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Post by HELENA MARIA on Mar 14, 2019 9:42:45 GMT
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 14, 2019 10:05:48 GMT
Well he's played more lead cops (or de facto cops, private eyes etc) than any actor of his stature - ever.......... so it's a catch 22 between can he do it (yes), and should he do it (maybe).
Will be interesting to see how he balances his post age-65+ career - around that age in the past makes big time actors of his type go wacky and lost very often. He's too much of a game player (and careerist) and too grounded, talented and observant of film history to go off the rails .........but I can't say that this movies premise excites me after major 2010's performances like Flight and Fences.
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Post by pupdurcs on Mar 14, 2019 14:35:10 GMT
At this stage of his career, I don't think the profession of his character matters much. It's what he does with the character. He's played everything. Does he need to prove he can play another lawyer? A professor? A blind man? A paraplegic? Someone with autism? A Pilot? A cowboy? A gangster? He's done all of that...either he chunders off into "retirement" like Day-Lewis ( likely waiting for the "perfect" role he's never played before to lure him out of "retirement") or he stays working, and tries to do new things with familiar sounding roles. He's very capable of that (could you find two complately different lawyers than Philidelphia and Roman J Israel Esq?) so I'm cautiously optimistic about Little Things. It could be a standard commercial thriller play, but John Lee Hancock's involvement as writer/director suggests the possibility otherwise. Hancock is not Antoine Fuqua or Tony Scott. His body of work leans more towards middlebrow awards season fare (The Blindside, Saving Mr Banks, The Founder etc) than pure action thrillers. To be fair, with The Founder he went into edgier awards season fare. And Denzel as a good 'ol boy Sherrif named Deke  Have to see how this unfolds, but there might end up being enough substance to this to be an awards play for Denzel....especially if he turns it into a full on character role (the synopsis suggests his character might be pretty sinister. Maybe Denzel might be going for his own Orson Welles style Touch Of Evil role). So yeah...I'm not 100% convinced he's just treading water with a purely commercial play. They could be going for money and awards.Could be another Oscar level performance from him. Time will tell though. |
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sirchuck23
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Post by sirchuck23 on Mar 14, 2019 15:36:06 GMT
Sounds interesting. I’m curious on which “A-Lister” they will get to play Baxter.
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Post by pupdurcs on Mar 14, 2019 15:45:25 GMT
Sounds interesting. I’m curious on which “A-Lister” they will get to play Baxter. I hope they avoid anyone named Chris ( I like most of them fine, but he's already worked with Pine and Pratt, and I'd like someone with an Oscar calibre pedigree) Bale Gosling Hardy McConaughey Phoenix |
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Post by stephen on Mar 14, 2019 15:48:59 GMT
Sounds interesting. I’m curious on which “A-Lister” they will get to play Baxter. I hope they avoid anyone named Chris ( I like most of them fine, but he's already worked with Pine and Pratt, and I'd like someone with an Oscar calibre pedigree) Bale Gosling Hardy McConaughey Phoenix Why are we assuming it's a male co-lead? I'd be betting on seeing an Emma Stone-esque ingenue here. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Hancock brings Sandra Bullock back here -- that's a match made in box-office heaven. |
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Post by Viced on Mar 14, 2019 15:52:58 GMT
John Lee Hancock not officially signed on to direct yet...
Why doesn't Denzel use his clout to choose a good director to work with for a change?
