MichaelDouglas Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Maybe it gives away my age, but I really do think I remember a time when awards were given to people purely because an organization thought they'd actually earned them. I'm not crazy, am I? That really used to happen, right?

Well, this week Michael Douglas was honored by the American Film Institute, who threw a gala black-tie shindig at Sony Pictures Studio and handed him their 37th AFI Life Achievement Award. Bob Dylan sang a song, and Douglas' wife Catherine Zeta-Jones performed an adorable little tap dance number, and Jack Nicholson was Jack Nicholson, and a stuntman fell through the ceiling in an homage to the ending of The Game. All in all, a nice evening of entertainment that'll be televised next month. But ... Michael Douglas?

The AFI award started out as a true Lifetime Achievement trophy -- the first went to John Ford in 1973. Over the next two decades, the awards went to actors and directors with long, impressive bodies of work, like Orson Welles, William Wyler, Bette Davis, Gene Kelly, John Huston, David Lean, and Sidney Poitier. It was actually a rather distinguished honor.

AFI later decided to relax the standards, however, so that they could give awards to people who'd be more appealing to an increasingly younger-skewed market. The awards have always been televised, and it's a condition of the award that the honoree actually shows up, so box-office popularity became a priority in choosing who would get one. Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, George Lucas and Al Pacino have been honored, as have Harrison Ford and Meryl Streep.

Seriously, though. Michael Douglas? Yes, the man has won Academy Awards (Best Actor for Wall Street, and one for producing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), and yes, he's considered a "mover and shaker" in the biz. Plus, he admittedly does a kick-ass imitation of producer Robert Evans as the smarmy ghost-uncle in the otherwise unremarkable Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.

Now we're talking! Javier Bardem will bring Anton Chigurh, his character from No Country for Old Men, roaring back to life in the sequel to Oliver Stone's Wall Street. The hired assassin with the funny haircut will stalk financial company executives, using a fire extinguisher to put the fear of God into those heartless suits who stole America's money and refuse to give an accounting for their actions.

Unfortunately -- at least to my way of thinking -- that's not quite how the Wall Street sequel will play out, but it's not that far from the truth, either. Instead of playing a bad guy who sets things straight, Bardem will, in fact, play "a stock-shorting worldwide hedge fund manager," according to Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily. He is the villain of the piece, held responsible for the suicide of the hero's mentor.

UPDATE: Nikki Finke clarifies today (via Fox) that Bardem is not onboard ... yet ... though that's who they want for the role.

I apparently loved Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.

See, according to the logic doled out by the monogamy-hating, scotch-addled mind of one Connor Mead (Matthew McConaughey), the power of any relationship falls to whoever cares less, and my friends, I really could not care less about whether or not his boozing, cruising lothario was going to learn any magical lesson lifted straight out of Dickens. Ergo, the further I slumped in my seat while watching this mawkish, obvious, and not very funny film, the more powerful I grew in this particular relationship, and let me tell you right now: that and two bucks will get you a cup of coffee, with no need for any more artificial sweetener...

Gordon Gekko has been planning his comeback since 2007, when word hit that the man was getting out of jail and getting a new Wall Street movie called Money Never Sleeps, with Michael Douglas returning to his role. At that time Oliver Stone, the co-writer and director of the original, was not being swayed by Douglas' begging, and had given a big fat NO to the idea. When the movie was fast-tracked last October, he still wasn't interested, and that wasn't really surprising ... but something seems to have changed.

MSNBC reports that not only is Douglas reprising his role, but that 20th Century Fox spokesman Gregg Brilliant says that Stone is on-board. He went on to say: "We need to keep the story line under wraps, but it's literally ripped from today's headlines. It's going to be very big and very cool." Apparently, big and cool enough to lure back Mr. Stone. In addition to Stone, Entertainment Weekly tells us Shia LaBeouf is in negotiations to play a young stock trader in the film.

Does the filmmaker's inclusion help your interest in the film? What about LaBeouf? I must say, for me, it's not so much the fact that Stone's involved, but the why -- is he simply getting a sweet paycheck, or was he lured in by a story we'd actually want to see? Could this be a sequel project that's actually worthy? It'd be a nice change.

Goodness me, for just how long has Hollywood been sitting on the high-concept rom-com that is Ghosts of Girlfriends Past? So narrow-minded lothario Matthew McConaughey (who's getting good at this kind of role) is visited by three of his exes and shown the error of his ways -- namely, letting childhood flame Jennifer Garner slip away (I'll give 'em that much; a dumb, dumb move). If the Moviefone trailer above is any indication, saccharine and slapstick will be in no short supply.

It seems that director Mark Waters has opted to skew the sharper comedic stomping grounds of, say, Mean Girls in favor of another rom-com fantasy in the vein of Just Like Heavin', from the pair of writers who also brought us Full of It and Four Christmases. If we're really supposed to have any hope for this project, let me know when you find it.

At any rate, Ghosts opens on May 1st as counter-programming against X-Men Origins: Wolverine -- for all the girls who just can't stand that Hugh Jackman fella, I suppose. Come on, which one are you readers counting down the days for?

