Now, via Deadline, there is news that Cooper may also re-write and direct the new movie, in addition to his acting duties.
oPhYY763NZ4iQaCBWgwsJ6
The news comes on the heels of ‘Twisters’ director Lee Isaac Chung stepped away from the movie, citing creative differences with the studio and star/producer Robbie.
Yet Deadline also cautions that Cooper has signed no deals yet, so all this is still up in the air.
The cast of 2001’s ‘Ocean’s Eleven’. Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures.
The script remains a secret, though previous stories hinted that it’ll be set in 1962, and focus on a pair of thieves who target expensive earrings during a mansion event followed by a plot to steal precious diamond in Monte Carlo.
Seeking payback after something goes wrong, they recruit a team to sabotage his Monaco Grand Prix victory and swipe the gem. And, if the connection to the ‘Ocean’s franchise holds true, they might just be the parents of Danny Ocean, as played by George Clooney in the main movies.
Carrie Solomon wrote the most recent draft of the screenplay, but Cooper, assuming he does actually end up working on the movie, may start afresh.
When will the ‘Ocean’s’ prequel movie be on screens?
We’ve yet to learn when the film will land in cinemas, and Deadline’s story mentions an attempt to have it shooting before the end of this year, so 2027 is still possible.
Margot Robbie at the Los Angeles World Premiere of ‘Wuthering Heights’. Photo Credit: David Jon Photography.
(Left) David Boreanaz in ‘Bones’. Photo: 20th Century Fox Television. (Right) James Garner in ‘The Rockford Files’. Photo: Universal Television.
Preview:
David Boreanaz will star in a pilot for a new ‘Rockford Files’ series.
James Garner originated the role of private eye Jim Rockford.
NBC has high hopes for the new pilot.
As the saying goes, everything old is new again. And in this case, it goes double.
While TV networks had largely abandoned the pilot process, NBC is among those bringing it back on a more limited basis, with one of the biggest around being a new take on private eye drama ‘The Rockford Files’, which starred James Garner in the 1970s.
James Garner in ‘The Rockford Files’. Photo: Universal Television.
The original series saw Garner as a witty, world-weary private eye, and from the sounds of it, writer Mike Daniels is keeping largely to the format.
In the modern show, newly paroled after doing time for a crime he didn’t commit, James Rockford (Boreanaz) returns to his life as a private investigator using his charm and wit to solve cases around Los Angeles, with his charmingly gruff exterior masking a strong moral core.
It doesn’t take long for his quest for legitimacy to land him squarely in the crosshairs of both local police and organized crime.
Does Boreanaz have the Garner family seal of approval?
(L to R) David Boreanaz and Sarah Michelle Gellar in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’. Photo: 20th Century Fox Television.
Indeed he does! James Garner’s daughter Gigi gave the actor a glowing social media endorsement after Boreanaz called her to ask if her late father would approve him taking on the role…
So, I recently got a call from David Boreanaz.
He was kind enough to share that he was offered the series & thinking about it. He wanted to know how I felt about the reboot, etc…
If anybody can do it, HE CAN!
I’m 💯 on board! It is going to be great! #PureClass#Jimbohttps://t.co/yGvgsGPuTB
Margot Robbie is already aboard to star and produce.
Lee Isaac Chung will call the shots.
Looks like the tide is truly turning on the ‘Ocean’s movies. Though perhaps given the true themes of the franchise, it should be the odds are switching in their favor.
But just a few days after George Clooney offered a positive update on the status of the latest main entry, ‘Ocean’s Fourteen’, comes an update on the prequel movie set in the same cinematic universe.
The cast of 2001’s ‘Ocean’s Eleven’. Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures.
The script remains a secret, though previous stories hinted that it’ll be set in 1962, and focus on a pair of thieves who target expensive earrings during a mansion event followed by a plot to steal precious diamond in Monte Carlo.
Seeking payback after something goes wrong, they recruit a team to sabotage his Monaco Grand Prix victory and swipe the gem. And, if the connection to the ‘Ocean’s franchise holds true, they might just be the parents of Danny Ocean, as played by Clooney in the main movies.
