viggo mortensen Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Interview: Viggo Mortensen
Filed under: Fandom », The Weinstein Co. », Interviews »
Viggo Mortensen is a study in contradictions: rugged and undeniably virile, and yet thoroughly and irresistibly sensitive; the kind of man movie stars are made from, but seemingly more satisfied in a more subdued role in a smaller film. Appropriately, his latest film is both a post-apocalyptic epic and a profound character study; The Road is an adaptation of the acclaimed Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name, and Viggo plays its main character, a father desperately trying to protect his son from an unhospitable world, both physically and emotionally.
Cinematical recently sat down with Mortensen at the film's press day to discuss his work in the film, which was directed by John Hillcoat (The Proposition). In addition to talking about navigating an unforgiving landscape, he discussed the challenges of balancing fealty to source material and simply making a fulfilling movie, and revealed a few of his own fears and insecurities when facing the prospect of sustaining a career both as a movie star and character actor, often at the same time.
You can read our interview with director John Hillcoat over here.
Cinematical: Given the richness of the source material and the familiarity that audiences will have with it, do you make an effort to draw upon the text for your character, or do you have to divorce yourself from it and focus on what's in the script?
Interview: 'The Road' Director John Hillcoat
Filed under: The Weinstein Co. », Interviews »
Outside of the established and expanding franchises for book series like Harry Potter and Twilight, there don't seem to be a whole lot of literary works that audiences are just dying to see adapted – except perhaps for The Road. Remarkably, Cormac McCarthy's remarkable 2006 story of a father and son making their way across a post-apocalyptic landscape has been successfully adapted for the screen by director John Hillcoat, who eschewed 2012-style spectacle in favor of a more harrowing and humanistic portrait of two people surviving in the harshest possible environment.
Cinematical recently spoke to Hillcoat at the film's Los Angeles press day, where he was wrapping up a long afternoon of roundtables and one-on-one interviews. Thankfully, he rallied for one more short conversation about The Road, and in addition to talking about the challenges of bringing McCarthy's words to life, he spoke about conceiving the scope of the film, and finding the right faces to fill its damaged landscape.
Cinematical: You obviously began with extremely rich source material when starting to adapt The Road. What was the thing you knew you had to get right and then everything else would sort of fall into place?
Review: The Road
Filed under: Drama », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », New Releases », Theatrical Reviews »
By: Eugene Novikov, reprinted from the Telluride Film Festival '09
Just before the kid was born, the world burned. We don't know why, and the characters don't talk about it -- perhaps they don't quite know themselves, or maybe they've decided that it no longer matters. The Boy's universe is grey, full of ash, dust, and the ruins of a civilization he never saw. This is all he knows. His mother, seeing no point in going on, killed herself shortly after his birth. She was not alone. Many of those who didn't take their own lives were soon murdered by the desperate and hungry.
Skip ahead nine or ten years. The kid and his father wander the barren roadways heading south toward the coast for no clear reason other than that it gives them a tangible goal toward which to strive. (And there's always the hope that the ocean will be something other than gray.) Every day is a knock-down, drag-out fight for survival. They run, hide, starve, and fight off attackers who want their food, or their clothes, or, at one point, their flesh.
I set the stage like this not to horrify you or to gross you out, but to give you a sense of the relentless, pervasive grimness of The Road -- and then to turn around and say that The Road may be the most profoundly optimistic and life-affirming film you will see this year. Those who have read Cormac McCarthy's novel of the same name won't be surprised by this. John Hillcoat's faithful, near-perfect adaptation beautifully captures McCarthy's synthesis of all-encompassing darkness and enduring hope.
Stars in Rewind: Viggo Mortensen in 'The Prophecy'
Filed under: Horror », Trailers and Clips », Stars in Rewind »
As you probably remember, we were supposed to get a little movie called The Road this week, but it was delayed until November 25. But that doesn't mean you can't enjoy some Viggo Mortensen anyway. Seeing as we're celebrating villains, and The Road will be one of those affairs you don't want to cheese up with a clip like this, now is the perfect time to remind you of Mortensen's pre-Aragorn screentime. I don't mean that disparagingly (they all start somewhere), but I'm very glad Lord of the Rings helped leave the dark days of The Prophecy behind for critical and popular acclaim.
