News: James McAvoy

The star of this week’s tip-top The Last King of Scotland has has already completed work on Penelope, starring opposite Christina Ricci and Reese Witherspoon. From what we can tell, it sounds like a Tim Burton-esque fable with Ricci as a woman deformed by a family curse, desperately searching for love and acceptance.Coming up in the next year or so, McAvoy will continue to add to his enviable leading ladies opposite Keira Knightley in the film adaptation of Ian McEwan’s bestselling Atonement, following that up with a role in the Anne Hathaway-starring Becoming Jane, about the young Jane Austen’s tragic romance with Tom Lefroy – who else but McAvoy? – the man who helped inspire her novels.

Meanwhile, although McAvoy has claimed to have little interest in big Hollywood blockbusters, it looks like his first action role could also be on the cards. Set to star opposite Morgan Freeman, McAvoy will play the son of a super-powered assassin who takes on his father’s mantle in this big screen adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic series Wanted. Shooting is set to start this month for a 2008 release – and could well see McAvoy really hit the big time.

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: Robert Carlyle

Carlyle’s been fairly anonymous of late, hardly taking any high-profile film roles since 2001’s rather shoddy The 51st State. This week’s Eragon may not quite see a return to his former starring form, but there is some promise on the horizon. First, after British disaster flick The Flood – with Carlyle as a marine biologist desperately racing to save London from a massive tidal surge – will come 28 Weeks Later, a sequel to 2002’s cult horror hit 28 Days Later, and therefore likely to strike box office gold.

But potentially most interesting in terms of Carlyle’s career revival, is The Meat Trade. Taken from a screenplay by Irving Welsh, the man responsible for Trainspotting, which kick-started Carlyle’s film career, the Scotsman will star alongside Colin Firth in a tale of body-snatching and mayhem on the streets of contemporary Edinburgh. It could be bonkers, by the Welsh brand is still just about strong enough to sell…

News: Nicole Kidman

Kidman continues to pick interesting and promising projects, with this week’s fun animated musical Happy Feet yet another impressive entry to her eclectic CV. Despite her 40th approaching looming (on 20th June 2007), she’s busier than ever, bucking the trend of Hollywood actresses finding themselves out of work as their forties come near.

Next year will see three interesting projects for the Aussie beauty. The Invasion, starring alongside new Bond Daniel Craig, will see her play a psychatrist who uncovers an alien invasion – and the key, lying in her critically ill son. Then will come the highly promising – but as yet untitled – new film from Noah Baumbach, the writer/director responsible for brilliantly quirky outings The Squid and the Whale and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. Little is yet known other than that it is a comedy drama revolving around a weekend family reunion, and will star Kidman alongside the likes of Jack Black, Jennifer Jason Leigh and John Turturro.

Kidman will also be re-teaming with directos she’s had some success with before. First up is Headhunters, from a script from Birthday Girl writer/director Jez Butterworth, following a group of women from New Jersey who head to Monte Carlo to land rich husbands. Then – and almost certain to have more potential – will come the latest project from Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann, Australia. Set during World War II, Kidman will play an Australian heiress who sets out on a cattle-drive roughneck rancher Hugh Jackman, only to get embroiled in a Japanese invasion.

Most likely to buy a few more fancy designer dresses, however, is bound to be the His Dark Materials triology, the first instalment of which, Northern Lights (or The Golden Compass if you’re in America), should be out around Christmas 2007. Adapted from the bestselling (and really rather good) Philip Pullman novels, Kidman will play the scheming Miss Coulter in all three movies, again alongside Daniel Craig as the dashing Lord Asriel.

News: Daniel Craig

Unsurprisingly for an actor who’s been working in films for a fair while, and for whom the role of James Bond in this week’s Casino Royale is if anything a bit of a departure, Daniel Craig has plenty of very varied projects on the go – he won’t be one to rest on his 007 laurels.

