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P
AL PACINO
 BORN
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, 4/25/40
FILM DEBUT
ME, NATALIE (1969)
CAREER HIGHS
THE GODFATHER; THE GODFATHER: PART II; SERPICO;
DOG DAY AFTERNOON; THE INSIDER; HEAT; SCARFACE; PANIC IN NEEDLE
PARK; SCENT OF A WOMAN; GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS; SCARECROW; CARLITOS’S
WAY; FRANKIE AND JOHNNY; DONNIE BRASCO; SEA OF LOVE; OCEAN’S
THIRTEEN; THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE
CAREER LOWS
REVOLUTION; CRUISING; RIGHTEOUS KILL; BOBBY
DEERFIELD; AUTHOR! AUTHOR!; GIGLI; THE GODFATHER: PART III; INSOMNIA;
PEOPLE I KNOW; THE MERCHANT OF VENICE; SIMONE; CHINESE COFFEE; TWO
BITS
IN HIS OWN WORDS
"I was very shy, and when I was about
3 years old my mother began taking me to the movies, night after
night,” Pacino told Guy Flatley in a 1973 interview. “The
next day, all by myself, I would enact all the parts of the movie
before a mirror. My grandmother would be there, but always off in
another room. ‘Al likes to talk to himself,’ she used
to say. ‘He’s doing OK.’ I was really all alone
those first seven years of my life. In fact, I used to go steady
with a broom, or maybe it was a mop."
Click
here to read the entire Los Angeles
Times article.
NEXT UP FOR PACINO
RIGHTEOUS
KIL
Robert De Niro, Al Pacino,
Carla Gugino, John Leguizamo, Donnie Wahlberg, 50 Cent, Brian Dennehy,
Dan Futterman (Directed by Jon Avnet: Written by Russell Gewirtz;
Overture Films) As anyone who saw “The Godfather Part II”
knows, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino were terrific in Francis Ford
Coppola’s 1974 masterwork. But they weren’t terrific
together. That’s because De Niro appeared as the
young Vito Corleone only in flashbacks and Pacino’s Michael
remained very much in the present. They were terrific together,
however, in Michael Mann’s “Heat” (1995), but
only in the two brief scenes they shared. Well, that was then, and
this is now. So you’ll see them together--and presumably terrific--throughout
the entirety of this hardboiled thriller. What’s more, they’re
even getting trendy, playing a pair of cops determined to capture
a popular staple of the current movie scene--you guesed it, a serial
killer! To read Guy Flatley’s
1973 interview with Robert De Niro, click
here; for more new murderpix, click
here. Now Playing
ELLEN PAGE
 BORN
HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA, 2/21/87
FILM DEBUT
MARION BRIDGE (2002)
CAREER
HIGHS
JUNO; SMART PEOPLE; X-MEN: THE LAST STAND;
HARD CANDY
NEXT UP FOR PAGE
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 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 she should get the hell out of Peacock. Opening
date to be announced
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!" Opening date to
be announced
GWYNETH PALTROW
 BORN
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, 9/27/72
FILM DEBUT
SHOUT (1991)
CAREER
HIGHS
THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY; EMMA; SEVEN; HARD
EIGHT; IRON MAN; SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE; FLESH AND BONE; SYLVIA; PROOF;
INFAMOUS; THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS
CAREER
LOWS
VIEW FROM THE TOP; DUETS; POSSESSSION; SHALLOW
HAL; SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW
NEXT UP FOR PALTROW
DIRTY
TRICKS
Meryl Streep, Gwyneth
Paltrow, Annette Bening, Jill Clayburgh, Sharon Stone, Jim Broadbent,
Brad Pitt (Written and directed by Ryan Murphy; Paramount) They
called her Martha the Mouth, Mouth of the South or simply Moutha.
Her real name was Martha Mitchell, and she was the full-throttle
wife of John Mitchell, Attorney General to President Richard M.
