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Post by mkelly on Oct 13, 2023 9:23:07 GMT -5
The Hard Case Crimes Books label is re-releasing "Gun Monkeys" as a "Fast Charlie" movie tie-in. PB featured on the new cover. Pre-order for a December release. I've the original and will be interested to see how closely the film adaptation follows the book as the body count was very high and there were several secondary characters with solid story lines. Can't imagin all those characters made the cut in the screen play. Fast Charlie
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Post by fkma6996 on Nov 15, 2023 19:19:04 GMT -5
Trailer is finally here.
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Post by fkma6996 on Dec 4, 2023 5:21:08 GMT -5
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Post by Barbara on Dec 4, 2023 22:22:19 GMT -5
This has Golden Globe winner all over it.
-- B
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Post by mkelly on Dec 5, 2023 21:23:52 GMT -5
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Post by Barbara on Dec 9, 2023 21:57:16 GMT -5
Well, my mom who is the original Brosnan fan in the house did not like the film. She felt he was wasting his time and being this kind of hitman didn't suit him. She was also a bit shocked by seeing James Caan and that really threw her off.
I, however, LOVED it. I think every element worked: the cinematography was stunning, the acting was fantastic, and in particular, the love between Stan and Charlie came right off the page. And the great tenderness and gentleness between Marcie and Charlie in the midst of all the violence was touching. And Pierce gets points for his accent, if you give it the head cannon that he grew up Irish and his accent melded with the Bayou.
The one thing I wish had been explained a bit better, and that might have taken just a moment or two more given how much Pierce expressed with just his body language, was how Charlie caught on that Beggar was coming from them. It couldn't have just been the actions of Blade / Donut.
-- B
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Post by eaz35173 on Dec 11, 2023 21:45:37 GMT -5
Straight Shooter: Pierce Brosnan
The actor on playing up the James Bond image, working with the late James Caan, and the object of his insatiable pursuit.
Text: Kee Chang Images: Leigh Keily Posted: 11 December, 2023
Pierce Brosnan is a hard man to chase down these days—maybe always?—and perhaps for reasons you wouldn’t expect. It might come as a surprise to many that the actor is also an accomplished painter. His oil-and-acrylic portrait of Bob Dylan sold for an astounding $1.4 million at amfAR’s charity auction during the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, and last week, Brosnan, now 70, made his Art Miami debut with a selection of works from his solo exhibition, So Many Dreams, which took place in Hollywood this past summer. Brosnan has been painting on and off since his schooling days in Ireland so it’s a longstanding passion of his—a creative outlet that only intensified when he leaned into its therapeutic properties during a time of personal tragedy. “I started painting [again] in 1987 when my late wife had cancer,” he revealed at the aforementioned amfAR event. “I had been painting out of pain, and now the pain sometimes comes through in color.” After several failed attempts at connecting with Brosnan during his Miami stint, when we do finally reach him, he lives up to his famous reputation: a charismatic, straight-shooting gentleman with a gracious attitude.
Of course, Brosnan had found the fortitude to continue acting as well. One would be hard-pressed to choose a single defining moment from his illustrious career. Remington Steele, the long-running detective series in which the Irish actor portrayed the impossibly handsome—and impossibly named—title character was only the beginning. There are the four James Bond films, from Goldeneye to Die Another Day, during which time he was among the most recognized actors on the planet. It would be tough to vote against Bond as a high mark—so long and heavy is the shadow cast by the franchise that it can make all of an actor’s previous work look, in retrospect, like prep, and all of an actor’s work since like a reaction or recoil. But there are many other memorable performances that lie outside his esteemed tenure as Britain’s best. As the romantic foil to Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire. As an art-heisting billionaire in The Thomas Crown Affair remake. The Matador, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe. The Tailor of Panama. Dante’s Peak. The Foreigner. And Brosnan’s best may be yet to come. His latest role confirms that potentiality.
