Ol` Blue Eyes is back

thre051409
5/13/09
7:13 PM
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Page 1
a Nielsen Business Media publication
an edition of
Ol’ Blue Eyes
is back
Uni’s long-gestating Sinatra
biopic will be helmed by Scorsese
‘UP’ PEOPLE: Pixar chief John Lasseter, left, director Pete Docter, seated, and singer
Charles Aznavour, right, salute crowd.
Ballooning bliss on
Cannes carpet
Pixar’s ‘Up’pumps up the festival
ton Pier, the filmmakers were
joined by French superstar
Charles Aznavour, who lends his
ANNES — It was as if the Fesvoice in the dubbed French vertival de Cannes had collecsion of the movie, in which he
tively inhaled a little of the
plays Carl, the 78-year-old man
helium in those thousands of balwho sets off on the adventure of
loons that lift aloft an entire house
a lifetime by hitching his house
in the animated movie “Up.”
to thousands of helium balloons.
Pixar’s 10th movie not only
Acting as a bit of
served as the opening-night film
ringmaster, John Lasfor the 62nd edition of
seter, chief creative
the venerable fest
> More
officer for Disney
Wednesday, it also
Cannes
and Pixar, walked the
left everyone who
news
group through their
touched it just a litPAGE 4
paces.“Are we good
tle bit giddy.
and THR.COM/CANNES
for you, guys?” LasIntroducing the
seter asked the furifilm to the press,
ously clicking phofestival director
togs — while Disney chairman
Thierry Fremaux took a moment
Dick Cook looked on.
to snap a personal photograph of
“This is obviously something
the assembled journos once they
very, very special,” Cook said.“For
all adorned their 3-D glasses,
Disney/Pixar to have an openingcapturing a moment that was at
night film at the Cannes film festionce historic and a little geeky.
val is unprecedented for us, a real
A few hours later, at the Carlcontinued on page 2
By Gregg Kilday
SINATRA PHOTO: NEWSMAKERS; CANNES PHOTO: ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
C
Scorsese
By Borys Kit and Jay A. Fernandez
OS ANGELES — Frank Sinatra is finally getting his biopic,
directed by no less a celebrity profiler than Martin Scorsese.
Universal Pictures has acquired “Sinatra,” a script by “Field
of Dreams” screenwriter Phil Alden Robinson with Scorsese
attached to helm. Mandalay Pictures’ Peter Guber and Cathy
Schulman are producing along with Scorsese and his Sikelia Prods.
The deal comes after years of negotiations with Frank Sinatra Entercontinued on page 2
L
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FROM THE FRONT
Cannes goes ‘Up’
continued from page 1
honor, a real thrill.”
At the filmmakers’ news conference following the first screening,
Lasseter said,“To have our movie
‘Up’ open the Cannes Film Festival
is one of the greatest things to happen to us in our careers. You have
to understand what this festival
means to a filmmaker — it is one of
the most prestigious festivals in
the world. To have your movie
actually open it is really, really
exciting. I think the thing I’m
looking to the most is seeing that
great image of all these people
tonight in their tuxedoes, bow ties,
gowns, wearing 3-D glasses.”
While most of the assembled
press lavished praise on the filmmakers in return, one questioner,
a German journalist, tried to
wade into political waters, suggesting that the movie, in which
an old man joins forces with a
young Wilderness Explorer
scout, was somehow a metaphor
for a new America shedding its
old bellicose ways.
“If you see that in the movie,
help yourself,” director Pete Docter said. “We’re basically not ever
trying to put any large tablethumping, bible-stomping message across. We’re just trying to
entertain people. We hope that
there’s something substantive
behind that, whether the movies
are about fish or monsters,
there’s something relatable, that
05.14.09
we see in own lives. But our primary objective is to see that the
audience has a good time.”
Lasseter underscored the
importance of the film’s emotional
underpinnings.“What is important for me, always, is the heart of a
story. ... Walt Disney always said
for every laugh there should be a
tear. When I heard the idea for this
(film), I knew it was going to be
tuned into emotion. I know we can
make a movie funny. I know we
can make it beautiful. But it is that
heart that is a challenging thing.”
