patrickdempsey Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Once upon a time here on Cinematical (actually, it was a mere year ago), I pondered whether you could ever be too attractive to be believable. I reasoned that it was a bit silly to argue that Angelina Jolie was too pretty to be the mother of a kidnapped child, because good looks doesn't equal good luck. But I might have to change my thesis for Patrick Dempsey. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Dempsey is teaming up with Jon Lucas and Scott Moore (aka "The Hangover Team") for an untitled bank heist comedy.

Dempsey will play an ordinary man who wanders into his bank branch for a deposit or a withdrawal, and winds up being caught in a robbery. Actually, it's not just one robbery but two occurring at the same bank and at the same time. (If this bank isn't in Gotham City and this stick-up isn't being overseen by the Joker, I'm disappointed already.) But the real kicker is that he is secretly in love with his bank teller, and was just getting up the guts to ask her out when the robberies happened. Now, he's forced to protect her and hope she'll say yes to dinner and a movie if they make it out alive.

Now, I know good looking guys can be shy. But this is like slapping thick glasses on Amanda Seyfried and expecting us to buy that she's unattractive. If he's a regular customer to that teller window, chances are she counts the minutes until he shows up with another deposit, and works frantically to maintain her lipstick in between. She's been hinting every time that she's single and looking. So unless Dempsey's character has been living in a cave (and maybe there's more twists and turns that he has) which has caused him to be socially inept, there's no excusing such awkwardness.

Some mid-week casting nibblets:

The wonderful Willem Dafoe is about to make a trip to Mars. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Dafoe has signed on to play Tars Tarkas in the Civil War/space project John Carter of Mars. Seeing Dafoe take a slight pause from his horror-filled schedule is nice, and it's even better that Tarkas is both a great warrior and compassionate man -- a gig that Dafoe should be able to tackle easily. But there is a twist -- Dafoe is once again going green for a gig. This is what Tarkas looks like.

And it's been a while since we got casting news for Rod Lurie's Straw Dogs remake, but now Variety reports that Kate Bosworth and Alexander Skarsgard are joining the roster. Bosworth will play James Marsden's wife, as they leave Hollywood for her Mississippi hometown. Skarsgard will play her old high school boyfriend and ex-football hero. One things for certain: this isn't the usual crop of names one would see on such an epically violent story.

Meanwhile, Christine Baranski will play Jennifer Aniston's mom in her Gerard Butler comedy Bounty Hunter, according to Variety. There's still no word on just what kind of fugitive Aniston is, and why, but Baranski should make things interesting.

And finally, Patrick Dempsey is changing things up a bit with a new big-screen role. Variety reports that he'll star in Universal's adaptation of The Art of Racing in the Rain. Yes, it's a racing movie, but not exactly a racing movie. See, it's fueled by memories from "Enzo, a family dog with a near-human soul and philosopher's mind, who evaluates his life through the lessons learned by his human owner, the race-car driver Denny Swift." No romance and fairy tale quirk this time around, just a little Marley magic and a bit of Dempsey's own race car driving ways.

Patrick Dempsey, Eric Dane -- Is one Grey's Anatomy star all that different from another? In a strange news twist and ultimate bit of Grey's fandom, our classic movie trades are reporting that both of the hit show's leading hottie doctors are signing up for Garry Marshall's Valentine's Day. Variety reports that Eric Dane (who plays Dr. Mark Sloan) is joining the cast, while The Hollywood Reporter posts that Patrick Dempsey is. Neither mentions the other bit of casting. Is New Line spreading the casting news wealth?

Dane will play a quarterback wondering whether he should retire in the ensemble comedy, while Dempsey once again plays a doctor. But this time, he's no good doctor, but rather "a married obstetrician dating [Jennifer] Garner's character on the sly, with her unaware of his status." Bad Dempsey.

Valentine's Day is the super-packed romcom ensemble that Peter posted about back in May. Following on the He's Just Not That Into You bandwagon, the film boasts names that range from Julia Roberts to Jessica Biel as they work "their way through a tangle of circumstances in Los Angeles" -- presumably on Cupid's big day.