Phillip Noyce’s compact and darkly funny take on the existential hitman genre, Fast Charlie—adapted from Victor Gischler’s more crudely titled novel Gun Monkeys—capitalizes on Brosnan’s effortless charm and wry sense of humor. Charlie (Brosnan) is an aging fixer who has worked under Stan (the late James Caan in his final performance), a senior crime boss who he also calls his friend, for the past thirty-plus years. Charlie goes about his bloody business as usual, while also harboring a dream of retiring someday soon to a fixer-upper in Tuscany. Problem is, a rival mobster named Beggar (Gbenda Akinnagbe) has encroached on Stan’s turf with plans to take him and his crew out. Now the sole remaining target, Charlie embarks on a trail of vengeance in a seedy New Orleans, enlisting the help of Marcie (Lorena Baccarin), the ex-wife of a recently whacked low-level gangster who had the goods on Beggar, along the way. From there, Fast Charlie is a patchwork of murders set to the sounds of a blues score as he kills his way up the criminal ladder.
Brosnan breathes into the role his past screen history, adding an extra layer of suave dimension and infusing the kind of assured, low-key commanding presence befitting a former Bond.
Fast Charlie is available in select theaters and VOD.
Hello, Mr. Brosnan.
Hello. What’s your name?
Kee
Kee… The key to life.
I like this interview so far.
[laughs] That’s great, Kee.
This movie is a blast, and you are in fine form here.
It is. Thank you so much for saying so.
That opening shot of you in the abandoned car lot with a gun and your pants down to your ankles tells us exactly what we’re in for, doesn’t it? This movie wastes no time at all.
Phillip Noyce put that at the top of the film. Originally, I think, it was at the end of act two. It was a wonderful way to introduce the humor and the sentiment of the film.
That scene also bookends the film.
It does? [Pierce takes a pause] Yeah, it does! I’ve only seen it once.
Charlie’s inscrutable. Things are popping off and you get this sense that he’s seen it all. Was there something you implicitly understood about him that helped to anchor him?
Having played James Bond for a decade helped.
I can see that.
So there’s an homage to Bond. It has to be referenced. How can it not be? And happily so. The material [Victor Gischler’s Gun Monkeys] came to me from my agent, Fred Specktor. He and I have had many years of friendship and kinship working in movies. The book was so captivating. Then there’s Philip, whose work I’ve enjoyed enormously, and Richard Wenk, who did the adaptation. It allowed me to invest myself in the role. You have the hitman. He has a gun. But what kind of gun? How do you play the scene with a gun and still have the same illustration of the actor with the gun so it’s theatrical? There’s a familiarity for the audience who knows my work and have grown up with my work as Bond and Remington Steele.
You’re right. We’re not just watching Charlie—we’re watching Pierce Brosnan who played Bond do Charlie. It takes an icon. It must be a lot of fun to play around with your image.
It’s performing arts, basically. It has a theatricality to it, as simple as that. That being said, the tonality of the film was established by Phillip so beautifully. Every day was a learning experience creating the character. Sorry, I’m trying to get a name out of the hat and it’s escaping me. Carry on.
Well, how about James Caan? The film is also unexpectedly beautiful in the way it has come to serve as a farewell love letter to him. There was no way of knowing that this would be his final performance. What do you remember most about your time together?
His indomitable spirit. His voice. The whole persona of the man. Jimmy was at a point in his life where the body had taken much punishment. But he was right there in the wheelchair. He had to be in the wheelchair—he’d had many surgeries. But the actor was there. That ferocious focus and passion and quick wit of Jimmy Caan was there. Stan is somewhat of a father figure to me in the movie. He’s someone who took care of me, a man racked by violence and war or just bad dealings in life—things that go sour. He took care of me, so now at the end of his life, I take care of him. And Jimmy was charging out there into the wild blue yonder. It was a beautiful thing to behold, wheeling him in his chair, holding his hand, and talking about the next higher ground of life.
How amazing is it that that’s now forever captured on celluloid?
It is, it is. He knew that. We knew that. Your time is your time at the table and the pen’s gonna fall outta your hand anytime soon. That was the beauty of the week’s work with him.
I was surprised to learn that this production was hobbled by many challenges. It turned out so well. I’m referring to budget issues, having to relocate the shoot from Florida to New Orleans, the rewrites, and on and on. Phillip has talked about it openly and even referred to it as “the horrors of making this movie.” What was going through your mind?
