Patrick Stewart Tagged Articles at Cinematical

You might remember the big shocker last month that Terrence Howard wouldn't be returning as Rhodes in Iron Man 2 because he got replaced by Don Cheadle. The actor said he found out through the trades like the rest of us, and rumors began to run rampant. Now EW is trying to get to the bottom of things and got an interesting bit of news from insiders who say that two things were to blame for the recasting -- money and Howard's performance. The latter isn't too interesting -- apparently Favs wasn't happy with the footage.

But the former -- it appears that Mr. Howard was the highest paid actor on set. Oh yes, he signed first for some hefty sum, and no one else, not even the Iron Man Robert Downey Jr. got as much. So the story goes -- Howard got a drastically reduced offer for #2 unsurprisingly, balked, and Cheadle was tapped. It all sounds fishy to me. Who let the pay get so out of whack, and why are the powers that be upset with his performance when everyone else likes it!?

Meanwhile, the Bruno shenanigans continue in a rather appropriate forum. Yahoo reports that Sacha Baron Cohen's character crashed a rally supporting Proposition 8 -- the bill trying to ban gay marriage in California. I wonder what his poster said...

Finally, I'd like to make a request. In a world where we get movies-musicals-movies, and slews of adaptations, I want to see the latest Waiting for Godot production get its own feature film. Variety reports that a British production is gearing up with -- get this -- Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart. Professor X and Magneto. Doing Samuel Beckett!! McKellen will play Estragon, while Stewart plays Vladimir. Now this is worthy of the big screen. Kevin Kline got to follow Pirates of Penzance to the big screen, so it's possible ... I hope.

I've watched the Extras Christmas Special twice now, and I still can't get through the end without crying. I'm so lame. I know this is TV related, but if you haven't watched Extras yet, do yourself a favor while on holiday break and check out both seasons (and the X-Mas special) of this amazing HBO show. Written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant (both of whom brought us the Brit version of The Office), Extras is about just that -- Extras. Folks who spend their entire careers as the guy or girl in the background of a shot. Though it's only two seasons long, the show has a great story arc and while I would've loved for it to go longer, it definitely feels complete.

Aside from an excellent day-to-day cast (special kudos to Ashley Jensen), each episode also includes hilarious celebrity cameos -- all of whom are either obsessed with sex, obsessed with themselves or both. Clive Owen's cameo in the X-Mas special was absolutely friggin' priceless, and the same can be said for folks like Daniel Radcliffe, Ian McKellen, Orlando Bloom, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin and Patrick Stewart, who have all appeared in various episodes as themselves. And speaking of Stewart, below you'll find one of my favorite scenes from Extras -- featuring Stewart -- which appeared in a pivotal episode that changed the scope of the entire show. I adore this scene, and it gives you a good taste of what to expect from the rest of the series. Anyway, I just felt like getting that out there. Go watch Extras. Gervais and Merchant are comedy Gods.

You might have heard rumblings a few years ago about another adaptation of William Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. This came on the still-hot heels of the Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons and Joseph Fiennes version that came out that year. However, this one was going to put a bit of a spin on things. Under the hands of Sir Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, the classic play was going to rise out of the desert of Nevada -- The Merchant of Venice Vegas. Aptly housed at the Venetian Resort, the adaptation would explore greedy gambling and money as well as the relationship between Antonio and Basanio using the city's gay scene. Of course, McKellen was approached by Stewart to play Antonio. At the time, some believed it was a bit over-the-top.

For a while, there has been no word on the project, but it's still been running under the radar. While discussing his upcoming Shakespeare roles for the Minerva Theatre in Chichester, Stewart chatted a bit about Venice, a play he was into since he was "12 and my English teacher put a copy of The Merchant of Venice in my hand... I just took to it, like being thrown into water and finding you can swim. All I ever wanted to do was Shakespeare, the other things were just happy accidents." While he made no mention of McKellan, he explained that he will produce and star in the film (as Shylock, I presume), which came out of an argument with John Logan over the play. After Stewart argued that it wasn't a "loathsome play," Logan decided to adapt it for the actor. Unfortunately, that's all there is to say for now -- there's no news on when, or of a definitive cast. Me, I'm just hoping this does well enough that he decides to bring his Prospero to the screen next, which he hit out of the park with New York Shakespeare Festival's version of The Tempest.

