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?
McConaughey's 'Surfer, Dude' Gets a 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?
Disney Prepares Comedy About ... Synchronized Swimming
via videosift.com
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?
Casting Bites: From 'Magic Man' to the 'Damned' Men
And more actors get gigs, according to Variety: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.
Get Ready for More Sports on the Big Screen
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?
Catch Linklater's Baseball Doc on ESPN This Weekend
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.
Continue reading Catch Linklater's Baseball Doc on ESPN This Weekend
Pele Finally Gets His Development Deal
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.
George Lucas' Daughter Can Kick Your Ass
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 Clones and "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.
Phoenix Pictures is 'Playing for Pizza' with John Grisham
When you think John Grisham, you usually think of legal thrillers, right? Well, that and the term 'airplane reading', but you probably don't think pastoral sports stories (I know I don't). The Hollywood Reporter announced that Phoenix Pictures has purchased the rights to Grisham's 2007 novel, Playing for Pizza, and the company is already on the hunt for a writer and director for the sports dramedy.Pizza centers on a third string quarterback for the Cleveland Browns named Rick Docker. After blowing his team's championship shot, Rick is dropped from the team and blacklisted from the NFL. Luckily for him, his enterprising agent finds him a spot in the Italian football league playing for the Parma Panthers. From then on the story is probably a compendium of 'fish out of water jokes', and general cultural misunderstanding -- I'm thinking something along the lines of Under the Tuscan Sun, but with a lot more tackling.
Continue reading Phoenix Pictures is 'Playing for Pizza' with John Grisham
EXCLUSIVE: Clip from 'Bigger, Stronger, Faster'
Cinematical has received this exclusive clip from the upcoming documentary Bigger, Stronger, Faster, which premiered earlier this year to very good reviews at the Sundance Film Festival. The film, which was directed by Chris Bell and comes from the producers of Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11, takes a long, hard look at the steroids issue from all sides. When we sat down with Bell for an interview at the Tribeca Film Festival, he summed up the film in pretty simple terms: "Some guys are saying steroids will kill you and others say they'll make live longer. Who's telling the truth? We tried to study the truth so that, as an audience member, you can draw your own conclusions."
In the clip above, Bell confronts bodybuilder (and model) Christian Boeving and asks whether he thinks it's wrong to promote fitness pills, etc ... when it's clear steroids played a key role in getting his body to where it is today. As the last line in the film's synopsis so eloquently puts it, "When you discover that your heroes have all broken the rules, do you follow the rules, or do you follow your heroes?" For more, check out the film's official website.
Bigger, Stronger, Faster arrives in theaters on May 30.
Spike Lee Preps Doc About Michael Jordan
Well, it looks like Spike Lee is busy. You've already learned today that the director has once again spoken out about the white-washing in Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, and that he added the Coen brothers to the mix. He recently showed an 8-minute promo of Miracle at St. Anna to press and buyers at Cannes, and now he's already looking towards his next feature. Variety reports that it will be a documentary about the one and only Michael Jordan. This project should get into gear pretty soon, because the director told Cannes press that he hopes to bring it to the fest next year: "Mike wants to come to Cannes, so hopefully we will be here next year." Unsurprisingly, the NBA is financing the documentary, and it will have a lot of unseen footage from NBA cameras during the last few years of Jordan's basketball career during the 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 seasons.
That suggests emphasis will be placed on the basketball superstar's later career, but it's really too early to tell. However, should Lee get this project on track, we won't have to wait too long to learn and see more.
Cannes Review: Tyson
"They'll make hypocrite judgments
After the fact
But the name of the game
Is be hit and hit back ... "
-- Warren Zevon, "Boom Boom Mancini"
Boxing is a brutal sport. Does that mean you have to be a brute to succeed in it? Mike Tyson was the youngest ever heavyweight champion in the world; when he stepped into the ring, it was as if he was in absolute control over everything that happened. And when he stepped out, it was as if he had no control over anything that happened. He had a marriage implode in public. He served three years in prison for rape. He became a nightmare-parody of himself, pathetic and terrifying, telling challengers he would eat their children. And now, as seen in James Toback's documentary Tyson, he is older, sadder, sober, off drugs and out of the fight game, trying to battle things you cannot simply strike with your fists.
Eric's Mom: Remember the Titans
(In honor of Mother's Day, we're launching a series of posts today written, in part, by our mothers after we asked them one simple (yet very complex) question: What's your favorite movie and why?)
Momma Snider's preferred method of watching TV and movies is to sit on the couch with her laptop or her art projects and keep one eye on whatever my dad is watching. But sometimes a movie grabs her complete attention. She loves scary movies (nothing R-rated, please), and she has a weakness for Adam Sandler. We both loved Waitress and Hairspray last year, a somewhat rare convergence of our opinions. And Mom and I agree on another film, too....
