Posts tagged uk
Marc Webb Director Of 500 Days Of Summer Frontrunner For Spiderman Reboot + Interview
Jan 14th
Deadline.com have reported that Marc Webb is at the top of Sony’s list for the new Spiderman reboot (after the cancellation of Spiderman 4), “Webb met about the Spidey reboot with the pic’s producers and executives looking to get the picture into production later this year for a Summer 2012 release.”
I don’t usually cover much rumours and speculation but this has interested me and also given me the opportunity to unleash my Marc Webb interview I done while he was promoting (500) Days Of Summer last year 
. I was a big fan of (500) Days Of Summer, I usually HATE ‘romantic comedies’ but that was the most honest film you could put in that category in years. It looks like Sony loved it as well, in the deadline article they say Sony wants “a director with a grasp of how to depict the way young people think and feel. This is critical because the Jamie Vanderbilt script covers the formative years of a high school-aged Peter Parker, and that POV is as important as the action sequences.” Check out my interview below and for more details on the Spiderman reboot check out deadline.com
Its very rare to have a romantic comedy men actually like and one from a guys point if view
Marc Webb: (Laughs) Thanks, to me it was less about the guys point of view, it was more of a persons point of view, a lot of times with these sort of films they show both points of view. It was more of his naïve approach to love, maybe its not as sophisticated as it should be and there’s a consequence to that, that’s what I identified with, there was a time in my life, when I was very much in his shoes (laughs)
I think that’s why a lot of guys seem to be relating to it, how important was it to get someone like Joey for the part because he is perfect?
Marc Webb: I met with a lot of actors, but he was the first one to get underneath it, the first time I met him, he asked why am I making this movie, and nobody had asked me that question before, I thought that’s a simple stupidly obvious question that’s great. We had a really good discussion that most of the films involved in romance have false hopes of love, especially for guys, who are often the sub plot, like with Hitch for example, there’s some really interesting things Will Smith is saying in the film and his charisma carries it, but the message if you wax your back and you learn to dance your gonna marry a super model, is fucking bullshit (laughs) its very reductive and hurtful, its very seductive to look like that but it’s false, so we wanted to play with a character that thought them sort of things and we had to subvert those things but without being cynical.
The films very honest.
Marc Webb: Yeah but I do know people who have actually found their girlfriend in High School when they were 17, I can think of three examples, they probably wouldn’t get the film so much. It probably wasn’t as emotionally resonate with them. But god bless them if their that lucky (laughs)
The chemistry was very strong between Zooey and Joseph how did you know they would hit it off so well?
Marc Webb: I wasn’t a hundred percent sure they would be great, we didn’t read them together, but I had seen them in Manic together, I met Joey and we were talking about who should play Summer, he said a couple people then he had a look in his eye and said Zooey, she’s got this energy, I knew through the look in his eye I could hang the movie on that. He got depressed though and said nobody will make a film with just us two because we’re not big enough stars, but one of the benefits of doing a film with such a small budget is that you don’t have to stuff a star into it. They’ve known each other and they respect each other which was so important, the engine of these sort of movies is the characters chemistry. They are great actors, Joey uses his physicality so well, we took away lines from the film while editing just because his body said all that needed to be said
(500) Days Of Summer is very unconventional, you know people love to categorise everything, how would you categorise it?
Marc Webb: The best way of categorising it is as a coming of age story masquerading as a romantic comedy, a love story implies certain things we wanted to side step. The same piece of information can look very different to someone else, like in The Graduate.
The Book Of Eli Clips
Jan 13th
I’m looking forward to this, it’s out in cinemas January 15th. I always like Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman is always great as well, especially as a villain – True Romance, Leon, The Firm (TV Movie), Bram Strokers Dracula ect. It’s not been getting great reviews so I guess I’ll have to wait and see, check out some clips from the movie below, for more clips head over to Traileraddict.
Jason Reitman Interview Part 1 Director Of Up In The Air
Jan 12th
Sorry for the delay with this interview, I’ve been having laptop issues! Here’s part 1 of my interview with Jason Reitman director of Up In The Air (and Juno), which is one of the front runners to bring home a heap of Oscars this year.
The Film is based on a book, I haven’t read the book myself but how does the book differ?