This marks a change in casting terms –– for a while, it looked like the movie would be a ‘Barbie’ reunion for Robbie and Ryan Gosling, but Gosling has since dropped out of talks. Go back to your mojo dojo casa house, Ken!
Cooper, meanwhile, has wanted to work with Robbie for a while now, and finally seems to be getting the opportunity. He enthused about his future co-star’s worth ethic to Variety:
Cooper’s latest directorial effort, comedy drama ‘Is This Thing On?’ recently premiered at the New York Film Festival.
The movie, inspired by the life of British comedian John Bishop, stars Will Arnett and Laura Dern, with Cooper taking a supporting role.
When will the ‘Ocean’s’ prequel movie be on screens?
We’ve yet to learn when this one will land in cinemas, but the Cooper development suggests it’ll be shooting next year, so 2027 is a likely release year.
Remaking what is regarded as one of Akira Kurosawa’s best, bleakest, and most cynical films is a big swing, and Spike Lee boldly puts his own imprint on Kurosawa’s 1963 gem ‘High and Low.’ He updates it to the modern era and New York City, makes some changes to the story while keeping the central premise and dilemma more or less intact, and includes his usual grab-bag of distinctive trademarks – both for better and worse.
In the end, the biggest attraction is watching Lee once again collaborate with Denzel Washington for the fifth time and first since 2006’s ‘Inside Man.’ The latter delivers for his director in towering fashion, making this version of the story perhaps more of an epic character study than police drama. It remains compelling material, thanks in particular to Washington and Jeffrey Wright, even if Lee meanders off course with distracting asides, some uninspired staging, and one of the most overbearing and ill-fitting scores of the year.
Story and Direction
Denzel Washington in ‘Highest 2 Lowest’. Photo Credit: David Lee.
The plot of ‘Highest 2 Lowest’ follows that of ‘High and Low’ in the broad strokes. Washington plays legendary music mogul David King, who’s on the verge of selling his famous independent label, Stackin’ Hits Records, to a larger corporate concern (the protagonist owns a shoe company in the original). King’s peak years, when he made the cover of magazines regularly, are behind him, but he’s still worried that the sale will stamp out the label’s identity and “drain Black culture.” So he instead lays down his own personal assets – his savings, his stocks, and his properties, including his family’s luxury high-rise apartment in a riverfront Dumbo skyscraper – to buy Stackin’ Hits on his own, with the reluctant approval of his wife Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera) and business partner Patrick (Michael Potts).
The deal is about to go through when calamity strikes. David gets a call from a kidnapper (A$AP Rocky) who says he’s seized David and Pam’s teenage son Trey (Aubrey Joseph) and wants $17.5 million in Swiss francs in exchange for his life. David is ready to pivot from his deal and lay out all his money for his son’s safe return. But then it becomes apparent that Trey is okay and the kidnapper has mistakenly taken a boy named Kyle (Elijah Wright) – the son of David’s lifelong friend and driver, Paul (Jeffrey Wright).
Therein lies the moral dilemma at the heart of both film versions of this tale, as well as ‘King’s Ransom,’ the Ed McBain novel on which both are based. When it’s David’s son’s life on the line, he’s ready to pay up at a moment’s notice. But when it’s someone else’s child – even that of one of his closest friends – all of a sudden the loss of all that money that David was going to use to buy back Stackin’ Hits looms much larger in his mind. What makes ‘Highest 2 Lowest’ different from ‘High and Low’ is that this dilemma is resolved rather quickly – after a bit of soul-searching by David and some silent suffering from Paul, who seems to always be in the corner of David’s eye – and the moral aftermath is left more or less behind as ‘Highest 2 Lowest’ turns into a story of a once-powerful, gifted man who learns how to get his mojo back.
A$AP Rocky in ‘Highest 2 Lowest’. Photo Credit: David Lee.
