Caffeinated Clint
1. The teaser trailer for the grainy-looking low-budget effort “The Canyons”, starring Lindsay Lohan and porn star James Deen, is online.
2. Cam Gigandet and Nick Thune have joined the cast of the indy comedy “Johnson”. In the comedy, “Gigandet plays Rich Johnson, a sexually prolific ladies’ man whose overworked genitals literally abandon his body and take on human form, played by Thune. Finding himself suddenly pitted against his favorite appendage, Rich must somehow convince his penis to return while “learning how to be a better man in the process.”
3. “Looper” co-star Paul Dano is joining “Prisoners” starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal. “Dano will play a neighbor who has the mental capacity of a 10-year old and has a very sweet disposition, but may hide the personality of a killer”, say the trades.
4. “Goodfellas” alum Mike Starr will play Sal, the westside boss on TV’s “The Mob Doctor”.
5. Mentored by some of Australia’s leading film industry talents and led by ambassador Jessica Tovey, three successful schools in the Oovie School Film Project, will have their final film productions premiered at the inaugural Cockatoo Island Film Festival, in a month’s time. Following an exciting ten-‐month selection and production process, that started at the end of 2011, Erskine Park High, Bulahdelah Central and Richard Johnson Anglican College, are soon to reap the rewards of their hard work at a red carpet premiere, watched by the Australian public, on Wednesday 24 October. The exceptional standard of entries, from schools across NSW and VIC, has demonstrated how the Oovie Schools Film Project, which is only in its second year, has unveiled the brightest of Australia’s filmmaking stars of the future. The collaborative project has provided an invaluable platform for students to experience, and widen their horizons to new opportunities that have previously been inaccessible. As part of their successful journey from concept to completion, the schools were invited to submit a short pitch around the project’s theme -‐ The Island -‐ before being shortlisted into having their film idea brought to life. The dynamic partnership between Oovie Schools Film Project and the Cockatoo Island Film Festival, will welcome the three successful schools onto Cockatoo Island, along with fellow student supporters, friends, families and members of the public. The Cockatoo Island Film Festival is an initiative of the Cockatoo Institute, working in partnership with the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust. For more information please visit www.cockatoofilm.com/institute/schools-‐film-‐ project
6. There’s a new motion poster for “Silent Hill : Revelation 3D” up here.
7. Stealth Media Group announced this week the brand new ”Belle Du Seigneur” mini-series that has already gathered loads of interest from buyers. The new mini-series is based on one of literature’s greatest love stories of all time by famed novelist Albert Cohen – one of the most notable writers of the 20th century. The classic love story is arguably Cohen’s most commercial novel and is considered by many in the literary world to be a masterpiece that has already sold over 100 million copies in Europe alone. Cohen won the prestigious Prix du Roman de l’Academie Francais in 1968 for Belle Du Seigneur and was also nominated for a Noble Peace Prize. The heart of the novel, and the premise of the new mini-series, is the doomed love affair between Solal (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers – ”The Tudors”, ”Bend it Like Bekham”), a devastatingly handsome Mediterranean Jew who rose from his exotic origins in the Greek island of Cephalonia to become Under-Secretary-General of the League of Nations; and Ariane Deume (played by supermodel Natalia Vodianova – ”Clash of the Titans”), wife of one of his subordinates, a breathtakingly beautiful Genevoise aristocrat who has married beneath her. Cohen’s novels have long been thought of as his own autobiography. Born in Greece to Jewish parents, Cohen studied in France and eventually moved to Geneva where he served as a civil servant. In his novels Cohen comes to life as the radiant Solal, his double – the handsome and successful civil servant of the League of Nations whose charismatic identity is a constant struggle between his Jewish roots and his social status.
8. Principal photography commences in Australia today on feature drama “Tracks”, based on the inspirational true story of intrepid traveller and writer Robyn Davidson’s solo trek from Alice Springs through 2700km of sprawling Australian desert to the Indian Ocean, accompanied only by her loyal dog and four unpredictable camels. This epic and remarkable journey into one of the world’s last great wildernesses, which was captured by charismatic National Geographic photographer Rick Smolan, taught Robyn to do the impossible, to appreciate the joy of true solitude and that sometimes we have to detach from the world to feel connected to it. Tracks stars the internationally acclaimed Australian actress Mia Wasikowska (”Jane Eyre”) as Robyn Davidson and rapidly rising star Adam Driver (”Inside Llewyn Davis”) as Rick Smolan. The movie is directed by the esteemed John Curran (”Praise”). Robyn Davidson says of her story being translated to the screen ‘What a strange experience it is to see one’s own account morphed into another form. I could not be more pleased with the people involved in conceiving this new avatar. Emile and Iain, unique among producers I think, John, who sails as close to the book as he can without compromising his own ship, and of course, Mia, whose talent gave me goose bumps when I watched In Treatment, and who is as lovely as she is gifted.’ ‘This is one of the great Australian stories that begs to be adapted for the big screen. Robyn undertakes such an epic journey, doing what many of us wish we had the courage to do – to cast off the shackles of our lives, going as far away as possible from the noise of civilisation, and to find out how we would manage truly alone. We couldn’t be happier to have such strong casting in Mia Wasikowska and Adam Driver, playing the roles of two such intriguing, resolute and adventurous characters.’ said producers Emile Sherman and Iain Canning.
9. “The Factory”, “House at the End of the Street”, “The Possession”, “The Apparition”, “A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas” and “Jayne Mansfield’s Car” will all be going direct-to-DVD in Australia.
10. Demian Bichir (“Savages”), Annabeth Gish (“x-Files”) And Ted Levine (“The Fast and the Furious”) have been cast in the FX drama pilot “The Bridge”, about “two detectives from the U.S. and Mexico — El Paso Police Homicide Detective Sonya North (Diane Kruger) and Marco Ruiz (Bichir) — who must work together to hunt down a serial killer operating on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Ruiz is described as a family man and one of the last good men in a corrupt and apathetic police force that is outgunned by the powerful drug cartels. Gish will play Charlotte, a wealthy ranch wife suddenly widowed when her older husband suffers a massive heart attack while on the Mexican side of the border. She soon learns that her late husband had many shocking secrets. Monk alum Levine will play Sonya’s Lieutenant at the El Paso Police Department, a veteran cop with a weathered cowboy swagger.”
