When the 1932 Olympics hit LA, it began a long history of synergy between the games and the movie business. That synergy led to Zhang Yimou, China's answer to William Wyler, who gave the recent opening ceremony all due pageantry. Over the years, the Olympics contributed to the movies, foaling movie stars by the ton. The games were a casting call whenever one needed someone as chunky as a wrestler or as slender as a swimmer, or Tarzan, who I guess is a combo of swimmer and wrestler. My favorite will always be Harold "Oddjob" Sakata, silver medalist in the light-heavyweight weight-lifting competition at the 1948 Olympiad. Defamer.com has the more tragic roster of Olympians who pursued cinematic careers like those of Mitch Gaylord and Bruce Jenner. The games have foaled classic documentaries, too, the most well known example is Leni Riefenstahl's1938 Olympia. Yet there have been these lesser known pictures about this world-wide fest:
In the wake of failed attempts at the Triple Crown and terrible horse injuries, Varietyreports that Disney is getting ready to revel in Big Red, Secretariat. Mike Rich wrote the script, and Randall Wallace has signed on to direct. The film will focus on the story of owner Penny Chenery, and how she took over her father's horse farm, was slapped with a huge inheritance tax upon his death, and still managed to save the farm and horse. Secretariat then became the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years.
On the more artsy side of things, Variety reports that Taylor Hackford is cooking up a film called Tenn, focusing on "the formative years" of Tennessee Williams. Robin Shushan wrote the screenplay, which delves into the playwright's "tumultuous upbringing -- complete with a scornful father, depression, conflicts about sexuality and watching his beloved sister institutionalized and lobotomized." In other words, a rip-roaring laugh fest. The project is said to be similar to Capote and how tragedy can breed success.
Lastly, The Hollywood Reporter posts that Alexander Belyaev's The Amphibian is headed for the big screen, courtesy of Stone Village Pictures. The hunt is underway for a screenwriter, and the company is planning comic books/graphic novel adaptations to accompany the film. It's a strange twist of a story -- an American surgeon in the Amazon saves his son from a fatal respiratory disease by giving him shark gills. But when the underwater kid saves a girl from a shark attack, things get complicated as they fall for each other. It's like Aquaman meets Splash!
Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler is surely one of the fall's most enigmatic releases -- and one of the most eagerly awaited. Bad Tastegot hold of the first production stills from the film, and it looks every bit as creepy and moody as you'd expect from the man behindRequiem for a Dream and The Fountain (which was awesome despite its generally negative reception).
The movie is about a retired professional wrestler, played by Mickey Rourke, who is trying to survive on the small-time independent wrestling circuit. It sounds campy, but I think it's more likely to be grim -- I've read some stories about that scene (anyone else read Swan Song by Robert McCammon?) and it sounds, if anything, awfully depressing. These photos confirm that, I think, as does the fact that Clint Mansell is once again writing the musical score.
The movie premieres in Venice next month, then Toronto shortly thereafter. It doesn't have a US distributor yet, but I'm guessing that won't last long. Check out a couple more photos (including one featuring Marisa Tomei as a stripper) in the gallery below, then see the rest over at Bad Taste.
I discovered Eric Roberts through Nobody's Fool. He played Riley, a stage technician who falls for the wacky but lovable Cassie (Rosanna Arquette). It's one of those flawed movies that's perfectly enjoyable when watched with the comfortable eyes of nostalgia -- it's not the greatest feat of filmmaking by far, but it's a movie of memories and awkward '80s charm. Watching that, Mr. Roberts became my movie hero.
Yesterday, the world belonged to sister Julia, and today it belongs to daughter Emma, but for some of us, it's always been Eric's world. Over the many years of acting, he's amassed controversy, critical feats, and brow-raising stinkers, bringing us a long selection of roles that should always stay on the radar. Tonight, I want to give you a taste of his accomplishments, as well as a little bit of heroics, because these days, he's like the wonderful Christopher Walken -- mostly pigeon-holed into the tough, meanie, or jerky roles. Without further ado, I give you: The Pope of Greenwich Village and The Best of the Best.
