Fox Searchlight sent me eight featurettes for the movie Mr. Fantastic Fox. I found this one to be the most interesting of them all, so enjoy!
Then, I watched this one, below, and found it to be the most interesting one of all. Which one do you like?
The story is about a fox named Mr. Fox (George Clooney). In order to feed his family, he steals chickens, ducks, and turkeys at night from three mean, stinky and wealthy farmers: Boggis, Bunce and Bean. The farmers are fed up with this and try everything to kill him. One night they wait outside his foxhole in an attempt to ambush him. When Mr. Fox emerges from his home, they fire at him but only succeed in blowing off his tail. Ouch!
Determined to catch him, the farmers use spades and shovels to dig their way into the foxes’ home, but Mr. and Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep) and their son dig a tunnel deeper into the ground and manage to escape. The farmers even resort to using bulldozers in order to dig deeper into the ground.
More happens in the story. The trailer is fun to watch - it’s wildly nutty.
(Source)
Up in the Air takes us on an incredible journey with George Clooney as Ryan Bingham — a frequent flyer who is about to discover his life is going to change, drastically. Up in the Air premiered at Telluride and the reviews are very positive. The trailer is awesome and I can’t wait to see the movie. It lands in the theaters early December.
Okay, put on your film student hat, watch this behind-the-scenes featurette narrated by Jason Schwartzman and learn about filmmaking puppet-style. You’ll even laugh out loud with all the clever and funny visuals created by Wes Anderson. Mr. Fantastic Fox is truly a labor of love. It’s an amazing production.
The Men Who Stare at Goats is a quirky, dark comedy inspired by Jon Ronson’s non-fiction bestseller of the same name, an eye-opening and often hilarious exploration of the government’s attempts to harness paranormal abilities to combat its enemies. George Clooney has nailed his role as Lyn Cassady. It’s hard to believe this story is true.
The story is about a fox named Mr. Fox (George Clooney). At night in order to feed his family, he steals chickens, ducks, and turkeys from three mean, stinky and wealthy farmers: Boggis, Bunce and Bean. The farmers are fed up with this and try everything to kill him. One night they wait outside his foxhole in an attempt to ambush him. When Mr. Fox emerges from his home, they fire at him but only succeed in blowing off his tail.
Determined to catch him, the farmers use spades and shovels to dig their way into the foxes’ home, but Mr. and Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep) and their son dig a tunnel deeper into the ground and manage to escape. The farmers even resort to using bulldozers in order to dig deeper into the ground. The attempt was futile. The three men therefore decide to play a waiting game, keeping watch on the entrance to the tunnel with shotguns, while their men patrol the area to make sure the foxes don’t escape.
More happens in the story. The trailer is fun to watch - it’s kooky.
(Source)
For those of you who follow the comments sections of the various pieces here on Screenhead–and if you don’t, you really ought to; some great stuff in there–I was recently engaged in a discussion with my able colleague Kenna McHugh about originality in filmmaking. I took the stance that you don’t see much of it any more because it just doesn’t sell, whilst she responded that regardless of the numbers, we need to see more of it.
And now, I’m happy to report that there IS some still originality out there, as evidenced by the existence of the movie Leatherheads. I’ve been meaning to try this one for some time, folks, so it’s good to get it in.
Anyway, this is about professional football, back in an era when playing professional football was almost unthinkable. It was woefully underfunded, with teams folding on a weekly basis, games limited to one ball that was occasionally stolen, and players who demanded bonuses of five whole dollars upon proving they lost a tooth in play. One such struggling team, the Duluth Bulldogs, turns to a war hero football player to inject some necessary publicity into the whole industry. But when a sharp-witted young reporter digs up the truth about the war hero’s past–the war hero may not be as heroic as was projected–the Duluth Bulldogs’ chance to recover may not be as present as it once was.
For those of you who remember George Clooney, who not only serves as the director of Leatherheads but also its lead actor, from his fantastic performance in O Brother Where Art Thou? (which, for the sake of full disclosure, is on my top five all time favorite movies list), you will be not at all disappointed by his performance in Leathernecks. Depression-era America agrees with Clooney, for some reason, because he’s as good as a slick football player turned promoter as he is as a slick convict turned adventurer. Okay, so maybe the difference between Dodge Connelly and Ulysses Everett McGill isn’t exactly a long shot, but still, Clooney knows it well, and Clooney DOES it well.
The movie itself, meanwhile, is a rollicking comedy of epic proportions, even if it tries too hard on occasion. Frankly, Renee Zellweger would not have been my first choice for a romantic female lead set in the twenties (I personally would’ve checked if Laura San Giacomo was available), and the whole comic aspect of things occasionally felt a bit forced.
Occasionally, of course–there are still plenty of laughs and surprises in this one, and there’s never anything wrong with that. Clooney’s aforementioned skill will serve him well. I especially love the soundtrack–this is all that great old big band / early jazz music that’s so much fun to hear. There are even some (semi-) authentic football terms out there–a bit of research revealed that there IS such a thing as a “crusty bob”, but it’s not the same thing as what’s described in the movie.
Basically, Leatherheads is great fun, in its way, with plenty of laughs and a little extra drama for spice. It’s also not like anything we’ve seen recently, either. It’s an easy seven out of ten on the Screenhead ten scale, and worth every bit of your time.
Wes Anderson’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox comes to the movie theaters this November from Fox Searchlight. I am quite excited - awesome possum!
The story is adapted from Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox in stop-motion animation with a stellar voice cast that includes Bill Murray, George Clooney, Willem Dafoe, Adrien Brody, Brian Cox, Garth Jennings, Anjelica Huston, Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson, Michael Gambon, Meryl Streep and Roman Coppola.
The story is about Mr. Fox who steals ducks, chickens and turkeys from three very mean farmers. The mean farmers try to catch Mr. Fox and his family, but the foxes out smart them at every turn.
I can’t wait to see Mr. Fox’s children sing this song to the three farmers:
Boggis and Bunce and Bean
One fat, one short, one lean
Those horrible crooks
So different in looks
Were nonetheless equally mean.
(Source)
Having worked all these years at Warner Bros, George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Smokehouse Pictures are in final negotiations to sign an exclusive two-year theatrical development and production deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Clooney, in a press release, wrote about his experience at WB, noting that he has “felt like part of a family for almost 20 years,” but that it is finally time to move on.
Despite the new deal, the company still has several projects being worked on at Warner Bros. These include an adaptation of John Grisham’s non-fiction bestseller The Innocent Man and the Iowa presidential primary-set Farragut North based on Beau Willimon’s critically acclaimed play.
They are also working on adapting The Challenge by Aaron Sorkin, Our Brand is Crisis and The Tourist.
George Clooney has taken on another project that made news at Cannes. Focus Features has set Clooney to star in A 
Very Private Gentleman, an adaptation of the Martin Booth novel to be directed by Anton Corbijn.
Rowan Joffe is scripting the film that begins shooting in Italy this fall.
Variety reports that story focuses on Clooney who plays an assassin who hides out in an idyllic Italian town before carrying out a final assignment. He resists his usual aversion to human interaction, and his friendships and romantic entanglements complicate his mission.