frances conroy Tagged Articles at Cinematical

If that reliable mecca of information that is Wikipedia is to be believed, the earliest surviving motion picture is dated to the year of 1888. Mathematically speaking, and disregarding any other media of storytelling, it should come as no surprise that someone might construct and release a film in 2009 that features not a single unique aspect to it. New in Town wouldn't be the first film to appear wholly recycled from many that came before it, and I severely doubt it'll be the last, and if it boasted even one iota of charm or humor between its first frames and its last ones, I probably wouldn't mind.

But it didn't, and so I do.

There's a whole slew of female casting notices that have popped up over at Variety:

While Six Feet Under has been dead and buried for a while, two of the show's alums have got new feature gigs. Justina Machado, who played Vanessa on the show, has picked up a role in Eddie Murphy's A Thousand Words. Unfortunately, there's no word on who she'll play -- perhaps someone who steals some of Murphy's last words from him? She was great at nagging on Six Feet. Meanwhile, Momma Fisher, Frances Conroy, has picked up a gig in the Polish brothers' Manure, as a character named Agnes May. THR says she will be "a longtime secretary" at the manure business.

Then there's Kate Jennings Grant. She has picked up a role in The Rebound, that Catherine Zeta-Jones-starring May-December romcom. She'll play Catherine's best friend, Daphne. But before then, we'll get to see her play Diane Sawyer in the upcoming film Frost/Nixon. (That's pretty spot-on casting -- visually, at least.)

Finally, there are a few stars for Rotimi Rainwater's new indie film Truckstop -- Rachel Miner and Mimi Rogers. Mimi, of course, is the ex of Tom Cruise, back in the days before young wives and Scientology buzz, while you might remember Miner from her role as Dani in Californiacation. According to Rainwater's MySpace blog, the film focuses on "a high school student with cerebral palsy who works at a Truckstop and befriends Vicki, the local prostitute." They become friends, overcome obstacles, etc. Unless things have changed since initial contact was made, Miner will play the prostitute.

Remember that upcoming thriller about the woman who thinks it's a good idea to starve and isolate herself for a month to rid herself of her mental issues? Well, that's Waking Madison, and The Hollywood Reporter have posted the next round of cast members. Disturbia's Sarah Roemer is already set to star as the woman who "locks herself in her apartment for 30 days with no food, telephone, or outside stimuli," and Elisabeth Shue was cast as her doctor. Now we've got Frances Conroy, Will Patton, and word on Taryn Manning's character.

Conroy, who made a neurotic name for herself as Ruth Fisher on Six Feet Under, has been pretty well-cast as Dolly, "Madison's mother and a religious zealot who has her own mental-health issues," while Patton, who was most recently in A Mighty Heart, will play her dad, who is "loving but emotionally absent." Yet somehow, even though Madison has got a whole life of dysfunction, she thinks starving herself for a month will help heal her. Anyhow, Manning, whose casting has been listed on the film's website for a while, is playing Margaret -- "a fellow patient with sociopathic tendencies who resides at the psychiatric hospital with Madison." I'm not sure how Roemer's character can live in a hospital and an apartment, but we'll see soon enough. (Fie vague, confusing plot descriptions!) Production begins in New Orleans today.

You never know quite what you're going to get with Ian McShane, interview-wise. Sometimes he's playfully grumpy, as he was with some journalists who visited the set of The Seeker: The Dark is Rising earlier this year. "What made you want to do this film?" they asked. "The check," he replied. Other times, he's relaxed and jovial, as he was back in 2006 when I sat in on his roundtables for Woody Allen's Scoop. He always comes across as a straight-shooter, and I don't think it would be tough to get him to go off-message, but mostly he just wants to be in and out of press situations with little fuss, it seems. That was the case when he agreed to speak with Cinematical late last week about his role as Merriman Lyon in Seeker. When the time came for our appointment, I got a call from McShane's handler, telling me the big guy had decided to put off our call in favor of a quick lunch, so when he finally called a half-hour later, it seemed like the place to start.

Cinematical: So, how was lunch? What'd you have?

IM: Ha! I don't know what it was. I ordered some artichoke and it came up ... it's very good if you put it across pasta ... and buffalo wings, which were so hot I must have put a pound of vinegar on them, God knows what. Anyway! Enough of lunch. I'm fine. I've just had some melon and I'm having a coffee and I'm talking to you. How are you?

Cinematical: I'm good, thanks. So it's all press for you today, then?

IM: Yeah, I've done the junket. So far, we've done all the TV stuff. Now I'm doing the online, and some telephone stuff, and I'll be through by about five.

