We are all well aware that David O. Russell doesn't have the best reputation when it comes to working with actors. We've heard the stories about near fist-fights on the set of Three Kings, and everyone has seen the meltdown during I Heart Huckabees. The latest casualty of Russell's people skills is celebrated actor James Caan, who has officially quit Russell's political comedy, Nailed.

What caused the irreconcilable rift, you might ask? It was all over a cookie. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the final straw for Caan was during a scene in which his character is supposed to be choking on a cookie. Russell instructed Caan to cough and choke at the same time during the scene, which Caan thought was impossible for a human being to do both. The two couldn't come to an agreement and Caan left the set never to return. The film's producer got to work on the damage control and was quoted as saying the disagreement was "part of an ongoing creative conversation between the actor and director", and that Russell had been nothing but professional throughout the shoot.

I really dug Orlando Bloom in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, then recoiled in horror at his work in Pirates. Okay, not horror, but I was completely disappointed and wished the entire time that Will Turner would get killed and Sparrow would get Swann. When you're rooting for the womanizer, even when he's played by Johnny Depp, you know something is off. So, I wasn't really into the idea of him as the Prince of Persia, and was relieved to hear that he was out of the picture. Who's the next big name to make waves?

Latino Review says that Jake Gyllenhaal has been offered the lead role in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. Now, if the site is to be believed, this will be the best film of all time. Well, the most visually appealing, that is. Okay, just something immensely appealing to my movie-fan heart. It's not just the Jake -- they say that lots of parkour is involved as well. (If David Belle got involved too...)

But seriously -- parkour is beautiful, and immensely great to watch on film -- unless it's being done by a bad guy who out-cools James Bond. And Gyllenhaal, he's got the acting chops and the body, and he'd also be a solid choice to make the film desirable to a larger audience. However, LR does note that Jake's messed up his ankle playing basketball, so he'd have to mend up first before taking on the role that starts this summer in Morocco. (Mend, please mend!)

I've said my piece, but what do you think?

UPDATE: Cinematical has talked with a Disney rep who would not deny nor confirm this rumor. Their "you'll see soon enough" stance leads us to believe there might be some truth here. Oh, and expect both leads to be announced at the same time.

Bahahahahahaha. Yesterday was chock full of huge, monumental movie news. A disproportionate amount of it involved the geek realm, with casting and sequel bites galore. For example, we reported that Christian Bale and Brandon Routh were headlining the new Justice League movie as Batman and Superman. JoBlo insisted that all the rumors are true and Jake Gyllenhaal is replacing Tobey Maguire in the role of Spider-Man. (On the other hand, maybe it's Nicholas Brendon, or -- dear god no -- Jason Biggs.) From GFR, we learned that the Cloverfield monster was going to be putting in an appearance in Transformers 2. IGN even created an entire fake trailer for The Legend of Zelda movie! In slightly less shocking news, it turned out that Iron Man might get an April release date after all, depending on where you live.

But my favorite piece of news announced yesterday? Slashfilm's bombshell that Daniel Day-Lewis was headlining a Peter Weir remake of Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo -- the one about a man who decides to build an opera house in the Peruvian jungle. This version, however, will be set 50 years in the future and feature a soundtrack by Mick Jagger. Weird, subtle, and just plausible enough (at least until you get to the futuristic setting) to make you frown before remembering what day it is. (After reading the first paragraph, I did more than frown: I rushed to start a Cinematical post!) Well-played, gentlemen.

This is one of those movies that has a premise so incredibly bizarre, yet has cast so strong, that I figure there is some promise I am simply not seeing. David O. Russell's romantic comedy Nailed already stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Biel, and The Hollywood Reporter says that the film has now added Catherine Keener, James Marsden and Tracy Morgan to the cast.

The plot follows a naive waitress, Alice, who is shot in the head with a nail. The injury causes her behavior to be erratic and outrageous (the IMDb says it causes her to become a sexually adventurous bombshell), and she heads to Washington to campaign on behalf of better health care for the freakishly injured. She ends up falling for a young and clueless new congressman, who must summon up his political courage to save her. Biel plays the waitress, Gyllenhaal the congressman. Keener will be playing a self-serving congresswoman, and Marsden the small-town boyfriend of Alice. Hopefully he's not the one who shot her with a nail. Morgan's character has yet to be decided.

