If you need yet another sign of how impossible it’s become to separate the public persona of Kevin Smith from his films, look no further than the posters for Red State proclaiming it “AN UNLIKELY FILM FROM THAT KEVIN SMITH, ” as if the film were actually directed by the man’s prolific Twitter account . In the last few years, the funny, profane voice that’s made Smith’s dialogue so distinctive has essentially outgrown the films that used to showcase it, as Smith’s podcasts, his sometimes pugnacious social media feed and his speaking tours have made any cinematic output all but beside the point. When he made a splash at Sundance in January premiering his latest work Red State , it was more for the live auction he was reportedly going to hold to sell distribution rights after the screening than for the film itself.
And that’s the least of the overbearing sports puns I’ll leave you with today. What are we even doing exchanging formalities at this point? It’s a bottleneck at the box office, with new releases battling holdovers for early-autumn supremacy. Your Weekend Forecast is here.
Also starring Robert De Niro and Clive Owen, ‘This is a thinking man’s action movie,’ star tells MTV News. By Eric Ditzian, with reporting by Josh Horowitz Jason Statham Photo: MTV News Jason Statham has got nothing against skull-cracking, explosions-for-explosions-sake action flicks. The guy made his name with “The Transporter,” after all, and he’s getting set for a second go-round opposite Sylvester Stallone in “The Expendables 2.” But “Killer Elite” (September 23), despite a title that suggests it’s another in a long line of empty-headed, Statham-starring adventures, is an altogether different creation. Based on a true story that spans the globe from France to Australia, the film stars Statham as an ex-special ops agent on a mission to save his mentor (Robert De Niro), who’s being held captive by a secretive military clan and its menacing leader (Clive Owen). There’s a grittiness simply not seen in much of Statham’s previous work. “This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time,” Statham told MTV News at the Toronto International Film Festival. “This is a thinking man’s action movie. It’s a bit more grown-up than things in the past I’ve done. In order to do movies like this, I have to go through and do a few of those as well. There’s a lot more going on.” That extends from the words on the page to the guy behind the camera to the dudes mixing it up with Statham when writer/director Gary McKendry yells, “Action!” “The quality of the script, the quality of the filmmaker — those are two elements that attract living legends like Bob De Niro and Clive Owen,” Statham said. “Once I start boxing around with those two, the whole quality of what we’re doing changes. It’s a big step up.” Check out everything we’ve got on “Killer Elite.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com .
The Toronto Film Festival is a world away from Venice , and the difference is especially acute when you hop from one to the other: Toronto is big and glossy, while Venice is intimate and glowing — it’s like the difference between lacquer and gold leaf. But each has its own appeal, and the scale of Toronto is appealing by itself. It’s a little overwhelming but exhilarating, too.
The development pipeline has looked like a bit of a sewer lately, making it all the more important to point out the brilliant (or at least potentially brilliant) concepts that happen to flow among the crap. To wit: God has answered your prayers for an action-thriller teaming Jason Statham, Clive Owen… and Robert De Niro .
What is it with CBS producers this year? First we had Joe Halderman , and now Survivor ‘s Bruce Beresford-Redman, who is suspected of murdering his wife, Monica Beresford-Redman. The couple was vacationing in Mexico when Beresford-Redman reported his wife missing on Tuesday. Her body was found Thursday in a sewer at the Moon Palace resort, where the family was staying. Developing… [ Fox ]
Kate Gosselin is once again contracted to hide in plain sight from inevitable obscurity. The eight-time mom and million-time tabloid target is slated to star in the new TLC series Twist of Kate , in which Gosselin “visits the homes and workplaces of women facing personal challenges, where she will exchange insights for living.” Kate Plus Eight will also return with a series of specials, TLC reports. Sounds like we’re in for a couple dozen episodes of Kate-birthed revelations, begging the question: What questions do we need answered about the domestic darling? Here’s 15 for starters; contribute your own suggestions in the comments.
Sometimes, Movieline likes to interview handsome men with accents (it’s a present to you, the reader, and also our moms). Other times, Hollywood likes to pair up those men for upcoming projects, and so it is that former Movieline coverboy Clive Owen and Verge alum Daniel Brühl have been added to the cast of Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s thriller Intruders . I guess this means that neither will be playing Captain America’s love interest. [ Deadline ]