“Where’s the money?” [laughs]
How could you not?
“Pay attention,” you know? You find people in life who say one thing and then do something else. But I was there to celebrate the works by Victor and Phillip. And it was a challenge. There were a few moments, which certainly are gonna be in the memoirs. But I think every movie is like that. They’re all like that. This one certainly had its iffy moments, but it was a lesson in moviemaking with Phillip: having the sheer balls to go out there in the land of independent filmmaking, having the faith and trust in the material, making the money show up, and taking care of people. It was great. To have the finished product be meaningful to people is quite exhilarating.
I’m glad you stuck with it. You took it to the finish line.
I did, thank you. I was not alone, that’s for sure.
Phillip said that he was keen on exploring comedy because he had never really done that before. So this desire to do something new propelled him on this journey. Do you have a similar outlook? You’re certainly not new to comedy. What felt different about this one?
It’s a constant search. It’s a constant looking, and hopefully doing, of life. And I didn’t know that about Phillip to tell you the truth. I didn’t know he hadn’t done comedy because I never really thought about it. Well, there you go, Phillip! We made a light comedy with a little bit of drama thrown in. There’s a lot of things I’m looking for. A lot of things. I don’t know if I want to name them, but I’m at a certain point in my life where I have a career and I can move around the stage. I like to think as nimbly as I can. I’m not as nimble in some areas as others, but you’re looking for work that’s gonna move you. You’re looking for something that’s going to emotionally capture you every day. To live with it for six days or six weeks around, you wanna be turned on just like you wanna turn the audience on and make something that’s entertaining. It’s as simple as that.
Phillip seems to believe that, if not a sequel to Fast Charlie, there will be a TV series because there’s already been a lot of interest. Would that be an interesting proposition for you?
I would continue, absolutely, to see where Marcie and Charlie go. Why not? That’d be great.
Thank you, Pierce.
Thanks a million. All the best.
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Post by Barbara on Dec 13, 2023 1:57:08 GMT -5
While I can definitely see Noyce, Brosnan and Baccarin working together again, I don't see i being a sequel to Fast Charlie be it on the silver screen, or the TV screen. Nota Bene, it was considered a done deal that HBO Max would host a limited run series featuring Hawkman and Dr. Fate, and we all know how that turned out, and at least in that case, Warner Brothers owns HBO. With Fast Charlie no major streaming service owns the film, so I think it will stand as a wonderful work, but not one that will see a sequel.
I want to know what Pierce is looking for now and if The Sun will rise on it.
-- Barbara
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Post by fkma6996 on Dec 17, 2023 0:36:54 GMT -5
Fast Charlie is getting great review despite zero promotion , such a pity this movie should get a wider realease theatrically.
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Post by Barbara on Dec 18, 2023 0:23:52 GMT -5
Fast Charlie is getting great review despite zero promotion , such a pity this movie should get a wider realease theatrically. Since you mentioned in FKMA, I will say that when I posted a review to Rotten Tomatoes, first Philip Noyce's assistant and then the man himself reached out to express their gratitude, and asked that I keep posting my review in as many spaces as I can, and I am doing that. You should write a review and do the same. I suspect there is some kind of metrics involved that the more fan reviews there are, the more websites will promote the film. -- Barbara
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Post by eaz35173 on Dec 22, 2023 11:13:30 GMT -5
Morena Baccarin is a woman whose unfortunate past gets her wrapped up in a deadly journey in Fast Charlie. The Emmy nominee stars in the action-thriller as Marcie, the ex-wife of a low-level mobster trying to forge a new life for herself as a taxidermist. When the titular mob fixer takes a liking to her and finds himself caught in the hunt for revenge for the deaths of his crew, he enlists Marcie's help to take them down while also trying to keep her safe from the power-hungry new mob boss.
Alongside Baccarin, the ensemble Fast Charlie cast includes Pierce Brosnan, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Christopher Matthew Cook, Toby Huss, David Chattam, Brennan Keel Cook, Fredric Lehne, Sharon Gless, and James Caan in his final role. Blending the dark humor and fully-formed characters of the noire genre with skillful action sequences and meaningful development, the movie proves to be a quietly engrossing ride.
