De Palma a la Mod

Sunday, February 12, 2012

'PASSION' CASTING DIRECTOR ON DE PALMA
"HE PREFERS ACTORS WHO COME FROM THE THEATER"

An article by Patrick Wildermann published today in Der Tagesspiegel looks at the booming star system in Germany, and includes quotes from Anja Dihrberg, a German casting director who is, according to the article, currently working with Brian De Palma, presumably on Passion. Dihrberg tells Wildermann that De Palma "prefers actors who come from the theater and mastered their craft accordingly." It is undoubtedly through Dihrberg that Karoline Herfurth was cast in Passion, as Dihrberg was the casting director for Berlin '36, a 2009 film which starred Herfurth as a Jewish athlete competeing to be on the German Olympic team. Dihrberg tells Wildermann that she appreciates the fact there is still a nice gap between Hollywood star concerns and that of the German film industry. She emphasizes a focus on "character roles," and expresses a kind of horror at the Hollywood machine of uniformity that drives actresses toward anorexia and plastic surgery. Dihrberg tells Wildermann she hopes that "a Nina Hoss will not look like Nicole Kidman at some point."

Posted by Geoff at 4:49 PM CST
Updated: Monday, February 13, 2012 6:52 PM CST
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Thursday, February 9, 2012

'PASSION' ROLES REVEALED
RACHEL IS CEO, NOOMI IS DEPUTY, AND KAROLINE IS HER ASSISTANT

An article yesterday by Variety's John Hopewell mentions who plays who in Brian De Palma's Passion, which begins a ten-week shoot in Berlin on March 5th. According to the article, Rachel McAdams will play the CEO (the role played by Kristin Scott Thomas in Alain Corneau's Love Crime), Noomi Rapace will play her deputy (the role that was played by Ludivine Sagnier), and Karoline Herfurth will play Rapace's assistant. The latter role is particularly interesting, as it was portrayed by a male actor, Guillaume Marquet, in Corneau's film.

The Variety article, which is primarily about SBS Productions having closed key pre-sales on the film, states that the Passion screenplay is "by De Palma, with additional dialogue by novelist Natalie Carter." Carter is also credited as Corneau's co-writer on Love Crime, which, like Passion, was produced by Saïd Ben Saïd's SBS Productions. The article states that Passion will be released in France in early 2013. It is expected to be released in the U.S. before the end of 2012.

Posted by Geoff at 12:55 AM CST
Updated: Thursday, February 9, 2012 12:58 AM CST
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Saturday, February 4, 2012

KAROLINE HERFURTH JOINS 'PASSION'
ALSO: SET DECORATOR AND ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR LISTED ON IMDB

Several German newspapers are reporting this morning that German actress Karoline Herfurth has joined the cast of Brian De Palma's Passion. Herfurth made quite an impression a few years ago as "The Plum Girl" in Tom Tykwer's Perfume (pictured here). According to the Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten's Jana Haase, the Berlin-Brandenburg Media Board's Kirsten Niehuus revealed Herfurth's casting as part of an announcement ahead of the start of the Berlin International Film Festival, which opens Thursday, February 9th. The Media Board will promote the film with 400,000 euros. The article states that Passion will film in Berlin, and also perhaps Babelsberg, which is home to Studio Babelsberg, the oldest large-scale film studio in the world, according to Wikipedia.

Speaking of Tykwer, the ambitious film he is making with the Wachowski brothers, Cloud Atlas, recently completed filming and is now in post-production. According to the IMDB, Patrick Herzberg, who worked as a set designer on Cloud Atlas, has joined Passion as assistant art director. Herzberg has worked with Passion's production designer Cornelia Ott on the Wachowski-scripted V For Vendetta, as well as Paul Verhoeven's Black Book. Also listed at IMDB now is Ute Bergk, who will be the set decorator on Passion. Bergk has also worked with Ott and Herzberg before on V For Vendetta, and was assistant set decorator on Christopher Nolan's first two Batman films.

Posted by Geoff at 8:35 AM CST
Updated: Saturday, February 4, 2012 8:38 AM CST
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Wednesday, February 1, 2012

McADAMS TOO BUSY FOR OSCARS THIS MONTH
TELLS TALK SHOW SHE'LL BE WORKING WITH DE PALMA IN BERLIN

Rachel McAdams visited ABC's Live! with Kelly yesterday, with Daniel Radcliffe sitting in as co-host. Early in the interview, Kelly congratulates McAdams on Midnight In Paris being nominated for the best picture Oscar (McAdams appears in the film, directed by Woody Allen). McAdams said she was happy just to be in a Woody Allen movie, not caring what happened with it, although she is very happy for its recognition. Then came the following exchange, in which McAdams said she will not attend the awards show (which takes place February 26th), because she will be in Berlin working with Brian De Palma...

