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; 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
KILL: 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. Opens 9/12/08
ELLEN PAGE
BORN
HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA, 2/21/87
FILM DEBUT
MARION BRIDGE (2002)
CAREER
HIGHS
JUNO; X-MEN: THE LAST STAND; HARD CANDY
NEXT UP FOR PAGE
SMART
PEOPLE: Dennis Quaid, Sarah
Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church, Ellen Page, Ashton Holmes (Directed
by Noam Murro; Written by Mark Poirier; Miramax Films) Professor
Lawrence Wetherhold, the narcissistic, thickly bearded widower played
by Dennis Quaid, yearns for a life without emotional entanglements.
Serenity proves elusive, however, thanks to disturbing intrusions
by Vanessa (Ellen Page), his brainy, relentlessly Republican daughter,
and to James (Ashton Holmes), his troubled, poetic son, as well
as Chuck (Thomas Haden Church), the staggeringly unpredictable adopted
brother who, totally uninvited, has come home to cuddle with the
family. Nor do things calm down when the accident-prone professor
lands in the hospital, only to be treated by a former student (Sarah
Jessica Parker) who’s turned out to be the doctor he'd most
like to have sex in the city with. Opens 4/11/08
PEACOCK:
Cillian Murphy, Ellen Page (Directed by Michael Lander; Written
by Michael Lander and Ryan Roy; Mandate Pictures) Peacock is a pippy-poo
town in Nebraska, and Cillian Murphy plays a pippy-poo Peacockian
who takes himself a pippy-poo Peacockian bride. But even though
the gullible townfolk treat the couple with respect, the twosome
does not seem destined to live happily ever after. That’s
because the man and his mate are seriously starcrossed, the split
sides of a psycho/sinister personality. There is one perky Peacockian,
however, who finds it odd that she never sees the blushing bride
and groom together. And that’s the young and awesomely alert
single mom played by “Juno’s” Ellen Page. In the
best of all possible Peacockian worlds, she will surely persuade
hubby to put his wife up for adoption. 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
THE GOOD
NIGHT:
Penelope Cruz, Martin Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Simon Pegg, Danny
DeVito (Written and directed by Jake Paltrow; Inferno Distribution)
Once he was a happy member of a rocking British band, but now the
musician (Martin Freeman) merely writes background music for TV
commercials, walks in a daze around the New York apartment he shares
with his neurotic American live-in girlfriend (Gwyneth Paltrow),
and daydreams about a luscious, compliant seductress he has yet
to meet. Best of all, when he sleeps, this babe is always there
for him, perfect in every playful way. But what would happen if
the dreambabe (Penelope Cruz) suddenly popped up in his real, wide-awake
life? You’ll find out if you decide to spend the night with
this first feature flick from writer-director Jake Paltrow, Gwyneth’s
ambitious kid brother. 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
NEXT UP FOR PARKER
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. Opens 5/30
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
NEXT UP FOR PEARCE
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? Opening
date to be announced
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.
CURRENT FILM
THE EX:
Amanda Peet, Zach Braff, Jason Bateman, Mia
Farrow, Charles Grodin, Will Drummy (Directed by Jesse Peretz; Written
by David Guion, Michael Handelman; The Weinstein Company) The formerly
career-crazed Manhattanite played by Amanda Peet decides that staying
home and minding the baby beats taking meetings with suits. Which
means that slacker-hubby Zach Braff--the sensation of “Garden
State”--is forced to stop daydreaming and start punching the
time clock for his father-in-law. 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
NEXT UP FOR PENN
MILK:
Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch, James Franco, Diego Luna,
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. Opens
in November 2008
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; THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN
CAREER
LOWS
THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK; UP CLOSE & PERSONAL;
TEQUILA SUNRISE; WOLF; THE STORY OF US; DANGEROUS MINDS; LADYHAWKE;
GREASE 2
CURRENT FILM
STARDUST:
Charlie Cox, Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer,
Claire Danes, Peter O’Toole, Sienna Miller, Rupert Everett,
Jason Flemyng, Billie Whitelaw, Jake Curran (Directed by Matthew
Vaughn; Written by Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman; Paramount) Tristan
(Charlie Cox), an upstanding Victorian enamored by the conveniently
named Victoria (Sienna Miller), has a plan for capturing the undivided
attention of this self-absorbed stunner. His happy ending depends
on tracking down the glorious star they once observed crashing to
earth, and his quest carries him to numerous mysterious, dangerous
places. Among the scheming goodies and baddies he encounters on
his love-fueled star trek: An eccentric pirate who answers to the
name of Captain Shakespeare (Robert De Niro); a bitch of a witch
named Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer) who is not amused by the prospect
of lined and wrinkled old age; Lord Stormhold (Peter O’Toole),
a nasty, dying S.O.B. whose potential heirs have their own sinister
reasons for snaring that fallen star; and a lovely, imperiled lass
(Claire Danes), who projects a certain star quality of her own,
one that may eventually dim the light of Tristan’s love for
Victoria. Based on Neil Gaiman’s fantasy graphic novel, “
Stardust” has been helmed by Matthew Vaughn, who made a strong
directorial debut in 2004 with the classy thriller “Layer
Cake.” To read Guy Flatley's 1973 New
York Times interview with Robert De Niro, click
here; for Guy's 1972 New York Times interview with Peter O'Toole,
click here. Now
Playing
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
NEXT UP FOR PITT
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,” will be at the helm. Opens
11/26/08
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
BURN
AFTER READING:
Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich (Directed
by Joel Coen; Written by Ethan and Joel Coen; Focus Features) You’re
not really a top male star in today’s Hollywood until you’ve
played a hit man, something Brad Pitt did with aplomb in “Mr.
& Mrs. Smith,” wherein he was assigned the challenging
task of bumping off his wife, a spitfire who was hired to terminate
her husband (and we all know who played the feisty hit woman).
At any rate, it’s high time for George Clooney, Brad’s
prime competitor in the superstar sweepstakes, to play an ace assassin,
which is what he is doing on this playfully morbid Coen brothers
occasion. Who are his targets? Not sure, but one of them might well
be Ozzie Cox (John Malkovich), the former CIA agent who manages
to misplace the manuscript of his tell-all book about his days as
a spy. Another potential victim: Ozzie’s rabidly unfaithful
wife (Frances McDormand). And possibly there is a bullet waiting
for Brad Pitt, as a man of mystery who may be linked to Ozzie’s
mate, or even to Ozzie himself. 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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