TORONTO -- Imax Corp. said Thursday that it will convert the last portion of its upcoming super-sized version of Warner Bros. Pictures' "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" from 2-D into 3-D.
Toronto-based Imax explained it will use its proprietary 2-D to 3-D conversion technology to transform the last 20 minutes of the digitally remastered movie ahead of its July 13 day-and-date release.
"The last 20 minutes in Imax 3D will add a new element of excitement to the Harry Potter experience, making this a must-see for fans of all ages," Warner Bros. Pictures International distribution chief Veronika Kwan-Rubinek said in a statement.
Last year, Imax converted about 20 minutes of select sequences from another Warner Bros. release, "Superman Returns", from 2-D to 3-D. But that effort called for the Imax audience to receive a visual cue designated by director Bryan Singer to indicate when audiences should don or remove their Imax 3-D glasses.
Converting the final 20 minutes to 3-D for the "Harry Potter" release should remove any possible confusion for audiences over when they should put on their 3-D glasses.
Toronto-based Imax explained it will use its proprietary 2-D to 3-D conversion technology to transform the last 20 minutes of the digitally remastered movie ahead of its July 13 day-and-date release.
"The last 20 minutes in Imax 3D will add a new element of excitement to the Harry Potter experience, making this a must-see for fans of all ages," Warner Bros. Pictures International distribution chief Veronika Kwan-Rubinek said in a statement.
Last year, Imax converted about 20 minutes of select sequences from another Warner Bros. release, "Superman Returns", from 2-D to 3-D. But that effort called for the Imax audience to receive a visual cue designated by director Bryan Singer to indicate when audiences should don or remove their Imax 3-D glasses.
Converting the final 20 minutes to 3-D for the "Harry Potter" release should remove any possible confusion for audiences over when they should put on their 3-D glasses.
- 4/20/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARIS -- Harry Potter is set to be immortalized in France with a special set of postage stamps created by Gaul's national postal service in collaboration with Warner Bros.' products division.
The flashy set of 10 stamps was revealed during this weekend's Gallic stamp festival "la Fete du Timbre et de l'Ecrit 2007" in 118 cities across the country.
Harry and pals Hermione and Ron are the new faces of French mail, with products ranging from individual stamps sold for €0.54 (71 cents) to full albums at €12 ($15.80).
The 'la Fete du Timbre," created in 1938 to "enhance the value of the hobby of stamp-collecting, but also to promote and to develop interpersonal connection through the written word," will continue throughout the week at French post offices everywhere.
The flashy set of 10 stamps was revealed during this weekend's Gallic stamp festival "la Fete du Timbre et de l'Ecrit 2007" in 118 cities across the country.
Harry and pals Hermione and Ron are the new faces of French mail, with products ranging from individual stamps sold for €0.54 (71 cents) to full albums at €12 ($15.80).
The 'la Fete du Timbre," created in 1938 to "enhance the value of the hobby of stamp-collecting, but also to promote and to develop interpersonal connection through the written word," will continue throughout the week at French post offices everywhere.
- 3/13/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
LONDON -- U.K. producer Tanya Seghatchian, whose resume include co-producer credits on the first two "Harry Potter" movies, was named head of the U.K. Film Council's development fund Friday.
Seghatchian, who takes up the post April 1, replaces Jenny Borgars, who has headed the £4 million ($7.8 million) lottery fund since 2000.
The fund supports single-project script development, six slate- development companies and a number of script initiatives.
Seghatchian is known as a development consultant who worked with screenwriter Steve Kloves and producer David Heyman of Heyday Films in developing films from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels.
After parting with Heyday, Seghatchian set up indie production banner Apocalypso Pictures with filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski and produced the award-winning "My Summer of Love".
Most recently, she executive produced French filmmaker Francois Ozon's first English-language film, "Angel", which unspooled In Competition at the Berlin International Film Festival last month.
Seghatchian, who takes up the post April 1, replaces Jenny Borgars, who has headed the £4 million ($7.8 million) lottery fund since 2000.
The fund supports single-project script development, six slate- development companies and a number of script initiatives.
Seghatchian is known as a development consultant who worked with screenwriter Steve Kloves and producer David Heyman of Heyday Films in developing films from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels.
After parting with Heyday, Seghatchian set up indie production banner Apocalypso Pictures with filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski and produced the award-winning "My Summer of Love".
Most recently, she executive produced French filmmaker Francois Ozon's first English-language film, "Angel", which unspooled In Competition at the Berlin International Film Festival last month.
NEW YORK -- Time Warner Inc.'s film unit may see its first financial decline in half a dozen years this year, but chairman and CEO Richard Parsons said here Tuesday that it will be "a good year for our filmed entertainment group" in 2007, which will include early moves into the download-to-burn business via kiosks and further moves to address what he called the "tough" film business.
