CliveOwen Tagged Articles at Cinematical
David Schwimmer Gets Dark with Clive Owen and Catherine Keener
Filed under: Drama », Casting », Deals », Scripts »
Who would ever thought that David Schwimmer would helm some drama? Between acting gigs like Friends, helming 10 episodes of the hit show, directing Run Fatboy Run, and even picking up 6 episodes of Little Britain USA, he seemed to be completely focused on comedy. Yet now Variety reports that he will direct Clive Owen and Catherine Keener in a new "dark drama" called Trust.Schwimmer created the story, which Andy Bellin wrote, and it focuses on the effects an online sexual predator has on a family. But it won't be Owen going back to his creepy Closer ways. Owen and Keener will play the parents of a 14-year-old girl who fell victim to an adult posing as a teenager in a chat room. The young Liana Liberato will play the daughter. There's no word on who the predator will be, but consider the lack of sex pronouns, I've got to wonder if it's a woman, or someone we never see.
Shooting will begin really soon -- next month in Michigan. And then we'll see what a dramatic David Schwimmer world is like. What do you think? Are you intrigued by the thought of Ross, online predators, and Clive Owen with Catherine Keener? Is this a new era -o- Schwimmer?
TIFF Review: The Boys Are Back
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Theatrical Reviews », Festival Reports », Toronto International Film Festival »
After the last few years, we've grown quite accustomed to Clive Owen as the headlining, slick star, whether that be chowing down carrots and shooting people up, living black and white and dangerous as Dwight, or dealing with a world that no longer has children. What's easy to forget in all of his fame, however, is that the man has more than an irresistible delivery and on-screen charm. He's an actor with subtlety, one whose very presence can change. In films like Closer, that meant a fresh layer of smarminess and sleaze. In The Boys Are Back, it means showing the familial heart underneath the macho exterior.
Based on Simon Carr's novel, Owen stars as Joe Warr – a sports reporter in Australia who is the classic father figure, the loving but slightly absent provider. But when his wife suddenly falls ill and passes away, Joe is forced to take on a new role as the sole parental figure. He still must provide security, but now that means a lot more than just money. He is the caretaker to his young son Artie (Nicholas McAnulty), and must not only provide for him, but also help the young boy deal with the loss of his mother, and give the boy the emotional comfort he needs to heal.
Review: Duplicity
Filed under: Action », Comedy », Thrillers », Mystery & Suspense »
For someone who made his name in Hollywood as a crackerjack screenwriter, Tony Gilroy seems, with Duplicity, far more adept with the camera than the written word. With his directorial follow-up to Michael Clayton, Gilroy returns to the world of corporate espionage, though this time he plays his spy-thriller material for fun, his characters' use of champagne corks to send secret signals proving apt for a film aimed at delivering fizzy thrills.
For all its intricate plot machinations, however, there's little here that hasn't been done before, and better, by the likes of David Mamet and even Steven Soderbergh, whose Ocean's Eleven capers are clearly an inspiration for Gilroy's jazzy-cool approach. Stylish to the hilt, it's a saga coated in sumptuously sleek hues that are in tune with the story's zippy verbal interplay. Yet for all its razzle-dazzle aesthetic flair, there's not much going on beneath the striking surface, as the writer/director's tale is an unnecessarily knotty one, masking its shallowness of theme and characterization with narrative loop-de-loops that, by the third act, are revealed to be insufficient window dressing for a rather pedestrian, hollow cat-and-mouse contest.
What I Learned: Joaquin Phoenix's Pickup Technique, Museum Dangers
Filed under: Drama », Thrillers », New Releases », Magnolia », Sony », Movie Marketing »
Movies can be very educational, especially if you look beyond the obvious marketing messages that are used to sell them. This past Friday, for example, James Gray's romantic drama Two Lovers was sold as "the movie where you can see what Joaquin Phoenix looks like without a bushy beard and a Grizzly Adams haircut" -- that's why he appeared on David Letterman, right? Tom Tykwer's The International was advertised as a "the movie where you can learn what the banks are really doing with your money." But both of these advertising campaigns obscured the educational possibilities of the films.
