Just as Nikki Finke “TOLDJA” almost four months ago, Oscar-nominee Natalie Portman has been tapped for Marvel’s Thor, in which she’ll play love interest to the Norse god-turned-superhero. No stranger to comic book adaptations nor to reworkings of Scandinavian properties, the actress will play “Jane Foster,” a nurse who becomes Thor’s love interest when the “powerful but arrogant warrior” is banished to Earth by his fellow Asgardians. So far, Portman remains the sole household name cast in the movie, which stars Chris Hemsworth as the title hero, Tom Hiddleston as the villainous Loki and Brian Blessed as Thor’s father, Odin. Fellow Oscar-nominee Kenneth Branagh is directing.
The former child actress follows in the tradition of well-known but questionably talented starlets playing uninteresting love interests in comic book adaptations: Kim Basinger in Batman; Katie Holmes in Batman Begins; Maggie Gyllenhaal in The Dark Knight; Kirsten Dunst in the Spider-Manmovies; and Gwyneth Paltrow in Iron Man. To me, Portman seems like a cross between the last two actresses. She’s done the “manic pixie dream girl” thing like Dunst, but she’s a little more high class, a la Paltrow. Marvel claims they’re updating the Foster character for the film, which is good considering few comic enthusiasts even know or care much about her, but it still seems likely Portman may actually have less to do in this movie than she did in The Darjeeling Limited(not including the Hotel Chevalierprologue).
Personally, I think Branagh should have hired Maia Brewtonfor the role, especially now that people are re-watching Parker Lewis Can’t Lose on DVD. Sure, she hasn’t been around in awhile, and it would be stunt casting, but I always prefer stunt casting to bad casting.
Check out some other film blog responses to the casting after the jump:
Since we were kids, we knew the taxman was a bad guy. If we didn’t get the message from the lyrics of The Beatles, or the wolfish version of the Sheriff of Nottingham in Disney’s Robin Hood, then we learned through the very real anguish our parents suffered every year, mid-April. As we grew up, we likely heard comedians joke about the IRS, and every character but Jesus appeared to be unforgiving of any person who’d take a job in tax collection. Occasionally we’d see iconic IRS agents, such as the one Charles Lane plays in Capra’s film of You Can’t Take it With You, but even when memorable and enjoyable, they are still mostly identifiably villains. In Abbas Kiarostami’s first film, The Report (Gozaresh), the “hero” is a tax collector, yet he’s involved in corruption and beats his wife. Still hardly classifiable as a good guy, it would seem.
However, with all the movies made around the world in all the years of cinema’s existence, there had to be some films with likable taxmen, so we dug deep and desperately and just barely found ten such characters (admittedly, some are a stretch). While you struggle last minute with your 1040 today, you might not have much appreciation for a list of good guy taxmen, but we don’t care, because hopefully our celebration of these characters will keep us from getting audited anytime soon. Or, if we must get a visit from the IRS agent, we can hope we’re sent one like these men and woman: …Read more
A new Zooey Deschanel movie came out last weekend. But is it the one where she plays a “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” opposite Paul Dano or the one where she plays a “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” opposite Joseph Gordon-Levitt? It’s the former, and it’s called Gigantic, which is also not to be confused with this coming week’s new DVD release, Yes Man, in which she plays a “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” opposite Jim Carrey.
Sure, Deschanel has range and talent (see this fan-made montage of some of her more varied performances), but she also has a certain repetitive nature to her characters. And this “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” nature became all the more confusing recently when trailers for Gigantic and (500) Days of Summer (the Gordon-Levitt one, which is actually her second romantic pairing with the actor) appeared online around the same time. Maybe instead of worrying about people confusing her for Katy Perry, the actress should worry more about people confusing her characters and films for each other.
Or, maybe not. Plenty of us can’t get enough of Deschanel’s quirky, free-spirited performances. In his Yes Man review, Roger Ebert noted that two critics proposed marriage to the character at the end of the film. We wouldn’t go that far, but we have crushed on the actress since All the Real Girls and haven’t yet gotten sick of her or her similar, typecast roles. In fact, to us, the problem is not that indie films too often employ the MPDG character; it’s that they don’t cast Deschanel for every such part. So, instead of wishing she’d broaden her career to include other types of characters (it didn’t work well for her with The Happening, after all), we’ve selected ten MPDG characters that she should have additionally played. …Read more
Getting ready for the Sundance Film Festival can be very exciting. As we await the event’s Thursday opening, we can’t stop wondering what will be the next big thing. Will this year’s hit be the highly-anticipated Michael Cera project Paper Hearts, or will it be something that we as of yet know nothing about?
It’s easy to forget, however, that oftentimes the next big thing is also the next lamest thing. Sundance sensations, those films that are much-buzzed-about, that sell for a lot of money, that go on to be marketed like crazy and ultimately receive Oscar recognition, tend to lend themselves most easily to backlashes. Usually such derision is deserved, as in the case of the following ten films, each of which made a big splash at Sundance despite being bad. …Read more
Forget about Don Cheadle replacing Terence Howard as James Rhodes / War Machine in Iron Man II, which smells a lot like the “we’ll threaten to replace Tobey Maguire with Jake Gyllenhaal” tactic that Sony used for Spider-Man II –– Hollywood has been doing this for years. It was bad enough back in the days of television with Dick Sargent replacing Dick York in Bewitched, but now it’s becoming pretty commonplace for producers to replace actors in iconic roles. Although now it’s more common due to monetary concerns, which seems to be what has taken Howard out of the War Machine suit, it’s also common to see an actor ankle a role because they don’t like the source material, or the direction the character is taking. We’ve put together several different re-castings, which all happened for a variety of reasons: money, dissatisfaction with the script, test audience reactions, and actors just growing tired of playing the same character. Check them out after the break.
