News: Angelina Jolie

Everyone’s favourite fantasy figure Angelina Jolie may be wasted in this week’s The Good Shepherd, and may have been seen in the tabloids more often than on screen in the last couple of years, but that’s hopefully set to change.

She’s next up doing full-on “proper” acting in A Mighty Heart, following the efforts of the wife of murdered Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl to find out precisely how her husband ended up being beheaded on camera by Islamist fanatics back in 2002. then she’s on voice duties as the voice of the mother of the monster Grendel in the much-anticipated adaptation of the Dark Age poem Beowulf, starring Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins and a host of other top-notch actors, with more voice duties following in the animated comedy Kung-Fu Panda, alongside Jack Black, Jackie Chan, Dustin Hoffman and Lucy Liu, before switching back to drama for the Ayn Rand adaptation Atlas Shrugged, possibly alongside her real-world lover and father of her ultra-famous baby, Brad Pitt.

News: Anthony Hopkins

After taking on just one of the many interesting roles in this week’s Bobby, Hopkins will be taking a far more prominent position in his next outing – as writer, director and star of the wilfully experimental Slipstream, a surreal, existentialist Charlie Kauffman-style tale of an aging screenwriter whose characters start to appear in the real world, prompting much musing on the nature of reality, memory and death. Fun may not be the word, but it certainly sounds intriguing, with good reports this week from the Sundance Film Festival, where it’s just had its first screenings.

After that, it’s back to more familiar fare for Hopkins with Fracture (due in the Spring), where he’ll play a Hannibal Lecter-style intelligent murderer, as the wise older man in academia-set drama The City of Your Destination, and as yet another Butler, opposite Morgan Freeman, in Harry and the Butler (both due 2008).

Initially likely to attract most excitement, however, is the big budget adaptation of Dark Age classic Beowulf, where Hopkins will take on the put-upon King Hrothgar opposite Ray Winstone’s Beowulf and a monstrous Grendel voiced by Crispin Glover. And, in terms of full-on Hopkins-acting-his-guts-out potential, his turn as novellist Leo Tolstoy, opposite Paul Giamatti and Meryl Streep, in biopic The Last Station could prove one to excite the awards panels in a year or two, as the aging writer frets over combining his wealth and fame with his high principles. Not something, on the evidence of Slipstream, that Hopkins has much difficulty in doing.

2007 – a movie preview

A small selection of some of the potential highlights of the coming twelve months – by no means an exhaustive selection, but ones we’re looking forward to…

eta 12th January – The Last King of Scotland – at last a proper release for the film everyone raved about at the London Film Festival back in November. Forest Whitaker does Idi Amin in a tale of dictatorship and disillusionment, based on the prize-winning novel by journalist Giles Foden.

eta 26th January – Blood Diamond – Leonardo DiCaprio makes another bid for an Oscar as diamond smuggler teaming up with Djimon Hounsou’s poor local in a bid for a rare pink diamond amidst civil war-torn Sierra Leone. Political, topical – and coming out over here just a month before the Oscars…

eta 16th February – Hot Fuzz – Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg team up once more after the success of Shawn of the Dead and superb sitcom Spaced, this time with a spoof cop movie. Set in rural Somerset… How could this be anything other than genius?

eta 23rd February – The Good Shepherd – This Robert De Niro-directed tale of the birth of the CIA, with Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie (as well as Bob himself), looks set to be packed with political intrigue – much of which may well be relevant to our own times…

eta 23rd February – Letters From Iwo Jima – The second part of Clint Eastwood’s World War Two epic, this time the Japanese side of the story. By all accounts a far better film than Flags of Our Fathers, the American side of the tale that’s currently on release.

eta 9th March – The Good German – Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney team up yet again, this time for a noirish tale of intrigue set at the close of World War Two, with Tobey Maguire and Cate Blanchett in support. Initial reports from the other side of the Atlantic are that it’s not as good as it should be, but we still can’t wait to see for ourselves.

eta 30th March – 300 – Another overly stylised adaptation of a Frank Miller comic book after the success of Sin City, this time set in Ancient Greece (well, Sparta, to be precise). Looks like it should be visually stunning, but will it hold up as a film?

eta 27th April – Takeshis’ –  Japanese icon “Beat” Takeshi Kitano does his own version of Being John Malkovich as, playing himself, he happens across a lookalike. For fans of the cult actor, this could be something rather special, especially as it shows a side of the guy rarely seen outside of his Japanese TV appearances.

eta 4th May – Spider-Man 3 – Spidey goes evil (or does he?), so looks to build on the success of the first two in this top-notch franchise with yet another darker turn. Top stuff – especially for comics geeks who know who/what Venom is…

eta 25th May – Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End – Finally, a decnt conclusion to Dead Man’s Chest. Hopefully… Either way, another chance to see Johnny Depp do his thing, so hurrah!

