Rian Johnson

Started by MacGuffin, August 06, 2006, 09:34:21 PM

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MacGuffin

Brothers Bloom Next for Brick Director

Well, this is both exciting and infuriating: An official site has popped up for a movie called The Brothers Bloom, apparently the sophomore effort from Rian Johnson, whose hard-boiled-detective-story-in-high-school debut, Brick, was praised by pretty much everyone. The new film is described on the site as "a con man movie," and the few sketches there place it firmly in the first half of the 20th century. Because the characters are wearing slouchy hats, everyone who is speculating about the film is comparing it to The Sting, which is probably setting it up for spectacular failure -- I mean, the movie could be great and still not come within shouting distance of The Sting's virtual perfection, right?

What's infuriating about the news is that the Brothers Bloom site is essentially just a riddle: It consists of three sketches, a soundtrack and a few short quotes from writers who aren't named Rian Johnson. No information on plot, release date, stars -- nothin'. The only details I can find online come from a couple of interviews Johnson gave back in April. In those conversations, he described the film as "globe-trotting," and indicated that casting was already underway.
"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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MacGuffin

Weisz pulls off 'Brothers' con with Johnson
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Writer-director Rian Johnson has cast Oscar winner Rachel Weisz in "The Brothers Bloom," an international con man adventure that will be Johnson's follow-up to 2005's teen film noir "Brick."

The project was announced Tuesday by producers Ram Bergman and Endgame Entertainment's Jim Stern.

Endgame has raised equity financing for the film, budgeted at more than $20 million and scheduled to start production in February. The shoot will cover 12 countries in Europe, Scandinavia and Asia. Johnson is scouting locations in Europe.

Weisz, who won a supporting actress Oscar for "The Constant Gardener," stars in "Brothers" as a mysterious millionaire who turns the tables on a veteran team of con men who take on one last job after the younger brother threatens to quit the family business.

"Brothers" reunites Bergman and Johnson, who teamed on the critically hailed rookie feature "Brick," which won the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in January and was released by Focus Features.

USC grad Johnson was wooed by the studios but preferred to remain independent, Bergman said. The writer-director has been prepping two original scripts and completed "Brothers" first. "As long as he can generate his own material, he's not looking at anything else" Bergman said. "Financing is not an issue. It came very quickly. Endgame will be a good partner; they understand what it takes to make a movie."

Stern compared "Brothers" to "a great con artist film such as 'The Sting.' " Bergman, who hopes to bring the movie to Cannes in 2008, added, "This is a big, fun commercial movie, but it's pretty original."

The two thirtysomething American male leads have yet to be cast. In advance of the American Film Market, the filmmakers have brought in the Weinstein Co. to handle international sales for the film; CAA will sell domestic distribution rights. Wendy Japhet, Endgame's new president of production, is the executive producer.

Weisz next stars opposite Hugh Jackman in Darren Aronofsky's "The Fountain," due in theaters Nov. 22. She recently wrapped production on Wong Kar Wai's "My Blueberry Nights" and is shooting Working Title's "Definitely Maybe," written and directed by Adam Brooks. She begins production in December on Noam Morro's "Smart People" opposite Dennis Quaid.
"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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modage

wow good for him.  20 million budget in 12 europeon countries is pretty huge.  weisz is awesome as well.  i hope he can handle it!
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

MacGuffin

'Bloom' on for Brody, Kikuchi
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Screenwriter-director Rian Johnson has cast Oscar winner Adrien Brody and Oscar nominee Rinko Kikuchi to join Oscar-winner Rachel Weisz in Endgame Entertainment's "The Brothers Bloom," an international con man adventure that is Johnson's follow-up to 2005's teen film noir "Brick."

The Weinstein Co. International is selling foreign territories at this month's Berlin International Film Festival; CAA and Cinetic Media are selling domestic rights. The project is produced by Ram Bergman and Endgame Entertainment's Jim Stern.

