Robert Duvall Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Last November, Warner Bros. released Fred Claus, a Christmas-set comedy pairing up lead Vince Vaughn with Rachel Weisz.

This November, New Line released Four Christmases, a Christmas-set comedy pairing up lead Vince Vaughn with Reese Witherspoon.

Mere coincidence, you might ask, despite the fact that New Line is owned by Warner Brothers, not to mention the shared initials of both the titles and the actresses playing the love interests? Perhaps, but happenstance loses my vote when the best one can say for Four Christmases is that it's a marginally better holiday romp than the likes of Fred Claus.

Feel that chill in the air? That's because you left the kitchen window open -- go on, I'll wait -- but that secondary chill you're feeling would be the multiplex yuletide season turning in our direction, ready and waiting to melt the bleep out of your heart. Last year, it was This Christmas and The Perfect Holiday begging to be mistaken for one another (in title, not in quality).

This year we've got at least two winter-themed family-minded dramedies waiting in the wings. First out the gate is Nothing Like The Holidays (the trailer's now up at Apple), in which a Hispanic-American family gathers for what might be their last Christmas spent together. Sooooo ... it's basically This Christmas, with the casting emphasis on a different minority. However, for all that film's familiar beats, I found myself surprisingly won over, so here's to hoping that something similar might come of Holidays on November 21st.

In the other corner, we have Four Christmases, in which Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon find themselves shuffling off to visit each of their parents on X-Mas Day. If this (embed-less) TV spot on YouTube is any indication, Vaughn's creaky neurotic shtick and infant spewage will be par for the course, not to mention the last thing I might expect to come from the non-doco directorial debut of Seth Gordon (The King of Kong). As the Hollywood gods have decreed it, Christmases is set to open just before Thanksgiving on November 26th. Ah, the smell of leftovers...

Too much merchandising can saturate the classiness of a film, but I still think any actor who has played an iconic character should stick with that role through and through. Decades ago I was down for any movie star reprising a role for an animated spin-off (Mary Steenburgen, you're constantly giving me reasons to love you), and today I support anybody who follows his or her character to the world of video games. So, regardless of whether or not Francis Ford Coppola approves, kudos to Robert Duvall for being involved with Electronic Arts' upcoming game version of The Godfather II.

While other actors from the Godfather sequel have at least allowed their likenesses to be represented, just as they had with The Godfather: The Game before, Duvall's role in the game is more significant. Variety reports that his character, Tom Hagen, features prominently as an adviser to the player, and Duvall is recording new voiceover dialogue for this purpose. As with the first game, Al Pacino has chosen to not be involved (he's obviously holding out for that Scent of a Woman game to mark his video game voice work debut).

Well, what do you know? It turns out that not only is Jeff Bridges the man responsible for the patron saint of stoners everywhere, but apparently the guy can sing too. Variety reports that Maggie Gyllenhaal and Robert Duvall have signed to star alongside Bridges in the country music drama Crazy Heart.

The indie drama is based on Thomas Cobb's debut novel of the same name, and centers on an alcoholic country star with the unfortunate name of Bad Blake. Scott Cooper (who will also direct) has adapted the story of an alcoholic country music singer (Bridges) who is in the midst of a professional and personal meltdown. When a journalist (played by Gyllenhaal) blows through town to interview the fading star, the two begin a relationship that helps Blake get his life back on track.

Plus it turns out that all three stars have some previous musical experience. Duvall starred in Tender Mercies back in 1983 (which also centered on an alcoholic country singer -- and won Duvall an Oscar for Best Actor), Gyllenhaal did a little singing in the flick Happy Endings, and Bridges has already released an entire album -- and here I was thinking the guy was only a great actor and pretty decent photographer. I would assume that as Blake, Bridges may be doing the bulk of the singing (with original music provided by T Bone Burnett), but it's good to know he has some back-up if he needs it.

Crazy Heart is scheduled to start filming on location next month in New Mexico.

