Trailer: Sleepwalking Starring Charlize Theron
“Joleen is a woman stuck in yesterday.” The trailer for Sleepwalking, the new film starring Charlize Theron, Nick Stahl, AnnaSophia Robb, Dennis Hopper and Woody Harrelson, exemplifies a terrible grasp on the power of italics. As for the rest, it’s sad to say as the cast is eclectic and has stories for days, but I’m ready to flick this film off to the overpopulated land of promising-indies turned unnecessary-and-forgotten-bummers.
Theron plays a rolling stone mother, Joleen, who abandons her daughter (Robb) to take off on the road with a random guy, right after the two move in with her younger brother (Stahl). So, the younger brother must care for the neglected daughter, and after a confrontation with his and Joleen’s crazy father (Hopper), he realizes he needs to be this young girl’s dad. Not sure where Woody comes in, but he offers some proto-Woody advice in the trailer. I can go either way when Theron explores a “crushed with eyeliner” role, but nothing shown here clicks, especially the character intros. And the wild horse(s) was a bit much, as well (Thanks Eric).
Sleepingwalking, directed by the other Bill Maher, opens on March 14, 2008.
Movie Trailer: Francis Ford Coppola’s Youth Without Youth
The movie trailer for Youth Without Youth, Francis Ford Coppola’s first new film in 10-years, is now online. Coppola adapted, produced and directed the movie based on the 1976 novel by Romanian-born religious historian Mircea Eliade.
The short teaser trailer looks interesting, but doesn’t really show much, or at least it doesn’t show much in terms of narrative story. And that worries me quite a bit since I have heard that it is somewhat personal and experimental. It has been widely reported that the film was inspired by his daughter Sofia, and shot with a low $5 million budget film last winter in Romania using a Sony High Definition camera. The movie has been screened in front of friends and fellow directors including: Martin Scorsese, Dennis Hopper, Andy Garcia, Matt Dillon, Danny DeVito, Rhea Perlman, Spike Jonze, John Singleton, the Hughes Brothers, Alfonso Cuarón, and Gus Van Sant attended the screening. It has been said that overall the film is “Good, but very difficult.”
The movie stars Tim Roth as a 70-year-old who is struck by lightning and suddenly gets younger and more brilliant. The film co-stars Alexandra Maria Lara and Bruno Ganz, and Matt Damon makes a cameo appearance. Coppola’s last time behind the camera was 1997’s Rainmaker which also starred Damon.
Dennis Hopper to Star in Speed 3?
Pop quiz, hotshot. There’s a bomb on a bus. Once the bus goes 50 miles an hour, the bomb is armed. If it drops below 50, it blows up. What do you do? What do you do?
The Guardian has revealed that 20th Century Fox has plans to make a third Speed movie, which will feature returning star Dennis Hopper. Here is what the article says:
“He certainly isn’t in the mood to discuss any of the half a dozen films he is due to appear in this year, a roster which is due to include a performance in Speed 3, even though I have plenty of questions about that. Surely his character Howard Payne died in a decapitation incident in the last reel of Speed 1? “It’s a river of shit,” he tells me pleasantly but firmly, “from which I have tried to extract some gold.”
So there you have it. No word on if Speed helmer Jan de Bont will return for the third film. Bont is in preproduction on Meg, a monster flick which involves the Carcharodon Megalodon, the 70 foot, 40 ton prehistoric cousin of the great white shark. The movie has supposedly been on hold because New Line were busy working on Rush Hour 3. But now with Ratner’s film set to hit theaters, I would think that Bont would be contractually obligated to go into production on Meg. Also no word on if Speed series stars Keanu Reeves and/or Sandra Bullock will also return. Let’s just hope for no Boats this time around.
My big concern is the obvious one which has already been asked: How will they bring Dennis Hopper’s character Howard Payne back from the dead? Could Speed 3 be a prequel or spin-off? One thing is for sure, Hopper isn’t talking.
New Line Kills MEG, Jan de Bont ready for Speed 3?
Yesterday we reported that Dennis Hopper is set to star in Speed 3. We wondered is Speed series helmer Jan de Bont would also make a return, but decided that he would probably be too busy. Bont has been attached to Meg, a monster flick which involves the Carcharodon Megalodon, the 70 foot, 40 ton prehistoric cousin of the great white shark. The film has been delayed, but was supposed to go ahead come fall. Well apparently not.
Steve Alten, the author of the book, has revealed in his latest newsletter that the project has fallen into development hell. Alten wrote:
MEG MOVIE: Extinct at New Line Cinema
Yes, this is bad news mostly in the wasted two years.
The key execs at New Line always treated MEG like an unwanted stepchild, and now, with my option set to expire in October, the[y] decided NOT to proceed.In a way this is actually GOOD news. The MEG movie WILL HAPPEN and it is better to wait and do it right with the right team than accept mediocrity. From now until October 30th (the day I officially get MEG back) we’ll be hard at work! Until then, I am restricted from offering details publicly because (technically) New Line still owns the rights to MEG. There are many people at New Line that really did work very hard on MEG and I appreciate their efforts. No bad feelings let’s just move on and work with the right studio that ACTUALLY WANTS TO MAKE A GREAT MOVIE AND OWN A BILLION DOLLAR FRANCHISE.
Hopefully some other movie studio will pick up the rights as it could make a cool movie. On the other hand it could be Deep Blue Sea, so it has to be done right. But the good news is that this frees Jan de Bont for a third Speed film. We’ll keep you updated.