So this writer has seen maybe four episodes of “The Big Bang Theory” and finds it dumber than a bucket of hair, however, I’m sure they’re all nice people, so we guess we’re happy for Johnny Galecki (he plays the most socially adept of the show's chief nerdlingers) who, according to Deadline, has landed a big screen role in the New Regency sci-fi film that used to be called “Im.Mortal” but isn’t any more.
Galecki, aside from small roles in the likes of “Vanilla Sky” and “Hancock,” is better known for TV work, especially his recurring role as Darlene’s boyfriend on “Roseanne,” and here joins an interesting, previously-reported-on cast including Cillian Murphy, Olivia Wilde, Amanda Seyfried, Justin Timberlake (Galecki will play Timberlake’s best friend), and "Mad Men" star Vincent Kartheiser - The film concerns a future where time has become currency so if you’re rich you can live forever (more story details here), a plot that, in its dystopian futurism evokes "Gattaca," a rather underrated sci-fi film which was also written and directed by this film’s writer/director, Andrew Niccol. If he’s on that kind of form, with this cast, and shorn of its gimmicky title, we’re cautiously optimistic, though Niccol did make the blandly dystopian gimmicky-titled sci-fi hybrid mess that was "S1m0ne," so maybe make that ‘optimistically cautious.’ Shooting starts imminently.
File this under: another fashion ad with interesting talent that is still kinda boring.
With fashion houses luring the likes of David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Guy Ritchieand Frank Miller for spots this year, this latest ad for Givenchy's weird mp3 player inspired (???) fragrance Play, stars Justin Timberlake and was directed by Pierre Morel ("Taken," "From Paris With Love"). Nope, sorry, no parkour here. Just some black and white photography, some pulsating music and JT trying to impress a lady by causing rolling blackouts in downtown Paris. Sacre bleu!
Anyhow, watch the spot below. Extra points if anyone can tell us what the spot actually tells us about the smelly water it's promoting. [AdRants]
Rapidly rising actress Olivia Wilde is the latest star to be cast in Andrew Niccol first directorial effort since 2005's "Lord Of War" with the ageist sci-fi thriller formerly titled, "I'm.mortal."
In an interesting twist, Wilde will play the mother of the film's protagonist despite being four years younger than the actor in the actual role; none other than "The Social Network" star Justin Timberlake. How is this possible, you ask? The story is, of course, set in a world where time has become a currency with the rich achieving immortality and never aging past 25. Wilde's appearance will be something of reunion for the two, since both previously appeared in Nick Cassavetes' 2006 crime-drama "Alpha Dog." Lead Timberlake plays a rebel from the ghetto who is falsely accused of murder and is forced to go on the run with a beautiful hostage, to be played byAmanda Seyfried . "Mad Men" star Vincent Kartheiseralso co-stars as Seyfried's father in a similar predicament to the Wilde-Timberlake situation; Cillian Murphywill play a law enforcer known as a 'timekeeper' and Collins Pennie, his right hand man.
Wilde's addition adds further steel to the cast and tops off what is already shaping up as the biggest 12 or so months of her career with Joseph Kosinski's "Tron: Legacy" and Paul Haggis' "The Next Three Days" due for imminent release. She then has the ensemble butter-carving comedy "Butter" and Jon Favreau's comic-adaptation "Cowboys & Aliens" due on the horizon. She's certainly come a long way since that lesbian cameo in "The O.C."
Shooting on Niccol's film should begin any time now withStrike Entertainment trio Eric Newman, Marc Abraham and Kristel Laiblin producing. 20th Century Fox will distribute the pic.[TheWrap]
"Mad Men" star Vincent Kartheiser -- whose character on the AMC drama has taken somewhat of a backseat to the Don Draper show this season -- is the latest star to join Andrew Niccol's upcoming sci-fi thriller formerly, and horribly, titled "I'm.mortal" (evidently no new title has been settled upon).
The project marks Niccol's first effort since 2005's "Lord Of War" but promisingly sounds more in the vein of his excellent debut feature "Gattaca." Amanda Seyfried, Justin Timberlake and Cillian Murphyare alreadyon board for the story set in a world where "time has become the currency. The rich are immortal, while the rest struggle to stay alive."
The story begins when "a rebel from the ghetto is falsely accused of murdering a wealthy man for his time, he is forced to go on the run with a beautiful hostage. Together, this duo rages against the system, living minute to minute. They discover that love is more powerful than all the time in the world." It's a high-concept sci-fi that sounds somewhat corny in description but we're sure the logline of "a man struggling to become an astronaut in a world dominated by genetic manipulation" undersold "Gattaca" too. The talented young cast is another reason we've got on eye on this project with Timberlake and Seyfried set to portray the leading rebel/hostage duo, Murphy to play a law enforcer known as a "timekeeper" and Kartheiser as Seyfried's father; a man forced to choose between the daughter he loves and the oppresive time system that has made him rich. Also joining the quartet is Collins Pennie ("Fame," "Fired Up," "Prom Night") who'll play Murphy's right hand man.