Endgame has raised equity financing for the film, budgeted at more than $20 million and scheduled to start production March 19 in 12 countries in Europe, Scandinavia and Asia.

Brody will play Bloom, the younger brother in a veteran team of con men who falls for a mysterious millionaire (Weisz) who turns the tables on them as they take on one last job after Brody threatens to quit the family business. Kikuchi will play the brothers' sexy and secretive accomplice.

"Brothers" reunites Bergman and Johnson, who teamed on the critically hailed rookie feature "Brick," which won the Special Jury Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and was released by Focus Features. Stern has compared "Brothers" to "The Sting." Bergman hopes to bring the movie to the Festival de Cannes in 2008. Wendy Japhet, Endgame's new president of production, is the executive producer.

Johnson was wooed by Brody's "natural charm and intelligence," he said. "Rinko blew me -- and everyone else in the world -- away in 'Babel.' "
"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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polkablues

And now... FUN WITH OUT-OF-CONTEXT QUOTES!

Quote from: MacGuffin on February 06, 2007, 01:11:26 AM
Johnson was wooed by Brody's "natural charm and intelligence," he said. "Rinko blew me[.]"


:bravo: :bravo: :bravo: :bravo: :bravo: :bravo: :bravo: :bravo: :bravo: :bravo: :bravo: :bravo: :bravo: :bravo: :bravo: :bravo:




But in all seriousness, I'm very excited about this movie.
My house, my rules, my coffee

modage

Ruffalo bursts into 'Bloom'
Source: Variety

Mark Ruffalo is joining Endgame Entertainment's "The Brothers Bloom" alongside Adrien Brody, Rinko Kikuchi and Rachel Weisz.

Ruffalo will portray the older brother in a conman team with Brody; Kikuchi, who's Oscar-nominated for her role in "Babel," will play the brothers' partner in crime who may be hiding secrets of her own. Ruffalo will be seen next in "Zodiac," "Reserveration Road" and "Where the Wild Things Are."

"Brothers" was penned and will be directed by Rian Johnson in his first project since helming "Brick." Production begins next month.

Endgame Entertainment is financing and producing with Ram Bergman. Endgame's Jim Stern is handling producer duties and Endgame production prexy Wendy Japhet is exec producing.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

MacGuffin

Johnson's Loop-y Film
The Brick director says a sci-fi story is next for him.

Rian Johnson, writer-director of the upcoming The Brothers Bloom, has informed IGN that his next project will be a science fiction film.

"It's called Looper," Johnson said during a recent visit to the edit bay for The Brothers Bloom. "It's sci-fi, but it's very much -- well, I think people toss out Philip Dick sci-fi when they mean 'small, dark' sci-fi. Although, when I think of Philip Dick's books, it's something very different. I think people are confusing it with the movie Blade Runner."

Johnson, who previously wrote and directed the high school-film noir hybrid Brick, explained that the film would be set in a sci-fi reality, but deal more with characters than fantastical conceits. "To me, it's a lot more like the first Terminator," he said. "It's very sci-fi, but it's very character-based and very concentrated. It's very different from the Terminator movies, but it's like the first Terminator in that time travel is involved with it, but only as a plot device.

Comparing it to The Brothers Bloom, he added, "It's going to be really different than this. It's really violent and dark."
"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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theyarelegion

"The film opens very promising however.  A delightful voice-over narration from magician extraordinaire Ricky Jay, whose interesting speech rhythms (on display in most David Mamet films, but also in the opening set-up for P.T. Anderson's Magnolia) set the stage for the bubbly confidence caper film to follow."

full review at: http://twitchfilm.net/site/view/tiff-review-the-brothers-bloom/

MacGuffin

Rian Johnson's future target: 'Looper'
Writer-director to team with Ram Bergman on thriller
Source: Hollywood Reporter

NEW YORK -- "The Brothers Bloom" writer-director Rian Johnson has set a new project, a time-travel thriller titled "Looper" that again will see the filmmaker seek to reinvent a familiar genre.

