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Logan’s Run to Be in 3D, Lobo Still Alive

Krystal Clark — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 17:49:17 +0000

If you’re still recovering from the news that Logan’s Run is being remade here’s another blow to your gut. According to the film’s producer Joel Silver, they plan on the feature being shot in 3D. Are you surprised? You shouldn’t be because we knew a movie of this caliber couldn’t escape the wrath of a third dimension.

It was announced that commercial director and Ridley Scott protege Carl Erik Rinsch would helm the film just last week. The new adaptation has been in development since the mid-nineties when Warner Bros first acquired the rights to the story. According to Silver,

We’re writing a script now and that should be a big 3D movie and it should be devised and shot in 3-D. I think if we can pull it together, then it would be.”

Boo! Why does it have to be in 3D? As a matter of fact, why does it have to be made? Silver didn’t stop there on his upcoming features list, he still has plans for the big screen adaptation of DC Comics’ Lobo. The comic book movie was essentially set as a directorial vehicle for Guy Ritchie but that didn’t pan out.

Apparently, Silver’s not ready to give up on the film just yet. They’ve been working on the script and doing tests. Lots and lots of “tests.”

“I want to do ‘Lobo’ too, and that should also be a 3D movie,” he said. “We’re working on the script now a little bit more. We did a test, a very effective test. We’re moving forward and I hope we can get that together.”

Once again why does 3D have to rear its ugly head here?

Do you think Logan’s Run and Lobo should both be done in 3D?

Source: MTV

Todd Phillips Project X Details Revealed

Krystal Clark — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 23:57:56 +0000

For a while we’ve been hearing that The Hangover director Todd Phillips has been working on a top secret project with super-producer Joel Silver. Both are on board to help put together a small R-rated comedy for the feature directorial debut of Nima Nourizadeh. Other than that, no big names are attached to star and the premise has been hidden from the world, until now…

According to FirstShowing, a close and reliable source gave them the inside scoop on what exactly it is that Phillips is working on.

The film is described as a party movie, but unlike films like Can’t Hardly Wait and other such one-night-of-chaos films before it, this will be shot in cinema-vérité style, where the audience will experience the party only through the first-person observer view of the camera, so essentially, we will be at the party too. Much like the Hud character in Cloverfield, the role of the observer through which we experience the party will be voice-over only. And to seal the deal on this party-going experience, the entire film will be presented in 3D (there’s a chance it could be shot in 3D, but with a $15 million budget, I don’t think that’s the case).

Even though everything sounds like it will be done off the cuff, there is a script involved so it won’t be that much improv going on. Silver and Phillips are also looking to cast no name actors instead of digging through the Hollywood teen set, so if you think you’ve got the chops and want to audition visit the casting call website. The premise is interesting but the idea of it possibly being in 3D sounds insane. Just thinking about a house party, alcohol, and 3D makes me want to vomit. That’s a dangerous combination.

What do you think of Project X? Does it sound interesting?

Sherlock Holmes London Press Conference

Ben McCarthy — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:50:30 +0000

One year later, after the press conference which launched the shooting of Sherlock Holmes, the cast and crew were back in the London’s Freemasons Hall to promote Sherlock Holmes. Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law, Joel Silver, Kelly Reilly, Mark Strong, Susan Downey, Dan Lin, Guy Ritchie, Lionel Wigram and Hans Zimmer attend the conference (sadly Rachel McAdams wasn’t able to make it), to explain how they were all introduced to Sherlock Holmes and what drew them to the project. Robert Downey Jr. was his typical wisecracking self, playing around with the audience and the cast and the crew, but everyone else was done in a rather typical “straight-laced must sell the film” mode.

Hope you enjoy.

Joel, what was it for you that attracted you to this project?

Silver: It’s a great movie. I think it potentially has franchise capabilities which is very good. I think Warners, we’ve mentioned this fellow, Jeff Robinov, the head of the studio, who actually is here today. It’s a worldwide press conference. Jeff, please stand up so we can… (applause) And sitting next to him is Sue Kroll, head of marketing. But I mean, I have to do that. But I think we have a chance at really having a lot of fun with this character, with this story. I think that you want to have a place to go with a movie. You want to have a place to start and it can continue past the end of the movie. I think we tried very hard to allow the audience to embrace the fact that there may be more of a story. I’m hopeful the audience loves it and enjoys it and we can continue our journey.

So what was your first intro to Sherlock Holmes?

Zimmer: I think pretty much, at the age of six, German translation, needless to say, when I started reading Sherlock Holmes. I certainly fell in love with it and carried on loving it all throughout my life.

Lin: For me, it was seeing young Sherlock Holmes in elementary school.

Wigram: For me, it was around about the age of eight or nine. My dad used to read them to me before I went to bed.

Reilly: I don’t remember exactly when it was but I just know that it was in my childhood. I can’t really put a finger on when.

Law: Mine was the TV series, the Jeremy Brett TV series.

Downey Jr: I’m the same as Kelly. On that point.

Ritchie: For me I was about six. They were the first stories I was familiar with actually. I knew them all extremely well. I knew them from school.

Strong: If you were a school boy growing up in England, he forces his way into your literary DNA. I think the first one I saw was, like Jude, Jeremy Brett.

Susan Downey: I saw Hounds of Baskerville and I’d read a couple of the short stories, but when this was percolating, I’m a very good student and I kind of locked myself away one weekend and read everything.

Silver: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, I remember those movies. They really had a lot of resonance for me and it was great to take what we saw and what we… I remember as those movies and bring to life today.

Guy, we’ve known you from smaller films. Why did you choose this one?

