It is always a curiosity when Hollywood families come together for a project. I love seeing the Estevezes (aka Sheens) appear together -- sure, even in Men at Work. And sometimes the Coppolas do well with one another -- Talia Shire in her brother's Godfather movies, for example. But often it is a bad idea to work with or cast family members. The most obvious case is Sofia Coppola (Shire's niece) being in her father's The Godfather: Part III. Just recently Jake Paltrow received a paltry reception for a movie he made featuring his sister, Gwyneth. Now, another new filmmaker is attempting a similar feat: According to Variety, Bruce Dern will make his directorial debut with Hart's Location, in which he'll appear alongside his ex-wife, Diane Ladd, and his daughter, Laura Dern. Written by Ashley Reed, the film will appropriately be about family estrangement. Laura will star as a woman seeking to regain custody of her son while also attempting to locate her father, who left when she was 3.

It is worth noting that Diane Ladd has been nominated for three Oscars, all for films in which her daughter also appears (Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore; Wild at Heart; Rambling Rose). The last of these even saw a nomination for Laura, as well, marking the first time a mother and daughter were ever recognized by the Academy for the same film. So, for the women, at least, Hart's Location seems to be a great idea. Maybe there's more Oscars in their future. On the other hand, it also seems to have a sort of novelty to it, like the badly-received It Runs in the Family, which featured a lot of the Douglases (Michael, Kirk, Cameron and Diana), in what appeared to exist just for the stunt-casting. Like that movie, Hart's Location also unites a real-life divorced couple (Dern and Ladd parted ways in 1969). Interestingly enough, though, Ladd has already directed her ex-husband, in 1994's little-seen Mrs. Munck. Hopefully Dern can do better in this reversal of roles. As long as he spends more attention on making a good movie rather than on working out his personal issues (he told Daily Variety that the project makes sense for them because it's about the things you wish you'd said to your family members), then I'll be looking forward to it. The film begins shooting in New Orleans in February.

I was talking with a friend the other day about the shocking decline in the quality of Kevin Spacey's films. It seems as though that Oscar for American Beauty was some sort of horrific curse, sending him into a long run of ill-advised, disastrous movie projects. Look at the man's filmography pre and then post Beauty. It's distressing! But Variety is reporting on a flick that sounds like it might turn things around. HBO Films' Recount will tell the story of the Florida results in the 2000 election, one of the most controversial political events of recent years. As Monika recently told you, Sydney Pollack was supposed to direct but dropped out due to "an undisclosed illness." Jay Roach, a director primarily known for broad comedy (Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Meet the Parents, and their lesser sequels), will now direct. Danny Strong wrote the screenplay. The film will document "the legal and political maneuvering from the point of view of both the Bush and Gore camps."

Spacey will star as Ron Klain, "former chief of staff to vice president Al Gore and one of the lead attorneys who challenged the voting results in Florida." In addition to Spacey, Recount has lined up one hell of a supporting cast: Laura Dern will play Katherine Harris, the Florida secretary of state who certified that George W. Bush had won the state. Denis Leary (what went wrong on this season of Rescue Me, DL?) plays Michael Whouley, a Democrat pollster. John Hurt plays Warren Christopher, a key player for Gore. Tom Wilkinson plays James Baker, brought in by the Republicans to see that the disputed results held up. And two Christopher Guest alums will duke it out in the courtroom. Ed Begley, Jr will play David Boies, the lawyer who appealed the results and argued for the Democrats. Bob Balaban plays Ben Ginsberg, head attorney for George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. See what I mean about that supporting cast? You won't have to demand a Recount -- look for the film on HBO during the 2008 presidential election.

Considering the lengths that David Lynch has gone to while promoting his latest film Inland Empire; a simple announcement about a screening almost seems like a letdown. The Carolina Theater in Greensboro, North Carolina announced the screening of Lynch's latest film on March 16th as part of their Cinematique Series. The 79-year-old vaudeville house turned performing arts center seems a fitting location for Lynch's fun house of a movie. Tickets are going for the modest price of $7 or $5 for students and seniors, and the website promises the cryptic running time as "7:00PM until ...", so you never know what the organizers might have planned -- this is the same film that used a cow as a marketing device after all.

The film stars Laura Dern, Jeremy Irons, and Justin Theroux; but even after repeated viewings of the first and second trailers, I really couldn't tell you what it was about. Although, Ryan's review does a better job of explaining the plot than I ever could, so I'll just leave it at that. The film premiered at the San Francisco Indiefest and was one of the more high profile selections at the festival, Inland Empire is slowly working it's way through the US, so I guess if you are a fan, you are just going to have to be patient and hope the film makes it's way to you.

[via Huliq.com]

Leave it to Hollywood to change the basis of a storyline to glam things up a bit. Last year, Martha Fischer reviewed Lonely Hearts for the Tribeca Film Festival. The story is based on the Lonely Hearts Killers -- a murderous and far-from-glamorous duo/couple from the late 1940's. He was a balding, toupee-wearing man with a large scar on the top of his head, she was a 200+ pound woman who had spent her life lonely and ridiculed. That obviously doesn't make for sexy cinema, so the leads were cast with Jared Leto as Raymond Fernandez and Salma Hayek as Martha Beck.