Last year, Christopher Campbell gave us a Michael Cera "rewind" from Steal This Movie. I hate to be repetitive, but there's another clip I just have to share. Did you know that George Michael once popped up in a Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen television movie called Switching Goals?
He plays Taylor, a jerky tyke who is mean to Ashley and tells her she can't be a good goalie. (This inner-movie knowledge is thanks to the IMDb message board.) In the clip above, the kid gets to be jerky while buying cleats. "Watch it! I have a very delicate bone structure!"
See? Cera can be more than just sweet, passive little boys. He can be a snarky dude trying to protect his bones as well!
Last Rewind Answer: While most of you guessed that Tom Cruise was the man who wasn't considered for the part of Jim Morrison in The Doors, it was actually James Spader.
It's been called one of the greatest documentaries ever made. It's a 170-minute-long juggernaut of a film. The fact it was snubbed by the Oscars created such a public outcry that the Academy was compelled to change the very voting process for the documentary field. And, like finding a piece of filet mignon at the local fast-food joint, Hoop Dreams is now nestled in alongside old Buffy re-runs, Simpsons clips and other offerings at Hulu.com.
Directed by Steve James, Hoop Dreams follows two young men from Chicago and their struggles and triumphs on and off the basketball court as they aspire to go from grade school promise to high school stardom and hope make it to the NBA. Shot over a period of years, Hoop Dreams has been called one of the finest documentaries of all time, and the indie-consultancy group Cinetic has made it available on-line at Hulu.com. And, of course, part of me is looking for the cloud around this silver-lined opportunity: What's Cinetic hoping to get out of this? What's Hulu hoping to prove? And if you're hoping to prove the viability of Hulu as a distribution model for documentaries, why would you pick a 14-year-old film that already has a great Criterion DVD? And finally, as much as I admire Hoop Dreams and the idea of it being available on-line, I have to wonder if anyone is going to sit in front of their computer screen for the full 171-minute running time of the film. ...
We have the Stifler, but I never thought we'd get the Wiffler.
Variety reports that we're about to get a new mockumentary about the epic, skill-testing sport. It's not coming to us from the mocku-God Christopher Guest, but rather Garden Party co-star Ross Patterson. He wrote The Wiffler: The Ted Whitfield Story, which Tommy Reid is currently directing in California. This will be his second feature after 7-10 Split, which starred Patterson and also featured the likes of Tara Reid, Ray Wise, Vinnie Jones, Robyn Lively, Rachel Hunter, and a ton of other left-of-A-List celebs.
Set during the Major League Baseball strike in 1994, the film will focus on "a nation turning its eyes to wiffleball and attempts to break the homerun record." It's strange enough that it could work, although it will definitely depend on the cast, which also features Joey Kern, Alana Ubach, Christine Lakin, Nick Thune, Richard Gant, Richard Riele, and Chris Tarantino.
Hey, we got ping pong and dodgeball, why not wiffleball? But what's next? Kickball?
It seemed too strange to be true. Only a handful of months after I watched Jessica Yu's excellent Protagonist, a Euripides-based story about four very different men and their manifestations of obsession, another one of her films was hitting Toronto. But it was nothing like the previous piece -- it was a fictional, comedic narrative about ping pong playing. Talk about drastic twists in themes! Ping Pong Playa' was an entirely new arena for the Oscar winner.
Now The Hollywood Reporter posts that the film is finally hitting big screens outside of the festival circuit. IFC Films has picked up the US rights to the comedy, and it will head into a limited release on September 5. While you might have run the other way from Balls of Fury, Playa' is definitely worth another glance.
The film is a cute look at a basketball-obsessed slacker named C-Dub (Jimmy Tsai) who ignores his family's ping pong inclinations -- his mom runs a ping pong store and his brother is a champion. However, when both of them are injured in a car crash, he has to not only take over his mother's classes, but also put two jerky pongers in their place. It's a story we've seen before, but it's also fresh, sweet, and refreshingly smart and diverse. (Check out a review, someinterviews, and the trailer.)
