TFC Journal at TheFilmChair.com

Where does he get all those wonderful toys?!

• I get Candy Land. I get Battleship. I even get View-Master. But Erector Set: The Movie? (EW)
• Hugh Jackman’s Avon Man finds Enchanted director. (Variety)
• Wuthering Heights is set to be Twilight-ified. No joke. (Deadline)
• NBC, desperate to find hour-longs for the 10 p.m. time slot, settles on some guy named Spielberg. (THR)

Fin.

Top Story: The release for Oscar frontrunner Up in the Air is moving back to Dec. 4.  The Jason Reitman-directed comedy moved to Nov. 13 for an earlier release after a very positive reception at Toronto and Telluride. However, that date put it within a week of another George Clooney film, The Men Who Stare at Goats. Overture wouldn’t blink. Now we wait an extra two weeks for the Clooney movie we actually want to see. (THR)

In Other News: J.J. Abrams’ latest spy series has all the networks in a tizzy. The show about two married spies is the prize in a bidding war between ABC, NBC, and CBS . NBC, for once, might just be winning. (THR)

Speaking of NBC, the entertainment company NBC Universal may become part of the Comcast family. (Variety)

Hugh Jackman is in talks to star in a robot boxing titled Real Steel. Shawn Levy will direct. (Variety)

Josh Brolin will star in Cartel, a dark drama set in the gritty world of Mexican cartels, for director Asger Leth and Universal. Sean Penn was originally set to play the lead, but dropped out due to personal reasons. (Variety)

Fin.

Top Story: Hugh Jackman is attached to star in an original contemporary musical about P.T. Barnum. The 20th Century Fox film, titled The Greatest Showman on Earth, will be scripted by Jenny Bicks and produced by Laurence Mark, John Palermo and the showman himself, Hugh Jackman. Most importantly (for those of you who saw my first Tune-Worthy post), poptastic British singer-songwriter Mika is in talks to write music and lyrics.(Variety)

In Other News: Carla Gugino will join Emily Browning, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Jena Malone, and Abbie Cornish in visionary Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch. (THR)

Sam Worthington will replace Tom Cruise and star alongside Charlize Theron in the upcoming remake of the French thriller The Tourist. (THR)

In streaming news, Netflix and Disney-ABC have reached an agreement that will make shows produced by the alphabet available on Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” streaming service.  Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, and The Legend of the Seeker are just some of the shows included in the deal. (THR)

Fin.

Top Story: Hugh Jackman will produce and star in the comedy Avon for 20th Century Fox.  The film about a man who is recruited to sell Avon products after being laid off will be written by Hitch scribe Kevin Bisch. (Variety)

In Other News: Working Title Films is developing a third Bridget Jones film starring Renee Zellweger. (Variety)

Disney has nabbed the writes to the young adult novel Wings and will develop the title as a star vehicle for Miley Cyrus. (Variety)

Fin.

Top Story: Al Pacino is in talks to star in the upcoming adaptation of Malcolm Gladwell’s nonfiction bestseller Blink.  Stephen Gaghan will write and direct the project for Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way banner. Gaghan wrote the Oscar-winner Traffic and wrote and directed Syriana.  Could another exciting ensemble piece be on the way? (THR’s Risky Business)

In Other News: Madeleine Stowe will direct Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz, and Robert Pattinson in the period drama Unbound Captives.  Hugh Jackman will play a rugged frontiersman who saves Rachel Weisz as she searches for her lost son in 1859. Jackman? A rugged frontiersman? They may have to change the name of this one to America. (Variety)

In un-casting news, Nicole Kidman has left the still-untitled Woody Allen project. Now that Kidman is out, there’s talk of the movie actually making money at the box office. (Variety)

First time scribe Evan Daugherty has been brought in to write a draft of Grayskull, Warner Bros. and Silver Pictures’ Masters of the Universe movie. (THR)

Next summer, people will be kicking off their Sunday shoes. The Footloose remake starring Zac Efron will hit theaters on June 18, 2010. (erc BoxOffice)

Kevin Spacey will play disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff in the upcoming film Captain Jack. (Variety)

Fin.

Top Story: Proving once again that bland movies happen to good box offices, X-Men Origins: Wolverine opened the summer movie season opened with $87 million at the domestic box office.  The fourth film in the X-Men franchise didn’t break any records at the domestic box office, but it did bring in more than the first two films did on their respective opening weekends. Worldwide, Wolverine brought in $160 million. (erc BoxOffice)

In Other News: Even with Wolverine hitting it big, Hugh Jackman is getting ready for another comic book property.  Jackman is attached to Ghostopolis, an upcoming graphic novel adaptation from Disney about an employee at the government’s Supernatural Immigration Task Force. (THR)

Participant Media has tapped Ben Stiller to direct the dramedy Help Me Spread Goodness.  Stiller is also currently attached to direct The Trial of the Chicago 7, an Aaron Sorkin-scripted film that seems like it will never get made but is always on my mind. (Variety)

Magnolia Pictures nabbed the world rights to Tribeca hit The Eclipse. (Variety)

Fin.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)–**

Let’s hope that X-Men Origins: Wolverine isn’t a sign of things to come this summer. This fourth film in the X-Men franchise, a prequel to the first three films, is about as boring as a summer blockbuster can be without being insufferable. It’s a stale popcorn movie.

