Oscar bait.  That sums up this movie.  I’m sure it’s a good movie, but you don’t hire Helen Mirren, Christopher Plummer and Paul Giamatti without the Oscars on your mind.  Also the fact that it’s about the drama in Leo Tolstoy’s personal life doesn’t hurt.  I won’t pretend that I know anything about Tolstoy, but War & Peace is somewhere on my list of books to read (sure it is).

And look it’s Octavia of the Julii.

Click poster to watch trailer.

From Apple.

- izi

Thanks to New York Magazine’s Vulture blog for posting this, this morning. It totally made my day.

NO PEOPLE LIKE SHOW PEOPLE: Good news for Mel Brooks fans — his Grammy-winning comedy collaborations with Carl Reiner, The 2000 Year Old

MIRREN: seeing Red

Man, have been remastered and repackaged for a 50th anniversary four-disc reissue (three CDs and one DVD), The 2000 Year Old Man: The Complete History, due in stores this week. Not only that, Toronto audiences well finally get to see Mel’s Broadway musical version of Young Frankenstein, now slated to play March 16 – April 18 at the Princess Of Wales … Helen Mirren is set to co-star with Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman in a new thriller, Red, after she brings the National Theatre production of Phedre to Broadway with Dominic Cooper, the Mamma Mia boy toy currently on view with new scene-stealer Carey Mulligan in the hit TIFF star-maker An

MERCER: Rodeo daze

Education … 40-year CHUM radio veteran Roger Ashby will be inducted into the Canadian Music and Broadcast Industry Hall of Fame at a Canadian Music Week dinner March 11 at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel … and talk about yer urbane cowboy! Rick Mercer goes a-ridin’ and a-ropin’ at the Edmonton Rodeo tonight, and actually lives to tell the tale, on CBC’s Rick Mercer Report at 8 pm.

FANGS FOR THE MEMORIES: He became David Frost in Frost/Nixon, shone as Tony Blair in The Queen, and plays legendary maverick U.K. rugby coach Brian Clough in The Damned United. So what does Michael Sheen have to do with that mess of a man pictured beside him? Yup – that’s

SHEEN: he sucks, but only in THIS movie

him. Sheen plays the vampire leader Aro in last weekend’s top boxoffice sizzler, The Twilight Saga: New Moon. And he makes no bones about why he took the role. “I knew it would make my 10-year-old daughter, Lily, very happy,” he confesses. And it has. “She’s got pictures from Twilight and New Moon everywhere in her bedroom,” he notes. “And now, she’s put her dad up there as well.” Just wait ‘til she sees him as The White Rabbit in Tim Burton’s bound-to-be-peculiar re-telling of Alice In Wonderland.

MAY IN NOVEMBER: Toronto Western Hospital’s Fracture Clinic and Medical Imaging Waiting Room is a happier place this morning after renowned

KARP: a gift to last

Toronto photo artist May Karp gifted 22 pieces to TWH. Karp’s uplifting photography is already on view in a number of Canada’s larger hospitals. In 2004 she donated 27 framed images for Toronto General’s new Surgical Centre waiting room, adding warmth and a new visual focus for the families of surgery patients. After seeing the impact of her photography in the Surgical Centre, Tennys Hanson, President and CEO of Toronto General & Western Hospital Foundation, asked her to consider a similar project for Toronto Western Hospital. “Hospital waiting rooms are for patients, sometimes for their relatives or friends,” Karp notes. “Most visitors are frightened and anxious. Time passes very slowly as they wait for results or treatment. One can almost ‘taste’ the emotions. Over 20 years ago I spent a lot of time in rooms like this. I experienced all the emotions many times since then.” Which is why her colourful, eye-catching and blissfully distracting works are brightening TWH this morning.

TOMORROW:

Glee & Nine go on the record.

-/-

Using Hollywood to promote philanthropic causes is an old story.   It’s not clear whether the new batch of Brangelina do-gooders and N. Portman-causes are that different from celebrity charities of yesteryears.  Still, this NYT piece dissects the celebrity-charity industrial-complex as it stands today.

An entire industry has sprung up around the recruitment of celebrities to good works. Even an old-line philanthropy like the Red Cross employs a “director of celebrity outreach.” Oxfam has a celebrity wrangler in Los Angeles, Lyndsay Cruz, on the lookout for stars who can raise the charity’s profile with younger people. In addition to established figures like Colin Firth and Helen Mirren, Oxfam is affiliated with Scarlett Johansson, who has visited South Asia (where the organization promotes girls’ education) and is scheduled to go to Mali. Cruz notes that while “trendy young people” are attracted to the star of “Match Point” and “Lost in Translation,” Johansson had “great credibility with an older audience because she’s such a great actress.”

