Not even a month ago, we reported that Martin Scorsese’s next musical documentary would be an in-depth look at the life and music of Bob Marley which was fully authorized by Marley’s estate and is set for a release on February 6th 2010, on what would have been the singer’s 65th birthday.

Now comes word from Variety that the Weinsteins are getting in on the Bob Marley bandwagon. They have bought the rights to a biopic novel written by the singer’s widow Rita Marley titled No Women No Cry: My Life With Bob Marley with a late 2009 release date planned.

The weeks leading to Marley’s 65th anniversary are going to be one big cinematic celebration of the great man…

The book was published four years ago and looks into their often rocky marriage which managed to survive numerous separations and affairs, the birth of their four children admist Marley’s mainly claimed “bastard” children and an ill-fated assassination attempt in 1976 is surprisingly described as “an amazing love story”.

Lizzie Borden, the writer/director of the mid 80’s prostitute drama Working Girls and has barely been seen since has turned in the script which was to the liking of Marley’s widow who had killed many Bob Marley projects she wasn’t happy with in the past.

No word on whether the Weinsteins will look to secure the rights to Marley’s discography but it’s difficult to imagine a movie chronicling his life that doesn’t contain his songs.

So the question then moves to who will play Marley?

When you see what happened to the careers of Jamie Foxx and Joaquin Phoenix (actually, it hasn’t helped him so much has it?) for their music biopics in recent years, there’s a big opportunity for an actor out there. The obvious choice of course is Will Smith, with his known love for Marley which spurs out into several of his films including his last role in I Am Legend.

But maybe he’s too obvious. How about the young British actor Chiwetel Eijor…

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Early 2007 came news that the Weinsteins had commissioned crime novelists Michael Connelly and Terrill Lee Lankford to come up with a screenplay adaptation of the 80’s U.S. crime show The Equalizer, with the idea being that Lucky Number Slevin helmer Paul McGuigan would direct.

Presumably the script is complete and we now have a hint at who might be stepping into Edward Woodward’s shoes as the private detective who “free of charge” will solve problems of anyone who approaches. His add in the newspaper (and no doubt the tagline of the film) is “Got a problem? Odds against you? Call the Equalizer.”

Jason Statham said this to Movies Online when asked about the flick…

”I saw Harvey [Weinstein] the other week and he was talking to me about that”, says Statham, who says he’s got new “Transporter” and “Crank” films, in that order, to do first”.

Statham’s casting would cement the kind of movie they are looking for and I’ll admit I’ve been taken a little off guard by this news because he doesn’t seem to the kind of actor who would fit the writings of crime novelists. Have the Weinsteins turned what was looking to be an intense and small character driven cop thriller ala The French Connection, into a balls to the wall action clone of The Transporter and Crank?

source - moviehole

In an interview with MTV, B-movie and martial arts legend Jean Claude Van Damme claims he was approached to reprise his role of muscle man Guile in the new Street Fighter movie but although the money was good, the actor surprisingly turned the part down, claiming he has turned over a new leaf.

It would seem he wants to be taken seriously from now on…

In fact they called me for that movie, to do the sequel. Again, I would have been well paid but I didn’t want to do it. I’ve made enough money. I don’t want to make a movie and then come home and be unhappy about it. Life is short. I’m 47 years old. I’ve got 10 years to go where I can be the best I can be. I want those 10 years to be precious, not like before, cranking two or three movies a year. I’ve made a ton of movies in my life, but so what? It’s time for me to do things I like so I will be happy, my wife will be happy, my friends will be happy. I just want to do something I’m proud of. It’s time for me to change. I could sign with a company for 10 movies and I’m the king of video and so what?

Van Damme was the poster child and lead actor of the terrible mid 90’s Street Fighter movie and although the new flick is not thought to be connected to the previous tale, Hyde Entertainment presumably still thought that Van Damme was perfect casting for the film.

And I guess he would be. I don’t know if you have seen any of Van Damme’s recent movies but he seems to have grown as an actor lately and quite honestly, if someone like Tarantino gave him a decent part to chew on for Inglorious Bastards (it was rumored a while back) then I think he could surprise us all with what he can really do.

