London -- Ruth Wilson and Ulrich Thomsen are in discussions to star in Amit Gupta's debut feature, "Resistance," based on Owen Sheers' World War II novel.
German-speaking Dane Thomsen, who turned heads with his performance in "Festen" and "The International," is being lined up to play the leader of a German patrol in the film.
"Resistance" is set in an alternative 1944 where Russia has fallen to Nazi Germany and the D-Day landings have failed. With Britain partly occupied by German forces, a group of Welsh villagers wake to discover that their husbands have mysteriously disappeared. Wilson, who earned a Golden Globe nomination for her role in TV miniseries "Jane Eyre," is lined up to play a young farmer's wife whose husband is one of the missing men.
The script has been penned by Gupta and Sheers for the big screen and has secured backing from Munich-based Square One Entertainment...
German-speaking Dane Thomsen, who turned heads with his performance in "Festen" and "The International," is being lined up to play the leader of a German patrol in the film.
"Resistance" is set in an alternative 1944 where Russia has fallen to Nazi Germany and the D-Day landings have failed. With Britain partly occupied by German forces, a group of Welsh villagers wake to discover that their husbands have mysteriously disappeared. Wilson, who earned a Golden Globe nomination for her role in TV miniseries "Jane Eyre," is lined up to play a young farmer's wife whose husband is one of the missing men.
The script has been penned by Gupta and Sheers for the big screen and has secured backing from Munich-based Square One Entertainment...
- 3/18/2010
- by By Stuart Kemp
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARK CITY -- Not an easy thing, finding mirth in rage and drunkenness. Yet writer-director Mike Binder's examination of the ups and downs -- mostly downs -- of a wife and mother abandoned by her husband locates genuine humor in her pain.
If Binder had chosen an actress other than Joan Allen to play the angry woman, who knows how "The Upside of Anger" would have turned out. Even Allen must wrestle with this devil of a role -- a woman who is constantly mad or drunk and usually both. But Allen turns the character into a tour de force that unleashes an unexpected comedy about compassion and self-loathing.
The film beautifully pairs Allen and Kevin Costner as two people who find momentarily solace in the bottle and each other. It then surrounds them with the aura of intoxicating femininity in Allen's four beautiful teenage daughters played by Erika Christensen, Keri Russell, Alicia Witt and Evan Rachel Wood. When released in March, the New Line comedy could cross over from adult venues into the mainstream to earn solid boxoffice coin.
The story spans three years and is set almost exclusively in the woodsy suburbs of Detroit. Things begin on a note of high drama -- dad's gone and mom's drunk -- and the movie never really climbs down from those stress levels. You must take it on faith that, as youngest daughter Popeye (Wood) says in a voice-over narration, her mom, Terry Wolfmeyer (Allen), was the sweetest, nicest person ever.
When her husband, who has been fooling around with his Swedish secretary and has lost his job, disappears at the same time as the secretary, a dark malignancy of unholy wrath settles in her bowels. The eldest daughter, Hadley (Witt), who blames her mother as much as her dad, can escape the suddenly poisonous household for college. Meanwhile, Andy (Christensen), who wants to be a journalist, and Emily Russell), who wants to be a dancer so she doesn't see much point in eating, take over the kitchen while mom hits the sauce. In her upstairs room, Popeye puts together a video on her laptop that explores the nature of anger and violence.
Surprisingly, there is one person in whose company Terry regains her equilibrium and sense of normalcy. This is their neighbor, Denny Davies (Costner), an ex-baseball star who is nearly as big a drunk as Terry. Denny makes his living as a radio talk-show deejay along with making paid personal appearances and autographing baseballs.
That Denny insinuates himself so easily into the family and into mom's bedroom is a bit of a stretch. Yet over time the daughters accept his presence. He even gets Andy a job at the station, where his producer (played by Binder himself), a smarmy fellow with a thing for girls half his age, all too willingly takes her under his wing.
