WinonaRyder Tagged Articles at Cinematical

There are a million reasons not to have a sequel to Heathers, but maybe if they made the whole production a little closer to real life, it'd have some possibilities -- because Veronica Sawyer has gone batsh*t insane! Remember how Winona Ryder was, once again, talking about a Heathers sequel last month? And how she swore up and down that it was in the works this time? And that Christian Slater would be back in an Obi-Wan-type role?

Well, it's ALL in her head. Movieline talked with director Michael Lehmann, and he said: "Winona's been talking about this for years -- she brings it up every once in a while and Dan Waters and I will joke about it, but as far as I know there's no script and no plans to do the sequel. A couple weeks ago everyone started talking about it and I guess Winona said the movie was gonna get made, and I thought, 'I don't know, maybe they did this without me?' But I got in touch with Dan Waters and he said he didn't know anything about it. So I don't think there's any truth to it."

Winona, let it die already. I find it kinda creepy that you keep sparking this rumor mill with the same stories -- all of which have had no basis in truth, if Lehmann is to be believed. I've been reading these rumors for over a frakking decade. I adore the film as much as you do. I've seen it more times than I can count, and I can recite it from beginning to end, but sometimes things come to an end. But ... Moby Dick is dunked. The white whale drank some bad plankton and splashed through a coffee table. Now it's someone else's turn to take the helm of teenage dysfunction.

Who says you can't go home again? Winona Ryder says that a sequel to 1988's Heathers is definitely on its way -- "swear to God"!!! She told Empire Magazine: "Whatever you hear, there is a sequel in the works. I swear to God ... For some reason the writer Dan Waters and director Michael Lehmann don't want to talk about it. I've been wanting to do a sequel forever. There is a story, and Christian [Slater] has agreed to come back as a kind of Obi-Wan character."

If those words sound familiar, it's because they're almost exactly the same words she uttered nearly three years ago: "It takes place in Washington and Christian Slater agreed to come back and make an Obi-Wan-type appearance. It's very funny." Last fall, Slater expressed his interest in a sequel: "I would do it in a heartbeat. I would totally love to do that character again."

The Obi-Wan references would seem to indicate that Slater's character, J.D., could return as Obi-Wan did in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Twenty years on, Ryder and Slater are still a very appealing pair, so the question returns to Daniel Waters and Michael Lehmann, without whom a sequel would be a pointless, tawdry affair. Lehmann has been busy directing TV shows (True Blood, Big Love, Californication). Most recently, Waters wrote and directed the well-received Sex and Death 101, in which Ryder appeared. What can they do to make Heathers 2 better than Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo?

[ Via US Magazine. ]

After Manure quietly (and not-so-quietly) stunk up the scene at the Sundance Film Festival, the Polish Brothers (Mark and Michael) have returned to the festival circuit with Stay Cool -- a film that leaps into your lap with its perky, original concept, but then slowly but surely fails to deliver ... well, pretty much everything. What we have here is an on-the-verge-of-40 novelist (Mark Polish) who returns to his hometown only to find himself stuck in a really bad, cliched '80s movie -- complete with two bonehead best friends, mean teachers, a moronic high school principal and a hardcore crush on that girl whose meat-head boyfriend is named Brad. And I don't mean cliched '80s movie in a bad way -- that's kinda the point with Stay Cool; our lovable, somewhat-awkward novelist learns that he must overcome the fears and regrets he's had since graduating 20 years ago by living his worst moments all over again.

Some have said Stay Cool is like 17 Again in reverse, which it sorta is -- except there's no magical, supernatural element here. Our guy just somehow finds himself re-living those weird, painful high school moments (as an adult) until he finally comes to grips with his past and his present, and, of course, manages to stay cool.

For starters, I just want to make it perfectly clear that I have nothing against Winona Ryder. Veronica Sawyer will remain as one of my favorite characters of all time, and her Bjork on Rock N' Roll Jeopardy has yet to be matched. But, let's be honest, period pieces were never her thing (maybe with one exception ... but that's a big maybe). In 1992 Francis Ford Coppola released Bram Stoker's Dracula, and I've never been able to look at her the same way again.

