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Movie Preview: Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman in Invictus

BuzzSugar — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:30:12 PDT

Hope you haven't OD'd on Matt Damon yet! Just yesterday I showed you a preview of his upcoming Jason Bourne-esque action flick, Green Zone and today we get a peek at Invictus. In the upcoming film from Clint Eastwood, Damon stars as a Francois Pienaar, real-life member of South Africa's rugby team who's summoned by Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) to rally support in the country and unite the racial divide.

I love Matt Damon, but I'm actually more interested in Freeman's performance in Invictus. It looks like one well-done biopic, and it's obviously Freeman's Oscar film - although I'm sure Damon doing an accent could translate into a nomination for him around awards time, too. (Not to mention that many things Eastwood touches turn to Oscar nods).

Warning: If cheering crowd scenes and African singing often play with your emotions, you may get goose bumps while watching this preview. Check it out, and tell me what you think when you

Buzz In: What Biopics Have You Enjoyed?

BuzzSugar — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:30:31 PDT

The reviews for Amelia have been kind of dismal, including my own, quieting the Oscar buzz that had surrounded it before it was released. It's not a strange situation for a biopic to be in - many movies about people's lives are so ambitious that sometimes they end up boring and overlong.

The award-baiting flicks can also be very entertaining - Walk the Line and Amadeus number among my favorites because they're enjoyable and compelling. I also love those about powerful icons (Malcolm X), and sometimes, the more obscure the cultural icon, the better (Man on the Moon, Searching for Bobby Fischer).

And of course, there are ones I've sat through that have been a bit boring, despite their accolades (cough, Ray, cough) - or missed the mark, like the Bob Dylan-based disappointment I'm Not There.

But there are still plenty of great biopics that have come out of Hollywood - which ones have you liked?

Buzz In: Who Should Play Frank Sinatra in Scorsese's Biopic?

BuzzSugar — Thu, 14 May 2009 05:50:42 PDT

Who better to direct a biopic about the famous blue-eyed Italian-American entertainer Frank Sinatra than Martin Scorsese? This is the kind of movie news that's so "just right" it makes me wonder why it hasn't happened before. Here's more on the project, titled simply, Sinatra:

The deal comes after years of negotiations with Frank Sinatra Enterprises, a joint venture of the crooner's estate and Warner Music Group. One major obstacle was the internal politics of the estate, where family members had to come to consensus on how to tell the story and, more importantly, just how much of the story to tell.

Raised during the Depression, [Sinatra] built a singing career that weathered many changes in popular culture, all while he racked up 31 gold records and countless other honors. He also had a successful career as an actor, proving naysayers wrong by earning an Oscar for From Here to Eternity. His personal life was just as eventful. He suffered from depression and a bipolar disorder, was alleged to have connections to organized crime and was married four times, including to actresses Ava Gardner and Mia Farrow.

Now the big question remains: What modern-day actor can appropriately portray Sinatra, one of America's most famous singers? Who's got the charm and presence, a bit of an edge at times, and most of all, those mesmerizing eyes? Who would you cast?

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Run-DMC to Get the Notorious Treatment

BuzzSugar — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 11:30:57 PST

Having written the screenplay for the Notorious B.I.G. movie, writer Cheo Hodari Coker is now gearing up to bring more rap stars' lives to the big screen. He's signed on to adapt Bill Adler's book Tougher Than Leather: The Rise of Run-DMC - The Authorized Biography for film which "will explore the history of hip-hop's first superstars: Joseph 'Run' Simmons, Darryl 'DMC' McDaniels and Jason 'Jam Master Jay' Mizell, who was shot to death in his Queens studio in 2002." Here's more:

With such hits as "It's Like That," "It's Tricky," "My Adidas" and "Walk This Way," Run-DMC exploded from the Queens neighborhood of Hollis onto the international stage with the help of future mogul Russell Simmons, Rev. Run's brother. An early MTV staple, the group influenced much of rap's future royalty.

"It's an extraordinary rags-to-riches journey that I'm eager to bring to the screen," [producer Dallas] Jackson said. "And I'm hoping to have Run, DMC and Russell Simmons' involvement. This will be a big movie about the 1980s hip-hop movement that took over the world."

I gotta say, this is a story I'm genuinely intrigued to see play out in biopic form, especially in this day and age when we can look back and see how hip-hop would be a totally different scene without these guys. Do you think this project sounds interesting? Are there other major players in music history who you'd like to see get a movie of their own?

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Milk: Deeply Moving, Difficult, and Worthwhile

BuzzSugar — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 12:30:58 PST

"I know that you cannot live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living." - Harvey Milk

The story of gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk had a huge impact on me a few years ago when I first watched the Oscar-winning documentary about him, The Times of Harvey Milk. His is truly a stranger-than-fiction tale and is so full of inspiration, absurdity, and absolute heartache that it's somewhat surprising it has taken this long to create a feature-length dramatization of his life and death. I respect director Gus Van Sant's decision to memorialize and honor Harvey Milk with his movie Milk, and to my great relief, Van Sant and his exceptional ensemble cast have done Milk's story justice.

