Acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan directs an international cast in Inception, an original sci-fi actioner that travels around the globe and into the intimate and infinite world of dreams.
Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a skilled thief, the best in the dangerous art of extraction: stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobb's rare ability has made him a coveted player in this treacherous new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved. Now Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption. One last job could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish the impossible--inception. Instead of the perfect heist, Cobb and his team of specialists have to pull off the reverse; their task is not to steal an idea but to plant one. If they succeed, it could be the perfect crime.
But no amount of careful planning or expertise can prepare the team for the dangerous enemy that seems to predict their every move. An enemy that only Cobb could have seen coming.
This summer, your mind is the scene of the crime.
Warner Bros. Pictures presents, in association with Legendary Pictures, a Syncopy Production, a film by Christopher Nolan, Inception.
The film stars three-time Academy Award® nominee Leonardo DiCaprio ("Blood Diamond," "The Aviator"), Academy Award® nominee Ken Watanabe ("The Last Samurai"), Joseph Gordon-Levitt ("500 Days of Summer"), Oscar® winner Marion Cotillard ("La Vie en Rose"), Academy Award® nominee Ellen Page ("Juno"), Tom Hardy ("RocknRolla," "Bronson"), Cillian Murphy ("Batman Begins"), Academy Award® nomineeTom Berenger ("Platoon"), Dileep Rao ("Avatar"), and two-time Oscar® winner Michael Caine ("Hannah and Her Sisters," "The Cider House Rules").
Inception was written and directed by Oscar® nominee Christopher Nolan ("Memento," "The Dark Knight"), who also produced the film with Emma Thomas. Chris Brigham and Thomas Tull served as executive producers, with Jordan Goldberg co-producing.
Nolan's behind-the-scenes collaborators included three-time Oscar®-nominated director of photography Wally Pfister ("The Dark Knight," "The Prestige," "Batman Begins"), production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas ("Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"), two-time Oscar®-nominated editor Lee Smith ("The Dark Knight," "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World"), Oscar®-nominated costume designer Jeffrey Kurland ("Bullets Over Broadway," "Collateral"), and Oscar®-nominated special effects supervisor Chris Corbould ("The Dark Knight"). The music is by Academy Award®-winning composer Hans Zimmer ("The Dark Knight," "The Lion King").
Concurrently with the film's nationwide theatrical release, Inception: The IMAX Experience will be released in select IMAX® theatres. Inception will be digitally re-mastered into the unparalleled image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience® through proprietary IMAX DMR® technology. With crystal clear images, laser-aligned digital sound and maximized field of view, IMAX provides the world's most immersive movie experience.
Inception has been rated PG-13 by the MPAA for sequences of violence and action throughout.
In Theatres and IMAX® Friday, July 16th.
Watch the Inception Premiere & Live Performance with Hans Zimmer & Johnny Marr (after jump).
Cosmopolis tracks Eric Packer, a 28-year old billionaire who encounters odd characters and situations as he travels across midtown Manhattan in his luxurious stretch limo to get a haircut from his father’s old barber. Or, as Variety says, “the thriller follows a multimillionaire on a 24-hour odyssey across Manhattan. Farrell will play the asset manager who loses all his wealth over the course of one day. Cotillard will play his wife.”
Kinology, a Paris-based company is selling international rights at Cannes, and the film is being produced by Cronenberg’s company Antenna, and Alfalma Films out of Portugal. Plans are to shoot the film from March through May of 2011 in Toronto and New York.
Jason Reitman & Michele Lee; Lynn St. David & Norman Jewison
21st PSIFF Awards Gala -- Red Carpet Arrivals (Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images for PSIFF)
Kicking off Awards Season, the 21st Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF)Awards Gala, presented by Cartier, was held Tuesday, January 5, 2010 at the Palm Springs Convention Center hosted by “Entertainment Tonight’s” Mary Hart. Honorees Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren and Quentin Tarantino were presented with an original Chihuly Glass Sculpture designed by Dale Chihuly, while the other honorees received the John Kennedy "The Entertainer" statue.
The Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala honors individuals in the entertainment industry with several prestigious awards for acting, director, achievement in film scoring and life achievement. Celebrating this year’s honorees, Cartier Pages wearing their signature Cartier red jackets and bell caps greeted guests upon their arrival and presented awards to the honorees. In addition, Cartier presented special gifts of a classic Cartier Tank Solo watch to each honoree at the Awards Gala.