Already completed, and due for a US release in August 2007 (though no UK date has yet been set) is sci-fi thriller The Invasion, where Craid will star opposite Nicole Kidman, who plays a psychiatrist who uncovers the cause of an alien disease that threatens to destroy the whole of mankind.  Craig and Kidman will then be reunited in the first of the adaptations of Philip Pullman’s excellent philosophical fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials, pitched as The Golden Compass after the North American edition of the novel, but likely to revert to the book’s original title, Northern Lights, for its UK release, probably in December 2007. Amusingly enough, Craig is playing the mysterious Lord Asriel – a part played by former Bond Timothy Dalton in the London stage production.

After that, Craig will take on the ultimate in evil as Satan himself in I, Lucifer, Craig’s evil one posessing the body of Ewan McGregor after a bet with God, and taking full advantage of the freedom a human body can bring.

And then, of course, there’s the as-yet untitled Bond 22. Craig is currently contracted for two more films as 007 – but quite what direction they will take is anyone’s guess – even those involved most likely don’t know yet. Rumours, however, suggest that parts of the next Craig Bond movie will be inspired by aspects of the Bond novel – though not the Roger Moore-starring film – For Your Eyes Only…

News: Eva Green

Casino Royale Bond girl Eva Green first drew attention to herself in Ridley Scott’s disappointing Kingdom of Heaven, but is beginning to build a promising career – as long as the curse of the Bond girl doesn’t strike, and she ends up like the countless other 007 cast-offs who have found their careers flounder after appearing in the franchise.

Next up, she will be appearing alongside Daniel Craig once again in the first His Dark Materials movie, based on the Philip Pullman novels, as the witch queen Serafina Pekkala – a relatively important role in the books that should see her cropping up in all three films. Then she will take the title role in Therese Raquin, a tale of illicit love, murder, and the disintegration of relationships which will also star the intriguing Giovanni Ribisi and always superb Glenn Close.

With two other starring roles in projects still in the pipeline – including alongside French superstar Vincent Cassel in 1970s-set crime thriller L’Ennemi public n° 1, it looks like Green could well do well out of her stint as arm candy for the world’s best-known spy.

News: Michael Caine

Fresh from his turn in this week’s The Prestige, genuine British national treasure Michael Caine is refusing to let his 73 years hold him back, and is on better form and harder-working than ever.

Next up for the veteran Knight of the Realm – before returning as Alfred in Christopher Nolan’s follow-up to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight – is Flawless, a 1960s-set heist movie in which Caine’s aging janitor teams up with high-flying American career-woman Demi Moore to rob his London-based diamond company employers of a few choice gems.

After that, he will be taking on the Lawrence Olivier role in the Kenneth Branagh-directed, Harold Pinter-scripted remake of 1972’s Sleuth, with the young Caine’s role taken on by Jude Law, who will hopefully be doing a better job of stepping in to Caine’s shoes than he managed with the remake of Alfie…

News: Christian Bale

Casting rumours continue to emerge for the second in The Prestige star and director Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan’s new Batman franchise, The Dark Knight. To join Heath Ledger’s Joker, rumours circulating include Cruel Intentions‘ Ryan Philippe as Two Face and Capote’s Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Penguin.

Bale has a number of other movies in the pipeline: the Werner Herzog-directed Vietnam War flick Rescue Dawn, where he plays a German-born US pilot shot down over the jungle, experimental director Tod Haynes’ exploration of the life and work of Bob Dylan, I’m Not There, with Richard Gere, Julianne Moore, Heath Ledger, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Cate Blanchett (see ComingSoon.net for more); and is set to star alongside Russell Crowe and Peter Fonda in a remake of the 1957 Elmore Leonard Western 3:10 to Yuma for Walk the Line director James Mangold.

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: James McAvoy

The 27-year-old Shameless star may remain best known for his TV work, but the next year or so could well see him hit the big time, with this week’s Starter for Ten just the first of many films in which he’ll be taking the lead, rather than the supporting turns he’s mostly had to put up with to date. Next up is The Last King of Scotland, an adaptation of the Giles Foden novel about the relationship between Mentalist Ugandan dictator Idi Amin – a top-notch Forest Whittaker – and his scottish doctor, played by McAvoy, which received rave reviews at its London Film Festival screening, and is due for a nationwide release in the second week of January. He has also already completed work on Penelope, starring opposite Christina Ricci and Reese Witherspoon, a Tim Burtonesque fable with Ricci as a woman deformed by a family curse, desperately searching for love and acceptance.

