Narnia | SpoutBlog

Coppolas Conquer Rome: Trade Roughage 09/20/07

By Karina Longworth posted 2 years ago

The Rome Film Festival is shaping up to be quite the Coppola family reunion. Francis Ford has long been scheduled to unveil his long-awaited Youth Without Youth at the event; now Variety reports that his wife, Eleanor Coppola, will debut a new documentary there, a follow-up to Hearts of Darkness called Coda: Thirty Years Later. With mom and dad already on the bill, fest organizers are apparently “hope to get the whole Coppola family, including children Sofia and Roman, onstage” as well.
IFC First Take has acquired two, semi-high-profile projects: Savage Grace, starring Julianne Moore; and Finishing the Game, a “Bruce Lee mocumentary” by Better Luck Tomorrow director Justin Lin. “Because each film sports bankable actors,” writes The Hollywood Reporter’s Gregg Goldstein, “IFC might test whether exhibitors resistant to day-and-date releases will book films also available on VOD.”
10,000 famous actresses have joined the remake of The Women, which is apparently shooting already in Boston.
Vague “schedule” problems have led Disney to postpone the production and release of their third Narnia movie. Luckily, something called G-Force was standing on the sidelines, waiting to take over the May 1, 2009 release date.

By Karina Longworth posted 2 years ago

Michael Apted, who was recently hired to direct one of two upcoming Narnia films, has been elected to a third term as president of the Director’s Guild of America. If Apted should become unable to perform his duties, DGA VP Steven Soderbergh will have to step off the remake train and step up.
Richard “Shaft” Roundtree will join Christina Ricci, Emile Hirsch and Susan Sarandon (!) in the Wachowski Brothers’ Speed Racer adaptation.
Via Brian Lowry’s review of License to Wed, we learn that Robin Williams is still annoying, Mandy Moore is still pretty enough to escape real criticism, and Variety readers still need to be reminded why John Krasinski looks so familiar: “Unleashing Robin Williams in the least flattering possible manner, License to Wed squanders the modest chemistry between its appealing central couple — Mandy Moore and The Office’s John Krasinski — uniting its elements in an astonishingly flat romantic comedy, filled with perplexing choices.”