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Post by Ace on Feb 17, 2010 5:28:22 GMT -5
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Post by Ace on Feb 17, 2010 20:49:44 GMT -5
www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/story/polanski-picked-on-mcgregors-accent_1132557Polanski Picked On Mcgregor's Accent EWAN MCGREGOR found perfectionist ROMAN POLANSKI to be a hard task master on the set of new movie THE GHOST WRITER - the actor and the moviemaker almost fell out over accents. The Scot worked hard on his English accent before filming began - but Polanski was far from happy the first time MCGregor spoke in character. He tells WENN, "I spoke to Roman about playing the ghost with a Scottish accent and he said, no he had to be English. Also, he (character) went to Cambridge (University), so my first thought was that he would have a standard English accent; I find it difficult to do that accent without feeling kind of posh. I really wanted the ghost not to be posh. "We were doing the wardrobe fittings and I hadn't read any of the scenes with Polanski and we had two days before we were ready to shoot. I'm trying on clothes and Roman appears every now and again and I said, 'Can we just talk, because if you don't like this accent I'm going to have to think of something else quick.' "We finally sat down to read the scenes and he was much more picky about how I said the lines. Right from the get go he'd say, 'No, no, why would you read it like this?' And he'd take the whole script and read my lines for me until finally he said, 'Now you see!' I didn't know what I had done differently other than I was a little bit more frightened than I was a minute ago. "The next morning I phoned up Roman from my car and literally read him some scenes using the London accent just to see if he thought it was OK and I wanted to double check. I actually double checked sneakily behind Roman's back with Robert Harris, the writer of the novel - and he said it was alright." But MCGregor only had to get his accent right; co-star James Belushi underwent a makeover. The actor explains, "We shot Belushi for six hours with hair and, after six hours, Roman went, 'No, in the book he has no hair,' and they went away and shaved his head and we re-shot six hours worth of stuff with no hair! "I didn't know how he (Polanski) worked, so I was slightly taken aback. He's a total perfectionist but I'm really fond of him. He was an extraordinary director to work with and a great collaborator and he keeps you on your toes. The first day we shot for 22 hours. I looked at him and thought, 'F**k, I've got four months of this!'"
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Post by Ace on Feb 17, 2010 21:37:19 GMT -5
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Post by Ace on Feb 18, 2010 10:24:47 GMT -5
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Post by Ace on Feb 19, 2010 3:40:06 GMT -5
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Post by Ace on Feb 19, 2010 3:46:22 GMT -5
www.dailynews.com/moviesandtv/ci_14429557L.A. daily News: Pierce Brosnan, prime minister and 'horse's ass'By Rob Lowman, Staff Writer Updated: 02/18/2010 1 Of the four movies coming out in the next two months for Pierce Brosnan, he plays grieving fathers in two, a prime minister in one and then, as he says, a "horse's ass" in the fourth. The last refers to "Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief," which opened last weekend to $38.8 million, where the former James Bond has dual roles as a professor in the modern world and a centaur in the ancient world (hence the "horse's ass"). In "The Ghost Writer," which opens Friday in limited release, Brosnan takes on the role of slick former British prime minister, Adam Lang, who has hired a writer (Ewan McGregor) to finish his autobiography after another ghost writer has mysteriously died. The roles are a "bagatelle of goodies" says the 56-year-old actor, looking trim and suave enough to jump into the role of 007 again. Brosnan says he studied the mannerisms of both former Prime Minister Tony Blair and Conservative Party leader David Cameron for "The Ghost Writer." "Yes, I see the performance (in politicians)," says the Irish-born Brosnan. "They have to seduce the people. They have to manipulate. "Some of them have the greatest sincerity mindset, but you see them work it. You feel it. We're so used to it now because of the camera, because of TV, because we all see behind the curtain, because of reality shows, because it's our own psychoanalysis." Brosnan was in London when he received a call from the Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski, whose well-known legal troubles have kept him in Europe for more than 30 years. (He is currently under house arrest in Switzerland.) The actor took the train to Paris to meet with the director. A longtime fan of Polanski, citing early films such as "Chinatown," "Knife in the Water" and "Rosemary's Baby," Brosnan says he doesn't know why the director cast him in the film. "An Irishman playing an ex-British prime minister, but then again I have played James Bond and that has its own sweet irony." Since Polanski never left Europe, a German island near Poland doubled for Martha's Vineyard, where most of the film is set. Shooting was also done in Berlin, while a second unit was sent to London so McGregor could be filmed in the streets. Brosnan says watching the 76-year-old director work was a treat. "It was amazing working with him. He was always a hard taskmaster, a perfectionist. He has a fierce passion for filmmaking, and it is still connected to his artistic life. He sat beside the camera, and you don't get that anymore; so there was this real intimacy between us as actors and the director." The two agreed his character in "Ghost Writer" - which was adapted from the Robert Harris novel - wouldn't be based solely on Blair. However, the former Liberal Party prime minister is currently being dogged by an Iraq War inquiry, and in the movie Lang is being accused of war crimes, allowing torture; so the parallels for audiences will seem