The Way Back Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Colin Farrell, Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess, and Saoirse Ronan Will Find 'The Way Back'
Filed under: Drama », Casting », War »
The latest theme to hit the Hollywood water supply and spread -- WWII Russia. Just as Defiance (the story of three Jewish brothers who escape Poland and join Russian resistance fighters) gears up to hit screens, the cast for another is just about set. Variety reports that Colin Farrell, Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess, and Saoirse Ronan are in final negotiations to star in Peter Weir's The Way Back, which Eugene wrote about back in October.The film will focus on a group of soldiers who engineered a grueling escape from a Siberian gulag in 1942 -- walking thousands of kilometers through the Gobi desert and over the Himalayas to India and freedom. Like many stories these days, Slavomir Rawicz's tale has been challenged, but it's an interesting story, and true or not, it should make for a compelling film -- especially under Weir. Should the negotiations work out -- Farrell will be a tough and tattooed Russian, Harris will play an American, Sturgess will play a Polish inmate, and Ronan will be a Russian on the run who joins the fugitives.
I'm intrigued, and will definitely check this out, but could we please have more true, or at least confirmed accounts? Many stories coming out of WWII are compelling without added embellishments like food throwing over fences and hikes across the desert. I grew up hearing my grandfather's accounts of working for the resistance and escaping camps, plus reading accounts of fighters like the Kosciuszko Squadron -- there's plenty of cinematic war fare out there. Oh well, at least it's not more Iraq war cinema!
Peter Weir Picks His Next Project
Filed under: Drama », Scripts », War »
Peter Weir directs movies about as often as I do, these days, which is a damn shame, since he's one of the best there is. He hasn't touched a camera since Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World in 2003, and 1998's The Truman Show before that. He was attached for a while to Johnny Depp's Shantaram as well as the WWII epic War Magician, but neither of those panned out. This week, Variety reports that he's committed to a new project: The Way Back, a true story of a group of soldiers who escape from a Siberian gulag in 1940. As with Master and Commander and his best film, Gallipoli, Weir wrote the screenplay for The Way Back himself. He starts shooting the movie in March, in eastern Europe.
I suspect that Weir's selectivity is the key to his fantastic track record. He's a solid, straightforward director, but he really knows how to pick the great stories -- the ones that mean something. (Though I hate Dead Poets Society, so go figure that one out.) Two of his films are among my all-time favorites -- Gallipoli and The Truman Show -- so I'm basically obligated to get excited about anything he does. He does anything rarely enough that it's not too much of a burden.
The Black List Is Out!
Filed under: Deals », Critical Thought », Scripts », Newsstand », Politics »
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The annual Black List of most popular unproduced scripts in Hollywood has been released, and the most popular are Recount, a script about the Florida election recount and Farragut North, a political thriller written by Beau Willimon. The number three script on the list was a sci-fi film called Passengers, about a guy who wakes up on a spaceship after a long, cryogenic sleep. Keanu Reeves may be circling that one. Also in the top five is a Martin Luther King biopic script called Selma. A much talked-about dramedy called The Way Back, which I've been hearing about for a long time, is also in the top ten. Also appearing on the list, but much lower down, is Diablo Cody's horror script Jennifer's Body and the script for Max Brook's World War Z, which everyone keeps talking to me about.
A new update on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is also on the list, as is the new Clash of the Titans which I've been hearing about forever and that script for the film about the making of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. The Black List gets its data from a poll of about 150 people in the Hollywood development chain. The scripts are tallied by the number of votes each one gets. The leader, Recount, got mentions from 44 different people in Hollywood, so no matter what your political inclinations, this might be one you should watch out for when it finally comes out. The town clearly loves it. As for me, I'm most looking forward to Jennifer's Body -- I've heard the premise and a few details and it sounds like it's going to reinvigorate the horror comedy genre.
Shawn Levy to Go a Little More Indie With 'The Way Back'
Filed under: Comedy », Fox Searchlight »
Seems like every week we have news of a new Shawn Levy project, but the director's Night at the Museum follow-up is absolutely, definitely going to be ... a "smaller" comedy for Fox Searchlight called The Way Back. (Probably one of those wistful coming-of-age things that probably has something to do with summer camp or defeating a bully or learning how to properly remove a girl's bra without acting like a dork.) According to The Hollywood Reporter the script (as penned by Jim Rash and Nat Faxon) is about a kid who withstands those growing pains during one fateful summer spent in a beach house during in his fifteenth year.The cynic in me seems to think Levy snagged this smaller (quicker) project while the wheels start turning on that Tom Cruise / Ben Stiller comedy he's set to direct, but that cynic is just remembering how Shawn Levy subjected me to movies like The Pink Panther, Cheaper By the Dozen and Just Married and is still a little cranky about it. Fox Searchlight production chief Claudia Lewis seems pretty ebullient about the whole thing: "He brings such vim and vigor to his comedies ... And this project really hearkens back to some of his earlier work." So it's a coming-of-age comedy that hearkens back to ... Big Fat Liar? Or are we hearkening back as far as Levy's work on Animorphs?
On the plus side, these Rash and Faxon guys have done a lot of work with the Broken Lizard and Reno 911 folks, so they could definitely be very funny guys. There's something positive to focus on.
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