Archive for the ‘Films’ Category
Elizabeth Banks is getting ready to don wings and a short-green skirt for her role as Tinkerbell in a live-action version of the Disney character.
Titled “Tink,” the live-action romantic comedy has Adam Shankman, Jennifer Gibgot and McG developing the project as producers.
The film will follow the mischievous nature of the Tinkerbell character. The idea was hatched by Banks with Max Handelman, who not only co-runs the actress’ production label, Brownstone Prods, but is her husband as well.
Elizabeth Wright Shapiro, who has already worked with Banks on a number of projects, is on board to write the script.
Screenplays that Shapiro has penned on Banks’ behalf include “Keiko,” which Banks is attached to direct per Variety.
Shapiro has also penned “Allies With Benefits,” which Scott Free is producing.
Banks’ Brownstone label was recently behind the Disney Bruce Willis headliner “The Surrogates.” The label is quite busy with other projects, “Forever 21″ at DreamWorks and “Pitch Perfect,” at Universal.
Banks’ upcoming acting gigs include Paul Haggis’ “The Next Three Days,” opposite Russell Crowe, and “The Details,” with Tobey Maguire.
At one point, Disney attempted to re-boot “Tinkerbell” as an animated film with Brittany Murphy as the voice. Project proceeded forward as a straight-to-video franchise sans Murphy’s vocals.
From Hollywood News
I might be biased about this news. Any press release that mentions “Kentucky Fried Movie” has me instantly sold. Said release popped into my e-mail yesterday from Relativity Media. They’re working with Peter Farrelly, frequent Farrelly co-conspirator Charles Wessler and GreeneStreet Films on an “Untitled Comedy” — wouldn’t it be great if they kept that title? — which is described as “a unifying storyline for a series of sketch comedies in the vein of the 1970s hits ‘Kentucky Fried Movie’ and ‘Groove Tube.’”
They forgot “Amazon Women on the Moon,” which for my money is the best of that bunch. No matter. The news here is that the cast is massive and the behind-the-lens talent — some of whom have already completed their work — is equally massive. Find the full list (so far) after the jump.
The cast, which is described as “growing,” currently features: Elizabeth Banks, Gerard Butler, Kieran Culkin, Hugh Jackman, Johnny Knoxville, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Moretz, Liev Schreiber, Sean William Scott, Tony Shalhoub, Emma Stone, Matt Walsh, Patrick Warburton, Naomi Watts, and Kate Winslet.
Whew.
A number of filmmakers have already completed work on their sketches, including Banks(?– she directs too?), Farrelly, Brett Ratner, Bob Odenkirk and Griffin Dunne.
Now here’s an idea I can get behind. Sketch comedy movies have been absent too long from this world. There have been one or two, but I think it’s safe to say that this is the biggest of them since “Amazon Women” in 1987, 10 years after “Kentucky Fried Movie.” I’d like to share a clip from one of those classics here, but they were unfortunately made in the days when comedy still had balls. All I can say is that you should seek out “Amazon Women,” “Kentucky Fried” and their ilk if you haven’t so you can behold the glory for yourself.
From MTV
ComingSoon.net has received an unconfirmed tip that Elizabeth Banks (Role Models, Betty Brant in the “Spider-Man” movies) is in talks to play the female lead opposite Bradley Cooper in director Neil Burger’s Dark Fields.
The film, based on the book by Alan Glynn, follows a down-and-out writer (Cooper) who gets his hands on a top-secret pharmaceutical drug that makes one smarter. He experiences sudden financial and social success but soon discovers that the drug has lethal and lasting side effects. Before long, mysterious antagonists are pursuing him.
The production has also brought on director of photography Jo Willems (30 Days of Night), VFX guru Christopher Scollard (Fight Club) and production designer Carlos Barbosa (“24″).
Leslie Dixon (The Thomas Crown Affair), who wrote the script, will produce with Scott Kroopf and Relativity’s Ryan Kavanaugh. Relativity’s Tucker Tooley will executive produce.
Universal will distribute via Relativity’s Rogue Pictures.
Elizabeth Banks is in a new short film called “The Bridge Bash,” which also stars Paul Rudd, Justin Long and others.
The Bridge Bash is a star-studded mockumentary short due online in late December. APOLLO’s CRED had a chat with the two men behind the party puzzle piece-finding mission, Adam Moreno, the writer, producer and co-director, and Alex Mamlet, the producer and co-director. As a part of their absurdist PR plan for promoting the film, they pretended all this was real and that master disc scratcher DJ Blue who saved the ‘party’ took years to find – despite the fact that the real DJ Blue is in fact Moreno himself.
Providing necessary clout to the film is an eclectic line-up of celebrities, as indicated in the trailer, including Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Ethan Hawke, Justin Long, Billy Crudup, Sam Rockwell, Peter Dinklage, David Wain, Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter. Additional details about the film are available at bridgebash.com.
From Appolo’s Cred
Elizabeth Banks is in final negotiations to star in “The Next Three Days” for writer-director Paul Haggis at Lionsgate.
Banks will play the lead role of Laura, a woman who is imprisoned for a murder she claims she didn’t commit, as her husband, the recently cast Russell Crowe, desperately tries to vindicate her.
