Virginia Madsen Tagged Articles at Cinematical

He's terrorized Veronica Mars, he's chilled with Jennifer's Body, he's been through A Haunting in Connecticut, and now Kyle Gallner is getting more horror. The Hollywood Reporter posts that the young actor has grabbed the lead teen role in the new, Jackie Earle Haley-starring A Nightmare on Elm Street. He'll play Quentin, and indie kind of guy who runs a school podcast called "Insomnia Radio." While not the same role, it's basically the gig Johnny Depp had in the original. Will he also die by bedding? And, can Elm Street be the same without a horde of Just the Ten of Us sisters?

Meanwhile, Virginia Madsen is defying gravity. Variety reports the actress is getting involved with a new documentary called Fighting Gravity. The project focuses on women ski jumpers, and their battle to get the right to compete in the 2010 Winter Olympics. Specifically, it'll follow 15 female athletes who have challenged the Intl. Olympic Committee's decision to bar them from the games -- making it the only men-only sport in the Games. Sometimes it's hard to believe we're in 2009...

Finally, Steve Buscemi and Stanley Tucci are teaming up once again. Most recently, the pair both made English language remakes of Theo van Gogh's work (Interview and Blind Date). Now Variety reports the friends have created a new shingle, Olive Productions, and have signed a first-look deal with Lionsgate to develop and produce television shows for cable and broadcast networks. The pair are already being commended for their "daring, innovative aesthetic," and I can only hope that from time to time they'll also jump in front of the camera.

Damned if you have a mic, damned if you don't... Coming to you loudly (at least in my case) is the latest episode of The Cinematical Roundtable, and this time, we don't even dare leave the lobby before offering up our thoughts on the rock-'em-sock-'em likes of 12 Rounds, in addition to the week's other wide releases, The Haunting in Connecticut and Monsters vs. Aliens.

Rounding out the proverbial 'we' this week is Brian Orndorf, he of multiple outlets, not the least of which are eFilmCritic and DVD Talk. Also, my good friend Tyler serves as a last-minute substitute for a colleague fallen ill (that, or he just really didn't want to sit through a John Cena flick). He knows his stuff, which I can't say for all in our field, and he happened to be co-anchor of our college movie talk show, "Matinee Idle," which was pretty much a podcast before podcasts were podcasts.

So... yeah. He's good people. Enjoy!




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Oh, actual events. Long have you reigned as the trump card in horror marketing, and only slightly less long have you been exposed as mostly malarkey. That hasn't stopped scarier films from finding their fans, nor the hokum from earning its opening weekend before vanishing into a blur of like-minded teen-targeting supernatural fare. Peter Cornwell's The Haunting in Connecticut falls firmly into the latter category, a run-of-the-mill spooker that often opts for Dolby jolts and Avid farts over character investment that itself rarely extends beyond asking why special effects happen to good people.

The crux of Connecticut is based on the allegedly true story in which a family found themselves terrorized in their new home, a former mortuary, back in 1987. While eldest son Matt (Kyle Gallner) receives and recovers from treatments for his cancer, he alone finds spirits roaming the house and tormenting his dreams. His parents (Virginia Madsen and Martin Donovan) just try keep him comforted, assuring him and themselves that it's simply a side effect, but a similarly ill priest (Elias Koteas) suggests that being close to death has indeed put them closer to the realm of the dead, which is in turn bringing escalating harm to the household...

When I first wrote up the trailer for The Haunting in Connecticut back in October, I made the following prediction: "In fact, I'm willing to bet that it'll land somewhere between next Feburary... and maybe next April, before hitting DVD just in time for Halloween renters to settle for anything vaguely supernatural on the 'new release' wall." Well, as sure as Virginia Madsen shrieks, Lionsgate has moved the film up from a summer release to a March 27th bow -- probably wise, given the genre's less-than-successful streak with that particular season.

The fairly reliable Box Office Mojo also confirms that Sandra Bullock's own shriek-worthy rom-com All About Steve has now been bumped from its slot opposite Watchmen to the ominous "Fall 2009". Maybe Fox'll put that Watchmen settlement dough to good use and market that instead as a horror film -- forget Saw; if it's Halloween, it must be Sandra!

Hey, one can dream.

At this point, touting any horror movie as 'based on a true story' or 'inspired by true events' or however you phrase it serves to me as an indication that "we didn't think this was scary enough, but we want the gulliable teens to buy tickets" -- a marketing tactic which occasionally backfires (my younger brother knocked the plausibility of The Strangers on this count, but if they DIDN'T say it... would it have been a scarier film? How about a successful one?).

Regardless, The Haunting in Connecticut -- starring Virginia Madsen, Martin Donovan and Elias Koteas -- appears to be following in those footsteps, with first a poster and then a trailer purporting that this tale of a family tormented in their new home with a mysterious past is at least fact-based(-ish). (Why, yes, you're correct in thinking that they already remade The Amityville Horror.)

Throw in a bunch of loud noises, and you've got yourself a probably PG-13 one-weekend wonder that was shot in 2007, but won't get dumped in theaters by Lionsgate (without press screenings, natch) until 2009. In fact, I'm willing to bet that it'll land somewhere between next Feburary (in the wake of other teen-targeting horror fare of The Unborn -- which actually looks creepy, if familiar -- and The Uninvited and My Bloody Valentine 3D and Friday the 13th) and maybe next April, before hitting DVD just in time for Halloween renters to settle for anything vaguely supernatural on the 'new release' wall.

