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news Archives - Page 2 of 6 - ShowBizCafe.com

Jack Rico

By

2011/05/16 at 12:00am

First image of Cameron Diaz in ‘Gambit’

05.16.2011 | By |

First image of Cameron Diaz in 'Gambit'

CANNES (May 15, 2011) – Principal photography began on GAMBIT, starring Academy Award© winner Colin Firth (The King’s Speech), Cameron Diaz (The Green Hornet, There’s Something About Mary), Golden Globe and BAFTA award winner Alan Rickman (Harry Potter Series, Alice In Wonderland) and BAFTA award winner Sir Tom Courtenay (The Golden Compass) in London on May 5th. In addition, Golden Globe winner Stanley Tucci (Julie & Julia) and Academy Award© winner and veteran comedic actress Cloris Leachman have joined the cast.
 
The film is directed by Michael Hoffman (The Last Station) and based on a screenplay written by Academy Award© winners Joel and Ethan Coen (True Grit, No Country for Old Men). Mike Lobell (The Freshman, Honeymoon in Vegas) is producing, alongside Crime Scene Pictures partners Adam Ripp and Rob Paris, who are also financing. Crime Scene Pictures is having an impressive inaugural year. Rizal Risjad and Philip Elway are executive producers.
 
Shooting in London and in New Mexico, the story centers on British art curator Harry Deane (Firth) who devises a finely-crafted scheme to con England’s richest man and avid art collector, Lionel Shabandar, (Rickman) into purchasing a fake Monet painting.  In order to bait his buyer, he recruits a Texas rodeo queen (Diaz) to cross the pond and pose as a woman whose grandfather liberated the painting at the end of WWII.
 
The behind-the-scenes talent is equally stellar. Florian Ballhaus (Red, The Time Traveller’s Wife, The Devil Wears Prada) will serve as Director of Photography. Academy Award© winner Jenny Beavan (The King’s Speech, A Room with a View) will be the Costume Designer. Joining her are Hair and Makeup Chief Christine Blundell, Academy Award© winner for Topsy Turvey, and Production Designer Stuart Craig, a three-time Academy Award© winner (Gandhi, Dangerous Liaisons, The English Patient), who has multiple nominations for his work on the Harry Potter series.
 
FilmNation Entertainment is handling distribution outside of the United States, with CBS Films distributing in the United States. Alliance Films will be distributing the film in Canada, Momentum Pictures in the UK and Aurum Productions in Spain.

Karen Posada

By

2011/05/10 at 12:00am

’30 Minutes or Less’: The Set Visit!

05.10.2011 | By |

'30 Minutes or Less': The Set Visit!

ShowBizCafe.com was very excited to get invited to Grand Rapids, Michigan back in September 2010, where we spent a chunk of the nighttime in a scrap yard seeing the cast of ’30 Minutes or Less’ film a couple of pretty neat scenes. A few of us film junkies were picked up at our hotel by 7pm the day we arrived and were taken to a secret location to see Jesse Eisenberg, Aziz Ansari, Danny McBride, Nick Swardson, Michael Peña and Dilshad Vadsaria making the movie directed by Ruben Fleischer with Ben Stiller as an executive producer.

The action/comedy is set to come out in theaters on August 12, 2011. The plot: Nick (Eisenberg) a pizza delivery guy who has no real goals set for himself in life is forced to get himself together when two small time robbers (McBride & Swardson) make him rob a bank; making Nick realize how much life has to offer. Chet (Ansari) his best friend comically helps him along the way and the final push is given when the love of his life (Vadsaira) is put at risk, in the meantime, Peña is given a task to accomplish from the bad guys themselves. This is a dream team, with Eisenberg’s silly/serious comedy skits, McBride & Swardson’s jokes bouncing from one to the other, Ansari & Peña’s nonchalant crazy behavior and Vadsaria’s beauty this is set to be a good laugh out loud comedy with bits of good action.   

