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EXCLUSIVE: Oliver Stone is putting together a killer cast for Savages, the drama based on Don Winslow’s bestselling novel. Stone is arranging a Pulp Fiction reunion of John Travolta and Uma Thurman, as the two actors are in talks to join the ensemble cast. Also joining is is The Town’s Blake Lively, who beat out a group of young actresses to play the role of O. Travolta will play Dennis, a burned out DEA agent, and Thurman will play O’s mom, Paqu.
They join Taylor Kitsch, already set to play who’ll play the role of former Navy SEAL Chon (Kitsch has already begun training with the real SEALs); Aaron Johnson, who plays the role of Ben; Salma Hayek, who’ll play the role of Mexican cartel queen-pin Elena; and Benicio Del Toro, who plays the vicious cartel enforcer Lado. The script is by Winslow and Shane Salerno. There are several more roles to go.
Universal Pictures is financing and distributing the film, which begins production in early July. Savages focuses on the relationship between best friend Laguna pot growers Chon and Ben, who live a cozy life with their trippy galpal, O. Their pot is so good that the Mexican cartel tries to coerce them into working for the cartel. When they refuse, the cartel kidnaps O and charges a heavy ransom to get her back. The growers pay the ransom by covertly ripping off the cartel’s own shipments, a most dangerous game.
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I loved the Don Winslow novel so much I read it twice!
I love the actors Oliver Stone has selected and I am so excited to see what he is going to do with this. This could be great!
How does Blake Lively get cast in anything?
She was great in The Town. I really have never seen her in anything else, so I can’t comment on anything other than that. I was vaguely aware of who she was (I recalled she was in the Travelling Pants movie), but until I’d seen her in The Town, I had no idea she was on TV.
Great in The Town? I couldn’t even understand a world she said because of all the marbles in her mouth.
I understood her perfectly. And her accent seemed to fit in perfectly with the rest of the cast. It’s not as if I’m biased one way or the other. I actually had no idea who it was until after I saw the film and looked it up.
cause she’s hot and talented… and you’re not.
Her body?
Its not talent has anyone seen her in Gossip Girl?
Uh, the answer is Harvey Weinstein.
Blake Lively, really?
One of these things is not like the other, one of these things is not the same…
What the fuck is Taylor “mumble” Kitsch doing off TV where he belongs. He just brought the already low appeal of this film lower.
Blake Lively doesn’t bother me in this role- she’s limited as an actress, but the part of O is somewhat in her wheelhouse (based on the book, at least.)
I was horrified that she might get cast as Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby, but this casting decision is less offensive.
I love Blake in general but not really for this. Pictured someone less sunshiny and more plain like Kristen Stewart or Aubrey Plaza.
Meow. Kristen Stewart hater in the house. First of all, Blake lively ain’t exactly beautiful. Shes a step up from Jennifer Aniston, face wise. Stewart has a classic beauty that’s pretty undeniable, she just dresses down and plays ordinary teens in movies – but all dolled up, she’s stunning and puts lively to shame. You need glasses. Lol
Kristen Stewart is completely unable to act in anything that does require her to stare at the ground and mumble the entire movie. Please, name something that she has been in where that hasn’t been the case. She is a rotten actress. now that twilight is about to end, she will fade into obscurity.
that does NOT require her…
This stinker… Blake Lively? Really? I wonder about budget. Because you know with that kind of story about mexican cartels will have zero interest from moviegoers. And will be lucky to have even $30 millions after it’s theatrical release.
And are suppose to believe that those two male will risk and fight their lives for stupid and mumbling chic like Blake Lively? Please, the’ll say: “Whatever, you can take her. I will find 100 like her in a second”.
How does BL get cast in anything?!?! Dumbest comment ever.
I have to agree with the puzzlement over Blake Lively’s casting. First she’s miscast in The Town and fails to pull off a Boston accent and instead does some sort of wannabe Noo Yowker post-dental work accent instead and is completely unable to pull off “edgy” or “white trash” regardless of how much eye liner they added. Then she’s again miscast as the far too young Carol Ferris/Green Lantern love interest.
I get that Lively is a likable photogenic US Weekly fashion It Girl of the moment but she lacks the talent and ability to take on this productions she’s being cast in.
Compare her to someone in her generation of actresses like Jennifer Lawrence and perhaps you’ll have a better idea of why people are puzzled. God bless her agent though for getting her these projects.
Really wonderful book. Hard to imagine a worse casting choice than Lively, given the demands of the role. God knows what Stone was thinking. With.
I called it! March 23, on a post here on Deadline about casting for SAVAGES, I said:
“I predict Blake Lively will play the “O” role. THE TOWN proved she can act, and this is a way for her to follow up GREEN LANTERN with something quirkier. She can let loose with the trippy, sexy O character.”
