It seems to be famine or feast with Spielberg. Having kept himself away from director duties for a few years, he now has a rush on. Tintin and War Horse are both due out by the end of the year, with Spielberg going once again for what served him well in 1993, namely working on a big adventure spectacle movie in parallel with a more serious historical piece. As if that wasn’t enough, he is also moving forward with his Abraham Lincoln biopic, Lincoln and has been talking a little about what everyone can expect.

Lincoln was shot on the evening of 14th April 1865 and died the following day and Spielberg intends to focus on the four months leading up to then. Although that feels like a tiny fraction of so eventful and significant a life, it was a pretty busy few months. During that approximate time-frame, he was re-elected, abolished slavery and the civil war ended. Although it is not going to be a Civil War film per se, there will be battlefield scenes, which seems inevitable given the subject matter. Spielberg wants to emphasize the massive accomplishments of the final months of Lincoln’s life, but will release the film at the tail end of 2012 in order to avoid having it fall during the US presidential elections and becoming a polarising feature of what will doubtless be another fiercely contested election.

Casting for Lincoln is almost absurdly rich, including Daniel Day Lewis (as Lincoln), Tommy Lee Jones, Sally Field, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, John Hawkes, Hal Holbrook, James Spader, Tim Blake Nelson, Bruce McGill and David Strathairn. We may have a while to wait, but this one has been fermenting with Spielberg for years and should be another richly compelling historical drama.

Source: Playlist.

The formidable list of Tommy Lee Jones, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Hal Holbrook, James Spader, John Hawkes, Tim Blake Nelson, Bruce McGill, Joseph Cross, David Costabile, Byron Jennings, Dakin Matthews, Boris McGiver, Gloria Reuben, Jeremy Strong, and David Warshofsky are in talks to star in Lincoln.

The new additions will star opposite Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field, who will play Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd respectively, in Dreamworks Pictures’ Abraham Lincoln biopic.

Lincoln is based on Doris Kearns’ biography of Lincoln, Team of Rivals, and was adapted for the screen by Tony Kushner (Munich).

Steven Spielberg (E.T.) is attached to direct, with production expected to commence in Virginia later this year.

Source: THR

THR is reporting that Jim Carrey is going to be making a cameo appearance in the finale of season seven of The Office over in the States. If memory serves, this will be Carrey’s first television role in well over a decade, since his part(s) in the ’90s TV series, In Living Color, created by Keenen Ivory Wayans, and starring no less than five of the Wayans family (Keenen included), Jamie Foxx, and Jennifer Lopez.

For most people, myself included, Jim Carrey is a comedy genius, and there’s no doubt that he’ll be a brilliant addition to the already high-profile line-up of guest stars for the season finale. He’ll be joining Ricky Gervais (naturally from the British original), Will Ferrell (Anchorman), James Spader (Boston Legal), Ray Romano (Everybody Loves Raymond), Catherine Tate (The Catherine Tate Show), and one of my all-time favourite actors on television, Will Arnett (Arrested Development).

Steve Carell has been the lead character, Michael Scott, in all of the show’s seven series to date, but announced a few months ago that he would be leaving the show, and his final episode, entitled Goodbye, Michael, is airing in an extended version on NBC this Thursday. Despite Carell’s exit, the series has been renewed for an eighth season, with no announcement yet as to who will be filling the actor’s shoes. According to THR, the big names that are starring in the series finale, which will air on 19th of May in America, will be interviewing on the show for the management position left open with Michael’s departure.

Of all the names on the bill, Carrey’s is undoubtedly the least likely to fill the open position, which is a good thing in my eyes. I think Carrey is a brilliant actor, whose talent is probably best served through starring in films. His upcoming film, Mr. Popper’s Penguins, looks surprisingly good, and I think it’s the kind of film that could only really work with Carrey in the lead. And his performance in Yes Man back in 2008 was one of my favourites throughout his brilliant career, and I’m hoping we have more films like that to look forward to in the future.

The Office’s season finale will almost certainly be riotous comedic affair, and much of the best of that comedy will likely be coming from Carrey and Arnett. Putting all these big names together in the same hour-long episode is all but a sure thing, and should make for an excellent end to the season. Whether or not Carell’s replacement will be made clear in the finale awaits to be seen.

Eric Bana (Star Trek), James Spader (Secretary), Ryan Phillippe (The Lincoln Lawyer) and Carla Gugino (Faster) have all signed on to star in By Virtue Fall.

Writer Sheldon Turner, who received an Academy Award nomination for Jason Reitman’s acclaimed comedy-drama Up in the Air, will make his directorial debut with the buddy drama.

By Virtue Fall centers on two ATF agents who find themselves on opposite sides of the friendship divide after one sells out the other.

Nicholas Chartier (The Hurt Locker) will produce.

Source: 24 Frames

**Read all the posts in our ‘Love Theatrically’ series here**

#8 – “SECRETARY” (2002)

Directed by Steven Shainberg

Dispensing with the customary flowers, chocolates and warm sentiments so prevalent in modern romances in favour of earthworms, red marker pens, harnesses and plenty of healthy spankings “Secretary” is certainly not your average romantic comedy. But though the pre-publicity veered towards the more salacious aspects of the narrative (especially with the iconically memorable “teaser” poster) the film ultimately delights with its quirky screenplay, stunning cast and, above all, the warmth and heart that beats beneath its sadomasochistically sexy exterior.

