joel silver
4:25AM STV | Silver Mine: Buoyed by the sterling performance of Speed Racer and other films from its multi-faceted partnership with Joel Silver, officials at Studio Babelsburg have announced a deal to co-produce a slate of Silver’s upcoming projects released through Warner Bros. The pact sets up another five years of subsidised shoots at the German studio, complementing their co-financing deal for Silver’s genre output from his Dark Castle shingle and assuring the producer a clean, spacious cubicle from which to work when Warners throws him off the lot at the end of 2009. [THR] More »
If You Don’t Read This Post, We’ll Kill This Chimpanzee
4:30AM Defamer Hollywood | While it pains us to stoop to the animal-threatening tactics of National Lampoon, it seems that Hollywood is far more cavalier with the fates of its four-legged thespians. According to the LAT, one of filmdom’s most enjoyable genres — that of the monkey movie — is being assailed by PETA activists, who are demanding that actor chimps be replaced by CG versions. They allege that the trained monkeys are being abused to solicit a performance — and based on this anecdote about “Clyde,” the orangutan from Every Which Way But Loose, they may have a point: More »
Joel Silver, ‘Rocknrolla’ Among the Inventory on Display at Warner Bros. Fire Sale
2:20AM STV | Add another “maybe” to our speculation about Joel Silver’s future at Warner Bros.: Reports today indicate that the slumping superproducer is shopping around Guy Ritchie’s Rocknrolla, a Dark Castle project scheduled for release by WB in October. Maybe. Now Lionsgate and Sony are supposedly in talks to pick up the action/crime thriller lest Warners overextend itself this fall with titles inherited from New Line (Pride and Glory), Picturehouse (The Women) and Warner Independent (Slumdog Millionaire, Towelhead). More »
Guilt, Power and Paris Hilton-Slaying: Happy Birthday, Joel Silver!
6:15AM Defamer Hollywood | While the French and those who somehow love them celebrate yet another Bastille Day, July 14 has even more festive repercussions around Defamer HQ and Hollywood at large. To wit: Megaproducer/amateur publicist/career advisor Joel Silver was born on this day in 1952. The pride of South Orange, New Jersey, Silver made his first impact in 1970 as the co-creator of Ultimate Frisbee and never looked back. NYU Film School preceded his journey west, followed by an assistantship (and eventual partnership) with producer Lawrence Gordon and, before long, his own shingle — Silver Pictures, the epicenter of bullying, intimidation, projectile paperweights and bona fide blockbusters like Predator, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon and The Matrix. The flops came as well, including Hudson Hawk, Richie Rich and House of Wax — the latter of which is avenged in a little tribute video we cobbled together after the jump. More »
Joel Silver Leaving Warners! Except He’s Not! Let Him Get Back to You!
6:25AM Defamer Hollywood | As if a third-place opening wasn’t bad enough for Speed Racer producer Joel Silver, Page Six today added a liberal dose of existential crisis to the mix when it reported Silver may have flopped for Warner Bros. for the last time. “For the past few months, he’s been trying to get his deal extended, but the thinking at Warner is maybe just let his contract run out,” its source says — but wait! Silver himself told Nikki Finke yesterday that he’s sought no such extension! But his contract still isn’t being renewed! We’re so confused — help us, Joel! More »
Amateur Publicist Joel Silver Has Wachowskis’ Backs For the Last Time
4:50AM Defamer Hollywood | In a loooooong video interview with David Poland over at Movie City News, producer Joel Silver chats about the prismatic, pyrotechnic up and downs of his career — the latter of which the bomb Speed Racer likely entered in the time since the modulated mogul sat for this conversation. And while he eventually acknowledges still dreading opening weekends and the Saturday morning silence that follows his weaker openings, he wastes little time defending the Wachowskis’ career-suffocating reclusion and his role as de facto mouthpiece: “It ends up being harder for me because I end up being the voice for them. I wish sometimes they’d speak for themselves because they’re much smarter than I am, and they’re much more articulate than I am. … I just listen to them relate to everybody and I say, ‘Here’s what they think.’ That’s how it happens.” No, Joel — we think you mean that’s how it happened. Time for a change, big guy. [The Hot Blog] More »
The Wachowskis Still in Hiding as ‘Speed Racer’ Circles the Drain
3:30AM Defamer Hollywood | For all its confectionery imagery, Christina Ricci scene-stealing and the few other things Speed Racer gets right, it still faces a box-office false start that could make Leatherheads look like a hit in comparison. We sketched a few of the hurdles here yesterday (number one being its own studio’s resignation to its underachievement), but at this point there’s only one that counts: Larry and Andy Wachowski need to climb out of their hole. More »
Update: Larry Wachowski Probably Still A Dude
4:37AM Defamer Hollywood | Yesterday, the internets were ablaze with rumours (well, really, one rumour) that allegedly gender-shuffling Matrix co-director Larry Wachowski had finally completed a long-whispered-about sex change, opting to spend the rest of his life as a woman named Lana who would haunt the dreams of every embattled publicist unlucky enough to be assigned to subsequent Wachowski Family films. Troubled by the swiftly spreading report, Fox 411’s Roger Friedman put in some calls, and today is satisfied that Larry is still happily beschlonged: On Wednesday, I had lovely chats with people at the sound studio in Germany where the Wachowskis have been making the live action version of the Japanese cartoon “Speed Racer”. The folks I spoke to got quite a kick out of the whole thing. I asked one man in building operations, “Have you seen Larry lately? Does he have breasts now, as rumoured? Is he wearing a dress, wondering if it’s making him look fat?” More »