Paying tribute to Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, Lasseter
said: “I think Miyazaki is in all of
the Pixar films. His films are
always focused on the characters
and stories. They are so inventive.
One of the things he does is celebrate the quiet moments in a film.
... That’s been a huge inspiration
for all of us. All of our films, especially ‘Up,’ have that feeling of taking time to celebrate the quiet
moment.”
Both Docter and Lasseter
endorsed 3-D — when used in the
service of emotion and story.
“3-D is like any new technological innovation — this is something
John taught me when I first started
— it’s like a fun toy,” Docter said.
“As soon as someone gives us
something, we say, oh, boy, what
does it do? Then you start messing
around with it, and then you start
to realize how you
can use it for story“Up”
telling. In this case,
we really tried to use
depth in the same
way we used color
and cinematography and that’s to
further the emotion
of a scene.”
“I think 3-D is a
fantastic device that
helps get the audience into the story
that much more,”
Lasseter said.“As
Pete has said,
‘We’ve always made
our films in 3-D,
we’ve just shown
them in 2-D’. ”
At the same
time — even while
Robinson pens ‘Sinatra’
continued from page 1
prises, a joint venture of the
crooner’s estate and Warner
Music Group. Internal politics of
the estate, where family members had to form a consensus as
to how to tell the story and, more
importantly, just how much of
the story to tell — was a hurdle
that had to be overcome.
“The obstacles were ones of
comfort and trust,” Schulman said.
“Everybody that was in control of
the rights had to unanimously
agree to do this. And having Marty
at the head of this was the thing
that ultimately cracked the code,
so to speak.”
There were also complicated
rights issues, with the entire venture at one point getting bogged
down over apparel merchandising
rights, which the studio and the
family were haggling over. That
issue appears to be resolved.
Scorsese has taken on a host of
historical figures throughout his
career, most notably boxer Jake La
Motta, billionaire recluse Howard
Hughes and Jesus.
“Sinatra” not only will allow
Scorsese to tackle the life of a fellow Italian-American with enormous cultural impact, it will also
give him a chance to paint a portrait of Sinatra’s pal, Dean Martin.
The filmmaker has for more
than a decade been developing a
biopic on Martin titled “Dino,”
working with a script by his “Casino” and “Goodfellas” writer
Nicholas Pileggi based on the Nick
Tosches biography,“Dino: Livin’
High in the Dirty Business of
Dreams.”
“Dino” has been dormant for
quite some time, though the
research done for that project will
likely inform “Sinatra” to an
extent.
Speaking of research, Robinson,
who was nominated for an Oscar
for writing 1989’s “Field of
Dreams,” had amassed 30,000
pages of it for “Sinatra,” according
to Schulman. And distilling it into
a feature film has led the creative
team to shun a traditional, linear
storytelling approach in favor of a
more unconventional one.
“It’ll be almost like a collage,”
Schulman said.“In the way one of
his records captures different
rhythms and moods, this will have
collective scenes and moments
that form the overall story as
opposed to a conventional timeline. It’s about capturing moments
as opposed to trying to tell the
entire story in too little time.”
A comparison could be made to
Todd Haynes’ 2007 Bob Dylan
biopic “I’m Not There,” which
sketched out impressions of
Dylan’s life and work using six different actors, though only one
actor is expected to play the Chairman of the Board.
With the artistic and social life
he led, Sinatra’s personal history is
perfectly tailored for dramatic
storytelling. Born in Hoboken,
N.J., and raised during the
Depression, he built a singing
career that weathered many
changes in popular culture, all the
while racking up 31 gold records
and countless other honors. He
also had a successful career as an
actor, proving naysayers wrong by
earning an Oscar for 1953’s “From
Here to Eternity.”
His personal life was just as
eventful. He suffered from depression, was alleged to have connections to organized crime and was
married four times; two of his
wives were Ava Gardner and Mia
Farrow.
