Antoine Fuqua Tagged Articles at Cinematical

According to the ads, the major selling point of Brooklyn's Finest is that it's from the director of Training Day. This is true! They are not lying about that. His name is Antoine Fuqua. He also directed Tears of the Sun, King Arthur, and Shooter, but never mind that. It's Training Day that Brooklyn's Finest most closely resembles, insofar as it's about rogue cops driven by personal agendas, and Ethan Hawke is involved.

What it also resembles, though, is a lot of other movies about rogue cops driven by personal agendas. Written by first-timer Michael C. Martin as an entry in a screenplay contest (here's a New York Times story about him), the film makes almost no effort to stand apart from its genre brethren, but it does benefit from solid casting and Fuqua's gritty, no-nonsense style. It even benefits a little from Ethan Hawke, which is somewhat rare these days.

Hawke plays Sal, one of three Brooklyn police officers who walk separate paths before converging later in the film. Sal, a plainclothes detective, has a family to support, including a wife (Lili Taylor) who's pregnant and in poor health. Sal has already reached the point of desperation when the movie starts, stealing money from drug busts and confessing to a priest, "I don't want God's forgiveness. I want his [expletive] help!" The priest is noncommittal on the subject of God's assistance in the commission of felonies.

Working out of the same precinct is Tango (Don Cheadle), currently deep under cover to infiltrate a drug ring run by a smooth crime boss named Caz (Wesley Snipes). Like Sal, Tango is desperate, but for different reasons: He wants to be promoted to detective, get out of the undercover line of fire, and sit behind a desk for a while. He wants to be a good cop, but this assignment is killing him. It's already ruined his marriage.

The men behind Precious and Shooter are going back in time, according to Variety:

Having had wild success with Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, Lee Daniels is itching to go historical for his next feature. He's in "advanced negotiations" to helm Selma, a big-buzz Civil Rights-era drama penned by Paul Webb (Lincoln). The film, which would team him with Slumdog Millionaire producer Christian Colson, focuses on the marches between Selma and Montgomery in 1965, which were the peak of the Civil Rights movement. This means that while prospects of a Martin Luther King Jr. film might be hazy, he will get some time here, one would assume -- he was one of the leaders drawn to the area where marches quickly turned to "Bloody Sunday" with force from local and state police.

And in a wholly different historic affair, it seems Antoine Fuqua and Spike Lee are getting ready for a pimp-n-ho crime spree. Fuqua will direct John Ridley's adaptation of the graphic novel Miss: Better Living Through Crime, with Lee executive producing. Set in 1900s New York, the project focuses on Sola and Slim, "a poor white girl who has learned to survive by hook or by crook since being expelled from the orphanage," and the "black pimp with an uncertain past, trying to keep one foot out of the grave." But, it's not as you might think -- the pair team up to become killers for hire.

Along with Jennifer Hudson as Winnie Mandella, it's refreshing to see a whole slew of projects in the works free of African-American crossdressers-for-laughs.

There are those actors who somehow manage to raise the 'quality quotient' of any film that they are in -- and Denzel Washington is one of those actors. Whether he can keep that streak alive when The Taking of Pelham 123 opens on Friday remains to be seen, but today for Scenes We Love, I decided to throw a little love towards Washington for his performance in Antoine Fuqua's Training Day. Now just for starters; I have to say that it's not a great film...corny and satisfying? Yes, but great? Not quite. So how did Washington win an Oscar for his role as the corrupt LAPD officer, Alonzo Harris? Well, I think he earned it by taking a role in a paint-by-numbers cop thriller and turning it into an Oscar-worthy performance.

Everyone loves to see the bad guy get their comeuppance, and that's exactly what the final scenes of Training Day deliver. But in this scene, as Washington's dirty cop watches it all slip away, you can see it register on his face as all that power and respect circles the drain. In the hands of a lesser actor, this scene could have just been a cheap thrill of watching the bad guy get what he deserves, but to Washington's credit, he creates a very real moment where 'The Player' finally realizes he has lost the game.

Video and Training Day Fun Facts after the jump...

1. Twiddle thumbs while waiting for bidding wars to break out -- So Senator Entertainment has already landed domestic distribution for Antoine Fuqua's cop drama, Brooklyn's Finest (they'll probably do right by it and sit it on a shelf right next to All the Boys Love Mandy Lane); now, it's just a matter of waiting for Fox Searchlight to snatch up their next sleeper in waiting, and for either Focus or Paramount Vantage to pick up the rights to something they can't quite turn a profit on *cough1* *cough2*. Modest comfort comes in the form of Searchlight already planning a late-summer release for 500 Days of Summer, and of Sony Pictures Classics reportedly calling dibs on Sam Rockwell's sci-fi drama, Moon. Keep those ears and eyes open, folks.

