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Post by Leo_The_Last on Feb 12, 2019 23:09:08 GMT
Filming has started. Whatever, after Paterno, The Irishman and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, it's all good. Most interesting in this is the lead actress, Meadow Williams, it's like something out of Citizen Kane, just in this case, Kane is already dead. The Daily Mail: There are tons of bad movies produced every year, but being the lead in a movie starring Big Al and NO ONE in the world knows who you are, that's quite something. $25 million dollar production, hats off! The IMDB trivia section mentions "Meadow likes writing poetry, gardening, and dancing. She has worked as a foot model", so, maybe the next stop will be Quentin T., who knows? Lala Kent is also starring in this, sex kitten of producer Randall Emmett, so at least they stay true to themselves.
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Post by Viced on Feb 12, 2019 23:31:42 GMT
Al looks happy, at least.
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Post by theycallmemrfish on Feb 12, 2019 23:33:41 GMT
Oh hey, I remember that shower scene opposite Kevin Bacon in Apollo 13. Yeah... with the frosted glass, I could recognize her anywhere!
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 12, 2019 23:59:53 GMT
I mentioned in The Other Side Of The Wind thread that sometimes you see things in movies that play off other things and it's amazing.
In The Other Side Of The Wind it's actor Cameron Mitchell who I've seen in a non-performing role in a porn film (not kidding, check his credits) and who (years prior to that) is sort of being mocked by Welles......so that scene works in whole different ways than intended IF you've seen the porn film years later.
I like to think that Axis Sally is being made so our distinguished thespian can just make King Lear the way he wants later this year (10 million for you Al, does that sound about right?) but personally I really really really would like him to just go for it in a way that hack Cameron Mitchell didn't - I mean, if you're doing this sh it Al, you might as well get the full money shot. Somebody fluff that legend.
July 26, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. Breathing deeply..........counting to 10.
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Post by Mattsby on Feb 13, 2019 21:26:13 GMT
Pacino filming a few days ago -
Some updates: Today is (I think) Pacino's 7th day filming. Thomas Kretschmann is playing Goebbels. Vance Owen cowrote the script off of his father's unpublished book - his father was on the defense of Axis Sally, working closely with James Laughlin who Pacino plays.
And here's the scary question, is Pacino actually co-lead? Hopeful thinking: there's a way to tell this (true) story that minimizes Meadow Williams - she's the main questionable element - and that is if they just focus on the court case. Laughlin wasn't highly regarded as an attorney, and taking this case (the first woman in the US convicted of treason) was a major risk personally and professionally. There are court transcripts so the script would write itself, just have to add outside circumstances. What's fascinating about the case is that in order to convict her, the jury (and the public too, who cast her as monstrous pre-trial; relevant?) would have to accept Nazis' testimony over her (an American's) claim of innocence.
Now if only that were the case (no pun intended). Randall Emmett has produced 70 movies and 69 of them are bad. This project unfortunately looks like a mock-up of "prestige" to serve the vanity of these billionaires, keeping it in-house, casting their assistants and playthings bc that's how you cast a movie? How much worth are you putting into your project when all these people are practically live-streaming the set via instagram; Meadow Williams the type that hashtags her own name in her insta pics. It'd be a major surprise if this turns out okay - the $25m budget means it might have some aesthetic appeal.
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Post by Mattsby on Feb 19, 2019 2:26:50 GMT
Here's a buncha pics, practically official stills..... very umber and beige, some atmosphere, not bad! Good locations.....
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Post by theycallmemrfish on Feb 19, 2019 2:29:42 GMT
MattsbyThe second and third stills are stunning.
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Post by Martin Stett on Feb 19, 2019 2:44:57 GMT
The second and third stills are overdone.
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Post by Mattsby on Feb 19, 2019 2:58:05 GMT
Mattsby The second and third stills are stunning. They've built multiple sets from scratch, a lot of elaborate camera and lighting setups. The crew I think is exceeding their own expectations, in their attempt to meet the degree of talent and esteem Pacino brings, he lends a seriousness to the project and their careers too. It's a big deal - they've got him for a sizable role, with a really nice budget (higher than Manglehorn/Humbling/Danny Collins combined). As I said before, this could look polished aesthetically, but fall short in the script and direction ; the trick is not to force context or flashbacks, I think, or give too much to the clearly subpar Meadow Williams. To build from inside the court case, ideally, a sort of character study of Pacino's attorney - who clashed with Axis Sally himself in his attempt to exonerate her while tempering and twisting the hounding media and public. Not confirmed but I think the director cast his daughter as Pacino's character's granddaughter. So they are building around him in some ways. And off of that, with all this slanted casting... I hope it means they'd bring their A game bc who'd wanna cast their daughter, lover, bf, gf, aunt, uncle, and pet iguana....in a bad movie?