stronger. "Lang is a charismatic man but yet a puppet, somewhat of a populist who's in an extreme vortex of crisis at this time in his life," Brosnan notes. "There's a certain comedic element to this prime minister and a certain sadness to it. He knows it's a sham and he's been caught in this web of dissembling his own life. So I thought he was a good character to play starting with the premise of being an actor who gets caught up in this world of politics. He can go out and read a great speech, and play a great speech but doesn't have the true grit of politics or life." "The Ghost Writer" recently premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, where the Hollywood Reporter said about the actor's performance as Lang, "Brosnan gets the politician's arrogance perfectly as well as the duplicity lurking so close under the surface." An outspoken environmentalist, Brosnan, who lives in Malibu, has dealt with some real politicians to further that cause and others. "I've encountered a few up on Capitol Hill for nuclear disarmament. I've tried to rattle the cage of our Gov. Schwarzenegger for the old-growth trees." Brosnan became an American citizen in September 2004 so he could vote John Kerry against George W. Bush. "Five years ago, I couldn't stand by and not have a vote in this wonderful country that has been good to me and embraced me and given me a home and work." The actor and his wife, Keely Shaye Smith, are raising two sons - Dylan, 13 and Paris, 8. Brosnan has another grown son and two stepsons from his first marriage to Cassandra Harris, who died of ovarian cancer in 1991. For the moment, Brosnan will continue making films with the production company he began a dozen years ago. Over the years its turned out hits with "Evelyn," "The Thomas Crown Affair" and the comedic thriller "The Matador" for which Brosnan received a Golden Globe nomination as an alcoholic hitman. "I like producing, finding the material, working on that, putting the people together." One of the father roles he has taken on is in "The Greatest," about an affluent couple whose lives have been shattered when their oldest son is killed in a car crash and a young woman appears claiming that she is carrying their son's baby. "To get Carey Mulligan (the Oscar nominee who plays the young woman) and Susan Sarandon (who plays his wife), that I found exhilarating, gratifying. To find the young director like Shana Feste was great." The other father role is in a family tragedy "Remember Me," where Brosnan plays the father to "Twilight's" Robert Pattinson's estranged son. Up next for the ever-busy Brosnan is the indie film "Salvation Boulevard," which is supposed to start shooting in April. In the comedy, "I play a preacher of the mega-church and Greg Kinnear is my disciple and I'm going to help them find God." And though the actor wouldn't have minded doing a few more comedies throughout his career, the former Bond isn't ruling out jumping back into action films, the spy game in particular. "I think there may be one - maybe two - in there. I have a piece I really like ... . The script has come in and it's good - it falls in the realm of Bond and Bourne." "I'll be working until I'm 90," he says, laughing. ================================== With the article PHOTO GALLERY Photos by Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer dailynews.mycapture.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=947116&CategoryID=26371&ListSubAlbums=0
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Post by lotsofluck on Feb 19, 2010 8:24:58 GMT -5
There is a review in USAToday on line. I'm sorry, I'm too computer challenged to copy and paste it. It says this movie is having a limited release. Have you seen any info on where it will be showing?
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Post by Ace on Feb 19, 2010 13:37:08 GMT -5
There is a review in USAToday on line. I'm sorry, I'm too computer challenged to copy and paste it. It says this movie is having a limited release. Have you seen any info on where it will be showing? The info is online at the Official site (and my site ) which is supposed to update theater/release info when they have it. www.theghostwriter-movie.com/Feb 19: NYC and LA (4 theaters) Feb 26: Selected cities (aka major markets DC, Seattle, Boston, Chicago, San Diego etc) March 5th: expands - depends of course on how the film opened
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Post by Ace on Feb 19, 2010 13:39:10 GMT -5
Beware major spoilers in interview though they're marked off www.movieline.com/2010/02/pierce-brosnan-the-movieline-interview.phpMovieline: Pierce Brosnan on Visiting the End of the Road with Roman Polanski
Written by S.T. VanAirsdale | 19 Feb 2010 Pierce Brosnan has a unique take on the controversy surrounding Roman Polanski. On the one hand, it’s to be expected: Having played the deposed British prime minister Adam Lang in Polanski’s new thriller The Ghost Writer (opening today in limited release; going wide March 5), Brosnan is a little too close to the man for mere dogma. On the other, his perspective on the director is so refreshingly, infectiously admiring that it transcends judgment — a bracing tonic in an era when even the whisper of the name “Polanski” can instantly polarize a room. Despite a resume boasting four James Bond films, the global blockbuster Mamma Mia! and his recent reinvention as a sort of burnished indie statesman, by the end of 20 minutes with Brosnan you can’t help but wonder if Lang was the role he knows he was born to play. Not that the influential, embattled man under suspicion by everyone from his biographer (Ewan McGregor) to his equally suspicious wife (Olivia Williams) bore any resemblance to himself. But as Brosnan thoughtfully explained this week to Movieline, the timing and meaning of the thing proved an opportunity almost too good — and maybe even too valuable — to be true. How did this project come to you, and how did you determine that Adam Lang was your guy?I think if Roman Polanski had asked me to do the phone book, I would have said yes. It was Roman