The Screengrab : brett ratner

Scarlett Johansson: The Unkindest Cut

Scott Von Doviak — Mon, 04 May 2009 19:00:00 GMT

Scarlett Johansson has the best boobs in Hollywood, according to a (no doubt very scientific) poll conducted by Access Hollywood. But that’s not the sort of news we report here at the Screengrab. No, no, no, we’re above that sort of thing here, which is probably why we’re doomed. What matters to us is what appears on the screen – or in this case, what disappears. You see, Ms. Johansson’s long-awaited directorial debut will have its premiere on the cutting room floor.

“The 24-year-old star of The Black Dahlia and Vicky Cristina Barcelona shot a segment for New York, I Love You, a series of linked love stories directed by different people, including Natalie Portman and Brett Ratner,” according to the Daily Mail. “But her episode, shot in black and white and starring Kevin Bacon, was 'unwatchable,' sources told the New York Post.”

Unwatchable! Now there’s a word that makes my eyes well with tears of pride. The film’s producer, Emmanuel Benbihy, has a much more diplomatic explanation for the excision of Scarlett’s segment. “The story did not specifically involve an interpersonal relationship, and it was conceptualised to be filmed in black and white – both of which were extreme departures from the other films… Scarlett presented me with an extremely compelling, albeit unconventional, narrative that appeared as though it would not necessarily conform to the overall approach of the entire collective.”

All is not lost, however. The Johansson short will appear on the DVD release of New York, I Love You. And we’ll always have her boobs.

The Brett Ratner Book Club

Scott Von Doviak — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:00:00 GMT

We indulge in our share of Ratner-bashing here at the Screengrab, and why not? It’s not our fault he’s the director of Rush Hour 3. But we’ll give credit where credit is due: Brett Ratner has launched his own literary imprint, Rat Press. For the moment, try to ignore the fact that the crown jewel of the collection appears to be a collection of Scott Caan photographs. Scroll down and you’ll see a few more interesting entries, including Conversations with Marlon Brando by Lawrence Grobel and a book with the perfectly James Tobackian title Jim: The Author’s Self-Centered Memoir on the Great Jim Brown.

“For me, part of my film education was reading these types of books that talked about life experiences in Hollywood,” Ratner tells Movieline – and who knew Movieline still existed in any form? “I have the most incredible book collection; they’re just a big part of stuff I love to collect. But the Brando book is one that I’ve always loved, and when I met Lawrence Grobel, I told him: ‘I love your Capote book! I love your Brando book!’ And he said, “You know, the Brando book is available.” I said, “What? I want to publish it! Will you write a new outro for it?”

The Grobel book does sound like a find, if a little pricey at $25 a pop. “For ten truly remarkable days in July 1978, Lawrence Grobel spent every waking minute with legendary actor Marlon Brando and his family on Brando’s Tahitian island, Tetiaroa. It was the first time in twenty-five years that Brando, notorious for his reclusive, reticent lifestyle had granted an extended interview to anyone.”

Let’s hope the Rat Press series is a success and Ratner devotes as much time and energy to it as possible. Anything to keep him out of the director’s chair.

Related:
Brett Ratner Drinks Youngblood
Mike Tyson Speaks: Lend Him an Ear

Morning Deal Report: Brett Ratner Drinks "Youngblood"

Scott Von Doviak — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:00:00 GMT

America was way too into He’s Just Not That Into You, rewarding the rom-com with the top box office spot and a $27.5 take. Last week’s big winner Taken slipped to the second spot, followed by Coraline and The Pink Panther 2, which was mercifully perceived as a disappointment. Steve Martin, this is your chance to retire to a quiet life of banjo recordings.

Brett Ratner is set to direct an adaptation of Rob Liefeld’s “iconic” graphic novel Youngblood. (Iconic is Variety’s word, not mine.) Is he doing this because it’s a project near and dear his heart? “Most of the great graphic novels are gone, and Youngblood is one of the few comic books left with tentpole potential,” said Ratner. Is he trying to sound like a jackass or does that just come naturally?