But hey, not every actor has the Prince of Darkness on his early resume. Not surprisingly, he manages to turn in a good performance and makes a very frightening Lucifer (I would bravely argue that makes a scarier Satan than Al Pacino or Robert De Niro, but I'm not sure the fingernails and rose eating will help my case). He even manages the tricky balance of being horrible and seductive enough to slip you out of your soul, a balance few Lord of Darknesses achieve. Plus, he manages it in a mullet. Come on, you always knew that Satan not only invented that hairstyle, but rocks the business in the front and party in the back.
Pop below the jump for all of Mortensen's Prophecy scenes, neatly collected by a YouTube fan.
Toronto in 60 Seconds: Sunday, September 13, 2009
Filed under: Deals », Festival Reports », Celebrities and Controversy », Distribution », George Clooney », Toronto International Film Festival », Cinematical Indie »
Left to right: Colin Farrell on the red carpet, Oprah Winfrey greeting fans, unidentified running clock man.
Read fast -- we've got 48 hours of the Toronto International Film Festival to recap and you've only got 60 seconds!
Celeb Sightings. Viggo Mortensen decisively declared that he is not "quitting acting," he just doesn't have any films lined up for now. (He's next acting in a play in Spain.) He stars in the long-awaited The Road. Matt Damon called journalists "motherf******"" and "lazy," because of false reports last week that he'd died during a mountain hike in California. He is Steven Soderbergh's The Informant! (see below).
Colin Farrell reportedly grabbed a photographer by the back of the neck, to defend the honor of his sister on the red carpet; he's in Toronto for Triage. Oprah Winfrey attended in support of Precious, Lee Daniels' Sundance hit drama that opens soon, and spoke about her personal connection to the film.
Our Coverage. In A Serious Man, Joel and Ethan Coen have delivered a film that "speaks as much with its structure as it does with its dialog," says Monika Bartyzel, yet also manages to be "wildly funny." With The Informant!, starring Matt Damon and directed by Steven Soderbergh, you can expect "a seriously entertaining film ... about a seriously plain man," according to Scott Weinberg. Clive Owen shows a "familial heart underneath the macho exterior" in The Boys Are Back, Monika observes. Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus features Heath Ledger's final performance, but, more to the point, "feels sort of like a favorite uncle just burst through the door, smiling and loaded with nifty presents," Scott writes, after confessing his unabashed love for Terry Gilliam.
A special moment with George Clooney, and more Internet confesions - after the jump!
'The Road' Pushed Back to November 25
Filed under: Awards », Distribution », Newsstand »
Days after Jessica Barnes compiled a nice fall schedule for you, the Weinsteins and Dimension Films had to go and mess it up a little. According to Variety, they've pushed the release date of The Road back from October 16 to November 25 -- almost a year to the day when it was supposed to come out in 2008. The delay isn't because Dimension has lost faith in the film -- quite the contrary. The film is playing to rave reviews at Telluride (where our Eugene Novikov saw it and loved it) and Venice Film Festival, and the Weinsteins have realized they have an awards contender on their hands. "We've been getting great audience reaction at Venice and Telluride," Dimension topper Bob Weinstein said. "We feel that this is a commercial film that's worthy of a wide release." Considering Cormac McCarthy's book was a bestseller and won a Pulitzer, you'd think that might have tipped them off, but ah well. What's good about this decision is that it not only puts it into Golden Globe contention, it also promises a wide release. One of the big fears lurking around the film was that audiences wouldn't get it, and the film could vanish into limited release hell.
The Road will now be in direct competition with Nine, Old Dogs, and Ninja Assassin. Something tells me John Hillcoat's bleak adaptation won't top the holiday box office, but it'll make a far bigger impact. I've been saying since the first stills came out that this might be a role that nabs Viggo Mortensen an Oscar, and I'll stand by that.
Telluride Review: The Road
Filed under: Drama », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Telluride », Theatrical Reviews »
Just before the kid was born, the world burned. We don't know why, and the characters don't talk about it -- perhaps they don't quite know themselves, or maybe they've decided that it no longer matters. The Boy's universe is grey, full of ash, dust, and the ruins of a civilization he never saw. This is all he knows. His mother, seeing no point in going on, killed herself shortly after his birth. She was not alone. Many of those who didn't take their own lives were soon murdered by the desperate and hungry.
