Austin Butler is playing Lance Armstrong in a new movie.
‘Conclave’s Edward Berger is aboard to direct.
Zach Baylin will write the script.
Though a specific part of his life and career has been brought to screens before (in 2015’s ‘The Program’, where he was played by Ben Foster), a new movie focused on controversial cyclist Lance Armstrong is in the works.
Producer Scott Stuber, who has been trying to set this project up for years now, has convinced Armstrong to sign over his life rights and promises a biopic that won’t pull any punches (more on the cyclist’s story below).
What’s the story of the new Lance Armstrong movie?
Lance Armstrong in ’30 for 30: Lance’. Photo: ESPN.
It may not be a complete life-story biopic, but the screenplay from ‘King Richard’s Zach Baylin certainly has good material to work from: Armstrong famously survived cancer and returned to the world of pro cycling, where he would go on to win the famed Tour de France an incredible seven consecutive times.
Hollywood would soon fall in love with that story, with several A-listers chasing the role of a lifetime. But before that story could be told, Armstrong, after denying it for years, ultimately admitted to blood doping, ultimately ending his career.
When will the Lance Armstrong movie be on screens?
Right now, this only exists as a packaged project with several studios bidding to take it on. Stuber has a deal at Amazon MGM Studios, but this idea apparently predates that, so it’s available to a variety of potential homes.
Assuming he does end up signing on –– and a reunion with Mann is certainly an intriguing concept –– Bale would likely end up co-starring with Leonardo DiCaprio, though no deals are complete yet.
Still, it certainly appears Mann is aiming to build a leading ensemble to match the star power and awards haul of the original, famously led by Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.
Robert De Niro on the set of ‘Heat’. Photo: Warner Bros.
Mann’s original film follows Neil McCauley (De Niro), who leads a group of professional bank robbers, taking down major scores around Los Angeles. But after their latest heist goes terribly wrong and ends up in homicide, detective Vincent Hanna (Pacino) finds a clue and becomes obsessed with the case, determined to stop McCauley’s crew.
Hanna and McCauley are competing against each other in a deadly cat-and-mouse game. Although they are on different sides of the law, they still find huge respect, recognition in each other’s troubled personal lives and they understand their competing motivations –– yet they won’t hesitate to do whatever they can to win the battle.
How does ‘Heat 2’ tie in?
(L to R) Director Michael Mann, Al Pacino, and Robert De Niro on the set of ‘Heat’. Photo: Warner Bros.
‘Heat 2’ (written by Mann alongside Meg Gardiner) in book form tells the story of everything that happens before and after to the principal characters. The book jumps between two time periods, the first following Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer in the original film) as he tries to evade the LAPD and Hanna following the bank robbery gone bad and moves forward into new territory in the tri-border zone and Southeast Asia.
The second storyline takes readers back to Chicago in 1988 when McCauley, Shiherlis and their crew are taking scores on the West Coast, the U.S.–Mexico border, and in Chicago. At the same time, Hanna is cutting his teeth as a rising star in the Chicago police department chasing an ultraviolent gang of home invaders.
The fallout from McCauley’s scores and Hanna’s pursuit cause unexpected repercussions in a parallel narrative.
DiCaprio is reportedly interested in the role of Shiherlis, and the likes of Austin Butler and Bradley Cooper have also had meetings about potential parts. Driver is still apparently part of the mix too –– essentially anyone with a profile is circling this one. We don’t yet know who Bale might play.
When will ‘Heat 2’ be on screens?
Amazon MGM has yet to confirm a release date for the movie, but Mann is aiming to have cameras rolling next year.
Director Michael Mann at the premiere of ‘Ferrari.’ Photo: Neon.
(Left) Leonardo DiCaprio at the Los Angeles World Premiere of ‘One Battle After Another’. Photo Credit: Jay Clendenin. Copyright: Shutterstock. (Right) Director Michael Mann at the premiere of ‘Ferrari.’ Photo: Neon.
Preview:
Michael Mann’s ‘Heat 2’ has Leonardo DiCaprio circling a role.
Bradley Cooper and more are also said to have met for the movie.
The film itself is on the move from Warner Bros. to Amazon after budget disagreements.
And that’s not the only development –– the movie itself has shifted from Warner Bros. (where the studio and director couldn’t come to terms on the budget) to Amazon MGM Studios, which will produce via its United Artists label after winning the chance over the likes of Sony and Paramount.
(L to R) Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in 1995’s ‘Heat.’
Mann’s original film follows Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro), who leads a group of professional bank robbers, taking down major scores around Los Angeles. But after their latest heist goes terribly wrong and ends up in homicide, detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) finds a clue and becomes obsessed with the case, determined to stop McCauley’s crew.
Hanna and McCauley are competing against each other in a deadly cat-and-mouse game. Although they are on different sides of the law, they still find huge respect, recognition in each other’s troubled personal lives and they understand their competing motivations –– yet they won’t hesitate to do whatever they can to win the battle.
How does ‘Heat 2’ tie in?
(L to R) Robert De Niro and Val Kilmer in 1995’s ‘Heat.’
‘Heat 2’ (written by Mann alongside Meg Gardiner) in book form tells the story of everything that happens before and after to the principal characters. The book jumps between two time periods, the first following Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer in the original film) as he tries to evade the LAPD and Hanna following the bank robbery gone bad and moves forward into new territory in the tri-border zone and Southeast Asia.