Finally, some political news from The Hollywood Reporter: “Holy hornet's nest, Batman! The New Mexico governor's mansion? Fresh from the inauguration, Val Kilmer is pondering running for governor in 2010, when two-term Democrat Bill Richardson will be forced from office by term limits.” Really, Hollywood Reporter? “Holy hornet’s nest, Batman”? Is that all you got?

Related:
Helming the Heroes
Car Talk with Val Kilmer

Helming the Heroes

Leonard Pierce — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:15:00 GMT

The recent proliferation of superhero movies have taught us that, of all things, auteur theory ain't quite dead yet. Hand your project over to a director of unique vision, a man with deep obsessions and specific stylistic and thematic ideas, and you get The Dark Knight. Hand your project over to a director with big ideas but not enough talent to carry them off, and you get Daredevil. Hand your project over to a director with no ideas and no talent, and you get Elektra. As goes art, so goes action: even in the cinema of capes and cowls, it's all about the director.

So, given that, what can we expect from yesterday's announcements about who will be helming two hotly anticipated comic book projects? The new Captain America flick, the last big Marvel solo adventure until we're treated to the long-awaited Avengers movie, will be directed by Joe Johnston; the new Conan the Barbarian (which isn't based on a comic, but features a character whose prominence in modern-day geek consciousness is more attributable to Roy Thomas' 1970s Marvel comics series than it is to Robert E. Howard's original stories) has fallen into the hands of Brett Ratner.

Neither of these guys are Christopher Nolan-level filmmakers, or even Bryan Singer-level filmmakers. How successful these films will be depends on which director shows up with his A-game; if we get the Joe Johnston who directed the charming, underrated superhero movie The Rocketeer, then Captain America could be a patriotic, nostalgic romp, but if we get the Joe Johnston who directed Jumanji, we could be in for a long wait until The Avengers comes out. Ratner has nothing as good as The Rocketeer on his resume, and he's also single-handedly responsible for trashing the X-Men franchise. Add to that the fact that, instead of legit heavyweights like John Milius and Oliver Stone (who did the original 1982 film version of Conan) providing him with a script, he's got the guys who did A Sound of Thunder, and we don't think anyone will be forgetting Schwarzenegger's version anytime soon.

Benecio del Toro is The Wolfman

Eddie Murphy Exhumes “Beverly Hill Cop”

Scott Von Doviak — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:30:00 GMT

There must be some sort of misunderstanding. See, the other day I wrote about reviving another '80s action hero in the wake of successful return visits from Rambo and Indiana Jones. But I was talking about Mad Max. Some signals must have gotten crossed because I definitely didn’t mean Beverly Hills Cop.

Yet here it is in Variety: “On the heels of the successful revival of the Indiana Jones franchise, Paramount has set in motion a fourth installment of Beverly Hills Cop. Eddie Murphy is attached to reprise his role as Detroit detective Axel Foley, and Brett Ratner is negotiating to direct.”

Whose bright idea was this? Unsurprisingly, it was the star of Norbit and Meet Dave himself. “Murphy approached the studio about reviving the franchise that cemented his status as a B.O. mega-star.” With such announced upcoming projects as The Incredible Shrinking Man and Untitled Eddie Murphy/Romeo and Juliet Project, you’d think his plate would be full, but hey, lucky us. Now we can only wait and wonder if Judge Reinhold is available.

Cannes 2008: Meet the Jury!

Paul Clark — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Yesterday, The Screengrab was the 152nd blog on the web to post the Competition slate for next month's Cannes Film Festival. But before you start predicting the winners sight unseen, we suggest you get to know the members of the Competition jury. That way you'll know whose names to curse when your favorite filmmaker gets smoked by some little-known furriner whose name you can't pronounce.

This year's Cannes Competition Jury:

Sean Penn (Jury President) is a filmmaker of some note, directing four films since his 1990 debut, The Indian Runner. His most recent film is the memorably Oscar-snubbed Into the Wild. When not behind the camera, Penn is also known for his political and charitable work, which has taken him to Iran and to the post-Katrina New Orleans. Penn has also been known to act on occasion.

