Beginning with what started here:
http://xixax.com/viewtopic.php?p=162230#162230
Some of my faves:
Gia (yes it's an HBO 'TV Movie', but it's better than most biopics, especially for Angelina Jolie's performance)
The Buddy Holly Story
Raging Bull
Schindler's List
The Elephant Man
Ed Wood
Sid & Nancy
Bugsy
Blow
Basquiat
The Miracle Worker
My Left Foot
The People vs. Larry Flynt
Tucker: The Man and His Dream
Malcolm X
Nixon
What's Love Got To Do With It
Lenny
Rudy (sap, I know, but it always brings a tear to my eye)
No La Bamba?
"he doesn't want a wife. he wants a love slave, one that he can kick around."
I'll toss in:
The Last Emperor
Reds
Quote from: StefenNo La Bamba?
While I like it, and I do own the DVD, it's not one of my favorites. I think "Buddy Holly" is a better 'rock-n-roll' biopic, with a greater performance by Gary Busey.
I should also add "The Doors" since it's really more about Jim Morrison than about the band.
Well, does Almost Famous count?
Or is it just 51% "Based on a True Story"?
;)
I liked kundun
If almost famous counts, velvet goldmine should too.
Chaplin
Quote from: rustinglassIf almost famous counts, velvet goldmine should too.
they dont. do you guys know what a biopic is?
Seabisquit 8)
the enigma of kaspar hauser. or selena. I can't decide.
Sylvia with Gwyneth Paltrow
all that jazz can kind of be considered an autobiopic
Amadeus
Bonnie and Clyde
Immortal Beloved - Gary Oldman was great in it
frida
Dracula
Would Stand and Deliver count? So many great lines in that movie.
"This is review! You're acting like a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn't there!"
"Don't gimme no guess. I'll jump on your face. Tattoo your chromosomes."
"I strangled him, his body's decomposing in my lockerrrrr..."
Also...
Basquiat
Before Night Falls
Malcolm X
American Splendor
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Amadeus
Lenny
and I think that Ali was great but that they should have focused more on his ENTIRE life, not just those 10 years.
nixon
jfk (if not for the man, then for jim garrison)
max
fear and loathing in las vegas
-sl-
sydney
larry flynt
kundun
last emp
nixon
what about bob
cb4
about schmidt....no nevermind.actually yeah, thats pretty good.
and..... casino
and..... lightning over water
ok that's it.
A few thoughts --
A friend of mine dislikes biopics because they always have the same unimaginative structure -- this happened, then this, then this happened, etc. Basically biopics are locked into a rigid structure, and must slavishly adhere to depicting the "highlights" of someone's life. I think it depends on how interesting the subject is. Hence, Ed Wood is more interesting than La Bamba.
I don't think Bonnie and Clyde is a biopic -- it's a drama that uses real-life characters. A biopic, in my opinion, deals with a longer time frame than most dramatic movies, and is really a character study of one person.
Raging Bull is one of the best biopics because it doesn't seem like a biopic. It shows us all the highlights (and low points) of Jake La Motta's life without seeming like a Richard Attenborough-esque "Greatest Moments From Great Lives."
I just re-watched Lenny, and I think it influenced Raging Bull a great deal.
It is interesting to note that a bunch of biopics will be top Oscar contenders this year -- Ray, The Aviator, Passion of the Christ, Alexander.
Quote from: socketleveljfk (if not for the man, then for jim garrison)
But that's not even a biopic on Garrison. It's all about his investigation.
Quote from: socketlevel
max
Yeah, god, noah taylor was great in that.
I have to see it again.
Amiel and Foster Play Picabo
The life of Olympic downhill skier Picabo Street will be the subject of a feature film from director Jon Amiel and producer David Foster. The underdog story has been cleverly pegged as Skibiscuit.
A writer and studio for the project are currently being sought. Street was born and raised in a hippie commune and overcame great odds to become a champion skier. Street won the gold medal at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan, and then shattered her leg into pieces just weeks after the Games. While doctors predicted she would never walk again, Street spent four years retraining herself to walk and ski again. She managed to work her way back and qualify for the U.S. Olympic team once again and was just enshrined in the U.S. Ski Hall of Fame.
Amiel and Foster collaborated on The Core and are ski buddies, along Eric Preston, who will serve as co-producer and introduced them to Street.
what about man on the moon? one of the few films where jim carrey isnt totally irritating.
Quote from: potatywhat about man on the moon?
Welcome to Xixax! Enjoy your stay!
Quote from: potatyone of the few films where jim carrey isnt totally irritating.
Get out.
what part of my statement offends you??
is it that i called jim carrey annoying?
or because i said he isnt annoying in man on the moon?
