hotel rwanda Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Would you like to see a movie in which Arnold Schwarzenegger and George Clooney unite against a genocidal African nation? How about a movie dealing with racial problems in the Sudan from the producer of Crash? Technically, you can see both movies in one with Darfur Now, a new documentary featuring the star power of the two actors mentioned and produced by co-star Don Cheadle, who was one of Crash's six producers.

Of course, if you're looking forward to Schwarzenegger and Clooney double-handedly kicking some Sudanese butt, or for Cheadle to head-up a multi-character drama focused on race relations within a society in denial, then you're sure to be disappointed. Still, the latter idea does closely describe Darfur Now. The film spotlights six individuals, some of whose stories directly inter-weave, who are affected by the tragedy in Darfur and have been successful at making a difference.

These individuals include Cheadle, an Oscar-nominated actor using his celebrity to draw attention to the issue, Adam Sterling, a 24-year-old waiter and activist urging Governor Schwarzenegger to sign a bill to keep California funds from investing in companies with interests in Sudan, and Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. Then there's the ones actually situated in Darfur: Hejewa Adam, a woman whose baby was beaten to death by Janjaweed attackers who now fights in the Sudanese Liberation Army; Ahmed Mohammed Abaka, a displaced builder and farmer who now serves as a leader of a camp of 47,000 other displaced Darfurians; and Pablo Recalde, leader of the World Food Program in West Darfur.

Replace Rwandan refugees with dogs and what do you get? Don Cheadle's next film. The actor, who earned an Oscar nomination for Hotel Rwanda, has been cast in the similarly titled yet very differently themed movie Hotel for Dogs. It isn't just the title of the new project that reminds us of the earlier film; the synopsis provided by Variety tells us that Hotel for Dogs features a hotel that serves as a refuge and sanctuary for beings that would otherwise be dispose of. Of course, this time they are in fact dogs and not human victims of a civil war in Africa. Last month, when Monika brought you the story of Hotel for Dogs, it was said that Emma Roberts (I'll continue reminding you that she's Julia's niece) would star as one of two orphaned teens who hide stray dogs in an abandoned hotel. We had also learned that it was based on a 1971 children's book by Lois Duncan and that it would be effects artist Thor Freudenthal's directorial debut. The adaptation has been scripted by Jeff Lowell (John Tucker Must Die) and is being produced by Jon Gordon, Lauren Shuler Donner (Unaccompanied Minors) and Jack Leslie.

Cheadle apparently will not be a hotel manager this time. Instead, he will play a social worker who keeps the teens out of trouble. I can't find a plot description of the book, but I have a feeling that his role will not be too huge. Seeing as how he mostly appears in R-rated films (including his other 'Dog' title, The Dog Problem), Cheadle is probably just doing this for his preteen daughters. Despite coming from a book by Duncan, who also wrote the source of I Know What You Did Last Summer, this movie will likely be more family friendly. Hotel for Dogs begins shooting in early November, which is probably just after Cheadle finishes the espionage thriller Traitor and should fill some time while he continues to wait on start date announcements for the biopics about Toussaint L'Ouverture and Miles Davis.

Odds and ends from Wednesday:

• In what's sure to be a powerful follow-up to 2004's Hotel Rwanda, director Terry George is set to take on the story of a different battle. This time, instead of traveling to war torn Rwanda, he's visiting any town USA. George has signed on to direct Reservation Road, an adaptation of Jonathan Burnham Schwartz's novel. Pic, which was also penned by Schwartz, surrounds two families who collide when one father accidentally kills the son of the other father in a horrible hit and run accident. While one father tries to hide from the event, afraid of facing the harsh consequences of his actions, the other makes it his mission to find the unknown man who killed his son.
• Hey look, Ryan Reynolds is still acting! Shouldn't there be a petition online by now preventing him from scarring us any further? If not, can we start one? Universal Pictures have just picked up Adam Brooks' script Definitely, Maybe, lining up Reynolds, Derek Luke and Isla Fisher to star in the romantic comedy. Reynolds will play a soon-to-be divorced political consultant who struggles to answer some hard questions from his 11-year-old daughter about his past relationships. Politics and fatherhood? This one should be easy for Reynolds to screw up.
• While doing press for the upcoming My Super Ex-Girlfriend, director Ivan Reitman talked a bit about his first directorial effort in five years, while also dishing out some info about the highly anticipated Old School 2. That's right, they're back ... and they're even older! While Reitman will once again be producing the sequel, he did say Scott Armstrong and director Todd Phillips were currently working on the script. However, since the three lead actors (Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn and Luke Wilson) have come a long way since then, substantially increasing their price tag, Reitman said the whole thing comes down to whether Dreamworks can afford it. Personally, I see no need for an Old School 2. The first one was fine, leave it alone. Spend the money on something more original for once. Please. For the sake of comedy, I beg you.