Ritchie: I chose it really because I needed the job. Aside from that, I wanted to go from small independent films and this seemed to be the perfect segway from something that was small, but I managed to hold onto an English identity but at the same time we had American muscle and American pockets. So it’s kind of been the perfect segway to me to have something that’s big and broad, but is essentially but with only American muscle.

Is there any more pressure because of that American muscle and those pockets?

Ritchie: You’ll have to ask me that in a few days once the film opens, but as yet it’s really the same, I think the same process is involved for a big film as it is for a small film. That may all change in a few days.

For the actors, what is required for the slow motion in terms of technique?

Downey Jr: (in corny accent) Am I expected to qualify this with an answer? (Back to normal voice) It’s a seven second take and so, if you notice, everything that happens that you never see in seven seconds you see in playback so I think it’s just about trying to do less.

There is a sense that because it is super slow motion there is no hiding.

Downey Jr: Yeah, often there’s not. Guy used to tell me, “Try one like you’ve just tasted like peanut butter,” and I thought that is the strangest direction I’ve ever gotten and it actually kind of worked.

Guy, is there an influence from Caballa in this movie and how was Israel for you?

Ritchie: Israel’s very nice.

If you can shorten that answer a bit…

Ritchie: (Laughs) Israel. No, if you come through the door of this building above the door it says Kaddish, Kaddish, Kaddish. So we actually derived most of our influence from esoteric schools from the Masons, loosely based on the Masons. But the Masons themselves are heavily steeped in Hebraic scripture so that’s really where we drew our inspiration.

Robert, Holmes has been an inspiration for many shows like House M.D. Are you a fan of that show. Also, were you scared about approaching this role?

Downey Jr: Scared. I don’t get scared anymore. I just get busy. I already knew by the time Guy was directing this that it was a fresh interpretation. And then, I’ve worked with Joel Silver a bunch, I’ve lived with Susan Downey a bunch. Lionel Wigram basically is the person who figured out how to reprise this as a film. So I knew I was in good hands and then it was just a matter of getting down to business. Fortunately I’d spent some time here in the late ‘80s playing Chaplin and I had a great tutelage in all things British from Lord Attenborough so I felt like I’d definitely passed go, but definitely felt the onus of, it’s not the fear of the judgment of others, at a certain point it just comes down to, will you meet the standards that people are expecting of you and you expect from them.

What about Hugh Laurie?

Downey Jr: Hugh Laurie. It’s nice. What did he say about Israel? No, no, that’s actually an interesting point. I like that guy.

Mark, the chance to play a nemesis in this must have been something you relished?

Strong: Yes, it was a… I’ve worked with Guy a few times, so it was great to come back and work with him. More importantly, I think the pressure was on to find a villain who was worthy of the greatest detective in the world. And I’m fascinated by the fact that, although everything else is cherry picked from the short stories and the novels, Blackwood isn’t and I think what that allowed the film to do was create whatever we wanted, which is even kind of more outlandish perhaps than anything you’d find in the novels. But he embodies Victorian and that whole kind of Imperial feel of showmanship that the Victorians are famous for.

Robert, can you talk about why you loved filming in Britain. And Jude, the locations you liked?

Downey Jr: Look, I was here 20 years ago and the food sucked. And I was not particularly happy. I was doing a movie called Air America. I renamed it Air Generica. And we were at Pinewood in these studios or whatever and then I came back and I did Chaplain. I think there’s something about the work ethic here. I think there’s something about the people and the culture. Obviously as Americans and I can speak for myself and Susan and Joel – there’s sometimes just a bit of an abrupt attitude that we have, like, “All right, we’re here, let’s get done with the work. Fuck what you’re going through. We’ll eat later.” And we were very shortly put in check that there’s a more civilized way to operate and that’s it nice to put out a little cheese, let’s talk, let’s be grown-ups about this. It is tea time. It’s tea time right now. See you later. (Laughs) And by the way, we’re not vulgar or anything, it’s just very much a part of the furniture here. And I think it was just, for me anyways, just a huge experience in the proper way to do things. I’ve taken it forth ever since.

Law: I don’t remember my part of the question.

Shooting in U.K.

Law: Oh yeah, well the production design did an amazing job embellishing what was already pretty historic sites.

Downey Jr: Sarah Greenwood.

Law: Beautiful. We’d turn up every day and they’d been there two days dressing and laying in stuff as far as the eye could see. The detail was exquisite. But it’s always fun to be out and about in film rather than in the studio. That goes back to what Joel said. This was a film very much taking Holmes… The kernel of the story’s a domestic drama if you like and you see them still delving and unpicking cases on a cerebral level, but also they’re out and about getting their boots dirty and their knuckles sore. It was fun work in the U.K. It’s always fun working in the U.K. I love coming home, making films here.

Susan, the guys have talked about the atmosphere on set created by Mr. Ritchie. Tell us about that.

Susan Downey: Well, it’s really interesting because it’s by far the most relaxed set I’ve ever worked on. I think I can speak for Robert, at least on that. And what I came to realize pretty quickly was that it was completely by design. And Guy, it’s very important to him, that essentially he’s running the show, sort of orchestrating what’s going on. But he wants everybody to sort of feel excited to come to work and excited to bring their best and bring their new ideas. And as a result he creates a very collaborative environment and what it resulted for us was this desire to always bring new ideas to the days work or what was upcoming. We spent a lot of time together. A lot of times on a movie set at lunch, everybody disappears. Producers go off and have meetings or you watch dailies or the actors go take a rest of something. We all would get together at lunch in a trailer and sort of spend half the time making each other laugh and the other half working on either that afternoon’s work or something that was upcoming. It worked out really well. I think Guy improved his guitar. I think if we played some EPK stuff from the beginning of the shoot and then at the end we’d see how well he did. But then you’d go by and suddenly everybody else had the guitar in their hand. It was just that kind of family, collaborative environment and it made for a lot of fun.

