wwii Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Is John Woo going to work with Tom Cruise again? Quite possibly, and in a World War II setting to boot. Woo has been in a hold pattern over Hollywood ever since Paycheck came out, although he's recently struck gold with both audiences and the box office overseas with Red Cliff, which hits American shores on November 20th. Now he's circling Flying Tigers, a project about the first American volunteer group in the Chinese Air Force during WWII.

We spoke to Woo recently about Red Cliff, and you can read the full interview with him later this week. However, we couldn't resist sneaking in a question about Cruise, and you can read what we got after the break.

Ordinarily, I probably wouldn't write about a PBS series on Cinematical, but Ken Burns' The War deserves an exception. The lengthy documentary, which has seven episodes, first caught my attention at Telluride last year, where one of the episodes was shown as a sneak peek. I knew who Burns was, of course -- his previous documentary series -- The Civil War, Baseball, and Jazz -- are noted for their exceptional quality. But still, The War being added to the Telluride schedule seemed to catch folks by surprise.

And then, on the gondola and in line, I started hearing buzz about The War. When I asked people what they'd seen that they liked at the fest, The War was mentioned over and over (usually preceded by, "Well, it's long, but ..."). So when I heard that the DVD set of The War was coming out, I knew I wanted to write it up.

Even if you're not familiar with Ken Burns' work, or you think you're not into war movies, this documentary is so extraordinarily well done that you're bound to find value in it. It is long. Very long. As in, it takes about 14 1/2 hours to get through all seven episodes, and by the time you're done, you're likely to feel like you've been through a war yourself. Burns notes on the 36-minute "Making of" featurette that the production team filmed hundreds of hours of interviews, looked at hundreds of photos, and culled through thousands of hours of archival foootage in pulling together this remarkable project. It's hard to imagine a more comprehensive view of one of the most cataclysmic events ever to impact the world.

If there is one thing that can strike fear in the hearts of moviegoers everywhere, it's the term "model-turned-actress". I mean, has anyone seen Fair Game? Truly scary. Vogue UK is now reporting that runway bad-girl Naomi Campbell has signed on for a role in Spike Lee's new film about African-American serviceman during WWII. The film was adapted from James McBride's novel Miracle at St. Anna, and first gained ink when Lee had made some controversial comments to the press while scouting locations in Italy back in July. Lee told reporters, "If you look at the history of Hollywood, the black soldiers who fought WWII are totally invisible," -- although, he is hardly the first to notice the oversight.

Campbell has worked with Lee once before, when she had a small role in his phone-sex worker flick Girl 6 -- and since I'm in the small minority who enjoyed the film, I can say with certainty that acting was definitely not her strong point. But, Campbell has racked up a few small roles and cameos over the years. According to Vogue (via Campbell): "It's a very very small role but it involves subject matter that I'm really passionate about...I'll do anything for Spike and I really think we should be more educated about the role of people of colour in our history". So, it looks like it's strictly the sidelines for the untried actress. Campbell did tell Vogue, however, that there will be some announcements about the film soon and that it could be out in theaters as early as next year. One thing is for sure -- if she gets a little upset while on the set, someone might want to tell her assistants to duck.

As we've told you recently, Bryan Singer has changed gears a little bit -- instead of jumping directly onto a Superman Returns sequel, he's going to be directing an untitled WWII thriller with his old Usual Suspects collaborator Christopher McQuarrie. Looks like things are moving along briskly, since the untitled film apparently has a title already. According to the Guardian, the film will be called Valkyrie, which was the code name of the plot to assassinate Hitler that the story deals with. Scripted by McQuarrie, Valkyrie concerns real-life Nazi officer Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg who, along with several others, carried out the famous assassination attempt on Hitler in July 1944.

Unfortunately, von Stauffenberg's plan -- an exploding briefcase planted near Hitler during a meeting -- failed to kill the Nazi leader but did end up taking the lives of four of his subordinates. An entire second part of von Stauffenberg's plan, to mount a quick coup of the Nazi leadership and overthrow the regime in one fell swoop, was immediately aborted when Hitler survived the plot, and the conspirators were hunted down within hours. For his efforts, von Stauffenberg was executed by firing squad. The film is being financed by Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner through their new United Artists company and its rumored that Cruise is circling the role of von Stauffenberg -- a move that is not sitting well with members of von Stauffenberg's family, as they worry Cruise will use the film to push some hidden Scientology agenda.

It might be a little cynical, but nothing says "Oscar bait" like a historical romance rooted in real-life tragedy. Certain films just seem designed for awards and a new film based on a novel by Irène Némirovsky looks like it might be one of them.

Variety has reported that Universal Pictures has bought the screen rights for the Irène Némirovsky's book Suite Francaise. Némirovsky was a popular writer in France before WWII, and had been finishing Suite Francaise shortly before being sent to Auschwitz, where she later died. The novel was lost for sixty years, but was discovered by family members after her death, when they mistook the work for her diary. The book was the first two parts of what was supposed to be a five-part epic about the German occupation of France, but never finished. Suite Francaise was published in 2004 and Némirovsky's novel still fascinates readers as a lost masterpiece about WWII.

Ronald Hardwood, who also penned the script for Roman Polanksi's The Pianist, is adapting the book. The story uses the early days of the Nazi occupation of France as the backdrop for a romance between a French woman and a German soldier. Since the project is still only in the writing phase, no other deals have been made for a cast or director.

[via Movie Web]