red Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Julian McMahon, Ernest Borgnine, and More Circle 'Red'
Filed under: Action », Casting », Comic/Superhero/Geek »
Wanna make your comic miniseries-turned-feature film into a big-buzz event? Jam it full of interesting actors. It all started with Bruce Willis. Then Morgan Freeman entered the project, followed by Helen Mirren, John C. Reilly, and Mary-Louise Parker. So where do we go from here? The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision Blog reports that Julian McMahon, Ernest Borgnine, Richard Dreyfus, and Brian Cox are all in negotiations to board the project.As we know, Bruce Willis will play a retired black ops dude who faces off against "younger, more high-tech assassins who show up to kill him." Turns out Mr. McMahon will be the center of this conspiracy, playing the "Vice President with a dark side." Meanwhile, Borgnine will take on "the keeper of the CIA's darkest records," Dreyfus will play a wealthy dude making a mint on government contracts, and Cox will be a baddie once again, playing "a former Cold War spy and nemesis of Willis." As Elisabeth mentioned in the earlier posts, Summit is definitely taking the safe and secure road with casting, but with all these names, that isn't seeming like such a bad thing.
Ernest frickin' Borgnine. That's enough for me! Are you ready to see Red?
John C. Reilly and Mary-Louise Parker Go 'Red'
Filed under: Action », Thrillers », Casting », Newsstand »
When Warren Ellis' Red was first optioned, I wasn't particularly excited. As readers have pointed out, Ellis has many books that would be more exciting to see on the big screen. The initial casting of Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman didn't inspire a lot of excitement, either. (I love both, but Willis as an ex-assassin? Hardly inspired.) But as Robert Schwentke has filled out his cast, things have gotten a lot more interesting. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mary-Louise Parker and John C. Reilly are in talks to join Red alongside Freeman, Willis, and Helen Mirren.Reilly would play a retired CIA agent who is paranoid that everyone is out to kill him. Willis' predicament will naturally prove him right, and it's the frantic, nervous role that Reilly specializes in. Again, it's not the most inspired casting, but it's exciting to see Reilly finally land a comic book role. I like to see actors drawn into this world, even if it is in a more "standard" storyline.
Parker will play Willis' love interest, an ordinary employee of the federal pension office who becomes embroiled in his struggle to stay alive. As if relationships aren't hard enough, it's "Honey! My former employers are trying to kill me! Get your passport, we have to hide in Bruges." She is a talented actress, so I sincerely hope she gets a little more to do than run around and be frightened. Perhaps she can be trained in the arts of action by Mirren's character.
It's a really good cast so far, and there's undoubtedly more to come as Willis' opponents are lined up. This could be something a little more in the mold of A History of Violence, which would be a refreshing change from the flashy adaptation attempts like Wanted. Red is officially on my radar.
Helen Mirren Sees 'Red'
Filed under: Action », Thrillers », Casting », Newsstand », Comic/Superhero/Geek »
I have a major girl crush on Helen Mirren. I want to be her, and I simultaneously want her to take me under her wing, and turn me posh. Now she's set to make me geek out even more, because Screen Daily and The Hollywood Reporter report that she's just signed on to Red, Summit Entertainment's adaptation of Warren Ellis' bloody miniseries. Robert Schwentke is set to direct. Mirren joins Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman in this cheerful tale of assassins. Willis plays black ops CIA Agent Paul Moses, who is enjoying the peace and quiet of retirement. But when there's a change of guard at the CIA, it's decided that Moses is too much of a liability. While Ellis' book pitted Moses against a single assassin, the movie will put Moses against a host of younger and more technologically adept opponents. It'll be the old school versus the new school -- and we all know who will probably win. I believe Freeman is playing the new CIA boss who decides Moses has seen and done too much to be anything but a liability, but nothing has been specified.
In her first comic book adaptation, Mirren will be playing an old associate of Willis, who has her own lethal set of skills. (Shades of Taken!) Don't be surprised if they're sexy skills. But you know what? It's Helen Mirren. If she wants to use her looks in order to dispatch a dictator or arms dealer, she can. Filming is set to kick off in January, and I count the days until I can see Mirren actually kick some ass onscreen.
Morgan Freeman Goes Top Secret For 'Red'
Filed under: Action », Thrillers », Casting », DIY/Filmmaking », Newsstand », Comic/Superhero/Geek »
You know, I think Morgan Freeman likes playing in the comic book world. After turns in Wanted, Batman Begins, and The Dark Knight, Freeman is currently in talks to join another DC production. According to Variety, he's in talks to costar with Bruce Willis in Red, an adaptation of Warren Ellis' 3-book series. Ellis' series centers on a former black-ops CIA agent named Moses. He's retired and enjoying the quiet life, and the CIA is happy to let him do so, until a new director is hired, and decides to pull up his file. When the director finds out what Moses actually did, he decides that he's a liability, and sends a high tech assassin to kill him. When the book was optioned last year, it was reported they'd added a love interest, and that Moses would be getting the old team back together. There would also be a generational divide as Moses contends with younger agents who rely on new and improved gadgets. Variety doesn't say whether all those new twists and turns have been kept, but I suspect they have, as three issues aren't quite enough to make a movie out of.
