Posts with tag public enemies
Posted Jun 12th 2008 2:40PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Drama, Fandom, Johnny Depp, Images
I am now convinced that
Johnny Depp doesn't age. The above is part of a collection of photos over at
Just Jared that show Depp as John Dillinger in Michael Mann's upcoming gangster flick,
Public Enemies. If I didn't know the context, I would've assumed that this was an old picture from some film of the past that I missed. But no, this is the actor filming on his 45th birthday.
Public Enemies is the sure-to-be-awesome Great Depression drama starring Christian Bale as FBI agent Melvin Purvis, who is trying to stop notorious bad boys John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd (Channing Tatum). But the stars are only the tip of the talent iceberg -- Leelee Sobieski, Billy Crudup, David Wenham, Giovanni Ribisi, Marion Cotillard, Rory Cochrane, Stephen Dorff, Lili Taylor ...
The film will hit theaters in July 2009.
Posted Jun 3rd 2008 7:02AM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Drama, Romance, Casting
Another week has flown by, and it's time for more casting bites, courtesy of
Variety:
She might have gotten to play Joan of Arc on the small screen, and get saucy in a Stanley Kubrick film, but now
Leelee Sobieski is probably going to make many-a-Johnny Depp admirer jealous.
She's been cast as the last girlfriend of John Dillinger - aka Depp - in Michael Mann's
Public Enemies. This should make her Polly Hamilton -- a woman who didn't know who he really was, and was with him when he was
gunned down.
Meanwhile, actor
Jesse Williams is getting to cleanse his big-screen girly fare of the upcoming
The Sisterhood of Traveling Pants 2 with Antoine Fuqua's
Brooklyn's Finest.
He will play Eddie Quinlan, a character who is pretty high up on the cast list that boasts Ethan Hawke, Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, and Ellen Barkin. The movie focuses on three unconnected cops who take very different career paths and wind up at "the same deadly location."
Continue reading Casting Bites: From Leelee to Perry
Posted May 22nd 2008 6:32PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Drama, Thrillers, Casting, Family Films
Cannes deals may be tepid, but
Variety has a whole bunch of new casting notices. Here's part one:
Years ago, one of
James Russo's first gigs was as a Convenience Store Robber in
Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Since then, he's popped up in
Beverly Hills Cop, The Blue Iguana, Donnie Brasco, and
Paris. Now he has
nabbed the part of Walter Dietrich in Michael Mann's
Public Enemies. Dietrich was a man who John Dillinger came across while in the
Michigan City penitentiary -- he was teaching Dillinger and others "the methods of Herman 'Baron' K. Lamm, a Prussian army officer turned highly successful bank robber."
But that's not the only getaway in this batch.
Katie Chonacas, who grabbed a part in
The Code last year,
has signed on for a supporting role in the Timothy Olyphant and Milla Jovovich flick
A Perfect Getaway. There's no word on who she'll play in the film, which focuses on two honeymooners (Steve Zahn and Jovovich) who get stalked by some killers (Olyphant and Kiele Sanchez).
Lastly, in this batch, there's youngin'
Sterling Beaumon. The kid, who has popped up in shows like
7th Heaven and
Heroes, has scored himself
the starring role in a big-screen adaptation of R.L. Stine's
Mostly Ghostly. The film focuses on a kid name Max (Beaumon), who has ghostly friends. The film also stars LiLo's little sister Ali Lohan.
Posted Apr 28th 2008 11:32AM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Drama, Romance, Casting
Can you believe it's almost May? Another month of 2008 is almost over, and we've got more casting news, courtesy of Variety:
- New York, I Love You already has a flipping huge and intrigue-inducing cast that ranges from Ethan Hawke to Julie Christie. Now we've got two more players in the mix. Both Carla Gugino (Sin City) and Goran Visnjic (Elektra) have signed on for a segment directed by Andrei Zvyagintsev. There's no word on what this segment will focus on, but I'll go out on a limb and say it'll feature some sort of love in New York City.
- Then there's a young actress by the name of Emilie De Ravin. If you're one of those Lost fiends out there, she's Claire Littleton in the series. On the big screen side of things, she had a lead gig in The Hills Have Eyes. But now she gets to deal with some Public Enemies. While enemies usually aren't a desirable sort of group to hang with, this melange has Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Channing Tatum, Billy Crudup, Giovanni Ribisi, Stephen Dorff, Rory Cochrane, David Wenham ... basically, a ton of great actors, plus a bunch of beloved indie boys from the '90s. According to IMDb, she'll play Anna Patzke.
- Finally, there's the girl who made the world of Gossip Girl all the more intriguing -- Ms. Serena van der Woodsen herself, Blake Lively. She's picked up a lead role in the upcoming film The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, which stars Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder. There's no word on who she will play in the feature.
