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Posts with tag PatrickSwayze

Jan de Bont Directing Sequel to 'Point Break'

Life sure has a sick sense of humor , doesn't it?

From Cannes comes the news that Jan de Bont, last seen behind the camera of Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (and currently filming Stopping Power), is going to be filming a sequel to Kathryn Bigelow's 1991 film.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the sequel will be given the poetic title Point Break: Indo, and will be based somewhere in Asia. It will take place 20 years after the original, which you will remember ended with the disappearance of Bodhi, Patrick Swayze's character.

No word on the plot, or if any of the original characters will appear, though the script is being penned by the same scribe, W. Peter Iliff. (We reported this last year, actually.) I think it's safe to assume it will be the same characters; what sense would a sequel make if it was about another gang of criminal surfers? (Actually, IESB says there is another band of criminal surfers, and they're called -- gulp -- The Bush Administration. Um, yay?) And what of the actors? Will someone manage get Keanu Reeves to reprise his lead role? So many questions, none of them good.

Just when you think there is no film they can resurrect for a sequel. I'm at a loss. Why can't they make more Russian mafia movies instead of resurrecting surfing criminals? Oddly, the lingering question in my mind is how Danny Butterman will react to the news, and how this movie really should have come out before all that nastiness in Sandford. Then I would know if he preferred it to the original and could rest easy.








Stars in Rewind: Patrick Swayze -- The King of Dirty Dancing



As Kim let us know last night, Patrick Swayze has pancreatic cancer. It's not a particularly easy sort of C to get over, but reports are saying that he's responding well to treatment. I hope so, as the world needs the Swayze. There have been some stinkers in his career, but there are also great gems. Like, oh, Dirty Dancing.

This is, in no way, a memorial, but rather appreciation of what makes Swayze so cool, and one of the reasons why I hope he's around for a long, long time to come. So, let's jump back in time to his special finale dance with Jennifer Grey. I'm usually not one for grandiose displays of affection, but this one I dig. It's one of the few "awh" romantic moments on screen that I think is natural -- both for the character and the situation. It's not breaking out into song randomly, but with a specific, thematic purpose. And really, it's nice to see an on-screen group dance where they all do their own thing, instead of magically falling into the same ultra-tricky dance moves.

Patrick Swayze, you rock.

BREAKING NEWS: Patrick Swayze Diagnosed with Terminal Cancer



Update: Swayze's reps hadn't commented more to Reuters at the time Moviefone ran their piece, but a reader kindly pointed us to this story on People that indicates a more optimistic outlook for Swayze. -- ed.

Well, this news is depressing as hell. Patrick Swayze, 55, has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer., and has only a short time to live. According to a piece over on Moviefone, a rep for Swayze told the New York Post that the actor was diagnosed over a month ago. Swayze is perhaps best known for his leading role in Dirty Dancing, when his character, Johnny Castle, an older dance instructor, swept young and perky Jennifer Grey off her feet. My own favorite Swayze movies, though, are Red Dawn ("Wolverines!") and Ghost. The latter never fails to reduce me to a blubbering heap of tears, no matter how sternly I tell myself I won't cry this time.

I have no idea if Swayze reads Cinematical, but we would like to extend our condolences and sadness at this news, and wish him and his family well. I know we have lots of Swayze fans out there, so feel free to use this space to extend your own thoughts and well-wishes to Swayze. What's your favorite Swayze movie moment?

Jessica Biel to Shed Threads in 'Powder Blue'

For a sizable amount of the male population, this is probably the best news they will hear all day. Us Weekly reports that Jessica Biel has agreed to appear nude in the upcoming drama, Powder Blue. Biel will star as a single mother stripping to raise money to save her terminally ill son. Joining Biel are; Forest Whitaker, Ray Liotta (as Biel's father), and Patrick Swayze as the owner of the club where Biel works. Directed by Timothy Linh Bui, the story centers on four strangers whose lives intersect in strange ways on Christmas Eve. According to sources for Us Weekly, Biel will retain final say over what makes it into the movie, but, she has reportedly "signed a contract that explicitly details the bare minimum fans will see - including shots of her breasts and butt."