Presumably this was an artistic decision to go onto this scale. Are we going to lose you to Hollywood or will you still make small films?

Ritchie: I don’t know is the answer to that. I really sort of, I make the films that I want to make. The interesting thing about this experience was that it wasn’t the cliche experience between filmmaker and studio. You know, I argued for the studio. I wanted to make an accessible, broad, what they call a four quadrant movie. What they wanted was Guy Ritchie-isms, so to speak. I argued for the studio and the studio argued for me. It was like two people trying to get to the bar and the other one was trying to insist they should pay. So all the arguments between the studio and myself are coming from a positive place. I think studios have changed with their approach towards filmmakers. They want, and I’ve certainly found this with Warner Bros. and Jeff Robinov, who really does seem to support a filmmaker’s vision. So I had a tremendously positive experience from beginning to end. I had no negative arguments. There was no us and them, which I had anticipated and I’d heard was inevitable. That just didn’t happen.

What were the most challenging aspects of recreating Victorian London. Also Guy, there’s a cheeky nod to your own pub in the film. Did you invite everyone for a lock-in during the shoot?

Ritchie: Wouldn’t know about lock-ins. I think [the first question] is really a question for Sarah Greenwood, but I certainly had no complains, which I usually do. I’m used to having a hammer and nail myself in all the films that I’ve done before while I sort of knock things up. It was a relief to come to work and have these great cities built. They managed to manifest something that felt so authentic to me. Although we shot almost entirely on location. It was inspiring to see what it was the production department could manifest. So you’d have to really ask them about that. I just loved everything that they gave us to offer.

Guy, can you talk about the reshoots. Also, why such an attractive Watson.

Ritchie: Was the first question about reshoot. We always left, in every film I’ve ever done, I always leave a contingency week for reshoots because you never know what’s going to surface during the editing process. So we always leave a week and we left a week in this one. But if you look at the, am I happy with the result? Yes, it’s the film that we all intended to make. But if you look at, on the DVD, there are no deleted scenes either, which is rather disappointing for those that like deleted scenes. But there was absolutely no fat on this. Pretty much what we started with was what we ended up with.

And what about Watson?

Ritchie: Oh yes. It’s been coined the Hotson versus Potson scenario. What we wanted, we really wanted a good looking Watson and then in the tabloids it got coined Hotson. And this was because I’d always seen their relationship as much more of an equal partnership, more like Butch and Sundance, than I had seen it as this kind of bumbling Potson. So I just thought that was fair to Conan Doyle and also Lionel and I agreed on that. Lionel and I were always in agreement with how we thought this partnership should be portrayed.

Jude, are you in love again? Robert, have you ever been tied to a bed?

Law: The only person I’m in love with at the moment is here on my left (talking about Downey).

Downey Jr: Where are you? (looking for journalist) I want to look in your fucking eyes. There we go. You’d like to know if I’ve been involved in sadomasochistic activities, sexually? I’ll answer answer this if you meet me in the bathroom with a little mask on. Bring your rubber mask and I’ll tell you.

Kelly, how did you cope trying to play the character with these two behaving like this?

Reilly: It was very difficult. Hell. No, I think Watson should have warned Mary before they go for dinner. I think he should have said he may be a bit tricky with you.

Law: How satisfying was it throwing that glass of wine, though?

Reilly: It was my first day on the first week of filming. I was terrified.

Downey Jr: You’d probably rather have done it closer to the end of the shoot?

Reilly: Yeah. (Laughs)

How many times did you have to do it?

Reilly: Oh, I can’t remember.

You didn’t do it the first time?

Reilly: No, I think I missed first time. But yeah, three or four. But I think what’s nice about Mary is that she’s the woman behind the already good man and the fact that she can actually have a place in that relationship that isn’t the woman that wants him to stay at home. She does love him as much as Holmes does and wants him to go and continue his adventures, but unfortunately you didn’t see it like that.

Robert, you mentioned that the food sucked in the U.K. 20 years ago. Was there anything you liked? Also, Guy didn’t have a lock-in, so have you been to the Punch Bowl?

Downey Jr: First of all, I kind of sucked 20 years ago. Far be it from me to say what was good and where. I barely remember any of it. But there’s a ton of good restaurants. As a matter of fact, I think we should just stop the press conference now and start passing around notes. I believe Automat is quite the spot right now.

Interview: The Reinvention Of Sherlock Holmes

Ben McCarthy — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 21:31:09 +0000

Sherlock Holmes is one of the recognized characters in English literature. It also holds the Guinness World Record for the most portrayed movie character, with 70 actors playing the famous detective in over 200 films, starting from 1930 straight through to 2009. The film is based on the graphic novel created by Lionel Wigram, which in turn is based on the Arthur Conan Doyle short stories.

In London, the home of Sherlock Holmes, directors Guy Ritichie, actors Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law, and Mark Strong, producers Joel Silver, Susan Downey, Dan Lin, and writer Lionel Wigram were all on hand to tell us why they brought the world’s famous detective back to the screen and how they intend to re-introduce the character to an new audience. They believe that this film is a closer adaptation to Arthur Conan Doyle’s original’s vision of the character than any other previous efforts and most importantly, their Holmes is most importantly quintessentially English at all times (despite having an American actor playing the role).

Of all the iconic characters to bring back, Why Sherlock?

Guy Ritchie: Partly because I was invested in Sherlock Holmes as a child, so I really had a strong visual sense of who I thought Sherlock Holmes should be. But not only that. I hadn’t seen any other productions, unlike most people, I had no visual reference other than what I’d knocked up in my mind. Warners came to me with it as an idea and as soon as they mentioned it, I was fascinated.

Lionel, how did you make sure you maintained that integrity of Sherlock Holmes?

Wigram: It comes from fandom. This whole movie really. I was a fan from being a kid and everybody on this roster either was a fan of Sherlock or became a fan during the shooting of the movie. We kept constantly referring back to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories. Every scene in the movie, we tried to have at least one piece of Arthur Conan Doyle dialogue and we just kept going back and back and back and really harvesting those amazing stories, which are so rich, for as much detail as we could put in there. It was essential to us. There’s a reason why Sherlock Holmes has lasted 122 years and it’s because the stories are so good and he’s created such amazing characters in Holmes and Watson. We really wanted to maintain that.

Is this an accurate film version of what Doyle intended or a revisionist version?

Downey Jr: Let’s all answer at the same time. It will be real fun.

Ritchie: It’s subjective obviously and it has to come through some sort of creative conduit. I was, as the director, to some degree that conduit. But from a very young age, I had an idea, an image, of Sherlock Holmes and the partnership. So I feel as though I’m informed by and I drew most of my creative ammunition from Doyle. But it’s subjective. Every other production, obviously, has to deal with that that came before it.

Downey Jr: Play it back later, you’ll get that. There’s an esoteric element to this as well and that sometimes you just feel like you’re in the right groove and you feel the history and the legacy of something. Particularly, I’m sure you could say this about Shakespeare and having just done Hamlet. Sometimes you just feel like you are being silently approved of from some other place and time. There were times when we were so locked into exactly as Doyle expressed it. You can’t beat the guy’s words, so we had one of his quotes on a call sheet every day. But then we had to twist it up a little bit. I think it’s no mystery that Sherlock Holmes didn’t invent the silencer. If he invented it, he certainly did a crap job because it doesn’t work. But that he’s shooting the letters V.R. is right from one of the books and I think that has to do with what the Jubilee or Virginia or something like that, so that’s a strange way to celebrate. It spoke to how strange the guy was. So it’s just an interesting way to get the job done, that we were honoring it but still being entertaining.

So is this the most authentic production of the character then?

Silver: Yeah, I mean if you look at the original movies, they were stuffy. They used to have a phrase in the old days of Hollywood: There were rug movies and dust movies. Cary Grant was the greatest rug actor of all time because he would do movies in bedroom parlor baths, kind of interior movies. And I think in those original movies, they were rug movies. They were all kind of inside, intellectual pictures. But clearly this Sherlock is a dust actor. Downey can do anything, but he is, in here, outside of the books, showed a man who is a man of action. I think that, what we did, we invested ourselves in trying to make a contemporary movie that feels fresh and original but still embraces what Conan Doyle did. I hope we succeeded.

Lin: There were two important things when Lionel first brought the graphic novel to me and brought it to Jeff Robinov at Warner Bros. and he immediately said, “I get it.” One was, there was a very hip, contemporary style to the period setting. That was really fresh. And two, Lionel had a very strict point of view that it wasn’t going to be an origin story. This was not Batman Begins. This was not Spider-Man. We’re going to catch Sherlock and Watson in the middle of their career and as a result it’s a very different dynamic between the two of them.

Was it considered to be a risk for the film for not including the deerstalker hat and the famous line “Elementary my dear Watson”?

Ritchie: It was, the “elementary my dear Watson” never happened, actually. And the Deerstalker never happened in the books. And although we all are aware of the obvious symbols of Sherlock Holmes, we along the line made a decision early on that if we were going to do this, we’d have to dust off Sherlock Holmes and create what we thought to be, to some degree, an authentic Conan Doyle version of Sherlock Holmes that wasn’t contaminated with previous symbols so we could have, to a degree, a fresh take on Sherlock Holmes.

S. Downey: We actually contemplated when we were developing it, doing something with the Deerstalker at the beginning of the movie to kind of send that message. But once we shot the first scene of the movie, it was so clear that we felt like, you know, the way Guy was telling it, the way he was shooting it, the story we were telling, the interpretation of the actors said it all. So it was almost, certainly unnecessary and almost obnoxious to try and really put it out there, that oh we’re not doing that and really let the picture speak for itself.

Robert and Jude, the relationship between Sherlock and Watson on screen reminds us of an old married couple at times. How did you create that chemistry? Where was your first introduction to Sherlock Holmes?

Law: My second job on TV was in the Sherlock Holmes TV series. I played the stable boy. We started work the minute we met, didn’t we.

Downey Jr: We were trying to get him to do the movie and you’re a pretty savvy guy, so it’s not like it’s all just talk, talk, talk, it’s, “Are you interested in making the best version of this?” The great feedback we’ve been getting today is that they say the movie is about the two of you and the third thing that creates. Well, it’s one thing to promise you can get there and it’s another thing to just roll up your sleeves and get into it. Guy created such a sublime atmosphere. There was no, we weren’t sure that it was going to turn out as well as it did, but we just really efforted and efforted and, you know, it’s this whole thing of like… It’s so funny to me, because usually I’m used to you saying, “Well you and so and so, this female, had this great chemistry,” and they’re talking about Jude and I like we should be doing romantic comedies together. But this film is not a comedy and it’s a love affair of sorts. It’s about what it’s about, but I think Holmes and Watson are aspects of all of us and I think that we knew when to Yin and Yang back and forth and we were just a good team, you know?

How do you see these characters that you’ve reinvented for this movie, how you see them as different than what we’ve seen before. And Robert, this movie is none of the seven percent solution and was that your input not to be part of something that glamorized cocaine use?

