Amblin Announces Sigourney Weaver and Kevin Kline for "The Good House"

Sigourney Weaver and Kevin Kline to Star in Adaptation of New York Times Best Seller The Good House for Amblin Partners

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Amblin Partners announced today that three-time Oscar®-nominee Sigourney Weaver and Oscar®-winner Kevin Kline will star in the adaptation of the New York Times Best Seller, The Good House, which begins production in Canada this week.

    Amblin Partners announces Sigourney Weaver and Kevin Kline in film adaptation of New York Times Best Seller THE GOOD HOUSE.

The film will be directed by four-time Emmy®-nominee Maya Forbes ("The Larry Sanders Show") and two-time Emmy®-winner Wally Wolodarsky,("The Simpsons," "The Tracey Ullman Show") based on a script they co-wrote, adapted from Ann Leary’s novel The Good House.

The Good House follows Hildy Good (Weaver), a wry New England realtor and descendant of the Salem witches, who loves her wine and loves her secrets. Her compartmentalized life starts to unravel as she rekindles an old romance and becomes dangerously entwined in one person’s reckless behavior.

The project is produced by Emmy® Award-winner Jane Rosenthal (The Irishman, When They See Us), Emmy® Award-nominee Berry Welsh (The Irishman, Wizard of Lies) and Oscar®-nominee Aaron Ryder (Arrival, The Prestige) of FilmNation Entertainment. Executive producers are Erika Hampson, Christos V. Konstantakopoulos and Steve Samuels.

Weaver is well known for her Oscar®-nominated roles in Aliens, Working Girl, and Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey, as well as her leading role as Dr. Grace Augustine in the Avatar franchise.

Kline won an Oscar® for his supporting role in A Fish Called Wanda and is recognized by audiences worldwide for his roles in Sophie’s Choice, The Big Chill, De-Lovely and Beauty and the Beast. He is a three-time Tony Award®-winner, most recently being awarded Best Actor in a Play for his role in the 2017 revival of Present Laughter.

Weaver and Kline previously appeared on screen together in 1993’s Oscar®-nominated comedy Dave and the 1997 drama The Ice Storm.

The film will be released by Universal Pictures domestically. Amblin Partners and Universal will share international distribution rights.

Weaver and Kline are both represented by the United Talent Agency. Kline is managed by Berwick & Kovacik.


About Amblin Partners
Amblin Partners is a film and television production company, led by Steven Spielberg, that develops and produces films using the Amblin Entertainment, DreamWorks Pictures and Participant Media banners and includes Amblin Television, a longtime leader in quality programming. The company’s investment partners include Participant Media, Reliance Entertainment, Entertainment One (eOne), Alibaba Pictures and Universal Pictures.

www.amblin.com

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Review: "A Fish Called Wanda" is Still Amazing (Happy B'day, Kevin Kline)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 153 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
Running time: 109 minutes (1 hour, 49 minutes)
MPAA – R
DIRECTOR: Charles Crichton
WRITERS: John Cleese, from a story by Charles Crichton and John Cleese
PRODUCER: Michael Shamberg
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Alan Hume
EDITOR: John Jympson
Academy Award winner

COMEDY/CRIME with elements of romance

Starring: John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, Michael Palin, Marie Aitken, Tom Georgeson, Patricia Hayes, Cynthia Caylor, Ken Campbell, and Geoffrey Palmer

Set in London, a crooked foursome: heist man Georges Thomason (Tom Georgeson), his partner and close friend, Ken Pile (Michael Palin), George’s American girlfriend, Wanda Gershwitz (Jamie Lee Curtis), and Otto (Kevin Kline) a weapons expert who pretends to be Wanda’s brother, but is really her lover, successfully pull off a big time diamond heist. They are about to get away with it when someone informs on George, who is promptly arrested.

George, however, never trusted Otto, so he hid the diamonds away, and only Ken knows where the new hiding location is. Meanwhile, Wanda seduces George’s barrister (attorney), Archie Leach (John Cleese), in hopes that he can discover and reveal to her the stolen loot’s location. There are, however, complications. Archie really falls in love with Wanda, but jealous Otto keeps interfering every time Wanda is about to get intimate with Archie and get the info she and Otto need. As George’s trial approaches, the desperate situation to learn the location of the diamonds really tests the notion of “honor among thieves.”