Polanski. It all starts and ends with Roman Polanski. The invitation intrigued me to no end. I was in London doing promotion for Mamma Mia!, and I got this call from my agent to go to Paris and meet Roman for lunch. And so I did. By this time I’d read the book and read the screenplay. The invitation was very intriguing. Of course I said, “Yes.” My first question to him was, “So am I playing Tony Blair?” He said, “No, no, no, no, you’re not playing Tony Blair.” And intellectually I knew I wasn’t. I knew this was an impressionistic interpretation of Tony Blair. In what ways did your own perception and feelings toward Blair inform that interpretation?In very little ways. The overall piece does so much for me as the actor. I do very little to perform like Tony Blair, or to sound like Tony Blair. But all roads lead to that one man — in the book, in the screenplay, and on the screen — because of the emblems of weapons of mass destruction or the Iraq War. Then there’s the characterization of Ruth Lang and her relationship to Adam Lang. You just see the echoes and similarities of the Blairs. You know as an actor that Robert Harris was good friends with the Blairs. So with all of this information I began to look at it more closely, and it felt almost like Shakespearean tragedy, or Jacobean tragedy — especially the part of Ruth, who emanates a sort of Lady Macbeth persona. Robert Harris once explained that all political careers essentially are tragedies — that they’re over very quickly, and after that your life is never the same. He has such a way with words. Every time we would do press junkets, I’d hear myself as the stuttering actor trying to formulate some intelligent, cohesive answer. But any political questions that came Robert’s way were so beautifully handled. Or, if they came to McGregor or Brosnan, we’d always decline to Mr. Robert Harris, erudite fellow that he is. [Long pause] The irony is that we find ourselves here opening this movie at the Berlinale. On one side of the curtain is Tony Blair and the Chilcot spotlight, and on the other side is Roman Polanski’s incarceration. So you have this vortex of life, drama and moviemaking sitting there for the whole world to see. Surely it’s a cinematic “what-if” story — a glorious question, beginning, middle and end. What if a British prime minister was inveigled into the CIA? It’s a huge “what if.” The buzz for this film without Polanski around is so strange, the kind of effect we expect from reclusive filmmakers or maybe a posthumous release. Polanski seems like a ghost himself. How might that affect the way people receive The Ghost Writer?Well, I’ve only been part of one presentation at Berlin, and that was front-row and center. The world press was there. The press conference was a full-court press. I have never seen the likes of it. Even having played James Bond, in my first introduction to that character all those years ago, I’ve never seen the likes of what we saw in Berlin. I can only go by the reviews and the reception that have been overtured toward the film, and they’ve been very positive. And I do believe the film works in the most glorious Polanski way. All the ingredients and life history and force of him as a storyteller and a cinematic director are quivering at full force here. What exactly does the “Polanski Way” mean to you — as both an actor and a viewer?I think he invests so much of his own legend and turmoil of life into the choice of each film that he makes. That he can examine what it’s like to be on the run, to be an outsider. What it’s like to be in close quarters with relationships with people. The somewhat perverse observation of characters on the landscape. You always come up against the claustrophobic world in a Roman Polanski movie. There seems to be no air left in the room. There’s no road left for these characters. Yet they’re always on the road, on a passage in life, going from one dramatic moment in their lives to the next. When I did the movie, I’d never seen Knife in the Water or Repulsion. So I went back and saw them, sitting there in my hotel room on cold winter evenings. They were staggeringly potent pieces of film by this young man. The other one I watched was Tess. I’d seen it when it first came out. It was just gorgeous — the prevalence of weather and how he uses it. How he uses the slight gesture of minor characters, and the repetition of their presence in scenes that are absolutely the high sea of the main character’s life. What I mean by that is, as in Tess, you see them man clipping the hedge, clipping the hedge. The clipping — the sound of clippers — on the hedge becomes this subtext of anxiety for the character. You see the man sweeping the leaves in The Ghost Writer — constantly sweeping the leaves, trying to put them in the wheelbarrow, and they keep blowing away. They keep blowing away! And these rather mild observations by this central character become this foreboding presence. Even the location — this angular, exiled beach house in winter — speaks a lot to the public figure Polanski has become.I read the book and I read the screenplay, and I had this image of the house. But the shock of seeing it was something else. Going to Babelsberg sound stage that day to enter into that set was like going into this Bauhaus bunker of meaningless art. The staircase comes out of the wall like knives. You could fall off the precipice at any time. It was a dangerous stage to be on. There wasn’t even a banister. Right? It’s supposed to Lang’s safe haven, yet there’s peril in every room, around every corner.
There’s no joy or love. There’s no sense of the human heart there. There’s just desolation. And at the end of the movie, it’s on a par with Chinatown. That desolation of character and landscape is something he does brilliantly. And certainly the two endings in the street have similar echoes. [SPOILERS FOLLOW] [SPOILERS FOLLOW] [SPOILERS FOLLOW]Of course, by the end of the film, your character is long gone. Having not been there to observe those last few incredible set-ups, what was your reaction seeing that ending for the first time?