Red is one of the only DC Comics to jump the Warner Bros. ship, and is being produced at Summit Entertainment. Erich Hoeber and Jon Hoeber are penning the script, and the movie doesn't yet have a director. Maybe Freeman can lure in his Invictus boss, and break him into the comic book world?
DC Movies Are Finally Catching Up To Marvel!
Filed under: Action », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Deals », Warner Brothers », Scripts », DIY/Filmmaking », Newsstand », Comic/Superhero/Geek »
Remember earlier this year when I pondered just what the heck was taking so long when it came to DC's big screen adaptations? Well, all we had to do was give them a few months, and they started kicking ass and taking names. The Hollywood Reporter has a big piece all about how DC and Warner Bros have united in a creative partnership that rivals the continuity-happy gang at Marvel Entertainment, and it's a relationship that is hoping to yield some wonderful surprises. In a show of just how serious they are, Warner Bros quietly brought on comic supermen Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns, and Marv Wolfman to act as creative consultants for their major properties such as The Flash, Teen Titans, and anything else the studio might throw at them. Even now, Wolfman and Morrison are working on super secret productions the likes of which fans can only dream about.
Wait, what was that -- The Flash? Yep, Johns is in the producer chair on the project, and worked up a new treatment for the character. Dan Mazeau is currently writing the script, and the hunt for a director is in the works. There's no Wonder Woman, Superman, or Justice League in the works, but you will be getting Bizarro Superman, which is being penned by David Howard and Robert Gordon. Also in the works is a sequel to Constantine, a solo Green Arrow movie, the Green Arrow prison lark, Supermax, and still-alive Shazam. Plus, if you've got pitches for Adam Strange or Aquaman, the studio would very much like to hear them!
Age Won't Stop Bruce Willis' Action Ways
Filed under: Action », Casting », Deals »
Once he got a taste of Die Hard, Bruce Willis was a changed man, moving from detective comedy to action hero. 21 years later, at age 54, the guy is still not stopping. In fact, he's getting offers for action gigs left, right, and center. Is this the secret for staving off age? Well, that and a face that works well with a smoothly shaved noggin?THR's Risky Biz Blog reports that Willis is currently in talks to head three action films, although not all of them are heading down that path to success. First, there's Inventory, a thriller from NuImage/Millenium that would have the actor become a detective hunting down a murderer. Then there's Red (not to be confused with last year's Red), based on the WildStorm/DC Comic. This would have Willis playing a former black-ops agent forced out of retirement when an assassin comes after him and his girlfriend. This gig, however, could fizzle because so far, the two sides can't agree on a suitable offer. And finally, there's Scarpa, a mob biopic in the works from Antoine Fuqua, where he'd play an undercover FBI informant in New York's Columbo family. But RBB says: "the odds are growing that WIllis won't do that pic" either.
Well, he can't do every cop/law film that comes his way, even if he is the irreplacable John McClane. I can see him stepping back a little. I mean, how will he find the time? It's not like he's been lying low since Live Free or Die Hard -- he's got projects like Surrogates and A Couple of Dicks on the way. Willis might be the quintessential man of policedom, but where do you like Willis best? Do you want to see him keep fighting his way through the baddies, or are you just waiting for the next mellow Sixth Sense?
A Great Bargain for Genre Freaks at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival
Filed under: Action », Comedy », Documentary », Foreign Language », Horror », Independent », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Festival Reports », Comic/Superhero/Geek »
A note to anyone affiliated with a film festival that frequently employs the words scream, fear, horror, fright, dark, or creeeeepy: If you send me a press release, I'll throw you some blog-love. That's what happens when a childish genre nerd gets to work at a slick 'n' popular website like this one. Case in point: A very cool guy called Adam Lopez helps run an event called Toronto After Dark, and he asked if I wouldn't mind spreading the word on their upcoming slate. And since this is a small but reputable festival (and not to be confused with TIFF's own "Midnight Madness" line-up, which is like a mini-fest all by itself), I said "Sure, Adam!" And guess what? I'll do the same for LA Screamfest, UK Frightfest, and New Zealand Gorefest -- even though I just made that last one up.TADFF (an acronym I also just made up) runs from October 17 to 24. The festival generally plays between 16 to 20 films, and while their final slate hasn't been decided just yet, they have snagged a few juicy titles for their first batch. The Jack Ketchum adaptation Red will be screened, as will Darren Lynn Bousman's Repo! The Genetic Opera and (of course) the stunningly wonderful Swedish import Let the RIght One In. Other titles include Bill Plympton's Idiots and Angels, the action-packed Mirageman, the self-explanatory Tokyo Gore Police, and the recent fest favorite Who is KK Downey?
