Carrey, Diaz Play a Little Game
Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz, whose careers took off in 1994 after the duo headlined the adventure comedy The Mask, will reunite to play a married couple in A Little Game Without Consequence. Game, a comedy-drama based on a French film, revolves around a married couple who have been happily married for five years but decide to play a trick on their friends by pretending to break up only to discover that most of their friends and family never thought they belonged together in the first place. Well, now. That’s gonna eat away at their relationship, don’t you think? Maybe Jim will just put on some ancient mask, turn green, get wild and crazy and crack Cameron up. Oh wait, that was the other film.
Sleuth Gets a Redo
If they aren’t remaking French films, they’re remaking British ones. Jude Law and Michael Caine are remaking the 1972 Sleuth, with Kenneth Branagh on board to direct. This is Caine’s second go at the film since he starred in the original as well. The drama revolves around two men–a brilliant thriller writer and a hairdresser–vying for the same woman. In the original, Caine played the hairdresser while Laurence Olivier played the writer, but this time Caine will play the older gentleman, who’s so upset at losing his wife to a young hairdresser (Law) that he hatches a complex revenge plan. Both Caine and Olivier got Oscar nominations for the 1972 original film, as did director Joseph Mankiewicz. Then there’s Law, who seems to enjoy playing Caine’s old parts. He redid Caine’s biting ‘60s sexual romp Alfie but not nearly as successful. And finally, Branagh, who we haven’t heard boo from in awhile. But he’s on the map again, having recently directed a version of As You Like It and a film version of The Magic Flute that opens this week at the Venice and Toronto film festivals. Sleuth could make it a triple play for the talented director.
HBO Goes Surfing
Rebecca De Mornay and Bruce Greenwood will play husband and wife in HBO’s new drama series John From Cincinnati, from Deadwood creator David Milch. Aha! Maybe that’s why Milch’s Deadwood got the boot; he was too busy creating a new show. Set in the world of southern California surfing, Cincinnati revolves around the dysfunctional Yost family of Imperial Beach–patriarch Mitch (Greenwood), a former surfing star; his aggressively unhappy wife, Cissy (De Mornay); their drug-addicted, dissolute son, Butchie (Brian Van Holt), also a former surfing champ; and other son, Shaun. Their lives are disrupted by the arrival of the dim but wealthy John (Austin Nichols) from Cincinnati, who has come to take surfing lessons, and Barry Cunningham (Matt Winston), who is returning to Imperial Beach to avenge a wrong done to him by the Yosts 23 years ago. Sounds appropriately soapy but if HBO is doing it, at least there will be swear words and nudity.
HBO Alums Move On
Six Feet Under’s Peter Krause will produce and star as an accountant haunted by 9/11 in the suspense thriller Civic Duty. “It’s about your average American guy who loses his job,” Krause told Entertainment Weekly. And apparently, also his mind. “I suspect my next-door neighbor of being a terrorist and end up abducting him at gunpoint.” Nice. Meanwhile, Deadwood star Timothy Olyphant and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Brick) have joined the cast of the Iraq War drama Stop Loss, from Boys Don’t Cry writer/director Kimberly Peirce. I’ve talked about this one before but to refresh your memory, it centers on Brandon (Ryan Phillippe), a soldier who returns home to Texas and is called to duty again in Iraq through the military’s “stop-loss” procedure. Olyphant has been cast as Lt. Col. Boot Miller, a no-nonsense military man who, serving as Brandon’s commanding officer, welcomes the troops home from Iraq but then orders their re-enlistment. Gordon-Levitt will play one of the soldiers who returns to a failing marriage and seems to be having the toughest time readjusting to civilian life. This could be an eye-opener.
Church Gets Smart
Oscar-nominee Thomas Haden Church will reunite with Sideways producer, Michael London, for the indie film Smart People. The comedy-drama revolves around a recently widowed professor (Dennis Quaid) who must juggle a new love (Rachel Weisz), a failing career and an unexpected visit from his adopted brother (Church). The premise puts me to sleep, but who knows, with the cast, it might turn into something noteworthy. Or not.
Until next week…
