PATRICK HAEGEMAN INSTAGRAM PIC FROM ANTWERP 'DOMINO' SET
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An obituary by The Guardian's Ryan Gilbey includes this bit about Heard's theater days:
At the Long Wharf theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1976 he originated the role of Billy, the gay soldier, in the first staging of David Rabe’s controversial play Streamers, and was disappointed not to have been retained for Mike Nichols’s subsequent New York production. He won an Obie award in 1977 for his performance in G.R. Point, in which he played a man processing dead soldiers from Vietnam before burial, and won another three years later for his combined work in Othello and Split.
In her Facebook post, Douglas said she was devastated to hear about Heard’s death. She described him as a “great, great actor” who inspired her in her career. She said she had been trying to line him up for an interview for a long time; he was hesitant, thinking no one was that interested in him. “I convinced him that there was real interest in him. That people loved him, and wanted to hear from him,” she wrote.
Of particular interest is the flamboyant Gilbert Powell. Played by John Heard of Cat People and Home Alone fame, Powell is very clearly the film’s equivalent of Donald Trump; The Donald being among the biggest names operating in Atlantic City around the time the movie was shot and set. Indeed, as the future president’s Historic Atlantic City Convention Center had played host to WrestleManias IV and V, so the man with the hypnotic hair had brought many a major box-office to the East Coast. Trump would also be instrumental in bringing MMA to Atlantic City, a bold move that led to UFC hefe Dana White being among the more unlikely speakers at the 2016 Republican Convention.
Setting aside narrow production schedules and one director’s priorities, the biggest problem with “Scarface” is that the material never gelled with studio priorities in the first place. Howard Hawks’ 1932 original was a Hollywood gangster saga that generated controversy for its violence but was otherwise pretty straightforward; Brian De Palma’s 1983 reimagining, however, was a jolt to the system, a high style indictment of the drug lord fantasy that culminated in one of the most outrageous shootouts ever captured on film. “Say hello to my little friend” was an astonishing, subversive battle cry, both cartoonish and mortifying at once, and it crystalized the mania of power-hungry drug dealing better than any journalistic expose.It was a breed unto itself, a movie that derived its power less from what it was about than how it was about it. So it was especially intriguing when Chile’s Pablo Larrain was attached to direct the remake three years ago. This endlessly innovative filmmaker, whose projects range from the allegorical horror movie “Tony Manero” to last year’s elegant period drama “Jackie,” clearly doesn’t compromise. His version, according to reports at the time, aimed to cast a Latino actor in a “mythic origin story” set in modern times, one that would expose the cycle of violence that brings the war on drugs from Mexico to America. Call it whatever you want — “Scarface” is just a placeholder — this is a powerful concept with the prospects of resonating on many levels at once. Of course, America’s relationship to Cuba continues to evolve in trepidatious ways that could make the original backdrop resonate with renewed topicality.
But it’s not the kind of material that a studio, eager for a blockbuster success, might want to take a risk on. (Thankfully, Larrain moved on to more original concepts.) De Palma and Al Pacino made their surreal, iconic look at a drug-fueled capitalist psychopath at a moment where it seemed as though they could get away with anything; short of Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino, few American directors could pull off the same feat today within the confines of the Hollywood system. Needless to say, De Palma’s movie didn’t exactly go over perfectly when it first came out, only gaining acclaim with time; it has since been co-opted by gangsta rap, novelizations, and video games. When a movie resonates this strongly in popular culture, it doesn’t beg for a remake so much as a second visit. Here’s an idea: Pop it back in theaters and audiences might flip, as “Scarface” no less immersive and unsettling than it was over 30 years ago.
Ultimately, the best home for a gangster saga might be the medium best suited for long-form, immersive storytelling — television. “Breaking Bad” did a fine job of mapping out the process through which, in Vince Gilligan’s famous terms, “Mr. Chips becomes Scarface.” So before we argue any further about whether the studio should remake “Scarface,” it might be worth considering the possibility that somebody already beat them to it.
It was said that the filming would take place in three stages of the capital - the Plaza de Toros, the Port and the Airport - and in an area of greenhouses of Adra. However, in the end they have only recorded in the first two. Spanish co-producer Antonio Pérez (Maestranza Films) told the local newspaper on Saturday that it was only a change of plans and a second unit of the team will return to the city in August to finish, but Joan Franco, coordinator of extras for the film, confirmed that from day one the rumors about the cancellation of the film were continuous in the set. "The last day was a very tense environment, because everything was known to be hanging in the balance. In the end, we were informed that the project was suspended because the Belgian company that was going to contribute part of the funds had withdrawn," he told La Vox.
Franco then commented on Puertas' post, "What a reason you have, my friend, unfortunately there are regulations by the national and local politicians, especially in the economic area that make it impossible for high-level film companies to come to work in Spain and Almería. That's how it goes with us."
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau surprised unsuspecting Game Of Thrones fans at a Copenhagen theater yesterday-- the fans had gathered to watch the HBO series' season 7 premiere.