The second storyline takes readers back to Chicago in 1988 when McCauley, Shiherlis and their crew are taking scores on the West Coast, the U.S.–Mexico border, and in Chicago. At the same time, Hanna is cutting his teeth as a rising star in the Chicago police department chasing an ultraviolent gang of home invaders.
The fallout from McCauley’s scores and Hanna’s pursuit cause unexpected repercussions in a parallel narrative.
DiCaprio is reportedly interested in the role of Shiherlis, and the likes of Austin Butler and Bradley Cooper have also had meetings about potential parts. Driver is still apparently part of the mix too –– essentially anyone with a profile is circling this one. But zero deals are in place yet.
Still, at least it seems Mann can finally get the burner lit and get ‘Heat 2’ cooking.
Director Michael Mann at the premiere of ‘Ferrari.’ Photo: Neon.
Known primarily for intense psychological dramas that often skirt the horror genre, director Darren Aronofsky has pivoted to a dark crime comedy with ‘Caught Stealing,’ from a screenplay by Charlie Huston based on the latter’s novel. Following the director’s last effort, the heavy, tragic ‘The Whale’ (2022), ‘Caught Stealing’ finds Aronofsky in a relaxed mode and even having some fun, while also returning to his hometown of New York City (setting of his first film, 1998’s ‘Pi’).
While it’s nice to see Aronofsky go in a lighter direction, he doesn’t always successfully navigate some of the more abrupt tonal switches in ‘Caught Stealing,’ making the narrative a somewhat jarring and uneven experience. Still, he manages to keep the movie unpredictable and loose, aided immensely by great performances from Austin Butler, Zoë Kravitz, Liev Schreiber, Regina King and others.
Henry ‘Hank’ Thompson (Austin Butler) is a former California high school baseball star – his career cut short by injury and tragedy – and now a semi-permanently wasted bartender living and working in Lower Manhattan’s Alphabet City circa 1998. His patient girlfriend Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz) loves him but wants to know if he’s a man who can ‘keep his s**t together.’ Hank is put to the test when his punk rocker neighbor Russ (Matt Smith) asks him to watch his cat while Russ heads to London to see his ailing father – only for Hank to get a serious beating by two Russian thugs who come looking for Russ.
But that’s only the beginning of Hank’s problems. After getting out of the hospital minus one kidney, Hank is harassed by the thugs again, this time with a drug baron (Benito Martínez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny) in tow. Soon even more people are involved in whatever trouble Russ has landed Hank in, including detective Elise Roman (Regina King) and Orthodox Jewish gangsters Lipa (Liev Schreiber) and Shmully (Vincent D’Onofrio).
‘Caught Stealing’ begins on a dark yet still humorous note, gets even more grim as it goes along, and finally takes a slightly more absurd turn as it barrels toward its conclusion. Aronofsky rides those tonal shifts the best he can, but one particularly shocking moment halfway through is a bit difficult to recover from. The plot also grows more convoluted as it goes along, with one exposition dump in the middle delivered so fast that it’s hard to sort out just who’s screwing over who.
Yet the film, ostensibly a caper, also stays resolutely unique thanks to its eclectic characters – including Russ’s adorable cat, played by Tonic — the grainy throwback sheen given the film by Aronofsky and cinematographer Matthew Libatique, its authentically gritty and diverse late-‘90s NYC milieu, and a propulsive soundtrack from post-punk act Idles.
Aronofsky has assembled a glittering ensemble for ‘Caught Stealing,’ but it’s still all tied together by the commanding work of Austin Butler. After a wasted performance earlier this summer in ‘Eddington,’ he’s got far more to work with, gradually peeling away the layers of Hank’s dissolution and lack of focus to get at the hurt, grief, and anger underneath. It’s a complex performance that showcases the actor’s rare ability to be both a leading man and a chameleon.
The rest of the cast is up to the task as well, but come in and out of the movie in fits and starts. Zoë Kravitz does solid, sympathetic work as Yvonne in her relatively brief screentime, while Regina King is both tough and enigmatic, and Matt Smith takes a big swing as the annoying, histrionic Russ. But our favorites are undoubtedly Liev Schreiber and Vincent D’Onofrio, whose Lipa and Shmully threaten to steal the last third of the film away from Butler with their funny yet strangely menacing repartee.
Thought we wished we could see more of those Hebrew crime barons – they really should be in more of the movie — ‘Caught Stealing’ gets by on the charm of its leading man and that darn cat. It’s also nice to see Darren Aronofsky play in a different field as a filmmaker, even if he doesn’t quite master the balance of absurd comedy and grittier melodrama. As with all the director’s films, ‘Caught Stealing’ is set in a reality that’s slightly off-kilter from ours, and while it’s not top-tier Aronofsky, it’s a welcome change of pace.
‘Caught Stealing’ receives a score of 70 out of 100.
Former high school baseball star Hank Thompson (Austin Butler) is now a bartender living in downtown New York City. When his punk-rock neighbor Russ (Matt Smith) asks him to take care of his cat for a few days, Hank finds himself caught in the middle of a motley crew of angry gangsters — and has to find out what they want and why he’s their target.
The fourth feature from writer-director Ari Aster – who previously tackled horror in ‘Hereditary’ and ‘Midsommar,’ and psychological surrealism in ‘Beau is Afraid’ – finds the filmmaker pivoting again, this time to a hybrid of political satire, social commentary, and Western tropes.
As one might imagine from reading that ambitious trio of themes, Aster takes a big swing with ‘Eddington’ – in which he stands up a small New Mexico town for an America reeling from COVID and Trumpism – but doesn’t quite connect. In his attempt to say as much as he can about the current state of the nation, Aster doesn’t manage to really say anything except that the situation is kind of hopeless. Despite its excellent visual package and a sturdy set of performances, ‘Eddington’ never quite finds its groove.
