Tony Scott’s dramatic and still-mysterious leap to his death in August has grounded the Top Gun sequel . The New York Times reported that the film, which was being planned by the filmmaker, the star of the original, Tom Cruise, and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, has “fallen apart” in the wake of Scott’s suicide . If there is a silver lining to the story, it’s that a 3D version of the original Top Gun may be released in February 2013. Earlier this year, Legend3D, which specializes in converting two-dimensional films into the more eye-popping format, completed a conversion of the film, which, the Times notes, “as a way to whet the world’s appetite for a sequel.” Since Scott leapt to his death from the Vincent Thomas Bridge in Los Angeles on Aug. 19, however, Paramount, the studio behind both the original Top Gun and its sequel, is “considering a release in February, perhaps beginning with a one-week exclusive showing on domestic Imax screens.” [New York Times] The paper also reports that the studio is treading carefully because it does not want to seem insensitive or exploitative. Although the Los Angeles coroner officially ruled Scott’s death a suicide, questions remain about his reasons for taking his own life. According to the Times , the filmmaker’s brother, Prometheus director Ridley Scott has asked a number of people who knew and worked with his sibling not to discuss his “life or demise.” Tony Scott’s last work appears to be the below Diet Mountain Dew commercial featuring Dallas Mavericks and HDNet owner, billionaire Mark Cuban . Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Steel yourself, cinephiles: A sequel to the 1942 classic Casablanca , one of the greatest films of all time , could happen in the near future. But while practically 99 percent of all Hollywood sequels and spin-offs seem like cash-grabs that have no good reason for existing, is there a case to be made for revisiting the saga of star-crossed lovers Rick and Ilsa in Casablanca 2 ? Consider the source of said would-be sequel, per the New York Post : Original Casablanca screenwriter Howard Koch, who shared the Oscar for Best Writing with fellow scribes Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein. Blacklisted a few years after Casablanca became a hit, Koch penned a sequel in 1980 revolving around the grown son of Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) and Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman), who goes searching for his father in the Middle East. Unearthed by The Post ‘s Lou Lumenick, Koch’s 1960s-set Return to Casablanca synopsis goes a little something like this: “[Laszlo and Ilsa] attempt to locate Rick after he and Renault left to join the Free French forces opposing Rommel in North Africa. They have had no success. After leaving Casablanca for America, Ilsa learned she was pregnant. She gave birth to a boy who grew up in America. The real father of the boy, it turns out, was not Laszlo but Rick. He was conceived the night Ilsa came to Rick’s place to plead for the Letters of Transit . . . The secret was not kept from Laszlo, but being the kind of man he was and owing so much to Rick, he adopted the child and treated him as his own son. The boy was named Richard, and he grew up to be a handsome, tough-tender young man reminiscent of his father. He had been told the truth about his origin and has a deep desire to find his real father, or at least more about him, since Rick’s heroic at actions in Casablanca have become legendary. Richard finds himself very much a stranger in the Arab world, a world now under Arab rule since the expulsion of the Germans and Vichy French who occupied Casablanca during the war.” Richard becomes involved with an Arab guerilla fighter named Joan as he searches out the truth of his father’s fate in the script, which Warner Bros. passed on in 1989. Producer Cass Warner, grand-niece of Jack Warner, took up Koch’s cause and brought it back to the studio, who turned it down again – but, she says, left open a window of opportunity. “Warner Bros. passed on it a year, a year and a half ago,” Warner told The Post. “But they indicated they were willing to revisit this if I could find a filmmaker they were interested in working with.” And who in young Hollywood could play the son of Rick and Ilsa today? Let Casablanca expert Aljean Harmetz weigh in: “Certainly not Robert Pattinson , though maybe that guy who’s popping up everywhere, Joseph Gordon-Levitt .” Yes, “that guy” Joseph Gordon-Levitt would be a solid choice. He could even sing an acoustic cover of “As Time Goes By” for the sequel soundtrack! Or, you know, David Thomson’s pick : Tom Hardy . But seriously, as perfect as Casablanca ‘s wonderfully ambiguous, utterly romantic unhappy ending is, don’t we all wonder what became of Rick and Ilsa? (And their respective chosen life partners, Laszlo and Renault?) A part of me loves the idea of finding out that they waited out the war and found their way back to one another again, the way we always hoped deep down inside that they would, pulled by that invisible thread that time, place, and violent world-changing upheaval couldn’t sever. Or maybe, probably, that wouldn’t be nearly as satisfying as it sounds now. How would you like to see a Casablanca follow-up unfold, if at all? [ New York Post ]
