The Secret in Julia & Nicole's Eyes
Wednesday, March 25, 2015 at 10:15AM
Manuel here, still giddy about all the Julia press blitz given the 25th Anniversary of Pretty Woman and thus unable to think about much else.
Oh how I hate watermarked stills; maybe it's to distract from Julia's ugly sweater?
Thankfully, we can begin salivating over her next project, the English-language adaptation of Academy Award winning film, The Secret in Their Eyes (remember how it beat The White Ribbon and The Prophet for the Best Foreign Language Film prize in 2010?). Thanks to Stan for bringing the above pic to our attention which confirms the fact that the film will feature scenes between Julia and fellow Best Actress winner Nicole Kidman. I for one, cannot wait. Their acting styles are so far apart I’m curious what they’ll bring out in each other. The film also stars Chiwetel Ejiofor who is allegedly joining the Marvel family for their upcoming Doctor Strange (though really, until that film starts shooting I won’t believe any “rumored casting”).
The plot, for those of us who haven’t seen the original film centers on “a retired legal counselor who writes a novel hoping to find closure for one of his past unresolved homicide cases and for his unreciprocated love with his superior - both of which still haunt him decades later.” The film will be released in October, following, it seems, the same release pattern as Billy Ray’s last scripted film, Captain Phillips. May this one strike gold as well?
Oh, I almost forgot to share these on-set pics. Look at those bangs! and those ill-fitting pants! and that basket!
Are you as excited about continuing to see what Julia can do with these darker dramatic parts? Might this bring her coveted nomination number 5, nudging her up Nathaniel’s Oscar’s most beloved ladies list? (it really is silly to think Julia has one more nomination than Nicole, isn't it?)
Reader Comments (41)
it really is silly to think Julia has one more nomination than Nicole, isn't it?
Kidman is one Best Actress nomination shy of Perennial status. Roberts has Holly Hunter's record spread out over four decades. The frustrating thing to me is the preoccupation with Streep, Lawrence, and Adams we're stuck with forever or merely just for the foreseeable. A bland trio of bitches.
And once again 3rtful has to ruin an otherwise innocuous comment with misogyny at the end.
I don't care who they put in this, I've already seen it.
Julia Roberts is having quite a career revival.
Ugh. The Argentine film was perfect. American audiences just need to learn how to read subtitles and U.S. producers should focus their efforts and dollars on new stories. Would like to see this delightful cast in a film I haven't already seen.
What Pam said.
Yeah, the Argentine film is just marvelous-I don't get why we need to remake this one so soon. I will see it (Nicole! Julia!) but I'm kind of rooting against it.
@DJDeeJay
Doesn't Nathaniel have the annual Bitch Awards? Is he referring to female dogs? Gay men appropriated bitch to refer to themselves and they will throw it back on women. Unless you want to censor the shit talk that we give to each other and others---why paint me with the hetero-normative brush of misogyny? When I make the statement that Hollywood is a patriarchal white supremacy I'm addressing sexism and misogyny first. Then the racism that affects everyone---not just black people. Nathaniel as a white male resents his brethren are solely responsible for the ills he sees in his favorite medium. But there is no evidence to the contrary is there?
i cant get excited for hollywood remaking foreign movies. i just can't.
I liked the original, didn't love it. Unlike most people, I am very okay with adapting foreign films. I would prefer it to remakes of films already in the English language and this story for one is so different from anything we have had in the US for quite some time. I really don't understand why people are so upset about this being made:
Anyway, who exactly are Nicole and Julia playing? It has been a bit since I saw the film, but I thought I remembered there being only one leading lady part. Maybe I'm just misremembering though.
3rtful - nope, sorry. Yes, gay men appropriated the word bitch. That doesn't mean every time it's "thrown back" on women, as you say, is perfectly okay. We're not having drinks at a gay bar. This is an online forum where tone and intention are automatically wiped out as they always are with online comments. And considering you're the same commenter that described Streep as a "hammy cunt," you have no credibility here. Plus, don't even try to make misogyny only a heteronormative thing. Gay men can absolutely be misogynists.
I agree with you about Hollywood. I have no idea what your last question means.