Law: When I was asked to get involved, Robert was already set as Sherlock and Guy was directing and I knew from then that it was going to be a different take on the older films of Sherlock Holmes. And it fascinated me and obviously they were coming to me not to put on two stone and fall around, put my foot in waste paper baskets, but they were going to ask me to play Watson with a bit more edge. What was intriguing, because I hadn’t read the books as a boy, was to go back to the books and realize how much of this new rediscovery, if you like, was also in the source material. So it was a kind of juggle between going back to Conan Doyle and relishing in all the accuracy that perhaps at times in the part had been overlooked. And also looking into the future and adding a new energy to an audience that we hope will discover Sherlock Holmes for the first time.

Downey Jr: I loved the seven percent solution. It was never a high enough percentage for me. (Laughs) Kind of weak, tepid solution for me. This is a PG-13 movie and even if it wasn’t, the idea is, if you go back to the source material, he’s never described as being some strung out weirdo. Also, back in Victorian times, it was absolutely legal, acceptable. You could move down to your corner pharmacist and grab all that stuff, so we thought it would be irresponsible to not make reference to it and, so again, I think a lot of the flaming hoops we had to jump through doing Sherlock were, how do you take what comes from the source material and how do you amend it so that it’s accessible and how do you not whitewash it but how do you still be respectful to that. If there’s anything that we’ve added this time around, it’s essentially, as much as it’s about this very far-reaching case and Holmes and Watson save life on Earth as we know it, you know, it’s also about a fight over, well, you, isn’t it Kelly? It’s a fight over Mary Morsten.

Sherlock Holmes is a “man of action” in this new interpretation, how was the fight choreography of the bear knuckle boxing scene Robert:

Downey Jr: : They were a choreographed version of it. I went in and got all pissy about it. Guy came in and we worked on it. So I think you were seeing version 6.0 by the time we shot it. But Guy is a Jujitsu fellow. We managed to get along somehow. It was so fun. And by the way, by the time we were done shooting that scene, I felt like we really had a handle on the movie. Not because we’d finally top-lit me and I’d shown my rippling abs and all that self-important garbage, but because this was Guy’s ideas, Holmes vision, and it was a really bold thing and it could have gone very poorly in which case the rest of the movie is trying to recover from the bad Guy Ritchie idea that we went out and shot. It was literally perfect and I think it set the tone. It was just his take on the film, so it was about me trusting him and us getting each other’s approval, so to speak.

Finally, what is it about Sherlock Holmes that makes him quintessentially English:

Law: I don’t know. In part it’s the period. He’s a caricature of that period, but what Doyle managed to create was a three dimensional character. He’s flawed, which isn’t necessarily conspicuous in many of our contemporary heroes. And the fact that he is rather selfish, rather arrogant and suffers from depression, I think we can all, there’s things about Sherlock Holmes that make us interested in him as a character. But I don’t quite know why he’s so quintessentially English. Robert, perhaps you’d like to try and answer that one.

Downey Jr: Ask an Englishman. Mark? (Laughs)

Strong: I don’t think Conan Doyle wrote him with a view to him being quintessentially English. I think the point is that he’s become considered as being quintessentially English. And what this film does is reexamine that and make it something much more interesting than the slightly stuffy version of Holmes we’ve all become used to.

Sherlock Holmes is out nationwide on Christmas Day.

Possible Villain for Sherlock Holmes Sequel

Ben McCarthy — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:01:45 +0000

During the Sherlock Holmes Press Conference in London, it was inevitable for a question to be asked about the possible return of Sherlock Holmes’s arch nemeses, Lord Moriarty, for the next installment of the Sherlock Holmes franchise.

When Joel Silver was asked “Will Moriarty be at the centre of things in the possible next installment?” he was very coy in his response….

“The question haven’t been answered yet, so we have left that up to ourselves to answer, so there is no real response to that question”

Then, Robert Downey Jr. added in his usual charming and yet smart-ass manner:

“Suffice to say, I have casting approval.”

This certainly coincides with rumors circling around about Brad Pitt being asked to play the role of Lord Moriarty by Robert Downey Jr. himself. In the film itself, there are plenty of question left unanswered for the impending sequel, which depends on the success of this film.

Personally, if they are looking for an actor to play Lord Moriarty, it should have been Mark Strong, but since he was already the main villain, Lord Blackwood, in Sherlock Holmes, I doubt they’ll be able to have he come back.

At the moment, Guy Ritchie isn’t signed up to do another Sherlock Holmes as he is signed on to do an adaptation of Lobo, again with Silver and with Warner Brothers. But he hasn’t ruled out the possibility of making another Sherlock Holmes film himself. So it all hinges on how much money this film is able to pull in.

Would Lord Moriarty make a good villain in the second Sherlock Holmes film? If so, who do you think should play him?

Francis Lawrence to Direct Sgt. Rock

Krystal Clark — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:57:45 +0000

Here’s an update on the long awaited comic adaptation, entitled Sgt Rock. Sure it sounds like an eighties musical revival but give it a chance. According to Reuters, the DC Comics property may finally hit the big screen after years of sitting in development hell. Some of you might not be familiar with the character, so lucky for you we’re here to give you lowdown.

Sgt. Frank Rock is a World War II hero who was the leader of his infantry unit, Easy Company. He made his first comic appearance in 1959 in an issue of Our Army at War, which almost 20 years later was renamed Sgt. Rock and continued to run until 1988. The character will get a makeover when it hits the big screen thanks to the folks over at Warner Bros. and producer Joel Silver.

Rock will no longer be set during WWII, but will make the leap to the future. The story for the comic adaptation will take a cue from the likes of The Dirty Dozen, which was an all American action flick. The film has been in development for nearly 20 years and I Am Legend helmer Francis Lawrence will take on the job as director.

