Update:Variety reports that Mark Duplass, who starred in Shelton's "Humpday" will be joining the film playing a man who comes between the two sisters.
We're beginning to suspect that Rachel Weisz has cloned herself. The actress has two projects in the can, the well-reviewed drama "The Whistleblower," and Jim Sheridan's supernatural thriller "Dream House," and now, no less than four new films lined up. She's making an appearance alongside Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams and Javier Bardem in the untitled Terrence Malick film that's currently shooting, she takes the lead in Terrence Davies' "The Deep Blue Sea" in November, and was the first to sign on for the ensemble cast of Fernando Meirelles' "360," and has now somehow found the time to fit in another project along the way, one that's just as tantalizing as the others.
In an apparent bid to pick up all ten available Oscar nominations in 2012, Weisz will star alongside Emily Blunt (who's almost as busy, with "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" currently filming, and recently signing on toRian Johnson's "Looper") in an untitled new film from director Lynn Shelton, who was behind last year's Sundance hit "Humpday." The film will revolve around a pair of sisters, played by Blunt and Weisz, and like Shelton's earlier film, will be semi-improvised. While we weren't quite convinced by "Humpday," the idea of two of our favorite actresses teaming up like this is enough for us to book a ticket right now. Production, which will only last a couple of weeks, begins in Seattle later in the month. There's no news of any other talent involved, but we suspect some other biggish names may find room in their schedules to join them.
In the same story, Deadline also report that Weisz will be spending only one week on the Malick film, suggesting that her role is likely to be little more than a cameo, at least until more details leak out about that one. We've got a hunch that the secrecy is because Malick's actually making a sequel to "Daredevil." [Deadline]
It's not that we don't like Jack Black. We do. When he's on comic form, like in "School of Rock" or "Tropic Thunder," he tickles our funny bone, and he's capable of surprising dramatic range when he wants to be. And it's not that we don't like writer Nicholas Stoller, who's proven with the likes of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and "Get Him To The Greek" that he knows his comedy.
But in a season promising the painful-looking likes of "Burlesque," "The Next Three Days," "Yogi Bear" and "Little Fockers," few films looks to be as wretched as 20th Century Fox's "Gulliver's Travels." The buzz is fairly poisonous, with the usually-pliant Comic Con audience booing the clip they saw, the trailer looks hideous, and the marketing materials, including the new poster that Fandango premiered over the weekend, continue to make the film look like one of the films-within-a-film in "Tropic Thunder" or "Funny People."
Indeed, there seems to be something of a belief among general audiences that the film is fictional: anecdotally, an advert for the Orange cellphone network currently running before every film shown in the UK, featuring Black (watch it below), has made friends think that the film is a specially-created spoof, rather than an actual release — possibly the definition of "Gulliver's Travels." Maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised: the cast is quite strong, with Jason Segel, Romany Malco, TJ Miller, Catherine Tate, Billy Connolly, Amanda Peet, Emily Blunt and Chris O'Dowd (although Blunt was forced to take the role through contractual obligations to Fox, and we tend to take against anyone that forces our beloved Emily to do anything against her will...). But with "Monsters vs. Aliens" director Rob Letterman in the chair, we wouldn't count on it. "Gulliver's Travels" opens December 22nd, when the sound of cash registers ringing will drown out the sound of Jonathan Swift spinning in his grave.
First rumored by Production Weekly, we confirmed with a source close to the film that the news is accurate, and Emily Blunt is joining Rian Johnson's sci-fi, time travel thriller, "Looper."
Blunt will join previously announced stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis in a story that Johnson has previously described as "set in a near future where time travel doesn't exist but will be invented in a few decades. [The story] involves a group of killers (called Loopers) who work for a crime syndicate in the future. Their bosses send their targets hogtied and blindfolded back in time to the Loopers, and their job is simply shoot them in the head and dispose of the body. So the target vanishes from the future and the Loopers dispose of a corpse that doesn't technically exist, a very clean system. Complications set in from there."
Last we heard, production was gearing up for a January shoot and with the casting now firming up, it looks like it's on track. No word yet on what specific roles the cast will be slotted in but that should be cleared up by time the story hits the trades. No release date yet, but hopefully a late-2011 release, though 2012 is probably more likely.
With "Easy A" in theaters proving that comedies about girls/women can be made without being completely condescending, sexist or stupid can we just ask Hollywood to actually think twice before putting projects like "Engagement Games" into development?
Well, they're gonna do whatever the hell they want and as Pajiba reports, Emily Blunt is now attached to the film which frankly sounds better suited for Katherine Heigl. The already tiresome sounding "Engagement Games" is about "three sisters who get engaged at once and will stop at nothing to get their mother’s wedding ring. The dad settles the dispute with a game of Family Olympics." Ugh.
The film has a script from Rachel Specter ("Just Go With It") and Audrey Wauchope ("Breaking Upwards"), two actresses trying to make a name for themselves. No word yet on a director but we're sure somebody mediocre will soon be attached.
Update: Variety reports that Mark Duplass, who starred in Shelton's "Humpday" will be joining the film playing a man who comes between the two sisters.
