DiCaprio and Scott Aim ‘Low’
Fresh from wrapping Body of Lies, Leonardo DiCaprio and Ridley Scott are planning to reteam on a thriller called The Low Dwellers by 20-something insurance salesman/first-time screenwriter Brad Ingelsby whose spec script earned him a shitpot of money and a writing deal sure to make him hated by every failed screenwriter in town.
The Hollywood Reporter says the script, which echoes The History of Violence and No Country for Old Men, is set in Indiana in the mid-’80s and revolves around an ex-con who, fresh out of prison following a murder sentence, sets about avenging his brother’s murder.
DiCaprio’s first post-Lies project is Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island set to begin shooting this spring while Scott begins work on the new Robin Hood picture Nottingham.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Filed under: News, Upcoming
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It’s nice to see Leo working so much.
I’m looking forward to seeing Body of Lies. It sounds like Brad Ingelsby is the male version of Diablo Cody. Well, not really. But you know what I mean…
DiCaprio sure wasn’t lying when he came back in 2002 with Gangs of New York and Catch Me If You Can and said that he was going to work a whole lot more starting then.
So, is this like the twelfth project Ridley Scott has in development? Sheesh.
It is cool Alison, Leo is freaking good, and not just once in a while, but consistently. I didn’t like him much when Titanic came about, but he has grown on me. Body of Lies appeals to me too.
Let’s hope Scott doesn’t screw up another promising film…
Ridley Scott won’t rest until he gets himself a Best Director Oscar, goddammit.
But…
Sir Ridley should have had one by now, shouldn’t he, Jeff?
Eh. I wouldn’t have minded if he had gotten one when Gladiator won best picture, but if it never happened for Hitchcock and Kubrick, the man who gave us White Squall and Matchstick Men can do without, methinks.
Agreed Jeff.
Since you mention Titanic, Nick, you might enjoy some even earlier Leo. Romeo, This Boy’s Life, and Gilbert Grape to be specific.
I agree also, Jeff (with your second point), but I think he’ll give up sooner or later. I just don’t think he makes typical Oscar fare for the most part, but this one is probably one of his better chances. Who won that year when Gladiator took BP?
There’s just no pleasing you, is there Jeff? :)
Steven Soderbergh won Director in 2000 for Traffic, Daniel. There was some major celebrating going on at my precious abode. That was a win that thrilled me completely for a very long time.
But, with all due respect to the other commenters at LiC (all of whom I have an enormous affection for), I do hope Sir Ridley gets his due one day. Anyone that can direct films as diverse as The Hunger, Black Hawk Down and Thelma And Louise (and do it as well as he does) deserves some recognition.
Daniel, Leo was indeed excellent in Gilbert Grape. He earned his first Oscar nomination in that. Baity role, sure, but he really nailed it.
Ah, I forgot about Traffic. But of course. Miranda, I hope I don’t offend you by saying I’ve been utterly underwhelmed by Soderbergh’s directing credits ever since, save some fun with the Ocean’s, and I didn’t see Bubble. Anyway, I’m interested in his upcoming projects and Traffic is an important film that I’ve meaning to revisit.
Watch this, Alison:
Leo’s never been bad.
I even liked The Beach.
Alright, let’s hear it…
Leo, himself personally, has never, to my immediate recollection, been bad. I’ll back Daniel on that, but some of the movies HAVE been bad. The Beach didn’t really offend me or not offend me, its a “meh” movie.
Bubble is an interesting movie, one that i think ultimately works.
Not to be picky Miranda, but it was Tony’s brother who directed The Hunger.
LOL, Daniel. The Beach?
Well, hey, a good actor can be good even in a bad movie. :-)
Ridley’s brother, Tony that is. I’m an idiot.
Leo seems to be one of the busiest and hardest working actors in Hollywood right now. Really looking forward to seeing him in Body of Lies, Shutter Island and Revolutionary Road.
Thanks for dropping by Jameson. Sorry you got hung up in moderation for so long. Related to what you and Alexander both said, DiCaprio seems to be making up for some of the time he laid low post-Titanic.
