Here's the redband trailer for No Country For Old Men. Explosive stuff. A must see trailer. Left click it to play, right click it to save.
If anybody can extract the direct FLV file URL I'd appreciate it.
Ioncinema scanned a series of Cannes posters. Nice work.
- AintItCool are reporting that DVDRama are reporting that Takeshi Kaneshiro is to take the lead role in Onimusha. Reportedly. Fair enough: he's the model for the videogame character after all.
- The script review for Prince of Persia over at LatinoReview is one of their typically sycophantic plugs for what, in fact, sounds like quite a dreadfully dull film. It seems like every last ream of banal geek fodder scriptwriting ends up on the table at LatinoReview - and almost all of the time, they shower these screenplays with praise.
- Tom Shadyac has blown his top over the marketing for Evan Almighty. According to Nikki Finke's piece, his main beef seems to be that there's not enough TV advertising for the film - though this may well be as a result of him taking the film over budget. And she does explain a history that seems like a more substantial excuse for his behavior too.... but what a shame we're even discussing this story and not resting comfortably, confident that good worth of mouth will turn the film into a genuine hit and not just a big opener.
- Three short plays by Ethan Coen are to premiere at The Atlantic Theater next January.
- Reuters have a video press conference regarding Speed Racer. Most of the major players appear, as does the Mach 5 in a weird FX moment.
- A LucasArts games division spokesperson (apparently - it isn't clear who exactly) has revealed that an upcoming Wii game will feature lightsabre battles. That's right: wield your Wii wand like a lightsabre. Even more cash tills will ring out the Nintendo anthem.
- If I Know Who Killed Me doesn't tank outright, scriptwriter Jeff Hammond's plans for sequels and prequels may well come to fruition.
- Tobe Hooper's next is to be Tequila Joe, scripted by Dan Madigan and, apparently, planned for a theatrical release. Fingers crossed.
- Some of the Family Guy/Star Wars show is currently streaming on YouTube. A preview, if you will.
- A would-be moviestar who put his genitals in a mousetrap - which then, of course, snapped shut - is suing Adam Corolla and Jimmy Kimmel, claiming they owe him $10 million. Of course, there's some kind of backstory that makes sense of this...
- The organisers of the New York Asian Film Festival appear to have been a little naive. They cooked up a handshake agreement to advertise Midway Games as their sponsor for the year, but after receiving a whole load of free publicity Midway have apparently reneged on the deal (I think there's a moral to this story, don't you?). If you want to join in, TwitchFilm are calling for a boycott of the upcoming John Woo/Midway game Stranglehold, which could be an effective strike against the publisher, if word spreads far enough.
Of the 33 shorts made by a varied selection of world famous directors premiered at Cannes this year, only one is missing from the DVD release, and that's World Cinema by the Coen brothers.
Does anybody have any idea why it's missing? Hopefully it will be included on the No Country for Old Men DVD. I'd hate to see it vanish forever.
If I didn't already know that the script for Burn After Reading was written by the Coen brothers, they would certainly be at the very top of my list of suspects. It's full of the kind of plot twists, character motivations and traits, and unfortunate misunderstandings that we've come to expect from their movies, particularly their black comedies - and Burn After Reading definitely falls within the 'black comedy' category.
The plot revolves around a CD containing the memoir-in-progress of Osbourne Cox, who has recently parted ways on somewhat acrimonious terms with the CIA. This CD somehow ends up in the hands of Linda Litzke and Chad Feldheimer, two colleagues at a local gym, who recognise the potential sensitivity of the content and decide that they might be able to profit from the situation. Chad's subsequent telephone call to Osbourne sets off a totally unnecessary chain of events that, of course, leads to much hilarity, tragedy, and hilarious tragedy. What could have been a fairly pleasant and amiable conversation leading to a swift resolution ends up, through a combination of Chad's bumbling incompetence and Osbourne's cantankerousness (as well as an interjection from Linda, who decides to play hardball) turning into a blazing row.
This is something of a recurring theme - simple (or not so simple) misunderstandings leading to violent (and sometimes fatal) conflict. Almost everything that happens is at least partly caused by misapprehension or confusion of one sort or another. This makes for a great deal of dramatic irony and a very compelling plot, which is rich and full of unexpected twists - without being at all hard-to-follow, even in script form.
