True Romance Remembered By Tony Scott and All the Stars 15 Years Later. Amazin’!
[money shot from Scanners]
When I was a kid, I used to ponder in math class, “What if Summer School’s Mr. Shoop starred in a dark dorktastic action comedy with a lot of cocaine.” And then I saw True Romance, probably my favorite Hollywood-Hollywood film of all time, and I didn’t ask any more questions for a long time. And now here I am linking to Maxim (no rickroll), because the lad mag did the definitive 15-years-later retrospective with director Tony Scott, screenwriter Quentin Tarantino, and pretty much everyone in that blitzed golden wand of a cast, including Tom Sizemore (!), Pitt, Gandolfini, Val Kilmer/Elvis, Hopper and Balki. The end result equals quotes and Tinsel Town mythos for years. Not exactly SFW but it’s a Friday, oh, yes it is…
Patricia Arquette (Alabama) actually named Tony Scott’s right hand because he slapped her around so much to get ready for certain scenes. WTF…
Scott: When she couldn’t get herself there emotionally, Patricia used to call my right hand “the Persuader.” She’d say, “Bring on the Persuader,” and I’d have to slap her. She’d say, “Hit me harder!” I’d stand there on the set giving Patricia right-handers. That does not happen a lot with me and actors.
As much as I love the ending of the film, I’m fond of contemplating whether it would have worked even better if Christian Slater’s Clarence Worley had died. Scott persuaded Tarantino to go with his director’s vision for a fairy tale survivor ending, but QT seems to have a lil’ egging dissonance to this day…
Tarantino: When I watched the movie, I realized that Tony was right. He always saw it as a fairy tale love story, and in that capacity it works magnificently. But in my world Clarence is dead and Alabama is on her own. If she ever shows up in another one of my scripts, Clarence will still be dead.
If I was a bastard, I’d paste the entire thing, but this back-and-forth is too delicious to pass up…
Scott: Gary called me out of the blue and said, “I’ve got it. I know exactly who this guy is: He’s my drug dealer.”
Gary Oldman: My drug dealer? Tony would fucking get me arrested, wouldn’t he? I’ve never had a drug dealer! I organized Drexl’s dreadlocks under my own steam. Then I went to a dentist who made the teeth. Then I thought about giving him a weird eye. I’m only in the film for about 10 minutes—I wanted to make my mark. I heard this gang of black kids outside my trailer and thought, That’s Drexl. I showed this kid my lines and said, “Does this seem authentic?” He changed some words. He said, “That don’t fly. Drexl wouldn’t say ‘titties’; he’d say ‘breasteses.’ ”
Tarantino: Those kids were clowning him, and he believed them because he didn’t know any better. Because he’s British.
I thought this quote from Sizemore (evidently on the loose!) was the perfect summation, but definitely read the entire thing…
Tom Sizemore: Tony started every take like this: “Rock’n’roll, motherfuckers! Action!”
As the players point out, this movie made under $12 million at the box office when it was released in 1993. If you go out tonight, pour out a sip for Chris Penn. And yeah, the Joel Silver resemblance is discussed if you’re wondering. 
And so are the words “eggplant” and “cantaloupe.”
Discuss: Can someone translate this: “I organized Drexl’s dreadlocks under my own steam.”
We Own The Night Movie Poster Features Twin Towers
movie trailer for James Gray’s New York City-based Russian mob story We Own The Night. We noted that the film showed promise, and went as far as comparing it to Martin Scorsese’s The Departed. Well, apparently the film takes place in the last millennium, because the film’s theatrical poster (via: IMPA) shows the movie’s stars, Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, Eva Mendes and Robert Duvall with the Twin Towers and the New York City skyline in the background. Obviously the Twin Towers have appeared in movie marketing since 9/11, but as far as I know, only in 9/11 related films and documentaries (World Trade Center, United 93).
After the 2001 attack happened, Hollywood spent a lot of time and money eliminating the WTC from upcoming films and promotional materials (Spider-Man, Zoolander …etc). And while I understand that seeing the towers in the background of a scene could be distracting, I always felt that digitally removing them was an insult to the people who died in the towers. It’s almost like you’re pretending that they never existed. Anyways, I’m glad to see that 2929 is not afraid to include the towers on the new poster, seen right. I wonder, does anyone know if this is the first post-9/11 non-9/11 Hollywood film to feature the towers on a movie poster?
As always, click on the poster for an enlarged view. And if you have not yet, check out the movie trailer. The film is currently playing at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. Universal owns the distribution rights, although the release date is not yet set in the US. Our best educated guess says that this film will hit theaters in Late-Late 2007, just in time for Awards season.
Breaking: Spider-Man 3 Numbers BIGGER than First Reported
We just got word from our Sony source that the final Spider-Man 3 opening weekend numbers are BIGGER than first reported.
