New Films in Production

[dwk]

Ian, the Argento Dracula film hasn't been made yet. They are supposed to start filming later this year.

[ambrose]

Wakamatsu Koji is working on a new film about the suicide of Mishima Yukio.

[flyonthewall2983]

Cast for Spielberg's Lincoln includes some interesting names.

[ambrose]

Kurosawa’s Way

[Jeff]

From the Department of Unnecessary Remakes: Rob Marshall will be directing Johnny "Anythingforadollar" Depp in an update of The Thin Man. :-&

[ambrose]

Wu Xia!

[Finch]

Zhang Yimou to direct $100m Heroes of Nanking with Christian Bale

two reviews for WuXia: FilmBiz Asia & Twitch (both generally positive)

[ambrose]

A first look at Takashi Miike’s Hara-Kiri

[ambrose]

Tatsumi



An animated adaptation of Yoshihiro Tatsumi's graphic novels.

CANNES 2011. SNAPSHOTS

[flyonthewall2983]

Still from Cogan's Trade, Andrew Dominik's next film, due to come out next year.

[kaujot]

Jesus, Brad Pitt looks like Ed Norton there.

[knives]

Anybody hear about 3.11 Senses of Home? I normally wouldn't care about an anthology movie, but it appears they managed to rope Victor Erice to do a short for the film.

[Finch]

Really looking forward to Cogan's Trade but worried that the Weinsteins will botch the film to make it more commercial.

[Anhedionisiac]

Really looking forward to Cogan's Trade but worried that the Weinsteins will botch the film to make it more commercial.

In all fairness, the script I read for it is so out-there that I just don't see how they can botch it to make it more commercial. There's just no way of getting around it, it's about as much of a traditional crime film as Assassination of Jesse James is a traditional western. That said, it's funny (really funny, actually) and violent enough that it's got much better chances of faring well commercially speaking.

[ianungstad]

The Weinsteins seem to think the film will be a commercial success. Considering what they paid, it's going to have to gross at least $50 million domestic for them to turn a profit.

[ianungstad]

More meddling from Harvey "scissors" Weinstein. From an article posted on Hollywood Reporter:

Gordon and Weinstein talked about recently working together on the movie The Details, which Gordon produced and Weinstein’s company acquired for distribution earlier this year at Sundance. They said they had been working together on improving the narration at the beginning and end of the movie to try and make the central character, who commits adultery and murder, more sympathetic.

So that's The Details, Submarine, Miral, and The King's Speech (PG-13 cut) so far this year. Nice!

[JMULL222]

what ended up happening to 'submarine', specifically?

[JMULL222]

did some research and it seems harvey only added a sarcastic into card before the film begins, written by the main character to the audience (which jives directly with the films aesthetic). he said it was to dictate to audiences that this is a comedy, and i think he might be right: i can see how an audience could take, say, the first act entirely seriously and not laugh once, had they not been 'prompted' by the card.

[ianungstad]

At one point he had plans to resynch the soundtrack so that it would be easier for Americans to understand in addition to adding title cards. I don't know if he fiddled around with the soundtrack or not?

[Grand Illusion]

did some research and it seems harvey only added a sarcastic into card before the film begins, written by the main character to the audience (which jives directly with the films aesthetic). he said it was to dictate to audiences that this is a comedy, and i think he might be right: i can see how an audience could take, say, the first act entirely seriously and not laugh once, had they not been 'prompted' by the card.

True. Could an audience possibly respond without being told how they're expected to from the film's distributor?

[JMULL222]

I don't see why it matters. It's a two second card before the film even reels, you can skip it on the DVD if you want to, if it helps audiences catch onto the films style quicker (which it did at my screening, and surely at others) i don't see any reason to be snarky about it. The accents seemed to be fairly prominent and I doubt they were dubbed. The score at my screening seemed to be a pure retooling of Delarue's score for "Contempt" (the one later reused in "Casino"), so if thats different from the original screenings, there you go.

EDIT: I simply find it ludicrous that, due to his name, people get in an uproar over Harvey adding a 5-second title when at the same time, no one said peep when Magnet cut 20 MINUTES out of Miike's "13 Assassins" earlier this year.

[eerik]

New Pixar film scheduled for November 2013, and it's not a sequel/prequel/spin-off.

[ambrose]

Birthright

[flyonthewall2983]

Damon Lindelof discusses how he was brought onto Ridley Scott's Prometheus Two hours and nineteen minutes into this video. No spoilers, thankfully.

[ianungstad]

Harvey Weinstein picked up distribution rights for Madonna's WE a few weeks ago. The film has had a few test screenings recently in New York and apparently it's awful. Harvey is creating a new edit of the film for it's premiere at Venice.

Two other forthcoming Weinstein Co titles have also had edits made by Harvey. In Apollo 18 all the actors wear space suits, Harvey has hired a scriptwriter to write new dialog that will be subbed in as radio communications between the astronauts. The film Dirty Girl has also had unknown edits made since the Weinstein's bought the rights at Toronto last year.

The Details is also being changed by Harvey to make the Tobey Maguire character to be more sympathetic.

I have not seen Submarine but Harvey was going to add title cards and resync the dialog to make it easier for Americans to understand. Can anyone confirm if he's altered the soundtrack?

Miral also had a sexual abuse subplot cut out of the film as Harvey wanted a PG-13 rating.

I don't understand why anyone signs a deal with The Weinstein Company. The independent market has bounced back nicely and there are a lot of distribution options out there that can handle the film just as well as TWC and chances are you don't have to worry about Harvey taking final cut and meddling with your picture.