Away We Link

<--- Away They Go

AP The Kate Winslet ~ Sam Mendes power duo is no more. Pardon my insensitivity (I assumed this would happen a year ago) but the errant gossip fantasy fodder thought just struck me while reading the news: I know that they're not exactly each other's type but do you think the world would explode if Kate & Leo ever gave it a go the next time they were both single?

Movie|Line Michel Gondry interviewed. Interesting nugget: this music video pioneer and filmmaker (Eternal Sunshine) no likely Lady Gaga
i09 in other Michel Gondry news, a time travel pic with Ellen Page
Cinematical Green Lantern casts its aliens choosing Temuera Morrison and filmmaker/actor Taiki Waititi (also known as Taiki Cohen). Incidentally I met Taiki at Sundance and his new film Boy is tons of fun. Art house audiences will love it should any American distributor ever bite.


Cinema Blend Conan casting updates: Saïd Taghmaoui (yay!) and Stephen Lang in, Mickey Rourke out.
CHUD David Fincher to make a Bobby Fischer biopic. Sigh... am losing faith in Fincher. He was such a potent auteur and after Benjamin Button a chess biopic? Well... I hope it's as good as Searching For Bobby Fischer but keep wanting him to make another Fight Club or Zodiac, something with real edge and bite.
Towleroad Josh Brolin remembers Milk
Crazy Days Peter Graves (RIP)

More From Cannes: Imelda, Penélope, Brad, Palme D'Or Frontrunners

I'm so far behind on the Cannes coverage! The festival wraps on Sunday. So, without further ado some red carpet beauties and some links to get you caught up if you haven't been online much or were trusting me to bring you the best bits ...so sorry to have kept you waiting.


First up is Imelda Staunton at the photocall for Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock. There was some very very early Oscar buzz for Imelda for her comic portrayal of Dimitri Martin's mom. Rosengje wasn't sold, writing...

I think people are going to be very divided about Imelda Staunton. It was a technically perfect performance and likely imitated the real life counterpart, but the character is written as too much of a caricature. Excluding one great scene involving some.. special brownies she is excessively shrill.

Saïd Taghmaoui, all in white, attended the Vengeance premiere. I feel like I haven't seen him in a movie in forever but I like him. Next up for Saïd is G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra. Kristin Scott Thomas remains a classy red carpet must have. Michelle Yeoh and Kerry Washington, two undervalued actresses that we've always loved here at the Experience, have both been valiantly working the charity circuit at Cannes.

Kerry's getting muscled out of this picture by Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie, mega-stars (heyyyy, just like she was in Mr. & Mrs. Smith. You're entirely forgiven if you didn't realize Kerry was in that movie. She barely is). Brad was in Cannes for Inglourious Basterds which seems to have a left a lot of people underwhelmed.

All Cannes! All the Time!
Go Fug Yourself salutes Penélope's game face after her food poisoning this week.
Eating the Sun Lots of Philippines upset abotu Roger Ebert's 'worst film ever' comments about Brillant Mendoza's Kinatay
IndieWire on why Cannes still matters
Living in Cinema is jazzed for the new Tsai Ming-Liang film Face. The early stills and the trailer do look like pure eye candy.
NY Post Did you know that Antichrist's end credits cite a "misogyny consultant" Ha! Lars Von Trier continually delights me... and I don't even need to see his movies (not that I don't -- love them, too) for this delight to take place. But then, I've always had a thing for artists who loved to push buttons just to be pushing them and/or to mock themselves or have fun with perceptions of their persona. Madonna used to be in this camp, too.
Twitch rumor has it: Universal is going to ask Tarantino to trim Inglourious Basterds down after the mixed reaction at Cannes. Hey, a little trim probably wouldn't hurt most QT movies.
Getty points to the trend for the red carpet at Cannes and elsewhere: nude (coloring that is)
Obsessed With Film enthusiastically offers 5 reasons to see Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell
IndieWire Director's Fortnight winners... a big night for the Quebecois film I Killed My Mother
My New Plaid Pants is waiting impatiently for each new bit on Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon
Risky Business thinks that Haneke's film is going to win the Palme D'Or.

Will these two films be the big winners?

As to who might win... Haneke seems like a good bet but it's not the only film that's been wowing them. Others are saying Jacques Audiard's Un Prophete could take it. (If you don't recognize the name just think of the lively, tense French hits The Beat That My Heart Skipped and Read My Lips... both of which did well in their US runs). But remember Cannes watchers... no one knows anything. The winners are never exactly predictable. This ain't the Oscars. It's a juried competition where they're encouraged to spread the wealth. No one knows who might win what... except maybe Isabelle Huppert.
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Saïd @ the Beach

Saïd Taghmaoui in 2000 at 27 years of age. This was shot presumably somewhere in France. They have lovely beaches...


