You are viewing the archive: “Joaquin Phoenix”

Cannes: Reese Witherspoon Joining Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘Inherent Vice’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday May 15, 2013 @ 5:00pm PDTTags: Big Deals Film, Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Wrap-Up, Inherent Vice, Joaquin Phoenix, Paul Thomas Anderson, Reese Witherspoon
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: All actors want to work with Paul Thomas Anderson and it’s no surprise he’s lining up a killer cast for his adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon novel Inherent Vice. I hear Reese Witherspoon is the latest marquee name to join Joaquin Phoenix, Owen Wilson and Benicio Del Toro in the film. Book takes place in Los Angeles at the turn of the 1970s, as drug-fueled detective Larry “Doc” Sportello investigates the disappearance of an ex-girlfriend. Witherspoon re-teams with Phoenix, with whom she had a triumphant pairing in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line. Witherspoon won the Oscar for her portrayal of June Carter and Phoenix got an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Johnny Cash. Warner Bros will distribute Inherent Vice. She’s repped by CAA and Management 360.

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Nat Geo Teams With Joaquin Phoenix & Casey Affleck, Scott Free And ‘Undefeated’ Helmers For Special About Last Days Of Life

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday March 20, 2013 @ 9:57am PDTTags: Big Deals TV, Casey Affleck, Joaquin Phoenix, National Geographic Channel, Scott Free
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: National Geographic Channel has greenlighted a provocative documentary special from top auspices: Joaquin Phoenix and Casey Affleck; Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin, … Read More »

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Joaquin Phoenix Back With PTA In ‘Inherent Vice’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday January 24, 2013 @ 12:34pm PSTTags: Joaquin Phoenix, Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master
Mike Fleming

BREAKING: Joaquin Phoenix is in talks to reteam with The Master helmer Paul Thomas Anderson on Inherent Vice, an adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon detective novel. Annapurna Pictures’ Megan Ellison is backing the picture, as she … Read More »

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Joaquin Phoenix To Interview Magazine: Awards Season Is “Bullshit”

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday October 18, 2012 @ 1:48pm PDTTags: Harvey Weinstein, Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Mike Fleming

Even though Joaquin Phoenix turned in a standout performance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, looks like we shouldn’t expect him to be a fixture on the rubber chicken circuit. When Phoenix, who was Oscar-nominated for Walk The … Read More »

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VENICE: ‘The Master’ And Joaquin Phoenix Draw Raves: But Trailer Scenes Are Missing

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Saturday September 1, 2012 @ 4:29am PDTTags: Joaquin Phoenix, The Master, Venice Film Festival

Related: VENICE: P.T. Anderson On ‘The Master’, Scientology, & Screening It For Tom Cruise

A Venice Film Festival audience lined up starting at about 8 AM today to catch the first press screening of Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master. The packed house was hushed throughout the entirety of the film with only a handful of walkouts. Although immediate reaction following the screening was enormously positive, applause when the credits rolled was muted. After sitting through 2 hours of a gorgeous yet emotionally grueling and difficult-to-decipher picture, folks say they’re still parsing the movie. As one industryite and self-professed fan of Anderson’s work said to me this morning, “I would have preferred if it moved from Point A to Point B, not because I’m illiterate about film or need signposts along the way, but it seems to keep circling around.” An across-the-board consensus, however, is that Joaquin Phoenix should earn a Best Actor Oscar nomination. His portrayal of a disturbed World War II veteran Navy man is disturbing itself for the masterful way he embodies such an enigmatic character.

The Weinstein Company releases The Master on September 14th in the U.S., and sneak screenings around the country have resulted in largely glowing reviews. Curiously, a scene that was part of one of the original trailers for The Master — in which Phoenix’s Freddie Quell screams at Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Lancaster Dodd, aka The Master: “I know you’re trying to calm me down, but just say something that’s true!” — was not in the version screened in Venice this morning. Nor was a scene in which Quell is being questioned about “an incident.”