In the past, Biel had been unwilling to bare it all on screen -- much to the disappointment of many I'm sure. The actress had even commented that she had felt she had been overlooked for roles because of it. To be honest, I don't see what all the fuss is about; especially if you remember Biel's controversial Gear magazine shoot back in 2000 -- it's not like the actress has shied away from showing a little skin. Although, Biel was quoted in that same Us Weekly piece as saying that her time as a Gear cover girl left her feeling "humiliated." Biel even recently told Australia's Sunday Herald, "I wouldn't feel comfortable with the extent of the nudity in Monster's Ball, I would be terrified of a role like that right now." So there really must have been something special about Bui's film to change her mind. Blue is currently shooting in Los Angeles and set for release in 2008.

'Powder Blue' Adds The Swayze

Our EIC, Erik Davis, came up with "The Swayze," and I have to say -- I like it! "The Swayze" just sounds so much better, and so much more epic than just Patrick Swayze. It sounds infamous, and even a little dance-like, which is entirely apt since the guy is a great dancer. Granted, it can also take on the tone of a cheesy number, like "Do the Bartman," but I am trying not to think of it that way. Anyway, The Swayze has just signed on to that flick called Powder Blue, which we have previously posted about here and here.

As you may remember, Blue is about four diverse characters who come together one Christmas Eve, and they are -- a mortician, an ex-con, a suicidal ex-priest and a stripper. While I'm really wishing the female role could be anything but a stripper, because that's so cliche, the lineup is: Forest Whitaker as the ex-priest, Ray Liotta as the ex-con and Jessica Biel as the stripper (and Liotta's daughter).

Now we've got Swayze as the strip club owner, Eddie Redmayne (Babington in the upcoming The Golden Age) as the mortician and newcomer Alejandro Romero as a transsexual prostitute who is close to Whitaker's character. Topping off the powerful male punch, Kris Kristofferson has also signed on as "the head of a corporate crime organization who tries to convince his former employee (Liotta) not to seek vengeance on his former co-workers." The Hollywood Reporter says that the four people meet "through chance, tragedy and divine intervention," so maybe we'll get a little godly action in there as well. Either way, we're sure to get lots and lots of on-screen dysfunctional testosterone.



Patrick Swayze Wants to Bond

I've never been able to completely wrap my head around how I feel about Patrick Swayze. While I've enjoyed some of his movies, he hasn't garnered extra attention from me. Sure, I used to watch Dirty Dan cing just for the side-shot of his posterior, and oooh over Orry Main, but when the film stopped rolling, I wouldn't wax philosophic about him or his acting. Perhaps this is because he seems to merge a little romantic swooning with well-moving hips and a little too much Disney cheer. Not even time in the Roadhouse or as a motivational pedophile could roughen his presence; it takes more than beard growth to be bad.

Now he's performing in Guys and Dolls, and is all sorts of smitten with London . When an actor starts planning to relocate to the UK, what's more logical than getting grand, 007 daydreams? According to Starpulse, Swayze wants a role in the next James Bond movie. Watch out, Dan iel Craig, Swayze's out to get ya!

While he seems to realize that he wouldn't work as Bond, Swayze wants to put his "terribly good English accent" to villainous use. While I'm sure he could hold his own with a tacky re-make, being a gritty villain seems a bit off-base. Craig has an action background and was still met with apprehension and criticism. Could Swayze be a devious bad guy? As Craig seems to slowly be warming the hearts of Bond naysayers, the door is open for further Bond casting surprises. What casting choice would you make that would seem all wrong, but be so very right?

Bigelow Steps Into The Hurt Locker

Director (and former Mrs. Jim Cameron) Kathryn Bigelow has had a rather uneven career in her twenty-odd years in Hollywood, but always managed to keep working and bring some pretty interesting projects to the screen. Now, according to Production Weekly, she is setting her sites on the Iraq war with her newly announced film, The Hurt Locker.

The film, which Bigelow co-wrote with war reporter-turned-screenwriter Mark Boal, tells the story of an elite bomb disposal unit and its exploits during the gulf war. This is not completely new territory for Bigelow, having directed other testosterone-heavy projects like Point Break, with Patrick Swayze and a pre-Neo Keanu Reeves, K-19: The Widowmaker, with Harrison Ford and Peter Sarsgaard and the near-perfect Near Dark with Bill Paxton and Lance Henricksen. These past films should give her a pretty good handle on what it takes to tackle this latest story.

The Hurt Locker has already begun pre-production with shooting scheduled to start in March. No word yet on a release date or cast but, as always, I'm going to make some suggestions: Let's get Bigelow vets Patrick Swayze, Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton together to fill key roles in this project. I think they would make part of a pretty kick-ass bomb disposal team.

