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The Latest in ShowBiz News

Mack Chico

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2009/03/11 at 12:00am

Confirmed! Mickey Rourke will be ‘Iron Man 2’

03.11.2009 | By |

Confirmed! Mickey Rourke will be 'Iron Man 2'

Mickey Rourke has closed his deal to play the Russian villain in “Iron Man 2.”
His involvement was expected, but dealmaking was arduous after Marvel Entertainment offered “The Wrestler” star only $250,000 for his first major studio film in years.More than one option

Rourke’s salary will be now better than that.

While his ICM rep, David Unger, battled for more dough, Rourke’s encounters with “Iron Man” star Robert Downey Jr. on the awards circuit sealed his participation in the film.los

Rourke won the Golden Globe and was Oscar nominated for “The Wrestler” and Downey got Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for “Tropic Thunder,” so Downey used each occasion to recruit Rourke.

When Downey, Rourke as well as actors including Frank Langella and Anne Hathaway took part in a roundtable discussion with Newsweek’s David Ansen, Downey interrupted the proceedings, reached across the table and flat out asked Rourke to do “Iron Man 2.”

Rourke also met with Jon Favreau and scribe Justin Theroux and got to be part of the development of his character. He’ll play Whiplash, a character that includes elements from that comicbook villain and Crimson Dynamo, another Russian baddie.

Marvel wouldn’t confirm Rourke’s involvement, but he’s planning to join Downey, Sam Rockwell and Samuel L. Jackson, with Scarlett Johansson the frontrunner to play the Black Widow.

Mack Chico

By

2009/03/11 at 12:00am

Juan Antonio Bayona could direct ‘Twilight 3’

03.11.2009 | By |

Juan Antonio Bayona could direct 'Twilight 3'

Could Summit be going genre with its third “Twilight” pic?

Sources indicate that horror wunderkind — and Guillermo Del Toro protege — Juan Antonio Bayona has emerged as one of the finalists to direct “Eclipse,” the third movie in Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” franchise.

The studio declined to comment; a rep said producers were looking at a number of candidates.

Bayona’s name has come up in recent months, though generally in a group of other directors — an eclectic list that’s ranged from Paul Weitz to Drew Barrymore to James Mangold;earlier today, in fact, a report on the Twilighters fansite reported it would be Paul Weitz.

Many of the other names have been batted down. Bayona’s name, on the other hand, has surfaced more in recent days as the man who could land the job, in what would mark a bold departure for the franchise.

If he does come aboard, the studio would have brought on a female coming-of-age girl director in Catherine Hardwicke for the first “Twilight” picture, a mainstream Hollywood comedy director in Chris Weitz for sequel “New Moon” and a genre maven for the third picture.

 The shift would make sense on a number of levels — “Eclipse,” while continuing the romances and love triangles of previous books, does contain a mystery of unsolved murders that protags Bella and Edward seek to solve. (Notably, Bayona’s debut “The Orphanage” also contained a plotline centering on children who had been killed under mysterious circumstances.) It also features battles between werewolves and vampires that could call for a practiced genre hand.

Bayona, for those who don’t follow foreign horror directors, is a hot property — the 33-year-old Spaniard  who goes mainy by his last name has been championed by  “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “The Hobbit” director del Toro, who has produced and/or godfathered his work. Bayona received rave reviews for his Spanish-language “Orphanage,’ the Picturehouse-released Gothic tale about childhood and loss that was rife with spooks. He’s currently signed on to direct the dystopian thriller “Hater” for Universal. 

That project was to mark his English-language debut. If he and Summit can make a deal work, he may have some vampires to contend with first.

Mack Chico

By

2009/03/11 at 12:00am

Juan Carlos Fresnadillo to direct ‘X’

03.11.2009 | By |

Juan Carlos Fresnadillo to direct 'X'

Spanish helmer Juan Carlos Fresnadillo has made a deal with MGM to develop a film based on director Roger Corman’s 1963 pic “X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes,” a movie from the Lion’s library.

The original starred Ray Milland as a scientist who is near a breakthrough in X-ray vision technology when his funding is cut off. Desperate to show results, the doc applies eye drops that eventually cause him to lose control over his growing powers.

Mandeville Films partners David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman will produce with Enrique Lopez Lavigne. Lou Arkoff will exec produce.

The director hasn’t committed to a film since “28 Weeks Later.”

Fresnadillo is in Hollywood this week meeting with writers for “X” and is expected to set one quickly.

