Filming is scheduled to begin this summer, so we should get some official casting soon.

Nine

I personally don’t think knowing about Fellini and the French New Wave movement will increase one’s appreciation in Nine. The film is pretty straight forward. This Fellini-like director named Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis), is facing a midlife crisis that is hurting his creativity and his marriage. Through a series of meetings with various women in his life: lovers, his wife, and his constant actress of choice (Nicole Kidman), pressure from his producers forces him into making a picture regardless if it’s even possible for him to do so.

This mirrors Fellini’s own turmoil prior to filming his most personal film in 8 1/2, a film so loved by critics, film fanatics, and film students, but here in Nine, the film glides to its obvious conclusion. Did Nine need to be another 8 1/2? No, and it’s a-okay Marshall didn’t strive to serve that notion. Daniel Day-Lewis is one of our most intense actors, and when the film calls time-out to the musical aspects, the dramatic scenes are top-notch. But the film is a musical, so these elements must be addressed. Sadly, these elements aren’t as inventive as Marshall is noted for. They’re flat and stagy. I’m quite sure the Broadway play cast actors who are skilled in singing and dancing. Now, all are game, and Penelope Cruz and Stacy Ferguson offer up plenty of oozing sex appeal, but they do little to excite the flat feeling to the film. Day-Lewis is decent, but hardly is sipping from Raul Julia’s milk shake from the Tony Award winning play, in terms of singing and dancing.

So what’s Nine without the musical elements? A decent film, but it is a musical and most of the staged numbers aren’t very catchy and weigh the film’s pacing down. I can’t help but have this incredible letdown feeling from a film based on an acclaimed show, based on one of cinema’s well-known artists, who might just have used the film’s opening line to describe the film: “a film is killed by talking about it”. Try singing about it.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Source: Nine-TheMovie

The tale was captured in A.J. Baime’s book Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans. The book recently got optioned and is now being produced by Lucas Foster. Some of his other works include Law-Abiding Citizen, Man on Fire, and Executive Produced on Bad Boys and Crimson Tide.

During a recent appearance on Adam Carolla’s Podcast, Foster talked about how closet gearheads were finally stepping up and vocalizing their interest in the project. Notably, Brad Pitt, but also Josh Brolin, Russell Crowe, Matt Damon (specifically for the role of Phil Hill), Eric Bana, and Daniel Day-Lewis.

The cast features some of speed’s biggest names. Henry Ford II, Enzo Ferrari, both of their name-sake companies; Lee Iacocca of Chrysler, Phil Hill- an F1 racer that left Ferrari’s racing team for Ford, and Carroll Shelby- professional racer and creator of Ford’s precision machines, namely the Shelby Cobra and the Ford GT in addition to many more.

In Carolla’s interview, Foster plans to have “a really cool writer and we’re in the middle of hiring a director,” and also intends to shoot the film “from the driver’s perspective” to help convey the sense of driving 200 miles an hour for a day.

Who would you think would do a good job conveying the speed? Any thoughts or other input?

Source: Cinemablend

If you haven’t already seen the fabulous trailer, check out Daniel’s previous post.

Nine opens in theaters November 25, 2009.

SOURCES: Cinema Blend & IMDB

Aside from the enormous star power in the film and the fantastic trailer below, is it now worth price of admission alone to see Daniel Day Lewis singing and Sophia Loren’s return to film?

….and yes that was the Black Eyed Peas Fergie in the mix gyrating on the chair.

Source: Trailer Addict

The last time Daniel Day-lewis worked with Martin Scorsese, resulted in an Oscar nomination for his work in Gangs of New York.  Benicio Del Toro has not yet worked with the celebrated director but if all three actors agree to partcipate in the film, would surely result in yet another masterpiece.

Source: Variety