Related: Hot Trailer: Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘The Master’

Anderson is known for operatic tales, whether set against the backdrop of the porn industry, the San Fernando Valley during a frog storm, or the Southern California oil boom. But this one will be a tougher sell to audiences not used to the director’s work. The movie has been regarded as a thinly-veiled treatise on Scientology, and someone who’s not heard all of the Scientology talk before seeing the film would immediately recognize references to it.  Read More »

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Hot Trailer: Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘The Master’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday June 19, 2012 @ 10:16am PDTTags: Amy Adams, Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Mike Fleming

Here’s another trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, from The Weinstein Company. The first one focused on Joaquin Phoenix’s character’s restless and destructive nature, and now that character connects with Philip Seymour Hoffman’s The Master, who starts his own belief system. These are unorthodox vignettes, and … Read More »

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TWC Acquiring U.S. On James Gray Pic; Joaquin Phoenix, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Renner Star

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday June 14, 2012 @ 6:34pm PDTTags: Big Deals Film, Harvey Weinstein, James Gray, Jeremy Renner, Joaquin Phoenix, Marion Cotillard
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE:The Weinstein Company is near a deal to acquire U.S. rights to an untitled period drama that James Gray wrote and directed, with Joaquin Phoenix, Marion Cotillard and Jeremy Renner starring. Gray has completed the film, and The Weinstein Company … Read More »

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Hot Trailer: ‘The Master’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday May 21, 2012 @ 1:11pm PDTTags: Joaquin Phoenix, Megan Ellison, Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master, The Weinstein Company
Mike Fleming

The Weinstein Company has provided the first images from The Master, the Paul Thomas Anderson-directed film that stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams. In this clip there is no Hoffman, who plays a man who creates a belief system and watches it take off in … Read More »

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Samantha Morton, Amy Adams And Carey Mulligan Circle Spike Jonze Film

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday February 1, 2012 @ 6:12pm PSTTags: Amy Adams, Carey Mulligan, Joaquin Phoenix, Megan Ellison, Samantha Morton, Spike Jonze
Mike Fleming

UPDATE: Sources tell me that the project that Morton, Adams and Mulligan and Phoenix are doing was written by Spike Jonze himself, and not Charlie Kaufman. The … Read More »

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River Phoenix’s Family Wants Nothing To Do With Re-Release Of Unseen Film ‘Dark Blood’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday October 20, 2011 @ 11:23am PDTTags: Joaquin Phoenix
Mike Fleming

The family of late actor River Phoenix is disputing a director’s claim in a trade paper report that they are on board for a proposed re-release of Dark Blood, the 1993 film that Phoenix was shooting when he died of … Read More »

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Toronto: As Magnolia Turns 10, Owner Todd Wagner Says It’s Not For Sale And That VOD Strategy Is Thriving

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday September 15, 2011 @ 9:42am PDTTags: Casey Affleck, Eamonn Bowles, Elijah Wood, Harvey Weinstein, James Gray, Jason Janego, Joaquin Phoenix, Kirsten Dunst, Lars von Trier, Mark Cuban, Ryan Gosling, Seann William Scott, Steven Soderbergh, Todd Wagner, Tom Quinn
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Along with everything else about the 2001 Toronto Film Festival, the launch of Magnolia Pictures was quickly forgotten on September 11, as co-founder Eamonn Bowles and other indie film execs scrambled to find ways to get home. Magnolia marked its 10th anniversary at 2011 Toronto. While the company still doesn’t carry the profile of some other indie distributors, Bowles and co-owner Todd Wagner said their model — mixing traditional indie theatrical distribution with emerging digital technology — has made them distinctive and profitable. VOD revenues now often outpace theatrical for Magnolia films, and they return profit to filmmakers because of low P&A spends. Bowles and Wagner have been honing the VOD model since they were branded charlatans by theater chains in 2005 when Steven Soderbergh’s micro-budget film Bubble was released simultaneously on movie screens, VOD and DVD. Wagner and partner Mark Cuban put Magnolia and other film assets under the 2929 Entertainment banner on the selling block earlier this year, but pulled them back when they didn’t get a high price. Wagner said he’s staying.

Magnolia releases 35-40 films each year now, with upcoming releases that include the 2011 Toronto title Melancholia (which got Lars von Trier banned by Cannes for making dumb pro-Nazi comments). Some Magnolia efforts follow a theatrical release cycle, others go direct to DVD. But VOD has increasingly become the distributor’s calling card and Wagner said proof of its viability came when Harvey Weinstein poached Magnolia execs Tom Quinn and Jason Janego to start a VOD venture for The Weinstein Company.

