The Human Contract Tagged Articles at Cinematical

• Cassandra's weak box office Dream hasn't tarnished Woody Allen's relationship with the Weinstein Company. According to Variety, they have decided to distribute his next film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona. TWC has got the North American rights, and will release the film later this year (right now, it is still in post). Allen's latest film stars Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall as American girls who visit Spain "and become amorously entangled with a couple" -- Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz. The likes of Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell weren't enough to bring the audiences in last time around, but can this cast do the trick?
• On the more indie side of things, Variety reports that Jada Pinkett Smith's directorial debut, The Human Contract, will be sold internationally by Lightning Entertainment, who will debut footage at Berlinale. The film stars Jason Clarke and Paz Vega as a "repressed advertising exec and a recklass woman" who are in a relationship. Very complicated, eh? Jada also pops up in the film, as does good ol' Ted Danson.
• Finally, we're back to the Weinsteins. Just in case Woody flops again, they've also picked up Dario Argento's upcoming horror flick Giallo. (Posted on pay-site Screen Daily, found on Ace Showbiz.) Once Dario is done filming Vincent Gallo as a creepy serial killer, the Weinstein Company will distribute the movie in the U.S. and Latin America.

• Just over a handful of years since he played the crucial role of the "Terrified Sailor" in Pearl Harbor, and a few less since he was "Bob in 70's Sex-Ed Film" in The Girl Next Door, Nicholas Downs has nabbed a lead role in an upcoming drama called Prep School. This is a follow-up to Downs' and filmmaker Jerome E. Scott's last film, Anderson's Cross. According to Times Colonist, Scott described it as a film like "Dead Poet's Society meets Primal Fear." That's an interesting combination.. Anyway, the paper went on to say that the film follows a smart prep student who befriends the school's outcast, gets in trouble with a dean who has a dark secret, and struggles with the pressures of privilege and conformity.
• Colleen Crabtree, on the other hand, has a much goofier cinematic score. It appears that she just co-starred in the recently-wrapped Opposite Day, which stars none other than ol' comedic names like Pauly Shore and French Stewart. It's a family film, but there's no word on what it's about yet. However, considering the mass amount of children on IMDb's cast list, could it be some sort of school comedy with an opposite theme? Who knows! We should find out some time later this year.
• Michelle Stafford, who has spent the last seven years playing Phyllis Summers Abbott on The Young and the Restless, has grabbed the lead in a new indie project called 3 Days Gone. She'll play a detective in a rather interesting little thriller. The IMDb plot outline says: "Lucas Snow was buried alive and has lost 3 days of his life. His best friend is murdered and the two top crime bosses are hunting him down as well as the police. Will he find out who set him up?" The film will hit theaters this May.
• Finally, T.J. Thyne, otherwise known as Dr. Jack Hodgins from Bones, has nabbed himself roles in two new films. First there is Jada Pinkett Smith's The Human Contract, which Erik first blogged about here, and secondly, there's The Last Full Measure, which stars Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman. The latter is about a bureaucrat who has to decide whether a fallen hero should be given the nation's highest award after 40 years. As if Bruce and Morgan weren't enough to challenge Thyne, there's also John Cusack, Robert Duvall, Laurence Fishburne, and Andy Garcia.

