Archive for the 'EvaGreen' Category

Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, New Line, Fandom, Scripts & Screenwriting, Movie Marketing, Religious, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig

Regular readers of Cinematical know that we recently visited the London set of The Golden Compass, but we’re holding back our coverage until a date closer to the release of the film. That said, it looks like New Line is increasingly willing to give the public an early taste of the film — the Sydney Morning Herald is running a big article this weekend on Compass, and among other things, they are re-confirming what was earlier reported, that New Line is screening footage from the film at Cannes for journalists and distributors. We’ve also heard that a press junket with the main talent is being prepared. Since I’m a fan of Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Eva Green and Philip Pullman, it hardly needs to be said that this is one of the films I’m most looking forward to, but I had the wind taken out of my sails a bit by the noticeably lame poster that was unveiled at Showest, which showed nothing more than … a golden compass. I certainly hope they’ve got some better advance materials coming down the pike.

The main thrust of the SMH article is recount author Philip Pullman’s recent address to the Oxford Literary Festival, where he talked about the film. Among other things, he delves into the firing of screenwriter Tom Stoppard and says that he could understand the studio’s point of view on that issue, which was that Stoppard’s take was too cerebral for a teenage audience! Producer Deborah Forte was also on hand at the festival, and screened footage of Marisa Coulter’s sky ferry, the zeppelin that she travels in. On the subject of Kidman, Pullman also revealed to the audience that he had always wanted Kidman for the part of Coulter and had in mind Laurence Olivier for Daniel Craig’s part, but that didn’t work out as well. The pair also told the Oxford audience that their mantra throughout the project was “stick with Lyra,” meaning the central child character being played by Dakota Blue Richards, and that the film’s special effects will be “subtle,” although that could mean anything.

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Filed under: Action & Adventure, Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting, Deals, Fandom, Scripts & Screenwriting, Newsstand, James Bond, Remakes and Sequels, Daniel Craig

I know that Eva Green should play Barbarella. You know that Eva Green should play Barbarella. Now our dream might be one small step closer to reality. Screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who vaulted to the A-list with the runaway success of Casino Royale, have dropped two new pieces of news — they’ve finished the script for their next film, ‘Bond 22,’ and they’ve been hired to write … Barbarella! The hiring of Purvis and Wade for Barbarella is mentioned in an announcement to the trades that Dino De Laurentiis has finished sewing up the rights to the remake and is ready to move forward with the project. Another component to the deal is that the French comic series that inspired the original Barbarella will be reissued in conjunction with this new film.

Now here comes the less-than-exciting part. In making the announcement, the producers saw fit to point out that the new Barbarella will be totally different from the original — instead of being a “kittenish sexpot,” the new Barb will be a “free, modern gal who survives in a futuristic world through her intelligence, survival skills and sexuality.” Um, can we take a vote on that? I can’t be the only person who is bone-tired of the ‘ass-kicking female’ era and wants desperately to return to the ‘kittenish sexpot’ era. Still, I’m holding out hope. I have faith in Dino, so to sum up, here is what he wants you to know about the movie — try to imagine it being said in that Dino accent: “Barbarella is the ultimate science-fiction adventure heroine: smart, strong, funny and sexy. I’m excited to reintroduce Barbarella to a new generation of moviegoers.”

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Filed under: Action & Adventure, Drama, Foreign Language, Awards, Sony, James Bond, Oscar Watch, Miramax

The only award Casino Royale picked up Sunday at the British Academy Awards (BAFTAs) was for Best Sound. It was nominated in nine categories — ten if you count the publicly voted Rising Star Award, which did go to Casino Royale actress Eva Green. But it would have been very shocking if the 007 movie had beaten The Queen for the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film. Oh wait; The Queen didn’t win it either. Surprisingly, The Last King of Scotland won Best British Film, as well as Best Adapted Screenplay (for Jeremy Brock and Peter Morgan, who also wrote The Queen) and, of course, Best Actor for Forest Whitaker. The Queen did win for Best Film, though, and also took the obvious prize for Best Actress for Helen Mirren.

