With six previous movies, the franchise has gone on to gross over $900 million at the box office. The latest installment, ‘Scream 7‘, once again stars Campbell and Cox, and opens in theaters on February 27th.
In honor of the new film, Moviefone is counting down every ‘Scream’ movie ever made from worst to best, including the latest.
(L to R) Parker Posey and Courteney Cox Arquette in ‘Scream 3’. Photo: Dimension Films.
As bodies begin dropping around the Hollywood set of STAB 3, the third film based on the gruesome Woodsboro killings, Sidney (Neve Campbell) and other survivors are once again terrorized by another Ghostface killer.
Hayden Panettiere in ‘Scream 4’. Photo: Dimension Films.
Ten years after the original Woodsboro murders, one of the survivors returns home to promote their new book about surviving trauma, only for a new Ghostface killer to emerge, targeting a new group of teens.
Courteney Cox stars in Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group’s ‘Scream 7.’
When a new Ghostface killer emerges in the quiet town where Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) has built a new life, her darkest fears are realized as her daughter becomes the next target. Determined to protect her family, Sidney must face the horrors of her past to put an end to the bloodshed once and for all.
Neve Campbell (“Sidney Prescott”) stars in Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group’s “Scream.”
Twenty-five years after a streak of brutal murders shocked the quiet town of Woodsboro, a new killer has donned the Ghostface mask and begins targeting a group of teenagers to resurrect secrets from the town’s deadly past.
rIvyeDc2vhvbAOxRqYyXU7
2. ‘Scream 2’ (1997)
Sarah Michelle Gellar in ‘Scream 2’. Photo: Dimension Films.
Two years after the Woodsboro murders, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) acclimates to college life while someone donning the Ghostface costume begins a new string of killings.
Drew Barrymore in ‘Scream’. Photo: Dimension Films.
A year after the murder of her mother, a teenage girl (Neve Campbell) is terrorized by a masked killer who targets her and her friends by using scary movies as part of a deadly game.
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 original ‘Ray Donovan’ series starred Liev Schreiber as the title character, a tough nut fixer in the sprawling mecca of the rich and famous. Ray does the dirty work for LA’s top power players as the go-to guy who makes the problems of the city’s celebrities, superstar athletes, and business moguls disappear.
But he also had to juggle family issues, particularly his ex-con father, played by Jon Voight.
Liev Schreiber as Raymond “Ray” Donovan in ‘Ray Donovan.’ Photo: Jeff Neumann/Showtime.
This new show seems unlikely (at least at this point, it’s still being kept mostly under wraps) to feature anyone from ‘Ray Donovan,’ and indeed its title has shifted from ‘The Donovans’ to ‘Guy Ritchie’s The Associate.’ But thanks to Deadline, we do at least know who will appear.
According to Deadline, Tom Hardy, Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan are all in final negotiations for the new series, which is backed by Paramount+.
Featuring a family of fixers who solve problems for the most powerful clients in Europe, ‘The Associate will see fortunes and reputations at risk, odd alliances unfold, and betrayal around every corner; as the nature of their business means there is no guarantee what’s in store tomorrow.
Hardy –– who appeared in Ritchie’s ‘RocknRolla’ –– will play Harry, the main fixer, a man who is as dangerous as he is handsome.
30535
Mirren and Brosnan ––who recently finished working together on the Netflix film adaptation of Richard Osman’s mystery novel ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ –– would star as the crime family’s matriarch and patriarch, respectively.
Ritchie, who, let’s not forget also has his TV spin-off of ‘The Gentlemen’ headed for a second season on Netflix and a film career to keep bubbling along, will be an executive producer and direct the 10-episode initial run of the show.
The actual writing and show-running duties fall to Ronan Bennett, who created ‘Top Boy’ and wrote movies such as ‘Face’ and ‘Public Enemies.’
When will ‘Guy Ritchie’s The Associate’ be on screens?
Given that it just started filming last month, we’re not sure we see the series debuting later this year as originally planned (though with Ritchie’s output of late, it’s not impossible), and would predict it’ll see screens next year.