That a lot of it works is a tribute to both Washington’s train-like forward motion and Lee’s increasingly energetic direction. The opening scenes of the film are weirdly static, not in an elegant fashion like the work of Kurosawa himself, but in a perfunctory, ‘just stick the camera here’ way. But Lee seems to find his rhythm as he goes along, and no one can shoot New York City quite like him (with the help of ace cinematographer Matthew Libatique). Speaking of trains, there is a suspenseful scene on an elevated car that homages the original movie but is undercut by cross-cutting to both an admittedly lovely Puerto Rican parade (and a few distracting cameos) plus throngs of Yankees fans filling up the train on the way to the stadium. These are things that Lee loves about his city but they prove a little jarring here. A later, climactic fight scene, also staged atop an elevated line, is much more successful.
Along the way, Lee touches on changes in the music industry, the content of music itself, whether fame on social media is a good thing or not (“attention is the biggest form of currency,” David says to his son), and the tensions inherent between the elite and working classes. It’s a lot, it doesn’t always cohere well, and it’s not helped by one of the most intrusive scores we’ve heard in some time. Howard Drossin’s loud orchestral cues continually threaten to swamp the movie, incessantly braying in the background to irritating effect.
Cast and Performances
Denzel Washington in ‘Highest 2 Lowest’. Photo Credit: David Lee.
Denzel Washington is in powerhouse form here, exuding a looseness and spontaneity that also charged his performance in 2024’s ‘Gladiator II.’ He embodies David King almost perfectly from start to finish, from the man’s narcissism to his empathy to his pride. In the end, King is a decent man of multitudes and action, even if he sometimes acts on impulses that can get him in trouble, making the moments when he shows uncertainty or selfishness all the more striking. Washington handles the character’s transformative arc with the skill and dexterity that only one of our greatest living actors could provide.
Equally sensational is Jeffrey Wright as Paul, another three-dimensional character whose pain over the fact that his child’s life is in the hands of the man who has been his benefactor up to this point is evident in his face and body. Paul and David are lifelong friends but separated in many ways by experience and fortune, and the former’s fear and anger are made palpable through Wright’s excellent portrayal. The two leads’ scenes together are among the best in the film.
The rest of the cast is a bit of a mixed bag. Ilfenesh Hadera is poised, warm, and elegant as Pam King, but the sense of her position and power in the family structure and as David’s trusted adviser is only intermittent. A$AP Rocky, meanwhile, makes a sharp impression as Yung Felon, the rapper-turned-kidnapper whose own life story is inextricably linked to David’s in ways that the latter only belatedly realizes. John Douglas Thompson, Michael Potts, and Wendell Pierce all bring regality and gravitas to their relatively minor roles, while Aubrey Joseph and Elijah Wright – as the two teen boys at the center of the story – are raw and real if somewhat unpolished.
While it’s a “remake” in the loosest sense of the word, any movie that finds Denzel Washington in a rhyme battle with A$AP Rocky with his life possibly on the line can’t be described as anything but original. But this also isn’t Spike Lee at either his sharpest or tightest (more recent examples of that would be ‘Da 5 Bloods’ and ‘BlacKkKlansman’), and the fact that the movie ends with not one but two musical numbers (each representing a direction that David could take with his career, toward easy commercialism or something more soulful) is a hint that Lee’s cinematic instincts are not always what they once were.
Still, those performances and Lee’s vaunted, improvisatory aesthetic keeps the movie crackling even when it threatens to collapse within itself. And the ideas contained within are thoughtful, important ones. Despite its name, the movie never hits either the highs or lows of the rest of Lee’s filmography – but with due respect to Kurosawa, it’s all Spike Lee.
nkH6neWwXbdbElkwRo3l93
What is the plot of ‘Highest 2 Lowest’?
When a legendary music mogul (Denzel Washington), widely known as having the “best ears in the business,” is targeted with a ransom plot, he is caught up in a life-or-death moral dilemma in this reimagining of the great filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s crime thriller ‘High and Low,’ now played out on the mean streets of modern-day New York City.
Things have been quiet of late –– presumably because the script has proved a tough nut to crack. Still, there is some news to report now, with Deadline bringing word that ‘Twisters’Lee Isaac Chung is in talks to direct the movie.
oPhYY763NZ4iQaCBWgwsJ6
Robbie and Gosling are not confirmed for the movie just yet, but if Chung makes a deal, it points to some positive forward movement.
The cast of 2001’s ‘Ocean’s Eleven’. Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures.
