proof Tagged Articles at Cinematical

For some odd reason (and this has everything to do with my own weird idiosyncrasies), I could never tell the difference between the stage plays Proof and Doubt. Both of them were on stage in New York City at the same time and, even though they're two completely different animals, I would always confuse them. Oh, and it doesn't help that Miramax is involved with the big screen adaptations of both Proof and Doubt.

However, when Proof finally came out in theaters (after getting somewhat lost in the post-Weinstein fall out with Miramax), it was one of the last Miramax films to have Bob and Harvey listed as executive producers. Now, the new Miramax has teamed up with producer Scott Rudin to bring John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Doubt to the big screen. The play is set in 1964, and revolves around a nun who confronts a priest she suspects is abusing a black student. While the play doesn't even feature said black student, the film will apparently include the character, as well as other students, and utilize several locations throughout Bronx, New York -- not just the school. Currently, there's no word on casting -- in the play, Cherry Jones played the nun and Brian O'Byrne played the priest. Miramax and Rudin also teamed up on The Queen which, as you're already aware, is nominated for everything this year.

I'm curious, is there some sort of unspoken Hollywood rule that if Scott Rudin doesn't have at least one film nominated for Best Picture every year, the entire world will somehow collapse? (Oh, and ladies -- I specifically chose the above picture of Rudin just for you. Enjoy the weekend!)

On the heels of good reviews for her work in The Devil Wears Prada, Emily Blunt has joined the cast of A Walk in the Park, the directorial debut of Tony and Pulitzer-winning playwright (Proof) David Auburn. The film stars Susan Sarandon (who played opposite Blunt in the straight-to-video release Irresistible) as Julia Sandburg, a woman who, on the heels of the disappearance of her three-year-old daughter fifteen years before, "has cut herself off from anyone once near and dear to her." When she stumbles upon a troubled girl named Louise (Blunt) -- in a park, one assumes -- emotions pour out all over the place, and Sandburg is unable to shake the absurd hope that Louise might be her long-lost daughter. Also featured in the screenplay are Sandburg's estranged ex-husband and son, but those roles have not yet been cast.

A Walk in the Park is scheduled to begin film this fall in New York.

Another day, another confusing headline: "Gwyneth Paltrow says she's pregnant."

It sounds as if the headline writer has some doubt, doesn't it? Like Paltrow would lie or something. But the confusion doesn't end there. The first line of the piece says that the syndicated show The Insider is reporting that she's pregnant. But that "reporting" is based on not only Lou Diamond Philips introducing her as pregnant at a screening of Proof but also on Paltrow herself confirming to a reporter that, yes, she's pregnant.

Does every celeb story/gossip story/infotainment nugget have to have some coyness to it? Shouldn't the headline just be "Paltrow pregnant with second child" or something similar? Unless Paltrow says, "you know when I said I was pregant? Just kidding. Actually, it was just an allergy," I think we can stop all the bizarre, confusing reporting.   

Here's a quick guide to the films reviewed on Cinematical this week:

"They never touch on the issue of physical congress between living and dead; I imagine it would require lots of lubrication." -- Ryan Stewart on The Corpse Bride

"Sergei Eisenstein must have worried about the jump cut falling into the hands of the bourgeoisie. It turns out he had every reason to be concerned." -- Karina Longworth on Proof.

"Remember Disney's Beauty and the Beast when the big talking dog-man bought it and you thought for a split-second that he was really dead? It's kind of like that. But maybe that's just my own abandonment issues at play." -- Robert Newton on Just Like Heaven

"Everyone around me was saying, "Wait - that was it? That's how it ends?" as the final credits rolled, and that's pretty much how I felt about it." -- Kim Voynar on Cronicas

"Charles Dickens probably never imagined a day when children would be romanticized and envied their innocence by a population of fat, paedomorphic adults. He certainly didn't anticipate such a day in his writings." -- Ryan Stewart on Oliver Twist

"No, this is not an 11th-hour "Verbal Kint is Keyser Söze" denouement, but the kind that blindsides you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday (and perhaps after watching it for a second time." -- Robert Newton on Lord of War

"Watch Dean's performance in any of his three films, and then go watch A River Runs Through It with a young Brad Pitt, and you can't help but notice how Pitt has picked up on certain quirks of mannerism and facial expression that made Dean's performances shine" -- Kim Voynar on East of Eden

"Kelli Garner is phenomenally sexy in a real-life-girl sort of way. She and Rachel McAdams, I think, represent a new trend in Hollywood beauty: 2006 will be the year of the Big-Eyed Brunette." -- Karina Longworth on Thumbsucker

"Is Risky Business a hot DVD rental in Judea and Samaria? Someone should check into that." -- Ryan Stewart on Campfire

"It's a great film for a girl's night out, or to take your mom to, or even for a date night (unless your date is more likely to enjoy something like 9 Songs than the relationship between a crusty old rancher and his friend and granddaughter)." -- Kim Voynar on An Unfinished Life

There's a starstruck piece in today's NYT about Gwyneth Paltrow and her directorial debut. She's making a short film about dating as part of a charity production project spearheaded by Glamour magazine, and she spent three days this summer shooting it in (gasp!) Brooklyn. Poor thing. Anyway - here's a bit of wishful hype-ery: "[S]how business has treated her very well, indeed. There is already buzz about her next film, Proof, which is set for a Sept. 16 premiere. The movie [is] one of the last projects of the departing co-chairmen of Miramax, Harvey and Bob Weinstein." Reality check? The "buzz" on Proof  is mixed at best, mostly owing to the fact that it's been sitting on the shelf for a year. It is one of the last Weinstein Miramax projects - it's one of the last they're dumping on screens before hightailing it out of there October 1st.