01.25.2011 | By Jack Rico |
Rated: PG-13 for intense sequences of action violence and brief strong language.
Release Date: 2010-10-15
Starring: Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber
Director(s):
Distributor:
Film Genre:
Country:USA
Official Website: http://www.red-themovie.com/
01.25.2011 | By Jack Rico |
Rated: PG for brief mild language.
Release Date: 2010-10-08
Starring: Mike Rich, William Nack
Director(s):
Distributor:
Film Genre:
Country:USA
Official Website: http://disney.com/secretariat/
01.25.2011 | By Jack Rico |
The Academy Award nominations, announced this morning in Los Angeles, mostly stuck to the script that Oscar-season observers expected. “The King’s Speech” led the field with 12 nominations, including nods for best picture and director, while “True Grit” galloped close behind with a healthy 10 nominations. “The Social Network” also landed its expected best picture nomination, along with seven other nods.
The official list of 2011 Oscar nominations indicate who will attend the 83rd annual awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Hollywood, to be held on February 27, 2011.
Best Picture
• “Black Swan”
• “The Fighter”
• “Inception”
• “The Kids Are All Right”
• “The King’s Speech”
• “127 Hours”
• “The Social Network”
• “Toy Story 3”
• “True Grit”
• “Winter’s Bone”
Directing
• “Black Swan” Darren Aronofsky
• “The Fighter” David O. Russell
• “The King’s Speech” Tom Hooper
• “The Social Network” David Fincher
• “True Grit” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Actor in a Leading Role
• Javier Bardem in “Biutiful”
• Jeff Bridges in “True Grit”
• Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network”
• Colin Firth in “The King’s Speech”
• James Franco in “127 Hours”
Actor in a Supporting Role
• Christian Bale in “The Fighter”
• John Hawkes in “Winter’s Bone”
• Jeremy Renner in “The Town”
• Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right”
• Geoffrey Rush in “The King’s Speech”
Actress in a Leading Role
• Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right”
• Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole”
• Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter’s Bone”
• Natalie Portman in “Black Swan”
• Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine”
Actress in a Supporting Role
• Amy Adams in “The Fighter”
• Helena Bonham Carter in “The King’s Speech”
• Melissa Leo in “The Fighter”
• Hailee Steinfeld in “True Grit”
• Jacki Weaver in “Animal Kingdom”
Animated Feature Film
• “How to Train Your Dragon” Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
• “The Illusionist” Sylvain Chomet
• “Toy Story 3” Lee Unkrich
Art Direction
• “Alice in Wonderland” Production Design: Robert Stromberg;
Set Decoration: Karen O’Hara
• “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1” Production Design: Stuart Craig;
Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan
• “Inception” Production Design: Guy Hendrix Dyas;
Set Decoration: Larry Dias and Doug Mowat
• “The King’s Speech” Production Design: Eve Stewart;
Set Decoration: Judy Farr
• “True Grit” Production Design: Jess Gonchor;
Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh
Cinematography
• “Black Swan” Matthew Libatique
• “Inception” Wally Pfister
• “The King’s Speech” Danny Cohen
• “The Social Network” Jeff Cronenweth
• “True Grit” Roger Deakins
Costume Design
• “Alice in Wonderland” Colleen Atwood
• “I Am Love” Antonella Cannarozzi
• “The King’s Speech” Jenny Beavan
• “The Tempest” Sandy Powell
• “True Grit” Mary Zophres
Documentary (Feature)
• “Exit through the Gift Shop” Banksy and Jaimie D’Cruz
• “Gasland” Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic
• “Inside Job” Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
• “Restrepo” Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
• “Waste Land” Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley
Documentary (Short Subject)
• “Killing in the Name” Nominees to be determined
• “Poster Girl” Nominees to be determined
• “Strangers No More” Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
• “Sun Come Up” Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger
• “The Warriors of Qiugang” Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon
Film Editing
• “Black Swan” Andrew Weisblum
• “The Fighter” Pamela Martin
• “The King’s Speech” Tariq Anwar
• “127 Hours” Jon Harris
• “The Social Network” Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter
Foreign Language Film
• “Biutiful” Mexico
• “Dogtooth” Greece
• “In a Better World” Denmark
• “Incendies” Canada
