Jack Nicholson Tagged Articles at Cinematical

While Morgan Freeman has dabbled in comedy in his long and illustrious career, I don't think he's ever really gotten a chance to really cut loose. He certainly hasn't gotten to play in the raunchy end of the pool, but it sounds as though he's taking the leap in Dirty Old Men. The Hollywood Reporter says that he's attached to star as an aging playboy in the tentatively titled project, and we'll either be laughing or horribly traumatized by his efforts.

Men was penned by Josh Cagan and Greg Coolidge, and is said to be similar in tone to The Wedding Crashers and The 40 Year Old Virgin. It centers on two aging playboys who have been each other's wingmen for over 40 years. One of them meets the love of his life, leaving the other (played by Freeman) to chase skirts on his own. Well, that just won't do. The lonely playboy does everything he can to break up the new couple. I will bet money there's at least one I-hid-the-Viagra scenario. No, I don't like to think about it.

Peter Segal is in talks to direct, and the hunt is on for the playboy-husband-to-be. Warner Bros is hoping Jack Nicholson will take the part and reteam with his Bucket List buddy. But if he turns it down, may I humbly suggest they look to Freeman's real life wingman, Clint Eastwood? If Viagra jokes must be made, let them be the two that make them.

Back in February I relayed the news that Ivy Miller and Wyatt Trips were reconnecting on the big screen. The still untitled romantic comedy will star Reese Witherspoon as a professional softball player who has to choose between two men -- Paul Rudd's white collar executive and Owen Wilson's 94 mph fastball hurler. (You can see Reese train here.) Well, this little picture was written by James L Brooks, the helmer of Terms of Endearment and As Good as It Gets, so it shouldn't come as too big of a surprise that he's eyeing Jack Nicholson for a role -- according to THR.

It turns out that Bill Murray has been in talks to play the father (presumably of Reese's character), but then lost interest. Meanwhile, Nicholson has been feeling the acting itch, so he might step fill the open spot for the director who helped him win two of his three Oscars. This, however is far from a reality right now. As the news post states: "Nicholson's deals are known for being notoriously hard to close and this one is still in the early stages." So Jack could easily lose interest as well before production kicks off later this month.

I say have at it and then find Nicholson something juicy. I'm not talking about the gigs that got him his more recent work, but something edgier, in line with his work in Easy Rider and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Wouldn't you agree?

Oh, what might have been! Alison Lohman gives a terrific performance as the cursed loan officer Christine Brown in Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell, which opens tomorrow. If not for the vagaries of scheduling, though, Ellen Page would have played the lead role. Would Page have been any better? We'll never know, but she joins a long list that inspires thoughts of 'What if ...?'

Once upon a time, we might have seen Leslie Howard as the titular Frankenstein and Bela Lugosi as The Monster. Instead, Colin Clive played the good doctor, Boris Karloff got a jump-start on life, and the rest is horror history. Here are seven more recent examples of actors and actresses who were considered for key roles in great horror films ... and the ones who replaced them, listed in chronological order. [Disclaimer: Based on information provided on IMDb's "trivia" pages, so no guarantees on accuracy.] Better? Worse? You decide.

1. Melanie Griffith / Sissy Spacek (Carrie)

Even though she was in her mid-20s, Spacek looks so young and fragile as Carrie that it's difficult to imagine anyone else in the role. Griffith was 18 or 19 and already had made an impression in Night Moves, The Drowning Pool, and Smile when she auditioned to play the telekinetic high schooler. Conveying Carrie's complexities might have been beyond her still-developing skills at that point. The pic above, left, is from Joyride, released the following year.

Several weeks ago at a press conference for Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, Matthew McConaughey's latest cinematic, um, effort, I asked him and co-star Jennifer Garner if this film was more a cautionary tale for women not to be drawn in by douchebags than an object lesson for would-be lotharios. While McConaughey marveled at the prospect anyone would think one of his characters was a douchebag, Garner dismissed the idea that the greater lesson could or should be learned by the film's female viewership. "It's more for men to say you have to risk love and commitment," she insisted. "Otherwise, you're going to end up alone with old-age make-up and sad and the beautiful woman is going to go off and marry someone else."