The film previously had Guy Ritchie attached to direct, but that deal eventually fell through. The studio hired a newbie writer Chad St. John to tackle the script so this should be an interesting story to follow. As a fan of The Dirty Dozen and The Magnificent Seven, it would be cool to see that type of rugged vigilante justice on the big screen again, but didn’t Quentin Tarantino already do that with Inglourious Basterds?

What do you think of an adaptation of Sgt. Rock?

Joel Silver on Sherlock Holmes, Ninja Assassin and Swamp Thing

Mali Elfman — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:34:18 +0000

Today at a press conference for Whiteout, the producer of the film Joel Silver spoke about two of his upcoming project that about about to be released, Ninja Assassin which was pushed from the start of the year to the end, the highly anticipated Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, and the possibility of yet another remake, but with a 3-D twist.

Silver, didn’t reveal too much new information. If there is some big secret about why Ninja Assassin’s got the push to November, he certainly wasn’t giving any away…

Ninja Assassin was supposed to be released at the start of the year, why are we getting it in November?

Nov 25th is a great date for the movie. It really felt the right time. It’s a fall picture. It’s a full on martial arts movies and we really felt like that was the best place for it so that’s where it went.

Same kind of goes for Sherlock Holmes, although he did convince me that this is very much a Guy Richie film.

What we don’t know about Sherlock Holmes is about any of mystery behind it. What can you tell us about it?

Sherlock is spectacular. It’s a retelling of the original stories. It’s a re-invention of what Sherlock was at the time in 1891. And it’s a much closer to the original character was like in the books as opposed to what it became in the movies. And Robert Downey and Jude Law make a great team as Holmes and Watson and it’s a great mystery. It’s a legendary tale about how he figures things it out, which is really part of the essence of the story and what Guy has done very effectively is show how he does that. I think the movie works really well.

Guy Ritchie slowly divulging a complex plot while giving us jokes and action scenes? We’ve never seen that before (except for of course Lock Stock, Snatch, Revolver, etc.) I happen to like a number of Guy Ritchie films, so that coupled with two great actors. Sure why not!

It’s designed to keep people guessing?

Absolutely. It’s got it all

Of course Joel, of course.

He also talked about another remake he might have up his sleeve, one in which he’s considering using 3-D for:

I’m developing a picture now that I’d like to do… Swamp Thing, which is a movie we’ve had for a long time. We think that would be great to do in 3D. There are a couple of projects I’m thinking about (for the format) but not everything.

This is actually a film I wouldn’t mind see updated, although I am by no means excited for it… yet.

What say you oh faithful readers on his upcoming movies? Are you excited for another Swamp Thing?

Liam Neeson Cast as Unknown White Male

Krystal Clark — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 02:25:54 +0000

Here’s some news I’m glad to hear. One of my favorite actors Liam Neeson has signed on to star in another kick ass role. According to THR, the Irish actor has signed on to star in Unknown White Male. Doesn’t that sound cryptic? It should, because it’s an upcoming thriller being produced by Dark Castle and Warner Brothers.

Unknown White Male will be directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. He’s the same guy who helmed last month’s Orphan, which was also produced by Dark Castle. The film’s story centers on “a doctor (Neeson) who,while visiting Berlin with his wife, is in a car accident that leaves him in a coma. He awakens to find that he seemingly has been replaced by another man, one with sinister intentions, leading the good doctor on a frantic quest to uncover the truth.”

I get the feeling that I’ve seen this movie before, but Liam Neeson’s in it so I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt. Even though I hated the remake of House of Wax, I thoroughly enjoyed Orphan. I thought it was a good horror film that too many people slept on. Shooting for Unknown White Male starts early next year in January.

What do you think of Liam Neeson’s latest movie role?

Comic-Con: Robert Downey Jr., Rachel McAdams Talk Sherlock Holmes

Mali Elfman — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 02:11:39 +0000

Earlier today we spoke to Robert Downey Jr., Rachel McAdams, Susan Downey, and Joel Silver at the press conference for Sherlock Holmes at Comic-Con 2009. The gang was in good spirits and being lead by their fearless leader RDJ who kicked off the clips of the film earlier during the panel and was the main topic of conversation.

Check out what they had to say below…

Robert can you talk about your take on Sherlock Holmes?

Robert: My take is what the puritans would expect, if the puritans know what I’m talking about that is. Several of the most surprising things right off the bat are that off associated props have never appeared in the novels or the short stories, he never wore a cap except maybe once for a minute, but even then it was described differently, and even the long pipe was just something that William Gillette used to not obscure his face on stage so the very thing that the kind of, somebody smarter than me will know this, what do you call something when they call something out of black paper? Silhouette — even those things aren’t really quite accurate so we just went back as much as we could without wanting to be reverent beyond repair to help Doyle explain the characters.

Robert you have a great way of making all of the characters feel very natural. Is that easy to bring to this period in this material?

Robert: Well it’s never easy to be relaxed, but we work really hard to make it seem that way and we would write out dialogue to make it seem more nature and have a flow to it, but I think the other great thing about doing a period piece and doing something that’s so specific to — and I really do think Doyle was an amazing, amazing writer and story-teller, I didn’t really quite know how great he was until we kept reaching out to find quotes and things he had said or descriptions he’d said or really more philosophical points of view that Doyle used through Sherlock Holmes — the boundaries are it’s Victorian England and they’re gentleman and so it’s not some of that wavy-gravy free-flowing stuff, there are more boundaries, which I think is a great challenge.

Rachel do you have a lot of fun doing this? In the trailer it seems like you have an awful lot of fun, can you talk about the costumes and how that works within your character?

