Martin Scorcese Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Like most people, I'll go see a Martin Scorsese movie no matter what they call it. Empire reports (via The Boston Herald) that Scorsese's latest, Shutter Island, will now be known as Ashecliffe -- and while I wasn't all that attached to the first title, it's not like this one is a vast improvement. The film is based on Dennis Lehane's novel about an investigation at an asylum for the criminally insane. The new title is taken from the name of the mental institution.

DiCaprio stars as Teddy Daniels, a US Marshall sent to investigate the disappearance of a multiple murderer on the remote and fictional location of Shutter Island. Michelle Williams also stars as Dolores Chanal, the wife of DiCaprio's character who is communing with him from beyond the grave (it sounds weird, I know, but the book was pretty 'Gothic' to begin with). Williams has recently halted production on her latest film Blue Valentine due to Heath Ledger's sudden and tragic death. However, there was no mention of whether she is still planning on staying on for Ashecliffe.

Shutter ... I mean Ashcliffe, also stars Mark Ruffalo as DiCaprio's partner, Ben Kingsley, and Patricia Clarkson. Clarkson has always had the uncanny knack of portraying either the kindest or most hateful person you have ever met, so my money is on her portraying the murderess, Rachel Solando. Production is set to begin this March, and Scorsese has already been scouting locations in Nova Scotia, Massachusetts, and Connecticut as the stand in for the island. Ashecliffe is scheduled for release in 2009.

Okay, I admit to being a pretty dorky Martin Scorsese fan. Part of it probably has to do with my New York roots and also, well, the guy is a great director. As you can imagine, The Departed is a film I've been anticipating ever since it was announced. Besides Scorsese, the cast looked amazing. I mean, how could you go wrong with Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg? You can't. It's impossible. Right?

Well, The Departed finally has a trailer online. As expected, it's long and filled with great music. Aside from that, well, I wasn't left dying for more. Pic, a remake of the popular Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs, tells of the battle between Massachusetts police and an Irish-American gang. Things get hairy when each plants an undercover mole deep inside the other's world. Will they cross paths? If so, what will happen? I'm not sure what exactly it was about the trailer I didn't like. Part of me thinks it's Leo. Or Damon? Then again, maybe my expectations were set too high. What do you think?

[via AICN]

Odds and ends for Monday:

• Catherine Keener and Ellen Page (Hard Candy) have signed on to star in Tommy O'Haver's thriller, The Basement. Pic, which is based on the actual court transcripts of a real event, tells the story of a seemingly normal housewife (Keener) who decides to take one of her seven kids and imprison her in the basement. Set in the 1960s, the events that followed not only shocked the nation, but also probably contributed to the fact that most of us are terrified of what's downstairs.
• After originally penning the screenplay, then stepping off the director's chair, Chris Weitz (About a Boy, American Pie) has jumped back on to helm The Golden Compass. Based on Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, pic will mark the first installment in what will be New Line's most expensive since The Lord of the Rings films. Weitz replaces Anand Tucker, who left the project due to "creative differences," and production will begin this November to be released sometime in 2007.
• After all these years, the FCC is finally giving Martin Scorcese sh*t over his use of foul language in the TV mini-series The Blues. The director, who is fond of cussing in such films as Goodfellas and, well, a bunch more, fired back at FCC officials who claimed the language featured was unnecessary. Scorcese claimed the language was "essential" and defined an era in which blues musicians used their foul mouths as a way to stand up to a society dominated by whites in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. Yeah, now the F-bomb is used by teenagers as a way to make their parents feel guilty for not buying them a brand new BMW. My, how far we've come.

The L.A. Times website has just thrown up a gallery of stills from 51 films due out this year. While some of them we've seen before, others are brand spanking new. Given to us in a slideshow format, they feature pics from The Black Dahlia, Talladega Nights, Basic Instinct 2, Santa Clause 3, The Devil Wears Prada, Pulse, V for Vendetta and A Scanner Darkly, among others.

Probably my favorite stills are of Paul Giamatti kneeling in front of an eerie Bryce Dallas Howard in Lady in the Water. Also, there's a cool shot of Jack Nicholson in the midst of a heated conversation with Leonardo DiCaprio from Martin Scorsese's The Departed. Coincidentally, that's my most anticipated film of 2006. Oh, and if you'd like to know what Matt Damon marrying Angelina Jolie would look like, then check out the pic for Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd. The entire slideshow can be found here. Enjoy!

[via JoBlo]