Nixon. Never one to hold back, Martha, who died in 1976, had this
to say about her hubby’s boss: “Nixon bleeds people.
He draws every drop of blood and then drops them from a cliff. He’ll
blame any person he can put his foot on.” Nor did Martha go
all that easy on Mitchell himself, referring to him at one point
as “that gutless, despicable crook.” Is it any wonder
that in an effort to shut her up, her enemies eventually drugged
her and held her captive in a California hotel room? Ryan Murphy,
director of “Running With Scissors,” is helming this
adaptation of John Jeter’s play about the woman who spilled
the beans that hastened Tricky Dick's departure from the White House.
And, best news of all, Murphy had the good sense to cast Meryl Streep
as the biggest Moutha ever. Also on prominent display: Jill Clayburgh
as Pat Nixon, Gwyneth Paltrow as Maureen Dean and Annette Bening
as Helen Thomas, the White House correspondent who received many
a late-night phone call from the whistle-blowing Martha.
To read about many more new biopics, click
here. Opening date to be announced
ANNA PAQUIN
 BORN
WINNIPEG, MANITOBA, CANADA, 7/24/82
FILM DEBUT
THE PIANO (1993)
CAREER HIGHS
THE PIANO; THE SQUID AND THE WHALE; FLY AWAY
HOME; HURLYBURLY; A WALK ON THE MOON; X-MEN; X2; X-MEN:THE LAST
STAND; THE 25TH HOUR; ALMOST FAMOUS; BUFFALO SOLDIERS; ALL THE RAGE
CAREER
LOWS
FINDING FORRESTER; AMISTAD; SHE’S ALL
THAT
IN HER OWN WORDS
"Before I got nominated for 'The
Piano,' I didn’t really know what an Oscar was," the
16-year-old Academy Award winner told Guy Flatley in a 1998 interview.
"So it wasn’t some huge thing I was aiming for. It just
sort of happened. And if it happens again, that will be really good.
Who wouldn’t want it to happen again? But it’s not like
I’m dying for it to happen. I think I was very lucky that
it happened even once. I mean, I was so young." Click
here to read the entire Indie magazine
article.
NEXT UP FOR
PAQUIN
MARGARET:
Anna Paquin, Matt Damon, Mark Ruffalo, J.
Smith-Cameron, Jeannie Berlin, Matthew Broderick (Written and directed
by Kenneth Lonergan; Fox Searchlight) One of the funniest and most
moving films of 2000 was “You Can Count on Me,” written
and directed by Kenneth Lonergan, whose biggest prior claim to movie
fame was his screenwriting contribution to “Analyze This,”
the Robert De Niro-Billy Crystal comedy released the year before.
If you saw “You Can Count on Me,” you know that the
tyro director drew astonishing performances from Laura Linney as
a single mother, Mark Ruffalo as her screwed-up brother, and Matthew
Broderick as the petty, despotic boss who unexpectedly becomes her
red-hot lover, even though he is already married to a conspicuously
pregnant bore. Now Lonergan is about to go behind the camera again,
this time as the director of his own screenplay about a Manhattan
teenager with plenty of problems, not the least of which is her
mom, a neurotic actress. Plus she is a bit unhinged about a bus
accident she recently witnessed--an accident that may not have been
an accident. The troubled teen is being played by Anna Paquin, who
won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for “The Piano”