Rachel: Yeah, she’s a really fun character because she’s quite different from a lot of women of that time. She’s really her on boss, she’s a real free spirit and she’s a woman of the night and of the underworld, so she’s very acrobatic and she’s traveled all-over the world and so there’s lots to play there and yeah, then the costumes, I’m such a girl-girl so I was in heaven just dressed, being dressed from the head down and the costumes are incredible, I man real life corsets with the bones and totally cinch in and I would try to push my belly out in the morning when they were coming to strap me in, I mean it really was like out of Gone With the Wind and I’m holding on to the trailer door and trying to eek out just a little bit of space so I can speak properly, but they managed to squeeze me in everyday — they tried to make me laugh and on the laugh they’d go [tightening-expression] they’d yank, but it was so much fun to be that authentic, to be really dropped right into the period, you know it was great.

Robert, ten years from now, will you still like to be playing characters like this?

Robert: Well, I think about rock-stars and they always say their going to retire by this or that age and then I think about other guys who shall remain nameless, one of which just starred with Rachel in a movie, who had double franchises, and I think the thing is if the material is still good and if you still love working with the people you get to work with then why not? I wouldn’t want to launch anything else, but I think that Sherlock Holmes in particular has just been such a life-changing experience, the act of researching it and making it and Joel and I get to do something big together and Lionel and Susan and Rachel and Jude, I’m so sorry that he’s not here today, he’s so the right arm of this movie. He went to go do something undeniably legitimate so he’s doing Hamlet right now. We of course say, Hamlet, anyone can do that, he was a huge part of this movie, so really the answer to the question is, I’m down for the cause, by then I’ll probably have another kid, a non-alcoholic vineyard.

Describe the relationship between you and Jude in the film.

Robert: Our fearless leader here, and by the way I’ve heard this is like a staple now, “We need a sundance-scene there and we need a — and what’s the other scene they need?” It’s another thing entirely to get in the spirit of what does that mean? People are so close that they almost can’t stand each other, but they can’t stand on their own two feet without each other, that’s what we really felt. Doyle was giving us the first look at what was essentially a two-hander and Doyle essentially is Watson because he’s telling the stories, but saying Watson’s telling them. The process with Jude really was — my assistant who never cares about anything is like standing in the hall, she’s like (yawn sound), and he’s walking down the hall and you know, he’s dressed like fabulous under-dressed and I just said, literally before he said he was available, before he said he wanted to be recorded, we just started talking like two serious actors about what would need to happen to make this work as a piece of straight drama and I think we just became really close really quick because we just rolled up our sleeves and started working from jump.

What’s the take on Sherlock Holmes concerning technology?

Joel: I mean to an extent, I wouldn’t go far, it’s not like a Wild Wild West. It really is a movie they would make in ’91, but it is as if we shot it then, it doesn’t really feel like, it feels like it was shot in 1981 with incredible camera work, but yes, there’s a part of the industrial revolution, it’s happening, but it’s not so much what’s going on and the details aren’t that liberate, but Sherlock does go more than anybody else and I think officially he’s the only fictional character admitted to the Institute of Chemistry, or what’s the name? And he was thought of as an actual chemist in the way Doyle wrote about him and Holmes knows everything, I mean it’s unbelievable, but he knows everything and he figures things out and there’s a great line in the movie where someone says to him, “Holmes, how did you see that?” [And Holmes says] “Because I was looking for him.” And that’s like a perfect, you know, Holmes-moment and I think that they were always trying — they had the books in their hands and they were always trying to go back to the back to the books and actually take lines out of the books where Sherlock Holmes will say, “Data! Data! Data! I can’t make bricks without clay.”

Robert: There’s a million of them, they are the best lines you could ever want to say

Joel: And these are one of those lines, so I think that it really feels like the way it should be, and look we all love the Basil Rathbone-Nigel Bruce version of the movie, but it’s very different then what we made.

(The panel jokes about making a dirty movie).

Robert: By the way tabloid was the fucking word I was thinking of when we said silhouette.

How is it like to work with Guy Ritchie?

Robert: I’m going to pass that over to Susan Downey who has probably the best executive view on this, don’t hold back.

Susan: Oh, no god, I mean he’s a characters, he’s a — Joel and I had worked with him RocknRolla, but obviously this was a much bigger movie, the scope of the movie, the time we had to shoot it, the money we had to make it and all that. And what’s really great about guy is he has a sense of what the feel, the vibe, the tone is going to be, which is what you see reflected in his movies and he was also very conscious that he was being given an opportunity to show kind of a different side of himself as a director, so I think you’re going to recognize his sense of style, but it’s going to be brought to a whole new level so as far as working what we observed working with the actors is that he gives them a lot of leeway, but there are perimeters, but he let’s them kind of do their thing and he’ll watch and then he’ll come in and if he likes it he’ll let ‘em just kind of go with it and if he doesn’t everybody clears out and he’s steps in, he kind of puts his writer’s hat on and he sits with them and hammers it out until we et the scene right and he’s one of the most efficient directors we’ve ever worked with, he’s very time-conscious, sometimes to the point where you’re like, “Dude, just take the time you need, we’ll make it work.”

Robert: I’ll give you an example of than in a minute.

Susan: Okay, no sometimes he’ll just be, “C’mon, c’mon, we have the crew ready, we got to go, let’s just get it right,” but he’s really good about coming in and tweaking and shaping and doing that, but he lets everybody else do their jobs, he’s not one of those directors who’s going to micro-manage and I think Robert’s worked with a few of those, so it’s probably a little refreshing for that.

Robert: At some point in shooting he actually took on guitar teacher because he felt that you know, why shouldn’t he be utilizing his time more efficiently –

Susan: In between set-ups –

(Laughs).

