the burning plain Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The Fantastic Mr. Fox
Director Wes Anderson uses old school stop-motion animation for this comedic tale of a band of animals with celebrity voices who must battle some angry farmers. Listen for the voices of George Clooney, Bill Murray and Meryl Streep among others. Things get foxy on November 13.

A Serious Man
Here's a trailer that understands what trailers are supposed to do: grab your attention and make you curious to see more. This black comedy directed by the Coen Brothers and set in 1967 concerns a college professor who is experiencing a professional dilemma and is on the verge of a divorce. This one goes into limited release on October 2.

I Sell the Dead
More than any other trailer I've seen lately this one has me dying to see the film right now. On the eve of his execution a nineteenth century grave robber tells the tale of his exploits unearthing the undead. Sadly, I will have to wait for the film's limited release on August 7.

The 18th annual Florida Film Festival ended a week ago last night, and do you want to know why our coverage of the fest is going up just now? Because I'm selfish and wanted to catch up with as many of the forty or so features as possible, even after the awards had been announced and everyone had gone home (for the record, I managed to miss each and every winning film -- Prince of Broadway, The Garden, Prodigal Sons, Neil Young: Don't Be Denied, and the exceedingly popular Poundcake -- and am kicking myself still).

However, between the appearances by Ken Russell, Glenn Close, and Jon Voight (oh, my!), I did manage to catch my fair share of world, regional, and local premieres at this celebration of Original Cinema, and you can see what we saw after the jump.

Award-winning screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga uses a convoluted narrative structure to tell a tale of love, betrayal and regret in The Burning Plain, his directorial debut. Arriaga opens the film with a shot of an old trailer in the middle of the desert burning to the ground, and he then proceeds to bounce around among several seemingly disparate characters, Babel-style, before finally bringing it all together in the film's final act.

The film stars Charlize Theron as Sylvia, a composed-but-icy manager of a fancy Portland, Oregon-area restaurant who spends her spare time having empty, emotionless sex with a wide array of men. Arriaga takes us back and forth from gray, rainy Portland, where Sylvia lives, to the New Mexico desert; early on we learn that the burning trailer, when it exploded into flames, was occupied by Gina (Kim Basinger), a white married housewife with four kids, and Nick (Joaquim De Almeida), a Mexican-American man, also married with kids.

Gina's daughter Mariana (Jennifer Lawrence) and Nick's son Santiago (J.D. Pardo) are drawn together as they struggle to deal with their parents' infidelity and death, much to the consternation of their respective families. Also tossed into the mix are a crop-duster pilot, his best friend, and his young daughter, whose lives are thrown into disarray when the pilot's plane crashes.

Here's what's happening in the world of movie news today:

• UPDATE: Columbia Pictures has announced that The White Stripes' Jack White will team with Alicia Keys on the Quantum of Solace theme song. Said song will be called "Another Way to Die," and it will be the first duet in Bond soundtrack history.
• UPDATE: Universal lands Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards -- they will partner with The Weinstein Co. on the WWII flick. The writer-director has already met with Brad Pitt about playing a role, and production is scheduled to start this fall. (Variety)
• UPDATE: MTV has confirmed through IDW Publishing that "The Fallen" in the Transformers 2 title does indeed refer to the main villain in the film.
• Holy Harry Potter and Half-Blood Prince trailer! It debuts online today! Prior to its arrival, USA Today has posted a photo (see above) of the young Tom Riddle (aka young Voldemort). Kid looks a tad creepy ... what do you think? We'll update this post as soon as the trailer arrives online.
• Tim Burton's making an Alice in Wonderland movie, so now we have to figure out which role Johnny Depp will play. In our minds, there's only one -- and Celeb Edge says Depp has been pegged to star as the Mad Hatter. Let me guess: Depp's performance will come with a side order of freaky and creepy?
• Jennifer Lopez will star in the romantic comedy The Governess, where she'll play a thief who poses as the nanny of three unruly children in order to rob a bank. The romance comes into play when she begins to fall for the widowed father of the three kids. What to do: Rob a bank for millions ... or get involved with a dude who has three annoying kids? Oh, the tough decisions these characters must face ... (Variety)
  
• IGN has thrown up the brand spanking new Friday the 13th poster (see to the right; click to enlarge). You can also read all about that particular Comic Con panel over here. If we're lucky, this will be the one where Jason finally shares his feelings through talking and not physical harm ...

More after the jump ...

For this, the week before Christmas, Variety has a whole slew of little casting nibbles:

