martin scorsese Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I'm grateful for this Friday, because that's the day that The Men Who Stare at Goats comes out and I can stop seeing its trailer relentlessly attached to anything and everything I see (and given that I try to see most anything and everything out there, it's really only a 'me' problem, I suppose). One night, I had myself a triple feature and saw the preview not one, not two, but three times; as a pal put it, he had "more than a feeling" that I was getting sick of it.

Before that, it was a summer of Taking Woodstock time and time again, and it would already seem that Shutter Island's move to February will insure that I'll be sitting there, trying to piece the thing together for the next three months when not perfecting my New England Leo impersonation.

So, whether currently or in your own formative years, what trailers have you been just absolutely burnt out on? Did you and your friends quote along with them as they played? Were you actually ever turned off from seeing a film because you had it advertised to you too much? Come on, let it all out...

Frank Sinatra is still what many (if not all) red-blooded man aspire to be. Playing him in a Martin Scorsese biopic is not only a dream job for any actor, it's wish fulfillment on the highest level. Is it any surprise that the some of the biggest names in Hollywood are said to by vying for the role of Old Blue Eyes? The Guardian reports that Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, and George Clooney are in fierce competition to land the part, with Universal executives allegedly pushing hardest for the marketable Depp.

It's a tough thing to cast someone like Sinatra. While I certainly like all three men as actors in their own right, I think their own fame makes it impossible for them to disappear under the skin of an icon. This isn't exactly Howard Hughes or John Dillinger, figures that an actor can shape from facts and bits of footage, but still make their own. This is a man we're all familiar with from countless movies, concerts, albums, and television appearances. How do you portray that honestly with Depp, DiCaprio, or Clooney? If forced to choose from the three, I'd pick DiCaprio purely because of the physical resemblance, and politely suggest Clooney play Dean Martin.

Personally, I hope Scorsese finds a semi-unknown for the part (someone on the level of Tom Hardy -- who might actually be really good now that he's sprung to my mind) and steers clear of the A-List. The actor lucky and brave enough won't have to sing, as Universal and Mandalay spent 2 years clearing the rights to Sinatra's catalog, but he still has to be someone you believe to possess that voice. Would you cast one of the Big Three above? Or do you have someone else in mind?

We get to see celeb's opinions on Twitter, even if movie studios are trying to squelch that, we're treated to Katharine Heigl getting frank every so-many months, and now we've got the world according to Pinchot. Bronson Pinchot. The A.V. Club talked with the actor about his newly released (on DVD) film Mr. Art Critic, and after the briefest chatter about the new film, A.V. got Pinchot talking about his whole career -- very candidly. Not the "Oh gee, they were swell to work with" crap, but behind-the-scenes word on Tom Cruise homophobia, Denzel Washington's meanness, Eddie Murphy's depression, Bette Midler's diva ways, and some praise for the likes of Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, and Mischa Barton.

Kicking it off is The Cruise, who seems to have been busy with his weird ways for years. Back when Risky Business was being filmed, it seemed he couldn't stop adding gayness into everything, from the confusing: "You want some ice cream, in case there are no gay people there?" to the more decipherable "It's a nice day, I'm glad there are no gay people standing here." As for the others, it seems Denzel gets the harshest words: "He was so vile," while Midler was "such a bitch" to director Hugh Wilson during The First Wives Club. On the nicer end of things, Scorsese gave Pinchot some of his best professional advice, Tarantino dug his "cackle of joy" in True Romance, and Barton revealed her body issues to Pinchot to help get her crying for Finding t.A.T.u: "She was a very sweet kid, actually. Rather brave in a way."

If you've been arguing with your friends and family about the arrest and detainment of Roman Polanski in Switzerland last week, don't feel bad -- you're not the only one with an opinion. There's a debate brewing in Hollywood over the acclaimed director and his current legal predicament, and everyone has jumped into the fray. Polanski fled from the US after a conviction for unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor back in 1978, and with his recent arrest some of the biggest names in Hollywood have been publicly showing support. Recently, filmmakers like Michael Mann, Darren Aronofsky, Terry Gilliam, and Woody Allen (ahem, yes, even Woody Allen) signed a petition demanding the filmmaker's release from a Zurich jail. On the other hand, there is a very real possibility that not everybody is on board the love train, and the problem is that those people aren't talking.

Hollywood is a business, and just like in any other business, reputation can be everything. If you think of Hollywood as the world's biggest high school, then you can see how nobody wants to be excluded from the 'cool table' -- and it doesn't help that the pro-Polanski faction has Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese, and the opposition has Sherri Shepherd and 'Nellie Olsen'. In a piece for the LA Times, writer/blogger Melissa Silverstein said, "I think people are afraid to talk in Hollywood. They are afraid about their next job." Sure, that might sound slightly paranoid, but power players like Harvey Weinstein are writing op-eds in support of the director, so maybe she's not completely off the mark.

After the jump: making excuses and Hollywood vs. Middle America...

Let's face it; none of us would be here if we didn't like talking about movies. If you are anything like me, you spend your days scouring for movie news, reading about your favorite films and directors, and sometimes even getting into the odd heated argument. So while most of us play armchair quarterback when it comes to the art of movie making, there are plenty of honest to goodness artists who love to talk about movies just as much as we do, and one person who needs no such prompting is Quentin Tarantino.

The director recently filmed an introductory clip to There Will Be Blood for Sky Movies and despite being a little surprised at the idea that Tarantino and P.T. Anderson are movie BFF's, it did get me thinking about some of the other directors who love to talk about the movies. The rise of the DVD commentary opened up a whole new world to movie geeks like myself, giving us the chance to learn more about the movies we love. But as interesting as it is to hear a filmmaker talk about their work -- sometimes I think it's even better to hear them talk about somebody else's movie.

