By far, one of the most anticipated movies on the festival circuit this year is Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler. But many have been wondering why the film had secured such an 'undesirable' closing spot at the Venice Film Festival -- could there be trouble ahead with the finished product? But it looks like all that fretting was for nothing, because Aronofsky updated his personal blog with the news that the only reason for the delay in the selection process was that he was awaiting a completed song from Bruce Springsteen for the end of the film.

The Wrestler is the story of Randy "The Ram" Robinson (played by an almost unrecognizable Mickey Rourke); a former star of pro-wrestling in the '80s who has been reduced to appearing at high schools and community centers. With a heart condition and early retirement looming, Robinson takes one last shot at the 'big-time' in a match against a former rival. I can't say pro-wrestling is my usual area of interest, but I am pretty excited to see what a visual maestro like Aronofsky can do with that world -- and for a great primer on the difficult life of a pro-wrestler, I highly recommend the documentary Beyond the Mat

According to Aronofsky, "Springsteen wrote a beautiful original song for the closing the film. called THE WRESTLER it is a wonderful acoustic piece. makes me choke up every time i hear it. he really captured the spirit of the film and mickey's character in the piece." The pairing of Springsteen with the film seems to be a perfect fit. Because, if anyone has the knack for singing about the travails of a downtrodden man, it's Springsteen (and that Oscar pedigree probably doesn't hurt either).

The Wrestler will premiere in Venice on September 5th (we'll have a review from Toronto), and is expected to arrive in theaters later this year.

[Thanks: /film]

TITLE: The Wrestler
DIRECTED BY: Darren Aronofsky
STARS: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: A big-name pro wrestler back in the 1980s, Randy "The Ram" Robinson now bides his time with performances at high schools and community centers. A heart attack threatens early retirement, but Randy the lure of one more chance to get back in the ring with his biggest rival forces him to choose between his health and another shot at the spotlight.

WHY WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT IT: Aronofsky just missed the mark with the ambitious but over-reaching The Fountain; his direction of that film, nonetheless, was intriguing enough to make this a film worth catching. Tomei has been one of our faves for years, turning in particularly solid performances in 2001's In the Bedroom and last year's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, and the prospect of her and Evan Rachel Wood in the same film would make this one worthwhile, even if we didn't want to see it just to see Rourke in long hair and wrestling outfits.

Back to TIFF Preview page ...

On the heels of some high-profile NYFF announcements, the Toronto International Film Festival has unveiled its fair share of titles scheduled to premiere there next month. According to Variety, the list includes:

• The North American premieres of Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York (pictured), which has been picked up for distribution by Sony Pictures Classics since we last heard of (still) possible trims, and Steven Soderbergh's epic Che, which remains without a distributor -- James Rocchi reviewed both films at Cannes.
  
• The world premieres of Rian Johnson's Brick follow-up, The Brothers Bloom, which looks to be a special sort of con movie, and Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno, which looks to be a special sort of, well, romantic comedy.
  
• The North American premieres of Darren Aronofsky's sports drama The Wrestler and Gavin O'Connor's oft-delayed cop drama Pride and Glory .
  
• The world premieres of Genova, Slumdog Millionaire and Me and Orson Welles, the latest from the ever-unpredictable likes of Michael Winterbottom, Danny Boyle and Richard Linklater, respectively.

Cinematical will bring you early reviews on as many of these as we can, so stay tuned. TIFF runs from September 4th through the 13th.

Perhaps Marisa Tomei liked all the publicity she got from shedding her clothes in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (for practically the entire first half of the film), because the gal seems to be looking for some more provocative projects. Now before I link to the Variety story, I have to give JoBlo credit because they coughed this one up last week in what appeared to be a random throwaway line that took me by surprise. Yes, Tomei will star as an aging stripper, and girlfriend to Mickey Rourke, in Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler. And Variety has just confirmed it. Phew. Back when JoBlo casually mentioned it, I thought I was the only one who didn't know about this casting. Apparently no one did.