Appearing at the annual Credit Suisse Media and Telecom Week investor conference, Parsons said 2006 was "a bit of a stand-down year" for the studio, but the fourth-quarter figures "will be good" thanks to the success of Happy Feet and what he predicted would be a good showing for Blood Diamond, which the CEO said he felt has created some good Oscar buzz.
Next year, the latest Harry Potter film, the first installment of the His Dark Materials saga, Ocean's 13 and Rush Hour 3 along with the Happy Feet DVD should do strong business, Parsons predicted. In addition, a handful of TV shows will go into syndication, he added.
Plus, Parsons signaled that a slight reduction in the size of the WB and New Line film slates to about 25 and about half that, respectively, and the increased use of film financing partners to alleviate Hollywood's high production costs should also help TW.
He said TW expects to start offering download-to-burn at kiosks in Wal-Mart and other retail stores in 2007, with potential online options to follow down the line. He predicted there would be a collapsing of windows to make DVD releases day-and-date with such download-to-burn options.
Parsons also said other studios will make similar moves next year, adding TW's and other studios are also looking at subscription models for films that get electronically delivered during current windows.
Parsons also lauded his company's strong balance sheet, which he said gives TW all sorts of options.
He wouldn't detail the likeliest uses of TW's capital next year, even though a current stock buyback program is likely to be completed in 2007, but he signaled that acquisitions, especially in the online ad technology space, are of interest to management. "I must sit with the board to decide the best use of capital," he said, hinting that more buybacks, dividend increases and potential acquisitions are all options.
Appearing at the annual Credit Suisse Media and Telecom Week investor conference, Parsons said 2006 was "a bit of a stand-down year" for the studio, but the fourth-quarter figures "will be good" thanks to the success of Happy Feet and what he predicted would be a good showing for Blood Diamond, which the CEO said he felt has created some good Oscar buzz.
Next year, the latest Harry Potter film, the first installment of the His Dark Materials saga, Ocean's 13 and Rush Hour 3 along with the Happy Feet DVD should do strong business, Parsons predicted. In addition, a handful of TV shows will go into syndication, he added.
Plus, Parsons signaled that a slight reduction in the size of the WB and New Line film slates to about 25 and about half that, respectively, and the increased use of film financing partners to alleviate Hollywood's high production costs should also help TW.
He said TW expects to start offering download-to-burn at kiosks in Wal-Mart and other retail stores in 2007, with potential online options to follow down the line. He predicted there would be a collapsing of windows to make DVD releases day-and-date with such download-to-burn options.
Parsons also said other studios will make similar moves next year, adding TW's and other studios are also looking at subscription models for films that get electronically delivered during current windows.
Parsons also lauded his company's strong balance sheet, which he said gives TW all sorts of options.
He wouldn't detail the likeliest uses of TW's capital next year, even though a current stock buyback program is likely to be completed in 2007, but he signaled that acquisitions, especially in the online ad technology space, are of interest to management. "I must sit with the board to decide the best use of capital," he said, hinting that more buybacks, dividend increases and potential acquisitions are all options.
- 12/5/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Harry Potter fans are horrified after learning the boy wizard will not play the game of Quidditch in the latest movie. Upcoming installment Order of The Phoenix omits the Quidditch - where pupils at Potter's Hogwarts school try to catch a winged ball - sequence contained in author JK Rowling's book. Film producers decided to axe the sequence due to time constraints. A studio spokesman tells British newspaper The Sun, "It would be wonderful to include every single page of the book. But as with Harry Potter films, elements have had to be omitted." However, the decision has left fans angry. On a Potter website, one disillusioned follower writes, "This makes me mad. I loved that part in the book and Quidditch plays a pretty big part."...
- 9/3/2006
- WENN
Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe has become the youngest non-royal to have an individual portrait displayed in London's prestigious National Portrait Gallery. Radcliffe, 16, was only 14 years old when he posed for artist Stuart Pearson Wright during a break from filming the movies based on JK Rowling's best-selling books. He says, "I love it. Until recently, I'd seen a peek of it in the catalogue, but not actually seen the real thing. It was strange seeing myself as I was two years ago, not as I am now. If you look at each individual part of my face they look exactly like part of my face. Together it's surreal." The picture of Radcliffe will hang alongside nine other paintings by Wright, which include portraits of ER star Parminder Nagra, Oscar-winner Jeremy Irons and Alan Rickman.
