Day: July 12, 2010

Hollywood Round-up, 7/12

From "Despicable Me."

By Jason Apuzzo. • Despicable Me won the weekend box office race, and it looks like Pixar may have some new competition – in the form of Universal’s family unit Illumination, combined with the French animation outfit Mac Guff.  Glad to see some new players emerging on the animation front.

• New York Magazine’s David Edelstein and The LA Times’ Steven Zeitchik have posted tepid reviews of Inception.  Money quote from Zeitchik about the film: “more headache-inducing than pleasure-producing.”  From Edelstein: “clunky and confusing … I truly have no idea what so many people are raving about.”  Expect more of this to come as critical tongues slowly loosen prior to the film’s release.

• Roman Polanski has been set free, and the Swiss will not cooperate in extraditing him. And frankly I would care more about this story if Polanski wasn’t so long past his prime as a filmmaker, anyway.  What’s worth seeing after Frantic?

• Ed Norton has apparently been dumped by Marvel from playing The Hulk due to his bad attitude, although his attitude can’t possibly be as bad as mine was after seeing him botch the role.  Better give it back to Bana.

• New set pics are out from Transformers 3, featuring cars. And more cars.  And still more cars and … where’s Rosie Huntington-Whiteley?

Amanda Seyfried.

• Kevin Costner’s oil/water separator has been deployed in the Gulf. It’s amazing that Waterworld would have such a positive legacy.

• Hollywood power players turned out to raise money for Barbara Boxer the other night, which makes perfect sense given how wonderful Boxer’s tenure has been in terms of keeping film production right here in the Golden State where it belongs.  [Sigh.]

• Volvo is the latest corporation to piggyback off Twilight for advertising purposes. That’s odd; I always assumed vampires drove Hyundais.  Meanwhile Twilight: Breaking Dawn starts shooting this fall in Vancouver and Baton Rouge, provided the entire state of Louisiana isn’t covered in crude.

• The Mel Gibson Thing is started to have wide consequences in the industry, with questions even being raised about the forthcoming Gibson-DiCaprio collaboration on a Viking epic (!).  And, of course, as you’ve probably heard by now, the Gibson situation continues to spin further out of control by the hour.  I’m really hoping we don’t see Mel driving a Ford Bronco down the 405 next week, because this is getting really ugly.

• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … According to Variety, Amanda Seyfried will be starring in the forthcoming Andrew Niccol science fiction film I’m.mortal, about a future dystopia in which no one has to age … although to keep the population in check, people can only stay alive as long as they can pay their way.  Hey – why set this in the future?  All of this sounds like West Los Angeles right now!

And that’s what’s happening today in the wonderful world of Hollywood …

Posted on July 12th, 2010 at 11:10pm.

New Anti-Soviet Film Farewell Depicts Spycraft That Won the Cold War

Fred Ward as Ronald Reagan.

By Jason Apuzzo. According to The New York Times today, the Cold War is back.  Have they been reading Libertas?

Not only is the Angelina Jolie Russian spy thriller Salt opening later this month – a film which, incidentally, has already been banned in China; not only is the Red Dawn remake being released later this year (presumably); not only is Mao’s Last Dancer coming out later this summer, but so too on July 23rd is a new French Cold War thriller called Farewell being released starring (among others) Willem Defoe, and Fred Ward as Ronald Reagan.  The film deals with one of the crucial Cold War espionage coups that delivered vital intelligence to America and the West.  The film opens July 23rd in New York and Los Angeles, spreading to other markets all the way through September.  Farewell showed at the Toronto and Telluride film festivals earlier this year, and has already received glowing reviews from Todd McCarthy (formerly of Variety), as well as Stephen Holden of The New York Times and Jeff Stein of The Washington Post.  You can watch the trailer to the film below.

Farewell tells the true story of a disenchanted K.G.B. colonel named ‘Sergei Grigoriev’ (the real colonel was actually named Vladimir Vetrov)  — eventually code-named ‘Farewell’ by Western spy agencies – who decides that he can no longer serve the Soviet state, and consequently chooses to funnel classified information to French intelligence agents.

This intelligence apparently included information on what the Soviets knew about our air defenses, how much the Soviets were spending on defense, what defense technologies they were stealing from the United States, and also a list of highly placed K.G.B. agents who’d infiltrated government and industry in the West.  The leaking of this information, when later combined with President Reagan’s public commitment to create the ‘Star Wars’ missile defense system, were crucial elements in the winning of the Cold War.

The French angle on this story is twofold: the courier for the secret information was Pierre Froment, an otherwise innocent employee of a French multinational corporation.  And the information itself was eventually transmitted to Ronald Reagan by then-French President François Mitterrand.

The trailer for the film certainly looks compelling.  Here’s some of what Todd McCarthy said about the film while he was with Variety: “A harrowing, richly human and well-acted espionage tale. … It’s juicy, fascinating stuff, well orchestrated, and finely thesped.  [Director Christian] Carion keeps things simmering on medium-high heat throughout.” Continue reading New Anti-Soviet Film Farewell Depicts Spycraft That Won the Cold War

New French Competition for Pixar? LFM Reviews Despicable Me

Gru, the not-so-villainous villain of "Despicable Me."

[Editor’s Note: “Despicable Me” dominated the weekend box office, taking in over $60 million.]

By Patricia Ducey. Gru’s archvillain mojo is beginning to fade – even his mom (Julie Andrews) calls to needle him when another, better, villain steals the Great Pyramid of Egypt. Even Gru’s usual evil misdeeds, like scaring his suburban neighbors, aren’t as much fun as they used to be. Somehow he has to concoct an even bigger heist to take back his title, so to speak – and gain his mother’s love?

In its first release, Universal’s family unit Illumination scores a solid hit with Despicable Me (directed by Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud). Full of wit and heart and remarkably free of left-leaning messages (no cynicism, environmentalism or US bashing here), Despicable is actually quite lovable. (I quickly forgave the one stereotype of people from Alabama in an early scene, when they skewered Keith Olbermann in the next.) At 95 minutes, it’s just right for kids.

Gru (ably voiced by Steve Carell) decides to steal the Moon, using a Shrink Ray gun, but he needs venture capital to get the project, literally, off the ground. Aided by Dr. Nefario, in a hilarious turn by Russell Brand – and hundreds of tiny yellow, perhaps robot, minions (Grunions?) – he hatches a plan. Gru rallies his minions a la Steve Jobs, in a very funny scene only the adults will get.

At the “Bank of Evil (formerly Lehman Brothers),” though, loan officer Mr. Perkins is not impressed. Perkins dismisses Gru with a curt: “We’re going with somebody younger.” Later we learn that Perkins is actually funding his son Victor, now ‘Vector,’ as top villain after his triumphant swiping of the Pyramid.

A not-so-master criminal.

If Gru can’t build a Shrink Ray, he will steal a Shrink Ray. After all, he is a villain. Gru decides to adopt three orphan girls who have managed to gain access to Vector’s lair by selling Vector his favorite cookies. But the best laid plans sometime go awry, and Gru finds himself falling for the delightful little girls instead. Continue reading New French Competition for Pixar? LFM Reviews Despicable Me