Michelle Williams joins 'Manchester-by-the-Sea'; 'The Danish Girl' adds Matthias Schoenaerts

Kenneth Longergan's Manchester-by-the-Sea is shaping up to be a film worth keeping an eye on. With Matt Damon out Casey Affleck took over the drama's lead role, and now he's going to be joined by Oscar nominee Michelle Williams. She'll play the wife to Affleck's character, "a ne'er-do-well plumber in Boston who is forced to return home to the titular town after he learns his brother passed away. There, he finds himself thrust into the care of the man's 16-year-old son but finds himself crumbling due to a secret tragedy in his past." [THR]

Meanwhile, Williams' Suite Francais co-star Matthias Schoenaerts has joined Tom Hooper's The Danish Girl. The film stars Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander, and Amber Heard, and tells the true story of painter Einar Wegener, who in 1930 became one of the first men to undergo a sex change operation. [Deadline]

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First Trailer for WWII Drama 'Suite Francais' starring Michelle Williams and Matthias Schoenaerts

Curiously, there hasn't been much heard from Weinstein on the WWII drama, Suite Francais, which looked like a surefire Oscar player some months back. Perhaps Weinstein figures they have enough films to champion this season, most notably The Imitation Game. Or could it be something else? We're not looking at another Serena situation, are we? Probably not, as the film will hit the American Film Market next month before opening in U.K. theaters in January. Here in the States we'll have to settle for this new trailer, which looks mighty impressive.

Directed by Saul Dibb and starring Michelle Williams and Matthias Schoenaerts, the story centers on the torrid affair between a French woman and a German officer as Nazis invade her country. Kristin Scott Thomas plays her meddling mother-in-law, while the rest of the cast features Margot Robbie, Ruth Wilson, Alexandra Maria Lara, Eileen Atkins, Tom Schilling, and Lambert Wilson. Just based on this it looks like a solid wartime romance, impeccably designed much like Dibb's last film, The Duchess, which won an Academy Award for costume design.

Suite Francais opens in the UK on January 23rd 2015.

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First Look at Michelle Williams in 'Suite Francais'

Michelle Williams doesn't do a number of projects each year, but you can usually count on one to at least put her in the Best Actress discussion. That won't be the case in 2013 as her only major role was in Oz the Great and Powerful, which didn't really ask her to do much but look really good in white. There's good reason to be excited about her next film, though, the WWII-era romance Suite Francais, and now we're getting the first look at what's in store.

Directed by Saul Dibb and co-starring Rust and Bone's Matthias Schoenaerts, the film centers on the forbidden romance between a lonely French woman and a German officer stationed in her home. The image gives a sense of her stifled existence, Schoenaerts looming over here and another soldier in the background, but also Williams' passionate resistance.

Co-starring Ruth Wilson, Margot Robbie, Alexandra Maria Lara, and Eileen Atkins, Suite Francais will be released by The Weinstein Company next year, but my fingers are crossed that it will turn up at Sundance first. [ThePlaylist]

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Joshua Marston lands Michelle Williams and Joel Edgerton for 'The Double Hour'

The name "Joshua Marston" may not mean much yet....but give it time. His sobering 2004 drug-trafficking drama Maria Full of Grace was a powerful opening statement, and last year's The Forgiveness of Blood was in my Top 10 Hidden Gems of 2012. In between shooting the occasional episode of The Newsroom, Marston has also been putting together his next feature, The Double Hour, and with his first two additions to the cast it's guaranteed to get a lot of attention.

Rumored for the female lead late last year, Michelle Williams is now confirmed. She'll be joined by Joel Edgerton, who is currently busting Leonardo DiCaprio's chops in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby. Marston will be remaking Giuseppe Capotond's 2009 film, La Doppia Ora, which follws a maid and a security officer who hit it off at a speed dating event, embarking on a passionate romance. When tragedy strikes, she begins to lose her grip on reality, and strange things begin to occur every time the clock hits a "double hour".

With headliners like Williams and Edgerton, The Double Hour should have no trouble finding investors at Cannes. [Deadline]

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Scarlett Johansson joins Jon Favreau's 'Chef'; Marion Cotillard, Michelle Williams eye rival project

It's always humorous when two rival studios are essentially putting out different versions of the same movie, forcing them to battle it out behind-the-scenes to see which one will come out on top. It happened last year with two Snow White pics, is happening now with two competing White House invasion movies, and looks to be happening again with rival projects set in the culinary world.

Two films using the title Chef are in the works right now, and according to Deadline the investors at Cannes are more than a little confused. The first one is an indie being put together by Jon Favreau, reuniting with his Iron Man running buddy, Robert Downey Jr. In fact, he's now adding another member of their Marvel crew as Iron Man 2 and The Avengers co-star Scarlett Johansson has joined the cast. Sofia Vergara, John Leguizamo, and Bobby Cannavale fill out the impressive ensemble, and the story centers on a promising chef who loses his job, opens a food truck, and reclaims his culinary passion while winning over his estranged family. Favreau may have intended for the film to be small, but that's now out of the question with Downey and Johansson.

And then there's the Bradley Cooper-led Chef, which is to be directed by John Wells (ER) from a script by Eastern Promises writer Steven Knight. With Omar Sy already on board, a the finalists for the female lead have been narrowed down to Michelle Williams and Marion Cotillard. Cooper, Sy, and either of the actresses will make for a powerful trio, strong enough to guarantee this won't be some art house project.

Obviously, one of these is due for a name change, and Sony has now sent a 'cease and desist' order for Favreau to seek a new title. Expect that to get done by the time Cannes wraps up. [ScreenDaily/Deadline]

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Sure Shots: Angry Birds; Joel Edgerton; Michelle Williams

* Well, you knew this was coming, right? A film based on the addictive video game Angry Birds was bound to happen, and now today on the third anniversary of its debut the announcement we were expecting has finally happened. Rovio Entertainment has announced that John Cohen(Despicable Me) is set to produce an Angry Birds feature film for the summer of 2016. David Maisel, ex-Chairman of Marvel Studios, is on board to exec-produce.

* We keep waiting for Joel Edgerton to finally take his place amongst the A-list elite, and maybe that time has come with Zero Dark Thirty right around the corner and The Great Gatsby next year. Between those two flicks he'll star alongside Natalie Portman and Michael Fassbender in Jane Got a Gun, the upcoming Western from Lynne Ramsay(We Need to Talk About Kevin). Awesome? Hell yeah it's awesome. Portman plays a woman who turns to her ex-lover(Fassbender) for help when her husband is shot up by his former gang. Edgerton would play John Bishop, the leader of the men coming to her husband. Filming is set to begin early next year. [Deadline]

* Michelle Williams was excellent and dare I say awards-worthy in Take This Waltz earlier this year, but you'd never know it based on the lack of attention she's received this season. Fortunately that doesn't seem to be deterring her from taking on another complex, character driven role in 2013. She is reportedly in talks to star in The Double Hour, from Maria Full of Grace director Joshua Marston. A remake of 2009's Italian romantic-thriller, La Doppia Ora, it follows a maid and a security officer who meet at a speed dating event, only to have tragedy strike and weird things begin occurring when the clock hits a "double hour". This is  tremendously promising, but with Williams shooting Suite Francais next we may be waiting a little while.

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Matthias Schoenaerts joining Michelle Williams in 'Suite Francais'

It was inevitable that doors would start to open here for Matthias Shoenaerts. He first came to the attention of Hollywood with the Oscar-nominated film, Bullhead, and this week sees him starring opposite Marion Cotillard in the amazing French feature, Rust and Bone. In my review, I said that Schoeaerts gives a "dominating turn" and seems "poised for greatness". The film is easily, at least in my opinion, the best of the year, and he's a large part of the reason why.

The DailyMail reports that Schoenaerts is in final talks to join Michelle Williams in Suite Francais, the WWII drama from director Saul Dibb(The Duchess). With Kristin Scott Thomas on board as well, the film charts the complicated love affair between a young French woman(Williams) and a German officer(Schoenaerts), with the woman forced to make some hard choices between her heart and her country. An adaptation of Irene Nemirovsky's novel, production is slated to begin next spring.

Already sounding like potential Oscar-bait, the addition of Schoenaerts all but solidifies Suite Francais as a film to watch. Do yourself a favor and get acquainted with him a little by checking out Rust and Bone this weekend.

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Michelle Williams may star in 'Suite Francais' for director Saul Dibb

Although she starred in the excellent Take This Waltz earlier this year, and has Oz the Great and Powerful coming up in 2013, Michelle Williams has been a little under the radar lately. She's too good to be quiet for long, and we're already starting to hear about another promising project on the horizon from a director we haven't seen in awhile.


Variety reports that Williams is in talks to star in Suite Francais, the next film from writer/director Saul Dibb, who last helmed the Keira Knightley period piece, The Duchess. The story is set in WWII Germany follows a young and vivacious French woman who falls in love with a German officer, and the personal hardships it causes as she's forced to choose between that love and her country. The book is one of two written by French author Irène Némirovsky before she was taken away to Auschwitz, dying there at the age of 39. Her writings were rediscovered about ten years ago, and studios have been scrambling to adapt them ever since.

