The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies
The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies |
| The 1980s called – they want their movies back Posted: 16 Feb 2014 08:00 AM PST MOVIEGOERS of a certain age may be experiencing a weird deja vu moment right about now, as the lineup of studio releases opening this week looks eerily familiar. RoboCop, starring Joel Kinnaman as the Detroit police officer with the cyborgian makeover, hits screens. The original RoboCop, with Peter Weller in the title role, opened in 1987. There's About Last Night, which finds its all-black cast – Kevin Hart, Regina Hall, Michael Ealy and Joy Bryant – treading where Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, James Belushi, and Elizabeth Perkins went before. In 1986. In Endless Love, Gabriella Wilde is the daughter who falls for the handsome lad played by Alex Pettyfer (pic) – much to the consternation of her stern dad (Bruce Greenwood). Back in 1981, it was Brooke Shields who was head-over-heels for Martin Hewitt, much to the disapproval of her pop (Don Murray). Franco Zeffirelli directed that one. Shana Feste (in the guilty pleasure Country Strong) is responsible for the redo. Um, like Dan O'Herlihy's Old Man said in that first RoboCop: "Maybe what we need here is a fresh perspective." – The Philadelphia Inquirer/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
| A simply magical tale in 'Saving Mr. Banks' Posted: 15 Feb 2014 08:00 AM PST Saving Mr. Banks is a feel-good Disney film about the making of a Disney film. DISNEY delves into its own history in Saving Mr. Banks, a movie about the difficult birth of the classic film Mary Poppins, wrenched from a tale by a reluctant British author. Tom Hanks plays Walt Disney, who used all his sunny Californian charms to persuade writer P.L. Travers, played by Emma Thompson, to allow him to use the story. Directed by John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side, The Alamo, A Perfect World), the film recounts the two weeks Travers spent in 1961 at Disney Studios, where Walt battled to win her consent for his whimsical adaptation of her work. Australian-born Helen Lyndon Goff, who changed her name to P.L. Travers after moving to Britain – a nation whose starchy national stereotype she came to embody – began writing her Mary Poppins stories in 1934. For two decades Disney had been trying to secure the rights to her tale about an English nanny who floats into a family's home with the help of a magic umbrella. Disney had nonetheless already begun the film, and invited Travers to come and work with the screenwriter and composers Robert and Richard Sherman, hoping to win her confidence – never imagining how hostile she could be. To prepare for the role, Thompson studied everything about Travers. "Around some corners, you'd find this terrible monster. And around other corners, you'd find a beaten child. She was the most extraordinary combination of things," Thompson said at a press conference in Beverly Hills. "I suppose that was the scary thing. In films, we often get to play people who are emotionally, or at least morally, consistent, in some way, and she wasn't consistent, in any way. "You would not know what you would get, from one moment to the next." The movie is constructed around repeated flashbacks to Travers' childhood in Australia, marked by boundless admiration for her father, a day-dreaming bank manager and chronic alcoholic whose first name was Travers. The film doesn't claim to depict a historically exact account of events. But it is based on memories of Disney veterans, notably in creating the unforgettable tunes for the 1964 film Mary Poppins starring Julie Andrews. Richard Sherman, the sole survivor of the musical duo behind the score, was "literally a never-ending fountain of stories, of facts, of anecdotes, and of bits and pieces of everything that had happened," said Hanks. The actor, who is also a producer, said the new film is a perfect illustration of the ruthlessness a filmmaker must sometimes have to exert in order to get a project completed. "At this point, Walt Disney was pretty much used to getting his way because everybody loved him and he was the guy who invented Mickey Mouse," he told reporters. "In the creative process, which is really what this movie is about, you come to loggerheads and you just have to keep the process moving forward, even if that requires jumping on a plane and flying to London. "It's a good thing. It's fun, otherwise it would be too much work," he added. Thompson said she was sure what Travers would have thought of Savings Mr. Banks. "I think what she would say about this is 'This is an absolutely ridiculous film! It has no relationship, whatsoever, to what was happening. But, it's about me. And the clothes were really rather nice.'" – AFP
|
| You are subscribed to email updates from Movies To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan