Moviecrazed

COMING SOON--OR MAYBE NOT SO SOON--TO YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD CINEPLEX

(PART II ... FOR PART I, CLICK HERE.)

NINE: Daniel Day-Lewis, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, Sophia Loren, Judi Dench (Directed by Rob Marshall; Written by Michael Tolkin; Weinstein Company) Who could forget “8 1⁄2,” the stunning 1963 film in which Marcello Mastroianni, under the direction of Federico Fellini, played a Felliniesque director who made more women than movies? Certainly, composer Maury Yeston and dramatist Arthur Kopit could not erase this classic from their memories. That’s why, in 1982, they came up with a Broadway musicalization of it starring the late, great Raul Julia as the womanizing auteur on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The show, called “Nine,” was successfully revived in 2003, showcasing the song-and-dance skills of Antonio Banderas. And now, here comes the movie version of the hit musical, directed by Rob Marshall, who gave us “Chicago,” and starring Daniel Day Lewis, one of the few actors now working who could be ranked alongside Marcello Mastroianni. Penelope Cruz plays his mistress, Marion Cotillard, who triumphed as Edith Piaf in “La Vie en Rose,” is his shortchanged wife, Nicole Kidman is an actress who greatly inspires him, Kate Hudson is a fashion reporter who intrigues him, and Sophia Loren will undobtedly haunt him and us as the ghost of his Mama.

ONE BIG HAPPY: Steve Martin, Diane Keaton (Paramount) What we have here is a comedy about a family that is far from happy and has been that way for a long while. But you can bet that Ma and Pa, played by Keaton and Martin, will patch everything up in time for a big happy ending--just as they did in “Father of the Bride” and "Father of the Bride Part II."

OUR FAMILY TROUBLES: Reese Witherspoon (Written by Don Winston; Universal) As in her “Bunny Lake Is Missing,” Reese Witherspoon is a mom who’s in trouble because her kid--this time, a boy--is in trouble. Strange, sickeningly unnatural things are happening down on her Tennessee home and she’s pretty sure that a witch is about to snatch her son. Soon she’s so crazed that she can’t tell which witch is which. For details on more upcoming Reese Witherspoon movies, click here and browse the W page or STAR TURNS.

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THE PAST (EL PASADO): Gael Garcia Bernal, Analia Couceyro, Moro Anghileri, Ana Celentano, Betty Farias (Directed by Hector Babenco; Written by Alan Pauls) Hector Babenco, who directed William Hurt in his Oscar-winning performance in 1985’s “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” is now guiding Gael Garcia Bernal through some tricky paces. Based on screenwriter Alan Pauls’ acclaimed novel, "The Past" depicts the emotional and physical torment experienced by a young man who decides to end a lengthy, complicated relationship. He’s ready to plunge into the intoxicating world of multi-partnered mating, but, as it turns out, his ex has different plans for his future. And she knows precisely how to make life hell for him--and for any woman who succumbs to his charm.

PEACOCK: Cillian Murphy, Ellen Page, Susan Sarandon, Josh Lucas, Bill Pullman, Jaimi Paige, Virginia Newcomb, Paul Cram (Directed by Michael Lander; Written by Michael Lander and Ryan Roy; Mandate Pictures) Nothing much ever happened in the tiny town of Peacock, Nebraska--unless you count the day a train ran into the back yard of a humble bank clerk mamed John Skillpa (Cillian Murphy). That was the same day folks became aware that John had a housemate, a woman they took to be his wife. Peacockians being Peacockians, no one made much of the fact that John and his spouse never appeared in the same place at the same time. Finally, somebody took notice--a perky single mom (played by "Juno's" Ellen Page) began to suspect that something strange, maybe even sick, was going on in John's house. How could this well-intentioned snoop bring John's story to a happy ending? Persuade John to put his wife up for adoption? Or, discovering that the guy had been getting off on slipping into something silky and masquerading as his own wife, she might try convincing him that she herself would make the best of all possible Mrs. Skillpas. Or maybe get the hell out of Peacock.

THE PLEASURE OF YOUR COMPANY: Jason Biggs, Isla Fisher, Joe Pantoliano, Joanna Gleason, Edward Herrmann, Margo Martindale, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Mark Consuelos, Chris Diamantopoulos, Heather Goldenhersh, Michael Weston (Written and directed by Michael Ian Black; MGM) How’s this for rotten luck? An earnest young man works up the courage to ask his sweetheart to become his bride and somehow, in the process of proposing, manages to kill the poor girl. Think of it as dying cute. Unsurprisingly, the wannabe husband falls into a funk until the night a buddy badgers him into proposing to a sexy waitress he knows zilch about. Will she say yes, and can this story possibly have a happy ending? You can count on it.

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RABBIT HOLE: Nicole Kidman (Written by David Lindsay-Abaire; Fox Searchlight) The serenity of a suburban family is shattered when a four-year-old boy is killed by the driver of a speeding car. Will a visit from the teen-ager who was behind the wheel bring solace to the boy’s mother, or will it fill her with rage? David Lindsay-Abaire's play won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and Cynthia Nixon was awarded a Tony for her performance as the grief-ravaged woman. Does that mean Nicole Kidman, who received an Oscar for "The Hours," will be nabbing another statuette?

THE REPOSSESSION MAMBO: Jude Law, Forest Whitaker (Directed by Miguel Sapochnik; Written by Eric Garcia and Garret Lerner; Universal) Would you buy an artificial organ on an installment plan from a company that reserved the right to terminate you if you default on payment? That’s the decision facing somebody--perhaps Jude Law and/or Forest Whitaker--in this sci-fi thriller set in the near future. If things go as planned, “The Repossession Mambo” will take possession of your local theater before “Repo! The Genetic Opera,” a similarly themed musical directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, whose previous assaults on our sanity include "Saw II," "Saw III" and "Saw IV."

THE RISE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT: Leonardo DiCaprio (Directed by Martin Scorsese; Written by Nicholas Meyer; Paramount) Leo for president? Why not? Martin Scorsese, who directed him in “Gangs of New York,” “The Aviator” and “The Departed,” thinks Leo is just the man for the job of portraying the remarkably complex 26th president of the U.S. in the adaptation of Edmund Morris’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt.” As in the book, Teddy will go from a frail, asthmatic Harvard grad to the bear of a man who commanded the Rough Riders, governed the state of New York, and eventually called the White House home. Hail to the chief! For Guy Flatley's 1973 interview with Martin Scorsese, click here; to read about more new biopics, click here.

THE RUM DIARY: Johnny Depp, Josh Hartnett, Benicio del Toro, Nick Nolte (Written and directed by Bruce Robinson; FilmEngine) It’s been nearly 10 years since Johnny Depp played Raoul Duke, a hell-raising journalist, in the film version of Hunter S. Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” Nobody, including the author, believed that Duke was anyone other than Thompson himself. Now Depp is playing Paul Kemp, an eccentric reporter in “The Rum Diary,” the autobiographical novel the late Hunter published when he was 22. Set in San Juan, Puerto Rico, during the fifties, “Diary” depicts the chaotic, booze-and-drugs fueled adventures of a brawling Hunteresque freelancer from New York who tries to twist himself into a latter-day Hemingway. Playing his unruly expatriate pals: Nick Nolte, Benicio del Toro and Josh Hartnett. Sounds like a high time will be had by all. To read Guy Flatley's 1979 interview with Nick Nolte, click here.

SASHA'S STORY: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A RUSSIAN SPY: Johnny Depp (Warner Bros.) Will moviegoers glut themselves on a double serving of the true-life tragedy of Alexander “Sasha” Litvinenko, the KGB agent-turned-superspy who suffered a hideous death last November after dining on sushi containing polonium-210? Possibly so, if both Warner Bros. and Columbia follow through with plans to fast-track competing versions of the same raw-deal tale. The Warner Bros. project, "Sasha's Story: The Life and Death of a Russian Spy," is based on a Doubleday book being written by Alan Cowell, the New York Times bureau chief who has covered the story extensively for The Times. It’s extremely likely that Johnny Depp, whose Infinitum Nihil production company is partnered with Warner Bros., will play the bigger-than-life character who, on his deathbed, accused Vladimir Putin of plotting his murder. While the people at Columbia will not have the pleasure of Johnny Depp’s company on their Litvinenko take, they will surely be working with solid pros, starting at the top with director Michael Mann, and including Marina Litvinenko, the former spy’s widow, and Alex Goldfarb, her collaborator on “Death of a Dissident,” a book scheduled to be published by Free Press, a Simon & Schuster subsidiary, in May. No word on who’ll play Litvinenko in “Death of a Dissident.” But the names of Tom Cruise and Sacha Baron Cohen do flutter to mind.

SHAME ON YOU: Dennis Quaid (Written and directed by Dennis Quaid) Good old boy Spade Cooley was sometimes a bad old boy, most notably on the day in 1961 when he stomped, strangled and burned his wife Ella Mae to death in the presence of their daughter Melody. What madness drove the famed Western Swing fiddler to murder? You’ll find out a while after Quaid starts his cameras rolling on what he hopes will be a New Orleans location. Katie Holmes was set to play Ella Mae, but she bowed out due to a dizzying schedule. To read about more new biopics, click here.

SHANTARAM: Johnny Depp, Emily Watson, Franka Potente (Directed by Mira Nair; Written by Eric Roth and Gregory David Roberts; Warner Bros.) An Australian named Lindsay (Johnny Depp) has a major heroin habit which sends him to what promises to be a long, harsh term of imprisonment. As in the Gregory David Roberts novel from which this drama stems, however, Lindsay escapes and lands in a crime-crammed Bombay slum, where he manages to pass himself off as a crackerjack physician--one who engages in gunrunning and smuggling in order to give his poor patients the meds they so richly deserve. The next stage of Lindsay’s physical and spiritual journey is Afghanistan, where he joins the insurgents in their struggle to oust the Russians. Tomorrow Iraq? Peter Weir, who was set to direct "Shantaram," dropped out when the folks at Warner Bros. informed him that his take on the material was all wrong. He was replaced by Mira Nair, director of "Monsoon Wedding" and "The Namesake."

SHUTTER ISLAND: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Max Von Sydow, Emily Mortimer, Elias Koteas, Patricia Clarkson, John Carroll Lynch, Jackie Earle Haley (Directed by Martin Scorsese; Written by Laeta Kalogridis; Paramount) Based on the frenzied 2003 novel by Dennis Lehane, author of “Mystic River” and “Gone Baby Gone,” “Shutter Island” spins a dark, dizzy tale. Set in 1954, it revolves around the efforts of U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio), a crazed war vet and recent widower, and his gullible partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) to capture a murderess who has escaped from Ashecliffe Hospital, a home away from home for the criminally insane. As it turns out, this funny farm, located on a rocky island off Boston Harbor, is no laughing matter. The warden himself boasts, “We take only the most damaged patients...we take the ones no other facility can manage.” And it’s clear that some of the doctors and nurses are even more damaged than the patients and may be on the verge of hatching a horrific scheme. All that the increasingly edgy Teddy and the seriously deranged occupants of Ashecliffe need are a raging hurricane, hordes of rampaging rodents, and the sudden return of the slippery, blood-thirsty femme fatale. Which is undoubtedly what director Martin Scorsese will give them in his bid to top the unblushing Grand Guignol of “Cape Fear” and “The Departed.”

