Joel Hopkins Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Well my friends are gone
And my hair is gray
And I ache in the places where I used to play
And I'm crazy for love but I'm not coming on
I'm just paying my rent every day In the tower of song
-- Tower of Song, Leonard Cohen

Harvey Shines (Dustin Hoffman) is a New York jingle-writer who doesn't quite toil in the tower of song; maybe in a small office in a nearby strip mall. But the rest of it applies; he's older, tired, headed to London for his daughter's wedding and obsessing about getting back fast in time for a job-related meeting. Harvey's dreading the trip before he even takes it, which guarantees it will be dreadful, but then he meets Kate Walker (Emma Thompson), another single, singular person unwilling to confront the terrifying possibility of happiness. ...

Written and directed by Joel Hopkins (who previously gave us the younger-skewed Jump Tomorrow), Last Chance Harvey may be easily -- in fact, too easily -- dismissed as "Before Sunrise for the sunset years," as Harvey and Kate meet accidentally, mesh immediately, dare to hope, get brought together by chance and separated by accident. Younger audiences will ignore Last Chance Harvey like a an overdue bill notice in the post, but if you've been around the block of life a few times -- on the bus or under it -- you'll find that it wins you over, bit by bit, in no small part thanks to the mix of effortless charm and contemplated sincerity Hoffman and Thompson bring to their work; the whole film has an air of lightweight gravity to it, and Hopkins may not be swinging for the fences, but he knows just how to swing and hit for a solid double.

It took a little longer than expected, since production schedules almost never start on time, but principal photography is now gearing up on Last Chance Harvey. With the cameras about to roll, The Hollywood Reporter has posted the rest of the cast, plus a little more about the plot. Back in June, I shared news of the film, which was written for stars Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson by screenwriter Joel Hopkins. It's about an unlucky man who meets an "unlikely female companion" when he goes to his daughter's wedding in London.

Hoffman and Thompson are being joined by an impressive supporting cast that boasts: Kathy Baker (The Jane Austen Book Club), James Brolin (The Hunting Party), Eileen Atkins (Gosford Park), Richard Schiff (Ray), and Liane Balaban (New Waterford Girl). Hoffman's character is described as "a down-on-his-luck New York jungle writer," who has a tough boss played by Schiff. Balaban plays his daughter, who is getting married in London, and Baker is her mother and Hoffman's ex-wife -- who is also now married to Brolin. Rounding things off is Atkins, who will play Thompson's overbearing mother. It all seems like pretty spot-on casting to me, and they've come up with some great pairings -- such as Baker being the ex-wife who has moved past Hoffman's unlucky life, and Thompson having to deal with the snark of Atkins. Shooting starts today in London.

I loved Will Ferrell's Stranger Than Fiction. When I saw it, the only thing that bummed me out was the lack of air time between Professor Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman) and writer Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson). There's just something about a man who entertains the notion of being realistically stuck in a novel, and a woman who sits in the rain imagining her character's death, while obsessively puffing away at her smoke, that makes the pair seem like romantic kismet. If you agree, you'll probably be happy to hear that they're pairing up for an upcoming dramatic romance called Last Chance Harvey -- and no, this isn't a big rabbit Harvey sequel.

According to Variety, the project is the creation of Joel Hopkins, who won a BAFTA award with producer Nicola Usborne for the 2001 indie film, Jump Tomorrow. Hopkins penned the script with both actors in mind and will direct them in the world where an unlucky man attends his daughter's wedding in London and "finds an unlikely female companion." I can only hope that within that drama, some of the quirk and humor that both actors are so perfect at shines through. So, I'm banking on that "unlikely" bit being something cinematically tasty. The movie will begin filming this September in London, as the latest project for the recently-launched Overture -- who is also cooking up Ferris Wheel with Charlize Theron, 105 Degrees and Rising and Mad Money, which stars Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes.