Sienna Miller Scales 'High-Rise'; Gerard Butler Joins 'Den of Thieves'; Peter Sarsgaard Leads 'Experimenter'

* Sienna Miller and Jeremy Irons have joined Tom Hiddleston in High-Rise, the next film from Kill List and Sightseers director, Ben Wheatley. Adapted from J.G. Ballard's novel, this one is set inside a luxury high-rise apartment where a violent class war erupts amongst the tenants. Irons will play the building's architect, with Miller a his aide who strikes up a romantic relationship with Hiddleston's character. [ScreenDaily]

* After ditching that awful Point Break remake, Gerard Butler has jumped right into another potentially terrible heist movie. He'll star in Den of Thieves, which is co-written and directed by Christian Gudegast, Butler's writer on London Has Fallen. The story centers on a "legendary bank heist crew decides to rob the Federal Reserve in Los Angeles right under the nose of a rogue sheriff’s deputy." [Variety]

* Peter Sarsgaard and Winona Ryder will headline the biopic, Experimenter, The Stanley Milgram Story. Milgram was the social psychologist whose controversial 1961 experiment studied human willingness to obey authority figures by instructing subjects to deliver what they believed to be painful electric shocks to complete strangers. Michael Almereyda (Hamlet) is directing, with Sarsgaard as Milgram and Ryder as his student and future wife, Sasha Menkin.

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Review: 'Homefront', Starring Jason Statham and James Franco

James Franco played a creepy drug lord earlier this year in Spring Breakers to great effect. He has a very similar role in Homefront, though a lot of the creepiness is substituted for angry yelling. Sylvester Stallone writes a script that's aimed at cramming as many testosterone-fueled confrontations as possible without giving the film a backbone to hold it up when it falters.


Phil Broker (Jason Statham) is a DEA agent who quits after a drug ring bust doesn't end happily. That's the only reason given for Broker's "retirement" and it doesn't really make sense, but the script's by Sylvester Stallone, so apparently we're supposed to let it slide. 

Broker ends up in a very small town in Louisiana where everyone practically bullies him or his daughter Maddy (newcomer Izabela Vidovic). Honestly, everyone Statham comes across wants to either threaten him or beat him up. So much for small-town hospitality. 

Cassie Bodine (Kate Bosworth) is angry that her son gets taken down by Broker's daughter when the kid bullies her at school for no reason. Pissed off that no one's doing anything about it, she seeks help from her brother Gator (James Franco) to put some fear in Broker. Everything changes when Gator finds out that Broker is ex-DEA and he and his girlfriend Sheryl (Winona Ryder) plan a way to hand Broker over to the drug lord he took down on his last case so that Broker doesn't find out about Gator's own meth-cooking ways. 

The main cast is impressive, but the story is lacking. So why is that actors like Winona Ryder and Kate Bosworth are in this film? These are two talented women cast in a movie that undermines their talents as well as their presence. They're left as side characters who don't do anything for the movie as a whole and we're left sitting there wondering why the hell they're in this movie in the first place. 

Ryder looks great for her age, but her character tries to pass for a girl half her age in attitude and in representation. Bosworth's character is quick-tempered, but there's no real bite to her aggression, and beyond that there's really nowhere left for her character to grow.

Statham plays the usual kick-ass character that he's played in the past, though with a baseball hat on this time around. The main problem with the movie is that no one in it can go up against Statham and legitimately win. Everyone in the film gets their asses handed to them and not once do we fear for Statham's life because we know that he can take the person down. Franco isn't scary enough or physically equal to rise to the occasion. Even the final showdown is pretty anticlimactic. 

As mentioned earlier, Franco's character in Spring Breakers is much more appealing in terms of being the creepy drug dealer he should have probably been in in this film. In fairness, the story is weak and the script doesn't seem to want to give time to expand on the world its created. 

Instead, it jumps from point A to point B methodically and without any real backbone. There are hints to Statham and Rachelle Lefevre's characters becoming romantically involved. There are instances of character depth when Vidovic talks about the pain of missing her mother. In the end though, these things never amount to anything other than minutes of screen time.