A SINGLE MAN

Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Matthew Goode, Nicholas Hoult, Ginnifer Goodwin, Paulette Lamori

Written and directed by Tom Ford

Perhaps the most moving of all of Christopher Isherwood’s novels, “A Single Man,” published in 1964, focuses on one day in the life of George Falconer, a British professor living in California who is mourning the death of his long-time partner, Jim. Now Tom Ford, a strikingly handsome native of Austin, Texas who moved to Manhattan, came to the conclusion that he was gay one steamy night at Studio 54, and eventually went on to become a fashion heavyweight at the house of Gucci, has fleshed out Isherwood’s story on film.

Colin Firth plays the man in stiff-upper-lip mourning, Julianne Moore is an empathetic American who feels his pain, Matthew Goode’s the gone but not forgotten Jim, and Nicholas Hoult—the lad who made Hugh Grant behave like a grown-up in 2002’s “About a Boy”—plays Kenny, a college student who may have a crush on teacher George.

Opening date to be announced

SPORTS WIDOW: Reese Witherspoon (Directed by David Mirkin; Written by Elizabeth Kruger and Craig Shapiro; Universal) Everyone’s favorite legally blonde cutie might as well be legally dead in this comedy about a woman whose husband remains totally glued to the tube during the seemingly endless football season. How to get the big lug’s attention? Easy! Simply knock his socks off by boning up on all those tricky gridiron stats. That’s what Lucy would have done if Desi had been a wannabe jock.

THE STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT: Ryan Phillippe, Channing Tatum, Paul Dano, Giovanni Ribisi, Charlie Hunnam, Kieran Culkin, Jesse Eisenberg, Ben McKenzie (Directed by Christopher McQuarrie; Written by Christopher McQuarrie and Tim Talbott; Icon Entertainmet Intl.) Is it conceivable that a highly respected doctor/sociologist could set up a faux prison at a prestigious college--using some student volunteers as prisoners and others as guards--for the purpose of conducting a serious exploration of human behavior? Well, you’d better believe it, because it’s true. Doctor Philip Zimbardo conducted his controversial study at Stanford University in 1971, and the student role-players slipped so deeply into character--some of them becoming outrageously cruel and sexually abusive--that the good doctor had to call a halt to his campus charade at the halfway mark. Christopher McQuarrie, the screenwriter who won an Oscar for “The Usual Suspects” (1995) and reaped positive reviews for his writing and direction of “The Way of the Gun” (2000), is directing the “The Stanford Prison Experiment” screenplay that he co-authored with Tim Talbott.

STATE OF PLAY: Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck , Helen Mirren, Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright Penn, Jason Bateman (Directed by Kevin Macdonald; Written by Matthew Michael Carnahan and Tony Gilroy; Universal) Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, who had a jolly, violent time for themselves in “Fight Club,” were primed for a promising re-match in this adaptation of Paul Abbott’s hot six-hour British miniseries. But Pitt thought the rewrite of Matthew Michael Carnahan's screenplay by Tony Gilroy, Peter Morgan and others was the pits. So he took a walk. But who needs Brad Pitt when they have Russell Crowe ready to roll? Here's the deal: Investigating the death of politician Stephen Collins’ mistress, reporter Cal McCaffrey (Crowe) discovers evidence that could prove the slick pol (Affleck) is guilty of murder. He also discovers the surprisingly potent allure of Collins’ dumped wife (Robin Wright Penn). Sounds like Kevin Macdonald, the director of “The Last King of Scotland,” once again has plenty of explosive stuff to work with.

STOMPANATO: Antonio Banderas, Sharon Stone (Directed by Francois Girard; Written by David Webb Peoples and Janet Peoples; Stonelock Pictures) Lana Turner and Johnny Stompanato were sweethearts--until the day in 1958 when the screen queen's daughter, Cheryl Crane, stabbed the hot-tempered gangland figure before he could make an exit from her mom's Beverly Hills bedroom. (For those with short memories, the verdict was justifiable homicide). Stone seems a smart choice for Turner, but Bandera had better get to work on his American accent--starting yesterday. No word yet on who will tackle the challenging role of 14-year-old Cheryl, but if Dakota Fanning is on the list, let us hope she is toward the bottom.