Cartier Welcomed Host Mary Hart and PSIFF Festival Honorees Jeff Bridges, T Bone Burnett, Mariah Carey, Marion Cotillard, Morgan Freeman, Anna Kendrick, Helen Mirren, Jason Reitman, Jeremy Renner and Quentin Tarantino.
The following awards were presented at this year’s Awards Gala...
Anna Kendrick received the Rising Star Award presented by Up in the Air producer Ivan Reitman
Anna Kendrick (Photo: John Shearer/Getty Images for PSIFF)
Anna Kendrick was presented with the Rising Star Award for her striking, multifaceted performance in Up in the Air at the Festival’s annual Awards Gala.
At age 12, Kendrick received a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her role as Dinah in High Society. Now in her mid 20s, she has gone from strength to strength with each succeeding screen roll.
Up in the Air is a dramatic comedy from Jason Reitman, the Oscar® nominated director of Juno. The film stars Oscar® winner George Clooney as Ryan Bingham, a corporate downsizing expert whose cherished life on the road is threatened by a young, upstart efficiency expert (Kendrick) just as he is on the cusp of reaching ten million frequent flyer miles. The film also stars Vera Farmiga and Jason Bateman.
Actress Anna Kendrick notably starred in PictureHouse’s Rocket Science directed by Jeffrey Blitz. Her performance as an ultra-competitive high school debate team member garnered critical acclaim and the film received a nomination for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Anna was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in the film.
In 2008, Kendrick was seen in the blockbuster feature film Twilight. She will also star in the sequel, New Moon. Currently, Kendrick is on location filming the third installment of the popular Twilight Saga, entitled Eclipse.
Kendrick made her feature film debut in Todd Graff’s Camp, a darling of the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. Her performance in the cult hit earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination as well as a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Annual Chlotrudis Awards. Most recently, Kendrick wrapped production on the Universal film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World opposite Michael Cera.
An accomplished theater veteran, Kendrick began her career as Dinah Lord in the 1997 Broadway musical production of High Society for which she received a Tony® Award Nomination as Best Featured Actress in a Musical. At 12 years old, the honor made her the second youngest Tony nominee in award history. Kendrick also garnered Drama League and Theatre World awards as well as Drama Desk and FANY award nominations. Kendrick’s additional theater work includes a featured role with the New York City Opera’s production of A Little Night Music, starring Jeremy Irons, My Favorite Broadway/The Leading Ladies: Live at Carnegie Hall, and Broadway workshops of Jane Eyre and The Little Princess.
Past recipients of the Rising Star Award include Adam Beach, Jessica Biel, Dakota Fanning, Emile Hirsch, Bryce Dallas Howard, Terrence Howard and Scarlett Johansson.
Helen Mirren received the Career Achievement Award – Actress presented by Morgan Freeman
Helen Mirren & Morgan Freeman (Photos by John Shearer/Getty Images for PSIFF)
Oscar® winner Helen Mirren was presented with the Festival’s Career Achievement Award for her large and distinguished body of work. Mirren is one of the most outstanding actresses of her generation and she delivers another fine performance in The Last Station.
Mirren stars in the Sony Pictures Classic release The Last Station, a tale of two romances, one beginning and one near its end. The film is a complex, funny, rich and emotional story about the difficulty of living with love and the impossibility of living without it. Scheduled to open in late December, the film written and directed by Michael Hoffman also stars Christopher Plummer, Paul Giamatti and James McAvoy.
Mirren launched her career in London at the National Youth Theatre, playing Cleopatra. Her film career began with Michael Powell’s Age of Consent, but her breakthrough role came with John Mackenzie's The Long Good Friday, opposite Bob Hoskins. Mirren earned her first Academy Award nomination as Queen Charlotte in The Madness of King George, a role that won her another Best Actress Award from the Cannes Film Festival. She earned her second Oscar nomination for her role as the housekeeper in Robert Altman’s Gosford Park. Her most celebrated role was as Elizabeth II in Stephen Frear’s The Queen, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress along with a Golden Globe, BAFTA, SAG and numerous other awards from around the world. Other film credits include Excalibur, Calendar Girls, The Clearing, Shadowboxer, The Mosquito Coast and The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover. Her upcoming projects include Brighton Rock, Love Ranch, The Debt and The Tempest.
