THE NEWS

Lots of movie news on Viddy Well today! 

Starting with Terrence Malick’s next movie - yes, you’re reading right, only one year after his previous one: The Tree of Life. This should reduce the average time between the release of Malick’s films to less than several years now. We are still far from Woody Allen’s rate of one movie per year though... 

This one was filmed in 2010 and is entitled To the Wonder. A romantic drama starring Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Olga Kuryenko, Javier Bardem, Rachel Weisz and Barry Pepper - quite the cast! Some were hoping for it to premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival (which starts today!) but it is still in the process of creation in the editing room. It is most probably worth the wait...

The synopsis is the following: “It concerns a philanderer (Ben Affleck) who, feeling at loose ends, travels to Paris, where he enters a hot-and-heavy affair with a European woman (Olga Kurylenko). Said Lothario returns home to Oklahoma, where he marries the European woman (in part for visa reasons). When the relationship flounders, he rekindles a romance with a hometown girl (Rachel McAdams) with whom he’s had a long history.”

Next in line: Isabel Coixet, director of My Life Without Me (2003) and The Secret Life of Words (2005) will be directing The Age of Adaline, a fantasy romance that was initially to star Katherine Heigl who is now out of the project. Andy Tennant, director of The Bounty Hunter, was previously set to direct the movie. It seems this project is taking a new, more interesting turn.

News from twitter: Director Stephen Fry recently posted: «M'coll Hugh Laurie and I are cooking up a project together. We will be working again soon. Sorry to be mysterious but more news when I can».

Followed the next day by: «M'coll Hugh & I will be working together to voice the new animated feature of Oscar Wilde’s THE CANTERVILLE GHOST». 

Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie have worked together before on comedy projects. They met at the University of Cambridge which they attended alongside Emma Thompson.

I never had these sort of people in my class...

James Franco is in a literary mood: he will star alongside Mila Kunis and Jessica Chastain in an adaptation of the 1983 book of poems Tar by C.K. Williams. 

He also chose Olivia Wilde, Chloe Sevigny and Whoopi Goldberg for an adaptation of Black Dog, Red Dog, by Stephen Dobyns. 

They are still looking for directors. James and producer Victorino noval selected ten directors from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts as potential directors. A good deed indeed, giving young directors such an opportunity!

And finally, fresh news on period drama Madame Bovary, the adaptation of Gustave Flaubert’s classic. Ezra Miller who recently starred in We Need to Talk About Kevin is joining the cast as Madame Bovary’s lover and will star alongside Mia Wasikowska and Paul Giamatti. The director Sophie Barthes previously directed Cold Souls. 

Mia Wasikowska is also to star in another adaptation as a Dostoyevsky character. The Double is to be directed by Richard Ayoade (Submarine, 2010). Interesting career choices so far!

That’s it for today, and stay tuned for news on the Cannes Film Festival! 

Viddy Well, 

E.D.