The Wrestler stars Rourke as an over-the-hill 1980s-era pro wrestler who retires after a heart attack, but then fights his way back into the ring for one last chance at defeating his arch-nemesis. Tomei will play his girlfriend, the stripper, and throughout the film our wrestler will attempt to build a relationship with her son. Talk about a dysfunctional family right there. "Yeah, my mom's a stripper and her boyfriend is an over-the-hill wrestler. You should see the moves they put on one another when I'm not looking." Production is currently taking place in New York and New Jersey. So, how much Tomei nudity do you think we'll get this time around?

Oh, and if you want to see what Tomei as a stripper might look like, head after the jump ...

I don't know about you, but after looking at this pic I have the sudden urge to yell "MICKEYYYYY!" Yes, that is the first image of Mickey Rourke (click on the photo for a larger version) from Darren Aronofsky's (Requiem for a Dream) upcoming flick, The Wrestler. Apparently, Aronofsky and crew were in New Jersey last weekend shooting scenes during a live WXW match. I believe the dude standing next to Rourke (who, in case you were wondering, is the shirtless guy with the Fabio cut) is WWE's Afa the Wild Samoan, who's also serving as Rourke's trainer.

The WXW site (where this photo was posted) says matches were filmed, as well as several locker room scenes featuring "some of your favorite WXW superstars." This must have been a treat for those fans, and I personally cannot wait to see what Aronofsky does with a wrestling film. Nicolas Cage was originally supposed to star, but Rourke replacing him was fitting -- after all, the film follows a veteran wrestler who fights all odds for one last chance to battle his arch-nemesis. Substitute 'veteran wrestler' for 'veteran actor' and 'arch-nemesis' for the words 'film career' and the role choice makes total sense. JoBlo also says that Marisa Tomei will star as Rourke's girlfriend, an aging stripper -- which was something I did not know, but right on! The Wrestler will most likely hit theaters later this year.

[via Coming Soon]

I don't have much against Mickey Rourke. Sometimes, I would much prefer to watch him than Nicolas Cage. Other times, it's vice versa for me. Neither is really a better actor than the other, and neither is particularly better looking. But for Hollywood, there's a definite difference between the two actors. Cage is a big star who can sell a movie. Rourke isn't, and hasn't been for about twenty years now. Sure, he's great in minor roles in big movies like Sin City and Once Upon a Time in Mexico, but as the lead in your movie? Are you sure you don't mean to be making a low-budget, straight-to-DVD flick instead? Certainly Darren Aronofsky (The Fountain) has no intention of sinking so low, but then its his film where Rourke just replaced Cage, according to Variety. It isn't known why Cage ducked out of The Wrestler, which he was attached to a month ago, but he's left us with one of the most unbalanced casting changes I've ever seen.

Rourke, who was arrested last week for riding a Vespa while allegedly intoxicated, will now play Randy "The Ram" Robinson, "an over-the-hill grappler who returns to the ring for one last shot at glory." The actor has been on a upward slope lately in terms of Hollywood success, but for awhile it seemed we'd lost the actor who was so good in Diner, The Pope of Greenwich Village and Barfly. But will he carry The Wrestler? Reports from the IMDb message boards claim that Cage had actually been doing research backstage at a Ring of Honor show. Now that research has been wasted, but maybe Rourke will have time before the January 7 start date to do his own research, or at least find out from Cage what he observed. Also, if Aronofsky wants this movie to be as big as it could have been, he might want Cage to lend his face, a la Face/Off, to the less-bankable Rourke.

Adaptations of Bret Easton Ellis' books are like smooth, tasty, cinematic butter. No matter what directorial eye tackles his prose, the unique fire remains, and even improves. First there was Less Than Zero, then came American Psycho, and finally, my favorite, The Rules of Attraction. After drug habits and Huey Lewis-led murder, the stakes were high, and Roger Avary whipped together a music-led dance of destruction. Could anything top that? I'm not sure, but I'm holding out hope that Gregor Jordan makes something great out of The Informers, which Christopher Campbell first posted about in May. Since then, they've started to compile one heck of a cast, and the list just keeps growing.

