Xixax Film Forum

Film Discussion => The Vault => Topic started by: MacGuffin on December 22, 2005, 05:33:01 PM

Title: Thank You For Smoking
Post by: MacGuffin on December 22, 2005, 05:33:01 PM


(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmovies.apple.com%2Fmoviesxml%2Fs%2Ffox_searchlight%2Fposters%2Fthankyouforsmoking_l200512221127.jpg&hash=4b5a4399b5e93abad44b11bbe942e2cc70b31c94)

Trailer here. (http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox_searchlight/thankyouforsmoking/)

Release Date: March 17th, 2006 (limited)

Cast: Aaron Eckhart, Robert Duvall, Katie Holmes, William H. Macy, Sam Elliott, Maria Bello, J. K. Simmons

Writers: Christopher Buckley (based on his novel), Jason Reitman

Director: Jason Reitman

Premise: Satirical comedy follows the machinations of Big Tobacco's chief spokesman, Nick Naylor, who spins on behalf of cigarettes while trying to remain a role model for his twelve-year-old son.
Title: Re: Thank You For Smoking
Post by: ono on December 23, 2005, 08:46:04 AM
Premise sounds stupid, trailer makes it look good, and since that's a tool of the devil, who knows what the final outcome will be.  Still, the cast is the greatest promise that this will be a decent flick in the midst of all spring dreck.
Title: Re: Thank You For Smoking
Post by: Kal on December 23, 2005, 09:24:20 AM
I like the trailer and I like the casting... looks funny
Title: Re: Thank You For Smoking
Post by: Pubrick on December 24, 2005, 03:39:52 AM
looks like a

Quote from: edison on December 12, 2005, 08:27:17 PM
A wildly original, off-the-wall comedy

it's a good premise. it could only fail if it ends up the dude aaron eckhart gets cancer and can't go to his son's soccer game. the cigarette ppl hav to win to some extent.. or it better be a damn good comeuppance.
Title: Re: Thank You For Smoking
Post by: Garam on December 24, 2005, 09:27:25 AM
'Easy fix...one line: "Thank God we created the...whatever...device." '


Eheheh. That was a good'un.
Title: Re: Thank You For Smoking
Post by: Ravi on December 24, 2005, 01:58:06 PM
"The great state of Vermont will not apologize for its cheese."

Funny trailer.
Title: Re: Thank You For Smoking
Post by: MacGuffin on January 24, 2006, 08:32:29 PM
No "Smoking" Sex for Katie

The biggest mystery at this year's Sundance Film Festival: Who gave Katie Holmes the snip?

At a sold-out screening for his new satirical comedy, Thank You for Smoking, rookie filmmaker Jason "Son of Ivan" Reitman was shocked--shocked!--to discover that a 12-second scene of a hookup between Holmes' journalist character and a tobacco lobbyist played by Aaron Eckhart had vanished.

"We were sitting there in shock," the movie's writer-director told the Los Angeles Times. "And I turned to other people who had worked on the film, and were completely confused. But the audience didn't seem to notice or care."

Following the screening, Reitman immediately addressed the audience, which included Holmes and Eckhart, explaining that the scene was missing and "something went wrong with he reel." (The steamy encounter between Holmes and Eckhart's characters were in the version screened at last fall's Toronto Film Festival.) His remarks instead drew grumblings, and even a few boos, from the crowd.

Thus began the Case of the Missing Sex Scene.

News of Holmes' disappearing act spread quickly around the mountain town of Park City, Utah, and became fodder for the gossip mill. Several publications posited that the missing scene was somehow the work of Holmes' fiance, Tom Cruise, who, the theory goes, is so protective of his future missus that he didn't want her to be seen cavorting in the nude.

And while another Holmes romp later in the film remained intact in the Sundance print, the Cruise conspiracy theorists were undaunted.

Us Weekly, for instance, quoted one unnamed insider as saying "industry people started whispering that Tom Cruise didn't want the scene in there because it was dirtier than he was comfortable with." Another anonymous wag tells the magazine that the Cruise-is-culpable theory "was the first thing that went through everyone's mind!"

Holmes, who's pregnant with the Mission: Impossible star's first biological offspring (Cruise adopted two children, Isabella and Connor, with Nicole Kidman), wasn't available for comment. Cruise's camp rejected assertions the couch-jumping thespian and self-proclaimed sonogram expert had anything to do with the edit.

Cruise himself was said to have ditched the screening to hit the slopes, according to TMZ.com.

It was up to Reitman to clear Cruise's name and solve the mystery. He told the Times that the scene was accidentally cut when two reels were spliced together in Los Angeles as filmmakers prepared a print for Smoking's four festival screenings.

In any case, Reitman said he plans to restore the sex scene when Fox Searchlight releases Thank You for Smoking in theaters on Mar. 17.
Title: Re: Thank You For Smoking
Post by: SiliasRuby on January 24, 2006, 08:55:21 PM
OoooOoo, another wonderful conspiracy, are you listening Oliver?
Title: Re: Thank You For Smoking
Post by: matt35mm on January 24, 2006, 09:46:21 PM
Even thinking that Cruise could be involved is just stupid.  First of all: Nicole Kidman is one of the most nuded actresses around, most of all in a film co-starring Cruise.  Second of all: Holmes has been nude in a film before, and we all know that the GASP! value of nudity is effectively an all-or-nothing deal, as in once we've seen it, we've seen it.

So Cruise has been acting differently for the past year, but that doesn't mean he's stupid or has forgotten how movies are and should be, or Holmes's perrogatives as an actress, or Reitman's perrogatives as a filmmaker.  To even suggest that Cruise would sneakily have a scene cut is vile.

I mean I really find it offensive that people would think that for a second.