This was the film that not only allowed the divine Maggie Gyllenhaal to step out from the shadow of her younger sibling Jake but, perhaps more importantly, instigated my current love, admiration and part time obsession for her. In the role of Lee Holloway she delivers a truly outstanding performance that is in equal parts brave, fragile, sexy, sassy, intelligent, moving and quite simply adorable.

It’s a tragic disservice to such a wonderful performance, therefore, that the 2003 Academy Awards entirely failed to award even a nomination to the supremely talented Ms. Gyllenhaal undoubtedly shying away from such lascivious subject matter and instead focussing all their annual accolades on the perpetually gawky grin of Renée Zellwegger in “Chicago” and Nicole Kidman’s dodgy prosthetic nose in “The Hours”. Not that her performance went totally unnoticed however as it still won her a number of awards including Best Actress at the Central Ohio Film Critics Awards and Best Breakthrough Actress at the Gotham Awards, the National Board of Review Awards and the Online Film Critics Awards.

We first meet Lee following a stint in a mental hospital and soon discover that she has a history of cutting and burning herself that has left telltale blemishes over much of her body whilst fits of anxious self-loathing trigger episodes of self-harm. As she takes her first shaky steps back into the workaday world, her overprotective mother, Joan (Lesley Ann Warren) drives her back and forth to the office and keeps a suffocatingly vigilant watch over her. Those initially shaky steps are also accompanied by a tentative romance with Peter (Jeremy Davies), a former high school classmate who is almost as fragile as she is and whose parents try to rush them into marriage.

Into all of this comes one E. Edward Grey, played with consummate skill and expertise by the mighty James Spader. At times echoing Spader’s own performances in Soderbergh’s “Sex, Lies and Videotape” and Cronenberg’s “Crash” Grey is an overbearing perfectionist who claims to be shy yet harbours deep sexual urges alongside the requisite demons.

And it’s at this point in the movie that the most peculiar of romances begins to blossom as Grey finds himself slowly drawn to the mysterious Lee. Watching said relationship unfold is quite simply an unalloyed delight as the stiff and starchy Grey slowly gives in to his pent up desires and Lee forever pursues his affections in the most delightfully twisted and perverse ways. It’s a perversity that is further heightened by the inclusion of the seductively stupendous Leonard Cohen track “I’m Your Man”, with Cohen’s sensuous vocals and the lyrics “If you want another kind of lover/I’ll wear a mask for you” acting as the perfect accompaniment to Lee and Edward’s burgeoning romance.

That the film can introduce such offbeat elements into the narrative yet never lose sight of the characters humanity is what gives “Secretary” a great deal of its heart and by the time Grey combines his inimitable red marker pens with a somewhat unfortunate earthworm you’ll surely be as moved as if he’d chosen a bunch of red roses instead.

“Secretary” is a film that ultimately teaches us that every single human upon this Earth is as exquisitely beautiful as the next and that sometimes it just takes the right kind of connection to fully unleash our true beauty upon the world and for that reason alone the film is an absolute delight. It’s a film that is simultaneously sexy, witty, uplifting, hopeful, dark, dirty and delectable and one that is guaranteed to surprise and delight in equal measure.

“Each cut, each scar, each burn, a different mood or time. I told him what the first one was, told him where the second one came from. I remembered them all. And for the first time in my life I felt beautiful. Finally part of the earth. I touched the soil and he loved me back.”

Track #7 – “I’M YOUR MAN”

Written and Performed by Leonard Cohen

If ever there was a movie that needed converting to high definition, it would have to be Stargate. The movie has so many lovely desert landscapes with fantastic blue skies that it makes the perfect picture for blu ray.

Stargate was directed by Roland Emmerich and stars Kurt Russell as Colonel Jonathan “Jack” O’Neil, James Spader as Dr Daniel Jackson, Jaye Davidson as Ra, Viceca Lindfors as Catherine and Alexis Cruz as Skaara. This is the movie that catapolted Roland Emmerich into a career of movies that now includes Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow and more recently 2012 (which Jon reviewed on blu ray here this week).

Stargate is released on Blu Ray this Monday, 29th March and I’m pleased to report that it does indeed convert to blu ray perfectly. The picture quality is just fantastic and looking at those baron landscapes and huge piramids in HD was spectacular. I have a collection of DVDs that I look at and wonder if I need to re-buy them on blu ray. For the better part, the answer is no but Stargate is a movie that even if you have on DVD, is well worth re-buying on Blu Ray.

Synopsis: When a mysterious artefact is unearthed at Giza, tough-minded military man Colonel Jack O’Neill (Kurt Russell) clashes with archaeologist Daniel Jackson (James Spader) over the origin and potential of the object.  When Jackson identifies the object as a portal to another world, O’Neill leads him and a team through the “Stargate”.  They are transported millions of light years from Earth where they are stranded on a strange and alien planet.  When the enigmatic ruler of this extraordinary world, Ra (Jaye Davidson), discovers that the doorway to Earth can be reopened, he devises a deadly plot. Racing against time, O’Neill and Jackson must overcome Ra if they are to save Earth and find a way back home.

