danny huston Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Counting out Signs and We Were Soldiers, it's been nearly a decade since Mel Gibson's knocked some skulls (if you're willing to factor in 2000's The Patriot; if not, then exactly a decade since 1999's Payback), and in the trailer for Edge of Darkness -- embedded post-jump -- it looks like old habits die hard.

Gibson plays a Boston detective whose daughter is killed in a hit meant for him. Naturally, he starts knocking on doors and following trails to determine if his daughter had actually been the target all along, and why. Writer William Monahan is no stranger to either Beantown (The Departed) or elaborate conspiracies (Body of Lies), and director Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) already made a BBC miniseries out of the material back in 1985. (No wonder it was reminding me of State of Play, title similarities aside.)

I wasn't sure then why a film with such firepower on paper was being relegated to next January, but it seems to be in stride with the turning tide of this past January's strong performance. Just as The Cabin in the Woods 3-D had been pushed back to the same weekend that My Bloody Valentine 3-D had, I believe that Darkness is being positioned on the same weekend that Taken had for a reason. (Even the poster is not far from that of the righteous-father flick.)

Let's hope Mel McKickass has all the right reasons to warm things up next winter.

There are many reasons to love The Proposition. It's written and scored by the irreplaceable Nick Cave. It's perfectly directed by John Hillcoat. It's both thrilling and strenuous on the heart. And above all else -- it's wonderfully cast, from the monologue-delivering John Hurt to the sadistic charm of Danny Huston's Arthur Burns.

While I appreciated Huston's work well before he headed for the dry grime of the Outback in the 1880s, his stint as the violent sociopath jettisoned him to a whole new level. What was so great about his performance is that while he maintained some of the exuberant charm he's known for, Huston used it as a way to balance the truly sadistic aspects of his character. Without a doubt, Arthur Burns is a dangerous man who does terrible things -- and Huston plays it perfectly -- but that little edge of charm gives the character more depth than is usually awarded to the character we're set up to hate.

I often come across news that makes me jump with excitement, and just as I go to whip up a post about it, I reconsider. Will anyone else feel the same joy upon reading that Joe Morton has been cast in a small prison indie? To many, he's nothing more than Miles Dyson from Terminator 2. Will anyone care about that cool, but unknown new actor that popped up on a few shows here or there? Or, does anyone else believe that Danny Huston in Clash of the Titans is much more alluring than Fiennes, Worthington, Neeson, and the rest?

Before I started writing about movies, my friends would dub me the expert because I would always pick out some face on the screen and do a little happy dance while the rest of the theater only oggled over the stars. But it wasn't so much knowing everyone and everything, but being drawn to the secondary actors, and remembering them from all of their other parts. While many seem to have bit-part blindness, these actors' faces would always stick in my mind.

I cheer the arrival of Nicky Katt in all of his blockbuster bit parts -- Sin City, Grindhouse, The Dark Knight, whilst wondering why he can't get better work (he's been on the scene since '77 for cripes sakes!). Lauren Ambrose was always recognizable, even before Six Feet Under, for her stints in Can't Hardly Wait and the insanity that is Psycho Beach Party.

Part of it is being ahead of the rush -- waiting patiently for that mainstream gig that will zip talents into superstardom. But for some it's the eternal wait -- seeing talent year after year, part after part, and knowing that the world-at-large will never swoon for them. Which actors and actresses, invisible to most of the world, do you love?

In the early 1980s I was an "X-Men" fanatic, eagerly devouring every comic book I could get my hands on. But my favorite, and it remains my favorite to this day, was a 1982 four-issue mini-series written by Chris Claremont, drawn by Frank Miller and devoted exclusively to Wolverine. In it, Wolvie goes to Japan to find out what happened to his true love Mariko. He's a magnificent warrior and he understands Japan's ancient codes and rules but also understands his own raging animal instincts and his need to abandon the rules. He constantly battles these two sides, and in one sublime image, after a fight, he smoothes the disturbed pebbles in a Zen garden, making the connection between chaos and order.

