Lots going on…
New Line has picked up a pitch from Darren Lemke, the writer behind the studio’s Bryan Singer project “Jack the Giant Killer,” that reimagines the classic tale of “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” as an action-adventure movie.
I’m thinking Steven Seagall for the lead, with Jet Li as Kato, though I’m not sure how either of them are at dancing to the music of Tchaikovsky. Okay, actually, this version won’t be a ballet (obviously) and they’re going for more of a “Chronicles of Narnia” vibe.
* Brad Pitt will be producing, but not playing the lead, in an action-oriented flick about the young Vlad Dracul (his buddies call him “the Impaler”). I’d prefer if they would be honest and call this “Dracula Begins,” but the actual title is “Vlad.” The studio will be the “Twilight” driven Summit. How much you wanna bet this vampire-to-be has a tortured love-life?
* Hand drawn animation appears to be coming back to Disney in a big way. Yay. Film-maker Brendon Connolly has some interesting hints.
* And one more item from THR/Heat Vision that I can’t really ignore. Cowriter-producer Peter Jackson has announced that auditions for “The Hobbit” have begun and the only role that’s precast is Ian McKellan as Gandalf. So, actors, if you’ve got a snub nose, a pasty complexion, are never chosen first for basketball, and have hairy feet, I suggest you get into gear. They are denying rumors that James McAvoy could be in the running for Bilbo, though he does have an overall Baggins thing going on, I think. Another actor who screams “hobbit!” to me is writer Peter Morgan’s favorite star, Michael Sheen of “Frost/Nixon,” “The Queen,” and “The Damned United.” Of course, whoever it is, I guess it will have to believable that he’ll look like Ian Holm when he gets on in years.
* In my box-office wrap-up yesterday, I wrote the following:
“2012” cost $200 million to make, a rather obscene sum that was unthinkable not so long ago, and in four weeks in wide release has earned a mere $148,787,000. I haven’t seen “The Blind Side,” but it just makes me happy that a modest movie about people is proving, I think, to be significantly more profitable than at least one pretty obviously bloated spectacle.
I really hope that readers understood I was talking about the domestic gross. Internationally, the Roland Emmerich feature has earned upwards of $650 million. However, as Sharon Waxman reports, Emmerich will be taking home a good percentage of that — a cool $100 million (half the film’s outlandish budget, in fact) — for himself to share with whomever he’s going to share it with. From a studio’s point of view, at least, I still can’t help but wonder if “The Blind Side” will turn out to be the better deal.
* The lovely and extremely talented Amy Adams is pregnant and bowing out of the newest film from director John Hillcoat (”The Road“) and his collaborator on “The Proposition,” screenwriter and Aussie alternative music legend Nick Cave, writes the Playlist. The film is currently set the star the powerful twosome of Ryan Gosling and Shia LaBouef, who will be playing brothers and prohibition-era bootleggers.
* Overture has picked up the rights to “Stone,” an all-star thriller to be headlined by Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, and Milla Jovovich. Not mentioned in the Variety piece, however, is that, as per If Magazine, actor Enver Gjokaj will be playing De Niro as a young man in what I gather are some fairly significant flashback sequences. Very coincidentally, I praised Gjokaj’s work on Joss Whedon’s TV show, “Dollhouse” to the skies yesterday in this epic-length “best of” feature. The hard-to-pronounce Gjokaj doesn’t particularly look like De Niro, but regular viewers of the show know what a gifted chameleon the all but unknown young theater-bred actor really is. I’m guessing the audience will assume he’s De Niro’s son. Let’s just hope he has some good show-biz luck to match his obvious abilities. (H/t Whedonesque.)
* A.J. Schnack smacks down a really stupid idea, and specifically the L.A. Times coverage of it, way better than I did. He also has a to-the-point comment by documentarian Chuck Braverman.
* Considering the press-release-cum-advertorial tone of this piece, Screenrant appears to be involved in some way with with Movie Clips, a new service providing thousands of visually very high quality movie excerpts which has made licensing deals with the studios. It’s still very much in beta, but, poking around a bit, I found some nice scenes, but it’s a far, far cry from YouTube in terms of depth and variety, though the consistent quality of the visuals are very nice.
As an example, I tried a search for “Citizen Kane” and found nothing. So, I tried Orson Welles, and I got two scenes from the far from the disastrous 1967 production of “Casino Royale” — not exactly a key Welles (or Peter Sellers) moment in anyone’s view. Still, it looks pretty…or it would, if I could get it to embed properly. Oh well, you can see the clip here.