No one has yet been cast in
“Sinatra.” The icon, who died 11
years ago today, was portrayed on
the small screen by Philip Casnoff
in a 1992 TV movie and by Ray
Liotta in HBO’s 1998 movie “The
Rat Pack.”
Robinson recently signed with
Endeavor. Scorsese is also repped
by Endeavor. ∂
committing Disney and Pixar to
turning out more 3-D movies —
Lasseter said he was excited
that Disney is returning to traditional, hand-drawn animation with “The Princess and the
Frog,” which will be released
later this year.
“2-D animation stopped being
made by the studios,” he said.
“They kept saying audiences don’t
want to watch 2-D animation any
more. The reality is that audiences
don’t want to watch bad movies.
2-D animation became the scapegoat for bad storytelling.” ∂
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
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INSIDE TRACK
Half-bull session
for ‘Panda’ handler
By Jay A. Fernandez
L
OS ANGELES — The
Gotham Group has attached “Kung Fu Panda”
co-director John Stevenson to its adaptation of
“The Minotaur
Takes a Cigarette
Break.”
Mike Jones has
written the adaptation of Steven
Sherrill’s 2000
novel about the
Stevenson
mythological creature — half-man, half-bull — who
survived Theseus’ attack in the
labyrinth and walks among us
today. He’s a short-order cook in a
Midwestern diner not far from his
trailer-park home who falls for an
epileptic waitress named Kelly.
“Minotaur” is conceived as a
live-action love story with CGI
elements. Gotham optioned Jones’
script in March.
Gotham’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein
and Lindsay Williams are producing. The company also has “The
Devil You Know” in development
at Fox and “Monster Zoo” at Paramount.
“Panda” grossed $633 million
worldwide for DreamWorks Animation last year. The CAA-repped
Stevenson also is attached to direct
“Grayskull” at Warner Bros. ∂
DreamWorks
bites on new
‘Fright Night’
For exclusive news, blogs
and special reports, go to
THR.com/extra
>Monster deal
By Jay A. Fernandez
McDonald’s and Fox have
struck a global partnership
surrounding tentpole movies
through 2010, starting with
“Night at the Museum: Battle
of the Smithsonian” this
month.
>MySpace ad drag
Newly installed MySpace
CEO Owen Van Natta has his
work cut out for him as
MySpace’s advertising outlook is so poor that it is now
dragging down the once
scorching-hot social networking category.
Fox laugher ‘Date Night’involves a threesome
By Jay A. Fernandez
LOS ANGELES — Ray Liotta,
Mila Kunis and Mark Ruffalo will
join Tina Fey and Steve Carell on
their comedic “Date Night” for
Fox.
The three will be among the
characters Fey and Carell
encounter as a couple on a date
gone awry. Mark Wahlberg, James
Franco, Taraji P. Henson, Common, Leighton Meester, Kristen
Wiig and Jimmi Simpson already
are in the mix. The film is being
directed by Shawn Levy.
Liotta will play Joe Miletto,
Liotta
Kunis
Ruffalo
whom Levy describes as a “villain
of peace.” Kunis will play the lowrent criminal wife of Franco’s
character. Ruffalo will play Wiig’s
husband and Carell’s best friend.
“Date Night,” which began
shooting last month, was written
by Josh Klausner.
Liotta, repped by WMA and
Untitled Entertainment, most
recently appeared in “Observe
and Report.” He has “Youth in
Revolt” and Tim Allen’s directorial debut,“Crazy on the
Outside,” forthcoming.
Kunis, repped by CAA and
Curtis Talent Management,
most recently starred in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Max
Payne.” She next appears in
“Extract.”
Ruffalo, repped by WMA and
Robert Stein Management, next
appears in “The Brothers Bloom,”
which opens Friday. ∂
BLOG OF THE DAY
CLIPS
LONGO CATCHES
‘PIRANHA’
Cody Longo has
joined the cast of
Dimension’s horror revamp
“Piranha 3-D,” to be directed
by Alexandre Aja. Elisabeth
Shue, Adam Scott, Jerry
O’Connell, Ving Rhames and
Richard Dreyfuss already
05.14.09
LOS ANGELES — Vampires
continue their bloody winning
streak as DreamWorks is in the
process of picking up a remake of
“Fright Night.”