• He got to play Shia LaBeouf's adventuresome sidekick in Disturbia, and now Aaron Yoo has nabbed himself a lead role in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist as Thom. You might remember the project from our recent coverage here and here. The film is about some bridge-and-tunnel kids who have a sleepless, love-filled night in New York City. He was pretty amusing in Disturbia, so I imagine this will be the start of much more work for the actor. The film also got even more competition for it's opening slot, as Patrick Walsh recently blogged -- now the film is up against Valkyrie as well as RockNRolla... but something tells me the Playlist crowd won't be swayed by a German Tom Cruise.
• Marty Papazian, who guest stars on a whole slew of television shows and last popped up on the big screen in Jarhead, has gotten a part in Charlize Theron's The Burning Plain -- the flick that also happens to be written and directed by Guillermo Arriaga. It's not a bad score for the actor, but unfortunately, he doesn't have a huge part -- his role is that of a "Young Man."
• Jesse Johnson, who has recently popped up in the indie flicks Redline and Prey, has scored the lead role in the upcoming indie My Life: Untitled. He'll star as Bobby in the project, which is based on the true story of a kid who struggles with drug addiction. The cast also includes W.I.T.C.H. star Kelly Stables and a certain ex-model Rachel Hunter.
• Not only is she co-starring in the upcoming thriller The Box Collector, but new actress Lyne Renee has scored the co-lead spot in the upcoming drama, The Hessen Affair, which puts her opposite the ever-loved Billy Zane. She'll play Lt. Kathleen Nash, who works with Zane's Durant to fence the Crown Jewels of Germany in New York City. According to the IMDb synopsis: "With double-crossing gangland figures trying to control the gems and the army closing in on them, will Kathy Nash and Jack Durant stay true to one other and their plan? Or will one sell the other out?" Now I ask you: is this tacky in a fun way, or a bad way?
• Finally, there's Marisol Nichols, who you might know from Big Momma's House 2, a stunning cinematic achievement, or her role on 24. Like Renee, she's nabbed a part that places her opposite two pretty well-known actors. This time around, it's Val Kilmer and Stephen Dorff. She's gotten herself the co-lead in Felon, a film about a man who is convicted of killing an intruder and has to face "the violent penal system." She's playing Laura Porter, which I assume is Wade Porter's (Dorff) wife. Not a bad gig, I must say.

That strike might have stalled all sorts of writing work, but the casting news just keeps coming, courtesy of Variety:

• Erik Davis has brought you lots of Righteous Kill news over the last few days, and it seems that another name has been thrown into the Al Pacino/Robert De Niro mix -- actress Saidah Arrika Ekulona. Variety doesn't state what her role is, but considering that fact that most of her roles have been as a nurse on films and shows like The Royal Tennenbaums and Sex and the City, or as a cop on shows like Law & Order, I think it's safe to say that it'll probably be one or the other.
• He's been an abusive husband, had stints in both the FBI and CIA, and even played a TV producer in Britney, Baby, One More Time, about a guy who uses a gay, crossdressing Britney impersonator and pretends he's the real thing. Now Karl Makinen has gotten himself a role in Jada Pinkett Smith's upcoming film, The Human Contract. Pinkett Smith is not only directing from her own script, but will star, and Makinen is playing her husband. Hmm -- I wonder why husband Will isn't involved?
• Finally, we've got some movie work for Cold Case star Danny Pino (who plays Scotty Valens on the series). He's nabbed himself a starring role opposite Charlize Theron in the Guillermo Arriaga film, The Burning Plain. Theron plays a woman named Sylvia who has to make peace with her estranged parents, but there's no word of a man in her story. I would say he's got to be more than just a side-story love interest, as Pino has got third-billing so far on IMDb. Or maybe, just maybe, he gets to get it on with Kim Basinger, who plays Gina -- Sylvia's mom who had a secret lover named Nick in her past. This could be a nice break for the guy since, well, his last film was Flicka.

Oh, you can do all the "look at me, I'm a serious actress!" roles you want, Kim Basinger, but you'll always be Vicki Vale to me. Variety is reporting that Basinger is attached to star with Charlize Theron in The Burning Plain. Erik Davis, an officer and a gentleman, told you about the film here. Plain marks the directorial debut of Guillermo Arriaga, the pretty much always excellent screenwriter of Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel, and the criminally under-seen The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. Arriaga wrote the screenplay for Plain as well. The film starts shooting early next month in New Mexico.

The film will intertwine two storylines, one of which takes place in the past, the other in the present. The intersection of stories is a trademark of Arriaga's work, though some detractors (I am not one) would claim he uses the device as a crutch. Basinger plays Gina, "the mother of Charlize Theron's character as seen in childhood." Theron plays Sylvia, a woman trying to "find common ground with her parents after a turbulent childhood." The two stories collide. That description doesn't tell us much, but I'm up for anything Arriaga. As for the lead actresses, Basinger has never made much of an impression on me, but Theron is really shaping up to be quite the talent. Her subdued turn in In the Valley of Elah -- one of the best films of the year, even though no one is seeing the thing -- convinced me that Monster was no fluke.

After penning Alejandro González Iñárritu's three most popular films (Amores perros, 21 Grams, Babel), screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga has decided to go at it alone. Variety reports Arriaga will make his feature directorial debut on The Burning Plain, with Charlize Theron coming onboard to star and exec produce. Mark Cuban's 2929 Productions will finance the film, while Cuban, Marc Butan, Todd Wagner and Beth Kono will also produce. Known for his complex, intertwining stories, Arriaga will once again return to that format for this film -- focusing mainly on "very intense love stories that take place in different places and times, with characters trying to find the healing powers of love, forgiveness and redemption." Isn't that what all his films are about? Theron will play a woman named Sylvia who attempts to reconcile with her parents after a turbulent childhood.

The film, which will cost under $20 million, currently has no distribution plan in place. Although 2929 Productions has gone day-and-date before, I can't seem them going that route here. Then again, I could be wrong. It was fairly obvious that Arriaga would go solo following the war of words he and Iñárritu found themselves in last year. At one point things became so bitter that Iñárritu banned Arriaga from attending the Babel premiere at Cannes. Since that whole snafu pretty much solidified the fact that their relationship was all but over, it was only a matter of time before Arriaga did his own thing. I guess it will be interesting to see how one does without the other; Arriaga's script for The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (directed by Tommy Lee Jones) was good, but I thought the film was just too damn slow ... and long. Is Iñárritu overrated? Is Arriaga really the mastermind behind all that great work? I guess we'll see ...