Jason Reitman received Director of the Year Award presented by Norman Jewison
Jason Reitman (Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images for PSIFF)
Up in the Air is a dramatic comedy from Jason Reitman, the Oscar®-nominated director of Juno. The film stars Oscar-winner George Clooney as Ryan Bingham, a corporate downsizing expert whose cherished life on the road is threatened by a young, upstart efficiency expert (Anna Kendrick) just as he is on the cusp of reaching ten million frequent flyer miles. The film also stars Vera Farmiga and Jason Bateman.
Reitman was honored by the Festival in 2008 with the Chairman’s Vanguard Award for Juno, which was also presented to the cast and writer Diablo Cody. Juno earned widespread praise following its debut at the 2007 Toronto Film Festival, and grossed over $230m worldwide. Reitman was nominated for an Academy Award for directing Juno, and the film earned one win for Diablo Cody’s screenplay and additional nominations for Best Picture and Best Actress (Ellen Page). Juno won three Independent Spirit awards and a Grammy Award. Reitman made his feature film directing debut with the 2006 hit Thank You For Smoking. The film went on to earn a Golden Globe nomination for Best Picture, an Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay, and a WGA nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. Reitman was also named Best Debut Director by the National Board of Review.
Past PSIFF Director of the Year honorees include Sean Penn, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Anthony Minghella, Alexander Payne and Ang Lee.
Jeff Bridges received the Desert Palm Achievement Award – Actor presented by Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Pfeiffer & Jeff Bridges (Photos: John Shearer/Getty Images for PSIFF)
Jeff Bridges’ career is the very embodiment of the Desert Palm Achievement Award, which was created to acknowledge acting excellence, and years of consistent and memorable work. This year, in his remarkable performance in Crazy Heart, he once again shows us why he is considered one of America’s greatest actors.
Four-time Academy Award® nominee Jeff Bridges stars as the richly comic, semi-tragic romantic anti-hero Bad Blake in the debut feature film Crazy Heart from writer-director Scott Cooper. Bad Blake is a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who's had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks way too many times.
Jeff Bridges earned his first Oscar nod in 1971 for Best Supporting Actor in Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show. Three years later he received his second Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role in Michael Cimino’s Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. By 1984 he landed top kudos with a Best Actor nomination for Starman, which also earned him a Golden Globe nomination. In 2001, he was honored with another Golden Globe nomination and his fourth Oscar nomination for his role in The Contender. His additional film credits include The Open Road, Iron Man, Surf’s Up, Seabiscuit, The Fisher King, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, Blown Away, Fearless, The Big Lebowski, Against All Odds, The Vanishing, Texasville, The Morning After, The Last American Hero and Heart of the West. Audiences can see him in the current war comedy The Men Who Stare at Goats.
Past honorees of the Desert Palm Achievement Award include Daniel Day-Lewis, Sean Penn, Jake Gyllenhaal, Liam Neeson, Nicolas Cage, John Travolta and James Stewart.
Jeremy Renner received the Breakthrough Actor Performance Award presented by Shohreh Aghdashloo
Shohreh Aghdashloo & Jeremy Renner (Photos by John Shearer/Getty Images for PSIFF)
Jeremy Renner stars in The Hurt Locker, the critically acclaimed film directed by Kathryn Bigelow that takes place in Baghdad and depicts a team of bomb disposal experts. For his role, Renner was nominated as Best Actor at the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards. He has since received the National Board of Review Breakthrough Performance by an Actor, Breakthrough Actor Award at the Hollywood Film Festival, the Spotlight Award at the Savannah Film Festival and was nominated at the Gotham Awards as Breakthrough Actor and won Best Ensemble Performance.
The role that put Renner on the map and earned his first Independent Spirit Award nomination was that of Jeffrey Dahmer in the 2002 indie hit Dahmer. In 2007, Renner was seen in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, 28 Weeks Later and Take. In 2005, he starred in the acclaimed independent film 12 and Holding and Neo Ned, where he was awarded Best Actor at the 11th Annual Palm Beach International Film Festival. His other credits include North Country, A Little Trip to Heaven, The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, Lords of Dogtowm, Love Comes to the Executioner and S.W.A.T.
Past PSIFF recipients of the Breakthrough Performance Award include Marion Cotillard, Jennifer Hudson, Felicity Huffman and Freida Pinto.
