christopher mcquarrie Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Hugh Jackman has been itching to take Logan to the land of the Rising Sun since before X-Men Origins: Wolverine hit theaters, and as a sequel was announced mere hours after Origins hit theaters, it was no surprise when he announced this week that he was actively developing it. But "active development" has resulted in a big announcement as according to The Hollywood Reporter, Christopher McQuarrie has been hired to pen the sequel. The Christopher McQuarrie. That weird noise you hear is the sound of my hopes going up despite my best efforts.

As you might remember McQuarrie is no stranger to the X-Men universe, having originally penned the first X-Men script before David Hayter came in. A very brief Google search doesn't reveal what McQuarrie's script would have been like, so maybe someone else can offer up what might have been. I think I can safely say that if he had written Origins, there wouldn't have been gaping continuity errors and laughable memory-removal MacGuffins.

Like most Wolverine fans, I love Frank Miller's Japan saga. It's the first time Wolverine was actually shown to have those things called "feelings," experienced something known as "failure," and it deepened his character beyond the berserker who did nothing more than hack, slash, and hit on Jean Grey. If done right, we could honestly pretend Origins never happened, and this is Wolverine's cinematic origin story.

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:



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Okay, maybe Tom Cruise and Valkyrie screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie won't be together forever ... but they are in for a very long haul. Variety reports that McQuarrie is penning no less than three projects for Cruise to star in.

The first up is likely to be The Tourist, which has Cruise and Charlize Theron attached as the leads. A remake of the French thriller Anthony Zimmer, the original script was penned by Julian Fellowes. McQuarrie is quickly rewriting it so that the film can begin shooting by March.

The pair also might be returning to World War II, as McQuarrie and Mason Alley are teaming up to write Flying Tigers, the real life story of a volunteer fighter squadron that was formed to assist the Chinese in fighting the Japanese during WWII. Cruise isn't formally attached, but he has been itching to do another fighter pilot movie since the days of Top Gun.

But the most intriguing film on the McQuarrie-Cruise slate is the UA project The Champions, which McQuarrie is penning and producing alongside Guillermo del Toro. Based on the British television series about super-powered government agents, it's now being developed for Cruise to star in. It was inevitable that Cruise was going to want in on this whole "superhero" trend -- the aura around his Tropic Thunder costar Robert Downey Jr. was espcially hard to miss. How could he not want some of that? Remember, he's already attached to Sam Raimi's Sleeper, so he's obviously waking up to the trend and franchise potential of superpowers. Well, best of luck to McQuarrie and Cruise -- may the relationship be a fruitful one.

As William Goss noted yesterday, Guillermo Del Toro must be allergic to sleep. He's moving forward with another producing project on his insanely busy slate -- The Champions, a big screen version of the British television series of the 60s. Variety reports that Christopher McQuarrie will be penning the script for United Artists, and acting as a producer alongside Del Toro, Tom Cruise, and Paula Wagner. Del Toro optioned the project last November, and seemingly mindful of the anniversary, has brought on McQuarrie.

Frankly, I'm surprised The Champions hasn't been grabbed long before now, since everyone is dying to have a franchise of superheroes. The series (which ran for a single year) followed a team of government agents who were rescued from a plane crash in the Himalayas by an advanced civilization. As if rescue wasn't nice enough, the super civilization gave them superpowers. Yeah, this is totally going to end up a franchise.

Del Toro has apparently found himself a writer as happy to be sans sleep as he is -- McQuarrie is a hot property at UA after Valkyrie. In addition to The Champions, he'll also be penning and producing The Monster of Florence. Based on Douglas Preston's book, it will follow his investigation into the serial killer nicknamed the Monster of Florence, Italy's version of Jack the Ripper. Preston discovered that one of the murders had been committed on his just-purchased Italian property, and decided to pair up with Italian journalist Mario Spezi to try and solve the case. Their well-meaning investigation ended up embroiled in controversy, arrests, and all kinds of tense insanity that should make for a really enjoyable crime movie -- and be easy peasy for the writer of The Usual Suspects.

