bruce willis Tagged Articles at Cinematical
John C. Reilly and Mary-Louise Parker Go 'Red'
Filed under: Action », Thrillers », Casting », Newsstand »
When Warren Ellis' Red was first optioned, I wasn't particularly excited. As readers have pointed out, Ellis has many books that would be more exciting to see on the big screen. The initial casting of Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman didn't inspire a lot of excitement, either. (I love both, but Willis as an ex-assassin? Hardly inspired.) But as Robert Schwentke has filled out his cast, things have gotten a lot more interesting. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mary-Louise Parker and John C. Reilly are in talks to join Red alongside Freeman, Willis, and Helen Mirren.Reilly would play a retired CIA agent who is paranoid that everyone is out to kill him. Willis' predicament will naturally prove him right, and it's the frantic, nervous role that Reilly specializes in. Again, it's not the most inspired casting, but it's exciting to see Reilly finally land a comic book role. I like to see actors drawn into this world, even if it is in a more "standard" storyline.
Parker will play Willis' love interest, an ordinary employee of the federal pension office who becomes embroiled in his struggle to stay alive. As if relationships aren't hard enough, it's "Honey! My former employers are trying to kill me! Get your passport, we have to hide in Bruges." She is a talented actress, so I sincerely hope she gets a little more to do than run around and be frightened. Perhaps she can be trained in the arts of action by Mirren's character.
It's a really good cast so far, and there's undoubtedly more to come as Willis' opponents are lined up. This could be something a little more in the mold of A History of Violence, which would be a refreshing change from the flashy adaptation attempts like Wanted. Red is officially on my radar.
Helen Mirren Sees 'Red'
Filed under: Action », Thrillers », Casting », Newsstand », Comic/Superhero/Geek »
I have a major girl crush on Helen Mirren. I want to be her, and I simultaneously want her to take me under her wing, and turn me posh. Now she's set to make me geek out even more, because Screen Daily and The Hollywood Reporter report that she's just signed on to Red, Summit Entertainment's adaptation of Warren Ellis' bloody miniseries. Robert Schwentke is set to direct. Mirren joins Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman in this cheerful tale of assassins. Willis plays black ops CIA Agent Paul Moses, who is enjoying the peace and quiet of retirement. But when there's a change of guard at the CIA, it's decided that Moses is too much of a liability. While Ellis' book pitted Moses against a single assassin, the movie will put Moses against a host of younger and more technologically adept opponents. It'll be the old school versus the new school -- and we all know who will probably win. I believe Freeman is playing the new CIA boss who decides Moses has seen and done too much to be anything but a liability, but nothing has been specified.
In her first comic book adaptation, Mirren will be playing an old associate of Willis, who has her own lethal set of skills. (Shades of Taken!) Don't be surprised if they're sexy skills. But you know what? It's Helen Mirren. If she wants to use her looks in order to dispatch a dictator or arms dealer, she can. Filming is set to kick off in January, and I count the days until I can see Mirren actually kick some ass onscreen.
'Kane and Lynch' Going Ahead With Bruce Willis
Filed under: Action », Independent », Thrillers », Casting », Lionsgate Films », DIY/Filmmaking », Newsstand », Games and Game Movies »
Last summer, the trades reported that Bruce Willis was in talks to play Kane in a big screen adaptation of Kane and Lynch. Perhaps you were one of the game fans excited by that prospect, but as the long months wore on, you may have forgotten such a fleeting news item. But Kane and Lynch didn't go anywhere, and GameDaily is confirming that Bruce Willis is ready to go in with his guns blazing, with Simon Crane directing, and that filming will begin in March 2010. They're just looking for their Lynch and their locations. GameDaily caught up with producer Adrian Askarieh, who confirmed Willis' casting, and shared just what had lured him to the project in the first place. "[Kyle Ward's] script has been incredibly well-received around town. After Bruce Willis read it, he called it one of the best action scripts he's ever read, and Bruce is an expert in terms of action scripts because he's read everything over the last 20 years." Askarieh describes the film as "a great buddy action movie" (nothing's funnier than kidnapping and death row) and promised that'll remain faithful to the game, at least in terms of its plotline. "It's going to have the basic premise. But the details for the movie are going to be different. It's not going to have every sequence from the game, but it's essentially the story of a mercenary teaming up with a schizophrenic psychopath to save his wife and daughter."
While none of us hold out hope for video game adaptations, I would like this one to turn out solid. It's two death-row inmates (one of whom is heavily medicated) doing rotten, sociopathic things in the name of rescue. It's the kind of movie Hollywood should be able to make, but probably won't, even with an action heavy like Willis.