While I'd like to see this flick have a little more brains than the one it's following after, I bet the chances are slim to none. Marshall is the guy, after all, who followed up Pretty Woman and Frankie and Johnny with Exit to Eden. But for the undying fans of floofy romantic schlock, I bet this'll be downright irresistible.

With Made of Honor now hitting the screens, we're getting even more McDreamy. But being a "made of honor" who wants to crash his best friend's wedding is far from Patrick Dempsey's first gig. There are many other roles in the mix, so Entertainment Weekly has thrown together a list of the actor's 16 "key roles." Now, this isn't all super-star material, since Dempsey dipped out of the spotlight for a while, but the list definitely takes you back in time.

The guy has been around -- from gigolos to road trips, literary adaptations to monkey viruses. (Do you remember him in Outbreak? I completely forgot that he was in that.) It's a pretty decent list. Frankly, I'd forgotten all that came between Can't Buy Me Love and Scream 3.

I have to say -- I like him much more these days. I was one of those people who never liked Can't Buy Me Love. I'd watch it with friends, and their hopeful glances would turn into insidious lasers prodding for a positive reaction. Ronald Miller just wasn't for me. But I realize that I'm in the minority on that one. Sound off below on your favorite Dempsey flick, or if you're not a fan at all, rant about the sensation that is Dempsey.

Due to a snafu (my own fault), I did not have a seat at Tuesday night's Iron Man screening in Philadelphia. So while everybody who is anybody hereabouts was giddily watching Tony Stark transform from an arms dealer to an ass-kicking, metal-suited superhero, I was in a different theater one block away watching Patrick Dempsey be a bridesmaid in Made of Honor. There'll be a Cinematical review of the movie on Friday, but for now I'd like to ask a very specific question: what on earth could that title possibly mean?

Others who have seen the movie have referred to "Made of Honor" as "a pun," or even an "appalling pun." Okay, but a pun usually involves conflating two words or expressions that make sense in the same context and happen to sound alike. In this case, I only count one. Yes, I get it -- Dempsey plays the best friend of a woman who is getting married, and so she names him her maid of honor. It's funny because he's a guy, but he's the maid of honor. Hahaha! Fantastic. But made of honor? What, like built of honor? Who? Patrick Dempsey? I'm not connecting the dots.

In the new Disney movie Enchanted, Patrick Dempsey (aka Dr. McDreamy) shows off some classy moves on the ballroom floor. When he's done, Amy Adams mentions that he had previously told her he can't dance. He corrects her, saying that he can dance, he just doesn't dance (normally, anyway). While watching the scene, I thought to myself: has Giselle (Adams' character's name) never seen Can't Buy Me Love? Of course Patrick Dempsey can dance. In fact, he's able to turn an African ritual into a hot new craze at his high school dance, as you can see in the video above. I wonder who is more embarrassed of that scene from twenty years ago, Disney or Dempsey.

Maybe it's because I'm not female, but I much prefer the Patrick Dempsey of old -- back when he was super dorky, but he could still get a girl by spending $1000 on her or, tables turned, pimping himself out to married women by way of a very special pizza delivery offer. Or, there's that time he accidentally got a female roommate thanks to a college housing error, and she ended up falling for him. But my favorite Dempsey movie is Coupe de Ville, in which he plays my younger brother, while I was played by Arye Gross and my older brother was played by Daniel Stern, as we drive to Florida in the titular old auto. Well, it seemed like that movie was about my brothers and me, anyway.

You'll have to wait until next May to see Disney's ballyhooed Prince Caspian, but the studio has a huge family film coming out in just a few months. That's Enchanted, starring the irrepressible Amy Adams as a fairy tale princess who's engaged to a prince (James Marsden) but banished to the remote aisle of modern-day Manhattan. There, amid the bagels and the bums, she falls for a divorce lawyer (Patrick Dempsey) who strangely is not out to rob her of possessions and her dignity. (By the way, do not, as I have admittedly done, confuse Enchanted with Ella Enchanted, a completely different movie. Get your head out of 2004!)