Two Lovers. This quiet character study follows the emotionally-wounded Joaquin Phoenix and his relationships with the beautiful Gwyneth Paltrow and the beautiful Vinessa Shaw. Single folks might be surprised at Phoenix's incredibly successful pickup technique. What I learned: He does nothing. Abso-frickin'-lutely nothing. His parents invite Shaw and her parents to dinner, and then she confesses to an interest in him. (Bear in mind that he attempted suicide, like, an hour before.) Shortly thereafter, he meets Paltrow, a new neighbor, in the hallway outside his parents' apartment. Whammo! He's juggling two relationships.
The International. The intended lesson to be learned from Tom Tykwer's tepid thriller is that bank debt is evil and makes CEOs do wicked things. (And here I thought it was simple greed and ignorance.) What I learned: Museums are dangerous. Stay out of the Guggenheim! That place is a shooting gallery. If you carry that thought through to its logical conclusion, then what the movie is really saying is that art and culture aren't good for you. Which ties in to its theme that corporations have taken over the world and there's nothing you can do about it. Unless you're Clive Owen with a three-day beard.
Review: The International
Filed under: Action », Thrillers », Sony », Theatrical Reviews »
It never fails to impress me, the number of indie filmmakers who come around to crank out big-budget affairs within years of landing on the Hollywood scene. Striking while the iron's hot is one thing, but if you popped up after I pushed stop on a VHS copy of Swingers and told me that same director would also be responsible for not just one, but two high-gloss spy thrillers (The Bourne Identity and Mr. and Mrs. Smith), I'd probably be more than a little skeptical (not to mention concerned as to who you were and what you were doing there). Similarly, if you stopped me immediately after viewing Following or Memento and insisted that this very same lot would soon reboot the Batman franchise to record-breaking success, I'd probably grin politely and begin to eye my exits.
My point is, it's been very close to a decade since director Tom Tykwer made a distinct impression with the fast life and loud sounds of his calling card, Run Lola Run, and to see him helming a Clive Owen-Naomi Watts espionage thriller like The International proves that much more unique when one considers how admirably straight-forward and strait-laced the end result is in comparison, to both his own work and that of others.
Sundance Interview: Paul Giamatti, Star of 'Cold Souls'
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Independent », Sundance », Podcasts », Interviews »
Playing himself -- or, rather, a kind-of version of himself who volunteers to have his soul removed -- in this year's Sundance Dramatic Competition entry Cold Souls (see our review here), Paul Giamatti faced some fairly unique challenges: "I kind of forgot that I was playing myself in this ... I kind of felt that (director Sophie Bart) captured, in a funny way, an archetypal type of neurotic New York self-involved actor ... I kinda forgot I was playing myself; and I don't mean that to sound disingenuous about it, but I really did. ..." Giamatti spoke with Cinematical about how much he enjoyed Shoot 'Em Up, tapping into Russian melancholy for Cold Souls through facial hair and headgear and which midnight zombie film he'd most like to catch while in Park City. ...
You can listen to the podcast here at Cinematical by clicking below:
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Discuss: The Action Flicks of 2009
Filed under: Action », Comedy », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Thrillers », Mystery & Suspense », Disney », Paramount », Sony », Universal », Warner Brothers », Fandom », 20th Century Fox », The Weinstein Co. », Quentin Tarantino », Johnny Depp », Harry Potter », Comic/Superhero/Geek », Remakes and Sequels »
So Erik-with-a-k covered the coming comedies of 2009, Scott was all over the horror picks (though his inclusion of Race to Witch Mountain still boggles my mind), Eric-with-a-c nabbed the family-friendly fare, and Elisabeth went over the geek fodder that awaits. But while I respect their calendar years and made-up math alike, I've opted to divide my list of 2009's action and adventure flicks into four categories: Action Flicks I Couldn't Care More About, Action Flicks I Couldn't Care Less About, Action Flicks That I Hope Surprise Me, and Those Which Fell In Between. Enjoy!Action Flicks I Couldn't Care More About: First and foremost -- Watchmen (March 6th). It's one hell of a graphic novel and looks to be one hell of an adaptation (with or without the Giant Blank), but the only problem is it may not hit theaters on time if 20th Century Fox has anything to say about it. Both Fox and Warner Brothers are fighting over who actually owns the rights, and if a judge favors Fox comes January 20th (when the court date is set), we're looking at a delayed release and a whole ton of angry fans. Then there's Public Enemies (July 1st), which has me sold on not the subject matter, but sheer pedigree: Michael Mann directs Johnny Depp and Christian Bale as '30s gangsters. (It doesn't hurt that the earliest word ranges from damn good to great.) On the skimpier side, I can only hope that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (July 17th) streamlines its source material as the previous one had, and I can only hope that Crank 2: High Voltage (April 17th) lives up/down to the depravity of its predecessor. There's one last action movie that I couldn't care more about because, well, I've already seen a version of it. The international cut of Taken (January 30th, though reportedly opening with some R-dodging trims) is about as brisk and butt-kicking as one might hope out of a man-on-a-mission kidnapping thriller, and if you disagree, I'll send Liam Neeson to change your mind.