Making unnecessary sequels and cashing in on current events are two of Hollywood's favorite things. So when an opportunity arises to do both at the same time, you better believe they're going to do it! Hence the long-rumored sequel to 1987's Wall Street, which Variety reports is being fast-tracked to capitalize on the stock market's new relevance in ordinary people's lives.

The sequel will focus on Gordon Gekko, the slick-haired, suspender-wearing corporate-raiding devil played by Michael Douglas in the original, newly released from prison as the sequel begins. Variety says 20th Century Fox intends for Douglas to star, though he hasn't signed on yet. But why wouldn't he? The last time he played this part, he got an Oscar for it, and it's not like he's super-busy making super-awesome movies these days. The sequel reportedly doesn't involve the Charlie Sheen character at all, which is probably just as well. The other one and a half men would get lonely without him.

The screenplay is being written by Allan Loeb, who wrote 21 and who also happens to be a licensed stock broker. He knows his greed and his card-counting and his shady gambling practices -- he sounds like a good fit. A director hasn't been assigned, but it's safe to assume it won't be Oliver Stone again.

Does any of this sound like a good idea to you? Yes, people are talking about Wall Street (the financial market, not the movie) again -- but they're talking about how much they hate it, and how angry they are at those greedy bastards for contributing to the economy's current screwed-up condition. The sequel is going to be a tough sale if it tries to make Gekko's "greed is good" mantra seem appealing or exciting again. On the other hand, if Gekko is humbled and chastened now, will he still be interesting? What direction do you think the Wall Street sequel should go?

We're getting more Beverly Hills Ninja. It might be September, but it feels like it's Christmas! Variety reports that the film will be the first mainstream Hollywood flick to shoot in South Korea, but it's still keeping to its roots with the simple name -- Beverly Hills Ninja 2. Written by Mitch Klebanoff (co-producer and writer of the original), who will also direct, the terrible idea will focus on "an orphaned boy who wants to be a ninja but becomes involved in a crime in Hollywood while looking for his real parents." One would think Kevin Farley might be the guy heading this sucker, but no it's DAVID HASSELHOFF. Oh yes, try to resist the Hoff going ninja.

Farley, instead, gets a little something different. What do you do after you run with the cliche of "unattractive" girls who can miraculously become hot with the help of a shunned Playboy bunny? Divorced dudes. Variety reports the director of House Bunny, Fred Wolf, is directing a new flick called Divorced Guys. The comedy, which follows a group of divorced guys who go on a road trip to figure out how their marriages failed, was written by Wolf, Farley, and David Spade, who will also star.

Meanwhile, it looks like Michael Douglas is gearing up for another wacky role that could be worth the time. Variety reports that he's going to "play a car magnate with a runaway libido" in a new film called Solitary Man. More specifically, he's a guy who used to be the owner of a chain of car dealerships until "business and romantic indiscretions" mucked things up. Making the whole thing more intriguing -- Susan Sarandon, Danny DeVito, and Jenna Fischer are in talks to co-star. It's not quite as cool as him playing Liberace, but it'll do.

Women loved him, men wanted to be him, and now Steven Soderbergh wants to tell us all about him. (One of those claims may actually be false.) According to Variety, Soderbergh is developing a biopic of the flamboyant pianist for Warner Bros -- naturally, he'll be directing, and the busiest pen in Hollywood, Richard LaGravanese, is writing the script.

More interesting than that is the casting -- Soderbergh says he's actually drafted his old Traffic star Michael Douglas to play the man of a thousand candlelabras. He's also in talks with Matt Damon to play Scott Thorson, the man who sued Liberace for palimony, claiming they had been in a relationship for five years. To this day, apparently no one really knows what Liberace's sexual orientation was -- even Alice Cooper couldn't figure it out upon meeting him. (Thanks, Soderbergh! I learned something already.)

Despite everything being in place, this won't actually be the film Soderbergh follows Che up with -- which is a shame, because nothing should follow up Che but a man who exudes capitalism. Apparently, we're two Soderbergh projects away from getting this biopic, so don't get too wound up! You'll have forgotten all about it by the time it films, and it will be a pleasant surprise. There's not much to attract my personal interest, except the thought of Douglas donning those fabulous costumes. I can already predict an Oscar nod for a costume designer in this project's future.

Indiana Jones -- he's got to be Harrison Ford, doesn't he? Okay, we had young Indiana Jones characters -- River Phoenix in the opening sequence of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Sean Patrick Flanery in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles -- but I never really thought of Indy as a character who could be cast in any other way. You know, you figure the part in Raiders of the Lost Ark was practically written for Ford, who'd been in a couple of George Lucas films before that anyway (Star Wars and American Graffiti).

However, that assumption couldn't be more wrong. I've been digging around on that great source of reliable information, the Internet, and reading all kinds of stories about the casting of Indiana Jones. The general gist is that Steven Spielberg was interested in Ford, but Lucas didn't want to be one of those directors who cast the same guy in all his movies. So they tested a bunch of other actors, and were seriously interested in one who had to back out ... and then ended up with Harrison Ford after all. We are all profoundly grateful. But let's take a look at some of those actors allegedly under consideration, and a few more that I threw into the mix just for fun. (I picked only actors who were alive and the right age at the time, which is why you don't see Steve McQueen on the list.)