RogerDonaldson Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I'll admit that for some silly reason seeing the poster for The Bank Job made me think that this flick might be a step above the usual Lock, Stock rip-off. Unfortunately, a new TV spot over at Coming Soon has me rethinking that position. CS is now hosting the new commercial for the crime caper and by the looks of things, this film is just going to be another paint-by-numbers British crime caper -- the legacy of Guy Ritchie lives on.

The Bank Job is based on the true story of the famous Baker Street Robbery. In 1971, over $900,000 was stolen from Lloyds Bank in London. The thieves were never caught and even stranger was the fact that a gag order was placed on the investigation. Well, 27 years later and director Roger Donaldson is claiming that finally the real story can be told. According to the film's writers and their "Deep Throat" source, the real reason for the heist was to cover up a scandal involving the Royal Family. The conspiracy theory also manages to incriminate high-ranking police officers, the secret service, politicians and a prominent member of the royal family.

So you can maybe understand why I'm a little disappointed that a fascinating story like this might be reduced to nothing but choppy editing and glib dialog. Screenwriters Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (Flushed Away) have been trying to get the story of the Baker Street Robbery to the screen for years, so hopefully they wanted to do it right. I guess I will have to wait and see when The Bank Job hits theaters later this month.

Check out the theatrical trailer for The Bank Job after the jump ...

Everyone loves a heist movie, and now the story of one of the most infamous bank robberies in history is finally being made into a film. The Baker Street robbery was one of England's best-kept secrets for the last 35 years -- thanks to a government gag order. No one was ever arrested and the money was never found, so if you like to root for the bad guys in a movie, then this is the story for you. Production Weekly has reported that Roger Donaldson is now attached to direct Baker Street, starring Jason Statham (Crank). Donaldson's resume includes Thirteen Days and The Bounty; unfortunately it also includes Cocktail, but perhaps we can overlook that one. Production is set to begin in 2007 in the UK, with a script penned by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais.

It looks like Jason Statham has pretty much set up camp in either action or heist movies, so this project seems like a logical step -- even with the director of Cocktail at the helm. With the upcoming heist flicks Oceans 13 and The Brazilian Job (which also includes Statham in the cast) you have to wonder: Is there room for one more? Or have audiences had all the heist they can handle?

[via ComingSoon.net and Production Weekly]

Mountain climbing movies aren't usually the biggest draw, but perhaps the problem with K2 and Vertical Limit was that they were fiction. After all, Touching the Void was based on a true story, and it did pretty well for a dramatization doc. And now comes word that the historical climb of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzig Norgay, the first men to reach the top of Mount Everest, may be made into a movie. Roger Donaldson is currently attempting to get funding for the idea, which is currently called Higher Ground. No stranger to true stories, Donaldson directed The World's Fastest Indian, Thirteen Days, as well as the clearly titled Marie: A True Story. He recently had planned to make a movie about Ernest Hemingway, with Anthony Hopkins as the writer, but he had too many problems getting it under way.

But do people outside of New Zealand have much interest in Hillary? Sure, every school kid probably knows who he is, but knowing about a famous person and wanting to see a movie about his life are two very different things. Especially when that movie is going to consist of a lot of boring mountain climbing -- sorry, but there are only so many scenes you can have with a team of covered-up actors climbing up a snowy, windy peak, and still keep it interesting. Donaldson says Hillary's life will make, "an extraordinary movie." We'll see.