Al Pacino Joins Barry Levinson’s GOTTI: THREE GENERATIONS
by Matt Goldberg Posted: May 10th, 2011
Every time Al Pacino tries to escape the mob genre, they pull him back in. THR reports that the loud actor will reunite with his You Don’t Know Jack director Barry Levinson for Gotti: Three Generations. Pacino will play Gambino crime family underboss Neil Dellacroce, an associate and mentor to Gotti Sr. (John Travolta). The cast also includes Kelly Preston as Gotti Sr.’s wife Victoria, Ella Bleu Travolta as Gotti Sr. and Victoria’s daughter Angel, Joe Pesci as Gotti Sr.’s associate Angelo Ruggiero, and Lindsay Lohan as John Gotti Jr.’s wife Kim. Despite the cast and the director, I can’t shake the feeling that this movie is going straight to DVD, or, at best, will straight to HBO.
The remaining key roles to be cast are John Gotti Jr. and his sister Victoria. James Toback (Bugsy) has been hired to revise Leo Rossi’s original script.
Nicole Kidman in Talks to Star in SPECTRE for Director James Wan
by Matt Goldberg Posted: May 10th, 2011
As the Cannes Film Festival ramps up, expect plenty of deal-making news regarding casting, director hires, and distribution as producers find the cash to hire actors and directors, and get studios on board to finance and distribute their movies. For example, IM Global has announced it will shop nine movies to buyers at the festival including the supernatural thriller Spectre from director James Wan (Insidious). Variety reports that Nicole Kidman is in talks to star in the film.
Kidman is also circling the drama Our Wild Life and earlier this year she signed on to star opposite Colin Firth in Chan-wook Park’s Stoker. Kidman will next be seen alongside Nicolas Cage in Joel Schumacher’s Trespass.
New Trailer for REAL STEEL Starring Hugh Jackman
by Matt Goldberg Posted: May 10th, 2011
DreamWorks has released a new trailer for Shawn Levy’s Real Steel. The film stars Hugh Jackman as a washed-up boxer who reconnects with his estranged son (Dakota Goyo, who played Lil’ Thor in Thor) as they build and train a fighting robot to fight in the World Robot Boxing championship. I’m trying to cast aside cynicism on this project, but I can’t get past Levy. His films tend to be lowest common denominator family fare and judging by this trailer, it doesn’t look like Real Steel is going to break that trend. It looks too saccharine to be fun and too silly to be taken seriously. Hopefully I’m wrong and I’ll finally like one of the guy’s films because he’s certainly not going away anytime soon. It’s worth mentioning that Steven Spielberg was heavily involved in the project and fought to keep the project at DreamWorks when the studio broke away from Paramount.
Hit the jump to check out the trailer. Click here to check out Steve’s visit to the editing bay. He thinks the film is going to be good. Based on what I’ve seen (and granted, he’s seen more of the movie than I have), I beg to differ. Real Steel also stars Anthony Mackie, Hope Davis, Kevin Durand, and Evangeline Lilly. The film opens October 7th.
Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis to Star in Education Drama STILL I RISE
by Matt Goldberg Posted: May 10th, 2011
Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis will star in the topical drama Still I Rise. Directed by Daniel Barnz (Beastly), the actresses will play a pair of mothers who join forces to reform an inner-city public school. According to Deadline, “the film takes aim at the crisis of public education in America.” So is it going to attack the evils of standardized testing? That there aren’t enough teachers and class sizes are swelling to where no student can get the attention they deserve? Or will it be an attack on the abysmal pay for teachers? I’m guessing “None of the Above”. I’m betting that it will be an attempt to root out the “bad” teachers and a nice update to the school’s facilities.
Gyllenhaal and Davis are both great actresses and I hope they’ve signed onto a project that examines the complexity of our education problem rather than trying to uphold some quick, ineffective fixes. And if not, perhaps they can do a film where the military’s budget accidentally goes to education.