Michael De Luca is producing
along with Michael Gaeta and Alison Rosenzweig of Gaeta/Rosenzweig Films.
Rosenzweig, who
also is setting up
remakes of “The
Reincarnation of
Peter Proud” and
“Angel Heart” with
De Luca, brought
De Luca
the project to him.
DreamWorks co-president of
production Mark Sourian is overseeing for the studio, which has
rarely foraged in the horror genre.
Its most recent such outings —
“The Uninvited” and “The Ruins”
— grossed $29 million and $17 million, respectively. But its remake of
“The Ring” and its sequel grossed
$390 million worldwide.
The original “Fright Night,”
written and directed by Tom Holland in 1985, was a horror comedy
about a teenager who discovers his
neighbors are vampires. No writer
has been hired, but the new version
will keep the comedy-horror tone
while modernizing the effects.
The CAA-repped De Luca also is
producing “Moneyball,” starring
Brad Pitt, at Columbia. ∂
have been cast in the story
about a resort community
terrorized by flesh-eating
fish. Longo will play Todd
Dupree, a high school jock
and self-absorbed creep.
Longo, repped by APA and
Luber Roklin Entertainment,
recently completed filming
MGM’s remake of “Fame,”
which bows Sept. 25.
HOME TO NEHST
Nehst Studios has acquired
film rights to Matt Christopher’s sports book series
from Little, Brown Books for
Young Readers, including
“The Kid Who Only Hit
Homers” and “The Basket
Counts.” Ari Friedman and
Larry Meistrich will produce,
and Wayne Chesler will write
and direct the adaptations.
Extra-dimensional
WATCHING ‘WATCHMEN’
Warner Bros. will release
Zack Snyder’s three-hourplus director’s cut of
“Watchmen” on Blu-ray Disc
and DVD July 21, days before
Comic-Con International.
The cut includes 25 minutes
of additional footage.
Pixar’s John
Lasseter addressed
the Cannes crowds,
discussing the 3-D
process for “Up” and
the need for good storytelling
regardless of format. Steven
Zeitchik has more at
RiskyBizBlog.com.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
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CLIPS
and Constantin Popescu each
took a turn directing one. The
pic premieres Tuesday in Un
Certain Regard.
‘SPRING’ FEVER
Controversy has dogged the
career of Lou Ye, the Chinese
director whose “Spring Fever”
plays In Competition tonight.
But despite all the ingredients
being in place for another
explosive cocktail — graphic
hetero- and homosexual sex, a
banned filmmaker premiering
his film overseas — the film’s
producer, Sylvain Bursztejn,
reckons that the official reactions to the pic will be less
than feverish. “This is a real
love story. … Sure the sex is
graphic, but that is not meant
as any kind of gesture to the
censors,” Bursztejn said.
Guy Pearce, Monica Bellucci
and Miranda Otto star.
GOOD LOVE
Bruce Beresford will direct
the romantic comedy “Get It
at Goode’s,” an
adaptation of
Madeleine St.
John’s novel “The
Women in Black.”
‘IRIS’ BLOOMS
Lee Byung-hun has been
tapped to headline “Iris: The
Movie,” a $20 million spy
thriller set to be one of the
biggest Korean movies of the
year. The directors are Kim
Kyu-tae and Yang Yun-ho.
INSIDE TRACK
CANNES
Haneke pic,‘Coco’
picked up by SPC
Abu Dhabi
fund bears
first fruit
By Steven Zeitchik
By Stuart Kemp
CANNES — A movie based on
George A. Romero’s 1974 cult classic “The Crazies” and the Brendan
Fraser family comedy “Furry
Vengeance” will benefit from cash
from the $250 million movie fund
created by Imagenation Abu Dhabi,
owned by Abu Dhabi Media and
Participant Media.
The brace of high-profile projects are among the first to benefit
from the rolling fund set up in September.