While the story does lack and actors are underutilized, the action is fantastic. Director Gary Fleder puts more focus on the hand-to-hand combat instead of blowing things up, and it looks great. It's the only thing that's worth any merit in a film that's full of missed opportunities. And if you're a fan of Statham and Franco, Homefront is a movie best served on DVD. 

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First Images from Sylvester Stallone's 'Homefront' Starring James Franco and Jason Statham

There's a pretty good chance you may have forgotten about Homefront, but once you hear the hodge podge of big stars and C-listers assembled for this action flick it's going to rocket to the top of your must-see list. First of all, it features a script by none other than Sylvester Stallone (!!!), based on a book by acclaimed crime novelist Chuck Hogan. And because Sly is never too far from any of this homies in The Expendables, Jason Statham is starring joined by the seemingly-random cast of James Franco, Winona Ryder, Kate Bosworth, Frank Grillo, Vincent D'Onofrio, Clancy Brown, and Mischa Barton. Friggin' Mischa Barton.

So is it a train wreck or decent testosterone-fueled B-movie schlock? There's a chance for either, and unfortunately the first batch of images don't tell us much. Directed by Gary Fleder (Kiss the Girls), the film has Statham as a DEA agent whose quite family life is upended when he runs afoul of a violent drug kingpin. Franco gets to add to his growing list of oddly-named thugs by playing Gator, the guy giving Statham's character fits, and hopefully we'll be treated to the surreal sight of watching them come to blows. My money's on Franco, and judging by what Statham had to say to USA Today, he took the villain role in an unexpected direction...

Staham: "He's a great actor and didn't go down the usual path of being a 'scary' villain. He has the ability to bring out the quirkiness and eerie side to this character."

Quirky and eerie Franco? Sign me up. No, this won't be heading straight to a Wal-Mart DVD bin near you, but will actually wind up in theaters on November 27th.

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Winona Ryder in talks for 'Homefront', starring Jason Statham and James Franco

Wild horses couldn't keep me away from the spectacle of seeing Jason Statham come to blows with a villainous James Franco in any flick, but you throw in that Homefront was written by Statham's The Expendables 2 buddy, Sylvester Stallone, and what you have is a recipe for something outrageous.   And yet somehow the film has gotten even better, meaning the cast may have just gotten a lot weirder.

My all-time favorite actress, Winona Ryder(*swoon*) has entered talks to join the film, which is based on Chuck Logan's novel. Statham plays Phil Broker, an ex-DEA agent who moves along with his family to a small town, only to run afoul of a drug dealer named Gator, who Franco will be playing. Ryder would take on the role of an ex-biker who works alongside Gator. Also joining the cast is Izabela Vidovic, who will take on the role of Statham's daughter, Kit. It's primarily due to Kit's actions at school against a schoolyard bully that draw her family into Gator's sights.

Ryder and Franco must have a thang goin' on because she's also starring with Franco in The Letter, which you can see the dreadful trailer for here.  She'll be heard next as part of Tim Burton's animated horror, Frankenweenie. Homefront will be directed by Gary Fleder(Kiss the Girls) and begins production next month in New Orleans. [THR]

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Winona Ryder goes crazy over James Franco in trailer for 'The Letter'

How bad does a movie have to be to have James Franco and Winona Ryder in the leads and still not get any attention? The trailer for The Letter(formerly The Stare) has been released, and it looks like a lousy, poor man's attempt at Black Swan, which coincidentally(or maybe not?) also featured Ryder. Only this time she's not playing a washed up ballet dancer, but a playwright who may be on the verge of a psychotic break.

The story follows the playwright as she prepares for her latest show, while at the same time she's having weird dreams and visions of being watched, and also falling under the spell of her charismatic leading man. If Ryder appears to be attacking the role with all the enthusiasm of a Death Row inmate, it's only matched by Franco, who looks to be sleepwalking his way through it. As talented as Franco can be when engaged in one of his many passion projects, nobody flips the mental switch off quite the way he does. The film was written and directed by Jay Anania, who worked with Franco on the disappointing indie drama, Shadows and Lies. This looks terrible in just about every way, from the production values to the predictable plot that the trailer all but gives away. Perhaps that's why there's no distribution yet. Check it out for yourself below....