The stars themselves have their own retainers to fend off the celebrity recruiters and to screen and sift charitable opportunities; publicists say their major clients get dozens of requests every week. The more deeply committed figures, like Angelina Jolie, retain firms like the Global Philanthropy Group, which, according to a representative, offers “comprehensive philanthropic management.” This includes establishing and staffing foundations, bringing in subject-area experts or even helping the novice philanthropist figure out what he or she actually wants to do. A similar organization, the Giving Back Fund, works with athletes like the quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and the basketball players Jalen Rose and Shane Battier.

Both the stars and the causes, in turn, depend on corporate sponsorship. It is the sponsors who pay for the galas at which the stars raise money for their causes; sponsors normally pay for the stars’ first-class air tickets and hotel suites. Corporations need causes as much as stars do. Like the stars, they understand that they must shape and protect their brand identities; and they understand that those identities will be judged by the broad public, through public acts. As Howard Bragman puts it, “Celebrities, sponsors and a cause: it’s the golden troika of branding.”

The costs are small compared to the good will. Thus Alicia Keys’s Keep a Child Alive, which provides antiretrovirals to victims of AIDS in Africa, has 78 “corporate partners,” including CBS, Continental Airlines, Condé Nast and Chanel, to pick a few from the C’s. And just as stars have philanthropic managers to help them with causes, corporations with a cause can turn to celebrity recruiters to find just the right star. Thus Rita Tateel, who describes her occupation as recruiting and coordinating celebrities for “cause-related marketing and public relations,” recently hooked up Purina, which wanted to support “small animal-rescue organizations,” with Emily Procter, a star of “CSI Miami,” who, Tateel says, “lives and breathes animal rescue.”

The other day I was googling stuff, when I came across an interesting fact: Natalie Portman’s given name is actually Natalie Hershlag. I had no idea she changed her name, and especially that she changed it to something more American-sounding. This kind of fascinates me: what’s the motivation behind a celebrity changing their name? Sometimes it’s to sound less ethnic, sometimes it’s just to sound more interesting. But it turns out that more celebs have changed their names then you’d think (and it’s not just the obvious ones, like Pink).

Let’s start with Natalie Portman

Portman, as you now know, is actually named Natalie Hershlag. Apparently Portman is her grandmother’s maiden name, and she took it in order to maintain privacy. I’m…skeptical. Natalie Portman sounds more “American” – whatever that means. Either way, Natalie has a pretty interesting heritage: she was born in Jerusalem, her great grandparents died in Auschwitz, and one of her great grandmothers was a spy for the British in WWII. And at least her new name is still in the family. Unlike…

Meg Ryan…

whose real name is actually Margaret Mary Emily Ann Hyra. Which is quite a mouthful. I don’t blame her for this change, but why pick Ryan over Hyra? Ryan is a stupid boy name, but Hyra sounds all greek goddess-y.

Now Demi Moore

is actually Demetria Gene Guynes. But her name change is actually pretty legit. Demi is a nickname, and Moore is her first husband’s name (Fred Moore). Technically, she uses Demi Moore professionally, and actually goes by Demi Guynes Kutcher. So she took her 16 year old husband’s name (but honestly, who can blame the girl?).

The lovely Helen Mirren?

Born Ilynea Lydia Mironoff. Or Ilyena Vasilievna Mironov. There’s some Internet confusion about her actual name. But it’s definitely not Helen Mirren. At first I thought, she is totally getting rid of her ethnicity! But further research (umm…Wikipedia) shows that it was her father’s decision to change their family name to Mirren after settling in England. Still, “Helen” is a bit more British than “Ilyena.”

Speaking of ethnic name changes…meet Jennifer Tilly.

Real name? Jennifer E. Chan. I had no idea she was Chinese American! But Tilly is her mom’s maiden name, so she’s still keeping it in the family.

Alright, duh. LL Cool J is not his real name. It’s actually…

James Todd Smith!! I’m so charmed by this, just because of how boring and normal it is.

Now let’s meet some musicians. First up? Eric Clapton.

His real name is Eric Patrick Clapp. I don’t blame him for that change. No one wants the Clapp.

Ok, John Denver kind of shocked me.

He just seems like such a genuine guy. But his real name is Henry John Deutschendort Jr. Not exactly all-American. I guess he needed a super country, farm-boy name. And John Denver almost sounds like a tractor company. Which is probably what his handlers were going for.

These last two just kind of blow my mind. Take Sigourney Weaver.

If your name is Susan Alexandra Weaver, why would you willing take the name Sigourney? Ridic. I guess she picked it when she was 14, after a character in The Great Gatsby. Ok, fine. At least it’s literary. But should any 14 year old girl be allowed to name themselves? My name would probably have been Ivy Lovelorn from 12-17 if  my mom had been less strict.

And the winner: Skeet Ulrich.