Binder ably juggles the twists and turns of the tumultuous relationship between Terry and Denny with plot lines involving all the daughters. Terry is a Loose Cannon from the opening scene, so the threat of an emotional outburst hovers over most of the film. The movie never lets on whether this is the real Terry -- the one suppressed during her marriage by all that false niceness and sweetness -- or something that happened to her after her husband's betrayal. Nor does Binder see any need to explain Denny's drinking. You feel that if something better came along he might tone it down, and then you realize that Terry might just be that "something better."
The film has a bit of a trick ending that underscores Binder's point about the futility of endless rage yet adds an unfortunate fictional feel to a film that wants you to relate to the commonality of divorce and broken homes.
The actors tune in to their individual characters perfectly, but this is Allen's show. Her raging, desperate housewife is a tigress trapped in a suburban hell, who takes refuge in her primal instincts and lacerating wit.
Tech credits are excellent, especially Richard Greatrex's cinematography, which features moodier lighting than one expects from a comedy. But then "The Upside of Anger" is not quite a comedy.
THE UPSIDE OF ANGER
New Line Cinema in association with Media 8 Entertainment presents a VIP Medienfonds 2/VIP Medienfonds 3/ MDP Filmproduktion co-production of a Sunlight production
Credits:
Writer/director: Mike Binder
Producers: Alex Gartner, Jack Binder, Sammy Lee
Executive producers: Mark Damon, Stewart Hall, Andreas Grosch, Andreas Schmid
Director of photography: Richard Greatrex
Production designer: Chris Roope
Music: Alexandre Desplat
Costumes: Deborah Scott
Editors: Steve Edwards, Robin Sales
Cast:
Terry Wolfmeyer: Joan Allen
Denny Davies: Kevin Costner
Andy: Erika Christensen
Emily: Keri Russell
Hadley: Alicia Witt
Popeye: Evan Rachel Wood
Shep: Mike Binder
MPAA rating: R
Running time -- 116 minutes...
If Binder had chosen an actress other than Joan Allen to play the angry woman, who knows how "The Upside of Anger" would have turned out. Even Allen must wrestle with this devil of a role -- a woman who is constantly mad or drunk and usually both. But Allen turns the character into a tour de force that unleashes an unexpected comedy about compassion and self-loathing.
The film beautifully pairs Allen and Kevin Costner as two people who find momentarily solace in the bottle and each other. It then surrounds them with the aura of intoxicating femininity in Allen's four beautiful teenage daughters played by Erika Christensen, Keri Russell, Alicia Witt and Evan Rachel Wood. When released in March, the New Line comedy could cross over from adult venues into the mainstream to earn solid boxoffice coin.
The story spans three years and is set almost exclusively in the woodsy suburbs of Detroit. Things begin on a note of high drama -- dad's gone and mom's drunk -- and the movie never really climbs down from those stress levels. You must take it on faith that, as youngest daughter Popeye (Wood) says in a voice-over narration, her mom, Terry Wolfmeyer (Allen), was the sweetest, nicest person ever.
When her husband, who has been fooling around with his Swedish secretary and has lost his job, disappears at the same time as the secretary, a dark malignancy of unholy wrath settles in her bowels. The eldest daughter, Hadley (Witt), who blames her mother as much as her dad, can escape the suddenly poisonous household for college. Meanwhile, Andy (Christensen), who wants to be a journalist, and Emily Russell), who wants to be a dancer so she doesn't see much point in eating, take over the kitchen while mom hits the sauce. In her upstairs room, Popeye puts together a video on her laptop that explores the nature of anger and violence.
Surprisingly, there is one person in whose company Terry regains her equilibrium and sense of normalcy. This is their neighbor, Denny Davies (Costner), an ex-baseball star who is nearly as big a drunk as Terry. Denny makes his living as a radio talk-show deejay along with making paid personal appearances and autographing baseballs.
That Denny insinuates himself so easily into the family and into mom's bedroom is a bit of a stretch. Yet over time the daughters accept his presence. He even gets Andy a job at the station, where his producer (played by Binder himself), a smarmy fellow with a thing for girls half his age, all too willingly takes her under his wing.
Binder ably juggles the twists and turns of the tumultuous relationship between Terry and Denny with plot lines involving all the daughters. Terry is a Loose Cannon from the opening scene, so the threat of an emotional outburst hovers over most of the film. The movie never lets on whether this is the real Terry -- the one suppressed during her marriage by all that false niceness and sweetness -- or something that happened to her after her husband's betrayal. Nor does Binder see any need to explain Denny's drinking. You feel that if something better came along he might tone it down, and then you realize that Terry might just be that "something better."
