ed zwick Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal are giving onscreen love another go in Love and Other Drugs, an adaptation of pharmaceutical sales rep Jamie Reidy's insider-y book Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman. Reidy worked at Pfizer during the '90s, and according to him, everything you thought was true about those creepy folks pushing samples and pens to your doctors is true. Show me the Viagra! No wait, don't.

Gyllenhaal will play the Pfizer-pusher who meets Anna Hathaway's character during one of his sales calls. She has Parkinson's disease, so it's safe to assume that Reidy will have some sort of epiphany about the shadiness of the industry that pays him (and pays him very well) and throw it all to the wind for the woman he loves. Last time Hathaway and Gyllenhaal were together onscreen was in Brokeback Mountain, so let's hope things end a little happier this time around, eh?

Charles Randolph (The Interpreter, The Life of David Gale) adapted Reidy's book for the big screen, and Ed Zwick (Defiance, Blood Diamond) is directing. Hathaway has two movies in the queue: Tim Burton's hopefully awesome Alice in Wonderland in 2010 and Gary Marshall's Valentine's Day, which is currently in pre-production. Meanwhile, Gyllenhaal has been equally busy wrapping up David O. Russell's Nailed, Jim Sheridan's Brothers, and Mike Newell's video game abs-fest Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

Granted, Daniel Craig has already made sure that he won't be playing James Bond for the rest of his career; but that hasn't stopped him from signing up for a variety of parts that are as far as you can get from the suave super spy. Paramount Vantage has just released the trailer for the WWII drama, Defiance. The film is the latest from 'bleeding-heart' action director Ed Zwick, whose last feature, Blood Diamond, managed to snag the director an Oscar nomination. Judging by the orchestral swell in this trailer and tag lines like "from desperation comes defiance," it would seem like he might be angling for another nomination this year.

Defiance is based on the true story of three Jewish brothers who escaped Nazi-occupied Poland to join up with the Russian resistance in the forests of Belarus. Zwick's screenplay is based on Nechama Tec's book Defiance: The Bielski Partisans. Tuvia, Zusia, and Asael Bielski established a large partisan camp in the forests of Belarus during World War II and ultimately helped to save the lives of over 1,200 Jews. Craig will play Tuvia Bielski and he is joined by Liev Schreiber and Jamie Bell as Zusia and Asael.

Despite my lack of love for some of Zwick's previous work, I'll admit that so far this one looks pretty good. Although to be fair, it might have a lot to do with the talents of Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber rather than Zwick's skill behind the camera. Defiance has yet to find a release date, but is expected to arrive sometime in '08.

[via ComingSoon.net]

Granted, this might be stepping into TV Squad's domain, but it is about Steven Spielberg after all. The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Spielberg's adaptation of Stephen King and Peter Straub's 1984 novel, The Talisman, has hit a financial roadblock. According to THR, the miniseries originally slated to premiere on TNT in 2008, "has been put on hold because of budgetary issues" -- which will definitely put a crimp in the plans to expand the story into an ongoing series. The Talisman focuses on a young boy who journeys into a parallel dimension to save his mother. Sources for THR said that once all the scripts had been completed, it became obvious that the project would require a huge special FX budget that TNT wasn't ready to fork over. Spielberg first bought the novel for his own Amblin Entertainment over 20 years ago. Never one to give up, as late as 2004, he was still trying to make the film under his DreamWorks shingle. Past directors attached to the project include: Vadim Perelman (who just signed for Angelina Jolie's Atlas Shrugged), and Ed Zwick (Blood Diamond).

As I'm sure we are all aware, Spielberg is still working on the fourth installment of Indiana Jones, Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull -- and I don't think I'm alone in saying that they managed to pick a doozy of a title this time around. There has also been talk that Spielberg might be taking over directorial duties on Aaron Sorkin's film about the 1968 Democratic convention. If he does, the only question will probably revolve around how he's going to work Shia LaBeouf into that one. As for his TV aspirations, until TNT can sort out a budget for the mini-series, it looks like The Talisman is going to stay on the shelf just a little while longer.

One of my favorite young actors, Jamie Bell, will be playing little brother to Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber in Ed Zwick's next project, Defiance. The war film, based on a true story, tells of Jewish brothers who escape Nazi-occupied Poland in order to fight alongside the Russians in the forests of Belarussia. We'd previously heard about Craig's involvement -- something that must have excited fans of both James Bond and Munich -- but despite Variety's story today focusing on Bell, I think this is also the first time we're officially hearing about Schreiber's involvement (over at The Hollywood Reporter the casting news spotlights both actors).

Although these three guys don't really look like they'd be related -- though they could pass better than the fraternal trio of The Darjeeling Limited -- each is a terrific actor, and together they should prove an enjoyable team to watch. And while the subject matter and the filmmaker are sure to warrant their own usual Oscar buzz, I'm really hopeful about the prospects of these three guys getting recognition, themselves. Zwick has directed a few actors to nominations (DiCaprio; Hounsou; Watanabe; Denzel Washington even won for Glory) and his resume as producer also features plenty of Oscar notices.

In addition to Bell and Schreiber, two others have joined the cast in supporting roles. Alexa Devalos (The Chronicles of Riddick) will play Craig's (much younger) love interest, a fellow Polish refugee, and Tomas Arana (Gladiator) will play a leader of Russian resistance fighters. However, I'm mostly excited for Bell, who I've been a fan of since his precious debut in Billy Elliot.

He has had a few starring roles beyond that film, but nothing that has gotten him the same acclaim. He almost makes Chumscrubber and Dear Wendy tolerable, and he is fine -- though underused -- in Peter Jackson's terrible King Kong. But if you want to see him give another great performance in another great film, you have to go back to David Gordon Green's Undertow, which also admittedly may be too much an acquired taste for mainstream audiences. He also co-starred in last year's Flags of our Fathers, but I still haven't seen it and so can't judge his contribution. Hopefully, Defiance will allow him to break out more in terms of getting more prestigious gigs. Even if the film itself is as badly paced and as forcefully harrowing as Zwick's last, Blood Diamond, it will at least be, like that film, entertaining for its performances alone.