working title Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Ryan Reynolds Looks Like A Lady
Filed under: Comedy », Romance », Casting », Scripts », Newsstand »
When you're a dude who is known for his rocking body, sharp comedic wit, and nabbing two superhero franchises in a single year, how do you prove you're comfortable in your masculinity? Why, you put on a pair of stilettos, apply a hint of lipstick, and go out for a night on the town. It works for Welsh cage fighters and it's the career path Ryan Reynolds is pursuing. Variety reports that he's attached to star in an untitled "dude in drag" romantic comedy for Working Title. Allan Loeb is currently penning the script.Reynolds plays a man who gets dumped, presumably through some fault of his own because he decides that the way to win her back is to befriend her. But naturally, he can't just call her up and say "Can we still be friends? I need you in my life." Instead, he decides to cross-dress as a woman, and become her best girlfriend. Who will bet me good money that she finds herself drawn to this new girl in her life, and decides to "experiment." Thankfully, it's really a man! No worries to the Prop 8 crowd.
I do find Reynolds funny, and he can usually wrench a laugh or two out of the most awkward and tired concepts. "Dude in drag" has been done to death (and then back again with a certain Mrs. Featherbottom) but at least Reynolds will get the chance to play up his cheekbones and eyes.
Peter Berg Developing a J. Paul Getty III Kidnap Movie
Filed under: Drama », Universal », Newsstand »
What do you get when you cross Citizen Kane with Ruthless People? Something that sounds like the greatest movie ever, right? Well, we'll see if that's really what we get when Peter Berg makes a movie about the kidnapping of teenage heir J. Paul Getty III. According to Variety, the actor/director is developing a project based on John Pearson's book "Painfully Rich: The Outrageous Fortune and Misfortunes of the Heirs of J. Paul Getty" (with that title, it sounds like another Bette Midler movie is thrown into the mix, too). For those who don't know the story, 16 year old Getty III was abducted in Rome and the kidnappers demanded $17 million. But his miserly grandfather -- the founder of Getty Oil -- initially refused to pay up. At first everyone thought the kid was pulling a prank. Eventually the poor teen's ear was mailed to the family. Finally, gramps paid, though he only did so with the assurance he'd be paid back by Getty II (his son) ... with interest. As for Getty III, well he became totally screwed up, turned to drugs and his life was ruined forever. Thanks grandpa!The trade doesn't mention whether or not Berg, whose new film, The Kingdom, is now in theaters, will direct the pic; he's currently shooting the washed-up superhero movie Hancock, starring Will Smith, and then he's linked to a few other projects, including the true Navy SEAL story Lone Survivorr, the racehorse drama Gone Like the Wind, the Cheung fo remake The Mission and the fantasy Bran Mak Morn. He will definitely be involved in producing the Getty film, through his company Film 44, along with Working Title's Chris Clark (Catch a Fire). The adaptation of Pearson's book is being written by Robin Shushman, an apparent newbie (no IMDb listing) who is also currently writing the script for The Contortionist's Handbook. Hopefully she will make the thing twisted enough, and possibly add in some relevance to how good today's spoiled heirs have it.
Review: Mr. Bean's Holiday
Filed under: Comedy », New Releases », Universal », Theatrical Reviews », Family Films »
G-rated films are rare enough these days, but a G-rated film not meant strictly for kids? Intriguing. It was the one aspect of Mr. Bean's Holiday that caught my attention. The movie is obviously meant to appeal to a wide audience -- an international audience, in fact. Unfortunately the humor is uneven and generally tended to annoy me more than it entertained. However, fans of Rowan Atkinson's Mr. Bean character, from the TV show or the other movie, might feel very different about the film.
The film's humor is strictly physical, in a way that often pays homage to classic silent-film comedy or the films of Jacques Tati -- with varying degrees of success. The story is not especially important, as it's all a setup for the title character's shtick. Mr. Bean (Atkinson) is a very British, very clumsy man who rarely speaks, and then mostly in incoherent mumbles. At a gloomy church raffle, Bean wins a trip to the south of France -- specifically, to Cannes. He also wins a video camera, with which he becomes obsessed. You get the impression that the sad little man has never left his neighborhood; when he gets lost in Paris, he sets a compass in the direction where he wants to go, and walks in mid-street, over cars, through stores, to get to his destination. (I found that to be one of the funnier conceits in the film.) Through a series of misunderstandings, Bean ends up stuck in rural France with a small French boy, and they have to find a way to get to Cannes, videotaping their antics all the way. Bean also keeps running into the lovely French actress Sabine (Emma de Caunes) and a crazy American actor/director (Willem Dafoe).