Sadly, there's nothing in the new X-Men Origins: Wolverine even remotely as good or as interesting as that one image. This Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) no longer struggles between his two sides. He's smack dab on the side of good, and beholden to the unwritten Hollywood rule, which says that no hero can kill anyone in cold blood (only in self-defense, or in response to senseless acts of cruelty and violence). Sure, he can rage and howl from time to time, but he must pull back at the last second -- to set a good example for the kiddies, I guess. To spur him to action, the film brutally dispatches everyone who's nice to him, from his kind-hearted father/guardian in the opening flashback to the sweet farmer couple that gives him refuge, to his own sweetheart Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins). So there's some bad foreshadowing for you: if you help an old lady across the street or tell a romantic story about the moon, you're toast.

Fie Louis Leterrier, and all of the people behind the Clash of the Titans remake! I have to admit, Liam Neeson as Zeus and Ralph Fiennes as Hades tempted my curiosity, and now I can't help but see it. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Danny Huston is the next man of the Titans, and he will play Poseidon -- God of the Sea. Leterrier only knows how much this will mean for the actor, since this so-called remake is switching up the story left, right, and center. Maybe this time around, we'll see the old guy get sexy with Medusa. Whatever the case, this is one more big flick for Huston, and maybe one day we'll get some solid starring work, and a North American release for Fade to Black while we're at it. (What's Fade to Black? Why, it's the film where he stars as Orson Welles. A project that also boasts Paz Vega, Christopher Walken, and Diego Luna.)

Meanwhile, Mr. Big isn't ready to say no to more Sex. Variety reports that Chris Noth has finally committed to Sex and the City 2. He might have taken a while to agree, but this news isn't exactly surprising. You might, however, be surprised by this little nibblet: The deal was for SEVEN figures. Talk about being a lucrative co-star. The sequel starts production in September, and is set for a May 28, 2010 release.

October 3 is quickly approaching -- the day that will bring Simon Pegg's How to Lose Friends and Alienate People to the big screen. Since the countdown has begun, a series of Pegg-led blogs and vlogs are being released posted over at the Guardian. The first video dips into the first day of shooting and working with a pig, and it looks more like a behind-the-scenes featurette than a blog, but that's okay. It's also teamed with Pegg's impressions of his experience on set. Ever wonder what they're like behind the camera? Here's some of the dirt:

On Kirsten Dunst: "She was friendly and unassuming and got on well with Nick Frost, which is usually my benchmark for judging people."

On Jeff Bridges: "a legend and an incredibly generous actor had me quivering with excitement every time he walked onto set" ... and Pegg says a future vlog will show him playing Pass the Pigs with Bridges.

On Danny Huston: "a man who I don't recall ever seeing not smiling is like me, a giggler, a condition which always causes exquisite anxiety when the cameras are rolling."

On Megan Fox: "an actress all too easy to underestimate, due to her striking beauty but one who definitely proves her worth as the 'so hot right now' ingenue Sophie Maes."

Will How to Lose Friends and Alienate People be on your Fall must-see list?

Oh, that pesky Mel Gibson. I have to admit, while I used to be a fan, the last ten years have pulled me out of the Gibson fold. I wasn't planning to see Edge of Darkness, but with this latest casting notice, the pesky buggers have left me no choice.

The Hollywood Reporter posts that the wonderful, needs-to-be-in-more-films Danny Huston is signing on to the cast, along with Shawn Roberts (Diary of the Dead) and Bojana Novakovic (Seven Pounds). The Martin Campbell-helmed feature will focus on a veteran cop played by Gibson, "whose only grown-up child (Novakovic) is murdered on the steps of his home. The cop unearths his daughter's secret life and discovers a world of corporate cover-ups and government collusion." Huston is going to be a shady businessman, I presume somehow entangled in this mess, while Roberts will play the boyfriend of the daughter.