Story and Direction
Joaquin Phoenix in ‘Eddington’. Photo: A24.
Eddington, New Mexico is the kind of small town that some folks used to colloquially describe as a “wide place in the road”: with a population of just over 2,300 spread out over a sprawling desert landscape and a downtown that is not that lively even on its best days, Eddington is the kind of place where decent people go just to be left alone and live quietly, but which can also breed insularity and incuriosity.
As ‘Eddington’ opens, it’s 2020 and the town is in the grip of the COVID pandemic: the mayor, Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal), is on the surface a well-meaning liberal who dutifully enforces mask mandates and is advocating for the construction of a high-tech data center to bring Eddington into the 21st century, while the sheriff, Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) pushes back against masking out of a combination of genuine concern for some of his townspeople ( who find it hard to breathe through them, for example) and a festering belligerence toward the kind of governmental authority that he feels verges on overstepping.
So when Sheriff Joe decides he’s had enough and announces his own campaign to unseat Ted, festering tensions in the town – along political, personal, race, and age lines – start to boil over. The town’s younger population, bored and directionless, find their voice in first Black Lives Matter marches and then increasingly incoherent cultural protests (one teen raging over white privilege at the dinner table earns an incredulous “you’re white!” from his exasperated father), while Joe’s more or less incompetent campaign still manages to rattle the slick, unflappable Ted and get more of the town on his side. It doesn’t help matters that Joe’s wife, Louise (Emma Stone) – who once had a dalliance with Ted – is going down a conspiracy theory rabbit hole with her mom Dawn (Deirdre O’Connell), with the two of them falling under the spell of an online cult leader named Vernon Jefferson Peak (Austin Butler).
Micheal Ward in ‘Eddington’. Photo: A24.
If that sounds like a lot, it is. And for its first half, ‘Eddington’ plays like the political/social satire that the above sets up, with some characters faring better than others in the empathy stakes and a few sporadically funny moments thrown in. At the same time, if a movie centers around a lot of people talking past each other, it had better be as sharply written as possible, and Aster’s script takes more of a kitchen-sink approach than a focused one, resulting in a certain amount of tedium.
And then ‘Eddington’ takes a shocking turn at the halfway point into much darker territory, with murder and a real conspiracy coming into play, and suddenly the movie cannot even find the right tonal balance to make all this hit as hard as possible. Perhaps Aster is trying to say that the kind of cultural and political polarization that’s been racking this nation for the past decade is funny until it isn’t, but all the film gets across by the time it ends is a kind of bleak, dreary nihilism.
On an aesthetic level, Aster is sure-footed and confident. Eddington (played largely by the wonderfully named New Mexico town Truth Or Consequences) is a character unto itself, full of both beauty and death and photographically evocatively by legendary DP Darius Khondji, while the film’s design, scope, and atmosphere all evoke an America that’s teetering on the edge of profound disaster. But while Aster seems to want to fashion a true American epic out of this material, all he pretty much says is that we’re all stupid enough to fall for anything in the end, and the film’s closing scenes become as inarticulate as the youth protests that rock the once-placid town.
Cast and Performances
(L to R) Emma Stone and Deirdre O’Connell in ‘Eddington’. Photo: A24.
We have been increasingly disenchanted with Joaquin Phoenix’s last few performances, as he seemed to recycle the same inexpressive, psychologically wounded, emotionally stunted man-child in both ‘Joker’ films, ‘Napoleon,’ and Ari Aster’s brutally unwatchable ‘Beau is Afraid.’ But he turns away from those here with his work as Sheriff Joe Cross, a man who respects the traditions of law enforcement and seems to genuinely believe in doing the right thing and taking people at their word – until he doesn’t, and until the strain of what’s happening in Eddington finally breaks him down.
It’s a tribute to Phoenix’s still-considerable skills as an actor that he makes Joe empathetic even for those who might flinch reflexively from the character, and even when Joe plunges into darkness later in the film, Phoenix still manages to pull out moments that show the man’s shattered humanity. It’s the actor’s best work in a while, even if Joe Cross gets stuck in the nexus of the story’s confused themes.
Pedro Pascal utilizes his effortless presence to effectively portray Ted Garcia’s charisma and camera-ready personality, but we don’t get to see enough of what’s under the skin to truly make the mayor come to life. The same goes for a number of others in the film: Emma Stone, Deirdre O’Connell, and William Belleau – as a Native American police officer from the tribal lands next to Eddington who perhaps sees the truth of what’s happening most clearly – are all excellent, but aren’t provided enough real estate to develop their characters. Luke Grimes and Micheal Ward are also striking as Joe’s deputies, who almost act as the good and bad angels on his shoulders, while Austin Butler is frankly wasted in a role that clogs up the plot even more and really doesn’t need to be there.
Final Thoughts
Austin Butler in ‘Eddington’. Photo: A24.
The closing shot of ‘Eddington’ may reflect the growing divide between those who yearn for a sort of mythical “simpler time” and those who want to push the country forward even at the risk of ignoring or sidestepping the possible dangers. The darkness surrounding that last image may also indicate that the two sides are too far apart at this point, and too willing to go to extreme ends to preserve their notion of what our lives, culture, and society should be.