Jason Reitman: It does slightly, the book is about a man who fires people for a living and obsessively collects air miles, but if I had directed the book exactly as it was, Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga wouldn’t be in it, because their characters are not in the book. The way I use source material is I see it as a tool box, there’s a story I wanna tell and I’m looking for the right words, so I’ll read a book or read an article and suddenly it will be the language I’ve been looking for, it will say something I’ve been meaning to say, or ask something I’ve been meaning to ask and at that point it becomes a tool box of ideas that I sometimes follow literally but sometimes I don’t. In this case I took a main character that I liked his occupation and I liked his life philosophy so I built the plot around that.
I read that you wrote the role with George Clooney in mind.
Jason Reitman: Yeah, I wrote the role with him in mind and also Vera and Anna in mind as well. It’s easier for me to write, when I know who I’m writing it for, that’s often how I identify with the character. I had met Vera before and seeing many of her films I knew that there were things she was able to do that no other actress was capable of doing, she’s able to walk that very fine line of being aggressive but feminine at the same time, that was the reason I was able to write her character the way I did. When I saw Anna in Rocket Science I knew the sparkly brilliance of her mind and how fast she is, because of that I was able to write her character the way I did. If your gonna make a movie about a guy who fires people for a living, but you still want him to be likeable, that actor better be charming (laughs). I don’t think there’s a more charming actor alive than George Clooney, I was very lucky he said yes.
What would have happened if he never accepted?
Jason Reitman: It’s funny you know I had been writing this for 6 years, I told his agent I’m a week or month away from finishing this screenplay but in the middle of that I’m going to Italy on vacation with my wife, so he said if your gonna go to Italy you might as well just go and see him, I said that sounds like an awful idea, I don’t want to see him if he hates my screenplay, he says no no go and see him, he’d love to see you, so I said I’ll send him the screenplay and if he enjoys it I’ll certainly drop by, so I get to Italy and I call up his agent and say did he like it? He says go see him, so we drive there and one of the first things he asks me is what are you working on these days? I said there’s a screenplay called Up In The Air, he says OH I got that, I’ve got to find that, I’ve got to read that. So for 2 days my wife and I stayed at his home and I was just trying to prove I was a man to George Clooney, I played Basketball with him, which I havn’t played since 8th Grade, I never drink, I tried drinking with George Clooney, finally at the end of the 2nd day he disappeared for a while and out of nowhere he came into our room and said I just read it, it’s great, I’m in and those words were one of the greatest moments in my career.
One of the fun things about the film was how it balances the darkness of getting fired, to the happiness of these people finding new jobs. The cherry on top was the song at the end of the credits, how did that come about?
Jason Reitman: That was a bit of dumb luck, after Juno I had gotten used to teenagers sending me songs, with the idea of them appearing in my films. I had been speaking at a college in St. Louis where we had been shooting and a man in his mid 50s came to me with the song, that was unusual. So he handed me a cassette tape, first of all I had to find a place to listen to it, eventually we found a car with a cassette deck and I was really ready for something ridiculous but instead came in this voice which is in the credits, he introduced himself, explained how he had lost his job after a decade or so and was now in the middle of his life trying to figure out his purpose in life, he then started to sing the song, it’s not the greatest song ever written but it’s an authentic song. I guess my feeling was we’re in one of the worst recessions on record in America, but we really have no experience with who these people are, they just are seen as numbers and percentages but here was a guy who sang very authentically about how he felt about it, I thought what could be a better tribute than to end the movie with this song. I knew half way through listening to it, this is gonna be in the credits.
Up In The Air is in cinemas January 15th
My Top 10 Anticipated Films Of 2010
Jan 7th
1. The Tree Of Life
Release Date: TBC, I’d assume late summer in time for award season.
Terrence Mallick is quite possibly my favourite director, his films say so much without much words, they’re all extremely philosophical, moving and visually stunning. Since his debut film Badlands in 1973 he has only made 3 other films which were all amazing (Days Of Heaven, The Thin Red Line and The New World).
Directed by Terrence Mallick and starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. The tale of a Midwestern boy’s journey from the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as a “lost soul in the modern world”, and into his quest to regain meaning in life. The “tree of life” is the framework of the story, how one thing leads to another, a miracle of growth and evolution, where nature is purposeful, and never random.
2. Inception
Release Date: July 2010
Christopher Nolan’s succession of great films doesn’t looks like it’s gonna stop – Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight…….. I like how Warner Brothers are approaching the film, it’s got a real mystique about it in that it’s not giving away too much but still giving us enough to want much much more and keep us guessing. The visuals in the two teaser trailers look ridiculously good.
