HP star joins Del Toro; Tarantino tries Costner

After the live action version of Disney classic Alice in Wonderland, the big studios have geared the pre-production of several other adaptations: Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, The Hunchback of Notre Damme, Pinocchio, The Sleeping Beauty, more than one version of The Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and even the evil-side of Cinderella, Malificent (abandoned by Tim Burton a few months ago).

Beyond those, seems like Guillermo Del Toro and Denise de Novi are writing the The Beauty and the Beast, a cheery news because both of them have showed they know how to handle the merge of a world of fairy-tale fantasy with the deep human pain and sorrow - Del Toro wrote and directed The Pan's Labyrinth and Novi produced Edward Scissorhands (itself a modern version of the classic). And now Harry Potter star Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) may be joining the cast as the Beauty. We will be waiting for further developments.

Still about the summer transfers news, Kevin Costner is in talks for Tarantino's Django Unchained, to play Ace Woody, a bastard that trains the slaves in order to prepare them for fights that amuse Calvie Candie (Leo Di Caprio).

Kaufman, Phoenix and other news

Warner Bros. and Annapurna Pictures bought the still untitled project from Being John Malkovich and Adaptation's tag team Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze. The whole thing is religiously being kept in secret and so far it is only known that it will be about a gathering of political world leaders to discuss the course of the world: oil, prices, environment. Because we'll have Kaufman wheeling the typewriter, it is coming out as a surreal and satirical piece of story and HELL YEAH, Dr. Strangelove of the modern times (screenplay related, at least). I'd still rather see another director lifting the visuals, maybe Charlie himself, after Synedoche NY. A couple of days ago it has been advanced that Joaquin Phoenix, currently working with Paul Thomas Anderson in The Master, may be staring as main character.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II shattered the midnight record with 43 million and the opening day record with 92 million. It has been getting very positive reviews.

Battle: Los Angeles' director Jonathan Liebesman was approached by Warner Bros. to direct an epic on Julius Caesar rise to the throne of Rome, leaving the door open for a sequel on the Egypt invasions and his assassination.

Finally available the trailer of Hugo, by Martin Scorsese, staring Chloe Moretz, Asa Butterfield, Sacha Baron Cohen, Emily Mortimer and Jude Law. It opens December 9th and even without reading heads like "this Thanksgiving", we shall realize this is going to be a feel good family movie. Such comic moments, such lettering. We'll see.

Miguel Mendes lifts the ambitions

Miguel Gonçalves Mendes, whose intention of adapting José Saramago's The Gospel According to Jesus Christ was officially revealed yesterday, maybe be down to something trully ambitious, within a cinematic culture smeared by wails of poverty and arty films.

As far as the boat threatens to go, I still don't know if we can speak of a Portuguese film. We're talking of big budget with international co-production, an international screenwriter to go for the rewriting and a major international cast and crew, just like Blindness, by the Brazilian Fernando Meirelles, got Don McKellar (writer), Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo and Gael Garcia Bernal.

Keep following us for more updates.

Miguel G. Mendes takes the wheel of The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

Miguel Gonçalves Mendes spent four years with Nobel Prize for Literature winner José Saramago and his wife, Pilar del Rio, times out of which he shaped one of the most beautiful, complete and sensitive films the Portuguese cinema has ever seen. That is José and Pilar, a 125-minute documentary that strewed all over the world in film festivals and that has recently inspired a popular movement asking the Portuguese Institute of Cinema to pick it up for the country's submission for the Academy Awards' Best Foreign Movie categorie.

Although in film one shall never consider the closing of a cycle, for each film sprawls itself throughout the history, this project is actually coming to a point of recognized accomplishment and well deserved sense of fulfillment. And within the next months, because we still have to wait to see how it goes (if it goes) in the other side of the Atlantic, it is time for new adventures.


"It is the most cinematic of José Saramago's novels, the one with the adequate structure for film." states Miguel seconds after announcing he's preparing the adaptation of The Gospel According to Jesus Christ in a production with an international cast and crew, still unannounced.

"This film is about how cruel the mankind can reach, whether it is because of power, money, relationships or some god.". Among the other homonyms adaptations of the writers work we count George Sluizer's La Balsa de Piedra (2002), Meirelles' Blindness (2008) and António Ferreira's Embargo (2010).

Jamie Foxx confirms Django's cast

Jamie Foxx talked to CNN in the last couple of days and confirmed the rumors that put him in Django's clothes, the main character of Quentin Tarantino's upcoming western spaghetti. He ended up not sparing any news for later as he also revealed that the last months' word-to-mouth cast build up had turned out to be true. Therefore we'll have Christoph Waltz as a hunter of rewards and Django's partner; Samuel L. Jackson as a wrecked and manipulative slave at the service of the villain, the farmer Calvie Candie represented by Leonardo Di Caprio.
Excellent news, I must say. We know what Tarantino is able to pull out from Waltz and Jackson and I'm figuring it'll be particularly refreshing to watch Leo as the bad guy this time.