Actor Jake Gyllenhaal (left) and director Guy Ritchie (right) on the set of ‘The Covenant,’ a Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film. Credit: Christopher Raphael / Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures.
Liev Schreiber in ‘Across the River and into the Trees’. Photo: Tribune Pictures.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Liev Schreiber about his work on ‘Across the River and into the Trees’, the work of Ernest Hemingway, his character, working with director Paula Ortiz, filming during the pandemic, reuniting with his ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ co-star Danny Huston, and why Schreiber did not reprise his role of Sabretooth in ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interview.
Liev Schreiber in ‘Across the River and into the Trees’. Photo: Tribune Pictures.
Moviefone: To begin with, how familiar were you with the work of Ernest Hemingway before making ‘Across the River and into the Trees’?
Liev Schreiber: I had only read the basic high school Hemingway, which was, I had read ‘A Farewell to Arms’ and I’d read ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’. I really didn’t have much experience with him. When Paula initially reached out to me about the film, she told me about a novel by a guy named Andrea di Robilant called ‘Autumn in Venice’, which is a wonderful telling of Hemingway’s time in Venice, which is a place that as many people know, he really loved. Especially his relationship to a young Countess, Adriana Ivancich. I knew that Paula wanted Ernest Hemingway to be present in this film and I followed. So, we grew my beard a little longer, and I spent a tremendous amount of time in Venice. There’s a lot of films about older men and younger women obviously, but one of the things that I appreciated about Hemingway was his self-consciousness about it and his self-loathing, or self-consciousness that verges on self-loathing. I think that that is a very refreshing and interesting take on it. He was impossibly spellbound by Adriana, the real woman, and at the same time hated himself for it and was very frustrated and then did absolutely nothing to hide it. So, a very complicated man, and I think in ‘Across the River’, he paints the portrait that perhaps he wants us to see, or that he wanted Adriana to see because he ultimately did write it for her, I believe.
MF: Did you relate personally to your character and what was your approach to playing Colonel Cantwell?
LS: I don’t often take things because I think I can knock them out of the park. I wish that there were things that I read that I thought I could knock out of the park. This was something that I was interested in perhaps because I was thinking about it and I was feeling it, which was mortality. We had just gone through the pandemic, my father was terminally ill, and I am getting on in years myself. Mortality in all its incarnations and the vulnerability that it elicits and the uncomfortable feelings, and it was just something that I thought was worth exploring and would be compelling for me as a role.
(L to R) Matilda De Angelis and Liev Schreiber in ‘Across the River and into the Trees’. Photo: Tribune Pictures.
Can you talk about collaborating on set with director Paula Ortiz?
MF: Well, initially I was just so surprised that this feminist auteur director wanted to take on Hemingway. When I watched her other films, I thought, okay, this is someone who was really in touch with that. Everyone always talks about the simplicity of Hemingway, the masculinity of the writing, the spareness of it. But to be honest with you, that’s not what I thought when I read Hemingway in high school, and it’s certainly not what I thought when I read ‘Across the River’. I get that grammatically, in terms of styles of writing, I think he’s a romantic. I think that there are aspects of him, and I think that the masculinity that he wanted to convey to the world was a bit of a costume. For a child whose mother dressed him in girl’s clothes and things like that, he seemed awfully obsessed with doing masculine things. I think that Paula captures that. That there is this bravado, there is this lurch towards something that feels appropriate or that how one should act. One should join the military, one should serve one’s country, one should lead bravely, one should sacrifice one’s life, one should do all these things, but what one feels is oftentimes entirely different and at odds with what one should do. I think both Hemingway and Paula had a good handle on that concept.
MF: Can you talk about shooting in St. Mark’s Square in Venice during the pandemic? What was that like?
LS: It was extraordinary. I mean, imagine that city with no one in it. It had been returned to the Venetians, and they were in heaven. It’s probably why they’ve outlawed cruise ships because they’re still desperate for a bit of that. To be walking down those streets and beside those canals by yourself in the middle of the night, and to see the history and to feel the ghosts and the shadows of that extraordinarily beautiful city and culture, and because of the pandemic and what everyone was going through, we were there for quite some time and it was probably the best year of my life.