No word yet on when production is scheduled to begin, but we figure it should be very soon. 20th Century Fox will distribute the pic which has Strike Entertainment trio Eric Newman, Marc Abraham and Kristel Laiblin producing. [Variety]
Yet another clip from the highly anticipated "The Social Network" has arrived, this time with Justin Timberlake as Napster founder Sean Parker engaging in a morning-after verbal lobby with Stanford student Amelia Ritter (Dakota Johnson).
We saw the film last week at the New York Film Festival and while we think it's grand entertainment, it's not the life changing cinema event some people would have you believe. It's an extremely accomplished genre flick, and while some people are already polishing the Best Picture Oscar for the film, we might need to remind them that a good chunk of Academy voters are older whose only knowledge of Facebook is what their grandchildren tell them. It should also be considered this kind of Oscar hype was leveled at "Inception" this summer before it leveled out; a lot can happen between now and February (with a small handful of films including "True Grit" and "The Fighter" still yet to screen for critics).
We probably don't need to remind you that "The Social Network" opens this Friday, October 1st. [MTV]
There's no denying that David Fincher, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, Jesse Eisenberg and the rest of the cast of his upcoming drama, "The Social Network" has an immense degree of empathy for Mark Zuckerberg, so those expecting an intense vilification of the founder and CEO of Facebook — accused of stealing the idea from his co-founders and other Harvard grads who had enlisted his help for a similar idea — best think again. While the picture does cast the Aspergers-like social media creator in an unflattering light, it's not simply an excoriating one and the picture shares several character textures and perspectives.
"[Saying Zuckerberg] is an asshole is such a reductive overly simplistic way [of looking at it.]," Fincher said in today's post-New York Film Festival press screening Q&A about his latest which arrives in theaters October 1.
In fact, Fincher openly sympathizes with the anti-hero of the film played by a tremendous Jesse Eisenberg, finally playing against his nerdy neurotic type. "I have no qualms in saying that I think Eduardo Saverin [Andrew Garfield's character] had a failure of imagination and at some point there was going to be a fork in the road for those two guys," Fincher said about the two Facebook partners who part ways acrimoniously in the film.
Eisenberg concurred that his rendering of the damaged and dysfunctional Zuckerberg is one rooted in the character's own insecurities and failures and wasn't simply a one-note villain. "My main responsibility was to not only understand where my character was coming from but to be able to defend all his positions and behavior and ultimately sympathize with him. Over the course of the movie and this publicity [tour] I've developed even a greater affection for my character."
However those expecting a film about Facebook (or hoping to hate a film about Facebook) itself should also ready themselves, and or put their knives away. Justin Timberlake does not play Myspace in guyliner and Fincher's eighth feature-length film is more of a courtroom procedural, and perhaps is not unlike "Zodiac," insofar as it's another intense examination of past events from the contradicting perspective of several different people.
"Obviously there was a lot of Internet chatter when it was first announced," Fincher explained dryly not concealing his disdain for the Internet. "I think people thought we were making a sequel to 'The Net' or something, or we were trying to do some fad-hopping, but I didn't really know anything about the origins of Facebook. I just had a dry read of the script that had a bunch of people that I felt I knew intimately and could relate to and felt it was a wonderful two hour [movie]." Unless, you've been living under a rock you probably know the film centers on three men: Zuckerberg, his business partner Saverin and Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), the entrepreneur and former Napster co-founder and their involvement (and eventual, bitter falling-out) in the creation of the now phenomenally popular social media application (500 million active users and counting) that has changed the digital landscape like no other. But that's just surface level conceit as the picture is much more about alienation, brotherhood (or lack thereof), the nature of communication, the irony of disconnection in the dialed-in media world, with a good dose of betrayal, greed, alienation and misunderstanding thrown in for good measure.
"I never thought it was a movie about Facebook," screenwriter Aaron Sorkinsaid. "It was a movie that has themes as old as storytelling itself, friendship, loyalty, class, jealousy, things that Shakespeare or [legendary screenwriter] Paddy Chayefsky would write about. Lucky for me none of these guys were around so I got to write about it."
Those expecting a traditional biopic explaining why people behaved the way they did should also be forewarned. This is a movie that lives in a present tense and attempts to deconstruct facts for an audience to discern or make what they will of them. "I wasn't interested in [the why], " Fincher said, "I was interested in what they did, and because we saw it from multiple points of view — and all of those points of view were of course polarized by intense litigation — [you never knew the full truth.]"
