Ed norton

[Stefen]

Think about it this way, with Norton not making anything for awhile. He really hasent been missed. He's overrated. There is only so many *sighs* in a performance I can take. He should team up with Ratner again.

[soixante]

25th Hour -- a ponderous bore.  The sign of a bad filmmaker is someone whose point is evident five minutes before the sequence ends.  The opening of 25th Hour shows -- seemingly endlessly -- the ruins of Ground Zero.  This not only sets the tone of this joyless, one-dimensional film, but it is a metaphor for Ed Norton's character -- his life is in ruins.  OK, I got it -- and then the sequence drags on for what seems like an eternity.

In other words, Norton hasn't made a good film since Fight Club.

As for The Score, De Niro has made a lot of crap in the past 10 years, and Brando has done a lot of bad movies (like The Formula).  Sure, the thought of these "best actors of their respective generations" working together sounds promising -- on paper.  However, when Frank Oz is allowed to direct, you have an instant piece of mediocrity.

Once again, Fight Club is Norton's last good film.

The previous post describing his latest project doesn't sound promising.  He needs to work with a good director (I'm sorry, Spike Lee ain't good), and find a good script.

[MacGuffin]

Norton, Farrell Have Pride
Stars team for cop drama.

Actors Edward Norton and Colin Farrell are teaming up to star in the New Line-based cop drama Pride and Glory. According to Variety, the high-profile thesps have joined the forthcoming film along with Noah Emmerich (Cellular, Beyond Borders, Frequency).

As the trade describes it, Pride and Glory is "a generational drama about a family of police officers in New York torn apart by a corruption scandal."

Norton would reportedly play a homicide detective who is assigned to investigate the precinct run by his older brother (Emmerich). Farrell plays his friend who, as it turns out, may also be corrupt.

Pride and Glory was scripted by Joe Carnahan (Narc) and will be directed by Miracle helmer Gavin O'Conner.

Principle photography on the drama is tentatively set to kickoff this January in New York City.

[squints]

Sounds like serpico, if the poor fella had a family

[MacGuffin]

Norton, Pitt reteam for 'State of Play'
'Fight Club' duo to star in Universal adaptation
Source: Variety

Edward Norton is getting back in the ring with his "Fight Club" partner Brad Pitt.

Duo will star in "State of Play," Universal Pictures' adaptation of the British miniseries. Kevin Macdonald ("The Last King of Scotland") is directing the Matthew Michael Carnahan script.

Norton will play a congressman whose speedy political rise is threatened by an investigation into the death of his mistress. Pitt plays a politico-turned-journalist whose relationship with the solon is compromised when he oversees his newspaper's investigation into the murder and develops a relationship with the pol's estranged wife.

Project has been a high priority for U since the studio won an auction for rights to the six-hour mini written by Paul Abbott. Though Pitt has long been attached, he had been courted for other pics while Tony Gilroy worked on a rewrite. Pitt recently committed after that script was turned in, and the project is on track for a November start.

Andrew Hauptman will produce with Working Title partners Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner. Abbott is exec producer.

Norton will begin shooting "State of Play" days after he wraps "The Incredible Hulk" for Marvel Studios, with Universal releasing the Louis Leterrier-directed superhero film on June 13.

[Kal]

Cool to see Norton-Pitt together again, but I'm not so excited about the project... anybody here seen the original series?

[MacGuffin]

Edward Norton to star in 'Grass'
Actor takes on double duty in 'Leaves'
Source: Variety

Edward Norton is set to play dual roles in "Leaves of Grass," a comedic thriller to be directed in spring by Tim Blake Nelson, who wrote the script and will also act in the film.

Norton will play identical twins, one an Ivy League classics professorand the other a hedonistic pot-smoking career criminal. He'll make the film after completing the Universal drama "State of Play."

"Leaves of Grass" will be financed by Barbarian Films, which recently co-produced "Powder Blue." Bill Migliore, Norton and Nelson will produce. Norton and Migliore partner in Class 5 Films, which most recently produced "The Painted Veil" and "Down in the Valley."

Norton and Nelson recently starred together in "The Incredible Hulk," in which Norton plays the title character and wrote the script for Marvel and Universal. Nelson had already penned "Leaves of Grass" specifically for Norton, and they've been waiting for the right opportunity to do it.

"The challenge of playing twins for an actor is very special, and I was very flattered that Tim sent 'Leaves of Grass' to me," Norton said. "I liked it so much, and felt so strongly that it was a film Tim understood to his core, that I took it to my partners and suggested we produce it. This is exactly the kind of personal filmmaking that we set out to support."

Nelson, who directed "The Grey Zone" and "O," said Norton "would have been my first choice for either of these roles." If he'd said no, "there would have been no second choice."

Norton will next be seen in the Gavin O'Connor-directed Gotham cop drama "Pride and Glory," which New Line opens in March.

[Pas]

I started that Leaves of Grass movie it is looking pretty good let me tell you! Twice the Norton for the price of a single movie, you gotta love that. Pot-dealing Norton is more comedic than other smalltime criminals Norton have played...

it's all over the web since this afternoon you can check it out

[matt35mm]

I didn't feel like the film worked very well, but it wasn't uninteresting, either.  It's a strange mix of the Shakespearean, philosophy, and fairly lame screenwriting.

The lame screenwriting comes in the form of the formulaic--a love interest for the put-together professor, who's there to teach him how to feel, which is exactly the only reason that she's there.  Actually, everybody's there to teach this guy life lessons, in dialogue that strains to be profound while also trying to come off as just some good-old homespun philosophy.  Something about it doesn't really fit.  It wants to be graceful, but the effort that it takes to appear effortless shows through.  So something in the execution robs it of grace.

The philosophy is explicit, as the main character is a classical philosophy professor, and much of the movie has characters discussing philosophical ideas about the way people are.  None of it actually links up to philosophical texts, which is normally fine except for how much actual philosophical texts and famous philosophers are talked about.  A lot of philosopher's names are bandied about with not much purpose except, perhaps, to make the philosophy in the film seem more studied than it actually is.  There's not really any new insight that comes from this philosophical element, so the film basically features characters being broadly philosophical in their own way.

I didn't realize the Shakespearean influence until toward the end, and it mostly comes in the form of warring drug factions and how the violence is handled.  I probably shouldn't even call it Shakespearean, as what I'm referring to is really just a tone that reminds me of Shakespeare, in relation to the violence and matters of family, but more goofy than something like The Godfather.  The violence can be quite surprising at times when compared to other movies, simply because it doesn't always follow the normal movie formula of when violence ought to occur.

I quite liked Tim Blake Nelson's other movies, especially O.  There was something clunky in the execution here, though.  I'll give it credit for being full of ideas, even if I don't personally find any of them insightful.