Nearly two decades after its initial release, A Fish Called Wanda remains a truly great comedy. I laugh at it now as much as I did when I watched in numerous times in the late 80’s. There is any number of reasons the film works so well as both a comedy and a crime film. One is timing, which is required for comedy. If the cast is in synch, it’s probably because they have good chemistry, and good screen chemistry gives a ring of truth to the proceedings – a sense of verisimilitude. The audience can suspend disbelief and believe that the actors are who they’re pretending to be and are really living in the film’s situations. One of the really good examples of this is the scene in which Archie Leach’s wife, Wendy (Marie Aitken), returns home and nearly catches Archie seducing Wanda. While Wanda and Otto, who’d also snuck into the home, scurry behind curtains, we get to watch Cleese’s hilarious performance as he tries to explain to his wife why he’s suddenly appeared in their upstairs living room with a bottle of champagne and two glasses – when he didn’t even know that she’s returned.

The film is also very well written in terms of characters and well-directed in terms of allowing the cast to develop and play the characters. The script is written by the most famous alum of the comedy troupe Monty Python’s Flying Circus, John Cleese, and Charles Crichton, a filmmaker at the legendary Ealing Studios, where he directed another great heist film, The Lavender Hill Mob (the film to which Wanda was often compared when Wanda was release in 1988). Both brought their sensibilities for creating truly mean-spirited, venal, vain, and eccentric characters. American filmmakers are good at making mean characters, but they often transform them into heroes – especially in comedies. From beginning to end, there is never any doubt that the characters in A Fish Called Wanda are liars, cheaters, thieves, and sometimes murderers, but we’re supposed to laugh at them. Their wicked ways cause them many inconveniences and hardships, and their vanity causes them embarrassment. Other characters are constantly picking at the things that make them vain and eccentric. This is comedy and fiction, so it’s OK to laugh at and even like these “bad guys.”

A Fish Called Wanda is also marked by what’s often called tour-de-force performances, and much of it has to do with the fact that the entire cast, especially the four leads are highly skilled actors, but are also excellent comic actors. Each does a simply fabulous job selling their characters to the audience. The most memorable performance in the film probably belongs to Kevin Kline, who won an Oscar for his role as the supposed-CIA agent, Otto. However, he’s only the cherry on top of what remains a great, great comedy.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
1989 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (Kevin Kline); 2 nominations: “Best Director” (Charles Crichton) and “Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen” (John Cleese-screenplay/story and Charles Crichton-story)

1989 BAFTA Awards: 2 wins: “Best Actor” (John Cleese) and “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (Michael Palin); 7 nominations: “Best Film” (Michael Shamberg and Charles Crichton), “Best Actor” (Kevin Kline), “Best Actress” (Jamie Lee Curtis), “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” (Maria Aitken), “Best Direction” (Charles Crichton), “Best Editing” (John Jympson), and “Best Screenplay – Original” (John Cleese)

1989 Golden Globes: 3 nominations: “Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical” “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical” (John Cleese) and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical” (Jamie Lee Curtis)

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

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Review: "Wild Wild West" Another Weird Western Disappointment

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 11 (of 2002) by Leroy Douresseaux

Wild Wild West (1999)
Running time: 106 minutes (1 hour, 46 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for action violence, sex references and innuendo
DIRECTOR: Barry Sonnenfeld
WRITERS: S. S. Wilson, Brent Maddock, Jeffrey Price, and Peter S. Seaman; based on the screen story by Jim Thomas and John Thomas
PRODUCERS: Jon Peters and Barry Sonnenfeld
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Michael Ballhaus
EDITOR: Jim Miller
COMPOSER: Elmer Bernstein

ACTION/ADVENTURE/FANTASY/SCI-FI/WESTERN

Starring: Will Smith, Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh, Selma Hayek, M. Emmett Walsh, Ted Levine, Garcelle Beauvais, and Ling Bai

Wild Wild West is a 1999 science fiction film starring Will Smith. The film is based upon the 1960s CBS television series, The Wild Wild West. While the TV series features lots of gadgets, the film focuses on bizarre machines and steampunk technology.