The new movie titled Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li will star Kristen Kreuk in the lead role of the titular character, and will co-star Michael Clarke Duncan (as Balroq), Chris Klein (Nash), Rick Yune (Gen), Moon Bloodgood, Taboo (from the Black Eyed Peas), Edmund ChenCheng Pei Pei and .

Andrej Bartkowiak (Romeo Must Die) is directing from a script by Justin Marks (recently greenlit Voltron) and will begin filming soon.

source - moviehole

Music mogul Simon Cowell already has in development the movie Star Struck, a fictional version of his hit t.v. show X-Factor on the horizon and now comes word from Variety that he is spreading his weight even further in the film industry.

Cowell is now producing a movie based on the 2007 “Britain’s Got Talent” reality show winner Paul Potts who became an overnight sensation and best selling tenor (3 million copies of his first album Once Chance in less than year) after spending years as a salesman for mobile phones in Carphone Warehouse!

The movie is being setup at Paramount apparently from a studio pitch that was entirely made up of Youtube clips of Potts’ various performances. No writers or anything have been approached as yet, simply the life rights to Potts have been purchased at this point but the intent is there for a feature film somewhere down the road.

So guys I ask you. Does this video instantly make you buy the life rights to Potts with the intent of someday making a movie about him?

Alex Proyas’ next movie - the sci-fi thriller Knowing which see’s Nicolas Cage star in a role that is an exact blending of his parts in both last year’s National Treasure 2 and Next, has found a female lead.

The Hollywood Reporter say 27 year old Australian actress Rose Byrne who had a good 12 months with her solid performances in 28 Weeks Later and Sunshine has been cast, with filming set to begin at the end of the month.

Byrne will play the daughter of a woman who buried a 1962 time capsule bearing the dates of the assassinations of historical figures, the hotel fire death of the wife of a professor (Cage) and an imminent world apocalypse. After the professor discovers its contents and alerts her, the initially skeptical Byrne begins remembering strange incidents from her childhood.

For my money there isn’t a more boring lead actor on the planet right now than Nicolas Cage and his inability to get through expedition dialogue without making you fall asleep has always been his big hindrance in this genre. The script which has gone through more re-writes than bad Cage performances (which is never a good sign for this type of movie) has a lot of room for scope and I hope Proyas can bring his visual A-Game that he brought to the table with the brilliant I, Robot and Dark City.

I’m hoping this is a cool sci-fi treat for us all and a movie that doesn’t make me wanna rip Nicolas Cages’ boring tongue out of his mouth.

Variety say that Alison Lohman will be the female cattle (I’m in a Hitchcock mood today) put to the slaughter in the supernatural chiller Drag Me to Hell, the film that marks Sam Raimi’s first return to the genre that made his name in eight years.

You will remember Lohman from her brilliant turn in the pretty awful movie Matchstick Men. She’s also had parts in Big Fish and last year’s Things We Lost in the Fire and the motion captured CGI Beowulf. She’s seven years older than Ellen Page but she doesn’t half look like the Juno actress and can herself age down for the part.

I liked her a lot in Matchstick Men. She didn’t come to mind like the actresses’ I spoke about yesterday but she seems like a decent choice. It’s such a shame about Page but if you squint a little, this photo makes Lohman look like Page with a blonde wig on!

Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen

Written by Joel and Ethan Coen, based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy

Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin.

DVD is released in the U.S. on March 11th, 2008. Find it at Amazon for $18.99!

The DVD is not yet scheduled for release in the U.K. Sorry kids!!!

Review by Ray DeRousse

In a year of brutal, searing cinema, No Country For Old Men easily conquered the rest and captured a well-deserved Oscar for Best Picture. And now, right on the heels of a triumphant Oscar season, the film arrives on DVD in a form lacking the prestigious treatment one would expect of an “instant classic” of this caliber.

THE FILM

My favorite film of last year, No Country For Old Men combines magnetic performances, witty, inventive writing, and perfect direction from Joel and Ethan Coen into a cool, shadowy fog of fateful despondency. Unflinching, subtly pessimistic, and clinically reserved, the film plays out like a puzzle that has no definitive final piece.

