"Terminator" Rights Sold; Franchise's Fate Still Uncertain

Pacificor, a hedge fund group, won the rights to the Terminator franchise with a $29.5 million bid.  Apparently, Pacificor forced Halcyon, which owned the rights, to sell them because Pacificor owned the majority of Halcyon's debt, according to Empire Online.  As usual, Deadline Hollywood has the breaking news, but Los Angeles Times blog, Company Town, has the best write up about this still-developing story.

Sony Pictures and Lionsgate, which both wanted the Terminator franchise, are apparently negogiating with Pacificor, which has never produced a movie, to secure the property.

Review: "Love Actually" is Christmas and "Valentine's Day"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 71 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Love Actually (2003)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA/UK
Running time: 135 minutes
MPAA – R for sexuality, nudity, and language
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Richard Curtis
PRODUCERS: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, and Duncan Kenworthy
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Michael Coulter (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Nick Moore

COMEDY/DRAMA with elements of romance

Starring: Bill Nighy, Gregory Fisher, Colin Firth, Sienna Guillory, Liam Neeson, Thomas Sangster, Emma Thompson, Kris Marshall, Heike Makatsch, Martin Freeman, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Andrew Lincoln, Keira Knightley, Hugh Grant, Nina Sosanya, Martine McCutcheon, Laura Linney, Alan Rickman, Rodrigo Santoro, Declan Donnelly, Lúcia Moniz, Billy Bob Thornton, Rowan Atkinson, and Colin Coull

A father deals with the recent death of his wife by focusing all his attention on his young stepson’s schoolboy crush on an American girl who may soon be leaving for home. A man is deeply smitten by his best friend’s new bride, so he deals with it by acting coldly towards her. An aging rock star attempts to briefly reclaim the spotlight by dueling with a popular boy “band” for the number one spot on the charts with a Christmas song, and he does it by being a vulgar buffoon, much to the chagrin of his manager. This is just a small taste of the delights in Richard Curtis’ Love Actually.

Who would think that the British could make a feel good film as sweet, life affirming, and romantic as anything a big Hollywood studio could? Who would think that that film, Love Actually, would end up being one of the five best films of 2003? This ensemble comedy/drama about eight couples and their love lives in the five weeks before Christmas is an absolute delight.

Although the multitude of movie stars and character actors would comprise a dream team for any ensemble film, the true star of the film is writer/director Richard Curtis. An accomplished writer of British TV (the “Blackadder” series) and film (Four Weddings and a Funeral and the adaptation of the novel for Bridget Jones), Curtis had a ready-made disaster on his hands, as Love Actually starts off a bit slow and there are so many subplots to follow. However, if the viewer is patient, he can watch as Curtis brilliantly and subtly weaves together a film of tremendous power. I was completely taken in by the poignancy, the comedy, and (what I describe as) light-hearted pathos of Love Actually.

Love Actually is so feel-good, but not too sentimental. It’s a love letter to love – love of lovers, spouses, friends, and family. And when it’s done this well, there’s nothing wrong with being sweet. Love Actually makes a bad day good and a good day really fun, and the soundtrack is slammin,’ too.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:


2004 BAFTA Awards: 1 win for “Best Performance for an Actor in a Supporting Role” (Bill Nighy) and 2 nominations for “Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film” (Richard Curtis, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, and Duncan Kenworthy) and best supporting actress (Emma Thompson)


2004 Golden Globes Awards: 2 nominations for best motion picture-musical or comedy and best screenplay-motion picture

Buy Love Actually (Widescreen Edition)

Christopher Nolan to Begin New Batman Movie and Nurse Superman Relaunch (A Bits & Bites Extra)

At Deadline Hollywood, Nikke Finke and Mike Fleming have some Christopher Nolan news.  The director of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight apparently already has an idea for his next Batman flick.  He is reportedly working on a script with his brother Jonathan and David Goyer.  Meanwhile, Nolan apparently will assist in getting the next Superman movie off the ground.

It's Official: Tom Cruse and Mission Impossible 4

Paramount Pictures made the news of Mission Impossible IV official with the following press release:

PARAMOUNT PICTURES TO MAKE MISSION IMPOSSIBLE IV: TOM CRUISE & JJ ABRAMS TO PRODUCE; CRUISE TO STAR


Film slated for release Memorial Day 2011

Paramount Pictures announced today that it is making “Mission Impossible IV.” The film, which will be produced by Tom Cruise, J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot Productions and will star Cruise, will be released Memorial Day weekend 2011.

“Tom and J.J. are great talents and we are excited to be working with them to re-launch this legendary franchise,” said Paramount Pictures Chairman & CEO Brad Grey.

Screenwriters Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec are attached to write the script, from an original idea by Cruise and Abrams.

The studio, Cruise and Abrams are in now the process of identifying a director for the film.

Abrams’s last project with Paramount was “Star Trek,” which he produced and directed. The film grossed $385 million globally. Cruise’s “Mission Impossible” franchise has grossed over 1.4 billion globally.

“Mission Impossible IV” will be co-financed by David Ellison’s Skydance Productions.