Sorkin echoed the thought, noting the different points of view created layers upon layers of subjective truths and realities. "What I really liked was that there were three different versions of this story, there was [a] 'Rashomon' [effect] but I came up with the structure of the deposition rooms that would give everyone the ability to say, 'that's not true, that's not what happened.'"
While Facebook themselves and Zuckerberg declined any involvement or cooperation in the film, and the CEO was quoted as saying he would simply ignore the film, a recent report claimed that the Facebook co-founder attended a recent screening in Seattle. "I know there was [that] rumor," Sorkin said about the alleged appearance. "But I doubt it. I don't think there are any of us who would want a movie made about the things we did when were nineteen years old... I doubt he'll be the first in line to see it next Friday," Sorkin said. "He purchased a print," Fincher said flatly as the room went silent, before letting the gas out of his ruse. "I'm joking," he winked. As for recent claims that some of the source material — Ben Mezrich's "The Accidental Billionaires" — was embellished, fictionalized and/or conveyed a deeply incomplete and therefore flawed portrait in the collaboration and battle over Facebook credit, Sorkin insists "Nothing in the movie was invented for the sake of Hollywood-izing it or sensationalizing it." The writer also added that aside from the aforementioned book he conducted his own "first-person research" with real-life characters in the movie and people close to the event who spoke on the conditions of anonymity. As for a controversial cocaine and bare breasts scene in the film, well, for one it's incredibly tame. "I'm not going to sell any tickets by making this statement, but let me tell you there is less sex in this movie than there is any two minutes in 'Gossip Girl,'" Sorkin quipped.
As stated in our 'Social Network' film review earlier today, Eisenberg delivers the best performance of his career and Garfield, the upcoming "Spider-Man," is destined for great things beyond tentpoles. Plus, the film also contains Mara Rooney, the next, 'Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' and another constant scene stealer is Armie Hammer, who does digital double duty as the Kennedy-like Winklevoss twins (Hammer was handpicked to play Batman in the "Justice League" film director George Miller could never get off the ground).
Well aware his cast is an embarrassment of possibly unknown, but up-and-coming riches, Fincher praised the various players saying they are all destined for long-term greatness. "I feel about it like, would I have liked to have made 'American Graffiti'? Now, in it's own weird way I've been able to. I got to look at eight, nine people across a screen and go, 'There was a moment in time where they were all in the same movie.' "
"The Social Network" opens October 1. Photos taken and used with permission courtesy of Jeffrey Wells and Hollywood Elsewhere.
According to director David Fincher, the opening scene of "The Social Network" took an astonishing 99 takes and two days of filming. And it's very easy to see why. With a 166-page script to get through, Fincher needed to keep the dialogue and scenes moving and with this scene, featuring the most rapid fire tete-a-tete this side of "His Girl Friday" not only does it quickly establish the competitive, hierarchical and exclusive world of Harvard, it sets the pace for the rest of the film. And you better be ready, because from the first second, "The Social Network" moves; this is the quickest two hours you will ever spend in a movie theater.
The film is essentially told in flashbacks as Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) gives testimony at two separate depositions shortly after Facebook crosses the 1 million user mark in its exciting, early days. We bounce back to Harvard in the fall of 2003 and as the aforementioned scene lays out, Zuckerberg is eager to climb the ranks of the hallowed, prestigious clubs at Harvard but before that, he must deal with healing the wound left following the breakup with his girlfriend Erica Albright (Rooney Mara). So, he does what any young, confident and vindictive (personality traits that seem to define his every impulse) geek would do: he blogs about it. After a couple more Becks and prodded by an idea from his roommate, he has an idea to build a crude Hot Or Not-esque website so guys can rank the girls at Harvard. To do this he hacks into the databases of most of the houses at Harvard, snags the snaps of their members and builds the site. But he needs one more thing before he goes live. He quickly calls his best friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) a budding financial genius who recently made $300,000 over the summer by using weather to predict oil prices. Mark asks Eduardo for an algorithm to help with the ranking of the girls on his site, and after scribbling something quickly on the dorm room window, Mark plugs it in and the site goes live. Dubbed Facemash, it makes the rounds of Harvard the same night, and by 4 AM, the traffic has crashed the university's servers. Mark is reprimanded by Harvard, but his ability to blog, hack and build a website in one night that earns enough hits to bring the university servers to a grinding halt brings him to the attention of twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (ArmieHammer) and Divya Narenda (Max Minghella). The trio have an idea for a website, that could more or less be described as a simplified version of what we would come to know as Facebook, but exclusive to those only with an @harvard.edu address. Mark doesn't seem too taken with the idea, but is more stricken by their monied backgrounds and access to clubs and agrees to do the job. Fast forward a few months and Mark is deep at work on something called Facebook that bears a striking similarity to the project conceived by Cameron, Tyler and Divya. Mark makes Eduardo his co-founder and gives him a CFO gig and in return receives initial funding for servers. With a few more clicks the site goes live and then, all hell breaks loose. At first confined to Harvard, Mark and Eduardo quickly expand access to surrounding schools and eventually to Stanford where Napster founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) sees it and begins to take a keen interest. If the first half of the film is about the launch of the site, the second half is about the disintegration of a friendship and the coming of age of young A-type geniuses whose common sense is blunted by their own energy and ambition. It isn't long before Eduardo's level-headedness and tentativeness about all aspects of the site are viewed as liabilities while Mark's lust for status and recognition blinds him to his own good judgement.