To finish off, here is a Google-assisted translation of an excerpt from Marta Rodríguez' article from this morning at La Voz de Almería:
Initially, the shooting in Almería of this action thriller was to take place between July 10 and 24 and to be developed in four different locations: three in the capital - the Bullring, the Port and the Airport - and one in a set of greenhouses in Adra. However, in the end they only filmed in the first two and although Antonio Pérez, producer of Maestranza Films, indicated this Saturday to LA VOZ that it is only a change of plans and a second unit of the team will return to the city in August to finish, other sources say that the project has fallen when one of the producers, the Belgians of Zilvermeer, puled out.As explained to LA VOZ, Joan Franco, coordinator of extra for the film, hired by the Seville company CNG, from the first day rumors about the cancellation of the film were continuous on the set. "On Friday the atmosphere was especially tense, a meeting was held in high places and it was known that everything hung in a thread. In the end we were informed that the project was being suspended because the Belgian company that was going to contribute part of the funds had withdrawn, "he says.
According to Franco's story, with the passing of the days the demands of the shooting of 'Domino' were coming down because it was already foreseen that something like this could happen. Thus, of the 2,000 extras that the company CNG Casting included in its database (the tests ended up dilating for eight days) because they "were necessary", they have not called more than 350. And the cuts came to the point of removing from the script scenes of some complexity as a chase," says the extras coordinator.
[William] Oldroyd and his scenarist, Alice Birch, must think they are doing something far more complex, luring the audience into cheering for Katherine but making her acts of violence more and more awful until we’re revolted by her. But to what end? By making Katherine so evil, the movie falls into the old sexist shibboleths about scheming women, particularly sex-starved ones. Pugh, who bears an amusing resemblance to Miley Cyrus, gives a spirited performance that doesn’t shy away from her character’s villainy. But the distant, intellectualized approach keeps us from feeling any complicity with Katherine. She’s funny laughing at Anna’s shock at her open adultery, but Pugh is stuck with more of a conceit than a character. The source of Birch’s screenplay, a short story by 19th-century Russian writer Nikolai Leskov, has the robust wisdom of a peasant myth. How could anyone read that story, with its lush descriptions of nature and the horrified sympathy it accords its protagonist, and come up with this joyless, colorless movie?If there were any justice in the world of film criticism, Oldroyd would be getting the accusations of racism that—wrongly, and in ignorance of the clear meaning of their films—Sofia Coppola is getting for The Beguiled and Ana Lily Amirpour for The Bad Batch. He has made all the characters who are the least deserving targets of Katherine’s violence black. (Sebastian is biracial, and Katherine’s maid and two other prominent characters are black.) I don’t know how many black people were in Northumberland in 1865, but in this movie, race is used for the sole purpose of heightening their victimization, and it’s ugly.
At Cannes and other film festivals, Lady Macbeth was acclaimed for its daring. But for an unapologetic celebration of devious women, Out of the Past and Brian De Palma’s Femme Fatale are much tougher. As a portrait of a psychopath in the guise of dutiful wife, 1945’s Leave Her to Heaven has more punch. If an art-house film gets credit for what commercial movies have already done much better, then Katherine’s victims aren’t the only suckers here.
Oldroyd made his name as a theater director, and in his debut film he goes with his strengths. Lady Macbeth is largely confined to the plain, masculine house and its stables, and Oldroyd and cinematographer Ari Wegner show the grinding unsensuality of the place without resorting to the kind of overlong shots designed to make us literally experience her boredom.They subtly establish a second protagonist, the maid Anna, who is even more cruelly abused by the old master (Christopher Fairbank) and later spies on Katherine and her stable-boy lover, Sebastian (Cosmo Jarvis), through a keyhole. From our modern, liberal perspective, it’s tempting to see Katherine’s revenge on the decrepit industrialist as payback for Anna’s humiliation as well as her own. When a photograph is taken of her beside the upright open coffin of the dead geezer — who has also brutally whipped the lowly Sebastian — we want to cheer.
Movies are games of moral relativism, though, and Lady Macbeth quickly turns its feminist heroine into something far more disturbing. It’s one thing for a woman to murder overpowerful white misogynists, another to shoot her husband’s horse, which whinnies in agony. And the movie’s racial overtones are thunderous. The perpetually traumatized Anna is black. A little boy who shows up midway through — Katherine’s husband’s adorable illegitimate child and ward — is of mixed race and excruciatingly vulnerable. Sebastian’s complexion is on the dark side, too, Jarvis being of Armenian extraction. When you introduce race, white feminism tends to fly out the window — as Sofia Coppola learned after a deluge of criticism for culling a black character from her remake of The Beguiled. Applause for having trained the female gaze on a demonic-female myth has quickly yielded to abuse for being a privileged white woman allegedly minimizing the horror of slavery.
Oldroyd and Birch make no such gaffes. The movie’s larger point — which I find irrefutable — is that some people who have been victimized for life are not just inclined to speak truth to power but to abuse what power they have over people with less of it. August Wilson knew that, which is why his plays resonate far beyond melodrama. So does Lady Macbeth. It eats into the mind with its vision of evil as a contagion that transforms victims into oppressors.