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Post by pupdurcs on Mar 14, 2019 15:58:13 GMT
I hope they avoid anyone named Chris ( I like most of them fine, but he's already worked with Pine and Pratt, and I'd like someone with an Oscar calibre pedigree) Bale Gosling Hardy McConaughey Phoenix Why are we assuming it's a male co-lead? I'd be betting on seeing an Emma Stone-esque ingenue here. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Hancock brings Sandra Bullock back here -- that's a match made in box-office heaven. Maybe. But I feel if it was a female role being cast, they'd have made a point to mention it in the trades |
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Post by stephen on Mar 14, 2019 16:05:50 GMT
Why are we assuming it's a male co-lead? I'd be betting on seeing an Emma Stone-esque ingenue here. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Hancock brings Sandra Bullock back here -- that's a match made in box-office heaven. Maybe. But I feel if it was a female role being cast, they'd have made a point to mention it in the trades Perhaps, but the fact that they didn't specify it means that they're leaving it open. |
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Post by pupdurcs on Mar 14, 2019 16:10:20 GMT
John Lee Hancock not officially signed on to direct yet... Why doesn't Denzel use his clout to choose a good director to work with for a change? The trades make it sound like it's just a formality for Hancock. Most of the directors Denzel works with are objectively "good". Fuqua may be an action guy, but he's good at what he does. Zemeckis, Dan Gilroy and Denzel himself are not scrubs. If he's not working with certain auteurs (Scorsese, Spielberg, Inaurritu, Tarantino etc), it's because they don't have suitable roles for him and they develop their own projects. He's not going to beg. They don't need him, and he doesn't need them. |
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 14, 2019 16:32:06 GMT
They could get a casting coup in multiple ways and an interesting mix for their (possibly) formulaic script by doing something totally unexpected here.............and casting Ali as Baxter btw.
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Post by stephen on Mar 14, 2019 16:36:53 GMT
The trades make it sound like it's just a formality for Hancock. Most of the directors Denzel works with are objectively "good". Fuqua may be an action guy, but he's good at what he does. Zemeckis, Dan Gilroy and Denzel himself are not scrubs. If he's not working with certain auteurs (Scorsese, Spielberg, Inaurritu, Tarantino etc), it's because they don't have suitable roles for him and they develop their own projects. He's not going to beg. They don't need him, and he doesn't need them. Of course, there is one auteur Washington could call. *phone rings somewhere in London* -Hello? -Hey, Ridley. It's Denzel. What you got going on right now? -Oh, not much. Just six TV shows, a couple of pilots for HBO and Netflix, a few Prometheus movies. Why? -Wanna direct my new cop movie? -Sure. How's next Thursday sound? -Perfect! Seriously, though, I'd love to see Black Rain-era Ridley Scott back again. |
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Post by pupdurcs on Mar 14, 2019 17:29:02 GMT
Presuming they go male, I'm actually thinking Joaquin Phoenix might be a real possibility for the Baxter role. He's hot right now at WB because of Joker, and that is a studio that likes to keep talent in-house.
He's got a major working relationship with WB now because of the upcoming Joker movie. And he based on him doing the Joker movie, he probably wants to make a few more movies that
more than 5 people in an indie cinema will watch, which describes much of his output in recent years. So a movie with Denzel, right after doing Joker seems like a sound career move.
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sirchuck23
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Post by sirchuck23 on Mar 14, 2019 17:30:28 GMT
Christian Bale...j/k..lol
I think Stephen is on to something, because reading the trades when this project was announced they don't specify that the character of Baxter is a male or female and I think Variety mentioned that Hancock was still finishing up the script. Sandra Bullock would be interesting and she did win an Oscar under his direction so I'm sure she would work with him again and her schedule is open looking at her IMDB page, so it might be a possibility. Especially if they want to start shooting this summer.
