Hayden Christensen »

Sometimes damage control can be as much as buying the distribution rights to a film. This almost seems the case with The Weinstein Co.'s picking up of Todd Haynes' arty Bob Dylan biopic, I'm Not There. But could it actually make Bob Dylan more upset?

The singer-songwriter is already portrayed in one upcoming movie distributed by the Weinsteins -- whether or not anybody involved with Factory Girl admits that Hayden Christensen plays Dylan, the consensus is that it is obviously him. Now, he's going to be portrayed by six more people, including Cate Blanchett and Heath Ledger. This second film, which has Dylan's approval, will be released by The Weinstein Co. sometime later this year.

Dylan is currently unhappy with the Weinsteins because of Factory Girl, which he has only heard may be defamatory to his character. It doesn't seem likely that he could reverse his feelings now that I'm Not There is in the enemy's clutches. Do Bob and Harvey think the deal will please Dylan, or do they mean to use it as leeway in any legal issue brought on by Dylan? Or could this be totally unrelated to the Factory Girl controversy?

The long-awaited Edie Sedgwick biopic Factory Girl, which was reportedly still shooting two weeks ago, is now set for release on December 29 -- in Los Angeles only! Weinstein publicity confirmed to Cinematical last night that the film will indeed bypass a New York run in 2006, confining its Oscar qualifying release to Los Angeles. It will not open in New York City until late January -- this, despite the fact that the famous 'factory' in question was located on East 47th Street, not Wilshire Boulevard. According to a report in the Times, Harvey Weinstein is adamant that Sienna Miller get an Oscar nod for her performance, and is behind the rushed release. When Factory Girl does finally land in theaters, it will put to rest a long and torturous shoot, which began in February and was plagued by re-shoots, budget constraints and a lawsuit threat from Bob Dylan.

Dylan believes -- not unreasonably, perhaps -- that the harmonica-chewing hipster icon character played by Hayden Christensen bears a striking resemblance to him, even possessing his recognizable drawl. Assessments of the 'finished' film will begin rolling in soon enough, if indeed it is finished. For his part, director George Hickenlooper confessed to the Times that he'd like "another three months to edit."

Just by watching the trailer for Factory Girl, I gathered that Hayden Christensen's character is supposed to represent Bob Dylan. He's got the voice, the look and the harmonica. Sure, the character has a different name, and the film's producers are insisting that it is actually a composite of Dylan, Mick Jagger and Jim Morrison, but as played and depicted, it is as obviously specific as it gets. The whole thing makes me think of Velvet Goldmine, which featured Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Ewan McGregor blatantly portraying David Bowie and Iggy Pop, respectively, without the film's use of real names. But that film had no intention of being passed as a true story, unlike Factory Girl, a biopic that otherwise represents real people by name. Velvet Goldmine also didn't implicate any of its characters as being responsible for a person's death.

Dylan is no idiot, and he isn't about to let a movie indirectly accuse him of being the cause of Edie Sedgwick's suicide. According to the NY Post's Page Six column, he's prepared to take legal action; lawyers have already begun proceedings by demanding they see the film before anymore screenings are held. Though the case isn't yet involving the courts, if Factory Girl producers Bob Yari and Holly Wiersma don't comply with the missive issued them, things might get ugly.

Dylan is reportedly very concerned about how the film will affect his image. And he should be. As if the trailer wasn't enough, it is being noted that people who've seen the film say that it is unmistakably Dylan being portrayed. Plus, there's the matter that the original script had the character named Bob Dylan before it was changed to the fictionalized "Billy Quinn" (or is it "Danny Quinn"?).

This legal matter adds to a very long list of controversy surrounding Factory Girl, including a lawsuit over distribution rights and a complaint from the literally depicted Lou Reed.


[via Hollywood Wiretap]

Odds and ends from Monday:

• In a conversation with Moviehole, Samuel L. Jackson mentioned that he may be re-teaming with Hayden Christensen on the film Jumper. Directed by Doug Liman, pic tells the story of a boy who discovers he has the ability to teleport and uses this power to help track down the person who murdered his mother. Jackson will play an NSA Agent put in charge of tracking the bizarre youngster. Oohh, maybe Christensen would play villain in the film? I think he'd be great -- I mean, just watching him act scares the crap out of me. Question: How can someone so bad be paid so good?
• After first working as a grip, Bryan Bertino moved over to screenwriting and sold his first script, The Strangers, back in 2004. Now, Rogue Pictures has tapped Bertino to make his directorial debut with Strangers, off his own script. Wow, how's that for landing in sh*t? Pic tells the unfortunate tale of three mysterious strangers who terrorize a poor couple after returning home from their wedding.
• The rock band Steely Dan is so pissed at Owen Wilson. Why? Well, apparently they feel Wilson's character in You, Me and Dupree was eerily similar to that of a character in their song, Cousin Dupree. The song (and, in some ways, the movie) is about a loser who sleeps on his Aunt's couch and has a growing infatuation with his cousin. Weird. Anyway, all Steely Dan wanted was for Own Wilson to show up to one of their shows, appear on stage and apologize. However, he didn't, they're pissed and all I want to know is what the hell does Owen Wilson have to do with this? He didn't write the film. He didn't direct the film. All he did was show up, read some lines and get paid. Oh well, maybe they could get Owen's brother Luke -- ya know, if they coincidentally happen to have a song called, My Super-Ex Mother-In-Law.

Some new stills have arrived online showing Hayden Christensen and Jessica Alba acting all serious for their upcoming film Awake. In the pic, Christensen will play out a hospital patient's worst nightmare - no television reception! Okay, maybe a nurse who smells worse than your stained hospital gown would be worse.