Sergio Castellitto has appeared in several films in Competition, including 2001's Va Savoir and 2002's The Religion Hour (My Mother's Smile). Once referred to by Screengrab favorite Mike D'Angelo as "maybe the most underrated thesp alive," he also starred in the popular Mostly Martha, better known as No Reservations, Except Good. Castellitto has also directed two features, including the 2004 film Don't Move, in which he exercised his director's clout in order to give himself several love scenes with Penelope Cruz.

Natalie Hershlag, alternately known as Natalie Portman, made her big-screen debut at age 13 in Luc Besson's The Professional, sometimes referred to as Léon by various talkbackers on Ain't It Cool News. Since that time, she has become one of the most sought-after actresses of her generation, particularly among horny fanboys who despair that she will never get completely naked onscreen. Hershlag is set to make her directorial debut in this year's omnibus film New York, I Love You, where her short film will appear alongside new works by such acclaimed filmmakers as Brett Ratner and Scarlett Johansson. She also wants you to know that the Shins will totally change your life.

Alfonso Cuaron first gained international critical attention with his 1995 film A Little Princess, and subsequent films like Y Tu Mama Tambien and Children of Men have proven him a formidable talent (he also allegedly made a low-budget adaptation of a little-known English fantasy novel, but no one knows what became of this). In 2006, his high-profile friendship with fellow Mexican filmmakers Guillermo Del Toro and Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu let to the trio briefly becoming known as "The Three Amigos" for several months before they were sued by Chevy Chase, Martin Short and Steve Martin.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul has such a long name that I run the risk of hitting my character limit simply by typing it. Luckily for me, he prefers to simply be called "Joe." Joe has garnered widespread critical acclaim for his whimsical, magical-realist films, which include Mysterious Object at Noon, Blissfully Yours, and Syndromes and a Century. His 2004 film Tropical Malady won the Jury Prize at Cannes, and Roger Ebert called the film "a meditation on portentous but incoherent themes." By which we're guessing he meant "awesome."

Alexandra Maria Lara, a ravishing Romanian who moved to Germany at age 4, made her movie debut at 16. However, the role that brought her international acclaim came in 2004's Downfall, in which she portrayed Hitler's personal secretary Traudl Junge. Since then, she costarred in Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth and in last year's Ian Curtis biopic Control, where she met current boyfriend Sam Riley (isn't that cute?). Lara will next appear in Stephen Daldry's The Reader, as well as taking a supporting role in Spike Lee's WWII drama Miracle at St. Anna, a role you won't find out about by looking her up on IMDb.

Rachid Bouchareb is a French director-producer who last appeared at Cannes with his 2006 drama Days of Glory. In addition to his own films, he has also produced the work of numerous other filmmakers, including all four features to date by Bruno Dumont. Sorry, I have nothing humorous to say about this guy.

So there you have it. Seven jury members, down from nine last year. How will they vote? Will Penn insist on a political bent, or at least something appeals to his artier side? Will Cuaron stump for his fellow Latin Americans? Which Bouchareb will show up- the one who directed the rousing WW2 or the guy who produces Bruno Dumont movies? Will Joe gravitate to fellow talking-primate lover Charlie Kaufman? Will the paparazzi devote most of their attention to Portman and Lara (yes, they will)? Let the blind prognosticating commence in 5, 4, 3...

Little Minx's Exquisite Corpse: Internet Playground for Tomorrow's Classic Commercials Directors, Today