Sorry, I was just kidding around. Xixax is like that. So enjoy your stay.
But stand way the fuck away from me.
haha! i love this place! merry christmas everybody! :yabbse-grin:
Wow who knew the concept of 'biopic' was so hard to grasp
Ok, so a dictionary definition of biopic is
"A film or television biography, often with fictionalized episodes."
I've always seen biopic as a story of a man's (or woman's) life. The combination of "epic" and "biography"...
Max, though a good film, is not a biography. It's a part of a man's life, but it deals with a specific timeframe which then goes onto define him (partially) as the person he ends up being. With Hitler, we fill in the gaps automatically, creating it into a biopic.
Then again, I do partially consider Ed Wood a biopic, as it spans the most "interesting" parts of his career.
Shit. I don't know...
Something like Citizen Kane strikes me as more of a biopic, in spite of its fictional protagonist.
We start falling into "dramadocumentary" category here, and that just confused the hell out of me in uni...
Again, all of this is presented as purely my own, somewhat humble, and quite obviously confused opinion.
The Aviator
Springfield biopic nabs Chenoweth
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Kristin Chenoweth is attached to star as Dusty Springfield for a Universal Pictures biopic of the soul singer. Jessica Sharzer will write and direct the movie, which is being produced by studio-based Marc Platt along with Chenoweth and Untitled Entertainment's Danielle Thomas.
Born in Britain as Mary O'Brien in 1939, Springfield became the finest white soul singer of her era, with such hits as "I Only Want to Be With You" and "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself," embodying the 1960s with her beehive hairdo and panda-eye black mascara. In 1969, Springfield released what is widely considered her masterpiece, "Dusty in Memphis," an album that yielded the classic "Son of a Preacher Man" but was a commercial failure.
The singer battled substance abuse and a decline in artistic fortunes that ended only when she dueted with the Pet Shop Boys for 1990's "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" She died in 1999 at age 59 after a long battle with cancer.
The movie will focus primarily on Springfield's life in the '60s, culminating with the making of "Dusty in Memphis."
Vicki Wickham, Springfield's longtime manger, will be a consultant on the project.
Chenoweth starred in Broadway's "Wicked," which earned her a best actress Tony award. On the feature side, she will appear in "Bewitched" and "The Pink Panther" this year and has a recurring role on NBC's "The West Wing." She is in production on "Running With Scissors" and "Stranger Than Fiction" and shoots "R.V." next month.
Sharzer, who won a student Academy Award in 2002, wrote and directed "Speak," starring Kristen Stewart.
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parajanov: the last spring
I've always had a soft spot for Bugsy (1991, Barry Levinson). It was one of the movies I wanted to see when I was a kid but my parents wouldn't let me. And then when it came on TV I recorded it and was so stoked and thought it was the best movie ever because Warren Beatty wore those cool clothes and Bugsy was a cool name for a gangster. I haven't seen it in a while. I hope the movie still holds up.
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nndb.com%2Fpeople%2F719%2F000022653%2Fwbeatty-as-bugsy.jpg&hash=923d3e3aa4b849f2491691a01da67e62a0da613c)
"Twenty dwarves...took turns...doing handstands...on the carpet."
Notorious B.I.G. coming to big screen
The life of slain rapper Notorious B.I.G. is getting the big-screen treatment.
Fox Searchlight has hired journalist Cheo Hodari Coker, the last person to interview B.I.G. before his death, to write the script. Director Antoine Fuqua ("Training Day") is in negotiations to take the helm.
Born Christopher Wallace, then taking the moniker Biggie Smalls because of his more than 6-foot, 400-pound frame before settling on alias Notorious B.I.G., the rapper went from a Brooklyn crack dealer to East Coast hip-hop sensation. He helped establish Sean "P. Diddy" Combs' Bad Boy label as a hip-hop presence and aided artists like Lil' Kim and wife Faith Evans.
B.I.G. was involved in a feud with West Coast rapper Tupac Shakur, who was gunned down in a Las Vegas drive-by in late 1996. In March 1997, B.I.G. was shot as he was leaving a party at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
B.I.G.'s murder has never been solved. In 2002, Evans and Wallace filed a civil suit against the LAPD and the City of Los Angeles, alleging that police were involved. A mistrial was declared earlier this month, and a new trial is expected.
The film will be produced by B.I.G.'s mother, Voletta Wallace, and his former managers Wayne Barrow and Mark Pitts. Barrow said the trio had been trying to get a film off the ground for the last five years.
"People wanted to give us check and do a film that they wanted to do, but Searchlight gave us the opportunity to really be able to come in and tell the story the way it was supposed to be told," Barrow said. "It's not just a hip-hop film, it's a film of life and a film of love. We didn't want to sell our souls to the devil, so to speak, just to get a check. The story is too important, not just to us but to hip-hop."
