SeanBean Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Us critics, we don't hate Michael Bay. Well, not all of us, and not all the time. I wasn't a fan of his Transformers, nor Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and I haven't watched The Rock or Armageddon in their entirety in years, but I distinctly enjoyed 2005's The Island during its ill-fated theatrical run (gross: $35 million, cost: between three and four times that), and I still do as a decent sci-fi/action matinee outing.

But how?, I've been asked. It does after all bear every other trademark of a Michael Bay outing: explosions, rampant product placement, blatant racial stereotypes, explosions, perpetual dusk lighting, explosions, and a female lead constantly flattered by her wardrobe (yeah, a real woe-is-us scenario).

Percy Jackson: The Lightening Thief is the first in a series of young adult novels by Rick Riordan about a kid with dyslexia and ADHD who's also the kid of, you know, the son of Poseidon. As with most of us, he learns all about himself at summer camp -- except instead of mosquito bites and panty raids, Percy finds his camp is full of the sons and daughters of demigods. Since being optioned by Fox 2000 in 2004, it's acquired quite a roster of theatrical demigods to the cast, and its latest additions are pretty swell.

Rosario Dawson (who was the only part of Seven Pounds that didn't make me want to throw a shoe at the screen) is playing a sexy Persephone who gets a little friendly with Percy's BFF Grover, who, as it turns out, is a satyr. Awkward!

Those of us who suffered through Warner Bros' Troy were always kind of hoping they'd reward us by making the obvious sequel of The Odyssey. Now they are. Variety reports that the studio has nabbed "Odysseus," a spec script by Ann Peacock, and has assigned Jonathan Liebesman to direct.

Here I should stress that it's not officially a sequel to Troy but it might as well be, since it will follow that "real world" vision they set up with their earlier Homer rewrite. The movie won't be the tale of Odysseus' really lousy trip home from the Trojan War, but what happens when he finally gets back to his kingdom of Ithaca which he "finds under the brutal occupation of an invading force." Now this is true to the poem in that Odysseus finds all those wannabe husbands eating him out of house and home, and Penelope trying her best to fend them off. But they're not an invading force, they're local boys having a lot of fun, and their families don't take kindly to Odysseus slaughtering them all. War nearly breaks out between Odysseus and all of Ithaca until Athena intervenes, and forces them to make peace.

So yeah, there's a movie there, and the Muse will always start where she will. But it wouldn't be nearly as much fun as the Cyclops, the Sirens, Circe turning men into pigs (ha ha!), the Underworld, faithful Penelope and manwhore Odysseus (so good in bed that Calypso refuses to release him for years). I'm enough of a classics nerd that I could sit through a whole Odyssey trilogy if Warner Bros would just make the whole sprawling saga. I know I'm not alone in that. Still, if this is the version they're going to go with, could we at least have Sean Bean reprise the role?

I don't know if Chris Columbus' Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief will be the next Harry Potter, but it certainly has a cast that can rival the one living at Hogwarts. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the latest to sign on is the always lovely Catherine Keener, who will be playing Sally Jackson, mother to Logan Lerman's Percy.
Of course, Sally isn't just any ordinary single mother, she's one beloved by at least one Greek god. A forbidden love affair with Poseidon produced Percy, who just might be the boy to fulfill a prophecy. Sally tries to conceal Percy's identity from the gods and from himself, but of course that never works.

The Olympians cast so far include Uma Thurman as Medusa (I know, right?), Pierce Brosnan as Chiron, Melina Kanakeredes as Athena, Kevin McKidd as Poseidon, and Sean Bean as Zeus. They're still looking for a Hades and probably annoyed Clash of the Titans nabbed Ralph Fiennes as theirs.

I share Peter Martin's doubts that this will be the next Potter (I think that's a one time thing), and I'm so-so on the story because it flouts mythological convention and gives the man-disdaining Athena a daughter. But I am a sucker for a lot of the cast members (especially McKidd and Bean), and the idea of McKidd and Keener being so overcome with passion that they flouted the decrees of the gods? That is the stuff Greek myths are made of, so who knows? It might be pretty fun.