Cruise is represented by CAA. Abrams, Applebaum and Nemec are represented by WME. [END]

Review: "Babel" Stumbles on its Ambitions

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 42 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

Babel (2006)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: France/USA/Mexico
Running time: 143 minutes (2 hours, 23 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence, some graphic nudity, sexual content, language, and some drug use
DIRECTOR: Alejandro González Iñárritu
WRITERS: Guillermo Arriaga; based upon an idea by Guillermo Arriaga and Alejandro González Iñárritu
PRODUCERS: Jon Kilik, Steve Golin, and Alejandro González Iñárritu
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Rodrigo Prieto
EDITOR: Stephen Mirrione

2007 Academy Award winner and Best Picture nominee

DRAMA

Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael Garcia Bernal, Koji Yakusho, Adriana Barraza, Rinko Kikuchi, Elle Fanning, and Nathan Gamble

Richard and Susan Jones (Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett), an American couple, are vacationing in Morocco when Susan falls victim to a random act of violence. From that event unfolds a web of interconnected people across four countries – the United States, Mexico, Morocco, and Japan. Two Moroccan boys find themselves thrust into an international event. In the U.S., Amelia (Adriana Barraza), an undocumented Mexican worker living in the states for 16 years, works as a nanny. She crosses the border back into Mexico with her two charges, Debbie (Elle Fanning) and Mike (Nathan Gamble), the children of the Richard and Susan, and finds trouble at the border between two nations. In Japan, Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi), a deaf mute teenaged girl, tries to make an intimate connection with a series of boys and men. This disparate group of people shares a common destiny.

In his film, Babel, director Alejandro González Iñárritu (21 Grams) examines the necessity and difficulty of human communication when the human race is separated by the gulf of clashing cultures and the sometimes sprawling distances. With writer Guillermo Arriaga, who also worked with him on 21 Grams and Amores Perros, Iñárritu weaves a convincing, if overly long tale, that makes his point about human communication. There is a commonality people share, but when we most need to communicate, language, customs, politics, and distances are often the severe static in the lines of communication.

There is no question of Iñárritu’s skills as a filmmaker. He draws from his actors the most subtle and intense performances. He guides each actor towards performance as truth, and each actor seems so genuine as his or her character that you might buy that fictional character as a real person. Brad Pitt, seemingly always in a battle to prove that he’s more than just a pretty face, is an actor capable of sincere emotions, and Iñárritu encourages Pitt to test himself – to be honestly vulnerable instead of being macho pretending to be exposed.

Iñárritu’s best work in the film is probably guiding Adriana Barraza as the nanny and Rinko Kikuchi as the deaf mute teen. They give the kind of great performances that make unknowns like them shine as if they were the brightest movie stars. For one film, these two women are as good as a Meryl Streep or Kate Winslet. Barraza and Kikuchi’s performances emphasize another notion that Babel plays with, and that’s the idea of someone being a stranger in a strange land in their own homeland.

For all the skill and talent that goes into creating great performances and transforming a narrative about connectivity into a truly international film, Iñárritu and Arriaga have created four storylines that individually need more time. Each one could be its own movie, but forced together and loosely connected, it all feels a bit artificial. It’s not that Babel is an insincere effort or a bad film. It’s quite good, but some of the movie feels forced. In fact, the Japanese storyline is tacked on and would be better as its own separate film.

Babel is an ambitious misstep because the filmmakers could have made the same points with a shorter film and fewer storylines. Still, I can give them credit for having a grand and bold vision that makes Babel more than most films ever try to be.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
2007 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score (Gustavo Santaolalla); 6 nominations: Best achievement in directing (Alejandro González Iñárritu), Best achievement in editing (Stephen Mirrione), Best Motion Picture of the Year (Jon Kilik, Steve Golin, and Alejandro González Iñárritu), Best Performance by an actress in a supporting role (Adriana Barraza, Rinko Kikuchi) Best Writing, Original Screenplay (Guillermo Arriaga)


2007 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: film music, 6 nominations: film, directing, editing, original screenplay, sound, cinematography


2006 Cannes Film Festival: 3 wins: director, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury (Iñárritu), and Technical Grand Prize (Stephen Mirrione for editing); 1 nomination for the “Golden Palm (Iñárritu)


2007 Golden Globes: 1 win for “Best Motion Picture-Drama; 6 nominations: director-motion picture, score-motion picture, supporting actor-motion picture (Brad Pitt), supporting actress-motion picture (Barraza, Kikuchi), and screenplay-motion picture

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

------------------

 

Tom Cruise to star in Fourth Mission Impossible

Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider has received a confirmation from Paramount Pictures that Tom Cruise is indeed attached to star in Mission Impossible IV.  DeadlineHollywood.com initially reported this story.

Cruise and J.J. Abrams, who directed the Mission: Imposible 3, will produce MI4, which is scheduled to debut over Memorial Day weekend in 2011.  Paramount has hired Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec, who previously worked with Abrams on his ABC drama Alias, to write the script.

Cruise's latest film is Knight & Day, due in July.

News and Reviews on "From Paris with Love"

In this wordy review, The California Literary Review finds the film to be a "neat idea" that is ultimately a disappointing film.

In her review for the Harvard Crimson, writer Rebecca A. Scheutz seems more interested in the film's director, Pierre Morel, than in the film.