Deadline’s report mentions that the script remains secret, though previous stories brought word that it’ll be set in 1962, and focus on a pair of thieves who target expensive earrings during a mansion event followed by a plot to steal precious diamond in Monte Carlo.
Seeking payback after something goes wrong, they recruit a team to sabotage his Monaco Grand Prix victory and swipe the gem.
Carrie Solomon wrote the most recent draft of the screenplay, but there may well have been others involved since then.
The likes of Jay Roach and Molly Rose have been talked up as directors previously, but it would seem Chung is the current choice given the success of ‘Twisters’.
What else is happening in the ‘Ocean’s world?
George Clooney in ‘Ocean’s Eleven’. Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures.
But since those initial stories there has been little update.
Clooney, who is a producer on the ‘Ocean’s franchise in addition to its lead actor, told Uproxx about a development for the future back in 2023:
“We have a really good script for another ‘Ocean’s’ now, so we may end up doing another one. It’s actually a great script. the idea is kind of like ‘Going in Style.’ ”
‘Tulsa King’ follows New York mafia capo Dwight (Stallone), just after he is released from prison after 25 years and unceremoniously exiled by his boss to set up shop in Tulsa, Okla.
Realizing that his mob family may not have his best interests in mind, Dwight slowly builds a “crew” from a group of unlikely characters to help him establish a new criminal empire in a place that to him might as well be another planet.
Production on Season 3 of ‘Tulsa King’ has been underway in Atlanta and Oklahoma for a couple of months. Jackson is expected to film his episodes in July, with production on ‘NOLA King’ eying a February start.
The series’ second season debut set a Paramount+ record for most watched global premiere at the time with a reported 21.1 million global streaming viewers.
Dave Erickson, who is showrunner and head writer on both ‘Tulsa King’ and another Sheridan show, ‘Mayor of Kingstown’ (that one stars Jeremy Renner), will stay aboard ‘Kingstown’ but swap his showrunner duties on ‘Tulsa King’ for ‘NOLA King as that gears up to start production.
The new show apparently sprang from an idea by Chris McCarthy, President and CEO of Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios, looking to expand the world of ‘Tulsa King’ the way Sheridan’s ‘Yellowstone’ has spawned multiple offshoots.
Given his prolific career, it might be easier to talk about what he isn’t working on, but Jackson is as ever, busy.
He’s part of the cast for apocalyptic pic ‘Afterburn,’ which is based on the Red 5 Comics graphic novel by Scott Chitwood, Paul Ens and artist Wayne Nichols, and set 10 years after a solar flare has wiped out technology across the globe.
Dave Bautista will play ex-soldier Jake, who works as a treasure hunter recovering valuable objects from the old world for powerful clients. His latest mission is to team with freedom fighter Drea to recover the Mona Lisa before an unhinged warlord gets there first –– all while avoiding mutated creatures that roam the territory.
Jackson will play the supporting role of freedom fighter Valentine. Despite the starry cast, that movie appears to be in something of a release limbo for now.
And then there’s Renny Harlin’s new action thriller ‘The Beast,’ in which Jackson’s U.S. President, in response to an armed coup, must rely on the extensive defensive capabilities of the titular presidential vehicle.
Trivia note: in 2023, the Guinness Book of World Records declared Jackson the actor with the highest-grossing collective box office of all time, with his films (including the ‘Avengers’ franchise and hits like ‘Pulp Fiction’ — for which he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor — and ‘Jurassic Park’) bringing more than a cumulative $7 billion. All told, Jackson has appeared in more than 150 films.
When will ‘NOLA King’ be on screens?
Given that Jackson still has to film his scenes on ‘Tulsa King’ to set up the new show and ‘NOLA King’ doesn’t even kick off production until early next year, our best guess for a premiere date at this point is later in 2026.
Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller will star in ‘Paper Tiger.’
They replace Jeremy Strong and Anne Hathaway in the crime drama.
James Gray wrote and is about to start directing the movie.
It’s all change –– well, not quite all change… but some change for ‘Ad Astra’ writer/director James Gray, who is swapping out some hefty A-list names for some equally notable talent on his new crime movie ‘Paper Tiger.’