Posted Apr 7th 2008 3:32PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Romance, Casting, Family Films
A new week, and a new round of casting nibblets courtesy of
Variety:
- First up, there is Shawn Hatosy -- who has been around for years in films like Outside Providence and Factory Girl. He has scored a gig as FBI agent John Madala in the upcoming crime flick Public Enemies. Madala is a guy who looked in on Richard Nixon in Miami back in the day, and who later became the head of security at Garden State Park. But this is the story of John Dillinger, J. Edgar Hoover, and the rest, so we're talking old-school FBI days.
- Then we've got Oscar Nuñez, the man who plays Oscar Martinez on The Office. He's picked up a role in the upcoming family film, Beethoven: The Reel Story. Yes, unfortunately, I'm not talking about some lovely Ludwig, but rather more St. Bernard chaos. Will the madness ever end? This time around, the dog gets to become a superstar and be the focus of a kidnapping plot. Also up, he's got a gig in that romcom The Proposal, which has Sandra Bullock forcing Ryan Reynolds to marry her for a green card. There's no word on who he will play in either project.
Continue reading Casting Bites, Part One: From 'Public Enemies' to a 'Final Destination'
Posted Apr 3rd 2008 11:02AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Drama, Thrillers, Casting, Universal, Newsstand
This movie either has Oscar winner all over it, or will massively collapse under the incredible power of its own cast.
Variety has announced the latest addition to
Public Enemies and it is the brilliant
Billy Crudup, who will be playing legendary FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. There cannot be another actor working who is less physically similar to Hoover, and yet I have no doubt Crudup can completely embody that controversial figure.
Given that the film has already been shooting for several weeks, I wonder if Crudup is really making a glorified cameo. I am always surprised when movies add a cast member so late in the game, but maybe he simply needed to be freed from
Watchmen duty.
Stephen Lang has also joined the cast as Winstead, the Texas Ranger who joins the manhunt for John Dillinger and his gang. He's nearly a Michael Mann regular, having appeared in
Manhunter,
Band of the Hand, and the series
Crime Story.
Public Enemies is set for release in 2009. And we'll either be saying "Of course it was good, look who was in it!" or "It's a mystery how it failed with that line up."
Posted Mar 19th 2008 11:02AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Drama, Universal, Johnny Depp, Images
The Hollywood Newsroom has scored a bunch of pictures of Johnny Depp as John Dillinger on the set of
Public Enemies, which has just begun filming in Columbus, Wisconsin. They're quite small and not particularly revealing, but the girls love Depp. And I just know that somewhere, a group of Depp cosplayers (yes, they exist) are studiously trying to replicate his fedora or coat cuffs just from this shot. Can you believe how young he still looks? It's eerie.
The shots of the location are very cool too. What I wouldn't give to be an extra in a gangster film. I love the clothes of the 1920's. I wish
Marion Cotillard was in one of these, because I am dying to see her clothes. Michael Mann is set direct a cast that also includes Christian Bale, David Wenham, Channing Tatum, Giovanni Ribisi and Stephen Dorff, among others.
Posted Feb 24th 2008 11:02AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Thrillers, Casting, Universal, Johnny Depp
I want to say that Michael Mann's
Public Enemies cannot possibly get any better -- but this could be one of those movies where so much awesome has come together that the universe must destroy it in order to keep us all in balance.
The Hollywood Reporter has announced that
David Wenham and
Stephen Graham have joined the cast -- which is led by Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, and
Christian Bale as the famed FBI Agent, Melvin Purvis, who hunted him down. These two actors can do no wrong, and it is going to be a lot of fun watching them go head to head.
Wenham, who was last seen as Dilios in
300, will be playing Pete Pierpont, a member of Dillinger's gang who is violently opposed to authority. Graham will be playing the famous gangster, Baby Face Nelson. They round out Dillinger's gang, which already includes Marion Cotillard, Giovanni Ribisi, Stephen Dorff, and John Ortiz. (Is the Reporter a misprint, by the way? Wikipedia lists a
Henry Pierpont in Dillinger's gang, not a Pete.)
Continue reading Michael Mann Makes A Few New 'Public Enemies'
Posted Jan 30th 2008 11:32AM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Drama, Casting
If you don't know who
John Ortiz is yet, you probably will soon enough. He's had roles in
Miami Vice,
El Cantante, and
American Gangster, and he's also got a handful of movies on the way, from
Pride and Glory to
Two Lovers. Now
MTV is giving him huge praise -- they have just listed him as the man who will become the next great supporting star -- following in the footsteps of Paul Giamatti, Chris Cooper, and John C. Reilly. The site recently talked with the actor, and found out that he has nabbed himself a role in the retro gangster flick
Public Enemies.