I just couldn’t breathe. The passing of that note is just an exquisitely executed piece of drama. Olivia’s close-up and that whole conclusion of what “the beginnings” mean was spellbinding. Utterly spellbinding. You think he gets away, and even though I’d read the script, I thought he got away. Then the eyes of the hunter are upon him. Then there’s the image of Adam Lang — the overseeing, all-prevailing eye of Adam Lang is throughout, on all the books and behind her shoulder. [Laughs] It was brilliant. Just brilliant. As you know, the book doesn’t finish that way particularly, and my character’s demise doesn’t finish that way. The letter-like intensity with which I go out and with which the piece crescendos is… I don’t know. It’s Polanski. They keep saying Hitchcock, but it’s Polanski. [SPOILERS END][SPOILERS END][SPOILERS END][SPOILERS END]Ghost Writer and Remember Me cap a pretty prolific and very eclectic streak of roles for you, I guess starting with The Matador (right) and going through Married Life, Mamma Mia!, The Greatest, Percy Jackson, and now this. How do you choose roles? What are you looking for?It’s just… I want to do as much as I can with the time I’ve got. I want to explore the world of performance and acting. Bond gave me so much of my life as a salable commodity and an international name, and that is to be valued — to give one at least some longevity as an actor, and the opportunity to make eclectic choices and play characters where you can be an unexpected surprise. You can often trace a thematic continuity in actors’ choices. Would “surprise” be yours?Well, I have to work. I want to work. I love to work. I mean, I don’t want to go back to workshops. I don’t want to go try out my chops. I’d rather find a piece like The Greatest, which is well-founded by a young woman like [writer-director] Shana Feste, and bring in Susan Sarandon and Carey Mulligan and go out there and work. I’d rather explore my place as an actor rather than wait for someone to come give it to me. Nobody would have given me The Matador if someone else had had it. [Brosnan co-produced both The Greatest and The Matador. - Ed.] So having my own company — and having a partnership with someone like Beaumarie St. Clair, who really thinks and works like a producer — allows me to go and explore other avenues of myself. I was trained as an actor and taught to believe at a very young age that I could be anything and do anything, and then you find yourself painted into a corner by your own image or persona. Now’s the time to challenge myself and go do some acting.
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Post by formermi6agent on Feb 19, 2010 13:54:05 GMT -5
And though the actor wouldn't have minded doing a few more comedies throughout his career, the former Bond isn't ruling out jumping back into action films, the spy game in particular. I hope he does another action blockbuster soon......something that will blow GoldenEye right out of the water. Does he mean a realistic action movie with a gritty feel?
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Post by Ace on Feb 19, 2010 13:57:57 GMT -5
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/19/PKEN1BVN98.DTLEwan McGregor fleshes out 'Ghost Writer'
Michael Ordoña, Special to The ChronicleFriday, February 19, 2010 Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer" is a taut thriller that addresses one of the central concerns of any democracy, the accountability of its leaders, dangling as its central political piñata a thinly veiled Tony Blair - as thinly veiled as a T-shirt on a waterboarded detainee. The former British prime minister is handled as roughly as any world leader since perhaps Saddam Hussein in the "South Park" movie. "Well, I was always quite happy with that," says star Ewan McGregor of the obvious parallels, but points out that savaging Blair is not the film's be-all and end-all. "Although it criticizes him, it's saying our politicians, especially those who hold the highest office, should still be accountable for their actions and not above the law. In Great Britain last week, Tony Blair had to sit before a panel and answer questions about decisions he made that took us into the Iraq war in the first place. "I don't know what'll happen with that ultimately, or whether it will help the pain of families who have lost kids in that war. But I think it's right. And I would like very much to see Bush facing a panel and to hear his explanations about the decisions he made that took America into that war." In the film, McGregor plays an unnamed ghost writer hired to revivify the moribund memoirs of Blair doppelganger Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan), now essentially in exile in America, flanked by his beautiful, smarter wife, Ruth (a formidable Olivia Williams), and assistant/mistress Amelia (Kim Cattrall). Lang's previous collaborator on the book, a longtime associate, has died unexpectedly. As McGregor's character, the Ghost, fleshes out the politician's life story, and as calls increase for Lang to be investigated by The Hague for abetting CIA torture of detainees, the writer stumbles onto dangerous secrets. Acclaimed novel Based on Robert Harris' acclaimed novel "The Ghost," and co-written by Harris and Polanski, the film is no diatribe. It's full of suspense and mordant wit ("I have to go," says the writer as he wades through angry mobs outside Lang's compound. "Some peace protesters are trying to kill me."). It is also populated by complex characters, including Lang, whose anti-terrorism concerns cannot be easily dismissed. "Lang makes a very interesting point about security lines in airports," says McGregor. In his defense, the ex-PM suggests "having one line where there's been no information gathered under torture and no security checks have been made, and another line where every piece of information has been gained using whatever methods, and see which one the people who complain about such things would put their children on." Film language To prepare for working with the storied - now embattled - filmmaker (calling from Berlin, the actor laments the director's absence at the film's premiere), McGregor watched most of Polanski's oeuvre: "It gives you an idea of his film language and the kind of unease he wants to create. 