Kutcher Engineers A Few Movies
Twentieth Century Fox has picked up a pitch for a new movie called The Engineer to be developed as a star vehicle for Ashton Kutcher, Variety reports. Inspired by thrillers North by Northwest and Run Lola Run, the story covers 24 frantic hours in the life of an American engineer in Tokyo after he’s labeled a terrorist. I can see Kutcher running around clueless. What might be difficult is believing he has the smarts to figure out who’s framing him. Because you know someone has got to be framing him–that’s how these type stories usually go. The young Mr. Demi Moore is also looking at doing the comedy The Arrangement, in which he plays a florist who specializes in fixing relationships. OK, I’ll go with it. Sort of like Hitch but with lots of baby breath.
Lost’s Michael Eyes Feature Films
Harold Perrineau, who plays the oh-so-tortured, I-have-to-kill-some-Tailies-so-I-can-get-my-kid-back dad on Lost, is ramping up his film career. Wait, does that spell certain doom for Michael? Is going to get away with Walt on the boat? OK, OK, that’s for another column. The actor has lined up three film roles in recent weeks, including 28 Weeks Later, the follow-up to the hit sci-fi indie 28 Days Later (cool). In the sequel, directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (Intacto), Perrineau will play an upbeat American Special Forces pilot who documents and leads to safety the families returning to London after the viral outbreak. The actor also will star in Your Name Here, described as a Charlie Kaufman-esque story set in the last days of the life of sci-fi author Philip K. Dick, the man behind such films as Blade Runner and A Scanner Darkly (that’s the one I talked about a few weeks ago starring Paul Giamatti). Perrineau will play Richard Roundtree, a star in the fictional ’70s thriller Earthquake, obsessed with Dick. And finally, Perrineau also has been cast in Gardens of the Night starring John Malkovich and Jeremy Sisto. Writer/director Damian Harris‘ screenplay centers on kids abducted as children into a prostitution ring, who years later run away, and now live as teenage street kids. That sounds like a happy little film.
Jackson Tackles WWII History
Not one to back away from a cinematic epic (boy, ain’t that the truth), Lord of the Rings’ own Peter Jackson will produce a remake of The Dam Busters, a classic British war film about a Royal Air Force mission to cripple the German steel industry, to be called Dambusters. It will be directed by Christian Rivers, who won a 2006 Academy Award for his animation work on Jackson‘s version of King Kong. According to Variety, the story follows Operation Chastise, a top-secret RAF mission aimed at destroying three dams that were key to the Nazi steel industry in 1943. “This is one of the most remarkable true stories to come out of WWII,” Jackson said in statement, adding that many details of the dam raids were still a closely guarded secret when the first film was made in 1954. “It has since been declassified by the British government, making the dynamics of the story even more intriguing.” Jackson told Variety he planned to use state-of-the-art computer generated visual effects (well, of course he will) to give new life to the adventures of the 617 Squadron, a specially chosen group of pilots from Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. The revolutionary “bouncing” bomb they were to use had to be dropped from very close range at low altitude. The airmen were trained for the single, specific mission, and the potential for success was small. It definitely has got Oscar contender written all over it, but I wonder why Sir Jackson doesn’t want to direct it? He might be still be tired from doing LOTR and King Kong.
Speaking of War Movies…
Director John Woo has wooed Chow Yun-Fat, Ken Watanabe, Tony Leung and Taiwanese supermodel Lin Chi-Ling to star in his Chinese costumer, The Battle of Red Cliff. Based on the classic Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the film is set in the final days of the Han Dynasty in the year 208 and covers the war that established the Three Kingdoms period, when China had three rulers. Historians believe one million soldiers took part in the original battle of Red Cliff. That sounds like a lot of extras. Woo might need an aspirin IV after it’s all said and done.
But Wait, There’s More!
Filmmaker Atom Egoyan, renowned for award-winning movies that explore the dark sides of human behavior (The Sweet Hereafter, Exotica), is taking a turn at helming Richard Wagner’s dark, bloodlusty 19th century opera Die Walkure, the second of the four-part epic cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen and the source of Wagner’s famous “Ride of the Valkyries.” The Wagner classic is a complex tale in which incestuous love, the will of the gods and fate combine to advance the overall themes of the Ring Cycle. The narrative of the Ring Cycle, which was written by Wagner between 1848 and 1874, was inspired by a German tale and Norse legends. An emphasis on the horror of war will be a major focus in the Egoyan production. Sweet. During an interview at the Four Seasons Center for the Performing Arts in Toronto, where a production of the entire Ring Cycle will open for a three-week run on Sept. 12, Egoyan described to Variety similarities in his approach to making movies and opera. “In my films I am very interested in subtext and what makes people act the way they do,” he said. “I try and bring that detail to the way I direct the opera but also the way I stage it. The way I create visual ideas which can reinforce the psychology of the piece.” Yeah, but its still opera. He should just go ahead and make the movie.
Until next week…
