Paramount Pictures, GK Films and New Regency today announced that Brad Pitt (WORLD WAR Z) will star, and Robert Zemeckis (“FLIGHT,” “FORREST GUMP”) will direct, an original story by Steve Knight (“THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY,” “DIRTY PRETTY THINGS”) to be produced by Graham King (“RANGO,” “THE DEPARTED”), who developed the project, alongside Zemeckis and Steve Starkey (“FLIGHT,” “REAL STEEL”).
The epic story will be produced through King’s GK Films banner with Jack Rapke (“FLIGHT,” “REAL STEEL”), Knight, Patrick McCormick (“BLACK MASS”) and Denis O’Sullivan (“THE 5thWAVE,” THE YOUNG VICTORIA”) serving as executive producers.
Zemeckis’ credits at Paramount Pictures include the 1994 blockbuster “FORREST GUMP,” for which he won the Academy Award for Best Director. The groundbreaking film grossed $677 million worldwide and won six Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor for star Tom Hanks.
In 2012, the studio and Zemeckis partnered on the critically-lauded, live-action thriller “FLIGHT,” which starred Denzel Washington and received two Academy Award nominations.
Presently, Zemeckis is in post-production on “THE WALK,” starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, slated for an October 2015 release.
King and Knight are also partnered on the action-thriller “THE RED CIRCLE,” a remake of the classic French film “LE CERCLE ROUGE” reset in Hong Kong. Knight wrote the script and King is producing under GK Films.
From director Clint Eastwood comes the trailer for the big-screen version of the Tony Award-winning musical JERSEY BOYS. The film opens in theaters on June 20th.
The film tells the story of four young men from the wrong side of the tracks in New Jersey who came together to form the iconic 1960s rock group The Four Seasons.
The story of their trials and triumphs are accompanied by the songs that influenced a generation, including “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “Dawn,” “Rag Doll,” “Bye Bye Baby,” “Who Loves You,” and many more.
These classic hits are now being embraced by a new generation of fans through the stage musical, which has been running on Broadway for more than eight years and has also enjoyed successful tours around the globe.
Starring in the film, John Lloyd Young reprises his Tony Award-winning portrayal of the legendary lead singer of The Four Seasons, Frankie Valli.
Erich Bergen stars as Bob Gaudio, who wrote or co-wrote all of the group’s biggest hits. Michael Lomenda and Vincent Piazza star respectively as Nick Massi and Tommy DeVito, two original members of The Four Seasons. Oscar winner Christopher Walken (“The Deer Hunter”) stars as mobster Gyp DeCarlo.
Oscar winner Eastwood (“Million Dollar Baby,” “Unforgiven”) directed JERSEY BOYS from a screenplay and musical book by Marshall Brickman & Rick Elice, song music by Bob Gaudio and lyrics by Bob Crewe. The film is produced by Eastwood, Graham King and Robert Lorenz, with Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tim Moore, Tim Headington, James Packer and Brett Ratner serving as executive producers.
The behind-the-scenes creative team was led by Academy Award-nominated director of photography Tom Stern (“Changeling”); Academy Award-nominated production designer James J. Murakami, (“Changeling”); Oscar-winning editor Joel Cox (“Unforgiven”) and editor Gary D. Roach; and costume designer Deborah Hopper.
This film has been rated R for language throughout.
Martin Scorsese’s highly anticipated 3D adventure, HUGO, was officially released nationwide today. (Check out our review right HERE) Last weekend, I was lucky enough to attend the NY press junket. Even without the presence of Martin Scorsese, the amount of talent at the press conference was intimidating. Sacha Baron Cohen, Emily Mortimer, Chloe Grace Moretz, Asa Butterfield, Sir Ben Kingsley, producers Graham King and John Logan & author Brian Selznick were all in attendance. A lot was covered during the 40-minute event. Here are some of the highlights of what was said…
SACHA BARON COHEN on his character: Well, there is actually, there is a bit of romance between myself and Emily’s character, which is actually the first romantic plot I’ve had that’s not been with a black prostitute or a man. So it was actually my first. We didn’t actually have a kissing scene, but there was a bit of romance in there. So that was a little bit different. And as for the rest, playing an authority figure, well, he’s a bumbling authority figure. And he’s dark, but he does have some beauty and softness underneath him. So a bit like my other characters.