“Harvey’s been in the industry forever, and he thought it was a good enough model to hire some of our folks away,” Wagner told me. “I’m flattered. There are other people doing this now, from IFC to John Sloss. To me, it’s validation that we’ve hit on something. But we’ve got an advantage, a unique collection of assets in the Landmark Theater chain, a home video division, and HDNet. The big theater chains still absolutely won’t play Ultra VOD titles, so having a theater chain is helpful. As is having the television network for the relationships it has made us with all the MSO’s. These synergies allow us to be freewheeling in how we license content. And producers are coming back to us with films because we are cutting them checks. That rarely happens elsewhere because of all the P&A that stands in front of them.” Read More »

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James Gray’s ‘Low Life’ Script Draws Marion Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix, Jeremy Renner

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday May 31, 2011 @ 5:47pm PDTTags: James Gray, Jeremy Renner, Joaquin Phoenix, Marion Cotillard, Wild Bunch
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: We Own The Night writer/director James Gray is fast mobilizing his next film. It’s called Low Life, and it will star Marion Cotillard and Joaquin Phoenix, with Jeremy Renner in discussions to play the third lead. The project is being packaged by CAA. Several financiers are in the mix, but I hear that Wild Bunch will likely get it. Discussions are also taking place with domestic distributors, and deal is expected to be sealed shortly. The Hurt Locker‘s Greg Shapiro is producing.

I’m told that Cotillard will play a woman attempting to immigrate from Poland. Her American dream turns into a nightmare. While sailing to Ellis Island and a new start, her sister grows deathly ill and she is forced to trade sexual favors for medicine and food to keep her sister alive. Once they land, she is warned to keep quiet about what happened. Though she does, she walks away with immigration papers that deem her a woman with bad morals. With no place to go, she falls prey to a charming sleazebag (Phoenix), who persuades her to turn tricks in New York. Renner is close to signing on to play the sleazebag’s cousin, a magician who sweeps the young woman off her feet and is her best chance to escape the nightmarish life she has fallen into. This will be Gray’s fourth film with Phoenix, who previously starred in The Yards, We Own The Night and most recently Two Lovers. Read More »

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Albert Hughes Exiting ‘Akira’ At Warner Bros

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday May 26, 2011 @ 12:19pm PDTTags: Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes, Andrew Garfield, Chris Pine, Garrett Hedlund, James McAvoy, Jeff Robinov, Jennifer Davisson Killoran, Joaquin Phoenix, Justin Timberlake, Katsuhiro Otomo, Keanu Reeves, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Fassbender, Robert Pattinson, Steve Kloves
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: The twists and turns on the Warner Bros adaptation of anime artist Katsuhiro Otomo’s graphic novel Akira continue. Director Albert Hughes is exiting the movie, I’m told. Insiders say that it is an amicable creative differences  parting of the ways. Warner Bros will try to put him on another movie right away (Hughes and his brother Allen directed the hit The Book of Eli, and WB topper Jeff Robinov is their former agent and is very close with them). Hughes is coming to Hollywood next week to take meetings with his WME reps and look at scripts, hoping to find his next movie at Warner Bros.

As for Akira, the intention of the studio is to keep the picture on a fast track, which means they will find a director quickly. The studio has been wrestling with the approach on the film for the past year. Read More »

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Harvey Weinstein Buys World Rights To Paul Thomas Anderson’s Untitled Next Film

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday May 9, 2011 @ 11:26am PDTTags: Amy Adams, CAA, Cannes, Harvey Weinstein, Joaquin Phoenix, Laura Dern, Megan Ellison, Paul Thomas Anderson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Weinstein Company
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: The Weinstein Company has won a quiet but fevered bidding battle for worldwide distribution rights to the untitled next film by Paul Thomas Anderson. The film begins production June 13, with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix so far set to star. Megan Ellison is financing. It is Anderson’s first trip behind the camera since There Will Be Blood.

