Archive for the 'RachelMcadams' Category

Filed under: Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting, Deals

Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana have inked deals to co-star in The Time Traveler’s Wife, a science-fiction love story based on the best-selling novel by Audrey Niffenegger. Bana will play Henry De Tamble, a librarian with a genetic disorder that causes him to shift back and forth through time. During his journeys through time, he meets and falls in love with Clare Abshire, a young heiress. Robert Schwentke, who most recently directed the Jodie Foster disappointment Flightplan, will take the reigns with a script by Jeremy Leven. Variety notes that a rewrite is currently being penned by Bruce Joel Rubin, who successfully combined high-concept and romance once before, with Ghost.

Shooting is scheduled to begin in August, with production duties being handled by Brad Pitt and Nick Wechsler, who is also producing the forthcoming Reservation Road and We Own the Night, and recently came off The Fountain, which Pitt famously backed out of after of a long engagement. The Variety story notes that McAdams has been dancing around this project ever since it was first snapped up by New Line in 2003. She’s since starred in New Line hits Wedding Crashers and The Notebook, so the part was probably hers to lose. Next up for McAdams is The Return, a story of soldiers rotating back to the world from Iraq. Bana’s next high-profile project is The Other Boleyn Girl, in which he plays King Henry VIII.

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Filed under: Drama, Casting

You hear that a new movie is coming down the pike that will tell the story of three soldiers from Iraq called The Return (not SMG’s latest). Chances are, you think of a number of people including Mark Whalberg, Christian Bale or any of the other actors who can pull off the buzz-cut tough guy thing. Hell, you might even think of Michael Peña, who was recently in World Trade Center and Babel. Peña is one, and he will be joined by none other than Rachel McAdams and Tim Robbins. The film is about three soldiers returning from the Iraq war, each trying to find their own way back into civilian life and deal with the trauma of their experiences.

The story, which was penned by Neil Burger and Dirk Wittenborn will follow the three as they return to the states and take an unexpected road trip together across the country. Burger, who just wrote and directed The Illusionist, will also direct the feature this May, with a possible release in December. I can only hope that he’s got some more subtlety for this film, as his previous effort had the least climactic, and most obvious revelation that I’ve ever seen. But the bigger challenge might be getting the audience to buy McAdams as a soldier. She’s done some decent work and has successfully come up against a killer, but that’s not the same as going through boot camp and Iraq. Thoughts?

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Filed under: Action & Adventure, Casting, RumorMonger, Fandom, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels

Reactions to Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins might have been varied, but on one point most seemed to agree — there was nothing all that thrilling about the performance of Katie Holmes. To be honest, although I was ambivalent about her in the movie, “the girl” role in Batman movies has never been all that interesting to me to begin with. In the end, they are always just somebody to rescue.

On Thursday, tipsters inside Warner Brothers told LatinoReview.com that Katie Holmes would not be returning in the role of Bruce Wayne’s childhood love Rachel Dawes for the sequel, The Dark Knight. Then, Variety confirmed that Holmes had officially dropped out to join Mad Money with Diane Keaton and Queen Latifah. Now, the rumor mill is at full tilt about Rachel McAdams being the front-runner to replace Holmes as ‘the girl’ in the film. It’s all completely unsubstantiated at this date, but another rumor — that McAdams has been asked to make an appearance in the film as Selena Kyle — seems somehow more credible. Also, Nolan is still looking for his Harvey Dent, so it may be a while before this cast begins to fall into place.

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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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