• “Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi)” Algeria
Makeup
• “Barney’s Version” Adrien Morot
• “The Way Back” Edouard F. Henriques,
Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
• “The Wolfman” Rick Baker and Dave Elsey
Music (Original Score)
• “How to Train Your Dragon” John Powell
• “Inception” Hans Zimmer
• “The King’s Speech” Alexandre Desplat
• “127 Hours” A.R. Rahman
• “The Social Network” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Music (Original Song)
• “Coming Home” from “Country Strong”
Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
• “I See the Light”
from “Tangled” Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
• “If I Rise”
from “127 Hours” Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
• “We Belong Together”
from “Toy Story 3″ Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
Short Film (Animated)
• “Day & Night” Teddy Newton
• “The Gruffalo” Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
• “Let’s Pollute” Geefwee Boedoe
• “The Lost Thing” Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
• “Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)”
Bastien Dubois
Short Film (Live Action)
• “The Confession” Tanel Toom
• “The Crush” Michael Creagh
• “God of Love” Luke Matheny
• “Na Wewe” Ivan Goldschmidt
• “Wish 143” Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite
Sound Editing
• “Inception” Richard King
• “Toy Story 3” Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
• “Tron: Legacy” Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
• “True Grit” Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
• “Unstoppable” Mark P. Stoeckinger
Sound Mixing
• “Inception” Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
• “The King’s Speech” Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley
• “Salt” Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin
• “The Social Network” Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten
• “True Grit” Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland
Visual Effects
• “Alice in Wonderland” Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
• “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1”
Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
• “Hereafter” Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell
• “Inception” Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
• “Iron Man 2” Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
• “127 Hours” Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
• “The Social Network” Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
• “Toy Story 3” Screenplay by Michael Arndt;
Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
• “True Grit” Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
• “Winter’s Bone” Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini
Writing (Original Screenplay)
• “Another Year” Written by Mike Leigh
• “The Fighter” Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson;
Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
• “Inception” Written by Christopher Nolan
• “The Kids Are All Right” Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
• “The King’s Speech” Screenplay by David Seidler
01.24.2011 | By Mack Chico |
A so-so movie makes it mark at the box office. “No Strings Attached,” a romantic comedy about friends-with-benefits starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher opened to a solid $20.3 million, according to studio estimates, to win the weekend; 70 percent of attendees were women, exit polling showed. It was the only new picture to open nationwide, continuing what has been a slow January at the box office.
“No Strings Attached” is the first mainstream romantic comedy starring Portman, who also executive produced, and marked a healthy start in the genre. It was the highest opening for the actress outside of the “Star Wars” pictures and comic book adaptation “V for Vendetta.”
For Kutcher, it was a virtual tie for the best openings of movies he has starred in, alongside the romantic comedies “Guess Who” and “What Happens in Vegas.”
“The King’s Speech,” which came in fourth place, demonstrated that it continued to be the hot indie drama of the moment as ticket sales didn’t decline at all from the previous weekend, repeating at $9.2 million, a sign of extraordinary word-of-mouth. Even accounting for the 137 new theaters the Weinstein Co. added to the run of the historical drama, ticket sales at existing locations were down only 9 percent. Its domestic box-office total is now a strong $58.6 million.