The suspense drama is a remake of the 2008 French thriller “Pour Elle,” which was written and directed by Fred Cavaye.
Haggis, his Highway 61 Films partner Michael Nozik and Fidelite’s Marc Missonnier and Olivier Delbosc are producing. Lionsgate execs Alli Shearmur and Wolfgang Hammer are overseeing for the studio.
Filming is scheduled to begin next month.
Banks, who is repped by UTA and Untitled Entertainment, most recently starred in “Zach and Miri Make a Porno,” “The Uninvited” and “W.” She is currently shooting the comedy “The Details” opposite Tobey Maguire.
Banks is attached to star in and produce, through her Brownstone Prods., the comedy “Forever 21,” which is in development at DreamWorks.
After a financial hitch, “The Details” — a dark comedy that stars Maguire and Elizabeth Banks, also known for her “Spider-Man” role — is back in Seattle.
Oh, the movie also includes ravenous raccoons gone berserk.
The raccoons come into Tobey’s life, tearing up the carefully tended turf he had put in his backyard, at the same time his marriage is on the skids.
Remember: “Dark comedy.”
Trained raccoons — apparently raccoons are trainable — are set to arrive from California in a week or so.
They’ll always be on a leash when filmed, and away from the human actors. The leashes will be digitally removed from the film.
You might recall the story in June about the financial problems of the low-budget film.
It’s a “Tier 1″ movie, which means the budget is less than $4.3 million, said Bob Riggs, business agent for the regional International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees.
So Maguire is giving up his star salary to work on “The Details” because he believes in the film and its director, Jacob Estes, who drew good reviews for 2004 indie coming-of-age film “Mean Creek.”
Explained the film’s producer, Hagai Shaham, “we had problems with financing; it got fixed.”
Meanwhile, a Seattle woman, Daphne Tomchak, who had agreed to rent out her home and have the producers do some free remodels, was put in a financial limbo.
She was looking at ripped-out walls, missing wiring and electrical fixtures and having her furniture moved to the basement when the money problems surfaced.
But everything is fine now, said Tomchak. She’s staying with a friend.
The remodeling work was completed, with changes such as putting French doors facing the backyard, where most of the action with the increasingly agitated raccoons takes place.
Tomchak said the producers also changed the color of the back of the house from dark green to yellow; they’ll paint it back to green.
“They said yellow is funnier,” she said.
Seattle was chosen to film “The Details,” said Shaham, “because it’s like America, it’s not New York, it’s not Los Angeles.”
He said the Montlake home was chosen because of its big backyard, “and there aren’t many big yards in Seattle.”
The filming also involves two other homes along the block, although just for their exteriors.
The neighbors have taken their temporary film invasion — filming began Tuesday and is scheduled to end Sept. 12 — in good humor.
On some nights, filming has been scheduled until 5 a.m.
Kit Bakke, who lives on 26th Avenue East, said the neighbors all got letters and fliers explaining the filming.
Her family is having remodeling work done on their home, she said, and sometimes a young woman from the film crew with a walkie-talkie stops by.
When there’s filming going, said Bakke, she tells the guys working, “Stop, stop,” so their noise doesn’t interfere.
Bakke also confessed that having a film crew around “is so seductive. I guess I’m kind of overwhelmed by the magnitude of the truck, and equipment, and everything.”
She has written a book, “Miss Alcott’s E-mail,” and she’s thought she’d show it to the director of “The Details.” It’d just be a short walk, and, well, you never know.
Bakke’s husband said it wasn’t that great an idea.
“I still might do it,” said Bakke.
As for sightings of Maguire, neighbors exchanged stories.
One told of watching Maguire doing a scene in the backyard of the “hero” house, looking very serious as he moved slowly across the yard, speaking loudly. When the director yelled “Cut!” Maguire started laughing.
Maguire and his wife and two children were seen on the sidewalk, the children playing with neighborhood kids and dogs.
Actress Elizabeth Banks, on the other hand, “was standoffish,” said the neighbor.
Uh-uh.
A standoffish star in Seattle.
Come on, give us a smile.
Elizabeth … we’re SO nice here.
From the California Chronicle
The movies have come to Montlake.
A film crew of locals and Los Angeles transplants took over the 1700 block of 26th Avenue East on Tuesday morning, moving props and equipment in and out of three adjacent homes in preparation to shoot “The Details,” a dark romantic comedy starring Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks, Laura Linney and Ray Liotta.
The movie is about a couple that gets into a dispute with a neighbor over a raccoon infestation. Today is the first day of shooting.
“If they wanted a neighborhood with a raccoon problem, they picked the right one,” said Marty Lentz, who learned about the film after she saw the line of vans and walked over with Jon Noll to investigate.
Lentz and Noll live too far away from to have gotten the notices sent to nearby residents with the shooting schedule and details about parking restrictions and noise. Cast and crew are scheduled to film late into the night all 13 days they’re in the neighborhood — some nights until 5 or 6 a.m.
Resident Simone Buterse said the Mayor’s Office of Film and Music had urged neighbors to do their best to welcome the crew, saying this is a good opportunity for Seattle.
“I’m more curious than excited,” Buterse said.