For all of those (including us) who've been wondering where hell Michael Moore is, he has finally spoken. The controversial filmmaker wrote a letter to Anne Thompson of The Hollywood Reporter to fill everyone in on what he's up to. He's still working on Sicko, the documentary about American HMOs and pharmaceutical companies, or as he calls it, "a comedy about 45 million with no health care in the richest country on earth," and he's 75% finished with the shooting of it. Soon he will begin the editing process and claims it will be released, "sometime in 2007." His letter explains some of the reasons the production has taken so long, mainly the fact that its subject has taken him down new roads he didn't plan or know about (let's hear his critics say he hit a dead end when his theories were incorrect and he had to make stuff up; I know someone out there is thinking it).

Moore also used the opportunity (or maybe it was his main reason for the letter) to promote his second annual Traverse City Film Festival, held in Northern Michigan from July 31st to August 6th. The festival is a showcase of 60 films that Moore likes, including An Inconvenient Truth, Three Kings, Hotel Rwanda and Borat (each of these films mentioned will be presented by their respective directors). Also showing is the entire filmography of Stanley Kubrick, who Moore considers, "the greatest American director of all time," presented by executive producer Jan Harlan and actors Malcolm McDowell and Matthew Modine. Last but not least is a collection of Iranian films in order to, "get to know them first this time!" Regardless of what you think of Moore, if you live near Traverse City you should attend the fest, because he's showing some damn good movies.

Anyway, that might be the most we hear from him for awhile, as he says he'll be busy working, so comment away on what he's given us for now.

I don't know about you, but I get all my history and current events from the movies. Okay, that isn't exactly true, and I never trust or believe that Hollywood is 100% accurate with its dramatizations of true stories, but I will admit that I unfortunately absorb the "facts" presented in films a lot more than I do through viable sources. And I'm pretty sure that much of the world is the same or worse when it comes to believing what they see. Hotel Rwanda is one of those films that presents a real event previously unknown to a majority of Americans and serves as educator for them. Now it seems that everything the masses learned from the film might be incorrect.

Two years after the film's release, Hotel Rwanda is being disputed by Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who claims that the film tries to rewrite the history of his country's 1994 genocide. The main events of the film happened, but Kagame denies the heroism of Paul Rusesabagina, who was played in the film by Don Cheadle. He says that Rusesabagina's involvement was merely an accident and the U.N. forces are the real saviors of the refugees at Hôtel des Mille Collines. In terms of dramatic entertainment, this may not seem like a big deal, but considering the ignorance of many moviegoers, it is fair for Kagame and other Rwandans to be upset.

Now is the chance for Hollywood to get it right, I guess. The other day I reported on another Rwandan genocide movie called Shake Hands With the Devil. Based on the book by Romeéo Dallaire, which includes the shelter of and transfer from the Mille Collines but never mentions Rusesabagina, this film could get the story straight with Kagame if it wants to. My guess is that director Roger Spotiswoode will stick to the account of Dallaire alone and not get involved with other witnesses and survivors, but it is also my guess that Dallaire doesn't mess around with the truth too much.

After getting all weepy from watching Hotel Rwanda, I wasn't sure I could take another film about the Rwanda genocide. At least, not another dramatization of the tragedy, anyway. Rwanda is a well-made movie with excellent performances by Don Cheadle and Sophie Okonedo, but it really tugs on the emotions with deliberate fists. More informative and more insightful is the documentary Shake Hands with The Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire, which won the Audience Award at Sundance in 2005. Dallaire, who was partially the model for Nick Nolte's fictional character in Rwanda, was the commanding officer for the U.N.'s presence during the devastating events of 1994, and the documentary is based on his book of the same name.

Now, for no reason other than documentaries aren't as popular, the book is being adapted into a dramatic film called, simply, Shake Hands With the Devil. The film will be directed by Roger Spotiswoode (The 6th Day) and will star Roy Dupuis (The Barbarian Invasion) as Dallaire. The book is pretty long and it covers a lot of ground so it is hard to imagine all of it fitting into a movie. Since docs can generally fit more exposition into a feature-length running time, you're better off seeing Peter Raymont's Sundance winner instead. But if you like being made to cry more than think, by all means wait for the new version.