Tom Wilkinson Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Review: 44 Inch Chest
Filed under: Drama », Independent », New Releases », Theatrical Reviews »
Some projects are for the actors first and the audience second, and 44 Inch Chest, the new film from director Malcolm Venville, is a solid example of that type of filmmaking -- a simple story where strong, sharply-drawn performances take precedent over anything else. It's evident by the executive producer credits of two of the leads in the film (Ray Winstone and Ian McShane) that this was put together as a means to showcase the acting talent of a more-than-capable ensemble.
Winstone plays violent thug Colin Diamond, who we first meet as he lays prone on the floor of his own trashed living room in a pile of broken furniture, near-catatonic while Harry Nilsson's cover of "Without You" blares over his hi-fi. He's physically carried away from the mess by his close friend Archie (Tom Wilkinson), but his mind is still a million miles away, trying to make some sense of the end of his twenty-year marriage to Liz (Joanne Whalley) who informed him just the night before that she's in love with another man.
Archie's solution to all of this one of violence, assuming Diamond will feel so much better if he can actually have his way with the ex's new lover. He assembles Diamond's closest confidants -- dim Mal (Stephen Dillane), fey Meredith (Ian McShane), and vile Old Man Peanut (John Hurt) -- for a makeshift cheer-up session with Diamond and a 44-inch chest that contains the kidnapped body of Liz's younger new beau (Dave Legeno).
Summit To Distribute Polanski's "Ghost Writer' Early Next Year
Filed under: Thrillers », Distribution »
Depending on what Roman Polanski's future looks like, The Ghost Writer (formerly known simply as The Ghost) could be his last film. The Oscar-winning filmmaker may eventually be extradited to the U.S. and ultimately be sent to prison for unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. And that would potentially put an end to his directing career. As for his latest film, which he's been able to complete despite being held in a Swiss jail since his arrest in September, will definitely be coming to America courtesy of Summit Entertainment.The distributor, best known for putting out the Twilight movies, will release the thriller in North America in early 2010. Summit had already been involved with the film as a sales agent and has worked with Polanski as such previously. But after seeing a cut of the film recently in Paris, the company's co-chairmen decided to distribute the film themselves.
"[Polanski] once again has proven himself as one of the world's most talented filmmakers and master of suspense creating a very modern thriller," they said in a joint statement. "And we look forward to sharing this film with North American audiences."
Could Robert Redford Have Picked a Better Cast?
Filed under: Drama », Casting »
Steven Spielberg's Abraham Lincoln pic will definitely have a run for its money if it ever gets made. Robert Redford is cooking up one hell of a roster for his drama The Conspirator, which focuses on Mary Surratt's involvement with the assassination. Now Variety reports that the filmmaker has lined up the rest of his cast. First, as we already learned: Robin Wright Penn will play Mary Surratt, "the only female charged in the conspiracy to kill" Lincoln. She was said to have given John Wilkes Booth and David Herold weapons. James McAvoy, meanwhile, will play Frederick Aiken, the war hero and man tapped to defend her in court. And now:Tom Wilkinson -- Reverdy Johnson, a Surratt sympathizer and mentor to Allen, who was the former attorney general and U.S. senator.
Evan Rachel Wood -- Anna Surratt, daughter of Mary. She later had to fight for her mother's remains.
Kevin Kline -- Edwin Stanton, Lincoln's War Secretary who took charge of the crime scene after the assassination. He was very involved in the entire proceeding, including concocting a rather unique and painful hood for the accomplices while on trial.
Alexis Bledel -- Sarah Weston, the young Aiken's wife.
Justin Long -- "a role" ... The trade outlined everyone's role but his. Will this be, I dare say, Lincoln? (hah.)
Frankly, Kline would be enough to sell me, but I'm impressed both by the fresh story picked (and all the aspects Redford has to choose from), and the heaps of talent laid on it -- a mixture of names we'd expect and some surprises as well. Could this be a big twist for Long, perchance?
