By now, you’ve probably heard that three Tokyo theaters have pulled Louie Psihoyos’ excellent Oscar-winning documentary, “The Cove” from theaters as it makes the Japanese whaling industry look pretty terrible. The reason? The fear of protests outside the venue, according to distributors Unplugged, after receiving harassing phone calls and warnings that right-wing protesters would picket. Thankfully, artisans in Japan aren’t having it.
Noted filmmaker Hirokuza Kore-eda (Playlist favorite and Criterion approved, “Still Walking”) was among the fifty-plus public figures that included journalists, academics and filmmakers who signed protest letter condemning the intimidation and said they were alarmed by the tactics employed to pressure theaters into canceling the planned screenings. If you haven’t seen “The Cove” already, do so, it’s an excellent documentary and an Oscar-winner with good reason.
DreamWorks has picked up “The Shield” writer John Hlavin’s pitch for an international heist flick. No producers are attached and no logline has been revealed as of yet. Boring.
Jospeh Fiennes and Eva Green have joined the Starz costume drama “Camelot.” Fiennes we get, his career basically went in the toilet after “Shakespeare In Love,” but Green? She should be starring in feature films, not working on what sounds like a pretty lame cable show.
Times must be getting tough though as another great actress Julia Stiles is also slumming it on television. The smart, attractive and engaging actress must be finding it tough landing plum roles cause she’s joined Showtimes’ “Dexter” which has rapidly declined in quality. Stile is yet another one of those underappreciated actors. Hell, put her in one of those young, “X-Men” movies, girl can act.
What would Terrence Malick think? Did you see that “The New World’ actress Q’orianka Kilcher was arrested at The White House. Evidently she had tied herself to a White House fence, and her 41-year-old mother poured a black substance over her (uhh, we hear Homeland Security generally objects to that type of thing). Apparently, they were protesting a a visit by the president of Peru (Kilcher’s father is Peruvian Indian).
We’ve already shown you plenty of photos from Ralph Fiennes’ Shakespeare adaptation, “Coriolanus,” but there are even more here. The picture stars Gerard Butler, Fiennes himself, Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Cox, Jessica Chastain, James Nesbitt, John Kani, Ashraf Barhom and, bizarrely, British pop star Will Young.
Remember Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini? Their career received a big boost with the 2003 indie flick, “American Splendor,” but then followed it up with “The Nanny Diaries” and were sort of forgotten as a potential indie-duo. Well, they’ve returned with “The Extra Man” that stars Paul Dano, Kevin Klien, Katie Holmes, John C. Reilly and Cathy Moriarty. Here’s the poster. It hits theaters July 30th, and VOD early on June 25th.
Six-time Oscar winner and make-up pioneer Rick Baker has some regrets about “The Wolf Man.” “I hoped it would bring back monster movies. Will this make it harder to continue make more? I don’t know. It’s always kind of tough.” We suggest he blame Joe Johnston. We try and do that whenever we can.
Eddie Marsan will star in the low-budget British indie, “Junkhearts” that also feautres Eddie Tom Sturridge, Romola Garai (“Glorious 39,” “Spider-Man 4” auditioning) and newcomer Candese Reid.