Three Games for the News: Denzel and the Mias
Friday, May 19, 2017 at 3:00PM by Murtada
News is coming at us so fast from the 70th Cannes, currently unspooling, that we can hardly keep up. Let’s then take a moment then to ruminate on a film that might screen at the 72nd edition in May of 2019...
Announced for the festival market is Mia Hansen-Love’s latest, Bergman Island. Set on the island of Fårö, home to the late Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, the story centres on an American filmmaking couple who retreat to the island for the summer to write screenplays in an act of pilgrimage to the place that inspired their directorial idol. Also announced is a cast of three: Greta Gerwig, Mia Wasikowska and John Turturro.
The film is scheduled to shoot in the summer of 2018 to coincide with the centenary of Bergman’s birth on 14 July, 2018. Before that Hansen-Love reunites with her Eden (2014) and Things to Come (2016) star, Roman Kolinka in Maya. Kolinka will play reporter heading to India after being held hostage in Syria. Juliette Binoche co-stars.
Since Eden was inspired by Hansen-Love’s brother, and Things to Come by her mother, then this new one might be about her relationship with her her former partner Olivier Assayas (Clouds of Sils Maria and Personal Shopper). Let’s speculate even further, Gerwig might be playing a version of Hansen-Love and Turturro is Assayas, no?
Game 1 Then who is Mia Wasikowska playing? Since it’s Friday let play a game and come up with her character.
Feast your eyes on Denzel Washington’s look for his film Inner City. We love everything about it; the purple suit, the huge glasses, the gap in his teeth and of course the afro. It’s been awhile since Denzel sported an afro, He Got Game (1998). The film's cryptic logline does not at all explain this character:
A driven, idealistic defense attorney, through a tumultuous series of events, finds himself in a crisis that leads to extreme action.
What we know is that it’s writer/director Dan Gilroy’s follow up to Nightcrawler (2014), that Colin Farrell co-stars and it might come out at the end of this year. And if Jake Gyllenhaal’s Louis Bloom in Nightcrawler is a standard to judge by, we are sure Gilroy created another distinct character.
Game 2. Let’s come up with Farrell's character who we assume is some sort of foil. Do your worst in the comments.
Angela Bassett has been unimaginatively cast as the CIA director in the latest Mission:Impossible. Wasn’t that who she played when both London and Olympus Has Fallen? At least we can look forward to her Ramonda in Black Panther (2018), before that.
Game 3. If you had the power to give Bassett her own franchise, what kind would it be?
Reader Comments (10)
Expecting in the years to come that critics and indie directors would stop trying to make the blandness ("talenta") of Greta Gerwig happen. Enough of white mediocrity.
If I could give Angela Bassett her own franchise, I would gender swap the role of Snake Pliskken in the "Escape From..." films and cast her.
Is Denzel starring in a comedy? It's been a long time since he's done something funny.
I would create a franchise of the most notorious/powerful African female royalty in history and have Auntie Bassett play each Queen/Regent.
I used to think Gerwig wasn't anything special but she's great in Frances Ha and 20th Century Women.
Just based on the getup, I'm really intrigued by the Denzel movie.
From what I've read elsewhere, Denzel's character is supposed to be borderline autistic. Functional and great at his job, but has no social skills. On the autistic spectrum, he obviously isn't going to be Rain Man, but it still sounds pretty baity and a massive departure from anything he's ever done. A script review for Inner City described his character as a cross between a John Grisham protagonist and Forrest Gump.
Colin's role doesn't sound like a big departure for him by comparison. He's playing a slick, sharkish lawyer. I think his character in Minority Report probably helped land him the role, because it seems to be along those lines.
An 8th acting nod for Washington would make a 3rd win appear less obscene.
Ingrid Bergman won her 3rd Oscar on her 6th nomination
Daniel Day-Lewis won his 3rd Oscar on his 5th nominaton
Walter Brennan on his 3rd Oscar on his 3rd nomination
There would have been nothing obscene about Washington winning a 3rd on his 7th nomination, considering he'd still have done it with more nominations than half the 3 time acting winners.
I think people assume winning 3 has to be some long suffering feat requiring a million nominatons to "earn" a 3rd, because it took Meryl Streep 17 nominations to get there. In truth, Washington would have been right in the average median for 3 time winners with his nomination count had he won this year. Streep skews everything because she's obscenely over-nominated.
Me34 -- if you think Greta Gerwig is mediocre I think you're having a case of racially based agenda in your perception of talent. Take off the blinders, please. She's incredible and a totally unique performer. Just like we hope all actors of any color who are lucky enough to be frequently employed will be. Themselves and no one else.
I don't know on what planet Greta Gerwig would be considered bland, unless you've only seen her in Jackie (where I thought she was miscast). But she's wonderfully talented, with a unique comic presence and great timing. Even if you disliked her, "bland" seems so inaccurate given how lively her screen presence is.