Mariah Carey received the Breakthrough Actress Performance Award presented by Precious director Lee Daniels
Lee Daniels & Mariah Carey (Photo: John Shearer/Getty Images for PSIFF)
In her critically acclaimed role as Ms. Weiss in Lionsgate’s Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ By Sapphire, Carey completely transformed herself from a glamorous music icon to a forthright social worker.
(see champagne-fueled "loopy" acceptance speech video clip below)
Singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer Mariah Carey has received five Grammy® Awards and thirty-three nominations. Carey began her acting career with a small role in the 1999 romantic comedy The Bachelor and followed with the lead in the semi-autobiographical Glitter, with Terrence Howard. She received rave reviews for her performance in the independent film Wisegirls, which premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. Carey previously teamed with producer/director Lee Daniels for the film Tennessee, which premiered at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.
Uniquely melding R&B, soul, gospel, and hip hop influences, Carey has recorded the most U.S. number-one singles for a solo artist (18, surpassing Elvis Presley), and is in second place among artists with the most singles in the rock era. She has been recognized as Billboard’s “Artist of the Decade,” and the “Best-Selling Female Pop Artist of the Millennium” at the 2000 World Music Awards.
Lee Daniels’ Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ By Sapphire is a vibrant, honest and resoundingly hopeful film about the human capacity to grow and overcome. Set in Harlem in 1987, it is the story of Claireece “Precious” Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), a sixteen-year-old African-American girl born into a life no one would want. Precious was in Official Selection at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival - Un Certain Regard, and won three awards in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival: the Grand Jury Prize, the Audience Award and a Special Jury Prize in Acting, honoring Mo’Nique. The film was also the centerpiece of the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival Gala Presentation where it received the non-juried event’s top honor, the 2009 Cadillac People’s Choice Award. Precious is the only film ever to receive the Audience awards at both Sundance and Toronto.
Mariah Carey stole the awards show with her "loopy" acceptance speech. Chatting backstage at the People's Choice Awards, Mariah Carey took the opportunity to joke about "that" Speech (PSIFF Awards Night's champagne-fueled speech).
Past recipients of the Breakthrough Performance Award include Marion Cotillard, Jennifer Hudson, Felicity Huffman and Freida Pinto.
Marion Cotillard received the Desert Palm Achievement Award – Actress presented by Nine director Rob Marshall
Marion Cotillard (Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images for PSIFF
For her Oscar® winning role as Edith Piaf, the Festival presented her with the Breakthrough Performance Award in 2008. Cotillard stars in Rob Marshall's Nine, currently screening in theatres. Originally created for the stage, the Tony® award winning Nine is a musical adaptation of Federico Fellini's 8 ½. Cotillard portrays the wife, Louisa,' to Daniel Day-Lewis' Guido,' a film director, who must find harmony in his relationships with the many women in his life, including his wife, mistress, muse, agent and mother.
Also in December, Cotillard will be seen in the French production of Karim Dridi's Le Dernier Vol (The Last Flight), based on the epistolary novel The Last Flight of the Lancaster. This summer, Cotillard was seen in Michael Mann's crime drama Public Enemies, depicting the takedown of notorious American gangsters John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd during the 1930s.
In 2008, Cotillard became the second French actress to ever win an Oscar®, and the first to win an acting award for a performance in the French language in the film La Vie En Rose. For her role, Cotillard also received a Best Actress BAFTA, Golden Globe and César Award as well as a Screen Actors Guild nomination. In 2005, Cotillard received a César Award for her supporting performance in A Very Long Engagement opposite Audrey Tautou. Cotillard’s credits include the successful French Taxi film series; Ridley Scott’s A Good Year, opposite Russell Crowe; Tim Burton’s Big Fish opposite Ewan McGregor’ Jeux d’enfants (Love Me If You Dare) opposite Guillame Canet; and the French film, Innocence. She recently completed production on Chris Nolan’s Inception and Guillame Canet’s Les Petits Mouchoirs (Significant Others).
Past recipients of the Desert Palm Achievement Actress Award include Anne Hathaway, Halle Berry, Charlize Theron, Naomi Watts and Kate Winslet.
Morgan Freeman received the Career Achievement Award – Actor presented by Clint Eastwood
Morgan Freeman & Clint Eastwood (Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images for PSIFF
Hollywood legend Morgan Freeman was honored with the Career Achievement Award for his large and extraordinary body of work and his many memorable performances throughout the years, including his role as Nelson Mandela in Invictus. The award was presented by Invictus Director/Producer Clint Eastwood.