It’s an evocative shot, and if Ari Aster had brought a little more of that thoughtfulness to the rest of ‘Eddington,’ the bulk of the film might be as haunting. But he piles so much into the movie’s 149-minute running time that we can’t help but be reminded of another overstuffed, would-be epic: Damien Chazelle’s ‘Babylon,’ which went to similar lengths but also seemed to lose its way among its own ambitions. ‘Eddington’ has a lot it wants to say – it just doesn’t know how to say it effectively.
8HI0SMSnFgbmajjfh7jWH3
What is the plot of ‘Eddington’?
In May 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and mayor (Pedro Pascal) sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix, along with other select members of the press, in an online roundtable interview. Phoenix discussed his work on ‘Eddington’, creating his character, the rehearsal process, working with the cast including Pedro Pascal and Emma Stone, reuniting with his ‘Beau Is Afraid’ director Ari Aster, and continuing to collaborate with the acclaimed filmmaker moving forward.
Joaquin, can you talk about collaborating with director Ari Aster and the costume department to create the look for your character, Joe Cross, and did you take any inspiration from fictional or historical figures?
Joaquin Phoenix: Early on when Ari was still working through the script, we took a trip together to New Mexico, where he introduced me to a few different sheriffs and mayors in some small towns and pueblos, that he had met on a previous trip. There was one man in particular who just looked amazing. I loved how he looked, and he was wearing the white shirt, jeans and boots. I took some pictures of him and then I didn’t really plan on using it, he was just one of several people that I met. Then I went to Mexico to start prepping and worked with Anna (Terrazas) and she had some sketches of the traditional sheriff’s uniform, the brown uniform, and then also the look of the photos that we’d center on this sheriff, which was the jeans and white shirt. Ari and I both felt like the brown uniform was right. So, we went there, and I put that on and then at the end of the fitting, I said, “Do you have any of the white shirts and jeans? Like that other look? So, she pulled it out. Then for the next two weeks, all through rehearsal leading up to literally the day before shooting, me and Ari went back-and-forth over which look was right. A couple days before we started shooting, we did the camera test and just before that camera test, I pulled up a picture I had of the sheriff, and he had these glasses on. I just said, “Do you have any glasses like this?” We put these glasses on during the camera test and we all just went, “Oh, that’s it. There it is”. It was strange how they all came together, but really it was a kind of a last-minute decision and there were times throughout shooting where I wondered whether we made the right choice, but it came alive.
The relationship between your character and Pedro Pascal’s character is really the engine that drives the movie, but you don’t have a lot of screen time together. Can you talk about how you and Pedro approached those scenes to create the depth and energy needed to move the story forward?
JP: Well, they’re all great scenes that are just full of conflict, rumor, hurt feelings and insecurity. It’s like everything that you would want, all the ingredients are there. I think there’s four major scenes with us, maybe. I always felt like I was the beneficiary of the environment or the production design that fuels us. So, one of the early scenes of the movie where I’m talking to him at his bar, and we’re separated by glass. For some reason, when I read the script, I didn’t register that. When I got there that day, it was separated and I go, “Wait, what are we doing? It was literally this like, block. It was a blockage to connecting with him. It seemed like this perfect kind of metaphor that there’s just something that is between us that’s separating us from connecting. Then the scene after I announced that I’m running for Mayor, there was this crazy storm in New Mexico, it was literally sunny and by the fourth take the wind was whipping through and it ultimately ended up hailing. So, I think part of it is like, you’re just trying to be receptive to what is happening and whether that’s an energy on set or what the other actor is doing or something that’s happening in the environment. I just I felt like I had an amazing partner in Pedro, who seemed very clear on who Ted was, particularly I’m thinking about the scene in the supermarket just before I announced that I’m running for mayor. I was not sure of what I was doing at that point. It was early in the shoot, and I didn’t fully understand where I was. I was trying to figure out, like, “Wait, but who am I? What do I do I stand for? What’s important to me?” Of course, in hindsight, I realize that’s exactly what Joe was experiencing. Ted is somebody who thinks that he’s doing exactly what he’s meant to be doing. So, what we were feeling was really kind of matching what was happening. But Pedro, he knew what he wanted, he was so gracious in allowing me to find it, because let me tell you, I was like all over the map. What you’re seeing in that scene is I guess subconsciously, I really worked myself up to into a state of frustration, anger and impotence. For me, I remember that take and there was a take where I acknowledged that people might be filming in the supermarket and it was the first time that that happened, you know, in that take. It just it felt alive, so I had somebody that I was working with that was able to allow that to happen.
(L to R) Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal in ‘Eddington’. Photo: A24.
What did you discover about the character while you were filming that was surprising to you and different than what you initially thought about the character when you first read the screenplay?
JP: Well, it was surprising. I knew my intention was to humanize Joe as much as possible. I hoped that anybody that came in that might have some preconceived idea of who a conservative sheriff in a small town might be, I wanted to challenge those ideas, at least initially. So that was a goal of mine. I have to say that I ended up feeling a great deal of warmth for Joe. I don’t really know how to explain it. I think a certain kind of sadness and, no spoilers, but for him to allow all that dissatisfaction and frustration and pain to manifest in the way that it does, it’s just disappointing. I think maybe he reminds me of so many people in the real world, in those kinds of critical moments that we all face and like, what kind of person are we going to be? So, I think I was initially surprised at how much I cared for him, and then how much his actions disappointed me.
Moviefone: Joaquin, can you talk about your working relationship with director Ari Aster, how that has grown and changed since making ‘Beau Is Afraid,’ and what it was like collaborating with him again on ‘Eddington’?