It's actually interesting that the story was so sauced up, since the screenwriter and director is Todd Robinson -- the grandson of Detective Elmer C. Robinson, who was one of the detectives in the case. I guess familial ties can't also ensure accuracy. Now the film, which follows predecessors like The Honeymoon Killers and Deep Crimson, has found itself a U.S. distributor in Roadside Attractions and Samuel Goldwyn films. Beyond Leto and Hayek, there's John Travolta without the Hogs as Detective Robinson, James Gandolfini as his partner, Charles Hildebrandt, Scott Caan as another detective and Laura Dern as a co-worker who is having an affair with Robinson. As Martha described in her review, the story focuses on both sides of the story -- the couple who kill and the police duo who hunt them down. You won't have to wait too long to see the film for yourself, as the plan is to release it next month, on April 13.

Inland Empire is the film where David Lynch says goodbye to narrative and sends the viewer dancing down the rabbit-hole of his psyche, (there are actual rabbits) landing us in a grimy hall of mirrors where the half-remembered stars of his dreams clash in the night. Since a dream is like a treadmill, or a stuck record needle, the inhabitants of this world are confined to speaking in an abstract dream-English, made up of a frustratingly small allowance of words and ideas compact enough to fit on the turntable of the unconscious mind. The film's conversations -- over three hours worth -- consist of non-sequiturs, run-on sentences and story fragments. The goings-on are often inscrutable, although sexual content is one of the few consistent clarity boosters. Take one conversation, where a female character played by Laura Dern sits in a darkened interrogation room and recounts an attempted rape. Her story flows forward; the record needle doesn't skip. Other characters speak stiff monotone English, devoid of spark, but her accent and personality, preserved in the memory, are colored in.

That accent is Arkansas white-trash; she bounces the 'f' in 'fuck' off her bottom lip with each usage, as if to preserve its sexual power. Her sentences are declarative and informational, like "I kicked his nuts into his brain." Compare this to another conversation, between two suburban neighbors, where the lack of electricity is palpable and the small-talk full of circular logic; we can see the camera fighting boredom in that scene, pushing in hard on their faces, striving valiantly to maintain focus and stay awake, before the whole thing collapses and is re-absorbed back into the memory pool. This is Inland Empire, for better or worse; a hard and bruising tumble down the neuron branches of an uncompromising painter of moving pictures. Monotony and wheel-spinning are standard in Lynch's world, but if you're so inclined, think of that as the admission price for what comes later: a sharp lightning charge into the center of the director's brain, where the dream neurons flash-pop like the bulb of a table lamp in a cheap hotel room.

Not content with its growing reputation as a genre distributor with films like Saw, The Descent and Hostel, Lionsgate has decided to stretch a little and include some other kinds of movies in its roster besides horror -- perhaps with less blood, gore and a smaller body count too. With the upcoming 3:10 to Yuma, they were off to a good start -- not necessarily in the blood, gore or body count department, but at least its not a horror film. And now, according to an article over at IGN, they've added another film to help them expand their slate and re-define their image -- the Russell Crowe thriller Tenderness.

The film (which our own Martha Fischer reported on way back in April), based on the novel by Robert Comier and adapted by Emil Stern, tells the story of a cop (Crowe) who attempts to unravel the mystery surrounding a teenage serial killer who murdered his family and the young female runaway he's taken under his wing. Teenage serial killer? Ok, so its not a completely different genre, but still -- I bet nobody gets locked in a room, explosives strapped to their head and tormented by a sadistic killer who has a penchant for dolls.

Lionsgate took North American, U.K., Australian and South African rights to the film, which was directed by John Paulson and also features Jon Foster, Sophie Traub and Laura Dern. About the film, Lionsgate Execs. Tom Ortenberg and Peter Block gushed: "Tenderness delivers an unbeatable combination of story, filmmakers and actors. Polson, Crowe, Foster, Traub and Dern have given it their all -- which means that audiences can count on an incredibly gripping experience." Sure, its hardly unusual for execs to say those kinds of things about films they just paid good money for, so I'll take their enthusiasm with a grain of salt. Still, I can't think of a Russell Crowe movie I didn't like ... so that definitely helps. Who knows, maybe its as good as they say it is? I guess we'll see when the film gets released next year.

David Lynch has wonderfully built up expectation. Bit by tiny, delicious, little bit, pieces of Inland Empire have been revealed. For a while, there was nothing more than vague references by the film's actors and Lynch himself. Nestled in Łódź, Poland, Lynch wrote the film scene-by-scene, and while everyone kept tight-lipped, there also wasn't much coherent information to share. Loosely, it's the story of two actors set to be lovers on-screen, who fall into bed. Since nothing in a Lynchian world is simple, the pair are calling each other by their casts names, and the line between the character and the actor blurs.

