The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz
The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz |
| 'Fifty Shades Of Grey' may have found its star Posted: Producers are eyeing actress Dakota Johnson to star in the highly-anticipated movie. The Fifty Shades Of Grey rumours are flying fast and furiously on the Universal lot as the film – set to fog up theatres less than a year from now – prepares to finally tie down its all-important cast. The latest actress to emerge as a serious contender for the coveted role of Anastasia Steele is Dakota Johnson, the daughter of Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith. Johnson started out as an IMG model before transitioning to acting and launching a movie career, including a memorable scene with Justin Timberlake in The Social Network. At this point, nothing is firm – Johnson is just one of the up-and-coming starlets currently being considered to play Steele, according to individuals familiar with the project. At the very least, interest in Johnson indicates the type of actress the filmmakers are considering for Anastasia: She's 23 years old, and though she isn't quite a movie star (yet), she has acting credibility and a rising feature career. Representatives for Johnson and Universal had no comment. Sam Taylor-Johnson (Nowhere Boy) is directing from a script by Kelly Marcel (Saving Mr Banks), who adapted the erotic literary sensation by E.L. James. Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti are producing Fifty Shades Of Grey, which is set up at Universal Pictures and Focus Features. By all accounts, the part of Anastasia Steele is a potential star-maker, which means there's limited upside for an established star; and the chosen actress will have to be comfortable with on-screen nudity and kinky sex. Johnson may not be a household name, but as a former model, she's already comfortable flaunting her body for the camera. While Fifty Shades has not been offered to anyone officially, several rising actresses are believed to have taken themselves out of the running, including Shailene Woodley and Alicia Vikander. Analeigh Tipton (Crazy, Stupid Love) – like Johnson, a young model with a budding acting career – was also considered at one point.
In the Twilight-inspired book, James describes Anastasia as an average 22-year-old girl with delicate features such as long, dark brown hair (Johnson is usually blonde, but has gone brunette before), pale skin, big blue eyes, full lips and an upturned nose (the one feature Johnson lacks). Slender and petite, she's described as pretty – but not too pretty. Johnson got Hollywood's attention with her scene-stealing turn as a college girl who sleeps with Timberlake's character in The Social Network – which was also produced by De Luca and Brunetti. The last time an actress with a bit part in The Social Network was rumoured for a high-profile literary adaptation, Rooney Mara won the role of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. After supporting roles in 21 Jump Street, The Five-Year Engagement and Beastly, Johnson landed her own Fox TV show, Ben And Kate. She also recently appeared in the series finale of The Office and next stars alongside Aaron Paul in DreamWorks' action movie Need For Speed. Johnson will soon begin filming Michael Almereyda's Cymbeline. As for the role of Christian Grey, the movie website Twitch reported earlier that producers are looking to cast Pacific Rim star Charlie Hunnam as the kinky billionaire. Hunnam would fit the project's Anglo bent, as Taylor-Johnson, James, Marcel and Universal co-chair Donna Langley all hail from overseas. That said, an individual familiar with the project tells TheWrap that a decision regarding Christian's casting won't be made until after the filmmakers know who will play Anastasia. Back when Taylor-Johnson won the director's chair in June, TheWrap reported that Felicity Jones was being considered to play Steele, though there doesn't appear to have been any movement on that front. But the clock is running out on Fifty Shades Of Grey, and Universal needs to get the cameras rolling before Halloween to make their date. — Reuters |
