rachel weisz Tagged Articles at Cinematical
'The Lovely Bones' Has a Blank Poster
Filed under: Drama », Mystery & Suspense », Paramount », RumorMonger », Newsstand », Dreamworks », Peter Jackson », Movie Marketing », Religious », Images », Posters »
A bland teaser poster for The Lovely Bones has appeared on Film1 and, well, it's just not that exciting. No worries, though, this was only used to tease the film during an international trade show (CinemaExpo to be exact) -- hence the 2010 release date (it arrives stateside on December 11, 2009). But with the film due out this winter it's surprising that there's still so very little to go on.
Bones has been dogged by bad rumors from day one. Mark Wahlberg replaced Ryan Gosling in very short order, and Susan Sarandon had issues with her role as Grandma Lynn. Flicks.co.nz reported that production shut down as Peter Jackson and art director disagreed over how to best portray Heaven, a story that was later denied by DreamWorks and Paramount. The rumor machine really went into overdrive when the release date of the film was delayed by six months, but the studio also brushed off any concerns, assuring the world they had always intended to release the film December 11, 2009 ... just in time for awards consideration.
But hey, now you have a poster to go with those initial images, and it's the kind of marketing you can project all your wishes onto. You can read its blankness as a sign of a disorganized production that doesn't have its poster art sorted. You can read it as a sign that they're keeping it under wraps because it's something very special. Maybe you see your own version of heaven there. (Mine is a really good film.) It's all things to all people. Really!
[via Dread Central]
Bones has been dogged by bad rumors from day one. Mark Wahlberg replaced Ryan Gosling in very short order, and Susan Sarandon had issues with her role as Grandma Lynn. Flicks.co.nz reported that production shut down as Peter Jackson and art director disagreed over how to best portray Heaven, a story that was later denied by DreamWorks and Paramount. The rumor machine really went into overdrive when the release date of the film was delayed by six months, but the studio also brushed off any concerns, assuring the world they had always intended to release the film December 11, 2009 ... just in time for awards consideration.
But hey, now you have a poster to go with those initial images, and it's the kind of marketing you can project all your wishes onto. You can read its blankness as a sign of a disorganized production that doesn't have its poster art sorted. You can read it as a sign that they're keeping it under wraps because it's something very special. Maybe you see your own version of heaven there. (Mine is a really good film.) It's all things to all people. Really!
[via Dread Central]
Cinematical Seven: Favorite Con Men (and Ladies)
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Romance », Thrillers », Mystery & Suspense », Steven Spielberg », Cinematical Seven »
There's a caveat or two with which I submit this list of our favorite con artists on film, to correspond with tomorrow's NY/LA bow of The Brothers Bloom (our review from Toronto is here; our interview with director Rian Johnson, there).
One: I have not seen the following -- David Mamet's House of Games, David Mamet's The Spanish Prisoner, and
Two: I've seen but don't fully recollect either The Grifters or Nine Queens enough to feel comfortable including them as if I had (I also missed the English-language remake of the latter, Criminal, though I've been told that's for the best). If I were a slier man, then maybe I could fittingly deceive the lot of you, but I'm not, so I won't.
While I don't doubt that the characters in those films would be worthy of a slot on our list, there are still at least seven other con (wo)men in the movies worth shining the spotlight on, and I do hope that you do think that may make do when all's said and done.
Hugh Jackman and Robert Pattinson Are Cowboys?
Filed under: Drama », Casting », Deals »
It's a strange coincidence, but just the other day I was having a conversation with a friend and we turned to each other and said: "Hey, whatever happened to Madeleine Stowe?" Well, she hasn't been making many appearances on the big screen lately, but that doesn't mean she hasn't been busy. Variety has announced that Stowe will be make her directorial debut for Hyde Park Entertainment with the period drama, Unbound Captives. The film stars Rachel Weisz, Hugh Jackman, and Robert Pattinson and centers on a woman, "whose husband is killed and her two children kidnapped by a Comanche war party in 1859." Stowe wrote the script herself back in 1993 as a starring vehicle, but at the time no one was jumping at the chance to finance the film of an actress and first time screenwriter. But that doesn't mean that the studios didn't like what they saw, because according to Variety, "Fox offered Stowe $3 million, and later $5 million, for her script, with Ridley Scott poised to direct and Russell Crowe to star. She turned down what was among the highest sums offered a first-time scribe because there was no promise she would be anything more than screenwriter." Stowe was convinced that it was better to let the project die on the vine rather than have somebody else mess with her script -- and I have to hand it to her, I doubt I would have been as principled.