For more information on Toronto After Dark, you can pick through their website right here. I'll also include a little promo video after the jump -- and here's the best part: You can get a full festival badge for around one hundred bucks Canadian! If they screen 17 movies, that equals out to about ... six bucks a flick! (Less, actually!) Stop back in a week or two and we'll have the full line-up. You Canadians get all the luck.
Indie Spotlight: New Releases for August 8
Filed under: Comedy », Documentary », Drama », Independent », New Releases », Quentin Tarantino », Columns », Indie Spotlight »
What with the Olympics and the Batman and the pineapple express and the pants, you might be a little overloaded with things to watch this weekend. On the other hand, maybe you've seen all that and want something different. In that case, hooray for the Indie Spotlight! It's our weekly roundup of what's opening beyond the multiplexes, designed so movie fans can keep an eye out for those less-publicized titles. There are eight indie films for you to examine this week: Beautiful Losers, Beer for My Horses, Bottle Shock, Elegy, Hell Ride, Patti Smith: Dream of Life, Red, and What We Do Is Secret. Here's the skinny on each of them.
Bottle Shock
What it is: A fictionalized account -- very heavily fictionalized, it would seem -- about the plucky California winery that managed to beat French wines in a blind taste test in 1976.
What they're saying: The reviews at Rotten Tomatoes are almost evenly split down the middle. My own take: It's the Two Buck Chuck of wine movies.
Where it's playing: Various places throughout Northern and Southern California, Seattle, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Detroit, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston.
Official site: Take a sip.
Hell Ride
What it is: Executive-produced by Quentin Tarantino, it's Larry Bishop's homage to the sleazy biker movies of the early 1970s.
What they're saying: They're saying they hate it. Ten of the 12 reviews at Rotten Tomatoes are negative, and that includes the two from Cinematical, by James Rocchi and yours truly.
Where it's playing: Quite a few cities, actually; check out the map here.
Official site: Hop on, easy rider.
Another Jack Ketchum Novel to Hit the Screen: 'Offspring'
Filed under: Horror », Independent »
When someone who's read hundreds of horror novels says something like "Jack Ketchum is one of the best authors out there," you might want to bring up a few titles on Amazon and maybe snag a tome or two. (That's if you're looking for horror fiction in the first place, obviously.) Over the last few years, we've (finally!) seen several of the author's works transformed into indie flicks, and I'd say those filmmakers are presently three-for-three! (Those films would be The Lost, The Girl Next Door, and Red.)So it's with no small amount of nerdly excitement that I read the following over at Dread Central: Looks like the guys behind the harrowing Girl Next Door are about to tackle Offspring, a 1991 Ketchum "crazy cannibal" novel that is actually the follow-up to the truly disturbing Off Season. (And I mean "disturbing" as a compliment.) But why would producer Andrew van den Houten start with Part 2 instead of Part 1? I assume it has something to do with rights issues -- as in "someone else probably owns the rights to Part 1" -- but Shock's Ryan Rotten very astutely makes the same point that I was going to make: That if someone did Off Season straight from the book, it'd look a whole LOT like Wrong Turn or yet another rendition of The Hills Have Eyes. Kind of a shame, really, but you can always read the book.
For more on the brutally memorable work of Jack Ketchum, check out his official site right here.
Sundance Thriller 'Red' Sets Theatrical Release
Filed under: Thrillers », Sundance », Magnolia », Distribution », Cinematical Indie »
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Don't mess with a man's best friend! I'm borrowing that phrase from our own Eric D. Snider, who used it to describe the plot of Red, a thriller starring the great Brian Cox as a man on a mission to avenge the death of his beloved dog at the hands of a bunch of teenage punks.
As Eric noted, Magnolia Pictures picked up distribution rights for the movie and planned a late summer release. Well, it must be later than we thought, because Dread Central now tells us that Red will be unleashed to theaters in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, August 8, followed by a "slow rollout" to more theaters nationwide.
"An emotionally gripping if slightly overwrought drama," is how Eric described Red in his review from Sundance, where the film premiered. Later he called it "a solid B-minus effort, and Cox's performance makes it eminently watchable." In addition to Cox, the cast includes Tom Sizemore as a bad father, Kim Dickens as a TV reporter, and Robert Englund and Amanda Plummer as white trash parents of one of the juvenile delinquent kids responsible for the death of the titular dog.
I've loved Brian Cox in many roles (Braveheart to Manhunter to 25th Hour to X2: X-Men United to Zodiac), so I have to believe he's a major plus for audiences looking for something a little different in August. How about you? Do you have any interest in seeing the Cox-avenging Red?
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