Councilor of Promotion for the city, Carolina Lafita, and of the Councilor of Development, Commerce and Beaches, Carlos Sánchez, presented the star to De Palma. "Almeria is a wonderful city, with excellent architecture and with very good locations," said De Palma in response, according to Almería 360. "The crew had an incredible experience. The food is excellent and working with the city has been very pleasant. The choice of locations has been a success thanks to the support of the citizens, who have facilitated filming."
The novillero (apprentice matador) from Almería Sergio Roldán has lived a new experience with his participation in the film 'Domino', directed by Brian De Palma. On this occasion, the shooting has taken place in the Plaza de Toros de Almería and in full bullfighting festivities."It has been a new and great experience that I have lived participating in the film 'Domino', with a director of the stature of Brian De Palma and great actors," the Almerian novillero tells the VOZ.
At seven in the evening began the filming of the sequence where Sergio Roldán fights 'a bull' with a muleta. "Before the start of the shooting I was very nervous because I did not know what was going to happen. The moment I was told, I was calm. It has been three intense hours that we have been slowly shooting this sequence in the Plaza de Toros," recalls the Almerian novillero.
The tendido and grada of tier 8 is where the whole scene develops. Close to that stretch is where Sergio Roldán made his elegant and beautiful "bull" passes, with his suit of lights, while the public watched all the action developing, with stampedes of about 200 extras that participate in the scene.
"We have had to repeat the scene several times. It's been three hours of intense shooting. On arrival at the arena and before starting the shoot, director Brian De Palma greeted us. I also got to meet and talk with the actor who plays the role of terrorist (Ibrahim Goush), as well as the police who are after him. On this occasion, the actor told me that in America he works with horses and bulls. In the Plaza de Toros we were up until five thirty in the morning, after checking that everything had gone well," concludes Sergio Roldán, after remembering that it was the master Ruiz Manuel who called him and proposed his participation as a bullfighter in 'Domino'.
Marta Rodríguez, La Voz de Almería
Days of ten or eleven hours. More than 200 extras. A technical team formed by about 40 people under Brian De Palma (including José Luis Alcaine, Almodóvar's cinematographer with five Goya awards). A scene filmed with drones, stampedes, gunshots and many 'oles'. Welcome to the shoot of 'Domino', in the Plaza de Toros de Almería.These are the brushstrokes of the day-to-day shooting of this European production action thriller, which began filming on Monday in the Vilches avenue, where the actors are taking part: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Carice van Houten, cast partners in 'Game of Thrones' series in which they play Jaime Lannister and the witch Melisandre.
According to LA VOZ, one of the most important scenes of the film, a terrorist attack, with many special effects, occurred during a Bullfight celebration with tickets and runners out of public.
What direct witnesses tell of the shooting would not squeak about the plot of 'Domino', which will tell the story of a Copenhagen policeman who, with the help of another colleague, will follow in the footsteps of a man of Arab origin (who is played by Ibrahim Goush) responsible for murdering his partner. According to The Hollywood Reporter, this persecution, which will also involve the CIA, will take the protagonists from northern Europe to "sun-drenched landscapes of Spain." Petter Skavlan, writer of the screenplay of the film 'Kon-Tiki', is the person in charge of the script.
The team deals daily with the complications of having to coordinate so many extras, who have to repeat over and over again the plans of that scene of action in which a stampede takes place.
The production - in which the name of Tate Aráez stands out as head of locations (a great connoisseur of the province after touring with the team of 'Game of Thrones') - has required the participation of Almerian bullfighters Ruiz Manuel and El César, who along with Alberto Cámara, the will interpret the roll of proxies. The matador Sergio Roldán will also have a small role.
The Port and the Airport could be other of the chosen locations for this film that has placed De Palma back behind a camera five years after 'Passion'.
D. Martínez, Diario de Almería
"It is impressive to see Brian de Palma crossing the bullring of the Plaza de Toros de Almería". That is the affirmation of a woman who participates as an extra in the film Domino that the American director rolls these days in the Bullring of Almería...These days, Brian De Palma makes his normal life during the day, and at night he is shooting in the Plaza de Toros. They are marathon sessions, where everything is supervised by the director of the film, and where the scenes are repeated and repeated. De Palma is a demanding director and he likes to do things well, so until he has the shot he carries in his mind, he will not stop.
During the nights until the wee hours of the morning some 300 extras have occupied the 8th slope of the Coso of the Avenida de Vilches. A bullfight takes place, although there is an event that mars the celebration. A terrorist posing as a soda seller kills a person from the public. The figuration chosen for this sequence has appeared these days dressed as if they were to enjoy a bullfight.
The film, a thriller starring Carice Van Houten and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, has already begun in Antwerp (Belgium) and is a European co-production involving the French company Backup, the Spanish production company Maestranza, the Danish studios Schonne Film, and the Belgian producers of Zilvermeer...
After the bullring, filming will continue at the port and airport of Almeria and there will be scenes to be shot in Adra.