2. Monitor some seriously similar, sometimes simultaneous Twitter action -- For starters, there's our crew: Snider, then Davis, then Rocchi, and (lastly but not least-ly) new convert Weinberg. Then you have the Onion folks, your CHUD, the IFC one-two, the Spout reps, our HitFix homies, not to mention your /Film and your Film School Rejects and your First Showing (these fellas happen to be sharing accommodations, so expect much echo). Daily posts? Facebook status updates? Please. With a minute-by-minute play-by-play, who needs to go outdoors?

Sunday may be a day of rest, but not for the intrepid Cinematical crew, who cranked out reviews and posts between screenings and interviews. They weren't the only busy ones, of course!

Deals. Nothing closed, but Gregg Goldstein of Movie City News reported (very early) that David Mackenzie's sex comedy Spread, starring Ashton Kutcher and Anne Heche, excited distributors because of its commercial appeal. The Jim Carrey "gay prison love story" I Love You Phillip Morris premiered tonight and distribs are expected to be circling.

Cinematical Reviews, and An Interview. Erik Davis says Marc Webb's 500 Days of Summer, with Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon Levitt, is "an anti-fairytale" romantic comedy. (Did you watch the teaser trailer? Fox Searchlight will release it in July.) Erik was super impressed by the teen detective antics of the Derrick Comedy troupe in Mystery Team, which he calls "a silly, stupid, ridiculous comedy." Paul Solet's Grace inspired the inimitable Eric D. Snider to opine: "If you are the sort of person who might enjoy an effed-up gore-fest about a woman [Jordan Ladd] who delivers an undead baby, you can rest assured that Grace lives up to its potential." Scott Weinberg wrote about killer trees, Nazi zombies, and a cool celeb .

James Rocchi interviewed Antoine Fuqua, director of Brooklyn's Finest, a few hours before the film sold to Senator Entertainment. James was cool toward Doug Pray's doc Art & Copy ("essentially, an ad for advertising") but warmed up to Sophie Barthes' Cold Souls, with Paul Giamatti giving "what may be his best performance" as an actor who stores his soul. James also saw a "French-style ... transgendered revenge comedy," and lived to tell about it.

Blog Talk. My favorite quotes of the day, if you have a few more seconds, after the jump.

Cinematical spoke with Brooklyn's Finest director Antoine Fuqua on a sunny Saturday afternoon; within hours, Fuqua's gritty police drama would have sold to Senator Entertainment, the first distribution deal made at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Of course, as Fuqua talked with Cinematical about his exemplary cast, how exactly you make a cops-and-crooks film in the wake of The Wire and the challenges of shooting in New York, the film's sale was in the future. Fuqua also defended the film's controversial final shot, even as he noted he was willing to entertain discussions about changing it; "The whole point of the movie is that they don't have the proper help in the police force, and there's a huge piece in The New York Times about more police killing themselves than dying in the line of duty that just came out a few months ago ... and when you read that, it's so sad and heartbreaking, and you go "You gotta show that. ..."

You can listen to the podcast here at Cinematical by clicking below:



You can also download the interview in full right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.

Hey folks, just a quick heads-up regarding our Sundance coverage. The Cinematical crew (Erik Davis, Scott Weinberg, James Rocchi and Eric D. Snider) are on the ground now in Park City, picking up badges, planning our schedules, searching for parties housing free food, etc ... Over the next 10 days, here's a little taste of what you should expect from our team:

• Reviews -- As always, our expert team of film nuts will bring you a whole bunch of reviews (most of which will be full-length) of films screening here at Sundance. We'll also throw in a few themed dispatches with shorter reviews for multiple flicks.
• Interview Series -- Once again, we'll be bringing you a series of interviews in a variety of formats. We've lined up a series of fantastic audio interviews (with folks like John Krasinski, Paul Giamatti, Patton Oswalt and Antoine Fuqua, among others), and I'll also be running around with a little Flip camera; crashing parties, piecing together on-the-spot interviews with whatever celeb/filmmaker crosses my path.
• Sundance in 60 Seconds -- Every night of the festival, Cinematical's Peter Martin will provide a round-up of not only highlights from our coverage, but also tap into what other people are saying about the fest.
• Sundance Movie Posters, Trailers, Images and Clips -- Look for a whole bunch of Sundance movie posters, images, trailers and clips (some of which are exclusives) to sporadically pop up on the site each day.
• Twitter -- Myself (http://twitter.com/erikdavis), James Rocchi (http://twitter.com/jamesrocchi) and Eric D. Snider (http://twitter.com/ericdsnider) are all on Twitter and will be throwing up short bursts of brilliance throughout the fest. So feel free to follow our daily adventures over there as well.
• Moviefone -- Our main Sundance hub has gone live over at Moviefone, where you'll not only be able to check out all our shenanigans, but also coverage from our cool cousins over at indieWIRE, as well as tons of Sundance photos and more. So bookmark this page for constant Sundance updates.