Invictus tells the inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) joined forces with the captain of South Africa’s rugby team, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), to help unite their country.
Morgan Freeman won an Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby, for which he also won a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award® and received a Golden Globe nomination. Freeman has been honored with three additional Oscar® nominations - the first for his chilling performance as a homicidal pimp in the 1987 drama Street Smart, which also brought him L.A., New York and National Society of Film Critics Awards, and an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor, as well as his first Golden Globe Award nomination. He earned his second Oscar® nomination and won Golden Globe and National Board of Review Awards for Best Actor for 1989’s Driving Miss Daisy, recreating his award-winning off-Broadway role. He gained his third Oscar® nomination for his performance in Frank Darabont’s 1994 drama The Shawshank Redemption, which also brought Freeman Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations.
His more recent film work includes starring roles in Christopher Nolan’s blockbusters The Dark Knight and Batman Begins; Rob Reiner’s The Bucket List, opposite Jack Nicholson; Robert Benton’s Feast of Love; Ben Affleck’s Gone Baby Gone; Lasse Hallström’s An Unfinished Life, with Robert Redford and Jennifer Lopez; the Jet Li actioner Unleashed, written by Luc Besson; and the comedy Bruce Almighty and its sequel, Evan Almighty. He also lent his distinctive voice to Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds and the Oscar-winning documentary March of the Penguins. Freeman’s other film credits include Lucky Number Slevin, The Sum of All Fears, High Crimes, Along Came a Spider, Nurse Betty, Deep Impact Hard Rain, Steven Spielberg’s Amistad, Kiss the Girls, Se7en, Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, Glory, Lean on Me, Clean and Sober, Marie, Teachers, Harry & Son and Brubaker.
Quentin Tarantino received the Sonny Bono Visionary Award presented by Diablo Cody
Diablo Cody & Quentin Tarantino (Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images for PSIFF
Quentin Tarantino's film Inglourious Basterds is set in the first year of the German occupation of France, Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema. Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) organizes a group of Jewish American soldiers to perform swift, shocking acts of retribution. Later known to their enemy as “the basterds,” Raine’s squad joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) on a mission to take down the leaders of the Third Reich. Fates converge under a cinema marquis, where Shosanna is poised to carry out a revenge plan of her own. The film is nominated for four Golden Globe Awards including Best Director, ten Critics Choice Awards including Best Director and three SAG Awards including Best Ensemble Cast.
Tarantino made a bold debut with Reservoir Dogs, a cops and robbers tale that Tarantino wrote, directed and produced on a shoe-string budget. Following the film’s success, the screenplays that Tarantino wrote during his tenure as a video store clerk became hot properties including True Romance and From Dusk Till Dawn. Tarantino co-wrote, directed and starred in Pulp Fiction, which won the Palme D’Or at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival, numerous critics’ awards, and a Golden Globe for Best Screenplay. Pulp Fiction was nominated for seven Academy Awards® including Best Picture and Best Director, and Tarantino received an Academy Award® for Best Screenplay. Tarantino also wrote and directed Jackie Brown, Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol 2.
Most recently he collaborated with Robert Rodriquez on Grindhouse, which presented two original, complete films as a double feature. He also collaborated with Rodriguez as a special guest director on the thriller Sin City. Tarantino also joined Rodriguez, Allison Anders and Alexandre Rockwell by directing, writing and executive producing a segment of the omnibus feature Four Rooms. Tarantino served as an executive producer on Eli Roth’s Hostel, produced first-time director Katrina Bronson’s Daltry Calhoun, Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn and Roger Avary’s Killing Zoe. The longtime fan of Asian cinema presented Yuen Wo Ping’s Iron Monkey and Zhang Yimou’s Hero.
Past recipients of the Sonny Bono Visionary Award include Todd Field, Baz Luhrmann, M. Night Shyamalan, Gus Van Sant and Joe Wright.
T Bone Burnett received the Frederick Loewe Award for Film Composing presented by Sean Penn
Sean Penn & T Bone Burnett (Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images for PSIFF)
T Bone Burnett produced the critically acclaimed film Crazy Heart, starring Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell and Robert Duvall, which will be released by Fox Searchlight on December 16. He also composed the film’s score with collaborator Stephen Burton and co-wrote many of its original songs, including “The Weary Kind,” which is performed numerous times in the film and is featured in its trailer.
