JohnCrowley Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Exclusive: Poster Premiere for 'Extraordinary Measures'
Filed under: Drama », Posters »
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Cinematical has just received a poster and banner for CBS Films' Extraordinary Measures, which will be hitting theaters on January 22, 2010. Yes, folks, those determined faces are for real -- the action flicks and laughs are on hold as Brendan Fraser and Harrison Ford are dipping into a little dramatic work, and this time it's to relay the true story of John Crowley and his efforts to cure his kids' life-threatening disease. Robert Nelson Jacobs adapted Geeta Anand's book (Cure), and Tom Vaughn (What Happened in Vegas) directed the feature.
Fraser stars as Crowley, a man working his way up in corporate America. He's got a loving family (Keri Russell plays his wife), and everything seems to be working out splendidly. But then his two children are diagnosed with a fatal disease. He quits his job, and devotes his time and efforts into saving his children by teaming up with "a brilliant, but unappreciated and unconventional scientist" (Ford). Together they start a bio-tech company to develop a life-saving drug and "this unlikely alliance eventually develops into mutual respect as they battle the medical and business establishments in a fight against the system – and time."
Check out both posters in all their full-sized glory in the gallery below.
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'Dogs of Babel' Will Bark, Possibly Speak, on the Big Screen
OK, stay with me here. The Dogs of Babel, by Carolyn Parkhurst, is a novel about a man whose wife dies under what he considers mysterious circumstances, though the police ruled it an accident. The only witness to her death was the couple's dog. The bereaved husband's solution? Teach the dog to speak so he can hear the pooch's eyewitness account. And it's not a comedy, it's a drama!I read the book a few years ago and thought it was a terrific examination of the grieving process, obsession, and learning to face reality. I had no problem buying the basic premise of a guy wanting to teach his dog to speak. But how will all this translate to the big screen? That question is about to be answered, as Variety reports a film adaptation has been fast-tracked.
The director will be John Crowley, a Tony-nominated stage director who also made 2003's Intermission (starring Colin Farrell), and the current Miramax release Boy A. The screenplay is being written by Jamie Linden, who wrote We Are Marshall and the upcoming Nicholas Sparks adaptation Dear John. The Dogs of Babel has some complex subject matter that's going to be hard to pull off in a visual medium, and I'm guessing the Nicholas Sparks book, um, doesn't -- so we'll see how Linden handles the transition. Crowley seems to be a capable director, at any rate, and Boy A (about a man who committed a murder as a child being released from prison) deals with sensitive subjects, too.
Anyone else read Dogs of Babel? What do you think of a movie version? Can they pull it off? If your dog could speak, what would it say to you? Mine would say, "I wish you didn't walk around the apartment naked so much." My dog is a total bitch (in the zoological sense).
Review: Boy A
Filed under: Drama », Theatrical Reviews », The Weinstein Co. », Cinematical Indie »
Movies about ex-convicts and their difficulty assimilating back into society generally begin with the prison release, during which the protagonist typically looks downright miserable. At first thought, I recall the opening of Vincent Gallo's Buffalo '66, which ironically exaggerates the hopelessness of post-incarceration by adding a lack of a public restroom to the list of things the former jailbird is without. But at the beginning of John Crowley's new film, Boy A, the titular young man being turned back into the world is high-browed and smiling from ear to ear. And this change from the expected norm really drew me into the film immediately.
Perhaps the difference is that for most films about ex-cons, the hero doesn't have a very good chance at starting over. For "Boy A," however, there's a literal reinvention taking place. In the first scene, the young man (Andrew Garfield) sits with his caseworker, Terry (Peter Mullan), and discusses the details of his release, which include his receiving a new home, a new job and, most importantly, a new identity -- he chooses the name "Jack." Also, rather symbolically, Terry hands Jack a gift, a pair of sneakers that unintentionally represents the young man's ability to comfortably run away from his former life.
TIFF Watch: The Weinsteins Pick Up 'Boy A'
Filed under: Drama », Independent », Deals », Festival Reports », Toronto International Film Festival », Cinematical Indie »
Those Weinsteins don't waste a minute! IndieWIRE reports that the Weinstein Company has bought the Toronto International Film Festival entry Boy A before it even screens there. The deal was finalized Friday; the film premieres Saturday. Talk about beating the rush.Based on a novel by Jonathan Trigell, Boy A is a drama about a young man released from prison after spending most of his life there for a serious crime he committed when he was a child. The director is John Crowley, his second theatrical feature after 2003's ensemble comedy Intermission, which played out like a violent version of Love Actually. Boy A's cast includes Andrew Garfield, Peter Mullan, Katie Lyons, and Shaun Evans.
The Weinsteins' luck has been bad the last couple years, with very few hits and a lot of box office flops. But one thing they've generally been good at is sniffing out winners at film festivals. Buying Boy A before it even premieres suggests they spotted a good one and didn't want to risk someone else grabbing it -- that, or they're getting desperate. Hopefully we'll have some insight from our crew members in Toronto after the film screens there.
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