A little film called The Dark Knightopens tomorrow tonight, and it’s so highly anticipated and it has received so much positive buzz that one expert is predicting it could gross anywhere between $100-150 million. I’m going to to do him one better and broaden that gap further to $100-900 million. Good thing this isn’t The Price is Right.
And speaking of down-on-their-luck, alcoholics, Jeff Bridges will play one — a country singer, though, not a superhero — in the T Bone Burnett-scored musical Crazy Heart, which will also star Maggie Gyllenhaal and Robert Duvall.
John Woo is known for announcing about 20 new directing gigs a year, so don’t get too upset if he doesn’t actually end up helming the comic book adaptation Caliber.
Can we expect a whole new marketing strategy for Tom Cruise’s Valkyrie? United Artists has just hired a new chief of marketing and publicity, Michael Vollman from Paramount, to replace the resigned Dennis Rice.
Documentary site SnagFilmshas acquired indieWIRE. Congrats and good luck to our SpoutBlog friends at iW, including Eugene Hernandez, who has a new position and will oversee content on both sites.
I guess I will be seeing The Dark Knightno matter what, but this new video of “Rachel Dawes” (Maggie Gyllenhaal) endorsing “Harvey Dent” has me half-wanting to boycott the thing. While not entirely harmless, the clip is obnoxiously pointless, and it is written and acted poorly enough to feel like the opening of an SNL skit. I assume that Christopher Nolan didn’t have much to do with it, and I find viral marketing tactics like this to cheapen a film and do more harm than good. Who could watch this thing and honestly think it makes the Batman Beginssequel look appealing? Even if you’re smart enough to know the actual film won’t look like this, you might at least get the impression that Gyllenhaal’s performance here is a sampling of her portrayal of Dawes (previously played by Katie Holmes) in The Dark Knight.
And no, I’m not biased against Gyllenhaal. I do think she’s highly overrated, but she’s a decent actress most of the time (when she has more air, apparently). However, I do admit I already find this Harvey Dent political campaign-as-marketing campaign to be superfluous. It only continues to psyche up the geeks who are already psyched up anyway, making its an unnecessary cost to Warner Bros. And as happened on the road leading up to Cloverfield, my excitement for The Dark Knight is lately fluctuating between really pumped and really jaded. I shall now sit and wait for the backlash to the backlash.
Above, a memo from United Hollywood: the WGA strike is about Maggie Gyllenhaal and two other pretty girls getting drunk and having threesomes.
While I was at Sundance, the next James Bond film got a stupid title. Dirty Harry says it doesn’t matter: “As long as Bond kills for kicks, bags babes for laughs, and makes the world safe for democracy, Wal-Mart, and Exxon, I really don’t care.”
In other news I missed, Mark Romanek is apparently no longer directing a Wolfman remake. Jeff Wells blames the strike.
Four Eyed Monster Arin Crumley had his coat, passport, video recorder, wallet and bike stolen at “one of the best parties I’ve been to in a long time.” It’s got him thinking about socialism, colonialism and “balance,” all of which is encapsulated in the video after the jump. If you stole his stuff, he’ll give you a hug and a handshake if you give it back.
I’m sure there are many who are happy that Mike Figgis has essentially given up on filmmaking in order to make softcore ads for Agent Provacateur, but I kind of liked his version of Miss Julie, and sort of wish he’d make another film where the corsets are narrative-mandated and period-appropriate instead of, like, for sale. In any case, here’s his latest promo. This one is for a new line of Agent Provacateur shoes, and it’s much more of a straightforward advert than the shorts Figgis made for AP with Kate Moss last year. And–sorry boys–new AP model Maggie Gyllenhaal unfortunately does not make an appearance. Since it’s basically semi-tasteful bondage porn, it’s probably not safe for work, but considering it’s the Friday before Christmas, that’s probably not an issue. Happy Holidays!
As if that IMAX preview of The Dark Knightweren’t enough, here’s the actual trailer for the Batman Beginssequel. It’s a perfect companion to the preview, because it’s all about The Joker. This time, though, we get to see more of Heath Ledger, without the rubber mask he wears for the bank heist. I guess there are a few shots in there of Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman, but really who could pay him notice? I think Maggie Gyllenhaal (replacing Katie Holmes) has more interesting screen time here (poor Ennis — first he has to deal with the death of Jack and now Jack’s angry sister is trying to beat him up).
Ledger’s interpretation of The Joker is said to be inspired by Sid Vicious (I wonder if his TDK co-star Gary Oldman had anything to say about that), but I don’t see much of that punk attitude, really. I’m actually seeing a combination of Charles Nelson Reilly and Tommy Lee Jones. And somehow, it’s absolutely perfect. Certainly I don’t want to say it’s any better or worse than Jack Nicholson — heck, I don’t even like to dismiss Cesar Romero’s take on the villain — so I’ll just go with the easy response and say … it’s just different.
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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A little film called 