Danny Huston in ‘Across the River and into the Trees’. Photo: Tribune Pictures.
MF: What was it like reuniting on screen with your ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ co-star Danny Huston?
LS: Yeah, Danny and I are dear friends, and he was kind enough to help us out by coming to Venice to do this role. So yes, it was lovely to be with Danny again.
MF: Finally, was there ever any talk about you reprising your Sabretooth role in ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’?
LS: No, there wasn’t. But I mean, I suppose that’s a conversation for Ryan. I think that they had it in their story that it would be Tyler Mane and that version of Sabretooth, which was a very different version of Sabretooth than mine, so I understand completely.
DXkPA0MXNguqGg5PoOeBp
What is the plot of ‘Across the River and into the Trees’?
United States Army Colonel Richard Cantwell (Liev Schreiber) confronts the news of his terminal illness with stoic indifference and enlists a military driver for presumably his final hunting trip and a visit to Venice. Along the way, Cantwell investigates an alleged war crime and has a chance encounter with a young woman from the Italian nobility.
Who is in the cast of ‘Across the River and into the Trees’?
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.
zJYGjXCaMCQItMGDdKGtg2
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.
Liev Schreiber as Raymond “Ray” Donovan in ‘Ray Donovan.’ Photo: Showtime.
Preview:
Guy Ritchie is aboard a ‘Ray Donovan’ spin-off series.
The new series will be loosely based on the Live Schreiber show.
‘Top Boy’ creator Ronan Bennett will write all initial 10 episodes.
Though it will only launch on Netflix next week, Guy Ritchie’s series ‘The Gentleman’, which the writer/director created based on his 2019 gangster crime comedy, is clearly impressing people.
That includes Paramount, which is looking to the filmmaker to lead the creative team on a new series that loosely adapts Liev Schreiber drama ‘Ray Donovan’, which began on Showtime in 2013, ran for seven seasons and was finished via TV movie ‘Ray Donovan: The Movie’ in 2022.
Ritchie will be the main director and executive producer on the new series, which has been written by ‘Top Boy’ creator Ronan Bennett.
6czkaTptKyyOgCBzAIaL4
What was ‘Ray Donovan’ about?
Liev Schreiber as Raymond “Ray” Donovan in ‘Ray Donovan.’ Photo: Jeff Neumann/Showtime.
Created by Ann Biderman, the original series starred Schreiber as the title character, a tough nut fixer in the sprawling mecca of the rich and famous. Ray does the dirty work for LA’s top power players as the go-to guy who makes the problems of the city’s celebrities, superstar athletes, and business moguls disappear.
But the problems he can’t solve are his own and his family’s, especially when his violent father Mickey (Jon Voight) is released from prison. The show also starred Eddie Marsan, Dash Mihok and Kerris Dorsey.
From the sounds of it, the new series will be along the lines of ‘The Gentlemen’ in connective tissue to the source material, i.e. taking place in a similar world, but not featuring the same characters.
In fact the new show –– which has Bennett scripting the first season of 10 episodes –– will relocate the idea to the UK.
Here’s the official synopsis:
“With the most powerful clients in Europe, ‘The Donovans’ will see family fortunes and reputations at risk, odd alliances unfold, and betrayal around every corner. And while the family might be London’s most elite fixers today, the nature of their business means there is no guarantee what’s in store tomorrow.”
This is what Bennett had to say about the new project:
“We’re going to deliver a show which provides massive thrills, entertainment and a huge rush of adrenaline for audiences around the world. At the same time, I’m totally focused on exploring real characters, in body and in soul, and I’m committed to writing stories with deep dramatic impact. We’re going to get under the skin of the criminal underworld, in a way which will show you the bone-deep truths of how they live and how it sometimes will — inevitably — impact on our own lives.”
When will ‘The Donovans’ be on screens?
The most surprising part of this story is that the show will apparently be ready to launch on Paramount+ with Showtime later this year.