Daniel, I’ve got a stock, knee-jerk Soderbergh apologia type response written on the back of a Beverly Hills Hotel napkin I pull out whenever someone tries to take the man down a peg, but it’s early and I’ll let it slide for now.
I don’t have a dog in the Ridley vs. Oscar fight. Ok I take that back. I want him to get one. I haven’t been overwhelmed with anything he’s done since Alien and Blade Runner, but those two movies alone earn him a spot in my personal history book
I respect Leo too, even when the films don’t pan out I always respect the intention and/or ambition. I do sometimes wish that he wouldn’t try so hard to transcend his past image though, some of his recent tough characters play against his strengths. His absolute best work, for me at least, is still This Boys Life, holding you own with Bobby D at age 12 or thirteen (and Bobby D is underrated in this) is truly something.
I second both the “Ridley hasn’t been that great lately” and the “doesn’t much matter so long as he did ALIEN and BLADE RUNNER” responses.
LEGEND is a silly, slow movie, but I give that one thing: it has a truly, unnerving Satan. Why didn’t TIm Curry get more or better work?
Hehe, Alison, yeah the video game sequence in The Beach didn’t so much work for me (I think Danny Boyle just needs some trippiness in his films), but overall it was adventurous enough for me, and I fell prey to the lush scenery and pumping soundtrack. Didn’t Leo get it on with Tilda, too, or is my memory confused? I don’t think that worked, either.
It’s true, Chuck, This Boy’s Life will one day be looked on as starring two of the silver screen’s finest working together at extremely important times in their careers. The other thing Leo has going for him is having worked with some pretty outstanding directors in his young career.
Sooner or later I might elicit that response from you, Craig…I hated Full Frontal…
;-P
It’s Friday, I’m in a mischievous mood.
Daniel, you didn’t offend me at all. I haven’t seen a Soderbergh film in ages. BUT the man did direct Sex, Lies And Videotape, Out Of Sight, The Underneath and Erin Brockovich. So, for me, that’s the gold standard right there.
Chuck, you’re right. So you’re definitely no idiot. I like The Hunger despite its flaws. Ridley’s such a fabulous visual stylist that I accidentally gave him the credit.
So now that I have that straight, I’ll ante up the original Alien, Someone To Watch Over Me and Hannibal. I know that Hannibal isn’t in the same class as SOTL and I could certainly have done without that dinner with Ray Liotta. But there’s still a lot that I admire about the film. It’s beautifully shot and very elegant despite its subject matter. Yes, there are friends of mine that are film buffs that will never get over my appreciation for Hannibal. But I don’t own it or anything.
My argument was always that Hannibal was a somber and compelling work of art. SOTL (which is superior in every way) is like a chill inducing fever dream.
Chuck “some of his recent tough characters play against his strengths.” I agree absolutely. I was good in The Departed, but I have to admit I never quite bought him as a Southie. It didn’t much matter because I didn’t much buy Nicholson as a mob boss either, but I loved the movie anyway.
Ooooh…my memory of Someone to Watch Over Me has faded. I think I was still in Alien/Blade Runner mode and I was a wee bit disappointed. Expectations are a bitch.
I dig HANNIBAL too Miranda, Scott’s visual finesse wonderful compliments the Grand Guignol absurdity of the HANNIBAL book. I think they should’ve kept a few of Harris’s more over the top touches (no, the eating of the brains, ISN’T the most over the top thing in the book if that tells you anything) but I still dig it.
Daniel, I really loved Gilbert Grape, and the main reason I loved it was because of Leo’s performance, it was special. I thought he was terrific in The Departed, as well as in Blood Diamond, even if his accent made me laugh, his intentions were good.
I also enjoyed most of Ridley’s earlier work, like Alien and Blade Runner. I also liked Thelma and Louise {which I saw the other day for the 1st time}. If he can impress me with Body of Lies, to the point where I can forget all his crappier work {…A Good Year….}, then I would not mind one bit if he won an Oscar. I would root for him actually.
