tarsem singh

[MacGuffin]

Tarsem to direct 'Unthinkable' pic
Kimmel film's storyline is being kept under wraps
Source: Variety

Sidney Kimmel Entertainment has signed Tarsem ("The Cell") to direct political thriller "Unthinkable," with Kimmel and Cotty Chubb producing.

Helmer's collaborating with British scribe Peter Woodward on revising the latter's spec script. SKE production prexy Bill Horberg said the shingle's hoping to launch production late in the first quarter.

"Unthinkable" is set in the contempo U.S., but the logline's being kept under wraps.

Tarsem, a native of India, came out of the musicvid and commercial world. He directed Absolute Entertainment's fantasy "The Fall," which screened at the Toronto Film Festival in September.

Woodward wrote drama-romance "Closing the Ring," which director Richard Attenborough shot earlier this year.

SKE was a producer on "United 93" and "Copying Beethoven." Its upcoming pics include "Charlie Bartlett," "Marriage," "Lars and the Real Girl" and "Death at a Funeral."

[MacGuffin]

No one wants to take "The Fall," a film Tarsem Singh made on his own terms
Source: Los Angeles Times

TARSEM SINGH has made a lucrative living for 17 years as a sought-after director of commercials, videos and the creepy 2000 horror hit, "The Cell." As he told me, more in awe than in boast, he once made more money in one day shooting a commercial than his father did in 30 years as an aircraft engineer in India.

And what did Tarsem do with most of that dough? Breaking the cardinal mantra of Hollywood, he spent it making a movie called "The Fall." Shot in 24 countries over a period of nearly four years, the film is a dazzling visual fantasy as well as a meditation on the art of storytelling, seen through the eyes of a young girl and a bedridden stuntman who spins yarns about five exotic brigands roaming the world on the hunt for treasure. David Fincher, who has a "presented by" credit on the film along with Spike Jonze, describes the film as "what would've happened if Andrei Tarkovsky had made 'The Wizard of Oz.' "

After emptying his pockets, Tarsem — who goes only by his first name — has just one problem. He can't get anyone to release the movie.

Nearly 10 months after it debuted at the Toronto Film Festival, "The Fall" remains unsold, hurt by a largely negative critical reception at the festival. Even though the film has found admirers in Europe, potential studio buyers have all raised the same nagging question — exactly who is the audience for this picture?

Fair question. For all its style and ambition, "The Fall" — which screens Saturday at 9 p.m. in the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum as part of the L.A. Film Festival's Secret Screening series — is exactly the kind of film that is overlooked in an era in which marketability trumps originality. Though the story revolves around a spirited young girl — played by Catinca Untaru, a 6-year-old from Romania who had never acted before — it is too intense for young kids, yet too self-consciously artsy for mainstream audiences. In many ways it's a throwback to the "Raging Bulls" era of filmmaking, when directors pursued personal visions with such pictures as Nicholas Roeg's "Performance" or Francis Ford Coppola's "One From the Heart."

"This is an obsession I wish I hadn't had," Tarsem explained during a recent stay in Los Angeles. "It was just something I needed to exorcise. You have to make your personal films when you're still young. I knew if I didn't do it now, it would never happen."

Although the 46-year-old filmmaker is represented by CAA, which specializes in finding financing for its talents' projects, he insisted on spending his own money, eager to have total creative freedom. "Tarsem wasn't willing to accept the terms of what the money people wanted," says Fincher, a longtime friend. "He has a unique vision of the world as his back lot and he didn't want to compromise that in any way."

Tarsem also worried that a financier might not grasp his unorthodox artistic process. In fact, the most fascinating part of the story behind "The Fall" involves the filmmaker's eccentric creative choices and work habits. He never, for example, had a finished script for all the scenes involving his exotic brigands. And although he could have had any number of stars — one of his big fans is Brad Pitt, who recently shot a Japanese commercial with him — the only actor Tarsem wanted for the lead role was Lee Pace, an unknown whom he'd seen playing a transgender night club performer in a cable TV movie.