Jim West (Will Smith) is a brash gunslinger with a quick mouth. Artemus Gordon (Kevin Kline) is a U.S. Marshal with a mind for inventions and disguises. Arliss Loveless (Kenneth Branagh), an embittered former Confederate, threatens the United States and President Ulysses S. Grant (also played by Kline). President Grant forces West and Gordon to join and to fight Loveless and his diabolical machines. The mismatched pair bickers its way to Loveless as the villain and his most devastating creation awaits the two heroes in Spider Canyon, Utah.

Sonnenfeld first came to acclaim as Joel and Ethan Coen’s cinematographer in films like Raising Arizona and Miller’s Crossing. He went onto shoot When Harry Met Sally and Misery for Rob Reiner. His career as a director has been hit (Get Shorty and Men in Black) and miss (Addams Family Values and For Love or Money). Wild Wild West falls somewhere in between, kind of leaning toward being a miss.

This film allegedly went through many reshoots to up the humor content, and the changes only served to make an already awkward film more awkward. Wild Wild West is a hybrid, and like the television series upon which it is based, “The Wild, Wild West” (1965-70), that was part western, part science fiction, part adventure, the film is also a mish mash of several genres. It is dressed up like a high priced costumed drama circa late 19th Century, set in the Deep South, Washington D. C., and the barren wild West. It has elements of sci-fi, specifically in the assorted gadgets, machines, and inventions. Its characters are clearly modern in their outlook and with their know-it-all sensibilities.

The script, by four veteran Hollywood writers with resumes full of scripts for action movies and cinema of the fantastic, bounces along the wall and stumbles about like a drunk. The plot is simple: stop Lawless before he defeats the U.S. The execution is senseless, very likely because too many hands were involved. No one person with a single vision was really in charge. West has many moments of genuine comedy and a few decent action sequences, but at its heart, it is a badly constructed, weak movie.

Will Smith does his best to carry the load, and his character is both brash and funny. His humor never comes across as strained, and Smith is seemingly comfortable acting captain of this sinking ship. His personality is lively, and his face, whether happy with his own jokes or stern with action readiness, is open and engaging. It’s a joy to watch him.

Kline is okay, but certainly miscast. Being older than Smith, he could have been the wise, older hand. He has his moments, but sometimes he just seems like a fifth wheel on a bike. He buries himself so far in make up for his duel role as President Grant that he gets lost in the part of this expendable character. He does a decent job in the part, but, like the movie, it’s not really worth noting.

Branagh is nutty and hilarious in his over the top performance as the psychotic, and vengeful Southern. Missing his lower extremities and riding a mechanical chair thing, Arliss Loveless is ridiculous, but he throws himself into a role so extreme and wacky, it belongs in a cheap novel or a superhero comic book. He’s simply a hoot. The rivalry between Smith’s West and Branagh’s Loveless is hilarious, and they make a very good screen pair.

Wild Wild West is a somewhat entertaining movie, but it is difficult to see where it had any potential to be better. The studio, Time-Warner, might have figured that it would be easy to sell a movie based on an idea with which people were already familiar, namely the television program The Wild, Wild West. They may have thought that audiences would readily accept a big budget update of this idea made with big named stars. It’s worked box office magic in the past, but, as in this case, it usually means average at best product. Even in its best moments, West is a light, fluffy distraction, forgotten soon after consumption.

5 of 10
C+

NOTES:
2000 Razzie Awards: 4 wins: “Worst Director” (Barry Sonnenfeld), “Worst Original Song” (Stevie Wonder, Kool Moe Dee, and Will Smith for the song "Wild Wild West"), “Worst Picture” (Warner Bros.), “Worst Screen Couple” (Kevin Kline and Will Smith), and “Worst Screenplay” (Jim Thomas, John Thomas, S.S. Wilson, Brent Maddock, Jeffrey Price, and Peter S. Seaman); 4 nominations: “Worst Actor” (Kevin Kline), “Worst Supporting Actor” (Kenneth Branagh), “Worst Supporting Actress” (Salma Hayek), and “Worst Supporting Actress” (Kevin Kline as a prostitute)