Chuck, I wholeheartedly agree with you regarding the style of the picture. Hannibal is a rich visual feast for all that gore. The black gown that Dr. Lecter bought Clarice (with the Gucci shoes) is just beautiful.
Can’t say I care much for his eating habits. But the man had some serious flair.
I’ll also chime in with my pal Nick. Leo was fabulous in Gilbert Grape and gave a knock out one two punch in 2007 with Blood Diamond and (ESPECIALLY) The Departed.
I hated Full Frontal too, but I find that Soderbergh has more Limeys than Full Frontals in his filmography.
That was a delayed response by the way, sorry for the out of nowhereness of the placement.
I agree with all on The Departed. Leo was excellent in Blood Diamond despite the accent but his performance in The Departed was passionate and stunning.
And he was truly fabulous in Gilbert Grape. A very well-done and extremely touching movie, one of Hallström’s best, in my opinion.
Don’t worry Chuck, I’ll add to it and suddenly it’s somewhere.
I’ve said this before, but Full Frontal is the only Soderbergh movie I don’t like. Even so, I kind of admire what it was shooting for.
For the record, I didn’t care for Full Frontal either. Horrible waste of great talent.
I chalk it up to an interesting experiment gone awry. Far nobler than say…a Larry the Cable Guy movie, but only marginally more watchable. Glad I saw it. May see it again one day, but not anytime soon.
For me the issue with Full Frontal, and I don’t remember it well truthfully, was one of self-congratulation. I’m fine with experiment, but I kept feeling as if Soderbergh and Co. were patting themselves on the back for being so hip and meta with their non-story and minimal point.
There was a heady whiff of self-congratulation with Full Frontal to be sure, but Soderbergh is so friggin’ self-effacing he almost pulled it off.
I think the original intentions were sound, but it devolved into a bunch of famous friends hanging out having themselves a bit of a circle jerk on film.
I’d do the same thing given the chance so I don’t really blame them, but it’s not something I necessarily want to sit down and watch.
Ridley has paid his dues with ALIEN, BLADE RUNNER and yes, LEGEND, one of the greatest genre runs ever. I adore LEGEND and the European cut is far more suited to the fable quality than the MTV American version.
I had the pleasure of drinking wine with Rob Bottin one night and got to tell him that he created the greatest Devil in film history. He told me a funny story about how the english crew thought he was too young and kept fucking with him. The film came out at a bad time for fantasy, the Just Do It 80’s, and audiencs were too cynical to accept Scott’s pure vision of light and dark.
Scott told Harlan Ellison at the time that he wanted to be the John Ford of science fiction films. That’s all gone now and Scott hasn’t made one film since that I would ever re-visit. I thought SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME a major bore and HANNIBAL was corrupt. Even GLADIATOR lacked the vitality of Franzoni’s raw script.
Soderbegh is still my favorite American director now next to Linklater. As for FULL FRONTAL, I appear to be the only one in the galaxy who liked it. It’s a bit smug but there’s some great commentary on filmmaking, and I love the scene with Catherine Keener yelling at the movie crew as she drives by. I live around the corner where it was shot and I know how she feels. Discuss.
I need to re-watch LEGEND to really commit to the rest but Tim Curry’s Satan is fucking amazing, and I’m glad to get a backup on that Christian, I’ve never understood why that character isn’t more discussed and why Curry got sidelined to idiotic children’s films (though I liked him in CLUE, sue me).
Happily, Tim Curry got a Tony nomination and a Mike Nichols Broadway hit with SPAMALOT, so good things do come to those who deserve it. I hope.
Full circle - tell that to Ridley Scott…
Clue! Tim Curry actually was pretty good in that.
Christian, I’ll agree Full Frontal had moments (I think David Hyde Pierce was pretty good in it too), but alas, in the end it was a bit of an indulgent bore. As I said before though, it’s a forgivable bore.
Actually, Clue had an excellent cast all around. Leslie Ann Warren, Madeline Kahn. It was just a middling, forgettable movie.