Dracula is hardly a perfect movie, and by no means am I dumping all the blame on Winona's doorstep. But all the beautiful costumes and references to La Belle et la Bête couldn't save what was once described as a "fruitcake of a movie"; and the cherry on that fruitcake is this scene between Gary Oldman (as the bloodsucking Prince of Wallachia) and Ryder as Mina Harker. What should have been romantic and emotional (not to mention hot) is for me the cinematic equivalent of watching an amateur lightweight get into the ring with Muhammad Ali (and can you guess who the lightweight is?). Ryder's delivery is stilted and awkward, Oldman is hamming it up for all it's worth, and I will forever be cringing in my seat.

Dracula Fun Facts (Courtesy of IMDB):

• In an attempt to elicit more emotion, director Francis Ford Coppola shouted "whore" and "slut" at Winona Ryder while filming the scene when Van Helsing catches Mina with Dracula.
  
  
• Prince Vlad's scream after he drives his sword into the cross is not the voice of Gary Oldman. Lux Interior, lead singer of punk band The Cramps, recorded the scream and it was dubbed in.
  
  
• Earnings from the film was enough to save Zoetrope (Francis Ford Coppola's studio) from bankruptcy after suffering from financial difficulties and liabilities of $27 million over the past 3 years.

Take me away from all this Twitter!

Greetings and salutations! I bring the following news to you with an air of excitement, and a huge warning of caution:

Christian Slater, otherwise known as the sexy, seductive, and utterly unstable Jason Dean, is eager to go back to the Heathers fold. While talking up his new NBC show My Own Worst Enemy with AOL TV, Slater spoke about returning to Sherwood, Ohio and said:

"Yeah, sometimes I see Winona and she's like, 'Are you ready to do Heathers 2?' And I'm like, 'Sure!' I would do it in a heartbeat. I would totally love to do that character again -- J.D. We'd have to have a scene in there where's he's watching The Shining or something, you know? We'd have to see that he's collected all of Nicholson's movies. Just to really make sense of it all. [Laughs] That would be like a dream come true for me. So we'll see -- if they want to put something together, I'd be thrilled."

Why the caution? Well, Winona has been dying to do it for years (I remember reading rumors about it all the way back in the 90s), and there was all that talk about the sequel being a reality two years ago. We saw how far that got. But maybe some things have changed -- the way Slater is talking about this, you'd think he's itching for more than just an "Obi-Wan-type appearance."

Mark and Michael Polish may not be as well-known a fraternal filmmaking pair as Joel and Ethan Coen, but they could out-weird the Coens any day of the week. Their films range from virtually inscrutable (Northfork) to very strange (Twin Falls Idaho) to merely offbeat (The Astronaut Farmer), but it's clear they won't be getting hired to direct the sequel to Alvin and the Chipmunks. So instead, they've formed their own production company, Prohibition Films, and are shooting two new projects back-to-back.

The first is entitled Manure, a title they should reconsider if only to make lazy film critics' jobs a little harder. Starring Billy Bob Thornton, Tea Leoni, and my man Kyle MacLachlan, the movie will explore the world of manure salesmen in 1960's heartland America. Upon reading that I frowned for a moment, but then realized that had you asked me who would be most likely to write and direct a movie about manure salesmen in 1960's heartland America, I would unhesitatingly have said the Polish Brothers.

You might remember that back in October, a new project started to gear up called The Private Lives of Pippa Lee. Based on Arthur Miller offspring Rebecca Miller's upcoming novel (that she adapted and will direct), the pic will focus on "a dutiful wife whose husband falls for a younger woman, freeing her to explore her buried sensuality and leading to a very quiet nervous breakdown."

I was ouching just at the thought of sensual exploration leading to a nervous breakdown, but now I have two reasons: along with the added cast just posted by The Hollywood Reporter, it's been confirmed that Robin Wright Penn is the wife, and Winona Ryder is the younger woman. For frak's sake, there's only a handful of years between the two women. Are they planning to age Wright Penn, or do they just think she looks that much older?