Like I said, there is probably something I am not seeing. The script is penned by Russell and Kristen Gore, so the charm must lie there. But is the waitress' naivete the reason she was shot in the head? Or is she naive because she thinks her insurance will cover the cost of her injury? And must James Marsden lose a girl not only to Wolverine, to Superman and to Patrick Dempsey, but to Congressman Jake Gyllenhaal too?

To be fair, I'm willing to give Mr. Russell a fair shot after the surprisingly unique Three Kings -- although people still keep dissuading me from seeing I Heart Huckabees.

The germs are coming! The germs are coming! Life pretty much took the lead this week in determining what would make a good double feature. For the first time in eons, I've been sidelined with a hellish cold, while some other friends suffer colds and fevers, and two tykes I know fight off pneumonia. This just hasn't been a healthy holiday season. So, in honor of colds, coughing, and other temporary maladies, I give you two films about dastardly killer germs. One is serious, one is goofy, and both should make you feel better about your present sickly condition. On the one hand, we've got a woman allergic to life in Safe, and on the other, a young cutie with no immunities with Bubble Boy. So, grab your popcorn and tissues, curl up, and let your body fight off the killer common cold while you watch these flicks.

Safe



The trailer certainly amps up the camp, but Todd Haynes' 1995 film is a smidge more serious than its retro trailer would have you believe. Julianne Moore stars as a soft-spoken California housewife, Carol White, who becomes increasingly ill. While her doctor finds nothing wrong, her symptoms get worse and she discovers that she's environmentally ill. Basically, everything about our chemical life is making her sick. Or, that is what she believes. In an attempt to get better, she moves to a New Age center housed in the desert for people like her.

Coming from Haynes, who also directed Moore in Far From Heaven, and is generating a lot of Oscar buzz with his Bob Dylan flick, I'm Not There, this isn't a germy thriller with a typical path and neatly wrapped-up ending. It's a movie of maybes and strangeness, with an eerie buzz to remind you that there's always something to make us sick out there.

A Barbie video introduction to the film by Todd Haynes.

Carol White chokes on all those darned toxins.

And for something a bit different...

Haynes' Barbie-riffic Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story Pt. 1

We now have another reason why Jessica Biel didn't want to take on Wonder Woman -- she wanted to jump in bed with Jake Gyllenhaal! The Hollywood Reporter has posted that Jake and Jessica (with names perfect for tabloid coupledom) have signed on to star in David O. Russell's latest film -- Nailed -- both the bed sort of nailing and the, well, nail sort of nailing. Not only that, but it is also getting another Gore into the movie biz -- O. Russell is co-writing the script with Al's daughter, Kristin Gore.

Coming from David O., this won't be your run-of-the-mill political satire. Biel will play "Sammy Joyce, a socially awkward small-town receptionist who has a nail accidentally shot into her head by a clumsy workman, eliciting wild sexual urges." It gets better: "The uninsured Joyce goes on a crusade to Washington to fight for the rights of the bizarrely injured. She meets an immoral congressman (Gyllenhaal) who takes advantage of her sex drive and capitalizes on her crusade as Joyce heads into her own career in politics."

Talk about having a ton of reasons to see this sucker. O. Russell makes some funny movies (Three Kings, I Heart Huckabees), and has this really funny tendency to go apeshit on set. Remember? Then there's the next Gore entering the movie biz, which I hope will mean some inside info, rumors, political goodies masked in the script. Then there's Biel taking on a political comedy -- can she do it? And finally, Jake as a congressman. Pre-production begins this month, shooting starts in January, and maybe we'll get this just in time for the next Presidential election.

For ages now, Jake Gyllenhaal has been the superhero understudy who never gets called to the stage. Actor, after actor, after actor gets picked for the tights and hero lifestyle while his interest in the theme goes nowhere. From Shazam to Spider-Man, he's always been a possibility, but never a real contender who gets to save the world -- which is funny since he's found so much success in civilian clothes. Now it looks like the closest thing to a superhero we'll get from the actor is his strange, yet undeniably endearing Bubble Boy.