Mack Chico

By

2009/03/11 at 12:00am

Javier Bardem to join ‘Cartel’?

03.11.2009 | By |

Javier Bardem to join 'Cartel'?

Latino Review is reporting that Javier Bardem is in talks to join Sean Penn in Cartel.

The movie would star Penn as a man who journeys to protect his son after his wife is brutally murdered in the gritty world of Mexican cartels.

Bardem would take the role of Rafael Castillo, a wealthy but righteous DA who wants to put the cartels away. Castillo shunned his rich family for the law.

Asger Leth will direct from a script by Peter Craig. The project started as a remake of 1993 Italian film La scorta but has since evolved into an action vehicle for Penn.

Alex Florez

By

2009/03/10 at 12:00am

Transporter 3

03.10.2009 | By |

Rating: 2.5

Rated: PG-13 for sequences of intense action and violence, some sexual content and drug material.
Release Date: 2008-11-26
Starring: Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen
Director(s):
Distributor:
Film Genre:
Country:France
Official Website: http://www.letransporteur3-lefilm.com/

 Go to our film page

Let’s be frank (no pun intended). This review really isn’t needed. 

The latest installment of the ‘Transporter’ series is everything you expect it to be: one ridiculous action sequence after another with a senseless romantic plot sandwiched in between.  But who says that’s a bad thing?

Frank Martin (Jason Statham), a former Special Forces officer and now a highly skilled courier for the underworld world, has been pressured into ‘transporting’ Valentina (Natalya Rudakova), the kidnapped daughter of Leonid Vasilev, a top Ukrainian politician, all across Europe.  But things get pretty ugly for him when he has to contend with the people who strong armed him to take the job, the special agents sent by Vasilev to intercept him, and his unruly passenger.  If you haven’t seen the first two films, you’ll quickly pick up on its simple premise. 

Oh yes, one other matter of hilarious complication. On this particular run, Frank is forced to wear a high tech bracelet which is programed to explode if he gets too far from his Audi S8.  And so he speed races through Europe stopping only to battle dozens of henchmen that are on his tail using his masterful kung fu skills – all within 50 feet of his car, of course.

If nothing else, Transporter 3 is hysterical. The implausibility of all the stunts should be enough to keep you entertained for a couple of hours. And the fact that it takes itself so seriously makes it even funnier. If you’ve seen ‘Crank’ (my personal favorite Statham film), I’m sure you know exactly what I mean. 
 
It is what it is.  A kung fu movie with fast cars and a British accent.

Now we all know the effects a big turkey dinner can have. So if you’re looking for a film to watch on Thursday night, perhaps ‘Transporter 3’ is a better choice than the 3 hour epic which also opens this weekend.

Mike Pierce

By

2009/03/10 at 12:00am

Role Models

03.10.2009 | By |

Rating: 4.0

Rated: R for crude and sexual content, strong language and nudity.
Release Date: 2008-11-07
Starring: Paul Rudd, David Wain
Director(s):
Distributor:
Film Genre:
Country:USA
Official Website: http://www.rolemodelsmovie.com/

 Go to our film page

The dynamic duo is back! Sean William Scott and Paul Rudd are tag teaming it on the big screen in the hilarious movie, Role Models.

Let me tell you people…I haven’t laughed that hard in a longgggg time. I’m telling the truth…you laugh from the beginning to the end! NO LIE.

It’s basically about two guys who work for a energy drink company…Paul Rudd who plays, Danny…well, his girlfriend breaks up with him…totally crushed…he decides to go off during a high school speech…after being kicked out…their Minotaur truck gets towed…a huge fight breaks out…and their arrested.
 
Instead of doing jail time…they are told they have to do 150 hours of community service at Sturdy Wings. (like a Big Brother’s Program) They have become mentors.
 
Danny gets a kid named Augie…who’s into REAL FANTASY roll playing. (Watch the trailer)…Wheeler is mentoring, Ronnie…this little black kid…who is funny as hell. You have to see it for yourself.
 
This is a great Rated R movie…cussin, boobies, fighting, biting, screaming, drinking…a good ass movie. I’m actually going to see it again.

Jack Rico

By

2009/03/10 at 12:00am

Cadillac Records

03.10.2009 | By |

Rating: 2.5

Rated: R for pervasive language and some sexuality.
Release Date: 2008-12-05
Starring: Darnell Martin
Director(s):
Distributor:
Film Genre:
Country:USA
Official Website: http://www.cadillacrecordsmovie.com/

 Go to our film page

Mack Chico

By

2009/03/10 at 12:00am

Sean Penn vs. Mexicans in ‘Cartel’

03.10.2009 | By |

Sean Penn vs. Mexicans in 'Cartel'

Sean Penn is in talks to star in “Cartel,” a drama for Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment.

