MichaelCorrente Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Almost two full years ago, Russell Crowe was looking to star in the big-screen adaptation of Michael Stanton's The Prince of Providence, which was being helmed by Michael Corrente. Since that time, Crowe is out, the project is still in the works, and as The Hollywood Reporter posts, it might be getting itself a serving of Robin Williams.

The script, which was written by David Mamet and polished by Howard Korder, focuses on Mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci, a corrupt politician "who dominated Providence's political machine for 21 years." There's no word on who Robin Williams will play if his scheduling works out, but Oliver Platt will take on the role of Cianci (quite the change from Crowe), and be joined by the likes of Dermot Mulroney, Adam Goldberg (Ronnie Gantz), Bradley Cooper (Haxton), and Ed Burns.

All of the actors sound great, but it will be even better if Williams officially signs on. After so many questionable films in the last handful of years, it would be so very nice to see Robin stretching his acting chops again. Production will begin later this summer in Rhode Island.

A B-movie Goodfellas down to its bones, Michael Corrente's new film Brooklyn Rules even begins with a 'this is where I live'-style narration in which a young man takes us through the ins and outs of his Italian-American neighborhood, giving us a guided tour of the world we're about to spend 90-odd minutes in. The difference between Scorcese's classic and this is that we're not in the 60s, but the mid-80s -- we see two people arguing over the time logistics of Back to the Future at one point -- and the main character is not a criminal per say, but is only on speaking terms with the life. Michael Turner (Freddie Prinze Jr.) is a scrapper who, we're led to believe, is putting his nascent wiseguy instincts to the most harmless possible use, cheating on tests in a pre-law program at Columbia University. It's here where he will meet Ellen, (Mena Suvari) an uptown girl who is pretty happy in her whitebread world, and will begin to feel himself pressured to choose one world or the other.

If the movie I've just described is from Mars, there's a whole other movie going on in there that's from Venus. That movie features Alec Baldwin as a cold-eyed Gambino associate -- the film is steeped in actual 80s New York mob lore, specifically the murder of boss Castellano and subsequent rise of Gotti -- and aims to be a serious and bloody mob movie. Baldwin's character, Caesar, is recruiting Michael's friend Carmine (Scott Caan) into the mob and whenever Caesar enters the picture, things take on a much darker tone, and violence is usually right around the corner. Baldwin proceeds exactly as if entire movie is focused on him -- maybe that's what they told him -- and because he's such a good actor, he drags the energy of the story towards his B-plot and inadvertently sucks the air out of the film's A-story, which is all about Michael's relationship with Ellen and his attempt to transact an amiable divorce from his old neighborhood. It's an odd problem for a film to have, but it's one that makes Brooklyn Rules fairly lopsided.

Director Michael Corrente, a native of Providence, Rhode Island whose hometown played a major role in his early career (two of his first three films, Outside Providence and Federal Hill -- in which he also starred -- were set there), is set to go home again at the helm of The Prince of Providence, a biopic of the city's notorious (and much-loved) former mayor, Buddy Cianci. Based on a book by Mike Stanton, the movie will detail Cianci's career, from his election in 1974 to his resignation a decade later after pleading no contest to assault, to his reelection in 1991 and his 2001 indictment on racketeering, conspiracy, extortion, witness tampering and mail fraud charges (he's currently in prison in RI NJ).

Needless to say, Cianci is a dream role: A chance to be gregarious, flex acting muscles and, hopefully, get some love at awards time. And at least one major star isn't sitting around waiting for Corrente to call him. According to a report in a Syndey newspaper, Russell Crowe has been in "constant contact" -- Corrente's words -- with the director, and recently invited him to his home, all in an effort to persuade Corrente to give the him the gig. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm sort of afraid for Corrente. Not only is Crowe desperate to play Cianci, but he apparently wants to do a lot more than act in the movie. As the careful Corrente told a reporter, "When you're dealing with a star of this magnitude, he brings in a lot of his own ideas." Uh huh. In other words, Crowe is already trying to take over, before he even gets the job. It's gonna be a long, long shoot.

[via Hollywood Wiretap]