Seriously? Why? His actual name is Bryan Ray Trout. I mean look, it’s not like having a last name like “Trout” is really winning the name lottery, but still. Skeet? I guess it’s a nickname given to him by his little league coach (“Skeeter”), based on his small size. Which is kind of cute, but also totally ridiculous. That name is never going to land you Hamlet on Broadway.

Maybe I’ll start a new game where I try and come up with my own celebrity name. How about Hope Wildheart? Or Daisy Button. Or Fai Swanton. Or Bella Lacramore! Umm, this is actually super fun.

Viagra in the Dessert

Heidi knows Victoria’s Secret

Naked Tequila

New Britney

Nude nerds

Nude shopping

Going nude to fight cancer

Sexy Claire Danes

Britney in a Bikini

Sexiest Magazine Covers

How to Earn $25 per hour

Traveling Naked

090909

How to Lead a Secret Life

Avoid a fat head

It is better to be drunk than wasted

How to Travel Naked

Beer Alert

A Constellation of Idiots

It is Better to be Drunk than Wasted

Texas Toast

Let us say that you find your selves in the throes of ardor with some hot neoprene nymph when your supposed flesh and blood beloved enters the room.  Is she amused that you cheated on her with a Latex Lover.  Well that’s what Chicken Choker first class would have us believe:

Copping a Rubber Feel

Fashion and blow up dolls

Sarah Palin Sex Doll

Sex with an Android

Doing the Doll

Plastic Orgy

Choking that plastic chicken.

090909

How to Lead a Secret Life

Exotic Vacations

Traveling Naked

Avoid a fat head

It is better to be drunk than wasted

How to Travel Naked

Beer Alert

A Constellation of Idiots

It is Better to be Drunk than Wasted

Texas Toast

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Runes and Moons

Zazzle!

Angelic Verses

DeviantArt

Rumors of Angels

LuLu

CafePress

Luck

Digital Art

Angel Sightings

Cyber Rainbows

Selling Rainbows

• ************************************************************

By Tatiana Siegel – Variety.com

Sam Worthington is heading back to the future again.

The “Avatar” star, who recently toplined “Terminator Salvation,” is attached to star in yet another sci-fier: “The Last Days of American Crime.”

Set in the not-too-distant future, story involves the U.S. government’s plans to secretly broadcast a signal that makes it impossible for anyone to knowingly commit unlawful acts.

Based on Rick Remender’s comicbook of the same name, “Last Days of American Crime” will hit shelves next month as a bi-monthly, three-issue miniseries. Greg Tocchini illustrates.

Barry Levine, who heads up the comicbook’s publisher Radical Publishing, is producing alongside Michael Schwarz.

Worthington is currently shooting the John Madden-helmed remake of “The Debt” opposite Helen Mirren. The thesp, who toplines Warner Bros.’s epic “Clash of the Titans,” recently dropped out of the GK Films thriller “The Tourist” — in which he would have starred opposite Angelina Jolie — over creative differences. Johnny Depp is now aboard to star.

Amazon Specials!

Un thriller polític molt bo, a mig camí entre Todos los hombres del presidente i Spy Game, i que no entenc perquè no ha tingut més èxit.

Potser és que la gent ja en té prou amb els telenotícies per a empapar-se d’històries de corrupció, delictes i conspiracions, però la qüestió és que aquest film mereix més atenció que la que ha tingut.

La llista de bons aspectes és complerta: el repartiment (encapçalat per Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck i Helen Mirren) està brillant, especialment la recuperada Robin Wright Penn i la bufona Rachel McAdams. El guió, basat en una minisèrie anglesa (igual que Traffic) està ben construit, i la direcció de Kevin Macdonald (Last King of Scotland) li dóna un ritme prou viu per fer-lo emocionant i prou pausat per entendre tot l’enrevesament. Afegiu un bon disseny de producció (la redacció del diari és una maravella) i una bona banda sonora i ja teniu una molt bona pel·lícula.

Què li falta a La sombra del poder per ser excel·lent? El paper protagonista recau en Russell Crowe, que no aconsegueix fer entendre de debó què pensa i sent el seu personatge, ens falta alguna cosa per identificar-nos amb ell, igual que tampoc no es pot ni empatitzar amb els d’altres ni odiar els dolents. Magistral per cert el Jeff Daniels fent de polític maquiavèlic.

El millor de State of Play (per cert, l’expressió vol dir una cosa així com l’estat de les coses) és que no passa allò que esperes des del primer moment, i que el que t’expliquen té molt de sentit.

Adient per un bon debat sobre la política i el periodisme actuals. Contraindicat si busqueu un film d’acció.

Salut i sort,
Ivan.

Imagine the Bourne Identity meets Taken, with Bruce Willis as the Matt Damon – Liam Neeson kick ass and take names character. That is Red.