eta 8th June – Ocean’s Thirteen – Yes, we know what you’re thinking – Ocean’s Twelve was horrendous. The good thing is, everyone involved seems to have realised, and have promised that this next outing is going to be the film the last one should have been. With Al Pacino added to the already star-studded cast, let’s hope they get it right this time…

eta 29th June – Shrek the Third – the team are all back, and what more could you want? Bound to be a crowd-pleaser.

eta 13th July – Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix –  The films have been getting progressively better as the series has progressed, though whether new director David Yates – best known for his TV work, including the tip-top political drama State of Play – will be able to continue the trend is anyone’s guess…

eta 27th July – Transformers – Yes, a live-action version of that 80s toy classic. Giant robots beating each other up for two hours? How could you not be interested? Oh, yes – it’s directed by Michael Bay, the man responsible for the likes of The Island and Pearl Harbor… But even so – giant robots!

eta 27th July – The Simpsons Movie –  Eighteen years after the funny yellow family hit the small screen, they finally make it to the big. Will they make the transition though? Fingers crossed, eh?

eta 3rd August – The Bourne Ultimatum –  The third in the insanely good spy series looks all set to be just as good as the last two, with Paul Greengrass returning as director and Matt Damon set to do his thing once again as the amnesiac spook still trying to uncover his murky past.

eta 26th October – The Golden Age –  Nine years on, a sequel to director Shekhar Kapur’s magnificent historical biopic Elizabeth, reuniting much of the original cast to explore the relationship of an older Queen Elizabeth I (Cate Blanchett) and the adventurous hero/pirate Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen). Should be superb.

eta 9th November – American Gangster – Sir Ridley Scott teams up once again with Russell Crowe, with Denzel Washington also in the mix, in this 1970s-set drug-running thriller. Could be an overdue return to form for Scott after recent lacklustre outings.

eta 30th November – Beowulf – Ray Winstone stars in this epic version of the Dark Age classic, adapted by comic book favourite Neil Gaiman, and with a pretty damned impressive supporting cast. Potentially a new (one film) Lord of the Rings…

eta ? – The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford – Brad Pitt stars as near-legendary gunslinger Jesse James in this much-anticipated second feature from Andrew Dominik, who brought us 2000’s compelling (if occasionally horrifying) Chopper.

And then, of course, in 2008 we have Tim Burton’s Sweeny Todd,  Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo IV, comic book adaptation Iron Man and the next Bond film to look forward to, amongst others.

So then, what are you looking forward to the most?

News: John Malkovich

On typically over-the-top form as another evil baddie in this week’s dragon-based kids’ drama Eragon, and he has a fair few other fantasy pieces in the works, not least the much-anticipated, Ray Winstone-starring Beowulf, due November 2007, and the similarly medieval Love and Virtue, based on the ancient Song of Roland, due 2008, and looking to be equally promising if the casting rumours are true.

Also likely to do well is The Great Buck Howard, also due next year, where Malkovich will play the titular illusionist who takes on young Colin Hanks as his assistant – much to the consternation of the boy’s father – played by Hanks’ real-life dad, perennial favourite Tom. Still on a fantasy bent, though rather less promising, Malkovich will also be appearing in sci-fi actioner The Mutant Chronicles – which, no doubt, will be great fun if you like that sort of thing…

In more “serious” film news, somehow the top-notch Colour Me Kubrick, based around a real-life fraudster who pretended to be reclusive uberdirector Stanley Kubrick to get star treatment and made nearly two years ago now, has still not been picked up by a UK distributor, despite receiving unanimously good reviews. Also unlikely to see a proper cinema release is art flick Drunkboat, co-starring John Goodman, which seems to have hit some editing trouble.

Most promising of the non-fantasy flicks, though, is likely to be Disgrace, due out next year and based on the novel of post-Apartheid politics by Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee. If Malkovich plays it right, it could have just the right mix to finally win him that Oscar…

News: Ray Winstone

Burly hardman Winstone has been doing rather well of late, with turns in this week’s Breaking and Entering and last month’s The Departed adding to his recent TV success in Vincent adding yet more points to his impressive CV. Up next, he’ll take the lead in the Robert Zemeckis-directed Beowulf, based on the ancient epic poem and with a script co-wrtten by comic book hero Neil Gaiman. With a cast that includes Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich, it’s certainly one to look forward to – but we’ve still got another year to wait.Other film projects rumoured to have the Winstone touch include Death of a Ladies’ Man, scripted by cult Australian songwriter Nick Cave and to be directed by John Hillcoat, who helmed last year’s top-notch The Proposition, also written by Cave and co-starring Winstone. Our dear tough guy will play a recently-widowed salesman who takes his young son on the road – so may be an interesting departure for an actor better known for breaking faces than hearts. There have also been a few rumours that he may be appearing alongside Robert Carlyle, Kevin Spacey and Twiggy in cult director Ken Russell’s upcoming King’s X – about which practically nothing is yet known