If all goes well, production on Suite Francais will begin next spring in London.

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My Week with Marilyn, starring Michelle Williams and Eddie Redmayne

To act as if anyone on the planet is going to be able to look just like Marilyn Monroe is to invite disappointment. In My Week with Marilyn, Michelle Williams has the daunting task of portraying the sultry celebrity and sexual icon, a role that has been attempted by many others with mixed success. For Williams, it's a change of pace from the serious, heavy roles she's had lately. There's scarcely a laugh in movies like Wendy and Lucy or Blue Valentine, but the women of those movies had something in common with Monroe. They had emotional scars that ran deep, and the courage to try to fight through them in any way they knew how. The glamour of Monroe is just the glossy packaging we see on the outside, but it's what Williams discovers about who she is on the inside that will make you stand up and recognize how truly great her performance is.

To their credit, screenwriter Adrian Hodges and TV vet Simon Curtis don't waste any time introducing us to Williams' take on Monroe, with her racy rendition of Heat Wave. Monroe was such a cipher to so many people, the only thing recognizable by all was the sexuality she projected. Williams slinks and curves through the song with ease, so much so that you barely recognize that she doesn't look so much like Monroe. She has the moves and confidence down pat, which is all that really matters. It's impossible to look away from her. Like Monroe herself, Williams will have men transfixed.

Such as Colin Clark(Eddie Redmayne), whose two memoirs serve as the basis for this story. Clark, born to a well-to-do family, has a desire to be involved with the movies. Through a combination of pestering and luck, he lands a gig as 3rd assistant director on The Prince and the Showgirl, a 1957 comedy so light a gust of wind could blow it into orbit. However it was a pivotal production to some of the particulars, including director Laurence Olivier(Kenneth Branagh), who just wants to see it go off without a hitch. If he can capitalize on Monroe's popularity, and maybe even get her into his bed a few times, so much the better. Unfortunately for him, Monroe arrives on set with more than just a few issues, she has an entire subscription. She regularly shows up to work late; refuses to listen to anybody but her enabling acting coach; and causes a paparazzi firestorm that slows production to a crawl.

Fortunately she has a friend in Colin, who instantly is enraptured by her "come hither" glances and flirty giggles. So much so that he rejects the cute costume girl(a wasted Emma Watson) he's been dating. She can't possibly compete with someone like Monroe, especially when she's so good at making Colin feel like he's the only one who can pull her out of a constant state of crisis.

How much of that act was real, though? And how much of it was an act she put on to get what she wants? That's one of the few questions the film actually asks about her. For the most part, My Week with Marilyn is an extremely airy story. The on-set squabbles aren't particularly insightful, and are played mostly for laughs as Olivier breaks down over what's happening to his career. The script doesn't seem to have any concrete answers about Monroe, either, except to figure that she was a rash of contradictions. On the one hand, she's desperate to be considered a real actress, so much so she's almost ashamed to be in the presence of veteran Dame Sybil Thorndike(Judi Dench), while at the same time she's more than willing to fall back on her power over men to make life easier. Colin proves to be Monroe's confidante as her marriage to Arthur Miller(Dougray Scott) publicly falls apart.

Just as how Monroe proved to be the shining jewel of The Prince and the Showgirl, it's Williams' remarkable, multi-faceted performance that dwarfs everything else about My Week with Marilyn. The trick to playing Monroe isn't just about looking hot in a tight dress. Being seductive isn't all that hard. It was Monroe's combination of sexiness and innocence that drove men wild, and Williams has nailed that perfectly. In one scene she shares with Redmayne as their characters skinny dip in a nearby lake, she gives him a gentle kiss and reveals it was the first time she ever locked lips with a younger man. That might be true, but really it doesn't matter. It's in that moment that we get a pure glimpse at the mystery of what was Marilyn Monroe. Manipulative on the one hand, but genuinely wanting to make others happy and feel special on the other. Perhaps she behaved in such a way because nobody was ever truly able to make her feel like the most important person in the world, and the cheering fans and snapping cameras were a substitute.

If only there had been more of an effort to stake an opinion on who Marilyn Monroe truly was. The screenplay drops a lot of hints, but never lands on a clear answer. Fortunately, Williams is so good that the rest of the film being so thin is barely a concern. After watching her humanize so many troubled women over the years to tremendous effect, Williams has taken on her most difficult role yet, and somehow found a way to outshine herself.