Which means Ritchie has a film (‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’, on screens in April) and two TV series all out in the same year. Presumably he has given up on the concept of sleep…
Liev Schreiber as Raymond “Ray” Donovan in ‘Ray Donovan.’ Photo: Showtime.
Helen Mirren in Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures’ ‘Golda.’ Credit: Sean Gleason, Courtesy of Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures.
Opening in theaters on August 25th, ‘Golda’ is a look at a specific moment in the life of former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.
Starring Helen Mirren and directed by Guy Nattiv (who previously made based-on-truth biopic ‘Skin), it’s a dramatically satisfying film that still suffers from some issues of scale and pace.
CaCg23KX9Fwxee8zMiQj2
What’s the story of ‘Golda’?
Helen Mirren in Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures’ ‘Golda.’ Credit: Sean Gleason, Courtesy of Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures.
‘Golda’ is a ticking-clock thriller set during the tense 19 days of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir (Mirren), faced with the potential of Israel’s complete destruction, must navigate overwhelming odds, a skeptical cabinet, and a complex relationship with US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (Liev Schreiber), with millions of lives in the balance.
Her tough leadership and compassion would ultimately decide the fate of her nation and leave her with a controversial legacy around the world.
Who else is in ‘Golda’?
Liev Schreiber in Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures’ ‘Golda.’ Credit: Sean Gleason, Courtesy of Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures.
Helen Mirren in Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures’ ‘Golda.’ Credit: Sean Gleason, Courtesy of Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures.
Telling the story of a real-life figure is always tricky. There was a time when most examples were the cradle-to-grave variety, picking up the person effectively from birth, stopping at certain important waypoints in their lives and attempting to cram in some assessment of their legacy.
These days, however, the fashion is for movies that focus instead on a specific time period of the person, especially for those that have had their stories told in the past.
Golda Meir, who served as Israel’s Prime Minister, has had her life brought to screens at least twice already, in 2003 and 2019 notably. Both of those were documentaries, and now here comes the biodrama version, which takes as its focus her choices and actions during the Yom Kippur War.
It’s a particularly fertile time during Meir’s Prime Ministerial reign (she was the head of Israel’s government between 1969 and 1974), since it saw her dealing with a particularly thorny crisis for the country, as it came under attack by Egypt and Syria (with Russia backing the Arabic side and America throwing its support behind Israel).
This take on the tale has one giant advantage, and that is Dame Helen Mirren. The veteran British actor is slavered in make-up that give her at least a close approximation of the leader. But it’s in her performance that she really brings the woman to life, finding the quiet moments between the bombast and smoking more than your average chimney (and, as history and the movie itself records, paying the price via the lymphatic cancer that took her life in 1978).
(L to R) Helen Mirren and Camille Cottin in Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures’ ‘Golda.’ Credit: Sean Gleason, Courtesy of Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures.
Mirren is, of course, excellent in the role, whether the scene demands she square off against the male members of her cabinet who disagree with her decisions or finding time for silent reflection on the roof of her apartment building.
Around her, there is a solid cast, most notably Cottin as Lou Kaddar, her ever-reliable personal assistant, and Heuberger as Moshe Dayan, an old colleague and friend whose advice is invaluable, but whose spirit flags as the early period of the conflict turns badly against Israel.
Nattiv works carefully to bring out the best in his lead and supporting cast, and, along with writer Nicholas Martin, finds effective ways to handle the drama. Visually-speaking, there are a few striking moments, and a scene where she must listen over a military radio as Israeli forces suffer a devastating loss, is the standout moment in the movie.
And while some will have problems with the non-Jewish Mirren slapping on make-up to play a Jewish icon, it’s handled so respectfully that the issue doesn’t derail the movie’s impact.
Where does ‘Golda’ stumble?
(L to R) Helen Mirren and Lior Ashkenazi in Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures’ ‘Golda.’ Credit: Sean Gleason, Courtesy of Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures.