Based on the Warren Ellis (GI Joe Resolute) written 3 issue comic, grittingly illustrated by Cully Hammer (Mallrats-artwork), Red is a collision of realist violence and good ol’ fashion whoop ass.  Willis will play Paul Moses, a CIA hitman in retirement trying to handle the horrors he’s done in the service of his country. Newly appointed CIA Director, uncast but most likely John C. Rielly (Step Brother), wants to clean house and Moses is at the top of the list. But when the first team of assassins fails, Moses goes Jason Bourne on the CIA, tracking them down and showing them the monster that was asleep for so long.

The story is a little thin, and short, but with alot of room to build on. When you read the comic you get hit with the whole story in under 76 heavily illustrated pages. It’s basic, but effective. Most of the characters are created in the illustrations and through the violence, rather than the see-spot-run dialogue. oh and there is violence, enough to make you think that this should be a  Quentin Tarantino movie.

But this is why you should be excited about Red’s prospects – Morgan Freeman, John C. Reilly, Helen Miren (The Queen), Richard Dreyfuss (Jaws), Brian Cox (The Bourne Supremecy and X-Men 2), Ernst Borgnine (everything for the last 50 years), Julian McMahon (Fantastic Four and Nip/Tuck) and Mary Louise Parker (Weeds) , headed by Bruce Willis under the Direction of Robert Schwentke (The Time Travelers Wife). By my count that’s 4 Oscar winners supporting Die Hard with help from a few Golden Globe/Emmy/Oscar nominees. Not to bad for a comic book adaptation movie, that’s whole premise is violence with more violence wrapped in violence.

The movie is currently pre-production, and is slated to start filming on January 11th, 2010; release date a year from now. I’m not saying that this movie is going to blow the doors off the oscars at all, but it’s probably going to be pretty awesome…but also good. Which is pretty rare these days. You either get Michael Bay’s awesome with a side of Megan Fox; or Daniel Day-Lewis on a four hour journey into depression.  Maybe this time we can just get a good ol’ fashion serving of whoop ass in between slices of quality film making.

Find Red at a comic store near you, if you live in Boston or Massachusetts go to the Comic Stop in Watertown, they are good people there.

Sam Neill, Geoffrey Rush, Hugo Weaving and David Wenham will topline the voice cast of Animal Logic’s 3D animated feature, “Guardians of Ga’hoole,” according to Heat Vision.

The big-budget fantasy film, in production in Sydney and directed by Zack Snyder, also will feature the voices of Aussie actors Emily Barclay, Abbie Cornish, Emilie de Ravin, Ryan Kwanten and Jay Laga’aia, as well as English actors Miriam Margolyes, Helen Mirren and Jim Sturgess.

The animated film is an adaptation of the 14 book bestselling kids series by author Kathryn Lasky and illustrator Richard Cowdry and follows Soren, a young owl enthralled by his father’s epic stories of the Guardians of Ga’Hoole, a mythic band of winged warriors who had fought a great battle to save all of owlkind from the evil Pure Ones.

The film is due for release in Australia on 9th December next year.

O diretor Zack Snyder, conhecido de filmes como 300 e mais recentemente, Watchmen está no cargo para dirigir o longa em animação 3D “Guardiões da Ga’Hoole”. De acordo com o Hollywood Reporter, trata-se de um filme com elementos de fantasia.

A produção é australiana e será realizada em Sydney. Na história, Soren é uma jovem coruja que é fascinado pelas histórias épicas que seu pai conta sobre os Guardiões Ga’Hoole, guerreiros míticos alados que lutaram numa grande batalha para derrotar o puro mal.

Alguns nomes já estão fechados para fazerem vozes dos personagens. São eles: Sam Neill, Geoffret Rush, Hugo Heaving, David Wenham. O projeto também contará com atrizes australianas e inglesas, como a vencedora do Oscar por A Rainha, Helen Mirren. Não está implícito na notícia quais personagens os respectivos atores emprestarão suas vozes.
A Warner Bros. e a Village Roadshow Pictures cuidam da produção, visando o lançamento na Autrália no dia 9 de dezembro de 2010.

Sem dúvida um projeto bem diferente de juntas homens sem camisa em um fundo verde ou dar vida para heróis que até então estavam fracassados. Parece interessante. Não custa nada ficar de olho no trabalho de Snyder. Não dá pra negar que é um cineasta talentoso. Se agrada, aí fica por conta de cada um…

Guilherme Jr.

A film about the final days of Russian author Leo Tolstoy (War and Peace, Anna Karenina) may sound like a bore to the average moviegoer, and indeed, The Last Station is admittedly a very bookish, Merchant Ivory sort of film. But it’s also utterly engrossing, superbly acted, and full of big ideas that ring very true. It was a joy to watch this film and I’d be surprised if it doesn’t pick up a respectable amount of awards in the coming months.