Some of the other unexpected wins were Paul Greengrass for the David Lean Award for Direction and Alan Arkin for Best Supporting Actor for Little Miss Sunshine, which won for Best Original Screenplay. Other prizes went to Pan’s Labyrinth for Best Film Not in the English Language, Best Makeup & Hair and Best Costume Design, Children of Men for Best Cinematography and Best Production Design and Babel for the Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music. For the most part, the British Academy disagreed with last week’s London Film Critics Circle Awards, which gave added honors to specifically British performers like Emily Blunt, Toby Jones, Michael Caine and Leslie Philips. However, Casino Royale fared badly with the critics’ choices too.

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Filed under: Action & Adventure, Drama, Casting, Deals, Sony, RumorMonger, Fandom, Newsstand, James Bond, Remakes and Sequels

In an interview with Italian newspaper Il Giornale, actor Giancarlo Giannini has announced that he will make an unexpected return as the character of Mathis in the next, as-yet-untitled James Bond adventure. If you’ve seen Casino Royale by now, you remember that Mathis was Bond’s MI6 contact in Montenegro who was ultimately revealed to be up to no good. He was last seen being tasered in the back by MI6 people and dragged away, presumably to some dank holding cell. Giannini also went further, stating that in the new film, Mathis will be revealed to have been an ally of Bond after all! This makes no sense whatsoever, since, at the end of Casino Royale, James Bond and M have a frank conversation about Mathis and his double-dealing. By ‘ally,’ he probably means ’still useful.’

According to the people at commanderbond.net, who translated the interview, Giannini said that Mathis “will be using his double agent status to assist Bond in reaching the top of the mysterious organization that was behind Le Chiffre and Mr. White.” This is yet more confirmation of the ‘direct sequel’ angle the next film will take. It’s also the second piece of interesting Bond info inside of a week. Last Friday, The Guardian published a frank interview with Eva Green, in which she talked about, among other things, refusing a request by the filmmakers to strip for Casino Royale. Bond 22, or whatever it’s called, is currently scheduled to hit theaters on November 7, 2008.

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Filed under: Action & Adventure, Foreign Language, Awards, MGM, Sony, Celebrities and Controversy, James Bond

For some guys, the reason to sit through Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers is to see Eva Green naked … a lot. Well, guys, I hope it is enough, because the actress may never do another nude scene. She told The Guardian that she found the nudity in The Dreamers “troubling” and that she had to refuse to get naked for Casino Royale. Green was asked to disrobe for a scene in which her character, Vesper Lynd, breaks down in the shower. If you’ve seen the movie, you will probably agree with Green that the scene works better with her clothed.

She states that her parents were against her doing The Dreamers because of how Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris affected Maria Schneider (she entered a mental hospital and alleges the director manipulated her). But Green claims she couldn’t say no to working with Bertolucci, and despite her trouble with the nudity she apparently has no ill feelings toward him. Has he turned her off from doing more nudity later, though? She doesn’t say. For those guys who want more, there’s always the older films starring Green’s mom, Marlène Jobert, who looked enough like Green when she was younger.

In the Guardian interview, which was conducted as promotion for Green’s BAFTA nomination, the actress also mentioned that it is okay that Daniel Craig’s chest is bigger than hers because the way the film was shot, he ended up as more the Bond girl than she. Again, if you’ve seen the movie, you’ll agree with her about the gratuitous shot of Craig coming out of the sea.

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Filed under: Awards, Casting

If you had to choose the better year for Cillian Murphy, would you pick 2005 or 2006? In the earlier year, millions of viewers saw him in Batman Begins and Red Eye. In the later year, a few people saw him in Breakfast on Pluto (which was also seen by some in 2005) and the Cannes winner The Wind That Shakes the Barley. Okay, so I’m going by American audiences — both were seen by a lot of people overseas. Still, 2005 was the year he seemed to shoot into stardom with higher profile roles. And he had already been widely seen a few years earlier in 28 Days Later.

Speaking of 28 Days Later, that film also featured Naomie Harris, who now co-stars with Murphy in the list of nominees for BAFTA’s Orange Rising Star Award. The award debuted at last year’s BAFTA Awards in order to recognize an actor or actress with great promise for the future in terms of acting talent and connection with audiences. The first winner was James McAvoy, who beat out breakthrough actors Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams (who was also in Red Eye), Michelle Williams and Gael García Bernal.

Continue reading BAFTA Announces Rising Star Finalists

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