- 4/13/2006
- WENN
Imelda Staunton has been cast as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher in Warner Bros. Pictures' Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Principal photography begins Monday with David Yates at the helm and a screenplay by Michael Goldenberg. Potter series vets David Heyman and David Barron are producing. The Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is a key character in the Harry Potter series, and a new one is introduced in each book. Staunton's character is named Dolores Umbridge. Also joining the cast are George Harris (The Interpreter) as Kingsley Shacklebolt, Helen McCrory (Casanova) as Bellatrix Lestrange, Natalia Tena (Mrs. Henderson Presents) as Nymphadora Tonks and Kathryn Hunter (All or Nothing) as Mrs. Figg. Newcomer Evanna Lynch beat more than 15,000 hopefuls at an open casting call to win the role of Luna Lovegood, a Ravenclaw student who becomes an important ally to Harry Potter.
Warner Bros. Pictures' Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire held on to the top spot at the boxoffice for the third consecutive weekend, stirring up $19.9 million in the process. The fourth installment of the Harry Potter franchise is the first film since Universal Pictures' Meet the Fockers, released during Christmas 2004, to hold the No. 1 position for three consecutive weekends. The Mike Newell-directed Goblet has accumulated $229.3 million in 17 days and a staggering $560 million in worldwide boxoffice to date. The latest filmed incarnation from the J.K. Rowling book series still is tracking better than the first three films for the same period. In addition, the quick boxoffice infusion from Goblet has vaulted Warner Bros. into first place in the North American market-share race, with 20th Century Fox now a close second. Paramount Pictures' Aeon Flux was the frame's new only wide release for the weekend. The MTV Films production, financed by Paramount and Lakeshore Entertainment, arrived in the second spot with $12.7 million, which falls at the high end of expectations. But considering the film's estimated $60 million-plus budget, the opening is on the disappointing side.
- 12/5/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- In "Marie and Bruce", a film version of Wallace Shawn's 1979 stage comedy about a bickering New York couple, tone is everything. Deadpan deliveries of cruel verbal abuse coupled with mock serious staging by director Tom Cairns give the film a touch of the absurd. Its extreme theatricality Will Divide audiences but probably not 50-50. This near-hallucinogenic journey through a single day in the lives of a forlorn married couple will alienate many, yet the perverse wit in Shawn's dialogue (Cairns shares in the adaptation credit) and droll portrayal of middle-class languor will tickle a select few.
While not quite as absurdist as, say, a Eugene Ionesco play, "Marie and Bruce" is not afraid to load the dialogue of its stars, Julianne Moore and Matthew Broderick, with unnatural, full-sentence verbiage that sounds at times like something a foreigner learning English might construct. The manner of their discourse is often abstract as if they are at an emotional removal from the heat and chill of their words.
The urban couple at the center of the story is seemingly at a cross roads in their lives -- but then again, maybe not. Addressing the audience, Marie Moore) informs us as the alarm clock hits 7 a.m. that she intends to leave Bruce (Broderick) this day. As she berates him over breakfast, he is curiously passive, hardly registering her hurtful words. He remains adoring as she grows more venomous.
They part company, and we follow each one's separate paths over the day. Her aggressiveness diminishes as she wanders aimlessly through city streets. In a touch of Harry Potter, she follows a large dog through an alley that transports her into a lush meadow surrounded by trees, where she sleeps peacefully.
Meanwhile, Bruce has lunch with his pal Roger (Bob Balaban), who chatters away on completely inane topics that nevertheless appear to fascinate Bruce. Later he half-heartedly tries to pick up a young woman but settles for a dingy hotel room by himself for a go at autoeroticism.
The couple meets up that evening at a cocktail party given by a friend. Here Bruce comes out of his shell to drink voluminously and flirt with others, while Marie settles into a mind-weary stupor. Will they break up? Will anyone care, including Bruce and Marie?
One gets the impression that Shawn isn't even sure of what he wants to say. The script falls short of satire but is equally unwilling to leap fully into the absurd. At times the dialogue seems to stem from the characters' subconscious and other times from the mischievous writer, commenting on his own characters.
Under Cairns' precise direction, the actors perform beautifully, which in this case means that we watch them act. Every gesture, every sentence is a performance. Cinematography, art and costume design point the film in different directions: The streets and interiors are all too real, but the lives lived within them are patently artificial, including fantasy sequences that mock the characters' dreary lives. At the end, one can almost feel the curtain coming down.
MARIE AND BRUCE
Holedigger Films
in association with Little Bird Development
Credits:
Director: Tom Cairns
Screenwriters: Wallace Shawn, Tom Cairns
Based on the play by: Wallace Shawn
Producer: George VanBuskirk
Executive producers: David Newman, Jerome Swartz, Joseph Caruso III, Julianne Moore, Jonathan Cavendish, Amy Robinson
Director of photography: Patrick Cady
Production designer: Susan Block
Music: Mark De Gli Antoni
Costume designer: Carol Oditz
Editor: Andy Keir
Cast:
Marie: Julianne Moore
Bruce: Matthew Broderick
Roger: Bob Balaban
Guy: Brian McConnachie
Frank: Tom Riis Farrell
Running time -- 87 minutes
No MPAA rating...
