Monday, July 09, 2007

Links: Bale, Bell, Bond

<--- ONTD Jamie Bell trying to shake "ballet boy" tag. Why he'd wanna live down Billy Elliott I do not know
Queer Sighted has predictions regarding the upcoming Sex & The City movie
Guardian finds Maggie G a fine interview catch: on Sherrybaby, The Dark Knight, Secretary, directors and more...
And Your Little Blog, Too has some kind insightful words on Oliver! a film that gets a worse rap than it deserves
Bright Lights on "She-Directors"
Sunset Gun on creepy children in movies. 'ballet boy' Jamie does not appear. Jamie is not creepy at all (no matter how hard he tries)
popbytes on Glenn Close's fierce role in Damages

UPDATE: I finally get around to bitching about the new director choice for the Bond franchise in the wake of Casino Royale's big splash.

Reel Talk Jeffrey Lyons interview with Christian Bale. I find this so uncomfortable. I don't know. I just think it's weird hearing "Werner Herzog" coming out of Lyons' mouth. But I do like how bats*** crazy Christian Bale is: the maggots he eats in Rescue Dawn. He chose to do that for the scene. It can't be confirmed but it's possible that Bale is just as looney as Herzog, god bless. Even if you don't make bizarre demands of Christian, he'll make them of himself. I also love this part when asked if he'll work with director Chris Nolan for a fourth time:
It'd be great. He's a fantastic director. We work together real well but, you know, I don't know if he's getting a bit sick of looking at my face up there.
Oh Christian... who could ever get sick of looking at your face on the big screen?

18 comments:

Glenn Dunks said...

Oh, I do love Jamie. He's been saying that "I don't wanna be the Ballet Boy anymore" thing for years.

And Marc Forster is one of my least favourite directors. Just terrible. And he is so unversed in action films that I can't understand by they would entrust him with the next Bond film.

Anonymous said...

The Zoom In link's not working. :( I want to read your thoughts on Marc Forster too.

NATHANIEL R said...

yeah. i don't know what's going on there.

sorry. i'll repost late tonight. can't get to my copy from my current computer

Beau said...

I agree on the subject of Forster. I've not read 'Kite Runner', but I'm not looking forward to it based off of his previous 'accomplishments'. I hate to say it, but I found 'Finding Neverland' abysmal. Too syrupy, too melodramatic, just too much... comparable to 'The Notebook' in terms of schmaltz. 'Monsters Ball' was decent, but nothing revolutionary, and I was bored stiff by 'Stranger than Fiction', which had an excellent premise and a promising cast, but didn't deliver in its execution.

I feel like they just started to get the right feeling for Bond, and now by hiring Forster. they're going for something completely different. Haven't the studios come to realize that option is only available when the franchise in question is in desperate need of a reboot? James Bond just got it. Let's not fuck with it now, eh?

adam k. said...

Forster does seem a rather stupid choice for Bond. Kind of along the lines of Chris Columbus for RENT. Just... why?

I see how he's in demand now: he directed Halle Berry to her historic oscar, then directed a Best Pic nominee, and a lot of people loved Stranger Than Fiction even if a lot of other people didn't. I guess they figure he's "versatile." Even though he screwed up Finding Neverland and Stranger Than Fiction didn't seem to require much (plus it wasn't good, but that really started at the script level). And yeah, action films? Remember the pirate ship scene in Neverland? Ugh. Just give me a benadryl, it's a lot less effort.

And I hope Christian Bale gets nominated... he was one of my April Fool's pics, so it'd be very cool if I turned out to be right. I'm Not There and 3:10 to Yuma should help.

Anonymous said...

Marc Forster might surprise and deliver a great film. Don't condemn him before an inch of film is shot yet.

Anonymous said...

scrooges...Marc Forster is a fine director.

And if Miranda divorces Steve in the Sex in the City movie, I'm not seeing it.

J.D. said...

I loved Finding Neverland and Stranger Than Fiction (like all 2 of you out there, I see you!), he's a good director, but James Bond? Hell no, hell no. Very intrigued by the Kite Runner, but no Bond. I feel sad now...

MichaelMcl said...

Quite a hard act to follow, that last post there!

I doubt Forster will be much of a problem for Bond. The second unit will put together whatever action setpieces the script requires, and Forster can sew together the rest with style, I'm sure.

J.D. said...

[........................
.........................
.........................
.........................
.........................
.........................
.........................
.........................
.........................
........................]

What the hell was that?

Anonymous said...

I think Marc Forester is a worse director than Michael Bay. adam k makes an excellent comparison with Chris Columbus/RENT... which terrifies me.

J.D. said...

The only thing worse than Chris Columbus with Rent is Chris Columbus with Harry Potter. It still gives me cinematic nightmares. THANK GOD FOR ALFONSO CUARON!

Glenn Dunks said...

Arkaan, agreed about Michael Bay. At least he has a visual aesthetic going on.

Forster, to me, is like the Peter Segal of Oscar-baiting movies.

I was hoping that if they dumped Martin Campbell then they would hire someone like Jonathan Mostow (Breakdown, T3, U571). He's a great action director, yet seems to be wallowing around.

Anonymous said...

Both Monster's Ball and Finding Neverland were excellent films. Why is it so fashionable to hate on Finding Neverland round here? Everyone I know who's seen it - everyone - agrees with me. Stay had some interesting ideas. Stranger Than Fiction flopped at the script level.

I for one am looking forward to what the genre-defying director will do with Bond.



Also, has Glenn Close completely given up on winning her overdue Oscar then?

NATHANIEL R said...

amir --everyone? it's not really hard to find people who hate that movie. there's me! and others too. i've met them ;)

yeah the tv acceptance is another sign to me that glenn close has given up but can you blame her? Oscar wasn't kind.

Glenn Dunks said...

Yeah, it's not just around here. I thought Finding Neverland was a dreary maukish whitewash.

When Kate Winslet coughed I turned to my friend and said "Oh! She's gonna get sick and die!" and then in the very next scene she's practically on her death bed.

And I had forgotten all about Stay. Yuk.

Anonymous said...

Marc Forster did fine directing work in "Monster's Ball", "Finding Neverland", and "Stranger Than Fiction" (didn't catch "Stay"). I'm intrigued now to see what he comes up with for Bond, b/c it could be great. And who knows, "The Kite Runner" could finally be his Oscar breakthrough film in director.

As for Glenn Close, as much as I can't wait to see "Damages", she can still Oscarbait if she wants to. B/c she's filming a cable series, it'll only take up a couple months of her time per season (less episodes). If she ever does that "Sunset Boulevard" film, that seems like the ticket to another nomination and maybe a win.

Anonymous said...

Monster's Ball was a truly atrocious script that managed to be worse with the flat directing. The Halle Berry-BB Thorton sex scene should be studied in how not to shoot a sex scene. In fact, the entire film should be studied in how not to write or direct a film (I'll give the actors a pass because largely, it wasn't there fault. And Heath Ledger some how impressed, even if I didn't believe for a minute he and Thorton were family)

Finding Neverland, admittedly, was never for me. Biopics are difficult to begin with: people's lives aren't cinematic as a whole (events certainly are, but the life themselves, no). And because biopics need to follow a similar trajectory in Hollywood (triumph of the human spirit), they often sanitize the more interesting aspects of the life story to make it more palatable (see Beautiful Mind, A). Finding Neverland does exactly that, and does so in the most boringly predictable way possible.

I don't mind that Columbus hurt Harry Potter. I don't think the Harry Potter books are that good anyway (competent certainly, but moreso? I don't think so)

If they had to get rid of Campbell, I agree that Mostow and Bigelow both would've been interesting choices.