A petição de José e Pilar

Retirado do blog oficial da petição para levar José e Pilar aos Óscares, iniciativa do blog Split Screen.

Embora a petição esteja neste momento desactivada temporariamente, estamos a trabalhar para que a Petição Pública «José e Pilar aos Óscares» esteja novamente activa e a receber assinaturas. Provavelmente hoje não conseguiremos chegar à marca das 600 assinaturas, ao contrário do que esperávamos, devido a esse imprevisto. Mas esperamos retomar a velocidade cruzeiro amanhã.

Querem "José e Pilar" nos Óscares ?

José e Pilar, de Miguel Gonçalves Mendes, foi o documentário português mais visto de sempre e o filme português mais visto do ano. A isto se junta a boa recepção junto da crítica nacional e internacional e do público, sempre afável e carinhoso para com o filme. Pessoalmente, considero-o uma das melhores peças já produzidas pelo nosso cinema.

Portugal detém o recorde de maior número de submissões ao Óscar de Melhor Filme Estrangeiro sem qualquer nomeação. Nos últimos anos, a Academia de Artes e Ciências Cinematográficas norte-americana tem revelado uma abertura maior a nível internacional, pelo que achamos que José e Pilar seria a escolha ideal: co-produção entre a JumpCut, a O2 (de Fernando Meirelles) e a El Deseo (de Pedro Almodóvar), com uma figura internacional reconhecida e acarinhada - José Saramago, o primeiro Nobel da Literatura português - teve muito sucesso na bilheteira e crítica do nosso país, recebeu nomeações na Academia Brasileira de Cinema, em festivais internacionais e recebeu excelentes críticas da Variety, Cahiers du Cinema, entre outras.

Foi hoje mesmo lançada uma petição online que tem o objectivo de recolher o máximo número de assinaturas possível para ser apresentada ao ICA (Instituto do Cinema e Audiovisual), que deverá escolher qual o filme português a ser candidato a uma nomeação para Óscar de Melhor Filme Estrangeiro.

Apoiem esta iniciativa assinando AQUI e quem sabe estejam a assinar o vosso nome naquele que pode vir a ser um marco histórico para o cinema português. E depois não deixem de acompanhar o estado de coisas no blog oficial do projecto José e Pilar nos Óscares, http://joseepilaraososcares.blogspot.com/

Fernando Pessoa wrote for the screen

Foram compilados e estão prontos para ser divulgados uma série de argumentos cinematográficos da autoria de Fernando Pessoa. Sob o título de Film Arguments, escritos em três línguas, o poeta português terá desenhado um conjunto de curtas histórias para cinema, ainda na altura do cinema mudo. São descritas pelos tradutores da obra em que serão lançados (Patrício Ferrari e Claudia J. Fisher) como thrillers, com toques de comédia, baseados em trocas de identidade, ressonância temática dos seus conhecidos e deliciosamente complexos versos. Além disso, terão sido encontrados planos do escritor para a criação da sua própria produtora cinematográfica, a Ecce Film, cujo logotipo terá sido desenhado pelo próprio. A obra, Obras de Fernando Pessoa, chega às livrarias a 08 de Julho.

A series of screenplays written by Fernando Pessoa have been collected and are set to be released. Entitled Film Arguments, written in three languages, the Portuguese poet has designed an array of short stories for the screen, during the silent-era. The translators of the piece in which the scripts will be revealed described them as thrillers with a comic touch, based on identity mismatches, thematic resonance of his known and deliciously complex verses. Besides, there have been found some plans for the creation of his own film production company, the Ecce Film, whose logo has been drawn by Pessoa himself. The piece, Obras de Fernando Pessoa, hits the libraries on the 8th of July.

WHAT ARE THE ODDS ?

Este mês, na Cinemateca, vão passar dois dos filmes que eu mais queria ver em cinema; outros dois que igualmente me babo só de saber que lá estarão.

Lawrence of Arabia, no dia 2 (prometi só ver este filme quando o pudesse ver em grande ecrã) e A Clockwork Orange, no dia 14. Não poderei ver nenhum.

Manhattan, de Woody Allen, hoje mesmo, às 21h30. Não poderei ver.

Eyes Wide Shut, no dia 27. Não poderia ver, mas quatro serão demais.

BAH.


This month at the Portuguese Cinemateca will be screened two of the films I most wanted to see in the theaters; another two for which I drool just knowing they'll be there.

Lawrence of Arabia, 2th of July (I promised just to watch this film when I could watch it in a big screen) and A Clockwork Orange, 14th of July (one of my all-time favorites). I can't watch any of these.

Woody Allen's Manhattan, today at 9.30 PM. Can't watch it.

Eyes Wide Shut, 27th of July. Couldn't watch it mas four will be too much.

BAH.

Toy Story 4 confirmed

“I think there will be, yeah,they’re working on it now. There you go.”

It seems. Confirmed by Tom Hanks while promoting his next film, Larry Crowne. Let's hope it's a joke.