PARK CITY -- In "Marie and Bruce", a film version of Wallace Shawn's 1979 stage comedy about a bickering New York couple, tone is everything. Deadpan deliveries of cruel verbal abuse coupled with mock serious staging by director Tom Cairns give the film a touch of the absurd. Its extreme theatricality Will Divide audiences but probably not 50-50. This near-hallucinogenic journey through a single day in the lives of a forlorn married couple will alienate many, yet the perverse wit in Shawn's dialogue (Cairns shares in the adaptation credit) and droll portrayal of middle-class languor will tickle a select few.
While not quite as absurdist as, say, a Eugene Ionesco play, "Marie and Bruce" is not afraid to load the dialogue of its stars, Julianne Moore and Matthew Broderick, with unnatural, full-sentence verbiage that sounds at times like something a foreigner learning English might construct. The manner of their discourse is often abstract as if they are at an emotional removal from the heat and chill of their words.
The urban couple at the center of the story is seemingly at a cross roads in their lives -- but then again, maybe not. Addressing the audience, Marie Moore) informs us as the alarm clock hits 7 a.m. that she intends to leave Bruce (Broderick) this day. As she berates him over breakfast, he is curiously passive, hardly registering her hurtful words. He remains adoring as she grows more venomous.
They part company, and we follow each one's separate paths over the day. Her aggressiveness diminishes as she wanders aimlessly through city streets. In a touch of Harry Potter, she follows a large dog through an alley that transports her into a lush meadow surrounded by trees, where she sleeps peacefully.
Meanwhile, Bruce has lunch with his pal Roger (Bob Balaban), who chatters away on completely inane topics that nevertheless appear to fascinate Bruce. Later he half-heartedly tries to pick up a young woman but settles for a dingy hotel room by himself for a go at autoeroticism.
The couple meets up that evening at a cocktail party given by a friend. Here Bruce comes out of his shell to drink voluminously and flirt with others, while Marie settles into a mind-weary stupor. Will they break up? Will anyone care, including Bruce and Marie?
One gets the impression that Shawn isn't even sure of what he wants to say. The script falls short of satire but is equally unwilling to leap fully into the absurd. At times the dialogue seems to stem from the characters' subconscious and other times from the mischievous writer, commenting on his own characters.
Under Cairns' precise direction, the actors perform beautifully, which in this case means that we watch them act. Every gesture, every sentence is a performance. Cinematography, art and costume design point the film in different directions: The streets and interiors are all too real, but the lives lived within them are patently artificial, including fantasy sequences that mock the characters' dreary lives. At the end, one can almost feel the curtain coming down.
MARIE AND BRUCE
Holedigger Films
in association with Little Bird Development
Credits:
Director: Tom Cairns
Screenwriters: Wallace Shawn, Tom Cairns
Based on the play by: Wallace Shawn
Producer: George VanBuskirk
Executive producers: David Newman, Jerome Swartz, Joseph Caruso III, Julianne Moore, Jonathan Cavendish, Amy Robinson
Director of photography: Patrick Cady
Production designer: Susan Block
Music: Mark De Gli Antoni
Costume designer: Carol Oditz
Editor: Andy Keir
Cast:
Marie: Julianne Moore
Bruce: Matthew Broderick
Roger: Bob Balaban
Guy: Brian McConnachie
Frank: Tom Riis Farrell
Running time -- 87 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- In "Marie and Bruce", a film version of Wallace Shawn's 1979 stage comedy about a bickering New York couple, tone is everything. Deadpan deliveries of cruel verbal abuse coupled with mock serious staging by director Tom Cairns give the film a touch of the absurd. Its extreme theatricality Will Divide audiences but probably not 50-50. This near-hallucinogenic journey through a single day in the lives of a forlorn married couple will alienate many, yet the perverse wit in Shawn's dialogue (Cairns shares in the adaptation credit) and droll portrayal of middle-class languor will tickle a select few.
While not quite as absurdist as, say, a Eugene Ionesco play, "Marie and Bruce" is not afraid to load the dialogue of its stars, Julianne Moore and Matthew Broderick, with unnatural, full-sentence verbiage that sounds at times like something a foreigner learning English might construct. The manner of their discourse is often abstract as if they are at an emotional removal from the heat and chill of their words.
The urban couple at the center of the story is seemingly at a cross roads in their lives -- but then again, maybe not. Addressing the audience, Marie Moore) informs us as the alarm clock hits 7 a.m. that she intends to leave Bruce (Broderick) this day. As she berates him over breakfast, he is curiously passive, hardly registering her hurtful words. He remains adoring as she grows more venomous.