The project will team Johnson with producer Ram Bergman, who produced Johnson's previous two films, with the pair eyeing a 2009 start date. Johnson again will direct from his own script.

Endgame Entertainment, which financed and produced "Bloom," will likely come on to finance and produce "Looper," though the principals said there have been no formal negotiations yet.

"Looper" is set in a present-day world in which a group of hitmen are sent their victims from the future.

Johnson is known for giving a traditional format an original spin. His debut "Brick," a media and cult hit released by Focus in 2006, set a noir tale in a contemporary Southern California high school, while "Bloom" is a modern take on the conman picture, with Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo as brothers who may or may not be conning a wealthy eccentric (Rachel Weisz).

Summit, which bested a number of suitors last year to pick up "Bloom" off a script and promo reel in a reported eight-figure deal, will release the film in December and, along with "Twilight," will make the title one of its first major releases.

"Bloom" garnered strong word-of-mouth at this month's Toronto International Film Festival, with Johnson telling The Hollywood Reporter that the conventions of the conman movie helped him create the story.

"The nice thing about doing a movie like this is that you can use the audience's expectations as part of the storytelling," he said.
"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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MacGuffin

Director Rian Johnson unravels his time-travel drama Looper
Source: SciFiWire

Director Rian Johnson (The Brothers Bloom) told SCI FI Wire that his next project, Looper, involves time travel but doesn't sacrifice character in the name of high-concept storytelling. "It's got time travel in it, but it uses time travel as the setup for a situation," Johnson said in an exclusive interview last month.

"But it's very character-based," Johnson added. "Especially in the second half of it, it definitely goes someplace you wouldn't quite expect it to go. Just like with The Brothers Bloom, that ended up being the part of it that both challenged and excited me the most—the fact that the back half of the script, a large part of it just hangs on the interactions between three characters, without a lot of plot to lean on. That's really, really hard for me, and really challenging, and also exciting. And fun, since it's what I've probably put the most work into."

Looper is set in a present-day world in which a group of hit men are sent their victims from the future.

Johnson spoke exclusively to SCI FI Wire while promoting The Brothers Bloom. The following is an edited version of that interview.

So how's Looper coming?

Johnson: I just finished the first draft two days ago, and it's a first draft, so I'm now kind of just wandering around confused. No, I sent it out and showed it to some people, just kind of working on making a second draft. But it's way too soon to have any kind of perspective. But I had a great time during the writing process. It is so completely different than Bloom that it was refreshing. I'm excited about it, and I can feel a kind of—it's getting to the point where I think about it for 70 percent of the day, which is a good point.

What's your revision process like?

Johnson: Again, probably as a function of this just being my third film, I don't have a set thing that I do, but that's one thing that I've been trying to work on in terms of myself, that's revision. I'm really bad about having the discipline to rewrite, just because it's such a long process for me, of writing. I really do plan things out for a few years before I sit down and start actually writing, but at that point everything that is down on paper [has] been in your head for so long. But that's something that I'm making a real conscious effort to avoid. I'm trying to be as brutal as possible in the writing process on paper with this, just to try and get it as tight as I can.

Is it action-oriented?

Johnson: Not really. It's got action in it; it's got lots of action, and it's pretty violent.

What kind of music have you thought about using in the film?

Johnson: I've talked a little bit with Nathan Johnson [Rian's cousin], who did the score for Brick and The Brothers Bloom. He was going to do Looper, and I talked to him a little bit, and we have some notions, but Nathan actually hasn't read the script yet. So once he does we'll actually sit down and have a conversation about it. [But] the one thing that I had as an idea was that it was going to be a lot more sparse than Bloom and Brick. I want to pull way back on the amount of music in the movie. But as a disconnected idea, who knows if it may even see it through the production?

How do you communicate your ideas with Nathan? Is the process easier since he's also your cousin?