Ahead of the movie's release, Screen Rant interviewed star Morena Baccarin to discuss Fast Charlie, having to craft a rapport with Brosnan while coming in late to the shoot, and the process of creating her unique character and insight for Deadpool 3 and Greenland 2. Morena Baccarin Talks Fast Charlie & Deadpool 3
Screen Rant: I'm very excited to chat with you, Morena, especially for Fast Charlie. It is such a fun movie from start to finish, and I love your and Pierce's dynamic and characters. What about the project sparked your interest?
Morena Baccarin: Thank you. The combination of people involved, Pierce and Phillip. I've always been a fan of Phillip's work since Rabbit-Proof Fence, and the character, really — those two have such an interesting dynamic. The character stories are really fascinating, and I hadn't seen this woman before. Somebody who's trying to put her life back together, gets drawn back into the mess that her husband left behind, and then sparks this really interesting relationship with an older man, all while being on the go. There was a lot of really interesting dynamics and emotional arcs in the story, as well as really fun action stuff.
When I spoke with Phillip the other day, he mentioned you came in a little later in the production. Given that you and Pierce have such a close and unique dynamic throughout the movie, what was it like, from an actor's perspective, trying to find that rapport and that dynamic with one another without the prior rehearsal time that you might normally get on a shoot?
Morena Baccarin: Yeah, it was definitely fast and furious. They came at me, I was, I think, in the middle of a vacation with my family or something, and I had to rearrange a bunch of stuff. It wasn't ideal in that sense, but when you work with professionals, it's just an amazing experience. Both Phillip and Pierce have done this for a little bit, so we came in, and we had the meetings necessary, and Pierce is such a unique actor. He's so giving, he creates such a rich emotional life for himself that it's just easy to join in.
We really connected as people, and that made it a lot easier, as well. But he's such a professional and such a class act, and it was just such a joy to jump in with him, and he's so open and willing. You get nervous meeting movie stars, "What are they going to be like? Are they going to be jerks? Are they going to have certain ego things that are going to get in the way?" There was absolutely none of that, and it was such an easy process to just get to know him, and jump into these roles together.
With that said, was there any one moment you remember during filming where that chemistry and rapport with one another really felt like it clicked, or did it feel like it was almost immediate with you two?
Morena Baccarin: The shooting schedule was quite intense. It was a small-budget film, and we were not shooting long days, but just had to get a lot of material done very quickly, because we didn't have it in the budget to have long days. I felt from the beginning, our stuff together, our characters are such that my character's a bit guarded, so it was fairly easy to jump in, in the sense that the scenes where they were a little more open to each other, happened later and towards the end of the film and the end of the shooting.
I don't know if that was orchestrated on purpose by Phillip or not, but it definitely helped us to get to know each other slowly. We shot a scene very early on where I bandaged his leg up, and I had a very hard time with that scene, actually. I know it's like the opposite of what you asked, but it didn't click for me in that moment.
I look at the scene now, and it actually really works that these characters are disconnected and having two different experiences. So, for whatever reason, I think because of who Marcie is and who Charlie is, it worked that we were unraveling this relationship together. By the time we did re-shoots, and we were shooting, actually, the end of the film in some of the re-shoots, the relationship was much more there. We had quite a few car scenes, and I would say those were the scenes where I think I felt most connected to Pierce, because it was just the two of us sitting in a car together talking and kind of having these quiet moments.
What aspect of Marcie did you find was the easiest to connect to for you in bringing her to life?
Morena Baccarin: I really appreciated that she lived — Phillip pitched this house for her that is so phenomenal. She lives at the edge of the world, right by the water, in a house on stilts, and it just tells you so much about her. She's literally trying to elevate her life, be away from everybody else and start over. I really identified and connected with this notion that you can have regrets, and you can have made mistakes, but you have an opportunity to start fresh. She just wanted to be quiet, mind her own business, do her taxidermy, start over again and, of course, trouble found her, as it does in a complicated life when you have history. So, I just really love that, the complication of somebody wanting and needing peace, but just not being able to have it yet.