Finally, as the limited release date of December 15 is almost here, a trailer has popped up online. From the beginning eerily-close shot of Grace Zabriskie's large, haunting eyes to the explosion of Badalamenti beats, this trailer is pure David Lynch. Actually, it's like all of his previous art and scenes have come together into a new narrative. There is Dern crying in a similar manner to Laura Palmer's wail on Twin Peaks , a head that is eerily similar to those in Six Men Getting Sick, and a scene of animal-headed people that looks like Industrial Symphony No. 1 thrown onto a Blue Velvet-like set.

Looking at the trailer, I can't imagine a fan not liking the film, if for nothing more than his ability to make every scene look like a piece of art. However, if this isn't up your alley, you might enjoy another Inland Empire clip on YouTube, which has two guys discovering Lynch's bovine marketing strategy. Nothing says Lynch more than his explanation of the cow -- "Cheese is made from milk."

I became forever hooked on David Lynch when I stared at Laura Palmer's prom picture. I was sitting alone in my parent's living room, all the lights off, and her smiling face matched with Angelo Badalamenti's eerie music got me. I became a passenger in Lynch's surreal car, watching his old films on a portable dvd player as we drove through a Lost Highway, passed an old man on a lawnmower, and travelled the length of Mulholland Drive.

Then, unfortunately, he was de-railed by aggravation and hid himself amongst bits, bytes, and weird, hand-drawn comics that never appealed to me the way his previous work had. For a while I mourned, re-watching Twin Peaks and my short films box set. Then came rumblings of a new film. A film that had Justin Theroux and Laura Dern. A film called Inland Empire .

We've gone over the logistics. Lynch took years to create this film, which he shot on DV, writing it scene-by-scene, his usual actors going along without any idea of the film's plot. It's a scattered, non-linear story, one that has been promoted by a large cow. We've even shared some low-res pictures.

But now, as the limited run date approaches, JoBlo reports that crisp, high-quality stills have been released on CinEmpire, bringing visuals to all the gossip we've heard over the last few years. There are stills of the actors, from Lynchian princess Laura Dern to the delightfully creepy Grace Zabriskie, as well as behind-the-scenes shots. To me, you can't get much more Lynch than seeing him sitting cross-legged amongst film equipment, holding a smoke and reading through notes.

The latest in casting news from Cannes:

• Laura Dern has joined the cast of Tenderness, the Russell Crowe-starring indie flick we told you about last month. The movie takes on the unsettling subject of a teenage serial killer and his romantic entanglement with a damaged runaway girl. Crowe plays a cop who tries to figure the kid out; it's not clear what role Dern will play. The movie begins shooting this week in New York.

• Sean Mathias is directing Colossus, based on Ann Harries' Manly Pursuits, a novel about the Boer War. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film's scored a pretty impressive cast, considering that its budget is a relatively small $15 million: Colin Firth, Rachel Weisz, Ian McKellen and Susan Sarandon are all on-board. Though it's not yet been announced which roles the stars will play, the movie "tells of ailing arch-colonist Cecil Rhodes' [probably McKellen] belief that he can only recover his health if he can hear the sound of English song birds outside his window in Cape Town." Get this: Someone is sent from England with 500 freaking songbirds. When he gets there, he falls in love and decides he needs to stop the Boer War from happening. Ah, if only all men in love would immediately resolve to end wars -- what a lovely world this would be.
  

• Oscar Wilde is coming back to the big screen, this time in the hands of Janusz Kaminski, who is directing an adaptation of A Woman of No Importance. Set to begin filming this fall, the movie is about "an ambitious young man, Gerald Arbuthnot, who introduces his prospective employer, Lord Illingworth, to his mother." Because this is Wilde, it turns out the man has a bit of a history with the mother, and in fact is Gerald's dad. Oops. Set to star in the film are Annette Bening, the ubiquitous Lindsay Lohan and the under-appreciated Sean Bean. Thank the lord someone is letting Bean do something funny -- he's been sporting a macho glower for, like, two decades.
  

Back in March, we reported that ex-SNL Superstar! Molly Shannon was in final talks to star in Mike White's directorial debut, Year of the Dog, taking a role written specifically for her (she and White worked together on the short-lived TV show, Cracking Up, and clearly got along reasonably well). Not surprisingly (since "final talks" usually means "looking for a pen to sign the contract"), Shannon got the gig, and now she's snared some (pleasingly diverse) costars, as well. According to this morning's Hollywood Reporter, Peter Sarsgaard, Regina King, John C. Reilly and Laura Dern have all joined the cast of the movie, which starts shooting next month.

The film tells the story of Shannon's character, a "happy-go-lucky secretary who lives alone with her beloved dog Pencil." As you might expect, the dog dies, she gets really sad, and lessons are learned. As I said when I first reported this story, that summary makes the movie sounds alarmingly like one of those loathsome "I found a man and am now complete!" stories. But, with a screenplay by White, it's awfully hard to imagine that it will take such an obvious path -- we'll just have to wait for script reviews and set leaks and whatnot to find out what he's got in mind.