Asger Leth will direct and Brian Grazer is producing.

Scripted by Peter Craig, the mission movie will follow Ed Marker as he journeys to protect his son after his wife is brutally murdered in the gritty world of Mexican cartels.

The drama took root at Imagine as a remake of 1993 Italian film “La scorta,” which followed four cops’ struggle to guard a special prosecutor trying to bring mob bosses to justice. It evolved into an action vehicle for Penn.

Robert Stone and Webster Stone will exec produce.

Leth makes his dramatic feature directing debut on the film. He previously won a DGA Award for directing the 2006 documentary “Ghosts of Cite Soleil.”

The studio and Imagine want to get the picture into production by summer. Start date won’t be firmed until Penn’s deal is made.

Penn has also been in discussions to star with Naomi Watts in the Doug Liman-directed “Fair Game,” a drama about the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame that landed at Bill Pohlad‘s River Road after Warner Bros. dropped out. Those talks continue.

Imagine is in post-production on the Ron Howard-directed “Angels and Demons,” which Sony releases May 15. Company is also prepping the untitled Robin Hood film to be helmed by Ridley Scott, with Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett starring. Lensing is set to begin April 1 for Universal.

Mack Chico

By

2009/03/09 at 12:00am

Surprise! ‘Watchmen’ is #1 at the box office

03.9.2009 | By |

Surprise! 'Watchmen' is #1 at the box office

“Watchmen,” the superhero epic from Warner Bros. and its partners, led the movie box-office through another strong weekend but stopped short of peaks hit by some of its predecessors.

The film, directed by Zack Snyder and based on a graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, had an estimated $55.7 million in ticket sales, easily outpacing the weekend’s second-place film, “Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail,” from Lionsgate, which took in about $8.8 million at the domestic box-office for a total of $76.5 million to date.

“Watchmen” was handicapped by its unusually long running time of nearly 2 hours 45 minutes. Longer films get fewer showings in each theater through the course of a day.

The movie was also stung by the ambivalence of critics and fans, many of whom came to it with expectations based on a familiarity with, and often deep reverence for, the complex illustrated story of damaged crime fighters being hunted by a killer.

“Everyone around me liked it a lot more than I did,” said James Thompson, who teaches a course in genre film, television and comics.

Oddly, though, his doubts may bode well for Warner. Thompson said that he and others he knows expected to see the film again this week, to reassess an opinion that he said may have been colored by his own history with the illustrated series. Repeat customers are definitely gravy.

Also in the top five at the weekend box office were “Taken” at No. 3 with $7.5 million, “Slumdog Millionaire” at No. 4 with $6.9 million and “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” at No. 5 with $4.1 million.

 

Mack Chico

By

2009/03/07 at 12:00am

The ‘buzz’ surrounding Mexican cinema

03.7.2009 | By |

The 'buzz' surrounding Mexican cinema

We have seen it at football grounds. The crowd heaves in a rise and fall, a giant moving undulation that someone, somewhere, for some reason, dubbed the Mexican wave. Maybe it’s because Mexicans do things big. They grandstand when they come to town. They put their hearts, minds, souls and body language into a thing.

Consider a Mexican wave bigger than any other in recent times. The movie wave: Like Water for Chocolate (1991), Cronos (1993), Y Tu Mamá También (2001), Pan’s Labyrinth (2006). And larger in impact than any, Amores Perros (2000). Guillermo Arriaga, the writer of that film, a brilliant, brutal set of stories about passion, poverty and obsession, went on to write 21 Grams (2003), Babel (2006) and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2006). It is a screenplay oeuvre that merits, for some fans, a Latin American art throne alongside Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa and Jorge Luís Borges.

Guillermo Arriaga’s new film is directed as well as scripted by him. The Burning Plain (released in the UK next week) is a typical arson attack on the viewer’s mind and senses from a man who, when I meet him in a London hotel, seems to have emerged from a minor furnace himself: a smoky, pale-tanned 50-year-old, slim of frame with a thinning stubble of hair. That he also has luminous, El Greco eyes and speaks accented, mellifluously persuasive English may explain how he beguiled two A-list Hollywood actresses, Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger, into starring in a film about self-mutilation, cancer, violent death and childhood trauma.