With multiple, middling, forgettable endings…
Favorite Leslie Ann Warren movie: Victor/Victoria
Lesley Ann Warren is a beautiful, sexy woman who has more talent than the law allows. She never really got her due, did she? Last time I was aware of her at all she was playing someone’s mother on Desperate Housewives. What a complete waste.
She really should’ve been nominated for Choose Me. She was SO wonderful in that and, aside from the brilliant one two punch from Kathleen Turner (who won the LA Film Critics Award for Best Actress - Romancing The Stone/Crimes Of Passion), 1984 was not exactly a banner year for female actors. Maybe it was category comfusion in her case?
Anyway, she was ROBBED…
But at least they nodded her for Victor/Victoria. Her Norma is one of the most deliriously constructed dumb blondes I’ve ever seen.
Great scene, if memory serves…
James Garner (exasperated): Norma, MINGLE…
Lesley Ann (tosses hair): SURE. (Takes her glittering self over to Robert Preston. ) Care to…uh…MINGLE with me, Mr. Todd?
Robert Preston: My dear, mingling with you would be the most exquisitely pleasurable thing I could think to do this evening.
Lesley Ann (walking away arm in arm with Robert, then looking back at James nastily and speaking in an animated tone loudly enough for him to hear): I just LOVE Frenchmen.
Robert Preston: So do I, my dear. So do I.
Funny stuff…
I ADORED Lesley Ann Warren in Victor/Victoria. She was fabulous.
“See you in choich.”
God, that character was a riot.
Robbed indeed.
“Pookie, I’m horny!”
And Robert Preston…come on! Genius.
Robert Preston was a lovely gent and a highly underrated comedian. That was the only time he was ever nominated. Never even got nodded for The Music Man.
*shakes head and sighs* The Academy…
Robert Preston was wonderful in Victor/Victoria. Very, very funny and a fine singer and dancer. It’s too bad his last movie was The Last Starfighter. Does anyone else even remember that one?
I remember it exists…is that close enough?
Robert Preston was pretty funny in another Blake Edwards movie too: S.O.B.
Preston is actually great in THE LAST STARFIGHTER. It’s a fun turn not unlike Joel Grey’s awesome perf in the otherwise awful REMO WILLIAMS.
I adore SOB. One of the best anti-Hollywood films ever, and if you watch it today, very 70’s in black tone.
Why isn’t SOB more well known?
Miranda, I agree 100% about HANNIBAL. I loved it. One has to accept it as a totally different animal that SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, but it is an elegantly haunting, beautifully shot piece of work. It’s really a great mood piece above all. It’s one of my favorite Scott films, along with BLACK HAWK DOWN, ALIEN, and GLADIATOR.
Thank you, Matthew. You have wondrous taste. I love all of the films you listed above.
You know what they say about great minds…
I hated Black Hawk Down. Sorry.
Gladiator…I liked it, Not Love.
Hannibal. I was indifferent towards it.
Are there any contingencies in the “great minds think alike” saying? Is it possible, Miranda, that I too have a great mind? lol
Yes Nick, you have a great mind. It’s just that with Ridley you share a mind with ME rather than the delightful Miranda.
I know I lack a certain elegance and allure, but you could do a lot worse.
Nick, you can certainly disagree with me (ANY TIME, ACTUALLY) and still have a great mind. I say so, anyway.
Craig, don’t sell yourself short. Though it’s rather early for me (or late, as the case may be), it’s never too early to be termed delightful by one of the most adorable gentlemen on the West Coast.
Easter is so festive…
Thanks Miranda. :-)
BLACK HAWK DOWN was a life changing experience for me. I was 14 at the time and still pretty influenced by my family’s conservative, pro-war politics. Afterwards, not so much. It had a profound effect on me and has been a favorite of mine ever since.
What a relief! Please Craig, I couldn’t much better than your mind. Or yours Miranda. So we all have great minds, how cool are we?