Barrow said he hoped to be in production early next year, and the most challenging aspect of the film will be casting.
"The most important element to casting B.I.G. is what we consider the swagger," Barrow said. "They have to have the element of the man and be able to capture the essence of who he was and his maneuvering, his relishings of life. You can't instill this in an individual, you just have to have it."
Coker has written for Vibe, the Los Angeles Times and Premiere. He is the author of "Unbelievable: The Life, Death, and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G." The biopic will not be based on the book, and Coker will work closely with the Wallace family to write the screenplay.
Coker also did a rewrite on a Bob Marley biopic at Warners and is working on an untitled thriller for Fuqua.
Somewhere, the fat guy from 8 Mile's phone is ringing.
that kid from the Sky's The Limit video should be the proper age right about now, 8 years later.
..if he hasn't had a heart attack.
I'll only see this if they cast Nick Cannon as P Diddy.
Elijah Lands Iggy Pop Role
The Lord Of The Rings star Elijah Wood has landed the role of a young Iggy Pop in a new movie but he's terrified of the prospect of portraying the outrageous punk icon. Wood will start shooting the top-secret film in 2006 and he admits he's getting more nervous as the start date approaches. He says, "I'm scared to death of doing it, because I love him (Iggy Pop) so much and I respect the music so much. I don't want to be the person responsible for screwing that up."
Quote from: MacGuffin"I don't want to be the person responsible for screwing that up."
He doesn't need to worry. The person responsible for screwing it up would be the one who cast
Elijah Wood as Iggy Pop.
Quote from: MacGuffinElijah Lands Iggy Pop Role
It's things like this that make me sure there is no god.
Pullman likes Dick
Source: Moviehole
The always versatile Bill Pullman ("Independence Day", "Casper", "Zero Effect") will play legendary author Philip K.Dick ("Minority Report", "Bladerunner") in the film "Panasonic", says Production Weekly.
The Matthew 'Break My Stride' Wilder directed film will be quite exceptional, by the sounds. It'll fix on how the lines between reality and perception blur in the mind of the infamous Sci-Fi writer – who's constantly determined there are conspiracies plotting against him and experiences drug-fueled interdimensional shifts.
This sounds no good. It really sounds like it'll piss RK off
Quote from: squints on August 01, 2006, 05:00:43 PM
This sounds no good. It really sounds like it'll piss RK off
yeah...
Matthew Wilder? the musician?
Seems like if they wanted to make a movie about PKD, they'd just just give Valis to Kaufman to adapt... and Bill Pullman? Why not just get fuckin Keanu again would probably be just as weak.
also... I didn't HATE Scanner
INXS lead Hutchence due for biopic
Former INXS frontman Michael Hutchence is getting the biopic treatment.
Music video director Nick Egan has teamed with writers Chester Hastings and Dean McCreary for "Slide Away," which will be produced by Clark Westerman.
Hutchence was the lead singer of "INXS," the Australian band that gained international success in the 1980s. He also released a solo album, "Max Q." Hutchence was known for his string of love affairs that included Kylie Minogue, Helena Christensen and Paula Yates. He died in 1997 at age 37.
The project's name comes from a posthumous duet that paired Hutchence with U2's Bono.
Westerman had been talking to Egan for about five years to do a film, but Egan, who had directed many INXS videos, was reluctant to do something on his deceased friend. After "Rock Star: INXS" left Westerman unimpressed with the way Hutchence's legacy was being treated, he approached Egan again.
"I said, 'Somebody else is going to do it, and they are not going to do it as well as you would because you knew him so well,' Westerman said. This time Egan said yes.
Although many in the U.S. might know Hutchence from the way he died -- he was found in his hotel room, with evidence of his cause of death pointing to either suicide or accidental death via autoerotic asphyxiation -- Westerman said "that is not the memory of what we are after, and that's not the story of who the man is. What we are aiming for is the journey through a person's life via their head."
The deal was a complicated yearlong affair, with the filmmakers acquiring the cooperation and participation of Hutchence's trust and the cooperation of his brother, Rhett. The filmmakers are now sifting through Hutchence's catalog.
Westerman is producing the upcoming "Pretty, Baby, Machine" and the adaptation of the best-selling book "I, Lucifer" with Films De La Suane/Gaumont.
Egan has directed music videos for Motley Crue, Oasis, Alanis Morissette, Mick Jagger, Duran Duran and Minogue. He came out of the production company Propaganda/Satellite, which served as a launchpad for such directors as David Fincher and Spike Jonze.
Quote from: RegularKarate on August 01, 2006, 08:01:42 PM
Quote from: squints on August 01, 2006, 05:00:43 PM
This sounds no good. It really sounds like it'll piss RK off
yeah...