The plot and its payoff are ringed with “don’t reveal” security tape. Enough to say that the parallel stories of quest set in Mexico/New Mexico and Oregon – quest for love, truth, ancestry, destiny, quest for the consummations that may also destroy us – explore and expand Arriaga’s favourite metaphor for the human condition. Hunting.

“We are all hunters and stalkers. We come from hunting genes. It’s what defines the human race. For me, it’s my antidote against alienation.” Another antidote is cinema and the innovative story structures he began to fashion in the three films made with director Alejandro González Iñárritu. The jigsaw patterns of Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel have influenced virtually every succeeding movie with a globalist reach, from Syriana to The International.

Arriaga doesn’t fashion these structures to be difficult. “I want the audience to be actively engaged in the story”, he says, “and sometimes, when you take the logic out of storytelling, people get involved emotionally rather than rationally. They start to trust their feelings. At the same time it allows the audience to fill the gaps with their own story, their own imagination.”

Since he founded a virtual new storytelling tradition in cinema, it is easy to understand Arriaga’s anger when Iñárritu retreated from a claimed agreement to share credit. “The problems began early on after we made Amores Perros. I am not a writer for hire. I do not ‘work for’ a director. These are original stories and when Alejandro began to say, ‘This is my film’, I said, ‘This is not what I think is right.’ We didn’t share the original creative vision. These are personal works that come from my own life.”

They split up before Babel began shooting. Will they work again? “Never. Never. The ways are parted.”

He found another soulmate, for one project at least, in the actor-turned-director Tommy Lee Jones. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada – for me Arriaga’s best film – is a burnished tale of revenge and redemption, turning on a man’s violent death and the pilgrimage of his friend (played by Jones) to bury him in his native Mexico.

The US-Mexican border, with all that it implies about neighbourhood and division, is at the heart of Arriaga’s new trilogy, whose first two parts have taken shape in Three Burials and The Burning Plain. The third part, The Deer’s Sun, set in Texas and across the border, will be about the death penalty.

“We cannot forget that the American south-west was once part of Mexico,” Arriaga says. “It still has Spanish names – Los Angeles, El Paso. So there is this strange relationship between the countries.”

Strange and strained, I say. Everyone seeks a solution, no one finds one. “The solution is very easy,” he says. “Mexico needs work, the United States needs the workforce. Mexicans need to be able to work and go back.

“People get crazy with jealousy,” he elaborates. “My friend Melquiades Estrada – he’s a real person: I named the film in homage to him – met his daughter when she was nine. He left Mexico when his wife was pregnant to live and work in the US. Meeting your daughter when she’s nine, that’s heartbreaking! And every month you send home money to a wife you don’t know is still faithful. And the woman at home thinks, ‘Is he in love with someone else?’”

This pondering of connection or disconnection across spaces, the biggest theme in Arriaga’s stories, touches in turn on the biggest theme in contemporary discourse – globalisation, the linking leitmotif in Babel.

“We cannot be naive. Globalisation is happening, we can’t stop it. But the concept of nationhood is very young. The USA is 250 years old. In terms of humanity, that is almost nothing. Six hundred years ago, Spain was dominated by Arabs. So what defines nationhood?”

Something, some would say, like the Mexican New Wave in cinema. Identity through art. But even this happy convulsion, Arriaga says, was a fluke of history. “In Mexico we had an economic crisis that prevented a whole generation from shooting films. So it was like a boiling culture that was waiting to explode.”

As for a distinctive “Mexican-ness” in his country’s cinema, he starts by waving away the generic cliché for Latin American narrative art. “Magic realism no longer exists. Even García Márquez did it in such a way as to leave nothing for others to take up.” Then he says art is about individual voices, not national ones. “Look at some of the novelists who represent the United Kingdom. Hanif Kureishi. Kazuo Ishiguro. Are they ‘British’?”

He remembers, illustratively, the first conversations he had with Tommy Lee Jones. It was, in the best sense, a dialogue of the deracinated. “He rang me out of the blue, speaking Spanish. ‘ Hola, Guillermo! … I saw Amores Perros’, he said, ‘and I would like to work with you. Where are you?’ I’m in León. ‘Let’s have dinner.’ We met and since I was going to write for him, we quizzed each other about our tastes. Who is his favourite filmmaker? Kurosawa. He asks me who is my favourite novelist. Cormac McCarthy. Favourite painter? Edward Hopper…”

Thank goodness for film, the common language of the world. And thank goodness for filmmakers, who know that in the arts, at least, the border crossings are open for business.

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