Here’s the top 10 at the box office this week:
1. No Strings Attached: Weekend $20.3M
2. The Green Hornet 3D: Weekend $18.1M (-31%), Cume $63.4M
3. The Dilemma: Weekend $9.9M (-33%), Cume $33.5M
4. The King’s Speech: Weekend $9.1M, Cume $58.6M
5. True Grit: Weekend $7.9M, Cume $138.5M
6. Black Swan: Weekend $6.2M, Cume $83.5M
7. Little Fockers: Estimated Weekend $4M, Estimated Cume $140.8M
8. The Fighter: Estimated Weekend $4M, Estimated Cume $72.5M
9. Tron: The Legacy 3D: Estimated Weekend $3.5M, Estimated Cume $163M
10. Yogi Bear 3D: Estimated Weekend $3.5M, Estimated Cume $88.3M
01.20.2011 | By Jack Rico |
The modern romantic comedy ‘No Strings Attached‘ starring Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman is surprisingly not as bad as I expected. The film benefits from an interesting premise, good chemistry between the stars and appealing situations that will easily engage romantic couples looking for a fun time at theater.
The plot centers on Adam and Emma (Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman), childhood friends who try to maintain a strictly sexual relationship, but it’s not long before they both discover that love is impossible to resist.
The romantic comedies of today, a.k.a rom-coms, tend to be very formulaic, predictable and unoriginal, but this one, because of its R rating, takes advantage of it by being mischievous. Of course, you’ll experience all the typical ploy devices inserted into these movies such as the irritating best friends, the poppy soundtrack, and of course, the ultimate declarations of love at the end of the movie. Nevertheless, the film aims to reach adults, in particular those who have been through experiences like this at some point in their lives. The movie has shades of the recent ‘Love and Other Drugs’ (Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway), whose plot also involved a woman who just wanted a purely sexual relationship. Her reasons were different and legitimate as opposed to Portman’s character. The tone was also more dramatic and not as playful as this.
Much of the upbeat tone of ‘Attached’ comes from the cerebral dallyings of screenwriter Elizabeth Meriwether, who has built a real and authentic narrative that reflects the times we live in today – an ode to a sexual revolution that has become part of the natural order of things. The dialogue is another matter. Phrases like, “I’m warning you… if you come closer one more step, I might never let you go”, sound like scratching nails on a chalkboard. To be frank, no right-minded man would dare say something like that in real life because he runs the risk that the woman who hears it will throw up on him. Defects like these run rampant in every rom-com, but here you get over it because Portman’s and Kutcher’s charm is irresistible.
Portman, a soon to be Best Actress winner at this year’s Oscar for Black Swan, is exploring a new genre with great results. She plays a sexy, beautiful, confident woman who is not shy in proving she has a fun side to her. Mix that in with her dramatic strengths and you have an actress who won’t keep on embarrassing the genre any further. Do not be surprised if we see her in more romantic comedies in the not too distant future. Kutcher on the other hand, is overshadowed by Portman’s screen presence and skill. Even though he looks the part perfectly, his limited acting range fails him time and time again in the climactic moments of the finale.
The director Ivan Reitman, creator of such classic films as Ghostbusters, Stripes, and Twins, in this instance chooses to leave vulgar comedy to the side and focus on the psychology of the principle relationship. As a result, the film feels adult and less silly.
‘No Strings Attached’ is not compelling as ‘When Harry Met Sally‘ or as savvy as ‘500 Days of Summer,’ but it achieves its objective of being a pleasant diversion for a couples night out at the movies.
01.18.2011 | By Karen Posada |
Rated: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, a sexual situation/partial nudity and some language.