Where, o where, will the next Harry Potter come from? Could it be from New York, via Texas? Pierce Brosnan, Uma Thurman, and Sean Bean have signed up for Percy Jackson, according to The Hollywood Reporter, an adaptation of The Lightning Thief, the first book in a series by former Texas schoolteacher Richard Riordan. After the failure of various projects to become "the next Harry Potter," the news prompted Entertainment Weekly to wonder, "Could this finally be the next big family fantasy franchise?"

Based on the premise, Percy Jackson stands a good chance of appealing to a wide market, but much will depend on the script, since Chris Columbus is still on board to direct. As Christopher Campbell wrote two years ago, Columbus "may have been the least inspired director involved with the Harry Potter franchise," so big questions remain. Can he deliver a good-enough movie that won't disappoint fans of the books and whip up enthusiasm among non-readers for seeing a series of movies in the same vein?

The 12-year-old titular hero, to be played by Logan Lerman, appears to be "just another New York kid diagnosed with ADHD, who has good intentions, a nasty stepfather, and a long line of schools that have rejected him" before he discovers that his father is Poseidon (the Greek god, not the doomed ocean liner). He sets off on a cross-country journey to retrieve Zeus' lightning bolt, "the original weapon of mass destruction," which his father has been accused of stealing. Kevin McKidd will play Poseidon, which is inspired casting. Fox is aiming for release in February 2010.

Will you mark your calendars? Will Percy Jackson do better by avoiding comparisons with Harry Potter?

Hey all. Tommy here, pinch-hitting for regular box-office soothsayer Patricia, who is off battling near-sub-zero temperatures in Park City, Utah, to attend the Sundance Film Festival this week.

So here's what's happening this weekend at the box office. In the wake of the Golden Globes and in anticipation of this coming Tuesday's Academy Award nominations, a slew of Oscar contenders (most of which were released in 2006) are expanding to more theaters. These include Golden Globe Best Picture winner 'Babel,' the critically acclaimed 'The Queen,' the enthralling adult fairy tale 'Pan's Labyrinth,' Clint Eastwood's other World War II flick 'Letters From Iwo Jima,' the powerful indie 'The Last King of Scotland' and the Edward Norton period drama 'The Painted Veil.' Alas, despite their lofty aspirations and high caliber, these almost-sure-to-be-nominated flicks will get crushed -- and I mean crushed with AUTHORITY -- by this week's only new wide release 'The Hitcher.'

Despite its R-rating, 'The Hitcher' appeals to that primal desire in a large group of moviegoers to watch a beauitful scantily clad woman (in this case Sophia Bush) flee from an eerie-looking -- and clearly deranged -- dude (in this case Sean Bean) who likes to thumb rides in the rain and then end the lives of his car-pool "buddies." Prediction: 'The Hitcher' will be riding solo atop the box office come Sunday.

Prediction deadline: Saturday at noon

1. The Hitcher
2. Stomp the Yard
3. Night at the Museum
4. Dreamgirls
5. Pursuit of Happyness

POST: What's your weekend top five prediction?

POST: What do you think of these movies?

It strikes me a little funny that despite a long and varied career in the English film industry, Sean Bean has pretty much been relegated to the "British baddie" role in Hollywood movies. Well, that and the occasional so-so horror flick.

Solace in Cinema reported on a new trailer for Bean's latest film, Outlaws. The movie was directed by Nick Love, and is about a British military man (Bean) who returns home and bands together with some local malcontents to form a vigilante group. The local heroes then set out to solve society's ills. If you have seen Love's The Football Factory, you know Love isn't necessarily a fan of slow-paced introspective character studies. So don't expect these guys to organize grass-roots political action: It's all pipe bombs and ski masks. Rounding out the cast is Bob Hoskins as a policeman sympathetic to their cause that begins to supply them with what he considers to be some well-deserved targets.