Kelly: So will you go to the Academy Awards?
Rachel: [Big sigh, then delicately] Um... no.
Kelly: No?
Daniel: Why?
Rachel: I have to work.
Kelly: Awww.
Rachel: Work always...
Daniel:That's a good reason to not be going.
Rachel: Yeah, yeah, no, it's great. I'm going to Berlin to shoot a Brian De Palma movie.
Daniel: Oh!
Kelly: Oh, that's great!

Posted by Geoff at 8:02 PM CST
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

McADAMS CONFIRMS 'PASSION'
DESCRIBES IT TO GERMAN REPORTER AS "A VERY DARK THRILLER"

Rachel McAdams was in Munich Friday to promote her upcoming film, The Vow, and mentioned to Trailer Seite reporter Marcus Fliegel that she will be in Berlin soon to film Brian De Palma's Passion. Here is the exchange from the very beginning of the interview:

[Fliegel] You’ve already been in Germany a couple of times, do you like it here?
[McAdams] I really like Germany. It is a sophisticated and creative country. Munich, unfortunately, I’ve only seen from inside my hotel, but I’ve already spent time in Berlin and I’ll be going back soon for a film with Brian De Palma, a very dark thriller. I’m really looking forward to it and I hope by then the lilacs will bloom. That was just beautiful last time to ride a bike and smell the scent of lilacs.

(I found out about this article via the terrific Rachel McAdams Online.)

Posted by Geoff at 6:28 PM CST
Updated: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 6:29 PM CST
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Sunday, January 15, 2012

DONAGGIO WILL SCORE 'PASSION'!
FILM MUSIC REPORTER: SBS SENT OUT INCORRECT INFO LAST WEEK

Many of us have been waiting for a return of the great ongoing collaboration between Brian De Palma and Pino Donaggio, and it looks like it is finally happening. According to Film Music Reporter, SBS Productions sent word Friday that they had accidentally sent out incorrect information last week regarding the composer for De Palma's Passion. Donaggio will score the film, and not Dario Marianelli, as originally stated. This would mark the pair's first collaboration since 1992's Raising Cain. About nine or ten years ago, Donaggio had said that he was to provide the music for De Palma's planned adaptation of Toyer, but that project has yet to get off the ground. Donaggio has scored six films for De Palma: Carrie, Home Movies, Dressed To Kill, Blow Out, Body Double, and the aforementioned Raising Cain. With Donaggio's involvement, Passion looks to be something very special, indeed.

Posted by Geoff at 1:29 AM CST
Updated: Saturday, March 10, 2012 2:16 PM CST
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Saturday, January 7, 2012

ALCAINE WILL SHOOT 'PASSION' FOR DE PALMA
COMPOSER: DARIO MARIANELLI - EDITOR: FRANCOIS GEDIGIER

"I’ve always been known for my concern for the beauty of the actresses. That’s because I grew up seeing the films from the 1940s to the 1960s, in which the actresses were shot like goddesses.” That is a quote from José Luis Alcaine, the cinematographer who has worked on five films with Pedro Almodóvar since 1988, including Almodóvar's latest, The Skin I Live In. According to the IMDB, Alcaine will be the cinematographer on Brian De Palma's Passion, a film of which De Palma has stated will have "a lot of beautiful women in it." Noomi Rapace and Rachel McAdams are set to play the leads. De Palma had previously told us that Thierry Arbogast would be shooting the film, but that was back when they were trying to get the project off the ground last spring, so Arbogast may be tied up with other projects right now. In any case, Alcaine is a welcome, fantastic choice, having done incredible work with Almodóvar and others. The Skin I Live In has been compared on more than one occasion to De Palma's Femme Fatale.

Alcaine is known for being the first to use fluorescent tubes as a primary lighting source back in the '70s. He talked a bit about his lighting techniques in a recent interview with Below The Line's Jack Egan, telling him that the bedrock of all good cinematography is "sculpting with light... You have to bear in mind that the lighting in all my films, even though they’re very different, starts from reality. That means I like very gentle lights, but with great contrasts; and soft lighting that envelopes colors, without making them explode.”

Also according to the IMDB (and confirmed by Film Music Reporter), Dario Marianelli will compose the score for Passion. Marianelli is an award-winning composer who has scored many films, including The Brave One, Atonement, Pride and Prejudice and V for Vendetta. The IMDB also lists François Gédigier (Dancer In The Dark, Queen Margot) as the editor on Passion. As previously reported, Cornelia Ott is the art director.