when she was a mere tot. Maybe this time it will simply be a Best
Actress Oscar. To read Guy Flatley's
1998 interview with Anna Paquin, click
here. Opening date to be announced
SARAH JESSICA PARKER
 BORN
NELSONVILLE, OHIO, 3/25/65
FILM DEBUT
SOMEWHERE, TOMORROW (1983)
CAREER HIGHS
STATE AND MAIN; ED WOOD; L.A. STORY; FOOTLOOSE;
HONEYMOON IN VEGAS
CAREER
LOWS
IF LUCY FELL; MARS ATTACKS!; THE FAMILY STONE;
FAILURE TO LAUNCH
CURRENTLY IN THEATERS
SEX AND
THE CITY: Sarah Jessica Parker,
Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis, Chris Noth, Jason Lewis,
Jennifer Hudson, Evan Handler, Willie Garson, David Eigenberg, Mario
Cantone, Lynn Cohen, Julie Halston, Michael Bloomberg (Written and
directed by Michael Patrick King; New Line Cinema) Carrie, Samantha,
Miranda and Charlotte--played, naturally, by Sarah Jessica Parker,
Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis--will soon be sashaying
onto the big screen and you can be sure they’ll still be residing
in Manhattan and still fixating on the opposite sex. Among the borough’s
hottest dudes: David Eigenberg, Evan Handler and Jason Lewis--all
fixtures from the TV series--and, of course, Chris Noth as the macho
Mr. Big. New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg plays his macho
self in the film. Now Playing
GUY PEARCE
 BORN
ELY, CAMBRIDGESHIRE, ENGLAND, 10/5/67
FILM
DEBUT
FRIDAY ON MY MIND (1990)
CAREER
HIGHS
L.A. CONFIDENTIAL; MEMENTO; A SLIPPING-DOWN
LIFE
CAREER
LOWS
THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE
DESERT; RAVENOUS
CURRENTLY PLAYING
DEATH
DEFYING ACTS: Guy
Pearce, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Saoirse Ronan, Timothy Spall (Directed
by Gillian Armstrong; Written by Tony Grisoni and Brian Ward; The
Weinstein Co.) According to this mischievous thriller, there was
nothing magical about Harry Houdini’s guilt complex. It was
very real and very huge, and it stemmed from the fact that the extraordinary
escapologist, played by Guy Pearce, was off performing tricks instead
of being at his mother’s bedside when she passed on in 1913.
If only poor Harry could have had the opportunity to at least apologize
to his neglected mom’s ghost. Actually, that’s precisely
the chance he thought he was being given 13 years later by a conniving
Scottish psychic and her deceitful daughter (Catherine Zeta-Jones
and Saoirse Ronan). And this little miracle would only cost the
gullible magician $10,000. Could it be that somebody was about to
follow Mother Houdini into the great hereafter?
AMANDA PEET
 BORN
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, 1/11/72
FILM DEBUT
ANIMAL ROOM (1995)
CAREER HIGHS
THE WHOLE NINE YARDS; SOMETHING’S GOTTA
GIVE; SYRIANA; SHE’S THE ONE
CAREER
LOWS
WHIPPED; IGBY GOES DOWN; ISN’T SHE GREAT;
SAVING SILVERMAN; MELINDA AND MELINDA
IN HER OWN WORDS
"You're always hearing stories about
people who do an indie that goes to Sundance, gets everyone their
money back and you become famous overnight,” Peet told Guy
Flatley in a 2000 interview for the New York Daily News. “But
somehow, I managed to do 12 indies that never made it to the video
store, to the Quad, or even to the Buffalo Film Festival."
Click
here to read the entire article.