The director did the first 12 weeks of filming at an asylum in South Africa that stood in for a circa-1920 hospital in Los Angeles, where Pace's injured stuntman character was convalescing. Convinced that Pace could give an effective performance only if everyone on the shoot thought he was actually paralyzed, Tarsem had the actor spend all his time on the set in a wheelchair or in bed. He says the only person beside himself who knew the actor could walk was a male nurse who wheeled him away for bathroom breaks.

"I wanted people to really think he was crippled," Tarsem explained over lunch the other day. "On the last day of shooting, the actor told the crew, 'I have something to say,' and he stood up and told everyone he could walk. Some people laughed, some people cried, some people were angry. But it was necessary for the movie."

After he finished the hospital sequences, Tarsem had a wrap party and then began plotting out the various adventure scenes for the film, using his commercial jobs as a launching pad. He spends most of his time traveling the globe, shooting commercials. (Last week, for example, he was in Morocco, India, England and Germany.) So whenever he had a job in a faraway spot, he would finish the commercial, keep his camera crew behind and summon the actors for his film.

After he shot a Coke commercial on the Butterfly Reef in Fiji, Tarsem flew the actors in for two days of filming. He did the same thing in Namibia. After he shot a Mountain Dew ad there, he used the country's sand dunes for a scene in which his characters were lost in the desert. Other scenes were set in remote parts of the Himalayas, the high desert of Rajasthan and the Andaman Islands near Sumatra, where he filmed the actors astride elephants swimming in the ocean, an image he'd first used in a Coke commercial.

Tarsem completed the film last year, but his luck ran out when he took the picture to Toronto. He especially wanted Roger Ebert, who'd been a fan of "The Cell," to see the picture. But the critic fell ill and couldn't cover the festival. The critics who did see the film were not kind. Variety's Dennis Harvey wrote a scathing pan, calling the film "an overlong whimsy" that was "basically a coffee-table book of striking travelogue images masquerading as warm-hearted period drama and fantasy."

Bad news travels fast. "It was terrible," Tarsem recalls. "We had all these [sales] appointments set up and after the reviews came out, everyone canceled."

Over time, a number of acquisition executives have caught up with the film and come away impressed. But without rave reviews, they believe it would be a tough sell. Several execs I spoke to theorized that Tarsem's success as a commercial director worked against the film, saying it would've received a warmer festival reception if it had been made by a struggling Third World filmmaker instead of a chic director best known for soft-drink ads and R.E.M. videos.

"If the film were in a foreign language, it would probably would have sold right away," says Think Films chief Mark Urman, an admirer of the movie. "But the film speaks to the mixed blessing of total independence. It might never have been made inside the system, but being made outside the system created a whole new set of problems, since there wasn't anyone around worrying about whether the filmmaker found a way to give pleasure to many people instead of just himself."

Tarsem's supporters scoff at the idea that a film buyer always has to know who the audience is that will embrace a film. As Fincher put it: "Who knew who the audience was for 'Pan's Labyrinth'? People are much more sophisticated about taking in visual information today. I'm not convinced that everyone has to have all their food pre-chewed for them."

Fincher makes a good point. There is something magical about a movie like "The Fall" that transcends cold-eyed marketing calculations. It has its flaws, but it has something too many films today lack — a sense of wonder about the possibilities of the medium.

Nonetheless, it remains unsold. Tarsem insists he has no regrets about the millions he may never see again. "It's like the old cliché, 'Easy come, easy go.' " he says, noting that with two homes and an Aston-Martin, he's not exactly starving. "Money makes accountants happy. But I didn't want to end up an old guy, sitting around talking about the movie I never got to make."

He sighs. "I just wish I could get more people to see it."

[MacGuffin]

Singh getting 'Unforgettable' job
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Director Tarsem Singh is set to return to the studio world with "The Unforgettable," a science fiction thriller from Warner Bros. Pictures being produced by Basil Iwanyk, David Goyer and Jason Hall.

"Unforgettable," originally titled "Species X," centers on a cop who in the course of a murder investigation realizes that he is not human and uncovers a war between good and evil aliens.

