Bart Freundlich Tagged Articles at Cinematical

You know that man who is playing Howie 'The Captain' Archibald, Nate's dad, in Gossip Girl? It's Sam Robards, the son of Jason Robards and Lauren Bacall, the godson of Katharine Hepburn. And now The Hollywood Reporter posts that he has nabbed the spot of Catherine Zeta-Jones' ex. Robards will play her ex-husband in the upcoming romcom The Rebound, which is coming to us from Bart Freundlich.

This is the story of a woman who becomes a divorced, single mom in New York City. With the world of men at her fingertips, she turns her gaze next door, to her much younger 25-year-old neighbor (played by Justin Bartha), and begins to rebound. THR says that "Robards' character is shocked to discover that his ex is romantically involved with a younger man." As would anyone ... I wonder if young men hold the key to Catherine's heart, of it if makes her bounce right back to Robards?

In the meantime, if you're a fan of the actor, you can check him out on Broadway this summer. He's replacing Charles Edwards in 39 Steps.

He got the honor of acting in the super-successful, critically acclaimed, award-winning Gigli. (I kid.) Then he got to sink his cinematic teeth into two helpings of National Treasure, and one Failure to Launch. Now Justin Bartha is getting to play the young boyfriend of the one and only Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Variety reports that the actor has signed on to star with Zeta-Jones in The Rebound -- a romantic comedy currently filming in New York City that I first posted about last month when the actress signed on. The film stars Zeta-Jones as a mom in Manhattan who starts to date her neighbor (Bartha), a 25-year-old young man. As I noted then, this seems to be project close to writer/director Bart Freundlich's heart. He just so happens to be Julianne Moore's 9-years-younger husband. Funny enough, that is also the age difference between Bartha and Zeta-Jones, who then, in turn, is 25 years younger than her real-life man, Michael Douglas. It's age gaps all around!

This will mark Freundlich's first written/directed feature without Moore, who has acted in his three other features -- The Myth of Fingerprints, World Traveler, and Trust the Man. How he fares with Zeta-Jones, we'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, both Catherine and Justin have other films on the way, like her Death Defying Acts and his Shoe at Your Foot.

A bit of Catherine Zeta-Jones' reality is headed to the big-screen, but flipped. As we all know, she's married to Michael Douglas, who is 25* years her senior (exactly, since they were born on the same day). Now The Hollywood Reporter posts that she will star in a new May-December romantic comedy that Bart Freundlich is directing. Freundlich is a director (Trust the Man), but is probably better known for being the husband of actress Julianne Moore.

The romcom doesn't have a title yet, but it will star Zeta-Jones as "a single New York City mom who captures the eye of her new neighbor, a 25-year-old man." Yes, she's getting a taste of Maude, but with a more respectable age difference. This is also a mirror, of sorts, for Freundlich, who is 9 years younger than Moore. Man, it's May-December all around!

Production is scheduled to begin next month on the 17th, but they haven't finalized a male lead yet. Hmm... What 25-year-old would be well-cast as Catherine's paramour? Maybe Robert Buckley? He's already dealing with this whole theme on Lipstick Jungle.

*Math corrected...

Is it possible to completely loathe the premise on which a film is based, while still kind of enjoying watching it? It must be, because that's pretty much where I stand on Bart Freundlich's Trust the Man, starring Freundlich's wife, Julianne Moore, Maggie Gyllenhaal (in her third prominent role this year -- don't miss her in Sherrybaby, which opens next month), and real-life best friends David Duchovny and Billy Crudup (who also pal around with Freundlich and Moore, which left Gyllenhaal the new kid in the cast -- an awkward situation Moore quickly remedied by telling her, "We're all assholes").

The chemistry among the cast is great; the film feels, for the most part, like you're watching a group of old friends going through life crises together. The plot, in a nutshell: Rebecca (Moore) is a famous actress who has just taken on a stage play; her husband, Tom (Duchovny) is an ex-ad exec who recently quit his soulless job to stay home with the couple's two young kids. Rebecca and Tom are having sex issues: Specifically, Tom wants more of it ("Twice a day," Rebecca mouths to the couples' therapist (Garry Shandling) during their once-yearly therapy tuneup) and Rebecca doesn't.

A few weeks ago (early on a Saturday morning, to be precise -- what's that about?), Fox Searchlight brought together five rooms full of journalists and the stars and writer-director of Trust the Man for a few hours of friendly grilling about the film, which opens this Friday (Kim's review will go up soon). Each star -- David Duchovny, Julianne Moore, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Billy Crudup -- as well as writer-director Bart Freundlich (AKA Mr. Julianne Moore) came into the rooms separately, and spent about 20 minutes taking questions. What follows are the five most thrilling tidbits from each person's stint in my room.

Julianne Moore

• Is really, really, really tiny. Like, porcelain doll tiny.
  
• Likes to be left alone on movie sets; working with her husband makes that easy because he knows not to bug her when she's busy trying to act.
• The thing in the movie about the retainer in bed? Straight out of the Moore-Freundlich bedroom. Yes, Julianne Moore sleeps with a retainer -- even she isn't perfect.
  
• Their kids (four and eight) get to travel with them to cool locations when possible, but haven't seen any of her movies. Which is good, because everything Jurassic Park is way too scary for anybody younger than, like, 25.
• When Gyllenhaal was nervous about the rest of the cast being so close, Moore said "Don't worry. Everybody's an asshole." And then everything was fine.