Not that it comes as a shock to anyone who saw the decidedly average X-Men: The Last Stand, a film rushed into theaters with little consideration for story or character. Yet, for all that film’s flaws, I couldn’t call it boring. Wolverine fails because it took the third X-Men film’s biggest weakness, Wolverine, and tried to structure a story around him.

Read the rest of this entry »

Okay, so this isn’t confirmed, but Fox News is reporting that Hugh Jackman has asked his Australia director to stage the opening number at this year’s Oscar ceremony. Now, I know this isn’t a way for the Oscars to get a mainstream audience. People really hate Luhrmann. But to all the haters out there, if you could stomach the Cirque du Soleil journey through cinema history, you’ll be able to make it through this.

I mean

+

=

Heaven

Emmy winning award show host and international movie star Hugh Jackman will host the 81st annual Academy Awards!

Talk about bringing a touch of class back to the Oscars. All he really has to do is get on stage in a tux and flash a smile. He’ll be a better host than the last three hosts combined. Sorry, Ellen.

Australia (2008)–***

Baz Luhrmann’s Australia isn’t proof that the historical epic is back, but if we’re lucky Luhrmann’s sumptuous epic will do for the genre what his Moulin Rouge! did for musicals and Romeo + Juliet did for Shakespeare. Australia is brash, big, and beautiful, and it’s more accessible than the controlled messes that were Luhrmann’s previous films. Most audiences will still have to let their guard down a little, but when they do, the reward is an rapturous romantic adventure that is far and away more entertaining than the ones we experienced in the 1990s.

Nicole Kidman stars as Lady Ashley, an English aristocrat who travels to Australia’s Northern Territory to convince her husband to sell their cattle business to the Carney Cattle Company. When she arrives, she’s met in Darwin by the raucous, ruggedly independent Drover (Hugh Jackman), who has been given the job of escorting Ashley to her cattle ranch Faraway Downs.

Ashley and Drover don’t hit it off. The white-bred, upper-class Englishwoman isn’t used to the harsh ways of the outback, and Drover, who’s habit of hanging around with the Aborigines isn’t looked on so kindly by Darwin’s white elite, isn’t interested in teaching her. But when the pair arrive, they find that Ashley’s husband has been murdered, and the white folk are blaming an Aboriginal elder for his death. One little boy, a mixed-race Aboriginal child named Nullah (Brandon Walters), knows different.

But that’s only a third of the story. Lady Ashley, the Drover, Nullah, and a crew from Faraway Downs must bust the Carney Cattle monopoly, deal with their inevitable separation, and come together again in the midst of the bombing of Darwin. True to the epic form, Australia has limitless scope. But in a surprising twist, Luhrmann shows a little restraint.

Australia isn’t so much a Luhrmann reinvention of the historical epic, but rather an homage. I found myself thinking of the excitement of Ben-Hur’s chariot race during a rousing stampede sequence. And of course, Ashley’s tenacity channels Scarlett’s “as God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again” attitude. Sure, Australia starts out like a Luhrmann film, but the burner is quickly turned down and a rolling boil becomes a simmer.

That said, Jackman and Kidman give performances that make you want to fall in love with Australia beyond Luhrmann’s penchant for dramatic visuals. Were it not for the pair’s chemistry and their devotion to the roles, the visually stunning moments would have more in common with a two-hour trailer like 300 than that of an old-fashioned Hollywood romance.

Jackman in particular delivers a powerful performance and does it with the suave of a true screen icon. All at once, Jackman is Marlon Brando and Cary Grant. What he does, capturing Drover’s thirst for righteousness in a society marked by bigotry and slowly tearing down the walls that his character has built up after years of mourning, makes Jackman the film’s true standout.

Australia as a whole, however, never really stands out. While the film could still act as a catalyst that reignites the genre, attracting younger viewers who have forgotten what a grand epic looks like, audiences who have chewed through hours of Turner Classic Movies programming will likely find more joy in revisiting the oldies.

Australia is too calculated to be in the same league as the classic films I’ve compared it to above. We’re still riveted by the story. We’re still swept away by the visuals. We still fall in love. But without that madly passionate allure of most Luhrmann pictures, Australia falls short of greatness.

Australia, directed by Baz Luhrmann, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, is now playing.