[via Empire]
Nerdgasm! The First 'Expendables' Trailer Is Online
Filed under: Action », Movie Marketing », Trailers and Clips »
Aww, yeah! Millenium Films and Lionsgate have debuted the first full trailer for Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables – you know, the movie starring just about EVERY awesome action star of the last few decades in some plot about overthrowing some dictator or another while amassing the biggest body count imaginable . In short: pure awesomeness captured on celluloid. What's that noise, you ask? Why yes, it is the sound of the entire internet experiencing what is known as a collective nerdgasm.
Now hurry up and watch the trailer so you can start integrating "Bring it, Happy Feet!" into your daily lexicon.
VIDEO REMOVED AT REQUEST OF STUDIO
[Update: Sorry, folks. We removed the video at the studio's request, but read on for a detailed description of the awesomeness that the Expendables trailer contains!]
Harold Faltermeyer to Score Kevin Smith's 'Dicks'?
Filed under: Action », Comedy », Music & Musicals », Warner Brothers », RumorMonger », Newsstand »
Everything about Kevin Smith's A Couple of Dicks sounds too good to be true. How can you not look forward to a movie that promises to be a throwback to the glory days of 1980s buddy cop comedies and the next Roadhouse? It even lured in Bruce Willis, and if you can bring back The Last Boy Scout side of him, your job is half done. But the film might just score an extra point of goodness: Empire caught up with Smith who revealed that 1980s soundtrack-meister Harold Faltermeyer might be lending his steely sound to Dicks. "As I'm putting the flick together, I see it as a real throwback to the 80s buddy cop genre," said Smith. "So I'm putting some music on this scene, see if it works. I take this piece from Fletch, which I've always loved, and it works. Now I take this piece of music from Beverly Hills Cop, and it plays the comedy well. It plays the action well. And, after doing those temp cues, I said to a few people, 'Is it crazy to see if Harold Faltermeyer will want to score this movie?'"
Faltermeyer hasn't done a soundtrack since 1994, but fortune favors the Smith. "Warners said he'd recently come in and talked about getting back into the game. And so Harold Faltermeyer is watching the movie next week!" Nothing is set in stone, however, and even if the composer agrees, Smith has his own conditions. What I'm looking for is that old Harold Faltermeyer sound that I grew up on. If he's moved on from that sound, I'll respect that. I'll go get a Casio and f*** it up myself!"
Head beyond the jump for some end-of-the-week mood music ...
Review: Surrogates
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy », New Releases », Disney », Theatrical Reviews », New in Theaters »
Some science fiction films take us to different worlds or alternate realities, or offer visions of the future. In each of these new worlds, certain new rules apply. Sometimes the rules are pretty simple and can be easily and clearly established, as in Star Trek or District 9. Other times the rules are exceedingly complex and raise a million questions, as in the new Surrogates, which is based on a comic book by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele. In this future world, humans can strap themselves into a chair, plug themselves into a bunch of sensors and have complete control of an artificial being, including movement, speech and senses. This artificial being can then go out into the world to perform daily tasks, while the real person is safe at home, never risking getting hit by a car or falling down a manhole.
From there, things get sticky. A narrator explains to us that 98% of the population uses the surrogates, and later a character says something about a "billion" users. Last time I checked, a billion was only about 20% (or less) of the population. Plus, how much do these surrogates cost? Can all the poor people of the world afford them? We do get to see a few things like a surrogate bringing home food for its owner to eat, and other points in which surrogates freeze up while their owners use the bathroom, but just how do people go about their daily lives? Some of the users look like they're in pretty bad shape, sitting in their chairs. Is using a surrogate physically or emotionally addicting? Do their muscles atrophy? Do they take showers? Do they ever get together to have sex? Has the population gone down because of too much surrogate sex and not enough human sex?
Cinematical Seven: Arguments for Bruce Willis as a Great Actor
Filed under: Cinematical Seven »
Bruce Willis returns to cinemas this week with Surrogates, his first starring role since Live Free or Die Hard. It has been 21 years since the original Die Hard, and it seems as if studios and executives are still trying to make lightning strike twice with Willis as an action hero. Fortunately, Willis' finer instincts keep coming through with some of his quirkier choices between the big-budget blow-em-up movies. And though a casual fan wouldn't know it, he has demonstrated over the years a marked talent for acting. That's right. Bruce Willis is an actor, and a damn good one. It's a shame he has yet to earn a single Oscar nomination, and he could have -- should have -- earned some for the following great performances.