The film has a bit of a trick ending that underscores Binder's point about the futility of endless rage yet adds an unfortunate fictional feel to a film that wants you to relate to the commonality of divorce and broken homes.
The actors tune in to their individual characters perfectly, but this is Allen's show. Her raging, desperate housewife is a tigress trapped in a suburban hell, who takes refuge in her primal instincts and lacerating wit.
Tech credits are excellent, especially Richard Greatrex's cinematography, which features moodier lighting than one expects from a comedy. But then "The Upside of Anger" is not quite a comedy.
THE UPSIDE OF ANGER
New Line Cinema in association with Media 8 Entertainment presents a VIP Medienfonds 2/VIP Medienfonds 3/ MDP Filmproduktion co-production of a Sunlight production
Credits:
Writer/director: Mike Binder
Producers: Alex Gartner, Jack Binder, Sammy Lee
Executive producers: Mark Damon, Stewart Hall, Andreas Grosch, Andreas Schmid
Director of photography: Richard Greatrex
Production designer: Chris Roope
Music: Alexandre Desplat
Costumes: Deborah Scott
Editors: Steve Edwards, Robin Sales
Cast:
Terry Wolfmeyer: Joan Allen
Denny Davies: Kevin Costner
Andy: Erika Christensen
Emily: Keri Russell
Hadley: Alicia Witt
Popeye: Evan Rachel Wood
Shep: Mike Binder
MPAA rating: R
Running time -- 116 minutes...
- 1/21/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Director John Madden's third feature is a satisfying period drama with top-drawer performances by Judi Dench as the recently widowed Queen Victoria and Billy Connolly as the burly Scotsman who restores her spirit.
Picked up for a July domestic release by Miramax, "Mrs. Brown" unspools in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes International Film Festival.
Set primarily in the always invigorating and cinematically potent Scottish Highlands, the English-Irish production is impeccably mounted and boasts many compelling characters, although it falls in the Merchant Ivory category of a hard-sell-to-the-masses historical romancer and has less sexual passion than Madden's 1993 adaptation of Edith Wharton's "Ethan Fromme".
In the same league as "The Lion in Winter", "Mrs. Brown" is dominated by the two leads, with Dench ("GoldenEye") delivering a superb rendering of a complex woman in a highly vulnerable situation. Dubbed the "Widow of Windsor", Queen Victoria, possibly the world's most powerful individual, hid from the public in 1861 after the death of her husband, Albert.
She left the running of the empire to other members of the monarchy and Parliament. After three years of mourning and with the government in turmoil, her private secretary (Geoffrey Palmer) summons Brown, a loyal hunting guide and servant who served Albert and is fiercely loyal to the royal family.
The idea is to cheer up the gloomy, bitter and often cranky queen with an extended stay in Balmoral, where she goes riding and hears plain, often harsh words of truth from blustery, commanding Brown. He eventually becomes her good friend, makes an enemy of the Prince of Wales (David Westhead) and pushes aside Palmer's character.
They fall in love after a fashion, but the duties of the crown beckon. Connolly ("Muppet Treasure Island") is thoroughly convincing as a caring male equal and patriotic subject who has his faults and knows it. The pair together are a delight to watch -- even if the heat generated is indirect, the chemistry is something rare in current cinema.
Antony Sher ("The Young Poisoner's Handbook") is memorable as patient, bemused Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli in the Parliament scenes, in which a faction arises bent on dissolving the monarchy unless the queen returns.
He too makes the trip to the cloudy hills and valleys for a crucial encounter with the indomitable Brown, whose pride is mighty and instincts unfailing given the queen's long subsequent reign and historic achievements.
Madden, who also directed 1993's "Golden Gate", and debut screenwriter Jeremy Brock, who wrote Madden's TV feature "The Widowmaker", don't aim too high and keep the pace brisk. One learns a few things and inwardly cheers at the great lines, but most importantly one comes to sympathize with the characters and understand the class and cultural conflicts through the richly rewarding characterizations.
