Production Notes: 2/27/09 – Now with lemon fresh scent
This week’s edition of Production Notes stars Naomi Watts, Freida Pinto, Antonio Banderas, Woody Allen, John Cusack, Sean Penn, Michel Gondry, Melissa Leo, Cate Blanchett and Samuel L. Jackson. As always, it’s 100% Varietese free.
Watts, Pinto and Banderas want to give you a Woody. Woody Allen’s lastest as-yet untitled project started getting more interesting two weeks ago with announcements that Josh Brolin and Anthony Hopkins were lined up to star. This week the film was the subject of two more juicy casting announcements: First came news that LiC favorite Naomi Watts and Slumdog Millionaire co-star Freida Pinto had been added to the lineup and just today it was reported that they’ll be joined by Antonio Banderas. Little else is known about the Woodman’s 40th theatrical feature (as director) except that it’s scheduled to begin production in London this summer while his 39th, Whatever Works with Evan Rachel Wood, opens June 19. Anyone want to take bets on whether the old pervert will have Watts and Pinto make out like he did with Penelope Cruz and Scarlett Johansson?
Variety 2/23 and THR 2/26
John Cusack’s Celebrity Hot Tub. The idea of John Cusack making a comedy is music to my ears but the fact it’s called Hot Tub Time Machine doesn’t inspire confidence. On the other hand, it’s also got Rob Corddry (TV’s The Daily Show). Hot Tub tells the story of a bunch of old friends who are unable to recapture the magic when they return to the ski lodge where they partied as lads…until they get into a hot tub that transports them back to 1987. I wonder if Shannon Tweed will have a cameo. Steve Pink (screenwriter behind Grosse Pointe Blank and High Fidelity) is set to direct.
Variety 2/23
Penn might play the Plame Game. Sean Penn is in talks to co-star in Fair Game, Doug (Swingers, Mr. & Mrs. Smith) Liman’s drama based on the memoir of outed undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame. Naomi Watts is playing Plame while Penn would play her husband Joseph Wilson, the former US diplomat who wrote several op-ed columns accusing the Bush Administration of manipulating evidence of weapons of mass destruction in order to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Bush henchmen Karl Rove and Richard Armitage later admitted leaking Plame’s identity to the media while Dick Cheney stooge Lewis “Scooter” Libby was sentenced to 30 months in prison and a fine of $250,000 for perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements. President Bush commuted Libby’s prison time, but no one bothered to do anything about the fact he’s a grown answering to the name “Scooter.”
Variety 2/23
Chiwetel Ejiofor takes a pinch of Salt. Philip Noyce’s Salt project just upped the odds that I’d see it by casting Chiwetel Ejiofor (Dirty Pretty Things, Children of Men). The actor joins Angelina Jolie and Liev Schreiber in the story of a CIA agent (Jolie) who is accused of being a Russian sleeper spy. If you still have trouble pronouncing Chiwetel Ejiofor’s name, here’s a handy audio guide!
Variety 2/23
Because the world needs another zombie movie. Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody (Juno) is producing a zombie romantic comedy (a zom-rom-com?) for Fox Searchlight based on S.G. Browne’s upcoming novel Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament. Meanwhile, the Academy is checking the fine print of their bylaws to see if there is any way they can get their statue back.
Variety 2/23
Gondry goes Green. Seth Rogen’s comic adaptation (he wrote and will star) of The Green Hornet has been looking for a director since co-star Stephen Chow (Kung Fu Hustle) dropped out over creative differences (he’s still playing Kato). When it was announced earlier this week that Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) would be taking over the director’s chair, my first response was “Waaaahhh??” but apparently Gondry wanted the job because his presentation “wowed production presidents Doug Belgrad and Matt Tolmach.” It seems like a strange choice, but suddenly I’m kind of interested in the project based on the character best remembered for the short-lived 1966 TV show featuring a super-cool tricked out Chrysler Imperial, Bruce Lee and a blazing theme song by Al Hirt used to memorable effect by Quentin Tarantino in Kill Bill.
Variety 2/24
Must Adapt After My Death. The haunting documentary Must Read After My Death is being turned into a feature film. The original which debuted in New York last Friday hits LA this weekend and is available online at www.giganticdigital.com.
