Written by Eric Warren Singer of The International, the film would follow the true story of the FBI’s 1980 undercover sting operation of Congress, dubbed Abscam, which was designed to root out corruption and was the brainchild of a con man. While the source also claims Affleck is seeking other projects too, if he keeps his eyes on gritty, gangster shit, I think if with The Town being nothing more than a Bostonian Heat, people would dig this story. Look it up on Wiki, it’s criminally interesting.

The Town

Chris Cooper should be nominated for an Oscar for his simmering five-minutes as Doug’s imprisoned dad. Pete Postlethwaite, too, brings his usual thunder as Fergus “Fergie” Colm, the crime kingpin who runs a flowershop. Well, every rose has its thorn. Only Jon Hamm disappoints as FBI Special Agent Adam Fawley with his raised eyebrows and threats of “omertà.” Found it difficult not to see him as Don Draper, which made me feel badly for both Hamm and Adam West. Also note the best use of rubber masks since the ex-Presidents in Point Break.

After the debacle of Gigli, Ben Affleck has risen like a phoenix. Faster than a speeding bullet, Affleck channeled Superman George Reeves in Hollywoodtown. Another Boston-inspired film Gone, Baby, Gone proved he could direct. With The Town, he should win an Oscar for best screenplay, which would bring him full circle: Remember this triple-threat won an Oscar with Matt Damon for writing Good Will Hunting in 1997.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The picture, being directed by Ninja Assassin helmer James McTeigue, is a fictional account of Edgar Allan Poe’s final five days as the joins a hunt for a serial killer inspired by his stories. Renner can next be seen co-starring alongside Jon Hamm, Blake Lively and others in the Ben Affleck directed feature The Town which comes out on September 10th.

Extracting an Idea

“I kind of feel like this movie is sort of a follow up to Office Space. I based Office Space on my own experiences working in the cubicle world, and I based a lot of this [film] on my experience being a boss, running what was basically an animation factory on Beavis and Butt-Head,” explains Mike Judge on the origins of Extract. In the film, Joel Reynolds owns the small flavor-extracting company, and has to deal with a stale marriage, along with his incompetent employees. “I think when you go from complaining about the man keeping you down, to becoming the man, you realize that being the man is no picnic either.”

Most of the film is set in Reynold’s Extract, a real fully operational factory facility. “[Since] we were on a tight budget, we had to shoot a lot of stuff while they were still working — they were really bottling. A lot of the background that you see in the movie is actually real people working — not extras,” explains Judge. “It was loud enough in there that they couldn’t hear us yelling “action” and “cut”, and they just kind of got used to us being there. So I got some pretty natural acting in the background because they weren’t acting like they were working; they were really working.”

Mike Judge has a knack for writing about average people, that connect with the viewers. They’re hard working, have Midwestern values, especially in Extract. Judge explains how he creates the characters we love. “I feel like a lot of characters in movies and TV seemed to have endless cash and free time, and you either didn’t know much about their job or they didn’t seem to have to have one. Hollywood was sometimes out of touch with us, and I always appreciated it when it felt like a movie or TV show got something right — like there was someone out there in Hollywood who understood what most of us go through.” Despite all of the humor, his characters are fully dimensional. “Finding the humor, while still having some dignity to the characters is something that is also important to me. I don’t think about it that much; I’d like to think it comes naturally. To me it’s just like when I would sit around with my friends telling stories about people I work with and doing imitations of them and that sort of thing.”

“I would say my stuff resides in suburbs of big towns also, or small towns that are near big towns,” when explaining the setting of his films. “I guess, that’s because I’ve mostly lived in places like that — Albuquerque NM, Richardson TX, etc. I think that a lot of writers in film and TV in the past, have tended to come from NY or big east-coast cities, and there have also been great stuff written about really small hick towns, and so I feel like I can maybe bring a different perspective on things with a suburban setting.” Extract has this feel to it, something that feels refreshing, when compared to what he was saying of stories focusing on New York or L.A. I think this approach, is the warming quality that has made his films fan favorites, despite the little box office returns.

