In Contention

Tag: Gavin Hood

  • “I just don’t know if I’m going to be that dope.”

    will.i.amWith “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” having landed with a bit of a thud, the snarkster in me couldn’t help but smile at a couple of soundbites from this interview with supporting player will.i.am:

    “I’m nervous to see my performance,” said the self-described “X-Men” fan. “My participation in it automatically lends itself to: That dude messed the film up.”

    “This film showed me what I’m capable of doing, and I’m capable of letting go,” he said. “Now I’ve got to let go and watch it. I know it’s going to be dope, I just don’t know if I’m going to be that dope.”

    Well, according to Kris’s review, what he’s “capable of doing” isn’t very much, but clearly, the film’s problems run deeper than having a gimmicky pop-hopper (not a real term, I admit, but how else to describe his music?)  in a supporting role. So to say he “messed the film up” would probably be unfair.

    But as fans of decent music know by now, will.i.am’s presence rarely augurs well for a project, so I guess the curse transfers to film as well. (Bias alert: I’m still bitter about Macy Gray’s hideous last album.)

    Meanwhile, someone from the “Wolverine” supporting gallery who I’d like to think has a brighter acting future is “Friday Night Lights” star Taylor Kitsch. (Gotta love that name.) There’s a fairly unrevealing piece about the young actor here, one of those that describes a process seemingly far more elaborate than the eventual performance. (If the film does indeed portray the “complexity” and multiple “levels” of the Gambit character alluded to in the article, the reviews aren’t reflecting it.)

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  • Eastwood finds his ‘Human Factor’

    Does Clint Eastwood ever sleep? With “Changeling” and “Gran Torino” set to keep his profile high in 2008, Variety reports that he’ll begin shooting his next film, “Human Factor,” in South Africa early next year.

    The project, based on John Carlin’s upcoming book “Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation,” is a study of South Africa’s landmark 1995 home-turf victory in the Rugby World Cup; an event that symbolically consolidated a new era of hope for the country after its first democratic election in 1994. Key to the proceedings was recently-elected president Nelson Mandela, whose wholehearted endorsement of the Springbok rugby team went a long way towards breaking down racial barriers in the post-apartheid state.

    Morgan Freeman (did you really expect anyone else?) was drafted in to play Mandela some time ago. Now Matt Damon, after a long period of speculation, has finally been confirmed to play Francois Pienaar, the captain of the Springbok team. (The none-too-pretty Pienaar should be flattered with that casting – the two look about as alike as… oh, say, Nelson Mandela and Morgan Freeman. But I digress.)

    So far, so Hollywood. But as a South African myself, I must admit to having mixed feelings about the whole enterprise. As someone who remembers exactly where he was on the 24th of June 1995, when the Springboks squeaked past New Zealand 15-12 to claim the trophy, part of me is stunned and a little thrilled that the day that made such an impression on me, as a 12 year-old kid in Johannesburg, would capture the imagination of otherwise disinterested Hollywood execs. And if anyone in Tinseltown can handle the material without letting it slip into gloopy underdog sports-drama treacle, it’s probably latter-day Eastwood.

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