How involved were you in the actual look of Marcie? Obviously, actors can work with Wardrobe to tweak little things here and there, but I'm curious how much of her look was you, and how much was maybe the Wardrobe and Makeup department?
Morena Baccarin: We all worked very closely together. The makeup artist, Sarah, and I have known each other for quite some time. We worked together on Gotham, and I brought her on board in this film because I felt that Marcie's look on such a small budget was going to be really important. I was doing some research on taxidermists, and they are a very interesting people. I know everybody's different, and within the same profession, you can look many different ways, but they tend to have this edge, and a lot of them had tattoos, and they spend a lot of time alone with dead things. I found that really fascinating, and I wanted that to come across in how she looked, not to mention that she didn't have a lot of money, and wasn't necessarily at all visible in a glamorous way. So, I worked really closely with the costume designer, who was fantastic, and we wanted to make her look like she utilized her clothes for work.
There was not an aspect to her that cared about how she looked. We used almost no makeup, that was the look we ended up going with, which was so liberating as an actor, to feel like you could just use your skin and yourself, and still create a character. The tattoos were huge, and very stressful in the beginning, because you have to get licenses for all the different artists and art that you use in a film.
So, it was stressful to make sure that we had it in the time period that we needed to. I thought that it's also a very personal decision when somebody gets a tattoo, that's something that's going on their body for a long time, so I wanted to think about what that would be for her, and what each one would signify. So, it was quite a long process in such a truncated amount of time that we had to create Marcie. I feel like both the costume designer and my makeup artist, everybody worked together really nicely to create this really three-dimensional person.
What was it like the day you got to meet James Caan for your scene together? Obviously, much like Pierce, he was an established veteran in the industry. Even though you don't have much time together, it is a pretty heartwarming scene.
Morena Baccarin: It is. It might've been my first scene on set, or close to that. So, I was very nervous for myself, but also to meet James Caan. I mean, it's not every day you get to work with an actor like that, and I'm such a huge fan of his work. He was very sweet, I can't believe that we got to shoot this film with him. He looked very fragile, and was easily exhausted, and it was a process. He played around a lot, too, which was really fun to see, and his character is suffering from dementia, so we couldn't tell what was him being in character, and what was some stuff that he was actually messing up.
It just all lent itself to that person. When Pierce and I were around him in the scenes, you had this feeling of not knowing what was going to happen next, and that was really cool, because that's what it feels like to be in a scene with that character. He was a real champ. I think he shot two or three days, and they were quite long days for him, but he was able to pull through and be in good spirits about it. But you could tell he was getting tired.
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Post by mkelly on Mar 12, 2024 17:42:24 GMT -5
Fast Charlie opens in the UK - nice interview with Phillip Noyce
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Post by Barbara on Mar 12, 2024 21:06:50 GMT -5
Hopefully the distributor in the UK does better by the film than the one in the US did.
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Post by mkelly on Mar 13, 2024 17:44:25 GMT -5
I did purchase a blu ray dvd off ebay and suspect it's a bootleg as the langage selections were Chinese and English. However, it was a clean letterboxed copy that played on our Sony multi regional dvd player. Asked Noyce via FB Messenger if there would be an "official" dvd with commentary but that too maybe part of the distributors deal. Heck, just the YouTube interview stories on getting this film made would make a dvd with commentary worth the price. But .... Perhaps they'll make money off the Amazon streaming - Amazon typically uses a revenue sharing model for independent films, which means that the film’s creators or distributors receive a percentage of the revenue generated by the film’s streaming or download activity on Amazon Prime Video. According to reports, the typical revenue share for independent films on Amazon Prime Video is between 50% to 60% of the revenue generated by the film’s streaming or download activity. In addition to revenue sharing, Amazon may also offer upfront payments or bonuses for exclusive distribution rights or promotional activities, depending on the terms of the contract and the popularity of the film. March 2023 blog.shortfundly.com/filmmaking-tips/how-much-does-amazon-pay-for-independent-films/
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