Besides commanding millions for his heavy rotation of films, co- shepherding a large brood and building housing in New Orleans, Brad Pitt is adding another set of skills to his resume – designing furniture. His pieces will likely not be heading to an Ikea near you any time soon, but it is not just a passing fancy either. Pitt has been designing buildings and furniture since the 1990s and some of his pieces will be on display in New York in the coming days. The actor will present a dozen pieces including tables, chars and what Architectural Digest dubbed “one rather fantastic bed” along with dozens of other pieces with his collaborator, Frank Pollaro, whose New Jersey-based company is renowned for its re-productions of Art Deco furnishings. [ Related: ‘World War Z’ First Look: It’s Brad Pitt Vs. CG Zombies ] The display will open November 13th (pollaro.com has details). “I’ve been doodling ideas for buildings and furniture since the early 1990s, when I first discovered [Charles Rennie] Mackintosh and Frank Lloyd Wright,” Pitt said. “Actually, I found Wright in college, when looking for a lazy two-point credit to get out of French. It forever changed my life.” Pitt’s architectural affinity is evident in his Make It Right foundation, which taps the services of veteran architects to create “quality, affordable housing” in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans. Pollaro noticed Pitt’s concepts in a sketchbook the Killing Them Softly actor had made while installing a re-production Ruhlmann desk the actor purchased a few years ago, Pollaro said, “I asked him, ‘Why don’t we make some of this stuff real?'” he recalled. “Brad said he thought that could be fun.” Now the two meet regularly pouring over what Pollaro said are “thousands” of ideas. The meetings “last anywhere from seven to ten hours.” It’s not everyone who gets to collaborate with a Hollywood A-lister mulling over aesthetics. “We talk about design, about materials, about craftsmanship, about classicism, about modernism. He has a respect for the masters of design,” noted Pollaro. The pieces headed for display include a bed, in which only nine will be made in different materials. Additionally, there is a dining table, a cocktail table, several side tables, a few club chairs and a bathtub that fits two in Statuario Venato marble. The designs will be customized in a variety of material and finishes that will be made in limited productions signed by Pitt and Pollaro who said some pieces may eventually be adapted for larger-scale productions. “The same chair we charge $45,000 for might sell for a fraction of that,” said Pollaro. Despite the new gig, Pitt will maintain his day job . His latest project, Killing Them Softly by Andrew Dominik will hit theaters November 30th. [ Sources: Architectural Digest , Yahoo ]
, Indiana Jones , what do you do when going from being raised on a walnut ranch to launching some of the biggest movie franchises of all time spanning decades and then selling your film company for billions to Disney? Well, one might try making “little personal films” for one. George Lucas ratcheted up headlines and a bit of shock and awe last week when the announcement came in he sold his Lucasfilm to Disney for $4.05 billion. He said that a recent film he executive produced had a tough time getting on the big screen and that his next pursuits will be even tougher. “I barely got Red Tails into theaters,” he is quoted saying on BBC while speaking to reporters in NYC. “The ones I’m working on now will never get into theaters.” Lucas will continue at the company he founded as a creative consultant, but overall control is going to Kathleen Kennedy who produced Jurassic Park and War Horse . “I’ve turned it over to a wonderful producer, Kathy Kennedy, and I’ve known her for years,” he said. “She’s more than capable of taking it and making it better than I did.” He added, “It’s very sad. It’s 40 years of work and it’s been my life, but I’m ready to move on to bigger and better things.” [ Source: BBC ]
It looks like Jamie Foxx may join the second round of The Amazing Spider-Man , joining Andrew Garfield and director Marc Webb . Variety reports the Django Unchained star is in early talks to play Electro in the follow-up set for 2014. The character is a Spider-Man nemesis who acquires the ability to control electricity after he’s struck by lightning. The character first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #9 back in 1964. Lightning figures prominently in a post-credit sequence scene in The Amazing Spider-Man , hinting at the likelihood that Electro may appear in the sequel. Along with Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone is set to reprise her role, while Shailene Woodley is in talks to play Spidey love interest Marty Jane Watson. The Amazing Spider-Man took in over $262 million domestically and over $750 million worldwide this year. [ Source: Variety ]