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The New Wave: 1/14/11

I love me some Green Hornet. He's not cooler than The Brown Hornet, but it's pretty close. His trek to the big screen, however, was anything but cool. Or smooth. Once starting out as a twinkle in Kevin Smith's eye, then picked up by Stephen Chow(Kung Fu Hustle), eventually landing in the lap of Michel Gondry(Be Kind Rewind), the Seth Rogen/Cameron Diaz starring film has been met with rumors of Sony Pictures not being all that fond of what they were seeing everyday. Somebody must've liked it because it's here now, and ready to kick January box office butt. The guy to watch is Jay Chou as loyal sidekick, Kato. He won't remind anybody of Bruce Lee, but all the best scenes belong to him. My review of The Green Hornet can be read here.

Those expecting the comedy tandem of Vince Vaughn and Kevin James to turn out another knee slapper might want to check their expectations at the door. Universal Pictures has been twisting themselves into knots trying to pitch this is as fun, light hearted Ron Howard buddy comedy, but I think people will be surprised by just how dark a turn Winona Ryder's character takes. See, that's what happens when you get caught in a sticky situation with Channing Tatum. You get all crazy and stuff. My review of The Dilemma can be read right here.

An ensemble comedy/drama set in a poor rundown Florida hospital? If it sounds a little bit like the setup for a TV series, that might be because The Heart Specialist was written and directed by TV veteran Dennis Cooper, who wrote and produced for both Chicago Hope and St. Elsewhere.  The fact that the star-studded film(Ed Asner, Wood Harris, Mya, Zoe Saldana, Brian J. White, Method Man) has basically been sitting on the shelf for the last few years(it was completed back in 2006!!) should have warning bells ringing in your ears.

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Trailer Time: The Dilemma, starring Vince Vaughn and Kevin James

Universal has released a new trailer for the latest film from Ron Howard, The Dilemma, starring Vince Vaughn and Kevin James. Well...not exactly new.  The first trailer was pulled after GLAAD(Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) complained about the opening line from the trailer, which goes like this...

“Ladies and gentlemen, electric cars… are gay. I mean, not ‘homosexual’ gay, but, you know, ‘my parents are chaperoning the dance’ gay.”

Yeah.  GLAAD complained, Universal buckled, and now we've got basically the same trailer without that knee slapper of an opener.  Honestly it should've been pulled because it's not very funny, and an indicator of even weaker jokes within.

I understand GLAAD's point, that using the term in such a fashion is a slur and not complaining would be like giving the thumbs up to do it. Personally, I know I use "gay" to describe things all the time. Not terribly politically correct of me, I know. I think more attention is being drawn to the issue by causing such a fuss over a throwaway line in an awful looking comedy.

But as for the film itself, Vince Vaughn and Kevin James are best friends and business partners. Vaughn's character discover that his best friend's wife(played by Winona Ryder) has been cheating, and he must decide whether or not to spill the beans. The Dilemma marks Ron Howard's first comedy since 1999's EdTV. 

The Dilemma is due in theaters on January 14th, 2011. Check out the trailer, and let us know: Do you think GLAAD is making too big a deal out of this? Or was Universal wrong in putting the line in the trailer to begin with?

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Trailer Time: Black Swan, directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Natalie Portman

We're finally getting a look at the Darren Aronofsky's next film, Black Swan, starring Natalie Portman. To say it's about as far away from his last film, The Wrestler, is an understatement. Portman stars alongside Vincent Cassel(Eastern Promises) and Mila Kunis(Forgetting Sarah Marshall), in a story about a bitter rivalry between two ballerinas trying out for the lead role in a production of Swan Lake. It's obvious from the very beginning that there's a lot more to it than that, and at the end of the trailer something very sinister is clearly going on. 

Black Swan is due out on December 1st, 2010. Consider this one on my Must See list for the rest of the year.

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