Cate Blanchett Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Not many movie-going summers have had the good sense or fortune to formally kick themselves off with the likes of Hugh Jackman and his razor-sharp jazz hands, but as these are the times in which we live in, it's a clear indication that we're in for about eighteen weeks of spectacular spectaculars worth gulping down popcorn and guzzling down pop* with.

Eugene's already shone the spotlight on a fair amount of smaller titles worth your while, so our staff tried to keep the focus on that which we haven't seen, those spectacles for which we're most excited and least likely to text during. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls: sit down and shut up, because these are the seven movies that we're fairly f**kin' pumped for.

(*Okay, I pretty much never call soda that, but you get the idea.)

Ridley Scott's Robin Hood has added so many people that we've actually fallen a bit behind in reporting them all. Shortly after Cate Blanchett came aboard as Maid Marian, the film added Mark Strong as Sir Godfrey, Alan Doyle as Alan-a-Dale, Scott Grimes as Will Scarlet, Kevin Durand as Little John, and Bronsen Webb as someone named Jimoen.

Deserving its own mention is my favorite casting (so far) -- Vanessa Redgrave as Eleanor of Aquitaine. I think she's possibly the only actress who can be as formidable in Eleanor's crown as Katharine Hepburn.

Now, The Hollywood Reporter says that William Hurt is joining up as William Marshall (or Marshal if you keep the historic spelling), a man described as "the greatest knight who ever lived" by his contemporary, Stephen Langton. He rose from obscurity to become a knight, who made his living in jousting tournaments a'la The Knight's Tale. He joined the court of Henry II and subsequently served the three following Plantagenets, including King Richard I, and his brother, King John. When he died, he was one of the most powerful men in Europe, and was known simply as "the Marshal."

You ever get the feeling that a film is going to have a rocky road in front of it, no matter what? This certainly seems to be the case with Ridley Scott's Nottingham. Call me an optimist, because I still have faith that Nottingham (or whatever it decides to call itself) has a shot at being one heck of a flick. Things first started to look up when it was rumored that Cate Blanchett would be taking over the role of Maid Marian, and today Variety has confirmed that the Aussie actress has officially signed on. Speaking as someone who puts Blanchett alongside Meryl Steep as one of the coolest chicks working today, I'm thrilled that Crowe is getting a co-star that can hold her own.

But that's not all, because Scott and company finally decided to open up, and new story details have been revealed. The original script was written by Kung Fu Panda's, Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris, but Brian Helgeland was later brought in for a rewrite. According to Variety, "Crowe plays Robin of Loxley in an original story that hews close to historical facts of the period. Abandoned as a child, he finds community with the common people of Nottingham. Robin's abandonment and trust issues hamper his ability to fall in love. He meets his match in Marian, a strong, independent woman." The film is now being pitched as Gladiator meets Robin Hood -- I guess Crowe and Scott figured the formula worked well enough the first time, so why not capitalize on some of that 'Maximus magic'?

So now that we have a brand new Maid Marian and a look at what is in store for Crowe's man of the people, who's with me when I say that it's about time we give Scott's re-boot a fair shake?

The mystery of Ridley Scott's Nottingham is now over. Scott announced that his "revisionist" take on the Robin Hood legend has been scrapped, right down to the title, and will now have Russell Crowe in the role of the titular archer. Why mess with hundreds of years of legend, after all?

"[Robin Hood] is a bowman in the army of Richard Coeur de Lion. [Crowe as both Robin and the Sheriff of Nottingham] was an idea so far back, way back when at the time I had this proposed to me, and I read it and thought, 'I don't really know what it does for it, but it's alright'," Scott told MTV News. "It is better to simply have the evolution of a character called Robin Hood, who will come out of a point in the Crusades which is the end."

However, there is a slight shift in who the villain will be. While the Sheriff of Nottingham will play a part, Scott is returning Robin Hood to his cultural roots as an Anglo-Saxon pitted against villainous Norman invaders. "It is from France. It is the French. The villain is much bigger in that sense; much more important, and much more dangerous."

Filming begins in two months, and while Scott didn't confirm Cate Blanchett as Maid Marian, he dismissed the persistent rumors that Crowe's physical fitness was a problem. "Oh that is silly. All that stuff is bullsh-t. He is going to be totally fit. That is not a problem at all. And he's been working on his bow and arrow for about 4 months. He sends me tapes of him hitting targets at about 45 meters. He's pretty good!"