ASA BUTTERFIELD on the difficulties of playing Hugo: Well, Hugo, he’s an orphan and because he’s had to grow up far faster than anyone else his age should have, I found it quite hard to relate to him because of all the hardships he’s gone through in his life. So I just had to come up with false past for him that was similar to mine and relate to him in that way.
CHLOE GRACE MORETZ on her accent: I’d probably say the hardest part about it was I was trying to conquer the accent. That was probably the most challenging thing I had to do as a character…. My brother Trevor and I kind of created the voice, and we worked together on the whole thing really.
EMILY MORTIMER on Martin Scorsese: Hedoesn’t sort of tell you what to do, and guide you through every step of the performance. He just shows you all the people’s movies. He did that on Shelter Island as well. So it’s more like he just helps you to understand the world of the film by showing you other people’s films, which is his inspiration anyway. (One of the films everyone was asked to watch is UNDER THE ROOFS OF PARIS)
SACHA BARON COHEN on the root of Evil: I mean certainly when I sort of approach the character of the station inspector; I wanted to know why was he so obsessed with chasing children? Was he actually, you know, a classic villain or was there reason for his malice? And, I sat down with John and Martin and we started talking about perhaps he was World War I veteran, and maybe he was injured. So we came up with the idea of the leg brace. Originally, it was a false leg, which the audience wouldn’t have realized until it was going to be the first chase. Then I was going to turn a corner and then my leg was going to fly off and go into camera in 3D. And that was going to be the first big 3D moment. Unfortunately, practically I was made aware that I would have had to kind of strap up my leg for four months in order to do that. So we kind of abandoned that, and I started wearing a leg brace instead.
SIR BEN KINGSLEY on staying in character: I tended to stay in character because so many of many of my major scenes were with Asa. And in order to feed that relationship because action and cut can be shockingly short, that space you have to establish a deep rapport with your fellow actors. So I think I tended to. Also, my shape was so defined as older George. So like it was very difficult for me to snap back into Ben because I mean it just didn’t happen. I just stayed because I was stuck with George.
JOHN LOGAN on film: Brian Selznick’s amazing novel he talks about movies as dreams, as ways to dream, as ways for all of us to dream. I know, when I was a kid growing up, that’s what they were for me because I was asthmatic. I couldn’t go out and play. I have to be in a dark room, and watching movies on TV allowed me to liberate every thought I’d ever had. And when I read Brian’s book for the first time that’s really what struck me more than anything was it was touching the 8-year-old me. And so, for me it was always about how does that damaged child find the place that he belongs?
SIR BEN KINGSLEY on wounded souls: Well, I think the core value of its magic is its fearlessness in putting wounded characters on the screen. That’s a very brave move. It’s not very fashionable. It’s not sugar coated. A wounded man who is totally retired from his life. He almost committed suicide of the spirit, orphan, orphan, a girl who lost her brother in the Battle of the Somme in 1914, a dreadful way to lose a brother, and a chap who lost his leg. Wounded, wounded, wounded, wounded, wounded. And I think that’s an incredibly bold move to make in the present context. That’s where the magic comes from. And as Sacha was saying, where’s the wound? Because if there is no wound, the healer has no function and the healer is the youngest person on the screen who pulls all these threads together. But you won’t have an audience empathizing with you if nothing needs comforting. It won’t happen. So I think all of this individually paradoxically nourished that scar inside us in order to make the magic, in order to make him the greatest magician on the screen and make all the magic happen.
EMILY MORTIMER on technology: I was saying yesterday that there is something about Scorsese using the latest 3D technology to push the boundaries of filmmaking in 2012 or 2011 or whatever. To make a film about the very first technology ever used to put magic on the screen over 100 years ago is just so perfect. And somehow you get a sense of every film that was made in between Mêlées and Scorsese.
SACHA BARON COHEN on the use of 3D: If I could just continue that. It felt like here’s the logical extension of filmmaking that if Miller was alive that he definitely would have been using 3D. That was the interesting thing because of the whole debate in cinema at the moment whether 3D is a gimmick or not. Scorsese really showed that it was a logical development of the filmmaking process.
CHLOE GRACE MORETZ on Scorsese: You know, not only did I grow as an actor on this film with Scorsese, I grew in my knowledge of film history, which I’ve always been a history buff. Of course, I walked on the set knowing a little bit about it thinking oh I can have a conversation with him. And then you get into the conversation and he’s like dah-dah-dah-dah. And I’m like, “Okay, I’m not prepared for this.”
