CHICAGO

Started by RegularKarate, January 11, 2003, 11:10:48 PM

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©brad

my favorite part was the "he had it comin" song. zeta-jones was da best, richard gere shoulda been nominated. not so sure about john c...

Pedro

Quote from: cbrad4dmy favorite part was the "he had it comin" song. zeta-jones was da best, richard gere shoulda been nominated. not so sure about john c...

Cell Block Tango was done exactly how I would have done it if I was directing...I also loved the mirrors in the um..."Roxie" song.

cine

I never understood why they cut out "Foxy" in the "Roxie" song. Anybody who knows the Broadway show knows the line was "Foxy... Roxie... Hart" but they just cut "Foxy" altogether and you can clearly hear during the song where the pauses are. Kinda odd.

MacGuffin

Chicago Director Eyes Geisha
Source: The Hollywood Reporter

"Chicago" helmer Rob Marshall has emerged as the top contender to direct Columbia Pictures/Red Wagon Entertainment's "Memoirs of a Geisha" and is meeting with studio chair Amy Pascal about the project today. Steven Spielberg had been originally attached to direct "Geisha," based on Arthur Golden's best-selling novel, but stepped off and will retain a producer role. The project had attracted interest from several high-profile players, including Spike Jonze and Kimberly Pierce. Now Marshall is being wooed, and all eyes are on the helmer, who has yet to pick a follow-up film to "Chicago," which won the best picture Oscar this year. Marshall is repped by ICM.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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nappyrat

i've seen it, it sucked, alot of hooker-like dancers...
too much of an old school feel to it i dont like
personally, BOO
but iono..

MacGuffin

Memoirs of a Geisha Hits Another Road Block
Source: Variety

Chicago director Rob Marshall's talks to helm Memoirs of a Geisha have stalled over whether Miramax, which has an option on Marshall, will come on board as a co-producer on the film.

Marshall had signaled interest in helming the adaptation of Arthur Gold's novel, the long-delayed project being produced by Red Wagon for Columbia and DreamWorks.

Things got complicated, however, after Miramax notified Marshall that it planned to exercise its option on him to direct his second feature for the company.

Talks ensued among Miramax, Columbia and DreamWorks. Several scenarios were put on the table whereby Miramax would join as a co-producer, but none was acceptable to all three studios.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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Ghostboy

I still don't understand why anyone so desperately wants to make 'Memoirs Of A Geisha.' The novel was exceedingly mediocre, in my opinion. I read it because I heard Spike Jonze was considering it; by the time I finished it, he had dropped out of the project, and I wasn't surprised a bit.

MacGuffin

Rob Marshall Wants Geisha & Another Musical
Source: Associated Press

Oscar-winning Chicago director Rob Marshall tells the Associated Press that he's optimistic his next project will be the movie version of the best-selling novel Memoirs of a Geisha, despite a battle between major studios for the fledgling filmmaker's services. Marshall's contract with Miramax obligates him to do his second film with them — but "Memoirs" is a Columbia and DreamWorks film.

"It's complicated because it involves a lot of different players," Marshall said. "It's flattering in a way, because you have a lot of people saying, 'We want him to do this picture. No, we want him to do this picture.' I'm anxious to go to work. I believe I need to do this picture."

A Miramax spokesman confirmed that the companies have been negotiating to strike a deal, although nothing has been settled yet. Arthur Golden's novel is about a geisha's rise from a Japanese fishing village to life in high society.

After the details regarding Memoirs of a Geisha are worked out, Marshall said he would like to work on another musical film, although he's not sure what it would be.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

MacGuffin

Somewhere, someone started a nasty rumor that Hollywood musicals are done for, kaput. Song and dance might not be Tinseltown's bread and butter these days, but if you look at the last few musicals to spring to the screen -- Chicago, Moulin Rouge!, even Hedwig and the Angry Inch -- it's pretty clear that all that jazz isn't falling on deaf ears. But how does a first-time filmmaker convince producers Marty Richards and Harvey Weinstein to trust him with a musical that had gone through an ever-growing list of A-list stars and directors?

"I came up with this crazy idea," remembers Rob Marshall. "I basically explained that you need to protect the idea that these numbers take place on a stage because that's how they were written, and that simultaneously you could have this realistic story running through it. You could cut back and forth between these two worlds and still tell one story. That one sort of big conceptual idea seemed to resonate with them, so that's when I found [screenwriter] Bill Condon, and we created this idea that it would come from Roxie's mind, from the Vaudeville of her mind, as a dreamer."