The Coens Will Write and Direct 'A Serious Man'
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Deals », Newsstand »
Looks like the Joel and Ethan Coen (ever wonder why Joel's name always comes first?) have decided to get serious for Focus Features and Working Title, the shingle that previously helped produce Coen flicks like Fargo, The Hudsucker Proxy and The Big Lebowski, among others. Following news that Brad Pitt is set to star alongside George Clooney and Frances McDormand in Burn After Reading, comes word from Variety that the Coen's will follow up that pic with one called A Serious Man. Described as a "dark comedy in the vein of Fargo," both Ethan and Joel intend on being credited as writers, producers and directors on the two films.
Seeing as A Serious Man is slated to be a serious dark comedy, one has to assume that Burn After Reading will go a different route. That film is said to revolve around a CIA agent who loses the computer disk in which his (or her) tell-all book is stored. In the Variety article, they mention that Brad Pitt will play a trainer at a gym (did we know that already?), while rumors suggest Clooney will play a killer of some sorts, and not the strikingly-handsome protagonist. Hmm, do you think McDormand will play the CIA agent? Or have the Coen's not decided on a star (ahem, Billy Bob) yet? And, with nothing else lined up after Burn, me wonders whether McDormand will sign up for back-to-back Coen flicks; perhaps she'll take on another Fargo-like role and win a second Oscar. These are good times for all you Coen fanatics out there; aside from the aforementioned two films, their latest, No Country for Old Men, will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival next month, before arriving in theaters later this fall.
Working Title Extends Deal With Universal
Filed under: Deals », Universal », Distribution », Newsstand »
I've always thought of Working Title, the U.K. production company, as making frothy British romantic comedies, from The Tall Guy to Four Weddings to Love Actually and, er, Shaun of the Dead. I didn't realize how many other kinds of films Working Title has been behind, including many of the Coens' projects, last year's United 93, and the upcoming Smokin' Aces, which is about as far as you can get from romantic comedy. Nor did I realize that Working Title was behind those early, edgy films of Stephen Frears like My Beautiful Laundrette in 1985 and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid in 1987. So they're not all Richard Curtis-directed films starring Hugh Grant. Their most successful films tend to be low-budget and low-concept.Working Title has been part of Universal since 1999, when the parties signed an agreement due to expire at the end of 2007. Despite alleged offers from DreamWorks (which did so well in its partnership with another U.K. company, Aardman Animation) and Sony, Working Title co-chairs Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan just signed a new agreement on Friday to extend their stay at Universal for seven more years. The previous deal seems to have worked very well for both parties: Working Title has produced a number of low-budget sleepers and the slate does consistently well internationally. And no, it's not just because everyone likes Hugh Grant. The LA Times claims that Working Title is second only to Imagine Entertainment as "Universal's most consistent supplier of films."
Simon Pegg Bikes, and Talks Hot Fuzz
Filed under: Action », Comedy », Independent », Fandom », Movie Marketing », Cinematical Indie »
There's something very appealing about Simon Pegg (he of Shaun of the Dead fame). Despite ample evidence that he's smarter,
funnier, and more creative than most of us (or than me, at least), he nevertheless comes across as a guy who's so
totally normal that you almost forget he's famous and brilliant and whatnot. The Hot Fuzz video diary (he says it's the first, which is great news - more Simon Pegg is never a bad thing) up at Working Title does nothing to change one's impression of Pegg, though now he's a normal guy who just happens to be an action hero. Over the past six months or so, he's learned judo, as well as cop skills and, oddly, how to ride a bike really fast and then skid to a halt in a glamorous manner. Assuming he's done all this for the film (which starts shooting in a week) and not as part of a strange new hobby, Hot Fuzz is going to be way more physical than the "Some cops in a village. It'll be funny." summary ever suggested.
[via Twitch]
Atonement for Keira
Filed under: Drama », Independent », Romance », Casting », Newsstand », Cinematical Indie »
Here's a bit of news we somehow missed this last week: Keira Knightley, who is now proudly in the "Oscar-nominated actress" pay bracket, has signed on to star in the screen version of Ian McEwan's Atonement. This will be the fourth film based on one of McEwan's novels (several have also been based on his short stories), and this one - which was nominated for the prestigious Booker Prize - "is McEwan at his most closely observed and psychologically penetrating, and his most sweeping and expansive." So there. The novel tells a series of interconnected stories, all of which hinge loosely on the childhood actions of "Briony Tallis [to be played by Knightley], a privileged young girl with an overactive imagination." And don't worry about Knightley trying to play a 12-year-old - the character is grown up in all but the opening of the book.The film will serve as a reunion (with McEwan standing in for Jane Austen) for the core team behind Pride & Prejudice, with director Joe Wright and producer Paul Webster once again guiding the project. Working Title (which was not involved in the earlier collaboration) no doubt is praying for a similar critical and financial success; shooting will begin in June.
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