There are some problems lurking within this one, though –– while the war moments are handled effectively within the budget constraints, it’s hard not to view this one as a TV movie that somehow found its way into a theater. Though some scenes are all the more effective because of the tight focus, others come across as ambition curtailed, which make the offering seem that much smaller and humbler, when a bigger scope could have helped up the gravitas.
Still, it’s worth noting that a biopic about a chain-smoking Israeli Prime Minister probably doesn’t draw the sort of funding that Steven Spielberg can demand for, say, ‘Lincoln’ (or, staying closer on target, ‘Munich’, which features a portrayal of Meir).
And while Nattiv gets creative in places, there are still some cliches of the genre his movie unavoidably falls into, while –– despite his and Mirren’s best efforts –– it never quite crawls under the skin of its subject, no matter how effective the lead actor is in inhabiting it.
There is more than one scene that you’ll find yourself thinking that you’ve seen this in a hundred different variations.
‘Golda’ director Guy Nattiv.
Also, Meir is a truly complicated, captivating subject, and doesn’t need much in the way of cinematically stylistic tricks to make her story work, but Nattiv can’t help himself in some instances, especially a confounding scene later on that pans across a hallway full of dead birds. Symbolism is one thing. This feels like a hammer blow more than a scene.
‘Golda’ will most certainly not be for everyone. History buffs will enjoy seeing a key portion of Meir’s life dramatically realized (no matter the liberties that must be taken in any movie of this sort), and those who appreciate the work of Helen Mirren are certain to be drawn to the movie, which doesn’t let its issues completely sink it.
As biopics (or partial biopics) go, it remains an engrossing look at a controversial figure, albeit one that might have benefitted from heading to a limited TV series where it might have received the scope it truly required.
Opening in theaters on August 25th is the new biopic ‘Golda,’ which examines the life of Prime Minister of Israel Golda Meir and her involvement in the Yom Kippur War, and was directed by Academy Award winning filmmaker Guy Nattiv (‘Skin’).
CaCg23KX9Fwxee8zMiQj2
What is the plot of ‘Golda’?
Golda is a ticking-clock thriller set during the tense 19 days of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir (Helen Mirren), faced with the potential of Israel’s complete destruction, must navigate overwhelming odds, a skeptical cabinet, and a complex relationship with US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (Liev Schreiber), with millions of lives in the balance. Her tough leadership and compassion would ultimately decide the fate of her nation and leave her with a controversial legacy around the world.
Helen Mirren in Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures’ ‘Golda.’ Credit: Sean Gleason, Courtesy of Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Academy Award-winning director Guy Nattiv about his work on ‘Golda,’ her incredible true story and why now was the right time to tell it, Helen Mirren’s transformative performance, Liev Schreiber’s real life meeting with Henry Kissinger, his unusual alliance with Meir, Nattiv’s directorial choices, and what he hopes audiences learn from watching the movie.
‘Golda’ director Guy Nattiv.
Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about why now was the right time to tell Golda Meir’s story, the relevance that it still holds to this day, and the themes you wanted to explore with this film?
Guy Nattiv: So this film started to brew in 2016/2017. It was a script that was running around, and I was attached to it only in 2018. So we didn’t really know when this movie’s going to come out. We just working on a movie and it may happen and may not happen. But miraculously, this movie came out now, which is the 50th anniversary to the Yom Kippur War, when the government in Israel is basically leading us to catastrophe, decimating the judicial system. We all feel, I mean, me and my crew, my team and my tribe, that the blindness that they had in 1973 leading us to this catastrophe of Yom Kippur is coming back again. It’s kind of a full circle. So it’s the Yom Kippur democracy. That’s one thing. That’s one subject matter. But the other thing is that it’s time to clean or clear Golda from all the wrongdoings they were blaming her for. It’s not only her narrative, a lot of it’s the intelligent division that proved her wrong. (Moshe) Dayan, who basically lost it and completely collapsed and she didn’t have him at all. Another narrative of the war, after the six-day war and the big slap the Israeli got thinking they are the kings of the Middle East, and it wasn’t right. So telling now this story about this woman, about this pioneer lady, I think it has a lot of significance to a lot of Israelis Jews and non-Jews.