Anyway, adding to the tasty cast is Keanu Reeves, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Alan Arkin, and Monica Bellucci. Arkin will, of course, play the husband who leaves Wright Penn in the dust, and Bellucci will play his first wife -- so he's a dude who loves those May-December romances. Gyllenhaal will get the honor of appearing in flashbacks as Pippa Lee's "diet pill-addicted mother." Julianne Moore is some "lesbian novelist." And finally, Reeves gets to explore Wright Penn's sexuality. Now it all makes sense -- fool around with Keanu and you'll go crazy!

Once everyone finishes up their current gigs, production will kick into gear this April in Connecticut.

Perhaps the oddest bit of Star Trek XI casting has been unveiled today, courtesy of Variety, and it has to do with Winona Ryder (of all people) landing the role of Spock's (Zachary Quinto) mom, Amanda Grayson. Freaky. I wonder if they'll be at least one "Dude, Spock, your mom is, like, totally hot!" The way the story goes is Grayson was a schoolteacher on Earth when she married a Vulcan diplomat named Sarek, and then later gave birth to Spock. So yeah, Ryder will just be playing some chick from earth -- how much fun is that? Still, it's a very odd role for her -- one I'm sure isn't very large -- considering the gal hasn't starred in a major commercial flick since ... 2002's S1m0ne? Or how about 2002's Mr. Deeds? But she did throw on the duds for Alien: Resurrection, so we know the sci-fi is in her blood, somewhere.

In related Star Trek XI news, the first spy photos from the set have leaked online. Ah, I always love it when the first spy photos for a major film hit the net -- especially when it's a Paramount film, because Paramount goes to such great lengths to hide stuff from everyone. Case in point: IESB managed to get a hold of these photos of extras shooting out of some sort of warehouse. But since the studio knows spies are everywhere, they're making all of the actors and extras dress in long black trenchcoats ... with hoods. So when you see them, all packed together, they look like some bizarre cult heading off to sacrifice a virgin or ... William Shatner. One of the actresses on set looks just like House's Jennifer Morrison, and IESB claims she might be playing Janice Rand (a role that was rumored to be going to Rachel Nichols). Personally, all this makes my head spin -- I'm still trying to get over Ryder's casting. Winona Friggin' Ryder. As Spock's mom! Do you dig it?

I'm not sure if this is true, but I've heard some movie geeks out there grew up crushing on Winona Ryder. I know I wasn't the only one. Actually, I know there were thousands of us, if not millions. Now, as a sensitive teen, one of the things I liked about the actress was that she was firm on her decision to keep her clothes on. Of course, as a hormonal teen, this was also one of the things that frustrated me about her. Well, now that it's been about twelve years since I met Ryder while selling her Shine tickets and came to the realization that she was a real person and not someone to obsess over, she is baring some skin. It's still not a lot of skin, and it's only noticeable if a certain gossip blog freeze frames it for us, but Winona Ryder is a bit naked in Sex and Death 101. Now, you might want to chime in and point out that, as MrSkin.com does, Ryder showed a dab of flesh in Autumn and New York (there were rumors of a full nude scene that was cut out), and this isn't that much better. But this is a little different; I would at least consider it more of a nude scene. And if you want to watch it, you better do it quick. The video and the NSFW photo are sure to be taken down soon.

For those who don't know, Sex and Death 101 is the film that reunites Winona Ryder with Heathers screenwriter Daniel Waters, who also directs this time around. It stars Ryder, of course, as a serial killer named Death Nell, who targets sex criminals. Ryder's co-star in the film is Simon Baker (The Devil Wears Prada), who can be seen in the video, as a guy who one day receives a mysterious email detailing all the women he has and will have sex with in his life. Our own Scott Weinberg saw the film at Fantastic Fest and called it Waters' "best work in a very long time," and Ryder's, "best stuff in years." That may not say much to you, knowing their lack of success in recent years, but Scott continued to give the film praise. He wrote, "the movie juggles romantic comedy, dark humor, sex farce and slight slapstick with seldom a misstep, resulting in a surprisingly unpredictable flick that works on a small variety of levels." Sounds interesting. Oh, and don't forget that sex scene; that might interest you, too.