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Review: Robert Altman Signs off with Sweet "A Prairie Home Companion" (Happy B'day, Robert Altman)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 157 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

A Prairie Home Companion (2006)
Running time: 105 minutes (1 hour, 45 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some risqué humor
DIRECTOR: Robert Altman
WRITERS: Garrison Keillor, from a story by Ken LaZebnik and Garrison Keillor (based upon the radio program “A Prairie Home Companion” created by Garrison Keillor)
PRODUCERS: Robert Altman, Wren Arthur, Joshua Astrachan, Tony Judge, and David Levy
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Edward Lachman
EDITOR: Jacob Craycroft

COMEDY/DRAMA/MUSIC

Starring: Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones, Garrison Keillor, Kevin Kline, Lindsay Lohan, Virginia Madsen, John C. Reilly, Maya Rudolph, Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Marylouise Burke, L.Q. Jones, Sue Scott, Tim Russell, and Jearlyn Steele.

Director Robert Altman’s new film, A Prairie Home Companion, is a fictionalized version of Garrison Keillor’s long running, public-radio variety show, also titled "A Prairie Home Companion." In this film, A Prairie Home Companion isn’t the fabled national phenomenon that it has been for decades (since its first broadcast on July 6, 1974), but is rather an obscure local program performed at a small local venue, the Fitzgerald Theatre (where the real Prairie Home Companion is performed), and broadcast onto a single Minnesota radio station, WLT. The film opens on what is to be the show’s final performance after the better part of four decades, as the Fitzgerald has been bought by a Texas conglomerate that is going to demolish the theatre to build a parking lot.

There is much backstage drama – the death of a long time Prairie Home performer; a mysterious woman (Virginia Madsen) who seems to bring death with her stalks the halls and stage; and the theatre security, Guy Noir (Kevin Kline), is rather self-absorbed. However, the focus is on the stage and the performers. There is the whimsical, sad sack maestro, GK (Garrison Keillor), who seems to be an undertaker as much as he is the master of ceremonies and host. His stars include the country-singing Johnson sisters, Yolanda (Meryl Streep) and Rhonda (Lily Tomlin), and the cowboy duo, the Old Trailhands, Dusty (Woody Harrelson) and Lefty (John C. Reilly), and more. Still, the Prairie Home performers and crew await the arrival of the Axeman (Tommy Lee Jones), who will signal the end of both the show and the showplace.

Although Altman works from Garrison Keillor’s script and this concept is Keillor’s, Altman makes the film his own by employing the techniques that have made him a filmmaking legend: the improvisational chatter and babble, the characters overlapping dialogue, and the wandering, zooming cameral – sometimes orbital, sometimes a stationary eye, but always capturing the story that Altman is weaving.

The performances, although good, are mostly small, but the actors make the most of their moments. Each character is quirky, and each actor gives that part an idiosyncratic turn that makes this entire film seem special. In fact, the cast is in perfect harmony, and one can watch the actors building up to this synchronization as the characters continually interact with one another. In the end, the make Prairie Home’s final moments as a variety show an example of simple, heartwarming, old-fashioned harmony. Clearly the actors believe in their baggy and shelf-worn characters. It’s a testament to their faith in Altman and perhaps to a lesser extent Keillor’s creation.

Ultimately, A Prairie Home Companion is an unusual film, simple and sometimes profound. It’s a fantasy about a kind of public performance that has nothing to do with big event corporate entertainment or prepackaged amusements put together by media conglomerates, which have all the soul one would expect from plastic. A Prairie Home Companion begs you to watch such stellar talent create an idealized version of something from another time – variety radio programs – and watch them do it with such conviction that you don’t want to leave your strange new friends. You’re worried that someone might hurt them and stop what they do – you care.

