Ray Winstone (Jack Nicholson's bearded right-hand man in The Departed) has joined the fourth Indiana Jones film, playing Harrison Ford's sidekick, sources tell the Hollywood Reporter.... Oscar winner Forest Whitaker is in final talks to join James Ellroy's cop drama The Night Watchman, about an alcoholic LAPDer (Keanu Reeves) pitted against his longtime mentor.... Denzel Washington will produce and may star in Journal for Jordan, a drama inspired by the 200-page journal a U.S. soldier had written for his son before he was killed in Baghdad a month before returning home.
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Send your movie questions to FlickChickSee Maitland McDonagh and Ken Fox review this weeks new flicks in Movie TalkQuestion I remember seeing a Zorro movie probably in the late 70s or early 80s that featured a song I remember distinctly I havent been able to find the title but I believe Zorros alter ego was either the king or some other aristocrat The song lyrics are something like He used to be the kingFa la la laZorros back Please help me get this question answered so I can get this song out of my head Everett FlickChick The movie was a Spanish version of Zorro made in 1975 with French actor Alain Delon as The Fox The song is Zorro Is Back written by Maurizio and Guido De Angelis and someone called S Duncan Smith which sounds like a pseudonym but could be for real I have no idea The De Angelises who contributed to a number of European movie soundtracks in the 1970s also recorded under the name Oliver Onions named after a 19th-century
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• Martin Scorsese and The Departed cast member Mark Wahlberg are exec-producing an HBO drama series based on Nelson Johnson's book Boardwalk Empire, about the development of Atlantic City.• Borat director Larry Charles is returning to broadcast television, having inked a two-and-a-half year, mid-seven-figure deal with ABC Television Studio. Charles, whose recent TV credits include Entourage and Curb Your Enthusiasm, will write and direct a range of projects, including scripted and "hybrid" (gas-electric?) comedies, and possibly even animation.
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A few postscripts to Sunday's Academy Awards:• This year's kudoscast drew 39.9 million total viewers, a million-head gain from 2006's anemic audience. With Ellen DeGeneres at the helm, the show also noted a 15 percent boost in women 18-34.• The Departed's Oscar winners, director Martin Scorsese and scribe William Monahan, may reteam for The Long Play, a rock 'n' roll epic that follows two friends through 40 years in the music business. (Variety)• Helen Mirren may be invited to tea with the real Queen Elizabeth II — whom, a Buckingham Palace says, was "pleased" by her portrayer's best-actress win. (AP)• The goodie bag for presenters at this year's "green" Oscars consisted solely of "a gift of 100,000 lbs. of greenhouse-gas reductions from carbon-offset retailer TerraPass." Don't worry, I'm feeling clueless, too. But that's why I gave you the link.
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The Academy Awards are on tonight, so Fox scheduled two Family Guy repeats. From 9-10 pm/ET tonight I switched back and forth between Oscar coverage and Family Guy, so this post will be about both. Right before I hit the Fox pre-set button on my remote, they had just handed out the first Oscar of the evening. It only took almost 30 minutes. And what a first award it was! Art Direction. Riveting! I couldn’t hit the button fast enough. I love movies and although every year I rant and rave about the Academy Awards, I watch. It’s a televised gaper delay. The clock turned 9:00, and I moved over to Family Guy. The first episode provided one of the best sight gags this season: Joe’s legs floating to the surface of the beer vat every three seconds. And the idea of messing about with the opening credit sequence was inspired. During the first commercial break I switched back over to the Oscars. Alan Arkin won Best Supporting Actor for Little Miss Sunshine! Now that made me happ...
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Send your movie questions to FlickChickBy comparison with some of my recent DVD Tuesday selections this weeks pick is an obvious one Martin Scorseses The Departed But sometimes obvious is the way to go its a terrific crime movie and I think theres a good chance its going to earn Scorsese the Oscar he so richly deserves The Departed is the first remake of Scorseses career something that was downplayed aggressively before the films opening I was frankly shocked by how deep into the films on-screen credits the names of Alan Mak and Felix Chong were buried Mak and Chong wrote the screenplay for Infernal Affairs 2002 The Departeds source material This is especially shocking since William Monahans screenplay for which he got an Oscar nomination hews so closely to the original The action is moved from Hong Kong to South Boston and the language changed from Mandarin to English but scene-for-scene the two screenplays are incredibly close None of which
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With the Oscars just weeks away, some last-minute wins at other awards shows:• Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker earned top acting honors at Sunday's BAFTAs, aka the British Academy Awards.• Little Miss Sunshine and The Departed (where's my DVD?!) were the big winners at Sunday's Writers Guild of America Awards, in the original- and adapted-screenplay contests, respectively.• Cars was named best animated feature at the 34th-annual Annie Awards, but Flushed Away (aka the "mouse got flushed down the toilet movie," which my sons are dying to see... on DVD) came away with the most wins: five.
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If this isn't Martin Scorsese's year, I don't know what will be. On Saturday the helmer of The Departed was named the Directors Guild of America's top filmmaker of '07. Should he fail to go on to win an Oscar, he will be one of only seven directors who weren't able to parlay DGA victories into success at the Academy Awards. I think there's also some bylaw stating that Woody Allen would be allowed to give him a wedgie with no fear of retribution.
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Talks are underway to serve up a follow-up to Martin Scorsese's The Departed, which to date has earned much acclaim (including five Oscar nods) and $125.2 million in box office. Sources tell Reuters that Departed scribe William Monahan is at work on a take that would involve Mark Wahlberg's Dignam, and introduce a new character to be played by Robert De Niro.... Teri Polo is set to reprise her role as Ben Stiller's wife in Meet the Little Focker.... Harold & Kumar 2 — which will pick up where the original left off, with Harold hot to follow Maria (Paula Garcés) to Amsterdam, but is thwarted when Kumar is mistaken at the airport for a terrorist — also has Neil Patrick Harris, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Rob Corddry, Christopher Meloni and Roger Bart on board.
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Nominations for the 79th Annual Academy Awards were announced on Tuesday morning by Salma Hayek — presumably because of the abundance of Latino names that she so deliciously enunciated — and Dreamgirls bested the rest with eight total nods, yet was conspicuously left out of the best-picture race. Babel followed with seven noms. Here's a look at the major contests:Best PictureBabel, The Departed, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, The QueenLead ActressPenélope Cruz (Volver), Judi Dench (Notes on a Scandal), Helen Mirren (The Queen), Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada), Kate Winslet (Little Children)Lead ActorLeonardo DiCaprio (Blood Diamond), Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson), Peter O'Toole (Venus), Will Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness), Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland)Supporting ActressAdriana Barraza (Babel), Cate Blanchett (Notes on a Scandal), Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine), Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls), Rinko Kikuchi (Babel)Supporting ActorA...
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