Jane Got A Gun might have a happy ending

Here's Murtada telling the tale of Jane. 

       

Say you are Natalie Portman. You just won an Oscar then took some time off to raise your young family. You are ready to come back to work. You decide to take charge of your career and produce a movie. You find a hot script by a young talented writer. It’s a revisionist western, a genre you haven’t tried before. You choose to work with an acclaimed female director because you want to tell more stories about women and employ more women. To co-star you choose one of the most respected actors of your generation. Great intentions all around. Then everything falls apart just as filming is supposed to start.

That’s the saga of Jane Got a Gun. On the first day of shooting director Lynne Ramsay left. Despite a now settled lawsuit no one knows why but differences with producers and financiers are suspected. The leading man, Michael Fassbender, leaves too as Ramsay was the main reason he signed on. He’s replaced by Bradley Cooper. Then Jude Law. Then Joel Edgerton who was supposed to play the “baddie” is promoted to the lead. Ewan McGregor is hired for Edgerton’s part. Producers scramble to find a director while the cast and crew are waiting on set in New Mexico. Finally Gavin O’Connor (Warriors) is hired. He brings with him his writer (Anthony Tambakis ) and they do a major re-write alienating the original writer (Brian Duffield). Somehow everyone gets to work, the movie is shot while PR experts are in damage control mode.

Months later the movie is set for release for February 2015. Then it’s delayed to September 2015. And a month before release the studio behind Jane goes bankrupt. The film is one of many caught in the crosshairs of Relativity’s recent Chapter 11 filing. Others include the Nicholas Hoult- Felicity Jones starrer Collide and Jim Sheridan’s The Secret Scripture with Rooney Mara and Vanessa Redgrave.

But it looks like there’s a happy ending for Jane after all. The Weinstein Company has picked it up for distribution and will release in Europe this November and in the US next February.

And it’s also nice to see Natalie Portman continue creating opportunities for women behind the camera. She directed her first movie A Tale of Love and Darkness based on Amos Oz's autobiographical book. The movie played Cannes and Toronto to mixed reviews. One of her upcoming projects is On the Basis of Sex, a biography of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to be directed by Marielle Heller (Diary of a Teenage Girl).

Are you glad to finally see Jane get a break?

Reader Spotlight: Daniel Massie

We're getting to know The Film Experience community one-by-one. You can read a bunch of past interviews here. Today's "Reader Spotlight" is Daniel, an art student from Scotland. You can follow him on twitter here.

Nathaniel: When did you start reading TFE?

DANIEL: Around two years ago. My best friend Scott read it before I knew of it. We are both award season fanatics and general cinephiles, so it was great to plug into a smart, energetic, personable blog that obviously loved the movies as much as we did. Now it's a site I regularly 'touch base' with.

Nathaniel: What's your first movie memory?

DANIEL: I don't remember the movie that well, or at all really. But it's effects have rippled far into my life. I was 4 and my dad and I watched Arachnophobia. My mum tells me that I was beside myself after watching it, and I have been insanely + irrationally terrified of spiders ever since. How bad could it have been?

Favorite directors?

I'm not a huge follower/fanatic of directors, I drool at the mouth for performers more, but I'd say some favorites are:  Lynne Ramsay - I died for We Need To Talk About Kevin, it blew me away. Shes an Artist -visionary, brave + hard as nails;  Steven Soderberg - It makes me ill that he isn't a household name. His work is exciting + engaging. Never boring; Todd Haynes - "SAFE", that's all; John Cameron Mitchell - I liked Shortbus a lot, but Rabbit Hole was something truly special, and I think his vision/direction had a lot to do with that.

Shout-outs to Ang Lee, Jane Campion + Darren Aranofsky

What's your movie diet like?

In a normal year around 70 in theatre and on DVD around 60, being the ones I missed, and ones I've yet to see from past years. I'm very fortunate that even though I live in a small Scottish town, near a fairly small city, we get an excellent selection of smaller films. Very lucky indeed.

If you were in charge for a year, what movies would you get made?

Oh yes, I'm Megan Ellison for a year. I'd start with Lynne Ramsay's Moby Dick adaptation, however much she wants, it's a deal. Anything that has Allison Janney in a demanding lead role. Any film that promotes a feminist worldview. Hollywood needs it.

You recently did an art project called "perform/reperform" inspired by Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton I take it? Tell us about it.

Two photos from "Perform/RePerform" 2012

I am obsessed with certain actresses + performances. They enter into my conscious + I end up acting out the part in little ways day to day, whether its the voice or walk or what have you. This project was about that process. The emulation of a character, of an actress and of a moment. Based on my personal loves at that time. It is a scene(s) re-performed, documented + then re-photographed. But I'd also say that a good chunk of the reasoning behind it is my desire to promote my favorite actresses to a new audience. I love them so much, I want the Same for others. I'm an ultimate fangirl.  

Have you ever parted ways with someone because of your passion for movies?

That's yet to happen. But they'd have to know that when award season comes around, my priorities, thoughts and passions are firmly on the golden statues and nothing else!

I heard that.

Ladies and Gentlemen and Kidmaniacs, I Give You The Cannes Jury

Cannes is just three weeks away and the final jury lineup has been announced. We knew Steven Spielberg would head the jury but his team was still semi-secret. They are...