I cannot believe how festive I feel Miranda - I am not a festive person and I am not a fan of the holidays {I can only handle my family in small doses}. In addition, I can eat all the chocolate eggs I want, a much-appreciated bonus. This year, I am all for Easter.
Maybe I should watch Black Hawk again Matt - when I saw it, it didn’t register as much more than noise. I hate saying this and continuously playing the age card, but I was probably too young for it.
Matthew, issues of quality aside, you can’t argue with a movie that grabs you and shakes you and makes you think in a whole new way and it’s pretty cool when it happens.
Nick. Sometimes Ridley lets style get in the way of substance. He’s not as guilty of that as his brother, but it happens. You can take the boy out of advertising but you can’t take advertising out of the boy. I found it kind of distracting with BHD. Maybe your response was similar.
SOB is a fine assault on Hollywood, and an underrated film. Along with Experiment in Terror, it’s one of those most underrated films Blake Edwards made. SOB definitely feels ’70s-ish.
I’ve been over Soderbergh with Craig a couple of times. For now, I still think he peaked with The Limey, in many ways (it and sex, lies and videotape continually vie for being my favorite film of his). Erin Brokovich and Traffic were okay, but both rang a little hollow for me for whatever reasons and I’ve never revisited them. Perhaps I should sometime this year. I thought all the “big” contenders of 2000 were in one way or another weak and/or overrated–Gladiator, Traffic, Erin Brokovich, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Chocolat–one of my absolute least favorite Best Picture line-ups ever. If forced to choose, I’d go with Crouching Tiger and I’m not even an Ang Lee fan. Usually winning Oscars only curses acting performers but for me, since winning, Soderbergh’s subsequent output has been one of the more disappointing aspects of the ’00s for me. I liked the ‘01 Ocean’s Eleven well enough, actually, but since then I’ve continuously felt letdown by him and it hurts. (Maybe I should see the Ocean’s sequels one day, both of which I skipped.) Oh well, I can always watch sex, lies and videotape, The Underneath and The Limey whenever I desire.
Ridley Scott. Interestingly, my film professor always busts Legend out whenever he wants to show us a “cinematic failure.” I do think Curry is excellent in that, though. I believe he shows us the MTV version you write of, christian. Anyway, I am planning on seeing Alien again in the next week as part of an assignment about modern horror and sci-fi films. Scott’s early canon is interesting. Perhaps if Blade Runner had enjoyed a better reception his entire career would have gone in a dramatically different direction. As it is, I find that the majority of his films feel quite anonymous, and as I’ve expressed with joel and others here, I don’t see him ever saying much of anything beyond what the particular film he’s making already wants to say on its own. There are certain aspects of the films he makes that are correct, for instance the mood in Hannibal or portions of American Gangster’s milieu, but it never really gels into a complete whole for me.
I was always curious as to Edward’s proclivity to cast primarily TV actors as the stars of his later films. It’s as if he was trying to give them a shot at the big time after James Garner. Richard Mulligan started in film but got well-known through the amazing series SOAP, and he’s just fantastic in SOB, frenetic and obssesed (and Edwards even cast SOAP’s Ted Wass as the new Pink Panther years later)…
You’re right, Mulligan is sublime in SOB. And I suspect you’re probably right about Edwards wanting to give other TV actors a shot at the big time after James Garner, because he definitely liked casting actors from TV.
Wow, lots going on here. I’m a big fan of Clue and Tim Curry. Meanwhile, I think I would have to say that Ridley Scott’s Hannibal is probably my favorite of his films in the last decade. I enjoyed Gladiator, but I thought it was Black Hawk Down that was the most corrupt film of his recent period.
Oh, and Craig: “There’s just no pleasing you, is there Jeff? :)”
Probably not : /
Jeff, what do you mean exactly by “corrupt?”
Racist and pro-war.
Not that I think you’re racist or pro-war - you seem like a perfectly nice person.
See I got the exact opposite out of it - but that’s the beauty of film.
