Ruffalo, Adams team for comedy-drama
CANNES (Hollywood Reporter) - Mark Ruffalo and Amy Adams are attached to star in writer-director Noah Baumbach’s next feature.
Plot details are being under wraps for “Greenburg,” which is said to be a relationship comedy-drama. United Talent Agency is shopping the project in Cannes and financing is being assembled. While no timetable is set for principal photography, producer Scott Rudin is aiming to shoot this year.
Rudin produced “Margot at the Wedding,” Baumbach’s 2007 follow-up to his breakthrough drama “The Squid and the Whale.”
Adams was recently in theaters with the Disney hit “Enchanted,” while Ruffalo stars in “Blindness,” which had its world premiere as the opening-night movie at the Cannes Film Festival last week.
Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Ned Beatty
When CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR was first announced, it sounded like another in a long line of award-season dramas that was going to take itself too seriously and be one long, plodding bore.
Boy was I wrong. With THE WEST WING’s Aaron Sorkin scripting and director Mike Nichols at the helm, CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR turned out to be one of most entertaining political films made last year and now it’s hitting DVD where it will gain even more fans.
While there has certainly been a deluge of films tackling the Iraq war and how it’s been an open sore for the American government, CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR looks at Iraq from the distant past in what could almost be seen as a prequel to our current state of affairs.
It’s based on the true-life story of Texas congressman, who took it upon himself to covertly help Afghanistan fight and ultimately defeat the Russians by providing weapons, training and support through a secret, discretionary fund.
It’s an eye-opening story, essayed by Tom Hanks playing Wilson as a fun loving, but politically charged man who wants to do the right thing any way he can. Aided by rich socialite (Julia Roberts) and a rogue CIA agent (played to perfection by Philip Seymour Hoffman), the story unfolds in a fast, breezy style. It takes itself seriously, but isn’t afraid to also have fun along the way.
In many respects, this is Sorkin’s strength as a writer which he has proved on THE WEST WING and more recently on STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP. He can take politics and create intelligent, well-informed stories, while still making them damn entertaining in the process.
The supporting cast is superb too, including Amy Adams in a nice turn as Wilson’s assistant (who obviously as an unrequited crush on him). While Roberts is good, her role is marginal compared to Hoffman who just steamrolls through the film and takes it prisoner with every scene he’s in.
The special features are routine, if not unspectacular for this type of release. There’s a standard “making of” and also a nice featuette on the real Charlie Wilson, who surprisingly is captured to a tee by Hanks.
With a powerhouse cast and a great creative team, CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR certainly doesn’t let the current Iraq conflict go by without a prescient nod to it in the closing scenes. But in uncovering one of the United States’ little known wars, it also sheds light on why we fight and why freedom is so important even if it’s not directly happening on U.S. soil.
The Watch List: Amy Adams Is Better Than Prozac
While we still can’t accept that Amy Adams wasn’t nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Enchanted, we can take solace in…watching Amy Adams’ performance in Enchanted.
Out on DVD this week, the comedy about a cartoon princess banished to modern-day Manhattan is perhaps the most smile-inducing piece of entertainment we’ve seen since we wore footie pajamas.
Our favorite moment? The song-and-dance extravaganza of “That’s How You Know,” which transforms Central Park into a wonderland of singing, dancing and rollerskating good times. (The DVD featurette is worth watching for the backstory how it was done.) And yes, the verminfest of “Happy Working Song” is pretty disgustingly fun, too.
Also out: Steve Carell clumsily courts of his brother’s awesome girlfriend in Dan in Real Life; Will Smith mutters to himself and his dog in between zombie fights in I Am Legend; the Cylons mess with our heads in Battlestar Galactica: Season Three; three funny men spill much blood in Human Giant: Season One; we finally learn who let the dogs out in 101 Dalmatians; and Jerry Seinfeld offers the heart-swarming Bee Movie
Is Amy Adams Honestly Suggesting That ‘She’s Like the Wind’ Is Not the Greatest Love Song of All Time?