Have you seen the press for it? Nicole did an interview where she basically said that she and Julia became really close on set and they will remain friends forever. WHAT IS BETTER THAN THAT?
Can't wait for the movie, might be even more excited about the press tour lol
Pam -- Well said!
Im excited because of the cast. I didn't love the original that much, though. They seem to have changed enough of the story though, the whole political background seems to be gone.
I was an extra on this set last month.
Unfortunately, neither Kidman nor Roberts were there. Instead, it was (checks spelling) Chiwetel Ejiofor and Dean Norris (Breaking Bad, Under the Dome) in a flashback sequence from 2002, searching for the killer in the stands at Dodger Stadium. (I don't know who the killer is.) They did do a helicopter shot inside the stadium, which is right on top of me, and that should be cool.
I should probably watch the original. Netflix?
The only project that seems right for Nicole these days is Barbie: The Movie.
I had never been a big fan of Julia Roberts, outside of Erin Brockovich and My Best Friend's Wedding. But her recent work has really made me sit up and take notice. She was the best thing about AOC. I can't wait to see her with Nicole and Chiwetel, two of my faves. Excited for this!
I'm confused. So, Chiwetel is playing the Ricardo Darin role, and Julia is his boss/ the one he's been in love with for 20 years. So who is Nicole playing? Or is Nicole playing the boss/lover and Julia playing the best friend who in the original was also male???
I have NO FUCKING IDEA WHY they are doing this. THe original was amazing. The screenplay was a thing of beauty. I dont see how they could transplant thw whole political background- the dictatorship, the killer becoming a member of the dictatorship guard, the persecution, the reason why Darin/Chiwetel had to leave, how could they possibly adapt all that into an american background? THe whole plot was so intertwined with argentinean history.
Plus, it had a very latin feel, a very peculiar, particular latin atmosphere, a kind of melancholia, a rythym, a sense of nostalgia, a deep romanticism that has a lot to do with Latin/ Mediterreanean cultures, a very peculiar way of seeing/feeling the world that very much belongs to a certain culture that I'm not sure north - americans could fully understand/translate.
I dont know, as Pam said, why not just open your mind- and your eyes,- and read the damm subtitles???? You'll learn so much about the vast world out there, belive me.....
But Amanda and Pam, wouldn't you rather see Hollywood making a project like this and not another superhero movie or young adult franchise? I think we're all looking at this the wrong way.
but Steve, how about supporting new talent and coming up with your own stories instead of remaking foreign movies and stripping them of all the political and local contexts? there are tones of perspectives this industry has never even come close to exploring.
like, why is it a choice between 1. remaking a movie for people who're too lazy to read subtitles or 2. remaking a superhero comic as movie for ppl who don't have brains?
all this money and talent... is that really the best they can do?
JR is the type they'll want to honour again further down the line after all she was the biggest most successful female movie star ever.
I think it reeks of ethnocentrism and cultural domination.
Why not allow other people to have their own stories and their own cultural products? Their own cultural manifestations? That story, of that movie, says a lot about the history of a country. The story of those individual characthers cant be detached from that country's history, that particular political setting in that particular moment in time and that culture. It will br very hard to sustain that story removed from its particular background. The history of the country is pivotal to the development of the story.
Why not read subtitles? Why not hear a bit of the beautiful, expressive, passionate and melancholic melody of the spanish language? Why not get to know Ricardo Darin, one of the best actors alive? Changing the scenery from Buenos Aires to whereverville, USA, wont be enough.
There are, I bet, many fantastic, fabulous north-american stories waiting to be told. Why not allow others to have their own???
Clara: I assume that's directed at The Amazing Spider-Man 2 or Man of Steel in specific? I saw 10 minutes of TASM2 and the ending Rhino fight is moronic. "He swings the manhole cover into this Rhino shaped mech and we cut to credits right as impact is about to happen. What do you think, director?" "GENIUS!"
I'm totally with Pam, and especially Amanda, on this. I'd love to see all three stars in a movie together...but not this ill-considered remake.
Ok so I googled this and apparently Kidman plays the boss/love interest and Roberts plays a role written specially for her and it combines the roles of the best friend and the victim's husband In one female role-which is complicated In itself due to said best friend's fate and the big revelation at the end revolving the husband. And now the victim will apparently be Julia's daughter.