'The Pianist' is quite classically shot. Something like 'Cul-de-Sac' is closer to our film. He uses very wide lenses; he never uses anything more than a 35mm lens, really. So the close-ups are shot with the camera being really, really close to your face. Nowadays, most directors use long lenses - the camera and crew are miles away but you're in close-up; it makes the background go out of focus and it's a very beautiful look. Whereas the wide lens, close to your face, tends to give a slightly eerie quality. It makes the audience feel that you're really close up in a way that makes you unsettled." When it came to preparing his part, McGregor says that while there was "not a great deal of information" about his nameless character, that was no bar. "He's a very well-written character on paper. Although we don't know much about his past, it doesn't stop us from seeing who he is now, I think," he says, giving immense credit to his director for the performance and calling "The Ghost Writer" definitively "a Roman Polanski movie. He is a true maestro of the film world." Having previously noted the director's penchant for giving actors sometimes bizarre but effective notes, McGregor singles out an early scene with a publisher, Roy, who would rather Lang's camp not select the Ghost for the job. "Lang's lawyer asks me if I use a gym, and I say, 'No.' He says, 'That's a shame, Adam Lang likes to work out.' And then Roy says, 'Actually, I know a writer in the Guardian who uses a gym.' It's a very funny, cutting line and everyone looks at him. "But Polanski - this is our day one and we've been acting over 20 hours at this point and everyone's looked at each other, going, 'We've got four months of this?' And he went to the actor playing Roy (Tim Preece) and said," McGregor slips into a sly but strangely feeling Polanski imitation, " 'I'd like you to be a little moooved when you say that line.' We all looked at each other and thought, 'Well, that was an odd note.' And then we did the take and Roy said, 'Actually, I ... I know a writer in the Guardian ... who uses a gym,' and he looked a bit close to tears. "It was the funniest, weirdest reading of the line. It was brilliant. I'm not sure anybody really understood, or even (Preece) understood, why Polanski had asked him to do it, but it was just brilliant. It was just an interesting color. Sometimes you think it's purely on a whim, he's like a child who gets an idea in his mind and he follows it through. And other times, you wonder whether it's actually genius. You don't know with Polanski sometimes." {sbox} The Ghost Writer (PG-13) opens Friday at Bay Area theaters. To see a trailer for "The Ghost Writer," go to links.sfgate.com/ZJGI. Ewan McGregor Born: March 31, 1971, in Crieff, Scotland.Personal: Parents were schoolteachers and brother is a Royal Air Force pilot. Married; has three daughters. Uncle Denis Lawson is known to "Star Wars" fans as Wedge Antilles from the original trilogy. Why we care: Transformed Obi-Wan Kenobi in our minds into a dangerous, spectacular presence while maintaining his stout Guinness roots. He's a motorcycle enthusiast, and two of his epic rides formed the bases of the British shows "Long Way Round" and "Long Way Down." Resume builders: He first emerged in Danny Boyle's "Shallow Grave" (1994), but he became a star in Boyle's heroin opus "Trainspotting" (1996). Other notable fare includes "The Pillow Book" (1996), "Velvet Goldmine" (1998) and "Young Adam" (2003). He has been in stylized romantic comedies ("Down With Love"), stylized romantic musicals ("Moulin Rouge") and stylized memory stories ("Big Fish"), as well as one of the grittiest war movies yet made, "Black Hawk Down." Outside the biz: Is active with UNICEF and GO Campaign. Quotable: On boning up on Polanski's films before working with him: "The ones I was familiar with were 'Macbeth' and 'Rosemary's Baby.' And 'The Fearless Vampire Killers' I knew and loved very much when I was a kid. I went back and realized I had a very close connection with one of his short films called 'Two Men and a Wardrobe.' "
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Post by Ace on Feb 19, 2010 17:06:25 GMT -5
www.nj.com/entertainment/movies/index.ssf/2010/02/ghost_writer_star_ewan_mcgregor_cements_reputation_as_an_actor_unafraid_to_take_chances.htmlThe Star-Ledger: 'Ghost Writer' star Ewan McGregor cements reputation as an actor unafraid to take chancesBy Stephen Whitty February 19, 2010, 3:16PM Ewan McGregor achieved mainstream success in the "Star Wars" films, but he still seeks to challenge himself with daring roles.Ewan McGregor has been talking for about 20 minutes. He has been talking for days, actually, promoting his new film, “The Ghost Writer,” in London, in Paris. Just the night before, he was on a plane coming back from Berlin. So, a reporter asks him during a small group interview: Has there been a little more pressure promoting this particular film? “It’s slightly more stressful than doing press for other films,” McGregor says, with a smile that’s more of a wince. “A little bit,” he adds with some sarcastic emphasis. “Yeah.” That’s because “The Ghost Writer,” which opened Friday, is the most recent film — and, if some people had their way, perhaps the last film — by Roman Polanski, a fugitive from American justice, currently facing extradition from Switzerland. And the director’s case remains a thorny topic. The film itself is great, and the fine cast — which includes McGregor in the title role and Pierce Brosnan as a politician trying to make a few quick millions off his memoirs — is eager to talk about it. The auteur’s legal troubles, though — those remain taboo. Eventually, McGregor mumbles his way through some comment about “Roman’s situation,” which is “a tricky thing.” He pauses and looks around the table. “I just introduced the topic for you, there you are,” he announces, almost sounding relieved. But instead of pursuing it, the journalists at the table shy away, skittishly, and go back to their prepared questions. They don’t want to tackle the subject either. The topic is not raised again. Yet it’s an important one and fiercely relevant to this film’s success. “The Ghost Writer” is a terrific political thriller, full