It is no surprise that Oliver Stone is an Obama supporter, but he is giving out equal criticism to both candidates for not discussing climate change in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, which lashed the Northeast this week. Stone is promoting his documentary series The Untold History of the United States and a new book. “I was a little disappointed at the third debate when neither of them talked about climate control and the nature of the situation on Earth,” Stone said during an interview with the Huffington Post . “I think there’s kind of a weird statement coming right after … this is a punishment … Mother Nature cannot be ignored. That’s all I thought about.” Stone said that his Showtime documentary miniseries – which tracks the reasons behind the Cold War, President Harry Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan and changes in America’s role since the fall of Communism – has been one of the most arduous projects he’s undertaken, calling it “love work.” The series is accompanied by a book of the same title, co-written by Peter Kuznick, a history professor at American University. Stone spent $1 million of his own money on the $5 million project, which will be shown in ten episodes. “There’s this attitude that we ‘deserve’ to be in charge,” Stone said. “I don’t believe in that … We act as if we have this right of kingship — we act as tyrants.” “We learn the history of the victors,” added Kuznick. “We learn this triumphant version of history, that the United States is the shining city on the hill.” Stone said that The History of the United States may have once aired on PBS, but the public television network has become too scared to take it on. “They’re so politicized they can’t say anything – they’re scared of their own shadow,” he said adding, “”this Pro-American experience type stuff, where it has to be about America and America has to be the point of making the movie.” [ Source: Huffington Post ]
The Vatican has apparently caught wind of Skyfall mania and it even gave its opinion through its official l’Osservatore Romano newspaper. The 23rd James Bond pic even nabbed a rare review, calling it one of the best in its 5 decades. l’Osservatore Romano ‘s Skyfall green light is a sea-change for the publication which only has a print circulation of 15,000. Its influence is far higher, however, when its editorial which reflects Vatican policy, is splashed in papers and websites around the world. For Skyfall l’Osservatore Romano published five articles, according to Reuters . The paper noted in its main article “007 License to Cry” that the latest installment presents the British super-operative in a less cliché manner, and “more human, capable of being moved and of crying: in a word, more real.” In another article, the paper compares the lineage of Bond actors from Sean Connery to the current Daniel Craig. Craig told the paper he feels “very different” from his predecessors, but noted that Connery is a “point of reference.” The Catholic Church famously condemned Federico Fellini’s classic La Dolce Vita when it debuted in 1960 through l’Osservatore Romano, which viewed a scene from the film as a parody of Christ’s second coming. It was subject to widespread censorship including a full ban in Spain until after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975. The first Bond film, From Russia with Love came out in 1963. [ Source: Reuters ]
Eli Roth is going off the grid. For the cannibal pic The Green Inferno , Roth tells Movieline he’s taking a small crew to a remote village up the Amazon River that has “no electricity, no running water, nothing.” Producers recruited many of the 200 native villagers to play extras in the horror film by screening the cult film Cannibal Holocaust . It was the first movie they’d seen in their lives, Roth remarked. “They thought it was a comedy!” Roth was newly arrived from a South American prepping trip for the film when he spoke with Movieline Wednesday in Los Angeles about his work producing RZA’s The Man With The Iron Fists . The Green Inferno marks his first feature since Hostel: Part II , but then Roth’s been busy with a number of projects in the past few years, from acting in and directing a short for Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds , producing films for folks like RZA, Ti West ( The Sacrament ), and Nicolás López ( Aftershock , which Roth also starred in), and directing an episode of Hemlock Grove for Netflix, among other projects. (As if there wasn’t enough stacked on his plate, he also recently opened his Goretorium attraction in Las Vegas.) For The Green Inferno , the tale of ” naive do-gooders ” who run into cannibals when their plane crashes in the jungle (co-written by Roth with Aftershock scribe Guillermo Amoedo), Roth is taking a page out of the Werner Herzog playbook by venturing deep into the Amazon for what he excitedly refers to as “as adventure.” “The location that we found is truly spectacular,” he said. “It’s so far up the Amazon, no one has ever shot there. The last person anywhere near there was Werner Herzog for Aguirre, the Wrath of God .” The village is so remote, in fact, that Roth says locals had never seen a film before. “We said, ‘Can we shoot here?’ and talked to them, and our producers said ‘We have to explain to them what a movie is. They’ve never seen a television,'” Roth recalled. “So we brought a generator and set up a television. I thought they were going to show them E.T. or The Wizard of Oz , but they showed them Cannibal Holocaust to see how much they could handle.” 