uma thurman Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Tarantino Teases 'Kill Bill 3' - Here's Five People Who Should Star
Filed under: RumorMonger », Fandom », DIY/Filmmaking », Newsstand », Quentin Tarantino », Remakes and Sequels »
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The energetic Quentin Tarantino was out and about promoting Inglourious Basterds in Italy, and seeing as he was in the homeland of his hostess spaghetti western, he teased everyone by promising Kill Bill 3. Again. Bad Taste reports that while on Italian talkshow Parla Con me, he prompted his hostess, Serena Dandini, to ask him whether there would be a continuation of the Bride's saga. When I say prompted, I mean it literally. "You didn't ask me whether there will be a third installment, a Kill Bill Vol 3!" Dandini obliged him by asking, and Tarantino said "Yes! The Bride will fight again ... I want ten years to pass between the second one and the third one. Two reasons. I think Uma [Thurman] and I needed a ten year break because the first one was so hard. The second one is that I love the character a lot. I just really really love her. And I think she deserves ten years of peace. ... I put her through a lot in those first two movies, and I wanted her to have a nice, peaceful life for ten years. I want her to put up her sword, and have some peace. And in ten years, something will happen to make her fight again."
Tarantino has been teasing us with a continuation for awhile now (usually themed around the daughter of Vernita Green), so it's hard to get too excited. It's also awfully hard to make predictions as to who or what would cause the Bride to fight again as she did leave most of her enemies in pieces. But we can cast our votes as to who we would like to see as the Bride's villains. Here's five of the people I'd like to see in a Tarantino flick, and I hope some of you have even cooler suggestions ...
Uma Thurman Will Face Down Rebels in Uganda
Filed under: Drama », Independent », Casting », Deals », Scripts »
It's just been a few months since Uma Thurman broke out of her child-caring rut (Motherhood and Eloise in Paris) by grabbing an excellent gig as Medusa in Percy Jackson & the Olympians. And now she's already going back to the kids. However, this time it won't be all laughs. Variety reports that Thurman will star in a new indie drama called Girl Soldier, which Stephanie Pinola and Karen Croner wrote, and Will Raee will direct.Based on Canadian author Kathy Cook's Stolen Angels, the film will focus on the 1996 raid on a boarding school in Uganda, "where a band of armed rebels abducted young girls to turn them into soldiers and sex slaves." Variety goes on to say that Sister Caroline (Thurman) hunted the rebels down, demanded the girls' release, got 110 back, and after further efforts, 140. The book's website, however, says it was 30 Ugandan schoolgirls. Typo? Number confusion? Hollywood exuberance? (Any readers of the book care to clear up the confusion?)
Regardless of the amounts, it's nice to see the issue getting some cinematic play, and doubly nice that Thurman is taking more dramatic work. (As a nun with the nerve to face down soldiers? All the better.) Some of her comedies are alright, but nothing compares to the dramas and and irresistably pulpy stints with Tarantino.
The film should begin production next year.
News Bites: Brooke Shields on the Big Screen & 'Motherhood'
Filed under: Comedy », Casting », Deals », Distribution », Family Films »
It looks like Brooke Shields is making her way back to the big screen, and this time she won't be getting saucy in The Blue Lagoon. After a decade away, The Hollywood Reporter posts that Shields has signed onto the live-action comedy Furry Vengeance. Actually, considering the title, it's probably good to note that this is a family film. There's no word on what role she'll play in the Brendan Fraser flick, which follows a real estate developer who gets a hard time from a band of raccoons. One -- What's the obsession with coons lately? Davey Crockett on the brain? Two -- It might be the usual Fraser fair, but the cast does boast Ken Jeong, Samantha Bee, and Dick Van Dyke as well.Meanwhile, in the shadow of Parenthood heading to the small screen, THR also posts that Freestyle Releasing has picked up Motherhood, and will release it this October. This is the Uma Thurman/Minnie Driver/Anthony Edwards project that has Uma trying to pull together her daughter's sixth birthday party in the midst of "urban challenges." As the ed note pointed out in the post about her casting last year, "More Goose!" But there's also the perk of a practically fully female production. Katherine Dieckman wrote and directed it, and it's produced by Pamela Koffler, Christine Vachon, Jana Edelbaum, and Rachel Cohen. They say: "From the outset, Motherhood has been a labor of love for us. As a collection of female filmmakers, we immediately took to the humor and honesty of the project."
Hopefully the labor is worth it!