Rachel Weisz as Hedy Lamarr? Sign Me Up!
Filed under: Drama », Casting », RumorMonger »
A year ago, Charlize Theron was talking to Amy Redford about the possibility of starring as Hedy Lamarr in an upcoming biopic. That never came to fruition, but now a new name is circling the tent -- one that seems, no is, entirely perfect.
The Hollywood Reporter posts that Rachel Weisz is loosely attached to play the icon in Amy Redford's Face Value. But the value goes so very far beyond the face -- and that's what makes it so notable. The film will focus on her eccentric life, and rather than focusing on her beauty and acting, it'll shine a light on her second career as a scientist -- "helping to create a method of changing frequencies -- known as frequency-hopping -- that became a forerunner to modern wireless communications." Not beauty. Not romance. Not tumultuous tear-jerking. It sounds too good to be true.
Jose Rivera and Gretchen Somerfeld penned the script, which won a TFI Sloan Filmmaker grant last year. Now we can only hope that this comes to fruition soon, and that next year we're not offering yet another name for the role. Weisz is perfect. Agreed?
Rachel Weisz is a 'Whistleblower'
Filed under: Drama », Independent », Casting »
One of my first Cinematical posts all the way back in 2006 was about The Whistleblower, and all these months and years later, it's finally coming to fruition after a little studio jostling. Variety reports HBO Films has grabbed the indie drama, and they have nabbed none other than Rachel Weisz to star. While I was definitely hoping for her to add some more intelligent quirk to her resume (a la Brothers Bloom) this project will definitely give her some meaty material to work with.Written by Eilis Kirwan and Larysa Kondracki (and to be directed by the latter), Whistleblower focuses the story of Kathryn Bolkovac, a cop from Nebraska who traveled overseas to work in post-war Bosnia as a UN peacekeepe. She ran an office that investigated sex crimes, and while there, she witnessed atrocities, but shockingly -- they were performed by "peacekeepers, police, and U.N. workers." This, of course, prompted her to expose a big UN sex-trafficking cover-up.
In other words, more constant gardening and truth quests for Weisz. The film will shoot in Budapest, but no production date has been released ... hopefully it won't take another 2.5 years to come.
Watch This: The First Seven Minutes of 'The Brothers Bloom'
Filed under: Action », Comedy », Romance », Fandom », Movie Marketing », Summer Movies »
The Brothers Bloom is one of the best movies I've seen in quite a while. I actually dreamed that at one of the press days, instead of DVDs with assets they were giving out copies of the movie, and I was really disappointed when I woke up. Seriously.
It's being marketed as a globe-trotting con man movie, which is true, but it's also got some romantic comedy action going on, and it's very funny. Rachel Weisz's character Penelope is one of the coolest and most three-dimensional "quirky female" characters I've seen in so long. Rinko Kikuchi steals every scene she's in as Bang Bang, their explosions expert. It's why The Brothers Bloom ranked with Happy-Go-Lucky as one of my faves of last year. The costumes are stylish and cool, the locations are glamorous and romantic, and the script is smart and well written -- just what you'd expect from Rian Johnson, who wrote Brick. (Fortunately, I didn't need subtitles to get all the nuances of Johnson's script, as I did with Brick -- which is, by the way, totally worth it.)
Okay, so now that I've slobbered all over The Brothers Bloom, go watch the first seven minutes on Hulu, introduced by Rian Johnson. Voila! The rest of the film hits theaters on May 15.
'Lovely Bones' Pic Reveals Heaven ... and Magazine Logo
Filed under: Drama », Dreamworks », Peter Jackson », Movie Marketing », Images »
How do you imagine heaven? Peter Jackson's vision of the place may not be the same, based on an advance look published by Empire Magazine, and that's probably a good thing. The director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy has revealed a glimpse of his concept of the heavenly realm, from his upcoming movie The Lovely Bones, and it looks a lot like ... the Empire Magazine logo (if you click through to their site and enlarge the image; see part of it above). Yup, the Brit zine promises many more pictures in their upcoming issue, but for now all we have is one shot that makes heaven look like a studio with some clouds in the background.