Release Date: 2010-08-27
Starring: Peter Allen, Gabriel Casseus
Director(s):
Distributor:
Film Genre:
Country:USA
Official Website: http://www.whoarethetakers.com/
TAKERS is highly entertaining but it is in no way original and because of this it is very predictable. The action scenes are what makes the movie worth watching, especially the one with CHRIS BROWN. This film is like a roller coaster one second you are thinking it is one of the best movies this year the next it is one of the worst, so it ends up just being a mediocre film. The film is easy to follow which gives it a nice easy flow. It is organized, but the fact that there are so many characters and so little character development it doesn’t give the audience time to connect with them although there is sympathy towards the gang of high class criminals.Â
The film shows us the workings of a gang of high class criminals that play by their own rules, such as doing one job a year and not killing anyone; specifically cops. They mean no harm, just gain which makes them likable. The gang love each other like brothers and are successful at what they do by working out every single intricate detail of their jobs in a timely manner. Their leader Gordon Betts or “G” (IDRIS ELBA) is the one to give each of them tasks and they take his advice seriously, but unfortunately he has a downfall his sister Naomi (MARIANNE JEAN-BAPTISTE) a drug addict trying to go clean. His right arm is John Rahway (PAUL WALKER) he executes the important parts of the dirty work. The brains of the operation is A.J. (HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN) he works out the gritty details with great results. Jake Attica (MICHAEL EALY) is the sweetheart of the group, he is the heart of the gang and gives them a human touch; his biggest worry is his brother Jesse (CHRIS BROWN) their father is in jail and he feels terrible for bringing his little brother into the business and therefore wants to keep him out of harm’s way. The bad influence and outsider of the group is Ghost (T.I.), on their last job he’s the only one that got caught and as soon as he’s out of jail he’s ready to execute a new plan. The gang doesn’t trust him but decide to break their one year rule to go along with his risky plan to rob an armored car carrying over $12 million; they only have 5 days to plan the heist.Â
Jack Welles (MATT DILLON) a cop for the LAPD becomes obsessed with catching the criminals after they pull off a $2 million heist leaving very little traces. He brings his troubled partner Eddie Hatcher (JAY HERNANDEZ) along and although Eddie is incredulous, as a best friend he’s trying to help Jack cope with what seems abandonment from his wife because he is so absorbed by his job; this is never clear in the movie.Â
The acting leaves very little to be desired, it was hard to believe Dillion and Hernandez as cops; Dillon does look like he’s going through a major life crisis throughout the movie but he may look like that in real life. One doubts Elba’s British accent when in fact he is a real Brit. Walker plays the same white boy ghetto wanna be as he does in most of his roles. T.I. plays T.I. there are no skills there. I do have to give Brown props for his awesome Parkour performance, that was one of the best scenes of the movie. Finally, our very popular dominican actress Zoe Saldaña was in the film for very short periods and she was just eye candy for the guys; us girls have plenty of eye candy all throughout the movie.Â
The movie picks up right in the middle when you start getting your hopes up but it is killed with a couple of montages that are super corny especially because of the music that accompanies them. The movie reaches its goal, to entertain and although at some points it is overkill it still does the jobs. If you go to watch it knowing that the well developed action scenes are the only things to take from it, then go right ahead otherwise wait to watch it comfortably from your couch.
01.17.2011 | By Jack Rico |
In what had to be one of the most bizarre and most controversial acceptance speeches in the history of the Golden Globes, legendary thespian Robert De Niro, who was awarded the honorary ‘Cecil B. DeMille’ award for his lifetime work, quipped, in what seemed bad taste, about the deportation of HFPA organizers, waiters, including Spanish actor and Oscar winner Javier Bardem.
“More Hollywood Foreign Press members would have been here, but they were deported just before the show. Along with most of the waiters… and Javier Bardem,” De Niro said after being presented the award by Matt Damon, earning grumbles from the Hollywood crowd.
“And I hope you all have your papers in order, because Homeland Security will be checking them right after they finish full-body scans of Megan Fox,” De Niro added.
The atmosphere in the Beverly Hilton became cold and dour which left many in the audience puzzled.
When asked backstage what the intention of the jokes were, De Niro said, “I thought this would be more fun for this kind of night.” He obviously raised eyebrows with his ‘humor’.
Robert De Niro squandered a great opportunity to use the forum to thank all those who contributed to his artistic career and inspire a new generation of actors. But instead, the star of classic films such as ‘The Godfather II’ and ‘Taxi Driver,’ used his time on stage to include coarse remarks about immigrants.
I get that Ricky Gervais’ whole comedy repertoire has been built on being malicious and cruel, but what significance did it have for Robert De Niro? For anyone who has ever spoken to him, you know he’s a man of few words. He does not like interviews and barely says anything. So what in heaven’s name was that speech all about?