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New poster for My Week with Marilyn, starring Michelle Williams

 Moviefone has unveiled the first poster for My Week With Marilyn, starring Michelle Williams in what will likely be her most scrutinized role to date as Marilyn Monroe. We all know how good of an actress Williams is, but playing a legendary figure like Monroe guarantees she's going to catch some flack. It's impossible to match the sort of presence Monroe had, so the best thing Williams can do is just make the character her own. Do it in her own way.  As for the poster, I love the blue in contrast to the muted background, really showing how Monroe always stood out from the pack. 

The film is based on the two memoirs by Colin Clark, who spent time with Monroe as her assistant while on the tumultuous set of 1957's The Prince and the Showgirl. Eddie Redmayne(The Yellow Handkerchief) will play Clark, with Dominic Cooper, Kenneth Branagh, Dougray Scott, Julia Ormond, and Judi Dench co-starring. Simon Curtis directed, based on a script by Adrian Hodges. It'll open in theaters on November 4th.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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Blue Valentine

I think to a certain extent, everybody enjoys movies about love. I'm no different. You won't find me gushing over the saccharine sweet flicks like Letters to Juliet or anything like that. For me, it's the movies that treat love like a very real, very difficult thing. A living organism of sorts that grows and changes over time, it's simultaneously the best thing in the world and the worst. One thing it never will be is easy. Blue Valentine might've been the toughest movie for me to watch in a couple of years, but at the same time it's also one of the most glorious. The mountainous highs of new love are matched only by the titanic lows of those who've fallen out of it, but it's the way Blue Valentine navigates both these extremes that make it so perfect.



Cindy(Michelle Williams) and Dean(Ryan Gosling) have been together too long. Too much has happened. We catch up with them in the death throes of a failing marriage. They barely speak unless it's about their young daughter. When they do speak to eachother, it's weighed down by a tension and emotional fatigue that never needs to be verbalized. You can hear it in their words and the way they breathe around eachother. What's even more painful is that you can see it in their eyes, a fading memory of what they used to feel for one another replaced by something not quite like hatred, but not far from it. Cindy sees so much wasted potential in Dean, a caring father but unmotivated.  A chance encounter Cindy has with an old flame leads to a seemingly petty argument. Old jealousies bubbling to the surface.

How did it get like this? Director Derek Cianfrance divides his time equally between their crumbling marriage and the joyous days of their youth, when the future appeared hopeful and love would always be enough to sustain them. Back then, Dean was a bright faced, street smart vagabond of sorts. The type of guy with an easy charm and wide smile that promised to carry him far. Cindy was different. Somewhat mercurial by nature, she's seen the worst love has to offer by watching her parents' toxic relationship. She knows that's not the future she wants for herself. She wants to marry only for love. When she and Dean first meet, it's not quite love at first sight, but it's close. A reluctant first date turns into one magical, revelatory night on the town.

Cianfrance shoots this troubled relationship from a distance, using a style that gives the impression of a documentary. Having also written the script, Cianfrance treats both Dean and Cindy like documentary subjects as well. We see their quirky beginnings through a nonjudgmental lens: Dean meets Cindy in a nursing home where she visits her grandmother. He's instantly in love; she's in the midst of a purely physical relationship with a badboy that ends up in an unwanted pregnancy. The resolution of this issue, resolved somberly in the midst of an abortion clinic, would set the tone for rest of Cindy and Dean's lives.

The realism with which Cianfrance presents this, combined with the perfectly calibrated performances by Williams and Gosling, only make Blue Valentine so much tougher to watch. I know people like these two, living a strained life of convenience for the sake of their kids. In one particularly poignant scene, Dean realizes that his wife only seems to smile when he's not around, and you can see the hurt and anger in his face. The hearbreak of this moment is matched Dean and Cindy's first night together, completely uninhibited with the promise of fresh love, singing and dancing together on the city streets. What happens in-between to derail their once promising future isn't clear, and it never really matters. What happens is just life. One person changes while another stays stagnant. There are no rights and wrongs, only the end result. It's as honest a look at the uncertainties of love that you're likely to see.

The MPAA, in their typical mode of moral hypocrites, tried to saddle the film with an NC-17 rating. Why? Because it shows some frank scenes of a couple having sex, but nothing out of control. There's only some brief nudity, but nothing crazy. I some more nipples in Machete just a few months ago and that was rated R.  Thankfully, The Weinstein Company challenged the ruling and now Blue Valentine has an R rating, so if you were worried about some insane level of sexual activity then you can relax.