The cash pool will partner on
“Crazies” with U.S. distributorfinancier Overture Films, which
will distribute in the U.S. and
Canada. Par Vantage is on board to
sell the pic, which revolves around
the inhabitants of a small Iowa
town beset by insanity then death
after a mysterious toxin contaminates their water supply. It stars
Timothy Olyphant, Radha
Mitchell, Danielle Panabaker, Joe
Anderson and is directed by Breck
Eisner from a script by Ray Wright
and Scott Kosar.
The fund also plans to partner on
“Furry” with Summit Entertainment. Summit will distribute in the
U.S. and is handling worldwide
sales. Starring Fraser as a man who
uproots his family from the big city
to launch a housing subdivision in
the Oregon wilderness,“Furry” is
directed by Roger Kumble from a
script by Michael Carnes and Josh
Gilbert.
Both titles are being sold internationally here. ∂
05.14.09
HOLDING COURT: Sharmilla Tagore, left, Robin Wright Penn, Isabelle Huppert, Asia Argento, Shu Qi
Jurors, not judges?
Huppert: Unlike Penn,her goal is ‘to love films’
By Stuart Kemp
ANNES — Making snap decisions is a no-no for one juror,
this year’s membership might
be required to see Competition
titles more than once, and for
everyone on this year’s Festival de
Cannes jury, “judgment” is a dirty
word.
Jury president Isabelle Huppert
told the gathered global press pack
that she has no intention of leading
her jury in the way last year’s president, Sean Penn, attempted by
steering them toward movies with
political leanings.
“Last year, Sean Penn defined a
line of approach (to jury duties),
but that is not my intention,” Huppert said.
Speaking at the jury presentation here Wednesday, the French
actress said firmly that she and her
fellow jurors are here “not to judge,
but to love films.”
For Huppert, who has been to
Cannes as an actress at least 17
times and has hosted the opening
C
and closing ceremonies, the fest is
a home away from home.
She added that she hopes
everyone will bring a bit of their
own soul to what they see
onscreen when pushing for their
favorite. The jurors also include
Italian mutlihyphenate Asia
Argento, Taiwanese actress Shu
Qi, Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge
Ceylan, Indian actress Sharmilla
Tagore, South Korean filmmaker
Lee Chang-dong, U.S. filmmaker
James Gray, British novelistscreenwriter Hanif Kureishi and
Penn’s wife, actress Robin Wright
Penn. The Oscar winner filed for
divorce last month.
Ceylan expressed concern over
the task at hand because he often
makes snap decisions within the
first 10 minutes of a film.
Huppert said that, should jurors
require a second look at a film, she
will not stand in their way.“Why
not?” she said, laughing.
Women outweigh men on the
jury, with Huppert tipping the balance in favor of the females. ∂
CANNES — An absence of
high-profile English-language
films with U.S. stars makes this
year’s Festival de Cannes less than
an acquisitions hotbed for bigger
specialty divisions.
For a certain type of buyer,
though, it’s paradise.
Late Wednesday, Sony Pictures
Classics acquired North American
rights to Michael Haneke’s
German-language period pic “The
White Ribbon” and Jan Kounen’s
French-language “Coco Chanel &
Igor Stravinsky,” which is set to
close the fest.
The first pickup marks another
SPC collaboration with Haneke,
whose “Cache” was released by the
company in 2005. The “Chanel”
buy brings to two the number of
Chanel-related releases on SPC’s
slate; it also plans to distribute the
Audrey Tautou-starring “Coco
Avant Chanel” domestically.
“Cannes is not a place for commercial films,” SPC’s Tom Bernard
said.“It’s a place for high-quality
titles, and there are not a lot of
people still in that business.” ∂
Couldn’t make it
to Cannes this
year? No worries.