[via MovieWeb]

Hell hath frozen over, and there's some less shocking news to boot:

• Go figure! In April I mused that Mike Tyson might have a future in Bollywood, after he took part in a music video for the Indian flick -- Fool and Final. I never thought it would actually happen, but hell hath frozen over! Variety is reporting that the ear-hungry boxer wants to act in Bollywood movies. Apparently, Tyson says that "the atmosphere was very congenial, happy and energetic" on the set, although I'm not sure I can imagine him saying "congenial." Nevertheless, he's thinking about an acting future in India and is discussing the possibility with Firoz Nadiadwala, who produced Fool -- "We seriously intend to work toward it." I wonder what the folks over in India will think of the troubled man potentially becoming the next Bollywood star? It's just so surreal.
• Patrick Stewart, the ever-loved Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Professor Charles Xavier, is once again warming up his narrating voice. He is going to be the voice behind the English-language version of the Earth documentary, which follows three animal families -- polar bears, elephants and hump-backed whales "on epic journeys across the world's most demanding and spectacular landscapes." I'm sure that means we'll have lots of cute moments intermingled with sad, animal realities. The actors describes the film as "a beautiful, comic, moving, urgent, private view of the environments and creatures with whom we share our home planet. It urges us, while delighting us with dazzling images, to address the pressing and desperate needs of this our fragile earth." So basically, it's the same old animal documentary material.
• Finally there's some strange, foreign weirdness by way of the folks over at Twitch. They've found trailers, a promo reel and making-of video for Italian director Stefano Bessoni's Frammenti di scienze inesatte. The man himself posted the clips on YouTube, and while the movie is from 2005, I wonder if this means it will get beyond its limited, Italian release. The movie is about a headmaster of medicine and natural science who has a number of strange students, such as a researcher of angels, who rent out an old house from him. He tries to support them, but also has a secret he is keeping from them. The clips look cool and go quite well with the music. Unfortunately, the making-of film has no subtitles, so you've got to either ignore the sound or brush up on your Italian. Warning: some of the clips are NSFW -- there are autopsy scenes that show people lying nude on the doctor's slabs.

We're jumping between a few different sites today, trying to bring you the coolest news to leak out of WonderCon. Over at FirstShowing.net, they sat down with TMNT director Kevin Munroe who alluded to a possible sequel that, unlike the version hitting theaters on March 23, might actually include the infamous villain Shredder. TMNT fanatics are a little skeptical about the new film, as it takes place after the defeat of The Shredder and includes a new crop of monsters. However, old favorites like April O'Neil and Casey Jones are making an appearance ... so all is definitely not lost. (Heck, the late Mako voices Splinter and Patrick Stewart will voice the evil Max Winters -- even Kevin Smith shows up as a greasy chef. Not bad, eh?)

But what about that sequel? Of course, it all depends on how the first movie does -- and, based on the trailers I've seen, the flick certainly looks a lot better than Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Turtles in Time. Munroe did say that a sequel is set up at the end of TMNT with a very "not-so-subtle nod" and, in a perfect world, the next film could bring Shredder back. He says, "Yea, it'd nice, it'd be really cool. As a fan I'd love that. Because we now have these sort of better Shredder stories of how to bring Shredder back. But now if it works out well, and Karai coming to New York, that's a setup for a really good volume in The Turtes in the comics as well, it could work out to a really cool sequel."

Perhaps it's a bit premature to be talking Turtles sequel, but I have a really good feeling about this new film. In my opinion, this CGI look is the best yet; much better than the campy live-action versions and a bit edgier than the cartoon. If you ask any Turtles fan, they wouldn't be completely happy unless we were handed a super dark PG-13 Ninja Turtles flick -- but, you know that's never going to happen. So, we might as well suck it up and welcome whatever Turtles-related coolness is heading our way.

If you want your geek movie to do well, there are a handful of major stars it would be very much in your best interest to cast. Kevin Munroe, director of the upcoming cinematic revamp of theTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, is of course quite aware of this fact, and like all good CGI film directors, he's out to fill his flick with major Hollywood stars as voice talent -- but voice talent, it seems, with a geeked-up background. Here's the run-down on what we've learned this week:

• Patrick Stewart. Geek credentials -- Living legend. Captain Picard of Trek fame, and Professor X of X-Men fame. They don't come bigger than this dude in the geek world. Stewart will be Max Winters, a "tech industrialist who is amassing an army of monsters in the city."
• Sarah Michelle Gellar. Geek credentials -- television geek queen, as the star of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Gellar is the voice of April, who is a "researcher" in this film, instead of a news host. She's also the resident den mother for the turtle boys.
• Chris Evans. Geek credentials -- just building the resume, but off to a very strong start as the Human Torch from Fantastic Four. Evans is Casey Jones, the crazy guy with the hockey stick.
• Kevin Smith. Geek credentials -- creator of Jay and Silent Bob, and high-profile comic book fan. Smith's just got himself a small part as a small time chef.
• Zhang Ziyi. Geek credentials -- all sorts of wire-fu, including House of Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Ziyi provides the voice for lead villain Karai, leader of an army of Foot Ninjas.

America has had a weekend to digest the new X-Men film, and early indications are positive. The numbers are big and the reviewers are happy. Once again America has reminded the industry why they've been pouring all this money and effort into superhero films.