Coming up in the next year or so, McAvoy will continue to add to his enviable leading ladies opposite Keira Knightley in the film adaptation of Ian McEwan’s bestselling Atonement, following that up with a role in the Anne Hathaway-starring Becoming Jane, about the young Jane Austen’s tragic romance with Tom Lefroy – who else but McAvoy? – the man who helped inspire her novels.

Meanwhile, although McAvoy has claimed to have little interest in big Hollywood blockbusters, it looks like his first action role could also be on the cards. Set to star opposite Morgan Freeman, McAvoy will play the son of a super-powered assassin who takes on his father’s mantle in this big screen adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic series Wanted. Shooting is set to start in January 2007 for a 2008 release – and could well see McAvoy really hit the big time.

Review: The History Boys

UK Release: 13th October 2006

Alan Bennett’s hit stage play, about a group of Sheffield grammar school boys being drilled for their Oxbridge entrance exams, makes an efficient transition to the big screen.

Utilising the original stage cast, director Nicholas Hytner wisely opts to change as little as possible, resisting the urge to open up the material cinematically. This brilliantly serves Bennett’s screenplay, which is a masterpiece of wit and intellectual erudition worn feather-lightly; a perfectly balanced blend undercut with the darker subject of history teacher Hector (Richard Griffiths) and his sexual attraction to the boys.

Which leads to this thoroughly enjoyable film’s only flaw: there’s something slightly implausible about these pupils who combine a kind of romanticised notion of male adolescence extracted from Goodbye Mr Chips with an incredible nonchalance towards the subject of homosexuality and their teacher’s repeated attempts to cop a feel. Still, it’s not a documentary, and this niggle is more than made up for by the performances, which are uniformly first-rate.

Radio Times rating:

****

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 109mins

Review by Adam Smith

News: Anne Hathaway

The star of The Devil Wears Prada is doing a good job of proving herself as a serious actress as well as an adept comedienne. Following her supporting turn as one of the neglected wives of Brokeback Mountain, her next role is as 19th century novelist Jane Austen in Becoming Jane – a part she won over the likes of Kate Winslet, Natalie Portman and Keira Knightley. Part funded by the UK Film Council – which has been responsible for more misses than hits, yet sill has some quality movies like The Constant Gardener and the upcoming The Last King of Scotland to its credit – Hathaway’s co-stars will include James Cromwell, Julie Walters, Maggie Smith and rising star James McAvoy.

Review: The Black Dahlia

UK Release: 15th September 2006

This adaptation of James Ellroy’s crime novel from Brian De Palma showcases all the director’s strengths, as well as some of his faults.

Loosely based on an actual unsolved murder case from the 1940s, this stylish movie sees tough-as-teak LA cops Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) and Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) investigating the grisly demise of would-be actress Elizabeth Short. The trail leads to socialite Madeleine Linscott (Hilary Swank), a Short lookalike and member of one of the city’s wealthiest families. Meanwhile, Bleichert becomes involved with Blanchard’s glamorous wife (played by Scarlett Johansson).

The performances are uniformly strong, with Hartnett surprisingly good as the bewildered but basically decent gumshoe. Dante Ferretti’s sumptuous production design is atmospherically shot by veteran cinematographer Vilmos Z sigmond and De Palma delivers his trademark touches — complex camera shots, razor-sharp editing, labyrinthine plotting and deft nods to other film-makers.

De Palma’s enthusiasm doesn’t always extend to the humanity of his characters, but this is still a superior, deeply enjoyable piece of film-making from a director on top form.

Radio Times rating:

****

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 120mins

Review by Adam Smith

Welcome to the Pocket Films blog

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