Movies36

How many Cary Grant movies can you name?  He has 73 movie credits in all so you’ll probably be able to list at least a dozen off the top of your head even if you’re in the under 35 crowd.

A few fun facts about Cary:

• His real name was Archibald Alec Leach.
• He was a British actor who was best know for the films he made in America.
• Cary was voted as the 2nd Greatest Male Star of all Time.  Humphrey Bogart took first place.
• He believed his mother to be dead until he was in his 30’s.
• Some of his female costars included Marlene Dietrich, Mae West, Katherine Hepburn, Rosalind Russell, Ginger Rogers and Irene Dunne.

 Some of the Cary Grant films that I enjoy are Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, To Catch a Theif and Notorious, and also That Touch of Mink with Doris Day.  But the spot for an absolute favorite is a tie between Houseboat with Sophia Loren and An Affair to Remember with Deborah Kerr.  It all depends on whether I’m in the mood to laugh or in the mood to cry.

Any way you look at it he set a high standard for the actors of today to live up to.

PR-Inside is reporting that Scarlett’s latest film, Mary Queen of Scots, has been postponed by the Irish production, Element Pictures.  A representative of Element said that “With strike action involving the Screen Actors Guild looming we are waiting to see what happens.  We are hoping that things get resoved in the next few weeks.”

The union is in negotiations regarding pay and working conditions among other things.  If a strike occurs it’s expected to happen at the end of June.

Phillip Noyce (Patriot Games, The Saint, The Bone Collector) is slated to direct this film which focuses on the relationship between Mary I of Scotland and Queen Elizabeth I of England.

I can only wonder if the actors go out on strike if we’ll be subjected to reality movies the the way we were reality television when the writers went out on strike last year.

Here’s a quick shot of Alan Rickman on the set of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.  He’s looking very Snapeish indeed in this shot.  HBP is due out November 21, 2008.  I think it’s been my second favorite intallment of Harry Potter so far (Goblet of Fire being the first) and I’m hoping that it translates well to the big screen.

Rickman may not have hit the radar of some of the younger movie goers out there until he became the character Severus Snape.  But he’s actually a prolific actor both in film and on the stage and he directs as well. 

He is however often cast as the villian and why not when he’s so good at it.  You may recognize him as Hans Gruber in Die Hard, Elliot Marston in Quigley Down Under, Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, or more recently as Judge Turpin in Sweeny Todd.

He also starred in the movie Bottle Shock with Chris Pine (Just My Luck, Smokin’ Aces) and Bill Pullman (Independence Day, Lake Placid),  The indy film will be released on August 8th and tells the story of the Napa wine industry.

Director Walt Becker has gone from Wild Hogs to Old Dogs.  Written by David Diamond and David Weissman who brought us Evolution and The Family Man, this film is based on the theme that old dogs can learn new tricks.  John Travolta and Robin Williams play the parts of business partners and are happy with their lives until Travolta’s character is confronted with a set of twins that he was unaware he’d fathered.  His seven year old daughter Ella Bleu Travolta (no comment) makes her acting debut playing twins in this film.  His wife in real life, Kelly Preston is in the movie as well making it a real family affair.  This will be the first time John and Kelly have made a movie together since their 1989 film The Experts.

Other stars include Lori Loughlin, Matt Dillon, Dax Shepard, Rita Wilson and  Bernie Mac.  I’m glad to see Lori Loughlin included in this stellar cast.  She’s done a lot of television but this will be her first really big film. 

This film is scheduled for release April 10,2009

Danis Tanovic is making his American directorial debut with Triage.  As a native of Bosnia that country has been the topic of most of his filmography.  Danis actually spent two years on the front lines filming for the Bosnian Army at Sarajevo.  They say to write what you know and he did when he wrote the screenplay for this film.  It’s the story of a photojournalist who comes home from an assignment in the Middle East minus his sidekick and his girlfriend (Paz Vega) is trying to find out what happened.  It seems that Colin Farrell, who plays the lead in this film, has lost an alarming amount of weight for this film.  When asked about it he allegedly read a passage from the script. 

“He went to the bathroom to shave. Once his beard was gone he saw that his face had become drawn. He pressed at the hollows beneath his eyes, the pronounced nubs of his cheekbones.”

Whether that’s true or not is anybody’s guess.  But it’s not uncommon for actors to lose or gain drastic amounts of weight for certain roles.  Renee Zellwegger for Bridget Jones and Will Smith for Ali come to mind.  Naturally the tabloids are obsessed with his weight loss and are bringing up his trip to rehab three years ago.  They will probably continue to hound him until he gains his weight back which I’m assuming he’ll do before shooting his next film Dirt Music.