What really happens is that, while undergoing surgery, Christensen suffers from what is called "anesthetic awareness." This is when you're fully conscious but paralyzed and unable to say or do anything about the situation. Yeah, it's pretty much one of the most horrific things that can happen to a person...but Jessica Alba is there, so that's okay.

Alba will play the wife of Christensen in a contest to see which one of the two turns in the most wooden performance. Just kidding, we're not supposed to say anything bad about the adorable ones, right? According to the film's producer, "This film will do to surgery what Jaws did to swimming in the ocean." Great, now we'll have two things to fear forever - the ocean and breathing. Way to go Hollywood!

[via JoBlo]

 

The "winners" have been announced for the 26th annual Razzie awards and, for once, I'm happy to say I haven't seen any of the horrible films mentioned. For those not aware, the Razzies (or Golden Raspberry's) are handed out the day before the Oscars each year and honor the worst of what Hollywood shoveled down our throats. With so many bad films to choose from, it always surprises me how, come Razzie time, it's usually pretty clear who deserves what.

This year, Jenny McCarthy's Dirty Love took home the Razzie for Worst Picture, while also scooping up the awards for Worst Actress (McCarthy), Worst Screenplay (McCarthy) and Worst Director (John Asher). After Asher won his award, Uwe Boll took a deep sigh of relief, if only because it grants him one more year full of directing high-priced crap. If there ever was an award for the D-list Celebrity That Should Have Disappeared Ten Years Ago, then I assume McCarthy would have picked that one up as well. Oh well, maybe next year.

In the Worst Actor category, Rob Schneider grabbed the Razzie for his performance in Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo. This one seems about right since I'd rather get a root canal than watch Schneider in anything. Hayden Christensen won Worst Supporting Actor for his crappy Darth Vader impression and Paris Hilton took Worst Supporting Actress for House of Wax. The way I see it, if Paris keeps making movies, she'll keep winning this award. Finally, in the brand new category, Most Tiresome Tabloid Targets, our friends Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes beat out Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie for the couple we wish would just vanish off the face of the earth right about now. Hurray for that! For a complete list of the "winners", click on the read link below.

Let the record show that I never in my wildest dreams imagined that headline would roll off my fingertips.

But, yes, dear readers, it looks like a controversy has erupted in the ever-contentious Best Makeup category, with the women respectively responsible for sprinkling glitter on Natalie Portman and Darth-ifying Hayden Christenson fighting for a single slot on the Oscar ballot. Apparently, AMPAS named hairdresser Annette Miles as a nominee, alogside Dave Elsey, on their initial press release last week. But then, after learning that Miles left the set before filming of George Lucas' final spurt of geek porn had finished, AMPAS replaced Miles' name with that of makeup artist Nikki Gooley. An AMPAS spokesman now says that the initial release contained an "administrative error", and that Gooley is "more deserving" of the nomination; an up-in-arms Miles insists that she left the set on "the same day [as] Natalie Portman". The Academy says they're going to give Miles a chance to prove them wrong by "submit[ing] further material". Considering that Oscar ballots were reportedly mailed yesterday, I have no idea how that's going to work.

A pair of movies that have been getting a fair amount of press lately were picked up for North American distribution yesterday. First, the increasingly controversial Edie Sedgwick biopic Factory Girl was acquired by the Weinstein Company, whose representatives apparently found time amidst all the Sundance festivities to sign a contract. According to a company spokesman, they are "thrilled to be distributing this complex story portrayed by an incredibly talented cast." Gee, that's a shock. As if they would say "Eh. It might suck, but we didn't want someone else to get it, so we dropped a few mil on the rights. No biggie. Look, Paris Hilton!"

The second acquisition is perhaps the more exciting one: Picturehouse bought the rights to distribute Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth in the US. Though del Toro's profile is now high enough that a theatrical run for the film was never really in doubt, it's nevertheless reassuring to know that the film is in good hands. Picturehouse, you may recall, have been busy - they bought the rights to Silk last week, and also will be distributing Robert Altman's widely anticipated A Prairie Home Companion later this year.

Lou Reed knew Edie Sedgwick. Edie Sedgwick was a friend of his. And you, Sienna Miller, are no Edie Sedgwick. That, if you can believe it, is the nice version of Reed's reaction to Factory Girl, the upcoming Sedgwick biopic. According to Reed, the screenplay is, well, a bit weak. "It's one of the most disgusting, foul things I've seen - by any illiterate retard - in a long time." Well. Not surprisingly, director George Hickenlooper disagrees. In his book, said work is nothing less than a "complex story about a wonderful young woman." (No response yet from the illiterate retard himself, Captain Mauzner. Yes, his name is Captain.)

By speaking out against Factory Girl, Reed is adding his voice to a growing tide of protest against the film among those who knew and loved Sedgwick (her family is particularly peeved). Man, this movie better be good - if it's terrible, even all this press isn't going to help. Plus, it's not as if Miller and co-star Hayden Christensen are exactly sure bets to turn in compelling performances. So yeah, it's probably a safe bet that the suits behind this one are a liiiiitle nervous by now.

Way back in October, we heard a rumor that Hayden Christenson, best known for his non-performance as Anakin Skywalker in two of the Star Wars prequels, had been cast in Factory Girl as a character based heavily on Bob Dylan. Today Rush and Malloy are saying that this rumor, whilst once true, now isn't so much. The film's original script included a torrid affair between Dylan and Edie Sedgwick (to be played by Sienna Miller), but after protests from the Dylan camp that the affair never actually happened in real life, the script has been rewritten. Christenson's character is now some kind of strange hybrid rock star, with elements of Dylan, Mick Jagger and Jim Morrisson, apparently, thrown into the mix. Still, the Boy Who Was Anakin says that Dylan remains his key influence.  "I don't want to talk with him," he said, "But I am watching all his documentaries. I'm doing my homework."