james toback Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Deals. Sony Pictures Classics acquired The Last Station hot off its debut at the Telluride Film Festival and plans a quick turnaround, releasing it before the end of the year and pushing its stars Helen Mirren, Christopher Plummer, and James McAvoy for awards consideration, according to Thompson on Hollywood. Described as a "fictionalized chronicle of Tolstoy's last days" by our own Eugene Novikov, the film's main problem is that it 'madly equivocates' on whether Tolstoy, portrayed by Plummer is, essentially, "a crackpot."

Historical drama John Rabe will get a theatrical outing next spring courtesy of Strand Releasing, according to indieWIRE. Based on the diaries of a German businessman, the film tells about his role in saving the lives of 200,000 people during the Japanese invasion of Nanking, China in 1937. indieWIRE also reports that IFC Films picked up Bruno Dumont's religiously-inclined Hadewijch and Lorber Films will distribute Nobody's Perfect, a German documentary about a man's search for fellow Thalidomide 'children' willing to pose naked for a book of photographs.

Film Criticism. The New York Film Critics Circle celebrates its 75th anniversary this year and will get the spotlight on Saturday at the Hamptons Film Festival, with the ever-contrary Armond White of New York Press sitting down along several other members of the circle. The feisty James Toback, whose documentary Tyson is up for awards consideration this fall, will moderate.

Online / On Demand Viewing. A British journalist investigates the burgeoning phenomenon of public sex in Dogging: A Love Story (not to be confused with Michael Moore's romance), which is now playing on demand via IFC. And we've got the trailer to prove it, after the jump!

Also: Why so serious? The Coen Brothers and Michael Moore.

Before you start twitching and shaking uncontrollably at the thought of Brett Ratner remaking Back to the Future, that's not what's going on here ... thank god. Instead, Variety tells us Ratner is teaming with James Toback and producer Robert Evans on a biopic about the rise and fall of the innovative car designer John DeLorean, whose car is most widely remembered as being used as a time machine in the Back to the Future trilogy.

Oh yes, if you're not a child of the 80s or a car nut, you probably have no idea who John Delorean is or that the Delorean automobile was named after an actual dude ... and that his story is interesting enough to spawn not one biopic, not two biopics, but three freakin' biopics!. The second film, which doesn't seem to have quite the star power as the first, involves producers David Permut and Steven Lee Jones, who are working off the life rights of Delorean's longtime attorney, Mayer Morganroth. The third teams Time Inc. Studios and XYZ Films on a biopic that will come from old magazine articles.

So what's so fascinating about John DeLorean other than the fact that you can turn his car into a time machine by adding a flux capacitor? Well, turns out the guy was busted by the FBI back in 1982 on charges of drug trafficking in an apparent attempt to raise funds for his damaged company, which later went bankrupt that same year. However, DeLorean defended himself in court and won by claiming the FBI tried to set him up. Ratner will direct the film with Toback writing the script, which, from the looks of it, will be very pro DeLorean and simply tell the rise-and-fall story of a great entrepreneur who beat the system, but lost his dream in the process.

Some people might think Jamie Foxx has jumped the proverbial shark (and I don't necessarily disagree), but apparently Iron Mike Tyson didn't get the memo. Some extremely brave soul at MTV interviewed the former heavyweight champion, who once again revealed that he wants Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx to play him in a biopic.

Tyson told MTV, "I don't know [who might direct]... Jamie discussed the things he wanted to do. He didn't know which way he wanted to go, but it was something he wanted to do. He told me not to tell anybody [too much]. He's just interested in doing it."

Foxx's The Soloist is getting mixed reviews, and the movie itself was pushed back twice, from November 21, 2008, in what some thought would be an Oscar bid, to March 2009 and then once more to this weekend. However, it's possible that James Toback's doc on the fighter, Tyson, could drum up interest in a biopic.

I just saw Tyson, which is also opening this weekend (read our review), and while it didn't totally change my opinion on Tyson the man, it's absolutely engrossing. Other than clips of Tyson in the media, including footage of him with his mentor Cus D'Amato and with ex-wife Robin Givens on Barbara Walters and, oh yeah, him threatening a heckler ("I'll f*ck you until you love me, [homophobic expletive]"), the doc is literally all Tyson talking and it's hypnotic. While Toback doesn't pull any punches (har), the trust he established with the fighter over the years allows the viewer an unprecedented look into Tyson's mind and life. Plus, as someone who occasionally dons a pink pair of Everlast gloves, I was totally rocked by the footage of him fighting as a young man.

Besides, a star turn as an ear-biting convicted rapist has Oscar bait written all over it.

The 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival, announced its massive 150-film lineup this week. The world's oldest film festival (Federico Fellini showed his film La Strada here when he was just a pup will open with Peter Bratt's La Mission -- starring brother Benjamin Bratt -- and closes with Alexis dos Santos' Unmade Beds, with Marc Webb's 500 Days of Summer -- with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel -- as a Centerpiece. Francis Ford Coppola will receive the festival's directing award (previously awarded to Mike Leigh, Spike Lee and Werner Herzog) and will hopefully screen a trailer and some bits and pieces from his upcoming Tetro. Robert Redford will be honored with the Peter J. Owens award (for actors whose work exemplifies brilliance, independence and integrity). James Toback will receive the Kanbar Award for excellence in screenwriting, and the festival will screen his new documentary Tyson. Other guests include Evan Rachel Wood and Elijah Wood (no relation).

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for Tyson, a much buzzed-about documentary about former boxing champion Mike Tyson that's been making the festival rounds and is now ready to hit theaters on April 24. Directed by James Toback (The Pick-Up Artist, Bugsy), Tyson follows the life experiences of Mike Tyson through a mixture of original interviews, archival footage and photographs. As James tells us in his Cannes review of the film from last year, Tyson "is older, sadder, sober, off drugs and out of the fight game, trying to battle things you cannot simply strike with your fists." He later adds, "Tyson isn't just a look at the hitting and hitting back of boxing and a champion who defeated almost everyone who faced him; in its finest moments, it shows us a man determined to stop defeating himself." Meanwhile, I just wanna know why he covered half his face with that wacky tattoo?

Click on the image below to check out the full version of the poster. Tyson hits theaters on April 24.



I'm gonna knock you out ... Mama said follow me on Twitter ...

After a somnolent week in which it appeared that IFC Films was the only US distributor making deals at Cannes, Sony Pictures Classics sprang into action and snapped up two pictures, with a third possibly on the way. According to Anne Thompson of Variety, Sony Classics has acquired North American rights to the latest film by French filmmaking brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Lorna's Silence, as well as Norwegian director Bent Hamer's comedy/drama O'Horten, and are also in talks to pick up James Toback's documentary Tyson.

Cinematical's James Rocchi felt "in tune" with Lorna's Silence, which he says has provoked polarized reactions in Cannes; he concluded: "It's a strong film from strong filmmakers." The titular character is an Albanian woman living in Belgium who has entered into a marriage of convenience that turns out to be a complicated, life and death affair.

James Toback's known for cult classics (Fingers, Black and White) and puzzling experiments (When Will I Be Loved); this year, he's at Cannes with his new documentary Tyson, focusing on the life and times of a curiously muted and repentant Mike Tyson -- which received a standing ovation when it opened the Un Certain Regard selection. James Toback spoke with Cinematical at Cannes about the genesis of the project, the challenges of dealing with Tyson as a subject instead of as a friend, and about the ongoing negotiations with his 8-year old son over a possible part in his next film.

This interview, like all of Cinematical's podcast offerings, is now available through iTunes; if you'd like, you can subscribe at this link. Also, you can listen directly here at Cinematical by clicking below:

"They'll make hypocrite judgments
After the fact
But the name of the game
Is be hit and hit back ... "

-- Warren Zevon, "Boom Boom Mancini"

Boxing is a brutal sport. Does that mean you have to be a brute to succeed in it? Mike Tyson was the youngest ever heavyweight champion in the world; when he stepped into the ring, it was as if he was in absolute control over everything that happened. And when he stepped out, it was as if he had no control over anything that happened. He had a marriage implode in public. He served three years in prison for rape. He became a nightmare-parody of himself, pathetic and terrifying, telling challengers he would eat their children. And now, as seen in James Toback's documentary Tyson, he is older, sadder, sober, off drugs and out of the fight game, trying to battle things you cannot simply strike with your fists.

If someone gave you the option of either jumping in a pool of acid or interviewing Mike Tyson for thirty hours, which one would you choose? Well, we know which route director James Toback took because he's currently prepping a new documentary based on the rise and fall of this legendary boxer. With completion set for this fall, Tyson will cover it all -- I mean, tell me you're not dying to find out how one man can go from being married to the ultra hot Robin Givens to biting the ear off Evander Holyfield. Who does sh*t like that? I guess we're about to find out.

At one time, Iron Mike was regarded as the greatest boxer in the world; the man was a machine, with guns the size of skyscrapers. However, the pressure to perform -- coupled with the money, the power and the glory -- transformed this lightening bolt into a monster. A monster, mind you, who sounded like a seven year-old. Toback, who's probably best known for helping the 1987 comedy The Pick-up Artist, has been fascinated with Tyson since meeting back in 1985; so much so that the director gave Tyson roles in two of his more recent films (Black and White, When Will I Be Loved). According to Toback, "[Tyson] was honest about all the things that have highlighted his life, from the bitter divorce, the ear-biting, prison, to his becoming a sex addict. He is self-aware, smart and a totally fractured personality, and he made himself completely vulnerable." Personally, I could care less about the man. In my opinion, once you start beating women (regardless of your state of mind or how many drugs you're on), I have no further interest in anything you might have to say. But that's me. No word yet on a release date; ICM is scheduled to sell all worldwide rights.

I never thought much of Neve Campbell's acting chops (she seems ever-so-pouty in various movie and TV roles), and aside from her solid turn in Robert Altman's The Company, I thought she disappeared from the movie scene. But it looks like she's been busy: she's made a film with James Toback and is now joining the cast of Richard Attenborough's (Chaplin, Shadowlands) romance Closing the Ring, which boasts a cast consisting of Shirley MacLaine, Christopher Plummer, Brenda Fricker and Pete Postlethwaite. (And, as we reported in February, stick figure Mischa Barton is going to be there for some reason as well.) The picture is a World War II story about a dying gunner who crashes his plane in Northern Ireland and asks a local to return his ring to his girlfriend in America. Apparently it takes the local fifty years to complete the quest. The movie is Attenborough's first feature film since 1999's The Grey Owl.