The entire film is a meditation on the inexorable march of evil, and the bewildered wake of good people who could not see it coming because they could not comprehend the incomprehensible. From the muttered and stunned opening narration by Tommy Lee Jones, the film builds this theme of a good world left behind by the evil forces within. Interesting characters and a twisting narrative become cyphers for man’s fruitless struggle against superior and malignant forces. Despite lacking CGI nonsense - and even a musical score of any kind - No Country For Old Men completely captivates the viewer with its relentlessness until the final, shocking cut to black.

Every performance in the film works perfectly. Jones’ sheriff is weary yet friendly, a role that Jones could play five minutes after his death. Josh Brolin turns in a career-redefining performance as Llewelyn Moss, a poor welder who happens to stumble into a fateful and disastrous situation. The real scene stealer here is, of course, Oscar winner Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh. Easily the best villainous performance since Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter, Bardem radiates a malicious cool as the hired killer. Even the bits parts are perfectly cast and played, adding to the realism of small town Texas. Only Woody Harrelson, playing a killer competing with Chigurh, comes off as mismatched to the part. His slightly over-the-top portrayal tends to distract from the film’s carefully-crafted tone.

The Coen’s show here that they are at the very top of their considerable powers. Repeatedly, they shock the audience with inventive editing and clever composition. This, combined with stunning cinematography courtesy of Roger Deakins, creates a world that feels as dirty and hopeless as it looks.

In other words, the film is a masterpiece on all fronts.

TECHNICAL

The film looks terrific, of course. All of Deakins’ hard work has been preserved faithfully, with the carefully placed blacks especially deep and rich.

For the home theater experience, No Country For Old Men provides a better appreciation for the sound design of the film. This is a film that uses incidental sound as the score, and it is both subtle and careful. The soundtrack, showcased in 5.1 Dolby Digital, allows the perfect sound design to shine from all areas of the sonic field. What a fantastic soundtrack!

EXTRAS

For an Oscar winning film, this DVD comes with insubstantial supplemental material.

Three fairly short retrospectives fill out the disc. The first, Making of No Country For Old Men, looks into the technical aspects of bringing this complex book to the screen. Much of it is typical glad-handing, with some interesting glances at how the Coens direct and put their visually-inventive films together. Most surprising was the moment Kelly Macdonald opened her mouth and revealed her Scottish background, so convincing was her performance as a Texas hick.

The second, a Coen Brother blowjob called Working With The Coens, allows everyone in the cast to marvel at the unique chemistry between the directing brothers. Neat.

The final and best of the three shorts is Diary of a County Sheriff. This little movie helps those who felt lost or confused by the intricate themes woven throughout the film. It retraces the plight of Jones’ sheriff to understand the world changing around him through the clever use of dialogue and actor commentary. A welcome addition to the disc.

OVERALL

In my opinion, a film of this standard deserves the treatment afforded titles like the Lord of the Ringsfilms. I feel confident that, like Unforgiven and others, it will be revisited in a future release with much more care and insight. However, the film itself fully justifies a purchase. This is the type of filmmaking for which film lovers have anxiously waited while enduring seemingly endless torrents of blockbuster bullshit.

NOTE TO HOLLYWOOD: Special effects, so-called stars, and the latest gimmicks do not make audiences treasure a film. Only art endures.

And No Country For Old Men is art.

Lets start at the beginning: How did you get involved with the project?

Well I’d read the book when everyone else read the book, and I really loved it then but hadn’t thought about it as a film, and I was already talking to Tessa Ross at FilmFour who’d seen the television feature-length film I did called This Little Life and we were talking about doing something. She then mentioned that they’d optioned Brick Lane with an independent production company and I said I’d loved the novel so they sent me for the project and it was daunting, but also irresistible. I approached it with trepidation but I knew it was something I really wanted to do.

I gather Monica Ali, authoress of the novel, worked on the adaptation - did you have a close working relationship?

It was interesting because in the beginning of the process I met her for lunch and she was really hands off, she sort of said ‘I’ve written the novel, you’re making the film, just make the film you want to make’, which in some ways is great, really liberating, although on the other hand I just kept wanting to ring her up and ask, you know, ‘which estate did you base this on?’. So we sent her copies of the script, an we invited her to castings, but she didn’t come. She was always very friendly but she just didn’t want that much bother. But then we got to the rough-cut stage and held a screening for her so I was terrified, but she was really really supportive of it. She really appreciated it and thought it captured the spirit of the novel, she felt that people like Chanu, it was a bit unnerving that he had just walked off the page. She had a couple of suggestions which we incorporated where it was felt best but she was just really helpful.