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Post by TerryMontana on Feb 19, 2019 19:59:12 GMT
Mattsby The second and third stills are stunning. who'd wanna cast their daughter, lover, bf, gf, aunt, uncle, and pet iguana....in a bad movie? Some guys would cast their friends and relatives in ANY movie. Good or bad. Let alone a movie with Al Pacino...
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Post by Leo_The_Last on Feb 20, 2019 1:43:16 GMT
From the "always reliable" Daily Mail, paragon of british journalism
10 days? Overall or just the schedule for Puerto Rico?
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Post by TerryMontana on Feb 20, 2019 17:16:13 GMT
If it's only 10 days, then, contrary to my hopes, his part is quite small...
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Post by TerryMontana on Apr 13, 2019 16:48:54 GMT
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Post by pacinoyes on Apr 13, 2019 17:19:17 GMT
I think they're just promoting the film and getting their actor some press by leaking the casting to Deadline, I believe it's wrapped. This film still is a baffling one though - not the film project that a guy in the 2 most anticipated films of the 2019 should be following those up with - and it came out of nowhere Like I said before we need there to be a King Lear announcement because that would make sense, ie, funding his version of it with a paycheck role, without that he's going to get nailed to the cross for this .......the only good thing about it is The Irishman/OUATIH are independent of this - so what's Al got left? Well we'll find out, and find out clearly with no other 2019 work to distract from it. The last performance was a great and focused one imo, Paterno....... so.......we'll see. Stakes is high as The Roots would say.......
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Post by TerryMontana on Apr 13, 2019 21:08:54 GMT
Like I said before we need there to be a King Lear announcement because that would make sense, ie, funding his version of it with a paycheck role, without that he's going to get nailed to the cross for this
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Post by Leo_The_Last on Apr 14, 2019 0:25:35 GMT
Regarding Michael Polish, I've only seen The Astronaut Farmer, which was fine for what it is, but he has a strange career trajectory. Doing more and more movies in recent years, most of them starring his wife, and I'm not sure you could find ten people who have actually seen them (only half kidding). I don't think this movie will be good, but Pacino will survive it, and only if it is because of the "importance" of the subject matter.
It's at times hard to understand what's pushing them to this kind of stuff. Yes, money, but it's not like Al was doing the Scorsese & Tarantino movies for free. But all those big guns end up being a prisoner of their own lifestyles. He should insist that David Mamet has to take a pass at those low-level scripts, then he can at least spell it out, Mamet-style: "Everybody needs money. That's why they call it money." 😄
Pacino had his troubles with that whole Kenneth Starr situation, so De Niro is even more head scratching. I mean, how much dough can his soon-to-be ex-wife spend that he's forced to do The Bag Man? Or Freelancers, which is probably one of the most wtf things I have ever seen. I know it's not that easy to make a decent movie, but how a thinking person can get the money and the people to make such a film is beyond me. There are good movies, there are bad movies and there is Freelancers.
De Niro has become a tycoon, Nobu, the Tribeca district and so forth, you'd think he doesn't need this. You could argue he just likes to work, feels the need to stay relevant, but there are a thousand other projects he could choose to work on, mid-budget stuff up to blockbusters, most directors, big and small, would be more than happy to have him in their movies. But no, he takes the cash for garbage stuff, does no promo and hopes not many will notice he actually was in them.
On the other hand, I've long suspected there's a psychological element going on in the way De Niro treats his career and reputation. It's like he's saying to all those critics and the public who look/looked at him as this acting monument: "Fuck you! I don't care what you think about me. And I even destroy the image you have of me, just because I feel like it." He started doing more commercial, paycheck stuff in the early 90s, things like Backdraft, but those were at least high profile spectacles. Then he realized he could make fun of his movie persona, subverting his public image. But you can't explain things like Dirty Grandpa. That was a big fuck you to everyone who already screamed "you sellout, what has become of you!". I think, honestly, in the end De Niro has more in common with Jake LaMotta than he's aware of.
But you could also rationalize a lot of the decisions he made in the last 20 years or so, and there was good work in there too, things he put much effort in, very good performances like in Everybodys Fine etc., or even The Intern, which of course ended up being exactly the kind of movie you would expect from Nancy Meyers, for better or worse, but he tried to do something there. There's this problem with the critics in the internet age, they have an even bigger herd mentality than before, despite the fact that there are much more voices from diverse backgrounds reviewing stuff. But all you hear is "De Niro/Pacino have been bad since 20 years! Where are those great actors?!" Which of course is bullshit, they just have to actually look at what they did between the obvious garbage that's also there. But they're too lazy or stupid or both. With Pacino you hear them saying "Well, ok, he was good in those HBO things" and with De Niro "David O. Russell gave him a little bit of his energy back, but that's it", and those things are true, but that's just half of the picture. I really can't listen to those Collider guys or whoever, sitting there, talking about movie stuff on their YouTube channel and earning money with it. I will never defend those decisions De Niro or Pacino have made over the years, and I'm totally aware of how they've tarnished their reputations with them, and you could even argue they didn't deliver a major dramatic performance in a decade or two (more true for De Niro than Pacino), which is also not that uncommon for actors going up there in age, but these days there's probably no profession that you can work in with such glaring incompetence than being a movie critic.