While back in November last year he had Adam Driver set to star alongside Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong (who appeared in his most recent directorial effort, the semi-autobiographical ‘Armageddon Time’), he’s down two actors, as Hathaway and Strong have since had to drop out for scheduling reasons.
Since the movie, as the below logline suggests, sees brothers getting into deep trouble with the Russian mob, we can only assume Strong decided he needed more time to become a Soviet crime boss in real life to prepare.
Still, Gray is pushing forward with a new lead duo to work opposite Driver –– Deadline brings word that Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller will be taking over the roles, and cameras should be rolling next month in New Jersey.
Adam Driver as Cesar Catilina in ‘Megalopolis’. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lionsgate.
The new movie, which Gray wrote, is described a tense and gritty story revolving around two brothers (we’d guess Teller and Driver) who pursue the American Dream — only to become entangled in a scheme that turns out to be too good to be true.
As they try to navigate their way through an ever-more dangerous world of corruption and violence, they find themselves and their family brutally terrorized by the Russian “Mafiya.” Their bond begins to fray, and betrayal — once utterly unthinkable — now becomes all too possible.
Where else can we see Scarlett Johansson?
Scarlett Johansson as skilled covert operations expert Zora Bennett in ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’, directed by Gareth Edwards. Photo: Universal Pictures.
Johansson will be back on our screens this summer, leading ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’, playing a specialist who must lead a group of scientists and mercenaries to the island where the original Jurassic Park dinos were bred in search of medical resources.
The latest entry in the giant beastie franchise will stomp on to our screens on July 2nd.
iDV9ECfrlJVXq7MAkRW8k1
On a very different scale (and wavelength) Johansson also has her latest collaboration with director Wes Anderson, ‘The Phoenician Scheme’, which will see theaters next month, June 6th.
And possibly even more excitingly, Johansson is making her directorial debut with drama ‘Eleanor the Great,’ which stars June Squibb in the story of a 900-year-old Floridian woman who moves to New York City for a fresh start. When Making new friends her age proves difficult, she unexpectedly befriends a 19-year-old student.
That movie, formerly known as ‘Eleanor, Invisible,’ also stars Erin Kellyman, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Jessica Hecht, and scored a deal with Sony Pictures Classics. It’ll make its world premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
It’s the story of how, after death, everybody gets one week to choose where to spend eternity. But for main characters Joan, Larry, and Luke, it’s really a question of who to spend it with.
While the movie doesn’t have a set release date in place yet, it’s already drawing potential awards buzz.
Then there is ‘Michael,’ the musical biopic of superstar Michael Jackson, in which Teller plays John Branca, Jackson’s manager, lawyer and close friend. The movie currently has an October release window from Lionsgate, though there has been chatter about legal issues surrounding the depiction of one of his accusers in a sexual abuse case, and the potential for the movie to be split in two so as to cover the full breadth of Jackson’s story.
Outside of those, there is animated tale ‘The Ark and the Aardvark,’ in which Teller voices Gilbert, the titular creature, who is given the task of shepherding the animals on to Noah’s Ark.
And we know he’ll be part of Paul Downs Colaizzo’s ‘Winter Games,’ set in the high-stakes arena of the Winter Olympic Games, following a perpetually overlooked skier and a self-sabotaging hockey legend (Teller) who collide at their breaking points. Their unexpected connection threatens her chance for a medal and his shot at a comeback as they navigate romance and redemption in the Olympic Village.
Miles Teller plays Lt. Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw in ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ from Paramount Pictures, Skydance and Jerry Bruckheimer Films.
The actor is also attached to the long-developing third outing for the ‘Top Gun’ franchise, where he would reprise the role of Lt. Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, AKA the son of Anthony Edwards’ Goose from the 1986 original.
More recently, it was announced via Deadline that Teller will lead the cast for quirky new music comedy ‘Possum Song,’ directed by ‘Sing Sing’s Greg Kwedar to follow his Oscar-nominated prison pic.
Written by Isaac Adamson, ‘Possum Song’ will follow Eddie (Teller), an overconfident Nashville star who is hiding a dark secret: He stole the songs for his hit debut album.