SACHA BARON COHEN on collaboration: I think that’s the key about Scorsese that he’s totally collaborative, which I was surprised about. Because I expected him to be some incredible author, which he is an author. But part of his power and part of the reason why his films are that successful and that enduring is the fact that he’s ready to collaborate fully with all his actors.
BRIAN SELZNICK on writing the book: I made this book thinking it could not be filmed because the book at the end of the story, the object of the book itself actually becomes part of the plot. And what happens when you turn the page because a big chunk of the narrative in my book is told with images like a movie. But even so, it’s celebrating movies. It’s really about what happens when you turn the page, and the power of the book itself. So I just imagined it couldn’t be a movie. And like I said, I got the call that Scorsese wanted to make it. And I thought, well, maybe this actually can be a movie. And, I realized I never would have thought of him. Like if someone had asked me, “Who would you imagine directing this movie?” But, of course, the second we hear his name, we all realize there was no one else who could have made this movie. It was if I had sat for 2-1/2 years at my desk during which time in real life I was thinking I was writing something no one would read because it’s a book about French silent movies for children. Which isn’t a guaranteed best seller. You know, but it’s as if I did all of that for Marty.
BRIAN SELZNICK on his cameo: I had the great thrill of being put into the last scene of the movie. I got a line. I think a lot of you saw the movie. I’m sure you’re excited to meet me now because of that. But Sir Ben was incredibly generous with me. I suddenly found myself next to Sir Ben saying my line to Sir Ben. And we spent a lot of the day filming the last tracking shot in the kitchen waiting for the action and to do the three-minute tracking shot again. And the camera never goes into the kitchen, but we would open the cabinet doors and it was fully stocked with food.
SIR BEN KINGSLEY on the sets: It’s a huge gift to us. It constantly fed us. Between takes I used to wander around the station, and the detail was extraordinary. You never left that world, did you? I mean it was so embracing and so sustaining, a huge gift to the actors, all to scale and not a lot of CGI really. I mean compared to what there might have been, very little.
ASA BUTTERFIELD on the sets: And, the working clocks were incredible because they were real. You could actually wind them and they had weights on. And it was just incredible. I mean, as Sir Ben said it was a gift to the actors to work that way.
SACHA BARON COHEN on the film’s target audience: It seems to me that Marty makes films for himself. He is an artist, a true artist and he makes the movie that he wants to see. So my first line in the movie had the word malfeasance in it, which I barely understood. And I said, “Aren’t you worried that some of the children won’t understand this let alone the grown ups?” He said, “No, it’s the right word to use there.” And he’s one of the last remaining artists that is out there. And I think we should respect that. The movie is not focus grouped, and it’s not tailored for a 7-year-old in Iowa or Berlin or anywhere to appreciate it. Marty has made a work of art in the same way that Melies did. So I think that is a beautiful thing and it’s an incredible achievement for a filmmaker still to be able to do that. Thanks to Graham for being able to fund that.
Here’s the trailer from GK Films’ LONDON BOULEVARD, directed by Academy Award-winning William Monahan (writer THE DEPARTED) and starring Golden Globe winner Colin Farrell and Academy Award-nominated actress Keira Knightley.
Based on the book by Ken Bruen, LONDON BOULEVARD is the story of a man newly released from prison who falls in love with a reclusive young movie star and finds himself in a duel with a vicious gangster.
The London-based crime drama also features the acting talents of David Thewlis, Anna Friel, Ben Chaplin, Eddie Marsan, Sanjeev Baskhar, newcomer Jamie Campbell Bower, and Ray Winstone.
LONDON BOULEVARD is produced by the Academy Award-winning Graham King alongside William Monahan, Tim Headington and Quentin Curtis. Look for it in UK theatres on November 26th and here in the states February 2011.
The film which all Hollywood has been hotly pursuing is finally on track to be made – it is the Freddie Mercury story, this week announced by GK Films in partnership with Robert de Niro’s and Jane Rosenthal’s Tribeca Productions and Queen Films.
Two-time Academy Award®-nominated screenwriter Peter Morgan (THE QUEEN, FROST/NIXON) is already at work on the script of the currently untitled film, which will feature Academy Award nominee Sacha Baron Cohen in the starring role.
Baron Cohen will play the legendary front man of the iconic rock band Queen, and the currently untitled drama will focus on the years leading up to Queen’s appearance at the historic Live Aid concert in 1985 when the band famously took the event by storm.
Production is set to begin in 2011.
