FrankLangella Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Richard Matheson's original short story, "Button, Button," was a nifty little morality tale about a couple faced with a peculiar opportunity -- if they push a button in a box, they'll get a sum of money but kill a stranger in doing so. That version of the story ended with the wife pushing the button and killing her husband, a man she didn't really know. As an episode of "The Twilight Zone" in 1986, the story ended with the couple paid off and assured that the device would then go to another couple to whom they qualify as strangers. Now, Richard Kelly's The Box takes that same basic premise and spins it into a mind-bender of the most baffling degree, starting out as another "Twilight Zone"-worthy variant but eventually reaching the outer limits of both patience and reason.

Oliver Stone's sequel to his classic '80s tale of slick, money-hungry stockbrokers, Wall Street, is racking up quite the cast. Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps already has Shia LaBeouf, Susan Sarandon, Frank Langella, Michael Douglas, and arthouse It Girl Carey Mulligan (An Education) signed up for a 21st century take on greed on whether or not it's good (answer: probs not). But the big rumor all summer has been that Josh Brolin will take over the role of the villain after Javier Bardem turned down the role.

Well, as our buddies over at the esteemed website The Playlist point out, in this weekend's New York Times Oliver Stone casually confirms the rumors that Josh Brolin will indeed be playing the villain, and Charlie Sheen will be popping up in a cameo as his character from the original, Bud Fox.

Now that the real Wall Street and its counterparts around the world have felt the collective shudder of the past year's financial implosion, Stone is hoping to show some hope for redemption for Gekko.

"In his first run at Wall Street, Mr. Stone produced characters and a portrayal that lived longer than he ever expected and with unintended consequences. But he never would have made a second version if it didn't appear that the system, and high finance, had finally been brought to its knees.

'We wouldn't have done this movie in 2006,' he said. "'Things were too loose. I didn't want to glorify pigs.'"

Sometimes the unlikeliest movies attract the strongest casts. Is it the coincidence of schedules, the attraction of a high-quality director, or a dynamite script? Maybe it's all three in the case of Oliver Stone's Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, which is drawing quality actors like the proverbial flies to honey.

A couple of months ago, we heard that Javier Bardem was the top pick for the role of a villainous hedge fund manager. Now Variety says that Josh Brolin is "reportedly circling a part," though it doesn't specify which one, and other rumors are circulating that actress Carey Mulligan (An Education) may be up for the role of Winnie, the estranged daughter of Gordon Gecko (Michael Douglas, reprising his role). Variety also reports that Frank Langella is "in talks" to play the old-time broker / mentor to up-and-coming trader Shia LaBeouf, whose character is engaged to Gecko's daughter. The latter bit of news sounds more solid than the other casting rumors.

Douglas won an Academy Award for the original Wall Street, and Langella was nominated for last year's Frost/Nixon, so the caliber of the cast is definitely trending upwards -- I'd love to see those two argue with each other! Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps is already a strong contender for the unofficial title of "Best Cast of 2010," and if they keep adding high-quality actors, it won't even be a contest. Of course, the quality of the film itself depends on the well-modulated execution of a good script, and that remains to be seen.

Tempted though I may be to do so, I won't take credit for Warners' moving up the release of Richard Kelly's hopefully good The Box after I blathered on about it for too long and then some last month. According to BOM, the thriller is now scheduled to open on October 30th and just opposite Saw VI -- and between us, if it was between either the fifth Saw sequel or a title with both Richard Kelly and Richard Matheson's names on it, my moviegoing dollar would surely find its way to the latter.

Going instead into the newly vacated 11/25 slot is the Wachowski-produced Ninja Assassin, helmed by James McTeigue (V for Vendetta, the third act of The Invasion) and starring that guy Stephen Colbert hates so much. Not much has come of that film beyond a "we're making it!" press conference -- no trailer, no poster, no nuthin' -- but the film has been formally rated R for "strong bloody stylized violence throughout, and language," which suggests that the film is completed.

And when you have a completed film on your hands, you generally release it. (And then this'll be the part where the "More You Know" star will shoot overhead...)

Last month, I weighed aloud the notion of relocating oft-delayed con man crime caper The Brothers Bloom just one more time, to somewhere out from under the shadows of many May blockbusters. Summit's reaction to that piece was prompt yet delicate -- they merely blackmailed Universal into moving Bruno away from Bloom's NY/LA bow.

This time around, my latest open letter to futility is being CC'ed to Warner Bros., as my concern now lies with the latest move of Richard Kelly's bumped-and-then-some thriller, The Box, starring Cameron Diaz and James Marsden as a couple forced to weigh the cost of one life against a chance at considerable wealth. (In other words, they get to slip into the shoes of Hollywood executives.)

Ladies and gentlemen, may I now present you with the most horrific rumor of the day -- that, according to those super sleuths over at In Touch magazine, Johnny Depp's name is at the top of the list to star in a new Three Stooges film directed by The Farrelly Brothers. And if that's not asinine enough for you, they also note that Sean Penn could join him. Yup. An "insider" says, "They want Johnny to play Moe and Sean Penn will be Larry -- they're still looking to cast Curly." OH, I have an idea for Curly -- how about Frank Langella ... while we're being absurd and unrealistic here.