Jake talked with MTV recently about the tights, the capes, and keeping the world safe from villains. He said: "I have definitely wanted to play superheroes in the past. I've definitely been into [playing a comic-book character] but, for one reason or another, it hasn't ever worked out." So far, so good. He's had interest, but it doesn't work out. How does he appease himself? "I think of how a character, in reality, is like a superhero -- rather than actually being a superhero." So now his sights are turned to heroes who don't wear tights, and who don't come from the colorful pages of comic books; he wants something a little more real: "I'd love to play a really cool character like Jason Bourne, not necessarily a superhero, but definitely a cool character that does great, fun [real-world] action."

He still doesn't sound against the idea, but Gyllenhaal has definitely moved on from the dream. Perhaps it's for the best. Superhero flicks can be tricky, and I'm sure the last thing he wants is to get stuck in a stinker. If, through all of this, you're still holding out hope for him to take Spider-Man, he says: "No, it's been well done already." Then again, Spidey was only supposed to hit the screen 3 times, so news can always change. What would you rather see him doing? Action flicks, or superheroes?

You may have noted my mention of a playwright named Beau Willimon last week. If not, it was in a post about a remake of the British miniseries The Jury, which Finding Neverland's Marc Forster will direct. I pointed out that Forster actually handpicked Willimon to be the screenwriter of that project after reading the guy's play Farragut North. The political drama is set to open on Broadway early next year with Jake Gyllenhaal starring and Mike Nichols directing, and I figured that eventually there'd be a movie in the works, possibly with that prestigious duo re-teamed for the big screen version. But no, it seems Gyllenhaal and Nichols just aren't good enough for Warner Bros., who owns the film rights. Instead they've cast some guy named Leonardo DiCaprio for the lead and are hoping to sign on some old television has-been named George Clooney to direct.

According to Variety, the project is also being produced by DiCaprio's company, Appian Way (The Aviator), and Clooney's company (with Grant Heslov), Smoke House (Leatherheads); both companies apparently teamed up after reading the script (were they at the same party as Forster?) and then together brought the thing to Warners. In the film, DiCaprio will play a young idealist working on a presidential campaign who ultimately ends up resorting to bad tactics like backstabbing and trickery. Basically, it sounds like the sad story of the common politico who still thinks there's room for Mr. Smith's out there, only to wake up and discover the real world of Washington. But as much as it sounds familiar, or obvious, or otherwise trite, it seems the play is somewhat autobiographical, as Willimon based it on his experience working on Howard Dean's 2004 campaign. Certainly the film would be a great timely release for 2008, but right now the film, which Willimon is adapting himself, doesn't have a clear start date. Hopefully Warners can grab DiCaprio as soon as he's done with Ridley Scott's Body of Lies and Clooney as soon as he's done with the Coen Brothers' Burn After Reading for a just-in-time Fall opening.

I'm probably one of the biggest Doug Liman supporters -- even if I do get crap for loving Mr. & Mrs. Smith -- so I get excited about every new project announced with his name attached. I'm even looking forward to a new Knight Rider TV movie (possibly pilot) I just read about that Liman will helm for NBC. He says that it will have a tone somewhere between The Bourne Identity and Smith, and will featuring a morphing KITT. Even if I didn't like Liman's work, I'd be curious. Liman also called the original Knight Rider "the Shakespeare of our generation." But I hope he was joking.

According to Variety, the director has another movie on the fast-track at Dreamworks that will star Jake Gyllenhaal. The untitled project (being called "Untitled Moon Project"), will be Liman's first attempt at outer-space science fiction, and its plot will focus on a private expedition to the moon to set up a Lunar colony. As much as I can tell, this will also be Gyllenhaal's first time costumed in a space suit, which should bring him back to his glory days as the Bubble Boy.

Liman co-wrote the original script for the project, along with his cousin, writer-director John Hamburg (Along Came Polly). However, it's now being re-written by author Mark Bowden, who wrote the source material for Black Hawk Down and Joe Carnahan's in-development Pablo Escobar movie, Killing Pablo. Liman, Alli Shearmur and Simon Kinberg will produce the film, which will presumably begin shooting as soon as Gyllenhaal is done with Brothers.

