HuffingtonPost Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Discuss: Heath Ledger and James Dean
Filed under: Action », Casting », New Releases », RumorMonger », Celebrities and Controversy », Newsstand », Obits », Comic/Superhero/Geek », Stars in Rewind »
In the last twenty-four hours alone, countless news articles have compared the late Heath Ledger to James Dean. Of course it helps that the two actors -- whose careers lie fifty years apart -- bear physical resemblances to each other. The real reason for the frequency of the comparison, however, revolves around the possibility that Ledger, like Dean, might end up with a posthumous Oscar nomination.Other than Dean, whose death in a 1955 car accident was preceded by two nominations back-to-back, six actors have landed the distinction -- but only one, Peter Finch, actually won (for Network in 1976). However, Ledger is now perceived an actor who possessed a potential he never quite realized, while Dean was already an icon by the time of his death (and he still didn't win the prize). If Ledger gets nominated for his performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight, the award will also acknowledge the great career that never was. Dean surely would have followed Giant with other wonderful performances, but his brief filmography also allowed the actor to reach a level of prestige that Ledger would have needed a few more movies to attain. So does this comparison really hold up?
The media certainly seems to think so. "Like Dean, he could endure as a mythic figure of talent silenced before his time," writes the AP. "People are aflutter over seeing the final performance of a new James Dean," reports The Huffington Post. " One quality that Ledger and Dean did share is rapid growth," notes the Baltimore Sun.
Will Soderbergh's Che Guevara Biopics Find a Distributor?
Filed under: Drama », Foreign Language », Independent », Deals », RumorMonger », Celebrities and Controversy », Scripts », Distribution », Exhibition », Movie Marketing », Politics »
If you thought leading a revolution was easy, try filming one. In The Huffington Post, Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere discusses Steven Soderbergh's two-part Che Guevara biopic, comprised of The Argentine and Guerilla. Despite earlier rumors to the contrary, it appears that both movies will definitely screen next month at the Cannes Film Festival, where Soderbergh was warmly welcomed last year for the premiere of Ocean's Thirteen. The reception of his latest project could be even more positive, but its distribution prospects are another story: As Wells explains, Soderbergh's project guarantees to offend some people for its apparent exclusion of Che's stint as the overlord at La Cabana fortress, where he ordered the execution of over 600 political prisoners. Add to that the heavy amount of Spanish dialog and the director's insistence that the two movies should be enjoyed as a four hour-plus package, and you've got enough red flags to send even the bravest U.S. distributors packing. Wells, who read both scripts, analogizes the project to Lawrence of Arabia. "Hey, how about presenting the two films as a single, gargantuan Lawrence of Arabia-styled deal with an intermission, running between four or four and a half hours?" he suggests, perhaps somewhat tongue-in-cheek.
Jon Stewart had it right during the Oscars this year when he ironically geeked out over Lawrence of Arabia on an iPod. If most audiences can't appreciate that movie on the big screen now, why would they turn up for something like this?
Alec Baldwin Speaks Out Against Governator Doc
Filed under: Documentary », Independent », Celebrities and Controversy », Movie Marketing », Politics », Michael Moore », Cinematical Indie »
Another election, another politician wanted out of office ... and yet another documentary. This chain of events is so common now that the presence of partisan docs is as easy to ignore as all the real campaign ads on television. Even one such film, about Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, would have passed under the radar if not for gaining a bit of controversy over the weekend. The film, Running with Arnold, is against the re-election of "The Governator" and has reportedly gone over the line as far as taste goes in order to attack the actor's qualifications for office. One person who isn't happy with the finished product is its narrator, Alec Baldwin. He could sue the film makers after having gotten no cooperation from them regarding his request to be removed from the project or a cease and desist letter that he issued to them. On The Huffington Post, he wrote about his disapproval of the film, particularly the unfair association of Schwarzenegger with Nazis. He also says that the film makers can not accommodate his wishes because of a distribution deadline (I can't seem to find a release date for the film to back up this deadline, but seeing as how election day is in one week, I'm guessing it will play somewhere starting this Friday).
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