James Gray | SpoutBlog

Mumblecore Goes to Hollywood. Trade Roughage 12/10/08

By Christopher Campbell posted 11 months ago

Jay and Mark Duplass are abandoning the mumblecore movement for Hollywood. And not only will they work with a bigger budget, they’ve also acquired an Apatow-appropriate cast featuring John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill and Marisa Tomei. The untitled comedy (formerly called Safety Man) will have us believe that Tomei actually birthed Hill and still looks as good as she does.
Let the Mamma Mia! copycats come forward: New Line has bought the rights to the Off-Broadway musical Rock of Ages, which features a ton of 1980s rock anthems from bands like Journey, Twisted Sister, Foreigner, REO Speedwagon, Styx and Mr. Big (see the full list of musical numbers here). Despite the title, though, there’s apparently no Def Leppard. Start growing your mullet now and we’ll see you on opening night for some heavy metal sing-a-long goodness.
While Hollywood is abuzz with news of one female director being canned from a franchise, Fox 2000 has signed on another female director to take over a franchise. Of course, it’s only Betty Thomas and the movie she’s been hired for is Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel (yes, that’s the real title), so it’s still not that exciting a step for womankind.
Brad Pitt will star in The Lost City of Z, a true story in which he’ll play Col. Percy Fawcett, an explorer who allegedly served as the inspiration for both Indiana Jones and Kent Allard (aka The Shadow). James Gray is directing.
We still have to wait almost a year before seeing Benicio Del Toro as The Wolfman, since Universal pushed back the horror remake from April to November. Also, Ridley Scott’s Nottingham is delayed until 2010.

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Hollywood

Magnolia to Release Two Lovers

By Karina Longworth posted 1 year ago

I believe this Hollywood Reporter story on the struggles faced by several American Cannes premieres to find a stateside distributor is the first notice that 2929 Entertainment has decided to give James Gray’s Two Lovers to Magnolia to distribute.

The film famously drew mixed reactions in Cannes; I gave it a thumbs up with some reservations, whilst the very idea of waiting in line for it drove Lisa Schwarzbaum to expletives. Lovers has a lower profile than What Just Happened?, another film which 2929 recently decided to let their sister company distribute when buyers didn’t materialize. Both bleak and stylized, the romantic melodrama might even be a tougher sell to audiences than a satire about old men who work in the film industry. We’ll see––Magnolia’s planning a limited release in early 2009.

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Hollywood, Indies

The Critic Who Wouldn’t Wait For F-ing James Gray. BlogNosh 5/30/08

By Karina Longworth posted 1 year ago

Who was the “major U.S. critic” who allegedly “stormed away from a mobbed, delayed 10:30 p.m. Cannes press screening of Two Lovers declaring she’s ‘not going to wait an hour for f—–g [director] James Gray’”? After allowing the blogosphere to stew on it for a week and a half, EW’s Lisa Schwarzbaum uses the Pop Watch blog to come clean. “Dear reader, the storming, cursing critic in this international incident was me.”
Girls in terrible earrings! Boyfriends looking for an out plan! Radar has a photo gallery from a first New York public screening of Sex and the City.
Burbanked salutes the late Harvey Korman with a clip from High Anxiety.
Remember ROFLcon? It’s going on tour, with stops in San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Seattle through the summer. More info here.