Martin Childs' production design and Richard Greatrex's cinematography are exemplary given the project's low budget, while Deirdre Clancy's costumes and Lisa Westcott's hair and makeup design are major contributions. Stephen Warbeck's score is lush and stirring.
MRS. BROWN
Miramax Films
WGBH, Irish Screen
Director John Madden
Writer Jeremy Brock
Producer Sarah Curtis
Executive producers Douglas Rae,
Andrea Calderwood
Director of photography Richard Greatrex
Production designer Martin Childs
Editor Robin Sales
Costume designer Deirdre Clancy
Music Stephen Warbeck
Casting Michelle Guish
Cast:
Queen Victoria Judi Dench
John Brown Billy Connolly
Henry Ponsonby Geoffrey Palmer
Disraeli Antony Sher
Archie Brown Gerard Butler
Running time -- 105 minutes
MPAA rating: PG...
Picked up for a July domestic release by Miramax, "Mrs. Brown" unspools in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes International Film Festival.
Set primarily in the always invigorating and cinematically potent Scottish Highlands, the English-Irish production is impeccably mounted and boasts many compelling characters, although it falls in the Merchant Ivory category of a hard-sell-to-the-masses historical romancer and has less sexual passion than Madden's 1993 adaptation of Edith Wharton's "Ethan Fromme".
In the same league as "The Lion in Winter", "Mrs. Brown" is dominated by the two leads, with Dench ("GoldenEye") delivering a superb rendering of a complex woman in a highly vulnerable situation. Dubbed the "Widow of Windsor", Queen Victoria, possibly the world's most powerful individual, hid from the public in 1861 after the death of her husband, Albert.
She left the running of the empire to other members of the monarchy and Parliament. After three years of mourning and with the government in turmoil, her private secretary (Geoffrey Palmer) summons Brown, a loyal hunting guide and servant who served Albert and is fiercely loyal to the royal family.
The idea is to cheer up the gloomy, bitter and often cranky queen with an extended stay in Balmoral, where she goes riding and hears plain, often harsh words of truth from blustery, commanding Brown. He eventually becomes her good friend, makes an enemy of the Prince of Wales (David Westhead) and pushes aside Palmer's character.
They fall in love after a fashion, but the duties of the crown beckon. Connolly ("Muppet Treasure Island") is thoroughly convincing as a caring male equal and patriotic subject who has his faults and knows it. The pair together are a delight to watch -- even if the heat generated is indirect, the chemistry is something rare in current cinema.
Antony Sher ("The Young Poisoner's Handbook") is memorable as patient, bemused Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli in the Parliament scenes, in which a faction arises bent on dissolving the monarchy unless the queen returns.
He too makes the trip to the cloudy hills and valleys for a crucial encounter with the indomitable Brown, whose pride is mighty and instincts unfailing given the queen's long subsequent reign and historic achievements.
Madden, who also directed 1993's "Golden Gate", and debut screenwriter Jeremy Brock, who wrote Madden's TV feature "The Widowmaker", don't aim too high and keep the pace brisk. One learns a few things and inwardly cheers at the great lines, but most importantly one comes to sympathize with the characters and understand the class and cultural conflicts through the richly rewarding characterizations.
Martin Childs' production design and Richard Greatrex's cinematography are exemplary given the project's low budget, while Deirdre Clancy's costumes and Lisa Westcott's hair and makeup design are major contributions. Stephen Warbeck's score is lush and stirring.
MRS. BROWN
Miramax Films
WGBH, Irish Screen
Director John Madden
Writer Jeremy Brock
Producer Sarah Curtis
Executive producers Douglas Rae,
Andrea Calderwood
Director of photography Richard Greatrex
Production designer Martin Childs
Editor Robin Sales
Costume designer Deirdre Clancy
Music Stephen Warbeck
Casting Michelle Guish
Cast:
Queen Victoria Judi Dench
John Brown Billy Connolly
Henry Ponsonby Geoffrey Palmer
Disraeli Antony Sher
Archie Brown Gerard Butler
Running time -- 105 minutes
MPAA rating: PG...
- 5/12/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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