Helen Mirren in Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures’ ‘Golda.’ Credit: Sean Gleason, Courtesy of Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures.
MF: What was your experience like working with Helen Mirren and can you talk about her physical transformation for this role?
GN: What can you say? I mean, it’s one of the best actors in the world and one of the greatest. I mean, a lot of admiration to this woman who took on herself a big challenge, and she did a brilliant job. When we still were in our beds in hotel rooms before coming to shoot the film, she woke up at 4:00 AM, went to the trailer at 5:00am and did make up for three and a half hours. When we came to set at 7:30am eating our breakfast, she was Golda already. This is how she did it for 37 days and you didn’t hear a peep of complaining. What can I say? She’s just an amazing artist, an amazing actress, and an amazing human being. She worked, she prepared at least a year in advance before we started shooting with a dialect coach and a physical coach. She did her work. She didn’t just land and became Golda. She also did research. She saw documentaries, she read books, she heard recordings of Golda while getting the makeup done. She was putting her earphones on and she heard Golda talking from YouTube (videos). But it’s her talents and her soul that she brought to the role that made Golda who she is in the film.
Liev Schreiber in Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures’ ‘Golda.’ Credit: Sean Gleason, Courtesy of Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures.
MF: Can you talk about Liev Schreiber’s performance as Henry Kissinger, and Kissinger and Meir’s unusual friendship?
GN: Well, Liev met Henry Kissinger in his apartment in New York two days before shooting. So yeah, we made that happen. Kissinger sat with Liev and spoke to him for an hour and a half, and gave him all the little stories about the relationship and how she planted the soup, and the scene with “First I’m Secretary of State, then I’m an American.” He gave this anecdote to Liev who brought it to the script later on and we used it. But it was just amazing to see those two brilliant actors facing each other in Golda’s kitchen in London. I was pinching myself to see if it’s real. It was so brilliant.
(L to R) Helen Mirren and Liev Schreiber in Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures’ ‘Golda.’ Credit: Sean Gleason, Courtesy of Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures.
MF: Can you talk about your use of symbolism in the movie, specifically the symbolism of the birds, as well as a scene where Golda’s cigarette smoke dissolves into a battle sequence?
GN: The smoke of war is basically the fog of war. I don’t know if you saw the documentary, ‘The Fog of War’? The Errol Morris documentary, it’s kind of homage to a place where you can see from one meter. You’re not able to communicate because it’s all mist. The fact that she’s smoking, she’s smoking herself to death, but it’s also the smoke that comes from an explosion, from this mushroom of explosion that her psyche, she’s in a total nightmare and the nightmare is taking over her. The smoke is an element that I wanted to use because it’s almost a mist that they all smoke there. It’s a mist that leads us to those very dark alleys and film noirish in a way. The birds, there’s a very special Israeli bird that is almost like a canary, right? I don’t know if you remember this, the canary in a coal mine, that the birds were signifying what’s going to happen a second before you get the notion. So when they go into the chimney, she understand we are going to Hell. It’s kind of a sign before it happens. When she’s walking in the tunnel there, the bird’s running away because she’s running away from the mayhem that’s going to happen from the apocalypse. At the end they’re dead because they’re dead with her soul as well. So it’s like a canary in a coal mine in a way.
Helen Mirren in Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures’ ‘Golda.’ Credit: Sean Gleason, Courtesy of Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures.
MF: Can you talk about the importance of using actual footage of Golda Meir at the end of the film?
GN: I think it’s something that I got from Oliver Stone and ‘JFK.’ He used a lot of documentary footage with ‘JFK,’ and he edited in a jittery way. But for me, this is the accord when I lead you, the viewer, to the end. The end is almost like, here is the real woman, and you’re not going to see the “Helen/Golda” anymore. You go with this footage to outside the cinema and seek yourself all the information. So this is kind of leading you to the outside and giving you an end within the TV that she’s watching herself.
Helen Mirren in Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures’ ‘Golda.’ Credit: Jasper Wolf, Courtesy of Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures.