They part company, and we follow each one's separate paths over the day. Her aggressiveness diminishes as she wanders aimlessly through city streets. In a touch of Harry Potter, she follows a large dog through an alley that transports her into a lush meadow surrounded by trees, where she sleeps peacefully.
Meanwhile, Bruce has lunch with his pal Roger (Bob Balaban), who chatters away on completely inane topics that nevertheless appear to fascinate Bruce. Later he half-heartedly tries to pick up a young woman but settles for a dingy hotel room by himself for a go at autoeroticism.
The couple meets up that evening at a cocktail party given by a friend. Here Bruce comes out of his shell to drink voluminously and flirt with others, while Marie settles into a mind-weary stupor. Will they break up? Will anyone care, including Bruce and Marie?
One gets the impression that Shawn isn't even sure of what he wants to say. The script falls short of satire but is equally unwilling to leap fully into the absurd. At times the dialogue seems to stem from the characters' subconscious and other times from the mischievous writer, commenting on his own characters.
Under Cairns' precise direction, the actors perform beautifully, which in this case means that we watch them act. Every gesture, every sentence is a performance. Cinematography, art and costume design point the film in different directions: The streets and interiors are all too real, but the lives lived within them are patently artificial, including fantasy sequences that mock the characters' dreary lives. At the end, one can almost feel the curtain coming down.
MARIE AND BRUCE
Holedigger Films
in association with Little Bird Development
Credits:
Director: Tom Cairns
Screenwriters: Wallace Shawn, Tom Cairns
Based on the play by: Wallace Shawn
Producer: George VanBuskirk
Executive producers: David Newman, Jerome Swartz, Joseph Caruso III, Julianne Moore, Jonathan Cavendish, Amy Robinson
Director of photography: Patrick Cady
Production designer: Susan Block
Music: Mark De Gli Antoni
Costume designer: Carol Oditz
Editor: Andy Keir
Cast:
Marie: Julianne Moore
Bruce: Matthew Broderick
Roger: Bob Balaban
Guy: Brian McConnachie
Frank: Tom Riis Farrell
Running time -- 87 minutes
No MPAA rating...
PARK CITY -- In "Marie and Bruce", a film version of Wallace Shawn's 1979 stage comedy about a bickering New York couple, tone is everything. Deadpan deliveries of cruel verbal abuse coupled with mock serious staging by director Tom Cairns give the film a touch of the absurd. Its extreme theatricality Will Divide audiences but probably not 50-50. This near-hallucinogenic journey through a single day in the lives of a forlorn married couple will alienate many, yet the perverse wit in Shawn's dialogue (Cairns shares in the adaptation credit) and droll portrayal of middle-class languor will tickle a select few.
While not quite as absurdist as, say, a Eugene Ionesco play, "Marie and Bruce" is not afraid to load the dialogue of its stars, Julianne Moore and Matthew Broderick, with unnatural, full-sentence verbiage that sounds at times like something a foreigner learning English might construct. The manner of their discourse is often abstract as if they are at an emotional removal from the heat and chill of their words.
The urban couple at the center of the story is seemingly at a cross roads in their lives -- but then again, maybe not. Addressing the audience, Marie Moore) informs us as the alarm clock hits 7 a.m. that she intends to leave Bruce (Broderick) this day. As she berates him over breakfast, he is curiously passive, hardly registering her hurtful words. He remains adoring as she grows more venomous.
They part company, and we follow each one's separate paths over the day. Her aggressiveness diminishes as she wanders aimlessly through city streets. In a touch of Harry Potter, she follows a large dog through an alley that transports her into a lush meadow surrounded by trees, where she sleeps peacefully.
Meanwhile, Bruce has lunch with his pal Roger (Bob Balaban), who chatters away on completely inane topics that nevertheless appear to fascinate Bruce. Later he half-heartedly tries to pick up a young woman but settles for a dingy hotel room by himself for a go at autoeroticism.
The couple meets up that evening at a cocktail party given by a friend. Here Bruce comes out of his shell to drink voluminously and flirt with others, while Marie settles into a mind-weary stupor. Will they break up? Will anyone care, including Bruce and Marie?
One gets the impression that Shawn isn't even sure of what he wants to say. The script falls short of satire but is equally unwilling to leap fully into the absurd. At times the dialogue seems to stem from the characters' subconscious and other times from the mischievous writer, commenting on his own characters.
Under Cairns' precise direction, the actors perform beautifully, which in this case means that we watch them act. Every gesture, every sentence is a performance. Cinematography, art and costume design point the film in different directions: The streets and interiors are all too real, but the lives lived within them are patently artificial, including fantasy sequences that mock the characters' dreary lives. At the end, one can almost feel the curtain coming down.