"I love Remember the Titans. It's set in my senior year in high school, so the music reminds me of high school. I'd love to get the soundtrack. [I don't think she intended that as a hint, but I took it as one anyway.] It's such a warm story. I have trouble comprehending that in 1971 in some parts of the country there was still that kind of racial junk going on, but I guess it was like that in the South. It comes on TV a lot, and we have it on DVD -- and VHS -- so every time it comes on we start watching it, and then we get frustrated with the commercials and put on the DVD. And Denzel Washington! I love Denzel Washington."
'Sugar' Finally Gets Picked Up
Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden's Sugar, the follow-up to their critically acclaimed Half Nelson, has finally been picked up for distribution. Variety's Mike Jones reports the film has been acquired for theatrical distribution by Sony Pictures Classics, which seems like a good fit for the film. HBO Films, which financed the film, retains television rights.
Sugar, which premiered at Sundance earlier this year, felt at the time like a tough sell after Half Nelson; it still does. The film, which is subtitled, tells the tale of a young baseball star from the Dominican Republic who crashes after getting moved up to the big leagues. It's really very much a coming-of-age kind of tale about this young boy who grew up poor but talented, always believing baseball to be his one ticket out.
Insert Caption: Speed Racer
Welcome back to another edition of Insert Caption -- the game even Tony Stark would love if he wasn't a fictional character and completely made up. We're reversing the order of things for this installment; last week's winners are listed down below and after the jump, while this week's caption is, well, look down. Yup ... Speed Racer time! And this week we're giving away sooo much, it's impossible to list it all without running out of gas, er, space. One grand prize winner will race away with one Limited edition Speed Racer tool box loaded with a Soul Industry Tee, Hot Wheels 1:64 Mach 6, 1:64 Racer X, 1:24 Mach 5 and a Pullbax™ Mach 5; plus Speed and Racer X Lego Mini-figures, one Speed Racer t-shirt and so much more. Additionally, two runners-up will take home a prize package containing more shirts, backpacks and lots of other goodies. See the official rules for complete details and sound off below ...
Read the official rules for this contest
Last week, we asked you to give us your most creative captions for a photo from the new movie Iron Man (which, in case you didn't know, is quickly becoming one of the best reviewed superhero movies of all time). In exchange for your words of wisdom, we decided to toss a brand new LG "the V" cell phone -- plus a super cool Iron Man poster -- to 10 of you. 10! Why? Because we're completely out of our minds -- that's why! (And because we love our readers more than anything. Awww.) Congrats to our ten winners, listed below and after the jump.
1. "As you can see, Flavor Flav and I are now engaged." -- Nathan T.
2. "That's right, it's all fun and games until someone trips and falls on a Lite Brite..." -- Eric W.
3. "I want you to draw me like one of your French girls wearing this ... only this!" -- Martin E.
See full image and all captions
Read the official rules for this contest
Last week, we asked you to give us your most creative captions for a photo from the new movie Iron Man (which, in case you didn't know, is quickly becoming one of the best reviewed superhero movies of all time). In exchange for your words of wisdom, we decided to toss a brand new LG "the V" cell phone -- plus a super cool Iron Man poster -- to 10 of you. 10! Why? Because we're completely out of our minds -- that's why! (And because we love our readers more than anything. Awww.) Congrats to our ten winners, listed below and after the jump.
1. "As you can see, Flavor Flav and I are now engaged." -- Nathan T.2. "That's right, it's all fun and games until someone trips and falls on a Lite Brite..." -- Eric W.
3. "I want you to draw me like one of your French girls wearing this ... only this!" -- Martin E.
See full image and all captions
Tribeca Review: Ball Don't Lie
And here's another street-ballin' flick that wants you to know how tough it is to make it in life when the only thing not lyin' to your face is that dirty old basketball. Ball Don't Lie had a lot of potential and some sweeet b-ball sequences, but annoying editing and several mis-placed flashbacks ultimately hurt the film, which boasts appearances by Nick Cannon and Rosanna Arquette -- both of whom populated just about five to six minutes of the 102-minute feature. Chris "I'm Starting to Use My Real Name Instead of Ludacris" Bridges also shows up as a mentor who doesn't do much mentoring, except for schooling and then being schooled on the cement court.
He's not the only one: When it's not dazzling us with some fancy footwork, Ball Don't Lie schools us in the pitfalls of a broken foster care system; one that finds our hero, Sticky (newcomer Grayson Boucher), moving from one dysfunctional situation to the next. At some point, Sticky meets a girl who works at Foot Locker -- tries to find enough money to buy her a necklace for her birthday -- and then he gets beat up by a guy with a gun. The end. I don't mean to be harsh toward the movie, but it just doesn't serve a purpose -- it didn't go anywhere. I never read the book this was based on (written by Matt De La Pena), but I'd like to think it contained a little more than "What a sad situation for that poor boy."
