Guy Pearce Archives -

TIMOTHEE CHALAMET STARS AS NICK CAVE IN YOUNG NICK

HOLLYWOOD – Andrew Dominic’s Young Nick is a triumph, boasting an amazing performance by Timothée Chalamet.

Call Me By Your Name and Ladybird star Timothée Chalamet once more pulls out the stops. This time with a bravura performance as Australian post-punk singer Nick Cave in a new film tracing the origins of the Australian musician. Young Nick begins in Australia with the teenager Nick still searching to find his way through the world. Writer and director Andrew Dominic – and pal of Nick Cave – knew Nick Cave as they both group up in the same world. This is evident in the closely observed miseries of 80s suburban Australia. Guy Pearce is superb as Cave’s confused father, who is out of his depth with his rebellious son.

Liam Hemsworth is slightly too old to play Mick Harvey, the Birthday Party and then Bad Seeds guitarist, but he manages his part with aplomb. The interaction between the two makes for some of the funniest dialogue of the film. Cave reveals himself something of an idealist against the hard Ozzie pragmatism of Harvey.

SNEAK PREVIEW

The Scenes of the gigs are great. So vibrant and full of life. From the disastrous school disco to the local club where the first tentative steps towards stardom look to be foiled by the over zealous attentions of the local police. But it is Chalamet’s performance which is creating early buzz and talks of a possible Oscar nomination down the road. He shows the charisma that made Cave the figure he would become. But equally he manages to suggest the vulnerabilities at the heart of the character. The music is obviously dynamite with a mix of mostly Birthday Party tracks but with an evocative use of From Her to Eternity as the film transitions to a wintry London. And an assault on musical history from out antipodean heroes.

Dominic has created a deeply entertaining, visually sumptuous and startlingly intelligent film. Perhaps his best movie since Chopper. And it is important to note, this isn’t a film for fans only. If you go in without knowing anything about Cave – who stills remains a select taste – there’s still plenty to enjoy in this punkish portrait of a rebel without a cause.

Young Nick comes out in 2020.

5 THINGS WRONG WITH ALIEN: COVENANT

HOLLYWOOD – Alien: Covenant is out and I tried to like it but in space no one can hear your eyes roll.

With Alien: Covenant, Ridley Scott has made a film that’s a bit better than the last bad film he made. Warning: there are SPOILERS.

Continue reading “5 THINGS WRONG WITH ALIEN: COVENANT”

MEMENTO REMAKE TO STAR SEAN SPICER

WASHINGTON – The Memento remake is going ahead with Sean Spicer in the original Guy Pearce role.

Christopher Nolan’s Memento was a cult hit. Now it’s being remade with Sean Spicer starring as the man who following a tragic incident is unable to remember things that happened more than 20 minutes ago. Spicer spoke to the Studio Exec about the new direction:

The original idea has always been for me to go into acting. But I was going to do it sometime in the future. The distant future I thought. However, now it looks like we’ll probably be able to begin shooting sometime next week.

Has your experience as White House Communications Director helped you prepare for the film?

Absolutely. Every day I feel like it is very difficult to remember what happened the day before or even half an hour before that. In fact, it’s kind of the policy of the Trump administration to only employ people with very poor short term memory and an ambiguous and noirish sense of right and wrong. The film also has these doom laden and guilt-ridden atmosphere which is just becoming more and more like my life.

Have you any comment about the Hitler gaffe yesterday?

Re-Memento will be released in 2018.

Image courtesy of @ThePixelFactor.

MEMENTO REMAKE WILL BE BASED ON GUY PEARCE’S TATTOOS

HOLLYWOOD – The new Memento remake is to be based entirely on Guy Pearce’s tattoos.

News came in today that the amnesia-based thriller, Memento, directed by Christopher Nolan, will be remade, taking as its source the tattoos on Guy Pearce. In the original film, Guy Pearce played Leonard Shelby a man who has a memory span of twenty minutes and must search for the killer of his wife. The remake of the film will be based on the tattoos that Pearce, a notorious method actor, had actually tattooed on his own body when he made the film. Christopher Nolan’s Memento is to be remade. The script will be based on the tattoos that Guy Pearce got when he played Leonard Shelby, a man who has a memory span of twenty minutes. He must search for the killer of his wife. The original film was based on the short story by Nolan’s brother Jonathan Nolan. The film was made by Christopher Nolan in 2000. It is going to be remade. The remake will be based on the tattoos that actor Guy Pearce got in order to play Leonard Shelby in the original movie. Nolan told the Studio Exec:

We said to Guy we can get them done by a great make up artist, but Guy insisted on doing his own. Some with a proper tattoo gun and others he did like a prison tattoo with a needle and a biro. It was intense.

Christopher Nolan made Memento in 2000. It stars Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby, a man with a twenty minute memory span who must search for the killer of his wife. It is to be remade. I’ve forget why.

Memento will be remade in 2016.

CANNES DIARY: DAY 5

CANNES – Talking to Guy Pearce today – he’s here for the Neighbors movie The Rover. He tells me that he loves Cannes, except for the fact he shares a bathroom with Don Johnson and Johnson leaves the towels on the floor and doesn’t hang them on the rail.