She’s perfect. If you haven’t liked anything she’s been in so far, this might be the film that turns it around for you.
Are you kidding Blake was great in The Town. She’s getting better and better with every role. She will be a movie star, mark my words.
Not bad casting news on this one. As most who have read the thing will agree, the novel was bananas.
However, when was the last time Oliver Stone made a film that anyone cared about, or that was even halfway decent. He’s into his sixties now (i.e. well over the hill), and I do not have high hopes for this one. “Wall Street”, one of my favourite films was forever lessened by “Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps”. And “W”. And whatever else he’s done since the mid-90s.
The last decent film Stone has made was perhaps Natural Born Killers, or perhaps “Nixon”, if you go in for that sort of thing.
Hopefully he does some justice to the greatness of that tight little novel of Winslow’s.
Blake Lively and Taylor Kitsch, LOL! I hope there will be subtitles for their parts of the movie.
@pat bateman….the character in the book is a gorgeous blonde..why would they cast someone plain
Secondly maybe you need to open your ears if you cant understand her…I’ve personally never had a problem understanding what she says in films
And Taylor Kitsch is phenomenal in friday night lights, when did he ever mumble?
Often directors don’t get to cast every part just as they would like. Anyone remember Mulholland Drive? Oliver Stone might be slipping though…Wall St. 2 was a letdown compared to the original.
For this role…she’s perfect.
Travolta (Pulp Fiction) & Thurman (Pulp Fiction & Kill Bill) love violence. So “Savages” is tailor made for them.
And since both of their careers are winding down, why not?
Worst part: Oliver Stone wastes his talent on another bloody, violent piece of garbage-unlike his socially redeeming picture, “Wall Street”.
Now Stone gets to show more on screen violence-but why?
What stable, rational adult REALLY needs to see a Travolta or Thurman act in a movie about drug dealers, kidnappers, corrupt DEA agents, etc…the usual roundup of scum?
Does the world really need to watch a movie called “Savages”?
Isn’t real life savage enough?
I don’t expect anything better from dumb, desperate actors like Travolta & Thurman.
I do expect better from Stone.
LOVE the book. Love all Don Winslow’s books actually, they’re all great. I am not a fan of BL and thought she was the worst thing in The Town but she’ll be ok as “O”. Taylor Kitch will be great and the casting of Uma and Travolta is also perfect. Can’t wait to see this film!!!!!!!!!!!!
To Shy –
You must be living under the rock caves of Bin Laden’s middle-earthed Afghanistan if you think that the prospect of violence, drug cartels, and corruption are not something moviegoers want to see. Either you’re a neo-conservative sycophant, or another “film buff” without the buff. It’s called show business, thanks.
Scarface, The Godfather, Casino, Goodfellas, Traffic, LA Confidential, et al.
Get an intership. Learn something.
To FilmBuff-
So, if some takes offense to violent garbage marketed as “show business”-such as Scarface, The Godfather, Casino, Goodfellas, Traffic, LA Confidential, and Savages-they’re either “neo-conservative sycophants, or another “film buff” without the buff”.
Well, I’m neither of these two choices. (See my comment above about “Savages”)
I don’t need an “internship” to know that mindless, violent garbage like the movies you adore are low-IQ Hollywood fastfood fed to the rabble.
FilmBuff, I assume you’re an adult male.
Simple question:
Tell us, when you watch your beloved “show business” movies like Scarface, The Godfather, Casino, Goodfellas, Traffic, LA Confidential, what attracts you more:
The car chases, bloody headshots, machine gunning, fiery explosions, large pistols, gangster talk, beatings with baseball bats, executions, dramatic cops & robbers, gangster loving sluts?
These are the elements of your “show business” best films.
You’re a grown man.
Yet you can’t get enough of these?
And we wonder how a supposedly “modern” society like Germany could have done what they did 1935-1945. Well, if FilmBuff represents the average guy who deep down LUSTS after the most reprehensible violence on film and defends these garbage films, now we know that the idea of the “good German” or “good American” applies to very few.
If grown, semi-rational “men” in the 21st century USA pay to watch Hollywood violence, over and over again, criticize those who are offended as “ignorant”, and claim that the horrible violence is merely “show business”, then the Hollywood terrorists have won.
Bunch of flames on this…I’m surprised. Lively and Kitch are some of the best young actors in the game right now. Period. After Wall Street II Stone is lucky to get them. If I were their agents I’d be more worried about Stone than anything else. He’s a mess and headed down the other side of a great career mountain.
Blake Lively? Lol.
Lively is PERFECT for this role, and she was fantastic in The Town, i watched her TV Show once, and its just bad writing, no acting can save that show! But she has talent, i hope she uses it, and has a bit of luck, and she will have a good career.
ace