HaleyJoelOsment Tagged Articles at Cinematical

We hadn't heard from child star extraordinaire Haley Joel Osment for a while -- at least not in any productive way. His last film (not counting the unreleased Home of the Giants) was the mediocre 2003 coming-of-ager Secondhand Lions; since then, news about him has mostly involved car accidents and drunk driving. But thankfully, things seem to be turning around. The actor, now 20 years old, will star in this fall's Broadway revival of David Mamet's challenging American Buffalo, alongside John Leguizamo and Cedric the Entertainer. I'm assuming that he'll be taking on the role of teenaged Bobby, played by Sean Nelson in the 1996 film. Not a huge part, but being one of a cast of three on Broadway certainly isn't trivial.

So few child stars make a successful transition into adult careers, but an actor of Osment's caliber deserves one. (The Sixth Sense is all well and good, but A.I.'s "David" was a masterpiece.) Now that he's no longer an adorable moppet, he should probably aim for "character actor" rather than "star." If that's the goal, then American Buffalo seems like a step in the right direction; there are few things like a little Mamet to establish some thespian street cred.

The play starts previews on October 31st and opens in November.

Just when it was looking like No Country for Old Men had a monopoly on successful interpretations of Cormac McCarthy's drearily minimalistic prose, production on an adaptation of The Road suggests the possibility of healthy competition. The movie, which recently finished shooting in Pennsylvania and hits theaters in November, remains a wild card until post-production wraps. Nevertheless, if this colorful report from the set in The New York Times offers any indication, The Road appears poised to capture McCarthy's original gloomy lyricism. Reporter Charles McGrath points out the difficulties the filmmakers endured when the weather got too nice and the grass looked too green. In other words, they're working really hard to keep things bleak. The story, about a father and son wandering through desolate landscapes after a cataclysmic event destroys civilization, demands that the dark aura remain intact. However, it wouldn't work without two strong leads, and McGrath implies that with Viggo Mortensen and eleven-year-old Kodi Smit-Mcphee (the next Haley Joel Osment?), that need has been fulfilled.

The best match for The Road, however, is its director, John Hillcoat, whose work on The Proposition proves he's the man for the job. That woefully undervalued western had the intensity of a Sam Peckinpah movie in overdrive, and The Road screams for the same raw, stripped-down approach. It's nice to hear that Hillcoat sees the movie as an antithesis to Mad Max, meaning he wants to eschew cartoony violence in order to create a scarily realistic depiction of post-apocalyptic duress. Bring it on.

[Photo above: Kodi Smit-Mcphee on the set of The Road, courtesy of the New York Times]

Eighteen-year-old Haley Joel Osment pleaded no contest in court yesterday, and the judge didn't offer him a chance to Pay it Forward. Osment will serve three years probation, serve 60 hours in an alcohol rehabilitation program, attend 26 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings over a six month period, and pay $1500 in fines. Osment, who fractured a rib and injured his shoulder during an accident in July which involved him flipping a 1995 Saturn after crashing into a brick mailbox outside of Los Angeles, also had a .16 blood alcohol content (twice the legal limit) and a quantity of marijuana.

Osment's film Home of the Giants is currently in post-production and should be released later this year or in early 2007, so what will this mean for the teenage star? He doesn't have a next film lined up, which isn't too uncommon, but his last film was Secondhand Lions, which performed poorly at the box office in 2003 (although I highly enjoyed the Michael Caine and Robert Duvall pairing). He's done a lot of voiceover work since then, but this might put his live-action career on the skids for awhile. He's fallen a long way since his Oscar nominated performance in The Sixth Sense.

While it could bring trouble for the young actor, high-profile arrests in Hollywood have often proven to boost careers, just look at Hugh Grant, Russell Crowe, Robert Downey Jr., Nick Nolte, and Mel Gibson. While the jury is still out on how Mel will ultimately be affected, all of the other actors have enjoyed success after their days in court.

What do you think? Will this hurt or harm his career?

More Haley Joel Osment on Cinematical:

BREAKING: Haley Joel Osment in Serious Car Crash

Haley Joel Heads to Jail?

In recycling a movie titled Secondhand Lions, Mark Kaufman of New Line Cinema is being so obviously ironic that he isn't actually being ironic at all. That's okay, though, because Broadway is the least place you'll find true irony these days. In an era that sees movies about musicals adapted into Broadway musicals and then subsequently re-adapted for the screen, irony is a word that has lost all meaning. (It is worse now, in fact, than when Alanis Morissette hit big with that stupid single, titled "Ironic", in which she misused the word a number of times).

Anyway, Kaufman is indeed making another secondhand musical out of a movie, which is a trend that just won't quit. I don't remember the original, which stars an awkward-looking Haley Joel Osment sent off to stay the summer with his eccentric uncles, being much of a hit, but considering its high ranking on the IMDb, it does have its fans. I'll admit that I enjoyed it a lot, mostly because I found Robert Duvall to be more hilarious than he could have possibly meant to have been, but aside from being an entertaining celebration of storytelling, the actual story it told wasn't all that interesting. And without Duvall or Michael Caine, the movie would have been a great big bore. So, unless the Broadway production can find an equally delightful pair of actors to play the two uncles, it won't be very good at all.

I still have yet to decide whether or not a(n inevitable) movie version of the musical will qualify as being ironic, since it would then be a third-hand Secondhand Lions. If anything I just like that idea because I like the corny sound of it.

The musical is expected to hit the theater in 2008.

Wow, what a strange turn of events for young Haley Joel Osment. See kids, this is what happens when you make stupid decisions. Not long ago, the Sixth Sense star was driving through a suburb of Los Angeles at 1am when he accidentally ran his 1995 Saturn straight into a brick pillar and flipped over. The actor was later taken to a hosipital where, surprisingly, his injuries were fairly minor.

However, what we did not know at the time was that Osment's blood alcohol level after the crash measured in at .16, twice the legal limit and higher than Mel Gibson's (.12) at the time of his arrest. Not only that, but police also found marijuana in the car. Damn Haley, you were out having a good ol' time, huh? Needless to say, Osment must now surrender to police, as he will be facing charges that could land him in jail for up to six months. Yeah, now here's where I want to smack the crap out of the kids who let the boy get in that car when he was obviously tanked. Man, I wish they could be penalized in some way. Hopefully Haley learned his lesson.

Man, you know you're getting old when little Haley Joel Osment is driving -- did you know he was 18-years-old already? The actor, who is set to play a high school journalist covering a basketball team in the upcoming Home of the Giants, was driving his 1995 Saturn (Wait, why is Osment driving a 1995 Saturn?) in a suburb of Los Angeles at about 1am when he lost control of the car, hit a brick pillar and flipped over. LA Country Sheriff's Lt. Greg Sisneros said Osment was awake and talking following the crash, though he had no further information on the star's current status. Here's hoping the kid is okay.

In somewhat related news, actor Daniel Baldwin (brother of Alec) was in a high speed crash of his own after plowing into two parked cars in a rented silver Thunderbird going approximately 80 miles per hour. Baldwin, who has been battling a substance abuse problem for awhile now, is being held in police custody at the UCLA Medical Center. Sources say he could face drunk-driving charges.