Triage will be out sometime next year.  So catch Colin in In Bruges to hold you over.
 

First and foremost, I’d like to say that this isn’t a joke.  Or at least I don’t think it is.  TV Guide is reporting that George Clooney has signed on to Men Who Stare At Goats.  This movie is being adapted from Jon Ronson’s book of the same name.

The movie tells us about the Army’s foray into the paranormal.  Evidently in 1979 the Army experimented with the possiblility that a soldier could become invisible, walk through walls or kill a goat by staring at it.  They are taking the whole, if looks could kill thing to the limit.  These are the soldiers of the First Earth Battalion and they are supposedly helping fight the war on terror as you read this.  By the way this book is non-fiction.

I have no idea who else will star in it, or when it will be filmed and released.  Grant Heslov, George’s partner in Smoke House Productions is slated to direct.  That is unless one of the members of the First Earth Battalion finds out first.

Nicholas Cage is starring in the remake of Bangkok Dangerous.  We’ve been seeing a rash of remakes lately in the film industry.  The thing is they’ve generally stuck to remaking U.S. films that we were already familiar with.  The thing that makes this remake unique is that it’s and American remake of an Asian film.  Not to say that hasn’t been done but it’s not the norm.

Another thing that’s not the norm is that this remake has the same director duo as the original.  Oxide Pang Chun and newbie Jason Richman wrote the screen play.  This is the story of a mute professional killer (Nicolas Cage) who starts out as a veritable sociopath and eventually becomes enamoured of a shop girl.  He finds that he is remorseful and turns on his bosses. 

The original film synopsis states that flashbacks will tell us what led him to this life of murder and mayhem.  I can’t find any mention of flashbacks in the new script.  I’m not big on flashbacks.  Unless they are very well done they can be confusing, aggravating or to be looked upon as a good time to grab a snack.

But what can I say, I’m a sucker for Nicholas Cage movies so it’s a sure bet I’ll watch this one too.

The long awaited Sex and the City: The Movie will hit theaters on May 30th.  It’ll be the final hurrah for the girls.  We’ve seen lots of photos leaked from the set of this movie so I think that we know what to expect from wardrobe.

Of course, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis are reprising their roles.  And let’s not forget Mr. Big himself, Chris Noth.  I was happy to see that Candice Bergen and Jennifer Hudson are also appearing in the movie.  It was filmed on the original set of the television series in Queens.

The film would have been out a couple of years ago but Kim Cattrall pulled out due to a salary dispute.  Reports say that she demanded salary and air time equal to SJP’s and equal billing as well.  It’s rumored that the resolution of that dispute included a series deal for Kim.

After the promo work for the movie, Sarah Jessica and hubby Matthew Broderick plan to take the summer off.  It’s been hinted that they plan on trying for baby number two.

Penelope Cruz is currently filming Broken Embraces ( Los Abrazos Rotos) on location in the Canary Islands and Madrid, Spain. 

Director Pedro Almodovar is blogging about the film at www.pedroalmodovar.es  There he tells us that Broken Embraces isn’t inspired by any novel but is an original script that he’s been nurturing for years.  Almodovar says there is ” . . .a lot of fiction, a real feast of it.  This is probably the most novel-like story I have written to date.”

He also talks about how he will style Penelope.  For one of her characters he’s going after Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina for this film instead of repeating the more disheveled looks that she has taken on for other more recent films.  The flip side will be a blonde.

If you’d like to see test photos of Penelope in all the different looks he’s considered check out his blog it’s a lot of fun.

                                 Kirsten Dunst on the set of All Good Things

All Good Things is set in the 80’s.  The head of a New York real estate dynasty falls for a girl from the wrong side of town.  When she disappears and a detective begins investigating, others who are close to the case begin dying. 

The film is being directed by Andrew Jarecki who was nominated for an Oscar for his work on the documentary Capturing the Friedmans.  Andrew co-wrote the screenplay along with newbie Marcus Hinchey.  It’s always interesting to see what happens when you’ve got new people at the wheel. 

The cast includes Kirsten Dunst, Ryan Gosling, up and coming Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Frank Langella (House of D, Sweet November, Superman Returns) so they have an experienced cast to work with. 

We know the movie is supposed to be released next year but no word on the exact date yet.