The film garnered Francis Ford Coppola Oscar nods for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. It's ranked at #184 out of IMDb's Top 250. And now, after 34 years, The Conversation might be headed for television. Variety reports that AMC is looking to develop a series based on the film, as part of the decade-long efforts of producer Tony Krantz. Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) and Erik Jendresen (Band of Brothers) have been tapped to write a new script.

The interesting twist in this tale -- it won't be a modernized version. "The TV project will be set in the early 1970s -- emulating the time period of the original thriller -- and center on electronic surveillance expert Harry Caul, played in the film by Gene Hackman." Krantz says that the film will look at our present issues with privacy and spying, through the filter of the '70s.

However, this isn't yet set in stone. The project previously failed to get off the ground at ABC, and before that, it almost came to fruition at NBC with the one and only Kyle MacLachlan starring. After the likes of The Lives of Others and Red Road, the project certainly fits -- but should it be directly tied to Coppola's film? Rant or rave in the comments.

I'm delighted by today's news that UA is apparently pleased enough with what they've seen of Valkyrie that they've signed screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie to a first look deal. The Usual Suspects is one of my favorite films -- the kind of film that will make me overlook a guy not doing anything of note for the next ten to twelve years of his career -- and what little I've heard about Valkyrie so far has put it at the top of my must-see list for 2008. It's got Carice van Houten, for starters, which should be enough to get anyone into the multiplex. The actual terms of McQuarrie's deal are known only to him and United Artists COO Xenu, but The Hollywood Reporter's writeup says that there are currently "several projects under discussion." One of them, we know, will not be the Alexander the Great biopic that McQuarrie spent much time on, only to be beaten to the punch by Oliver Stone's worst movie ever, and yes, I've seen U-Turn and it's great by comparison.

McQuarrie is currently prepping The Stanford Prison Experiment, a film based on a famous behavioral study conducted at Stanford in the 70s in which students had to play the roles of guards and prisoners and things got out of hands. For some reason, this doesn't really ring my bell -- I can't see how it will work as a sensible movie -- but one thing I love about McQuarrie is his fascination with history and I'm crossing my fingers that he'll use this deal to get his John Wilkes Booth screenplay into the development cycle immediately. What little I know of the script is that people who read it a couple of years ago were floored by it and that its development seemed to follow the same trajectory as the Alexander script -- it was written, it was tossed around and toyed with by some A-list actors and then dropped because of competition concerns. But unless it's flown under my radar, I don't know of any competing Booth film that has made it to the filming stage, so why not do it now? And seriously, raise your hand if you'd rather see McQuarrie's John Wilkes Booth biopic than Steven Spielberg's Lincoln biopic. Just like I thought -- every hand in the room.

Three people I'll admit to being a fan of: Harvey Milk; Gus Van Sant; Sean Penn. Yet for some reason I'm not really looking forward to Van Sant's Milk, a biopic of openly gay politician Harvey Milk, in which Penn will play the title role. Mostly (and I said this when Penn was first attached) I can't see the cranky actor playing the typically smiling San Francisco city supervisor, who was assassinated by a co-worker in 1978. Sure, Penn is a terrific actor who can play nearly any kind of role. But Harvey Milk? I'll believe it when I see it. If you haven't already seen the Oscar-winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, and you are looking forward to Milk, you might as well save the doc to watch after seeing the Hollywood version ...

... Or, this Hollywood version, at least. There are two. The other one, titled The Mayor of Castro Street, is supposed to be directed by The Usual Suspects' Bryan Singer. But according to Variety, Mayor is stuck "in strike limbo" -- Christopher McQuarrie's script is reportedly finished but failed to be submitted pre-strike. So, Milk will definitely be the first to be filmed, and therefore will likely be the first to hit theaters. Traditionally, the first of dueling biopics wins the better box office (see Capote vs. Infamous), so Mayor may not even want to bother. Unless it gets a much better actor to play Milk -- and who knows a better actor who also resembles Milk more than Penn? As much as I dislike Penn in the role, I don't see anyone else fitting the part (I'd rather just let Times be the only Milk movie). At one point, Matt Damon was also lightly attached to Milk, but the latest news makes no mention of Damon playing assassin and fellow S.F. City Supervisor Dan White, who he would be perfect as. If he were still set to play the film's villain, I would be totally into it, but without him, I'm really fearful.