of its famous director’s signature style and grim humor. But will audiences see past the artist and appreciate the art? Should they even try? “It’s very, very difficult issue,” McGregor admits later, sitting in his hotel room. “I worked with him incredibly intensely over four months and was left feeling very fond of Roman. I was sad for him that he was arrested. I was sad for his kids, whom I got to know. I would like very much, for everybody involved, that things are rectified quickly.” “So,” he says after a breath, “should people separate the artist from the art? I decided to work with Roman because I wanted to work with him as a filmmaker; that was my decision. But I wouldn’t be someone who’d say that people should think one way or the other. I would never dream of it. People need to make their own minds up.” If people can’t separate the film from the filmmaker, and decide to stay home — and some will — they’ll miss seeing a director at the top of his game. Lushly scored, immaculately shot (“he’s a total perfectionist,” the actor says), the movie follows McGregor on a journey that begins in uncertainty and ends in paranoia. But is it paranoia if they really are out to get you? It was a long and not particularly easy shoot, and the discomfort the characters felt was sometimes mirrored by the actors. Polanski, McGregor says, was “picky, picky, picky,” often spending time rearranging props, brusquely correcting his camera team, or even — an actor’s least favorite thing — telling the stars exactly how to act. “Not a great way of working,” McGregor admits. “But I didn’t mind it with Roman. First of all, he’s got a thick Polish accent — there’s no way I could say any line the way he read it! And second, he’s such an amazing director — really, I wasn’t going to ask him to do it any differently. Towards the very end of the shoot, I did ask him not to act out some bit of business for me, to let me find it myself. And he was fine with that. But it took me 3½ months to pluck up that courage!” McGregor, 38, isn’t easily intimidated, either. He has circled the world, twice, on a BMW motorcycle — and worked for an eclectic gang of perfectionist directors, from Peter Greenaway to Woody Allen, Tim Burton to Baz Luhrmann. He has faced demanding British theater critics, taking on roles in “Othello” and “Guys and Dolls” — and risked the fiery wrath of fanboys by playing the young Obi-Wan Kenobi in the “Star Wars” sequels. And, when the part has called for it — and for McGregor, it frequently seems to have — he’s done it naked, in full-frontal nude scenes in films from “Trainspotting” to “Young Adam.” (“I’ve been naked in some of the films I’ve been in because they reflect life,” he says patiently, answering the question at a roundtable for the hundredth time. “And in life, people are naked.”) Polanski may have kept him a little off-balance on the set. But off the set, McGregor’s confidence is pretty secure. Dropping into Acting He was born in Crieff, Scotland, the son of two teachers (and, coincidentally, the nephew of Denis Lawson, who played Wedge Antilles in the original “Star Wars”). But the teenage McGregor was so miserable in school, his parents encouraged him to drop out and enroll in acting classes instead; he made his professional debut at 22, in the BBC miniseries “Lipstick on Your Collar.” The really big break came the next year, with “Shallow Grave,” Danny Boyle’s wicked thriller about three murderous roommates. It was a hip, surprising piece of filmmaking, and the team followed it up three years later with “Trainspotting,” an amazing drama that wed the positive, high-energy style of “A Hard Day’s Night” to the heroin-infected nihilism of the post-punk U.K. “I thank my lucky stars, the people I’ve worked with,” McGregor says. “I started off with Danny, one of the best. I think we had a very special relationship as an actor and a director. I think there was something unique about that.” McGregor and Boyle went on to make the less successful “A Life Less Ordinary” (and quarrel when Boyle went with Leonardo DiCaprio, the studio choice, for the lead in “The Beach”). But McGregor continued to succeed, and surprise — following up the explicit “The Pillow Book” with the delightful “Emma,” the glam-rock “Velvet Goldmine” with the intergalactic “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.” That picture, and its sequels, brought McGregor — and his spot-on vocal impersonation of original star Alec Guinness — to hundreds of millions of fans. And yet McGregor used that fame (and his new fortune) to pursue challenging, controversial parts — just as he had when he was young and unknown. “Dark and edgy, I’ve always liked that,” he admits. “I was talking to a film company (early in my career), a British one — and they were talking about a very not dark and edgy piece of work, and I was talking about being interested in dark and edgy work. And they were, ‘Sometimes you have to do the lighter stuff to get to that,’ and I was ‘Where’s the other stuff? Send me that instead.’ ” Yet if his first choice in roles is the offbeat and abnormal, McGregor’s family life is refreshingly straightforward. He and his wife, Eve, celebrate their 15th anniversary this July. They have three daughters, one adopted from Mongolia. Comfort Zone Although McGregor is famously private about his family, he uncharacteristically opens up now. Perhaps his defenses are down, after so many interviews. Perhaps he’s just grateful not to be facing any more questions about Polanski’s legal case. “We try very hard to keep their life as ordinary as possible,” he says. “Our girls know what I do, but they’re pretty matter of fact about it. I don’t show them all my stuff, believe me. I certainly haven’t shown them ‘Pillow Book’— God, it’s scary just thinking about that! ‘Trainspotting,’ they’re not going to see that for a long time. I did show them the scene of me going down the toilet in that film; they thought it was funny. I tried to show ‘Moulin Rouge!’ to my two 8-year-olds, but halfway through, they decided it was too sad. So we had to give up on that one.” The family has homes in London and Los Angeles. McGregor says he’s come to appreciate America. “People here seem to be quite happy for your success,” he says. “ ‘Ah, you’re doing well, good for you!’ Back home it’s more, ‘You think you’re all that, do you?’ I don’t know if it’s really a British quality, or a British media quality. It’s hard to untangle the two, and British journalism, it’s the worst in the world sometimes. But there is a sense of ‘Who do you think you are?’ It used to happen in the olden days, when I’d go out drinking with my mates. It would invariably end with someone trying to have a fight with me.” He laughs. “Of course, that may have had more to do with the alcohol than anything else.” McGregor, who once admitted to a drinking problem, says he’s been sober for a decade. (Another thing he’s given up, recently, are a few of his trademark moles; two years ago, one under his eye was found to be cancerous.) So, instead of going out for pints with the lads, he tends to his family, travels for UNICEF, rides his beloved motorcycle — and works, in as many varied projects as he can find. “I really don’t have any kind of game plan,” he says. “I’m fortunate enough to take things on a bit of a whim, and sometimes I feel like doing smaller-budgeted stuff. Like when I did ‘Young Adam,’ I’d come off ‘Black Hawk Down’ and ‘The Island’ and I really just felt like being on a small film set. I wanted to be on something intimate. I’m lucky enough, financially, I don’t feel obliged to always have to go for the bigger stuff.” So, 2009 brought not only the papal pulp of “Angels & Demons” and the big biopic “Amelia,” but also the oddball “The Men Who Stare at Goats.” This year will see not only the release of “The Ghost Writer” but also the much-delayed gay romance “I Love You Phillip Morris.” Meanwhile, there’s still some final post-production work to do on “Beginners,” a low-budget drama with Melanie Laurent from “Inglourious Basterds” and the tireless, 80-year-old Christopher Plummer — playing McGregor’s suddenly out-of-the-closet father. “Oh, he’s brilliant, isn’t he?” enthuses McGregor. “He’s a diamond. A diamond. I tell you, that’s what I really want. When I grow up? I want to be Christopher Plummer.” Although actually, being Ewan McGregor doesn’t seem to be too bad a job at all.
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Post by Ace on Feb 20, 2010 9:54:55 GMT -5
news.ph.msn.com/top-stories/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3891475Agence France-Presse: Polanski, Russian, Romanian films tipped in Berlin2-20-10 Roman Polanski's political thriller "The Ghost Writer" and gritty dramas from Romania and Russia were tipped as favourites to win the Golden Bear top prize Saturday at the 60th Berlin Film Festival. Polanski, Russian, Romanian films tipped in Berlin Polanski, Russian, Romanian films tipped in Berlin A seven-member jury led by German director Werner Herzog ("Fitzcarraldo") and including Oscar-winning actress Renee Zellweger are to crown the best of 20 features vying for the coveted award at a glittering ceremony at 1830 GMT. A critics' poll in industry magazine Screen showed the Polanski film neck-and-neck with the Russian drama "How I Ended This Summer", set at a remote Arctic weather station, and "If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle" about the inmates of a grim Romanian youth prison. A separate survey of German reviewers in the Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel also showed the three pictures faring well in a strong year for eastern European film-making. Polanski missed out on the world premiere of his picture at the Berlinale, the first major international cinema showcase of the year, due to his house arrest in Switzerland for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977. But critics showered the movie with praise, calling it a return to form for the 76-year-old French-Polish film-maker, best known for classics such as "Rosemary's Baby" and "Chinatown". "Mr Polanski is a master of menace," New York Times critic Manohla Dargis said in a glowing review Friday for the film's US release. "He creates a wholly believable world rich in strange contradictions and ominous implications. He's delivering the pulpy fun at such a high level that 'The Ghost Writer' is irresistible, no matter now obvious the twists." The picture, based on Robert Harris' best-seller "The Ghost", features a stand-out performance by Pierce Brosnan as a former British prime minister modelled on Tony Blair being probed for war crimes over the torture of terror suspects. He hires a ghost writer (Ewan McGregor), who remains nameless throughout the movie, to shape up his memoirs but the hired scribe soon stumbles upon a deadly web of transatlantic political intrigue. "How I Ended This Summer" is the second solo feature film for Russia's Alexej Popogrebski, 37, tracks two men working at an island polar station, an intern and an experienced meteorologist. When the intern is given the message that his colleague's wife and child have been killed on the mainland, he makes a fateful decision to withhold the news. "It starts off at near glacial pace and then rolls to a suspenseful boil without ever resorting to cheap thriller tricks," Variety magazine said, praising the film's stunning landscapes and restrained performances. "The picture just works as a terrific exploration of human fragility." "If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle" is the debut feature by Florin Serban, a 35-year-old film-maker who is riding a wave of international acclaim for young Romanian cinema. His cast is made up primarily of amateurs, including George Pistereanu, a Bucharest high school student who went through intensive drama training to play a tormented delinquent. "Pistereanu moves beyond the stubborn rebelliousness of his character to convey intuitively not only the vulnerability but also the despondency of an 18-year-old who has not yet learned the meaning of the word 'consequences'," Screen critic Dan Fainaru wrote. But Berlin prizes are notoriously unpredictable and respected entries such as "Honey" from Turkey or the Bosnian contender "On The Path" could also triumph. Earlier Saturday, the festival announced that the US comedy "The Kids Are All Right" starring Julianne Moore and Annette Bening as a lesbian couple whose children seek out their sperm donor won the Teddy prize for best gay movie.