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Post by pacinoyes on Apr 14, 2019 9:25:57 GMT
In some ways those criticisms of both those guys are valid and in some ways BS because first they are unique guys with their own successes and failures so it doesn't help to lump them together all the time.......in Pacino's case I think the years 2005-2013 were clearly the low point. There isn't one "special" performance in a theatrical film in those years not counting HBO. That's not to say he didn't do some good things - Oceans 13 is a witty performance, I enjoyed Stand Up Guys a bit..........but a performance where you were like "oh yeah, duh he's world class" - only in YDK Jack and Phil Spector imo.
But in a little less than a year to me he then suddenly saved himself - that Manglehorn/Humbling/Danny Collins run despite what you think of the films and even to me they're all only 6.5-7.0 had 3 entirely different lead performances. That was "my" Al Pacino, he's special in all 3 and tbh I thought the tank was maybe empty before those 3 and in Paterno he was then even better imo.
But to me he's dangling close to falling off a cliff far more than his peers who are either done (Hoffman)/long since retired (Hackman/Nicholson) or more comfortable in DeNiro's case (except for The Irishman which is a major daring choice De Niro made for himself that isn't talked about enough - he hasn't carried a lead on the big screen in some time and he didn't have to do it - it's extremely risky and bold for him).....but Pacino is more worrying.
I'm not sure he can carry a big play now at his age (?), I'm not sure why he's doing The Hunt on TV (except that was/is a "hot" project) and Axis Sally is a headscratcher like we said.
His OUATIH and The Irishman could be heroic or disastrous - won't know until we see 'em, and he turns 79 this month. No actor does "that" much great stuff at that age on film - there's exceptions like Christopher Plummer but QT and David Gordon Green aren't writing roles for Plummer in their films either are they, and there's no actor "like" him and that even includes other living ones Redford/Beatty/Duvall/Freeman/Eastwood (who occupies a different creative space than him).
But the actors who actually were "like" him - Brando, Ganz, Finney, Newman, Lemmon etc. - were either dead or had long since stopped working by now in their lives. Very exciting time to be a fan..........but also kind of scary too tbh.
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Post by Mattsby on May 14, 2019 21:36:43 GMT
They're selling foreign rights at Cannes..... too early for a preview screening? Maybe a trailer? I guess if there's a lot of territory takes it could hint that the quality is a little better than we initially feared. And, um, what's the chances the billionaire whats-her-name bankrolls a low-frequency Oscar campaign at the end of the year? Since this seems close to done, and uncertain quality aside, they put a reasonably high budget together and even if noms are out of the question they could want to give the film the air of something legit........
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Post by pacinoyes on May 14, 2019 21:57:17 GMT
Whoa, Whoa hold on there a sec ..........I am afraid I can not allow this film to tarnish my man's possibly historic 2019 thank you very much Matts, let's say Spring 2020 after this years big guns resolve themselves With Axis Sally I'm thinking they maybe just use his name to sell this but I just don't see how he was there long enough to be a true lead unless they shot stuff we don't know about. Honestly I'm hoping for a 50 minutes closing summary scene to the jury scene and 1 hour 15 minute run time film. Side note 1 : Speaking of speeches........The rumors are that Big Al will be in Cannes for QT next week and if that's true that's very good news since it implies something more than merely minor and at least 2 fantastic speeches so you can look forward to him getting nominated for absolutely nothing this year and cancelling himself out with The Irishman so let me be the first to offer my congratulations to supporting actor nominees Brad Pitt, Joe Pesci and Stephen Graham........kidding, but he does have the worst luck with that stuff. If anybody could cancel himself out .......it's him. Side note 2: Cannes could also serve as a vehicle to oh I don't know announce your King Lear project grandpa.....
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Post by Mattsby on May 14, 2019 22:59:45 GMT
I get what you mean, imagine De Niro & Pacino promoting The Irishman and then someone brings up Axis Sally or The War With Grandpa too? Yeeeek. Having said that...... Sally seems nearly completed, Michael Polish is prepping his new Mel Gibson pic that shoots in July, and Randall Emmett - tee-ball coach turned instagram-obsessed movie producer - usually turns his movies out pretty quickly. But I do agree with you - I hope they hold 'em off. Then there's The Hunt - some reports say it's premiering at the end of the year! Definitely not confirmed at this point and feels more like a Feb/March/April release thing but (with the multiple directors, editors, etc) who knows.... Can't wait to see Pacino at Cannes - loved seeing him pop around in interviews and stuff a few years ago at Venice & Toronto with Manglehorn/The Humbling. Since he's there, and as far as we know financing is done, production possibly nearing, Lear should be there looking to sell foreign, unless it's a Netflix thing... !
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