Milk picks up Harvey Milk's life when Milk (Sean Penn) meets one of the great loves of his life, Scott Smith (portrayed by James Franco) and decides to move from New York City to San Francisco. There, the two open a camera store in the heart of the Castro, a neighborhood with a rapidly growing gay population, and there Milk begins his life as a leader of the gay rights movement in the 1970s. After trying and failing twice, he is finally elected to San Francisco's Board of Supervisors in 1977, largely due to the support of the gay community. For the first time, it becomes apparent that the gay community could be a powerful one, and Milk often emphasizes this during his time in city hall. As the country's first openly gay man to be elected to public office, Milk brings the gay rights movement to the city's attention as much as possible, earning him admiration and support along with many enemies - including his ultimate enemy, fellow supervisor Dan White (Josh Brolin). For more about this and my thoughts on it all,

read more. Dan White is a good ol' Christian boy who feels threatened by and resentful of Harvey Milk's success. Josh Brolin, who is fast becoming one of the most fascinating actors in Hollywood, simply morphs into this insecure and fearful man who gradually becomes unhinged. His fate and that of Harvey Milk are tragically linked in history forever, and frankly, it's disturbing to see Dan White brought to life on screen, especially after seeing all the actual footage of him in the documentary. The rest of the cast is equally remarkable: Franco makes for a loving, sympathetic Smith, and Emile Hirsch is captivating as Milk's young activist protégé Cleve Jones. Allison Pill is always an undeniably strong presence on screen and her depiction of Milk's sole female team member, Anne Kronenberg, is no different. Diego Luna plays one of Milk's lovers, Jack Lira, with equal parts bright beauty and troubling instability. Most of all, Penn's portrayal of this charismatic, resilient, and good-humored pioneer will surely earn him some well-deserved accolades and awards. This project is remarkably ambitious. There are so many intersecting aspects of Milk's career, activism, and personal life, it's enough to make one's head spin. Add to this Van Sant's decision to incorporate actual footage from the '70s into his dramatized story, and you've got yourself a crazy, giant puzzle to put together. But the actual footage is crucial in this case, consistently reminding us that though this seems like fiction at times - especially now, to modern audiences - this is a true story. Interestingly, one "character" (so to speak), the outspoken fundamentalist Christian singer Anita Bryant, is not played by any actress (though at first glance I thought for sure it was Marcia Gay Harden). Instead, her entire part in Milk's story is shown through real footage - which only makes her behavior that much more staggering. This directorial choice seamlessly blends the reality of Harvey Milk's actual life with the staging of his life by the director and cast. Overall, I can’t express enough how much I applaud and admire Van Sant’s accomplishment here. It's a complicated and deeply emotional story, and the entire production - Van Sant, screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, the whole cast - carried a tremendous responsibility to get this thing right and the result is a dignified homage. I highly recommend watching the documentary first, as there was an effervescence and a beautiful light to the real Harvey Milk that no actor, not even the great Sean Penn, can capture. Both the documentary and this new film may leave you speechless and/or weepy. But his is a worthwhile story to tell and if this grand-scale production with heavy-hitting actors and a talented director gets his story out there, all the better. Photos courtesy of Focus Features

Do You Prefer a Documentary or a Dramatized Movie?

BuzzSugar — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 07:00:11 PST

The Harvey Milk biopic, Milk, opens this week with Sean Penn portraying the country's first openly gay man to be elected to public office. Long before Milk, however, there was another movie made about Harvey Milk: the riveting and Oscar-winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk.

Certainly the dramatized versions of peoples' lives can be more entertaining than a straight documentary about them, but with biopics I sometimes find myself distracted by wondering whether particular parts of the movie are real or fudged a little. Then again, I'm probably more likely to watch a dramatized version of things, like Ray or even Erin Brokovich, than I am to actively seek out the facts on my own.

Where do you stand on this topic? Do you prefer the experts' views and firsthand accounts found in a documentary, or a feature film telling the story of someone's life with actors and theatrics?

Source and Milk one-sheet courtesy of Focus Features

Forest Whitaker to Direct and Star in Louis Armstrong Biopic

BuzzSugar — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 10:37:07 PDT

It's a wonderful world for Forest Whitaker.
According to Variety, Whitaker will direct and star in a Louis Armstrong biopic titled What a Wonderful World. The story will have the help of a Paris-based production company, Legende, the company behind another musician biopic, La Vie en Rose.

