Xixax Film Forum

The Director's Chair => The Director's Chair => Topic started by: MacGuffin on July 06, 2005, 10:59:33 PM

Title: Julian Schnabel
Post by: MacGuffin on July 06, 2005, 10:59:33 PM
Schnabel's 'Doll' plays with 9, Killer

LONDON -- U.K.-based production company Number 9 Films is teaming with New York-based Killer Films to produce "The Lonely Doll," to be directed by Julian Schnabel. The project is based on the life story of Dare Wright, the author and photographer of the children's book "The Lonely Doll" and its sequels. Schnabel, the painter-turned-director whose credits include "Basquiat" and "Before Night Falls," will film a screen adaptation penned by Carl Lund. The movie will focus on the close relationship between the childlike Wright and her mother, a well-known portrait artist and single mom in the 1950s.
Title: Julian Schnabel
Post by: Ghostboy on July 06, 2005, 11:15:15 PM
Wow, I loved those books when I was growing up. I was looking for a birthday present for my little sister a few months back and rediscovered them.
Title: Julian Schnabel
Post by: cowboykurtis on July 06, 2005, 11:17:01 PM
on a side note - how great is basquiat
Title: Julian Schnabel
Post by: MacGuffin on July 06, 2005, 11:20:51 PM
Quote from: cowboykurtison a side note - how great is basquiat

Brilliant film.
Title: Julian Schnabel
Post by: cowboykurtis on July 06, 2005, 11:30:40 PM
i constantly revisit it - I just really enjoy watching it - such a beautiful film - the casting is amazing - and claire forlani is just gorgeous
Title: Julian Schnabel
Post by: MacGuffin on July 06, 2005, 11:35:28 PM
Quote from: cowboykurtisi constantly revisit it - I just really enjoy watching it - such a beautiful film - the casting is amazing - and claire forlani is just gorgeous

The use of music is perfect. It's one of the rare films about an artist that captures his/her art.
Title: Julian Schnabel
Post by: w/o horse on July 07, 2005, 12:35:07 AM
If I didn't connect with the tone of Before Night Falls, is Basquiat still something I should check out?  The premise sounds inviting, intriguing, etc.
Title: Julian Schnabel
Post by: cowboykurtis on July 07, 2005, 12:40:35 AM
i think basquiat is flawless - really do check it out
Title: Julian Schnabel
Post by: w/o horse on July 07, 2005, 06:39:16 PM
Purchased.
Title: Julian Schnabel
Post by: hedwig on July 07, 2005, 10:53:05 PM
has anyone seen "Downtown 81"? (i know it's not a Schnabel film but the real J.M. Basquiat stars in it.) I really like "Basquiat" too and I agree that it captures the "flavor" of his work...i've seen some of his paintings, they're HUGE! and INSANE! and awesome.
Title: Julian Schnabel
Post by: w/o horse on July 12, 2005, 02:38:22 PM
Basquiat was amazing indeed.  That's why I come here, because if you guys hadn't told me to try it out I probably wouldn't have or would have way down the road.

Mac said, "It's one of the rare films about an artist that captures his/her art." but I would one up that and say it got his heart, his life, his craft, everything.  That was my favorite part of the movie, how it never became a melodrama, as biopics of artists tend to, and it kept its focus all the way through.  It was never about Basquiat's girls or friends or dependencies or even his art, these were all just parts of one man's life, and the movie was about one man.

When he walked into his first painting gallery with the headphones on, then the headphones get taken off and you hear the real noise of the room.  Fuck.  That's just one of many moments that nails perfectly what the artist is.  No movie that I can think of (although I might just be suffering from momentary Basquiat vision) has so perfectly captured the edge of life which artists live on, which we pay them to live on, which people let them live on so that they don't have to.  It showed the thin line without dramatizing that line, it showed that that line is his walk.