Burnett’s 40 years of experience in music and entertainment have earned him an unparalleled reputation. He was nominated for an Academy Award in 2004, along with Elvis Costello, in the category of Best Original Song for “The Scarlet Tide” from the film Cold Mountain. For his work on that film, Burnett earned BAFTA’s Anthony Asquith Award. His first major foray into film was his 1999 collaboration with the Coen Brothers on The Big Lebowski, for which he served as “musical archivist.” He has since served as executive music producer, and created hit soundtracks for numerous films including O Brother Where Art Thou, Across The Universe, Walk The Line (for which he also composed the score) and The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.
Past PSIFF recipients of the Frederick Loewe Award for Film Composing include Alexandre Desplat, James Newton Howard, Danny Elfman, Phillip Glass, Howard Shore and Randy Newman.
OTHER CELEBRITIES IN ATTENDANCE
Other celebrity guests who walked the red carpet include Jasper Cole (The Forgotten), Denise DuBarry Hay (Producer, Shoot the Hero), Eva La Rue (CSI: Miami), Samantha Lockwood (Festival Film Shoot the Hero), David Loren (Festival Film Is It Just Me?), Takeshi Kudo (Festival Film Shoot the Hero), Taylor Negron (Festival Film Shoot the Hero), Steve Pougnet (City of Palm Springs Mayor) Christian Sesma (Director, Shoot the Hero), Jamey Sheridan (Festival Film Handsome Harry), Olivier Stip (Senior Vice President of Cartier North America), Jerry Weintraub (Ocean’s 11) and many others
Following the ceremony an after party was held at the Parker Palm Springs attended by celebrity guests Shohreh Aghdashloo, T Bone Burnett, Lee Daniels, Anna Kendrick, Eva La Rue, Rob Marshall, Sean Penn, Ivan Reitman, Jeremy Renner, Jason Reitman and Quentin Tarantino.
Anna Kendrick and Shoreh Aghdashloo wore Cartier jewelry to the event.
Every holiday season I can hardly wait to see movies that dazzle, mezmerize and totally blow you away. Nine is not one of these movies. Nein!
Nine lacks great songs. Even a stellar cast can't save this lame musical based on 7-time Tony-Award winning Broadway musical Nine an adaptation of Frederico Fellini's classic film 8 1/2.
Daniel Day Lewis plays the incredibly sexy celebrity director Guido Contini who around Rome is his Fiat, dark shades and black suits. He sings only two songs in the film, "Guido's Song" and "I Can't Make This Movie". The latter song is probably an inside joke at the production company. Under Rob Marshall's direction, Nine is segmented: melodrama, song, melodrama, song. The musical numbers clearly take place on a huge stage (at the U.K.'s Shepperton Studios), while the rest of the movie occurs in Italy, though it often looks pretty stage-bound, too.
Despite the English language, the film insists it still is 1965 Rome, where black-and-white, Cinecitta Studios, Vespas, Ray-Bans and all things Italian reign in the world of fashion and Western culture. A new Guido Contini movie is about to start production, but no script exists. In despair, Guido flees to a seaside spa. Within a day, his mistress (Penelope Cruz), demanding producer, production team and then his wife (Marion Cotillard, unable to adapt well to misery) take up residence in the small town.
Sad romantic trysts and unproductive production meetings ensue. In his imagination, all the women of his life materialize. Sophia Loren plays Guido's saintly mother. She is incredible gorgeous for a seventy six year old actress (below).
Stacy Ferguson, better known as Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas, materializes on the beach from his childhood. She belts out "Be Italian" and totally kills it -- breathing some much needed life into this dreary melodrama.
Penelope Cruz and Academy Award winning actress Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose) get real characters to play, but they're the stuff of bad soap opera. Cotillard, the only professionally trained singer in the cast, does her best to bring the dull musical number "My Husband Makes Movies" to life. She performs "Take It All" a livelier song in a corset and stockings. Even this song couldn't inject life into the movie. Make no mistake -- this ain't no Cabaret or even Dreamgirls!
Penelope Cruz, as Guido's mistress, gets the best number—a sizzling and sexy little romp called "A Call from the Vatican". She looks the best, and she gives the best performance. In any other movie that would be no small feat, but here she's up against Cotillard, Dench, Nicole Kidman, Day Lewis, and Sofia Loren. Cruz nails it!
