(MENAFN- Arab Times) Blanchett eyes Del Toro's 'Nightmare Alley'
A Warner Bros. Pictures releases a scenefrom drama 'MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN,' ofEdward Norton.LOS ANGELES, Aug 3, (RTRS):
Edward Norton's 'Motherless Brooklyn' has nabbed the closing night slot at this
year's New York Film Festival. The adaptation of Jonathan Lethem's best-selling
novel is a fitting choice to cap the fall festival given its setting. It
unfolds in 1950s New York and follows a private detective (Norton) with
Tourette syndrome as he becomes entangled in a conspiracy involving a Robert
Moses-like master builder (Alec Baldwin). Norton changed the book's time frame
– the novel takes place in the present day. In addition to Norton and Baldwin,
the cast includes Bruce Willis, Willem Dafoe, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Bobby Cannavale,
Leslie Mann, and Cherry Jones. The film will screen at Alice Tully Hall on
Friday, Oct 11, 2019 and will be released by Warner Bros Pictures later this
year. Norton wrote and directed the film along with starring in the picture.
'To have this particular film – which grew out
of my love affair with New York – selected for closing night is just a huge
thrill… a dream come true, actually,' Norton said in a statement.
'Motherless Brooklyn' is one of several awards
hopefuls that Warner Bros will field this year. The studio is also planning to
push its adaptation of Donna Tartt's 'The Goldfinch', the Michael Jordan drama
'Just Mercy', and even 'The Joker', its gritty comic book film, into Oscar
contention.
'Edward Norton has taken Jonathan Lethem's
novel as a jumping-off point to craft a wildly imaginative and extravagant love
letter to New York, a beautifully told semi-musical hard-boiled yarn grounded
in the mid-20th century history of the city,' said New York Film Festival
director and Selection Committee chair Kent Jones in a statement. 'What a way
to close the festival!'
Presented by Film at Lincoln Center, the
17-day New York Film Festival will open with Martin Scorsese's 'The Irishman'.
Earlier this week, it announced that its centerpiece selection will be Noah
Baumbach's 'Marriage Story'.
Also:
LOS ANGELES:
Cate
Blanchett is in talks to star opposite Bradley Cooper in Guillermo
del Toro and Fox Searchlight's adaptation of 'Nightmare Alley'.
The production is eyeing a
shooting start at the top of 2020.
Del Toro will direct the pic and
co-wrote the script with Kim Morgan. 'Nightmare Alley' is being produced and
financed by del Toro and J. Miles Dale with TSG Entertainment, with Fox
Searchlight acquiring worldwide distribution rights to the film.
While Fox made a 'Nightmare
Alley' movie in 1947, this film will be based moreso on the William
Lindsay Gresham novel of the same name. The 1947 movie starred
Tyrone Power as an ambitious young con-man who teams up with a female
psychiatrist who is even more corrupt than he is. At first, they enjoy success
fleecing people with their mentalist act, but then she turns the tables on him,
out-manipulating the manipulator.
After 'The Shape of Water' went
on to win several Oscars, including best picture and director for del Toro, the
auteur decided to hold off on picking his next directing gig, only focusing his
efforts as a producer on the Searchlight movie 'Antlers' and the
soon-to-be-released 'Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark'.
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LOS ANGELES: Phil Lord and Chris
Miller have signed a first-look deal with Universal Pictures.
The pair recently won the best
animated movie Oscar for 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse', which they
produced. Additionally, the series originated by the duo, including '21 Jump
Street', 'The LEGO Movie' and 'Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs', have grossed
more than $3.3 billion at the global box office.
This marks the first overall
feature deal for the team, which has purposefully remained independent
producers on the film side. With the expansion of their Lord Miller production
banner, including the addition of Aditya Sood as president of film
and an expansive five-year overall television deal with Sony Pictures
Television, a first-look deal on the features side was a logical next step.
'Universal has a history of
breaking new ground and championing unexpected voices, so for us it's a very
welcoming environment to make bold, original films that push the medium
forward,' said Lord and Miller in a statement. 'We also feel a deep obligation
to leave something behind for future generations of studio executives to
reboot. We're very grateful to Donna, Peter and the entire Universal team for
inviting us to partner with them in reaching that goal.'
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