Sweet but with a snarky side -- there's a scene in which Adams serenades a room full of rats -- Enchanted could make Adams a household name at last, launching her beyond small roles in big movies (Talladega Nights) and starring roles in indies few people saw (Junebug). And it's Dempsey's first romantic comedy lead since ... Loverboy? (That can't be right. Someone correct me.) Marsden, on the other hand, looks to be reprising his "nice guys finish second" routine -- get that guy a new agent, already -- but I will say, Susan Sarandon as the evil queen is such an inspired bit of casting, I can't believe no one's ever thought of doing that before. Certainly she could be the wickedest Disney villainess since Glenn Close as Cruella de Vil. Check out her bad self in the exclusive poster below; Enchanted hits theaters Nov. 21.

Once upon a time, there was an animated princess in a big, poofy white gown who gets thrown into a pit by an ugly, old wart-ridden woman. Unfortunately, this pit leads her animated arse to the real world -- New York actually. Since Gotham really isn't the place for fair princesses, she befriends a McDreamy man and faces the big, tasty apple (not the poisonous one) as her beau, Prince Edward, flies through the same pit with a little chipmunk to try and rescue her. Of course, the harsh city isn't all they have to fight, as the evil Queen Narissa is determined to wreak havoc on the poor fairytale couple.

So, basically, that's the gist of Enchanted, the animated/live action film that stars Amy Adams as the princess, James Marsden as the Prince, Patrick Dempsey as the friendly New Yorker and Susan Sarandon as the evil, witchly foe. After many months of anxious, fairy tale anticipation, there's a direct link to a trailer right here. They really could've done without the cartoon classic lead up, especially since the clips don't actually reflect the Disney bits that the movie is spoofing. Since it's about a girl, a wicked Queen and a Prince, wouldn't clips of Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty be better than The Lion King? But that's just the intro. As for the film itself, I'm not terribly excited. However, I'm sure it will be a solid hit. Adams really knows how to pull off a princess, and I'm sure kids will see it in droves. Me, I just might check it out to see Marsden. I actually like him in this trailer, and I can't remember the last time I didn't groan when he popped on the screen. Maybe Disturbing Behavior?

[via Cartoon Brew]

Anything is possible. Patrick Dempsey went from a lawnmower-riding heartthrob to being completely off the radar, only to come back again as Dr. Derek "McDreamy" Sheperd on the popular Grey's Anatomy. Sure, he's had a few films of note in between, like his stint as a police detective on Scream 3 and being shafted by Reese Witherspoon in Sweet Home Alabama, but they haven't inspired sighs of "Oh, Patrick!" like Grey's. While he gets his next chance at movie heartthrob status with Made of Honor, he's getting a very, very surprising directorial Best Man.

While the idea of a Dempsey-headed romantic comedy might inspire you to think of a number of romantic comedy directors, Columbia Pictures is taking a different route. Believe it or not, the film is to be directed by the man who not only brought us a myriad of Bean movies from Merry Mishaps to Perilous Persuits, but also the oh-so-awesome Leonard Part 6 -- yes, I'm talking about the one and only Paul Weiland. Sure, the man is also responsible for Roseanna's Grave, but is that film really enough to keep him in mind for romantic comedies?

As Erik shared in December, Honor follows Dempsey's character, a man in love with a woman (yet uncast) who is engaged to someone else. She asks him to be her "maid" of honor, and he accepts the position, planning to steal her from her current beau -- definitely not a plan made of honor. It's great to see the idea of "maid of honor" get questioned, since men and women are no longer socially divided by sex, but that's pretty much dashed by his scheme to get the girl. I can only hope that they give the woman some credit and not have her heart won by a man who agrees to stand at her wedded side only to get the goods for himself.