SUGARLAND: Jodie Foster, Robert De Niro (Directed by Jodie Foster; Written by Daniel Barnz and Ned Zeman; Universal) When last seen together on screen, she was a post-adolescent prostitute and he was a psychotic cabbie treating her to free rides on the wild side of Manhattan. That was in Martin Scorsese’s 1976 “Taxi Driver.” After that memorable bloodbath, Jodie Foster and Robert De Niro went their separate, Oscar-winning ways. But at long last they are teamed again, this time in an adaptation of Marie Brenner’s “In the Kingdom of Big Sugar,” a true story about two brothers, Alfy and Pepe Fanjul, who were accused of seriously abusing migrant workers in Florida. Brenner’s gripping account was published in the February 2001 issue of Vanity Fair. Foster, gutsy enough to both direct and star in the film, plays a crusading attorney, and De Niro plays a powerful sugar baron with strong political connections. To read Guy Flatley's 1973 interview with Robert De Niro, click here.

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TENDERNESS: Russel Crowe, Jon Foster, Sophie Traub, Laura Dern, Michael Kelly (Directed by John Polson; Written by Emil Stern; Lionsgate) A tough-but-sensitive New York cop (Russell Crowe) tries to achieve the proper balance in his handling of a moody teen-ager who may have murdered members of his own family while in an especially bad mood and is now getting too close for comfort to a runaway 16-year-old (Sophie Traub). The creepy lad is played by Jon Foster, the under-rated actor who was excellent as the boy who surrendered his virginity to Kim Basinger in “The Door in the Floor.” To read about more new murderpix, click here.

TETRO: Matt Dillon (Written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola; American Zoetrope) Matt Dillon, so persuasive playing radically different characters in the recent “Crash” and “Factotum,” has yet to achieve the major stardom predicted for him by so many critics back in 1983, the year he broke through with magnetic performances in “The Outsiders” and “Rumble Fish,” both directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Maybe Dillon will get the attention he deserves when he takes on the role of one of the more emotionally explosive members of a fiery family of Italian immigrants pursuing a semblance of calm in Buenos Aires. And wouldn’t it be thrilling if maestro Coppola soared to Godfatherly heights again?

13: Mickey Rourke, Ray Winstone, Jason Statham, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Ray Liotta, 50 Cent, Michael Shannon, David Zayas, Ben Gazzara, Sam Riley (Written and directed by Gela Babluani; Endeavor) The spoiled-rotten wealthy class--is there no limit to their sense of entitlement? Evidently not, if we are to judge by the privileged specimens on display in this Americanization of “13 Tzameti,” the hardboiled 2005 French thriller that won the grand jury prize for world cinema at the Sundance Film Festival. Here’s what the scoundrels do: they gamble bits and pieces of their wealth on a life-and-death sport played in secrecy, a Russian Roulette-inspired competition between desperate men who’ve been sneaked out of prison--as in the case of the character played by Mickey Rourke--or an insane asylum--as in the psycho played by Ray Winstone. The English-language adaptation is by Gela Babluani, the writer-director responsible for the original. So you can’t say he doesn’t have a feel for this sort of thing. Opening date to be announced

TRAVELING: Aaron Eckart (Directed by Brandon Camp; Written by Brandon Camp and Mike Thompson; Universal) Grief-stricken by the death of his wife, a man attempts to find relief by describing his feelings on the printed page. The result catapults him to the top of the best-seller list and turns him into an instant talk-show sensation. And of course he becomes a magnet to young women eager to lend cuddly comfort. Understandably, he is flattered--and turned on--by a particularly bright and beautiful fellow-participant at an A-list seminar. But is this celebrity widower really ready to wed again?