JP: I think that we were less cordial, thank God. There’s something, also, when I look back on some of our conversations, it really seems like a family. I was excited by that. I mean, even on ‘Beau’ he was very perceptive, but at this point now, he’s armed fully with information about how I work. He sees things before I’m even aware of them. So, that was great. We had talked. We had started working together and reading through the script a year in advance. So, we’d been through so many discussions about how Joe was going to talk because the very first thing for me when I was reading this script, I just heard this voice. Then we got together, and I was like, “I heard this voice.” He was like, “Well, what is it?” I was like, “I don’t know. I don’t know how to do it. I don’t know how to physically bring it out. I don’t know exactly what it is, but I just heard it in my head.” So, we just kept talking and occasionally I would try things and we spoke to this dialect coach and we’re like, “We’re not meeting with a dialect coach. What are we doing?” I just really liked trying to figure out who is, but I remember this one moment on set. It was our first official day of shooting, and it was the news conference. I was really struggling. I was nervous, and I felt like there was something missing from the scene. I couldn’t identify what it was exactly. I just knew that it had to do with acknowledging, it’s right after I make the announcement to be mayor, and I needed to acknowledge it somehow. I remember it was super uncomfortable because we were running out of time, and we had to go to lunch. We’d already burnt like an hour. We didn’t have anything yet. So, I was nervous. Then I’m standing in front of the chalkboard and I’m practicing my lines, and Ari’s standing next to me, and he’s going through the lines at the same time. We’re both standing side by side and Ari takes on the feelings, like he’s doesn’t separate from the character. So. he’s doing it and I just feel him and there’s a point where he just made this gesture. Where he put up his hands like, “I’m sorry”, as he was talking. I just was like, “Oh, that gesture, that’s it. That’s Joe.” Joe’s always in the state putting up his hand trying to stop the world, trying to stop the thing that’s happening. Like, everything is falling. He’s losing grasp of his relationship, and this idea of himself and what it is to be a man, and to be an American and to be a man of power. It’s all slipping away from him, and he’s just constantly trying to put up his hands, going, “No, stop. It’s going to be okay.” It was this moment that just unlocked it for me, at least for that scene. It gave me some clarity and that’s just a strong memory that I have.
(L to R) Micheal Ward, Joaquin Phoenix and Luke Grimes in ‘Eddington’. Photo: A24.
Joaquin, this is only your second film with Ari, but already some critics are comparing your work together to that of actor and director pairings like Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro or Spike Lee and Denzel Washington. How do you feel about those comparisons, and is Ari a filmmaker that you see yourself continuing to collaborate with throughout your career?
JP: Well, that is so flattering, but I will not say that we are in the same classes. I’ll speak for myself, I don’t feel like I sit shoulder to shoulder with those guys, but that’s very nice to hear that. I would hope so. I just adore Ari. I love his observations, human behavior, the way that he writes, and just how much he really cares about making films. It’s pure. You know, I’ve worked with like a lot of directors and there’s so many different reasons why people do what they do. But there’s something very pure and innocent about Ari’s love for film and for filmmaking. It’s inspiring and to be honest, at my age after I’ve made so many movies, there is a point, it’s just human where you can grow bored or complacent. Sometimes you don’t have that same natural fuel that you do when you’re 20 years old and you’re trying to make it, and you’re just like so full of drive and ambition. To work with somebody like Ari, where that is still so alive in him, and he sees it in you, that is a gift. So, I love working with him, and I consider him a friend, and yeah, I would absolutely do anything with Ari again, for sure.
Finally, you had an extensive rehearsal period before you began shooting the film. What was that process like for you and did rehearsing with Emma Stone, Luke Grimes and Michael Ward help you find the character?
JP: Yeah, it felt like it was like all these different stages. So initially, I think for the first week of filming, it was just the interior Sheriff’s office, and it was me, Luke and Michael. So, I was able to really focus on and establish that relationship and we’re doing that in real time. We had some rehearsal days, but it’s very hard to rehearse. The set isn’t completely done, you don’t have all the props around. I mean, you’re standing in your own clothes. It’s difficult for me to rehearse like that. So, it’s just about having conversations. Then I went from that to, I believe, Pedro came to town and then that was working with Pedro for a week or so and I was exploring that part of the story. Prior to that, I was just in this mode where I was like, “The whole movie is just me in a sheriff’s station with my two deputies.” That’s what it felt like. Then, there’s this whole other part of the story and so they went into Pedro’s part where so much of what’s at the heart of our relationship and dynamic is Emma’s character. But I haven’t yet seen Emma and worked with her on this film and so there’s things that I’m discovering about her character, my feelings about her character, through scenes with Pedro before Emma even arrives. It sounds confusing and it is at times, but also sometimes is informative. It’s interesting how film schedules work out. Sometimes it’s really to your benefit. By the time Emma came, I think she came on the third week, and I said, “I feel like I’ve been shooting for three months already.” It felt so loaded and full of this history, which felt crucial with her relationship because we’re obviously the people that have the greatest history and the one whose relationship is most troubled from the get-go. So, I was really kind of thankful for how things worked out because I think she arrived, and it was already fraught in in the best possible way.
Editorial Note: Don Kaye took part in the roundtable and contributed to this article.
8HI0SMSnFgbmajjfh7jWH3
What is the plot of ‘Eddington’?
In May 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and mayor (Pedro Pascal) sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico.
The film will be based on Charlie Huston’s novel, which follows burned out former baseball pro Hank Thompson (Butler).