The film boasts one of the best casts of the year and features incredible performances from Christopher “Captain Von Trapp” Plummer as Tolstoy and Helen Mirren as his wife Sofya. James McAvoy also turns in one of his best performances, as the wide-eyed protégé/secretary of Tolstoy. Paul Giamatti is also quite good in a villainous role.

Based on the novel by Jay Parini, The Last Station is a film about the complex two-facedness of love; It’s about passion and devotion and the tension between what we think and what we feel. It’s about how love is often simultaneously our greatest source of joy and suffering, and how sometimes the love of an ideology can eclipse the love of another human being (to the detriment of all).

The film is about Tolstoy, a brilliant thinker and writer who at the start of the 20th century has a worldwide reputation and fan base. There is a growing “Tolstoyan” movement (a sort of utopian Christian anarchism) of which he is the figurehead. He is larger-than-life icon and celebrity, and yet he is also a husband and father. His wife (Mirren) wants him to love her first, and yet she fears that his “work,” his ideas and legacy, are a higher priority for him. She loves him deeply and wants him for her own, but near the end of his life he has become “the world’s.” The film is about the pain of loving someone so much that you don’t want to share them, and the problem of feeling closer to a conviction or ideal than an actual physical person or reality.

The Last Station tackles huge ideas that resonate deeply, but it does so in a way that never feels didactic. It’s an entertaining film, first and foremost. And yet it’s all so true. I think all of us deal with this tension between wanting to love and be loved but also wanting to make a difference in the world. Sometimes those desires are compatible and sometimes they are not. Relationships often fall victim in an individual’s pursuit of significance. Does it have to be that way? I doubt it. But more often than not it’s a truism of life: We can’t have our cake and eat it too. There’s only so much energy and will in any given life. Should it be focused on our love or our work? It’s a deep and unsettling question, and The Last Station is one of the best films I’ve seen that asks it.

Engels actrice, geboren als Ilyena Vasilievna Mironov (26 juli 1945), die excelleert in karakterrollen. In The Queen (2006) speelt zij koningin Elizabeth II, een rol die haar een Academy Award – aka Oscar – voor beste actrice opleverde.

De film laat zien hoe de koninklijke familie worstelt met hun emoties en gedrag na het dramatische auto-ongeluk dat het leven van Lady Diana in 1997 beëindigde. ‘It’s a private matter’ zegt QEII. Haar man Philip laat zich ontvallen dat ze dood voor nog meer problemen zorgt dan toen ze nog leefde. Pas na lang aandringen van de pas aangetreden Tony Blair en krantenkoppen die de familie van ongevoeligheid beschuldigen, verlaat de familie Balmoral om in Londen blijk te geven van hun medeleven.

Dat gaat niet van harte en de confrontatie met kaartjes die ronduit vijandige teksten bevatten aan haar adres maakt het er allemaal niet gemakkelijker op. Maar ze doet het, de vlag gaat halfstok en de majesteit leest een live toespraak voor waarin ze, ook als grootmoeder, een nadrukkelijke toevoeging van Alastair Campbell, Blair’s spindoctor, deelt in het verdriet. Mirren is meesterlijk in het verbeelden van de vastberadenheid en de twijfel van de vorstin die begrijpt dat ze moet meebewegen. Maar het publieke verdriet, de mensenmassa’s, de bloemenzee, de stoet van celebrities, het applaus na de speech van Diana’s broer; het is niet haar wereld.

De vele gedaanten van Helen Mirren

Andere rollen
- Queen Elizabeth 1 in Elisabeth 1, speelfilm 2005 (Emmy Award)
- Detective Superintendant Jane Tennison in de tv-serie Prime Suspect (1991-2006)

[http://www.helenmirren.com/] The Helen Mirren Appreciation Society

Un film del 2010, regia di Robert Schwentke, con Bruce Willis / Morgan Freeman / Helen Mirren / John C. Reilly. Prodotto da ()

Azione / Commedia

L’ex agente della CIA Paul Moses deve sfuggire a un team di killer inviato dal nuovo leader della CIA che vuole eliminare i collaboratori come Moses che sanno troppo.

Un film del 2009, regia di Michael Hoffman, con James McAvoy / Christopher Plummer / Helen Mirren / Paul Giamatti. Prodotto da (112min)

Drammatico

Dopo quasi cinquant’anni di matrimonio, la Contessa Sofya, devota moglie di Leo Tolstoj, scopre improvvisamente che tutto il suo mondo va gambe all’aria. In nome della sua nuova religione utopica e delle sue idee anarco-cristiane, il grande romanziere russo ha rinunciato al titolo nobiliare e alle sue proprietà per diventare povero, vegetariano e celibe; potrebbe inoltre essere stato convinto da Chertkov, il suo discepolo, a lasciare i diritti dei suoi ironici racconti al popolo russo anziché alla famiglia. Con ogni stratagemma, la donna lotta ferocemente contro la comunità libertaria che si è installata in casa sua per quel che ritiene le appartenga. Allontanata da Tolstoj riuscirà a rivederlo solo in punto di morte, nell’ultima stazione.