Plus I believe Chiwetel is too Young for this role. Since the story unfolds in between 20 years, how old was he 20 years ago? 18? The character was a police investigator later retired, in the 20 years later part of the film. He will need a good team of make up artists to pull it off.
Everyone thinking this will get Oscar noms? Don't even dare. First, consider that the last time we got a film written AND directed by a writer of a gritty thriller, the result was The Two Faces of January. Second, the distributor is STX Entertainment. It took Harvey Weinstein almost two DECADES to become any sort of consistent Oscar force to be reckoned with and STX has just started. Third: This is a bankrupt idea and everyone has seen through it instantly except the people who approved it.
I wasn't a big fan of the original (except for the soccer stadium sequence, which was excellent), but while I love each of these three actors, whose idea was it to put them together? You're begging audiences to stay away in droves. Sadly.
How are they planning to translate to english and to modern times the issue with the damaged typewriter that goes during the whole movie and its resolved until the end?
Magicub, the movie you are thinking about, the one with the typewriter, is "The Lives of Others", a german film. This one is an argentinean one.
Amanda and Magicub. I seem to recall the running joke about the typewriter in TSITE. Maybe some old courthouses still had regular typewriters 20 years ago...
I know that Hollywood has produced many annoying remakes of foreign films, but remaking a film is not necessarily a bad thing, as it is not necessarily a bad thing making a cover of an old (or not so old) song. I mean, I am Spanish, I love films from everywhere and I always watch films in their original version with subtitles. And I find really interesting that one film can contain such a powerful idea that another director may find it interesting to adapt into a new style, a new time, or a new culture. Nobody criticizes 'De battre mon cour s'est arrêté', a wonderful film from Jacques Audiard which is a French remake of an US film, for being a remake. Same for 'The Departed', from Martin Scorsese. Of course, nobody says that this remake of 'The secret in their eyes' is going to be a great film, but at least the director-screenwriter seems to have made the effort of producing a new version and not just a photocopy of the original. Let's see what happens because, in the worst case, I am sure that all those outraged fans of the Argentinean film will be actually happy saying that "the original was far better".
To answer Steve's question, I think Kidman's playing the female role played by Soledad Villamil in the original Argentinian movie. Roberts's role is a re-interpretation to some extent of the main character's partner in the murder investigation. Or at least that's what I've read somewhere!
Wow. The way everyone is raving about the original I guess I need to check it out now.
DJDeeDay -- this surprised me too. I thought it was less well regarded and people weren't happy about it winning the Oscar (considering its competition)
Marcos,
Could be. The lives of others also had a sub-plot about a typewriting machine, and it was a KEY point in the ending. Where it was hidden was a majorly important element to the movie's ending.in this one, the most important thing is the fate of the Killer/what happened to him/Where is him and the husband's whereabouts. That's Where the major twist comes from.
And yes,
The Original is a really great great Film! Please all check it out! It can´t be better, so the remake will be shitty.
My Favorite that Year was by a Nose A PROPHET, but THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES was so close a near perfect Film!
9/10
Hate Hollywood to do this all the Time! ;-(
Nathaniel and DJ - I too was shocked to see such diehard fans because this film was destroyed on message boards back in the day of its Oscar win. Happy to see people loving a film instead of hating it! Though like I said above, I didn't love it myself. I am actually really looking forward to see how they rework it into an American history and setting. Truly excited for it.
Per Nicole Kidman, she and Julia really "connected" while working together and will remain good friends:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/tvshowbiz/video-1167643/Nicole-Kidman-talks-acting-travelling-world.html
This year's TIFF could potentially be an actressexual dream if Nicole, Julianne, Cate and Kate all bring their movies to the fest.
This year's TIFF could potentially be an actressexual dream if Nicole, Julianne, Cate and Kate all bring their movies to the fest.
Nat! Speaking of all this "Americans remake a perfectly good foreign film,' did you see that Julia Louis-Dreyfus might star and produce in a remake of Force Majeure?
http://www.vulture.com/2015/03/louis-dreyfus-might-be-in-a-force-majeure-remake.html