ang lee

How To Go From Stand-Up To Star of An Ang Lee Movie in Two Easy Steps

5:31AM Seth | It’s every actor’s (and visual-aid-friendly comedian’s) dream: James Schamus calls you up out of the blue, and asks you to come in for a “general meeting.” More »

Demetri Martin To Go Gay For Ang

4:10AM Seth | Our anticipation is great for Oscar-winning, Gays-friendly director Ang Lee’s next movie, Taking Woodstock; based on the memoir by Elliot Tiber, it’s the unlikely tale of a closeted guy working at his parents Catskills motel inadvertently responsible for mounting the music festival that defined a generation. (OMGZ! I CAN HAZ GAI HIPPYZ?!!!) How to make an already awesome and weird project even more awesome and weird? Variety now reports that comedian Demetri Martin is who Lee wants for the lead. With shooting set to begin in late August, and a greenlight from DreamWorks for his script Will, look for 2009 to be the year that the comic makes the seemingly inevitable leap from cultish stand-up and Daily Show correspondent to full-fledged movie star. It’s also going to be the year that actor-comedians go gay on film, but hopefully Martin’s portrayal will be a little more nuanced, and less spray-tanned and Versaced, than Jim Carrey’s. More »

Ang Lee Adheres To Strict ‘One For Me, One For The Gays’ Policy

7:10AM Seth | After a brief fling with steamy Chinese art-core, director Ang Lee is heading back to the comfortable terrain of the Gays, the lauded director having already explored that topic’s various themes in such previous Queer Cinema classics as Brokeback Mountain (doomed lovers on the Wyoming plain), The Wedding Banquet (a comedic take on Chinese family and tradition), and Hulk (roid-raging muscle queen never quite fits in). THR now reports that Lee will turn to the unlikely setting of the original Woodstock Music and Art Fair for his next emotionally frigid, magic rainbow carpet ride: “Taking Woodstock” centres on the colorful life of a Greenwich Village-based interior designer and part-time Catskills hotel manager who headed the Bethel, N.Y., Chamber of Commerce. More »

For Your Consideration: Best Dripping Wet, Half-Naked Actress Keira Knightley; Also: ‘Atonement’

5:15AM Defamer Hollywood | Kudos to Focus Features’ marketing department for injecting some sex into Atonement’s For Your Consideration ad campaign by choosing this signature image of Keira Knightley, in which the actress emerges sopping wet from her family estate’s fountain in a clingy, see-through slip, as the one that best represents the candidacy of both their critically beloved literary adaptation and director Joe Roth. Sure, the awe-inspiring tracking shot of a war-torn Dunkirk might have been an option that more vividly illustrated Roth’s technical skills, but sometimes voters just want to break up the monotony of flipping though the trades by gawking at half-naked ladies. Should the ad generate the expected positive response, look for Focus to take out a two-page spread promoting artsy Ang Lee fuckfest Lust, Caution with a collage of the complicated, physically punishing sexual positions into which the celebrated filmmaker twisted his awards-worthy talent. [Ad via THR Digital Edition] More »

Trade Roundup: John Cusack’s Action Hero Dreams Dashed

5:30AM Defamer Hollywood | We’re impressed with Variety’s show of headline-pun restraint with this one: The plug has been pulled on Stopping Power, Jan De Bont’s planned action thriller starring John Cusack, after funding fell through at the last minute. [Variety] Conflicting with other reports, Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution “thrilled” Venice audiences. One journalist asked if the graphic sexual sequences were real, to which the director responded, “Have you seen the film?” Funny – we always felt what The Hulk could have used were some Brown Bunnyesque elements. [Variety] ABC orders a script for The Fixer, about “the most powerful woman in New York.” We knew it was only a matter of time before Leona Helmsley’s dogwalker had her own show. [Variety] NBC and Apple have a parting of the ways, with NBC’s content disappearing from iTunes as soon as December. Why can’t Steve Jobs and Ben Silverman just iron this bullshit out over a couple of primo bong hits? [THR] Giovanni Ribisi is pulled in by the CAA Death Star’s tractor beams. Run, Giovanni! They’re nothing but a greedy and secretive institution that want to have undue influence over your life decisions! [THR] More »

Short Ends: Why Doesn’t God Want Corey Haim To Be In ‘Lost Boys 2?’

6:40AM Defamer Hollywood | Corey Haim’s off again, on again appearance in the direct-to-video sequel to The Lost Boys is looking to be off again. Prepare for waterworks. You: “Asian Girl Over 18 Bleached Blond.” Him: “FAMOUS.” It’s a match made in heaven! “I have come to Syria and Iraq to help draw attention to the humanitarian crisis and to urge governments to increase their support for UNHCR and its partners.” That’s fine and dandy, Angelina, but when are you going to tape a YouTube message with helpful tips for pronouncing Nouri al-Maliki? A cornucopia of those animated TV logos from the ’70s and ’80s. Ang Lee’s latest film is listed by the Venice International Film Festival as coming from “Taiwan, China,” and thus a political controversy is born. Brokeback Mountain was a gay cakewalk compared to this mess. More »

Trade Roundup: Fox Throws Hands In The Air, Decides It Has No Choice But To Make ‘Dallas’ As A Comedy

6:20AM Defamer Hollywood | · Realising that no matter what their vision was going in for a long-planned, big-screen adaptation of Dallas, the final result would be hilarious, Regency and 20th Century have finally decided to just give up and officially make it as a comedy. Betty Thomas will direct, and John Travolta will still star as JR Ewing, playing the part in only a slightly bigger fashion as a nod to the project’s new direction. [Variety] · Once again, the DGA refuses to allow For Your Consideration DVD screeners to be sent to members for their yearly awards, forcing guild members to schlep out to screenings to see their peers’ work presented as it was intended. [THR] · Following the less-than-blockbuster results of promotions for movies like Akeelah and the Bee and Arctic Tale, Hollywood is discovering that Starbucks might not be marketing monolith that they’d had hoped it would be. Several studios are now considering scaled-back versions of the failing Starbucks experiment, such as planting paid confederates to sit by the door of The Coffee Bean and loudly shout into a mobile phone about how much they loved a partner’s movie. [Variety] It’s about time someone made a RenFair comedy*: Universal buys the Rainn Wilson project Renaissance Man, about two community theatre actors who hide out a renaissance fair after thinking they’ve killed one of their co-stars. (*For real; and no, we don’t count that one part in The Cable Guy.) [THR] · Focus Features accepts the MPAA’s NC-17 rating for Ang Lee’s erotically charged espionage thriller Lust, Caution for “too many scenes of artsy-fartsy fucking.” [Variety] More »