New Polanski Pic Attracts Belushi and Wilkinson
Filed under: Drama », Casting »
Bit by very slow bit, we're learning more about Roman Polanski's next film. Current legal woes might have him occupied, but the world of casting moves on. Variety reports that Tom Wilkinson and Jim Belushi are rounding out the cast of the director's next film, The Ghost.The feature (previously covered here and here) follows an ex-British Prime Minister who shacks up on an island and writes a memoir while his aide drowns, "triggering political and sexual intrigue." At one time, it was going to be Brosnan as the ex PM, and Cage as the writer. Now, things have changed, and Variety notes that the cast consists of Wilkinson and Belushi, plus Kim Cattrall, Ewan McGregor, and Olivia Williams. I imagine that Ewan is taking over the writerly gig, but it still sucks -- it would've been nice to see Cage putting aside his action and getting creative once again. I guess we'll still have to wait.
Nevertheless, Polanski's film should prove intriguing. Production begins next month in Berlin. Think Polanski will have his legal issues figured out by then?
Interview: 'Valkyrie' Producer and Writer Christopher McQuarrie
Filed under: Thrillers », MGM », United Artists », Podcasts », Celebrities and Controversy », Tom Cruise », Interviews », War »
Best known as the writer of The Usual Suspects, Christopher McQuarrie has an impressive number of films on his resume (including his criminally overlooked directorial debut, The Way of the Gun), but Valkyrie -- opening nationwide this week -- saw him also serve as a producer alongside director Bryan Singer and star Tom Cruise. A thriller about the 1944 plot inside the German military to try and assassinate Adolph Hitler, Valkyrie turns one of history's nightmares into a taut modern thriller -- a tricky balancing act that the film pulls off: "What we tried to do was to always maintain the focus that this was a movie about an event, that this was a movie about the events of July 20th (1944), and remain focused on that. We weren't making a bio-pic, we weren't making a film about the Holocaust -- all of those things were happening ... (but) this movie is about this incredible event that happened. ... And at the same time, maintaining a sense of responsibility."
McQuarrie spoke with Cinematical from New York about working alongside the German government, how producing a mega-million war film was like "drinking from a firehose," forgoing German accents, his possible future take on superheroic franchise The Champions and much more. You can listen to the podcast here at Cinematical by clicking below:
You can also download the interview in full right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.
Julia Roberts & Clive Owen Sneak and Spy in 'Duplicity' Trailer
Filed under: Romance », Mystery & Suspense », Universal », Trailers and Clips »
Reuniting after 2004's Closer, it appears that stars Julia Roberts and Clive Owen, along with Bourne writer Tony Gilroy, are all out to have a bit more fun with Duplicity; the trailer just went up over at Apple.If anything, it comes off as more of a zippy heist film of sorts than the thriller I took it to be from the earliest synopsis on, even though corporate espionage remains the name of the game. Then again, maybe we're overdue for another Thomas Crown Affair-like outing, and between the cast (which also includes Tom Wilkinson, who was in Gilroy's Michael Clayton, and Paul Giamatti, who shared the screen with Clive in Shoot 'Em Up) and the crew, I'm pretty much sold.
(If Billy Bob Thornton is still in this, though, as Monika reported last January, he sure isn't showing up here, and IMDb remains mum.)
Duplicity opens on March 20th of next year -- about a month after Clive's bang-ier espionage efforts in The International.
Fan Rant: The Power of Interesting Casting
Filed under: Action », Horror », Casting », New Releases »
Saw some movies last weekend. Some trailers, too. One was for a kidnapping thriller called Taken. A young woman is kidnapped, presumably for ransom, but little do the criminals know that their captive's father is some sort of secret agent badass who will stop at nothing to get his daughter back. Distressingly standard-issue stuff. Even worse, arguably, was The Uninvited -- just the title is so trite it practically begs you to forget it. I mean, this is at least the twelfth movie called The Uninvited. (For the record, there have only been seven Takens.) The plot concerns a teenager who returns home following the death of her mother to find that dad has shacked up with a new girlfriend who, it would appear, is a serial murderess. Also, there are ghosts, J-horror style.
This is not promising. Ordinarily I'd drag myself to these movies out of a sense of obligation, or skip them altogether. (Well, Luc Besson's involvement in Taken would probably ensure a viewing.) But wait -- who are those actors? What is Liam Neeson doing lending his gravitas to a Jason Bourne-style figure with a personal vendetta? And is that Elizabeth Banks, taking time out from being charming and hilarious to play an evil step mother/serial killer who threatens to choke Emily Browning with a pearl necklace?
