MichaelImperioli Tagged Articles at Cinematical

How do you imagine heaven? Peter Jackson's vision of the place may not be the same, based on an advance look published by Empire Magazine, and that's probably a good thing. The director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy has revealed a glimpse of his concept of the heavenly realm, from his upcoming movie The Lovely Bones, and it looks a lot like ... the Empire Magazine logo (if you click through to their site and enlarge the image; see part of it above). Yup, the Brit zine promises many more pictures in their upcoming issue, but for now all we have is one shot that makes heaven look like a studio with some clouds in the background.

If you haven't read the book, it's an absolutely devastating read, written by Alice Sebold from the point of view of a 14-year-old girl. Susie Salmon (played in the movie by Saoirse Ronan) narrates the tale from her own personal heaven: she was brutally raped and murdered by a neighbor / serial killer and has to come to terms with her own death while watching her family and friends deal with extreme emotional trauma. Susie's heaven is not like Warren Beatty and Buck Henry's Heaven Can Wait or, really, like most other heavens depicted in film, so this initial image is promising.

It's also in line with what Jackson told USA Today: "It is quite like the world of dream, using the magic of metaphor to convey Susie's psychological and emotional life." USA Today also has a different, exclusive image (see above), which shows a shadowy Stanley Tucci as the neighboring serial killer. Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, and Michael Imperioli also star. The Lovely Bones is due in theaters on December 11.

At least one Sopranos star is looking to exit the small screen for a fancy big-screen lifestyle. The Hollywood Reporter tells us Michael Imperioli (aka Christopher on the show) has signed on to co-star in the highly-anticipated adaptation of The Lovely Bones, to be directed by everyone's favorite gorilla Peter Jackson. The film (like the book) revolves around a young girl who is murdered, but continues to watch her grief-stricken family, as well as her murderer (as he gets ready to kill again), from heaven. Imperioli, unfortunately, will not be playing the nephew of a crime boss in the film. Nope, instead, he'll be on the opposite side of the law -- taking on the role of Len Fenerman, the detective in charge of investigating the little girl's death.

Imperioli joins a star-studded cast that already includes Ryan Gosling (as the girl's father), Rachel Weisz (as her mother), Stanley Tucci (as her killer), Susan Sarandon (as her grandmother) and newcomer Saoirse Ronan (as the girl in question). Adapted for the screen by Jackson and his two Lord of the Rings cohorts (Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh), Paramount will distribute The Lovely Bones next year; most likely during the fall so that it can start knocking on Oscar's door. I haven't read the book yet, but my wife has said plenty of fantastic things about it. It was part of my summer reading material until I opted to go for I Love You Beth Cooper instead (what can I say, I love me a good teen comedy). That being said, I can't say for sure how good the casting choices are. I will, however, tell you that I love all the actors involved and look forward to seeing Jackson return to telling smaller stories, rather than giant epics.

Random sidenote: Had Christopher not died, how much fun would it have been to see a spin-off show called Christopher Goes to Hollywood?

*Apparently, some people still haven't seen last night's episode yet, so popular demand forced me to change my original headline -- stop reading now if you haven't seen it! Okay, you've been warned. I think it's safe to start taking David Chase at his word -- that there will be no Sopranos movie to launch after the series finishes its run in four weeks. In last night's episode, Tony murdered Christopher Moltisanti, perhaps the biggest character on the show besides himself, after Christopher nearly killed the two of them, driving off the road while high on smack. One of the biggest dramatic threads of the show is now finished, so any eventual movie would have to create for Tony some new love-hate foil to work around. That's assuming, of course, that Tony or any of the main characters even make it through the last three episodes. Some who claim to have picked up a little knowledge about the last episode are calling it "Shakespearean," and no one outdoes Shakespeare when it comes to blood and body counts.

However, Chase may have another idea up his sleeve for expanding the franchise beyond the current crop of characters. The MTV Movie Blog recently reported on a conversation between Chase and 'Oz' producer Tom Fontana, in which Fontana apparently floated the idea of basing a Sopranos movie around the main characters' grandparents, first arriving from Italy and presumably getting started in 'this thing of ours.' Chase told MTV "I had never thought about that. That was interesting to me." Just a passing thought, or something more serious? Who knows, but with HBO execs undoubtedly nervous about sailing into the 'post-Sopranos' era in a few weeks, there could be any number of deals being cooked up, either for a theatrical release or a future stand-alone HBO movie, perhaps.

By the way, for those who saw the episode, wouldn't a routine autopsy show that someone died of suffocation, not their injuries from a car accident?