The casting for Summit Entertainment’s adaptation of the Wildstorm Comics mini-series Red is hotting up. Julian McMahon, Ernest Borgnine, Richard Dreyfuss and Brian Cox are in negotiations to join Bruce Willis for Flightplan director Robert Schwentke’s new feature.

Red, originally written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Cully Hamner, tells the story of a former black-ops CIA agent now living a quiet life in retirement until the day a high-tech assassin shows up intent on killing him.

McMahon would play the Vice President, who is at the very heart of a massive conspiracy. 92 year-old Borgnine will play the keeper of the CIA’s darkest records, while Dreyfuss will be a wealthy man who builds a fortune out of lucrative government contracts. Cox takes the role of a former Cold War spy and nemesis of Willis, who plays the lead character. The line-up will also include Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, John C. Reilly and Mary Louise Parker.

That’s some serious talent collected there and it’s great to see Wild Bunch star Borgnine still hard at work. I’m more than a little excited by the potential in this project. The film is scheduled to begin shooting early next year, for a projected November 2010 release.

DVD Top 10.
Bestsellerliste der Woche
von Illuminati bis State of Play

Illuminati:
Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) entdeckt Beweise, dass die mächtigste Untergrundbewegung der Geschichte, ein uralter konspirativer Geheimbund, den man als ‘Die Illuminati’ kennt, wiederauferstanden ist. Kurz darauf wird er damit konfrontiert, dass die katholische Kirche, der zutiefst verhasste Erzfeind der Illuminaten, einer tödlichen, existenzvernichtenden Bedrohung ausgesetzt ist…

Nachts im Museum 2:
Seine Tage als Museumswärter sind passé: Larry Daley ist als Erfinder nutzloser Dinge erfolgreich, kehrt jedoch ins Museum zurück, als er erfährt, dass die seinerzeit zu Leben erwachten Ausstellungsstücke in den Keller des Smithsonian in New York verfrachtet werden sollen. Ruhe ist allerdings auch dort nicht angesagt, weil auch die mystische Tafel von Akhmenrah, die den Exponaten Leben einhaucht, versehentlich zum neuen Ausstellungsort transportiert wurde. Nun bricht dort das Chaos aus, und Larry muss für Ordnung sorgen…

Slumdog Millionär:
Glauben Sie an das Schicksal? Für Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) ist es der größte Tag seines bisherigen Lebens. Nur noch eine Frage trennt ihn vom 20 Millionen Rupien-Hauptgewinn in Indiens TV- Show ‘Wer wird Millionär?’

Der Womanizer:
Der Junggeselle Connor Mead (Matthew McConaughey) gehört zu den Typen, die drei Freundinnen den Laufpass geben. Gleichzeitig. Per Telefonkonferenz. Auf der Hochzeitsfeier seines Bruders hat er also nur ein Ziel: Er will die einzige Brautjungfer herumkriegen, die er bisher irgendwie übersehen hat. Doch der Geist seines verstorbenen Onkels Wayne (Michael Douglas) – der Connor beigebracht hat, die Frauen zu wechseln wie die Hemden – verfolgt ein ganz anderes Ziel…

Star Trek – Die Zukunft hat begonnen:
James T. Kirk ist ein rebellischer Hitzkopf im amerikanischen Niemandsland, der nie den Tod seines Vaters bei einem Angriff eines romulanischen Raumschiffs verkraftet hat. Nach einer seiner Prügeleien fordert ihn Captain Pike, einst ein Freund seines verstorbenen Vaters, auf, der Sternenflotte beizutreten. Dort macht sich Kirk zunächst keine Freunde, bis ihn eine Mission zwingt, endlich Verantwortung zu übernehmen: der Romulaner Nero bedroht Vulkan, den Heimatplaneten von Kirks späterem Weggefährten Spock…

Transformers 2:
Nachdem Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) die Welt mit Hilfe der gutmütigen Autobots vor den bösartigen Decepticons gerettet hat, freut er sich auf ein normales Leben. Als er aufs College geht, lässt er nicht nur Freundin Mikaela (Megan Fox) zurück…