$151 million Domestic
$231 million International
$382 million Worldwide
That’s $7 million more than originally reported. The film made $3 million more than Sony expected on Sunday in the states. There you have it.
Update: The studio have now released a press release:
Opening Weekend Records Shattered in 29 Countries
CULVER CITY, Calif., May 7 — The world’s moviegoers were
caught in the web of Columbia Pictures’ Spider-Man(TM) 3 at the global box
office this weekend as the film grossed $382 million worldwide, the highest
opening ever in motion picture history, it was announced today by Jeff
Blake, vice chairman, Sony Pictures Entertainment. Of that, $231 million
was tallied from international ticket sales, with $151 million coming from
the film’s record-setting debut in North America. Playing in 4,252 domestic
locations, the film took in an average of $35,540 per screen. The film also
unspooled at more than 8,900 locations abroad.
In addition to being #1 for the weekend in all 107 territories around
the world in which it opened, Spider-Man 3 set a new mark for the biggest
weekend of all time in 29 countries, including the United States, Canada,
Japan, South Korea, China, Italy, Mexico, and Brazil. Among its many
accomplishments, the film set new records for the biggest single worldwide
day (Saturday, May 5 - $117,631,328), biggest international opening ($231
million), and biggest worldwide opening ($382 M).
Many of the opening frame records were broken by astounding margins. In
Korea, Spider-Man 3 did three times the business of the previous record
holder (Korean film The Host) and bested the previous-best Hollywood film
(The Matrix Reloaded) by more than four times. In Japan, Spider-Man 3 broke
the old record opening weekend by 44%; in Brazil, by 48%, in Mexico by 37%;
and in Italy, the film beat the previous record holder The DaVinci Code by
24%.
Among the domestic records set by Spider-Man 3 are biggest opening
weekend ($151,116,516), biggest single day (Friday, $59,841,919), and
biggest per-theater average for a wide release ($35,540). The film also set
a new record for the largest domestic gross in IMAX theaters, with $4.8
million.
Commenting on the announcement, Blake said, “This weekend, more than
80% of the moviegoers around the world chose Spider-Man 3 and we couldn’t
be more overwhelmed or elated by the global reception to this movie. We
have always strived to deliver films with great stories that would excite
and entertain audiences and credit for that goes first and foremost to our
filmmakers and cast: director Sam Raimi, our partners at Marvel, our
producers Laura Ziskin, Avi Arad, and Grant Curtis, and our stars Tobey
Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, and Topher
Grace. Spider-Man 3 builds on the first two films and satisfies the
extraordinary expectations of fans everywhere. This was truly a massive
achievement not only for Sony Pictures, but the film industry as a whole.
Summer is finally here and we expect that moviegoers everywhere will find
that the 2007 season will be one to remember.”
Columbia Pictures’ Spider-Man(TM) 3 reunites the cast and filmmakers
from the first two blockbuster adventures for a web of excitement that will
transport worldwide audiences to thrilling new heights on May 4, 2007.
Movie Review: Reign Over Me is Endearing and Emotional
I find it quite amusing that not even a year ago, people were heated over the concept of a movie that involves September 11th. And now an Adam Sandler movie is flying under all the radar. Is it a sign of the times, or do people just have short-term memories and small attention spans?
Reign Over Me, taken from The Who song of the same name, follows Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle), a married dentist who bumps into Charlie Fineman (Adam Sandler) a former college roommate, who lost his wife and children in the 9/11 attacks. Once a successful dentist, Charlie has retreated into his apartment where he plays video games (Shadows of Colossus) and has been working to remodel his kitchen. He wonders alone, floating on his motorized scooter through the streets of New York City. Reign Over Me is about their rekindled friendship.
Mike Binder has never been a subtle director. He’s created conceptual comedies and dramas with immense emotion. His last movie, Man About Town, went direct-to-DVD. So entering into Reign Over Me, I expected a big obvious Hollywood drama. But Binder turned out a surprisingly deep Hollywood film.
Reign Over Me is filled with heartbreakingly emotional and endearing moments. And most importantly, it never crosses the line into melodrama. It’s a wonderful tearjerker about living with grief and learning to move on. Sandler gives the best performance of his career.
Some may be angered that the story doesn’t exactly go where you think or want it to. But in the end, everything comes together almost perfectly.
My only real complaint lies in the casting of Liv Tyler. Tyler’s cute and charming performance is good enough for most romantic comedies, but I just found her hard to believe as a young psychiatrist. Director Mike Binder, who just can’t seem to stay behind the camera, has a supporting performance as Fineman’s old friend, Bryan Sugarman. Usually I find him somewhat irritating, but in Reign he found just the right balance.