penetration Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Isn't it funny how when we see the word 'penetration,' there's only one thing that comes to our mind? Food. Okay, in my household everything means food, but apparently others think differently. For example, Hollywood Elsewhere has up a scanned photo of the cover of a script called Penetration with the names Ridley Scott, Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio scrawled underneath the title. The comments following the post? Let's just say not all of them were about gay porn; one (or two) actually knew that Penetration was the title for that Body of Lies adaptation currently set up for Scott to direct. I'm not sure who chose Penetration as the new title, or -- better yet -- who in their right mind approved that title, but it's the one they're currently going with. I'm far from a dirty guy, but even I think there's something a tad wrong about a teaser poster that would read: Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio in ... Penetration.

Ah, but there is news in here somewhere. When we first told you about the project (back when it was keeping the title Body of Lies), DiCaprio was the only one signed on. Now, apparently, Crowe has joined the cast ... if you believe the little scribblings found on the cover of that script. Penned by The Departed scribe William Monaghan (who adapted from David Ignatius' novel), the film will follow a former journalist who's hired by the CIA to track down an Al Qaeda leader who is planning an attack against America. In order to do so, however, he must penetrate this world and turn the bad guys against one another in order to find his man. I imagine DiCaprio will play the journalist/CIA operative, and since the scribbling trails off the screen, I can't see who Crowe will be playing (someone working for the CIA, I assume?). If true, this will be the fourth film featuring both Scott as a director and Crowe as the star, having previously worked on the upcoming American Gangster, A Good Year and Gladiator.

Monday's odds and ends:

• Nick Nolte's knees (or one of them, anyway) are apparently so bad that he can't even act on them. According to Variety, due to an old knee injury he's been replaced in the cast of Pride and Glory by the much scarier - and, it would appear, more ambulatory - Jon Voigt. The movie is the story of a multi-generational family of cops; Nolte is no longer their patriarch.

• Also injured is Jon Heder, who fractured an ankle trying to ice skate on the set of Blades of Glory. Yeah, it's dangerous! That'll teach you people to make fun of Johnny Weir. It's hoped, however, that Heder won't have to be replaced. This is good because, while it's pretty hilarious to think about Will Farrell on ice skates by himself, it's even funnier when you picture Heder skating past him.

• Penetration, David Ignatius' thriller about spying in the Middle East, was acquired by Warner Brothers earlier this year. It was hoped that Ridley Scott would direct (he will), but until recently, the film had no writer and therefore was a very low priority for the director. The studio revealed last night, though, that they have hired William Monahan, who previously worked with Scott on both Kingdom of Heaven and the forthcoming Tripoli, to pen the screenplay. Also, since it's going to be hard for the target teenage boy audience to say the title of this movie without giggling, I think it needs to be changed to something safely un-suggestive. Like, say, Mmm...Spies.
  

Given the success of Syriana and the ubiquity of the Middle East in the news, it's no surprise that big studios have recently acquired a pair of projects set in that region. Oddly, Ridley Scott's fingerprints (as well as those of novelist David Ignatius) are all over both of them. The first - described by Variety as "a high priority for [Paramount]" - is The Invisible World, which Scott will direct. The film is based on a treatment by Ignatius which grew into Dana Stevens' screenplay and may prove to be a bit touchy, given that its story revolves around the kidnapping of a female journalist in Iraq.

The second project is in Warner Brothers' hands, and is at a much earlier stage of development. The studio has acquired the rights to Penetration, a novel by Ignatius about "a CIA operative's attempt to track a high-ranking terrorist in Jordan." The hope at Warners is that Scott will direct the film, once a screenplay is completed.