| Posted: Despite its low budget, The Purge makes a killing at the box office. SET in the near future, The Purge is a tale of society that has managed to eliminate crime 364 days per year by allowing the public one night of prosecution-free blood lust. Ethan Hawke stars as a suburban father whose security systems are designed to protect his family and neighbours from the government-sanctioned lawlessness, where everything – up to and including murder – is encouraged. When his young son decides to shelter a homeless man being chased by some locals, his pursuers lay siege to the home, quickly proving the fortifications somewhat less than reliable. The family must hold off the intruders until dawn, when the mayhem moratorium is reinstated. The Purge is the first collaboration between Universal and producer Jason Blum, who also was a producer on Paranormal Activity, Insidious and Sinister. Under a three-year deal announced in 2011, Blum has wide creative leeway to deliver genre movies costing US$4mil (RM13.1mil) or less. The dystopian thriller cost a little more than US$3mil (RM9.8mil). Shot in 20 quick days in Los Angeles (with a couple of extra days for reshoots) last year, The Purge was made for a fraction of the typical Hollywood budget, largely because almost everybody was paid the minimum amount allowed by Hollywood's unions. In return for working on the cheap, they will get a bigger payday if the film performs well. "Everybody above the line basically works for free," said Blum, referring to the actors and top filmmaking talent. "And when you work for free, you get total creative control." Universal had some input in casting and created the film's marketing materials, but Blum and director James DeMonaco weren't subjected to endless script notes and executives didn't scrutinise the film's daily footage, the way most studio productions are supervised. In a way, Blum said, that loose oversight creates a more collegial atmosphere because you're not afraid of the studio, or of losing control of the production. When The Purge was completed, Blum screened it for test audiences before he showed it to the studio. The previews suggested that Hawke's character wasn't quite likable enough, so DeMonaco cut a few lines of dialogue about how some victims of violence deserved their fate. He also decided he needed to add back a scene he'd scrapped for budget reasons showing Hawke more forcefully defending his family. Universal executives liked the finished film so much they decided to schedule The Purge opposite Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson's comedy The Internship, a 20th Century Fox film that cost about US$58mil (RM190.1mil). (In its opening weekend in the US in June, The Purge debuted at No. 1 with US$36.4mil [RM119.3mil]. The higher-profile Internship started with only US$18.1mil [RM59.3mil]. As of Aug 4, The Purge had earned US$64.4mil [RM211mil] in the US box office gross) Donna Langley, Universal's co-chairman, said the deal with Blum was launched because the studio wanted to get back in the genre business, and at a low cost. While the studio was behind classic horror titles such as Frankenstein and Dracula, its more contemporary efforts within the realm were mostly unsuccessful, including flops with The Wolfman in 2010 and The Thing in 2011. "We were looking for someone with a strong expertise in the thriller and horror genre," Langley said. She added the studio is so attentive to maintaining its franchises (Fast & Furious 6), comedies (Ted 2 is in development), animated movies (Despicable Me) and new big-budget endeavors (at year's end, 47 Ronin) that the studio doesn't have the "bandwidth" to focus on low-budget fright flicks. Some of Blum's most recent films have recorded huge returns on investment. Made for about US$15,000 (RM49,000), the first Paranormal Activity in 2009 grossed more than US$193mil (RM632.5mil) worldwide; 2011's Insidious, produced for about US$1.5mil (RM4.9mil), grossed US$97mil (RM317.9mil) globally; and last year's Sinister, budgeted at US$3mil (RM9.8mil), grossed more than US$77mil (RM252.3mil). Sequels to all three films are in the works. Part of Blum's pitch to Universal is that because the movies are so cheap, the studio isn't obligated to release them theatrically – they can go straight to DVD or VOD if executives wish. That can save millions in marketing expenses if the studio isn't convinced the film will do well at the box office. Because Universal has guaranteed video and television distribution deals around the world, the studio can basically break even if the movie never makes it to the multiplex. "Some of my movies work, and some of them don't," Blum said. "I want to be able to say to the studio, 'We missed, let's go to VOD.'" – Los Angeles Times/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