X-Men Origins: Wolverine:
Hugh Jackman schlüpft wieder in die Rolle, die ihn zum Superstar machte: Wolverine – der Mann mit den unverkennbaren Stahlklingen, bemerkenswerten Selbstheilungskräften, ruppigem Charme und einer gehörigen Portion trockenem Humor. ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ erzählt die Vorgeschichte Logans mit Augenmerk auf seine mysteriöse Vergangenheit, seine komplexe Beziehung zu Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber) und das ominöse Weapon X-Programm. Der Zuschauer erfährt, wer Wolverine wirklich ist…

Duplicity:
CIA-Offizier Claire Stenwick (Julia Roberts) und MI6-Agent Ray Koval (Clive Owen) standen früher im Geheimdienst ihrer Regierungen. Derzeit haben sie in die Privatwirtschaft gewechselt, um mit lukrativen Verträgen das meiste aus dem Kalten Krieg herauszuholen. Beide jagen jeweils für ihre Bosse Tully (Tom Wilkinson) und Garsik (Paul Giamatti) einem milliardenschweren Patent nach. Keiner ahnt, dass sie eine heimliche Affäre und eigene Pläne haben…

Männersache:
Tagsüber arbeitet Paul (Mario Barth) in einer Berliner Zoohandlung und abends an seiner Karriere als Komiker. Zugegeben, seine Auftritte laufen mies… bis Paul anfängt, Witze über seinen besten Freund Hotte (Dieter Tappert) und dessen Freundin Susi (Anja Kling) zu reißen. Auf einmal läuft es auf der Bühne: Pauls Gags über Hottes Beziehungsgeschichten, nicht enden wollende Shopping-Orgien von Susi und den Pärchen Kaffeeklatsch bei den Schwiegereltern sind ein Renner…

State of Play – Stand der Dinge:
Ein junger aufstrebender Politiker und ein Washingtoner Enthüllungsreporter finden sich mitten im Epizentrum einer Reihe von Morden wieder, die nur scheinbar nichts miteinander zu tun haben. Der Kongressabgeordnete Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) ist Hoffnung und Zukunft seiner Partei – ein aussichtsreicher und ehrenhafter Newcomer, unter anderem im Vorsitz des Komitees für Verteidigungsausgaben…

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Otro cómic a la gran pantalla

Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman y Helen Mirren juntos en ‘RED’

Foto: Reuters

MADRID, 8 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Trío de lujo para lo nuevo de Robert Schwentke (Plan de Vuelo: Desaparecida). Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman y Helen Mirren serán los protagonistas de ‘Red’ (‘Rojo’), la adaptación de un cómic homónimo sobre espías.

Creado por Warren Ellis e ilustrada por Cully Hamner, la serie de ‘Rec’ fue publicada por DC comics entre 2003 y 2004. Estos cómics relatan la trepidante historia de Paul Moses, al que dará vida Bruce Willis, un ex agente de la CIA que deberá huir para salvar su vida después de que el nuevo director de la agencia (Morgan Freeman) ponga precio a su cabeza al entender que conoce muchos secretos sobre la seguridad nacional como para dejarlo por vida.

Una trama en la que Mirren, ganadora del Oscar por ‘La Reina’, intepretará a una antigua compañera de Moses que le ayudará en su huíada. El rodaje de ‘Red’ comenzará en enero y tendrá lugar en Toronto y Louisiana.

Summit Entertainment, la productora que está tras el proyecto, tiene previsto su estreno dentro de un año, concretamente el 19 de noviembre de 2010. John C. Reilly (‘El circo de los extraños’, ‘”Hermanos por pelotas’) y Mary-Louise Parker (‘Las crónicas de Spiderwick’, ‘El asesinato de Jesse James por el cobarde Robert Ford’) también estan en negociaciones para sumarse al proyecto.

Dir. Kevin Macdonald
(2009, PG-13, 128 min)
★ ★ ½

I have an affection for State of Play that makes me want to bump it up that extra half star, but nagging reservations that won’t let me. It starts as an intelligent, unpretentious, straight-ahead thriller about the kind of hard-boiled investigative journalist who Gets Too Close To The Story, and its gradually unraveling conspiracy is exciting, but over time it starts to give in to laziness, and its plot undergoes one back flip too many before I’ve just lost interest.

Russell Crowe, soft in the middle and bedraggled with long hair, stars as Cal McAffrey, an old-fashioned investigative reporter for The Washington Globe who has been using the same computer for eighteen years and driving the same car for just as long. He’s unkempt; in his opening scene he’s driving to the scene of a homicide, munching on Cheetos and tossing the wrapper into his rat’s nest of a backseat. He has a friendly/adversarial relationship with the detective on the scene, Donald Bell (Harry Lennix), and we can guess pretty well their roles in this story: Cal is the veteran journalist resisting the changing times, and Donald will complain that Cal is getting in the way of his case.