GK Film’s Graham King said today, “Queen is one of the greatest rock bands of all time, and a music brand all unto itself. Freddie Mercury was an awe-inspiring performer, so with Sacha in the starring role coupled with Peter’s screenplay and the support of Queen, we have the perfect combination to tell the real story behind their success.”
Baron Cohen is currently starring in Martin Scorsese’s HUGO CABRET, also produced by GK Films. His recent credits have included SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET and his BRUNO and BORAT feature films, based on characters from his British TV series “Da Ali G Show.” Baron Cohen was nominated for an Academy Award® for his adapted screenplay for BORAT as well as winning the Golden Globe for his performance in the comedy feature. He has also won two BAFTA’s for his work on “Da Ali G Show.” Baron Cohen is currently writing and plans to star in an Untitled/Goat Herder feature film for Paramount Pictures.
Peter Morgan has seen his career go from strength to strength over recent years. In addition to his Academy Award®-nominated credits he also recently wrote the acclaimed THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND starring Forest Whitaker, who won the Academy Award® for Best Male Actor, THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL and THE DAMNED UNITED, as well as his Emmy-nominated TV dramas “The Special Relationship” and “Longford.” His current film HEREAFTER directed by Clint Eastwood is set for its theatrical release through Warner Bros. Pictures following its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Queen have sold over 170 million albums and scored countless number one albums and singles around the world including such classics as “We Will Rock You,” “We are the Champions,” “Another One Bites the Dust,” “Radio Ga Ga,” and, of course, “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
Queen’s smash hit stage musical We Will Rock Youcontinues to pack the 2,000 seat Dominion Theatre in London’s West End nightly, 9 years after its opening, and with additional productions springing up around the world has now been seen by more than 11 million people.
Sacha Baron Cohen is repped by WmE Entertainment. Peter Morgan is repped by United Talent in the US and Independent Talent Group in the UK
Sony Pictures has released the first trailer for THE TOURIST starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp.
It looks good…but Depp looks old and puffy. Not cute. He ain’t exactly in Jack Sparrow form either. Just look at the pics of him and Penelope Cruz from the next POTC movie – totally different. We get it, you live in France…but how about we lay off the croissants?? News fah-lash Johnny….that’s ANGELINA JOLIE in the movie with you…..you can’t look like that next to her.
Synopsis:
Johnny Depp stars as an American tourist whose playful dalliance with a stranger leads to a web of intrigue, romance and danger in THE TOURIST. During an impromptu trip to Europe to mend a broken heart, Frank (Depp) unexpectedly finds himself in a flirtatious encounter with Elise (Angelina Jolie), an extraordinary woman who deliberately crosses his path. Against the breathtaking backdrop of Paris and Venice, their whirlwind romance quickly evolves as they find themselves unwittingly thrust into a deadly game of cat and mouse.
THE TOURIST will hit theaters on December 10th, 2010.
Visit the film’s official site here and on Facebook here.
No, Mel Gibson is not directing Leonardo DiCaprio in a live action version of The Adventures of Asterix, but I imagine that would be just as cool. Gibson, instead, will be directing DiCaprio in an as-yet untitled film about Viking culture that is being written by William Monahan (THE DEPARTED). This according to Variety. A joint venture by Gibson’s Icon Productions and Graham King’s GK Films, the film is set to begin shooting in Fall of 2010.
Says King about the story:
This will be an awe-inspiring story, created with some of the industry’s finest cinematic talent, and I am just over the moon to be making this film with Mel, Leo and Bill.
All involved confirmed their involvement in the film, though no details have emerged about the plot. Expect the same level of gritty, grimy adult fare Gibson has previously shown in BRAVEHEART, THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST, and APOCALYPTO.
No distributor has been set for the film, though this is not uncommon for either Gibson’s films or those produced by Graham King.
It seems that Martin Scorsese is coming back to possibly direct the true life story of John Martoranom, the Winter Hill Gang hitman. It’s been confirmed that ‘Departed’ producer Graham King has acquired the rights to the hitman’s life to go forth with the film. Also, ‘Departed’ screenwriter William Monahan will write the script that will tell Martorano’s story. The movie will show Martorano’s 20 murders and then him flipping to help the feds after learning that his gang was not so loyal. If all goes to plan, this will be the first true mob film that Scorsese will direct, so let’s hope it gets off it’s feet. Because I don’t know about you, but there’s nothing better than a good Scorsese flick.
