Jason Statham in a scene from 'Transporter 2'.
AFTER TRANSPORTER 2 made more than $20 million in its first four days at the domestic box office, Jason Statham is becoming a hot commodity. Next up on the aspiring action star's slate will be Crank, from Lions Gate Films and Lakeshore Entertainment. The movie sounds like D.O.A. for a new generation, with Statham playing a hit man who discovers that he's been poisoned and seeks vengeance and a cure. Lions Gate will handle domestic distribution, while the company will share international rights with Lakeshore.
Tommy Lee Jones' The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, a critical favourite and major prize winner at May's Cannes Film Festival, has finally found a domestic distributor. According to media reports out of the Toronto International Film Festival, Sony Pictures Classics has secured Three Burials, which marks Jones' feature-film-directing debut. At Cannes, the Western snagged a screenwriting award for Guillermo Arriaga and saw Jones win for best actor. Europa Corp. financed Three Burials and had been looking for a buyer since Cannes. The film also stars Barry Pepper and Dwight Yoakam. SPC is expected to give it a late-year Oscar-qualifying run.
It's been four years since the September 11 terrorist attacks that shook the world and made their mark on the Toronto International Film Festival as well, stranding thousands of visitors when the airports closed and shutting down the film screenings and events. The world has changed since then, with security tightened and paranoia heightened.
At a press event at this year's festival, the cast of Jodie Foster's latest film Flightplan explained what they learned about the crew that's essential to making the flight not only comfortable, but also safe for the passengers. Sean Bean (The Lord of the Rings) plays a double-decker aircraft's pilot, who must decide whether Foster's character is merely a distraught mother worried about her missing child or a mentally unstable woman who is a danger to everyone stuck in the air at 30,000 feet.
HUGE RESPONSIBILITY
Less obvious is the responsibility that rests on the shoulders of the flight attendants, whom Erika Christensen says are "not just waitresses in the sky." The starlet plays the film's newest stewardess and reveals that her family has a history with aviation. "My grandmother was a flight attendant, my mother had a pilot's licence and my grandfather was a pilot. That's how my grandmother and grandfather met," Christensen says.
"They have a huge responsibility. On the one hand, they're glamorous and serve your food, and on the other hand, they're nurses and security guards and a bunch of jobs rolled into one. They have a huge responsibility for the people on the plane. So, respect to them."
NEW EXPERIENCES
Even at the age of 80, Robert Altman seems intent on trying out new experiences. The legendary maverick filmmaker is set to make his London theater-directing debut with Arthur Miller's Resurrection Blues, set for a new staging at the Old Vic. Altman was recruited for the gig by Kevin Spacey, the theatre's artistic director. Miller was still reworking Blues at the time of his death, and according to Great Britain's Guardian newspaper, the Old Vic production will use the 2002 version of the play. The dark comedy revolves around a possibly televised execution in a banana republic.
In announcing Altman's participation, Spacey didn't reveal any casting for the production ... except to suggest that he wouldn't be acting in the play. Since taking over at the Old Vic, Spacey's slate of offerings has earned negative-to-mixed response from the British press. The next show mounted at the Old Vic will be a production of Richard II, with Spacey in the lead role. Other upcoming ventures include a return of the admired Aladdin, with Ian McKellen as star.
Claire Danes is close to joining Richard Gere in The Flock, the first English-language film from Infernal Affairs director Andrew Lau. The thriller features Gere as a federal agent training his replacement (Danes). The unlikely duo is assigned to track down a missing girl in a case that may involve a paroled sex offender. "Claire Danes brings a sensitivity and power to the role of a young agent mentored by Richard Gere's character," producer Bauer Martinez told The Hollywood Reporter. "This is a key role in the film and Andrew, Richard and I are thrilled to have an actress of Claire's talent playing the part."