• Tony Hale hasn't gone anywhere, but I'm sure that I'm not the only one who misses his work as Buster Bluth on Arrested Development. Frankly, I miss all their work, although I'm still glad George Michael Cera has been unleashed into the world of film. Anyway, according to Variety, Hale has signed on to co-star with Jeremy Piven in his car salesman movie -- The Goods: The Don Ready Story. The film also boasts the likes of Ving Rhames and Kathryn Hahn. The film will slip into high gear this Monday in Los Angeles.
• He co-starred as Memnon in The Scorpion King, his name is floating around James Bond rumors, and now Steven Brand has found himself more presumably action-infused work. Variety reports that he's not only got himself a regular role on a television series (Samurai Girl), but he's also got a part as "Boyd" in Jada Pinkett Smith's upcoming film, The Human Contract. As IMDb describes it, the drama is about a businessman with a dark secret who gets caught up with a stranger who convinced him to dump his life for another lived with "reckless abandon." I wonder if the stranger wears a red suit, horns, and a tail, carries a pitchfork, and is small enough to sit on his shoulder as well...
• Ah, Alan Blumenfeld. To some, he's the good-natured rabbi from Gilmore Girls. To others, he's the super bad guy Molly didn't want to find on Heroes -- the man otherwise known as Parkman's dad. (Bit of trivia: He also played Greg Grunberg's dad on Felicity.) Now Variety reports that the actor has a part in Righteous Kill -- that 2008 action flick with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. Will he be a good guy, or a bad guy? I'm guessing on the latter, since the cast is already full of cops. We'll be able to find out some time in 2008.

That strike might have stalled all sorts of writing work, but the casting news just keeps coming, courtesy of Variety:

• Erik Davis has brought you lots of Righteous Kill news over the last few days, and it seems that another name has been thrown into the Al Pacino/Robert De Niro mix -- actress Saidah Arrika Ekulona. Variety doesn't state what her role is, but considering that fact that most of her roles have been as a nurse on films and shows like The Royal Tennenbaums and Sex and the City, or as a cop on shows like Law & Order, I think it's safe to say that it'll probably be one or the other.
• He's been an abusive husband, had stints in both the FBI and CIA, and even played a TV producer in Britney, Baby, One More Time, about a guy who uses a gay, crossdressing Britney impersonator and pretends he's the real thing. Now Karl Makinen has gotten himself a role in Jada Pinkett Smith's upcoming film, The Human Contract. Pinkett Smith is not only directing from her own script, but will star, and Makinen is playing her husband. Hmm -- I wonder why husband Will isn't involved?
• Finally, we've got some movie work for Cold Case star Danny Pino (who plays Scotty Valens on the series). He's nabbed himself a starring role opposite Charlize Theron in the Guillermo Arriaga film, The Burning Plain. Theron plays a woman named Sylvia who has to make peace with her estranged parents, but there's no word of a man in her story. I would say he's got to be more than just a side-story love interest, as Pino has got third-billing so far on IMDb. Or maybe, just maybe, he gets to get it on with Kim Basinger, who plays Gina -- Sylvia's mom who had a secret lover named Nick in her past. This could be a nice break for the guy since, well, his last film was Flicka.

Now that her husband has officially conquered the world (and then some), Jada Pinkett-Smith is looking to get things started behind the camera. Filmjerk reports Pinkett-Smith wrote and will direct her first feature film this coming fall, when production kicks off on The Human Contract. Though the film stars two male leads, hubby Will Smith will not be one of them. He will be exec producing, though, through his Overbrook Entertainment, alongside producing partner James Lassiter. The film will begin shooting in Los Angeles on November 12, and currently no studio or distributor has signed on. What's it about, you ask? Good question -- see if you can figure this one out ...

... From the Filmjerk description (because I'm not sure I can sum this thing up any better than they did): "... Julian Wright, a charming and mega-successful businessman who hides a secret from the rest of the world which tears his soul apart every day. With his personal life in shambles, Julian will find himself willing to travel down the rabbit hole, as it were, when he meets Michael Reed, a gorgeous stranger who entices Julian to forget his rigid corporate world and try a more bohemian lifestyle, a decision that will not only affect his own life but those of his boss and co-workers, as well as inspire his half-sister Rita to re-examine her life with her abusive husband." Hmmm, gorgeous strangers, bohemian lifestyles and abusive husbands always go well together, so I guess this one's got potential. No word on who's starring in the film, though I imagine we'll find out soon enough. And if Pinkett-Smith can direct the entire film as Niobe from the Matrix films, then that'd be wicked cool, eh?