7 of 10
B+

Saturday, July 22, 2006

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Review: Steve Martin is His Usual Self in 2006 Version of "The Pink Panther" (Happy B'day, Beyonce)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 45 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Pink Panther (2006)
Running time: 93 minutes (1 hour, 33 minutes)
MPAA – PG for occasional crude and suggestive humor and language
DIRECTOR: Shawn Levy
WRITERS: Len Blum and Steve Martin; from a story by Len Blum and Michael Saltzman (based on characters by Blake Edwards and Maurice Richlin)
PRODUCER: Robert Simonds
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jonathan Brown
EDITORS: George Folsey, Jr. and Brad E. Wilhite

COMEDY/CRIME with elements of mystery

Starring: Steve Martin, Kevin Kline, Beyoncé Knowles, Jean Reno, Emily Mortimer, Henry Czerny, Roger Rees, Jason Statham, and William Abadie

In the 2006 version of The Pink Panther, France’s greatest soccer coach, Yves Gluant (Jason Statham), is murdered in front of tens of thousands of people during a match, but no one knows who the murder is, and to make matters worse, his world famous diamond ring, The Pink Panther, is missing. Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Kevin Kline) wants to solve the case without the interference of the press, so he promotes small town policeman, Jacques Clouseau (Steve Martin), to inspector.

However, Dreyfus wants the new Inspector Clouseau watched, so he assigns a veteran officer, Gendarme Gilbert Ponton (Jean Reno), to keep an eye on Clouseau. Meanwhile, the bumbling Clouseau has taken on the case of Gluant’s murder as if he were France’s best officer of the law. He questions all of Gluant’s rivals and shady associates (usually asking the dumbest questions), but he falls under the spell of Gluant’s beautiful girlfriend, an international pop singer named Xania (Beyoncé Knowles). Could Xania be Gluant’s murderer, and does she have the Pink Panther? Clouseau is willing to follow her to America to find out.

What’s the point of another Pink Panther film, especially since Peter Sellers, the actor who originated the character in the 1963 film, The Pink Panther, and defined him in A Shot in the Dark, is long dead? Well, the grave was already desecrated long ago when Pink Panther franchise director Blake Edwards had Roberto Benigni try to fill Sellers shoes by playing Inspector Clouseau’s illegitimate offspring in Son of the Pink Panther (1993). When the announcement came last year that Steve Martin would become the new Inspector Clouseau, there was some excitement among movie fans and the entertainment press, but I was wary. But in this new film, also entitled The Pink Panther, Martin is his reliably funny and silly self. He doesn’t deliver the kind of comedy he did from the 1970’s to the mid-80’s, but that was decades ago; regardless of style and content changes, he’s wild and funny (if not as crazy) guy. All that matters is that in this movie, he is damn funny.

If you put Sellers’ Clouseau out of your mind (and it’s possible to do), you will find Martin’s take on the character to be exceedingly silly and amazingly funny. Martin, a very talented actor and comedian never lets up in this film, and he can run the gamut of emotions and make the audience feel them. I laughed at Martin’s Clouseau, was annoyed by him, felt for him, thought he was cool, and ultimately cheered his slyly hidden intelligence. In a movie plagued by a pitiful script and absent direction, Martin made The Pink Panther live. This is a solid Steve Martin vehicle in spite of the dead air that stifles this remake.

And while Martin sparkles, his supporting casts works well with him. Although they start off cold, Kevin Kline (always game) and Jean Reno (looking a bit worn here) are fine straight guys for Martin’s relentless goofy and dense Clouseau. Kline is usually dead on as the straight guy, and here he plays the frustrated foil with self-confidence that is above this poorly constructed movie. Reno has a few good moments, though his character Ponton is just a sounding board for Martin’s craziness. However, he really gives a Clouseau/Ponton dance sequence a professional’s touch. He does it the way a good actor should – like he has to sell the performance both to the audience and to a guard who stands in the way of Clouseau and Ponton. There is actually some sexual tension and chemistry between Martin’s Clouseau and Nicole, played in a nice comic turn by Emily Mortimer. It would have been good to see more of that pairing in the film. Although she is a poor actress and it’s never more obvious than in this movie, Beyoncé Knowles is fine and pretty to look at, and that must count for something, right?

In the final analysis of The Pink Panther, Steve Martin makes this thoroughly mediocre film his star vehicle with a little help from his supporting cast. Here, as Martin so often does, he gets the hard laughs – sometimes bringing me to tears.

5 of 10
B-

Monday, February 27, 2006

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