MARIE AND BRUCE
Holedigger Films
in association with Little Bird Development
Credits:
Director: Tom Cairns
Screenwriters: Wallace Shawn, Tom Cairns
Based on the play by: Wallace Shawn
Producer: George VanBuskirk
Executive producers: David Newman, Jerome Swartz, Joseph Caruso III, Julianne Moore, Jonathan Cavendish, Amy Robinson
Director of photography: Patrick Cady
Production designer: Susan Block
Music: Mark De Gli Antoni
Costume designer: Carol Oditz
Editor: Andy Keir
Cast:
Marie: Julianne Moore
Bruce: Matthew Broderick
Roger: Bob Balaban
Guy: Brian McConnachie
Frank: Tom Riis Farrell
Running time -- 87 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/21/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Reflecting our nation's current ambivalence about the CIA -- which is neither as hostile as it was during and after the Vietnam War nor as gung-ho as it was in the early days of the Cold War -- "The Recruit" follows the lead of 2001's "Spy Game". The filmmakers strive for an old-fashioned spy thriller while acknowledging the immorality and cold-bloodedness demanded by the clandestine organization. The top-billed Al Pacino and Colin Farrell bring plenty of emotional oomph to their shallow and routine characters, but audiences may find these spy games somewhat disappointing.
The film's major twist is telegraphed early and often, so it hits with the impact of a soft pillow. The film's strength lies in director Roger Donaldson's depiction of the recruitment and training of potential CIA agents. This does generate dramatic heat, while an edgy romance between Farrell and fellow trainee Bridget Moynahan produces its own kind of sparks. All of which may add up to a modest boxoffice success.
Pacino's veteran agent Walter Burke has two maxims: "Trust no one" and "Nothing is what it seems". This goes double, of course, for audiences watching movie thrillers. However, the decision by writers Roger Towne, Kurt Wimmer and Mitch Glazer to allow Walter to repeat these phrases constantly, while feeding the overall atmosphere of paranoia, does undermine many of the film's double reverses.
Farrell's James Clayton, a computer whiz with an appealing rebellious streak, gets recruited by Walter, who shepherds him through training at a CIA boot camp called "the Farm." Walter lures James to the Company with the tantalizing prospect that his father, killed mysteriously in a plane crash in South America a decade earlier, was himself a "spook." This also fulfills the tried-but-true gambit of the veteran officer serving as a father figure to the green rookie.
All recruits eye one another nervously. James and fellow recruit Layla (Moynahan) quickly develop a hot-and-cold sexual attraction made all the more difficult by their re-education as liars and sneaks. Meanwhile, Zack (Gabriel Macht) arouses James' suspicions, possibly because he's too all-American blond. Their training sessions represent the film's strongest moments as everyone works to master the lethal arts. It's Harry Potter's wizards school for antisocial grown-ups.
Once the film abandons the Farm to move all the characters back to CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., the film veers into a much more conventional mode. Plus, we're already prepped not to trust or believe anyone's mission -- not James', not Layla's and not, for that matter, Walter's.
Pacino has gotten to the point in his career that he can get away with a one-note performance such as this because he plays that one note so beautifully. It's terrific fun to watch him tear into his outsized character with such relish. Farrell has to work awfully hard to hold his own in scenes with Pacino. Not without his own charisma, however, Farrell does manage. Moynahan, meanwhile brings cool intelligence and heated eroticism to Layla, letting us read her enigmatic behavior more than one way.
Donaldson is slowly working his way through the federal government in search of thrillers. Having done solid and gripping films about the White House ("Thirteen Days") and the Pentagon ("No Way Out"), he certainly finds a new way to deal with the old war horse that is the CIA. (He may have his work cut out for him when he hits the Department of Agriculture, though.) But the script betrays him in the second half with sheer silliness. Spies talk to one another over the open lines of a cell phone, and an agent sneaks into another agent's office while she is at lunch. The third act of betrayal and double betrayal is such a foregone conclusion that even James and Layla getting back together after their romance down on the Farm adds little spark.
The film does benefit from Stuart Dryburgh's crisp lensing and Andrew McAlpine's meticulous renditions of such inner sanctums as CIA headquarters and the creepy realm of the Farm.
THE RECRUIT
Buena Vista Pictures
Touchstone Pictures/Spyglass Entertainment
Credits: Director: Roger Donaldson; Screenwriters: Roger Towne, Kurt Wimmer, Mitch Glazer; Producers: Roger Birnbaum, Jeff Apple, Gary Barber; Executive producers: Jonathan Glickman, Ric Kidney; Director of photography: Stuart Dryburgh; Production designer: Andrew McAlpine; Music: KIaus Badelt; Costume designer: Beatrix Aruna Pasztor; Editor: David Rosenbloom. Cast: Walter Burke: Al Pacino; James Clayton: Colin Farrell; Layla: Bridget Moynahan; Zack: Gabriel Macht; Ronnie: Mike Realba.