A dreamer, that pretty much describes Marshall, who parlayed his experience choreographing and directing for the stage (plus the hit TV remake of Annie) into the gig of a lifetime. But he learned from the best, as you'll see in his selection of influential films. It's no wonder that Marshall picked Citizen Kane, the most celebrated directorial debut of all time, or Cabaret, the show Chicago creator Bob Fosse custom-tailored for the screen. Now, in his own words, see the films that gave Marshall the courage to bring Chicago to the screen...
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Singin' in the Rain
(1952; dir: Stanely Donen, Gene Kelly; starring: Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds)
One of the first movies that comes to mind, of course, is Stanley Donen's Singin' in the Rain, which I think is probably the greatest musical ever filmed. The numbers are so beautifully done, with such style and wit and brilliant choreography and brilliant performances. One of the trickiest things about musicals is that they have to be organic. The singing can't feel disconnected from the story, otherwise it doesn't really work. You don't feel that cringing moment when they open their mouths to sing, because it comes from the characters and the story. [Gene Kelly] leaves this wonderful night -- he's in love with Kathy Selden, and he's just as happy as can be -- and that walk turns into this joyous "singin' in the rain" moment. It's like he can't contain his joy, and so it turns into this number, and it feels completely seamless. It feels completely right, like it's been an organic part of the storytelling. It's that classic thing in musicals: When you can't speak, you sing, and when the movement isn't enough, you dance.

Cabaret
(1972; dir: Bob Fosse; starring: Liza Minnelli, Michael York)
Obviously, Cabaret is a brilliant musical, but it has a different lineage because it comes from theater, as does Chicago. Bob Fosse's work is extraordinary in that. He was staring in the face of this brilliant Ron Prince/Hal Field production on the stage (How do you do that?), just as I was staring at this brilliant Bob Fosse production. He was able to take something on stage and make major changes to it to make it work for film. He eliminated two characters (Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz) and reworked the score, changed all kinds of things. He made Sally Bowles American, made Michael York's character British, sort of flipped things around. That gave me a great deal of confidence as I began working on Chicago, because I [realized] you have to rework things to make it work for film. It gave me the license and the freedom to make the changes that I needed to make it work on film.

All About Eve
(1950, dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, starring: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter)
I think All About Eve is probably the greatest written film I've ever seen. The screenplay is genius, the performances are extraordinary, and I love the backstage story of it. It's one of those movies I saw as an adult, not as a kid, and I'll never forget the first time I saw it: I played the whole thing, and then I rewound it and watched the whole thing right over again because I was so astonished by the genius of the writing and the genius of the performances and the seamlessness of the movie. It was just knocking me out. Film is a more naturalistic medium [than theater]. The song comes where a monologue would be in a play, so you really have to make sure that [your characters] have earned the song. When musicals don't work, something's wrong with that. Something's wrong with the rhythm of it.

All the President's Men
(1976, dir: Alan J. Pakula, starring: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford)
All the President's Men is one of my favorite films of all time because the urgency and the storytelling are so great. It's one of those movies that when I start watching it, I can't stop watching until the end. That to me is the real trick in making a movie work: the urgency of the story is something that you get caught up in, and you can't quite turn away from it. It's about keeping it moving forward. You're just swept up in the storytelling and the performances. The movie taught me a lot about the rhythm of storytelling on film and keeping the tension underneath and the urgency of the storytelling right at the forefront. Once that air is let out of the balloon, it's very hard to get back up. In All the President's Men, the momentum builds, builds, builds, doesn't let up, and my hope with Chicago is that you don't feel that there is a lag. You don't feel like we've lost our way. It keeps moving, moving, moving to the end and then it's over. That's something that any good filmmaker strives to do.

Citizen Kane
(1941, dir: Orson Welles, starring: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten)
I know it's cliché, but I have to say Citizen Kane, because as a filmmaker it's so extraordinarily creative. Orson Welles was [25 years old] when he directed and starred in it. He saw no limitations, and that freedom of creativity is inspiring as you're putting together your movie, especially your first film. It was like, just take the chances. If you feel it, try it. Try something artistic, try something that might seem odd or unusual to people. I certainly didn't know the technique of filmmaking as other great filmmakers have, but I tried to implement my imagination, and then along with the brilliant cinematographer Dion Beebe, we tried to get into my thoughts and imagination and make it happen. It's about keeping your creativity open to trying different things, and Citizen Kane will always be inspiring for that reason, because it never stops being creative. It never stops trying different things. Even after all these years, it still stands the test of time as one of the most brilliant, creative masterpieces ever.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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