Skip ahead nine or ten years. The kid and his father wander the barren roadways heading south toward the coast for no clear reason other than that it gives them a tangible goal toward which to strive. (And there's always the hope that the ocean will be something other than gray.) Every day is a knock-down, drag-out fight for survival. They run, hide, starve, and fight off attackers who want their food, or their clothes, or, at one point, their flesh.
I set the stage like this not to horrify you or to gross you out, but to give you a sense of the relentless, pervasive grimness of The Road -- and then to turn around and say that The Road may be the most profoundly optimistic and life-affirming film you will see this year. Those who have read Cormac McCarthy's novel of the same name won't be surprised by this. John Hillcoat's faithful, near-perfect adaptation beautifully captures McCarthy's synthesis of all-encompassing darkness and enduring hope.
Cinematical Seven: Our Favorite Sex Creeps
Filed under: Fandom », Cinematical Seven », Lists »
For some reason best left to psychologists, there are people who are attracted to what I call ... sex creeps. This type of character goes beyond what is called jolie-laide in women, a term that directly translates to pretty-ugly, although is generally used to describe "unconventional" beauty. There's no real correlation between the jolie-laide and the sex creep. No, the sex creep is attractive but prone to certain, shall we say, peccadilloes that go beyond the pale -- dating blow-up dolls, crashing cars to get off, dabbling in experimental gynecology. These guys all slime their ways between the lines.
In any case, here are seven of my favorite sex creeps. You might also notice there's a certain director who shows up a few times on the list -- he's an honorary sex creep as well. I hope he takes his title in the complimentary manner in which it's given.
Iranian Protestors Inspired By 'Lord of the Rings'
Filed under: Classics », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Celebrities and Controversy », Fandom », Newsstand », Peter Jackson », Politics »
Ever since it was first published in 1954-1955, J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings has been embroiled in politics, much to the dismay of its author. Proponents of the political left and the right have taken turns deriding or laying claim to the fantasy epic. Peter Jackson's film adapation didn't escape political scrutiny either. Time magazine's Richard Corliss did a rather famous review of The Two Towers claiming that the film now evoked the War On Terror, and that Saruman looked "eerily" like Osama bin Laden, and USA Today's Michael Medved insisted Viggo Mortensen had tainted the role of Aragorn because he openly declared his anti-war sentiments.
The latest political controversy that the series finds itself embroiled in is the Iranian electoral protests. Time has a piece from an anonymous Iranian resident reporting that the government is using film to try and quell public unrest. "In normal times, Iranian television usually treats its viewers to one or two Hollywood or European movie nights a week. But these are not normal times, so it's been two or three such movies a day. It's part of the push to keep people at home and off the streets, to keep us busy, to get us out of the regime's hair. The message is 'Don't worry, be happy.'"
All television channels in Iran are owned by the state, so the government is choosing its films very carefully. One of their offerings has been a Lord of the Rings marathon, ostensibly picked because its length and epic content will keep people glued to their television. "We're glued to the trilogy. We are riveted. A child in the room loudly predicts that Lord of the Rings will put an end to the nightly shouts, that people will not take to the rooftops and windows because this film will keep them occupied."
'The Road' Finally Gets Itself The Trailer
Filed under: Drama », Horror », Independent », Thrillers », Mystery & Suspense », The Weinstein Co. », Newsstand », Movie Marketing », War », Trailers and Clips »
The trailer for The Road (which now has a release date of October 16) has hit the net courtesy of Yahoo! Movies but we've got an embed here thanks to Trailer Addict. For those who read the Cormac McCarthy book (and I haven't, but I was told the entire thing by a "helpful" friend), you're going to notice what looks like a lot of changes to the story. The mysterious disaster is made explicit, Charlize Theron is given a lot more screen time than the wife ever had in the book, and the action is upped ten times over.
However, this trailer has caused a lot of controversy already with people who have seen the film. Esquire just published a review this week, and noted that the Weinstein Company was falling prey to the temptation to cut a trailer that looked like a post-apocalyptic action movie. According to Esquire, John Hillcoat's film is (and other reviews have borne this out) as quiet, harrowing, and bleak as the novel is, and may just be "the most important film of the year". Unfortunately, the Weinsteins feel no one will see it unless there's an "explanation" and a hook of kick ass action, even if the film itself lacks the things the trailer sells.
But at least you get a glimpse of the real film underneath, which is enough to cause you to choke up. I think we're promised one hell of a gut-wrenching performance from Viggo Mortensen. Just look at his eyes.
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