Or, who knows, it could be good; if it takes proving me wrong to do that, I've eaten feet for less. (True story.)

Of all the freakin' horror remake outrages, this one might take the cake. Candyman, the freakishly original 'Chicago projects urban legend' flick based on a Clive Barker story, might be remade by Sony with a Caucasian in the title role, according to Shock Til You Drop. The site says that Sony and the unidentified rights holder are in "early talks," with one idea being to change Candyman's skin color from black to white.

I know this is not confirmed, and many stupid ideas are undoubtedly floated in early conversations, but this is wrong on so many levels I'm left speechless. At the most basic level, it begs the question: has anyone contemplating the remake actually watched Bernard Rose's frightening original? In the movie, Candyman (the great Tony Todd) was the son of a slave who "suffered a hideous and unjust death," as Ryan Stewart described in his Retro Cinema appreciation. An urban legend developed around him in the notorious crime-infested Cabrini-Green housing project: say his name multiple times in front of a mirror and he appears. Virginia Madsen, as a sociology grad student, investigates, calls him back to life, and wishes she had stayed in the classroom.

Two sequels, which I haven't seen, followed Candyman to New Orleans and Los Angeles, but Chicago is where he belongs. The Cabrini-Green high-rise projects have been torn down and redevelopment is taking place -- that's your story, the horror of modern redevelopment. If you want to add a political edge, tie in the outcome of the Presidential election. But please, Sony, don't make Candyman a Caucasian.

Have you seen the recently-released trailer for the animated Wonder Woman? If not, you can check it out above.

Firstly, I must admit that they certainly did a great job portraying Wonder Woman's toughness, although it's a bit tainted by the lone piece of dialogue in the trailer: "It's not polite to hit a lady." There's nothing to weaken the muscles of toughness like references to ladies and impoliteness. If they changed "lady" to "goddess," then I'd be good -- it would be a nice play on words.

Anyway, what really surprises me is that there's no dialogue, save for the above quote. Sure, it's important to show the action, but considering the voice talent connected to this project, I see no better way to get people interested. Keri Russell is Wonder Woman, Virginia Madsen is Hypolyta, Nathan Fillion is Steve Trevor, Alfred Molina is Ares, Oliver Platt is Hades, Rosario Dawson is Artemis, and David McCallum is Zeus.

Now that's the sales kicker for me. The feature will hit shelves in February of 2009.

Some of cinema's most iconic shots of Chicago appear in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and the film is certainly Matthew Broderick's most iconic role. So, it's hard to watch the actor in the Chicago-set Diminished Capacity and not ask yourself, "is this what's happened to Ferris?" He is now relatively passive, paunchy and pitiful in the role of Cooper, a newspaper editor who has recently suffered a mildly debilitating concussion. And the character could be classified as yet another sad sack, one of three such parts he can be seen playing at present (Then She Found Me opened in April and is still in theaters; Finding Amanda debuted last week).

But is it fair that we most associate Broderick with Ferris, thereby continuing our disappointment in seeing him play one nebbish nobody after another? Couldn't we redirect our memories and accept that Broderick's modern roles are more like grown-up versions of Eugene Jerome, of Neil Simon's plays Brighton Beach Memoirs and Biloxi Blues, who he portrayed on Broadway as well as in the film adaptation of Biloxi? Were Eugene not the fictional incarnation of Simon and had he not therefore become a famous writer (and were he not from an earlier time period), the character surely could have gone on to be the pathetic teacher of Election or Then She Found Me or the absentminded editor of Diminished Capacity.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for Diminished Capacity (click to enlarge), starring Matthew Broderick, Virginia Madsen and Alan Alda. Based on Sherwood Kiraly's novel, the film is -- to borrow an old quote from myself -- a "quiet little comedy starring Matthew Broderick as a guy suffering from memory loss due to a concussion who joins up with his Alzheimer's-impaired Uncle (Alan Alda) on a journey to a baseball memorabilia expo to sell a rare card."

While it first premiered back at Sundance, I managed to catch this gem at the Gen Art Film Festival a few months later and really enjoyed it. If you're from Chicago or happen to be a Cubs fan, definitely check out this flick because it's tailor-made for you. Everyone else should enjoy the subtle performances and quirky characters (Alan Alda is a blast to watch); I know I did. As I said back when I first saw it, it's the kind of film that just leaves you with good vibes. And don't we all need a little of that every now and then? You can check out the film's trailer over on Moviefone, and make sure you head out and support this indie winner when it hits theaters in NYC (Sunshine Theater), Los Angeles (Music Hall Theatre), Chicago (Century Centre & Renaissance Place) and On Demand (Your living room) this July 4.

[Photo removed at request of 20th Century Fox]

This is too good not to share. It's no secret that I wasn't pleased with the last round of Amelia pics that hit the net. Hilary Swank just looked goofy, and the images did nothing to drum up excitement. In fact, it did just the opposite. But man, the picture above, part of a slew that went up on Oh No They Didn't, is definitely worth it.

Finally, we've got Swank in the flying ensemble! She's got on the obligatory leather jacket, cap, and goggles, although the wardrobe gurus seem to have decided against Earhart's oft-worn scarf, and selected a striped tie instead. But that's not all. We know that it's Richard Gere standing on the right, but do you recognize the woman on the left? I've loved her since Fire with Fire, but didn't notice at first that the lady in red is, indeed, Virginia Madsen. Okay, I'm a bit more excited now.

You?