“I was super into Dirty Dancing and the song ‘She’s Like the Wind.’ It was like, ‘That’s the best romantic song ever written.’ I wasn’t introduced to a more artistic reality until much later.” —Amy Adams
“I would hope they would want to do theater. If one of my kids came to me and said, ‘I want to be a movie star,’ I would be, like, ‘Go to your room.’” —Mary-Louise Parker on what she would do if one of her children wanted to be an actor
“I really spent way too much time talking to person after person after person, about marketing and support, and how we’re not just a chick show, we can do more than sell tampons.” —Amy Sherman-Palladino on Gilmore Girls
“No disrespect, but they do the shit that Diddy do. But even though Diddy don’t write rhymes, he writes checks … They just steal rhymes.” —Max B on Jim Jones
“I think people think it’s a little bit funny because when I come out at the beginning, I get an introduction, and the guy says, ‘Now: The greatest songwriter in the world!’ And I come out, and I’m so fat. It’s unreal.” —Daniel Johnston on the humor in The Devil and Daniel Johnston
Rising star Amy Adams’ career seems enchanted
NEW YORK — Amy Adams is having one of those enchanted Manhattan moments.
“Look, it’s snowing!” she cries, looking out of the window of an Upper West Side cafe to the snowflakes gently settling on the cabs and buildings outside. “It’s sticking!”
PHOTOS: Check out highlights from Amy Adams’ career
Adams has an ability to make whatever she’s focusing on seem irresistible. There’s a sparkle to her, a glimmer that hasn’t escaped the notice of a certain co-star of hers, Meryl Streep, who just wrapped the drama Doubt with Adams.
“Amy has a little light on inside her that burns — sometimes a soft light, sometimes a hot little blue flame, but you are aware always of the light,” Streep says via e-mail. “It is her immediacy as an actress, that present quality that makes her special.”
Amy Adams Wants A ‘Gone With The Wind’ America
Old-fashioned Enchanted star Amy Adams is desperate for America to return to a bygone Gone With The Wind era when women and men knew where they stood.
The actress fears men have become too feminine and women too masculine during the battle of the sexes, and modern men and ladies are confused about who and what they are.
Adams says, “I was always influenced by old movies, especially when I was growing up. I thought I was Scarlett O’Hara from Gone With The Wind at 13. I identified with the fact that she was a survivor. I have a romanticized idea of what it would’ve been like to live in that time. It was a very hard time in American history, so I’m very happy with living now but I’d love to live in sort of my romantic idea of that time.”
“I’d love it if we could get back to women being women and men being men.”
Interview: Amy Adams On Miss Pettigrew
The rumors are true: Amy Adams is charming, beautiful, and a total pro. The former dancer and Gap employee has burst onto the scene in a major way lately, starring in Disney’s blockbuster last fall, Enchanted. She’s been in the business for a while, though, making her film debut in the always-hilarious Drop Dead Gorgeous nearly 10 years ago.
Now that Adams is a bona fide star, she’s playing one on the big screen, in the frothy romantic comedy Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. As the flustered and beautiful aspiring actress Delysia Lafosse, Adams is stuck deciding between three men: the handsome club owner Nick, the young play producer Phil, and the destitute piano player who loves her, Michael (Lee Pace). She also wears gorgeous costumes, runs around in beautiful sets and pals around with Frances McDormand before—spoiler alert!—making out with Lee Pace.
Yes, it’s hard not to hate Amy Adams, but you it anyway because she’s so darn likeable. She sat down with a group of journalists in New York to talk about her early roots in Atlanta, getting into the manic energy to play Delysia, and her return trip to the Oscars this Sunday. [A journalist introduces himself as being from Atlanta.] My sister and my mom are in Atlanta. And I lived there for a while, I lived in Virginia Highlands. I worked at the Lenox Mall in the Gap. I wanted to work in the stockroom, but I was just too peppy. I tried, they were like “No you have to be at the front of the store. You are the only person who will literally talk to everyone who comes in the store.”
How long was it between working at the Gap and where you are now?
I moved to Colorado and started working in theatre. From there I moved to Minnesota and worked in dinner theatre. I was a dancer, so we did musicals. I worked there for three years, when I was cast in Drop Dead Gorgeous. And that gave me the chutzpah to move to Los Angeles.
I’m a little bit older now, so there’s some pushing at times.
How do you keep the energy level up in this. Your character doesn’t stop.