There was a time when Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire were rivals, so to speak, both hot names attached to the web of Spider-Man. Whenever it seemed like Tobey would leave, Jake's name would slide into the buzz. While we will probably never get to see what Jake would be like as a spider, which is unfortunate, both actors are now looking to be Brothers. Variety has reported that Relativity Media is remaking Susanne Bier's Danish war drama, and the actors are both in negotiations to star.

The original, which starred Connie Nielson, Ulrich Thomsen and Nikolaj Lie Kaas, came out in 2004 and centered on a man who is sent to Afghanistan on a UN mission, and his black-sheep brother who becomes the caretaker for his brother's wife and child. If the negotiations work out, Maguire will play the military brother, and Gyllenhaal will be the one who takes over the familial duties. The original won a number of accolades including a number of audience awards from festivals like Boston, Creteil, and Sundance. David Benioff (Troy and Wolverine) is adapting the film, and the plan is to begin shooting it in the beginning of November. While foreign remakes are so darned overdone, it'll be interesting to see Maguire and Gyllenhaal play off each other. Are you ready for a little Jake and Tobey?

"Did we polygraph the Egyptian?"
"He came up clean."
"Polygraph doesn't mean diddly."
'We always say that when they pass."
"Put him on the plane. ..."

That exchange comes early in Gavin Hood's new film Rendition, between senior intelligence officer Corrine Whitman (Meryl Streep) and her underling (J.K. Simmons). 'The Egyptian' is Anwar El-Abrahimi (Omar Metwally), a chemical engineer of Egyptian descent who's been living in Chicago for years, with a wife (Reese Witherspoon) and son and another baby on the way. But Whitman doesn't care about that; Anwar's phone has been receiving calls from a number linked to a known terrorist, so after a conference which sees him flying back to Chicago he's plucked from his flight, hooded and bound and taken to an unnamed North African country, where the head of the local intelligence branch, Abasi (Igal Naor), will try to crack him. CIA field paper-pusher Doug Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal) is there to observe, not to apply the electric shocks or pour the water until Anwar can't breathe or hurl him naked and shivering into a too-small cell -- because, hey, America doesn't do that stuff. But, through the Clinton-created, Bush-approved invention of 'Extraordinary Rendition," we can ask other people to do it, and pay them to do it, and make all the arrangements to have it happen. ... Anwar's suffering will stop when he tells what he knows. But what if he doesn't know anything?

Granted, McG doesn't have the best track record in holding on to projects, so until everyone signs on the dotted line we will have to chalk this up to idle chatter for now. According to Bloody-Disgusting.com McG will be taking over directing duties for the fantasy film Me and My Monster, which is about, "A young boy [who] has a friendship with a bizarre creature that changes the course of his life as he becomes an adult." This instantly brings to my mind the Phoebe Cates film Drop Dead Fred, but I tend of have a film memory that is ruled by tangents. The script for Monster was written by Matthew Huffman and Robot Chicken writer Dan Milano and originally, Jake Gyllenhaal was attached to the project as the lead, but there has been no update on that recently.

The last film we had from McG was the male weepy We Are Marshall and there had been some talk that he had been chosen to replace Peter Berg on the big-screen version of The Losers -- a DC/Vertigo series that was based on obscure DC title. But now, that project has been taken over by Tim Story. There is still the chance that McG will be producing a live-action film about Hot Wheels, but it's almost been a year and there seems to be no movement on that one. The current studio climate seems to favor nostalgia, so it could still happen -- that is if he doesn't drop out or get replaced first.

It appears there's a bit of a tug-of-war going on right now over the hunky Jake Gyllenhaal. However, instead of two females fighting for his love, a couple of Hollywood heavyweights are fighting to attach the star to one of two high profile projects. The New York Daily News gossip columnists Rush & Molloy (not exactly reliable sources, we know) tell us New Line is preparing to offer Gyllenhaal a massive payday to take on the role of Captain Marvel in Shazam!, yet another comic book-turned-feature film project to be directed by Peter Segal and written by John August. Studio views Shazam! as having the potential to be a huge franchise -- along the lines of both Batman and Spider-Man -- but only if they can sign up the right talent.