The first trailer for Surfer, Dude, starring Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson and Willie Nelson has just surfaced over on Moviefone, and, well, I suddenly have the urge to take off my shirt and run into the water. The film stars McConaughey as surfer Steve Addington, who, upon returning home for summer, discovers the waves have disappeared and "The Man" wants him to star in new Virtual Reality Video Games. Dude has a hard time comprehending all this sudden change, and so he turns to his manager (played by a high-as-a-kite Harrelson) and his guardian-angel (Nelson) for guidance. Looks innocent enough; anyone up for catching some waves with McConaughey and friends?
To me, the only male synchronized swimmers are the ones above -- Martin Short and Harry Shearer, with a little added choreography from a spandex-clad Christopher Guest. However, we're about to get another variety, and I'm not sure what I think about that. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Disney and Scott Rudin have teamed up for Synchronicity, a project that's been in development hell at the company for awhile now.
Mary Scott and Toni Kotite, who recently sold Parent Class, are working on the script, which focuses on male synchronized swimmers, and of course, is said to be following the lead of Will Ferrell and Ben Stiller's sports comedies. But what's with this recent obsession? Variety reported back in March that Sweden is making their own male synchronized comedy.
If Christopher Guest did this feature too, I'd be intrigued. But as it stands, do we really need another typical goofy male sports comedy?
First up, there's a little Russian/American indie thriller called Magic Man which is cooking up. It's about a magician who might possibly be a serial killer, and it stars Alexander Nevsky, Billy Zane, Richard Tyson, Estelle Raskin, Jed Allan, and Andrew Divoff. And now, there are two more. Both the increasingly prolific Bai Ling (who has 8 other films on the way) and infamous tough guy Robert Davi (Die Hard) have signed on for roles in the indie, which I presume has a whole ton of sliced and disappearing volunteers. Is this another Wizard of Gore?
Meanwhile, more players have been added to the Brian Clough biopic called The Damned United. The talented off-the-radar actor Michael Sheen signed on in April, and now we've got three more Brits attached to the feature -- Stephen Graham (This is England), Martin Compston (Red Road), and Peter McDonald (Festival). Clough is being played by Sheen, while Graham takes on his nemesis, Leeds United captain Billy Bremner, McDonald takes on player Johnny Giles, and Compston takes on player John O'Hare. Meanwhile, there's a slew of other actors added to the cast as well, including Liz Carling as Clough's wife. We should see all the eccentric story on the big screen some time in 2009.
In case you were feeling like there just wasn't enough feel-good sports drama on the big screen, we're about to get a whole lot more. Variety reports that John Davis has teamed up with television producer Bruce Nash to develop a collection of sports-themed films that stem from Nash's "Amazing Sports Stories." Davis got turned onto the idea after producing The Express, the story of Ernie Davis (the first African-American to win the Heisman). Mixing that with Nash, who has written a whopping 60 books on sports history, and we have a lot of sports drama in our future. Davis says that there are "so many untold triumph-of-the-human-spirit stories that just work so well for movies."
One idea is to focus on the story of Bert Shepard, the only one-legged MLB player. But these films won't just be solitary tales. Another idea on the plate is the story about how the Pittsburgh Steelers had to meld with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1943, when WWII made healthy players scarce.
Are there any stories you want on the big screen, sports fans?