If you haven't read the book, it's an absolutely devastating read, written by Alice Sebold from the point of view of a 14-year-old girl. Susie Salmon (played in the movie by Saoirse Ronan) narrates the tale from her own personal heaven: she was brutally raped and murdered by a neighbor / serial killer and has to come to terms with her own death while watching her family and friends deal with extreme emotional trauma. Susie's heaven is not like Warren Beatty and Buck Henry's Heaven Can Wait or, really, like most other heavens depicted in film, so this initial image is promising.
It's also in line with what Jackson told USA Today: "It is quite like the world of dream, using the magic of metaphor to convey Susie's psychological and emotional life." USA Today also has a different, exclusive image (see above), which shows a shadowy Stanley Tucci as the neighboring serial killer. Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, and Michael Imperioli also star. The Lovely Bones is due in theaters on December 11.
Fan Rant: Our 'Brothers' Keeper
Filed under: Action », Comedy », Romance », Mystery & Suspense », Distribution », Fan Rant »
When we here at Cinematical harp on about a particular movie, it's usually because it deserves the attention, whether or not it's a genuinely Great Movie. Every so often, several of us on the staff will share the same wavelength for a film and insists on flogging it through its release, and we do so because we care so, so very much. Now, I personally won't go on about The Brothers Bloom at as great a length as we have with, say, The Promotion or Dear Zachary...; earlier today, when a colleague asked me (in wording that doesn't quite merit repeating here) if I had an overwhelming affection for the film, I couldn't say it was any stronger than I felt for either of those films.
I should know why I'm supporting any film, though, and I do know that I would like to see Bloom fare well in the marketplace whenever it does open -- which is why I hope that Summit changes its release date just one last time.
Cinematical Seven: Women to Watch in 2009
Filed under: Fandom », Cinematical Seven », Lists »
There have been notable women in the world since that first apple-curious gal was made from an extra rib, and Hollywood has even covered many of their stories. But it just can't seem to allow that bubble to burst fully into the X-X spectrum. The lack of female directors has been well chronicled: We've seen the challenge in following the Bechdel Rule, and the list goes on and on. Most recently, we've watched as Catherine Hardwicke earned the best box office opening for a female director ever, only to be axed and replaced by Chris Weitz for the Twilight sequel, New Moon. Not exactly the best way to wrap up 2008 and kick off 2009, but life goes on and so do we.
Hollywood also moves on, and luckily there are still women to watch for. Some are older, and some are quite young; a few have the pressures of sophomore features, and one isn't even real. But they're all women who will mold the face of Hollywood in 2009. Read on and make sure to comment with the woman (or women) of Hollywood that you're waiting to see in the new year!
'Batman 3' Update: Rachel Weisz as Catwoman!?
Filed under: Action », Deals », RumorMonger », Fandom », Comic/Superhero/Geek », Remakes and Sequels »
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While folks at Warner Brothers and Christopher Nolan are remaining tight-lipped with regards to a third Batman film, rumor has it that a production office for the threequel could open in Chicago as early as this spring (via BoF) -- and now E! is reporting (through one of their sources inside the studio) that Rachel Weisz could be up for the role of Catwoman in the flick. They say, "The next Batman installment is alive and kicking-definitely. We already mentioned today certain Warners sources are leaking to us that Rachel Weisz is being considered for the Catwoman role, too fab. But Warners officially isn't saying bubkes. But other insiders working on the next installment, to follow up where The Dark Knight left off, say it's all so a go."
Now, I don't trust anyone who uses the words "too fab" in relation to a story about Batman, but we take what we can get, right? What this does tell us is that, from the looks of it -- and even though there's probably not a script written yet (E! says it's being written now) -- Catwoman will play a major role in the third film. And, personally, I'm glad Angelina Jolie's name is slipping out, because she'd just add too much "glam" to this role. Weisz would do a fantastic job in my opinion, and if you'd like to see her go a little nutty and eccentric, check her out in The Brothers Bloom.
So whaddya think? Catwoman? Rachel Weisz? Ya dig?
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