Clive Owen Gets Busy with Colombian Drug Cartels
Filed under: Action », Drama », Casting », Scripts »
Colombia's dangerous drug cartels are skeee-rewed! The Hollywood Reporter posts that Clive Owen is teaming up with Mark Cuban and heading to Colombia to take on drug cartels in Cartagena.Turistas scribe Michael Ross is attached to write the screenplay, which focuses on an undercover agent who is embroiled in "a complex plot and must elude drug dealers and international agents if he hopes to survive." Okay, so maybe the cartels aren't screwed if Owen is running from them, but I don't think Clive will have any problem surviving these guys. If he does, they just have to give him a bunch of carrots and a baby to watch out for.
I'm sure this will be entertaining, but it's about time that Mr. Owen got that epic role -- the Indy/McClane/etc sort of blockbuster that gives him an iconic figure that's all his. He's certainly earned it by now. And no, I don't count Sin City. He's a great Dwight, he's only one of many black and white guys and gals in that one.
Julia Roberts & Clive Owen Sneak and Spy in 'Duplicity' Trailer
Filed under: Romance », Mystery & Suspense », Universal », Trailers and Clips »
Reuniting after 2004's Closer, it appears that stars Julia Roberts and Clive Owen, along with Bourne writer Tony Gilroy, are all out to have a bit more fun with Duplicity; the trailer just went up over at Apple.If anything, it comes off as more of a zippy heist film of sorts than the thriller I took it to be from the earliest synopsis on, even though corporate espionage remains the name of the game. Then again, maybe we're overdue for another Thomas Crown Affair-like outing, and between the cast (which also includes Tom Wilkinson, who was in Gilroy's Michael Clayton, and Paul Giamatti, who shared the screen with Clive in Shoot 'Em Up) and the crew, I'm pretty much sold.
(If Billy Bob Thornton is still in this, though, as Monika reported last January, he sure isn't showing up here, and IMDb remains mum.)
Duplicity opens on March 20th of next year -- about a month after Clive's bang-ier espionage efforts in The International.
The Geek Beat: Is it the Time of the Preacher?
Filed under: Fandom », Comic/Superhero/Geek », The Geek Beat »
Well well, Reverend Jesse Custer. It looks like you might make it to the big screen after all. It's hard to get too optimistic, seeing as you've had directors, producers, and HBO dancing around you for years. In fact, no one I've talked to offline had heard of your new movie deal the way they'd heard about Tony Stark's – and when I told them that it really seemed to be happening this time, no one could muster up much enthusiasm. We're a beaten down congregation, Reverend. It will take some writers or some casting announcements to get us excited – and we may always wish you'd ended up at HBO.
I don't think you're impossible to adapt; you take a lot of digressions that I'm perfectly comfortable never seeing on screen. Your first major adventure versus Si the serial killer, for instance -- then again, without it, your horrible grandma doesn't come into play. Hmmm. Any chance Columbia's thinking about giving you a trilogy? Because not only could you digress into serial killers and hedonistic Hollywood parties to your heart's content, but it would be one heck of a franchise, and might give us The Saint of All Killers' spin-off we all want. (Can you convince them to animate it? Can you use the Word to get Clint Eastwood to narrate?)
I don't think you're impossible to adapt; you take a lot of digressions that I'm perfectly comfortable never seeing on screen. Your first major adventure versus Si the serial killer, for instance -- then again, without it, your horrible grandma doesn't come into play. Hmmm. Any chance Columbia's thinking about giving you a trilogy? Because not only could you digress into serial killers and hedonistic Hollywood parties to your heart's content, but it would be one heck of a franchise, and might give us The Saint of All Killers' spin-off we all want. (Can you convince them to animate it? Can you use the Word to get Clint Eastwood to narrate?)
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