NEXT UP FOR PEET
THE X-FILES:
I WANT TO BELIEVE: David Duchovny,
Gillian Anderson, Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly, Xzibit, Mitch Pileggi
(Directed by Chris Carter; Written by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz;
Fox) Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, the (very) special agents and occasional
lovers who attained cult status on TV and then, in 1998, on film,
are back in a long-overdue new big-screen installment of “The
X-Files.” Happily, Mulder and Scully are again being played
by the magnetic combo of David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, and
they will undoubtedly rekindle that old spark, either here on earth
or on some other thrill-packed planet. Joining them will be Billy
Connolly as an irreverent man of the cloth, plus Amanda Peet and
Xzibit as a flashy pair of FBI agents. Now
Playing
SEAN PENN
 BORN
SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA, 8/17/60
FILM DEBUT
TAPS (1981)
CAREER HIGHS
DEAD MAN WALKING; MYSTIC RIVER; 21 GRAMS;
AT CLOSE RANGE; FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH; CASUALTIES OF WAR;
THE THIN RED LINE; BAD BOYS; COLORS; RACING WITH THE MOON; THE FALCON
AND THE SNOW MAN; HURLYBURLY; TAPS; STATE OF GRACE; BEFORE NIGHT
FALLS; CARLITO’S WAY; I AM SAM; SHE’S SO LOVELY
CAREER LOWS
SHANGHAI SURPRISE; WEIGHT OF WATER; ALL THE
KING’S MEN; U TURN; UP AT THE VILLA; WE’RE NO ANGELS;
CRACKERS; THE ASSASSINATION OF RICHARD NIXON; SWEET AND LOWDOWN
N0W PLAYING
MILK:
Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch, James Franco, Diego Luna,
Alison Pill, Lucas Grabeel, Howard Rosenman, Stephen Spinella, Victor
Garber (Directed by Gus Van Sant; Written by Dustin Lance Black;
Focus Features) On November 27, 1978, Harvey Milk, a militant gay
activist and enormously charismatic San Francisco supervisor, was
shot dead, along with his boss, Mayor George Moscone, by Dan White,
a vengeful ex-supervisor. The light sentence given to the assassin
led to San Francisco’s historic White Night Riots. Under the
masterful direction of openly gay Gus Van Sant, Sean Penn plays
Harvey Milk and Josh Brolin is Dan White.
NEXT UP FOR PENN
IN SEARCH
OF CAPTAIN ZERO: Sean Penn (Directed
by Stacy Peralta; Written by Michael Bacall; Radar) There may not
be a real Captain Zero, but there is a real Allan Weisbecker. A
former surfer and drug-smuggler, Weisbecker packed up his memories
of rowdy adventures and misdeeds and put them into a book, and this
quirky-sounding movie is based upon that memoir. The biopic, starring
Sean Penn as the restless, reckless Weisbecker, deals with more
than just dope and waterplay. Much of it is devoted to the author’s
determination to hook up again with a close surfing pal who vanished
a while back, probably somewhere in the wilds of Central America.
But was their relationship really as joyful as it seemed, and can
it possibly be resurrected? Opening
date to be announced
MICHELLE PFEIFFER
 BORN
SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA, 4/29/58
FILM DEBUT
THE HOLLYWOOD KNIGHTS (1980)
CAREER HIGHS
MARRIED TO THE MOB; THE AGE OF INNOCENCE;
DANGEROUS LIAISONS; THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS; SCARFACE; FRANKIE AND
JOHNNY; THE RUSSIA HOUSE; LOVE FIELD; ONE FINE DAY; HAIRSPRAY; INTO
THE NIGHT; BATMAN RETURNS
CAREER
LOWS
THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK; UP CLOSE & PERSONAL;
TEQUILA SUNRISE; WOLF; THE STORY OF US; DANGEROUS MINDS; LADYHAWKE;
GREASE 2
NEXT UP FOR
PFEIFFER
CHERI:
Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Friend, Kathy Bates,
Felicity Jones, Frances Tomelty, Anita Pallenberg, Harriet Walter,
Iben Hjejle (Directd by Stephen Frears; Written by Christopher Hampton;
Miramax) Cheri (Rupert Friend), a young, handsome, and deeply romantic