There's one small problem though: New Line is trying to act real fast so that Sam Raimi and the folks behind the Spider-Man franchise don't convince Gyllenhaal to replace Tobey Maguire instead. With his boyish good looks and ability to pack on some muscle and the charm, Gyllenhaal would be a perfect replacement for Maguire -- one that would definitely help the series continue and, perhaps, help attract an even larger fanbase. But would he make a good Captain Marvel? In Shazam!, a teenage boy named Billy Batson finds he has the ability to transform into an adult superhero when he utters the magic word, Shazam! So, if Gyllenhaal does land the role, would he play both the teenager and the adult superhero? Will New Line update the story so that Batson is a tad older, this way an actor can play both roles (like in Batman and Spider-Man)? What do you think -- would Gyllenhaal be better as Captain Marvel or as the new Spider-Man?

[via JoBlo]

Okay... I really like Jake Gyllenhaal. Donnie Darko lathered me in angsty, pensive love, while Bubble Boy gave me Danny Trejo mixed with Jake in cute underoos. Aside from a questionable foray with Kirsten Dunst, talk of dressing room sex and his straight-to-DVD Highway, he's been on a solid trajectory upwards. Apparently, I'm not the only one who has noticed. MSNBC has released an article about him as "one actor who has done (nearly) everything right."

Now, this article isn't just a salad of Gyllenhaal love, but it holds solid, scientific techniques behind it -- writer Patrick Enright went to Google. It seems that if you Google "I hate X" versus "I love X," you can get a solid indication of one's popularity. Scientological horror Tom Cruise gets a measly .05, Ben Affleck was a much more respectable 12.5 and Heath Ledger got a whopping 90. But what of Mr. Gyllenhaal? He got 8,410 "love" results and 3 "hate" results. Three. If the man is ever interested in working in a different field, he might want to become a counsellor to the messed-up masses in Hollywood.

The article attributes this to two main factors. First, Jake doesn't slide into one type of role and lather it on until it sticks like glue. He's thrown his hat into so many features, tackling everything from comedy to action, gay cowboys to straight army men and number-crunching to serial killing. While I must admit that I love his Donnie/Bubble years the most, he has given many solid performances. Secondly, he keeps people guessing on his personal life. While he's no Jodie Foster, he's kept us wondering. He's avoided Maggie's political sh*t-storm, and he's shown us that he's human without going over the top in any area. Sure, he got a little drunk at the Oscars last year, but there were no bathroom dalliances, rampant party reports or drunk-driving arrests and ignorant diatribes. I can only hope he continues to do so well, and that some others learn from his example.

Unlike many of the top wage earner's I just wrote about, Meryl Streep never really worked her way up. From her second film, Deer Hunter, she jumped into a little Manhattan , and within two years of her media debut, which was a film theatrical performance of Secret Service, she won an Oscar for Kramer vs. Kramer. Although she occasionally does something quirky like Death Becomes Her, she's always still Meryl, and always an acting powerhouse. I mean, would The Devil Wears Prada be as successful as it was without her?

It's just been announced that she's joining the cast of Rendition. You might remember the film from Matt Bradshaw's post about Reese Witherspoon starring, or when Erik Davis talked about the male leads -- Jake Gyllenhaal and my favourite SNL host, Peter Sarsgaard. Being directed by Tsotsi head Gavin Hood, the film has Gyllenhaal playing the CIA analyst who discovers a foreigner being questionably questioned by Egyptian secret police in Cairo . Witherspoon is the detainee's wife, and who is Sarsgaard? I don't think it's a wild guess to think he won't be the Egyptian-born man under interrogation.

As for Streep, well, she's the government official who orders the rendition, or extradition, of the national. I'm not sure how this will all fit together. According to Matt's post, the American, Witherspoon's Egyptian-born chemical engineer husband, is sent off after being deemed a political prisoner. So, is she the one that orders him off, or the one who tries to bring him back? Either way, it looks to be an interesting film.