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Post by pupdurcs on Mar 14, 2019 17:35:45 GMT
Christian Bale...j/k..lol I think Stephen is on to something, because reading the trades when this project was announced they don't specify that the character of Baxter is a male or female and I think Variety mentioned that Hancock was still finishing up the script. Sandra Bullock would be interesting and she did win an Oscar under his direction so I'm sure she would work with him again and her schedule is open looking at her IMDB page, so it might be a possibility. Especially if they want to start shooting this summer. Yeah, I don't disagree with Stephen that they may be open to casting either gender for Baxter. And yes, I imagine Bullock would be a strong possibility with the Hancock connection. |
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morton
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Post by morton on Mar 14, 2019 19:18:23 GMT
John Lee Hancock not officially signed on to direct yet... Why doesn't Denzel use his clout to choose a good director to work with for a change? The trades make it sound like it's just a formality for Hancock. Most of the directors Denzel works with are objectively "good". Fuqua may be an action guy, but he's good at what he does. Zemeckis, Dan Gilroy and Denzel himself are not scrubs. If he's not working with certain auteurs (Scorsese, Spielberg, Inaurritu, Tarantino etc), it's because they don't have suitable roles for him and they develop their own projects. He's not going to beg. They don't need him, and he doesn't need them. Great point. I see it about Meryl Streep a lot. And while I do think she deserves better than some of the directors that she gets, it's not like a lot of the auteurs are writing roles for her. When they do, she usually accepts (Adaptation, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Post). Her career is doing just fine though without them. |
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Post by pupdurcs on Mar 14, 2019 19:53:47 GMT
If they do go female and A-list, Nicole Kidman might also be a strong possibility. She's in high demand, currently in favor at Warner Brothers thanks to Aquaman making a billion dollars, and Destroyer showed (and impressed) a lot of people in the industry what she could do in gritty cop/thriller/noir genre.
Main doubt with Kidman is she's constantly booked or in demand, so the dates might not fit. Disney want her for their Cruella movie as well.
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Post by Viced on Mar 14, 2019 19:57:51 GMT
John Lee Hancock not officially signed on to direct yet... Why doesn't Denzel use his clout to choose a good director to work with for a change? The trades make it sound like it's just a formality for Hancock. Most of the directors Denzel works with are objectively "good". Fuqua may be an action guy, but he's good at what he does. Zemeckis, Dan Gilroy and Denzel himself are not scrubs. If he's not working with certain auteurs (Scorsese, Spielberg, Inaurritu, Tarantino etc), it's because they don't have suitable roles for him and they develop their own projects. He's not going to beg. They don't need him, and he doesn't need them. Didn't say he needed them... but some more great movies in his filmography would be nice. Actually just read that Little Things was gonna be directed by Danny DeVito and star Robert De Niro around 20 years ago... interesting. |
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Post by fiosnasiob on Mar 14, 2019 20:10:48 GMT
He took a much longer time than usual for his new acting project so as a fan I wanted to beleive that there was something truly juicy that's coming, apparently I was wrong but I'm still more exited by this than him directing MBJ in a role he (Denzel) was supposed to play 15 years ago.
And as Scrudpup rightly says, at this point, it doesn't matters much if it's a cop role or whatever, as a master of his craft, it's what he will do with the character that matters. The popcorn audience of his last action movie, were maybe (well, at least some..) not expecting to get stun the way they were by the power of his acting between 2 guns fights
But the name of the director really matters to me !! Wait and see.
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Post by pupdurcs on Mar 14, 2019 20:34:56 GMT
The trades make it sound like it's just a formality for Hancock. Most of the directors Denzel works with are objectively "good". Fuqua may be an action guy, but he's good at what he does. Zemeckis, Dan Gilroy and Denzel himself are not scrubs. If he's not working with certain auteurs (Scorsese, Spielberg, Inaurritu, Tarantino etc), it's because they don't have suitable roles for him and they develop their own projects. He's not going to beg. They don't need him, and he doesn't need them. Actually just read that Little Things was gonna be directed by Danny DeVito and star Robert De Niro around 20 years ago... interesting. Interesting to hear that about Devito and DeNiro. Devito isn't a "great" director, but he had the ambition to try and be one (and I think War Of The Roses is a great film, though not specifically because of his direction. Great script and Douglas and Turner were aces). The results of DeVito's directing efforts varied wildly, but he never went for basic or generic material. Script had to have something interesting about it to interest him. And 1997 DeNiro was still trying to do interesting and challenging stuff (though returns had started diminishing). So yeah, I think this is probably more than your standard cop thriller/programmer. Also, aside from Hoffa, every major film Devito directed (Throw Momma From The Train, Death To Smoochy ect) was a comedy or black comedy. Makes me think the film could have some dark humour, though that could easily be changed by studio suits. |
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Post by iheartamyadams on Mar 15, 2019 14:02:32 GMT
This is actually sounds like it could be a good role, but John Lee Hancock, the man behind the most vanilla and safe biopics on earth for this is just tragic. He has no style or directorial identity, he just typically exploits subject matter that audiences and industry are into (Hollywood! Great white hope ect) and lets the actors do the heavy lifting in his films. This to me sounds like David Fincher fodder.