Parisian, is tutored in the ways of love by Lea (Michelle Pfeiffer),
an aging, equally romantic courtesan. What she is actually teaching
this son of an old friend, who is now a wealthy prostitute, is how
to be not just a gigolo, but a perfect gigolo. Naturally,
the affair turns tres torrid. Collette’s classic
short novel has been adapted by Christopher Hampton, who collaborated
brilliantly with director Frears and star Pfeiffer in 1988’s
“Dangerous Liaisons.” Click here for the Variety review of "Cheri." Opening
date to be announced
RYAN PHILLIPPE
 BORN
NEW CASTLE, DELAWARE, 9/10/74
FILM DEBUT
CRIMSON TIDE (1995)
CAREER HIGHS
FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS; STOP-LOSS; CRASH; GOSFORD
PARK; BREACH; NOWHERE; THE WAY OF THE GUN; CRUEL INTENTIONS
CAREER
LOWS
IGBY GOES DOWN; I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER
NEXT
UP FOR PHILLIPPE
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. Opening date to be announced
JOAQUIN PHOENIX
 BORN
SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO, 10/28/74
FILM DEBUT
SPACECAMP (1986)
CAREER HIGHS
WALK THE LINE; TO DIE FOR; WE OWN THE NIGHT;
RETURN TO PARADISE; THE YARDS; GLADIATOR; BUFFALO SOLDIER; QUILLS;
CLAY PIGEONS; HOTEL RWANDA; RESERVATION ROAD; PARENTHOOD; INVENTING
THE ABBOTTS
CAREER
LOWS
THE VILLAGE; SIGNS; 8MM; LADDER 49; U TURN
CURRENT FILM
RESERVATION
ROAD: Joaquin Phoenix, Mark
Ruffalo, Jennifer Connelly, Mira Sorvino, Elle Fanning, John Slattery,
Antoni Corone (Directed by Terry George; Written by John Burnham
Schwartz; Focus Features) Dwight Arno, speeding through the night
to return his 10-year-old son to his ex-wife on time, turns a bend,
hits a boy who’d been walking on the side of the road, and
drives on. Nearby, Ethan Learner, the father of the fatally injured
boy, sits behind the wheel of his own car. Before long, Ethan will
be consumed by grief, guilt and a deep thirst for revenge. If you’ve
read John Burnham Schwarz’s 1998 novel, “Reservation
Road,” you already know how this story ends, but you’ll
probably rush to see the movie version all the same. Adapted by
the novelist, the film is being directed by Terry George (“Hotel
Rwanda”) and stars Mark Ruffalo as the fleeing father and
Joaquin Phoenix as his potential avenger. Jennifer Connelly, who
co-starred with Phoenix in 1997’s “Inventing the Abbotts,”
plays his distraught wife on this occasion.
BRAD PITT
 BORN
SHAWNEE, OKLAHOMA, 12/18/63
FILM DEBUT
HAPPY TOGETHER (1989)
CAREER HIGHS
BABEL; SEVEN; FIGHT CLUB; THE ASSASSINATIOIN
OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD; THELMA & LOUISE; A
RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT; SLEEPERS; SNATCH; THE DEVIL’S OWN;
THE MEXICAN; TRUE ROMANCE; OCEAN’S 11; OCEANS 13; TWELVE MONKEYS;
INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE; MR. & MRS. SMITH; TROY; CONFESSIONS
OF A DANGEROUS MIND; JOHNNY SUEDE; KALIFORNIA
CAREER
LOWS
MEET JOE BLACK; SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET; LEGENDS
OF THE FALL; FULL FRONTAL; SPY GAMENEXT UP FOR PITT
NOW PLAYING
THE CURIOUS
CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON:
Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton,
Elle Fanning, Elias Koteas, Jason Flemyng, Julia Ormond (Directed
by David Fincher; Written by Eric Roth; Paramount/Warner Bros.)
Brad Pitt will soon turn 50. But don’t feel depressed; just
a bit later, the golden boy will be 49, and on the next birthday,
he’ll be 48. You get the idea: in the Eric Roth screenplay,
based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the hero ages backward,
and when he arrives at the ripe young age of 30, he meets the love
of his life, a pip played by Cate Blanchett, who memorably played
opposite Pitt in “Babel.” David Fincher, who had Brad
working on all cylinders in “Fight Club,” was at the
helm.
