As a follow-up to our story yesterday about Justin Timberlake being cast by the Coen’s as the lead in their new film, Inside Llewyn Davis, more casting news of note regarding five films set for production in the new year.

• First up, James Gandolfini is in talks to join Steve Carell and Jim Carrey in Burt Wonderstone, the story of a famous but jaded Vegas magician (the title character to be played by Carrell) who fights for relevance when a new, “hip” street magician (Carrey) appears on the scene. Olivia Wilde will play Carell’s love interest, and Steve Buscemi has signed to play Wonderstone’s friend and partner. 30 Rock’s Don Scardino will direct from a script rewritten by Jason Reitman. Burt Wonderstone is scheduled to start shooting in January.
• Mads Mikkelson, who starred as the bad guy in Daniel Craig’s Casino Royale, has been set to star in The Hunt, which is about to start shooting in Denmark with director Thomas Vintenberg (The Celebration), a co-founder of the Dogme 95 movement with Lars von Trier. Co-written by Vintenberg and Tobias Lindholm (Submarino), the script follows Mikkelson as a recently divorced small town man accused of abusing a small child.
• Up in The Air’s Anna Kendrick has been cast in Pitch Perfect, a musical romantic comedy. Kendrick will play Beca, a rebellious and goth-like college student who discovers her voice in her school’s female a cappella group. Shooting will commence later this month.
  
• In somewhat more serious casting news, Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech follow up, Les Misérables (which hasn’t been done on film since Bille August’s 1998 version with Liam Neeson and Claire Danes), just added Eddie Redmayne (My Week With Marilyn, The Good Shepherd) to its all star cast. Playing Marius, he will join Hugh Jackman (Jean Valjean), Russell Crowe (Inspector Javert) and Anna Hathaway (Fantine). The musical has its heart set on Oscar 2013, with a December 2012 release date (after all, The King’s Speech dominated the 2011 Oscars). This edition of the Victor Hugo classic was written by William Nicholson, with Claude-Michel Schonberg and Lain Boublil doing the music. Working Title’s Tim Bevan, and partners, will produce.
  
• Amanda Seyfried, currently in theatres starring in Andrew Niccol’s In Time, has been cast as Linda Lovelace in Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman’s (Howl) movie about the controversial 70s porn star. Peter Sarsgaard is reportedly in negotiations to play her husband Chuck Traynor, the pornographer who coaxed her into becoming an adult film actress. Reports indicate that the film’s screenwriters, Andy Belling and W. Merritt Johnson, based their screenplay on Eric Danville’s book The Complete Linda Lovelace. A career killer for Seyfried, or a ‘breakout’ role? Time will tell. Filming on Lovelace is expected to start in January.
  
• Colin Farrell and Dragon Tattoo’s Noomi Rapace have been cast in Dead Man Down, a mob drama to be directed by Niels Arden Oplev, who helmed the original The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which starred Rapace. The shoot is scheduled for an early 2012 start.

Continue reading Casting News, Catherine Deneuve, Roman Polanski and Repulsion →

Shame, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and Tyrannosaur lead the British Independent Film nominations: The three UK movies have received seven nods apiece for this year’s awards, the ceremony to take place in London on December 4. We Need to Talk About Kevin and Kill List each received six nominations, with Submarine following closely with five. Jury members for this year’s 14th awards include actor David Thewlis, producer Charles Steel (The Last King of Scotland) and director Josh Appignanesi (The Infidel).

Best British Independent Film
Senna
Shame
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Tyrannosaur
We Need To Talk About Kevin
Best Director
Ben Wheatley – Kill List
Steve McQueen – Shame
Tomas Alfredson – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Paddy Considine – Tyrannosaur
Lynne Ramsay – We Need To Talk About Kevin
Best Actress
Rebecca Hall – The Awakening
Mia Wasikowska – Jane Eyre
MyAnna Buring – Kill List
Olivia Colman – Tyrannosaur
Tilda Swinton – We Need To Talk About Kevin
Best Actor
Brendan Gleeson – The Guard
Neil Maskell – Kill List
Michael Fassbender – Shame
Gary Oldman – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Peter Mullan – Tyrannosaur
Best Supporting Actress
Felicity Jones – Albatross
Vanessa Redgrave – Coriolanus
Carey Mulligan – Shame
Sally Hawkins – Submarine
Kathy Burke – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Best Supporting Actor
Michael Smiley – Kill List
Tom Hardy – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Benedict Cumberbatch – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Eddie Marsan – Tyrannosaur
Ezra Miller – We Need To Talk About Kevin

Anne Thompson weighs in on how the Brit awards affect the Oscars.

Continue reading An Early Week Potpurri of Cinema-Related Coverage →

Although word out of the Toronto Film Festival suggested that Lars von Trier’s Melancholia was wanting in terms of film craft, Sukhdev Sandhu’s review in the Telegraph would suggest otherwise, as would Eric Kohn’s IndieWire take. Still, Peter Bradshaw writing for The Guardian calls the film absurd, but pulls back in his criticism when he writes, “for all its silliness and self-consciousness, this is the happiest experience I’ve had with Von Trier for some time.” Seems like we’re going to have to make up our own mind. Melancholia should arrive in Vancouver sometime in November.
While we’re in a trailer mood, how about a bit of Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe, in the bath soaping herself, and singing …

Continue reading Another Week, More Movies, and Life Goes On →

Truth to tell, Oprah Winfrey is not one of our favourite people in the world.
VanRamblings believes that the indefatigable Ms. Winfrey single-handedly created the ‘victim culture’ during the course of the early years of her eponymous and ubiquitous afternoon talk show, when she paraded one sorry soul after another onto her stage in a litany of ‘woe is me, I have no control over my life, even if none of what’s happened to me is my fault, there’s nothing I can do to make my life better, more livable, there’s nothing I can do to become a productive citizen, all I can do is whine and feel sorry for myself’ programming that had a profound effect on how a whole generation of young women growing up came to see themselves, in the process creating a culture of alienation and anomie complemented by pop culture coverage vapid enough to turn your stomach, resulting in a do-nothing, apolitical generation of 30-somethings committed to avarice and dionysian want, who add nothing to the sum total of our existence.

Continue reading Week’s End Film News Before We Go Political This Weekend →