Movie File: Jason Schwartzman, Paul Walker, Drew Barrymore, Ryan Reynolds
When Oscar-nominated director Sofia Coppola announced that she intended to follow up "Lost in Translation" with a biographical film about 18th century French Queen Marie Antoinette, it raised a few eyebrows. When she cast quirky cousin Jason Schwartzman as King Louis XVI, however, things really started getting weird. "Definitely, getting into tights is scary the first time," Schwartzman said about his experience during the film's recently completed shoot. "By the end I was like, you couldn't get me to take them off. I had to wear garter belts and stuff. I never thought I would be wearing a powdered wig ever in my lifetime. Then again I never thought I'd be afforded the opportunity to be an actor." The film is due in theaters next year, and Schwartzman expects fans to be excited over the possibility of getting "Lost" all over again with some help from Coppola. "This movie is Sofia's vision of [Marie Antoinette's life] and her take on it. I think it's really special, and really different than what, you know, people are expecting. All of her choices are unique and just precise. I don't know what it's going to be like but I just know I had the best time of my life shooting it." ...
With Steven Spielberg producing and the "Million Dollar Baby" team of director Clint Eastwood and writer Paul Haggis linking up once again, you just know that "Flags of Our Fathers" is going to be something special. While taking a break from the film's production, star Paul Walker offered a rare peek at the story of the six brave men who raised the flag at the World War II Battle of Iwo Jima: "I play this guy, Hank Hansen ... he was a platoon guide and was also a sergeant ... a real snazzy guy, dressed real sharp," Walker said. "They had a nickname for him; they called him the Count because everything was so neatly pressed when he'd go to battle. I guess everything was just super tight; he wanted to die in style." Although Walker has been unable thus far to make contact with Hansen's descendents, he hopes they will attend the film's premiere so he can meet them face to face -- a thrill he said would be on an equal level with working for the legendary Eastwood. "This is a big movie, [but] it feels like we're working on an independent project," he said. "Not in the sense that things are unorganized -- quite the contrary. Things are so together, so tight. You go, 'OK that's what years of experience brings you.' " The drama, which also stars Ryan Phillippe and Jesse Bradford, is due in theaters next year. ... When versatile director Curtis Hanson ("8 Mile," "In Her Shoes") committed to the upcoming Drew Barrymore drama "Lucky You," he assumed he'd have to go to great lengths in explaining the world of professional poker to his audience. With the sport now enjoying an unprecedented level of success, however, Hanson says he's been able to focus his energy elsewhere. "There's a lot more interest in poker and knowledge of it, certainly, than there was two years ago when we first got involved with 'Lucky You,' " Hanson remarked about the movie, which will put Barrymore, Eric Bana and Robert Duvall at Las Vegas tables alongside many of the world's top players. "We don't have to worry so much about whether people know how to play the game; 'Lucky You' is a story of characters, it's not really a story of poker. It takes place in the world of poker, but it's about characters trying to figure out what they're doing with their lives and with relationships." According to Hanson, the film is due in theaters either in the late spring or summer. ...
"It's kind of a self-help book for the 'hood, if there is such a thing," Shia LaBeouf said, breaking down the plot for his upcoming film "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints." Based on the true story of writer/director Dito Montiel, the film stars LaBeouf as a younger version of Montiel and Robert Downey Jr. as the man he eventually becomes. "It takes place in Astoria, Queens, in the 1980s when hip-hop was just forming," LaBeouf continued. "It's basically about this kid who is the only person to come out and be somebody. It documents him going through his whole life." The offbeat drama, expected to be released next year, opened the young actor's eyes to Montiel's unique take on life, both off and on the set. "This guy Dito is ... on a different level," LaBeouf said. "We would be doing pantomime takes. I'd never done that before, so it stretches me as an actor ... I'd be sitting there with Chazz Palminteri, we'd have five pages of dialogue that we'd been doing over and over, and he'd go, 'Forget the lines, pantomime every word.' You're like, 'What?' But it worked. And he got the reaction [shot he needed]. He'd probably do a whole 10 minutes for one moment in the pantomime. That's the type of stuff he was doing." ... Amazingly enough, Nicolas Cage's nearly 25-year film career has contained many of the biggest blockbusters of his time without a single sequel among them. That is about to change, however, as he and the team behind "National Treasure" has begun the development process on a film that would return him to the treasure-hunting boots of adventurer Ben Gates. "I certainly would like to do it. I had a lot of fun with that movie and I like all the people involved," the "Lord of War" star revealed. "It's the kind of [franchise], if it did happen, that could really keep sort of reinventing itself. The story, the treasure, it could always be something new and have some interesting back story to the history connected with it. You could really see that working." ...
For his upcoming film "Just Friends," Ryan Reynolds shot a handful of scenes opposite a rock star that he's an unapologetic fan of -- because she's his fiancee. "She does a cameo," Reynolds confirmed of the involvement of Alanis Morissette, "and it makes perfect sense. I play a record executive in it, so it was like one of those few times where having the significant other in the cameo actually made sense." The twist, of course, is that Morissette plays herself. "She does a great job," Reynolds teased while discussing the easy assignment of his betrothed, adding that Alanis was excited to do the role since she got to give Reynolds' character his comeuppance: "She gives me some sh--. It's a classic bait-and-switch. I come in, and she just turns me right up on my ass and walks away." Laughing, he added, "It's kinda like our home life." ... Johnny Knoxville, a self-professed baseball fan who played the game for much of his youth, is thrilled over a bizarre script he's currently developing that may just make the Bad News Bears look like the Girl Scouts. "I'm very visibly, visibly excited about that role," the "Dukes of Hazzard" star reported of "Stolen Summer," based on the real-life childhood remembrances of longtime Baltimore Orioles catcher and World Series MVP Rick Dempsey. "Yeah, it's being written right now. It's a great story about a boy with his Little League baseball coach, and they go all over the country playing games, and in the meantime -- you know, the coach was like a real father figure to the kid -- but in the meantime, every town they'd go in the coach would rob banks." Knoxville, who has yet to meet Dempsey, says he's looking forward to starring as the coach in the movie and hopes the almost-finished script will allow him to dust off a few of his largely unknown baseball skills.