Posted in: Action Movies, Actors, Actresses, Movie Dramas, Movies, News
Tags: 2012, Amy Adams, Bilbo Baggins, Brad Pitt, Brendon Connolly, Bryan Singer, Casino Royale, Chronicles of Narnia, Chuck Braverman, Citizen Kane, Darren Lemke, Disney, Dollhouse, Dracula, Edward Norton, Enver Gjokaj, Frost/Nixon, hand-drawn animation, Headlines, hobbits, Jack the Giant Killer, James McAvoy, Jet Li, John Hillcoat, Joss Whedon, Michael Sheen, Milla Jovovich, Movie Clips, Nick Cave, Orson Welles, Peter Jackson, Peter Morgan, Robert De Niro, Roland Emmerich, Ryan Goslin, Shia LaBouef, Steven Seagall, Tchaikovsky, The Blind Side, The Damned United, The Hobbit, The Nutcracker, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, The Princess and the Frog, The Queen, The Road, Vlad, Vlad Dracul
As a young female twenty-something, my 90’s childhood was shaped by the Golden Age of Disney. Every year, there would be a new masterpiece for my mom to take me to; Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Aladdin … And when Disney failed so terribly in the early millennium and closed down shop, my heart was broken. There was a part of our culture and my life that my little girl I someday hope to have was never going to be able to experience, and I was never going to get back.
So as soon as I heard that Disney was coming out with their triumphant return to 2-D, I felt like the world was FINALLY getting its act together.
While CGI has produced some good hits, it isn’t the same as 2-D. There was no one who could do cartoons like Disney, and I think they began to realize that.
I can honestly say that this movie is brilliant. I saw it last night, and it’s still haunting me twenty-four hours later like I’d just walked out of the theater. If this movie had been A.) racist or B.) a let down, I would have been very angry and wouldn’t take the time to write out this review. But my God, it was right up there alongside “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Lion King.” Tiana, the long-awaited princess of the film, is a (gasp) real person! Her whole life does not revolve around getting married to the prince, nor does it involve some odd and harried “I’m totally a hardkore awesome person” plot. She has her faults. She’s brash, a workaholic, and kind of a judgmental jerk. However, she is also headstrong, loving, and ridiculously intuitive. This is the sort of woman we need in a Disney cartoon for our kids to look up to, especially when the best role model they’ve had in the past few years is Bella Swann.
The prince, Naveen, is also an actual human being. He’s cocky, spoiled, and hilarious. However, as the movie goes on, it is made quite clear (in a song by Randy Newman) that Naveen isn’t happy at all. His and Tiana’s relationship is based on self-discovery and mutual respect, rather than some of the other Disney movies where it is completely based on the need for a romantic plot. I see Belle and the Beast and Shang and Mulan (pre Mulan II, we can pretend that sequel doesn’t exist), rather than Cinderella and Prince Charming. It seems like “Enchanted” really did bring a lot of new ideas to the Disney creed, and it completely shows in the way they tackle their archetypes in this refreshing rendition.
I was skeptical when I heard Randy Newman had composed the music. And yes, folks, it is in fact musical style. The characters sing, not Randy. And while you can still tell it’s Randy, it’s also Disney. The jazzy complexity of the songs drive the story forward and just wrap you up into the buzzing momentum of the film. I will definitely grab this soundtrack and play it religiously on my ipod, I promise you that.
As for the racism: It’s Disney and regardless of what Disney does, someone is going to find something to point out as racist. However, let me just say that this movie is completely respectful and absolutely nothing in it is racist, to the point where it is obvious that Disney is trying their hardest NOT to be racist and cuts corners on the storytelling and historical racism that WOULD have been in New Orleans in 1920 (and to an extent, yes, still is). And as for turning Tiana into a frog … she’s a human for a good half the movie before she even thinks about kissing Naveen. She’s a black princess, she’s not a frog princess.
I also saw a comment about how someone didn’t like it because of the non-Christian message thanks to the use of voodoo? They were so busy looking at the BAD GUY use voodoo that they didn’t realize that Terrence Howard’s character was pretty much a walking sermon! “You can wish on a star, but that can only take you halfway?” Where does this sound familiar? “Never lose sight of what’s most important … love.” My God, the complete non-Christian message is abhorrent! The star is used as an allegory for God, and they wish on it with their hands folded … practically one could say praying? And let’s not even go into the full moral of the story: “You know what you want, but dig a little deeper and find what you need.” How about that whole thanking God for unanswered prayers sort of ideal? These are good and wholesome lessons that are going to really strengthen the next generation of both boys and girls, and I’m happy that it’s going to be an influence on the younger generation.
And the writing is amazing. As someone who writes for a living, I was completely floored at the structure of this film. You cover so much ground in 90 minutes, and you are never bored nor know what’s going to happen next! Disney knows what they’re doing (finally) on this film. It’s amazingly put together, and all the trademarks you expect to see (animal sidekicks, creepy awesome villain, amazing soundtrack, knockout visuals, strong heroine) are there in full. Go see this movie, and remember how it was to be a kid again. This is an experience you absolutely need to have. />
“Princess and the Frog” is here to stay.<
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