As a medievalist at heart, I'm rather excited to see a traditional version that can erase all memory of a certain prince of thieves -- and Crowe and Scott are at their best when they go quasi-historical. Can't wait.

Does it make me a bad person that I couldn't have been happier when Sienna Miller and Nottingham decided to go their separate ways? Nothing personal, but I wasn't envisioning Miller fairing too well up against a dramatic heavy like Russell Crowe. Luckily, for those of out there who still think that Nottingham has a chance of being a darn good flick, there is a light on the horizon and her name is Cate Blanchett. During an event for the London Film Critics' Circle Awards, newly arrived Nottingham cast member, Mark Strong told the UK Telegraph, "I think Cate Blanchett is set to take the Maid Marian part," Strong went on to sing the praises of the Aussie actress and told the Telegraph, "She is a wonderful actress and it would make it a much classier film if she was in it." -- Amen to that brother.

For those of you who haven't been following the travails of Scott's Robin Hood update, here is a quick little primer: First up were those bogus script reports that made Crowe's choice of dual roles sound like a bad episode of The Bobbsey Twins. But the hits kept coming, and next up was a shutdown on the set, unflattering stories that Crowe and Scott were at each other's throat, and finally Sienna Miller got the old heave-ho thanks to Crowe's so-called "gross" appearance, or her bad acting (depending on who you believe) -- not exactly the kind of anecdotes you want to end up on the DVD commentary.

From barely-noticed blips in Hot Fuzz, to stunning elves, to time as Elizabeth I, Cate Blanchett has proven that she can do pretty much anything. And now she's itching to stretch the boundaries even further. In a discussion with MTV, the actress revealed that she has a new pet project that she'd like to star in called Cancer Vixen.

Sound a bit out of the norm? The project is based on Marisa Acocella's graphic novel about her fight with breast cancer in 2004-2005 -- a fight she happened to win without health insurance. While that doesn't say too much about the tone of the project, the following should clear it up a bit. In the animated short on the graphic novel's website, the vixen says: "Cancer, I am gonna kick your butt, and I'm gonna do it in killer, 5-inch heels." So basically, we're talking Carrie Bradshaw taking on Samantha's cancer fight.

Luckily, it doesn't sound like merely cancer and heels for the fashion-crazed Sex and the City fans. Blanchett is currently "developing it slowly and carefully," looking for a filmmaker who can handle the balance of tragedy and comedy.

Any thoughts on who should take the reins?

I saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button weeks ago, and yet every time I tried to think about it -- whether it was to contemplate a decision in David Fincher's direction, a deviation from F. Scott Fitzgerald's story, a moment in Eric Roth's script or a note in the performances of Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett -- I would soon find myself, invariably, distracted from the large-scale visions and moments of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and instead contemplating the smaller-scale moments of my own life. This was at best annoying; what did it say about the film that I couldn't hold it in my attention? What did it say about my attention that I couldn't even focus it on a film? But Zen gives us the parable of the master who points to the moon, and the student who looks at the master's finger. Fincher, Roth, Pitt and Blanchett have all, in their way, made a film of true sincerity and (ironically enough in light of its technical achievements) real simplicity; resting your gaze on the film, without directing it onto the things it encourages you to look at, seems like staring at the pointing finger.

Fitzgerald's tale is a brief fantasia, the story of Benjamin Button, a man who, born old, ages backward; at the same time, the slenderest books often become the best films, the lush drapery of moviemaking lending their slight grace weight, the stark simplicity of the plot a place for a director's vision to find purchase and grow. Within moments -- as an old woman lies dying in a modern New Orleans hospital, slate-gray rain battering the windows, her daughter (Julia Ormond) paging through her diaries and scrapbooks as the old woman fades in and out of consciousness, flickering between past memory and present reality -- we know we're not in the world established in Fitzgerald's 1922 short story. The woman's diaries are not just hers, and as the daughter reads, we learn about the birth and exile of Benjamin Button, born old in New Orleans in 1918 just after the Great War. ...

(from left to right) Sean Gullette in Pi, Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream, Hugh Jackman in The Fountain, and Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler

I had been writing a rambling introduction to this piece, but to make a long anecdote short, I decided to re-watch the works of writer-director Darren Aronofsky prior to seeing his new film, The Wrestler. Out of more happenstance than planning, I began his first film exactly a day to the minute before this one would end, and now I offer up my thoughts on his career to date. (Who knows what more could come following this: 24 Hours of Fincher? 36 Hours of Boyle? My Dinner with Andre Benjamin's Idlewild?)