Posted by Geoff at 4:38 PM CST
Updated: Sunday, January 8, 2012 10:32 AM CST
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Thursday, December 15, 2011

ADDITIONAL DETAILS ON 'PASSION'
FILM WILL SHOOT FOR 10 WEEKS, FOR LATE 2012 RELEASE

Following yesterday's exciting scoop from Thompson On Hollywood's Liza Foreman, Deadline's international editor Nancy Tartaglione followed up today by stating that Rachel McAdams is set to star in Brian De Palma's Passion along with Noomi Rapace (yesterday's report said that McAdams was still "in talks"). The Deadline post adds that "a major male role and a smaller female role have yet to be cast. Those will likely be played by Europeans, with deals expected to be firmed up in January." The $20 million film, set to begin filming in Berlin March 5th, will shoot for ten weeks, looking toward a late 2012 release, according to Deadline. The German company Integral Films will be the co-producer along with France's SBS Productions, which is owned by the film's producer, Said Ben Saïd, who also produced Alain Corneau's Crime D’Amour, on which De Palma's film is based. As we've known for some time, De Palma has written the screenplay for Passion himself.

While none of the recent reports have mentioned it, we know from previous reports that De Palma's film was to be set in London. Filming was to be done on sound stages in Berlin, with exteriors to be shot in the U.K. De Palma told us in May that Thierry Arbogast (Femme Fatale) would be the cinematographer, and that the art director will be Cornelia Ott. In April, De Palma told Time Out New York's Joshua Rothkopf that he was in the process of getting Passion ready, "and there are going to be a lot of beautiful women in it." Asked to elaborate on the project, De Palma told Rothkopf, "It’s based on a French film called Love Crime with Kristin Scott Thomas. It has an extremely complex relationship between two women executives who are basically destroying each other—plus it has a murder in the middle. It’s great material to visualize and make erotic and fun."

Posted by Geoff at 5:33 PM CST
Updated: Thursday, December 15, 2011 6:11 PM CST
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Wednesday, December 14, 2011

RACHEL McADAMS TO JOIN RAPACE IN 'PASSION'
DE PALMA MOVING FORWARD FOR MARCH 5 START DATE IN BERLIN

Thompson On Hollywood's Liza Foreman has an exclusive scoop today, stating that "Brian De Palma is wasting no time moving forward on Passion," which she adds is marked to begin shooting on March 5 in Berlin (previous reports had mentioned the film is to shoot in Cologne, Berlin, and London). Foreman adds, "Word is that Rachel McAdams is in talks to join Noomi Rapace in the film based on Alain Corneau's twisted murder tale" Love Crime. If so, Rapace and McAdams must really like each other, as they both star together in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, which opens Friday. This, to my mind, would be a dream cast for the leads in this film, which De Palma is scripting himself.

AND WHAT ABOUT 'THE KEY MAN'?
Foreman's article mentions that "De Palma had been prepping The Key Man for QED productions, which was readying for a late 2011/early 2012 shoot date." She does not say whether that production has stalled, or is still trying to make its planned start soon. De Palma would have a short but workable window in which to shoot The Key Man if they had it ready to go by early January, but if not, we might assume they were moving that project to late spring at the earliest. It seems likely we will begin to hear a little more about both projects in the very near future...

Posted by Geoff at 7:30 PM CST
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Monday, December 5, 2011

NOOMI RAPACE TALKING WITH DE PALMA ABOUT 'PASSION'
"HE WANTS TO DO THIS MOVIE WITH ME THAT'S A REALLY, REALLY COOL SCRIPT"

Noomi Rapace, the half-Swedish, half-Spanish actress who became film's original Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, tells Collider's Christina Radish that she is talking with Brian De Palma about starring in Passion, his remake of Alain Corneau's Love Crime. Here is what Rapace told Radish when asked what she might be doing next...

I don’t know if it’s next, but in March, I will start this movie with Colin Farrell, called Dead Man Down. It’s a fantastic script. I might do a movie with Brian De Palma before that. I’m talking to him, and he wants to do this movie with me that’s a really, really cool script. It’s called Passion. I love Scarface and Carlito’s Way. He’s done fantastic films, and it’s been really interesting, talking to him. So, I might do that before, and then go do the movie with Colin. And then, after that, I have a couple of things, but I can’t really talk about them yet.

Posted by Geoff at 8:10 PM CST
Updated: Tuesday, December 6, 2011 8:46 PM CST
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