The aforementioned parts of his speech seemed out of place with what the moment represented and the environment he was in. It was supposed to be special. I wanted to be roused, inspired and galvanized by the man who had built a body of work that will most likely never be repeated again for generations. All I ended up getting was a befuddled look while I winced, squirmed and grimaced at the marring of De Niro, the Hollywood icon.
It was uncomfortable and at moments painful to listen to, but if he keeps on making films like ‘Little Fockers,’ then redemption is a deed that will never arrive.
01.15.2011 | By Jack Rico |
There is order in the universe: the largest critics’ U.S. group, the Broadcast Film Critics Association, agreed with almost all of the smaller critics groups and named “The Social Network” the best film of 2010 at the Critics Choice Movie Awards on Friday night.
The film took home four awards, winning Best Picture and also securing trophies for David Fincher (Best Director), Aaron Sorkin (Best Adapted Screenplay) and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (Best Score).
Colin Firth (“The King’s Speech”) and Natalie Portman (“Black Swan”) took home honors for lead actor and actress, while “The Fighter” swept the other acting awards: Christian Bale and Melissa Leo won for their supporting roles, while the cast of the David O. Russell film was also named Best Acting Ensemble.
In sheer numbers, the big winner of the night was Christopher Nolan’s “Inception,” which took home six awards: Best Action Movie, and a near sweep of technical categories: Best Cinematography, Editing, Art Direction, Sound and Visual Effects.
“Toy Story 3” was named Best Animated Feature, “Easy A” Best Comedy, and “Waiting for ‘Superman'” Best Documentary.
In something of a surprise, the original Swedish version of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” was named Best Foreign Language Film over “Biutiful” and “I Am Love.” David Fincher, who was not present at the show to accept his Best Director award, is currently shooting an English-language version.
Most of the top Oscar contenders came out of the evening with their hopes intact. “Social Network” won the big awards; “The Fighter” showed real strength in the acting categories (actors being by far the Academy’s largest branch); “The King’s Speech” picked up an expected win for Firth and a significant one for screenwriter David Seidler; “Black Swan” stayed in the game with Portman’s win; and “Inception” dominated below-the-line categories.
In the CCMA’s sole television category, the miniseries “The Pacific” beat two HBO movies, “You Don’t Know Jack” and “Temple Grandin.”
The awards, which were held at the Hollywood Palladium and broadcast on VH1, are voted on by the approximately 250 members of the Broadcast Film Critics Association. The BFCA includes television, radio and Internet critics.
The Critics Choice Movie Awards are generally a more reliable predictor of the Oscars than the Golden Globes are, matching the Oscar Best Picture winner the last four years in a row and eight of the last 10. (The only mismatches came in 2005 and 2006, when the Oscars chose “Million Dollar Baby” and “Crash” and the critics opted for “Sideways” and “Brokeback Mountain.”)
Last year, of the 19 categories in which the CCMAs and the Oscars overlap, Critics Choice winners went on to win Academy Awards in 13 of them (including one case where Sandra Bullock won the Oscar and tied with Meryl Streep at the CCMAs).
BEST PICTURE: “The Social Network”
BEST ACTOR: Colin Firth, “The King’s Speech”
BEST ACTRESS: Natalie Portman, “Black Swan”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Christian Bale, “The Fighter”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Melissa Leo, “The Fighter”
BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE: “The Fighter”
BEST DIRECTOR: David Fincher, “The Social Network”
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: David Seidler, “The King’s Speech”
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Aaron Sorkin, “The Social Network”
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Wally Pfister, “Inception”
BEST ART DIRECTION: Guy Henrix Dyas, “Inception”
BEST EDITING: Lee Smith, “Inception”
BEST COSTUME DESIGN: Colleen Atwood, “Alice in Wonderland”
BEST MAKEUP: “Alice in Wonderland”
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: “Inception”
BEST SOUND: “Inception”
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: “Toy Story 3”
BEST ACTION MOVIE: “Inception”
BEST COMEDY: “Easy A”
BEST PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION: “The Pacific”
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: “Waiting for ‘Superman'”
BEST SONG: “If I Rise” from “127 Hours”; music by A.R. Rahman, lyrics by Dido Armstrong and Rollo Armstrong
BEST SCORE: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, “The Social Network”
01.14.2011 | By Jack Rico |
For those moviegoers expecting to see the same ol’ Vince Vaughn rambling nonsense for kicks and giggles, you’re in for a surprise that might make you rethink paying to see one of his films again. ‘The Dilemma’ is a comedic drama that has more drama than one would like from their Vaughn films. There are some hard laughs, but very quickly you’ll experience that this isn’t what you paid for.