While Garner's make-up reference was a clever play on the film's decidedly underwhelming "ghosts of girlfriends future" segment – and one which, if you're lucky enough to never see the film, will never be provided an actual context - the question unfortunately remains: who is this film supposed to teach a lesson, much less entertain? Having analyzed its reprehensible characters and deconstructed its mixed messages, it seems obvious that the film was either made specifically for terrible, stupid people of both genders, or for no one at all.

The Academy Awards are known for their traditions (among many other things), and this year you may have noticed that some of those traditions were broken. Jack Nicholson wasn't sporting a pair of dark sunglasses and a devilish grin from the front row, Javier Bardem wasn't in attendance to help present the Oscar for best supporting actor and, likewise, Daniel Day-Lewis wasn't there to help present the best actor award. Granted, Oscar's tradition of the prior year's best actor and actress winners (in supporting and lead) presenting the latest award to the opposite sex was ditched in favor of a same sex group thing -- but that still shouldn't have given last year's winners an excuse not to show up. After all, both Marion Cotillard and Tilda Swinton were there.

So where was everyone? The Envelope did a little digging and were informed via a few secret sources that, originally, Jack Nicholson was asked to participate as part of a group for the best supporting actor award (and most likely be the one to speak of Ledger's Joker performance), but ducked out because he only wanted to present alone. Meanwhile, Bardem (who won best supporting actor last year for No Country for Old Men) didn't show because he was suffering from a back injury. Day-Lewis, however, had a much lamer excuse: he was tired. Not only was the best actor winner for There Will Be Blood against the group thing as well, but he was also apparently too tired from work on his new film Nine to show up and present.

Wow, so what's up with this group thing? Sure, I wasn't crazy about it, but it's a little sad when your ego is so big you demand to be on stage alone ... at the Academy Awards, no less. What do you folks think? Do these actors need to get over themselves or do they have every right to present solo?

It's no secret that Martin Scorsese likes his gangster flicks -- and judging from box office numbers, best-of lists and Academy Awards shoveled out, something tells me moviegoers like them just as much. Ever since The Departed won Oscars, folks questioned whether Scorsese and his crew would ever attempt either a prequel or a sequel (especially since the film it's based on, Infernal Affairs, was part of a trilogy). While that's looking less and less likely, word out of Boston is Marty might want to return to the city to once again adapt the true-life story of a dangerous mobster for the big screen.

According to the Boston Herald, Scorsese secretly met with Winter Hill Gang hitman John Martorano while in town shooting Shutter Island, then had Departed producer Graham King acquire the hitman's life rights. That last part we already knew about, as it was reported in Variety earlier in the month, but we did not know that this all came about from a secret meeting with Scorsese. The Boston Herald says that most likely Departed screenwriter William Monahan will write the script, which will tell Martorano's story -- one that includes murdering 20 people before flipping for the feds after learning other members of his gang -- like James Bulger, who some say Jack Nicholson's character in The Departed was based on -- were government informants.

This, of course, wouldn't be the first time Scorsese took on the life story of a famous mob snitch -- not only was The Departed all about sniffing out "the rat," but the film Goodfellas told the real-life story of gangster Henry Hill, who eventually flipped on his guys and entered the witness protection program. No official word on whether Marty is involved with Martorano's story -- or if this would replace any Departed follow-up -- but I don't think any of us would be surprised.

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.

Five years ago, Roman Polanski won an Oscar for directing The Pianist. But he couldn't attend the Academy Awards ceremony, because had he entered the United States, he would have been arrested as soon as his plane touched down. Or so the excuse went. While the scenario might have indeed played out that way, the story of his hypothetical incarceration was at that time more a part of the legend of Polanski than it was a matter of truth. More hearsay and speculation than complete fact.

Now the difference between that legend and the lesser-known truth is exposed in the documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired. And basically it's the gap between a generalized truth and the whole truth. So, yes, as we all heard and/or discussed at our Oscar parties five years ago, Polanski was in fact a fugitive, having fled the United States in 1978 after pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl. But there is so much more to the story than just that.