Aren’t They Sweet?
Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson, who starred together in the sugary 2003 hit How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, are reuniting for the adventure comedy Fool’s Gold. The project revolves around a husband and wife who have spent eight years searching for a lost treasure and are on the brink of bankruptcy and divorce when a clue to the payday surfaces, forcing them to reunite to find their fortune. Just the kind of cutesy insipid fun these two inspire, isn’t it? With some Indiana Jones adventure thrown in for an added bonus! It even has Sweet Home Alabama’s director Andy Tennant on board. Why don’t I just go get some raw sugar cane and apply it directly to my teeth? But there is one saving grace which may pull Gold out of the cavity-producing muck: Kenneth Lonergan, the writer/director/star of the 2000 art house hit You Can Count On Me is writing the screenplay. Hmmm, we’ll see.
Yuma’s Tortuous Journey
Christian Bale is close to a deal to star opposite Russell Crowe in 3:10 to Yuma, a Western remake of the 1957 original, which starred Glenn Ford. He played captured outlaw Ben Wade, who finds himself in the custody of small-time rancher Dan Evans. The rancher is secretly trying to take the outlaw to a railway station to catch a train to Yuma for the outlaw’s court date. A battle of wills ensues. Sounds pretty interesting, right? I mean, if you like Westerns and all (which I really don’t, but that’s me). However, the film has apparently taken quite a twisted ride to get to the big screen. As the Hollywood Reporter explains, the film spent four years in development at Sony Pictures, which discarded it in June. Tom Cruise had circled the film for his follow-up to Mission: Impossible III, with Eric Bana rumored to be in pursuit of a role as well. Director James Mangold and producer Cathy Konrad, the husband-and-wife pair behind Walk the Line, shopped the project to various studios but ended up with an independent financier. Sometimes that’s the only way to go. Do it yourself.
Tyler Eyes Strangers
It’s funny. I was just sitting around the other day, watching Armageddon on cable for the umpteenth time, and wondering if Liv Tyler was ever going to make another movie after having a baby. No, seriously, I was. She was cute in that movie, jumping all over Ben Affleck and shedding what looked to be real tears over her daddy’s heroic demise. And of course, she was quite lovely as an ethereal Elf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, too. Well, now, I don’t have to wonder anymore. The actress has signed to star in the suburban suspense thriller Strangers about a couple in a remote house who are targeted by three dangerous masked strangers. Tyler will play the “female half of the couple,” according to the Reporter. Thanks for the clarification.
Bonham Carter Tackles Potter Territory
Oscar-nominee Helena Bonham Carter, who most recently starred in the hit film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, has joined the all-star cast of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, playing the very baaaaad witch Bellatrix Lestrange, Sirius Black’s cousin and a Death Eater, who is one of Lord Voldemort’s followers. And no doubt Helena will once again make herself as unattractive as possible. I suppose if you’re hooked up in real life with director Tim Burton, looks don’t matter as much. As Lestrange, Bonham Carter is only one of several British newcomers to the Harry Potter film franchise, including: Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake) as the unctuous Dolores Umbridge; Natalia Tena (Mrs. Henderson Presents) as the tom-boy witch Nymphadora Tonks; and 14-year-old unknown actress Evanna Lynch, as the looney Luna Lovegood. The Harry Potter movies haven’t disappointed me yet.
Giamatti Plays Dick
OK, not that kind. Instead, Paul Giamatti is in negotiations to star as sci-fi author Philip K. Dick in an untitled but authorized biopic, with Giamatti’s newly launched production company Touchy Feely Films co-producing. Dick, who died in 1982, penned more than four dozen books and numerous short stories, with at least seven being adapted for the big screen, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report and most recently A Scanner Darkly, in theaters now. The nontraditional biopic will interweave the prolific author’s life with his fiction and incorporate elements of his last unfinished novel, The Owl in Daylight. I have such a crush on Giamatti these days, don’t ask, but he so deserves an Oscar. Maybe this will be the film to give it to him.
Ten Commandments, Spoofed
I love the concept. The indie comedy The Ten, which apparently satirizes the story about the Ten Commandments, has a big ol’ cast, including Winona Ryder, Famke Janssen, Gretchen Mol, Liev Schreiber, Rob Corddry, Ron Silver and Oliver Platt who join Jessica Alba, Adam Brody, Ken Marino, Paul Rudd and Justin Theroux, as Jesus. Whew. Color me there.
Directors Are Doing It for Themselves
Three different directors doing that thing that they do, making those movies out there. First up, George A .Romero–of the Dead zombie flicks fame–has signed to write and direct Solitary Isle, a thriller about an expedition to a deserted island that turns deadly as the explorers face an unknown force. The film is based on a short story by Japanese horror master Koji Suzuki (The Ring, Dark Water). Next we have Adrian Lyne, whose known for sexually provocative films like Unfaithful and 9 1/2 Weeks, is attached to bring Chuck Hogan’s award-winning crime novel Prince of Thieves to the big screen. It’s a tale of four men–thieves, rivals and friends–being hunted through the streets of Boston by a tenacious FBI agent and a woman who might destroy them all. Just so long as there is sex. And finally, X3’s director Brett Ratner is thinking about remaking The Boys From Brazil, a disturbing movie about cloning Adolf Hitler and rekindling the Third Reich. A Nazi hunter in Paraguay discovers the plot and tries to stop it. The 1978 original movie starred Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier. I can see it but it probably won’t be done as well in Ratner’s hands. Sorry, Brett.
Until next week…
