Stephen Dillane Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Sorry silicone lovers -- this is not a case of actresses getting bustier, or joining a film about the porn industry or silicon implants. If you remember, last November I blogged about Ray Winstone's upcoming films, one of which was 44 Inch Chest, which would have him acting alongside Ian McShane, John Hurt, and Tim Roth. According to Variety, even more have signed on for the British gangster film -- namely, Tom Wilkinson, Stephen Dillane (who recently kicked butt as Thomas Jefferson in John Adams), Joanne Whalley, and Melvil Poupaud.

Written by Sexy Beast writers Louis Melles and David Scinto, and being directed by Melcolm Venville, the film stars Winstone as a gangster "who seeks revenge on his wife and young French lover." I think it would be safe to say that Whalley (Willow) will play the wife, and Poupaud (Goodboy in Speed Racer) will play the lover, since, well, his name in the film is "Loverboy."

The film is currently in production in London, and some distribution agreements have already been reached -- Alliance will handle the release in Canada and the UK, and Momentum will handle Spain.

Opening night of the Toronto International Film Festival is reserved for a Canadian title, to give the mother country a chance to shine before the spotlight is divided among dozens of (usually) higher-profile films. This year, Jeremy Podeswa's Fugitive Pieces was selected for the honor. Anne Thompson of Variety wrote a good profile of the director. A capsule review in the Toronto Sun noted that it was "not a festive way to launch" the festival, "but this haunted and haunting drama signals a year of seriousness and quality."

Writing in The Globe and Mail, Rick Groen called it a "good movie" and "an even better example of what the movies do more easily, more powerfully and more indelibly than any other medium." Peter Howell of the Toronto Star felt it was a "smart choice to open the fest ... yet for all of the merits of Podeswa's painterly approach to Michaels' source novel, Fugitive Pieces seems curiously drained of drama. The message is uncertain." NOW Magazine has a capsule view which comments favorably on the cinematography and the performances.

James Berardinelli of Reelviews described Fugitive Pieces as "forgettable." He said: "The film has lofty goals, but comes across as leaden and pretentious." Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere attended the press screening this morning, though he didn't last very long: "I was out the door after 30 minutes, but I was looking at my watch after the first 15 minutes. I don't care if it kicks in at the one-hour mark or whatever -- I won't sit through films like this." Wells is not a fan of lead actor Stephen Dillane: "He kills each and every film and play that he's in with his withered, crinkly-faced dweeby-ness." Look for a review from our own Ryan Stewart a little bit later -- assuming that Ryan didn't get run over by Jeff Wells on his locomotive race out of the theater.

Fugitive Pieces, the prize-winning first novel from poet Anne Michaels, is finally making its long-awaited transition to the big screen. The book tells the story of two men from different generations whose lives have been profoundly affected by the Holocaust: one witnessed the slaughter of his family, while the other is the child of survivors. According to a review at Amazon, "the novel is a meditation on the power of language to free our souls and allow us to find our own destinies." Uh, wow. How that's going to work, exactly? One hopes it isn't completely sacrificed in favor of a plot-point-A-to-plot-point-B screenplay.

The movie is being by Canadian director Jeremy Podeswa (of late a prolific helmer of American cable series, including Six Feet Under, Carnivàle, and The L Word), whose cast so far consists of Rosamund Pike, Stephen Dillane, and Croatian actor Rade Serbedzija; according to Screen Daily, there are two major roles left to cast, so the start of production is still a ways off.

The film, with a budget of about $10 million, is due in theaters in 2007.