http://collider.com/john-malkovich-catherine-keener-whats-this-called-love/73917/
by Brendan Bettinger Posted: January 31st, 2011
Director Jesse Peretz met the high expectations that awaited his My Idiot Brother at Sundance, and is already hard at work on his next film, What’s This S%^@ Called Love?. The cast of S%^@ may even rival the impressive My Idiot Brother ensemble, as John Malkovich and Catherine Keener are in talks to star. Fans of the truly bizarre may recall that Keener and Malkovich last appeared together on screen in 1999’s Being John Malkovich.
Peretz’s script is set in the era and town in which he was raised: 1980s Cambridge, Massachusetts. According to 24 Frames, the plot centers on a teenage boy who is on the verge of coming out: “His ultra-progressive family actually wants to celebrate the boy’s newfound sexuality, while all the boy wants is to be left alone.” Sounds a bit precious, but Keener specializes in selling me on this kind of emotional comedy.
Tim Perell (Last Chance Harvey) will produce What’s This S%^@ Called Love?, which I can only hope is a tentative title. The Weinstein Company picked up My Idiot Brother for a November 25 release.
Joaquin Phoenix the Frontrunner to Mentor Benjamin Walker in ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER
by Brendan Bettinger Posted: January 31st, 2011
We are now a few months removed I’m Still Here debacle, wherein there has been plenty of talk about Joaquin Phoenix’s return to acting. Phoenix was linked to Hoover, The Odd Life of Timothy Green, and Big Shoe; only Big Shoe is still in play, and that project is four months in need of a status update. The latest project hailed as the possible return of Phoenix is also the best: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
As far as I can tell, 20th Century Fox is simply trying to harness the crazy, offering Phoenix the role of vampire Henry Sturges, “a mythic, ageless figure who turns Lincoln into an axe-throwing expert slayer of vampires.” Benjamin Walker (Flags of Our Fathers) was cast late last week as Lincoln. More, including a synopsis, after the jump:
Deadline is careful not to call this one a done deal. The role is “his if he wants it,” but the report cautions, “Phoenix is cagey and could decide not to go forward.” Well… yeah.
I don’t think we, the public, will allow Phoenix to return with a more subdued film like Two Lovers and pretend nothing ever happened. In that sense — the sense that Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter will never quite sound like a real movie — this sounds about right.
Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted) will direct and co-produce with Tim Burton and Jim Lemley (9). Grahame-Smith adapted the screenplay based on his own book. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is scheduled for release June 22, 2012.
