Paul Giamatti Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Circa 1910, Lev Tolstoy was the most renowned writer and thinker in Russia. The man was so worshipped that he spawned his own political and philosophical movement – Tolstoyanism – that won over scores of fanatically devoted adherents who followed Tolstoy in rejecting notions of private property, condemning sexual intercourse, and embracing what can be described as an idiosyncratic form of communism, with a somewhat creepy religious bent. "I don't believe that Tolstoy is Christ," says one particularly revolting character in The Last Station, a fictionalized chronicle of Tolstoy's last days. "Christ is Christ. But I believe that he is a prophet."

I've read enough Tolstoy to know that the guy was essentially a crackpot. The main problem with The Last Station is that the movie – which wants badly to portray the man as sympathetic – spends most of its running time madly equivocating on this score. Certainly its depiction of his politics does Tolstoy no favors: his worldview appears as illogical and fanatical as it apparently was in real life. At the urging of his advisors, the man robs his wife of 48 years of the rights to his bestsellers, which he is convinced "belong to the people." When asked why his family shouldn't profit from what is, after all, his work, he says that if peasants had money, they wouldn't spend it on footservants – to which his wife, Countess Sofia Andreevna Tolstoya, reasonably replies that they would probably spend it on liquor.

Oh, Paul Giamatti. He's the man you can't help but love and respect. He's got acting chops on all sides of the fence, being able to play it straight and serious just as much as over-the-top ridiculous and campy -- in other words, the perfect combination. Giamatti has come a long way since he popped up as Kissing Man in Singles, and these days, he's the kind of actor who might even lead you to movies you would not have otherwise considered. But now the man needs to get a little more selective.

For ages, he's been attached to Bubba Nosferatu, a project that got immensely worrisome when Bruce Campbell exited over the screenplay (only to get Ron Perlman). It might seem like a project going nowhere, but according to the new Elvis, the film will finally play out during Perlman's Sons of Anarchy hiatus. And Giamatti is still on-board. Strike one: Sticking with this project post-Campbell when the original barely made it to the screen and the film's fans don't want Bubba without Bruce.

Indie Roundup reviews the past week of news from the independent film community and provides a peek at what's coming soon.

Festivals. The venerable New York Film Festival announced its first titles, while Eugene Hernandez and Brian Brooks of indieWIRE consider the impact of non-programming changes. In news from the other coast, Rachel Rosen is heading back to the City by the Bay to work as programming director for the San Francisco Film Society, reports The Wrap.

Rosen moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles eight years ago and helped transform the Los Angeles Film Festival into a truly major festival in a city that, oddly enough, doesn't give much respect to local film festivals. As Director of Programming, she and Senior Programmer Doug Jones chose a wonderfully diverse selection of international films that were challenging and not always the most audience friendly, yet they were distinctive and memorable. And now she's gone. (A more extensive report can be found at indieWIRE.) Whoever replaces her has big shoes to fill.

Online / On-Demand Viewing. I like free, legal movies, and Babelgum and Cinetic have a new title in their monthly program to tantalize cheapskates like me: Jack Says is described as a "contemporary film noir thriller," in which the titular character wakes up next to a corpse with amnesia (Jack, not the corpse). At SnagFilms, you can watch gamer doc Second Skin for free until tomorrow, as part of their SummerFest series. And from Friday through Sunday, the doc Captured -- all about Manhattan's Lower East Side -- will be available for free streaming via Cinetic's channel at Daily Motion.

What do Cold Souls and Paper Heart have in common? Indie Weekend Box Office, after the jump.

Peter and Bobby Farrelly's long-suffering project The Three Stooges has added and subtracted two more names to its cast, according to Boston.com, who caught up with Peter at a show at Fenway Park. Paul Giamatti, who can be seen on a limited number of arthouse screens in the wonderful new movie Cold Souls, will be taking on the role of Larry, the curly-haired comedian of the trio. (Oscar-winner Sean Penn ducked out of both The Three Stooges and Cartel earlier this summer.) Beleagured Wolf Man Benecio Del Toro is still on board to play slap-happy Moe, but Curly remains a mystery. According to Peter, who was trying to watch Paul McCartney while the reporter sussed out this info, the rumors that Jim Carrey will be playing the big-mouthed baldie are incorrect.