THR 2/24
Mr. Verbinski murders cinema in the ballroom with the candlestick. I’m pretty much out of jokes about Hasbro’s campaign to turn every goddamn toy of theirs into a movie. Clue already hit the big screen once in 1985. The Murder by Death-like spoof had a solid cast including Tim Curry, Martin Mull, Eileen Brennan, Christopher Lloyd, Lesley Ann Warren and Madeline Kahn, but it’s probably best remembered for having three different endings. Never content to leave well enough alone, Universal is bringing the beloved board game back, this time with Gore (Pirates of the Caribbean) Verbinski directing and producing. An executive is quoted describing the film as “a global thriller and transmedia event that uses deductive reasoning as its storytelling engine.” Yeah. Sounds exactly like what you’d expect a bean-counting stooge to say.
Variety 2/24
Leo goes from River to Waters. Oscar nominated actress Melissa Leo is following up her big screen success in Frozen River by joining Hilary Swank, Minnie Driver and LiC favorite Sam Rockwell in Betty Ann Waters. You may remember from the 2/15 edition of Production Notes that this is the indie drama about the unemployed single mother who earns her law degree over the course of 10 years trying to get her brother out of prison…or you may not.
Variety 2/24
Blanchett threatens to make me actually want to see Robin Hood after all. I know I promised I was done talking about this up and down and in and out Ridley Scott/Russell Crowe project, but I just can’t resist mentioning that it might turn into a Ridley Scott/Russell Crowe/Cate Blanchett project. I’m just saying. On the other hand, Variety describes it as “a Gladiator verion of the Robin Hood legend” and suddenly I’m less interested again. Blanchett would play Maid Marian, the Sheriff of Notthingham and Fryer Tuck. Just kidding.
Variety 2/25
We can remake it for you wholesale. I’m sure the producers will insist on calling this Total Recall remake a “re-imagining” of Philip K. Dick’s original story, but if they keep the title of the 1990 Paul Verhoeven/Arnold Schwartzenegger film, then they’re lying.
THR 2/25
Jackson’s great vengeance and Fury-ous anger. After reportedly balking at being nickel-and-dimed by the penny pinching bastards at Marvel, Samuel L. Jackson has agreed to return as Shield leader Nick Fury in Iron Man 2 and he’s also got an option to appear in the 1473 or so other superhero films Marvel has in the pipeline. That sound you just heard was all of nerdkind simultaneously ejaculating…even the girls.
Variety 2/25
When you get caught between the moon and remake city. They’re remaking Arthur starring Russell Brand, the Brit who everyone found so inexplicably goddamn funny in the forgettable Forgetting Sarah Marshall last summer. I know it’s crazy, but it’s true.
Variety 2/25
Ferrell and Wahlberg team up in McKay cop comedy. Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg will play cops in The B Team, an action comedy to be written and directed by Adam McKay (Anchorman). I know comedy is subjective, but I hope it’s funnier than recent McKay/Ferrell collaborations Step Brothers and Talladega Nights.
Variety 2/26
Filed under: Casting, Development, Pre-Production
Sooooooo much random shit coming up.
With the possible exception of the undisclosed Woody Allen project, everything here is an adaptation, remake, or at least sounds highly derivative. I know it’s not exactly a new lament, but where oh where has creativity and originality gone? Craig’s blurbs have more freshness in them than I expect to find in most of these films.
Can’t believe they’re actually remaking Total Recall already. Or Clue. Or any of the other countless remakes.
These production notes make my head swim. When you read the press releases for all this stuff one day at a time, it’s sort of a “yeah, whatever” but when you read all of them in one sitting, it’s truly shocking how unexcited most of these sound. I’m sure some of these will yield good performances, maybe even some good movies, but it doesn’t feel like it here. It’s not Craig’s writing here, because the press releases for these things sound just as robotic and derivative as Craig’s sardonic wit portray them to be.
Ay caramba.
What’s weird is things seem to go in waves. One week there will be a bunch of cool sounding things and the next it’s all crap with a few gems in between. This week…mostly crap.
I’m glad that, in all likelihood, half of these will never reach theaters.
You know, that’s a perspective I sometimes lose. I haven’t been tracking production news long enough to have a long list of stuff that got dumped, but you’re right…and it’s one of the reasons I avoided reporting this stuff for so long.
It’s good material for mockery though, so it stays!
Being a screenwriter here, you can imagine the frustrations with the rash of stupid remakes and bankrupt ideas like board game movies — and remakes of a board game movie that flopped. Now that’s vision.
“Craig’s blurbs have more freshness in them than I expect to find in most of these films.”
Indeed. Which is why, when I will probably avoid 75% of these “projects,” I love reading Craig’s writing on them, when and if (as Jeff reminds us) they ever make it to the screen.
So I guess M. Night Shyamalan killed Mark Wahlberg’s career, too.