When we arrived on the set we walked to the scrap yard where we got to see the main character, Nick, struggling to keep his cool as a bomb attached to him is about to explode and he’s trying to get the main lady to safety (since she plays the damsel in distress). We hear the bad guys who are dressed in monkey suits (to avoid getting recognized) screaming, cursing and making jokes as poor Nick tries to man up to the situation. Fleischer takes various shots of this scene, from different angles, distances and even let’s the actors play with their own lines to make their own script as they ease into character. In another scene we see a struggle between the bad guys dressed in monkey suits and Michael Peña. It was a cool, clear summer night and the lights on the set cast beautiful shadows off of the mountains of scrap metal set around the lot; there’s even some fake metal deer, computers and funky machinery. We were quiet on set and could see from the camera and a TV set up close to us how the scene plays out. Vadsaira’s screams are loud as are the laughs of McBride & Swardson (the bad guys), Eisenberg’s character breathes nervously and tries to find the right words as cool sweat fills his forehead. We got to interview the entire cast along with the director and the props, visual effects, stunt coordinator and special effects guys. After a great buffet dinner we got to see the coolest thing of all, a flame thrower getting used! It was the first time it was being used on set by Swardson, you must have been able to see that thing from space; that’s how big the flame was. 

Here’s some of the stuff the cast & director got to tell us:

Jesse Eisenberg‘s character is closer to what he was in “Zombieland” than on the “Facebook movie”, although here he looks more grown up and mature. Eisenberg cautiously and kindly approached us as we bombarded him with questions late in the night.

ShowBizCafe (SBC): What was it like working with Ruben(director) once again and how was it compared to Zombieland?

Jesse Eisenberg (JE): It was great! Ruben has a great kind of sense of how to create a comedic movie and not compromise the characters and he does that really well. I mean the tone of the movie is a little bit different from Zombieland  since this is set in more of a real world context, in that movie for my  character was more heightened comedy, here my character is pretty straightforward. The comedy in this is a little less winking to the audience, Zombieland constantly was playing on the absurdity of the real characters whereas this movie is genuinely scary in a real way. The stakes in this movie are legitimately high and the character, at least Aziz and my character are real world characters.   

SBC: can you tell us about the toughest scene to make and about the love story in this film?
JE: Every scene kind of has some challenge logistically. I’m wearing this bomb throughout the whole movie, but as I said, the movie kind of takes place in this very real world setting, so it’s occasionally been challenging  because there’s so much action and there’s also so many things that are comedic elements  in the movie but it’s my job to kind of maintain the emotional honesty. At the risk of being pretentious, that’s my job, so that’s occasionally challenging. The love part,  I’ve been in love with my best friend’s twin sister; I’ve spent the last several years not doing anything important in my life and never taking control of my life so one of the things that the bomb does is allow me to… kind of lights a fire under me so to speak and one of the things I’m inspired to do is to go confess my love to this girl.

SBC: What do you have coming up after this movie?
JE: I’m not sure. I have a lot of publicity engagements(for the Facebook movie, which was coming out then) which last until like October and then I’m trying to do a play in New York City. I write stage plays.

Jesee Eisenberg

The director, Ruben Fleischer, made sure to give us a full run down on what we were seeing, showing us pictures and sketches of the scenes and explaining to us how certain things work; such as the flame thrower and car chases. He also spoke about the freedom he gives actors with their lines and their characters.

SBC: How much liberty do you give the actors and how are you able to control that at a certain point?
RF: We work together, Aziz who is basically the co-star here has helped write some scenes for himself, we worked on them together to try and get a nice voice that suits him, but Nick kind of customs everything to himself. It’s more in the performance than the page I guess. Some scenes are very improv-y, there’s scenes where Danny and Nick  just go off into their own territory; those guys are so funny and they can come up with hilarious sh*t all day long.  When you have really funny people being really funny sometimes it’s hard to control it, but we try and get through it. Nick has a tendency to break more and laugh, Danny it’s really hard to get him to laugh in a scene.