With a little Robert De Niro on board to clean up messes, this could be one interesting film.

A few international film festivals have announced their jury heads today, so here's a roundup, plus other fest circuit news:

• Chinese auteur Wong Kar-Wai (2046) will be replacing the late Anthony Minghella as the head of the jury at this month's Shanghai International Film Festival. Minghella, who died in March, will be honored by the fest, which runs June 14-22. Other jury members include filmmaker Bille August and Joan Chen, who once starred in a film co-written by Wong (1986's E nan).
• Actor Danny Huston (Children of Men) will head the Michael Powell jury at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, which runs June 18-29. He and others, including actress Joely Richardson and filmmaker Iain Softley, will be voting for the winner of the prestigious Michael Powell award. Last year's winner was Anton Corbijn's Control.
• Italian film critic Gian Luigi Rondi has been invited to be the new president of the three-year-old Rome Film Festival following a political shakeup that caused the resignation of former president Goffredo Bettini. Rondi was the artistic director of the Venice Film Festival between 1983 to 1986 and currently heads Italy's version of the Academy Awards, the David di Donatello Awards. He has so far declined that he will accept. The 2008 festival will run October 21-31.
• Jean-Luc Godard may be boycotting the Tel Aviv Student Film Festival, but other French filmmakers are set to attend another event, the Tel Aviv French Film Festival, which begins June 10. Those scheduled to appear include Alexandre Arcady, Diane Kurys and Laetitia Masson. Popular films set to screen include The Secret of the Grain and Love Songs, my review for which you can read here.

It was supposed to be a story about a British dude who ticks off the celebrity and Vanity Fair masses, relayed in a voice that charms some, but annoys many. But then the first short little trailer for How to Lose Friends and Alienate People popped up, and as Christopher Campbell said last December, "the trailer makes How to Lose look like a Ben Stiller comedy."

Now the international trailer has hit the waves, and yes, indeed, it still looks like a Stiller comedy -- right down to the dog accidentally flying out the window. Where's the snark? (Okay, snark without cute undertones.) I was expecting bitterness, not slapstick -- a questionable lead, not a seemingly innocent Simon Pegg. At least it's got some Danny Huston without the vampiric language and sharp teeth.

Still, I don't know what to think anymore. My world is all askew, because Kirsten Dunst's moments in the trailer actually seemed more interesting than Pegg's bumbling shenanigans. The film will hit screens this fall.

Warning: Watch for foul language.

[via Ace Showbiz]

I am in no way a history buff. I like to think I know all I needed to know when I graduated fourth grade -- names, faces, places, dates and documents. It's not that I'm not interested in history, it's just that I never found time to dive into everything. I've enjoyed reading up on New York's history (where I'm from) and I'll enjoy the occasional historical flick (until everyone trashes it for not being accurate), but apart from that ... nada. However, lately I've been pulled into the first two installments of HBO's John Adams, starring Paul Giamatti as that legendary pimp (aka the second President of the United States). Should we just give him the Emmy now?

The mini-series is a great conversation piece; my wife and I stayed up late last night watching the second part, then looking up stuff on Wikipedia and discussing the events just prior to the American Revolution. In case you haven't watched it yet, the first two parts (which premiered this past Sunday) cover everything from the Boston Massacre up to the writing of the Declaration of Independence (loved the scene where Adams, Franklin and Jefferson are reading over the Declaration, sharing notes). Additionally, the cast is pretty awesome -- you have Laura Linney (as Abigail Adams, John's wife), Tom Wilkinson (as Benjamin Franklin), Danny Huston (as Samuel Adams), David Morse (as George Washington) and Justin Theroux (as John Hancock).

The only issue I was having was that the series jumps around in years, and you need to pay close attention to dialogue in order to figure out where we are in time. But other than that, I'm absolutely addicted already. It's intense, it's extremely well-acted, it's beautifully shot and it's definitely something you should watch ... if only to learn a thing a two about how we here in the United States came to be.

How about you? Early reactions?