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Matt wrote:

Mr_sausage wrote:

tavernier wrote:The review in the NY Times Book Review was more enjoyable.

Well that's the first time I've ever heard anyone apply the word "tedious" to any part of Lolita.

It's very fashionable these days to dismiss Nabokov (and Roth and Updike and Mailer most other major mid-century male writers).

Last year, he signed up for The Lovely Bones, Peter Jackson's adaptation of Alice Sebold's bestselling novel. Gosling was due to play the grieving father of a murdered 14-year-old girl, only to be dismissed two days before production started. The first time I met him, in Toronto in early September, he was weeks away from heading off to Philadelphia for The Lovely Bones shoot. As much effort as he'd put into ageing himself for the role, with added bulk and a thick, well-tended beard, he was still surprised at having been cast.

"They called me, and I just couldn't see myself as the father of this girl, you know?" says Gosling, who was just 26 when Jackson hired him. "I called Peter and said, 'You must be nuts. I love the story, but me as the dad? You're crazy.' And they were like, 'That's the way that we see it.' So who was I to argue because they want the parents to be young?"

When he reported for duty, it didn't take long for him and Jackson to realise he wasn't a good fit (Mark Wahlberg replaced him). "It was always an issue for me. I always felt too young for the role. It's psychological, I guess, but for me that just felt impossible. We did everything we could to get it to that point, but at the end of the day, I couldn't accept it. Within myself, I just didn't feel right."

Does that mean it was his decision to leave? "No, it was mutual. I mean, it wasn't dramatic, it just became clear that it would be better with someone else. I feel like it's a better movie with Mark Wahlberg in it. You have to know what you can't do, too. The problem is, when you're just starting out, you're trying to convince everybody that you can do anything, because you need a job. You train yourself to think that way. And then when you get to a point where you don't have to hustle for jobs any more, you have to sort of reprogram yourself and think, 'Well, what can't I do?' Because the truth is that they'll catch you. They'll put you in anything."

Will the experience make him reassess how he approaches offers? "Yeah, I think so. It was nice to be believed in that much, but it was also an important realisation for me: not to let your ego get involved. It's OK to be too young for a role."

Antoine Doinel wrote:The film has been delayed from early 2009 to fall 2009. Perhaps for awards consideration?

flyonthewall2983 wrote:Isn't DreamWorks independent of Paramount now?

Antoine Doinel wrote:What a dull trailer. The special effects in particular look sorta corny, and it's too bad the studio decided to use the most generic drama film trailer music for the second half. I would've been nice to hear some of Brian Eno's score instead.

Antoine Doinel wrote:Paramount's big Oscar hopeful gets the most boring teaser poster ever.

Mr Finch wrote:Awful score and too many spoilers; with the preview for The Road, this is a joint contender for the year's worst trailer. Either PJ has no say in the marketing of the film (which, with his clout I find hard to believe) or he doesn't care that Dreamworks are doing a bang up job of making this look as unappealing as possible.