When production gears up in March, Ortiz will play Sicilian gangster
Frank 'The Enforcer' Nitti -- a man who rose from small-time thief, to one of Al Capone's right-hand men, to the frontman for Scarface's gang when Al was sent away for income tax evasion. But these are big shoes for the actor to fill even behind the camera. In the past, Nitti has been played by Bruce Gordon, Sylvester Stallone, Stanley Tucci, and the creepy Billy Drago.
But if you want more action and machismo, and less drama, he's also gearing up for the next installment of
The Fast and the Furious.
Posted Jan 28th 2008 1:32PM by Christopher Campbell
Filed under: Drama, Casting, Noir, Universal, Johnny Depp
If you've seen
Marion Cotillard in
La Vie en Rose, you've seen one heck of a great performance. But will we see another from the actress, or was playing Edith Piaf the role of a lifetime? While I can't imagine her ever making such a huge transformation or giving such a notable, career-defining performance again, I'm excited to see where her Oscar nomination takes her and I hope that she can at least follow it up with some interesting parts. We've
already heard that her next major role will be in Rob Marshall's
Nine, an adaptation of the musical inspired by Fellini's
8½. After that, she could be heading to Chicago (not Marshall's
Chicago, the real city) for Michael Mann's
Public Enemies.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Cotillard is in negotiations to play Billie Frechette, the torch singer girlfriend of
John Dillinger, who will be played by
Johnny Depp. Channing Tatum, Giovanni Ribisi, Stephen Dorff and Jason Clarke have also joined the cast.
As Monika
relayed last week, Billie will be a major character in the plot of
Public Enemies, which also stars
Christian Bale. The movie will reportedly balance between Dillinger's crime story and his love life while also focusing on FBI agent
Melvin Purvis (Bale), who famously pursued and caught Dillinger in the mid-1930s. It is interesting to note that
Public Enemies will be another singing role for Cotillard, who did not actually perform any of the Piaf songs in
La Vie en Rose. But while the actress is not a born singer nor a long-trained one, she did sing in in the 2001 French film
Les Jolies Choses (
Pretty Things) and will be singing in
Nine. Also, if you think Cotillard is suddenly getting work just because of her
La Vie en Rose acclaim, you're mistaken. You may have seen her in either of her two English-language movies (Ridley Scott's
A Good Year and
Tim Burton's
Big Fish), in any of the three
Taxi movies, as the female lead in the sweet
Amelie wannabe
Love Me If You Dare, in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's
Amelie follow-up,
A Very Long Engagement or in any of the many other French films in which she has appeared.
Posted Jan 28th 2008 11:02AM by Jessica Barnes
Filed under: Action, Casting, Paramount, RumorMonger, Comic/Superhero/Geek
Well, it looks like we might finally have our next Real American Hero. Ain't it Cool News is
reporting that
Channing Tatum (star of
She's the Man and
Step Up) has signed to play Duke in the feature film version of Hasbro's iconic military men,
G.I. Joe. News that Tatum was in the running for the part
first sprung up on Latino Review, but AICN claims that they now have word that it's a done deal and Tatum will be playing the second in command for Team Joe.
G.I. Joe will be directed by
The Mummy's
Stephen Sommers, and while some of the details have been tinkered with ever so slightly in Stuart Beattie's script, for the most part it looks like fans will be getting the Joes they know and love. Just last week, some plot spoilers were leaked, so if you can't wait, you can
check that out here. So far, the cast includes
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (LOST),
Said Taghmaoui (
The Kite Runner),
Sienna Miller as The Baroness, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marlon Wayans -- and I don't think I'm alone in thinking that this is one eclectic cast to say the least.
If it's true, this will be a big role for Tatum, who so far has starred in some pretty crappy teen fare. Tatum's career is on an upswing lately, and has the upcoming Iraq drama
Stop Loss hitting theaters this year, as well as a role in
Michael Mann's Dillinger film, Public Enemies, with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale.
G.I. Joe is set to start shooting in Los Angeles in the next month, so we should get some official word soon.
Posted Jan 21st 2008 5:32PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Drama, RumorMonger, Scripts
First, Depp
thought about becoming Dillinger. Then,
he became Dillinger. Then, Bale signed on
to battle him. Personally, I don't need any more information for the upcoming Michael Mann flick
Public Enemies. It focuses on old-school criminals and the birth of the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover's notoriety, and features two of the most talented, irresistible actors today --
Johnny Depp and
Christian Bale. Then again, stories have ruined flicks before, so it's probably a good idea to wait and get word about the script.
