Rachel Weisz Archives -

47 FILMS: 21. THE FOUNTAIN

In our continuing series of ’47 Films to see before you’re murdered in your dreams’, we look at Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain.

Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is a conquistador invading an ancient Mayan… no wait, sorry he’s Buddha, he’s a big bald Buddha floating in a bubble and looking after a tree … no hold that thought, he’s a doctor, a doctor with no sense of humor, experimenting on a monkey called Donovan hampered by a dying wife (Rachel Weisz) who’s writing a novel with a fountain pen. Or maybe he’s all of these things. Or maybe…

Following a tortured production history, The Fountain premiered in 2006 at the Venice Film Festival and was roundly and horribly booed. So much so that when The Wrestler won the Leone d’Oro, Mickey Rourke said on stage that ‘last time Aronofsky was here he fell on his ass.’ And there is a lot that is wrong with the film. It is preposterous, silly, doesn’t make much sense and Hugh Jackman is a limited actor, shown up by some of Aronofsky’s most cloth-eared dialogue: ‘Death is a disease just like any other and I WILL find a cure.’ The scale of its ambition also leaves it open to cries of pretension, especially with the scaling back of its budget so everything looks like what it is, shot on a sound stage in Montreal. But all that aside, this is an enjoyably mad ride. The music by Clint Mansell is astonishing, one of the best scores of recent years, and Aronofsky is constantly inventive. This is the Tree of Life as a graphic novel. There are moments where you’ll laugh at how ridiculous it is and other moments you might find yourself quite bizarrely touched.

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TERRENCE MALICK CONFIRMS STAR WARS ANTHOLOGY ‘JABBA’

HOLLYWOOD – Cult director Terrence Malick has confirmed that he will be directing a Star Wars Anthology movie, entitled simply: Jabba.

The reclusive director of The Tree of Life and To the Wonder, Terrence Malick will direct a new Star Wars spin off movie based on the early life of Jabba the Hutt entitled simply Jabba. Very little is known of the movie, but the Studio Exec was able to talk to the notoriously shy director.

This is what he said:

I’ve always been fascinated by the desert. One of my favorite films is Lawrence of Arabia, so when Kathleen [Kennedy] telephoned and said they were wondering if I’d be interested in doing anything in the Star Wars universe, I said straight away yes, but it would have to be set on Tattooine and the character I would be most interested in would be Jabba the Hutt.

Why Jabba the Hutt?

I’ve always been interested in the way a soul that is so capable of joy and glory, becomes also capable strangely of destruction and wickedness. Watching Return of the Jedi, I always thought that Jabba was capable of appreciating beauty, but at the same time his own ugliness made him destroy that beauty. His tragedy was that he could appreciate the lithe beauty of the dancing girl and slave Leia, but he could never truly reach them. His was forever a yearning without any real chance of contact. And that was the root of his violence.

I see.

I think it was Schopenhauer who said that life is divided between desire and boredom and in a nutshell that is Jabba’s dilemma. But in the new film we’ll see a young Jabba, a young creature with a dominant strict and somewhat distant father, and a beautiful dancing girl mother who represents grace and nature. It will be her early death in the maw of the Rancor that will scar the young Jabba forever and force him into believing that the toothed vagina of the Sarlacc Pit is the reality of love.

How will the film be stylistically?

Emmanuel Lubezki is very enthusiastic to be on board, so might beautiful photography. The Magic Hour will look gorgeous with the sand. You think of the best part of Episode IV, it was Luke gazing at the two setting suns. So we have more magic hour! We’ll have lots of voice-over. And Rachel Weisz will get cut out of the final movie again.

Who is going to play Jabba?

I know you want me to say Jonah Hill or Kevin James, just for the easy laugh. Am I right?

Okay, who will it be?

Jonah Hill. Definitely.

Jabba will be released in 2018.

Image courtesy of @ThePixelFactor.

FIRST LOOK AT TOM CRUISE IN MUMMY REBOOT

HOLLYWOOD – The first sneak peek has been leaked of Tom Cruise in the new Mummy reboot apparently titled Mummy Impossible.

The Tom Cruise version will be a mash up of the original Universal Mummy franchise and the highly successful Mission: Impossible series. As well as the diminutive Cruise, Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames are expected to star alongside Brendon Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah and Arnold Vosloo.

Tiny Thetan Tom popped in to the Studio Exec bungalow to talk about the new mash up:

This is going to be great. What we’re looking at is actually a prequel. I play Ethan Hunt’s grandfather Jeremiah Hunt who is a tall explorer in Ancient Egypt before the outbreak of the First World War.

Sounds great.

With his crack team of experts, Jeremiah Hunt is on the trail of the legendary Brendan Fraser. Some say the Brendan Fraser is a myth a, others believe a terrible curse attends him. All that is sure is that once Brendan Fraser was a bankable star but following one bad film with Elizabeth Hurley, nothing has been seen of him for years.

Bedazzled?

