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Rudin Exits Reader. Trade Roughage 10/10/08

By Christopher Campbell posted 1 year ago

Scott Rudin is taking his name off Stephen Daldry’s The Reader after losing his heavyweight battle with Harvey Weinstein regarding the film’s release schedule. Now that Rudin has left the project, though, can we expect the producer to push his Revolutionary Road even harder for the Oscar? And will Kate Winslet be treated like a poor child of divorce who’s made to pick one parent over the other?
Confirming little more than what the movie blogs have been rumoring all week, Variety reports that super hot right now Josh Brolin is in talks to play the DC Comics gunslinger Jonah Hex. Perhaps with everyone respecting comic book characters so much these days this role will be the one that Brolin finally gets an Oscar nomination for.
I guess when your film stars George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey, you can get just any old actress to play the lead female part. But picking the most boring Lost character ever (well, the actress who plays her, anyway) to costar in Grant Heslov’s Men Who Stare at Goats seems a bit counterproductive.
Continuing the trend of making uncomfortable topics funny, Seth Rogen is producing and will co-star in a comedy about cancer from an autobiographical script by HBO producer Will Reiser.
Despite another bunch of box office contenders entering the multiplexes this weekend, including the heavily starred yet topically cursed Body of Lies, the bets are that Beverly Hills Chihuahua will stay on top for a second round.

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FilmCouch #91: City of Ember and Body of Lies

By Kevin Buist posted 1 year ago

Two movies, both adapted from novels, open in theaters tonight. One is a children’s fantasy, the other is a political thriller. One poses intriguing questions about the nature of authority and value of disobedience, the other is a tangled collection of tired clichés.

City of Ember tells the story of two children becoming heroes thanks to their suspicion and rebellion. While it may seem strange to make a children’s movie that encourages young people to defy authority, there are psychological tests that suggest it may be a really good idea. The Human Behavior Experiments, a little known documentary by Oscar winner Alex Gibney, provides interesting insights.

Body of Lies, the latest from director Ridley Scott, stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe as dueling CIA agents. Does the film have what it takes to overcome the deadly Iraq-fatigue that has destroyed so many of its comrades at the box office? Or is it another example of Ridley Scott taking super-charged material and delivering a super-flat film?