Hoffman and Phoenix are locked. As for the actresses, I’m told that Anderson is eyeing such women as Madisen Beaty (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) for a role, with Amy Adams, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo‘s Lena Endre and Laura Dern also mentioned as actresses Anderson is interested in. The auction was held at CAA headquarters late last week, with Fox Searchlight also squarely in the mix.

This is the project that Anderson has worked on for a long time, once under the title The Master. He has greatly overhauled the script and now, Hoffman stars as a man who returns after witnessing the horrors of WWII and tries to rediscover who he is in post-war America. He creates a belief system, something that catches on with other lost souls. The film is fully financed by Ellison’s Annapurna banner. At a time when the implosion of the indie film marketplace made pricey auteur films so hard to finance, Ellison has emerged as something of a godsend to the small group of auteurs she is working with. She’s enabled Anderson to make the movie at or near the $35 million budget the film was going to cost back when Universal stepped away. Read More »

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‘Akira’ Focuses On Short List Of Actors After Getting Steve Kloves Rewrite

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday March 21, 2011 @ 8:04pm PDTTags: Akira, Albert Hughes, Andrew Garfield, Appian Way, Chris Pine, Garrett Hedlund, James McAvoy, Jennifer Davisson Killoran, Joaquin Phoenix, Justin Timberlake, Katsuhiro Otomo, Legendary Pictures, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Fassbender, Robert Pattinson, Steve Kloves, Warner Bros
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: The script for the Warner Bros/Legendary Pictures live action adaptation of anime artist Katsuhiro Otomo’s 6-volume graphic novel Akira has been sent to a short list of actors. The picture is finally taking shape for an August start, … Read More »

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Honest Abe? Joaquin Phoenix Mulls Acting Return in Fox’s ‘Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday January 31, 2011 @ 7:28pm PSTTags: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Benjamin Walker, Jim Lemley, Joaquin Phoenix, Seth Grahame-Smith, Tim Burton, Timur Bekmambetov
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Joaquin Phoenix is the front-runner to play the mentor who teaches the 16th President how to kill bloodsuckers in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter for 20th Century Fox. Phoenix has met on the project and I’m told that it’s his … Read More »

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TEASER: Joaquin Back On Letterman

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday September 22, 2010 @ 4:22pm PDTTags: Casey Affleck, Joaquin Phoenix, Joaquin Phoenix David Letterman, Joaquin Phoenix I'M Still Here, Joaquin Phoenix Mockumentary, Late Night TV, Late Show with David Letterman, TV, Video
Nellie Andreeva

Well, the shaggy beard and the shades are gone as clean-shaven Joaquin Phoenix returned to the scene of the crime with a stint on the Late Show with David Letterman tonight. (Teaser below.) It’s been  1 1/2 years after his out-of-body appearance that turned out to be an act for the … Read More »

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Gasp! Joaquin Phoenix Documentary A Fake

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday September 16, 2010 @ 6:02pm PDTTags: Casey Affleck, Casey Affleck Documentary, Joaquin Phoenix, Joaquin Phoenix David Letterman, Joaquin Phoenix I'M Still Here, Joaquin Phoenix Mockumentary, Movies
Mike Fleming

Casey Affleck came clean to The New York Times today, admitting that his Joaquin Phoenix meltdown documentary I’m Still Here was in fact a phony piece of performance art. It seems amusing in hindsight that each time Deadline referred to the film in the past few months as a “mockumentary,” the filmmakers and distributor Magnolia Pictures became incensed. This revelation is about as shocking as when Vince McMahon revealed that professional wrestling bouts were prearranged. Read More »

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Joaquin Phoenix Returning To Letterman

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday September 13, 2010 @ 7:13am PDTTags: Casey Affleck, I'm Still Here, Joaquin Phoenix, Joaquin Phoenix David Letterman, Joaquin Phoenix I'M Still Here, Late Show with David Letterman
Nellie Andreeva

Actor Joaquin Phoenix, whose Feb. 11 2009 visit to the Late Show with David Letterman became a viral hit with some 8 million hits, will return to the CBS talk show on Wednesday, September 22. Phoenix is the subject of the upcoming documentary film, I’m Still Here, directed by actor and … Read More »

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