The plot is top secret, we’ve only been given extremely brief information about the film, all we know about it is that it’s a – “a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind.” “Inception is about entering peoples’ minds/dreams. A technology to do so has been developed and is done through an injection. DiCaprio and his team work to enter the minds of other characters in order to retrieve/plant information.” Nolan wrote the original screenplay himself, Inception stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Cillian Murphy, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard. The film will open on July 16th, 2010, in both traditional theatres and in IMAX. DiCaprio is a CEO character named Cobb, Ellen Page is Ariadne -a grad student working for Cobb and a sidekick of sorts, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Arthur – an associate to Cobb at his company, Tom Hardy is Eames, Ken Watanabe is Saito, Dileep Rao is Yusef, Cillian Murphy is Fischer, Tom Berenger is Browning and Marion Cotillard plays Cobb’s wife.
3. The Fighter
Release Date: TBC
This might be the filmthat Christian Bale finally gets his Oscar nomination. Both him and Mark Wahlberg don’t look like their messing around with their respected rolls, Bale has lost a tonne of weight to play an addict (as he done in Rescue Dawn and more extremely in The Machinist) and Mark Wahlberg has beefed up to play former Welterweight Micky Ward
Starring Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Mark Wahlberg and Directed by David O. Russell. The film centres around the life of professional boxer “Irish” Micky Ward (Wahlberg) and his older drug addicted brother Dickie Eklund (Bale). Amy Adams has also been confirmed as a love interest of Ward.
4. Black Swan
Release Date: TBC
I’m a big big fan of Darren Aronofsky, for me Requiem for a Dream is the greatest addiction movie ever made, The Wrestler was brilliant and I really enjoyed The Fountain (I know that was a bit hit and miss for some people though). If the story’s a bit slow for you, who doesn’t like a bunch of pretty brunettes (Natalie Portman & Mila Kunis) dressed up as Ballerinas. Also for you pervs, i.e men with red blood they both have sex in the film, I’m not making that up!
The film has been described as a supernatural drama set in the world of New York City Ballet which centers on a veteran ballerina (Portman) who finds herself locked in a competitive situation with a rival dancer (Kunis), with the stakes and twists increasing as the dancers approach a big performance. The big twist is that Portman’s character is not sure whether her rival is a supernatural apparition or if she is having delusions.
5. The Way Back
Release Date: TBC
First of all the cast is stella, Colin Farrell, Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess, Mark Strong and Saoirse Ronan. It is also directed by the brilliant Peter Weir (Master And Commander, The Truman Show, Witness) who after five Oscar nominations may finally to bring home that faceless gold man with this. The premise is right up my alley as well
Seven courageous multi-national prisoners discover the true meaning of friendship as their epic journey takes them across thousands of miles of hostile terrain en-route to India and their freedom.
6. Shutter Island
Release Date: 19 February 2010
I’ve been really looking forward to this for a good while now, Martin Scorsese has made classic after classic. The only thing that makes me slightly sceptical about the film is the push backs, if it wasn’t for that this would probably be higher up on my list
Directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Kingsley and Jackie Earle Haly. In 1954, US Marshall Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio) hunts down a murderess who’s escaped from the Shutter Island hospital for the criminally insane. Though she can’t get off the island, Daniels’ job is made harder by an approaching hurricane.
7. Kick Ass
Release Date: 16th April 2010
No trailer has sold me for a film in 2010 like the Hit Girl Red Band Trailer, it looks hilarious and to put it lightly INSANE!
Kick-Ass is based on the comic by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr., telling the story of average teenager Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), a comic-book fanboy who decides to take his obsession as inspiration to become a real-life superhero. As any good superhero would, he chooses a new name — Kick-Ass — assembles a suit and mask to wear, and gets to work fighting crime. There’s only one problem standing in his way: Kick-Ass has absolutely no superpowers. Kick-Ass directed by Matthew Vaughn and stars Nicolas Cage, Aaron Johnson, Lyndsy Fonseca, Mark Strong, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Chloe Moretz.
8. A Simple Noodle Story
Release Date: TBC
I love Blood Simple and I love the idea of putting a twist on that story. Zhang Zimou is one of my favourite modern directors. Visually he’s on a different level. A number of his films blew me away – House Of Flying Daggers, Curse of the Golden Flower, Hero, Not One Less and The Story Of Qui Ju
A Simple Noodle Story is Zhang Yimou’s first film since Curse of the Golden Flower in 2006, it is a remake of Blood Simple, the 1985 debut of the Coen brothers, whose films Zhang Yimou lists among his favorites. The film transports the original film’s plot from a town in Texas, to a noodle shop in a small town in the Chinese desert.