The web site for the film promises a UK release date of March 9th, but as of yet there hasn't been any mention of any North American release. So until then, it's back to bad guys for Bean when The Hitcher hits theaters later this month.

[via JoBlo.com]

Just because everyone here at Cinematical loves The Hitcher, that hasn't stopped us from covering the hell out of the upcoming remake -- which is now opening on January 19th, just so you know. My take on remakes is simply this: Some of 'em work, most of 'em don't, and none of 'em can take the shine off a really classic flick. And while Joe & Jane Movierenter might know nothing of The Hitcher, that hasn't prevented the flick from becoming a cult classic genre flick of the highest caliber. Hell, even my mother loves The Hitcher, and she usually watches movies starring Sally Struthers and/or Lindsay Wagner.

So yeah, the remake is afoot. And if you can get this new-fangled doo-dad over at MSN to give up its wares, you can finally settle in and watch the all-new trailer for Platinum Dunes' new and improved The Hitcher. I think I've been pretty even-tempered toward this project so far, but I gotta say the trailer does next to nothing for me. Aside from the prospect of seeing Sean Bean play a psycho (which he's never done before), I feel rather ambivalent about the new Hitcher. Disinterested, one might say, but I've been wrong before.

Just so you know the score, the original was written by Eric Red and directed by Robert Harmon. The remake comes from screenwriter Jake Wade Wall and director Dave Meyers. The shrieking screamers, previously played by C. Thomas Howell and Jennifer Jason Leigh, will now be portrayed by Zachary Knighton and Sophia Bush. And I'm sorry but, as cool as Sean Bean is (and he really is a very reliable and watchable character actor), nothing will be able to match what Rutger Hauer did with the role back in 1986. (According to completely fabricated rumors that I just now made up, Mr. Hauer actually killed 17 real motorists while preparing for the role of The Hitcher.)

[Thanks to BD for the tip!]

I know, I know: You freakin' love The Hitcher and you've been sick to your stomach ever since the remake got green-lit. But the flick is coming whether you want it or not (on February 7th, to be precise), and now we have certifiable visual evidence that this new-fangled version of The Hitcher is almost ready to roll. So here are the pics that a lovely publicist just sent me:



And that's pretty much all we have so far. As a re-cap, I'll remind you that The Hitcher comes from Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes outfit, is being directed by music video mega-pro Dave Meyers (from a screenplay by Eric (Highlander: Endgame) Bernt and Jake Wade (When a Stranger Calls) Wall), and stars the likes of Zachary Knighton, Sophia Bush and Sean Bean as the hitchhiker your mom warned you about. Repeatedly. Recap of the Platinum Dunes output so far: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, the Amityville Horror remake and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake prequel. You dole out the grades.

When National Treasure hit the screens (in a big way) in late 2004, everyone and their symbologist grandmothers were scrambling over each other to dub it a blatant rip-off of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. But now that we can look back to the starchy disappointment that was Da Vinci Code: The Movie, all of a sudden National Treasure doesn't look so silly. I know I didn't think much of the flick upon my initial visit, but it's managed to grow on me just a little bit since then. (Plus a good portion of it was shot in Philadelphia, so it can't be all bad.)

Anyway, you know where I'm going with this: National Treasure 2 is about to get underway, complete with the entire cast (Nicolas Cage, Justin Bartha, Diane Kruger, Jon Voight and Harvey Keitel) but minus Sean Bean, presumably because Jerry Bruckheimer thinks it's time for a colorful new villain. Cool. The plot for the sequel is being kept under wraps, but director Jon Turteltaub dropped a hint regarding "Mount Rushmore," a location that might be able to lend itself to quality cinema.

Whether or not National Treasure 2 qualifies as "quality cinema" is up to you; the flick should be ready by late 2007.