Hank’s neighbor, Russ, has to leave town in a rush and hands over his cat, named Bud, in a carrier. But it isn’t until two Russians in tracksuits drag Hank over the bar at the joint where he works –– and beat him to a pulp –– that he starts to get the idea: someone wants something from him. He just doesn’t know what it is, where it is, or how to make them understand he doesn’t have it.
Within twenty-four hours Hank is running over rooftops, swinging his old aluminum bat for the sweet spot of a guy’s head, playing hide and seek with the NYPD, riding the subway with a dead man at his side, and counting a whole lot of cash on a concrete floor…
Aronofsky has Huston aboard to adapt the book for the screen.
Besides knowing who Butler will play, the rest of the cast’s roles are mysteries for now.
‘Caught Stealing’: The Director Speaks
Director Darren Aronofsky on the set of ‘The Whale’ from A24.
The new movie finds Aronofsky in business with Sony, which picked up the book package and got the director interested.
Here’s what Aronofsky had to say:
“I am excited to be teaming up with my old friends at Sony Pictures to bring Charlie’s adrenaline-soaked roller coaster ride to life. I can’t wait to start working with Austin and my family of NYC filmmakers.”
And here’s what Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group president Sanford Panitch commented:
“Darren is one of the most brilliant audiovisual storytellers in the world and adapting these wonderful books by Charlie Huston for Austin to star was too exciting an opportunity to not be a part of.”
What else are Matt Smith and Liev Schreiber working on?
Matt Smith in HBO’s ‘House of the Dragon.’ Photograph by Ollie Upton/HBO.
Smith plays Prince Daemon Targaryen on ‘Game of Thrones’ prequel series ‘House of the Dragon’, which recently wrapped its second season and has been renewed for a third.
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He was most recently seen on the big screen in horror movie ‘Starve Acre’ and has TV series ‘The Death of Bunny Munro’ on his to-do list.
Available to own or rent at home beginning July 9th is the new film ‘The Bikeriders,’ which was written and directed by Jeff Nichols (‘Mud,’ ‘Loving’) and based on the book of the same name by author Danny Lyon.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with writer and director Jeff Nichols about the digital release of ‘The Bikeriders’, his passion for the project, the structure of the film, Jodie Comer and Austin Butler’s onscreen chemistry, Tom Hardy’s performance, the challenges of shooting the motorcycle scenes, and why he loves working with Michael Shannon.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interview with director Jeff Nichols.
Director Jeff Nichols talks ‘The Bikeriders,’ which is available to own or rent at home beginning July 9th.
Moviefone: To begin with, I know that making ‘The Bikeriders’ was a long passion project for you. Now that the movie is finishing its theatrical run and about to be released on digital, how does it feel to know that audiences are finally seeing this film?
Jeff Nichols: It feels great. The responses that I think I appreciate the most are from people involved in motorcycle culture, not having grown up in that culture and around bikes, especially not growing up in the Midwest, growing up in the American South. Anytime someone says, “Hey, I grew up in Chicago in the 60s and my dad rode bikes, or I was around bikes, and man, you just nailed it.” Like any comments, and I’ve gotten a few of those. They seem to mean the most to me just because it is a kind of pat on the back and it’s a little bit of validation to all the work we did. So yeah, that’s it. I think that’s the thing that’s been most enjoyable for me.
MF: Can you talk about what attracted you to this specific material and why were you so passionate about getting this movie made?
JN: Look, honestly, it’s because of the people contained inside Danny’s book. You could say it’s the bikes and the hair and the clothes, that’s certainly something I was attracted to, but the truth is, in these interviews, they just felt like real people because they were. They felt like people trying to understand their place in the world, and that was very attractive to me, even more attractive than the bikes and the clothes and the hair, which was damn attractive. I think as a storyteller, you’re looking for human beings and you’re looking for human behavior that people can relate to, and they can say, “I know someone like that”, or “I am like that”, this is our connection through cinema. When I looked at Danny’s book and I read those interviews, I saw people and I saw behavior that I felt like people could connect to.
MF: Can you talk about the choice of telling the story from Kathy’s point of view and utilizing a documentary structure?
JN: The truth is Kathy was just the most interesting one in the book. Her interviews, they just kind of glow and it’s because she’s completely unfiltered. Jodie said something interesting about it. She said, “It’s almost like no one ever asked Kathy what she thought about things until Danny Lyon showed up.” It was a big statement for me to hear. Yeah, this woman in the 1960s, it’s like no one had ever bothered to ask her opinion about anything, and she was ready to give it, and she did in this kind of unvarnished, completely unfiltered way. I think it was undeniable as someone looking at the book to say, “Well, she needs to be the one to take us through this world.” Not because she’s an observer, it’s because she’s a participant. It’s because she’s dealing with the same thing that these guys are dealing with, which is this tension between romance and attraction and violence, which is kind of held in the motorcycle and it’s held in the motorcycle club. As far as the documentary style, it was a real challenge for me as a filmmaker. A lot of my films are classical in the directing style. They’re very linear in the storytelling style. Part of the challenge for me as a filmmaker was, I wanted this to feel like maybe a documentary crew went back in time and captured half of this movie at least. There are certainly scenes that start to fall into more of a narrative feel, but I wanted parts of it to feel like a documentary, which is why beyond even just Kathy’s interviews, you’re having portraiture with these guys sitting on their bikes kind of explaining things. It was very much set up to feel like a documentary for, like I said, about half of the film. At some point you wake up into the narrative and you have a better understanding of these characters because of the time you’ve spent with them. It was a strange tightrope to try to walk as a storyteller and as a writer, but one I’m proud of in the film.