Phil Nugent — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 20:00:00 GMT

Little Minx, a commercial production company founded in 1998, has set up a website designed to give their directors a chance to strut their stuff via a series of very short films made under the umbrella title of "Exquisite Corpse". As in the Surrealists' parlor game of the same name, the concept is a sort of creative pass-the-baton game: the chief rule is that each filmmaker has to pick up with the last line of the script from the preceding film. (Typical titles: "She Turns Back and Faces Forward, At Peace" and "Without Missing A Beat, She Asks, 'Waffles For Breakfast?'") Handsomely produced (by Little Minx company founder Rhea Scott), the five films currently available for viewing are as easy on the eyes as they are soft in content. They range in style from urban-gangbanger-violence with arty flashback structure to New Age-feminist music video, and if the worst that can be said for most of the best of them is that they don't have anything new to say however snazzily they say it, the best that can be said of the worst of them is that they're over before you've had a chance to mind them much. The one that seems to have gotten the most attention, Josh Miller's "Waffles", is built around a plot twist that you can see coming from a mile off, but it does have a great opening line ("I guess what I'm tryin' to say is that if the good lord put hair there, it's probably for a reason."), some well-placed waka-jawaka on the soundtrack, and good acting by a cast headed by Stephen Mendillo, a familiar face from '90s episodes of classic Law and Order, and a fetching young actress named Aviva, who was in Superbad. And Chris Nelson's "She Turns Back..." leavens its standard-issue picture of the horrors of a TV casting call with a striking performance by Cara Failer as a conflicted kid actress trying to hang onto some self-respect. Well-executed but unsurprising, these are ideal for viewing on an iPod--which is only a put-down if the filmmakers had grander ambitions than that.

Other websites are popping up now (such as Wonderland) that aim to use the Internet to bring together talented new filmmakers and give viewers access to their work. "Exquisite Corpse" seems like the vanguard for a more business-minded approach that might be called cutting-edge practical: by giving commercial directors the chance to show how they might do if given the chance to stretch a little--say, behind the camera on a theatrical feature film--it may serve industry people as the latest concept in audition reels, while attracting moviegoers who are curious to see where the next Ridley Scott or Brett Ratner might be coming from. My own favorite of the films posted so far may actually be the first, Laurent Briet's "With the Eyes of Every Man Riveted Upon Her," a pulse-driven little vignette set in a gym that makes canny use of its teenaged lead actress and the Black Strobe song "Shining Bright Star." It would make a great commercial for something, which seems to be the idea.

New Line Projects Enter Development Limbo

Phil Nugent — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Being a Hollywood screenwriter is an unpredictable rollercoaster of a career even when the studio you've finally worked out a deal with hasn't just basically disappeared. But that's the case with those writers who had projects pending with New Line Cinema, the idiosyncratic company whose recent financial woes ended with the decision to fold it into Warner Bros. (the better to "streamline" its slate of films) and the departure of Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne, the CEOs who founded New Line forty years ago. A lot of people who thought their next projects had been safely sheparded past Development Hell have found themselves right back in purgatory while the "transition team" scours the wreckage with a mind to defining just what the new New Line is supposed to be all about. Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Jay Fernandez identifies the types of projects that are probably safe, mainly sequels and remakes tied to New Line's licensed properties such as Freddy Krueger and the Nightmare on Elm Street series, and "low-budget comedies like The Grackle, The $40,000 Man and All You Can Eat." Imperilled: "higher-budget or prestige dramas and thrillers, such as writer-director Edward Norton's adaptation of Jonathan Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn, Brett Ratner's production of Mr. S: My Life With Frank Sinatra and producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci's Red Cell." (Some lucky winners may be bumped up the chain to become Warner Bros. productions.) On the plus side, some projects that had become snared in New Line's corporate tentacles and weren't looking to get made may revert to their creators, who'll have another shot at placing them with another studio. Right now, there isn't much anyone can do besides wait and see.

Morning Deal Report: Behind My Camel

Peter Smith — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 15:00:00 GMT

Spider-Man 4 lumbers gradually into production. Sony says this will include a mere two villains, instead of their originally planned 846. Whatever.

Gerard Butler has fled the Escape From New York remake, just after news that Brett Ratner had split for the outer boroughs himself.

The underused Gillian Anderson will star in The Smell of Apples, a drama set in '70s South Africa. Nice to see her again.

That George Romero just really likes zombies, apparently; Diary of the Dead's not even out yet and he's already planning a sequel.

Speaking as the "Andy Summers" in a Police cover band, I'm delighted to hear that the real Andy Summers' autobiography is becoming a documentary. That it's from the director of Tupac: Resurrection is a little less encouraging, but we'll see.

— Peter Smith