“Being a screenwriter here, you can imagine the frustrations with the rash of stupid remakes and bankrupt ideas like board game movies — and remakes of a board game movie that flopped. Now that’s vision.”
Yes, Christian. The studios don’t want to make films for adults anymore. Just ask Spielberg (!) with regards to Paramount.
no craig,i don’t think the old pervert is gonna make whomever/make out/the geek has spoken. ;)
It’ll be interesting to see what’s made of Diablo’s latest script . . . and how critics and audiences respond to it.
And of course I’m concerned about the Ferrell/Wahlberg cop comedy. It’s hard to top such a masterpiece as Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy — surely a film that qualifies for Pantheon status (and I’m exaggerating only a teeney bit).
Speaking of bad remakes, read it and weep people.
Even the title change demonstrates the “elephant in a glass factory” approach that Hollywood’s going to bring to this one.
Yeah, that one was in the works even before the film was released in the US. Needless to say I won’t be seeing it.
The title change doesn’t even make sense. Matt Reeves is clearly a fatuous idiot.
Bah.
I can see the attraction of wanting to make an English language version. Though I personally think it unnecessary.
However, the recruitment of a less than stellar talent to direct the film is a disappointment. Wasn’t the visionary director of 300 available?
He’s having new visions, entailing recreating someone else’s artwork in slow motion. See, the slow motion part is what’s visionary.
As for LET ME IN, if it’s successful I can just see the sequel now…NOT BY THE HAIR OF MY CHINNY CHIN CHIN.
Haha Joel.
Maybe they could make a romantic comedy spin off – LET THE RIGHT ONE IN ONLY TO THEN THINK HE”S THE WRONG ONE BEFORE HE FINALLY SHOWS HIMSELF TO BE THE REAL RIGHT ONE YOU’VE BEING WAITING YOUR WHOLE LIFE TO FALL IN LOVE WITH.
A title like that can’t fail.
Luckily, the original had plenty of opportunity to shine on its own before this one came along. No one pulled a Weinstein and withheld the original from release so they could make more money on the remake.
This remake does not exist in my mind.
Everything else about the remake aside, what a terrible title. No rhythm or mystery to it. How prosaic.
I still haven’t seen the original yet. Life still holds promise for me.
Hey Joel, after 38 reviews The Watchmen is scoring a respectable but not stellar 76% at RT.
Did you see the Top Critics score of it, sartre? They were at 17 percent.
I’m in review blackout mode, but the closer we get to Thursday at midnight, the more restrained my expectations.
They were already pretty modest to begin with. I don’t think there’s any way to do the comic justice, but I’d hoped for a decent movie on its own…something that shakes up a genre I’m increasingly bored with. I have a bad feeling it’s going to be like 300 without the box office.
I guess TDK is enough genre reinvention for one year.
Yeah, the reviews I’ve seen snippets are wildly mixed. I don’t think most mainstream critics have a strong grasp on the medium, so I tend to discount them to some extent but the genre critics tend to overrate these movies generally, so I’ll try to make my own mind up.
I’m just not looking forward to wading through the crowds this weekend for it. I think it will do better than the trades have assumed, but I don’t think it will end up being the blockbuster that 300 or TDK were.
Then again, who knows?
I thought 300 would tank, so clearly I’m in no position to predict how this one will do.
Given a choice, I’d rather have a good movie that fails than a piece of shit like 300 that cleans up at the box office.
Well, in a sense this one is posed to pull off something similar to 300. Ticket sales for movies are way, way up right now due to the recession and WB has been promoting the hell out of Watchmen everywhere and doing a pretty good job of gearing up the hype machine. Fanboys and comic book afficionados are already in line for this one and the marketing appears to be well-calculated towards grabbing a significant audience outside the genre fans.
Further, there hasn’t been anything mainstream worth seeing for a few months now. I’m hesitant to pick numbers out of my ass, but Watchmen could do fairly well this weekend. Whether it holds an audience going into its second frame is another matter entirely.
Jim Emerson has a great Opening Shot entry for the Watchmen graphic novel over at his site, which does get me a little excited for the movie. Then again, it reminds me of the massive complexity of the comic book. If they can get one tenth that complexity into a 160 minutes of film, I’ll be fairly impressed.
Thanks for the link Joel. I loved the clockwork detailed construction of novel. It took me forever to get beyond the first few pages with all its layers. Like you I have highly tempered expectations but still hope that something of the source material’s effectiveness comes through in the film.
I saw that jennybee, the Meta critic score also slammed the film.