Her Carla goes from silly and obtuse to injured and desperate with such a believable ease it doesn't even look like she's acting. Bravo! Now if only the entire movie could uphold her energetic "vibe". Nicole Kidman as Guido's "muse" gets to do little other than sing the uberdull "Unusual Way". Her ill-fitted bustier takes on an unusual life of its own. It is too rigid and big for her cup size. Speaking of rigid, nothing on Kidman's face above her eyebrows moves, and I mean "nothing"! Kate Hudson as an on-the-make American journalist sings a lively Madonna-esque version of "Cinema Italiano" on a fashion runway clad in sixties go-go silver lame attire, complete with a male entourage. The role was written for Hudson and does not exist in the original movie. Talk about "target marketing". Too bad the film doesn't have any lively glitzy songs of substance which fit the narrative of the film. Narrative? What narrative? Exactly!
Judi Dench is wonderful and wise as Guido's costume designer and therapist. Fortunately she is not asked to do much in terms of singing and dancing. She sings the predictable "Folies Bergere" number complete with showgirls as only a costume designer stereotypically can. Originally she was to play Guido's producer but there weren't many female producers in the 60's so they changed her role to that of fashion designer.
Script? What script? Exactly! The movie didn't have much of a plot. With Nine, one never gets inside the protagonist's head. So one can't decide whether his problem is too many women or too many musical numbers breaking out for no reason. What about the accents you ask? Well, let's not go there!
Nine is a visually stunning world loaded with lots of stellar eye-candy and breathtaking Rome locations. If you don't expect a whole lot more from the movie, you won't be dissapointed.
Kate Hudson performing 'Nine' song and dance number
Awards season is in full swing! We recently reportedNine, a musical adaptation the Broadway production (and loosely based on Fellini’s 8 1/2) went live online. The Weinstein Company has stepped up their marketing blitz and released a killer, dazzling new Nine trailer (below). Rob Marshall (Chicago) directed the film set for release on Christmas Day and already garnered plenty of buzz for a coveted chance at “Best Picture” Oscar®.
The incomparable Daniel Day-Lewisplays Italian film director Guido Contini, who struggles to manage the female relationships in his life. His wife (Marion Cotillard), his muse (Nicole Kidman), his mistress (Penelope Cruz), his mother (Sophia Loren), his costume designer (Judi Dench), his prostitute (Fergie), and his next conquest, a Vogue reporter (Kate Hudson).
The director’s guild just had their screening of the film, which means awards season is kicking in. Spy reviewer Tobby for Ain’t It Cool News posted an awesome review of Marshall’s new musical.
In his introduction of the film, Marshall confirmed publicly he’ll be doing Pirates of the Caribbean 4 with Johnny Depp. Then the film started which the critic calls a “curious delight.” Day-Lewis is “masterful” at singing, Cotillard is “spectacular” and deserves another Oscar nod, Dench is a “pleasure to watch,” Cruz is “fantastic” and sexy, Fergie does a “great job” (!), Hudson is the biggest surprise, and Kidman the biggest disappointment. All this and more according to Tobby the spy critic at Tobby at Ain't It Cool News. I can't wait!
The sizzling new musical trailer for the film features Hudson’s singing voice and fresh looks at the production. Scroll further down for nine pictures of the characters:
Kate Hudson, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Kate Hudson again
Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, and Judi Dench
Fergie, Nicole Kidman, and Sophia Loren
Check out Penélope Cruz's Jay Leno Show appearance and sexy clip from Nine !
Will NINE be one of this year's ten Best Picture nominees? You can bet on it!
NINE will have a limited release on December 18th in New York and Los Angeles and will then go on wide release on December 25. Aeroplan members can redeem 5,000 Aeroplan miles for a ticket to an Exclusive Canadian NINE Premiere.
The brand new website for the upcoming motion picture NINE has gone "live" and you can visit it by clicking here.
NINE will have a limited release on December 18th in New York and Los Angeles and will then go on wide release on December 25. Aeroplan members can redeem 5,000 Aeroplan miles for a ticket to an Exclusive Canadian NINE Premiere.
The big screen adaptation of NINE THE MUSICAL stars Daniel Day-Lewis, Penelope Cruz and Nicole Kidman. The all-star cast is directed by Rob Marshall, who also helmed critically-acclaimed 2002 musical Chicago - which garnered six Academy Awards. Daniel Day-Lewis replaced the previously attached Javier Bardem in the leading role of Guido Contini, Bardem left the project citing exhaustion. Marion Cotillard, Kate Hudson, Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson, Sophia Loren and Judi Dench star in the film as well. Nine is a musical with a book by Arthur Kopit and music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and is based off of Fredrico Fellini's movie 8 1/2. The play tells the story of a highly stressed director living in Venice trying to juggle all of the women in his life.