Review: RockNRolla
Filed under: Action », Comedy », New Releases », Theatrical Reviews », Toronto International Film Festival »
You'd think that being married to Madonna, Guy Ritchie would have picked up on the value of occasionally reinventing oneself. But no, he keeps making the same movie, the same ultra-cool exercises in British gangster violence and stylish criminal shenanigans, and RockNRolla is the latest entry. Then again, the one time he did try something different, the result was Swept Away, so maybe he's wise to stay in his comfort zone.
At any rate, RockNRolla inspires strong feelings of "meh" in me. It's not nearly as clever, funny, or stylish as Snatch or Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, though the accents are a lot less indecipherable this time around, so that's nice. It's also not as good as Gangster No. 1 or Sexy Beast or many of the other gritty British gangster capers that have come around in the last several years. It feels like a rerun -- which isn't necessarily a bad thing, after all. People watch reruns all the time.
Our narrator is Archie (Mark Strong), who works as the calm, suave right-hand man to Lenny (Tom Wilkinson), the most powerful money-lender and underworld boss in London. Half the city's councilors, judges, and cops are in Lenny's pocket, and he has leveraged this influence into a massive fortune in real estate.
Lenny is not a figure to be messed with, but the Russians don't know that. A new mover and shaker named Uri (Karel Roden) has come to town to strike a deal with Lenny -- it involves paying Lenny to bribe city officials to get a construction project underway -- and he's a formidable figure himself. Lenny is old school; Uri is dangerously modern.
Who's Writing the 'Iron Man' Sequel?
Filed under: Deals », Scripts », Comic/Superhero/Geek »
Oddly enough we're told it's Justin Theroux, who's making his screenwriting debut with Tropic Thunder a bit later this summer. Yes, that would be the same Justin Theroux who played the immortal role of Adam Kesher in Mulholland Dr. and the badass Irishman Seamus O'Grady in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. The trade piece breaking the story gives no hint of why Marvel Studios thought of Theroux for the project, and I couldn't find out anywhere else, but I'm sure someone will give an interview soon enough. Last year, Theroux directed an indie called Dedication from someone else's script, starring Tom Wilkinson and Billy Crudup. It got mediocre reviews and I missed it, despite my eagerness to watch anything with Wilkinson. If a career change is what the actor was after, he certainly got it: writing Iron Man 2 is a pretty plum gig. Can you imagine?
Of course, I tend to doubt that the sequel -- which is set for release in April, 2010 -- is going to wind up with just one screenwriter when all is said and done. Theroux's draft will probably be reworked, retouched and polished a dozen times. But it's cool that the actor-turned-director-turned-scribe will at least take a first crack.
'RocknRolla' Poster is Armed and Shirtless
Filed under: Action », Comedy », Thrillers », Warner Brothers », Movie Marketing », Images », Posters »
After the trailer comes the first poster for Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla. It originated on Film1 (Erik posted some cool posters from them yesterday), and was then sent to me by one of the delightful chicks at Gerard Butler GALS. They will be my new best friends if they keep this up.
Compared to the trailer, it's a pretty subdued affair. It's a little bit Smokin' Aces, and a little bit The Boondock Saints, but stylish and badass all on its own. Despite Gerard Butler's torso being so prominent in the trailer, it seems Warner Bros found it a distraction when it came to the poster. They decided to let another actor show off his six-pack, but I think they should have let Tom Wilkinson show off his bald pate instead.
RocknRolla comes to American theatres October 31st. But if you're going to San Diego ComicCon, the rumor is that you'll get a footage fix before then. I'll be there front and center. I need a fix to tide me over until fall.
Compared to the trailer, it's a pretty subdued affair. It's a little bit Smokin' Aces, and a little bit The Boondock Saints, but stylish and badass all on its own. Despite Gerard Butler's torso being so prominent in the trailer, it seems Warner Bros found it a distraction when it came to the poster. They decided to let another actor show off his six-pack, but I think they should have let Tom Wilkinson show off his bald pate instead.
RocknRolla comes to American theatres October 31st. But if you're going to San Diego ComicCon, the rumor is that you'll get a footage fix before then. I'll be there front and center. I need a fix to tide me over until fall.
Tom Cruise and J.J. Abrams Reunite for 'Mission Impossible 4'
'Big Top Pee-Wee': The Original Benicio Del Toro Wolfman
Spin-ematical: New on DVD and Blu-ray for 2/9
Watch This: Brilliant Oscar-Nominated Short 'Logorama'
Chris Nolan to Lead 'Superman' Reboot!?
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