We hope there is a bit more to it as Robin Wright is eyeing directing "The Archivist" a film that follows "the United States’ premier archivist, who loses a precious account to his ex-wife in the UK and ends up desperately trying to win back the account, and eventually, his wife." So is it a comedy? A romantic drama? Oh what tangled webs we weave when we archive across borders.
The film has a script by Ann Cherkis whose only credit is a David Duchovny and Olivia Thirlby horror film, "The Secret." Colin Firth has been offered the lead role, but of course, it remains to be seen if any of this ends up coming together.
Colin Firth has always been a good actor — even in bad films, like Michael Winterbottom's still-unreleased-stateside "Summer in Genoa"—but thanks to a major role in the blockbuster screen adaptation of "Mamma Mia!" and his Best Actor nomination for Tom Ford's "A Single Man" last year, he's inching ever closer to becoming a household name. This means that everyone's interested in what he does next, especially since he's been tipped as an Oscar nominee again for his role in upcoming Weinstein Co. contender "The King's Speech."
People even care when said new Firth project is a short directed by actor Rupert Friend ("The Young Victoria"). And maybe they should care: the simply titled "Steve," which will debut at this year's London Film Festival, now has a pretty enticing teaser and a couple of odd-looking promotional pictures to go with it. We wish we could tell you more about this thing, but aside from the fact that it also stars Keira Knightley (seen in one of the photos above) and Tom Mison, all we know is the synopsis Beat Pictures has provided, which goes a little something like this: "Steve is a story about a man who came to tea." Helpful. Of course, we can speculate from the teaser's fluctuating mood of chipper to downright sinister (reflected in a shift of music, and in the tortured expression on Firth's face), that "Steve" may be a kind of schizophrenic character study, but we've nothing to really back that up. We'll just have to wait and see what reports from the LFF have to say about this oddity. (Via Hey U Guys)
As our retrospective in the summer showed, it's nearly impossible to predict what prolific, chameleonic British director Michael Winterbottom will turn his hand to next. Coming off "The Killer Inside Me," the most divisive film in his career (and in this writer's view, one of the best), he's already premiered "The Trip," his reteam with "Tristram Shandy" stars Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, at Toronto, and he's expected to shoot the potentially combustible drama "The Promised Land," about the founding of Israel, with Colin Firth, Jim Sturgess and Matthew Macfayden, any day now (although word's been a little quiet on that for a while...).
Now news has broken of another potential project for the director, one that would again see him team up with his "Genova" star Colin Firth to take on a controversial true story. The Guardian revealed that Winterbottom is currently in Perugia, Italy to research a fictional drama based around the murder there in 2007 of British exchange student Meredith Kerchner, and the subsequent trial and conviction of American student Amanda Knox, and Knox's boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito.
The case has become a well-reported one over the years, thanks to the gory details of the murder itself, and the subsequent behavior of Knox, who falsely accused her employer, Patrick Lumumba, of the killing, and whose attention-seeking behavior gained her the nickname in the tabloid press 'Foxy Knoxy.' Nevertheless, doubts remain about the even-handedness of the legal process; another man, Rudy Guede, had already been tried and convicted of Kercher's murder, and some of the forensic evidence is inconsistent. A Lifetime movie based on the story is already in the works, with "Heroes" star Hayden Panettiere starring as Knox, but we imagine Winterbottom's version will be a little less salacious; he told The Guardian, "You are drawn into this story, it is a puzzle. Usually puzzles in films are fake, but this is one without a solution." It appears that Firth will play a journalist covering the murder, and Winterbottom seems like he'll have his "A Mighty Heart" docu-drama hat on, telling the paper "I have no view on whether they did it, the film will not be about that. There is unlikely to be a character playing Knox."
Indeed, it seems like it'll examine the media more than the death itself: a number of journalists were criticized for bias during the case, on both sides, and Winterbottom explains what attracted him to the project "The taking sides over the case was extreme here. There was no explanation that covered everything and the journalists were drawn in in a way you would not expect"
All in all, it's sounding like Winterbottom's take on something like "Zodiac," which makes us pretty excited. With Knox's appeal being prepared, and the director nominally tied up with "The Promised Land," it's unlikely to go before cameras until next year. But with Firth heading for his second Oscar nomination in two years, his presence certainly makes it more likely that we'll see the film down the line.
By walking away from TIFF with the People's Choice award, Tom Hooper's "The King's Speech" is now poised as an early Oscar favorite, and while we have yet to see it, word from people who have caught the film is very strong.
The Weinstein Company have unveiled their first trailer for the film and it looks like a fairly standard, but very accomplished piece of period Oscar bait.Starring Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter, Geoffrey Rush and Guy Pearce, the film tells the story of King George VI who overcomes his stammer with the help of speech therapist Lionel Logue. The performances, costumes and set design look great but we have to admit, our eyes couldn't have rolled further into the back of our heads during the "Why should I listen?'/"BECAUSE I HAVE A VOICE" exchange.
The film will hits theaters in a limited release starting on November 26th.
A movie about the glamorous world of archiving?
