claire danes Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Click image below to view full poster

In Me and Orson Welles, Zac Efron plays a scrappy young actor who manages to get on Orson Welles' good side and earn himself a part in Welles' stage production of Julius Caesar. For a while, anyway. The film, set in the '30s, is directed by Richard Linklater and offers plenty of talent, both big name -- Claire Danes and Efron, natch -- and smaller ones that are on the rise, like Zoe Kazan.

James Rocchi reviewed Me and Orson Welles at TIFF in 2008, and had plenty of good things to say about it: "Linklater gets the tone of a behind-the-scenes comedy drama just right, the flurry of activity on-stage and the "noises off," the parts played when the lights are up and the roles played when the theater is empty.... Me and Orson Welles won't find a mass audience, but the audience that does will find it has a lot to recommend it."

Check out the exclusive poster premiere for Me and Orson Welles by clicking below, and make sure to check out the film when it hits theaters on November 25th. You can also watch the trailer after the jump. Enjoy!

The 2007 movie Evening received bad reviews and was seen by about eight people, but it appears that one good thing came from the production. AP reports that beautiful actress Claire Danes has married her co-star from that film, equally beautiful actor Hugh Dancy. Combined, the pair are so pretty that if you look directly at them, you'll permanently scar your corneas.

For those of you who enjoy a whiff of scandal with your celebrity news, the Claire/Dancy (should we call them "Clancy?") romance began amid rumors that Danes entered the liaison while still involved with boyfriend Billy Crudup. This was only interesting because when Danes and Crudup began dating, there were rumors that she'd broken up Crudup's relationship with a then-pregnant Mary-Louise Parker. Whether any of this is true is anyone's guess, but when exceptionally lovely people break up and then start sleeping with other lovely people, the tabloids start sharpening their sticks. So ... congrats on the nuptials, kids!

Both actors have projects in the pipe -- Danes will next be seen in Temple Grandin, thrillingly described as a biopic about "an autistic woman who has become one of top scientists in humane livestock handling" (let's hope it's in 3-D!) and Dancy has sizable roles in Coach, directed by Stephen Frears son, Will, and in Down and Dirty Pictures, based on Peter Biskind's non-fiction book about the independent film industry.

There's a new biopic finally gaining steam that hasn't been mentioned on Cinematical before -- HBO's Temple Grandin project. Back in August, Claire Danes signed on, and now The Hollywood Reporter posts that David Strathairn, Julia Ormond, and Catherine O'Hara have joined the cast.

Temple Grandin is a 61-year-old woman with autism known to be one of the leading voices in autism advocacy. As a child, she was derided by her classmates for being different -- nicknamed "tape recorder" because of her tendency to repeat things numerous times. But bursting out of that, Grandin went to college and eventually earned a PhD in animal science, ultimately becoming an advocate of humane slaughterhouses as well -- an ideal candidate to show both the struggles and successes that can come from autism.

A passion project that's been in the works for almost a decade, filming begins this month in Austin with Danes playing Grandin, while Strathairn plays her university science teacher, Ormond will play her mother, and O'Hara, her aunt. It's a great story to see come to fruition, and with this cast, I'm hoping for good things -- Danes breaking out of that older seductress habit, O'Hara getting a chance to be serious. Ormond is good and, well, Strathairn always ups the ante. Thoughts?

At any large film festival, it's easy to get caught up in the buzz and the biz of it - most of the time, the press screenings are really press and industry screenings, which means that the person sitting next to you is not some fellow ink-stained wretch who will watch the film and have to write a review but, rather, an acquisitions person who will watch the film and, perhaps, write a check. This doesn't just lead to seat-hopping and movie-jumping as the acquisitions people shrug No, not for us and leave so they can continue their quest; it also leads to getting caught up in an atmosphere where questions of commerce can come more readily to mind than questions of art.

So it was with the Toronto screening of Me and Orson Welles, where my feeling warmed and charmed by Richard Linklater's recreation of 1930's literary New York came on the heels of a much more pointed question -- namely, who the hell is going to see it? Starring Zac Efron as a young would-be actor who's recruited for a bit part in Orson Welles' 1937 Mercury Theater production of Julius Caesar, the film skews young in energy and execution, but unless teens are lured into caring about old-timey theater by Efron's name, it's unlikely they'll go; older audience members, who have the advantage of actually knowing, and caring, who Orson Welles is might be put off by the presence of Mr. Efron, who they know solely from their childrens' repeated viewing of High School Musical.

On the 21st, I shared pictures of Zac Efron, Christian McKay, and others on the set of Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles. Now we can get a peek at his older love interest, Claire Danes, in the picture above, courtesy of EW.

In the film, Efron is an aspiring actor who gets a bit part in a Welles production, and then gets sexy with the older, perky production assistant (Danes). According to Richard Linklater: "He's falling for this older woman. She's taking him for a bit of a ride." With that smirk above? No!

We already know that Danes has a pattern with this impressionable young men. Do you remember what she did with Igby? But at least Steve Martin gave her a taste of her own Shopgirl medicine.

Me and Orson Welles debuts next Friday at TIFF.

What we previously knew about the plot of Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins: Christian Bale plays an older John Connor; a young Kyle Reese shows up in the form of Anton Yelchin; Sam Worthington plays some guy named Marcus. After Skynet brings about a nuclear near-apocalypse, our heroes must keep the machines from wiping out the rest of humanity. That's it. Now, thanks to a Warner Bros. start-of-production press release we know a lot more -- or do we?

"In the highly anticipated new installment of The Terminator film franchise, set in post-apocalyptic 2018, Christian Bale stars as John Connor, the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators. But the future Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet's operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind."