UNTITLED MICHAEL MANN: Leonardo DiCaprio (Directed by Michael Mann; Written by John Logan; New Line) Hollywood’s best year ever, according to many critics and movie buffs, was 1939. MGM’s release schedule alone included “Gone With the Wind,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “Ninotchka,” The Women,” “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” and “Babes in Arms.” So it seems fitting that much of the scandal-smeared action of this crime drama takes place on MGM’s Culver City lot during that golden year. What scandals are we talking about? The juicy ones that the hard-working private eye played by Leo DiCaprio is being paid big bucks by MGM and other studios to keep secret from the press, the public and, if possible, the cops. It sounds like good not-so-clean fun, so long as the movie doesn’t reveal the scandalous side of Garbo, Mickey & Judy, or the Munchkins.

UNTITLED WOODY ALLEN: Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Rebecca Hall (Written and directed by Woody Allen) There was a time when Diane Keaton was gloriously front and center in nearly every Woody Allen comedy or drama. A bit later, the same was true of Mia Farrow. Now the working-with-Woody thing is getting to be a habit with Scarlett Johansson, whose star turns in his British-lensed “Match Point” and “Scoop” will be followed by this maybe comedy/maybe drama which, naturally, does not yet have a title or a story-line that we can talk about. What we do know is that the Spanish-set story will be shot in Barcelona and Asturias, and that Woody has had the good sense to team Scarlett with a pair of Pedro Almodovar’s finest players--Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem. To read Guy Flatley’s 1978 Los Angeles Times interview with Woody Allen, click here.

WHIP IT!: Ellen Page (Directed by Drew Barrymore; Written by Shauna Cross; Mandate Pictures) Who could have imagined that the precious little angel in “E.T.” would morph into a sexy, down-to-earth babe in “Charlie’s Angels” and “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle”? And who would have thought the same little angel would one day take flight and set down not in front of the camera but behind it? That is precisely what Drew Barrymore, sole famous survivor of a bigger-than-life theatrical clan, is about to do. In “Whip It!,” Drew’s directorial debut, Ellen Page, the “Juno” wonder, will play Bliss, a tenacious Texan teen determined to race her way to roller derby glory. The screenplay is by Shauna Cross, a.k.a. to skater buffs as Maggie Mayhem. Here’s what Page told Variety’s Tatiana Siegel: "I really admire how Drew constantly challenges herself as an artist. She's proven herself as an actress and a producer, and I have no doubt she'll bring great vision and creativity to the director's chair. I can't wait to kick ass on wheels!"

WHITE JAZZ: George Clooney (Directed by Joe Carnahan; Written by Joe Carnahan and Matthew Michael Carnahan; Warner Independent Pictures) Not all cops are the same. Some are good, and some are bad. Dave Klein (George Clooney) is a good--well, mostly good--cop making a buck the scary way on the LAPD vice squad in 1958, and he’s being set up for a calamitous fall by the city’s police commissioner, a bad-to-the-core cop if ever there was one. Will Klein outwit his boss? You can count on it. Nor would you be wrong to count on a full tank of blood, guts, bullets and octane in this adaptation of the James Ellroy novel, since writer-director Joe Carnahan is the man who gave us “Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane,” the 1998 cult thriller, as well as 2003’s police saga “Narc.”

A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE: Annette Bening, Sienna Miller, Sean Bean (Directed by Janusz Kaminski; Written by Howard Himelstein; Myriad Pictures) Suppose you were a proper young lady who had the misfortune of being seduced and abandoned by a wealthy, unscrupulous gentleman. What would you do if, years later, your grown-up son proudly introduced you to his powerful new mentor, a man who--unbeknownst to the poor bastard--is his own father, the very same creep who decided to cut and run decades ago? That’s the question Oscar Wilde wanted Victorian theater-goers to ponder when he turned out “A Woman of No Importance” in 1893, and that’s the question screenwriter Howard Himelstein hopes we’ll struggle with in his update of the play. The question I’m truly struggling with is, do I really want to sit through a revamping of Wilde by the man who gave us “A Good Woman,” the terminally tame version of the witty playwright’s “Lady Windermere’s Fan”? Quick, somebody stop this man before he goes completely Wilde!

TO RETURN TO PART I, CLICK HERE.