In much the same way, we can peg pretty much every character on screen, and that’s one of the film’s problems. There’s Rachel McAdams as Della Frye, who blogs for the newspaper but may as well be writing for Tiger Beat as far as Cal is concerned; she’s the young, ambitious, but lightweight cub who finally gets her hands dirty on real investigative work. There’s Helen Mirren as Cameron Lynne, the officious newspaper editor, who of course stands in Cal’s way at every turn and complains about deadlines and diminished circulation and beating other papers to the story even if it means crippling the story. And there’s Ben Affleck as crusading Congressman Stephen Collins; he has the most dimension of any character, but that just means he’s subject to the most plot twists.

The film is based on a six-hour British miniseries from 2003. I haven’t seen it. Perhaps in that amount of time these characters would have had room to grow beyond their respective archetypes, but compressed into a 128-minute feature, they stay mostly confined to their boxes.

Stephen was college roommates with Cal, which strikes me as odd because Crowe is eight years older than Affleck and looks it; Stephen must have skipped some grades. The congressman is married to Anne (Robin Wright Penn); there is an underdeveloped love triangle between them and Cal that stretches back to their college days and contributes nothing to the story; trimming it from the screenplay might have left room to expand some of those hurried investigative montages — knocking on doors, making phone calls, hitting dead ends — into actual scenes.

Stephen comes under scrutiny when his top aide, Sonia Baker, winds up dead; the details of the investigation are slick and paranoid and cool. Were they having an affair? Did she commit suicide? Did it have something to do with a committee investigation Stephen was spearheading? The story leads us to PointCorp, a private defense contractor that may have greater ambitions than just hiring out for foreign conflicts. A few fragments of investigations that seem unrelated at the outset (though of course we know they’re not) start to dovetail, and I liked the accumulation of evidence that suggests deeper and deeper and deeper corruption. But the details are many, and they come fast in a narrative that often feels overly truncated. It holds interest up until that last wonky twist, which I suppose is as plausible as all the other ones but feels like a twist for twist’s sake. Maybe it would feel less so if the characters felt like characters and not just extensions of the plot.

John C. Reilly (Walk Hard, Step-Brothers) and Mary-Louise Parker (Weeds) are in negotiations to join the cast of Red, Summit’s adaptation of the Warren Ellis Wildstorm/DC Comics miniseries being directed by Robert Schwentke (The Time Traveller’s Wife).

The comic was great. Very violent and the synopisis is as follows:

As a C.I.A. operative, Paul Moses’s unique talent for killing took him around the world, from one hotspot to another, carrying out the deadly orders of his superiors. And when he retired, he wanted to put his bloody past behind him. But when a new administration takes over the White House, the powers that be decide that Moses knows too much, forcing him back into the game against the agency that trained him.

The movie is described by Heat Vision blog as a tale of a former black-ops agent (Bruce Willis), now in retirement, who has to contend with younger, more high-tech assassins who show up to kill him.

Reilly would play a retired CIA agent who is paranoid that everyone is out to kill him.

Parker would play the romantic interest, a federal pension worker who becomes embroiled in the Willis character’s struggle to stay alive.

Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren are also starring in it.

En la página de Heat Vision, John C. Reilly y Mary-Louise Parker están viendo si se unen al proyecto de “Red”. Esta es la adaptación de la Wildstorm y DC comics.

El director creo que ya se lo saben, nada más y nada menos que Robert Schwentke.

La serie de tres volúmenes que se publicaron en el 2003 y el 2004, cuenta la historia de unos agentes de operaciones encubiertas de la CIA (Bruce Willis) que ahora viven bien a gusto ya retirados hasta que un asesino que usa la más avanzada tecnología se presenta para matarlo.

Reilly será uno de los agentes retirados de la CIA que piensa que todo mundo lo quiere matar. Mary-Louise Parker será la chica a conquistar que trabaja como una empleada en el departamento de pensiones y que se involucra con el personaje de Bruce Willies para que éste siga vivo.

Ya ayer les pusimos de que Morgan Freeman y Helen Mirren también estará en esta cinta. Los productores serán Lorenzo DiBonaventura y Mark Vahradian usando un guión de Jon y Erich Hoeber.

El actor John C. Reilly (su último trabajo es Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant) y Mary Louise Parker (la vemos cada semana en Weeds), se suman al interesante reparto del thriller de acción Red. La adaptación del cómic ideado por Warren Ellis, de la que se hace cargo Robert Schwentke contaba ya con Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren y Morgan Freeman en su reparto. La película tiene como protagonista a un viejo agente de operaciones encubiertas ya retirado, que deberá enfrentarse con tretas de su generación a un grupo de asesinos armados con alta tecnología que sus antiguos jefes han enviado para matarle. Reilly será un viejo compañero del protagonista, dando vida a un ex-agente de la CIA totalmente paranoico, mientras que Parker será una humilde trabajadora que se verá involucrada en la lucha del protagonista por sobrevivir.