News: Robin Wright Penn

Jude Law’s jilted wife in this week’s Breaking and Entering (and the wife of Sean Penn in real life) seems to be making a bit of a comeback after several years of relative obscurity. Potentially most intersting is her turn as Queen Wealhtheow in Beowulf, the title character played by her Breaking and Entering co-star Ray Winstone, though the as-yet untitled film about the love affair of writer Ernest Hemmingway (to be played by James Gandolfini) and journalist Martha Gellhorn could also prove a hit, and even – if it’s played right – a potential Oscar contender for the 2008 awards.

News: Jude Law

While not appearing in the gossip sections of the tabloids over the latest rumours about his relationship with rising starlet Sienna Miller, All the King’s Men’s Law has been a busy boy, having taken most of last year off. First up is The English Patient and The Talented Mr Ripley director Anthony Minghella’s Breaking and Entering where, alongside Juliet Binoche, Ray Winstone, Martin Freeman and his King’s Men co-star Sean Penn’s wife Robin Wright Penn, Law will play a landscape architect to starts to reassess his life after a run-in with a young burglar.

Next up will be The Holiday, where Law’s King’s Men co-star Kate Winslett plays an unluck-in-love woman who does a house-swap with an equally unfortunate woman, played by Cameron Diaz, in an attempt to turn her life around. Law plays one of the bits of male eye-candy, alongside Rufus Sewell and, somewhat implausibly, scruffy tubster Jack Black.

After a small role in cult Chinese director Wong Kar-Wai’s American road trip movie My Blueberry Nights, hopefully due out in the UK sometime late next year, Law’s most promising – and at the same time most worrying – upcoming project is Sleuth. Starring alongside Michael Caine – who seems to have forgiven Law for destroying his classic character Alfie in the abysmal 2004 remake – this is yet another remake of a British classic, the 1972 flick of the same name in which the younger Caine entered a battle of wits with Laurence Olivier over a marital infidelity. We can but hope that yet more cinematic memories aren’t soiled in the process…

News: Anthony Hopkins

Veteran Hopkins may be about to hit his 69th birthday (on 31st December), but he’s certainly not showing his age in terms of workload, with three more films already wrapped since finishing his duties on this week’s All the King’s Men.

The one he’ll be most keen to see do well is Slipstream – largely because not only does he star, but also wrote and directed this surreal psychological exploration of a screenwriter (played by Christian Slater) who starts becoming unable to distinguish between fact and fiction. No release date has yet been set, but then again, it is still in post-production.
Next up, Hopkins looks to be moving back to his most commercially successful role as serial killer Hannibal Lecter. Only it seems that copyright has prevented the producers of Fracture from using that name, so instead Hopkins will be known as the altogether less sinister-sounding Ted, a psycho hounding a young assistant DA. Again, a UK release date has yet to be set, though it is out in the States in the Spring. Another familiar role will be in the recently-announced Harry and the Butler, where Hopkins will – following his acclaimed role in 1993’s The Remains of the Day – play a butler, this time hired by an aging blues man, to be played by Morgan Freeman.

Most promising of all, however, the Welsh national treasure will be cropping up as the beseiged King Hrothgar in Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis’s much-anticipated cinematic adaptation of the ancient epic poem Beowulf. With Ray Winstone in the title role and supported by the likes of John Malkovich, Robin Wright Penn, Crispin Glover and Angelina Jolie, it looks all set to be one of the biggest films of Christmas 2007.

Review: The Departed

UK Release: 6th October 2006

After a run of solid, adventurous, but ultimately underwhelming efforts (Gangs of New York, The Aviator), The Departed finds director Martin Scorsese returning to more familiar form with a superior, Boston-set cops-and-gangsters story, based on the Hong Kong crime drama Infernal Affairs.

Rookie cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is assigned to go deep undercover to help catch local Mafia godfather Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Meanwhile, Costello has groomed Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) since puberty to be his spy on the force. The complex script (fluently adapted by William Monahan) rotates around these two moles, who orbit each other like twin suns for most of the movie, but only meet in the third act.

It all makes for extremely watchable entertainment. The leads are luminous (especially Nicholson, doing his best work in years here), but supporting players Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin and Ray Winstone all steal scenes with glee.

Radio Times rating:

****

UK cinema certificate 18
Running time 151mins

Review by Leslie Felperin