So far, there are only a few actors officially attached to Oliver Stone's W., the epic biopic about our current commander-in-chief. Josh Brolin was cast as President George W. Bush back in January, then recently Elizabeth Banks was chosen as his wife, First Lady Laura Bush, and last week James Cromwell and Ellen Burstyn were locked into the roles of former President George H.W. Bush and former first lady Barbara Bush, respectively. Unofficial casting bites, though, include a lot of other big name actors. Jeffrey Wright is reportedly in negotiations to play Colin Powell, Tommy Lee Jones is supposedly being sought for Donald Rumsfeld, Robert Duvall has been rumored to be the choice for Vice President Dick Cheney and now both Paul Giamatti and Toby Jones are being named as potentials for the part of Karl Rove (who Giamatti may have already channeled for his character in Shoot 'Em Up).

It must be a lot of fun casting veteran actors as parents of current stars. Thanks to past casting decisions we got to see Sean Connery play Harrison Ford's father, Barbara Streisand and Dustin Hoffman play Ben Stiller's mom and dad, and Keith Richards (wait, he's not a veteran actor) as Johnny Depp's pirate papa. Now, somewhat similar to the parental stunt-casting of the Meet the Parents movies, we're getting some interesting casting choices for the roles of both Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn's parents in next holiday season's Four Christmases. It's a comedy about a married couple attempting to visit with all four of their parents -- who are all divorced and live in four different locations -- on Christmas Day.

We've already learned Robert Duvall is one of the fathers (now we find out he's playing Vaughn's). Now, according to the Hollywood Reporter, Oscar-winning actresses Sissy Spacek and Mary Steenburgen are hopping on board as the moms. Can you imagine which one goes with which of the movie's leads? Immediately I thought "Loretta Lynn" should be mom to "June Carter" and tall(er) "Clara Clayton" should be mom to super-tall "Fred Claus". Alas, the casting went the other way: "Carrie" is the mother of "Norman Bates" and "Hannah Nixon" is the mother of "Tracy Flick". To be more specific, "Spacek will play the slightly spacey, New Age mother of Brad (Vaughn). Steenburgen will play the chameleonlike mother of Kate (Witherspoon), whose personality changes depending on whom she's married to or dating." We still don't know which Academy Award winning actor (he has to have an Oscar, like the other parents) will play Witherspoon's dad -- may I suggest Chris Cooper? or Alan Arkin? The only other role cast is the part of Witherspoon's "controlling, type-A sister", to be played by Kristen Chenoweth.

Did you enjoy watching Vince Vaughn in a Christmas setting over the weekend? Well, don't forget, you'll have another chance to see him in a holiday film next year, as the actor is starring with Reese Witherspoon in Four Christmases, due in December 2008. Now, according to Variety, there's an excellent addition to the cast: Robert Duvall. Ah, nothing says obligatory Christmas comedy like Oscar winners slumming it. Well, at least Vaughn could learn a few tips from either Duvall or Witherspoon. More from Duvall, though. In addition to his win for Tender Mercies in 1984, Duvall has been nominated another five times (he's also won four Golden Globes out of six noms) and definitely should have received more noms (my pick: Falling Down). In turn, maybe Vaughn can teach Duvall a little something about light-hearted comedy. The elder actor hasn't done so well in the family film department (even if I enjoyed him immensely in Secondhand Lions and Newsies), and while he can certainly deliver funny performances at times (loved him and his mint julep in Thank You For Smoking), none of those roles could be considered "hilarious" or "broad" comedy.

Considering the plot of Four Christmases, Duvall will probably only get less than a quarter of the movie's screen time. The story follows Vaughn and Witherspoon's young married characters as they attempt to visit all four of their divorced parents on Christmas Day. It's highly likely that Duvall plays one of the fathers. Now, who will play the other parents? Could we get some more prestige, a la Meet the Fockers? If New Line can get three more Oscar winners (to completely flank odd-man Vaughn), then I might actually have to put this film on my next year's wish list. Four Christmases was written by Matt Allen and Caleb Wilson and is being directed by King of Kong's Seth Gordon.