Johnson: I'm very collaborative with Nathan, and we've been making movies together since we were 10. It does generally start with me giving him some reference points; like, for Brick it was Morricone scores, and for Bloom it was a combination of '70s American folk-rock, like The Band. Of course it goes somewhere different from there, but that's the starting point.

So for Looper that's probably the first thing: I'll start feeding him some stuff and some ideas. But right now I have strings in my head for it, a very clean and completely string-based type of thing. So we might start exploring in that direction, but that's a nice thing about keeping it in the family: You can hang out with these people that you've known for years, and it's not a shorthand, because that makes it sound like you're taking a shortcut, but it's a lack of ego on both sides. It's just completely able to be about the work, I guess.
"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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MacGuffin

Joseph Gordon-Levitt eyeing roles in two action thrillers (exclusive)
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who last starred as a lovelorn man in "(500) Days of Summer," is taking a turn into action territory.

The actor is in final negotiations to star in "Premium Rush," a Columbia chase thriller being directed by David Koepp. He also is in talks to topline "Looper," a sci-fi thriller that will reteam him with "Brick" director Rian Johnson.

"Rush" sees Gordon-Levitt as a New York bike messenger who picks up an envelope at Columbia University, only to be chased throughout the city by a dirty cop desperate to get his hands on it.

Koepp, one of the town's hottest screenwriters, wrote the script with John Kamps. Gavin Polone, who produced "Zombieland" for the studio, is producing the pic, which is eyeing a late-summer start. Matt Tolmach and Elizabeth Cantillon are overseeing for the studio.

Gordon-Levitt then could segue to "Looper," the latest movie from Johnson. Veteran producer Ram Bergman is producing with Endgame, which also is financing.

Johnson gave Gordon-Levitt one of his first major roles as the actor was coming off five years worth of "3rd Rock From the Sun." Gordon-Levitt's role in "Brick" represented a 180-degree turn from his NBC sitcom work.

"Looper" is set during a future in which time travel has been invented, with operatives sent back to the present to assassinate criminals. Gordon-Levitt will play a man sent back to kill himself.

Repped by CAA and attorney Karl Austen, Gordon-Levitt next appears in Christopher Nolan's "Inception" and stars in the indie drama "Hesher," which premiered this year at Sundance.
"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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Pubrick

Quote from: MacGuffin on May 04, 2010, 10:11:08 AM
Joseph Gordon-Levitt eyeing roles in two action thrillers (exclusive)

Pubrick Rolling Eyes in Anticipation of Rian Johnson's Next Film
under the paving stones.

polkablues

Quote from: P on May 04, 2010, 11:54:30 AM
Quote from: MacGuffin on May 04, 2010, 10:11:08 AM
Joseph Gordon-Levitt eyeing roles in two action thrillers (exclusive)

Pubrick Rolling Eyes in Anticipation of Rian Johnson's Next Film

Polkablues Still Baffled by Rian Johnson Haters, I Mean It's Not Like He's Richard Kelly or Justin Lin or Something
My house, my rules, my coffee

Captain of Industry

I made the mistake of buying the Rian Johnson directed Life of the World to Come dvd.  Big (well, $18) mistake.

MacGuffin

CANNES: Bruce Willis Plays Mature Joseph Gordon-Levitt In Time Travel Pic 'Looper'
By MIKE FLEMING; Deadline Hollywood
 
EXCLUSIVE: Bruce Willis is joining the cast of Looper, a science fiction time travel tale that reunites the Brick team of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and writer/director Rian Johnson. The Terminator-esque action film has a clever premise. Loopers are hit men whose victims are sent back in time from the future to be executed. The Loopers bump them off in the present, so there is no trace of a crime in the future. I'm told that Willis and Gordon-Levitt will play the same character, in those different time frames. That ploy is also being used in Men in Black 3, with Josh Brolin playing the younger version of Tommy Lee Jones's Agent Kay. CAA is repping North American rights, and FilmNation Entertainment is repping it. Insiders said it is not being shopped at this fest. But buyers are all over it.
"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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