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"You are the mayor of crazy town, do you know that?"
Back in 1995, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy appeared in Before Sunrise as two strangers who meet on a train and spend a romantic day together in Vienna, Austria, talking, drinking and falling in love. Nine years later, Before Sunset brought the characters back together for another round of will-they-or-won't-they romance, ending with yet another uncertain note, leaving audiences to wonder if Hawke's Jesse boarded his plane or stayed in Paris with Delpy's Celine.
Yet another nine years later, audiences can catch up with Jesse and Celine in Before Midnight, which finds the couple married at last, but by no means are the two finding married life easy. The movie's first trailer sees the couple travel through the Greek coastline and still questioning whether their love will last.
watch the trailer >> Posted 03.29.13 by Ryan -
To call Richard Linklater an eclectic director would be an understatement. Starting with the low-budget indie Slacker, Linklater moved on to the stoner comedy Dazed and Confused before hitting it big with School of Rock and Bad News Bears.
Up next for the director is another independently financed project, Me and Orson Welles, based on the novel by Robert Kaplow about a teenager who lands a role in Orson Welles' production of Julius Ceasar. The movie stars teen heartthrob Zac Efron as the young actor and newcomer Christian McKay as Welles. The movie may seem a strange fit for someone like Linklater to direct, but in an interview with ComingSoon, Linklater says he doesn't find his resume odd at all.
I think if there's a commonality [between movies] maybe it's sort of the tone or the acting or something, but I dunno. I'm lucky I get to work on different genres, that I'm not too pigeonholed. Maybe no one cares, but I think that I've earned a certain latitude.
Despite Linklater's success working with movie studios, and the presence of Efron, Me and Orson Welles was produced and will be distributed independently, a move Linklater says is sign of the current climate in Hollywood these days.
The industry, they really don't do films like this anymore. They really weren't interested. Even once Zac was aboard they were just, "No, we're not interested." I make films now and not so long ago this would've been a studioish kinda film, but they put all their chips on these big, big, big movies that seems to be working for them.
Linklater says he usually only works on a project when he feels he's the only who can.
I've turned down numerous things that ended up being huge films, but every time I do a film I gotta think I'm the only guy who would not only be the best guy for it, but would even want to make a film like this. Because of my baseball background, I was the best guy for Bad News Bears. Because of my rock and roll, you know, whatever it was, having a daughter that age, that I was the right guy for School of Rock I feel like I'm the right guy. I mean, I have to be cast carefully. I have to feel I'm well-cast in that situation, but I turn down most things just because I've got other things I'm usually working on, but I'm always up for the kismet of a nice little marriage of personality and project.
With his upcoming Liars killed by Disney's dissolution of Miramax, Linklater has nothing specific lined up next, though one of Linklater's "kismet" projects could be his "spiritual" sequel to Dazed and Confused.
I have a script I wrote, and it's kind of a college comedy and I called it my sequel to Dazed and Confused. It's none of the same characters. It's just my own spiritual sequel like, "Oh, these are my college years, the way Dazed was my high school, this is my college." So that's all, but it's not about revisiting those exact same characters. But I do have this kinda fun college comedy about the first weekend of college.
Me and Orson Welles opens on November 25 in limited release, and opens in more cities in December.
Posted 11.25.09 by Ryan -
With Disney taking the axe to Miramax's output and staff, we guess it's no surprise that one of the latter studio's planned projects — Richard Linklater's Liars (A-E) — is now in limbo.
The next planned effort from the director of A Scanner Darkly, Fast Food Nation, Before Sunrise, and Dazed and Confused was supposed to be one of the projects protected from Disney's cuts. But Movieline recently caught up with Linklater, who indicated unequivocally that the project is on hold indefinitely.
It's no longer happening, unfortunately. It didn't really work out. It's tough.
Tough indeed, because Linklater had already cast Rebecca Hall and Kat Dennings in the romantic comedy, which involves a road trip in which the two lead characters visit Hall's exes and attempt to retrieve personal effects.
The sudden dissolution of the project also means that Linklater has nothing on the horizon, which will come as a disappointment to his fans. Many were anticipating a possible sequel to School of Rock, but in the same conversation with Movieline, Linklater said that he has spoken with Jack Black and that there are no plans to go forward with that idea.
I don’t think I have anything coming up! Everybody asks me about School of Rock 2,and that’s not really happening. It’s not on the front burner. MikeWhite was writing on it a long time ago, but it’s become dormant ... I saw Jack the other night, andwe talk about it. We’re not gonna do it just to do it. Let’s just sayit’s still kind of on the backburner and it’s no one’s next project.
It's a shame Linklater won't have any projects forthcoming, although we don't imagine it will take him long to come up with something else. For now, we're anticipating Me and Orson Welles, which arrives in limited release next Friday.
Posted 11.17.09 by reelz -
Actress Rebecca Hall first gained wide recognition for her role in the The Prestige as the spurned wife of Christian Bale's magician, but it was her performance in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona as the adventurous Vicky that earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress.
Thanks to Vicky, Hall is in high demand. She's starred in two features, has completed filming a third, and is currently filming Ben Affleck's The Town. Now, Hall is in talks to star in Richard Linklater's (Slackers, A Scanner Darkly) latest movie, Liars, about a woman who is dumped by her fiancé the night before Barack Obama's presidential election victory. The relationship crisis motivates her to take a road trip to Obama's inauguration with a gal-pal (played by Kat Dennings), stopping along the way to reclaim personal items she left with ex-boyfriends..
Posted 09.19.09 by BrentJS -
Variety reports that Me and Orson Welles will finally arrive in theaters after multiple delays. Cinemanx has set November 25 as the release date, matching it with Nine, the musical directed by Rob Marshall (Chicago), and The Road, starring Viggo Mortenson, which also got a new release date.
Me and Orson Welles stars Zac Efron, Claire Danes, and Christian McKay in the title role. Behind the camera is Richard Linklater, who also directed School of Rock, Fast Food Nation, and Dazed and Confused.
The story is based on the Robert Kaplow book of same name, which involves Richard (played by Efron), a teenager cast in Welles' 1937 production of Julius Caesar. Along the way, Richard develops a romantic relationship with an opportunistic production assistant (played by Danes). When he learns that she is also the object of Welles' affections, tensions build, possibly threatening the production.
Executive producer Steve Christian spoke on behalf of Cinemax about the distribution:
We've developed what we believe is an exciting road map for distributing this film, one we hope will pave the way for many others to come.... The climate is such that there are fewer homes for films of this quality and budget range and it is important to create new options.
Posted 09.10.09 by reelz