SBC: Besides the entertainment factor, would you like the audience to get something else out o the film?
RF: The theme of the movie is: Jesse plays this pizza delivery guy who just sits on his couch and has let life pass him by, he’s kind of never really done anything and when he’s faced with the circumstances of the bomb he’s forced to prioritize. He essentially has one day to live, so it forces him to get off his ass and do something and also to tell the girl he’s always loved how he feel and finally to be real with his best friend about some sh*t he’s never talked about. it’s really about if you only had one more day to live, what are you going to do with that day and what’ most important to you? More than anything else, that’s what hopefully the audience will take home from this; that life is precious and you have to make the most of it and if you are delivering pizzas, you might want to reevaluate your priorities; unless that’s what you want to do.

Ruben Fleischer

Danny McBride and Nick Swardson make up a necessary component of the film. They seemed to also have formed a tight friendship outside of the film as we interview the two together behind the cameras and they continued to finish each other’s jokes.

SBC: What kind of bad guys are you?
NS: We are almost like dumb and dumber bad guys, we’re not pure evil. We are just bored and don’t know what to do with our lives.
DM: I don’t know, we are motherf*&*ers in this thing. We’re making some bad choices but we have goals and ambitions, you know. Maybe people will root for us, we wanna change the world; we want to create the first tanning salon where guys get…

SBC: Talk to us a little about your improv skits and freedom.
NS: well they let us improvise a lot, we definitely got the scripts as much as we could but we were given free reign to add stuff and whatever. We have to stay in check though, it’s bad because when I look at Danny and when I look at Jesse, and Jesse cracks up and it’s just like I’m susceptible to it.
DM: The cool thing about working with Nick is he isn’t like one of the improvisers, you are just doing like stand up comedy in the scene. We never take it too far off the page, the scene is always what it’s about and we’ll just try to come up with different ways to spit the jokes out.
NS: Yeah, you don’t’ want to be self-indulgent. You want to make sure to stay in character, it’s not just us doing fart jokes in the middle of a drive-by shooting.
DM: That’s not to say that there aren’t.
NS: There are. But, it’s in the context (laughs)

SBC: What brought you to this project and what projects do you guys have coming up? Danny you have a noir detective movie with Jody Hill, when’s that coming out?
DM:
For me it just seemed like a cool project and I liked everyone involved so you just kind of make time for the things you want to do. You know Diliberti and Sullivan, the same guys who wrote L.A.P.I., it’s kind of a throwback to movies like The Long Goodbye and Chinatown, yeah it’s a noir/comedy, Jody and I are both very tired. We’ve had long years. I don’t know what the booking is, but it probably won’t be until next year.

NS: My reason for this project was perfect timing, I just finished a romantic comedy in June so it was perfect timing to jump into something completely different. I have a show coming out in October, a sketch show; so it was a perfect window before doing press for that. The sketch is called Nick Swardson’s Pretend Time, it will be on Comedy Central; just more filth in the airwaves.

We also caught up with the co-star Aziz Ansari; so we continued on with the comedic strike as he spoke to us as he spoke us about his character in this film along with some of his more known characters.

SBC: Tell us about your character in this film and about some of the action you got to be a part of.
AA: Well my character is just a guy whose best friend is given this impossible situation and they have a rough time in the begging because he confessed to being in love with his twin sister and they are forced into this situation when they are robbing a bank together. Jesse did stunt driving and I’m just kind of driving in the car with him, other than that there’s the bank robbery but the stunt driving was fun because I never did anything where I had to be in a car chase and it was pretty cool. They have these rigs that like pull the car and stuff, you know action is very easy it’s a lot of “Ah! Look out!” so it’s fun. It’s the first time I had a stuntman that wasn’t a caucasian stuntman that needed to be painted brown, his name was Neta he’s half Hawaiian and Philipino. 

SBC: What are some of your favorite movies?

AA:  When I was growing up my favorites, the ones that I watched all the time, I mean I watched comedies and stuff but the movies I watched all the time were Die Hard and Terminator 2, like the classic 80’s, 90’s action movies. In this movie there is a thing where these guys like Lethal Weapon a lot…so i brought that out in my personality, so I was like this guy must really be into action movies like Point Break  and Terminator 2 and Die hard, like those are his favorite movies.