Lest we forget in the midst of the Age of the Silver Screen Hero, much of the credit and thanks goes to those fans who have frequented the comic book shops these past decades, keeping our heroes in business long before Hollywood made them blockbusters. If it weren't for the True Believers, Marvel would have closed shop years ago (they flirted with monetary disaster on more than one occasion) and who knows where Professor X and his students would be now. So what do the dedicated have to say about the latest installment of Marvel on screen? They were worried in the run-up; afraid of what director Brett Ratner might do. I've been in touch this weekend with some serious geeks, folks who know Professor X better than Patrick Stewart, and they've got some great opinions on this stuff -- so I'm going to let them do the talking. The Geek Beat is proud to present our very first Geeks' Referendum!

Patrick Stewart has been vocally leading the way for a fourth X-Men film, loudly and repeatedly voicing his disbelief in the studio's insistence that this is indeed the final film. His fellow actors have chimed in on both sides ... but the studio remains strong in their denial. In a recent interview, Stewart admitted both that he had no actual knowledge of a sequel, and that the film people keep telling him there will be no more -- but he still doesn't seem to quite buy it. In the meantime, he said he has no plans other than his twelve month contract with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Stewart again said the work he has done on the X-films was fantastically fun and he'd love to do it again: "I read piles of comic books. It was the most fun research that I've ever done. I always do a lot of research for roles and all I did was read. The studio just sent over a huge pile of comic books and my son said, 'And they're paying you?'"

So do you think the studio actually finished with X-Men, or do you, like Stewart, believe it's just a clever ploy to milk as much cash as they can from part three? Or perhaps it is somewhere in between. Might the studio be waiting to see the final box office numbers before making an official decision on a return? And don't you wish someone would pay you to read piles of comic books?

When Cinematical editor James Rocchi asked for someone completely uninterested in X-Men to do one of our two reviews on the new X-Men flick, I knew it'd be me. It's not that I don't end up enjoying the occasional comic flick if I happen to catch it; they're just not (with the exception of Spider-Man) the first films I tend to see. There are only so many films a busy girl can see, and my movie viewing-and-reviewing hours tend to be more devoted to indies, foreigns, and docs. The idea, I suppose, is to have someone reviewing the film purely on its artistic merits, untainted by any fangirl bias. I'm telling you all this upfront so you don't have to waste your fingers typing, "You're clearly an idiot who knows nothing about X-Men, so why the hell are you reviewing this film?" comments. You're right, I am almost totally ignorant of the world of X-Men, so take this review with that heaping portion of salt.

Because I am not a comic-geek, I wasn't obsessing over whether Brett Ratner would screw up this franchise or how much better it would have been if Bryan Singer had directed, or whether Kelsey Grammar would be at all convincing as the Beast. I saw X-Men and X-Men 2, and the most memorable thing about both films for me is the good cop-bad cop dynamic between Professor Xavier and Magneto and the philosophical issues underlying the evolution of mutants and how society would treat them.

X-Men: The Last Stand opens with a mutant-friendly President having established a Department of Mutant Relations, which actually made me laugh. How typical is it that the government would slap a layer of bureaucracy over a deeply divisive issue and call it done? Pretty damn likely. Things are cruising along pretty nicely for newly-appointed Mutant Ambassador Hank, aka The Beast (Kelsey Grammer), a furry blue mutant wearing the armor of respectability in the form of an ill-fitting suit, whose days are apparently filled by hanging upside down in his spandy-new paneled office waiting to be summoned to meetings. And the next meeting Hank is summoned to is a doozy -- the revelation that a "cure" for mutancy has been developed and is soon to be made available to the mutant public: Not forced on them, no -- of course the government would never do that. Your government has only your best interests at heart, right?

Not so very long ago, Ian McKellen slyly suggested he'd love to reprise his role as Magneto in the upcoming spin-off prequel origins flick. McKellen reasoned that filmmakers could use the same techniques they used for a flashback scene in X-Men: The Last Stand to retro-age him and Patrick Stewart so they could play their respective younger selves. Recently, the ever-blunt Patrick Stewart said was what on all of our collective minds when he was asked about such a cinematic feat: "If we're really looking at the early days, a real prequel, sure, you've got to have young actors." Prompted to suggest an actor to play a younger version of himself, Stewart sagely and humorously suggested "my son!"

Stewart also fielded a question or two about the rumored upcoming return to the Star Trek franchise. Stewart admitted to being "astonished," because the "old regime" at Paramount (Sheri Lansing and her posse) had declared a very clear death of the franchise after Nemesis. He said he knew of a great script which had been "put to sleep" not long after Nemesis, but he has no idea if it will be the base for a new film, or even if the Next Gen crew will figure into the film in any way. Needless to say, he'd love an opportunity to return. Many of his fans would doubtless like it too.