So who is willing to take the significant amount of Stooge abuse in the trio? Personally, I nominate Shia LaBeouf. Because someone needs a few noogies after Transformers 2.

If you're dying to participate in your own Stooge-y slapfight, you can download the iStooges app to your iPhone and n'yuck to your heart's delight. See a video demo after the jump.

By James Rocchi (reprint from Sundance 2009)

It's inevitable Cold Souls -- with its pseudo-scientific commercialized metaphysics and actor's angst -- will be compared to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich; it's the first post-Charlie Kaufman film, where the writer-director's weird, wooly aesthetic becomes a genre unto itself. Starring Paul Giamatti as, in a blatant piece of typecasting, actor Paul Giamatti, Cold Souls begins with Giamatti rehearsing the title role in Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, and it's obviously taking its toll as he plunges into sad-sack Russian angst and anomie. Giamatti's agent tips him to an article in The New Yorker, profiling a new service called "Soul Storage," wherein melancholy Manhattanites are having their souls extracted by Dr. Flintstein (David Strathairn) and held in escrow so they can live less complicated lives. Giamatti, wondering if having less soul would help him better play the part and get through the day, goes to Flintstein's office to get the details: "Your soul can be stored here ... or if you'd prefer to avoid the sales tax, it can be shipped to our storage facility in New Jersey. ..."

And again, you get the Kaufman vibe from writer-director Sophie Barthes; the dry humor, the everyday acceptance of the ludicrous, the ludicrous nature of the everyday. But while the comparisons to Eternal Sunshine and Being John Malkovich are inevitable, they're also not quite right. Eternal Sunshine was about the messy business of loving another; Cold Souls, with the equally messy proposition of living with one's self. Being John Malkovitch riffed comedy out of celebrity and stardom; Cold Souls examines sub-lebrity and acting. Cold Souls is a beautifully shot film, and it also becomes more than a little bit moving, as Giamatti struggles with a question we've all asked ourselves: Is it possible to remove the burden of our soul without taking away the benefit of it? Is it the very weight we struggle under that makes us strong?

Click image below to view entire poster

Cinematical has just received this incredibly freaky exclusive poster for Cold Souls, which premiered at this past Sundance Film Festival and stars Paul Giamatti as an actor (appropriately named Paul Giamatti) who decides he wants to put some of his soul in storage in order to help better tackle a new role. Folks are already making comparisons to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich, though this isn't a Charlie Kaufman film -- it was written and directed by first-timer Sophie Barthes, and it also stars Emily Watson and David Strathairn.

Reporting for Cinematical at Sundance, James Rocchi had this to say about the film: "Cold Souls is a beautifully shot film, and it also becomes more than a little bit moving, as Giamatti struggles with a question we've all asked ourselves: Is it possible to remove the burden of our soul without taking away the benefit of it? Is it the very weight we struggle under that makes us strong? Deep questions, but Cold Souls is also funny; there are fast, laugh-out-loud gags like Giamatti's compensation anxiety over the small size of his extracted soul ("It looks like a chickpea!") or the Russian trophy wife obsessed with getting an American actor's extracted soul so she can implant it and do better Soap Opera work."

Cold Souls arrives in theaters on August 7. Click the image below to check out the entire poster (which you simply must do, because this is easily one of my favorites of the year so far).

It's been 14 years since Mordechai Richler's adult fare made it to the big screen in 1985's Joshua Then and Now. (Before that, it was 1974 with the Richard Dreyfuss-starring The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz.) It's been far from a quick book-to-screen process, but all these years later, we're finally getting a little more. Canoe reports that his 1997 novel Barney's Vision is heading for the big screen, and Paul Giamatti will star.