Some facts:
The movie, which is "the first big-screen project to be authorized by the Armstrong estate, will kick off during the musician's impoverished early years in New Orleans and primarily chronicle his career as a trumpet virtuoso and improvisational singer."

Whitaker's thoughts:
"'Armstrong left a monumental mark on our lives and our culture,' said Whitaker, who portrayed jazz great Charlie Parker in Bird. 'He lived an amazing life and, through his art, shifted the way music was played and would be heard after him, not just here in the U.S. but all over the world.'"

What do you think of movie biopics?
Louis Armstrong's music never fails to make me happy; I can't explain why, exactly. So, I'm interested in a big film about his life. I was recently reading, however, a rundown of all the things wrong with making biopics (they are "more about the lead actor/actress than about the subject," etc.), and there are some valid points there. At the same time, I kind of can't wait to see Whitaker bring Louis Armstrong to life on the big screen. What do you think?

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Allen Ginsberg Biopic, Howl, Gets Stellar Cast and Crew

BuzzSugar — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 12:46:29 PDT

When I was in high school, I discovered Allen Ginsberg's poem Howl and it astounded me. Ever since, it's been that book on my bookshelf that consistently beckons me to pick it up and read it again, and decades later, it's just as relevant to our times as it was in the 1960s. At the time of its publication, however, some folks were not so enamored with Ginsberg's words.

To commemorate the 50-year anniversary of the publication of Howl, there's a biopic in the works, focusing on "the obscenity trial launched to censor Ginsberg's groundbreaking book-length poem." James Franco will play Ginsberg, and the cast just expanded to include David Strathairn, Alan Alda, Jeff Daniels, Mary-Louise Parker and Paul Rudd. For more details,

read more. The Hollywood Reporter continues:

Among the real-life characters featured in the film are prosecuting attorney Ralph McIntosh (Strathairn), Judge Clayton Horn (Alda), prosecution witness Professor David Kirk (Daniels), radio personality and prosecution witness Gail Potter (Parker) and literary critic and defense witness Luther Nichols (Rudd). "Fifty years later, Ginsberg's vision is as relevant as the year he wrote it," [one of the film's writers/directors, Jeffrey] Friedman said. "It resonates with issues of free speech, government censorship, militaristic empire building, fear-mongering, sexual conformity and the co-opting of religion."

A documentarian, Jeffrey Friedman is making his feature directorial debut alongside Rob Epstein. The part that intrigues me is that this is the duo, Friedman and Epstein, behind the stunning and Oscar-winning 1984 documentary The Life and Times of Harvey Milk. Director Gus Van Sant, whose biopic about Harvey Milk, Milk, is coming out in October, will executive produce this Ginsberg biopic. I'm going to be following this production closely. What do you think of this? Have you read Howl or anything else by Ginsberg?

John Lennon Biopic is a Go; Now, Who Should Play John?

BuzzSugar — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:00:51 PDT

John Lennon's life looks like it's heading for the big screen. The Hollywood Reporter writes that a biopic called Nowhere Boy is in the works, to be directed by visual artist Sam Taylor-Wood and written by Matt Greenhalgh, who most recently wrote the Ian Curtis biopic Control.

According to the Reporter, the movie will film in Lennon's hometown of Liverpool and focus on his early years:

Greenhalgh's script details the story of Lennon as a lonely teenager growing up as his aunt and the mother who gave him up fight for his love. His only escape is music, art and his fateful friendship with Paul McCartney.

Casting is reportedly underway now for the lead role - which of course brings about the crucial question: What actors could you see playing the young John Lennon? And how about prefame Paul? (For an irreverent take on the question, there's always Paul Rudd as John and Jack Black as Paul, as seen in Walk Hard . . . but I'm pretty sure that's not the tone this particular film is going for.)

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Buzz In: Whose Life Should Not Be Made Into a Movie?

BuzzSugar — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 06:30:00 PST

Some are arguing that the biopic is the new black in Hollywood these days, but this genre has been entertaining us for some time now. Sometimes they're a great way to honor a beloved figure - Frida comes to mind, as does Ray, and HBO's Peter Sellers biopic starring Geoffry Rush. But then there are those that just make us cringe with shame: anyone remember when Jennifer Love Hewitt played Audrey Hepburn in that made-for-TV movie?

I kind of think no one should play Audrey Hepburn because it seems difficult to do her justice. I feel similarly about Kurt Cobain, as well as Bob Marley, whose biography has just been optioned by the Weinstein Company.

Can any actor really do justice to the larger-than-life Marley? Even if there is someone out there who could realistically pull that off, what if the filmmakers still manage to mess things up?

I know many people feel passionately about their favorite books not being "ruined" by Hollywood, so what about people? Are there some lives that Hollywood should refrain from dramatizing? Whose life story do you think should remain in our memories and maybe history books?

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