The characterisation, as you might expect, is also very strong, and it was particularly entertaining to imagine some of the dialogue being delivered by the actors we so far know to be involved. Well, only John Malkovich has an officially confirmed specific role - that of Osbourne Cox. But Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Frances McDormand have all definitely been cast too. As has been mentioned before, Brad Pitt will certainly be playing the role of Chad - in fact, the part has obviously been written with him in mind. Chad isn't a moron, but he is pretty suggestible and comes across as a bit of a stoner, even though he doesn't take drugs at any point - he's more into smoothies. Here's a very short excerpt from the script for all you Brad-fans:
Chad Feldheimer is walking up towards the landing dressed in a black lycra bicycle unitard with lime green flames.
Clooney will undoubtedly be playing Harry Pfarrer - a very major character, despite the fact that this is the first time I've mentioned him. Harry is a charming philanderer, whose lust for the ladies sees him tightly embroiled in the unfolding events. For some reason, it seems to be common knowledge that Clooney's character is an assassin - but he isn't. He does carry a gun, but that's because he's a federal marshall for the Treasury Department. And, as he himself points out:
Harry: The gun is actually no big deal. Twenty years in the marshall's service and I've never discharged my weapon.
McDormand will probably play Katie Cox, Osbourne's unfaithful wife, who somewhat inadvertently sets off the whole chain of events in the first place.
There's also a part which seems tailor-made for William H. Macy; that of Ted Treffon, the soulful manager of the gym where Linda and Chad work. By the way, that's not me describing him as 'soulful' - for some reason he is referred to as such several times throughout the script. I guess he is a contemplative, conscientious character and he wants to do the right thing, but is unfortunately driven by unrequited love.
Overall, the script is a fantastic read and will no doubt result in a hugely enjoyable movie which should have wide appeal. I can see a lot of people describing Burn After Reading as 'a return to form' for the Coens - however unfair that may be.
JoBlo have discovered that one scene of the Coens' A Serious Man will shoot this month, way way way ahead of principal photography. They give some details:
The Coens are assembling for only a few days to shoot a scene that takes place in early 20th century Poland and is entirely in Yiddish. Here's what we now about the scene: A man named Velvel is walking home and meets a stranger he soon recognizes to be a prominent rabbi. Velvel invites the man back to his home for dinner but when they arrive, his wife believes the Rabbi to be a Dybbuk ...
Then it gets grisly - more details at JoBlo.
They've got themselves a spy I want right there. Spy, if you're reading this, drop me a line.
Jeffrey Prettyboy Wells has learned from a mysterious confidante that Emanuelle Lubezki is to be the cinematographer for Burn Before Reading, the Coen film shooting this autumn. He goes on to report that very few storyboards will be used as the film is to be shot handheld, 'verite style'.
This report also claims that Brad Pitt will play the agent at the centre of the plot, not some kind of personal trainer as I've been told.
Cinempire have a new gallery of stills from No Country For Old Men - see them below. They also posted one image of those cheeky Freres Coens on set.
The two images I turned up previously (see the first, see the second) were somewhat more dramatic, don't you think?
No Country For Old Men is to premiere at Cannes; Burn Before Reading - and my best info maintains Before, not After - will start shooting in the late summer; A Serious Man is scheduled to start filming afterwards.
Both Serious and Burn are financed in the same two-picture deal between Focus and Working Title.
So what happened to Hail Caesar! and Suburbicon? Are they gone forever? And what about their untitled comedy about the Itallian catwalk model? It's reasonable to speculate that A Serious Man is, in fact, one of these previously touted projects under a new name. Both of the named projects were definitely about serious men. But then again... there's been such a long break since the last original Coen script that a few may have stockpiled in the meantime.
My best info suggests that George Clooney's role in Burn is as an asassin while Brad Pitt's role is as a personal trainer. I'm still digging for more...
Brad Pitt has signed on to Burn Before Reading, according to The Hollywood Reporter - who call it Burn After Reading. Hmmm.
George Clooney and Frances McDormand were already in the cast. The Coens have written, will direct and produce. Shooting starts in August. There was plenty about this film on film ick before - the search engine at the top of the page will help you, it is your friend, it takes you new places and it shows you new things.
Well, congratulations to those Coen brothers - they seem to be getting just what they want with No Country for Old Men. According to Variety, the worldwide distribution plans for the film have shifted quite dramatically. You don't really need to know the details, just that this was done at the request of the Coens.