Matthew Wilder? the musician?
Seems like if they wanted to make a movie about PKD, they'd just just give Valis to Kaufman to adapt... and Bill Pullman? Why not just get fuckin Keanu again would probably be just as weak.
also... I didn't HATE Scanner
Giamatti to Play Sci-Fi Author Philip K. Dick Source: Variety
Paul Giamatti is in talks to star as sci-fi author Philip K. Dick in an untitled biopic that his newly launched Touchy Feely Films is producing with Anonymous Content, reports Variety.
The authorized biopic also is being produced by the Philip K. Dick Estate through its Electric Shepherd Productions. Tony Grisoni (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) will write the screenplay.
Dick, who died in 1982, wrote more than four dozen books and numerous short stories, with at least seven being adapted for the big screen, including Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report. A Scanner Darkly is in theaters now.
The nontraditional biopic will interweave the prolific author's life with his fiction and incorporate elements of his last unfinished novel, "The Owl in Daylight."
Quote from: MacGuffin on August 08, 2006, 01:21:39 AM
Giamatti to Play Sci-Fi Author Philip K. Dick
The nontraditional biopic will interweave the prolific author's life with his fiction and incorporate elements of his last unfinished novel, "The Owl in Daylight."
THAT'S a lot more like it. As long as they don't try to make Giamatti too silly it could work.
Quote from: RegularKarate on August 09, 2006, 01:28:05 PMTHAT'S a lot more like it. As long as they don't try to make Giamatti too silly it could work.
Source: Cinematical
Okay, so now that we know there are two Philip K. Dick biopics in the works, the question becomes: Which one will garner more heat? So far, according to reports, one (Panasonic) has Bill Pullman in the lead role and the other (The Owl in Daylight) has Paul Giamatti. The screenplay for Panasonic is already complete, though Daylight's script still needs to be written. However, while Panasonic has a very random director in Matthew Wilder attached, word from the guys at film ick has it Terry Gilliam has come on to direct Owl in Daylight. Gilliam is reportedly co-writing the movie, which looks to have cut to the front of the line of the many other projects on his plate.
Quote from: MacGuffin on August 11, 2006, 12:39:33 PM
word from the guys at film ick has it Terry Gilliam has come on to direct Owl in Daylight. Gilliam is reportedly co-writing the movie, which looks to have cut to the front of the line of the many other projects on his plate.
A little too good to be true.. either the Pullman will Pull through, man... and I'll just hate it that much more... or Gilliam will make it and whatever evil magic caused him to make Grimm will strike again and it will suck.
Gyllenhaal's along for the ride
Cycling legend Lance Armstrong has privately confirmed speculation that Jake Gyllenhaal will portray him in a biopic.
He told sources at ESPN that Matthew McConaughey had been up to play the part, but lost out to Gyllenhaal.
"He said that's why he has been spending so much time with them both this summer," said the source.
Armstrong, who won the Tour de France a record seven times, hosted ESPN's ESPY Awards last month.
Wood to star as Iggy Pop
Gomez directs 'Passenger'
Source: Variety
CANNES — Former Hobbit Elijah Wood is to star as Iggy Pop in "The Passenger," a biopic of the legendary rocker.
Pic is to be exec produced by Ted Hope's This Is That Prods. and Traction Media, and repped in international territories by Oz-U.K. sales firm Becker Intl., which in Cannes is handling Directors Fortnight title "Control," about Brit band Joy Division. Traction Media will handle rights in North America.
"Passenger," which follows Pop's early years with his band the Stooges, is to be helmed by Nick Gomez ("Drowning Mona") from a script by Eric Schmid.
Pic will lense in next six months and is skedded for delivery by midsummer 2008. The $6 million-$8 million budget is being put together from a combination of pre-sales, a U.S. equity fund and tax credits from Philadelphia.
Pop has "given his blessing" to the project but will not take part in it, according to Becker's head of finance and operations Jonathan Page.
Tautou will channel Coco Chanel
Fontaine will helm the yet to be titled pic
Source: Variety
Audrey Tautou will star as Coco Chanel in a $15 million biopic about the legendary French fashion designer.
Anne Fontaine will helm the yet to be titled pic, with French shingles Haut et Court and Cine @ producing. Films Distribution is handling international sales.
The film, which will focus on Chanel's childhood and early womanhood, was specially conceived with Tautou in mind, said Haut et Court's Caroline Benjo.
"Anne said she would only make a film about Chanel if Audrey was in the lead. They met and both liked the idea."
Script, penned by Fontaine and Christopher Hampton, who is also creative consultant, was freely adapted from the Chanel biography "L'Irreguliere" by Edmonde Charles-Roux.