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Post by Andrea on Feb 20, 2010 13:58:40 GMT -5
A silver bear for Roman Polanski at the Berlinale Best direction
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Post by Ace on Feb 20, 2010 15:52:53 GMT -5
www.variety.com/article/VR1118015537.html?categoryid=3534&cs=1&nid=2562&Polanski, 'Honey' top Berlin Director wins Silver Bear for 'Ghost Writer' By ED MEZA Roman Polanski was named best director at the Berlin International Film Festival on Saturday for his controversial political thriller "The Ghost Writer," while the Golden Bear for best pic went to Semih Kaplanoglu's Turkish-German film "Honey." Producers Robert Benmussa and Alain Sarde accepted the Silver Bear for Polanski, who is currently under house arrest at his chalet in Switzerland awaiting possible extradition to the U.S. "As I told Roman how sorry I was that he could not be here, he said he probably would not have come anyway. 'The last time I went to a film festival I ended up in jail,' he told me," Sarde said. The 76-year-old filmmaker is wanted by Los Angeles prosecutors for fleeing the U.S. in 1978 after pleading guilty to having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl. Florin Serban's Romanian film "If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle," about an 18-year-old who is about to be released from a juvenile detention center but is pushed over the limit by the reappearance of his deadbeat mom, took both the Jury Grand Prix Silver Bear as well as the Alfred Bauer Prize. Russian helmer Alexej Popogrebski celebrated two Silver Bears wins for "How I Ended This Summer": Grigori Dobrygin and Sergei Puskepalis shared best actor kudos for the film, about two men stranded in a polar station on a remote island in the Arctic Ocean, and cinematographer Pavel Kostomarov won the Outstanding Artistic Contribution Silver Bear for his camera work. The Silver Bear for best actress went to Shinobu Terajima for Japanese drama "Caterpillar." Wang Quanan and Na Jin won the Silver Bear for screenplay for Quanan's "Apart Together," which opened this year's fest. "This was the coldest Berlinale I've ever experienced, but in the theater, it was definitely the warmest that I've ever experienced," said Quanan, who dedicate the film, about the division of a nation and lost lovers trying to reunite after more than half a century, to the city of Berlin. The Best First Feature Award went to Babak Najafi for his Swedish Generation screener "Sebbe," about a troubled teen who inadvertently builds a bomb. Despite few standout films this year, the 60th Berlinale is expected to set an attendance record with some 300,000 admissions likely to be sold by the end of the fest on Sunday. Although German titles failed to win any major awards this year, the fest was yet another success for the local industry. Both "Ghost Writer" and "Honey," the story of a small boy and his family in Turkey's mountainous northeastern province of Rize, are German coproductions. Indeed, as he accepted Polanski's award, Benmussa thanked Germany's federal and regional funders, without which the film would not have been possible, as well as Studio Babelsberg, where the pic shot. The Teddy Awards for queer film, announced earlier on Saturday, went to Lisa Cholodenko's Competition screener "The Kids Are All Right," which stars Julianne Moore and Annette Bening as a lesbian couple whose family is turned upside down by their sperm donor. Italian helmer Pietro Marcello's Forum title "The Mouth of the Wolf," a Genoa love story about a transsexual and her longtime partner, took the documentary prize, while actor-filmmaker James Franco, who appeared in Golden Bear contender "Howl," won for his short, "The Feast of Stephen," inspired by Anthony Hecht's homoerotic poem. Franco was among a slew of international celebs that generated plenty of star wattage throughout the icy, 11-day event, among them Pierce Brosnan, Jackie Chan, Shah Rukh Khan, Gerard Depardieu, Ewan McGregor, Gael Garcia Bernal, Leonardo DiCaprio, Isabelle Adjani, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams and Ben Stiller. For a complete list of the Berlinale winners, visit www.berlinale.de.
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Post by Lauryn on Feb 20, 2010 16:18:27 GMT -5
After seeing the "told you he was funny" clip I'm madly in love already! You can see the ensemble really click. I'm starting to think, after reading some of the more rapturous reviews, that the main thing that may disappoint me will be the relative lack of more scenes with Pierce.
It's near agony not being able to see it right now. If only I could get to NYC. Ace, do you have room in your apartment, or did you buy a big screen TV? <wink>
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Post by Ace on Feb 21, 2010 1:28:10 GMT -5
Plenty of room - well enough for you and my modest 26 inch flat screen (of course back in the dark ages of my child hood that would have been immense!) But I might not be able to wrangle you a ticket until a weekday - or maybe an 11am showing. For those who have to wait: more clips and some b-roll stuff at Movie Set www.movieset.com/the-ghost-writer/videos?vd=embed
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Post by Ace on Feb 21, 2010 11:59:15 GMT -5
ercboxoffice.com/index.php?section=news&subsection=show_news_details&news_id=259In limited release, Summit's "The Ghost Writer" delivered a top notch bow in just four theatres, grossing $179,000. The Roman Polanski film averaged $44,750--tops in the marketplace. Edit: Actuals: $183,009 / $45,752Fri: $48,671 Sat: $70,038 Sun: $64,300 ==================================== So it'll at least expand into the top 10 markets next week. Hopefully Summit can expand this better than they did Hurt Locker. And I'm still scratching my head why Summit thought they had to make GH rated PG-13 by dubbing out f***. Do they really think there's a kid audience for the film? Do they think a rated R thriller can't make money (um - Shutter Island just made $40m opening weekend)? Idiotic.
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Post by SecondWind on Feb 22, 2010 15:36:51 GMT -5
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Post by Ace on Feb 22, 2010 16:24:57 GMT -5
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