A lot of the novel centres on Nazneen’s inner world, how did you go about capturing this?

Well that was the big challenge, as is often the case with novels, but it also spanned two decades so it was about how to boil it down. We didn’t feel we needed to follow it to the letter but felt that we should be loyal to the spirit of it, there were probably at least forty drafts of the script and one point we decided just to cut the first forty pages because the first part of the novel in film terms was just set-up so we decided to focus on that the third part of the novel. The other decision was to make it very much seen through the eyes of Nazneen, using cinematic language instead of literary language to put her emotions on screen, we focussed on that through the lighting, the music, the sound sides so if the world was forbidding it would seem forbidding to her.

Coming from a very different background, how did you personally find a way to identify with Nazneen?

Your job as a director is to go into different worlds and find ways to connect with different people; I think if you only told your own story you’d make the same film over and over again. You just find ways into it, it’s sort of the same process actors go through, it’s partly through research, partly through drawing on experiences that somehow connect and I did a combination of those things. But the book was our source so we had this whole font of knowledge about this character. I had routes in through my experiences growing up in London and I have a family, I have a sister, but nevertheless I was largely an outsider so it was about researching and finding my way into a culture that wasn’t my own and pulling universal human aspects out of it.

Did you learn any Bengali?

I did have to learn a little for when I went on a British-based Bengali TV show and they coached me in how to say ‘come and watch the film’ (laughs) so I didn’t really learn that much.

I heard you had some trouble with the residents, how much did this hinder the production?

It was interesting because when we started I was an outsider of the community, I knew the area but not the way I now know it. We had eight months of preparation in which people were very supportive and welcoming in many ways, they opened their doors to us and so on, and Tannishta Chatterjee (who plays Nazneen) spent lots of time with women in the community, I went into many many homes, we did open auditions and thousands turned up, and we took on board many people from the community as cast and crew. However, we were three weeks into the shoot and we got this call at about midnight the night before we were due to film in Brick Lane itself saying, well there was this threat saying that we might be hurt, it was implicitly violent, but we very quickly established that it was from this tiny if vocal minority who got the ear of the press. It was a lesson in who shouts loudest and it was quite shocking in a way. But lots of their beefs with the film were so particular and based on speculation and scenes that weren’t in the film and weren’t in the book, like a leech falling into a curry pot in a Brick Lane restaurant or something, things that might damage business. For the people who’d read the book there wasn’t that level of fear or trepidation so we didn’t change anything and we didn’t actually stop filming because filming is a machine that carries on, but we did sort of relocate and it put pressure on us in some ways, just emotionally, and particularly on the cast and crew who were from that area who felt rather angry about it. But then we came back and shot what we needed on Brick Lane when the media coverage had died down.

You said Monica Ali approved of Chanu’s depiction in the film, I’m interested to know how you felt Satish Kaushik transferred from his usual language and his usual, more comedic, roles?

Although he’s been typecast as this comedic actor he also played very successfully, in India, Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman and he’s had a really successful theatre career there and he’s a really serious actor with a lot of technique, he’s brilliant to work with and brings a lot to the role. He understood the layers and the complexities. In terms of his Bengali we went to Bangladesh and he learnt the language, dialect and accent but in the end you have to cast the actor you think best expresses the character.

When the film was completed, what impact did you hope this film would have?

What was so fantastic and original about the book was that it was set in that community but was a universal story, and it was about a passionate portrayal of a family set against a shifting cultural landscape of London, but I think in this particular point in time where we’re so inundated with depictions of extreme muslims it’s important to show the family that everybody can relate to, I really wanted to hold onto that, and to something that would resonate across cultures and across generations. But it works on many levels, I hope, was my ambition for it.

What was your favourite scene in the completed film?

You always notice when you watch it that you’re happier with certain moments than with others, but I liked the scene when Chanu, at the end, tells his daughters that he’s returning home because he’s still the Chanu that says it was my decision not my wife’s decision and I just think it’s touching.