You can get the
latest news,
reviews and profiles from the
Croisette, including PDFs of
the festival dailies, at
THR.com/Cannes.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
JURY PHOTO: DAVE HOGAN/GETTY IMAGES
‘GOLDEN’ OLDIES
IFC again is heading to Romania, acquiring U.S. rights to
“Tales From the Golden Age,”
a feature collection of shorts
set in the country’s communist period. Cristian Mungiu
penned the shorts, and
he and fellow Romanian
helmers Ioana Uricaru, Hanno
Hofer, Razvan Marculescu
4
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REVIEWS
00.00.09
05.14.09
FILM
Steve Coogan is
playing with fire.
‘What Goes Up’
By Ethan Alter
L
OS ANGELES — Few
things are more depressing than watching a talented ensemble of actors
trying and failing to make
the best of bad material.
That’s the pitiable sight on
display in “What Goes Up,” a
turgid mess of a film that has a lot
of ideas on its mind, none of
which proves very interesting or
in fact coherent. And yet the cast
— which includes Steve Coogan,
BOTTOM LINE With its flat-footed script
and poor production values, this is a
movie to be endured rather than enjoyed.
OPENS: Friday, May 29 (Sony).
PRODUCTION: Nasser Entertainment
Group, Insight Film Studios, Station 3,
Three Kings Prods. CAST: Steve Coogan,
Hilary Duff, Olivia Thirlby, Josh Peck, Molly
Shannon, Molly Price, Max Hoffman,
Sarah Lind. DIRECTOR: Jonathan Glatzer.
PRODUCERS: Jack Nasser, R.D. Robb,
Jonathan Glatzer. Rated R, 107 minutes.
05.14.09
Olivia Thirlby and Molly Shannon — gives this misbegotten
production their all, even when
the awkward screenplay and
amateurish direction stymie their
efforts again and again.
Clearly, the filmmakers are
savvy enough to realize that
recruiting a recognizable and
respectable ensemble like this is a
surefire way to lure moviegoers
into the theater. The problem is
keeping them there when they
realize that the film is such a
chore to sit through.
Set for no good reason against
the backdrop of the tragic 1986
Challenger mission,“What Goes
Up” introduces us to cynical bigcity journalist Campbell Babbitt
(Coogan), who is exiled by his editor to small-town New Hampshire
to pen a human-interest story
about Christa McAuliffe, the
teacher picked to be part of that
fateful flight. Uninterested in actually completing this assignment,
Babbitt decides to look up an old
MORE FILM REVIEWS
“Brothers at War”
Bottom line: This grunt’s-eye perspective
of the Iraq War is occasionally moving but
ultimately has the feel of a vanity project.
“Revue”
Bottom line: This pic neatly captures the
oppressive nature of governmentsanctioned art in Khrushchev-era Russia.
> Go to THReviews.
college friend-turned-local high
school teacher only to discover
that he died in an apparent suicide.
In addition to all his worldly possessions, this teacher left behind a
homeroom full of emotionally
troubled, overly hormonal
teenagers that regarded him as
some kind of personal savior.
Smelling a good story, Babbitt
ingratiates himself with the students but quickly finds himself in
over his head when sparks fly
between him and one particularly
comely 17-year-old (Hilary Duff),
who might have been carrying on
an affair with his dead pal.
A setup like this can proceed in
two ways: an “American Pie”style teen sex farce or a dark,
morally ambiguous comedy a la
“Election.” But co-writer/director
Jonathan Glatzer makes the mistake of attempting to fuse these
tonally incompatible approaches,
resulting in some bizarre juxtapositions. For example, scenes of the
students wrestling with their
grief rest uneasily alongside more
broadly comic moments, such as
when a male student is caught by
his mother while having anal sex
with a crippled classmate or when
another kid masturbates to the
sight of his next-door neighbor
breast-feeding her baby.
The film isn’t helped by its
lackluster production values,
most notably a sound mix marred
by audible volume level and
cross-fade glitches in the print
shown to critics.
Because Glatzer is unable to
offer them much guidance from
behind the camera, the actors are
left alone to navigate the screenplay’s inconsistencies. That they
actually are able to generate
moments of honest emotion and
humor amid the film’s many
contrivances and technical problems is a testament to their commitment and professionalism.
It’s just a shame their Herculean
efforts aren’t in service of a better movie. ∂
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
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