The project is based on the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment video game "The Condemned: Criminal Origins," which Hall and Nathan Hendrickson created. Hall most recently was senior vp WBIE and oversaw such games as "300: March to Glory," "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and "The Matrix Online."

Kurt Sutter wrote the screenplay.

Lynn Harris and Matt Reilly are overseeing for the studio.
 
Singh was one of the music video world's bright lights when he made 2000's "The Cell," a crime fantasy starring Jennifer Lopez and Vince Vaughn. Although the movie received a critical drubbing, it was noted for its cutting-edge visuals and scenes inspired by famous works of art.

His first movie since "Cell" was "The Fall," an India-U.K.-U.S. co-production that debuted last year at the Toronto International Film Festival.

[cine]

and soon the "The" trilogy will be complete.

[MacGuffin]

'War' follows '300' path
Tarsem will direct
Source: Hollywood Reporter

The producers of "300" are taking another trip to an epic battlefield.

Mark Canton and Gianni Nunnari will produce "War of the Gods," a story with a similar scope and tone to the Warners breakout, and set it up with Ryan Kavanaugh's Relativity Media.

The production has attached Tarsem the music-video and commercial director whose globetrotting and mythical tale "The Fall" is currently in theaters. Charley and Vlas Parlapanides, the brothers who penned the script for Universal's 50 Cent vehicle "Live Bet," penned the "Gods" spec.

The script concerns the battles waged by Theseus, a warrior from Greek mythology. That moves it into a somewhat different historical time than "300" -- which concerned the battles of King Leonidas against the Persians -- but ensures a similar vibe and young-male demo.

Despite costing less than $75 million, "300" became a $450 million global box-office monster by using a kind of scaled-down tentpole model -- that is, sophisticated effects and a large storytelling canvas but few stars.

Canton and Nunnari are teaming up for the first time since their successful collaboration. Canton recently produced Par's child fantasy "The Spiderwick Chronicles" and is attached to produce MGM's "Fame" update. Nunnari is producing Miramax's upcoming ensemble pic "Everybody's Fine."

A number of buyers, including "300" studio Warners, were said to be in the mix for "Gods," but Relativity's offer was considered the most attractive. The firm, which will fully finance the movie, continues an aggressive streak that makes it as much a first resort for big packages as proper studios; the company is also behind upcoming Will Smith tentpole "Hancock" and this spring nabbed desirable post-strike projects like "The Low Dweller" and "The Matarese Circle."

Production on "Gods" could start as soon as early 2009.

[MacGuffin]

Casting begins for 'War,' 'Titans'
Cavill, Worthington in talks for toga pics
Source: Variety

Relativity Media is negotiating with Henry Cavill ("The Tudors") to star as Theseus in the Tarsem Singh-directed "War of the Gods."

At the same time, Warner Bros. is in talks with Sam Worthington to play the role of Perseus in the Louis Leterrier-directed "Clash of the Titans."

Deals for both actors are expected to be worked out, keeping the Greek mythology-themed projects on a parallel track. Both films are expected to begin production by late winter or early spring.

The projects have different plots, but each film will be made for under $100 million because the visual effects will be accomplished using the greenscreen techniques that made "300" so visually arresting.

Relativity got in the Greek game last summer when it bought the Charley and Vlas Parlapanides-scripted "War of the Gods" (Daily Variety, June 26).More than one option(Co) Daily Variety
Filmography, Year, Role
(Co) Daily Variety

Hollywood Gang's Gianni Nunnari and Canton Prods.' Mark Canton are producing with Ryan Kavanaugh.

At the same time, "The Incredible Hulk" helmer Leterrier committed to WB's "Clash of the Titans," a remake of the 1981 film that tells the story of Zeus son Perseus' journey and battles against Medusa. Scripted by Lawrence Kasdan, the WB film is a co-production with Legendary Pictures, produced by Basil Iwanyk of Thunder Road and Kevin De La Noy.

Cavill is best known for his work on Showtime's "The Tudors" but was also on the shortlist to play the Man of Steel in "Superman Returns."