SBC: We heard you are working on writing with Danny, can you tell us about that and about the Randy movie?
AA: with his company Rough House and my friend Harris Little, who is a writer on the show Parks and Recreations that I’m on, he’s writing it and I think we are keeping a log-line under wraps for now but I think it will be a lot of fun. Randy…we are working on these three movies for Apatow right now, and one of them is the Randy thing, but the one we’ve been working on the most is this idea about me and another guy playing astronauts who are disgraced and have to go back to the moon to clear their names. We’ve been working on that script, I’m really excited about it. 

Finally, we got to ask Michael Peña on his take on the movie and on his character.

SBC: What’s your character like?

MP: He’s a professional assassin, or at least he thinks he is. Along the movie though it is proven he’s not. a little bit like someone I know from Chicago who’s always in and out of the pen and he loves Scarface, the Good fellas and the Godfather he always talks like them and is always quoting them. He has a partner who is a stripper, she’s the one that basically sets me up with the other bad guys and we have a romantic scene. 

SBC: How have you balanced the comedy and action in the film?
MP: It’s been interesting to me, because when I did Observe and report, like you knew you were doing the comedy and I was kind of the bad guy for that, this one is interesting because you have to do a little bit of drama…some of the scenes are more like drama the other ones you can around with, there’s just some that are drama and some that are comedic.   

Michael Peña

After a long night on set we were greeted off by the viewing of the flame thrower and left the cast to continue working into the wee hours of the morning. We had a chance to explore Grand Rapids the next day and even got to sneak into one of the museums across our hotel. This set visit gave us a pretty intimate look into the making of this film as well as the people involved in it. It definitely has all the ingredients to entertain with it’s action and comedy, we look forward to seeing the outcome.

Jack Rico

By

2011/04/15 at 12:00am

Movie Radio Reviews: ‘Scream 4’, ‘Rio’ and Blurays!

04.15.2011 | By |

Movie Radio Reviews: 'Scream 4', 'Rio' and Blurays!

This week on the Luis Jimenez Radio Show, Jack Rico reviews two new releases: the horror film Scream 4 and 3D animated film, RIO.

Recap: Both are good for everyone.

On DVD and Bluray, this week we talk about the bluray release of: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.

You can listen to our movie segment on The Luis Jimenez Show every Friday at 9:50 AM on Univision Radio, X96.3FM in New York or the World Wide Web by visiting: http://luisjimenezradio.com

The Luis Jimenez Radio Show is also on 97.7 FM Fort Myers, 98.5/101.1/100.3 FM, Boston 890AM, 1400AM Lawrence / Lowell

Click on the left on the video to hear our most recent radio movie reviews.

Mack Chico

By

2011/03/16 at 12:00am

Danny Trejo to star in a movie called ‘Pendejo’

03.16.2011 | By |

Danny Trejo to star in a movie called 'Pendejo'

Danny Trejo has joined the cast of “Pendejo,” a romantic comedy by writer/director Jairaj Walia, of Gr8 Dane Films.

Trejo (“Grindhouse,” “Machete,” “xXx”) plays the role of Pedro, the gangster father of the main character’s love interest, Jenny.

“Pendejo” which the filmmakers translate as “idiot,” but is far more vulgar, is about a spoiled party boy whose wealthy father orders to either take a low-level position at the family company or lose his inheritance.

Walia said that the movie addresses both the Indian and Latin cultures.

The cast includes Raja Fenske (Nickelodeon’s “Unfabulous”), Fernanda Romero (“The Eye”), Laksh Singh (“Little Fockers”), Marissa Caprielian (“Entourage”), Darlene Vazquetelles (“Kings of South Beach”) and Sevier Crespo (“Fast Lane”).

Bob Walia and Kim Walia are producing through Gr8 Dane. Crespo is producing through New Slant Productions.