MPAA rating PG-13, running time 115 minutes.
The film's major twist is telegraphed early and often, so it hits with the impact of a soft pillow. The film's strength lies in director Roger Donaldson's depiction of the recruitment and training of potential CIA agents. This does generate dramatic heat, while an edgy romance between Farrell and fellow trainee Bridget Moynahan produces its own kind of sparks. All of which may add up to a modest boxoffice success.
Pacino's veteran agent Walter Burke has two maxims: "Trust no one" and "Nothing is what it seems". This goes double, of course, for audiences watching movie thrillers. However, the decision by writers Roger Towne, Kurt Wimmer and Mitch Glazer to allow Walter to repeat these phrases constantly, while feeding the overall atmosphere of paranoia, does undermine many of the film's double reverses.
Farrell's James Clayton, a computer whiz with an appealing rebellious streak, gets recruited by Walter, who shepherds him through training at a CIA boot camp called "the Farm." Walter lures James to the Company with the tantalizing prospect that his father, killed mysteriously in a plane crash in South America a decade earlier, was himself a "spook." This also fulfills the tried-but-true gambit of the veteran officer serving as a father figure to the green rookie.
All recruits eye one another nervously. James and fellow recruit Layla (Moynahan) quickly develop a hot-and-cold sexual attraction made all the more difficult by their re-education as liars and sneaks. Meanwhile, Zack (Gabriel Macht) arouses James' suspicions, possibly because he's too all-American blond. Their training sessions represent the film's strongest moments as everyone works to master the lethal arts. It's Harry Potter's wizards school for antisocial grown-ups.
Once the film abandons the Farm to move all the characters back to CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., the film veers into a much more conventional mode. Plus, we're already prepped not to trust or believe anyone's mission -- not James', not Layla's and not, for that matter, Walter's.
Pacino has gotten to the point in his career that he can get away with a one-note performance such as this because he plays that one note so beautifully. It's terrific fun to watch him tear into his outsized character with such relish. Farrell has to work awfully hard to hold his own in scenes with Pacino. Not without his own charisma, however, Farrell does manage. Moynahan, meanwhile brings cool intelligence and heated eroticism to Layla, letting us read her enigmatic behavior more than one way.
Donaldson is slowly working his way through the federal government in search of thrillers. Having done solid and gripping films about the White House ("Thirteen Days") and the Pentagon ("No Way Out"), he certainly finds a new way to deal with the old war horse that is the CIA. (He may have his work cut out for him when he hits the Department of Agriculture, though.) But the script betrays him in the second half with sheer silliness. Spies talk to one another over the open lines of a cell phone, and an agent sneaks into another agent's office while she is at lunch. The third act of betrayal and double betrayal is such a foregone conclusion that even James and Layla getting back together after their romance down on the Farm adds little spark.
The film does benefit from Stuart Dryburgh's crisp lensing and Andrew McAlpine's meticulous renditions of such inner sanctums as CIA headquarters and the creepy realm of the Farm.
THE RECRUIT
Buena Vista Pictures
Touchstone Pictures/Spyglass Entertainment
Credits: Director: Roger Donaldson; Screenwriters: Roger Towne, Kurt Wimmer, Mitch Glazer; Producers: Roger Birnbaum, Jeff Apple, Gary Barber; Executive producers: Jonathan Glickman, Ric Kidney; Director of photography: Stuart Dryburgh; Production designer: Andrew McAlpine; Music: KIaus Badelt; Costume designer: Beatrix Aruna Pasztor; Editor: David Rosenbloom. Cast: Walter Burke: Al Pacino; James Clayton: Colin Farrell; Layla: Bridget Moynahan; Zack: Gabriel Macht; Ronnie: Mike Realba.
MPAA rating PG-13, running time 115 minutes.
- 1/21/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Seattle International Film Festival
While not exactly setting the marquee on fire with star names, this unabashed romancer from director Dan Ireland -- co-founder of the Seattle International Film Festival, where "Passionada" premiered June 16 as the closing-night event -- goes down smoothly thanks to the trio of lead actors, whose enthusiasm and chemistry help make up for the routine filmmaking. Ireland, who cast Renee Zellweger in her breakout role ("The Whole Wide World"), hits pay dirt again with Sofia Milos ("The Sopranos"), giving the indie project a few legitimate enticements for moviegoers.