On the Actors

Extract features a cast of popular names; Jason Bateman, Ben Affleck, Kristin Wiig, Mila Kunis, and Clifton Collins Jr.  “For the most part it was instant,” on explaining working with this type of cast. Most of Judge films feature a cast of lesser known actors. But even with such a large cast of well-known actors, everything went smoothly. “Most of them had already worked together or knew each other, so it all gelled nicely.”

On Jason Bateman: “I started writing this a long time ago — I think it was shortly after Office Space came out. I originally wasn’t thinking of any actor in particular, just writing it. Jason had done King of the Hill and I always liked him, but when I saw him in Arrested Development, I thought he would be perfect for this, and when I rewrote it and finished it. I was imagining him as the lead. It’s a similar character to what he did in AD, but I think Joel (his character) is a little less slick or something. Jason was the first actor I gave the script to and he said he liked it and wanted to do it, so it was him from the get go.”

On Ben Affleck: “I think he had a lot of fun doing it, and it was a blast for me to work with him on it. I really liked what he did. I had never met him before this and when I heard he wanted to do it, I was surprised at first, pleasantly so, and then when I met with him, he started telling me about a guy he knew growing up in Boston and he started imitating him and I just thought it was great. We did a read through of the script early on and I just loved watching him and Jason do these scenes and play off each other.”

On Killer Film’s favorite, Clifton Collins, Jr.: “I love Clifton, and have wanted to work with him for a while. I just never had a part that was right for him. I actually hadn’t thought of him for this part either. He usually plays a Chicano gangster or a serial killer, so I hadn’t thought of him. When he walked into the room with a trucker hat on, and suddenly he went from looking like a Chicano gangster to Festus from Gunsmoke. I love him as a redneck. He also makes a great Romulan (as seen in Star Trek). He’s a true chameleon. And now he’s a big award-winning country music video director also, with the Zack Brown Band.”

Judge on Judge’s Approach

Whether he’s directing a live-action film or doing an animated series, Judge’s approach has always been similar, as he called it. “I liked animation when I was just doing short films myself, doing everything myself. That was really satisfying work; making a film one frame at a time, getting it back from the lab and watching it for the first time. That was about as good as it gets I think. you can actually get pretty cinematic in TV animation I think, as the Simpsons has done. I think I never got too cinematic with King of the Hill just because of the nature of the show and the characters, not really because it was animated.”

“I think there have been some great R comedies in the past couple years,” explains Judge. “But for me, it’s not ever about edgy or not edgy. Something is either funny or interesting, or it’s not, and sometimes something funny falls into the R rated territory, but not always. Some people are surprised to hear that Office Space is R rated, because it doesn’t seem that edgy, I guess. I think anytime anyone has ever tried to be deliberately edgy, or to “push the envelope,” it’s usually sucked and lost money. I think there are a lot of movies that are hard-R rated that are really good and made money, but it’s because they are good, inspired movies.”

You can check out Extract on DVD and Blu-ray December 22nd from Miramax.

Feel free to leave a comment below or email the author.

Source: Awards Daily

Source: In Contention

Peter Craig, who’s recently wrote Ben Affleck’s The Town and is also penning the new Cowboy Bebop movie, was recently signed by Sony Pictures to write the screenplay for Bad Boys 3. The plan is to reunite Michael Bay with producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.

All the sequels and remakes currently in work makes me a little underwhelmed for this project. Anyone else?

Source: FirstShowing.net

You see my fellow reader friends, the print press and the online press have had a long time rivalry, and that is due to the fact that the bloggers get far more attention than newspaper journalists these days.  Because of that, there is a clear level of segregation that is present at every one of these screenings. They never really truly bothered me until after I saw how State of Play miraculously praised hardworking newspaper journalists and chastised bloggers for polluting the general public with their seemingly uneducated points of views.  After watching over two hours of the aphoristic horny love letter to journalists and seeing bloggers getting used as the proverbial cum rag, I realized that I was not going to write a formal review for this film, but rather I would adhere to the clichés of a being a true “blogger”…. comma splices and all.  