MF: Finally, what do you hope audiences take away from seeing this film?
GN: Audiences, the people who don’t even know Golda, in Israel when you’re 19, you think Golda is an ice cream because there’s an ice cream chain in Israel called Golda. A lot of people don’t know even who Golda was, which I want them to know because when I was a kid, I watched films like ‘Gandhi.’ I was like, “Wow, there’s a man named Gandhi, and look what he did and Ben Kingsley and the whole thing”. I was overwhelmed. Then I saw ‘The Last Emperor’ of (Bernardo) Bertolucci, and that’s like, “Whoa, this is amazing.” What a story, without knowing anything. So many people tell me that, “I watched a movie and I didn’t know anything. It just blew my mind that something like that had happened.” Of course, the people who know Golda and did not know how human, how funny, how warm, how passionate and how fierce she was, could see that in her character in the movie.
‘Asteroid City’ takes place in a fictional American desert town circa 1955. The itinerary of a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention (organized to bring together students and parents from across the country for fellowship and scholarly competition) is spectacularly disrupted by world-changing events.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Scarlett Johansson and Jason Schwartzman about their work on ‘Asteroid City,’ what fans can expect from the film and working with filmmaker Wes Anderson.
(L to R) Jason Schwartzman and Scarlett Johansson in writer/director Wes Anderson’s ‘Asteroid City,’ a Focus Features release.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Johansson, Schwartzman, Jeffrey Wright, Adrien Brody, Rupert Friend, and Maya Hawke.
Moviefone: To begin with, Scarlett, what would you say to moviegoers sitting down to watch this film to prepare them for the cinematic experience they are about to have?
Scarlett Johansson: What would I say, to prepare them? I don’t know. I don’t like knowing anything about a movie before I go. I just like to go in and be surprised. You just got to let the movie wash over you. I would say be prepared to see it more than once because it’s very dense and complex, and I’ve gotten a lot more out of seeing it a few times. There’s a few movies where I feel like I’ve had that experience. I remember seeing ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ and I remember I saw it and I really liked it. Then the second time I saw it, I really didn’t like it. Then the third time, and now that obviously I’ve seen it many times, I really love it, and I notice different things about it all the time. There’s just some movies that there’s something uncomfortable about them. I think this movie is, at least for me, it’s uncomfortable. So I feel like it’s good to kind of prepare to let it wash over you a few times.
(L to R) Grace Edwards as Dinah, Scarlett Johansson as Midge Campbell and Damien Bonnaro as Bodyguard/Driver in writer/director Wes Anderson’s ‘Asteroid City,’ a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Pop. 87 Productions/Focus Features
MF: Jason, what would you tell viewers to get them ready for Wes Anderson’s latest movie?
Jason Schwartzman: I would say that there’s no wrong way to react to it, which is, I think a fun thing. I’ve watched parts of it with, let’s say my wife and a different person. The reaction to a scene, one person could laugh and the other person could be just really taken aback, or confused, or sad. Both of those reactions are real. I think that’s a really hard place to write and to make things, and to exist in that space is really cool. So yeah, that’d be my only advice is I wouldn’t question whether or not if what you’re feeling or thinking is right. It just goes along with what Scarlett’s saying. It is right. Just go with it. Then it’s what the characters are saying in the movie, so just keep going. Don’t question it. Just live it.
(L to R) Writer/director Wes Anderson, actor Jason Schwartzman and actor Tom Hanks on the set of ‘Asteroid City,’ a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Roger Do Minh/Pop. 87 Productions/Focus Features.
MF: Scarlett, obviously you worked with Wes Anderson on the animated ‘Isle of Dogs,’ but what was it like for you to finally work with him on a live-action movie?
Scarlett Johansson: Well, I got to prepare this with him. He sent me this script and I had many months to talk to him about it and share movies and books and stuff like that, and different vocal stuff. I knew Jason was doing some vocal work too, so I tried to just do some prep work on it and make sure that when we got there, that all the pieces were fitting together. I didn’t get that experience on ‘Isle of Dogs’, so that was fun. The character building part of it was exciting and new for me with Wes, and I loved it. I didn’t have any expectations, but I certainly was surprised I guess, that he was so open to collaborating like that and very open. He didn’t have any particular idea of what this person’s background is, or where they came from, but Wes had great suggestions and it was fun.