Fincher's energy behind the camera is breathtaking. We tried to read the unwieldy script a while ago and kind of gave up on it, but here, Fincher and the cast energize Aaron Sorkin's script into a slick, lean and wickedly compelling narrative. There is not one moment in the film where someone isn't talking, where a mouse isn't being clicked or another angle to the story being opened up. None of it would matter if the actors couldn't keep up, but everyone is in top form here. Jesse Eisenberg gives a career changing performance. Previously known for mastering intelligent if awkward teenage characters, here he pours that awkwardness into a mold that casts Mark Zuckerberg as outcast and/or self-imposed exile. If he's book smart, he's street stupid (or simply uninterested). In a strange irony, for all his interest in reaching upper class echelons, he has no time for proper social mores (he spends much of the time wearing ragged sweats and open toed sandals). He speaks with a machine gun fire as if he's already five ideas ahead of what he's actually saying, and as his navel gazing focus keeps personal relationships from ever going deeper than a surface level. So it's no surprise then he's allured by Sean Parker, who is nothing but surface level. Sean wears his bad personal and business decisions almost as a badge of honor because, no matter what, he's the guy who took down the music industry and that still carries tremendous currency. And Timberlake falls into this role with ease, basically playing a much smarmier version of himself; a man with all the ins but unable to control his baser impulses. Both men seek a legitimacy in each other with Mark seeking social status and Sean looking to regain his tarnished reputation in Silicon Valley. And thus Eduardo Saverin, whose sense of pragmatism has no place in the fast and loose world of web startup, finds his relationship with Mark being torn apart and it's the stuff of tragedy. Andrew Garfield has been left out of the early praise but his performance here is every bit as good as Eisenberg's, if completely opposite. Garfield wonderfully transmits the naïveté that cripples his ability to keep up with Facebook by making Eduardo seeming to always be chasing Mark, constantly a couple steps behind. It's a nuanced and less showy turn but it's strong and ultimately moving stuff.
But not everything is perfect in "The Social Network." For all of the film's period detail, tightly packed story and effortless rhythm, its also a fairly one-note movie. There is no big overarching theme and despite some reviews, it's not really a critique or insight on contemporary online culture. This is really a portrait of how one massive website came together as fast as it did, and the no holds or feelings barred approach that made it happen. As Marilyn Delpy (Rashida Jones) who is part of Mark's legal team says to the young impressario, "You're not an asshole. You're just trying to be one." Mark's achievement with Facebook is staggering, but essentially, he's kind of a jerk from the first frame right to the end. Even as the film closes, with a scene that we won't spoil here, that shows Mark that perhaps he's learned something and has matured, the feeling is not quite earned. And that's not to mention a couple of plot threads that in the zip and vigor of the storytelling, seemed to get lost, particularly, Eduardo's relationship with Christy (Brenda Song) an early groupie turned jealous girlfriend that seems dropped in and out of the film with little rhyme or reason. To be sure, these are minor problems, but it will be interesting to see how the film holds up on further viewings. Will the wildfire pacing and dazzling wordplay still seem fresh and impress or will the film's tiny flaws become more apparent?
However, that's a question best left for later because right now, the film lives up to its excitement. It's impeccably shot -- Fincher's color design has never been stronger, from the musted whiskey tones of Harvard, to the blinding whites and primary colors of California -- and the score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is subtle but effectively bristling and propulsive. "The Social Network" is grand entertainment; a thriller built inconceivably on the intricacies of computer code, copyright and the thin line between idea and inspiration. Fincher's film is a profile of today's entrepreneur, one where the values hubris, arrogance and brilliance are held in esteem first, and sometimes, in that very order. [A-] --Kevin Jagernauth
So this writer has seen maybe four episodes of “The Big Bang Theory” and finds it dumber than a bucket of hair, however, I’m sure they’re all nice people, so we guess we’re happy for Johnny Galecki (he plays the most socially adept of the show's chief nerdlingers) who, according to Deadline, has landed a big screen role in the New Regency sci-fi film that used to be called “Im.Mortal” but isn’t any more.