If sources over at
Latino Review are right, this will be one sweet, dramatic, crime-filled ride. Their source, Caxe, says: "I wasn't too excited about this project after
Miami Vice, but now that I've read it -- sh*t, I cannot wait until 2009, because it seems
Michael Mann might actually be back in top form with Public Enemies." He says it's not a biopic, but will detail Dillinger's desperation as his ways become obsolete and Purvis tracks him. "We have a great, twisting plot that balances Dillinger's crime story and his love affair [with a young girl named Billie] with the overall picture of organized crime in the 1930s and how the government was trying to stop it." Topping that off, he says it's filled with great characters, historical accuracy, slick dialogue, and "flat-out fantastic action sequences." We have to wait until 2009 to see if he's right, but for now, you can get more details over at Latino Review.
Posted Jan 11th 2008 9:02AM by Scott Weinberg
Filed under: Action, Drama, Universal
Two of the hottest actors on the planet right now are
Johnny Depp and
Christian Bale. And I don't mean "hottest" as in "sexiest," honest, although I'm sure there are a few women out there who might disagree. So who is the director that could bring Batman and Captain Jack Sparrow together in one movie? Scorsese? Spielberg? Uwe Boll? Nope, it's
Michael Mann, a filmmaker who clearly knows a little something about getting the most out of his leading men.
According to
Variety, Mr. Depp and Mr. Bale will co-star in Mann's
Public Enemies, with the former playing infamous bank robber
John Dillinger and the latter portraying persistent FBI agent
Melvin Purvis. Damn. Already I want to see this movie. Production on the Universal project (which is based on a book by Bryan Burrough) is expected to begin in March ... which means the film
could be ready for the end of the year! (Couldn't it?)
Check out Chris Campbell's earlier report on this project
right here. Obviously we'll bring you more news on this one as soon as it comes in.
Posted Dec 20th 2007 3:32PM by Christopher Campbell
Filed under: Action, Drama, Sony, RumorMonger, Tom Cruise
Considering how hard it is to get people to go see a
Tom Cruise movie these days, it wouldn't be surprising if it was also hard to get a director who'll work with the guy. Of course, Cruise's waning bankability isn't the reason that
his spy movie, the weakly titled
Edwin A. Salt, has already lost
Terry George and
Michael Mann as potential directors. I'm not sure why they aren't doing the film (Mann apparently
picked Public Enemies instead), but it can't be fears of a potentially low gross. No matter; they are out and Peter Berg (
The Kingdom) is in,
according to Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider Blog. Well, he's not quite in yet; Columbia Pictures is only reportedly wooing the guy, though in the end it's supposedly up to Cruise's approval whether or not he gets the gig. Interestingly enough, Berg can almost be viewed as a Mann protégé, since he produced
The Kingdom and Berg's follow-up, next summer's Will Smith vehicle,
Hancock (the
trailer of which hit the net this week). However, it doesn't appear that Mann will have any involvement with
Edwin A. Salt.
I won't admit to being the biggest fan of Berg's work (who could, really?), but I will admit that
The Kingdom was one of my top ten movies of 2007. Though it's mainly on my list because all critics have to have that one obligatory mainstream Hollywood pick, I do think it was directed quite well, with a tone that perfectly suited what it was really about (American dreams of an '80s action-movie-type response to 9/11). Also, his
Friday Night Lights (the film; I haven't seen the TV pilot he did) was better than most high school football movies. So, I'm excited to see what he can do with Cruise, a script from
Kurt Wimmer (
Equilibrium) and the beginning-to-get-tired world of spies.
Posted Dec 6th 2007 1:32PM by Christopher Campbell
Filed under: Drama, Casting, Universal, Johnny Depp
Two days ago
it was a question; today it's a reality:
Johnny Depp will indeed portray
John Dillinger in
Michael Mann's Public Enemies. According to
Variety, the actor and director sealed the deal yesterday a few hours prior to Depp's appearance at the
Sweeney Todd premiere. This is one of those rare situations in which something good came as a result of the writer's strike (not that it means the writer's strike is a good thing, of course), because Depp was only able to take this role after his
Shantaram gig was postponed. Mann, too, has had other projects in his pipeline lately, including
Empire with Will Smith,
Frankie Machine with Robert De Niro, a
Hollywood noir with Leonardo Dicaprio,
Edwin A. Salt with Tom Cruise and
one of two dueling biopics about ex-KGB Alexander Litvinenko (with the competing movie expected to star Depp, interestingly enough). None of those films have been reported as being passed over due to the strike, though.
Public Enemies was scripted by Mann himself, adapted from Bryan Burrough's book
"Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34." In addition to Dillinger, the non-fiction tome goes into the stories of gangsters Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, the Barker gang and Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. There's no indication, however, that the movie will be focusing on any story except Dillinger's. Maybe the others will show up in passing, while Dillinger features as the main concentration. With a star like Depp in the guy's shoes, it's hard to imagine him sharing the screen with anyone expected to be taken as significant as he. Then again, it is called
Public Enemies plural ...
Mann and Depp are set to begin shooting in Chicago in March.
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