1980’s Cannibal Holocaust saw director Ruggero Deodato brought up on obscenity and murder charges when authorities at the time believed the graphic human violence depicted onscreen was real. How did Roth’s new acquaintances react? “The villagers thought it was the funniest thing they’d ever seen.” Roth found that his new cast members’ unfamiliarity with film technology was an unpredictable benefit. “Because none of them have ever owned a camera or had any photographs of themselves and no conception of what television or movies are, they’re so natural and relaxed. They’re amazing. They’re not even conscious of what [the camera] is doing to them. I have a whole village full of kids that are funny as hell that will have cameras all over and not even think twice about it. They don’t get nervous, nothing.” Deodato himself drew criticism for depicting actual animal deaths onscreen, but another controversial film of the era shot on location with locals, the Italian slavery pic Goodbye Uncle Tom ( a reference point for Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming Django Unchained ), came under fire for hypocritically exploiting the Haitian actors in its cast. Perhaps a stretch, but I asked Roth about the ethics of tapping an entire village to play natives, using the Goodbye Uncle Tom lesson as exploitation cinema’s most notorious example. ” Goodbye Uncle Tom is a pretty brutal movie about slavery where you show corks being pulled out of guys’ asses and babies being hosed down,” he answered, giving it some thought. “No, because we’re giving these people a boat,” Roth explained. “They have no contact with the outside world and we’re giving them a motorboat — that’s the deal. And we’re giving them medical supplies and school supplies, so they’re ecstatic. The one thing they need is a boat. They were like, ‘This will literally change our lives.'” Roth begins filming The Green Inferno in two weeks. Stay tuned for our full interview for The Man With The Iron Fists , out November 2. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Also in Thursday morning’s round-up of news briefs, Cloud Atlas is being criticized for using “Yellow Face” for white actors. New York salutes the late Andrew Sarris. And an Amy Winehouse play based on her life heads to the stage. Deal Closed for Tom Cruise-Attached Script Our Name is Adam In the pic, Cruise will play an astronaut who travels back in time and works with his younger self. Paramount Pictures acquired the T.S. Nowlin script with Skydance Productions on board as partner, Deadline reports . Al Pacino Making Bank in Broadway Pay Package for Glengarry Glen Rosss Pacino is receiving a minimum of $125K per week and is entitled to 5% of the profits for the 10-week run of David Mamet’s drama now in previews. Pacino plays washed-up huckster Shelley Levene in the play, Deadline reports . Cloud Atlas Slammed for non-Asian Actors and ‘Yellow Face’ Makeup The feature by Andy and Lana Wachowski and Tom Twyker is based on the 2005 David Mitchell novel, which weaves together six story-lines, connecting them through use of the same actors for multiple roles. In one storyline focused in the year 2144 in South Korea, multiple white male actors are given prosthetic makeup to appear Asian. The Media Action Network for Asian Americans blasted the move, THR reports . Film World Salutes Andrew Sarris Top figures in the New York film community feted film critic Andrew Sarris who died in June at 83. He is credited for championing “auteur” theory in America. The tribute took place Wednesday at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, TOH reports . Amy Winehouse Theater Play to Open in Denmark A play based on the late singer’s life will feature music from her two studio albums, Frank and Back to Black . It will be based on material from interviews, speeches, concerts, newspapers, letters and songs. A Winehouse spokesperson said the family has nothing to do with the production, BBC reports .
James Bond may be able to tussle with the world’s most notorious evil-doers, but he’s not able to resist the alluring sounds of singer Adele ‘s soulful voice. 007 star Daniel Craig said that he cried when he first heard the theme song to Skyfall . In an interview with Yahoo! Movies U.K., the Bond star said he was moved emotionally when he heard the first notes of Adele’s ballad. “I cried,” he said. “From the opening bars I knew immediately, then the voice kicked in and it was exactly what I’d wanted from the beginning. It just got better and better because it fitted the movie. In fact the more of the movie we made, the more it fitted it.” Skyfall director Sam Mendes said that the Rolling in the Deep singer was given an early copy of the script to help her compose the song, co-written by Paul Epworth. “She came in very early before we started shooting and her main concern was ‘I write songs about myself, how can I make a Bond song? My answer was ‘just write a personal song’! Carly Simon’s ‘Nobody Does It Better’ was a love song,” said Mendes. Skyfall headed to the number one spot on iTunes only ten hours after its release. Adele recorded the song at London’s Abbey Road Studios, featuring a 77-piece orchestra. “I was a little hesitant at first to be involved with the theme song for ‘Skyfall,'” Adele said. “There’s a lot of instant spotlight and pressure when it comes to a Bond song.” And the song has already lured some notable covers. Artists Jedward and Willow Smith have given their spin to the catchy tune. Skyfall had its World Premiere in London Wednesday and will open in the U.S. November 9th. [ Sources: Huffington Post , Yahoo! Movies U.K. ]