Just months after competing for an extra Oscar, they'll be discussing other people's movies

Competition Jury

• Daniel Auteuil (French actor/director)
• Vidya Balan (Indian actress)
• Naomi Kawase (Japanese director)
• Nicole Kidman (Australian actress/producer)
• Ang Lee (Taiwanese director/producer/scriptwriter)
• Cristian Mungiu (Romanian scriptwriter/director/producer)
• Lynne Ramsay (British scriptwriter/director/producer)
• Steven Spielberg (American director) PRESIDENT OF JURY
• Christoph Waltz (Austrian Actor)

Only one thing is certain about the outcome based on the composition of the team: By May 26th, Nicki's auteur lust will devour their collective imagination and they'll surely be competing for her hand in filmmaking. Which one of these directors will she work with next? (I mean, besides Steven Spielberg who Kate Capshaw aside, isn't particularly excited by actresses.) Can her first Romanian picture be far off? I'd most love to see what Lynne Ramsay could wrangle out of Kidman but I assume that Ramsay might have difficulty getting funding for her next picture given the ugly fallout from her sudden departure from Jane Got a Gun. 

Some years ago I made this visual and it still applies. But you just change the names as the years go by and Kidman recalibrates her attacks. Always plotting for legacy, that one!

Despite the media blitz that accompanies Cannes headliners, the competition jury is never the only jury at Cannes. It's just the one with all the headliners. There are multiple less glitzy but not necessarily less talented juries overseeing other prizes as well. 

Short Films Jury

• Maji-da Abdi (Ethiopian actress/producer)
• Jane Campion (New Zealand, director) PRESIDENT OF JURY
• Nandita Das (Indian actress/director)
• Semith Kaplanoglu (Turkey, writer/director/producer)

Un Certain Regard Jury
This jury decides who to spotlight in the realm of up-and-coming filmmakers (the ones Cannes isn't yet ready to include in the Competition lineup. Last year their prize went to the Mexican feature After Lucia which Amir wrote about here.) This jury lineup has not yet been announced but Thomas Vinterberg that handsome Dane who made the dogme masterpiece Festen (A Celebration) in the late 90s and whose current  feature The Hunt is winning him the best reviews he's seen since that startling debut will preside over this jury.

Can't wait to see which films they all embrace... and which auteurs win Nicole Kidman's hand. 

Link Be a Lady Tonight

Film.com Excellent piece on the online coverage of Lynne Ramsay's no-show on Jane Got a Gun. There's just so much default anti-woman rhetoric online. Crazy that this rarely ever improves.
Slant Magazine Our friend Kurt recently visited Las Vegas and its glorious gawdy movie memories came with
AV Club Might HBO let people buy HBO Go without a cable subscription? That's such a good idea. A ton of people I know have dropped cable (too expensive) altogether since they use their computers more than their TVs. I would if I could, too.
Film.com strong list of 50 best opening sequences in movies ever. Love the inclusion of Cabaret, La Dolce Vita, and Manhattan. Bonus points: you don't have to click 50 times or even 5 to see the whole list.

MovieLine the opening credits of Oz: The Great and Powerful. I knew these would show up soon. Best part of the movie, easily showcasing charm, creativity, and wit.
CHUD "Hey girl... NO GIRL, PUT DOWN THE GUN!" Ryan Gosling is quitting acting for awhile
Empire Robert Redford could join the Marvel Universe starting with Captain America 2. (He would'a made such a great Captain America back in the 60s)
Timothy Brayton adss another toughtful thumbs up review to No's increasingly large critical pile. Seriously, what are you waiting for? Best movie of 2013 thus far. 
Coming Soon Wentworth Miller conitnues on as a screenwriter post Stoker. He'll adapt the thriller novel Scare Me. 

Art & Toons
Wimp.com a really amazing video about early animation process at Fleischer Studios. It's so crazy how much factory like manpower and technical innovation went in to things that are so computerized now.
i09 a neat very short animated cartoon on Marvel iconography from X-Men to Captain America

And... How webcomix make money, illustrated with 8 bit animation - thanks to Drawn for pointing it out

Revolving Links

Gawker "Magneto to Marry Professor X" the headline is actually true! Sir Ian McKellen is the best. 
Slate an excellent piece on American cinema's love affair with serial killers and violence with Terrence Malick's Badlands as centerpiece
Playbill I bet you thought you were done hearing about "Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark"'s production trouble. Ha! The trial which pits director Julie Taymor against the producers starts this May.

i09 on why condensing those sprawling Game of Thrones books is a very good move for HBO. The show won't be running forever. 
Salon interviews Lily Tomlin, a lifelong feminist who sends up feminism in Admission as Tina Fey's mom 
Awards Daily breathless online reactions to an August: Osage County screening. 
ScriptNotes Screenwriters John August and Craig Mazin discuss the Veronica Mars kickstarter on this podcast - two different opposing takes.
My New Plaid Pants on Xavier Dolan and his influences including Julianne Moore and Michelle Pfeiffer scenes. No wonder I love Xavier Dolan!
The Film Doctor 8 notes on Oz: The Great and Powerful 

enter
Playbill Hugh Jackman attached to the adaptation of the novel Six Years. I can't wait to see how he follows up Les Miz and whether he's hungry for future Oscar play.
Guardian Keira Knightley to play Coco Chanel in a short film

Laura Dern's schedule just freed up. Where are you David Lynch?!?

exit
Deadline Lynne Ramsay a no show for Jane Got a Gun on the first day of shooting. What's going on there? I feel like we're only get 1/100th of the story in these reports.
Cinema Blend Christina Ricci leaves Girlfriend in a Coma pilot. She was to be the girlfriend, the one in the coma. 
TVLine Enlightened has been cancelled. Sad day for Laura Dern fans