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Post by speeders on Mar 15, 2019 16:25:39 GMT
Oh Hancock kills the chance of this being good, as if the generic logline didn't hurt enough. Shame we didn't get the DeVito/DeNiro film in the 90's, but I'm very curious how this will evolve. I need more serial killer thrillers aimed at adults.
Getting a vibe that this will co-star Colin Farrell (alt. Ewan McGregor, Jude Law) but would be interesting if they went with a female lead.
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sirchuck23
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Post by sirchuck23 on Mar 16, 2019 2:40:53 GMT
So I did some research on this project after Viced mentioned De Niro and Devito were planning on doing this project back in the 90s. I couldn't find much, but I did find an old Variety article from June 1997 and it looks like not only was DeNiro interested in the project, but Matthew McConaughey and George Clooney had interest in the project as well from an acting perspective, and Clint Eastwood from a directing perspective. Also, looks like the producer Mark Johnson (Rain Man, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) was interested in the project as well. So at the time it seemed like a meaty project with alot of interest. variety.com/1997/film/news/de-lovely-de-little-things-1116679283/In another old article piece about John Lee Hancock's success in Hollywood after A Perfect World he mentions that "The Little Things" is his favorite of his unproduced screenplays: www.texasmonthly.com/articles/his-perfect-world/Little Things sounds like it won't just be another conventional commercial project for Denzel and depending on which "A-Lister" they get to play Baxter could make this interesting. |
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Post by pupdurcs on Mar 16, 2019 2:56:42 GMT
So I did some research on this project after Viced mentioned De Niro and Devito were planning on doing this project back in the 90s. I couldn't find much, but I did find an old Variety article from June 1997 and it looks like not only was DeNiro interested in the project, but Matthew McConaughey and George Clooney had interest in the project as well from an acting perspective, and Clint Eastwood from a directing perspective. Also, looks like the producer Mark Johnson (Rain Man, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) was interested in the project as well. So at the time it seemed like a meaty project with alot of interest. variety.com/1997/film/news/de-lovely-de-little-things-1116679283/In another old article piece about John Lee Hancock's success in Hollywood after A Perfect World he mentions that "The Little Things" is his favorite of his underproduced screenplays: www.texasmonthly.com/articles/his-perfect-world/Little Things sounds like it won't just be another conventional commercial project for Denzel and depending on which "A-Lister" they get to play Baxter could make this interesting. Good finds. Sounds like my theory that this might have stealth awards potential seems to be on the money. Eastwood and Clooney wanted to do this as well.Oscar nomination #9 for Denzel incoming? Could be. I'm not sure why the carping about Hancock as well. Is he some revolutionary, experimental auteur? No, but he crafts solid and enjoyable studio films that for the most part critics and the industry enjoy. Not everything needs to be Fellini or PTA y'all. Sometimes Peter Farrelly and Ron Howard can get the job done.LOL! Of the 7 films he's directed, only 1 (The Alamo) has a "rotten" score on Rotten Tomatoes. That's a terrific strike rate. I have no concerns over Hancock if he is confirmed as director. Denzel has weaved magic with far less accomplished directors than him |
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Post by sirchuck23 on Mar 16, 2019 3:09:14 GMT
Agreed. He made Antoine Fuqua a much in demand director after Training Day, where Fuqua only had The Replacement Killers and Bait before that so he has that capability to raise the game of a director he's collaborating with.
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