My next question is:  could I now go back and like Before Night Falls?  I haven't seen it in two or three years, was I perhaps just not ready for the movie?  If the movie is indeed as subtle as Basquiat I might have missed the point, I might have watched the movie as something else.

I don't know though, Basquiat was so good I think I'll just watch it a couple more times regardless if I'm going to watch Before Night Falls again.
Title: Julian Schnabel
Post by: hedwig on July 12, 2005, 03:23:26 PM
also wasn't Jeffery Wright's performance just great?
Title: Julian Schnabel
Post by: w/o horse on July 12, 2005, 03:45:21 PM
Hell yeah it was.  He was great in Angels in America too.  I hope he sticks around.
Title: Julian Schnabel
Post by: cowboykurtis on July 12, 2005, 09:01:25 PM
Quote from: Losing the Horse:I hope he sticks around.

...proves them wrong.
Title: Re: Julian Schnabel
Post by: MacGuffin on May 21, 2007, 01:24:18 PM
Schnabel on new slate set by Number 9
Source: Hollywood Reporter

CANNES -- British production banner Number 9 Films, run by husband-and-wife team Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlsen, is gearing up development on a slate of projects including movies from Julian Schnabel and Miguel Arteta.

The company also has promoted in-house development exec Kate Lawrence to head the department. She joined the company in 2003.

Karlsen, in Cannes for a series of meetings for her company, said she was looking forward to working with a range of talent from Schnabel and Arteta to recent National Film School graduate Jamie Johnson.

Karlsen is in preproduction with "Son of Eurovision," a feature docu about the junior version of the Euro songfest, directed by Johnson.

Schnabel, whose "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" unspools In Competition on Tuesday, will direct an adaptation of classic kids' book "Edith and the Lonely Doll," penned by Caroline Thompson ("The Corpse Bride").

The company is also developing "The Sound of No Hands Clapping," Toby Young's sequel to "How to Lose Friends," about his foray into the world of Hollywood screenwriting. Directed by Bob Weide, "Friends" begins shooting in June with Simon Pegg and Kirsten Dunst.

Arteta is developing "Together" with Fox Searchlight, a conceptual remake set in Los Angeles of Lukas Moodysson's Swedish comedy about family life on a commune.

Ian Fitzgibbon is set to direct Irish drama "Perrier's Bounty," written by Mark O'Rowe ("Intermission") and co-produced with Parallel Films.

"We are very happy to be working with all these talented partners," Karlsen said.
Title: Re: Julian Schnabel
Post by: MacGuffin on February 02, 2009, 05:15:56 PM
Abbas to star in Schnabel's 'Miral'
Principal photography begins April 19
Source: Variety

Julian Schnabel has tapped Palestinian thesp Hiam Abbas will star in "Miral," a film about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Julian Schnabel has written the screenplay and will direct. He's spent the past few months trying to put his passion project together. The recent conflagration of violence in Gaza between the Israeli army and militant Palestinian group Hamas, which left some 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead, has made the project all the more relevant.

Project is an adaptation of Italo-Palestinian Rula Jebreal's book about the real-life Palestinian woman Hind Husseini, who started the Dar Al-Tifl orphanage in Jerusalem in the wake of the 1948 partition of Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel. Pic will span the years 1948-94.

Schnabel intends to lense the pic entirely on location in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Jon Kilik, who worked previously with Schnabel on "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," will produce the pic with Pathe financing. The Gallic mini-major is also looking to work with an Israeli co-producer.

Principal photography begins April 19.
Title: Re: Julian Schnabel
Post by: Gold Trumpet on February 02, 2009, 05:41:55 PM
Whatever the final product turns out to be, I'm happy Schnabel is tackling this subject. More filmmakers need to have this kind of daring with their projects. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was an immensely excellent film in all regards, but it was such a stylistic jump from Before Night Falls that I imagined Schnabel's future could become more Hollywood, but I'm happy the cynic in me was negated.