Now, with a new wife and a baby on the way, Eddie must write his follow-up solo or risk losing everything. But just when things seem most hopeless, Eddie discovers a musical genius in the form of a magical possum with whom he strikes a dangerous Faustian bargain.
FilmNation is backing the movie, and here’s what Ben Browning, the company’s president of motion pictures had to say about it:
“This is a one-of-a-kind film. Greg’s vision, Isaac’s hilarious script and the magnetic performance of Miles Teller will create the kind of cinematic ride that audiences are craving — with showstopping music, visceral shocks, possums, humor and emotion.”
There are a number of other projects on his To Do list, including crime thriller ‘Wild Game,’‘Bartali,’ another sporting tale (where Teller would here play champion cyclist Gino Bartali, who put his career on hold to fight in World War II) and Martin Scorsese’s wishlist project ‘The Life of Jesus,’ which also has Andrew Garfield attached but has still yet to shoot.
When will ‘Paper Tiger’ be in theaters?
Since we’re in the Cannes Film Festival zone (a little bit like The Twilight Zone, but with fewer gremlins ripping bits off plane wings), add this one to the list of titles up for sale to distributors.
Vincent Maraval and Kim Fox’s The Veterans are representing the international sales rights and CAA Media Finance is handling North American rights. With the movie still in sales limbo, we’ll have to wait to see which company picks it up and what date it assigns to the movie.
(L to R) Shea Whigham and Carrie Coon in ‘Lake George’. Photo: Magnet.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Carrie Coon and Shea Whigham about their work on ‘Lake George’, their first reactions to the screenplay, reuniting after working together on ‘Fargo’, their characters’ unusual partnership, shooting a road trip movie, and collaborating on set with director Jeffrey Reiner.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Coon, Whigham and director Jeffrey Reiner.
(L to R) Carrie Coon and Shea Whigham in ‘Lake George’. Photo: Magnet.
Moviefone: To begin with, Shea, what was you first reaction to reading the screenplay and did you recognize immediately that this would be a great role for you to play?
Shea Whigham: I read it in one sitting, and that’s usually the litmus test for me. I read it in one sitting, and Jeffrey had written it. I think he came to me first, and so you got to honor that. I felt like Don, he’s difficult because he doesn’t say a lot, especially in the beginning of this piece. So, I said to Jeffrey, we got to really trust that. I love that challenge. I loved these kind of throwback characters like this that don’t say a lot, but have a lot to say, especially as it unfolds throughout the film. Then you get a crew around you that you feel like they can execute this, and (Carrie) was at the top of my list.
MF: Carrie, can you talk about your first reaction to the screenplay and the unlikely partnership between Phyllis and Don?
Carrie Coon: Shea called me and said that he and Jeffrey had been working on the script for a couple of years and they finally got the money, and it was during the strike. He said, “Do you want to come out and make the movie?” I read it in an hour, and I said, “Yes, I want to figure out how to make this movie with you,” because I knew we would have a blast. I mean, Shea and I were good friends from ‘Fargo’. What’s funny about Phyllis, I guess, is what I realized is her energy is so much closer to my energy that I have in my life, which is not something anyone ever sees in my work. So, you could argue that Phyllis is the most Carrie Coon character that’s ever been made, but no one would ever guess that I don’t think. I loved her. Also, because people don’t invite me to play leading ladies. I’m gratefully part of an ensemble most of the time, and I’m happy to do it, but it’s fun to have to do the heavy lift. It’s a challenge.
Carrie Coon in ‘Lake George’. Photo: Magnet.
MF: Carrie, to follow up on what you just said, what was it like playing a character that is so close to who you are in real life?
CC: I guess, in some ways, just a pleasure. It was a pleasure because also, everything about it was so open. Shea and I are good friends. We came in with a close friendship, so we knew right from the jump it was going to have good chemistry and good intimacy. I really love Jeffrey, and we assembled a great crew, and everybody understood the assignment. It was a small crew. It was a quick shoot. We were moving around a lot, but it was really an adventure. It was a road picture, and it truly was. We were driving up the coast in Jeffrey Reiner’s car, and so it was the best kind of filmmaking. It felt like that small, scrappy little movie that could, and that’s kind of the best. It felt like summer camp. It was fun to get to lean into my own nature.