Nice to see a thread that’s devoted to some discussion re Blake Edwards. Nobody ever talks about him in terms of great directors. Or even good. But his string of 60s comedies is EXTRAORDINARY: Breakfast At Tiffany’s, The Pink Panther and The Great Race. Plus there’s also Days Of Wine And Roses and Victor/Victoria.
Sure, there’s some dross in his fimography. But there are few directors around that hit it out of the ball park every single time. I have a feeling that he’s been marginalized due to the fact that his films aren’t “serious” enough. Ridiculous in my view. Those 60s comedies are as brilliant as anything out there in the marketplace. So they’re populist crowdpleasers? What of it? They’re extremely funny and wonderfully written.
Believe me, we all know plenty of comedies that are not.
“You can take the boy out of advertising but you can’t take the advertising out of the boy.” Though I do love Sir Ridley, that’s a brilliant bit of insight that often applies, Craig. Maybe that’s why Lawrence Kasdan never lived up to his fabulous directorial potential after Body Heat. Did some good films but nothing that even came close to date.
It may well be avant garde but I STILL think Tim Curry deserved an Oscar nomination for Rocky Horror. I’ll duck before I get hammered…
Thank you, Nick. That’s so sweet of you. As for family, I think we all feel that way sometimes. The people that you love most will drive you the craziest. It’s inevitable. This is why marriages don’t last and also why I’ve had quite a number of three to six month liaisons. But you’ll appreciate your family more over time. Some things DO get easier.
Trust me on this.
You’re right Miranda, Tim Curry would easily have been nominated if the film had come out 20 years later (no pun intended). It’s simply one of the all-time great film performances, certainly within the musical genre.
Craig and I got to be present in the company of Blake Edwards when he showed up at SKIDOO and THE PARTY. One of my fondest Hollywood moments was watching him in the back of the Aero as the packed house laughed and applauded through the film. They didn’t know he was there until it was over.
Thanks for reminding us about Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Miranda. I always forget that it was Blake Edwards who directed that. One of my favorites. Victor/Victoria is wonderful. Sure, some of his films were mediocre, but when he nailed it he really nailed it. He gave us some wonderful comedies.
And, of course, Days of Wine and Roses was a very serious, devastating film of his.
christian, you’re a lucky man. I’d love to meet Blake Edwards. Or even sit in a theatre and hear him talk about his craft. You and Craig both attended? That must have been quite the evening.
Also exceptionally cool to have someone else appreciate Tim Curry’s greatness in RH. I thought I was all alone on that particular limb.
I know, Alison. A lot of films that I love are favourites from childhood. I grew up watching Blake’s comedies. It’s far more difficult to make a classic comedy than practically anything else. There are so many memorable moments that resonant that you never really forget. There’s that grandiose pie fight and the collapse of the Eiffel Tower in The Great Race, the final chase (with people in costume) in The Pink Panther (not to mention that SCORE) and Audrey, George and the cat at the end of Breakfast At Tiffany’s.
As Norma Cassidy (Lesley Ann’s alter ego) from Victor/Victoria would say, they were just GRAND…
I didn’t know Mr. Edwards was back there (The Party was pretty awesome by the way) and the extended standing O he got when the audience discovered he was there (he’d been having health problems and wasn’t able to come down to the stage) was pretty moving.
I grew up on The Pink Panther and I got to see Mary Poppins’ boobies in SOB. Thank you Blake.
And thank you Christian for inviting me to the screening of Skidoo and The Party!
The only thing I don’t like about Breakfast at Tiffany’s is Mickey Rooney’s unfortunate Japanese caricature. It’s groaningly offensive. Normally I try to put that kind of stuff in its historical context, and yeah I guess it was still cool to crap on the Japanese back then, but it’s gross.
Luckily the rest of the movie is terrific, though not quite as darkly toned as the book.
Funny, Allison, I was thinking the same thing, only that Brad’s an insurance salesman rather than a lap-dancer (although the 2 professions are not that far apart).
Glad to see Leo continuing his record of picking strong projects. I wonder: is a 35-day shoot a record for a prominent director like Ridley, or did someone already beat him to the punch?