jake paltrow Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It is always a curiosity when Hollywood families come together for a project. I love seeing the Estevezes (aka Sheens) appear together -- sure, even in Men at Work. And sometimes the Coppolas do well with one another -- Talia Shire in her brother's Godfather movies, for example. But often it is a bad idea to work with or cast family members. The most obvious case is Sofia Coppola (Shire's niece) being in her father's The Godfather: Part III. Just recently Jake Paltrow received a paltry reception for a movie he made featuring his sister, Gwyneth. Now, another new filmmaker is attempting a similar feat: According to Variety, Bruce Dern will make his directorial debut with Hart's Location, in which he'll appear alongside his ex-wife, Diane Ladd, and his daughter, Laura Dern. Written by Ashley Reed, the film will appropriately be about family estrangement. Laura will star as a woman seeking to regain custody of her son while also attempting to locate her father, who left when she was 3.

It is worth noting that Diane Ladd has been nominated for three Oscars, all for films in which her daughter also appears (Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore; Wild at Heart; Rambling Rose). The last of these even saw a nomination for Laura, as well, marking the first time a mother and daughter were ever recognized by the Academy for the same film. So, for the women, at least, Hart's Location seems to be a great idea. Maybe there's more Oscars in their future. On the other hand, it also seems to have a sort of novelty to it, like the badly-received It Runs in the Family, which featured a lot of the Douglases (Michael, Kirk, Cameron and Diana), in what appeared to exist just for the stunt-casting. Like that movie, Hart's Location also unites a real-life divorced couple (Dern and Ladd parted ways in 1969). Interestingly enough, though, Ladd has already directed her ex-husband, in 1994's little-seen Mrs. Munck. Hopefully Dern can do better in this reversal of roles. As long as he spends more attention on making a good movie rather than on working out his personal issues (he told Daily Variety that the project makes sense for them because it's about the things you wish you'd said to your family members), then I'll be looking forward to it. The film begins shooting in New Orleans in February.

Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited and Ang Lee's Lust, Caution continued to duel one another for the top spot on the indie box office charts. Both expanded from their extremely limited Manhattan engagements last weekend, with The Darjeeling Limited earning $28,950 on average at 19 locations and Lust, Caution pulling in $21,530 at each of 17 locales, according to estimates by Leonard Klady of Movie City News.

The top earners in limited release were Michael Clayton, the heavily-advertised legal thriller starring George Clooney, which averaged $46,130 at 15 locations, and Blade Runner: The Final Cut, which earned $45,600 at just two locations. In his review of Michael Clayton, our own James Rocchi wrote: "I was hoping for a film along the lines of classic '70s Sidney Lumet or Alan J. Pakula; what I got was something more along the lines of an above-average '90s John Grisham adaptation." After a brief theatrical run, Blade Runner: The Final Cut will hit DVD in various incarnations on December 18.

Among new releases, Justin Lin's Finishing the Game scored the highest, bringing in $14,700 at one theater in Manhattan, while widely-discussed documentaries My Kid Could Paint That (average $3,390 on eight screens), Kurt Cobain: About a Son (average $4,700 on two screens) and Lake of Fire ($2,330 at one theater) struggled to find audiences. Jake Paltrow's The Good Night scored $6,250 each at two locations.

Several specialty releases increased their theater counts and at least three held up well. Sean Penn's Into the Wild expanded onto 135 screens and earned $9,410 on average, artful Western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford rolled onto 61 screens and made $6,610 per screen, and Julie Taymor's musical Across the Universe played well at 364 theaters, averaging $5,030 per screen.

It can't be easy bringing your first film to Sundance as the son and brother of famous film people, but Jake Paltrow -- the son of the late Bruce Paltrow and actress Blythe Danner, and brother of Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow -- seems to be handling the pressure well. Jake Paltrow's feature writing and directing debut, The Good Night, starring Martin Freeman, Danny DeVito, Penelope Cruz, and Gwyneth Paltrow made its premiere here at Sundance 2007. Jake very kindly took time out of his busy Sundance schedule to sit down with Cinematical to chat about his film.

Cinematical: What inspired you to make and write this film?

Jake Paltrow: I woke up one day and had the majority of the story in my head, and not so much because I had a dream about the story but because I felt that kind of emotion that everyone's experienced where it's like, if I could just have had five more minutes in that dream ...

Cinematical: Sure, I have that happen all the time where I wake up and just want to go back in and find out how the dream ends.

JP: Right, that's the thing, a lot of people do, and I felt we hadn't seen that. And so I worked on the outline and after a few days I felt I had a story and it that it worked.

More after the jump ...

First-time feature director Jake Paltrow explores the line between dreams and reality in The Good Night, which had its premiere at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Gary Sheller (Martin Freeman), a British ex-pop star living in New York City, is stuck in a stagnant relationship with his long-term girlfriend, Dora (Gwyneth Paltrow). Gary's relationship with Dora is adrift in a sea of ambivalence, and he feels Dora doesn't support him emotionally . Gary and Dora live in the same apartment, share the same bed, but there might as well be an ocean between them; the bridge of communication seems to have long since shut down. Meanwhile, Gary's best friend and former bandmate Paul (Simon Pegg) works for an ad agency and has become Gary's boss, while Gary is relegated to writing jingles that "sound like 'Cheers'."

Then one night, Gary dreams of Anna (Penélope Cruz), a strikingly beautiful woman who exists for the sole purpose of telling Gary how wonderful he is, encouraging him in his music, and fulfilling his sexual fantasies. The trouble is, Gary finds himself more and more not wanting to leave the dream state where he can be with Anna. She makes him feel better about himself, and he finds that he wants to be with her all the time. He seeks out lucid dreaming "expert" Mel (Danny DeVito), who teaches Gary how to enter his dream world any time he wants. But how can Gary ever hope to save his relationship with Dora if he lives more and more in his dreams?