MF: Shea, can you talk about the guilt and disappointment that Don carries with him and what happens when he decides to partner with Phyllis?
SW: I mean, look, the film is about guilt. It’s about redemption. He meets this woman that looks like she’s swallowed a light bulb. You know what I mean? He’s just done a stint of 10 years (in prison). I think these two oddly are what each other need this moment in time of their lives. He needs her at this moment to help guide him, much like Shea needs Carrie in his life. She’s great and it’s a difficult character to execute. You don’t just show up on the day and she just gets to play herself. This is, if there’s a better performance, and I see a lot of stuff, I haven’t seen it this year. It’s a very complicated nuanced performance if you really watch it. She’s kind of poo-pooing that, but the amount of work that goes into that to make the comedy and then the heaviness, you can’t play any of that. You must go away from it for it to land. She’s a gamer. I don’t know any other actors that would let me pour dirt on them for five hours at a time and never complain a moment. But I think that’s what you see, this film, oddly, it’s a crime film and it’s got these moments of enormous levity with Armen (Glenn Fleshler) and Phyllis and I, but it’s rich. By the end, hopefully you’re moved, and that’s the only thing I ever ask. Move me. Move me to tears or make me cry. I don’t care. Scare me, but move me, and I think by the end of this, you are.
(L to R) Shea Whigham and Carrie Coon in ‘Lake George’. Photo: Magnet.
MF: Carrie, do you think your experience working with Shea on ‘Fargo’ helped inform the characters and their relationship together in this movie?
CC: Well, fundamentally, between two artists, it’s about respect. I respect Shea’s body of work and the actor that he is, and I know that I have a great scene partner across from me. So, that’s just an invitation into the best part of working, which is just being present and seeing what will happen. That’s when it’s most electric and most fun to do. I think obviously, our friendship was instructive in that, and we didn’t have to spend any time getting to know each other. We were just catching up. I think a sense of history is always useful. I come from the Ensemble Theater where some people have been working together for decades, and we don’t have that as much anymore in the American theater or in film. You just don’t see those relationships develop over time in that way, and so there’s a real pleasure in getting to rely on authentic friendship to help build character. Absolutely, I think it does add depth to the movie, for sure.
MF: Shea, the film is really a road trip movie, can you talk about the challenges of filming on location?
SW: When I first read it, I said, “Jeffrey, to me, this is your love letter.” It’s very personal, obviously, for him and Don, and I knew that. He said, “This is personal.” I learned a little bit of that as we went through. But to me, I looked at it as kind of a love letter to Southern California as we moved from Glendale all the way through the east side, into the Valley, out into the western part of the Valley, and then up into Goleta, Santa Barbara, and then Lone Pine. I mean, we really embraced the history of the state, where they made the Westerns with John Wayne. At one point Carrie was like, “This is John Wayne’s suite that he stayed in,” in the little Lone Pine Inn as you’re going up to Mammoth. We were using Jeffrey’s car that I’m driving, Jeffrey’s house, his sister’s house, his house up in Goleta, and the forest that he and his wife walk through. It takes it from something that just could be run-of-the-mill to, it’s a visceral quality through the piece. We’re going to show you California and you’ll never get to experience this again, where we take our time going through.
‘Lake George’ director Jeffrey Reiner.
MF: Finally, Carrie, what was your experience like collaborating with director Jeffrey Reiner on set?
CC: The best thing about it was that he has written this very personal script, which often can suggest someone’s going to keep a tight grip on their material because it’s so personal. But he was having a great time, and he was playful. So, if something wasn’t quite working, he would be open to shifting the language. But also, there were moments where the way a scene is on a page, sometimes you can see it, right? You see it how it plays out in every other genre picture, and there’s a version of that scene, and you could just do that. Then Jeffrey would say, “I don’t know, maybe you sit on her lap?” So, some of the stranger moments in the film came from his inventiveness, playfulness and openness to what the dynamic was becoming between me and Shea, and I so appreciated his willingness to do that. It was a lot of fun.
l26U7nfAPpdHn0XBkICE6
What is the plot of ‘Lake George’?