Pic is slated to shoot early in 2008.
A French thesp will play Etienne Balsan and an A-list Brit actor is being sought to play Englishman Arthur "Boy" Capel, two men in Chanel's life when she was still a young unknown.
Said Benjo: "It isn't really a biopic because it is about Chanel before she became famous, it is about the events and people that shaped her."
The woman who invented French chic was born into poverty as Gabrielle Chanel, the illegitimate daughter of a traveling salesman, in 1883. After the death of her mother and abandonment by her father she spent seven years in a Catholic orphanage, where she learned to sew. But fashion wasn't her first career choice. As a young woman, Chanel had ambitions to be a singer and it was while warbling "Who's Seen Coco in the Trocadero" in a cabaret that she acquired the nickname Coco.
While working as a cabaret singer, she also took to sewing the stage clothes for the likes of French cabaret star Mistinguette before being taken under the wing wealthy Balsan. His chateau became Chanel's home and her gateway to a new life.
Balsan introduced her to Capel, who played a crucial role in Chanel's rise to fashion fame and fortune.
There are two other French Chanel project the works.
William Friedkin will helm one focused on the fashion diva's relationship with Stravinsky, with "Lady Chatterley" thesp Marina Hands playing Chanel. Daniele Thompson is also writing a Chanel project.
Paul Giamatti Blurs Reality For Philip K. Dick Biopic 'Owl In Daylight'
Source: MTV
"Total Recall," "Blade Runner," "Minority Report," "Paycheck" – for years Hollywood has mined the twisted tales of science-fiction author Philip K. Dick to craft blockbuster movies. Now, seemingly, it's the author's own life that's all the rage.
While "Your Name Here," an unlicensed biography starring Bill Pullman and Taryn Manning, eyes a Sundance debut, Oscar nominee Paul Giamatti is setting his sights on a competing Dick project, titled "The Owl in Daylight."
"There's a guy writing a script right now," Giamatti told us.
The "The Owl in Daylight," which Dick was unable to finish before his death in 1982, is a complicated tale that involves Ed Firmley, a B-movie composer, a race of aliens that have evolved without the ability to hear sounds, and our deeply held believes about art, happiness, and, oh yeah, heaven. You know, light stuff.
But if reading the wiki synopsis makes the story sound complicated, that's nothing compared to how Giamatti and Co. are handling Dick's life – as a sort of Charlie Kauffman-esque experiment in blurring fiction and reality.
"The idea is to take one of his last stories and put him as a character in the story," Giamatti revealed. "A lot of his stories were about reality getting bent around, so we're trying to do that."
We've long been a fan of the author, but what's with the sudden fascination into his life?
"Well he was mentally ill in a lot of ways and he had lots of problems; he was married many times, was paranoid about a lot of things," Giamatti explained. "Strange guy. He had a very interesting, complicated life."
Quote from: MacGuffin on November 01, 2007, 12:51:53 AM
But if reading the wiki synopsis makes the story sound complicated
haha, how do i get a job writing for mtv news? i love their style. so lazy. they're like a rug on valium.
oh, and the news of a PKD bio is quite excellent. watch out, giamatti's got a knife! and he's pkd!
i'd go see that.
Gyllenhaal tapped for Namath film
'Zodiac' star to play Hall of Fame quarterback
Source: Variety
Universal Pictures will turn the life of Joe Namath into a feature film, with Jake Gyllenhaal playing the Hall of Fame quarterback.
David Hollander will write the script once the writers strike is over. Mad Chance's Andrew Lazar will produce. Jimmy Walsh, who runs Namanco Prods., exec produces.
Walsh said he and Namath OK'd the movie after a long pursuit by Lazar, a strong take by Hollander and the belief that the athletic Gyllenhaal was the right actor to play him.
While other quarterbacks racked up bigger lifetime stats, Namath became the first football player to achieve rock-star status. The pic will tell the story of how the golden-armed kid from Beaver Falls, Pa., became Broadway Joe, the New York Jets quarterback who became a '60s cultural figure.
When Namath emerged from Bear Bryant's football program at the U. of Alabama, the upstart American Football League was the stepchild to the powerhouse National Football League. Sonny Werblin, who'd left MCA after the Justice Dept. broke up Lew Wasserman's company, knew the value of star power and was determined to use it when he bought the Jets. He outbid the NFL, paid Namath a record $400,000 salary and turned him loose on New York. The handsome nonconformist became a sensation, on the field, in nightclubs and on Madison Avenue as the first star to become a magnet for commercials.
After backing up his guarantee that the Jets would beat the heavily favored Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III, Namath put the AFL on equal footing with the NFL, paved the way to a merger and helped establish football as a TV sport. He accomplished all of this on knees so bad that draft board doctors refused to send him to Vietnam for fear that they would give out on the battlefield.