The Hollywood Reporter has posted that Winona Ryder and Mickey Rourke have joined the eclectic ensemble cast. The film is about seven interconnecting stories in 1980's LA, about a movie executive (Billy Bob Thornton), his wife (Kim Basinger), his mistress, a rock star, a kidnapper, and to strange things up some more, a vampire (Brandon Routh). Ryder is going to be a newscaster who has been dumped by the married producer she's had a long affair with, which I assume means she's Billy Bob's mistress, and Rourke is going to play Peter, a former security guard who wants to kidnap a kid to sell to an LA cult (which should make him the kidnapper). All that's left to fill is the rock star, unless that's being handled by one of the other names on the cast, like John from Cincinnati's Austin Nichols, or Thumbsucker's Lou Taylor Pucci. Production begins in October, so hopefully we'll have more Ellis goodies for you soon.

According to a couple of recent stories over at Moviehole, casting for Grind House is undergoing a bit of a shake-up. The big news is that Mickey Rourke, previously expected to star as Stuntman Mike (he drives a killer car, you may recall) in Death Proof, Quentin Tarantino's half of the film, is now off the project. In addition, there's word that QT himself will bring his acting "talent" to a small role in Planet Terror, Robert Rodriguez's zombie-fied segment of the movie. The rumor is that his character is "The Rapist," a moniker that I'm sure has the shock-loving QT salivating. (It has me thinking about the SNL sketch in which Sean Connery thinks "Therapists" is "The rapists," but then I'm a sucker for those Jeopardy! sketches.)

I don't know about you, but I'm starting to wonder about Grind House. I know some of the rumors -- particularly those about the whole thing shutting down -- have turned out to be false, but it's nevertheless starting to look like a huge mess. It's one thing for a couple of guys who love genre films to get together and decide to make a cool-sounding collaboration. It's quite another, however, to actually bring the thing to fruition with any degree of success. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm increasingly of the opinion that the sucker has disaster written all over it.

One of AICN's legion of tipsters appears to have gotten his (or her) hands on a copy of Quentin Tarantino's screenplay for his half of Grind House, the retro-style collaboration with Robert Rodriguez - and, assuming that most sane people won't take the time to make up not only length (127 pages) but also cover art (in case you're wondering, it "features a muscle car with huge twin exhausts and a skull on the hood with some lightning bolts"), the write-up is pretty convincingly real.

According to the writer, QT's half of the film - entitled Death Proof - stars Mickey Rourke and stuntwoman Zoe Bell, and revolves around a guy named Stuntman Mike (that's Rourke) who, well, drives around in his kickass stunt car and kills people with it. Um, ok. If that idea appeals to you, go check out the write-up, because there are lots of spoilers therein. In general, however, the tipster wasn't particularly impressed by the script, describing the dialogue as "flat" and "not very clever" - not a good start for something from Tarantino, a man whose best work relies heavily on crackling writing. That said, however, there's reportedly a super-bloody car crash in the middle of the movie - will that get your asses in the seats?

My little brother Stephen, who is 23 and fresh out of college, was visiting Austin last weekend. I thought I would consult him about his Oscar predictions. His taste runs more to horror, science fiction, and comic-book movies than to the type of drama the Academy loves to reward, but I thought that would make him even more clear-headed than most people in picking Oscar winners.

In addition to discussing the top five Oscar categories, Stephen also informed me that the Best Foreign Film category should have included the Turkish film G.O.R.A. and something directed by Takashi Miike, and that special "redemption" awards should go to Eric Bana (Munich) and Frank Miller (Sin City) for reviving their careers after the disasters of The Hulk and RoboCop 3, respectively.

We compromised on his Oscar picks; I let him pick twice in each category. For his first pick, I limited Stephen to the actual nominees. But he also named a second pick, the winner he thought was most deserving from all 2005 films. Needless to say, the second picks are a lot more fun than the "real" predictions. I think we should find a way to let Stephen nominate and vote for films next year, because I like most of his anything-goes picks much better than the official Oscar selections.