NaveenAndrews Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The latest film from Neil Jordan is called The Brave One, but I'd be willing to bet money that the working title was The Stranger, since the word stranger is used repeatedly throughout the film to describe the alienated condition of the main character, a sotto voce radio personality played by Jodie Foster who turns into a piece-packing thrill-killer after being beaten nearly to death by some punks in Central Park and seeing her fiancé murdered by the same punks. That premise is oddly dated, of course, thanks to the extreme Disneyfication of New York City in the 90s, and The Brave One isn't brave or creative enough to simply posit an alternate 2007 in which those reforms never happened. Instead, the pre-existing societal ills that fuel Foster's character are laid out during a radio commentary she gives over the opening credits: chief among them is the fact that the Plaza Hotel is being closed down and her memories of Eloise are being tarnished! This is Death Wish meets Sex and the City, with all the seriousness that implies.

By choosing not to paint a portrait of a New York roiled by crime again -- at one point, a radio caller notes that the emergence of the vigilante is actually welcome, since New York has become so dull -- the film has little recourse except to make Foster's character one of the most unlucky people alive: after the brutal beating and murder in the park by a small gang of hoods -- her fiancé is played in a few early scenes by Naveen Andrews -- she becomes, in short order, the victim of knife-wielding, would-be rapists on the subway, walks in on a first-degree murder in progress and must defend herself against the killer, and happens upon a murderous pimp who mistakes her for a hooker. It's like a blood-and-guts version of that Lindsay Lohan movie where the main character's luck inexplicably turns to pot overnight. As long as the film has trouble looking for Foster instead of Foster looking for trouble, it's not saying much, really. It's only when her character starts to enjoy the violence that things start to get (mildly) interesting.

All of my rationale and mental faculties tell me that I shouldn't be into this, but I just can't help it. They say: "back away... Slowly!" But I'm not listening. Variety has just shared the cast list for the upcoming horror film, Animals. A scary movie, I must add, that is based on a novel by Craig Spector, that he adapted himself. Who? He hasn't had too much work in film (he has a big pulpy horror novel career), but his one feature is A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child. It's the installment that got me into the series since it was on weekend television all the time in the early 90's. It's also the movie that holds one of my favorite death scenes -- death by Freddy-bike.

So, he's written up this little screenplay for Highlander:Endgame* director Doug Aarniokoski to direct, and these are the people who will star in it: the guy who already has experience as an Animal Mark Blucas, Nicki Aycox (Jeepers Creepers II), Susan Sarandon's kid and Saved! scene stealer -- Eva Amurri, Andy Comeau (8 Heads in a Duffel Bag) and testicle-collector Naveen Andrews. The movie is about: "blue-collar man in a dying factory town whose life is jolted after becoming involved in a romantic triangle amid a spate of uncontrolled violence." How's that for specifics? Luckily, it comes from a book, so here is some more info -- it's a metaphorical werewolf story: "Syd was just another lonely working-class guy singing the steel-town blues. Then he met Nora. She's sensual, Erotic, Amoral. A creature of the night. And she's luring Syd across the line that few can cross -- and fewer survive: the line that separates man from beast." Oh, how terribly wonderful. I imagine that Blucas is Syd, and hopefully channeling more of the Prey for Rock & Roll mojo, than the lame Initiative lap-dog style, and I would hope that Amurri is Nora, but the role has probably gone to Aycox. Either way, they've ensnared me against my better judgment.

*Thanks to Victoria for catching that this isn't the director's first feature, as Variety reported. He directed Highlander: Endgame in 2000.

To be honest, I don't quite know what to think of the new trailer for The Brave One. Directed by Neil Jordan, the film stars Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, and Naveen Andrews, an actor who has been popping up all over the place lately. The story centers on Foster's character, who after the loss of a loved one, goes on a somewhat "Bronsonesque" revenge spree. If you like to remain unspoiled about these kinds of things you might want to skip the trailer for now; I took the plunge and now I think I know way too much about the movie already. Not to mention an ending that almost manages to unravel any mood that the trailer managed to set.

Luckily most of the cast is already busy with their next projects; Foster has already lined up a Leni Riefenstahl bio-pic, and the slightly less heavy film Nim's Island with Abigail Breslen (Little Miss Sunshine). Howard of course, is working on Iron Man with Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow, but The Brave One works as a nice dramatic counterpoint to the hi-profile comic book movie. Jordan is set to direct the adaptation of the fantasy novel Heart Shaped Box as well as the horror flick Killing on Carnival Row. The Brave One is just one part of Warner Bros.' slate of dramas set for this fall, including In The Valley of Elah and Michael Clayton with George Clooney. WB should had taken a cue from Clooney's film on how to make a good suspense trailer -- the operative word being suspense.

[via firstshowing.net]

So maybe all that talk of ER outliving its appeal has spurred one its stars to head back to the big screen. Variety reported out of Cannes that Parminder Nagra, who plays Dr. Neela Rasgotra on NBC's ER, has signed on to star in the film Fallen Heroes. The film also stars Naveen Andrews and is the story of a battle scarred soldier (Andrews) who returns to his village to try and resume a normal life – and it seems like Andrews has had plenty of experience playing that kind of role since he has been playing a guilt ridden Iraqi soldier on LOST for the last three seasons. There is no word on what role Nagra is set to play, but I can only assume it would be "the girl" in the film. Nagra, who only has a few feature film credits in her extensive resume, was last seen in the U.K. fantasy film In Your Dreams, but is still probably best remembered as "that girl from Bend it Like Beckham."

Fallen Heroes will be directed by Partho Sengupta, whose 2006 documentary The Way of Beauty will be screening this summer at the Durban International Film Festival. The film is set to start production this summer with a relatively small budget of $50 million. Since both stars currently earn their bread and butter on the small screen, it would appear that they are planning on making the most out of their hiatus.

In a collaboration between the British film industry and Bollywood, Provoked: A True Story has just been released in the UK, and was screened today at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. It follows the true story of a Sikh housewife in London who killed her husband in 1989 after years of abuse. After an arranged marriage, Kiranjit Ahluwalia moved to Britain with her husband, Deepak. Over the next ten years, she was raped, beaten with everything from belts to furniture, secluded and even banned from certain foods like chillies and black coffee. After so many years of terrible abuse, she snapped and had some pretty terrible revenge -- she doused her husband in gas and set fire to him as he slept.

Her husband died in the hospital ten days later, and she was charged with murder. The prosecution said that the crimes acted against her were "not serious," and she was found guilty. Ultimately, she received a new trial, had her charge reduced to manslaughter and now lives in Slough with her children. I wonder when/if the film will receive wide, or even limited, release in the U.S., since it has a pretty notable cast. Aishwarya Rai (Bride & Prejudice) plays Kiranjit, Lost star Naveen Andrews plays Deepak, her husband, Miranda Richardson plays a woman who befriends the wife in prison and Rubeus Hagrid -aka- Robbie Coltrane is the QC who fights on Kiranjit's behalf in her retrial. While we wait to see if the film makes its way to local screens, you can check out a trailer here.

British actor and star of TV's 'Lost' Naveen Andrews has a small role in Grindhouse, and took the trouble to show up at this past weekend's junket in Los Angeles to discuss the film. In between sharing stories and jokes with the press corp., Cinematical heard someone ask Naveen if he was planning any upcoming film roles with his longtime love, actress Barbara Hershey. To this, he immediately answered: "I'd like to do a remake of -- I don't know if you know the Fassbinder film, Fear Eats the Soul. We'd like to do that." Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, is of course a seminal 1974 film focusing on a romance between a middle-aged German woman and a younger Arab man. When asked again if he really wanted to mount a remake of the film, Andrews replied: "Who knows? Get Harvey to put the money up."

Throughout the course of his press talk, Andrews talked up a number of other issues including, of course, Grindhouse films, which he claims to not get in the slightest. He also was asked if he thought this film could be a negative impact on society. "Well, it goes back to like Clockwork Orange, when Kubrick released it in England, people going around in bowler hats and raping people and beating them up. Humanity's a strange thing, especially within a medium as powerful as cinema, but I honestly found the violence on the page, at least, ridiculous. I can't see people sort of sitting in their rooms planning to kill a zombie."

Lost star Naveen Andrews, who hasn't had a good movie role since he was the best thing about The English Patient (unless, of course, you count his star turn in TV movie The Chippendales Murder, which I'm sure was stellar), has signed on to appear in Planet Terror, the Robert Rodriguez-helmed half of Grind House. Whether that will break his streak of unmemorable roles is anyone's guess, but it will give him a chance to hang out with zombies, something every honest actor will tell you is a career goal. According to a Grind House producer (tracked down and interrogated by Variety), Andrews will play "a badass military scientist," so he might actually get to kill some zombies, too! Also, I'd like to officially guess right now that he's going to come to a grisly end, possibly involving the eating of his flesh. Just a wild guess, of course, but come on -- scientists in zombie movies always bite it.

The movie, which is due to start shooting (again) in Texas this summer, is due out next April.