la femme nikita Tagged Articles at Cinematical

White Dog
Samuel Fuller's follow-up to The Big Red One was shelved by Paramount Pictures before its scheduled release in 1982 because of fears that its premise -- a white dog has been trained to attack black people -- would stir up more controversy than box office. Fuller was understandably outraged; in his autobiography, A Third Face, he wrote: "The studio has used me as a scapegoat for their lack of determination and courage." The film, co-written by Curtis Hanson (LA Confidential), with a score by the legendary Ennio Morricone, later received acclaim when it was released in Europe but never received a home video release in the US and has rarely been seen here. Kristy McNichol plays an actress who adopts the dog; Paul Winfield is as an anthropologist who tries to reverse the training. The Criterion Collection DVD includes a featurette with Hanson, producer Jon Davison, and Fuller's widow, plus a print interview with the dog trainer and essays by J. Hoberman and Armond White. I'm buying, but even if you're not a huge fan of Samuel Fuller, you'd want to check it out. Rent it.

Step Brothers
Combining Will Farrell, John C. Reilly, Richard Jenkins, and Mary Steenburgen under one roof, Step Brothers mines familiar territory with sharp timing and plenty of belly laughs. Mine is, admittedly, a distinctly minority opinion. Available on DVD (single-disc rated, single-disc unrated, two-disc unrated) and Blu-ray, with an audio commentary by Farrell, Reilly, director Adam McKay, and a score by Jon Brion. Other features include deleted scenes and alternate takes, a gag reel, 'making of,' and a couple of gag featurettes. Rent it.

Much more on Wanted, The X-Files: I Want to Believe, and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian after the jump, plus Indies on DVD, Blu-ray Picks, and Collector's Corner.

At the end of Léon (a.k.a. The Professional), Natalie Portman's character, Mathilda, goes back to school and presumably returns to a normal, civilized childhood. But who knows? A lot of us have imagined that she continues learning the ways of the assassin. I always think her character is like a precursor to the main character in Luc Besson's earlier film Nikita (aka La Femme Nikita). Of course, we will never know what really becomes of Mathilda, because Besson has no intention of making a sequel to Léon. But the last time he addressed the issue, he mentioned that people keep sending him script ideas for a follow-up. One of these ideas may have just been picked up by Focus Features.

According to Variety, Focus has a new film in development that the trade calls "a reverse spin on The Professional." Whether or not this was the studio's description, the film, called Hanna, appears to have a story that would easily work as a continuation of Besson's movie. It centers on a 14-year-old girl (two years older than Portman's character) who has been raised to be a killer (only here it is by her father, not the kindly neighborhood hit-man) and who now has to begin acting like a girl (just as Mathilda must do once back at school). The plot probably consists of the girl -- let's assume her name is Hanna -- getting into some sort of trouble that warrants her need to keep killing -- I'm thinking Grosse Pointe Blank but much, much younger (homecoming dance substituted for reunion, etc.) I'm sure that I'm wrong about the script, which was written by Seth Lochhead, originating as a sequel to Léon, but Besson might want to just take a look at his supposed stack of submissions and make sure.

I don't know what to make of Luc Besson. I first became aware of the director in college after seeing his action-classic La Femme Nikita. In fact, that film was one of the first ones I purchased on DVD when I got a DVD player. Then, he went on to direct the nearly-as-impressive The Professional and The Fifth Element -- featuring the exquisite Milla Jovovich as the perfect woman (inspired casting, IMHO). I liked those films but I didn't love them as much as I loved La Femme Nikita. And please, don't even get me started on The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc. Man, what happened there?

Anyway, Besson continued to direct a few more films after The Messenger -- including Angel-A and the upcoming children's live-action/cgi film Arthur and the Minimoys (which our own Monika wrote about previously). However, for some reason -- declining popularity, critical drubbing, boredom, being French -- Besson announced that he was retiring from directing now that he's basically finished with his latest film. Cut to today because it seems he may have had second thoughts and that the rumors of his retirement may have been "exaggerated."

According to Production Weekly, Besson would consider a return to directing if his film Arthur and the Minimoys does well. Provided that the film is a success, Besson would begin adapting the second book of the series Arthur and the Forbidden City for the screen with an anticipated start of shooting as early as June of next year. I don't know, this sort of smells of desperation, doesn't it? Sure, its up to him if he wants to retire. But either do it or don't do it. And either way, don't hang it on the audience and try to make them feel guilty or something if you stay retired because your film doesn't do well. If you do that, you just end up sounding like a whiner who can't make up his mind. And really, nobody likes a whiner.

Odds and ends from Friday:

• Though the President has left the building, he's currently making plans to stick around town a little while longer. Martin Sheen, who played TV President on The West Wing, will take on a role in the film Talk to Me for Focus Features. Pic, which will be set in 1960s Washington D.C., tells the real-life story of a radio station owner (Sheen) who hires controversial black on-air personality Ralph Waldo "Petey" Green (Don Cheadle). Green would ultimately go on to be somewhat of an icon in radio at a time when racial tension was at its peak across the country.
• Universal Pictures have teamed up with Boom Entertainment to bring the horror comic book Tag to the big screen. Talk about an intense and deadly way to play the game tag, story revolves around some average Joe who, while out with his girlfriend one night, falls victim to an ancient curse when a random stranger "tags" him. The curse makes it so this poor dude slowly begins to die, his body literally decomposing, forcing him to either give up and move on to a higher place or find someone else to pass on the curse to. Yikes, imagine explaining that one to your girlfriend: "Um, honey, I'm dying to see you tonight but, well, I'm actually dying ... so, yeah -- rain check?"
• Luc Besson is one of those directors who likes to float somewhere between worlds of crime and fantasy, giving us films like The Fifth Element, La Femme Nikita, Angel-A and the upcoming Arthur and the Minimoys. While Fifth Element was probably his most commercial hit here in the States, Besson's Léon (or The Professional) has garnered a large following and some think it's his best film. Besson recently squashed rumors of a sequel to Léon saying he has no plans to make one and is pissed people keep sending him scripts for an idea that's not theirs. He does admit, however, if there is going to be a sequel, he will write it. Damn, I guess my script for The Not So Professional will have to remain in my draw, where it belongs.