After the jump; Tarantino's TWBB review, and more movie-making chatterboxes..

No one can make a brutal mob-related murder look as beautiful and poignant as Marty Scorsese. Part of the reason why he's so good at what he does is because of his fantastic musical choices -- and in 1990, Scorsese decided to take the piano interlude at the end of Layla (performed by Derek and The Dominos) and use it for a brilliant montage that pans and scans its way through several wiseguy murder scenes, ultimately winding up at the point where Tommy (Joe Pesci) thinks he's about to become a "made" man ... and, well, we all know what happened next.

Not all montages are the same, and I always love when filmmakers play around with the technique -- either by slowing down the pace, by adding in a voiceover or by taking us through a series of scenes we wouldn't necessarily expect (or want) to see -- and, here, Scorsese does it all in what is perhaps one of his most memorable career-defining moments. The crane shot into the meat truck alone is worthy of a round of applause. C'mon, when this song comes on the radio, tell me you don't crank up the piano part and think about watching Goodfellas.

Check it out after the jump ...

So in the midst of all the Avatar hullabaloo, we haven't yet addressed the major move on Friday of Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island from this October 2nd to next February. Considering the negative connotations that tend to come with most films pushed back, many were quick to defend the move as a savvy business strategy for a pulpy-looking film that wasn't a primary contender all along.

Fair enough. Plenty of studios made major shuffles to deal with post-strike gaps (Harry Potter, anyone?), and now they're concerned about being more fiscally responsible with what's to come. As THR's Steven Zeitchik pointed out, Paramount/Dreamworks already has two front-runners to work with between Up in the Air and The Lovely Bones, and somewhere between the reportedly sharp comedy and the prestige-heavy drama, a distinctly genre work like a Leonardo DiCaprio thriller does seem a bit like the odd man out.

In the wake of the move, two comedies -- Zombieland and Whip It -- have moved up their own October release dates to fill the void, and if there's any justice, we'll see Woody Harrelson accept a blood-splattered Oscar in DiCaprio's stead. And if Coming Soon and Box Office Mojo are to be believed, Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox will now get a limited release on November 13th before going wide on the 25th, where I suspect it will still get crushed by the likes of Old Dogs across the Thanksgiving stretch. Pity.

Ever since Martin Scorsese revealed, back in May, that he was going to direct a Frank Sinatra biopic, there has been rampant speculation about two things: who will play the crooner, and what sort of man will Scorsese make him out to be? The former question has yet to be answered, and probably won't be until for several months. The latter question remains open, but Sinatra's daughter, Tina, has a few things to say about it.

According to the New York Post's gossip page, Tina Sinatra is "worried that Scorsese's vision might ultimately taint her father's legacy" -- in other words, Frank's Mafia connections, philandering, heavy drinking, and violent tendencies didn't taint his legacy, but telling people about it might. The Post cites an anonymous inside source, not Sinatra herself, so take it with a grain of salt. Scorsese's people told the Post that the director is swamped with Shutter Island (in theaters Oct. 2) and his upcoming HBO project Boardwalk Empire and hasn't even begun to think about the Sinatra film yet. We do know that Phil Alden Robinson, who wrote (and directed) Field of Dreams, is onboard as screenwriter, but at this point it's not even clear whether the film intends to cover Sinatra's entire life or just a certain segment of it.

While attending a midnight showing of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra last week, we got a surprisingly diverse group of trailers attached to a movie that's based on a kid's property, but has no shortage of impaled skulls and throwing stars to the eye sockets (but it's bloodless, Prince Caspian-style, so it's okay!).

The one that got the biggest rise out of the audience was that of Old Dogs, from the director of Wild Hogs (get it?) and starring Robin Williams and John Travolta as swinging bachelors suddenly saddled with kids to care for and forced, one would gather, to learn new tricks (get it?). And lo, the audience did howl, and lo, I did slouch further and further into my seat. A kid is hit in the head by a ball! Williams loses depth perception after the brats mix up his meds! Seth Green is being cuddled by a gorilla that gets angry if he doesn't sing for it! John Travolta gets pecked in the head by aggravated penguins! Sweet Charlie Chaplin's ghost, that there's a knee-slapper!

Memories can be hazy things. Did Francis Ford Coppola really question the necessity of The Godfather Part II? Did he really want Martin Scorsese to direct the sequel, rather than himself? Referring to The Godfather, Coppola told Esquire: "The ending was clear and Michael has corrupted himself - it was over. So I didn't understand why they wanted to make another Godfather." He then made the executives at Paramount Pictures an offer they could refuse: "I said, 'What I will do is help you develop a story. And I'll find a director and produce it.' They said, 'Well, who's the director?' And I said, 'Young guy, Martin Scorsese.' They said, 'Absolutely not!' He was just starting out."

What an amusing, colorful anecdote, offering fresh insight into the making of a classic film! Except, er, it's not so fresh, since Coppola told Peter Biskind the same thing for his 1998 book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. In the book, Coppola said that after he recommended his friend to Robert Evans, then a studio executive, Evans replied: "Absolutely not! Marty Scorsese is a horrible choice. Over my dead body." Coppola eventually agreed to do the picture when he was offered one million dollars.

As it happens, I've been working my way through the magnificent Coppola Restoration versions of the Godfather films on DVD, which includes Robert DeNiro's audition for The Godfather. Six months after The Godfather opened, Scorsese and DeNiro were filming Mean Streets. What if Scorsese had followed that up with The Godfather Part II instead of Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore?