joseph cross Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I feel the need to channel Juice Newton: Just call me angel of the morning, Angel! (Sidenote: The song was written by the brother of Jon Voight.) I just can't get this song out of my head with this latest news bit, and luckily it's a satire, so it's not completely inappropriate. Variety has reported that there's a new indie on the way called Son of Mourning, and it's pulling together a pretty tasty cast thus far. Joseph Cross, the kid who ran with scissors as Augusten Burroughs, Felicity Shagwell -aka- Heather Graham, Oscar nominee Barbara Hershey, and the Transsexual King Arthur Tim Curry are set to star.

This will be the feature directorial debut for Yaniv Raz, who has two short films under his belt -- Portishead - Cowboys and Things Fall Apart, plus some brief acting stints in shows like The District. Written by Raz as well, the film is set "amid an international climate crisis, [and] centers on a dissatisfied ad copywriter (Cross) who returns home to a resort town in Florida to meditate on his parents' divorce. While there, he is mistaken for the Messiah and must decide whether to use his newfound celebrity to indulge his own selfish desires, or to do some good in the world." I imagine Curry and Hershey will play the parents, but I'm not sure what Graham's character will be. Maybe she'll get back to her early roots and play a woman who lives/lived at a convent (like her Twin Peaks character, Annie Blackburn). Production will gear up in early 2008 in the Sunshine State.

We've already tossed out some more familiar names like Ryan Gosling, Tom Welling, Jennifer Connelly, Christian Bale and Brandon Routh, but it looks like Warner Bros. and director George Miller are beginning to head in another direction as far as casting goes on the much-hyped Justice League of America live-action movie. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Miller flew in from his home in Australia over the weekend to check out 35-40 young actors who were brought in to test for roles like Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman, Green Lantern and the Martian Manhunter. A lot of these folks are still somewhat familiar, just on a smaller teen-actor scale.

Among the fresh young faces invited to the table were Adam Brody, Joseph Cross, D.J. Cotrona, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Michael Angarano, Teresa Palmer, Max Thierot and the rapper Common. Those of you following the Justice League flick on Cinematical might remember how we (along with our readers) put Common on the JLA wishlist (which you can see below) as Green Lantern. Perhaps folks from Warners were listening to our cries ... Apart from those already listed, it seems some kids from the cast of NBC's Friday Night Lights were also in attendance, including Minka Kelly, Adrianne Palicki and Scott Porter. Could our JLA cast be born out of this list? It's still too soon to tell, but Miller was itching to go in this direction because he wanted actors and actresses that could "grow into their roles over the course of several movies." That right there indicates Warners has plans in place for a lot more than one JLA film, not to mention they will most likely use these same folks for spin-off movies.

Personally, I feel this is the right way to go. While I still feel now is not a good time to rush out a JLA flick, I do think we need a fresh crop of faces to take on the roles. It's better that way, and there's less of a chance the film will hinder future stand alone Batman and Superman films. But what do you think of the direction they're heading in? Would you rather more well-known actors in the cast?

Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Rachael Leigh Cook and Snoop Dogg. Yes, Cook and Dogg have joined the romantic comedy The Golden Door. Unfortunately they will not be playing love interests in the film. Door will also star Sarah Roemer (Shia LaBeouf's co-star in Disturbia, which I'm watching tonight) and Joseph Cross (who played Augusten Burroughs in the astonishingly terrible Running with Scissors). The film will be about "a blue-collar nursing student played by Cross who's forced to quit school after his father dies in a freak handball accident." Yeah, you read that right -- a freak handball accident. "His uncle finds him a job as a doorman in a swank Manhattan apartment building, leading to an unlikely romance with a young resident, played by Roemer."

Cook (star of She's All That and the criminally underrated pop culture satire Josie and the Pussycats) will play "the sister who encourages Cross' relationship, much to the dismay of the girl's mother." Snoop Dogg (director and co-star of the Adult Video News award-winner Snoop Dogg's Hustlaz: Diary of a Pimp) plays "the slick doorman who hazes his new co-worker and shows him the ropes." I can hear the dialogue now: "You've got to learn to drop it, son. Drop it...like it's hot!" The film was written and will be directed by David M. Rosenthal (See This Movie). Rosenthal apparently has pretty lofty ambitions for the movie, which he told The Hollywood Reporter is "about an Upstairs, Downstairs type of relationship. The film explores class distinctions and the American ideal."

.

It's all about beefing up a film's cast today, as the new Diane Lane flick, Untraceable, has added a few more names to its pot. Colin Hanks, Billy Burke, Joseph Cross and Mary Beth Hurt have joined Lakeshore Entertainment's thriller, which follows an FBI agent (Lane) while she attempts to track down "a ruthless online predator." So, basically, it's like an extended Law & Order/FBI Files episode, only with a bunch more familiar faces.

Hanks is set to play Lane's FBI partner (can you believe Tom Hanks' kid is now playing an FBI agent in a film?), while Burke shall play Lane's lover, Hurt, her mother, and Cross will take on the role of villain. Gregory Hoblit (Frequency, Fallen) who, coincidentally, directed episodes of L.A. Law and Hill Street Blues back in the day, has come on board to helm the pic, which begins production next month in Portland, Oregon. Bonus points go to scribes Robert Fyvolent and Mark R. Brinker for penning an original script (as in Untraceable will not be based off some novel, short story, play, etc ...), though Cross isn't a very scary bad guy -- then again, online predators are known to blend in with the crowd. Hmm, I wonder if this one will end with a crew from Dateline NBC showing up to spoil the party?

I never understood why the Golden Globes are such prestigious awards. I mean, what really makes them any different from any other critics awards? How did the Hollywood Foreign Press Association become so popular that millions of viewers tune in every year to witness the group's choices for best this and best that? I mean, they shouldn't be any more important than the International Press Academy, right?

Who? The IPA, that group that hands out the Satellite Awards. Never heard of them? Well, they just celebrated their 11th annual event on Sunday, and they're about as useless as the HFPA, only more so because they don't even get a broadcast. The IPA has more to do with the HFPA, too. The group is actually a spin-off of the more familiar awards-givers, having separated in 1996 as a broader organization (HFPA is very exclusive, IPA claims to admit any interested journalists), which explains their spin-off-sounding award name.