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Yeah, I know–nothing like a conclusive headline to get everybody’s interest, but the fact of the matter is that we have nary clue one as to Viggo Mortensen’s true plans vis-a-vis his acting career.
Not long ago, he suggested that unless a really good acting role came up, he was going to stick with his music and visual art for the next couple years or so. But then at the Toronto Film Festival, he subsequently went on record to say that he had no plans to retire. I suppose it’s possible that he could retire–he almost certainly made enough cash on the Lord of the Rings series to never, ever need to walk into work again.
Especially since we should be seeing him coming back to handle the Strider role in the upcoming Hobbit movie? Sadly, we don’t know. I can’t imagine him not being involved, but the way Hollywood is these days? Anything’s possible, from the ground up.
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Viggo Mortensen stars with Jason Isaacs in Good. The film is a simple one about the Nazi movement in Germany. John Halder is a good, decent individual with family problems. A German literature professor in the 1930s, Halder explores his personal circumstances in a novel advocating compassionate euthanasia. When the book is unexpectedly enlisted by powerful political figures in support of government propaganda, Halder finds his career rising in an optimistic current of nationalism and prosperity.
The movie opens this weekend with Defiance, another Nazi film as well. Some may think too many movies are being made about Nazi, Hitler and the Holocaust. I beg to differ because it was a terrible past that needs to be told again. An informative book to read about the truth behind Hitler’s motive is “Psychiatrists: The Men Behind Hitler. “
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Friday on the BLOOMBERG TELEVISION program “Night Talk,” host Mike Schneider talks to Actor Viggo Mortensen about his latest film “Good.”
He talks about the success of The Lord of the Rings. ”I think that anybody that was involved in that project, or any fan even, that says ‘I knew it was going to be huge box office success,’ I don’t think they’re being honest. I think its revisionist thinking. Because when we were shooting that movie…it just wasn’t a known thing, and it wasn’t really noticed that we were down there shooting this all that time. It wasn’t in the papers here. It was only when they showed 20 minutes of it at the Cannes film festival in 2001 that the journalist started talking.”
And rumors that he may join the cast of The Hobbit. “I haven’t been contacted directly, and I think fans tend to know more about that stuff than I do. I understand…that they’ll try to make a bridge story. My character isn’t in The Hobbit, but they have the right, the filmmakers, to use the appendices at the end of the lord of the Rings. And I am in those, and it refers to earlier times.”
“We shot a sequence that wasn’t used that they could use, with Liv Tyler, my character and her character, from our courtship. I am in this place, this field, and I remember being there with her…no beard, longer hair, dressed more like an elf, when I lived with the elves. And that’s when they meet. And they could use that, and shoot other things. They’re pretty creative. I’d be glad to do it, as long as they’re respectful to Tolkien. I’d rather do it myself than see another actor finish the job for me.”
“Night Talk” airs in the U.S., Europe and Asia on Bloomberg TV at 10PM on weeknights and is simulcast on Bloomberg Radio at 10PM. Bloomberg Radio is broadcast on 1130AM in the New York Metropolitan area and is available on XM and Sirius. The Friday night Show re-airs over the weekend Sat at 8:00-9:00pm, 10:00-11:00pm and Mon 12:00am – 1:00am. Click here.
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The Road a Viggo Mortensen dark thriller, directed by John Hillcoat, was scheduled for a Nov. 14 limited and Nov. 26 wide release. But, quietly has been moved until hopefully December — and might be rescheduled out of 2008 entirely.
Apparently according to Hollywood Reporter, executives met with Road producers to discuss its current scheduling while Harvey Weinstein pushes for Stephen Daldry’s The Reader for December 10 release date.
Hillcoat’s movie was shot this year but is still in post and not done yet.
With the Oscar window closing for 2008, it’s no wonder that Weinstein Company wants Reader for 2008. The company feels Reader is a commercial and awards contender.
So, there may be less urgency to deliver Road before 2008.
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The Old West didn’t last long in history but it sure does in Hollywood. The good guys against the bad guys with a girlfriend in between. Looks like Ed Harris did an excellent job making a story about the Wild West. Enjoy the trailer!
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Appaloosa is directed by Ed Harris and stars Harris, Jeremy Irons, Viggo Mortensen and Renee Zellweger. Two gunman (Harris and Mortensen) fight law and order in untamed Old West towns. They arrive in Appaloosa to face Irons as an unscruplous land owner and Zellweger as a high-spirited woman who tugs both men’s hearts.
Which movie poster do you like the best?
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Ed Harris directs as well as co-wrote with Robert Knott the film Appaloosa. The western is set in 1882 in the Old West territory of New Mexico. Appaloosa pivots around city marshal Virgil Cole (Ed Harris) and his deputy and partner Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen), who made their status by keeping peace in the lawless towns springing up in the untamed land.In the small mining community of Appaloosa, a heartless, powerful rancher named Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons) allowed his band of outlaws to run roughshod over the town. After the cold-blooded murder of Appaloosa’s city marshal, Cole and Hitch are hired to bring the murderer to justice.
Appaloosa opens wide October 3rd.
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