Johnson is here for Jim Mickle’s Cold in July, a brilliant Southern Noir. Johnson told me that when he was researching the role no one asked him to hang towels up, that was the maid’s job. He went on to complain that Pearce does this thing of gargling for five minutes every morning and then doing voice exercises which he can hear ‘as if he was doing it in my f*cking ear’. He also mentioned that The Rover had absolutely nothing to do with Neighbors, which was an Australian soap opera which he did right at the beginning of his career and which he has left behind. It turns out that Johnson has his own bathroom and is only using Mike’s Guy’s to irritate him.

For more Cannes CLICK HERE.

THINKING COMEDY: ADAM SANDLER

In the fifth of our series Thinking Comedy, film comedian Adam Sandler talks about the relationship between comedy and pain.

I think that all comedy comes from pain. It has to. I know mine does. And for it to be really funny, the pain has to belong to someone else.

This is what is called the superiority theory of humor. It appears everywhere, in the Bible, Shakespeare (think of Malvolio in Twelth Night) but it was first conceptualized by Thomas Hobbes in his masterpiece Leviathan. In this treatise on almost everything, Hobbes remarks that laughter is a sign of Sudden Glory, when we recognize our safety and strength over another. We glory in it. The suddenness is what makes this particularly funny. It is unexpected and the surprise makes us laugh before we realize what we are doing.

Look at when I slap David Hasselhoff in Click. It’s unexpected, funny and we revel in our superiority. The fact that David plays my asshole boss makes the glory all the more glorious.

In all my films I am careful to portray myself as an ordinary Joe, but one who is revealed throughout the film to be superior to the despicable caricatures I surround myself with. Guy Pearce played that role very well in Bedtime Stories for instance. My humor is quite deliberately ungenerous. It could all be summed up by Nelson’s laugh in The Simpsons, because that’s what it is the laughter of the bully. That’s what I am in Happy Gilmore, Little Daddy and Grown Ups. But I’m in good company. There’s a scene in Paradise Lost by John Milton when Jesus and God are watching the rebel angel army led by Satan approach the walls of heaven. ‘Let’s retreat,’ says God. ‘There are so many.’ But Jesus knows his dad is just taking the piss and has a hearty laugh. And if you want to know what it sounds like, it probably wasn’t a million miles away from Nelson’s laugh.

Sudden Glory bitches!

For more Thinking Comedy, CLICK HERE.

BAZ LUHRMANN TOLD TO SHUT THE F*CK UP

HOLLYWOOD – The movie industry is in a state of shock as yesterday Baz Luhrmann was told to ‘shut the f*ck up’ by an exec (not this one) in a pre-production meeting.

Actor and sharp faced Aussie, Guy Pearce was in the meeting and spoke with the Studio Exec:

I’m still shaking, feel my arm. That’s not acting mate; although I can do that easy. Have you seen my acting?

Yes, it’s good. Good acting. So what happened with Baz?

Bazza was going through some pre-viz shots for his Citizen Kane remake, just a standard montage with 356 shots per second with a kick ass Pussy Cat Dolls album track and lots of zooms, like whoooooooosh and wheeeeeeee. And he starts talking about his vision for the movie when this guy just ups and says ‘SHUT THE F*CK UP!’

Jesus.

I was confused at first. I looked like this [pulls confused face]. That’s just me acting by the way, I’m not confused now. This is the kind of face I did sometimes in Memento, have you seen that?

Yes Guy, it’s good. So what happened next?

I think I fainted, I’m not proud of it. I came up on the Australian soap circuit and I’ve heard my fair share of trash talk, but this was a whole new level. He told him to ‘shut the f*ck up!’

What’s the latest from the hospital, do they think Baz will pull through?

He’s in some kind of coma. Far gone, and he looks like he’s aged about 40 years! not unlike the character I played in Prometheus. Have you seen that?

Ye…no, no didn’t catch that. I was out of the country at the time.

I have a copy right here! Look, [pulls DVD from inside pocket]. I was going to play it for Baz, you know, just in case he can hear it in whatever realm he’s in. But we could watch it right here, right now!

Well I don’t think I have the…

Done deal mate…sit back, relax. It’s the extended edition too. Boy are you in for a treat.

RIDLEY SCOTT ABANDONS IMPROV FOR PROMETHEUS SEQUEL

HOLLYWOOD – Ridley Scott has declared that he will not be using improvisation for the Prometheus sequel, breaking with a tradition established since the very beginning of his career.

‘I’ve hired writers,’ said the White Squall director. ‘I know a lot of purists are going to be mad at me but after what happened last time it just occurred to me it’d be better if someone wrote everything down BEFORE we started filming.’

The UK born director has been famous in Hollywood for his radical improvisation techniques. Harrison Ford had a huge falling out with Scott on the set of Blade Runner, as he explained in his autobiography Just A Carpenter Like Jesus:

fed up

I turned up on the first day of filming and we all stood in a circle. We had no script, no story, no idea. Then Ridley just went round the circle, pointing at each of us in turn and saying ‘You’re a robot, you’re not, robot, robot, not a robot.’ It wouldn’t be so bad but with me he couldn’t decide. And then he said ‘go!’ Me and Sean [Young] just looked at each other and thought oh oh.