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| Posted: Lily Collins makes a huge career leap with The Mortal Instruments. The lovely Lily Collins is getting her share of crazy. "We were doing a mall tour of different cities," said the 24-year-old star of The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones, which is released today in Malaysia. "And we were meeting all these fans, which is great, because they're the people who are responsible for where we are." Uh-huh. Yeah. And? "One girl fainted when she saw Jamie," Collins said of co-star Jamie Campbell Bower. Another showed Collins her runes – mystical marks, etched or tattooed onto the skin, and corresponding to those borne by the characters in the Cassandra Clare novels on which the movies are being based. Better yet: "One named their baby after Jace," Collins said of the character played by Bower, who – like Collins' character, Clary Fray, is a Shadowhunter, dedicated to hunting down demons. "It's crazy," the actress said, in the way one does when stating the obvious. "Maybe I wouldn't name my baby after Jace, but people are passionate about these stories. And the first one's not even out yet and they're acting this way." The first one – City Of Bones – is just the beginning of what everyone involved hopes will be a series to rival (or surpass) the Harry Potter, Twilight and Percy Jackson franchises. The author, Clare, has just finished the sixth in her kitchen-sink fantasy series, and while the first movie adaptation is new in theatres, Collins and company will start shooting the second title, City Of Ashes. The other books in the series are MI: City Of Glass, City Of Fallen Angels, City Of Lost Souls and City Of Heavenly Fire). "We are signed up for three," Collins said of her principal co-stars. "But, when you take into account that Cassandra is now publishing the sixth one, it could go longer. When you take on a series like this, you can never assume it's going to grow to that many, but you hope you'll get the opportunity to do a character for as long as people want you to do it." The daughter of rocker Phil Collins, the actress was born in Surrey, England, but after her parents' divorce, she moved with her mum to Los Angeles, where she was educated, majoring in broadcast journalism at University of Southern California. Having begun acting on British TV at age two, Collins has more recently been seen in the fantastical Mirror Mirror, where she played Snow White to Julia Roberts' evil Queen; Priest, in which Paul Bettany hunted vampires; and the less phantasmagorical Stuck In Love (formerly Writers) with Greg Kinnear and Jennifer Connelly, and The English Teacher, with Julianne Moore and Nathan Lane. "The new Audrey Hepburn!" declared one British website, after Collins did a retro-Hollywood photo spread for the London Tatler magazine. She does have a face for movies, though she doesn't want them full of shadows and ghouls. Not all the time. "Since I finished filming the first one," she said of Mortal Instruments, "I did a film in Dublin called Love, Rosie, which is really the opposite kind of movie, I play a mum, 10 years older, British. Since day one, from The Blind Side to Priest, Mirror Mirror to The English Teacher, I've made a conscious effort to switch it off and have people seeing me do different characters. Because the last thing I want is to get pigeonholed." It's a comfortable trap. "But I think when you look at Jennifer Lawrence and Kristen Stewart," she said, referring to the stars of Hunger Games and the Twilight movies, "they've been able to do a franchise and still do other things, and have an identity aside from those movies." Mortal Instruments could offer a warm embrace, or a stranglehold. According to Publisher's Weekly, Clare has 12 million books in print domestically (US), 24 million internationally, and her sales have jumped 150% since last year, presumably on the strength of the movie hype. Curiously enough, when the author was getting started, publishers wanted her to change her central character, Clary, from female to male. They had other reservations, too, in those pre-Twilight days (City Of Bones was published in 2007; the initial Twilight movie was released in 2008). "They said, 'Who's going to be interested in werewolves and vampires?'," Collins laughed. "I know, right? But Cassandra was very passionate and confident that having a young female heroine was important." What's also important – and could be a key in whether Mortal Instruments takes off the way other demon-populated movie series have – is that the core story works in or out of the supernatural. "It's so great to portray a young woman who's not afraid to be vulnerable and confused," said Collins. "A young woman who is going through an identity crisis about life and love, and searching for her mother (Lena Headley) and her own voice ... At the same time, the vampires make it alluring – because people love the unknown. It's sexy. They're from an otherworldly place, a fantasy world." But director Harald Zwart, she said, wanted a movie that would work in a world of Shadowhunters and demons, or in New York City – the same place, in the case of Mortal Instruments. "He wanted the characters to have the same emotional outcome regardless if they were fantasy characters or real," said Collins. "And it was important for him that we play them that way." — Newsday/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
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