Other than that, the rest of our crew will remain at home, pumping out non Sundance-related posts keeping you up to date on all the goings-on in the movie world. So dive in, have fun and let us know if you have any questions!

The tale of the battling Pablo Escobar flicks is still going strong, but despite the bad news that Javier Bardem has officially dropped out of Joe Carnahan's Killing Pablo, all is not lost for his true-life crime tale. CHUD recently received an email from the man himself, and Carnahan tells them, "I spent the last week in Colombia with Edgar Ramirez talking 'Pablo' and he has every intention of portraying Escobar and I couldn't be more fired up by the prospect. He's coming at it with boundless enthusiasm, conviction to the role and the understanding that he's going to have to pack on anywhere from 35 to 40lbs." Seems a shame to cover up all that 'handsome', but what can you do?

This is all quite a change from last February, when Collider had reported that Ramirez was the front-runner to star in Antoine Fuqua's version of the life of the drug baron. So, I can only assume that the casting switch won't be helping matters in the ongoing feud between the two projects. The only other cast that we were aware of was Christian Bale signing to play Major Steve Jacoby, but who knows what could happen between now and whenever Carnahan finally starts production.

Carnahan's film is based on Mark Bowden's book, Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw. The story claims to be the true tale of how Escobar was assassinated and his Medellín cocaine cartel was dismantled by US special forces. Of course no good conspiracy theory is complete without a few extra players, so some of the blame was also placed on the Colombian military and a vigilante gang controlled by a competing cartel.

Stay tuned to Cinematical for the official word, and sound off below on Ramirez picking up where Bardem left off...

You know if there were a lot more blood-shed involved in the two competing biopics about drug baron Pablo Escobar; it probably would have tickled him to see two Hollywood filmmakers fight over his life story. But I can't help but wonder what he would think about the casting choices. In an interview with Collider, Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez confirmed that his is the forerunner to play Pablo Escobar in Antoine Fuqua's film, Escobar. Ramirez made his North American debut in the Tony Scott flick, Domino. Luckily he's been landing better roles ever since and next up will be a role in Soderbergh's Che Guevara pic, Guerrilla.

At first, Ramirez played it cool about the Escobar casting and told Collider, "It would be a great challenge and it would be a great responsibility to history-of contemporary history-in my region. We're talking about a character who really definitely changed the face of a whole country and the face of a whole region, and a character filled with contractions....so it would be quite a challenge and something very interesting to get involved with." But, off the record, Ramirez commented that it was almost a done deal that he would star as one of the leaders of the Medellin Cartel.

By now we are probably all aware of the 'feud' between the two films surrounding the life of Pablo Escobar. So while Joe Carnahan has been pretty vocal about his disapproval, we haven't heard much from Fuqua's camp. Maybe he just thought it was best to let the films speak for themselves. If Ramirez has landed the role, then it would certainly look like Escobar is going to be the first film to cross the finish line. Escobar is scheduled to hit theaters in fall 2009.

In the ongoing battle of Pablo Escobar biopics, I think Smokin' Joe Carnahan finally has managed to one-up Oliver Stone in the war between the two (possibly three) Pablo Escobar films currently in development. Carnahan recently updated his personal blog with news that he had received a letter from Juan Pablo Escobar, the only son of the infamous drug baron. It would appear that Carnahan has managed to impress the family member, since according to Joe, "He offered me unlimited access to his family's history, including photos, films, letters and the like". Carnahan's film is based on the book by Mark Bowden, and focuses on the "cocaine cartel dismantled by US Special Forces and intelligence, the Colombian military, and a vigilante gang controlled by the Cali cartel".

The whole thing started back in October when news of Stone's film first began to hit, and that they were aiming for a pre-strike production date (which as we all know never materialized, but it probably did nothing to help the bad blood between the productions).Considering that Carnahan wasn't exactly happy with having to compete with Oliver Stone and Antoine Fuqua's Escobar, getting the seal of approval from Escobar's only heir could be what Carnahan needs to trump Stone's project; which is based on the book written by Pablo's brother, called Mi Hermano Pablo. Carnahan has been struggling for years to get his Escobar flick into production so you can see where he is coming from when he shouted "no fair" when multiple projects were being rushed into production. Carnahan has already scored Javier Bardem (though Bardem may bow out because of scheduling conflicts) and Christian Bale for his film which automatically gives it another advantage over the yet-to-be-cast Escobar. Killing Pablo is set for release in 2009 ... if Joe ever gets around to filming it.

[via Filmstalker]