MF: Can you talk about Kathy and Benny’s love story and the incredible chemistry that Austin Butler and Jodie Comer have together onscreen?
JN: These things are magical, and I don’t mean to get kind of too dreamy with my answer, but as a filmmaker, you have very real things in front of you, budgets and schedules, actors, and you look at them and you say, “You look good and you’re a good actor. Let’s see what happens when I put you with this other person”, and then this thing happens. Part of it is they’re both just so talented, but they’re also just so charismatic. I found this with Ruth Negga on ‘Loving’, Jodie’s eyes are disproportionately sized to the rest of her face, which makes her perfect to put on camera because there’s so much information going on inside of her eyes. It’s just a beautiful thing to watch. Then you have Austin who has this supreme control over what he’s doing. When he walks into that bar, turns that chair in and sits down, it looks like something I’ve seen in cinema lexicon, that feels like it’s existed for 60 years. I knew we had something special, and I wish I could tell you that I engineered it and all these other things. It is a magical thing that happens when you put the right people together in the right setting and the right project, and it happened right in front of my eyes, and it was incredible to watch.
MF: Can you talk about the challenges of shooting the motorcycle scenes and because of the period setting of the movie, needing to have very famous actors ride bikes without helmets? Was it difficult just getting insurance for the film?
JN: It was. We had a person on set whose whole job was just to coordinate with the insurance companies. At some point we collectively, the actors, the production, the studio, the insurance companies, everyone had to just accept a certain amount of risk, which as a director is terrifying because we’re just making a movie. It’s not worth hurting anyone, but when you put people on motorcycles, you’re never going to reach zero risk. So basically, we collectively had to accept that there was risk, and then move from there, do everything possible from there to make this experience as safe as possible. It was terrifying, I mean, it took years off my life. You film those scenes the way that you film stunt sequences, if you get it right, you’re done. That’s your one shot. You don’t go back for another take, to just see if something else happens, you just get it. Like the bike shot of Austin, I believe we did that in two takes and I would’ve loved a third take, but we got it in the first take, and it was like, “We’re not going to do that again. We’re going to let this be.” The truth is a lot of that credit goes to our actors for the time they spent training on those bikes. Again, you must give credit to Austin, who’s not a stunt performer. He hasn’t been on these bikes for that long, but he makes himself look so comfortable while he’s riding. That is acting because I guarantee you, he doesn’t feel that comfortable on that bike. But he sold it and I’m so proud that we did it that way. I’m so proud that it’s in the film. In an age where everything is CG, everything is fake, I can’t help but think people will show up and watch this film and know somewhere in their brains that we did that.
MF: In the film, Tom Hardy’s Johnny is inspired to start the motorcycle club after watching Marlon Brando in ‘The Wild One’ and it seemed like Hardy was channeling Brando for his performance. Is that accurate and is that something you talked about with him?
JN: Yeah, it was a bit of his calculus. I think Jodie was sharing audio clips with me all along of the work that she was doing, but that’s because she had about an hour of actual audio of the real Kathy. So, she had something specific to go off. Tom didn’t. There was only one interview with the real Johnny, and we didn’t really like his voice. So, Tom was kind of, he had all the other audio examples to listen to, so he knew the world that he’d be living in, but he wanted to develop something for his character. What he kept saying to me was that he can’t be half a gangster. That seemed to be the mantra that he applied to his character, meaning this guy is, he’s not really a gang leader. He’s a guy that’s posing as a motorcycle gang leader, and that’s going to come back on him at some point because he’s not really built for this world. He’s playing a part. So, you have Tom Hardy playing the part of a person playing a part. Tom very clearly was like, “I think this guy grew up on movies. I think he grew up watching James Cagney. I think he grew up watching Marlon Brando, and I think he is putting on a persona.” So, he very intentionally took his voice into that higher inflection, and basically, it’s Johnny doing Brando. I didn’t hear his voice until the first day on set, and he only had a couple lines, and we kind of huddled afterwards. He said, “What do you think?” For me, it was like Domino’s kind of falling backward because I understood we had had all these conversations. I understood exactly what he’s connecting to. It’s like, “I think it’s great, man. Just go with it.” It adds this odd vulnerability to that character. Imagine him only just being gruff, it is less interesting, I think, in my opinion.
MF: Finally, you’ve cast Michael Shannon in every movie you’ve ever directed. Can you talk about why you love working with him and having him on your sets?
JN: Well, the set part, he adds a level of focus to everybody. We filmed his two monologues in the first week and getting this incredible group of actors together, who I’m not familiar with, who I haven’t done a lot of work with, but having everybody sit around and listen to Mike give a monologue, two monologues in a Jeff Nichols film, it was like a grounding force to the whole production, and it kind of set the bar. It was like, “Okay, we’re in a Jeff Nichols film now. We just heard Mike Shannon give a monologue”. I know that the younger actors look up to him, but Tom as well. He and Tom, I think I’ll get this correctly, they used to be in an acting troop together that Philip Seymour Hoffman led, so they knew each other. Austin tells a great story of about three takes in on Mike’s first monologue, the one leaning on the bike, Tom leaned into him and said, “Oh, he’s in it now.” It was a great actor recognizing another great actor for being in the moment. That’s always the case with Mike. I’ve learned to direct because of Mike, and the truth is he makes me look better. He makes my dialogue better. He’s so thoughtful. But you hear a lot about these actors that they’ll show up and rip out the script pages and start to do their own thing. Look, to each their own, but Mike has a tremendous amount of respect for the words that I write. He knows how much time I spend, and he likes the words I write. They make sense to him the way that I think and the way that I write dialogue and character behavior and movement, they seem to make sense to Mike. So, when he shows up, he’s taking what’s on the page and just bringing it to life in a way that I love the way it looks and sounds and moves. He makes all my work better every time. He doesn’t miss.