"Most of the stuff you saw in 'Forest Gump,' Joe lived through all of it," said Walsh, who first met Namath on the Alabama campus and has worked with him ever since. They witnessed the struggle for civil rights in Alabama, the sexual revolution and Vietnam.
Gyllenhaal, who is coming off "Rendition" and "Zodiac," is currently shooting the Jim Sheridan-directed "Brothers" with Tobey Maguire and Natalie Portman and will follow that by teaming with Doug Liman on an untitled project at DreamWorks that revolves around a moon expedition.
Quote from: MacGuffin on November 28, 2007, 07:26:05 PM
"Most of the stuff you saw in 'Forest Gump,' Joe lived through all of it,"
yeah, wow, along with AN ENTIRE GENERATION.
anyway, i hope they have time to cover one of the greatest crises of his life..
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi5.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fy154%2Fpubrick%2Fsimps%2F200px-The_Simpsons_5F03.png&hash=ddbb504712312ee779f179e3ab2b1c6e11d50c75)
vapor lock.
Quote from: Pubrick on November 28, 2007, 08:30:12 PM
Quote from: MacGuffin on November 28, 2007, 07:26:05 PM
"Most of the stuff you saw in 'Forest Gump,' Joe lived through all of it,"
yeah, wow, along with AN ENTIRE GENERATION.
anyway, i hope they have time to cover one of the greatest crises of his life..
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi5.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fy154%2Fpubrick%2Fsimps%2F200px-The_Simpsons_5F03.png&hash=ddbb504712312ee779f179e3ab2b1c6e11d50c75)
vapor lock.
Come on, his most memorable moment as of late has to got to be this...
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi18.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fb116%2Fjcb7472%2F965f.jpg&hash=159fe202d2daacf5313729809a792074878e4d83)
Yeah, Pubrick, come on!
Universal goes for 'Gainsbourg'
Film is studio's first French-language project
Source: Variety
Universal's first local-language French pic will be based on the life of Gaul's iconic singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, who died in 1991.
"Serge Gainsbourg (vie heroique)" will mark graphic novelist Joann Sfar's debut as a helmer.
Eric Elmosnino has been tapped to play the chanteur who was as famous for his glamorous lovers, including Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin, as he was for penning such hits as "Je t'aime ... moi non plus."
French model Laetitia Casta will play Bardot, with Mylene Jampanoi set to play Gainsbourg's last paramour, Bambou, and Anna Mouglalis tapped to play French singer Juliette Greco, who collaborated with Gainsbourg for many years.
Pic will trace Gainsbourg from his youth growing up in 1940s Nazi-occupied Paris, when he was called Lucien Ginsberg, through to his transformation into the hard-living showman. He died in 1991 at age 62.
Pic starts lensing Jan. 19 in Paris for 13 weeks. Universal Pictures Intl. Studio is co-producing with Studio 37, the production banner of French telco giant Orange.
One World Films' Marc du Pontavice and Didier Lupfer are producing, with Sfar also penning the screenplay.
"Joann Sfar's cutting-edge creativity and unique take on the character of Serge Gainsbourg is what really drew us to this project," said Universal Pictures Intl. Studio prexy Christian Grass.
U will retain French theatrical and homevideo rights to the pic, which will be released in France in 2010.
Studio 37 gets the international rights, which will be handled by Kinology. Since launching in February, Universal Pictures Intl. Studio has been ramping up its local-language activities under Grass. The studio announced in May that it was co-funding Pedro Almodovar's "Broken Embraces," which reunites the Spanish helmer with muse Penelope Cruz.
UPI, along with Focus Features, is also co-funding Korean helmer Park Chan-wook's vampire pic "Thirst."
Fuck yeah. Histoire de Melody Nelson is an awesome album. One of my faves. It oozes sexiness.
Anne Hathaway gets 'Happy'
Actress to star as Judy Garland
Source: Variety
Anne Hathaway will play Judy Garland in the Weinstein Co.'s legit and film adaptations of the Gerald Clarke-penned biography "Get Happy."
TWC recently optioned legit and film rights to the book, first published by Delta in 2001.
VP of production and development Ben Famiglietti, whose purview includes both film and legit productions, said it is unclear which version would come first. The stage version would naturally be cheaper and quicker to produce, but some filmmakers could even guide both, starting with a film.
While Garland's life and legacy have been explored before in popular culture, Weinstein noted Clarke's take "is particularly outstanding because of its exclusive details from her own writings."
Famiglietti said Hathaway's commitment has already prompted strong interest from filmmakers, screenwriters and librettists.
"You get an enhanced perspective of Judy Garland through this book and we feel Anne can really put her own stamp on that," he said.