NEXT UP FOR PITT
THE INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS: Brad
Pitt, Michael Fassbender, David Krumholtz, Mike Myers, Diane Kruger,
Rod Taylor, B.J. Novak, Eli Roth, Til Schweiger, Paul Rust, Samm
Levine, Cloris Leachman, Maggie Cheung, Daniel Bruhl (Written and
directed by Quentin Tarantino; The Weinstein Company) Is there more
than one way to scalp a Nazi? Maybe. We’ll find out for sure
when we see Quentin Tarantino’s take on the German occupation
of France during World War II. The story dreamed up by the feverish
writer-director revolves around a band of brave, highly skilled
U.S. soldiers who, under the leadership of Lieutenant Brad Pitt,
roam the dark streets of Paris exterminating Hitler’s finest.
But before they butcher them, they barber them. Why? Don’t ask. Only the creator
of “Reservoir Dogs” and “Pulp Fiction” knows
the answer to that question, as well as the reason for spelling
“Inglorious Bastards” the way he does. Opens
8/21/09
DIRTY
TRICKS: Meryl Streep, Gwyneth Paltrow, Annette Bening,
Jill Clayburgh, Sharon Stone, Jim Broadbent, Brad Pitt (Written
and directed by Ryan Murphy; Paramount) They called her Martha the
Mouth, Mouth of the South or simply Moutha. Her real name was Martha
Mitchell, and she was the full-throttle wife of John Mitchell, Attorney
General to President Richard M. Nixon. Never one to hold back, Martha,
who died in 1976, had this to say about her hubby’s boss:
“Nixon bleeds people. He draws every drop of blood and then
drops them from a cliff. He’ll blame any person he can put
his foot on.” Nor did Martha go all that easy on Mitchell
himself, referring to him at one point as “that gutless, despicable
crook.” Is it any wonder that in an effort to shut her up,
her enemies eventually drugged her and held her captive in a California
hotel room? Ryan Murphy, director of “Running With Scissors,”
is helming this adaptation of John Jeter’s play about the
woman who spilled the beans that hastened Tricky Dick's departure
from the White House. And, best news of all, Murphy had the good
sense to cast Meryl Streep as the biggest Moutha ever. Also on prominent
display: Jill Clayburgh as Pat Nixon, Gwyneth Paltrow as Maureen
Dean and Annette Bening as Helen Thomas, the White House correspondent
who received many a late-night phone call from the whistle-blowing
Martha. To read about many more new biopics, click
here. Opening date to be announced
THE FIGHTER:
Brad Pitt, Mark Wahlberg (Directed by Darren
Aronofsky; Written by Paul Attanasio, Lewis Colick, Eric Johnson
and Paul Tamasy; Paramount) Here come Micky and Dickie. And we do
mean Micky Ward and Dickie Eklund. As an avid sports fan, you undoubtedly
know that hard-punching “Irish” Micky Ward from Lowell,
Massachusetts, played here by Mark Wahlberg, was a wow in the ring
during the 1990s, thanks largely to the wise coaching of his half-brother
Dickie, a former boxer who lost a battle with drugs, did time in
the pen, and became an exemplary inmate before his release. Brad
Pitt signed up for the role of Dickie when it became clear to Matt
Damon that he himself had signed up for so many flicks that he had
to drop out of this one. To
read about more new biopics, click here.