If I had seen Blue Valentine just a week ago, it would've been near the top of my best movies of the year. As it stands right now, it's already my favorite film of 2011!  Michelle Williams always has at least one role every year that is completely fearless and unforgettable, and she's no different here. Gosling, who I've been very down on lately coming off his awkward role in All Good Things, has totally regained his footing. Both are particularly good in the later stages as older, worn down people, beaten up by hard times and hard feelings. I don't know if  I'd call Blue Valentine a date movie, but it's a movie every couple needs to see at least once. I guarantee you will talk about and remember it for a long time to come. 

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What actresses are in contention to join Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby? ALL OF 'EM!!!

I'm obsessed with Baz Luhrmann's potential production of The Great Gatsby. Not only because it's arguably my favorite book and the 1974 film is up there as well, but because Leonardo Dicaprio and Tobey Maguire make for a near perfect pair to play Gatsby and Nick Carraway. Luhrmann has yet to actually sign on to direct, but since he's already workshopping it, you can count on it as a done deal. The only question was who would play Gatsby's love interest, Daisy Buchanan?

The original reports had Amanda Seyfried in talks for the role, but then the ever present name of Natalie Portman was thrown into the mix. The Town's Rebecca Hall was working alongside Dicaprio and Maguire in the workshop, which leads me to believe she must be the top contender. However today Deadline is reporting that Luhrmann is casting a much wider net in his search. Who's on it? Well, pretty much every actress who's name pops up for every sought after role....

Keira Knightley, Scarlett Johansson, Abbie Cornish, Michelle Williams, and Blake Lively are all said to be contenders as well.

I love all of them, but Cornish and Williams would be my top two choices, even ahead of Portman and Seyfried. Both have experience with period drama, are gorgeous, and can go toe-to-toe with the rest of the acting powerhouses in the film.

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Review: Shutter Island

"It was a dark and stormy night". That classic opening line from the crime thriller's catalogue perfectly encapsulates the mood of Martin Scorsese and Leonardio Dicaprio's latest film. From the get go, we're pounded over the head with the obtuse, intrusive score, signaling dread and terror ahead. "A storm is coming", a ferry captain mentions matter of factly to Teddy Daniels(Dicaprio), dog eyed but perceptive US Marshall. This isn't an ordinary storm. It's the type of storm that only a writer could dream up. It's like being in the eye of a hurricane.

Teddy's job is to find a missing prisoner from a penitentiary, located on the mysterious Shutter Island. It's a desolate isle, complete with an ancient fort used during the Civil War, surrounded by jagged rocks and a tide that seems like it's being stirred up by some mad god. Teddy's been paired up with a partner, Chuck(Mark Ruffalo), for the first time. As the island approaches, you know why an insane asylum was placed there of all places: You'd have to be crazy to ever set foot on that island.

Clearly not everything is as it seems. Teddy is a classic flawed hero, torn straight from the film noir mold. He brings with him the burdens of misdeeds performed during his time as a soldier. His eyes are dark and heavy from seeing way too much. He brings this burden with him to every scene.

Almost immediately, Teddy and Chuck are treated like barely tolerated houseguests. Every nicety seems forced, and the air is thick with deeply buried secrets. For some reason, everyone seems to be withholding something. Every statement feels like a half truth, or a full blown lie. But to what end? Surely everyone would want to capture an escaped murderer, right? The facility's smirking head psychiatrist(Ben Kingsley) seems happy just to lead Teddy by the nose into one dead end after another. That, or stand idly by while his partner(Max Von Sydow) plucks away at Teddy's emotional scabs.

This is probably Scorsese's most visually appealing film. Somehow he manages to blend the colorful, fantasy world of Teddy's dreams with Scorsese's own penchant for grit, creating a wholly unique film noir experience. Every gust of wind appears as if it's going to thrust the entire scene off the reel itself. Every crash of the tide likely to rip the island to shreds. This is a horrifyingly bleak landscape, not just outside but in as well. When Teddy makes his way through the most forbidden area of the prison, it's like he's walking into the pit of Hell itself, or straight into the Labrynth. It reminds me of the cavernous well from Silence of The Lambs.

Shutter Island is undeniably creepy. Not scary. There are no shocking, jump out of your seat moments. It's work is purely psychological, to the point where you also begin to question your own thoughts on what the heck is going on. That's the film's strongest asset, playing the viewer like a fiddle and spinning your emotions like a top. The best mysteries like this are the ones where you are as clueless as the hero. We know only as much as he knows throughout. The story is surprisingly simple on it's face, and I knew exactly what I thought the ending would be months ago. The story doesn't totally go in the direction I thought it would, but I will say it made me question everything I had seen before. That's the mark of any good thriller such as this. In that, Scorsese and Dicaprio have created  a fully immersive, emotional roller coaster of a film that I'm betting will only get better the next time I see it.

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