Garland was the subject of an Emmy-winning 2001 telepic produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. She also appeared as a character in Broadway's "The Boy From Oz," and Rufus Wainwright performed a sold-out, one-night re-creation of Garland's famed concert at Carnegie Hall.
"Get Happy" is the second legit project for Hathaway to be announced this spring. The thesp stars later this summer in the Shakespeare in the Park production of "Twelfth Night."
The actress, who showed off her singing chops during this year's Oscarcast, has long been discussed as a promising candidate for a Broadway stint. Over the past few years she's been tipped to be circling a couple of Rialto tuners, including "Guys and Dolls" (which opened this spring with another cast) and a potential revival of "Promises, Promises."
She was previously seen on the Gotham boards in an Encores! production of "Carnival" in 2002.
TWC's Garland plans fall in line with the recently-boosted profile of the company's legit projects.
A developing tuner version of "Finding Neverland," planned for a Rialto bow in 2010, is the first in a lineup that also includes stage adaptations of Pink Floyd's "The Wall," "Shakespeare in Love," "Chocolat," "Cinema Paradiso" and "Shall We Dance?"
Baron Cohen to play Freddie Mercury in film
GK Films taps 'Borat' thesp for biopic; Peter Morgan to write
Source: Variety
Sacha Baron Cohen will star in a Freddie Mercury biopic for Graham King's GK Films in partnership with Robert De Niro's and Jane Rosenthal's Tribeca Prods. and Queen Films.
Peter Morgan ("Frost/Nixon") is scripting the untitled film, which will focus on the years leading up to Queen's appearance at the Live Aid concert in 1985. Production is set to begin next year.
Mercury, a native of Zanzibar, formed Queen in 1970 and served as lead singer until his death in 1991 at the age of 45. Queen has sold more than 170 million albums. Its best-known titles -- all sporting powerful vocals from Mercury -- include "We Will Rock You," "We Are the Champions" and "Bohemian Rhapsody."
"Freddie Mercury was an awe-inspiring performer, so with Sacha in the starring role coupled with Peter's screenplay and the support of Queen, we have the perfect combination to tell the real story behind their success," King said in a statement.
Baron Cohen is starring in Martin Scorsese's "Hugo Cabret," also produced by GK Films. Morgan wrote "Hereafter," directed by Clint Eastwood, which debuted at the Toronto Film Festival.
Baron Cohen is repped by WME. Morgan is repped by UTA in the United States and Independent Talent Group in the U.K.
At first I scoffed, then I kind of thought about it and think it's pretty awesome. But Peter Morgan is an uberhack.
I love Queen. I grew up on the music and have always been fascinated by Mercury.
I love Sacha... even if the movie sucks, I'll probably enjoy it.
I also just realized I have somehow managed to never see a Peter Morgan penned project.
Sacha Baron Cohen Exits Freddie Mercury Biopic Over Creative Differences With Queen
BY NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief
EXCLUSIVE... Sacha Baron Cohen is just not seeing eye to eye with the remaining members of Queen who have script and director approval over that biopic on iconic lead singer Freddie Mercury. That film had Cohen circling the role but I've just learned he's now pulled out. The reason is that the band wanted to make more of a PG movie about Queen while Cohen was counting on a gritty R-rated tell-all centered around the gifted gay singer. Given the astonishing physical resemblance, it's hard to imagine anyone else playing Freddie but Sacha. Cohen had brought in Peter Morgan to write and various directors including David Fincher and Tom Hooper to develop the project for himself. However, none were approved by the band. Film is set at Sony Pictures and GK Films and Cohen has long been attached to play Mercury. But because of the dispute over 'creative differences' no formal offer could go out to Hooper who'd just worked with Sacha on Best Picture Oscar nominee Les Miserables. Graham King and Tim Headington are producing with Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal and Queen Films.
Tom Hardy To Play Elton John In 'Rocketman'
BY Deadline
As Deadline reported in June when FilmDistrict paid $10 million to acquire U.S. rights to the Elton John film Rocketman, Tom Hardy has been set to play Captain Fantastic himself in the Michael Gracey-directed biographical musical film. The script is by Billy Elliot's Lee Hall. Gracey's directing Fox's upcoming The Greatest Showman On Earth starring Hugh Jackman, and Disney's The Muppet Man. FilmDistrict bought it when the film was the talk of Cannes, where it was shopped by UTA, the agency that structured the financing. It was there that UK-based Icon's production arm AI Film agreed to come aboard to co-finance the film with Rocket Pictures.