More Stars Gettin' Greek in 'Percy Jackson'
Filed under: Casting »
Percy Jackson: The Lightening Thief is the first in a series of young adult novels by Rick Riordan about a kid with dyslexia and ADHD who's also the kid of, you know, the son of Poseidon. As with most of us, he learns all about himself at summer camp -- except instead of mosquito bites and panty raids, Percy finds his camp is full of the sons and daughters of demigods. Since being optioned by Fox 2000 in 2004, it's acquired quite a roster of theatrical demigods to the cast, and its latest additions are pretty swell. Rosario Dawson (who was the only part of Seven Pounds that didn't make me want to throw a shoe at the screen) is playing a sexy Persephone who gets a little friendly with Percy's BFF Grover, who, as it turns out, is a satyr. Awkward!
Catherine Keener Is Loved By the Gods and 'Percy Jackson'
Filed under: Action », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Casting », 20th Century Fox », Family Films », Newsstand », Harry Potter »
I don't know if Chris Columbus' Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief will be the next Harry Potter, but it certainly has a cast that can rival the one living at Hogwarts. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the latest to sign on is the always lovely Catherine Keener, who will be playing Sally Jackson, mother to Logan Lerman's Percy. Of course, Sally isn't just any ordinary single mother, she's one beloved by at least one Greek god. A forbidden love affair with Poseidon produced Percy, who just might be the boy to fulfill a prophecy. Sally tries to conceal Percy's identity from the gods and from himself, but of course that never works.
The Olympians cast so far include Uma Thurman as Medusa (I know, right?), Pierce Brosnan as Chiron, Melina Kanakeredes as Athena, Kevin McKidd as Poseidon, and Sean Bean as Zeus. They're still looking for a Hades and probably annoyed Clash of the Titans nabbed Ralph Fiennes as theirs.
I share Peter Martin's doubts that this will be the next Potter (I think that's a one time thing), and I'm so-so on the story because it flouts mythological convention and gives the man-disdaining Athena a daughter. But I am a sucker for a lot of the cast members (especially McKidd and Bean), and the idea of McKidd and Keener being so overcome with passion that they flouted the decrees of the gods? That is the stuff Greek myths are made of, so who knows? It might be pretty fun.
Is the Next Harry Potter a Dyslexic New Yorker?
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Casting », Deals », 20th Century Fox », Family Films », Comic/Superhero/Geek »
Where, o where, will the next Harry Potter come from? Could it be from New York, via Texas? Pierce Brosnan, Uma Thurman, and Sean Bean have signed up for Percy Jackson, according to The Hollywood Reporter, an adaptation of The Lightning Thief, the first book in a series by former Texas schoolteacher Richard Riordan. After the failure of various projects to become "the next Harry Potter," the news prompted Entertainment Weekly to wonder, "Could this finally be the next big family fantasy franchise?"
Based on the premise, Percy Jackson stands a good chance of appealing to a wide market, but much will depend on the script, since Chris Columbus is still on board to direct. As Christopher Campbell wrote two years ago, Columbus "may have been the least inspired director involved with the Harry Potter franchise," so big questions remain. Can he deliver a good-enough movie that won't disappoint fans of the books and whip up enthusiasm among non-readers for seeing a series of movies in the same vein?
The 12-year-old titular hero, to be played by Logan Lerman, appears to be "just another New York kid diagnosed with ADHD, who has good intentions, a nasty stepfather, and a long line of schools that have rejected him" before he discovers that his father is Poseidon (the Greek god, not the doomed ocean liner). He sets off on a cross-country journey to retrieve Zeus' lightning bolt, "the original weapon of mass destruction," which his father has been accused of stealing. Kevin McKidd will play Poseidon, which is inspired casting. Fox is aiming for release in February 2010.
Will you mark your calendars? Will Percy Jackson do better by avoiding comparisons with Harry Potter?
Scenes We Hate: Kill Bill Vol. 2
Filed under: Action », Quentin Tarantino », NSFW », Trailers and Clips »
When Elle Driver turned up in an eyepatch in Kill Bill Vol 1, I should have suspected we'd see some eye-oriented gore, but I was left unprepared and downright sick with what happened to her other eye. Actually, it was one of the only times I've heard an entire audience groan and retch along with me -- and it wasn't the plucking (although that was pretty bad), it was the squishing. Once was enough for me. I close my eyes every time she flings it down on the carpet.
Actually, I really do hate this entire fight scene -- it's depraved, disgusting, and unspeakably painful. Squirting limbs and gallons of blood are all well and good, but a can of tobacco spit and a visit to Budd's toliet bowl is just foul. Needless to say, this clip is not for the weak and it's definitely NSFW.
Discuss: O Movie, Where Art Thou?