Tasked by mobsters with putting an end to Phyllis’ (Carrie Coon) life, Don (Shea Whigham) is unable to pull the trigger, and instead, the two set off on a road trip that evolves into something much more. Phyllis has designs of her own and proposes a little tag team action to Don: combine forces with the aim to steal all the money from the people who want her dead.
Who is in the cast of ‘Lake George’?
Shea Whigham as Don
Carrie Coon as Phyllis
Max Casella as Harout
Glenn Fleshler as Armen
‘Lake George’ opens in theaters and on digital beginning December 6th.
The new movie stars Aubrey Plaza (‘Safety Not Guaranteed’) as Emily, who saddled with debt, gets involved in a credit card scam that pulls her into the criminal underworld of Los Angeles.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Aubrey Plaza and Theo Rossi about their work on ‘Emily the Criminal,’ reading the script for the first time, their characters and their relationship to each other.
(L to R) Aubrey Plaza and Theo Rossi for ‘Emily the Criminal.’
You can read our full interview below or click on the video played above to watch our interviews with Plaza, Rossi, and writer/director John Patton Ford.
Moviefone: To begin with, Aubrey, what was your first reaction when you read the screenplay, and what were some of the aspects of Emily’s personality that you were excited to explore in this movie?
Aubrey Plaza: My first reaction was, “Wow, that was an amazing script.” I could not put it down. It flew by. I was like, “Who is this guy? Who is John Patton Ford?” I loved it. It reminded me of a 90s erotic thriller in some ways. There was just something about it that felt like movies that I came up loving and that made me want to be in movies.
Then the character, I just found her so relatable in so many ways. I just loved the idea of playing that type of person and drawing upon those kinds of experiences of just being a fish out of water, and just trying to make it in a world that makes it so hard.
MF: Theo, how would you describe Youcef in your own words, and what did you want to bring to the character as an actor?
Theo Rossi: I think that what I love about Youcef is that we’re all just trying to figure out who we are, no matter how old we are, no matter where we’re getting, we’re just discovering ourselves every day. Sometimes people come in that make you find something else about yourself that you didn’t know.
I think that we’re also sometimes doing things that we might not necessarily want to be doing, but we’re thrust into it. Youcef just happens to be in a, for lack of a better word, family business, but he has bigger dreams. It isn’t until the interruption in a way, or the chance meeting of someone like Emily, that reveals who he truly is.
(L to R) Theo Rossi and Aubrey Plaza in ‘Emily the Criminal.’
I just love that because it’s so similar to life, right? We don’t know, we meet people, we work with people, we hang around people and it reveals something else about us. We start to see the stuff with his mom and who he really is. I just loved the humanization of him, because you think he’s one person in the beginning and then he’s someone else.
That to me is why I go to the movies. I want to see characters grow. I want to see the journey that they take me on, and the ride that they go on. I think it’s amazing to see Emily and her story play out. It’s incredible.
That’s why we’re all doing this because we want to go on these journeys. We want to go on these fast paced, incredible stories that make us think and talk like we are now. So, I’m just happy to be a part of it.
MF: Finally, Aubrey, Emily is really torn between two worlds. There is the world of legitimate society that she wants to be a part of, but also the criminal underworld, which she is drawn to.
At a certain point, she has to make a clear decision which world she is going to be a part of. Can you talk about the predicament she finds herself in and how she comes to make that decision?
AP: There’s a very clear moment in the script and the movie where she is kind of confronted with this fork in the road and she has a decision to make. I think it’s obvious to her when it happens. The system is broken and she’s just not willing to play that game anymore. Nowadays, I think a lot of people can relate to that. It’s a catch-22. It’s just a broken system.
What’s so interesting about that point in the movie is that she has kind of come into herself. She finds herself being a boss in a way, but just not in the way that she thought she would be, or that is kind of expected or traditional in an office with a suit on. But she is a boss. She gets her power, but she just uses it in a different way than most people decide to use it.
Aubrey Plaza in ‘Emily the Criminal.’
RNTODVGbTsnrqvl4AfXeP6