"Passionada" is set in the fishing community of New Bedford, Mass., with Portuguese-American widow Celia Amonte (Milos) and her nice-and-naughty daughter Vicky (Emmy Rossum) both coming under the spell -- and vice versa for him -- of luckless gambler Charlie Beck (Jason Isaacs). In the film, coming out after doing war flicks for Ridley Scott and John Woo and before his turns in the new Jackie Chan and Harry Potter movies, Isaacs is credible as a shifty-but-means-well bloke who is drawn to Celia's beguiling persona.
Having lost her husband in an accident seven years earlier, beautiful Celia is not an easy catch to land, but Charlie finds a co-conspirator in dish-in-training Vicky, who wants to learn how to count cards and win at the local casino. They strike a deal, which includes him teaching her the skills that have gotten him in mucho trouble. In his defense, Vicky is irresistible, and Celia is one attractive lady, a singer at a nearby restaurant who radiates femininity despite her broken heart.
Charlie presents himself as a well-off businessman and persuades his yacht-owning friends to help impress Celia. Things are going swimmingly until the truth comes out, of course, and Charlie gets beaten up in a tacked-on confrontation with Russian gamblers, who also threaten Vicky.
Along with the three leads, with Isaacs underplaying effectively against such radiant scene-stealers as Rossum and Milos, there's a trio of veterans capably filling out the principal cast: Theresa Russell and Seymour Cassel as Charlie's best friends and Lupe Ontiveros as Celia's mother-in-law.
PASSIONADA
Sandyo Prods.
A David Bakalar production
Credits:
Director: Dan Ireland
Screenwriters: Steve Jermanok, Jim Jermanok
Producers: David Bakalar
Executive producer: Jim Jermanok
Director of photography: Claudio Rocha
Production designer: John Frick
Editor: Luis Colilna
Costume designer: Rudy Dillon
Music: Harry Gregson-Williams
Cast:
Charlie Beck: Jason Isaacs
Celia Amonte: Sofia Milos
Vicky Amonte: Emmy Rossum
Lois Vargas: Theresa Russell
Daniel Vargas: Seymour Cassel
Angelica Amonte: Lupe Ontiveros
Running time -- 108 minutes
No MPAA rating...
While not exactly setting the marquee on fire with star names, this unabashed romancer from director Dan Ireland -- co-founder of the Seattle International Film Festival, where "Passionada" premiered June 16 as the closing-night event -- goes down smoothly thanks to the trio of lead actors, whose enthusiasm and chemistry help make up for the routine filmmaking. Ireland, who cast Renee Zellweger in her breakout role ("The Whole Wide World"), hits pay dirt again with Sofia Milos ("The Sopranos"), giving the indie project a few legitimate enticements for moviegoers.
"Passionada" is set in the fishing community of New Bedford, Mass., with Portuguese-American widow Celia Amonte (Milos) and her nice-and-naughty daughter Vicky (Emmy Rossum) both coming under the spell -- and vice versa for him -- of luckless gambler Charlie Beck (Jason Isaacs). In the film, coming out after doing war flicks for Ridley Scott and John Woo and before his turns in the new Jackie Chan and Harry Potter movies, Isaacs is credible as a shifty-but-means-well bloke who is drawn to Celia's beguiling persona.
Having lost her husband in an accident seven years earlier, beautiful Celia is not an easy catch to land, but Charlie finds a co-conspirator in dish-in-training Vicky, who wants to learn how to count cards and win at the local casino. They strike a deal, which includes him teaching her the skills that have gotten him in mucho trouble. In his defense, Vicky is irresistible, and Celia is one attractive lady, a singer at a nearby restaurant who radiates femininity despite her broken heart.
Charlie presents himself as a well-off businessman and persuades his yacht-owning friends to help impress Celia. Things are going swimmingly until the truth comes out, of course, and Charlie gets beaten up in a tacked-on confrontation with Russian gamblers, who also threaten Vicky.
Along with the three leads, with Isaacs underplaying effectively against such radiant scene-stealers as Rossum and Milos, there's a trio of veterans capably filling out the principal cast: Theresa Russell and Seymour Cassel as Charlie's best friends and Lupe Ontiveros as Celia's mother-in-law.
PASSIONADA
Sandyo Prods.
A David Bakalar production
Credits:
Director: Dan Ireland
Screenwriters: Steve Jermanok, Jim Jermanok
Producers: David Bakalar
Executive producer: Jim Jermanok
Director of photography: Claudio Rocha
Production designer: John Frick
Editor: Luis Colilna
Costume designer: Rudy Dillon
Music: Harry Gregson-Williams
Cast:
Charlie Beck: Jason Isaacs
Celia Amonte: Sofia Milos
Vicky Amonte: Emmy Rossum
Lois Vargas: Theresa Russell
Daniel Vargas: Seymour Cassel
Angelica Amonte: Lupe Ontiveros
Running time -- 108 minutes
No MPAA rating...
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