As the years went on, Scott’s technique became ever more radical. But some actors found the experience liberating. Susan Sarandon praised Scott for giving actors such a creative role.

‘I’m just going to drive off the cliff,’ I said. He shrugged. ‘Do what you have to do!’ And that was Thelma and Louise.

However, some argue that after the shambles of Prometheus, the director is right to resort to a written screenplay. Michael Fassbender remembers the confusion on set.

Actors were doing whatever they wanted to do. ‘I’m going to take my helmet off!’ ‘I’m going to treat this weird xenomorph snake like it is a cuddly mouse’. The worse point was Guy Pearce turning up and he’d done his own make up and everything. ‘You’re character’s supposed to be dead,’ Ridley said. ‘I don’t care,’ said Pearce and just got in front of the camera and wouldn’t move.

The Prometheus sequel is due to start filming later this year.

GUY PEARCE ELECTED PRESIDENT OF ITALY

ROME – After weeks of political turmoil following a closely fought and indecisive election, Australian character actor and Memento star Guy Pearce has been elected President of the Republic.

As the Italian head of state, Guy will rule for seven years and next week flies to Italy to be sworn in and supervise the forming of a new government which looks set to include some of the freshest faces in show business, including Max Von Sydow, Harvey Keitel and Eli Wallach, who will be the minister of youth.

Political commentator, Davide Brandalise commented:

Although unconventional, the voting in of a character actor is not unprecedented In the 1970s, Telly Savalas served as Italian President for two terms, until he was replaced by Christophe Lambert. I think that Guy could be a very good president.

Pearce will take over from the 88 year old former President, who said he was tired and wanted a long nap.

GUY PEARCE IN AMOUR REMAKE

CANNES – Michael Haneke’s Foreign Lnaguage Oscar triumph Amour stars Jean-Louis Intriguing and Emmanuellle Riva as an elderly married couple dealing with the onset and progress of a terminal illness.

It is a nuanced and unsentimental drama of startling power and insight, but it is in French. Frank Coraci – director of Here Comes the Boom and The Waterboy – has signed on to direct the American language version starring Guy Pearce and Jennifer Lopez which will improve on the original because you go to the library to read, right? Not the cinema.

I met Frank Coraci at a climbing gym in West Hollywood. Frank admits that he hasn’t seen the original film. ‘I watched the trailer, but you know it was kinda depressing,’ he said.

You’ve cast Guy Pearce and Jennifer Lopez. Why not just cast old people?

Who wants to see old people? I mean come on. They kinda smell and anyway did you say Pearce in Prometheus, he was like all wrinkly and what not. That was better than an old person. He walked kinda slow and spoke all croaky. Unbelievable. Literally.

The theme of death and mortality is a hard one for Hollywood to confront without sentimentality, how are you going to do it?

With humor and an uplifting ending. In the original, the old bird snuffs it I think. Well, that’s cos in France you might not have doctors and hospitals and things – I don’t know but I’m guessing – whereas here in the USA, you know, there are always options. This is gonna be a pro-life movie.

You were tipped for an Oscar nod this year with Hear Comes the Boom. (CLICK HERE for that story.) Do you have any hopes Amour will receive some recognition?

I really had my hopes up with The Waterboy but when that didn’t even get a nomination I promised myself never to let my hopes rise to that level ever again. So I’m cautiously optimistic. But you know they never gave Hitchcock an Oscar and we’re on the same level I like to think.

PROMETHEUS DELETED SCENE REPAIRS ALL

HOLLYWOOD – It has been revealed that a seven minute deleted scene which will be restored to the Director’s Cut Extended Special 2 Disc Edition Blu-Ray, to be released in October will address many of the perceived failings of Ridley Scott’s much anticipated return to the Alien franchise.

The scene which is reported to come at the end of the film involves Noomi Rapace as Elisabeth Shaw waking up from hyper sleep to find the whole film has been a dream and the mission has yet to begin.

She describes to David (Michael Fassbender) the events of the film/dream, as he – unbelievingly – comments, ‘But that doesn’t make sense. Why would we take our helmets off?’

Ridley Scott – who has placed the blame for what he called ‘a fiasco of a film’ at the door of screenwriter Damon Lindeloff – says the scene was filmed prior to the theatrical release but had been edited out because he had deemed it ‘lame’.

‘In retrospect,’ the GI Jane director muttered, ‘It made a lot more sense than the actual film.’

Many fans have anticipated what is already being dubbed the Dallas solution, a reference to the return of apparently dead Bobby Ewing when his absence proved too much for the series. Some have also contested the chronology of the filming.

‘David’s dialogue actually quotes several of the more negative reviews,’ says Zooey Lodereck, writer for allpissedoff.com, who has seen a sneak preview of the material. ‘And his hair is all wrong. And both actors appear to be laughing.’

After all is said and done, Prometheus did make troughs of money and so the question is how will this scene effect the development of the sequel?