The deal went down before FilmDistrict's Peter Schlessel took over Focus Features, the latter of which will release the film. Schlessel's distribution company paid around a $10 million minimum guarantee for a guaranteed wide theatrical release and size-able P&A. There is also a generous gross corridor after the film recoups. The film follows John's journey from 5-year old musical prodigy who by age 11 won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, to a young man who rebelled against his strict upbringing, wore outrageous costumes and became a global icon who teamed with songwriter Bernie Taupin to sell more records than just about any musical artist of his era. John's musical catalog is part of the mix, so this is going to be a major film. Steve Hamilton Shaw and David Furnish are producing the project along with Lawrence Bender for AI Film. Sir Elton John and Access Industries' Len Blavatnik are executive producing the film, along with Icon/AI Film CEO Aviv Giladi and FilmDistrict CEO Schlessel.
Here's the official release:
Tom Hardy will star as Elton John in Rocket Pictures' Rocketman, and Focus Features has come aboard to give the film a major U.S. release, producers announced today.
The Hardy deal caps a lengthy search to cast the role of Elton in the film, which will be co-financed by AI Film.
Much like the man himself, Rocketman is a larger-than-life movie musical spectacle that tells the story of a child prodigy turned music legend. Elton will re-record many of his iconic hits to parallel the emotional beats of the film that will have audiences on their feet, singing along to his much loved music. The film is scheduled to shoot in fall 2014.
Incoming Focus CEO Peter Schlessel, brought Rocketman from FilmDistrict to Focus Features.
Rocketman is produced by Steve Hamilton Shaw and David Furnish of Rocket Pictures and Lawrence Bender on behalf of AI Film, the film production and financing company created out of the acquisition of Icon by Len Blavatnik's Access Industries. Sir Elton John and Len Blavatnik are executive producing, along with AI Film CEO Aviv Giladi and Focus Features CEO Peter Schlessel. UTA Independent Film Group arranged financing for the project and negotiated the project's sale to FilmDistrict. Good Universe is handling international sales.
"Tom is a stellar talent who will add extraordinary depth and nuance in bringing Elton's story to life," said Rocket Pictures CEO Steve Hamilton Shaw. "We are excited to have such a gifted actor on board, and equally excited to be in the hands of Peter Schlessel and the entire Focus Features team."
"Tom is quickly becoming known as one of the world's most versatile actors, and like others at the top of their craft, he has proven his ability to transform himself completely into the character or subject found in the material," said Schlessel. "We are confident that Tom will embody the physicality and spirit of Sir Elton. This, in conjunction with the creative team led by Michael and Rocket Pictures, will provide the foundation for something that will be a unique cinematic event."
Rocketman will be directed by Michael Gracey (Fox's upcoming The Greatest Showman on Earth starring Hugh Jackman, and Disney's The Muppet Man). The original screenplay is written by Academy Award® nominee Lee Hall (War Horse, Billy Elliot).
British actor Hardy will next be seen in Steve Knight's Locke and in the reboot of the Mad Max franchise for Warner Bros. and George Miller. Hardy recently wrapped Child 44 with director Daniel Espinosa and Animal Rescue for director Michael Roskam. He most recently starred in The Dark Knight Rises and previously worked with director Chris Nolan on Inception. His credits include Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Bronson and Warrior. He is represented by CAA, Lindy King at United Agents and attorney Jason Sloane.
Been on a bit of a Beatles binge, and found
The Hours and Times [1991] to be a little gem of a flick. Focusing only on John Lennon and Brian Epstein and their trip to Barcelona just as Beatlemania was kicking off in Britain, it's a 60-minute black and white chamber drama asking 'what if' Lennon and Epstein had a homosexual fling together.
Quote from Lennon around 79/80 i think;
QuoteI was on holiday with Brian Epstein in Spain, where the rumours went around that he and I were having a love affair. Well, it was almost a love affair, but not quite. It was never consummated. But it was a pretty intense relationship.
It was my first experience with a homosexual that I was conscious was homosexual. He had admitted it to me. We had this holiday together because Cyn was pregnant, and I went to Spain and there were lots of funny stories. We used to sit in a cafe in Torremolinos looking at all the boys and I'd say, 'Do you like that one, do you like this one?' I was rather enjoying the experience, thinking like a writer all the time: I am experiencing this, you know. And while he was out on the tiles one night, or lying asleep with a hangover one afternoon, I remember playing him the song Bad To Me. That was a commissioned song, done for Billy J Kramer, who was another of Brian's singers.
Soon after they returned to England, John Lennon severely beat up a man at Paul McCartney's 21st birthday party for suggesting they had had sex.
Anyway, I usually hate biopics but this is a good one, no cringeworthy references to Beatles lyrics/history shoehorned into the script, and Ian Hart gets the youthful causticity of Lennon down to a tee. Well recommended even if you're not a Beatles fan. Apparently one of John Waters' favourites.