Think about it: Henriksen as the grizzled veteran who's seen it all, Swayze as the guy on the edge with only a few days left before he can go home to his family and Paxton as the guy who's wound just a little-too-tight for bomb disposal. Throw in a few young up-and-comers like Emile Hirsch and/or Chad Michael Murry and you might have something there. Sadly, from the description of the movie, it doesn't sound like there's a role for Jenette Goldstein in there anywhere, but I can hope. What do you think of my casting ideas?

Guilty Pleasures: Red Dawn

(Welcome to a new weekly feature at Cinematical, Guilty Pleasures, where our staff of writers will offer short pieces on the movies that they feel just that little bit ashamed about loving.)

I once, at a panel, heard San Francisco Chronicle writer Neva Chonin say one of the smartest things I've ever heard about pop culture: She was talking about music, and how the most amazing thing about it was that it could give you a different perception of time -- that when you heard a song you loved, it took you back to all the times you'd experienced it, and gave you a chance to experience time in a non-linear fashion. So it is with movies, and for me, Red Dawn. Red Dawn came out in 1984. I was 15; Reagan-era Cold War anxieties had me twitchy (or, rather, twitchier), and my membership in The Royal Canadian Air Cadets -- teen-age Boy Scouts with planes and the occasional trip to the rifle range -- gave me a social context of like-minded youth. There was a Cold War, but what if it went hot? What would that be like?

And then Red Dawn came out. Forget that to anyone with a shred of logic in their capacities, the film was laughable -- The Soviets would send crack paratroopers to capture the heartland? What resource were they hoping to seize, flatness? -- when you're 15, your critical faculties are, at best, minimally developed. Red Dawn had a bunch of every-kids -- Charlie Sheen, Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell and more -- dealing with the arrival of the Red Menace. The film had action; it had suspense; it had gritty (or, at least, gritty by the standards of a 15-year-old) questions of wartime justice and tactics. It had hissable villains, too -- swarthy, stoic Cubans (led by Ron 'Superfly' O'Neal, which I wouldn't fully appreciate for years) and pallid, vampire-like Russkie bastards. It was, in short, perfect.

Times have changed; politics have changed; most cruelly of all, Charlie Sheen has changed. And yet, when I stumble across Red Dawn on cable -- where it will live forever -- I'm drawn in magnetically, fighting and struggling alongside the Wolverines and Powers Boothe, hooked by a premise so iron-strong and idiotic that it shoves me over every plot hole, every logic fault and every snag in John Milus' dialogue. Watching Red Dawn in the here-and-now, my 'adult' mind may recoil, but my heart -- and that skinny, dorky 15-year old, terrified of Nuclear War -- is enraptured by the power of cheap drama and cheap heroics that, God help me, still work on some level. 

Dirty Dancing: the stage musical

You can add the 1987 film Dirty Dancing to the ever-increasing list of movies that have become lavish stage productions. (For me, nothing beats Reanimator: The Play. It wasn't lavish but it sure was gory.) The stage musical story about Baby and Johnny and their magical dances of looove played to record crowds in Australia last year and now is being staged for London's West End. The production includes special effects to re-create the memorable scene on the lake, among others. (I don't remember the memorable scene on the lake, but I saw the movie once on cable in a hotel room and wasn't impressed.)

Dates haven't been announced and the show seems not have have been cast yet ...but tickets go on sale next week. The stage musical was written by Eleanor Bergstein, who also wrote the screenplay for the Eighties movie. She says "The play has everything from the film, and more." True, but there's no Patrick Swayze, and will young women swoon over the stage-musical Johnny quite as passionately? And do you think anyone will transform Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights into a musical?

Patrick Swayze, rapper

Patrick Swayze is going around telling hip hop magazines that he wants to be a rapper.

(Should I just let that one sink in?)

Yup, it's true. Swayze, you'll remember, was the biggest star in the world in 1987, when the surprise smash success of Dirty Dancing turned She's Like the Wind, a little slice of Swayze from the film's soundtrack, into a huge hit. 19 years later, he's apparently trying to relive that glory by recording a rap single. He told allhiphop.com [via Page Six, who are leading this morning with the headline, "Is Patrick Swayze Crazy?") that he's got a song in the theoretical works that will prove "rap rhythms [are] an emotional undercurrent for ballads."  But don't hold your breath, Swayze fanatics – the sometime star says he doesn't yet have a "timeline" for the no-doubt revolutionary single's release.

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