Writer/director Wes Anderson on the set of ‘Asteroid City,’ a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Roger Do Minh/Pop. 87 Productions/Focus Features
MF: Finally, Jason, what was it like for you working with Scarlett on this film?
Jason Schwartzman: Just as the scheduling of it worked out, I was there from the very beginning to the very end. I was even there after Wes left. I have a photo of Wes’ empty hotel room. But I just will say that Scarlett came towards the end of the time there and we were doing these little scenes and I would say that Wes had so much excitement for Scarlett to come and to be there, and just looking forward to her arrival. It was a really great, brand new exciting experience. Then when she did arrive and we started to do these scenes, just the look on his face of being satiated, I guess. He was so truly happy and I could just see how much he’d been waiting and talking about it, and how excited and how much that meant to him.
Scarlett Johansson in director Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City,’ a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Pop. 87 Productions/Focus Features.
It’s been ten years since Hugh Jackman‘s Wolverine got his first solo movie. Few would argue that “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” was a high point for the franchise, but without it we never would have gotten future gems like “Logan.” Celebrate this mutant milestone by learning some fun facts about the making of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and the spinoffs that never were.
1.Liev Schreiber refused to wear a padded muscle suit, instead relying on Jackman’s help to bulk up before filming. Schreiber eventually gained 40 pounds by following Jackman’s exercise regimen and protein-heavy diet.
2. Director Gavin Hood repeatedly clashed with producers and studio executives over the tone and direction of the film, particularly his desire to portray Wolverine as a military veteran with PTSD.
20th Century Fox
3.Kodi Smit-McPhee was originally cast as the young James Howlett, but had to drop out due to his commitment to 2009’s “The Road.” Smit-McPhee would instead make his X-Men debut as Nightcrawler in 2015’s “X-Men: Apocalypse.”
4. Though it was deleted from the theatrical version, one of the scenes in the Nigeria sequence features a young Storm working as a child slave laborer.
5. While it draws heavily from Marvel’s X-Men comics, the movie does make some changes to the source material. In the comics, Wolverine isn’t old enough to have fought in the Civil War, and he and Sabretooth aren’t actually brothers.
20th Century Fox
6. Brian Cox expressed interest in reprising his role as Col. Stryker. But due to the expense of the de-aging technology used on Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier, it was decided to cast Danny Huston as a young Stryker instead.
7. Kevin Durand’s Blob suit was so bulky and hot that a system of tubes had to be installed in order to pump in ice water and keep Durand cool.
20th Century Fox
8. While Ryan Reynolds plays Deadpool in the first act of the film, he was replaced by stuntman Scott Adkins for most of the the Weapon XI scenes. Reynolds does appear as Weapon XI in a handful of close-up shots.
9. An unfinished work print cut of the film leaked online a month before its release. Fox estimated the file was downloaded 4.5 million times by the time the finished version hit theaters and blamed the leak for the film’s lackluster box office numbers.
10. Originally, Fox intended to launch an entire series of “X-Men Origins” prequel movies. These projects were canceled, and portions of the planned “X-Men Origins: Magneto” were instead used for 2011’s “X-Men: First Class.”
Activision
11. Activision released a video game adaptation that included significant plot elements not in the movie. For example, one section features Wolverine teaming up with Mystique to destroy the Sentinel program.
12. Will.i.am eagerly agreed to play John Wraith because of his love for another mutant teleporter, Nightcrawler. In fact, the video game version implies that Wraith is Nightcrawler’s father, though later movies revealed that the villain Azazel is actually his father.
Warner Bros.
13. Before the release of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” Christopher Reeve held the record for the most times the same actor has played a superhero character. Jackman and Patrick Stewart both tied that record thanks to this film, and eventually went on to reprise their roles as Wolverine and Professor X several more times.