State of Play may be an all-star run of the mill political thriller, but it sure does have a complex synopsis. (Although I’m tempted to copy and paste the plot summary from IMDB, I will refrain from doing so.)  Academy award winner Russell Crowe plays Cal McAffrey, a well-respected yet jaded reporter who has been assigned to investigate a story of two seemingly unrelated deaths with a rookie doe-eyed “cheap and hungry” blogger named Della (played by Rachel McAdams) by his potty-mouthed and merciless editor. (Played by Academy Award winner Helen Mirren.) 

He then soon discovers his old college roommate and now congressman; Stephen Collins (played by Ben Affleck) has been implicated in a sex scandal with one of the deceased, (who apparently jumped in front of a subway that morning) which could effectively end his career as a successful politician.  When Stephen tells Cal that his mistress didn’t kill herself, Cal and Della delve further into the investigation only to discover that they may have dug too deep as they both enter a world of murder, and corporate espionage. Usual mainstream political thriller issues and “blogger hatred” ensues. *Note: Are we really supposed to believe Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck were college roommates? Can we say…AGE DIFFERENCE?

First off, if you were expecting a glowing review I would suggest you look on an another site that fears the “Rotten Tomato,” because despite the critical praise that this film is receiving, I will not join the masses. Director Kevin MacDonald may have delivered a carefully shot film, but unfortunately trying to fit a six-hour story in a two-hour movie does come with its problems.

While the story itself has more depth than a John Grisham adaptation, it still has plenty of plot holes that just didn’t make sense to me by the end of the film and just like police procedurals, the film only examined character problems, traits and flaws during the filler scenes when it could have been the other way around. I found myself far more enthralled into Cal and Stephen’s scorned wife’s (played by the beautiful Robin “ I need to take those stringy hair extensions out” Wright Penn) private connection, rather than finding out what the actual mystery was. 

The film also makes the red herrings in I Know who Killed Me seem clever and subtle as the hints towards the “twist” were heavy-handed and were so obviously rushed that even a stoned “blogger” could pick up on them. (I’m not admitting anything.)

As to be expected, the film was fairly well acted. Russell Crowe again steals the show with his as*hole charm and killer acting chops…but let’s face it…. Crowe could do a film about sitting on a couch and picking his toe jam with his digital blackberry pen and it would STILL be considered a solid performance. 

Ben Affleck also showcased his two impressive skills: crying on command and making viewers think that he is acting by over emphasizing the fifth and last word in every sentence. (Why has it taken me this long to notice it?) 

Although I do find Rachel McAdams to be a competent actress, she unfortunately did not have much to do for her role basically consisted of scowling at Crowe while playing the naïve sidekick blogger that doesn’t know better.

Although Jason Bateman will be praised for stealing the show with his small yet comedic role as a sleazy informant, I felt like watching his scenes should have came with a two-drink minimum. The comedy routine didn’t seem to fit in with the tone of the film and like the great Rob Zombie once said, “it was like putting Chewbacca in Bonnie and Clyde.” 

The only person I found truly enjoyable to watch was the amazing Helen “Mrs. Tingle” Mirren. Sure her role generally consisted of cursing at her staff, but hearing “ I want to know who she knew, who she blew, what color are her knickers” from her mouth deserves a star on its own. 

Don’t get me wrong, State of Play is not a horrible film by any means. The political thriller was proficiently shot, written and acted. However, the film is too mainstream to be taken seriously come Oscar time and it’s too early in the year for this to be talked about after opening weekend. But what do I know? I’m just a blogger.  

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Bolles was a co-founder of a group called the Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), whose members rallied to his cause shortly after his death, completing the work that Bolles had begun.

Personally after seeing Afflecks previous directing effort with Gone baby Gone i couldn’t be more thrilled .  I much rather prefer Ben behind the camera rather than in front as aside from his Kevin Smith roles I have never really connected with any of his characters but found his direction behind the camera assured and quite promising.

Source: Variety