If you read that a couple of times, it doesn't really make very much sense ("the future Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part..."?). Studio marketing departments aren't known for lucid prose. It's not clear whether the human resistance Connor's going to lead (or so we keep being told) actually gets formed in this movie, or how Reese -- Connor's father -- enters the picture. But at least we have a sense of the storyline, and of who "Marcus" is. Parenthetically, we also learn that Charlotte Gainsbourg will take over as Kate Connor -- the Claire Danes role from Rise of the Machines.

Quick hits on three titles of interest: As I wrote last November, Meeting Resistance "is not the end-all, be-all of Iraq War documentaries, nor does it pretend to be. Filmmakers Steve Connors and Molly Bingham stay tightly focused on their subjects -- members of the resistance movement in Iraq -- and get them to open up about their motivations. In doing so, they provide an invaluable window into a world that remains unknown to most foreigners." The DVD from First Run Features includes an audio commentary, filmmaker Q&A, biographies, and a photo gallery.

Olivier Meyrou's documentary Beyond Hatred examines the aftermath of the brutal murder of a young gay man by a gang of skinheads. Ed Gonzalez in Slant Magazine felt it "arrives at essential truths about suffering and loss through abstract means." The DVD from First Run Features appears to be a bare-bones edition; no extras are listed at the official site.

I'm waiting for my rental copy of The Flock to arrive in the mail, but I don't have high hopes for this psychological drama, even though it stars Richard Gere and Claire Danes. Hong Kong director Andrew Lau can be hit (Internal Affairs) or miss (Confession of Pain), and the long delay between production (late 2004) and release doesn't bode well. The DVD from The Weinstein Co. has no extras, according to this review by Brian Orndorf at DVD Talk, who felt the movie looked too much like a bad TV show.

One of the films I've been itching to see, which can't even seem to get itself in front of the camera, is Jodie Foster's Flora Plum. For at least the last ten years, there has been buzz about this film, which was originally going to star Claire Danes, out of My So-Called Life and into Yale, and Russell Crowe. But just like bad luck has loomed in Terry Gilliam's world of filmmaking, Foster just can't seem to get it made.

Crowe injured himself and production stopped. He never returned to the project and later in 2002, there was word that Ewan McGregor was taking over. Again, it stopped. Yet Foster is still determined to get the film made. She talked with MTV, and is still very invested in getting it made. However, she's being wary about how much she says, for fear that she'll jinx herself. "My new superstition is to never mention it, because every time I do, my film falls apart." From there, she talks about finally jumping behind the camera again, over a decade since her last directorial effort, Home for the Holidays.

The 1990s had no shortage of dysfunctional family movies, but Jodie Foster's second (and still most recent) directorial effort Home for the Holidays (1995) sends them all packing by bringing the family together for Thanksgiving dinner. Most movies in this genre handle the wide tapestry of characters by assigning them one-dimensional, easily defined personality types, but Foster and her screenwriter, the great W.D. "Rick" Richter, fit in dozens of remarkable little moments that bring everyone into three-dimensional relief. It begins with Claudia Larson (Holly Hunter, at her pluckiest) happily at work, restoring old paintings. (The opening credit sequence is rich with information, such as using egg yolks as a base.) Unfortunately, she gets laid off, tries to make out with her boss and comes down with a cold. Her teenage daughter (Claire Danes) announces that she's spending the holiday with her boyfriend and will be having sex for the first time.

With failure and humiliation hung around her neck, she returns home for turkey day. To rub it in, Claudia loses her fancy, big city coat at the airport and must settle for wearing her mother's puffy, hideously out-of-date coat for the rest of the visit. On the plane, she calls her closest companion, her brother Tommy (Robert Downey Jr.) and begs him to come too. It's an awkward, babbling message, but touchingly honest. Tommy, a cackling, gay nutcase full of mischievous energy, does turn up and brings the sexy Leo Fish (Dylan McDermott). Claudia is single, and in a lesser movie -- Dan in Real Life, for example -- everyone in the family would pester her to find a man, as if they had no concerns of their own. And certainly the subject comes up, most heartbreakingly in a scene with the sad-sack David Strathairn as an old classmate -- a meeting arranged by Claudia's mom (Anne Bancroft).

I know I'm not completely in the minority with this, but I have to admit first off that I loved Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. I really thought Jonathan Mostow did a great job delivering the action -- obviously not close to as good as James Cameron would have done, but better than many others could have. When it was revealed that a fourth Terminator was in the works, I hoped Mostow would be rehired for the gig. But I guess he's either doing something else (Swiss Family Robinson perhaps?) or for some reason he's not welcome back. According to CHUD.com, his replacement on the franchise may be McG, who I find to be one of the most annoying guys working in Hollywood these days. Really, though, I just hate on the guy because of his stupid name. I guiltily kinda enjoyed his two Charlie's Angels movies. Apparently, McG is currently in talks to take the helm of the sequel, for a pre-strike production start, but it isn't for certain that he'll get the job.

I'm sure many of you will probably be upset if McG officially signs on, even if you too just criticize him for his name. It could be the nail on the coffin for a lot of fans already nervous about the continuation of the storyline without any definite sign of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn, Robert Patrick, Edward Furlong, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes or anyone else who has previously starred in the series. From what we've so far heard, it seems part 4 will focus on the post-apocalyptic period involving the war between the machines and John Connor's army. Everything else, regarding an Arnie cameo, or whatever, I'm still considering to be hearsay. Anyway, all I care about now is that at least Terminator 4 has been scripted by T3's Michael Ferris and John D. Brancato, a duo I'm sure are well-enough-versed in the Terminator universe to make this next installment interesting and worth seeing.