Cinematical: I have to start by asking you about the status of the Deadwood movies. I wish I could think of a fresh way to ask, but there it is. Has that ship sailed?

IM: You might be onto a thing there. I just got a call on Friday from ... a dear friend of mine, who told me that they're packing up the ranch. They're dismantling the ranch and taking the stuff out. That ship is gonna sail. I think with the uncertainty of the future, because of this possible strike next year, the writers and the actors, there was no chance of doing it before next May or June anyway, because I'm committed to other things. So I think it's ... Bonsoir, Deadwood.

The Dark is Rising towards a big release on October 5, and after releasing some pictures back in May, a trailer for the film has finally come out. While I can't comment on how well the novel world has translated to the movies, it looks to be the standard kid-hero fantasy fare with a great supporting cast, funky effects and lots of adventure. There's Ian McShane leading the pack as Merriman Lyon, Frances Conroy (almost looking like Maggie Smith's* McGonagall in disguise) as Miss Greythorne and Christopher Eccleston pulling off a creepy Rider. This trailer also has one of the best uses of those cheesy, bigger-than-life voice-overs. While it's groan-worthy at first, they've used it to only illustrate Will's adolescent innocence. Wait it out because when Will discovers his powers, the voice disappears and the creepy music begins.

For those that aren't familiar with the series of books, The Dark is Rising is a series from the 60's and 70's that deals with the struggle between the good (The Light), and the bad (The Dark). Will Stanton (Alexander Ludwig) is a young kid who finds out on his eleventh birthday that he has special powers and must stop the Dark, while collecting the Signs of the Light. According to Wikipedia, there are some big diversions from the books -- Will is a 14-year-old American in the movie, and apparently they give one of his brothers a bit of a twist (look here to see what that is, if you're not worried about possible spoilers).

*Thanks to roadkillbuddha for catching that Maggie Grace is not the same as Maggie Smith, even if my fingers always want to believe otherwise. MB

A cast is falling into place for the project that will bring Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series of fantasy books to the big screen. Deadwood's lovable Al Swearengen (Ian McShane) will star, along with Frances Conroy and Alexander Ludwig. First published in the 60s and 70s, the series chronicles a struggle between two opposing forces, known simply as The Light and The Dark. The main character is a boy who learns that he is endowed with special powers that will allow him to do battle against The Dark and must accept training from an old mentor. (Did George Lucas pay someone royalties for this?)

McShane will star as Merriman Lyon, one of the 'Old Ones' who serves as the kid's mentor. The film will be one of the first to be handled under a new joint-venture between 20th Century Fox and Walden Media, and the team bringing it to the big screen includes director David Cunningham, previously known for helming the Path to 9/11 for television, screenwriter John Hodge, who wrote Trainspotting and A Life Less Ordinary (my favorite movie) and producer Marc Platt, whose credits include Legally Blonde, Legally Blonde 2, and the upcoming Untitled Kirsten Dunst Project.

What sounded like one of the year's most ill-fitting and head-scratching projects -- Neil LaBute and Nicolas Cage (of all combos) getting together to remake Robin Hardy's 1973 chiller The Wicker Man (a true cult classic if ever there was one) -- ends up being a half-compelling, half-goofy and half-redundant piece of remake revisionism. (Yes, that's three halves, but it's that weird a movie.) That's not to say you won't find a few really strong components in LaBute's (ultimately pointless) revisit ... but it'll take a straight face and a eagle's eye to find the good stuff. And even then, the only people who should bother with the remake are the ones who simply can't be hassled renting the original because it's old and British.

Cage stars as state cop Ed Malus, a hard-working and noble sort of everyman hero, whose story begins with a mysterious, deadly roadside explosion and the malaise that comes only when a cop loses two civilians ... and the bodies are never found. After stewing around in his misery juices for a few days, Ed receives a letter from an old lover: She needs him to make the trek out to a private and very isolated island off the coast of Washington because her daughter's gone missing and there's nobody on the island who can help.

After bribing a local pilot and mildly butting a few heads upon his arrival, Edward settles in with the meat of the mystery. But the off-kilter community of Summersisle, which is composed almost exclusively of unfriendly females, indentured males and billions of bees, does not take too kindly to Eddie's arrival. (It probably doesn't help that he has the word "male" as part of his last name.) Indeed, most of The Wicker Man consists of Cage flaccidly interrogating a series of very sneaky women before the mystery is laid bare with a finale that (thankfully) hasn't been monkeyed with too much.