A Simple Noodle Story will reportedly consist of two distinct segments, a thriller segment, and a comedic segment. The film will star Sun Honglei, Ni Dahong in the thriller segment while comedians Xiao Shenyang and Yan Ni will star in the comedic segment.
9. London Boulevard
Release Date: TBC
This is directed by the William Monohen in his first feature film debut, he is no stranger to the film business, he wrote the screenplay for Kings Of Heaven, Body Of Lies, The Departed and the upcoming film Edge Of Darkness. I’ve heard great things about the novel which this film is based on and looking at the cast (Colin Farrell, Ray Winstone..) this looks like a winner
A freshly released ex-con from South London attempts to stay out of the way of a ruthless loan shark by finding honest work at the Holland Park mansion of faded movie actress. As his violent past catches up with him and his disturbed sister is threatened, he is forced to act.
10. Machete, Clash Of The Titans and Robin Hood
Release Dates: TBC, April and May
I didn’t know which one to pick so I though f*ck it I’ll pick 3 films at number 10, all action packed movies, with great casts. Hopefully good popcorn fun!
Honourable Mentions
Alice In Wonderland, Book Of Eli, The Boys Are Back, Jonah Hex, Iron Man 2, The Wolfman, Predators, Tron Legacy, Paul, Buried, The Rum Diary, Youth In Revolt, Edge Ef Darkness, Stone, The Expendables, Toy Story 3, Wall Street 2, The A Team, Rec 2, Frozen, Biutiful, Green Zone, The American, Knockout, The Conspirator, The Grand Master, Triple Frontier, Salt, Onedin, Mother And Child, The Other Guys, The Social Network, Brothers, Invictus, Leap Year, 4 3 2 1, Centurion and Area 51,
Everybody’s Fine Poster – New Robert Di Nero Film
Dec 18th
A new Robert Di Nero film doesn’t excite me nearly as much as it should looking at some of the movies he’s featured in, he is undoubtedly one of the greats and has given us film lovers a number of iconic characters and has been a part of some of the greatest films of all time, but for me he hasn’t had the best track record the last decade. To be fair to him he doesn’t need to prove anything to anyone, he’s cemented himself as a great but as a huge fan it’s a hard pill to swallow seeing him in Mean Streets, Taxi Driver and Raging Bull to being a part of crap family comedies. Everybody’s Fine has been getting much better reviews than his last couple films so I’m gonna check it out, it is based on Guiseppe Tornatore’s 1990 Italian film, Stanno tutti bene,.The film follows Robert De Niro’s character’ Frank Goode’ who as a widow, embarks on an impromptu road trip to reconnect with each of his grown children (Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell) only to discover that their lives are far from picture perfect.
Everybody’s Fine is out on February 19 in the UK.
A Prophet – Trailer & Details
Dec 9th
This year I have seen a number of brilliant films, yet I have only been blown away a handful of times, watching A Prophet yesterday was one of them times. I have to admit first of all I am a sceptic, if I see a film getting rave reviews EVERYWHERE in the back of mind I think everyone’s just jumping on the band wagon (my faith in humanity is low!), but with this particular film it deserves every praise it has been getting. It was fully deserving of The Best Film at the London Film Festival and this years Grand Prix Award at Cannes. It must a shoe in for Best International Film at the Oscars. The lead actor Tahar Rahim was sensational, the prison kingpin played by Niels Arestrup was equally as good. I should have some interviews lined up with the cast so look out for that.
Nineteen year-old Malik (Tahar Rahim) is condemned to six years in prison. Arriving in jail friendless and alone with no-one to protect him, he soon finds himself drawn into the brutal violence and gang warfare of daily prison life. Taken under the wing of a powerful boss, Malik is initiated into the criminal ranks. Once on the outside, he is entrusted with more and more important missions. But Malik is brave and a fast learner and secretly has his own plans that don’t involve taking orders from anyone else.
Jacques Audiard, acclaimed director of The Beat That My Heart Skipped, brings us the winner of this year’s Grand Prix at Cannes. Having recently won the Best Film award at the London Film Festival and being hailed by critics as a classic in the same vein as The Godfather, A Prophet instantly takes its place as a classic of the crime genre.
Release date is 22nd January 2010