The Broadway production of Nine, directed by Tommy Tune and choreographed by Thommie Walsh, opened on May 9, 1982 at the 46th Street Theatre, where it ran for 729 performances. The musical won five Tony Awards, including best musical.
Nine revolves around one central character, Guido Contini a film director in the Fellini mold. He is contracted to write and direct a film, but is unable to come up with a suitable plot. After recent box office failures, he finds himself drifting towards a nervous breakdown. Guido finds himself examining his past flawed relationships with the many women who have come through his life and the struggle to act his mature age of 40 as opposed to "nine".
WB bought the spec preemptively before other studios got a crack at the material. The subject matter has been kept under tight wraps, with the studio describing the film as a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind. Production begins this summer for 2010 release.
The film is Nolan's first with Cotillard and Page, but he is reteaming with Murphy, who played the villain Scarecrow in "Batman Begins," with a cameo in "The Dark Knight." Murphy just completed the thriller "Peacock" and "Perrier's Bounty."
All star cast confirmed for the cinematic version of Nine, a Tony-award winning Broadway musical. Daniel Day Lewis, Marion Cotillard (Guido's wife), Nicole Kidman (Claudia, Guido's muse and protege), Penelope Cruz (Contini's sexy mistress Carla), Sophia Loren (Guido's mother) and Judi Dench (Guido's agent) to star.
The 1982 musical, inspired by the film 8½, is about a fictional famous film director Guido Contini savoring his most recent (and greatest) success. He is facing his fortieth birthday and a midlife crisis which blocks his creative impulses and entangles him in a web of romantic difficulties. While trying to complete his latest film, his main problem is that he has too many women in his life.
Kidman is due to give birth in the summer, giving her several months of maternity leave before the film's proposed start date. Her filming also might be scheduled in the latter part of the shoot.
The project was slated to begin principal photography in March but was postponed when the late writer-director Anthony Minghella didn't have enough time to rework Michael Tolkin's screenplay before Hollywood writers went on strike last November. Extra work was needed to coordinate the choreography and Maury Yeston's music and lyrics with a new draft. The musical will be directed by Rob Marshall, who also directed the 2003 hit musical Chicago. Nine rehearsals start in London on July 28 with shooting to commence September 29, with a 2009 release date.
I expect Nine will clean up at the 82nd Academy Awards®!
Several months ago, at the height of awards season I was thrilled to hear Harvey Weinstein was casting two of my favorite Oscar® Nominees Javier Bardem of "No Country for Old Men" and Marion Cotillard of "La Vie En Rose" in a new musical titled "Nine". Bardem later dropped out of the film due to exhaustion from work and awards season.
I caught a glimpse of Marion Cotillard and Daniel Day-Lewis on the Red Carpet of the Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Show Gala earlier this year. Cotillard was awarded with the Breakthrough Performance Award for "La Vie en Rose" and DDL was honored with the Desert Palm Achievement Award for "There Will Be Blood". Both won Oscars® in their respective categories. I was delighted and rendered speachless when DDL magically appeared on the Red Carpet heading towards me. He smiled and expressed a soft heartfelt "thankyou" after I blurted out "you are absolutely brilliant!" His charm and charisma swept the female audience right off their feet as he strolled by. Hold that thought. . .
Another coup for Harvey Weinstein! According to Variety Oscar® winner Daniel Day-Lewis is in talks with The Weinstein Co. to replace Bardem in the musical. He would play the role of Guido Contini, a famous film director who experiences personal and creative crises while trying to balance all the woman in his life. Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Sophia Loren, Nicole Kidman and Judi Dench will play the woman. The Robert Marshall-directed musical is inspired by the Fellini film "8 1/2". Michael Tolkin wrote the screenplay, and Anthony Minghella turned in a rewrite before he died.
Harvey Weinstein's first association with the actor came when Weinstein's Miramax Films acquired distribution rights to the 1989 Jim Sheridan-directed film "My Left Foot."
TWC spokesperson denies a lead has been set and the names being thrown around are pure conjecture. More on this story as it develops...
YouTube clip of Daniel Day-Lewis on the Red Carpet of the Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Show Gala (below).
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