trust Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Who would ever thought that David Schwimmer would helm some drama? Between acting gigs like Friends, helming 10 episodes of the hit show, directing Run Fatboy Run, and even picking up 6 episodes of Little Britain USA, he seemed to be completely focused on comedy. Yet now Variety reports that he will direct Clive Owen and Catherine Keener in a new "dark drama" called Trust.

Schwimmer created the story, which Andy Bellin wrote, and it focuses on the effects an online sexual predator has on a family. But it won't be Owen going back to his creepy Closer ways. Owen and Keener will play the parents of a 14-year-old girl who fell victim to an adult posing as a teenager in a chat room. The young Liana Liberato will play the daughter. There's no word on who the predator will be, but consider the lack of sex pronouns, I've got to wonder if it's a woman, or someone we never see.

Shooting will begin really soon -- next month in Michigan. And then we'll see what a dramatic David Schwimmer world is like. What do you think? Are you intrigued by the thought of Ross, online predators, and Clive Owen with Catherine Keener? Is this a new era -o- Schwimmer?

What goes around comes around. Back when the wonderful laserdisc was just beginning to find its stride, and the serious movie buff could actually find most of the titles he or she was longing to see, the DVD came along and all but wiped out this entire format, this entire subculture. Now, at the dawn of 2008, it looks as if the war between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD may be coming to a close. Will one or the other format catch on? Will the regular DVD become extinct? No one can say. But when it comes to movies I'd like to see, none of this matters. 2007 brought us some amazing DVDs and DVD box sets, and the following is my wish list for titles I'd like to see produced in 2008.

(Note: I deliberately left off titles that are already available on import DVDs, such as Satantango, Celine and Julie Go Boating, Man of the West, Johnny Guitar, Lost Highway, Napoleon, The Dead, the Jean Vigo collection, and many more.)

1. Othello: 3-Disc Special Edition
In 1992, Orson Welles' daughter Beatrice authorized a "restored" version of the film that played in theaters. But purists claimed that her film deviated from what her father originally intended, and so the Criterion Collection released a laserdisc edition of Welles' original cut, the one that played at Cannes in 1952. Beatrice apparently blocked this earlier version, and so now only the 1992 cut is on DVD (and out of print besides). My fantasy DVD would be a three-disc box set (from Criterion, of course), collecting both the 1952 and 1992 cuts, as well as Orson's impossible-to-find documentary Filming Othello (1978), which is the last of his completed films I have yet to see. (There are clips of it on the Criterion Othello laserdisc.) On a side note, of Welles' thirteen completed films, seven are available on U.S. DVDs and four others are available overseas. That leaves only Othello and Filming Othello. Let's get on it!

Just a few days ago, we reported on the tragic death of indie actress Adrienne Shelly, best known for her roles in Hal Hartley's films The Unbelievable Truth and Trust. Shelly was found hanging from a shower curtain rod in the bathroom of her New York City office, and initial reports indicated police suspected it was a suicide. Now WCBS-TV in New York City reports that police are calling Shelly's death a murder, and that they have a suspect in custody. We heard from a tipper earlier this morning that police had found sneaker prints not matching Shelly's in the bathtub, and that they were investigating angles other that suicide. No suicide note was found, and Shelly had just wrapped directing the film Waitress, which she had reportedly submitted to the Sundance Film Festival.

According to WCBS sources, police have in custody a construction worker who allegedly punched the 5'2" actress after she complained about the noise he was making, killing her. He then allegedly dragged Shelly's body back to her office and hung it from the shower rod in an attempt to make it look like a suicide. Shelly, who has a three-year-old daughter, Sophie, was found by her husband, Andy Ostoy. The medical examiner's office has yet to officiallly rule on the cause of death. We'll keep you posted.

[Thanks to Hot Tipper "NS", who pointed us to the WCBS story in the comments of our previous story about Shelly.]

It is going to be tough for awhile, looking up at the Trust poster on my wall. For as big a fan of Hal Hartley's films as I am, I was taken aback by the news this morning that actress Adrienne Shelley, who starred in Hartley's films The Unbelievable Truth and, of course, Trust, was found dead in her office on Wednesday evening. The cause of death is still unknown, even after an autopsy was performed Thursday, though police are awaiting more results from that autopsy.

I always thought of Shelly as an important part of the New York independent film scene, not just for her Hartley roles, which were her first, but also because she never really broke into Hollywood despite all the buzz she received in the early '90s. She called New York home and even titled her first directorial feature Sudden Manhattan. Her second film, I'll Take You There won her a best director award at the U.S. Comedy Festival, and her third, Waitress, which stars Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion, just recently finished shooting. As far as acting, she'd recently appeared in Factotum, but she was more interested in focusing on writing and directing, and taking care of her 3-year-old daughter. It is unfortunate that we'll never get to see how successful her filmmaking career could have been.

Shelly was waiting to hear whether or not Waitress would screen at Sundance in January when she died. I'd like to suggest that the festival not only give the film a slot, but also give her a special tribute of some kind as well.

UPDATE: Shelly was reportedly murdered.