Worthington, one of the finalists for the James Bond role that went to Daniel Craig, is starring for director James Cameron in "Avatar" and plays a pivotal role in the McG-directed "Terminator Salvation."

[MacGuffin]

Exclusive: Tarsem On War Of The Gods
His intriguing next film?
Source: Empire Online

We talked to director Tarsem Singh recently in anticipation of the DVD release of fantasy oddity The Fall on Monday, and he spilled a few intriguing-sounding beans on his hoped-for next film, War of the Gods. Here's what he had to say.

"It's  turning into, basically, Caravaggio meets Fight Club," he said.  "It's a really hardcore action film done in Renaissance painting style. I want to see how that goes; it's turned into something really cool. This guy who I really love, who's the only one person in it right now, is the brother in The Tudors, Henry Cavill. I'm going for a very contemporary look on top of that so I'm kind of going with, you know, Renaissance time with electricity. So it's a bit like Baz Luhrman doing Romeo + Juliet in Mexico; it's just talking a particular Greek tale and half contemporising it and telling it."

To say that this sounds so-weird-it's-awesome would be an understatement. Caravaggio was a big influence on Tarsem's Losing My Religion video (find that here) and we'd be lying if we said that "Caravaggio meets Fight Club" doesn't sound like just about the best idea ever (although someone should really do "da Vinci meets Halloween" if you ask us).

[MacGuffin]

Fight Club + classic art = The Cell director's new flick
Source: SciFi Wire

Tarsem Singh, the guy who brought you the cornea-kicking imagery of the whacked-out horror movie The Cell and the painfully gorgeous fantasy film The Fall, will start shooting his epic fantasy Dawn of War from April to June of next year in Montreal, according to tweets posted by Production Weekly.

Dawn of War, previously known as War of Gods (maybe the title was changed to avoid confusion with the upcoming Clash of the Titans and the video game God of War?), will tell the story of the Greek hero Theseus as he comes into conflict with Titans and invading barbarians, according to Movie Web. Henry Cavill of Showtime's The Tudors will star. Earlier this year in an interview with Empire Online, Tarsem described the project as "Caravaggio meets Fight Club. It's a really hardcore action film done in Renaissance painting style. I want to see how that goes; it's turned into something really cool."

Now, if anybody else besides Tarsem, who directed the iconic R.E.M. video for "Losing My Religion" had said his next project was "Caravaggio meets Fight Club," we'd have to take it with a baseball-sized lump of salt.

So, with Louis Leterrier doing Perseus and Tarsem doing Theseus, which Greek mythological hero should next get the big-screen treatment?

[MacGuffin]

Hurt, Lucas join former 'War' pic
Relativity's mythology tale now called 'Immortals'
Source: Variety

Relativity Media has changed the title of its Greek mythology tale from "War of the Gods" to "Immortals" and rounded out the cast with John Hurt and Isabel Lucas.

Story follows the young warrior Theseus, who leads his men into battle with the immortal Greek gods to defeat the elder gods of the Titans in order to save mankind. Tarsem Singh directs the pic, which began shooting in Montreal this week.

Henry Cavill, Stephen Dorff, Luke Evans, Kellan Lutz, Joseph Morgan, Freida Pinto and Mickey Rourke had been announced previously for the cast. Hurt will portray the earthly manifestation of Zeus, who acts as a mentor and teacher to Theseus, portrayed by Cavill. Lucas will portray Athena, the daughter of Zeus.

Producers are Gianni Nunnari of Hollywood Gang Productions, Mark Canton of Atmosphere Entertainment MM and Ryan Kavanaugh, CEO of Relativity Media. Christian Gudegast wrote the screenplay, based on a script by Charley and Vlas Parlapanides.

Hurt recently completed director Rowan Joffe's "Brighton Rock," opposite Helen Mirren. Lucas recently starred in "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen."

Universal has set a November 11, 2011, release date.

[Ravi]

Another Greek god film?  Tarsem, please make another The Fall.

[Pubrick]

Another Greek god film? 

yeah but this one i'll actually watch.