No, she really doesn’t. You just do it. I enjoy it, and I’ve played depressed characters, and there’s a benefit to that, but I have to tell you, this is much more infectious in your life. You go home with energy, you go home with more spirit. I get something from my characters as well, even though I’m putting a lot in. She gave me a different perspective on myself.
Is that something you look at when deciding what roles to take—can I get something from this character?
Not intentionally. I’m sure somewhere in the back of my brain that’s why I’m responding, because I’m feeling something while I’m reading this, whether it’s joy or some sort of simpatico relationship. That’s usually how I choose it—what do I feel when I read that, and is that something I want to explore?
What is the story with the relationship with Nick, the club owner in the film? He’s kind of brutal, and I think she sort of likes that. What I love about her is that her whole world is a stage, and every day is a performance. With him it’s that violent, passionate relationship. He just overpowers her, and she can play the damsel in distress and manipulate him with her feminine wiles and her ways. As much as it hurts her, I do think she really enjoys some part of playing all the roles with all of those men. I think there’s deeper reasons for that, and that’s explained a little bit in the film. You see glimpses of what’s really happening, and why she’s doing what she’s doing.
Could you use a Miss Pettigrew in your life? Are you anything like Delysia, with three men and money trouble and all that?
No, I’m such a practical person. Well, for the most part. Maybe she could clean my closet, because I’m messy. I sort of nitpick and worry about little things. You get a bed set at Bed, Bath & Beyond and wake up in the middle of the night going “I should have gotten the patterned one.” For like an hour, debating patterned sheets. If somebody could just make me stop doing that, I think I could accomplish a lot more in my life.
Do you identify with Delysia’s ambition and drive to become a star?
To a certain degree. I can understand her reasons for wanting it. I don’t even know that she wants to be a star. What she wants is security, she wants stability. That I definitely can relate to, that feeling of wanting some sort of certainty, and some control over your destiny.
How does it feel now, then, that you’ve kind of made it?
Well, as Delysia would have learned, there’s no such thing as stability and security. I think sometimes when you get what you want, you realize that maybe what you wanted isn’t what you needed. I think that’s what Miss Pettigrew showed her. I always consider, is this really making me happy? I don’t think any one thing can make us happy. Singularly focusing on career cannot make us happy. What I’m trying to do is achieve balance in my life, and I’m doing a pretty good job. I fall short sometimes.
Does it make you happy to be on the cover of Vanity Fair?
Yes. It was so much fun. I love Annie Leibowitz. I’ve always loved Annie Leibowitz. As long as they’ve had that Hollywood cover, that’s sort of been, for me, that was always “Oh, that would be so much fun.” And it was. And I was really happy—I have so much respect for all the girls that I was on there with .Emily Blunt and I worked on a film together, so she’s like a sister to me. That was really special, to get to do that with her. I think the world of the other two girls as well. It was a really fun shoot.
Your scenes with Frances in the movie are so fast-paced. Did you have to do a lot of rehearsal, or did you just shoot a lot and hope you got it?
We did not have a ton of rehearsal time. So it was such a relief at the table read and in the time we did have to rehearse to find out that we were really on the same page. It was almost too easy. What was important for Frances and I was to create a relationship between these two women, and understand how they would be friends and what they have in common. They are really similar as far as their struggle for survival.
There must have been a lot of marks to hit on those scenes.
Yeah, it was very technical, but I don’t know why it didn’t seem hard. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve worked onstage, but it didn’t seem difficult. Also the director created such a permissive environment—there was no wrong idea, so you got to try a lot of different things. Everything moved very quickly. It’s such a blur, really.
What was it like working with Frances? Lee Pace mentioned how good she is on film, and how aware of the camera she is.
She’s amazing. You can learn so much. I go in there going “I know that you know more than I do, and I want to learn from you.” What she has is a sense of professionalism. They’re on time, they’re the first person on set. There’s no ego involved. They’re there for the work, they’re 100% there. When I’m working with someone, I always want to be the first person on set, I don’t want to keep anyone waiting. But I could never beat Frances to the set! I am leaving right when they ask me, I grab my diamonds and run, and I’m like “How is it that you continue to beat me to set?” And she looked at me and says “I never leave.” Then of course, I couldn’t leave set! She doesn’t leave, I can’t leave. She just creates this wonderful environment, she’s funny and free and open. The talent is unquestionable, I could go on and on about that, but the things that I take away are the professionalism and the joy of the craft.