And men. I really like Saïd's work though no one ever speaks of him. At the turn of the millenium he was still rapidly ascending since his breakthrough film La Haine (1995, a must see) and had just delivered a devastating supporting turn in Three Kings (1999)... that oil in the mouth scene between him and Mark Wahlberg ---damn.

Things have been quieter for him since (at least on this continent) but hopefully his supporting role in G.I. Joe (2009, pictured left) will repolish his appeal to U.S. casting directors. He's a fine actor and definitely has screen presence.

Time Capsule: Oh, you remember what was happening in 2000. Steven Soderbergh was all the rage at the movies (Erin Brockovich and Traffic), Toni Braxton was dumping her fictional guy ("He Wasn't Man Enough for Me"), Destiny's Child was begging you to "Say My Name" by which we presume they meant only "Beyoncé", and Florida, half of the voting public and the US Supreme Court f***ed over the USA for the next eight years. Great, now I'm depressed again.

Prince Jake of ...Persia?

As you may have heard by now, the rumors were true and Jake Gyllenhaal has been cast as The Prince of Persia in the film adaptation of the popular video games. [src] This news elates, alarms, depresses, and assures me all at once. It multi-tasks.


Elates for it promises ample opportunity to gaze upon the maximum amount of Gyllenhaal flesh that a PG-13 rated film (we assume) can offer. Think Lara Croft: Tomb Raider only with Jake properly objectified instead of Angelina Jolie. To borrow a quote from The Holy Grail "...and there was much rejoicing"

Alarms for it falls squarely within the unpromising realm of the video-game adaptation. Is there a video game adaptation yet that has also been a good film? Hollywood has even managed to make a theme park amusement into a good film... but video games? Not yet unless I'm forgetting something. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time will be directed by Mike Newell which is neither here nor there, quality wise. He's hit & miss having directed great stuff like Dance With a Stranger and Donnie Brasco but also, I fear, Mona Lisa Smile and Love in the Time of Cholera.

Depresses for it reminds us of how "color blind casting" in Hollywood usually means the opposite of what the media implies that it means. It actually means this: Put pasty white people into roles that should require some ethnicity! Jake and Gemma Arterton the female lead hail from Los Angeles, USA and Kent, UK, respectively.

Gemma (who will also certainly be objectified, see Prince of Persia women to your left here) is hardly a box office draw. Couldn't they have thrown at least one of the lead roles to actors of Middle Eastern descent [Arabic isn't exactly accurate... but I hope you still hear where I'm coming from. -editor]? You can probably guess that the evil villains will be cast more authentically regional if they don't go for big names.

Good looking potentially audience-engaging Middle Eastern actors aren't impossible to find. None of them are as famous as Jake Gyllenhaal but still... who is to say that audiences wouldn't warm to the most charismatic among them if given a proper chance? Even Wentworth Miller, certainly a name, is a little bit more appropriate ethnicity wise. Here's just a tiny random sample of talent in the right age range and beauty for lead roles... took me barely any time to look up and I don't have the resources of a Hollywood casting director.

(From left to right) Men: Säid Taghmaoui (Three Kings, G.I. Joe) Haaz Sleiman,
Jake Yakobi and Babak Tafti (prev post). Women: Hadeel Sittuh, Summer Bishil (Towelhead), and Heather Raffo (actress/playwright from the terrific
one woman show 9 Parts of Desire).

I always wonder about well-known properties needing big name draws. Isn't the material selling the first weekend audiences (to some extent) and don't first weekend audiences word-of-mouth sell it from there (if it's any good). I know that people didn't love Superman Returns but isn't everyone happier that it was Brandon Routh (an unknown) rather than Nicolas Cage who was cast at once point (and paid. Ouch) in one of the aborted versions of the franchise relaunch. I know I'm living in a fantasy world. These are billion dollar properties. They won't be taking any big chances with unproven actors of Middle Eastern descent. Eventually someone will --It's a better world out there for black, hispanic and asian actors than it used to be after all -- but not in 2008.

Assures for it finally gives Gyllenhaal a franchise. Franchises are crucial to salary inflation and (presumably) long term bankability. Assuming that Persia is successful this will keep him bankable and employable no matter how many Renditions await. And many moviegoers (myself included) need the Gyllenhaal delivered routinely like a live-saving pill, injection, IV drip or a blood tranfusion.


Ahhh, the healing powers of Gyllenhaal.
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