Essentially, the original plan was for the film to be released in August in the US. The brothers dissented, wanting a later release - and they got their way. Even though it meant a shuffle of paperwork, plans and presumably dollars between the film's distribution partners, Paramount Vantage and Miramax.
Most directors don't even battle for final cut; the famous few do; the Coens have gone beyond this and their wishes are governing the film's global distribution pattern. Of course, if it backfires financially, I dare say they'll be made scapegoats.
On his official site, Carter Burwell has discussed the score to the new Coens film, No Country For Old Men, and posted two sample tracks and another still, as seen above. It's all splendid stuff.
Alongside his sample tracks A Jackpot and Blood Trail (End Titles), Burwell had this to say about the soundtrack:
The film is the quietest I've worked on. Often there is no sound but wind and boots on hard caliche or stocking feet on concrete. Then again there are shootouts involving an unknown number of shooters with shotguns and automatic weapons. It was unclear for a while what kind of score could possibly accompany this film without intruding on this raw quiet. I spoke with the Coens about either an all-percussion score or a melange of sustained tones which would blend in with the sound effects. We went the latter route.
The all-percussion score sounds like fun, and I look forward to doing it sometime, but it is such a cliche to have drums accompany "action" that this sound immediately pulled the film back into familiar territory. The sustained tones, however, kept the film unsettled. Skip Lievsay, the sound editor, and I spoke early about these approaches and he sent me some examples of processed sound effects just as I sent him examples of tone compositions, mostly sine and sawtooth waves and singing bowls. When the film is mixed the effect will be that the music comes out of and sinks back into the sound effects in a hopefully subliminal manner.
The end titles of the film raised an interesting question: the entire film takes place without songs or identifiable score, so what could play over five minutes of end titles that wouldn't be self-conscious (like wind or sine waves) or intrusive (like a pop song)? I ended up writing a tune that features the only acoustic instruments in the score, but they take quite a while to appear. The first sounds are percussion but almost sound like sound effects. The next sounds are the sustained tones which are featured in the rest of the score. Only after two minutes of this do truly familiar instruments arrive - guitar and bass - which then play to the end along with the percussion. Hopefully this somehow works with the rest of the film, although we won't really know this until we mix the film, and maybe not until much later.
Burwell's site is really quite incredible and very much worth a visit.
There's a very exciting film project on the cards, but only the luckiest of us will get to see it - well, any time soon, at least. It looks like Quentin Tarantino, David Lynch. the Coen Brothers, Lars von Trier, Wong Kar Wai, Michael Cimino, Ken Loach, Wim Wenders, Chen Kaige, Abbas Kiarostami, Emir Kusturica and Nanni Moretti are amongst the directors behind the camera for this incredible king-of-all-films.
Sound too good to be true? Well, not quite actually.
This year, the Cannes film festival marks it's 60th anniversary and as a special celebration, an anthology of shorts by winners of the Palme d'Or is being compiled. The only director confirmed as absent so far is Pedro Almodovar, who appears to be too busy with his frightening sounding new film.
It isn't clear if this incredible seeming collaborative collage of shorts is ever going to see the lght of day outside of the festival, but I would sincerely hope so. Keeping something so desirable, and most likely very enjoyable, from the film fans of the world would strike me as arrogant and selfish.
Here's your second look at the Coen's next film, No Country for Old Men. This appears to be a behind-the scenes, snap, unlike the still I ran a few weeks back.
Ben Stiller has been planning his next comedy film Tropic Thunder for almost twenty years, so it better be worth it. The script has been written by Stiller, Etan Coen and Justin Theroux. I thought this is the second Joel-less project for Ethan Coen to turn up on this blog in as many days and immediately got to wondering if there is trouble brewing at the house of Coen - then I noticed it was Etan, not Ethan. Etan Coen was a writer on Madagascar. Panic over.
Justin Theroux is most famous, I'd guess, for appearing in Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire and the second Charlie's Angels - but probably most recognised for appearing on posters in the window of Gap.
According to Production Weekly, the premise behind Tropic Thunder is a little wild: actors cast in a big-budget war spectacular end up actually becoming real commandos when 'everything goes wrong'. That really is some screw up if it turns the filming of a movie into a warzone - who's directing this film within a film? David Fincher?
Stiller reputedly cooked up the basic idea when working on Empire of the Sun, but it sounds like there are also trace elements of 1942, Three Amigos and Hearts of Darkness or Apocalypse Now to me.
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