Filed under: Action », Comedy », Horror », Independent », Romance », Thrillers », Noir », Mystery & Suspense », Paramount », Sony », Sony Classics », Warner Brothers », RumorMonger », Fandom », Distribution », Exhibition », The Weinstein Co. », Comic/Superhero/Geek »
Coming up on the new year, it's interesting to see which films we had thought would've been released by this point. In the summer of 2007, I recall myself and several colleagues showing up for a press screening of Jonathan Levine's lauded slasher, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, only to discover it was canceled just that morning and the film had been sold from the Weinstein Company to Senator that afternoon. (The film has since landed at Sony, whose indie arm, Sony Classics, already saw Levine's follow-up, The Wackness, to a proper theatrical reception.)
At least the Weinsteins gave something up for a change. The oft-shuffled Killshot and Fanboys are tentative January and February releases at the moment, respectively, and I just want to see for myself if The Poughkeepsie Tapes has been worthy of its modest reputation following a BNAT '07 screening -- the same BNAT that featured the reportedly sweet Trick 'r Treat that WB continues to hoard.
A perhaps more morbid curiosity has me keeping an eye on Paramount's Case 39, just to see if it's really that bad, and who knows what similar straits Assassination of a High School President, The Accidental Husband (originally last March), and Possession (originally last February) are in following Yari Film Group's bankruptcy -- not that I have much invested in the last two, but Assassination is a perfectly release-worthy noir take-off that deserves a home.
So what do you guys and girls think? Which of these are you most dying to see? What was the longest you ever waited to catch something, and were you ultimately disappointed or satisfied by the time it came your way?
Indies on DVD: 'Life Before Her Eyes,' 'American Crime,' 'Miss Pettigrew'
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Independent », New on DVD », Home Entertainment », Cinematical Indie »
Suffering from the Hollywood blockbuster blues? Have I got some indies for you! All three are newly available this week on DVD.
Kim Voynar called Vadim Perelman's The Life Before Her Eyes "a lovely, nuanced film packed with imagery, and bracketed by an intriguing storyline." The story revolves around the survivor of a school shooting; Uma Thurman plays her as an adult and Evan Rachel Wood as a teenager. Kim wrote in part: "I'd expect the director's commentary on the DVD to be intriguing." The DVD does indeed feature an audio commentary by the director, joined by production designer Maia Javan. Also included are deleted scenes, an alternate ending, and several other mini-features. A Blu-ray edition is also available.
Kim also reviewed Tommy O'Haver's An American Crime when it debuted at Sundance last year. Based on the true tragedy of teenage Sylvia Likens (Ellen Page) who was "brutally beaten, burned, starved and tortured to death" in 1965 Indiana, Kim said the film was difficult to watch. "The real question ... is not just how the Sylvia Likens case could have happened, but why situations like this happen at all -- and still do." Catherine Keener and James Franco also star. The DVD doesn't appear to have any supplemental material.
On the lighter side, Bharat Nalluri's Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day "is a nearly perfect piece of entertainment for grownups," according to James Rocchi. Frances McDormand plays a down-on-her-luck British governess and Amy Adams essays her employer, an American singer / actress in late 1930s London. The DVD includes a "making of," deleted scenes, and "Miss Pettigrew's Long Trip to Hollywood."
Stars in Rewind: Female Assassins
Filed under: Action », Trailers and Clips », Stars in Rewind »
Tonight, the screens will be full of James McAvoy and his Wanted co-stars bending bullet paths and pulling off funky tricks usually relegated to superheroes. The storyline sounds a lot like The Matrix, but luckily that also means keeping one of the previous flick's best features: a tough-arse female mentor. Tonight, Angelina Jolie will put aside her drama and revel in toughness and assassin death, but she's not the only one to do so.
Before Jolie took on the role of Fox, Uma Thurman rocked as The Bride. Above is my favorite scene from the first volume of Kill Bill -- the insidious whistling hospital scene. Considering all the NSFW elements of the two films, I figured this whistling teaser would be best. (But if you want more violence, watch them fight here.) It's Daryl Hannah at her finest, and Uma Thurman getting a nice bout of shut-eye.
Of course, there are a million different films that somehow tie into Wanted. If you're looking for more mainstream, successful action, you might want to check out Christopher Campbell's list of top critically acclaimed action flicks over at Spout.
The Last Rewind Answer: Believe it or not, while consensus has picked Marlon Brando as the man who wasn't considered for Fear and Loathing, it was actually Dustin Hoffman.
Robert Pattinson Talks 'Breaking Dawn' & 'Unbound Captives'
Gwyneth Paltrow Joins Nicole Kidman in 'The Danish Girl'
Discuss: The Movies That Haunt You_thumbnail.jpg)
'Yogi Bear' Will Cry Me A River With Its Cast
Watch This: Movie Titles That Slip Into the Dialogue