Brick Lane is out on DVD in the UK on 10th of March and is available to pre-order from retailers such as Play.com for £10.99

Specs below…

• 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
• English DD5.1 Surround
• A Conversation with Monica Ali and Hanif Kureishi at the ICA
• Exploring Brick Lane
• Interview with Sarah Gavron
• Interview with Tannistha Chatterjee and Christopher Simpson
• Interview with Satish Kaushik
• Theatrical Trailer
• Commentary by Sarah Gavron (Director) and Chris Collins (Producer)
• Scene Specific commentaries

Paramount have finally got round to announcing the specs of those new Region 1 Indiana Jones Special Edition DVD’s which were briefly advertised on their website before mysteriously disappearing some hours later a couple of weeks back.

For the first time ever, the three original Indiana Jones films will be available separately on DVD… but sadly for our HD adopters, no Blu-Ray release has been announced as yet, though the rumors suggest a release around the time Indiana Jones and the Kingdom the Crystal Skull makes DVD could be a possibility.

This new set of DVD’s come just a few short years after the last and perfectly good remastered DVD box set of all three films but of course our good friend George Lucas doesn’t want to miss out on a money making opportunity with a fourth film rapidly approaching. The box set offers some nice extra’s but without any kind of commentary (couldn’t they have got a film historian to even do a commentary if Spielberg & Lucas weren’t interested) I don’t see much reason for you to part with your cash for an upgrade.

These DVD’s will be out on the May 13th and the info below comes from DVD Times and StarWars.com…

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

• Raiders of the Lost Ark: An Introduction by Steven Spielberg & George Lucas
• Indiana Jones: An Appreciation — The cast and crew of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull pay tribute to the original trilogy.
• The Melting Face — A recreation of the amazing physical effect of the villain’s melting face in Raiders of the Lost Ark, including Steven Spielberg and George Lucas commenting on the evolution of visual effects and CGI.
• Storyboard Sequence–The Well of Souls
• Galleries
  • Illustrations & Props
  • Production Photographs & Portraits
  • Effects/ILM
  • Marketing
• Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures Game Demo and Trailer

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: An Introduction by Steven Spielberg & George Lucas
• Creepy Crawlies — Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Frank Marshall reminisce about snakes, bugs and rats.
• Locations — Travel across the world to discover where the films take place and where they were shot.
• Storyboard Sequence–The Mine Cart Chase
• Galleries
  • Illustrations & Props
  • Production Photographs & Portraits
  • Effects/ILM
  • Marketing
• Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures Game Demo and Trailer

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: An Introduction by Steven Spielberg & George Lucas
• The Women: The American Film Institute Tribute — The three Indiana Jones women (Karen Allen, Kate Capshaw and Alison Doody) reunite for a discussion.
• Friends and Enemies — Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Indiana Jones writers discuss how they created the most iconic characters in film history, including a look at new faces in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
• Storyboard Sequence — The Opening Sequence
• Galleries
  • Illustrations & Props
  • Production Photographs & Portraits
  • Effects/ILM
  • Marketing
• Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures Game Demo and Trailer

Not long to go until the next Coens masterpiece opens in a theatre near you (as long as you live in the States). Is it too soon and overly optimistic to call Burn After Reading a masterpiece some six months before it opens and before any trailers or real press for the film have begun?

I say with the Coens track record and the cast. No frikkin’ way. My expectations are through the roof…

Focus Features and Working Title have decided to go wide when opening the Coen brother’s next film “Burn After Reading” on Sept. 12 because of the film’s comedic appeal and cast.

Dark spy-comedy stars George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand and Tilda Swinton, who recently starred with Clooney in “Michael Clayton.”

The movie which is being directed and produced from a original script the Coens wrote revolves around an ousted CIA official whose memoir inadvertently falls into the hands of two bumbling Washington, D.C. gym employees.

If the Coens filmography fall into the two categories of quirky comedy (Intolerable Cruely, The Ladykillers, O, Brother Where Art Thou?) and dark and sombre serious (Fargo, No Country For Old Men, Miller’s Crossing) their next movie definitely falls upon the first category which may not be the most interesting from them but with the ever improving evolution of the Coens directing style and the talents of Clooney, Pitt and Swinton who all had a great 2007… this still should be amazing.

source - variety