Jack Rico

By

2011/03/14 at 12:00am

Brody, Cruz get ‘A Matador’s Mistress’ June release

03.14.2011 | By |

Brody, Cruz get 'A Matador’s Mistress' June release

Austin, TX (March 14, 2011)- Nolan A. Gallagher, Founder and CEO of Gravitas Ventures, announced  today the acquisition of Video On Demand (VOD) and digital rights to A Matador’s Mistress, formally known as Manolete, starring Academy Award winning actors Adrien Brody and Penelope Cruz. Gravitas Ventures is licensing the film from Viva Pictures and it will be available On Demand through cable, satellite, telco and online providers in June 2011.
 
“We are thrilled that A Matador’s Mistress will be available nation-wide this summer so that film lovers will have the opportunity to appreciate the fine performances of Adrien Brody and Penelope Cruz” remarked Nolan Gallagher Founder and CEO of Gravitas Ventures.  “Video on Demand is increasingly allowing larger audiences the opportunity to enjoy wider access to well regarded independent films.”
 
A Matador’s Mistress tells the story of Manuel Rodriguez Sanchez (Adrien Brody) – famously known as “Manolete” – the most celebrated matador in Spain. Finding himself always on the road, Manolete spends his life between solitary hotel rooms and the arena. Despite his fame, Manolete is a quiet and reserved man – all of which changes when he meets Lupe Sino (Penelope Cruz), a beautiful and mysterious woman. Directed by Academy Award nominee Menno Meyjes (The Color Purple), the film tells the tale of a tragic romance between a man who flirts with death and a woman in love with life.

“We are confident that no one is better positioned to exploit this epic high-value production on a digital platform.  We look forward to not only this film getting released through Gravitas, but many more star driven films later this year.” Said Victor Elizalde, President Viva Pictures LLC.

Jack Rico

By

2011/02/17 at 12:00am

‘El méxicano’ Guillermo Del Toro to do ‘Pinocchio 3D’

02.17.2011 | By |

'El méxicano' Guillermo Del Toro to do 'Pinocchio 3D'

2011 seems to be the year of Hispanics in Hollywood. With so many new Spaniard and Latin American directors, actors and screenwriters getting play in Hollywood, it’s a good time to speak Spanish in the movie business.

One of the first, and perhaps most revered Mexican directors in the US movie space, Guillermo del Toro, is teaming up with The Jim Henson Company and Pathe to do a 3D stop motion animated adaptation of Pinocchio, according to Deadline.com.

Gris Grimly is set to co-direct with Mark Gustafson, and production will begin later this year.  The concept was conceived by Del Toro, but Matthew Robbins wrote the script.

According to the site, this new version of Pinocchio, made famous by Disney, is aimed at an audience 10 years and up, though it will be a bit scarier.

“There has to be darkness in any fairy tale or children’s narrative work, something the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson and Walt Disney understood,” del Toro said. “We tend to call something Disney-fied, but a lot of people forget how powerfully disturbing the best animated Disney movies are, including those kids being turned into donkeys in Pinocchio. What we’re trying to do is present a Pinocchio that is more faithful to the take that Colodi wrote. That is more surreal and slightly darker than what we’ve seen before.”

For instance: “the Blue Fairy is really a dead girl’s spirit,” del Toro said. “Pinocchio has strange moments of lucid dreaming bordering on hallucinations, with black rabbits. The sperm whale that swallows Pinocchio was actually a giant dogfish, which allows for more classical scale and design. The many mishaps Pinocchio goes through include several near-death close calls, a lot more harrowing moments. The key with this is not making any of it feel gratuitous, because the story is integrated with moments of comedy and beauty. He’s one of the great characters, whose purity and innocence allows him to survive in this bleak landscape of robbers and thugs, emerging from the darkness with his soul intact.”

This isn’t the only thing the gifted Mexican director/producer is working on. Del Toro is about to embark on a project with James Cameron called At the Mountains of Madness, the R-rated $125 million 3D live action adaptation of the HP Lovecraft tale about the discovery by scientists of horrific aliens thawing in Antarctica. The film has Tom Cruise as the star and Del Toro expects to start this by May.

Del Toro has long been a stop motion fan. “I’ve had a special effects house for a decade in Mexico, and we were one of the first stop motion animated houses where a lot of influential animators trained,” he said.

