Lukewarm Off Presses: Ben-Hur, Bourne-Again, Baz Junior?
Friday, September 19, 2014 at 11:30AM Catching up with some stories we've missed of late.
BEN-HUR
Morgan Freeman was the first cast member announced for the remake of Best Picture winning Ben-Hur (1959) which was itself a remake of the silent epic of the same name in 1925. Freeman will play the role of a wise old man who gives advice like a Pez Dispenser with Morgan Freeman's face on it. Can Morgan Freeman do anything else? Shame that a once very gifted actor now plays EXACTLY the same role in everything. Maybe he doesn't care to stretch? Jack Huston of Boardwalk Empire fame (who seems to be in the running for everything these days -even if he hasn't booked the high profile stuff until now) will play the lead Charlton Heston role. But good luck trying to best William Wyler's Oscar winning classic (one of 'em rather). I shudder to think how they'll handle Messala, previously slyly interpreted by Stephen Boyd on the DL.
BOURNE AGAIN
In a weird case of "WAIT. I changed my mind!" Matt Damon is getting back into the Bourne franchise along with previous director Paul Greengrass (who is also possibly doing an Olympics bombing true story movie) and delaying Jeremy Renner's already begun takeover. The same thing happened with Jeremy Renner's assumed takeover of the Mission Impossible franchise until Cruise wanted back in. This will and already has prompted think pieces on Jeremy's failure to become a star but nobody would be griping on him if his agent (and maybe the man himself) hadn't gotten so greedy. How many franchises does one actor need?(Bourne, MI, Witch Hunters, Avengers, etcetera) Especially an actor that good with two Oscar nominations already?
But if we're going to start interrupting reboots with original casts, can we shelve the next Amazing Spider-Man movies and just get Tobey Maguire back in tights? P-L-E-A-S-E. That'd free up Andrew Garfield to be a real actor again and to say "you better lawyer up asshole" if they drop his surely unending contract.
BAZ JR
I don't mean to be snarky about newbie director Diesel Schwarze, a Baz Luhrmann protege, because it's quite possible that he'll be his own brilliant artist. But I needed another "B" for alliterative blogging, what. SO, anyway, he's doing an original musical that uses pre-existing songs (a la Moulin Rouge!) called Ziggy and Dane DeHaan and Rooney Mara are earmarked to star in it. Can they sing? It's not quite Ewan MacGregor and Nicole Kidman exciting even in terms of in context 2014 vs 2000 stardom levels at press release time, but it's still interesting. Especially since it sounds weird...
Dehaan will play a hunchback in NYC who falls for a beautiful woman already mixed up with a powerful man -- you know how singing hunchbacks do!
Reader Comments (12)
"Ziggy" sounds irretrievably weird and I am super, super into it.
And another "B": Belgium has selected Two Days, One Night" as its Foreign Language submission. Yay!
As for these three- Ziggy sounds the most interesting, surprisingly. Non-professional singers is irksome indeed, but I will contend that Ewan and Nicole aren't particularly strong singers themselves and that worked out okay.
There was already a Ben Hur remake, a couple of years ago for tv. The only 'names' in it was Ray Winstone as Quintus Arrius and Alex Kingston as Mrs Hur. I can't even remember who the boys were - it was all very low key, and certainly a different take on the material. Presemably the new one will be on an epic scale, expect the chariot race and the ships to be all digital CGI now ! Maybe they will gay up Massala (and Arrius) even more this time ? I can't see any other reason to do it, Freeman is presumably playing the (small) Finlay Currie part in the Wyler film. I really must see the 1925 version sometime, I have the disk included with a Ben Hur dvd pack.
Hunchback in NYC? That's a horrible thing to say about that old waiter from the Olympia.....but I'm glad he is getting a bio pic.
Only reason I can see for a re do of Ben Hur is to show off new CGI skills. And to de-gay the boys.
I like the Bourne films (loved Ludlam's big boys action adventure books). I prefer Damon in the role (a lot more tortured soul) but I could deal with Renner although I found him lacking in sex appeal in this unlike most other roles he has played.
Just watched the Big Eyes trailer. I think there is a lot more Burton in there than they are showing. Afraid to scare the children? Wasn't much taken with either performance but it does have Terrance Stamp so I hold out hope.
And with Deux Jours, Une Nuit now in the running, I think you really have to rethink Best Actress.
Henry- Belgium selecting the film doesn't mean the Academy at large will actually watch it. They'd have to be on the FL committee to see it pre-nominations unless the film distributors decide to campaign for Cotillard (which wouldn't be the worst idea, honestly).
Also, Canada has chosen Mommy. No surprise there.
Evan- the Distrubutors of Cotillard's film have already announced they were going to campaign for her regardless of whether it was the Belgium choice or not.
The remake of "Ben- Hur" sounds like a terrible idea- are they going to modernize it- will it still have all the religious scenes?!
I was super excited for Ziggy until hearing Rooney Mara's name... I just really don't like her.
Re: Ben-Hur....the report itself is saying Freeman will play Ildarin, who is NOT the wise old man role everyone's shoe-horning it to be. He's the sheik who teaches Judah about chariot-racing, sure, but he's a sly one, a gambler, a drinker, a lover of women, a shrewd businessman. It's the role that won Hugh Griffith the Oscar. Not sure why everyone suddenly wants to insist it's some Wise Old Sage.
Ben-Hur, just...no. On point with the Stephen Boyd comment; there's just something about that (subliminal?) or gay undertone that Boyd did so well with Masala. His feelings for Judah were all conveyed without saying much, and doubt they'll be that much nuance in the remake.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO to remaking Ben-Hur! Has Hollywood no decency at all!
I don't care how cute Jack Huston is.
PS There are five general rules of good filmmaking:
1. You do not base your film on a Nicholas Sparks book.
2. You do not use your cell phone to film the movie.
3. You do not use CGI in place of art direction.
4. You do not cast Amy Adams or Jennifer Lawrence without reading the script.
5. And you do NOT remake Ben-Hur.