The movie centers on a commitment-phobic guy (Vince Vaughn) who struggles with two dilemmas: whether to pop the question to his long time girlfriend (Jennifer Connelly) and whether or not to tell his best friend (Kevin James) that his wife (Winona Ryder) is having an affair.
‘The Dilemma’ seems to be an experimental project for Vince ‘The Rambler’ Vaughn. Here he revisits his old dramatic chops, and even though he doesn’t shame himself, it’s clear that he cannot excel within the frames of the genre. Interestingly enough, Vaughn has worked in various dramatic films before (Psycho, A Cool Dry Place, Return to Paradise, South of Heaven, West of Hell), but never with real success. The harsh mashup of comedy and drama here never really finds a harmonious balance and instead seems abrasive and distracting at times. The Coen Brothers are masters at merging both categories masterfully (Big Lebowski, Raising Arizona), but director Ron Howard (Apollo 13 The Da Vinci Code), a virtuoso in his own right, seems astray at best. When you look at his body of work and you look at this movie, it is as if they are two completely different directors. The Howard touch is nowhere to be seen.
Screenwriter Allan Loeb (Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps) concocted a script with some hilarity, uncomfortable drama and much unwelcomed filler. The stuffing throughout the second act was blatant and just intolerable. There was no need to over-flesh the obvious theme of the film.
The cast had some highlights and some low lights, one of the lows being Channing Tatum. The up and comer, who plays the lover to Ryder, had no business working in a comedy, even if it was one with dramatic tones. Each scene where he had to sound funny or look funny was amateurish. A definite miscast. Vaughn, James and Ryder were very good when they dealt with their independent scenes. In Vaughn’s case, the toast scene monologue was a classic. His rambling, though old and unoriginal, had a nasty and hostile bite to it this time around. That was fun to watch. Â
Comedic dramas are populating theaters more than ever and we as audiences are going to have to get used to our comedians wanting to expand their range to include drama (remember Ben Stiller doing the awful ‘Greenberg’ or Adam Sandler doing Funny People). Therefore we have to choose wisely and The Dilemma is definitely not a wise selection.
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01.13.2011 | By Mack Chico |
Eva Mendes is set to star in Wrecking Ball, the directorial debut of Beatrice Letterier. She is the wife of Louis Letterier, director of The Transporter, The Incredible Hulk and Clash of the Titans.
The film, described as a “dramatic comedy” which involves a fractious Christmas family reunion, and a secret to which a five-year-old girl holds the key.
Beatrice isn’t exactly a newbie behind the camera; she’s been directing commercials and music videos in Europe for some years now. Wrecking Ball is her first attempt at full-length though, but whether or not it also constitutes a first giant step across the Atlantic remains to be seen: it’s unclear so far whether this is a Hollywood project, or a European one that’s bagged an American star.
Mendes is thought to be playing a mother, but again, whether that’s the mother of the five-year-old or one matriarch among several in a large family, is yet to be revealed. The source suggests it’s a role with some dramatic heft to it which she has portryaed in Bad Lieutenant and We Own the Night.
Mendes is the first star attached, but it’s thought that her presence will help the film gain momentum. Expect further developments before too long.
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