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What is the plot of ‘The Bikeriders’?
‘The Bikeriders’ captures a rebellious time in America when the culture and people were changing. After a chance encounter at a local bar, strong-willed Kathy (Jodie Comer) is inextricably drawn to Benny (Austin Butler), the newest member of Midwestern motorcycle club, the Vandals led by the enigmatic Johnny (Tom Hardy). Much like the country around it, the club begins to evolve, transforming from a gathering place for local outsiders into a dangerous underworld of violence, forcing Benny to choose between Kathy and his loyalty to the club.
The film will be based on Charlie Huston’s novel, which follows burned out former baseball pro Hank Thompson (Butler).
Hank’s neighbor, Russ, has to leave town in a rush and hands over his cat, named Bud, in a carrier. But it isn’t until two Russians in tracksuits drag Hank over the bar at the joint where he works and beat him to a pulp that he starts to get the idea: someone wants something from him. He just doesn’t know what it is, where it is, or how to make them understand he doesn’t have it.
Within twenty-four hours Hank is running over rooftops, swinging his old aluminum bat for the sweet spot of a guy’s head, playing hide and seek with the NYPD, riding the subway with a dead man at his side, and counting a whole lot of cash on a concrete floor…
Aronofsky has Huston aboard to adapt the book for the screen.
As for Kravitz, her role in the story has yet to be revealed.
‘Caught Stealing’: The Director Speaks
Director Darren Aronofsky on the set of ‘The Whale’ from A24.
The new movie finds Aronofsky in business with Sony, which picked up the book package and got the director interested.
Here’s what Aronofsky had to say:
“I am excited to be teaming up with my old friends at Sony Pictures to bring Charlie’s adrenaline-soaked roller coaster ride to life. I can’t wait to start working with Austin and my family of NYC filmmakers,” said Aronofsky.
And here’s what Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group president Sanford Panitch commented:
0“Darren is one of the most brilliant audiovisual storytellers in the world and adapting these wonderful books by Charlie Huston for Austin to star was too exciting an opportunity to not be a part of.”
Kravitz, who was last seen in ‘The Batman’ as Selina Kyle, stepped behind the cameras for ‘Blink Twice’, a new thriller she co-wrote with E.T. Feigenbaum.
It sees cocktail waitress Frida (Naomi Ackie) meeting tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum) and scoring an invite to his private island for what appears to be a dream vacation. One that quickly starts to feel more like a nightmare.
The movie will be in theaters on August 23rd.
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When will ‘Caught Stealing’ be in theaters?
With the movie still at a relatively early stage, Sony has yet to schedule a release date. But if it can be shot this year, it could be on screens later in 2025.
The next chapter in Paul Atreides’ story takes shape in ‘Dune: Part Two’, and is now available on VOD, with the home release coming in May 2024.
Based on Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel, the follow-up to the 2021 ‘Dune’ was originally slated to release on October 20, 2023. However, the film was delayed due to the WGA and SAG strike. The film finally premiered on March 1, 2024. ‘Dune: Part Two’ received positive reviews from critics and audiences alike.
With ‘Dune’ taking home five Academy Awards, including Best Visual Effects, Best Cinematography, Best Orignal Score, and Best Production Design, it is very possible to see ‘Dune: Part Two’ snagging nominations for the 2025 awards season.
Did you miss the epic sci-fi sequel on the big screen? You’re in luck. The movie is now available on VOD for rent or purchase, so you can watch it from the comfort of your couch, no sandworms necessary.
‘Dune: Part Two’ has a runtime of 2 hours and 47 minutes. As of April 16, 2024, the movie was made available to rent for $24.99 or purchase for $29.99 on VOD platforms such as Apple TV, Prime Video, Google Play, YouTube, and Vudu. Apple TV includes over 100 minutes of bonus content included in the digital version. Take a deeper look at the character of Dune, the Freman language, sandworm-riding, costumes, music, and more.
With ‘Dune: Part Two’ raking in over $637 million at the global box office, what is next for ‘Dune’? In a conversation with Entertainment Weekly in 2021, Director Denis Villeneuve says he’s “always envisioned three movies.” to fully round out the Paul Atreides story. He has also mentioned that a script for the third movie is in the works.
“I always envisioned three movies. It’s not that I want to do a franchise, but this is ‘Dune,’ and ‘Dune’ is a huge story. In order to honor it, I think you would need at least three movies. That would be the dream. To follow Paul Atreides and his full arc would be nice.”
Filming a sci-fi epic is no easy task, and the director mentions the possibility of taking a break between ‘Dune: Part Two’ and ‘Dune: Messiah’. However, the third film, ‘Dune: Messiah’ is in active development.
‘Dune: Part Two’ will be released on DVD, Blu-Ray, and 4K UHD on May 14th. Collectors can also look forward to a 2-film collection from Target. The home release will feature over an hour of bonus content:
Watch the final trailer for ‘Dune: Part Two’ below:
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The official synopsis for ‘Dune: Part Two’ is below:
Paul Atreides unites with Chani and the Fremen while seeking revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the universe, he must prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.