Opening date to be announced
CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER
 BORN
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 12/13/29
FILM DEBUT
STAGE STRUCK (1958)
CAREER
HIGHS
THE INSIDER; THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE;
THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING; A BEAUTIFUL MIND; SYRIANA; THE SOUND
OF MUSIC; THE SILENT PARTNER; ARARAT; INSIDE MAN; STAGE STRUCK;
TRIPLE CROSS; TWELVE MONKEYS; BATTLE OF BRITAIN; INSIDE DAISY CLOVER;
MURDER BY DECREE; THE NEW WORLD; THE RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER
CAREER LOWS
WOLF; WHERE THE HEART IS; INTERNATIONAL VELVET;
THE ROYAL HUNT OF THE SUN
NEXT UP FOR PLUMMER
THE LAST
STATION: Christopher Plummer,
Helen Mirren, Paul Giamatti, James McAvoy, Anne-Marie Duff (Directed
by Michael Hoffman; Written by Jay Parini; Notro Films) Anthony
Hopkins was set to play Count Leo Tolstoy, the author of "War
and Peace" who was strugglig to live out his final days with
dignity and grace. But somewhere along the line Hopkins dropped
out and Christopher Plummer dropped in. Getting back to Leo--who
on earth was making it difficult for him to travel a peaceful path
into the hereafter? It was none other than Sofya Andreyevna, his
luxury-loving, more warring than peaceful, wife. And--like Anthony
Hopkins--Meryl Streep, cast as Sofya, made an exit, leaving her
role to Helen Mirren. Paul Giamatti plays a loyal friend of Tolstoy's
who does his best to rein in Sofya, James McAvoy plays Tolstoy's
secretary, and Anne-Marie Duff--McAvoy's real-life wife--plays the
tormented literary lion's daughter. Jay Parini's screenplay for
"The Last Station" is based on his 1990 novel, which in
turn was based on the actual diaries of the contentious Tolstoys
and their piles of relatives and friends. The director here is Michael
Hoffman, whose eclectic oeuvre includes “Soapdish”
(Robert Downey Jr. & Sally Field), “Restoration”
(Hugh Grant & Meg Ryan), and “One Fine Day" (George
Clooney & Michelle Pfeiffer). Opening
date to be announced
CLOSING
THE RING: Shirley MacLaine,
Christopher Plummer, Mischa Barton, Gregory Smith, Brenda Blethyn,
Pete Postlethwaite, Neve Campbell (Directed by Richard Attenborough;
Written by Peter Woodward; Odyssey Entertainment) A military plane
crashes on the outskirts of Belfast toward the end of World War
II, and just before the rear gunner dies, he asks a local lad to
see that his ring is returned to his girlfriend. Fifty years later,
the girlfriend has still not received that ring, but she has managed
to marry the gunner’s best buddy. Still, it’s never
too late, for a young native of Belfast who knows the history of
the ring is on his way to North Carolina to deliver it in person.
This sounds like a natural for Richard Attenborough, the director/warrior
who gave us “Oh! What a Lovely War,” “A Bridge
Too Far” and “In Love and War.” Opening
date to be announced
NATALIE PORTMAN
 BORN
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL, 6/9/81
FILM DEBUT
THE PROFESSIONAL (1994)
CAREER
HIGHS
CLOSER; BEAUTIFUL GIRLS; GARDEN STATE; THE
PROFESSIONAL; STAR WARS: EPISODE 1--THE PHANTOM MENACE; STAR WEPISODE
2--ATTACK OF THE CLONES; STAR WARS 3--REVENGE OF THE SITH; COLD
MOUNTAIN; ANYWHERE BUT HERE; HEAT
CAREER
LOWS
MARS ATTACKS!; GOYA’S GHOSTS; V FOR
VENDETTA; EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU
NEXT UP FOR PORTMAN
BROTHERS:
Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman (Directed by Jim
Sheridan; Written by David Benioff; Relativity Media) There was
a time when some moviegoers had difficulty telling the difference
between Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal. Finally, we got the picture:
Tobey was a climber of skyscrapers; Jake was a herder of sheep.
More than ever, it will be important to tell the stars of “Spider-Man”
and “Brokeback Mountain” apart in “Brothers,”
a drama in which a dutiful young man goes off to combat in Afghanistan,
leaving his wife and child in the care of a younger brother not
known for his dependability. The four-square sibling is played by
Maguire, and Gyllenhaal plays the rebel without a conspicuous cause.
The role of the woman responsible for expanding their fraternal
relationship into a love triangle has gone to Natalie Portman. “Brothers”
is a remake, so if you’re eager for more details, check out
Susanne Bier’s 2004 Danish-language film starring Ulrich Thomsen,
Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Connie Nielsen. Opening
date to be announced
FOR A COMPLETE ALPHABETICAL LISTING OF STAR
TURNS, CLICK HERE.
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