You are? Well, that’s probably an engram. But don’t worry it can be cured with Dianetics and money.

Mummy: Impossible will be released in 2017.

Image courtesy of @ThePixelFactor.

STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON DIRECTOR’S CUT FEATURES MORE CONTRACT NEGOTIATING

HOLLYWOOD – The new extended version of hit movie Straight Outta Compton released today, features extended scenes of contract negotiations.

Director F. Gary Gray promised that his new director’s cut of Straight Outta Compton will feature over an hour’s extra footage of contract negotiation and detail legalese about the career of iconic rap group N.W.A. Speaking EXCLUSIVELY to the Studio Exec, Gary Gray, or the Negotiator as he prefers to be known, had this to say:

We put as much about the different contracts in the film as time would allow. Obviously people wanted to see the music being produced in the studio and performed live and we were very concerned about capturing the excitement of all that but we were also really interested in getting the sense of N.W.A as a legal entity and how the percentages were divided. Who got what? And what were the tax payments maybe at the end of the fiscal year? We also wanted to show clearly how Ice Cube’s solo career allowed him to diversify his investments and make some very interesting decisions with a new brokerage firm that he employed, none of which made the theatrical cut. Rachel Weisz, who plays the hedge fund manager, was super pissed.

She was cut out of….

To the Wonder. I know. Paul Giamatti wasn’t crazy about the theatrical release of the film as well and I don’t blame him. Some of his best work was Jerry explaining the intricacies of the deal he had made with Eazy Z and the boys. And there’s a scene where he just shows Ice Cube (played by O’Shea Jackson Jr) a copy of the contract. We cut it down for running time and pace, but in the new version they read through the whole contract together and go over it clause by clause.

Wow. That actually changes the meaning of the story.

Every film has to have a villain and Jerry became outs, but in reality those boys spent more time talking about tax deductibles and creative financial solutions than they did about hitting the pipe and popping caps in asses.

Straight Outta Compton: The IRS Edition will be available from all outlets and digital media from today.

TERRENCE MALICK’S NEW FILM INSPIRED BY SON ZAYN MALIK

HOLLYWOOD – Terrence Malick’s new film The Singer Stepped Out is directly influenced by the career of his son Zayn Malik who recently left the ‘pop’ group One Direction.

The garrulous filmmaker and director of such films as The Thin Red Line and The Tree of Life Terrence Malick is to make a new film based on his son Zayn Malik’s singing career. Malick spoke EXCLUSIVELY to the Studio Exec about the venture:

It is going to be unlike anything I’ve ever done before. It’s not going to have a voice-over! And it’s actually a musical. But all that aside, it’s just great to have an opportunity to work with Zayn after years of being estranged.

What was the cause of the estrangement?

Well, I have always been a genius film director, but I guess I wasn’t always the best father in the world. I used to whisper a lot to him about nature and the soul and I guess kids just want to play Nintendo and have fun. For a while there he was very angry. So much so he even changed the way he spelled his name to a new trendy fashion without the ‘c’, but his career took off and we would find ourselves booked on the same talk shows.

Who had the idea?

We both came to a juncture in our careers. To the Wonder and Knight of Cups were greeted by audiences with the same warmth as you’d get offering urine samples in champagne flutes. Zayn had left One Direction and was at a loose end and we got talking about his career and we said why not? I think it’s going to be groovy to see our two audiences come together. Many of whom don’t even know we’re related. Zayn will play himself and Val Kilmer is on board to play Ryan Gosling. Ryan Gosling is playing Natalie Portman and Natalie Portman is playing Christian Bale. Mickey Rourke, Rachel Weisz and Adrien Brody are in it as well but we’ll cut them out. We always do. It’s kind of a tradition

Will any other One Direction members participate in the film?

That sack of talentless shits! No way.

The Singer Stepped Out will be released in 2019.

IMDb: THE MOVIE

THE MOVIE

LONDON – It is the internet movie resource everyone loves, full of trivia, goofs, alternate versions, message boards, images, trailers and cross referencing and now it’s going to be one of the movies that it seeks to catalogue: IMDb: the Motion Picture will beginning shooting in June, 2013 and will star Matt Damon, Orlando Bloom and Rachel Weisz.
Director Darren Aronofsky says that the project first interested him as he was finishing Noah.

I read Aaron Sorkin’s script and right off I thought here’s a story of obsession, obsessive fascination with cataloguing everything, and whose birthday it is on any particular day. Of course the challenge is to find a story in this Babel of stories but then… Wait a second, Babel, the tower of Babel? Noah 2 The Tower of Babel. Get Alan on the phone.

Matt Damon said that he was very excited by the prospect of playing the role of ‘Did You Know?’ who falls in love with ‘Now Playing’ played by Rachel Weisz.

It’s every actor’s dream to be completely devoid of emotion and convincing character, and instead to give encyclopaedic information about who was the Key Grip on Krull and all the alternate versions of the Big Wednesday.