[MacGuffin]

Tarsem Singh Says He Initially Had "No Interest" For 'Immortals,' Spent A Year Retooling Script
Director Says He Made Necessary Changes In Mythology To Suit His Story
Source: The Playlist

When fanciful visualist Tarsem Singh was first offered the chance to direct "Immortals," initially he wasn't having it.

"Genre rarely interest me, so when everybody wanted to make the film, immediately I said, 'No interest,' " the director recently admitted in an interview at WonderCon. Eventually Singh was swayed, but not before he demanded to put his stamp and overhaul what he thought was fairly predictable material. "The script I [initially] got... in the end it reflects nothing of what I originally came to it with," he said. "I just saw the script and said, 'right now it's a genre,' but that will...let's say open the vault [to other things]." After marinating on the basic idea, the director of "The Fall" and "The Cell" thought, "I can I bring enough of my DNA to get into this particular film. It will take me at least a year and a half to design it, and a year and a half to make sure that enough of what I want to do ends up in the movie."

"Originally I think Henry's character was the King's son and blah blah and everything, in the end he's the son of a peasant now. I knew it was going to evolve," he said. "Forget about when the Romans imagined them, when the Renaissance came in and they saw the Greek tales they switched them up, especially in painting renditions of the war, and I said, ''If I'm making it today I don't want to remain true to a particular period. I didn't go as far as Romeo and Juliet in Mexico, which I adored, but I had to kind of figure out, what are the rules that apply to this world and it's not consistent in that particular form."

The filmmaker demanded a hand in the casting and "everything." And of course some of his choices were second-guessed, including lead actor Henry Cavill. But the recent casting of Cavill in Zack Snyder's "Man of Steel" suddenly made Tarsem "look like a genius," he said.

Though Singh sounds tough, Isabel Lucas ("Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"), who plays Athena in the film, said he was easy to work with (and easier than Michael Bay). "He's not a boss at all, that's the point," she said. "He was more like a friend, we'd all be going out for dinner all the time and shouting at dinners everywhere and yeah, like very technical and very vision-driven director, but also an actor's director and really encouraging us to explore our individual creative styles. It's very different from Michael Bay, with him you're nearly like a chess character and you know that's what you sign up for but with Tarsem it's much more creative in a way."

As for knowing Roman and Greek mythology well and sticking to those folklores, Singh said, "it was drilled into us in school," but he didn't feel obligated to stick to either legend if it compromised what he wanted to do with the narrative. Changes were necessary.

"Do I think I followed it enough? I don't think so," he said. "It's a story about Odysseus, it's a caveman telling a caveman story in dinosaur times, they do not exist together but if it solves all of your theatrical problems you try to go with it."

"I mean I loved [the 1981 film] "Caveman" with Ringo Star and dinosaurs in it. I saw that movie in India and I thought it perfectly worked until someone said, '[Dinosaurs and cavemen] never together,' he said as an example of the necessity for changing history for dramatic purposes. "When I look at Odysseus being intervened with the gods, I took what I thought worked with the tales of the gods. The issues of immortality, do you really want to live forever? So those subject matters I was interested in I said okay, gods stay and we put them in the time of Odysseus. [But no], they were never together."

Singh also preemptively told purists to stick to their books if they're going to complain as the two are simply different mediums. "If you are really a literature fan, I suggest you should read more literature, because I don't think films should stay that close to books because literature's brilliant and books are brilliant and if the two don't mix ...don't."

"Immortals," is set to bow into 3D theaters on November 11.

