WilliamFichtner Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The Amateurs (formerly The Moguls), the directorial debut of writer/director Michael Traeger, is an underdog comedy about a group of small-town losers who decide to raise money by making a porno film. It's got a wonderful supporting cast that includes Joe Pantoliano, William Fichtner, Tim Blake Nelson, and Lauren Graham. Cinematical recently attended a press junket with the film's stars -- Jeff Bridges and Ted Danson, who were interviewed separately. Needless to say, meeting The Dude and Sam Malone in the same day was kind of a big deal! First up was Mr. Bridges...

What attracted you to the The Amateurs and the role of Andy?

Jeff Bridges: Like most of the movies I get involved with, I resisted it as long as possible. I always try to figure out why I shouldn't do it, and with this one there were plenty of reasons not to do it. What attracted me to it in the first place is that it was so unusual. It put this porn aspect and this Frank Capra aspect together, and I thought that was really interesting, very ambitious. But I didn't know if this guy who had never directed a film would be able to pull it off. Also, I've done movies in the past that have a lot of characters, and I find them hard to follow and you wind up not caring about any of the people, and I thought that might be the case with this one. But my representatives kept telling me I should do it, so finally I said "Alright. I want you guys to organize a reading, and I want you to see that this thing's not going to work at all." So we had a table read, and it just flew, it was just great. I think it works very well.

When the release started to get delayed, did any of that old skepticism start to come back, like maybe something did go wrong?

JB: No, I didn't really get all the ins and outs of why it didn't get released, it's very convoluted and I haven't heard all the sides and the stories, but it wasn't because of the nature of the film or anything like that. I think it was more business type stuff.

Filmed in the summer of 2004, The Amateurs has been in the can for over three years. The movie's title has gone through several changes, and imdb still lists it as The Moguls. The film has had a whopping six release dates going back to 2005, but it finally sputters into theaters today -- in Los Angeles and Dallas, anyway. Movies often have distribution trouble (you can read more about the problems this one faced in the Los Angeles Times), but the struggle of The Amateurs surprised me because it had all the makings of a sleeper hit. It's got a killer premise (think The Full Monty with porno) and an amazing cast. The film's struggle surprised me...until I saw it.

A queasy mixture of Boogie Nights sleaze and Patch Adams sentimentality, The Amateurs takes place in the small town of Butterface Fields (ho-HO!). That's where you'll find Andy Sargentee (Jeff Bridges, in shaggy dog Lebowski mode), a divorced dad who is down on his luck. His son (Alex D. Linz) is now living with a wealthy stepfather (the typically solid Steven Weber), and this makes Sargentee insecure. He's got to make some money, and fast. So, naturally, he decides to enlist the help of his friends and make an amateur porno flick.

Just when you thought you had seen the last of casting announcements for Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, Batman-on-Film (The Dark Knight fan site) has reported that William Fichtner has officially joined the cast. Fresh off Will Ferrell's Blades of Glory, Fichtner is best known as a mainstay in the Bruckheimer universe -- he played the antsy astronaut who squares off against Bruce Willis in Armageddon, and had roles in Pearl Harbor and Black Hawk Down as well. His face might also ring a bell as the slightly psychotic government agent on Fox's Prison Break. So far there aren't many details about his role in The Dark Knight; other than the vague title of "bank manager," which may or may not even be accurate, considering the unofficial nature of the source. If that is his role, it's not exactly the most dynamic sounding part, but you never know.

The film is currently shooting in Chicago, and Erik gave us the heads up for the first set photographs online (most of the photos were related to an opening action sequence in a bank, so that is probably where Fichtner's character comes in) and just today we got our first, if somewhat blurry look at Heath Ledger as The Joker. There hasn't exactly been a shortage of fan scrutiny over every casting choice in the film, and while it seems like some of the choices have been met with universal approval, there has been plenty of debate on other roles, proving yet again that you can't please all of the Batman fans all of the time. Considering that Fichtner's role, if it is what it is, seems pretty "controversy-free," I doubt there is going to be that kind of attention this time around.

*A guest review today, from Nick Schager, of Slant Magazine

On the evidence of First Snow, it's apparent that Mark Fergus is a devoted student of classic crime cinema. For his directorial debut, the filmmaker (re-teaming with his Children of Men screenwriting partner Hawk Ostby) delivers a streamlined, straightforward slice of "Sunshine Noir," a sub-genre in which noir's pessimistic thematic preoccupations are transplanted from the shadowy night to the blisteringly bright daytime. As in Fergus' film, this shift also often involves a milieu relocation from the seedy, malevolent city to the imposingly empty rural wasteland, with the omnipresent air of gloom and calamity found not beneath towering skyscrapers and in darkened alleys but, rather, just behind scraggly tumbleweed bushes, across the horizon-seeking interstate, and around the corner from the dilapidated gas stations that sit, like ominous oases, in the middle of the vast nowhere.

Such a fill-up station is the starting point for the turbulent journey of Jimmy (Guy Pearce), a cocky, fast-talking flooring salesman who dreams of making it big selling classic Wurlitzer jukeboxes, and who becomes stranded at an out-of-the-way New Mexico rest stop after his car hits a (literal and figurative) bump in the road. While waiting for repairs, Jimmy entertains himself by having his fortune read by a laid-back psychic named Vacaro (J.K. Simmons), though his mockery of the man's supposed supernatural gifts come to a halt when – after offering up some cryptic comments about impending events – the seer is overwhelmed by violent seizures and, consequently, halts the reading and returns Jimmy's money. Simultaneously amused and mildly annoyed, the salesman nonetheless thinks little of the encounter until the prophesies begin coming true, prompting a return visit to Vacaro during which he's told that death shall arrive with the season's first snowfall.

The critics almost universally panned Guy Pearce's latest film, Factory Girl. Our own Ryan Stewart, in his review of the feature, said: "But as turned-on by superficiality as Warhol was, this film, coming in the age of Paris Hilton, stumbles by settling for a pair of superficial portraits." While Pearce had a wonderful stint dolled up in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, lately audiences haven't been happy unless he's dirty and dripping with angst and drama, which he does so well. So, it's probably a really good thing that he's following up Factory Girl with First Snow.

The film's official website has a trailer up for the film, and it looks a million times more fun than his big-screen take on Warhol. Pearce plays Jimmy Starks, a flooring salesman and hustler whose car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. He asks someone if the area has "interesting diversions," and finds himself getting a scary reading from a psychic who says that with the first snow, there will be no tomorrow. So, obviously, Starks gets suspicious and paranoid as bits of the reading start to come true. And, in case you think he could just hightail it for Mexico, they add a little Final Destination in -- that his destiny will find him.

Granted, you'll have to look beyond his long hair/mullet look, which I really don't understand. Or, why the cute Piper Perabo wouldn't have forced him to get a haircut yet. Nevertheless, Pearce pulls off paranoia and inner-angst to a tee, and he's helped by William Fichtner, who already sold us as a salesman in Go, and JK Simmons in the meaty role as the psychic -- a nice change from his J. Jonah Jameson. The film will be released this March, just as the snow will hopefully be thawing.

[via Twitch]