George Clooney Leaves White Jazz
So first Joe Carnahan looses Chris Pine who jumped ship to JJ Abrams’ Star Trek, and now George Clooney is leaving the White Jazz ship due to “scheduling issues.” Carnahan was scheduled to go into production early next year, and Clooney is currently shooting the Coen Bros’ Burn After Reading, and trying to finish his football movie, Leatherheads. But who knows exactly that scheduling is preventing him to star in Smokin’ Joe’s film.
Clooney’s producing partner, Grant Heslov assures everyone that “George continues to believe in the project and in Joe.” But this all sounds so suspicious. Who knows what will now become of White Jazz. Will the producers/studio still want to go ahead despite the loss of the film’s lead star? And if so, will they be able to find a suitable replacement by early next year (in order to shoot pre strike)?
Carnahan is a great director who is able to squeeze tons of production value out of little money and shitty circumstances. And these types of situations have plagued his whole career. He’s been trying to get Killing Pablo off the ground for years now (and it finally looks to be going ahead, but again, you never know what will happen). And the source material is also very good, so I hope they will figure a way to make this movie. Maybe the best thing to do is to push it back to a time when Clooney and Pine could fit it into their schedules?
Based on the James Ellroy novel, White Jazz is set in late 1950s Los Angeles, and follows a vice cop Dave Klein (who was to be played by Clooney), who senses he’s being set up by the police commissioner, he sets out to expose a decades-old network of corruption engineered by the LAPD.
Update: Joe Carnahan has posted a comment on his blog:
Rough weekend. I had a bad feeling after they pushed ‘Leatherheads’ to April ecause of the extensive post on that film that something was going to have to give. Also, George is neck deep in the Coen bros. film at the moment and trying to do ‘Michael Clayton’ press which will likely carry over into Awards season…SO…they wanted to see about pushing White Jazz back, which I really don’t want to do. I’ve been waiting awhile to make this one and I wasn’t content to sit on my hands.
Right now, (actually it began on friday) we’re in the process of trying to plug a guy into this movie that, if it works, would be pretty f*cking amazing. No, INCREDIBLY f*cking amazing, so we’ll see what happens.
No tears kids. This is the business. It happens all the time and you’ve got to have the balls and the ability to push past in spite of the setbacks.
We march on.
Friday Box Office: 3:10 To Yuma w/$5M; Shoot ‘Em Up #5 for Weekend
As expected, 3:10 TO YUMA has won the 3-day weekend. After grabbing just over $5M on Friday, it will likely top $15M for the weekend.
Oscar winner Russell Crowe and Batman Begins star Christian Bale have lassoed the Friday box office crown, and 3:10 TO YUMA (Lionsgate) will ride away with a surprisingly easy 3-day weekend win. The James Mangold-directed remake of the classic Western of the same name grabbed just over $5M on Friday, and appears to be headed for a weekend of $15.15M. If the number holds, 3:10 TO YUMA will have delivered the 2nd-best 3-day opening for a Western in the past 20 years.
TOP 5 OPENING WEEKENDS FOR WESTERNS RELEASED IN THE PAST 20 YEARS
1. Maverick (1990) - $17.2M
2. 3:10 to Yuma - $15.15M (projected)
3. Unforgiven (1992) - $15M
4. Open Range (2003) - $14M
5. The Missing (2003) - $10.8M
Michael Myers, as expected, has no legs. After a $3M take on Friday, the slasher flick HALLOWEEN (MGM/Weinstein) will limp to a meager $8.55M weekend. That’s a huge fall of 72% or so from its opening 3-day (although, to be fair, it was a 4-day weekend which means a very strong Sunday). Still, enough blood will flow for Rob Zombie’s remake/re-invention to hold onto 2nd place for the weekend.
By Monday morning, SUPERBAD (Sony) will have passed the $100M mark. The Judd Apatow-produced comedy generated $2.2M in Friday ticket sales, which should translate to a $7.37M weekend. Meanwhile, Jason Bourne will finish #4 for the 3-day, and THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM (Universal) will have surpassed $210M by the end of the weekend. The Paul Greengrass-directed thriller added $1.7M Friday (#5 for the day), but it should reach an estimated $6.11M for the 3-day.
Rough weekend for the other 2 wide studio releases. SHOOT ‘EM UP (New Line), the super-charged action pic starring Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti, has been crushed by the male-driven 3:10 TO YUMA. It was #4 for the day with about $1.96M, but will finish a disappointing 5th for the 3-day. SHOOT ‘EM UP will wrap up the frame at $5.73M or so. Sony/Screen Gems dumped a misguided comedy called THE BROTHERS SOLOMON on 700 screens, and it may be on DVD by next weekend after a Friday per theatre average of just $271 for $190,000 total. It’s headed for a weekend of a mere $550,000.
Among new limited releases, the Tibetan fantasy film MILAREPA: MAGICIAN (Luminous Velocity) set the pace on Friday with $3,147 on its single screen. We’ll see how it holds through the weekend, but for now, I’m tentatively awarding it the weekend PTA crown with about $11,000. I’m looking for IDP Films’ long-shelved FIERCE PEOPLE to finish the weekend at #2 in PTA at just under $11,000, followed by an $8,000 PTA for THE HUNTING PARTY (MGM/Weinstein) starring Richrd Gere. Thinkfilm’s Sundance-winning doc IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON from Ron Howard will likely finish 4th with $7,000, and 3:10 to Yuma should round out the top 5.
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