Can you talk about working with Lee? He spoke very highly of you.
Yes, he’s very charming, didn’t you find, ladies? I think it’s that old Hollywood thing he has. He’s so tall and solid. He’s really good, a very good actor. I immediately felt that relationship between Michael and Delysia. That he was the person who made her knees weak, who made her feel the most whole and the most genuine.
He said that all he had to do was fall in love with you.
And did he? [The entire room cracks up] Sorry, that was Delysia coming out of me. I’m a little boy crazy.
How did you develop the fast-paced style for your character?
I think the physicality, as far as being a dancer. That’s how I always approach roles. I first figure out how do they feel, it’s all very tactile and thematic. What does it feel like to be this person? Also being a huge fan of old movies, and having watched a lot, you really did act that way. It’s coming from stage. The older films are much more closely related to stage and those performances. It was something I really wanted to accomplish, that style of acting. It was very intentional. Frances, once I saw what she was doing with Guinevere, it opened up all sorts of roads for me, and a lot of permission to go there. She was being so physical, and you understood that this was such a physical movie. You want people to get caught up in the whirlwind of this day. It’s Delysia’s world, which is just moment to moment to moment. I was very tired!
Has Disney approached you about doing a sequel to Enchanted? Not yet. We will see. I was told yesterday that the director said yes, there is going to be a sequel. I have not heard that. I’m the kind of person that until ink is dried and it’s posted on a banner saying “Hear ye, hear ye,” I don’t ever…
Are you singing all three songs at the Oscars?
No, I’m singing one. I didn’t want to be greedy. Kristen Chenoweth is singing my other song, which is nerve-wracking and flattering at the same time.
Is your first return to the stage in a while?
I haven’t done it recently enough to feel comfortable. It’ll be a fun challenge. You’ve got to do things that scare you and that are outside your comfort zone, and that’s definitely outside my comfort zone. I’m going to have fun no matter what.
Has there been a downside to the success you’ve had lately?
I’m homesick. I’m really homesick. I try to make the most of it, but you never know how long of a run you get. I’m really trying to make the most of it, and I love working.
Do you deal with paparazzi and all that?
I don’t. If you go to an even there’s usually some, but I don’t go to that many events. They don’t follow me home, they don’t follow me out to dinner. They don’t follow me down the street, thank goodness, because I walk out in my PJ’s. I have a puppy where you if don’t take her out first thing in the morning, and I mean first thing in the morning, you’re picking up stuff in the house.
Can you tell us about working with Meryl Streep in Doubt and Julie & Julia? It’s amazing. I’ve been really fortunate. At one point in my life I really wanted female mentors, and working with Frances and working with Meryl, following by example, I feel like I’ve gotten that wish.
Amy Adams to star in ‘Night at the Museum 2′
She’s enchanted with Museum’
‘Enchanted” star Amy Adams has booked a magical role in “Night at the Museum 2.”
According to Variety, the action in the sequel kicks off when an assortment of Museum of National History artifacts are sent to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., Zap2it.com reports. The trade says that Adams will play “an undetermined historical figure” with feelings for Ben Stiller’s security guard Larry.
In addition to Stiller, most of the “Night at the Museum” creative core returns for the sequel, a group that includes director Shawn Levy and writers Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon.
A May 22, 2009 release date already has been set for the sequel, with production beginning possibly as early as May.
Adams, an Oscar nominee for “Junebug,” recently earned a Golden Globe nod for her work in Disney’s “Enchanted.” Her other credits
include “Charlie Wilson’s War”
and the Sundance film “Sunshine Cleaning.
IDOL’ BUZZ
Sour notes, sour grapes
“Two failed Season 7 “Idol” contestants are complaining about the show to the press. Joshua Boson, who auditioned in Charleston, S.C., told the Hilton Head Island Packet that his shrill screaming version of “And I Am Telling You (I’m Not Going)” was a joke performed at the request of executive producer Nigel Lythgoe, and that his real audition, which never aired, was James Brown’s “I Got You (I Feel Good).”
“I gave them entertainment, that’s what they wanted to hear,” Boson said. “I don’t really fit what the show represents in the first place. It’s cleaned up for the cameras.”
