Little, not so little, bigger and biggest versions of the current Grace is Gone trailer can be yours for the taking. The Clint Eastwood tunes aren't in place yet, but that's possibly for the best.
I'd watch John Cusack read the phone book at a Beatnike java dive - providing Johnny Depp isn't reading it in the coffee shop just down the road. Or Paddy Considine. Or...
I could go on.
It has slipped out in interview that the release version of 1408 features a different ending to the one originally filmed.
I know what each of the endings were - at least according to an e-mail I've received (which I think is supposed to remain anonymous). The remainder of this post is to be spoiler material, I'm afraid.
Cusack's Enslin character starts a fire in room 1408. In the originally filmed ending, he dies. After his funeral, Jackson's Olin finds the dictaphone recording of his experience. This was tested and reshot, apparently proving too much of a downer. Indeed, sveral endings were tried, before the release one was settled upon.
In this approved version, Enslin and his wife move into a beach house, having physically survived, but is tortured by his memories of what went on in the hotel room. This is similar to the short story as published, but whereas that plays as quite extreme - the man now as mad as the hotel room once was - this is likely to be toned down somewhat.
Even the rejected 'director's cut' version with the fire was created under heavy Weinstein control, and from what I've heard, Halfstrom has had a terrible time dealing with their insidious influence and grasping ways.
As expected.
The two versions are expected to play as full features, probably via branching, on the DVD release, though many, many more deleted scenes - both from the conclusion and elsewhere - are likely to be included as standalone items.
I'm a Scott Alexander and Larry Karazewski fan, not a Weinstein fan, so obviously, I'm not pleased to be hearing all of these details. None of this is much of a surprise, of course, but it is still very sad.
- Speed Demon is coming up fast. The shoot will take place this summer, Stan Winston is producing and the plot involves an 'underworld enforcer' being chased in the dessert by the titular monster.
- MovieWeb are suggesting that John Cusack won't be reteaming with Savage Steve Holland, but his long-boiling Cosmic Banditos is still on the burner.
- Not only is Wings of the Honneamise coming to HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, the Blu-Ray disc will come packaged with a standard DVD edition of the film too. Brilliant.
- Tim Story has been put in charge of the film adaptation of The Losers. According to Variety, the original comic was "was published by DC Comics imprint Vertigo in the 1970s. Strip was revived several years." Not only did Vertigo not exist in the 70s, that second sentence is frighteningly like something I'd write. But we got the general shape of things, right?
- Vadim Perelman is remaking Failan, a Korean mob drama.
- Tea Leoni has signed to join Ricky Gervais and Greg Kinnear in Ghost Town. Two ou of three 'aint bad (certainly better than the one out of two we were up to yesterday).
- Dreamworks have shelled out for Colin Trevorrow's spec script, Tester.
- There's to be a ficitonalised film based upon A J Jacobs' book The Year of Living Biblically, an account of how Jacobs spent one entire year following the bible absolutely literally - both Old Testament and New. Sounds like Dave Gorman going on a mission to rankle fundamentalists. TV director Julian Farino is to direct, possibly after sorting out What Happens in Vegas with Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher.
- A month or so ago, I ran a poster for Major Movie Star, a Jessica Simpson vehicle. The film now has a director (that's right - a poster before pretty much anything else, possibly including a screenplay) and the rather amusing news is that this director will be Steve Miner. Sean McNamara, obviously, was too busy making a film about toys somewhere else and didn't have a spare lunch hour to put in his typical amount of 'effort'.
- Martin Campbell's Unstoppable could be very good - if he keeps his Bond second unit on board.
- Slamdance have put out the call for entries for their short film competition. They've got lots more going on too...
- Midway have coughed up their sponsorship money for the New York Asian Film Festival, after a little arm twisting.
- Wired have listed 10 reasons they believe free pornography doesn't threaten the adult industry. Does any of this apply to the non-porn movie world?
The director of Once Crazy Summer, Better of Dead and How I Got Into College is back from TV and revving up a new feature film - The Big One 3. This will be his first feature film in over 18 years - champagne must be in order, surely? I know I'm very happy about this.
The autobiographical script has been sitting about for a while, but now the money is in place and it's going to happen. According to the producer, Warren Zide, "This is based on a true events in Savage's life. When he was a kid, he had his 13th birthday party and the only one that showed up was a clown, and all that that guy did was hit on his sister."
I've been following Holland's work on TV the best I can (one morning BBC2 showed a Savage Steve episode of Lizzy McGuire followed by a Steve DeJarnatt one and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry) but it's his two self-written comedies, Dead and Summer that really count. This will be his third, making a loose kind of trilogy. I dare say this will have some animated sequences in it too. At least I hope so. And is he still in touch with Curtis Armstrong? Or Bobcat Goldthwait? John Cusack would be too much to expect though... surely?
Oh... and, no, this isn't a second sequel to The Big One. Hardy har.
The official 1408 site is now online, and is decked out with a handful of new stills, synopsis and trailer. Preview some of the stills below, with full click-to-enlarge -ability.
You can see the War, Inc. trailer, with John Cusack and Hilary Duff, online now in Medium, High and Ultra Quicktime versions.
Yes: Ultra.
I'm a very big fan of Cusack's and this looks something like another Grosse Point Blank to me - it may even have been devised as a sequel, because just the lead character's name tells me it isn't. Not sure we need another version of the same film, precisely, but that won't stop it from being very good indeed.
The trailer for Menno Meyjes' The Martian Child is now up on Moviefone - and thanks to Mike Markus, I know this. Shame I can't watch it though - Moviefone doesn't play along with little ol' Cusack lovin', UK livin', Mac usin' me.
Somebody YouTube it and give me a link? Thanks in advance.
[EDIT: I'll find a usable link myself then]
John Cusack and Hilary Duff are currently filming Brand Hauser together, but they will apparently be reteaming shortly afterwards for Mark Roper's Talking to the Dog. Not only do Cinema Blend compare this new movie unfavourably to Children of Men, which at the very least seems premature, as well as being rather shortsighted - the two films' dystopic similarities apply equally to countless other films - they also squint and moan a little about Cusack and Duff's pairing. Clearly, they're not aware of Brand Hauser, let alone eagerly anticipating it, like yours truly.
Moviehole have compared Talking to the Dog to both Blue Velvet and Mad Max. Intriguing. Odd that nobody has mentioned LQ Jones' A Boy and his Dog yet, though.
The Hollywood Reporter sez: James Strouse's Grace is Gone has been snapped up by the Weinsteins at Sundance. The film stars John Cusack as the widowed husband of a soldier in the Iraq war. Strouse was the screenwriter of Steve Buscemi's Lonesome Jim - which, oddly, features one of my former students in a tiny role.
While nobody has reported how much the Weinsteins shelled out but the film cost less than 5 million dollars, so it's bound to turn a profit on Cusack's rep alone.
Apparently, negotiations went on until 4.30am on Sunday morning with Fox Searchlight and Sony Picture Classics reps staying up late too, to no avail.