Steven Soderbergh tackled Che and Oliver Stone is working on a documentary or two about Hugo Chavez. I can't say I know it was easier to make political films in the 1960s than now. I really don't know, but I will say the major political films of those days have aged better than most dramas of the time. Battle of Algeirs became wonderfully relevant for modern times and Dr. Strangelove went on to full acceptance after first being branded as just communist propaganda by the New York Times. The point is that not all political films are good, but our premieire filmmakers need to keep with the tradition of having eyes and ears open to our most troubling world issues.

Title: Re: Julian Schnabel
Post by: matt35mm on February 02, 2009, 08:11:53 PM
I fully agree with GT.  A lot of people are going to want to see what Schnabel is up to after Diving Bell, and it's a great way to draw attention to something that attention needs to be drawn to.  It sounds like an interesting film, and a good way to either directly or indirectly call attention to how all the little tensions grew into this long period of violence.
Title: Re: Julian Schnabel
Post by: pete on February 02, 2009, 09:50:41 PM
there are QUITE A FEW films about israel and palestine.
Title: Re: Julian Schnabel
Post by: MacGuffin on March 24, 2009, 11:35:43 PM
Freida Pinto heads to 'Miral'
'Slumdog' star boards Schnabel pic
Source: Variety

Freida Pinto has joined the cast of Julian Schnabel's "Miral."

Pic is an adaptation of Italo-Palestinian Rula Jebreal's book about Hind Husseini, who founded an orphanage in Jerusalem in the wake of the 1948 partition of Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel. Schnabel wrote the screenplay.

Palestinian thesp Hiam Abbas will play Husseini (Daily Variety, Feb. 1).

Pic will lense in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Principal photography begins April 19.

Jon Kilik will produce with Pathe financing. The Gallic mini-major has also brought Israeli helmer and producer Eran Riklis aboard in a production services capacity.

Pinto recently boarded Woody Allen's London-set project.
Title: Re: Julian Schnabel
Post by: MacGuffin on July 11, 2011, 04:16:41 PM
Exclusive: Julian Schnabel Planning 'In The Hand Of Dante' With Johnny Depp As Next Project
Source: Playlist

We just got off the phone with director/artist Julian Schnabel ("Basquiat," "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"), who is currently doing press for the Blu-ray/DVD release of his controversial 2010 release, "Miral," based on the novel by Rula Jebreal about a Palestinian girl growing up in the wake of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

During our interview, Schnabel also revealed plans for his next film, "In the Hand of Dante" based on the book by Nick Tosches. Johnny Depp bought the rights to the book a few years back and the actor asked Schnabel to take a look at the book as a potential next project. The director and Depp bonded during the actor's double-duty role in 2000's "Before Night Falls" and cemented that affection when Depp offered high praise for his work on "Miral."

"There's a great book called 'In the Hand of Dante' by Nick Tosches," Schnabel told The Playlist. "It belongs to Johnny, but I'm not going to make it for a couple of years. We're gonna work on writing it, developing it. We didn't sign anything. It's just something Johnny asked me to read and I think it's a great book so maybe you should read it. It's pretty beautiful. It's about everything."

"In the Hand of Dante" revolves around Dante's masterwork "The Divine Comedy," and interweaves two separate stories, one set in 14th century Sicily, Italy featuring the legendary poet Dante Alighieri, and another set in the autumn of 2001 featuring a fictionalized version of Nick Tosches as the lead. Both stories alternate as Dante tries to finish writing his magnum opus and goes on a journey for mystical knowledge in Sicily. Meanwhile Tosches the Dante expert, living a quiet life in New York is swept up into an underworld of danger and mystery when black market traders ask him to authenticate what might be Dante's original manuscript. Depp's Infinitum Nihil production company landed rights to the project back in 2008, eyeing it as a starring vehicle for him to play the Toches surrogate.

"Miral" hits Blu-ray/DVD tomorrow, July 12th. Check back this week for our full exclusive interview with Schnabel for "Miral."