Robert: Now, Rachel McAdams first day of shooting, she prepares for six and a half hours, comes to set, there’s two long-lens cameras, we did two takes, and I was like, “Rachel, now we’re going to cover it,” because it’s her first shot, and Guy’s like, “No that’s all right, we got it,” and I was like, “Susan we don’t got it (shrieking sound)!” Rachel’s like, “Should I have my stand in do it?” And you look in the movie, it’s the scene where I’m looking across the punch bowl and we see that she wins at me and he had it.

Rachel: He knew he had it.

Robert: He had it but sometimes you want to do more, particularly when you get all gussied up for half a day, you want to feel like you’re working there.

Rachel: We just want to indulge ourselves.

We’ll be posting videos for the press conference and the panel soon, so make sure to check back in!

Sherlock Holmes Set Visit and Photos

Krystal Clark — Thu, 07 May 2009 01:05:43 +0000

Over at USA Today they have gotten a hold of some exclusive photos from the upcoming film Sherlock Holmes. Featured in their article is a nice interview from the film’s creative forces and it’s stars. Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, and one of the film’s producers Joel Silver weigh in on the film and what we can expect when it’s released this Christmas. Guy Ritchie’s adaptation of the Arthur Conan Doyle classic is looking to set itself a part from it’s predecessors, while sticking with the familiar.

View interview highlights and photos after the jump.

Recreating a legendary literary character who’s already had several reincarnations on film is a tough job. One might wonder if Ritchie felt any pressure going from his smaller indie films to a big budget period piece with well known stars.

“I didn’t really think of the downside as much as I thought about the upside,” the filmmaker says. “I was a Holmes fan when I was a child. They are the first stories I remember. I also liked the approach the studio was coming at. To me, it was the perfect segue from small independent films to something more ambitious and quintessentially English. So I’ve got my cake and I can eat it.”

In a time where Hollywood has become a huge remaking, reimagining, and rebooting machine it’s no surprise they decided to give this iconic character another go. According to producer Joel Silver there was a specific reason for that.

“The word of the day is ‘branding,’ ” says Hollywood mogul Joel Silver, another of the film’s producers and a force behind the Die Hard and Matrix series. “We are always looking for branded ideas. Audiences are interested in seeing something they know.”

Even though they want to stick to something old, they have added newer elements to freshen up the story. Holmes isn’t a stuffy suit and tie in this film. The filmmakers take things from the book and amp them up to add newer dimensions to the characters. One of the main differences being Holmes’ updated fighting style, which co-star Jude Law explained is vaguely mentioned in the book.

“The physicality, the bare-knuckle fighting, the martial arts are all hinted at in the books,” he says. “We just hold a magnifying glass over them. A word that Conan Doyle uses an awful lot is ‘apprehended.’ As in, ‘Holmes and Watson apprehend the villain.’ We get to show the apprehension.”

That’s a nice spin to put on it. I wouldn’t mind him getting all MMA on a bad guy. If you want to read more from the Sherlock Holmes set visit you can check it out here.

Now for the photos!

So what do you think of Holmes’ hobo-chic and Watson’s librarian look?

Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a ‘Loser’

Krystal Clark — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 04:06:55 +0000

Somebodies been bit by the superhero bug, and his name is Jeffrey Dean Morgan. We’ll have an exclusive interview up on him in the next few days for his role as The Comedian in next month’s graphic novel feature, Watchmen, but he’s already moving on the the next film! Although not very far. It looks like he will be signing on for another comic book film. According to Variety, Morgan is in talks to star in the DC-Vertigo comic adaptation, The Losers.

The Losers are a special black-ops team whose members originated from several different branches of the military. In their own units, each one of them at some point or another lost a soldier under their command, hence they dubbed themselves “The Losers.”

As if this group wasn’t sad enough, each one of them are on a hit list to be taken out by the government. The very institution they pledged to protect, wants them dead. That’s gotta hurt. According to IESB, Morgan is set to play the team’s leader, Sarge Clay.His character is known for his signature look of “black suits without ties.”

The Losers will be directed by Sylvain White who’s last feature was the surprise hit, Stomp the Yard.The film will be financed by Dark Castle Entertainment, which means super-producer Joel Silver is somewhere in the mix. Silver along with Akiva Goldsman, and Kerry Foster will produce the film, from a script written by James Vanderbilt.

He-Man Get’s a ‘Kung Fu’ Director

Krystal Clark — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:00:28 +0000

I’ve been noticing a serious shortage in underwear clad superheroes and finally someone’s stepping up and representing for the Barbaric set. For a little over a year I’ve been hearing rumors of a He-Man movie hitting the big screen. It was always screenwriter this, producer that, but nothing solid. Oh, how things have changed. According to SuperHeroHype, He-Man is official, and they’ve got a director to prove it! Super producer Joel Silver along with Warner Brother’s Studio have chosen John Stephenson (Kung Fu Panda) to direct the film.

He-Man is a brawny prince who transforms into a warrior who becomes the last hope for a magical land called Eternia, which is being ravaged by technology and the evil Skeletor.

The Mattel property became iconic by way of the 1980s cartoon series “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe,” and the property was previously turned into a 1987 film starring Dolph Lungdren as He-Man and Frost/Nixonstar Frank Langella as the villainous Skeletor.

I must admit, even for the first film to be as campy and 1980′s as it was I can’t deny how awesome Frank Langella’s performance was as Skeletor. If Sir Laurence Olivier can play Zeus in Clash of the Titans, any other cheesy material is fair game. Yet, my major question is this, isn’t there a Conan the Barbarian film in the works too? Don’t they cancel each other out?

Who would win in a fight He-Man or Conan? I can’t choose! It’s like Sophie’s Choice!

ScreenCrave.com » joel silver

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