1. Butch in Pulp Fiction (1994)
He shows up 20 minutes in, in a single shot that lasts a full two minutes. It's just Bruce, framed in the center of the shot. The background is lit low and mostly out of focus. He doesn't speak for two minutes; we're listening to Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) speak, but we're looking at Bruce. We're looking at that mug. It's a tough, hard mug, but he knows that Marsellus has his number, so his guard is not entirely up. That look of hard disappointment anchors it. Most of Willis' acting is like that: an invisible stamp of quality that makes everything else around him look good. Then, check out the rest of the film, the way Tarantino's dialogue seems to perfectly fit his mouth, and the brilliant way he pulls off his many non-speaking scenes.
Shelf Life: The Sixth Sense
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Thrillers », Fandom », Shelf Life »
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Last week's "Shelf Life" looked back at Carrie, the iconic Brian De Palma movie that introduced the world to movies about terrifying teenage girls, the latest iteration of which is Diablo Cody's follow-up to Juno, Jennifer's Body. In anticipation of the upcoming movie Surrogates, which opens this Friday, we decided to revisit Bruce Willis' last great hit, The Sixth Sense, admittedly less because it has anything other than its star in common with Jonathan Mostow's technothriller than the fact that there are few movies in the last decade as acclaimed and commercially successful as M. Night Shyamalan's 1999 breakthrough. As such, we figured it was time to take a look at the movie that made "I see dead people" a pop culture catchphrase and examine whether it should truly live on as the classic it was originally considered.
The Facts: M. Night Shyamalan and his diminutive star, Haley Joel Osment, became overnight icons with this 1999 film about a doctor named Malcolm (played by Willis) desperately trying to reach a little boy named Cole who claims to see ghosts. Though it allegedly cost only $55 million to make, the film became the sleeper hit of that summer, earning some $670 million worldwide as well as six Academy Award nominations, including for Best Picture, Actress, Supporting Actor, Director, Editor, and Original Screenplay. Meanwhile, the film drew almost unanimous praise from the critical community, and currently enjoys a 85 percent Tomatometer rating. Not to mention its greatest legacy – namely, making twist endings the hallmark (and eventually, Achilles' heel) of its director, most of whose subsequent movies featured some sort of third-act surprise.
Interview: 'Surrogates' Director Jonathan Mostow
Filed under: Action », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Disney », Interviews »
Jonathan Mostow is one of the "that guys" of the directing world: you almost always recognize his handiwork, but you're not quite sure who he is, because his films maintain a more assertive sense of themselves than they do of him (and we mean that as a compliment). Although he did some smaller films before then, 1997's Breakdown was his calling card as a filmmaker, and contained all of the elements that would signify something made by him – namely, an interesting idea that was executed with mastery of form and a comfortable grasp on genre conventions. Subsequently he directed the submarine thriller U-571 and Terminator 3, and his latest, Surrogates, is another example of high-concept storytelling streamlined to maximize its entertainment potential.
Cinematical recently sat down with Mostow in Los Angeles for an exclusive interview about the ins and outs of the film, which follows Bruce Willis as a cop investigating a murder in a futuristic society where humankind interacts through android proxies of themselves, called surrogates. In addition to explaining the film's world and surrogates' place within it, Mostow talked about his technique as a director marrying interesting ideas to effective storytelling, and reflected on his expansive career both as a director and producer.
Cinematical: What is the point of the surrogates for the people in this film? How does it revolutionize their lives?
Morgan Freeman Goes Top Secret For 'Red'
Filed under: Action », Thrillers », Casting », DIY/Filmmaking », Newsstand », Comic/Superhero/Geek »
You know, I think Morgan Freeman likes playing in the comic book world. After turns in Wanted, Batman Begins, and The Dark Knight, Freeman is currently in talks to join another DC production. According to Variety, he's in talks to costar with Bruce Willis in Red, an adaptation of Warren Ellis' 3-book series. Ellis' series centers on a former black-ops CIA agent named Moses. He's retired and enjoying the quiet life, and the CIA is happy to let him do so, until a new director is hired, and decides to pull up his file. When the director finds out what Moses actually did, he decides that he's a liability, and sends a high tech assassin to kill him. When the book was optioned last year, it was reported they'd added a love interest, and that Moses would be getting the old team back together. There would also be a generational divide as Moses contends with younger agents who rely on new and improved gadgets. Variety doesn't say whether all those new twists and turns have been kept, but I suspect they have, as three issues aren't quite enough to make a movie out of.
Red is one of the only DC Comics to jump the Warner Bros. ship, and is being produced at Summit Entertainment. Erich Hoeber and Jon Hoeber are penning the script, and the movie doesn't yet have a director. Maybe Freeman can lure in his Invictus boss, and break him into the comic book world?
The Return of Jessica Alba?
Now 'New Moon' Prevents Skin Cancer!_thumbnail.jpg)
Discuss: Who Would be the Most Profitable Director if ...
Warner Bros Will Make Clint Eastwood Fans' Day
Their Best Role: Nicole Kidman in 'To Die For'
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