Filmmaker Richard Linklater's feature films have often debuted in prestigious film festivals and venues, from Sundance to Cannes, but he's trying something different with his first documentary feature. After a splashy premiere in Austin last week, Inning by Inning: A Portrait of a Coach will be released ... not in theaters, but on a cable sports channel. You can watch the film on ESPN2 or ESPN2 HD at 10:00 pm EST on Sunday, June 15. Inning by Inning is a profile of Augie Garrido, considered one of the "winningest" coaches in NCAA baseball. The film focuses on the 69-year-old coach's most recent seasons with the Texas Longhorns team. Linklater and his crew were given access to the team from 2005-2006, and it's fascinating to see personal, almost intimate moments when Garrido talks to the college players one-on-one, or as a team. Linklater had originally set out to make a documentary about the Longhorns' back-to-back winning seasons (2004-2005), but said (in a Q&A after the film's press screening) that he became interested in Garrido's coaching techniques and shifted the film's focus accordingly. Interviews with former Texas and Cal State-Fullerton players coached by Garrido, and other sports figures like Darrell Royal and Roger Clemens (Kevin Costner appears briefly too), round out the documentary.
All the way back in March of 2007, Christopher Campbell shared word that the epic soccer player Pelé had signed on with the William Morris Agency (WMA), who were going to package a film in his honor. Finally, The Hollywood Reporter posts that FreemantleMedia Enterprises has signed a development agreement for the company to have "global rights to commission a biographical documentary," a deal brokered by the WMA.
Considering the amount of time it took to just get a deal for the rights, I imagine it will still be a long while before we see Pelé's life in documentary form. No director or producer has been selected, however, the plan is to release it on television, rather than the big screen. Unlike the myriad of biographies on the soccer star, this project is said to have "unparalleled access" to his life.
In case you haven't heard about the legend (in which case you should really read up), here's a brief rundown. He was a poor young man in Brazil who become a professional soccer player at 15, was on the national team by 16, the youngest person in a World Cup final at 17, the youngest to win, and he continued to have a long career that was so popular that a 48-hour ceasefire was held during the Nigerian Civil War so that his exhibition game in Lagos could be enjoyed. Now that is a sports star. I just wish it was a story hitting theaters too. Maybe that will come later.
Before you continue bad mouthing George Lucas for what he's done to your childhood, first with the Star Wars prequels and now with the disappointing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, you might want to worry that he'll send his daughter after you. Wait, what? Yeah, that's George's daughter, Amanda "Powerhouse" Lucas, in the image on the right. She's a member of an American all-female MMA (mixed martial arts) fight team, and she's seen here duking it out with a Kiwi kickboxer during a recent Auckland, New Zealand-set event titled Princesses of Pain. And according to Stuff.co.nz, footage of the bout may be featured in a planned reality series about the formation of a women's international fighting league as well as on the news program 20/20.
27-year-old "Powerhouse" Lucas appeared in all three of her father's Star Wars prequels, portraying the dancer "Diva Funquita" in The Phantom Menace, "Adnama, patron of the Outlander Club" in Attack of the Clonesand "Senator Terr Taneel" in Revenge of the Sith. She also voiced a separate character in The Phantom Menace, Neimoidian communications officer "Tey How" (she was credited under the pseudonym Tyger). Outside of the Star Wars films, she's worked as a hip-hop teacher and has spent years training in multiple martial arts, including kickboxing, Muay Thai and Brazilian ju-jitsu. According to New Zealand's TV3, Lucas lost her debut bout, but she did win a medal for "gutsiest fighter," and according to the Princesses of Pain website, the whole match ended in a tie between Team America and Team Australasia, each winning 3 bouts.
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It's been called one of the greatest documentaries ever made. It's a 170-minute-long juggernaut of a film. The fact it was snubbed by the Oscars created such a public outcry that the Academy was 
We have the Stifler, but I never thought we'd get the Wiffler.
It seemed too strange to be true. Only a handful of months after I watched Jessica Yu's excellent Protagonist, a Euripides-based story about four very different men and their manifestations of obsession, another one of her films was hitting Toronto. But it was nothing like the previous piece -- it was a fictional, comedic narrative about ping pong playing. Talk about drastic twists in themes! 
And more actors get gigs, according to Variety:
In case you were feeling like there just wasn't enough feel-good sports drama on the big screen, we're about to get a whole lot more. 
All the way back in March of 2007, 
Before you continue bad mouthing 