Meanwhile, 16-year-old Miami contestant Julie Dubela, a semifinalist on the Fox series “American Juniors” at age 12, told New Hampshire’s Portsmouth Herald News that the edited version of events presented by the show distorted what really happened.
“I feel like they tried to make the judges look like God and me the fool of the century,” Dubela, whom the paper called “a well-known and popular local singer,” said. “They make it look like [the judges] were giving me constructive criticism and I broke out in this diva fit. But it’s like, what do you do then? They were being rude.”
Dubela claims she wasn’t allowed to sing her prepared song, “What’s Up” by the 4 Non Blondes, because the producers asked her to sing something else. Her performance of Janis Joplin’s “Me and Bobby McGee” was pronounced “precocious” by judge Simon Cowell.
HER “HEARTS” WILL GO ON. Carrie
Underwood released “Carnival Ride,” in November, but two songs from her first post-”Idol” recording, “Some Hearts,” are hotter than ever. The Recording Industry Association of America just certified “Before He Cheats,” the singer’s ode of revenge to her unfaithful boyfriend, the first country track to exceed 2 million paid digital downloads. “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” her first release from the same album, was concurrently certified for 1 million digital downloads. Underwood will perform on Sunday’s Grammy Awards, where “Before He Cheats” is nominated for best country song as well as song of the year. -RONNIE GILL
Giving soaps their best shots
If there’s any place love is a battlefield, it’s daytime soaps. So it shouldn’t be surprising to see Lindenhurst-raised Pat Benatar show up this week on “The Young & the Restless” (Thursday and Friday at 12:30 p.m. on CBS/2), where she performs with husband/guitarist Neil “Spyder” Giraldo. Sorry,
the number isn’t the rocker’s 1983 signature hit “Love Is a Battlefield” (though you’re welcome to watch that vintage video at youtube.com
/watch?v=j9J9rTZJBmw) - it’s “Every Time I Fall Back,” a song she and Giraldo wrote together. The plot has the pair surprising Karen Taylor (Nia Peeples) to encourage her to perform before a crowd, which she does with the original “Y&R” number “For All Time.”
Flip the channel Friday, and you’ll find Mary J. Blige returning to “One Life to Live” (Friday and Feb. 18 at 2 p.m. on ABC/7), where she appeared at a Llanview nightclub in July 2006. This time, Blige sings her new songs “Just Fine” and “Hurt Again” at the sweet 16 party of key character Starr Manning (Kristen Alderson). “OLTL”
makes a specialty of
making music, previously hosting such headliners
as Timbaland, Nelly
Furtado, Simply Red and Erykah Badu.
If you miss them during the day, both shows repeat nightly on SOAPnet: “Y&R” at 7 p.m. and midnight, “OLTL” at 9 p.m. and 2 a.m.
ADAMS FEARS OSCARS SINGING DEBUT
Actress AMY ADAMS signed on to sing at the Oscars before Broadway star KRISTIN CHENOWETH was announced as a performer and now she fears she said yes too quickly.
Adams has agreed to perform two of Alan Menken’s Oscar-nominated Enchanted songs at Sunday’s (24Feb08) Academy Awards.
And, as if there’s not enough pressure on her, the third song will be performed by Broadway veteran Chenoweth.
Nervous Adams says, “If I get through the first one I think I should just count my blessings, but Kristin Chenoweth is singing the second one, so no pressure there! “I mean, did they have to pick the best singer in musical theatre?”
Amy Adams visits ‘Museum 2′
Amy Adams is in negotiations to star opposite Ben Stiller in 20th Century Fox’s “Night at the Museum 2.”
Pic kicks off when the artifacts from the Museum of Natural History are boxed up and sent to the archives at the Smithsonian in Washington. Adams will play an undetermined historical figure who has a crush on security guard Larry (Stiller).
Shawn Levy returns to helm the sequel, which has a U.S. release date set for May 22, 2009. Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon penned the screenplay, Scott Frank the most recent draft.
Levy’s 21 Laps is producing alongside 1492 Pictures. Michael Barnathan and Mark Radcliffe will serve as producers. Studio is eyeing a May start date in Vancouver.
Adams is onscreen in “Charlie Wilson’s War” and “Enchanted.” She stars in the indie “Sunshine Cleaning,” which bowed at the Sundance Film Festival.
Adams is repped by Endeavor.