[MacGuffin]

Game, Set, Match? Relativity Moves Tarsem's Snow White Movie To March 16, 2012
Source: The Playlist

Like two drunken frat boys engaged in a pissing match for bragging rights, Universal and Relativity have been fighting it out over their competing Snow White movies both set to hit next year. In one corner, we have "Snow White and the Huntsman" with Chris Hemsworth as the huntsman, Charlize Theron set to play the evil queen, Kristen Stewart as Snow White, and "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" star Sam Clafin as the prince. In the other corner, we have Tarsem's untitled Snow White movie with Julia Roberts, Armie Hammer, Lily Collins, Nathan Lane and Robert Emms. Originally, Tarsem's film was set to be released on June 29, 2012, with Universal's picture coming arriving in December. But last week, Universal announced they were moving their film all the way up to June 1st and switching out their film with Judd Apatow's forthcoming "Knocked Up" spin off, which they bumped to the end of the year. But it looks like Relativity now has the last laugh. The studio has announced that their still untitled film, set to be directed by Tarsem, will arrive in less than ten months on March 16, 2012. The move is massive, pushing the film ahead by three months and now putting the production under tremendous time constraints (if you thought "X-Men: First Class" was rushed, you ain't seen nothing yet). And to put a bit more salt in the wound, Relativity has also announced that they'll be releasing "Safe Haven," an adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel, right opposite "Snow White And The Huntsman" on June 1st. That's gotta hurt. We're not quite sure what Universal will do now. They can't really move their film ahead any further unless they want to crank it out in nine months and regardless, at least two of their stars are tied up with another film at the moment (Charlize Theron is shooting "Prometheus" and Chris Hemsworth is filming "The Avengers"). Looks like they lose this round and walk away with some serious egg on their faces. As for Relativity, March 16th is no easy weekend. They will be squaring off against "21 Jump Street" with Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum as well as the Mark Wahlberg thriller "Contraband." So it looks like the saga of which Snow White film will come first has been resolved. Shooting on the Tarsem film will gear up next month. And oh yeah, Phillip Noyce's Navy Seal/World War III thriller "Hunter Killer" has also been set for December 21, 2012 and it's another spit in the eye to Universal who have Judd Apatow's next film—rumored to be titled "This Is Forty"—set for the same weekend.

[Ravi]

http://screenrant.com/mirror-mirror-movie-snow-white-sandy-138862/

Tarsem Singh's 'Snow White' Movie Titled 'Mirror Mirror'
Nov 4, 2011 by Sandy Schaefer



Even though principal photography wrapped on director Tarsem Singh's Snow White project back in mid-September of this year – and we've already been treated to a plethora of eye-catchingly colorful imagery from the film – Relativity Media has been holding off on announcing the actual title of the fairy tale retelling... until now.

Meanwhile, Universal's period action-adventure spin on the famous Snow White tale, entitled Snow White and the Huntman, will hit theaters just a few months after Singh's movie does. So, how then will Relativity strive to convince moviegoers who know nothing about either Snow White project that it is something unique?

The answer is... by not actually including "Snow White" in the title. Singh's film has instead been dubbed Mirror Mirror, in reference to the classic phrase that the Evil Queen (Julia Roberts) uses while consulting her enchanted mirror on the matter of who "the fairest in the land" is.

Singh's Mirror Mirror is officially described as a "spirited adventure comedy filled with jealousy, romance, and betrayal" where Robert's malicious villainess forces her daughter-in-law, played by Lily Collins (The Blind Side, Abduction), into exile following the death of the king (Sean Bean), and takes control of the faraway kingdom. Collins' princess thereafter joins forces with a band of seven small-stature "rebels" who help the young woman fight and reclaim her birthright.

Machine Gun Preacher scripter Jason Keller and Melissa Wallack (Meet Bill) collaborated on the screenplay for Mirror Mirror, the cast of which also includes The Social Network star Armie Hammer as Prince "Charming" Andrew Alcott and Nathan Lane (The Lion King, The Birdcage) as the Queen's comical servant. More than that, this flick looks to be as visually splendid a piece of cinema as any of Singh's previous films, including, the upcoming 300-style swords & sandals epic, Immortals.

Whether this project will also amount to an entertaining and creative "updating" of the traditional Snow White story – or a thematically bland piece of eye candy – remains to be seen. As always, here's hoping for the best...

Mirror Mirror will arrive in theaters around the U.S. on March 16th, 2012.

Source: Relativity Media

[Stefen]

I'll watch it. Snow White is a cool story, and if nothing else Tarsem's visuals are always top notch.