Producer Robert Lantos has been trying to get a good script since the book came out, and he now thinks he has "a screenplay that is worthy of Richler's magnificent book," written by TV scribe Michael Konyves. In fact, by nabbing Giamatti, Lantos even got the actor he was hoping for. The project, which will be helmed by Richard J. Lewis (CSI director), follows a hard-drinking rascally man named Barney Panofsky who decides to write "the true story of my wasted life," from adventures in 1950s Paris, to money earned through a TV company called Totally Unnecessary Productions, to three different wives. But ithe tale is unreliable, and footnoted with corrections from his son.

I'm not sure how they'll deal with the textual flairs from the novel, but a satirical social commentary led by Giamatti? It's like Sideways without the wine and dumb friend. Production kicks off in Rome, Montreal, the Laurentians, and New York on August 17.

Evidently, nothing disturbs an Academy Award-nominated actor more than being offered a cameo role in a foreign-language remake of a movie in which he starred. Reportedly, Paul Giamatti was "stunned" when he was offered a small part in the Japanese remake of Alexander Payne's Sideways. "I don't know what I was going to play," the actor said, according to WENN.com. "I said no. I felt my career hasn't hit that low yet. I thought, 'What am I gonna play - the sushi chef or something?'" Giamatti was also none too pleased with the actor chosen to play Miles, the wine snob he made semi-famous: "They got a strange, little troll to play me."

We wrote about the remake last November. At the time, I noted that California wine imports in Japan had significantly increased, and also observed that a popular, wine-themed comic was credited with sending wine sales skyrocketing across Asia. A recent article in the New York Times cited those same points, and also reports the low-budget remake eliminates 'merlot bashing' while adding plugs for Napa Valley wineries, restaurants, and tourist spots. Sideways did not do much box office business in Japan; that, combined with its "international travels (and the cultural dislocations) of its main characters" made it potentially apealing to the late 30/early 40s audience the Japanese producers are targeting.

I can understand Giamatti not wanting to do a cameo role, though I don't understand why he would trash another actor for his looks. Was he joking? The actor Giamatti reportedly called "a strange, little troll" is named Fumiyo Kohinata. We've posted a publicity still from the movie down below, so you can decide for yourself; he's second from the left. Who's the troll?

Some casting news is horrendous, some is good, and just sometimes there's news that seems too good to be true -- like Alexander Payne teaming up with his best stars and making a strangely wonderful-sounding film about downsizing -- not focusing on our rich lifestyles, but rather, our stature.

Variety reports that Payne is finishing up a new script about little people called Downsizing, and he's gotten Paul Giamatti, Reese Witherspoon, and Sacha Baron Cohen to commit. What's this about? Look at the clues -- downsizing, statures, and little people. Oh yes -- Downsizing will focus on people who want to become little people. As the story goes, Giamatti and Witherspoon will play a married couple who don't have a lot of cash and figure they can lead a better retired life as little people. But then the Mrs. decides to pull out, leaving her regular-sized, and Giamatti little. Cohen slips into the mix as twins -- one is a tiny Spaniard, and the other is his normal-sized business partner (a role that might evolve as the script heads to completion).

I'll forgive the continuation of the male Hollywood fantasy (Giamatti and Witherspoon, really?), and focus on the fact that both actors excel in the world of Payne. Add to that the fact that this is NOT an animated film, but rather a movie that relies on special effects, and how can he go wrong? In a world where every fantastical story gets animated, I'm loving the idea of a live-action, special effects-laden Payne world, and just hoping Lily Tomlin gets a cameo.

Anyone else really loving this idea?

Playing himself -- or, rather, a kind-of version of himself who volunteers to have his soul removed -- in this year's Sundance Dramatic Competition entry Cold Souls (see our review here), Paul Giamatti faced some fairly unique challenges: "I kind of forgot that I was playing myself in this ... I kind of felt that (director Sophie Bart) captured, in a funny way, an archetypal type of neurotic New York self-involved actor ... I kinda forgot I was playing myself; and I don't mean that to sound disingenuous about it, but I really did. ..." Giamatti spoke with Cinematical about how much he enjoyed Shoot 'Em Up, tapping into Russian melancholy for Cold Souls through facial hair and headgear and which midnight zombie film he'd most like to catch while in Park City. ...

You can listen to the podcast here at Cinematical by clicking below:



You can also download the interview in full right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.