It didn't start off too smoothly, but it looks like Valkyrie, the thriller about Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg's attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler during World War II, has found it's groove. As things got going, Stauffenberg's offspring were complaining about Tom Cruise playing Claus, there were issues in securing locations, and even extras hurt on set. For the last little while, however, things seem to be going smoothly, and now MGM has released a featurette for the film over at apple.com.

It's a pretty slick clip, not one of those grainy, behind-the-scenes glimpses shot on a hand-held. Writer Christopher McQuarrie talks about the man at the center of the story, and how the film is split up. He says that the first half of the movie will focus on who the players are, while the second half will focus solely on the "July 20 Plot" to take Hitler's life. Kenneth Branagh is a one-man PR machine through much of it, and even describes how the script made his palms sweaty with excitement. Either he's overly exuberant, or that bodes well for the film, since they have to work against what we already know -- that the attempt failed.

The featurette shows all the main players in the film, although I really would've liked to see something on Stephen Fry or David Bamber, and they've done quite a job on Eddie Izzard. Apparently, everyone is "pitch perfect" in their roles, and they show the side-by-side of von Stauffenberg and Cruise, which is pretty spot-on, but it would've been nice to see the others. All in all, it's looking to be a slick thriller -- and with that cast, it would be a shame if it wasn't.

If you've never seen the Oscar-winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, you should lend it your attention. Aside from being a great film, about a homosexual politician in 1970s San Francisco who was assassinated by a co-worker, it needs to be seen before Milk's image is tainted by Sean Penn. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Penn is set to play Milk in a biopic to be directed by Gus Van Sant (My Own Private Idaho). Now, I admit Penn is a great actor, but he just doesn't have that nice-guy charm that Milk had. Instead, Penn is good for serious, brooding characters. Milk was all smiles, and Penn's smile is not nearly as pleasing. Also attached to the film is Matt Damon, who will play Milk's assassin and fellow SF City Supervisor, Dan White (hopefully Damon will wear a dimple-chin prosthetic).

For those wondering, no, this isn't the Milk biopic that we've been hearing about for awhile being made at Warner Bros. That long-planned project, being scripted by Christopher McQuarrie and to be directed by Bryan Singer, is waiting on the production of the duo's Valkyrie -- and maybe even on The Man of Steel. But we did learn of this rival production back in April. Now, if Van Sant can fast track his version, it will take the lead and the advantage. Plans are to begin filming in December with a script penned by Dustin Lance Black (TV's Big Love), though apparently if the untitled film doesn't finalize a shoot date soon, Damon may not stay on board (too bad; he's perfectly cast). The project is being produced by American Beauty's Oscar-winners Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks with financing coming from producer Michael London (Sideways) and his Groundswell Productions. They are currently in talks with one of the major specialty divisions about distribution.

There aren't a whole lot of WWI veterans left (I think there's less than a handful of Americans), which is a shame with Memorial Day coming up since many people aren't familiar with the significance of that Great War. It certainly hasn't helped that Hollywood -- the history textbook writer for many young Americans -- hasn't been interested in the first World War as a subject for a long time. The studios used to produce great WWI films like Wings, All Quiet on the Western Front and Sergeant York. Then WWII came along and became the more popular war, with its definite villain, Adolph Hitler. Meanwhile the best WWI movie we've gotten in awhile (from the U.S., anyway) is the terribly cartoon-like Flyboys, which actually had to be made independently.

There's hope on the horizon, though, as a new WWI epic is being written by Christopher McQuarrie. The screenwriter of The Usual Suspects and the upcoming WWII movie Valkyrie, McQuarrie is interested in making a film that not only depicts the Great War, but also explains it. His script, titled No Man's Land (not to be confused with the German WWI film Niemandsland or the recent foreign Oscar-winner No Man's Land) focuses on the stories of three soldiers who stand in to illustrate the reasons for their nation's involvement in the war. One is an American who fights first for the French Legion and then for the U.S.; one is a Brit who is wrongly accused of being a coward; and the third is a German trench dweller.