New Films in Production

[kaujot]

He gots ta get paid.

[domino harvey]

He's bogarting his own joints now

[flyonthewall2983]

He's bogarting his own joints now

[dx23]

A live-action CGI crapfest of Tom and Jerry is coming to theaters.

[Cash Flagg]

Terry Gilliam to being shooting Zero Theorem with Billy Bob Thornton in May.

[knives]

They couldn't find a good Faye Dunaway look alike.

Sorry if this has already been posted.

[Antoine Doinel]

Michael Apted to direct the final installment of the Narnia trilogy.

[Dr Amicus]

Michael Apted to direct the final installment of the Narnia trilogy.

Not wanting to be too nit-picky, but there are 7 Narnia books in all - so I suspect this isn't the last in the trilogy.

I doubt they'll do all the books (Horse and the Boy anyone?), but assuming this one does reasonably well, I would have expected The Silver Chair and The Last Battle as well. However, as the last one is the most explicitly Christian of the series (and if you haven't read it, it does become a sermon in places) it will be interesting to see how they tackle it.

[kaujot]

I really hope they get The Magician's Nephew done. It's my favorite of the 7, though The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a really fun one.

[lady wakasa]

There's nothing glaringly wrong with the scenario you describe, but I'm having a hard time coming up with any comparable examples. Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li have headlined Hollywood movies (more than once, in Gong's case) and I see no reason to think this has radically altered the situation for mainland films in the U.S. By the same token, it'd be tough to argue that Vanilla Sky and Captain Corelli's Mandolin did much for Spanish cinema in this country, outside the narrow category of Spanish cinema that stars Penélope Cruz. Yes, this sort of thing is admittedly difficult to gauge -- who knows, maybe they did have an impact -- but I still can't make the leap necessary to believe that Memoirs of a Geisha leads directly to, say, Lost in Beijing getting U.S. distribution.

Now contrast this with what happened with Hong Kong cinema in the 1970s and late '80s-early '90s, where it was both the stars and the films themselves that broke through -- after all, Rumble in the Bronx and Supercop helped Jackie Chan's U.S. career a hell of a lot more than The Protector. I think the "mainstreaming" of Korean film will work the same way -- a bottom-up, cult-driven process that eventually filters into Hollywood -- and from the historical precedent, I'm unconvinced that the "top-down" approach (putting a Korean actor in a film that otherwise looks thoroughly Hollywood) will circumvent this, especially when the actor in question is only tenuously associated with actual Korean cinema.

Thanks for your response to this (I've been elsewhere, mainly trying to keep my job).

I see your point, and generally agree with the idea that working from the bottom up will broaden awareness of a Korean film industry better than having a single Korean actor or director come to Hollywood. (Although I'd have one minor quibble in that what's been happening in Korean film over most of the decade hasn't seen an analogous movement in China or Spain. There have been individual exceptional movies, and exceptional artists, but no regional upsurge in popularity across the Chinese or Spanish film industries - unless I've missed something, I don't know. %^} After all, the largest film festival and the largest film market in Asia have been in Korea for a number of years for a reason.)

I would like to point out, though, that that approach as you describe it might end up turned on its head - at least for Japan - as there's a generation of kids (and, I suppose, some young adults now) growing up watching anime, reading manga, playing Japanese video games, even playing Pokemon (and I still have no idea what *that's* eveny about). They're already more aware of and receptive to popular Japanese film (although I don't know how much that's limited to specific genres, like horror). Hollywood has responded by snapping up rights to those films and remaking them, but the originals haven't been pushed out of the frame of awareness. I'm not assuming that that means a complete acceptance of Japanese film among US audiences, but it does reflect inroads with a method that's probably never be used before. I don't think that the rise of Hong Kong films, for example, came from an industry basically targeting young kids and moving along with them as they grew up.

Does Korea have anything analogous? No. Is Korea doing well with its films right now? Difficult to say - while I don't think quality's gone down drastically, the freshness of the Korean Wave seems to have broken and most of the best product seems pushed into the arthouse pen. But I (and people in the industry, I'm sure) would love to see some way of effectively introducing Korean film to US audiences, and if Rain manages to develop an audience that then broadens its interest, even incrementally, I for one will *not* complain.