Here are some concept pictures from the new Pinocchio film that Del Toro submitted to the site.

Jack Rico

By

2011/02/14 at 12:00am

Spider Man gets new title: ‘The Amazing Spider Man’!

02.14.2011 | By |

Spider Man gets new title: 'The Amazing Spider Man'!

CULVER CITY, Calif., February 14, 2011 – Columbia Pictures announced today that the title of the next Spider-Man film will be The Amazing Spider-Man.
 
The studio simultaneously released a photo of Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man, the first shot of Garfield in the famous full mask and suit.
 
The film, which is now in production and is being shot entirely in 3D, will be released on July 3, 2012.  The film stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Campbell Scott, Irrfan Khan, Martin Sheen, and Sally Field.  The film is directed by Marc Webb from a screenplay by James Vanderbilt and Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves based on the Marvel Comic Book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.  Laura Ziskin, Avi Arad, and Matt Tolmach are producing the Marvel Entertainment production for Columbia Pictures.  The executive producers are Stan Lee, Kevin Feige, and Michael Grillo.  The film’s official website is http://www.TheAmazingSpiderMan-movie.com.

Mack Chico

By

2011/02/08 at 12:00am

Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra to direct ‘Harker’

02.8.2011 | By |

Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra to direct 'Harker'

After a few films in Hollywood, Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan) will now direct a new movie based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Warner Bros. is close to getting the rights to ‘Harker,’ which will focus on the story of the character of Jonathan Harker, now a Scotland Yard detective.

The Spanish filmmaker could be joining Appian Way, Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company to direct ‘Harker’. The premise of the movie follows Harker, hot on the trail of Dracula.

Warner Bros. seems to have already shown interest in the project which has many rooting for it to become a franchise.

The screenplay was written by Brian McGreevy and Lee Shipman, two screenwriting neophytes.

Collet-Serra is waiting February 18th to release ‘Unknown,’ where Liam Neeson plays a doctor who awakens from a coma, only to discover that someone has taken on his identity and that no one, (not even his wife), believes him. With the help of a young woman, he sets out to prove who he is.

Jack Rico

By

2011/01/30 at 12:00am

Henry Cavill is the new Superman!

01.30.2011 | By |

Henry Cavill is the new Superman!

The torch has been officially been passed from Brandon Routh to the brit Henry Cavill as he becomes the most recognizable superhero of all time – Superman. According to Deadline.com, Cavill will don the cape and the red and blue tights under director Zack Snyder and producer Christopher Nolan and writer David S. Goyer. Those three sound like they’ll be making magic together with their newly minted thespian.

Cavill, 27, is currently working on Immortals where he plays the he-man Greek warrior Theseus who battles mythological gods. He’s mostly known for his TV work in Showtime’s The Tudors and Cavill.

Zack Snyder, released this statement: “In the pantheon of superheroes, Superman is the most recognized and revered character of all time, and I am honored to be a part of his return to the big screen. I also join Warner Bros., Legendary and the producers in saying how excited we are about the casting of Henry. He is the perfect choice to don the cape and S shield.”

According to some sources, The Social Network’s Armie Hammer, who played Tyler Winklevoss, along with True Blood’s Joe Manganiello, were strong candidates.

The new Superman is targeted for release in December 2012.

Superman

Jack Rico

By

2011/01/30 at 12:00am

Javier Bardem offered role in ‘Bond #23’!

01.30.2011 | By |

Javier Bardem offered role in 'Bond #23'!

Spanish actor and current Oscar nominee Javier Bardem, has been offered a starring role as the lead villain in the upcoming James Bond film, Bond #23, recently set for a November 9, 2012, release.

This has been a great month for Bardem who is a new father, was nominated for the third time for an Oscar as Best Actor in ‘Biutiful,’ and was also offered the lead role in ‘Dark Tower’ from director Ron Howard.

Daniel Craig will be returning as the legendary British secret agent, with Sam Mendes directing a screenplay written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan. No plot details are currently available, but the story begins after Quantum Of Solace leaves off.

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