I can't imagine there being any truth to this rumor -- although stranger things have happened, and Depp certainly knows how to play up the kooky, doofus roles (see: Pirates of the Caribbean). But Sean Penn? I'm sure he'd rather stab himself through the brain with a shotgun smeared in elephant dung ... unless he'd be doing this one "for his kids." This does bring up a good question for you folks, though: Who do you cast in the iconic roles of Moe, Larry and Curly in a 2009 Three Stooges flick? The easy answer, of course, is no one (as in leave the Three Stooges alone), but since they're obviously keen on bringing these characters back to the big screen, who could you see starring?

[via JustJared]

"You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore ..."
-- Richard Nixon, on his 1962 loss to Pat Brown for the Governorship of California

That statement turned out, of course, not to be true; we would have Nixon to kick around for decades more. That statement also concealed a different truth, which is that Nixon -- the hunched, scowling, puritan-satyr of American politics -- could not only take a beating, but also dish one out. Frost/Nixon, Ron Howard's film adaptation of Peter Morgan's stage play, kicks Nixon around, but it also lets him kick back, as TV personality (not journalist or reporter, but personality) David Frost faces Nixon in a series of 1977 interviews for an ambitious, expensive and poorly-planned multi-night TV broadcast. Why would Nixon agree to an on-camera inquisition? Because Frost paid him -- $600,000 -- for the chance to do so, and because Nixon thought it might be a chance to re-emerge from his exile after resigning the presidency in 1974. Two men, their careers in decline, circling each other for a shot at redemption: Frost (Michael Sheen) is wagering his fortune on the chance to re-make his reputation; Nixon (Frank Langella), with neither reputation or fortune, is desperate for a chance to escape infamy.

But Frost/Nixon is not simply the equivalent of Thunderdome for readers of The Nation, where two men enter and one man leaves. Morgan's script is smart enough to make sure there are things hidden under that clash, a quieter film about character and communication, modern media and ancient principles. And we also get the interview field of combat, which drapes the slick surface of modern manners over the kind of brute, bloody battle you normally see only in nature documentaries. The film, like Frost's interviews, is not merely about Watergate -- which is good, because we have, I should think, drained that well of venality fairly dry -- but instead about bigger issues of accountability and process and principle. Frost, stripped of all pretense, was asking Nixon a good question: Who the hell do you think you are? Nixon, stripped of all pretense, was asking an equally good question: Who the hell are you to ask?

Oy vey: after shifting more dates than an old lady working in the produce section, it appears that Richard Kelly's thriller The Box has been bumped once more, from next March to next November. Usually, this would be a bad thing, but I'm still seriously intrigued by this adaptation of Richard Matheson's short story, in which a young couple (James Marsden and Cameron Diaz) are given a mysterious box that can make them wealthy, but at the cost of killing a stranger the moment they use it.

The film is completed enough to merit a PG-13 from our pals over at the MPAA (for "thematic elements, some violence and disturbing images"), so it's not post-production woes holding the film up. One suspects this is a much less sprawling film than his Southland Tales, which we'll come back to soon enough. Is it part of WB's strategy to spread out product as the strike catches up to them, as they had by moving Harry Potter from this week to next summer?

Man, if I could just kill a stranger to get some answers...

We've got two portrayals of U.S. Presidents vying for Oscars this year: Josh Brolin as W in W. and Frank Langella as Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon. I've yet to see either one, though I did see Langella in the Broadway play, which I hear the movie faithfully replicates. On the eve of W.'s release, it seemed like a good time to get a discussion going on Best Screen Presidents, real or fictional. Here's my list, which is surely missing some obvious choices -- but that's part of the fun.

1. President Jackson Evans (Jeff Bridges) - The Contender
For the past couple of elections, pollsters have asked people which of the two presidential candidates they would rather "have a beer with." Inevitably it is pointed out that the person you would rather have a beer with is frequently not the person you would want to run the country. Jeff Bridges's President Jackson Evans, though, wins at life: he's the guy I'd want to have a beer with, and the guy I'd want running the country. Seriously, I would vote for Jackson Evans over either John McCain or Barack Obama. He's charming, and funny, and a bit of a jerk when called for, but he stands up for what's right and gives the best Rod Lurie Speech to date. My favorite movie president -- though for the record, I think The Contender is only pretty good.

Okay, so the Monsters vs. Aliens and My Life in Ruins trailers may have been leaked and subsequently pulled earlier this week, as was the case with certain awards contender Frost/Nixon, but now we can offer up the trailer straight-up, fully legit, by way of Yahoo! Movies.

The incongruous song selections aside (honestly, though: going from "Baba O'Riley" for the sake of nostalgia to Clint Mansell's wondrous score from The Fountain for the sake of drama in a matter of minutes just distracts me), I have little reason to think that this won't deliver on its considerable stage pedigree.

Frank Langella won a Tony Award for his portrayal of disgraced prez Richard Nixon, and as British talk show host David Frost, Michael Sheen looks to tap into that same sense of dignity under pressure that served him so well as Tony Blair in The Queen. It doesn't hurt that both political dramas share the same writer, and it also doesn't hurt that this looks to be the punchiest thing that Ron Howard has directed in quite some time.

Landing smack-dab in the middle of the Oscar drama blitz, Frost/Nixon should open in select cities on December 5th and will expand through Christmas.