not be at Toronto because there was uncertainty about new mother Angelina Jolie’s availability to participate in a gala premiere. “We would have loved to have had Clint Eastwood,” said Bailey, “but the only way to present the movie in a big way was as a gala with Eastwood and Jolie.”

    Basically, the Toronto crew can’t star-fuck, so they’d rather not show it. Gotcha.

    Anyway, read all about the new additions here. The full line-up will be unveiled next Tuesday.

  • Alex Cox rips into Clint Eastwood…but why?

    Clint Eastwood in A Fistful of DollarsWhen I was in London over the summer, a friend landed a position at New Statesman magazine, so I became familiar with the periodical. I enjoyed it’s dry, slightly askew view of the world (and it fit my friend’s outlook like a glove). It also seems a perfect fit for this somewhat lifeless op-ed from multi-hyphenate Alex Cox regarding Clint Eastwood’s debt to filmmakers Sergio Leone and Don Siegel.

    A wandering, seemingly aimless swath of prose that eventually comes to the conclusion that Eastwood has become an uninteresting filmmaker, Cox spends much of his word count praising Leone’s work in The Man with No Name trilogy. He’s on board for Eastwood when discussing the actor’s shrewd decision to pare down much of his dialogue in the films, but he jumps ship immediately when Eastwood’s falling out with the director is discussed.

    Here’s a taste:

    Resisting the usual actor’s temptation to expand his role and to increase his share of the dialogue, Eastwood took a red pencil to the script. Something like 90 per cent of his scripted dialogue was eliminated. What remained counted: “Now, if you’ll just apologise to my mule . . . like I know you’re gonna . . .”

    But the shoots for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) were longer, and – at times – dangerous, as when Leone wanted Eastwood and Eli Wallach to crouch near a bridge that was to be blown up.

    Originally Leone had planned to have Volontè appear in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, but he fell heavily for Wallach’s charms and cast him instead. Wallach’s character, Tuco, dominates the film to such an extent that both Eastwood and Van Cleef tend to become his foils. Eastwood wasn’t interested in this development. It was the last time he and Leone worked together.

    (more…)

  • Hell of a thing

    George Clooney in Batman & RobinSo…I was watching Joel Schumacher’s “Batman & Robin” on TBS last night (I know…I’m so sorry). Midway through, this line of dialogue between Michael Gough’s Alfred and George Clooney’s Bruce Wayne stuck out as an incredibly insightful blip in Akiva Goldsman’s otherwise wretched attempt at a fourth installment in the franchise:

    Death and chance stole your parents. But rather than become a victim, you have done everything in your power to control the fates. For what is Batman if not an effort to master the chaos that sweeps our world, an attempt to control death itself?

    It’s the sort of line that would have been at home in the Nolan brothers’ insightful, rich adaptation, an adaptation that probably deserves more Oscar attention than any other aspect of “The Dark Knight.” Very curious.

    Of course, the moment is sullied not 120 seconds later with this keeper:

    My name is Freeze. Learn it well. For it is the chilling sound of your doom.

    Cue the Coolio blacklight embarrassment. Sigh…