The blu ray is packed to the brim with extra special features which includes:

Extras:

• For the first time on Blu-ray – seamless branching of the theatrical and unrated extended cuts of the film
• English 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
• Deciphering the Gate: Concepts and Casting” Featurette
• Opening the Gate: The Making of the Movie” Featurette
• “Passing through the Gate: The Legacy” Featurette these three featurettes  all together are STARGATE – HISTORY MADE
• Gag Reel
• “Master of the Stargate” Interactive Trivia Challenge this is TBC and will only be on BD Live, not on disc

Bonus View TM Picture-in-Picture “STARGATE Ultimate Knowledge”

• “Is There a Stargate?” Featurette
• “The Making of STARGATE” Documentary
• Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Roland Emmerich and Writer/Producer Dean Devlin
• BDLive, B-Roll and Original Stargate Previews

Stargate is released on BluRay this Monday, 29th March. We currently have a competition to win the blu ray here for all UK residents.

Today I was sent a screener of ‘SHORTS’, the new Robert Rodriguez film, and was lucky enough to go feed my inner child and watch it.

Shorts is another children’s movie by the versatile director who made such violent classics as Planet Terror, Dusk till Dawn, Desperado and Sin City and also the creator of well regarded children’s movies Spy Kids 1-3 and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl.

I haven’t seen any of Rodriguez’s children films but I have always wanted to have an excuse to see one, and this was my chance to see what this brilliant director can do with this genre.

I didn’t know what to expect from Shorts, Desperado for kids? or a regular childish story with kiddie humour and lots of fart jokes? Obviously it was no Desperado but gladly it wasn’t entirely a regular kiddie film either.

The description for the film reads ” A young boy’s discovery of a colorful, wish-granting rock causes chaos in the suburban town of Black Falls when jealous kids and scheming adults alike set out to get their hands on it” Sounds pretty simple, but the film was a lot more.

The film sets off showing Part Zero, the first short story about two young kids, a brother and a sister, having a ‘no-blinking stare out’ competition which is really amusing as they carry out their daily lives not taking their eyes of each other no matter what, these two keep appearing throughout Shorts in background scenes and their expressions are hilarious.

The movie then goes to the main story set in a town called Black Falls where all the houses look the same and everyone works for Mr Black (James Spader) who owns Black Box Inc. that make the Black Box, a communication and do-it-all gadget that is sweeping the nation, everyone has one and everyone’s lives are ruled by it.

Our hero and narrator, a young boy called Toe Thompson who has no friends, played excellently by Jimmy Bennet (young Kirk in the New Star Trek), he wears braces and gets bullied at school until one day the bullies corner him and throw a magical rainbow coloured rock that hits him in the head, Toe is then encouraged by the rock to make a wish and he wishes for friends and is joined by little aliens who help him get revenge of the bullies.

The film suddenly fast-forwards quickly through rest of film showing glimpses of things to come then pauses on a baby surrounded by destroyed debris and a large alligator flying through the air about to eat her, our narrator explains the story needs to be explained from the start, and so in a form of ‘Shorts’ we are taken through short little stories out of sync about the adventure of the wishing rock passing from person to person in Black Falls and of the wishes they make.

Each little story is a fantastic chance for Robert Rodriguez to be able to let anything happen due to the wishing rock and it’s endless possibilities. One story is of three kids who want an adventure, and kids being kids dream of crazy things like pterodactyls endless supplies of chocolate bars and castles surrounded by snakes and alligators, but when one of the alligators eats the rock it makes a wish, naturally, and when the alligators start standing up on two legs and chase the kids, enough is enough and they get rid of the wishing rock where it finds it’s next owner.

Other stories are of paranoid germ hating scientist, played by the excellent William H Macy, and his son creating a big Bogey monster. Toe’s parents becoming joined together like conjoined twins at a fancy dress party, and Mr.Black getting hold of the one thing that can do more than his Black Box and using the wishing stone for evil.

Each little story is well told and quickly concluded, but all have a nice little morale to them and the underlying tale of a boy who wants friends is endearing when in the end he makes the best friends he could possibly want through the adventures of the wishing stone.

I did enjoy the film and could see why kids will be excited when they watch it. It was exciting, funny, imaginative and like a Pixar film un-patronising which made it a more adult friendly movie than i thought it would have been but there were a few fart jokes, but it wouldn’t be a kids film without a few would it?!

Robert Rodriguez is a truly wonderful director, he knows what he want to show on screen and knows his audience. He makes the sort of film he wants to watch with his kids and has an imagination that probably comes from his kids minds as well as his own which is why this works so well, the story is great and doesn’t slow down to bore even the shortest of attention spans.

Buy this DVD for your kids or watch it as an adult by yourselves if you fancy 86 minutes to fly by during a highly entertaining family friendly movie.

Shorts is available on both DVD December 7th. You can pre-order it now. Check out the trailer here.