Although that would be pretty fishy if the sex scene wasn't at the end or beginning of the reel... but I have no way of knowing that.  It'd just be interesting is all.
Title: Re: Thank You For Smoking
Post by: hedwig on January 24, 2006, 09:54:45 PM
wow, are you tom cruise's mother?
Title: Re: Thank You For Smoking
Post by: matt35mm on January 24, 2006, 10:25:33 PM
I'm not offended for Cruise's sake.  I'm offended that people are so unreasonable.

But I wouldn't be surprised if only a small handful of people even thought of Cruise, and whoever wrote the article just wanted to spice things up by making it seem like it was the talk of the town.  It's not like anything else seems to be happening at Sundance.  Reporters gotta write about somethin'.
Title: Re: Thank You For Smoking
Post by: Pozer on January 25, 2006, 02:37:36 PM
Yeah, but Cruise wasn't crazy back in the Nicole Kidmen days.  Little peculiar at least that it happened to be that scene that was accidentally cut out.  It's far fetched indeed, but not a mission, I believe, that would be... impossible. 
Oh no he didn't.
Title: Re: Thank You For Smoking
Post by: polkablues on January 25, 2006, 02:42:15 PM
If it weren't for Tom Cruise's behavior over the past year, there's no way a rumor like this could have taken hold.  But the dude's been so crazy, most people hear something like that and think, "Well, it sure sounds like something he might do...."
Title: Re: Thank You For Smoking
Post by: modage on March 19, 2006, 10:35:29 AM
the very definition of a rental.  some good moments (unfortunately almost all of which are in the trailer) sprinkled through an otherwise okay film.  i thought this would be more of a cutting satire, but besides the David Koechner gun lobbyist it all seemed pretty grounded to me.  i thought satire was really pushing things for comic effect?  eckhart is good but its sort of what you'd expect.  what you wouldnt expect or need is the sons sweet story getting in the way of what could've been a more ruthless satire.  it just sort of tip toes when it should stomp.  rent it if you must.
Title: Re: Thank You For Smoking
Post by: Ravi on March 19, 2006, 03:34:49 PM
Sucks to hear that, since the trailer is so good.
Title: Re: Thank You For Smoking
Post by: SiliasRuby on March 20, 2006, 12:48:57 AM
Despite Mod's comments I saw this today and was throughly entertained and happy with it, but again, nothing that can't wait.
Title: Re: Thank You For Smoking
Post by: pete on March 28, 2006, 06:06:27 PM
I saw it last weekend, it had some really sharp one-liners, but I was generally disappointed with the fact that the film didn't satirize much--it made fun of hollywood, and then the whole media culture of "spin", while letting the lobbyiests in general walk away relatively harmlessly.  it was all style but no guts.
Title: Re: Thank You For Smoking
Post by: bonanzataz on March 28, 2006, 09:58:45 PM
yes. agreed. a lot of inconsistent style that got in the way of what could have been a really good movie. the trailer is hilarious, but it is, alas, nothing more than a spin itself. it was very competently written, but something about it seemed to be lacking. also, it bugged me that the lead character is supposed to be a smoker, yet nobody, not even him, smokes one cigarette throughout the entire movie. that was just weird.

the lady behind us sitting by herself laughing really loudly and talking to the screen, however, made up for the film's flaws in abundance.
Title: Re: Thank You For Smoking
Post by: Reinhold on April 14, 2006, 09:06:39 PM
Quote from: bonanzataz on March 28, 2006, 09:58:45 PM
yes. agreed. a lot of inconsistent style that got in the way of what could have been a really good movie. the trailer is hilarious, but it is, alas, nothing more than a spin itself. it was very competently written, but something about it seemed to be lacking. also, it bugged me that the lead character is supposed to be a smoker, yet nobody, not even him, smokes one cigarette throughout the entire movie. that was just weird.

the lady behind us sitting by herself laughing really loudly and talking to the screen, however, made up for the film's flaws in abundance.

what he said. even the part about the lady talking to the screen, except that she was sitting in the same row.
Title: Re: Thank You For Smoking
Post by: MacGuffin on November 22, 2006, 01:01:40 AM
NBC takes up 'Smoking'
Peacock to 'Thank' satire
Source: Variety

NBC is lighting up a TV spin on "Thank You for Smoking."

Rick Cleveland ("Six Feet Under") is aboard to write and exec produce the small-screen version of the indie pic. David O. Sacks, who produced the film, will exec produce the TV take via Room 9 Entertainment and NBC U Television Studio.

Christopher Buckley, who wrote the book on which the movie was based, will serve as a consulting producer.

Peacock version of "Smoking" is being developed as a single-camera laffer focusing on Nick Naylor, the superstar spin doctor who, as played by Aaron Eckhart in the movie, did PR for big tobacco. TV take will pick up where the feature left off, with Naylor running his own firm.

"The idea is that there's a never-ending array of clients he could have," Sacks told Daily Variety. "But it has to be something where Nick is on the wrong or unpopular side of things."

Potential clients could include fast-food companies, environmental polluters or politicos caught with their pants down.

"The reason the movie resonated so much was that it wasn't about just one particular issue," Sacks said. "It's about PR as a culture, about the way we spin issues."

As in the movie, the small-screen "Smoking" will show Naylor balancing his conflicting responsibilities as a PR person and as a dad.

Original "Thank You for Smoking," released earlier this year by Fox Searchlight, has grossed nearly $25 million in the U.S.
Title: Re: Thank You For Smoking
Post by: pete on November 23, 2006, 12:27:51 AM
and it's all gonna be safe and self-effacing, without much if any actual stance on any issue where the joke is always on the idea that spin doctors find ingenius ways to articulate things!
EFF THAT BALLLESS ISH.
I swear that's what the show is going to be.