Wishing's not a bad thing. (And there is some off-line effort behind the wishing.)

[Antoine Doinel]

Todd Solodnz's quasi-sequel to Happiness - Forgiveness - has wrapped, while Bela Tarr starts shooting his next film, The Turin Horse, next month.

[Antoine Doinel]

Spike ain't done with WWII.

[dx23]

To celebrate Paul Newman's death, Universal has decided to remake Slap Shot, because, you know that the sequels with Stephen "fundy" Baldwin and Leslie Nielsen worked so well.

[Antoine Doinel]

The Weinsteins have a biopic of Judy Garland on the way based on the biography, Get Happy.

[Matt]

The Weinsteins have a biopic of Judy Garland on the way based on the biography, Get Happy.

I thought we already had the definitive Judy biopic. How about a Liza biopic instead? Starring Courtney Love.

And I'm going to use this occasion to post this awesome picture of Judy and her gay 4th husband:

[Antoine Doinel]

Sally Potter's new film, Rage, features Jude Law in drag.

[HarryLong]

And I'm going to use this occasion to post this awesome picture of Judy and her gay 4th husband:

As opposed to her fourth gay husband.

[Antoine Doinel]

Soderbergh pushes back Cleopatra and moves forward with the awesome sounding Moneyball: The Art of Winning An Unfair Game. Brad Pitt is signed on (for now).

[flyonthewall2983]

Soderbergh pushes back Cleopatra and moves forward with the awesome sounding Moneyball: The Art of Winning An Unfair Game. Brad Pitt is signed on (for now).

This sounds infinitely more interesting than "Cleo".

[domino harvey]

I disagree, but since he's still doing Cleo, I'll gladly take another Soderbergh film in the meantime. I mean, having two more in the queue already just isn't enough!

[Jeff]

Armond will be pleased to learn that the team behind Johnny Handsome are reuniting.

Mickey Rourke heads to 'St. Vincent'
Actor to star in drama directed by Walter Hill

By Gregg Kilday
Feb 6, 2009, 09:13 PM ET

Mickey Rourke is going from taking hits in the ring to doling out hits himself.

The Oscar nominee for "The Wrestler" is set to star in "St. Vincent" for Occupant Films and Secret Handshake Entertainment.

He'll play a hit man who returns to New York to complete a botched hit. Masquerading as a priest, he finds himself hearing the confession of the man who he is targetting.

Walter Hill, who directed Rourke in the 1989 gangster tale "Johnny Handsome," is helming the project, based on an original script by Cameron Young.

Production is slated to begin later this year. Stuart Ford's IM Global is currently selling international rights outside of North America, while ICM, which also reps Rourke and Hill, handles North American rights.

Occupant's Keith Calder, Joe Neurauter and Felipe Marino and Secret Handshake's Dena Hysell and Joe Gressis will produce.

L.A.-based Occupant most recently produced the 2008 Sundance audience award winner "The Wackness," starring Ben Kingsley.

Secret Handshake's other projects include the feature "A Little Help," directed by Michael J. Weithorn and starring Jenna Fischer and Chris O'Donnell, which is currently in preproduction.

[Grand Illusion]

After the Wrestlemania thing, I'm just glad he's not playing St. Vincent McMahon.

[Matt]

In this highly speculative Hollywood Reporter article about Cannes, a new film by Sylvain Chomet is mentioned. Says it's based on an unproduced script by Jacques Tati! Sounds like a great match to me.

It also says Isabelle Huppert stars in the new Claire Denis film, White Material, which also sounds like a great match.

[Forrest Taft]

It also says Isabelle Huppert stars in the new Claire Denis film, White Material, which also sounds like a great match.

White Material is already in post-production. It also stars Isaach De Bankolé and Christopher Lambert ( ). Stills.

[Matt]

White Material is already in post-production. It also stars Isaach De Bankolé and Christopher Lambert.

Maybe we ought to have a New Films in Post-Production thread. Hey, what the hell is this:

Directeur de la photographie: Yves Cape

No Agnès Godard? I don't know how I feel about this...