James Gray's The Yards (2000) opened in the U.S. to fairly mixed reviews, many politely recommending it and many politely panning it. Nobody got too excited about it either way, and neither did audiences. According to boxofficemojo.com, it grossed less than $1 million on a $24 million budget. But Europe was a different story. European film critics generally are geared more toward artistry and personal expression than they are stories and subject matter, and I often agree with their assessments, but for some reason they really latched onto The Yards. I caught up with the film later, when Miramax released a special edition DVD in 2006, and I found myself agreeing with my American colleagues. It has a kind of nostalgia for the 1970s, with James Caan, Ellen Burstyn and Faye Dunaway in rich supporting roles, and so perhaps it gives the illusion of grit and risk. But the leads Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg and Charlize Theron placed it squarely in the present when risk is better in theory than in practice.

Seven years later, Gray has returned with his third film (his first was 1994's Little Odessa), and I've slowly begun to understand Gray's brand of low-key skill. Certainly the premise, about two opposing brothers, one in law enforcement and the other hovering near the underworld, has been around for some time, and could have been told in any early D.W. Griffith or Raoul Walsh silent picture. John Woo made a masterpiece from the idea with his A Better Tomorrow (1986). And Clark Gable and William Powell played out the idea -- as best friends instead of brothers -- in Manhattan Melodrama (1934). But Gray takes the tale, shakes it out and makes it compelling once more.

A few months back Monika brought you some info on an international trailer for James Gray's crime thriller We Own the Night -- but now we've got a brand-new domestic trailer to check out ... and I'd say the flick looks pretty solid! (Maybe not all that startlingly original, but certainly something worth seeing.) Click here to check out the trailer at IGN Movies, and then take a second to wonder if Mark Wahlberg really likes playing a cop. (I'd say he does.)

Based on what I saw in the promotional clip, We Own the Night is about two brothers: one a decent cop (Wahlberg) and the other a nightclub owner (Joaquin Phoenix) who (unwisely) gets involved with some big-time Russian drug dealers. Cue conflict. Also on board are (the fantastic) Robert Duvall as the patriarch and (the rather attractive) Eva Mendes as the worried girlfriend.

You may remember James Gray from The Yards and Little Odessa, both of which are definitely worth a rental some night. The film played the Cannes Film Festival a few months back, prompting Variety's Todd McCarthy to write the following: "Adequately acted and flecked with the required quota of action to satisfy genre fans, pic recalls numerous good police dramas of the 1970s, but mostly in superficial ways that bring nothing new to the table." Our own James Rocchi had this to say: "May feel curiously at odds with itself, but that doesn't necessarily make it a bad movie; if Gray's movie excels at one thing, it's how it takes the title phrase and makes a boast into something like a curse."

Sony looks poised to release Night on October 12.

It seems like Mark Wahlberg still has the knack for choosing movie roles that are all over the map. For example, there was the recent news that the actor had made the "out-there" choice of starring in M. Night Shyamalan's latest film, but up first for him will be the slightly more predictable We Own The Night. A French website is now operating for the crime thriller starring not only Wahlberg, but Joaquin Phoenix and Robert Duvall. Directed by James Gray, the film is set in New York in the late 80's, and centers on a family of cops and criminals in the midst of a drug war with the Russian mob. The site has plenty of pictures and we also get a look at the international trailer for the film.

Wahlberg continues his streak of playing cops but it looks like Phoenix gets to show off a little more in the role of a tormented informant with family connections in law enforcement. Also starring as a love interest to Phoenix is Eva Mendes, who doesn't get to do much in the trailer other than look concerned and writhe around in underwear. This is only the first of many projects for Wahlberg this year, including reuniting with Martin Scorsese on the HBO series Boardwalk and he will also be re-teaming with Departed co-star Matt Damon in the biopic of boxer Irish Micky Ward. So far, New Line has yet to announce a release date for We Own The Night., instead they are currently in Cannes drumming up a little business for the film.