Nichols to take on Kurosawa's 'High and Low'

By Sarah Sluis

Mike Nichols, director of classic The Graduate and, most recently, Charlie Wilson's War, has signed on
to direct a remake of Akira Kurosawa's High and Low (in Japanese, the double meaning is Heaven and Hell).  Screenwriter David Mamet already wrote the adaptation for Martin Scorsese.  Originally on board to direct, Scorsese will remain on the film as an executive producer.  The premise reminds me of the tough questions asked in the "Would You Rather?" party game/coffee table book, in a good way:  a business executive's son is kidnapped, leading him to divert money from a business endeavor in order to pay the ransom.  Then he finds out the kidnappers took his chauffeur's son, not his own.  As a Kurosawa film--I'm thinking of the many permutations of a crime he explored in Rashomon--I imagine this dilemma is not the central question of the movie but a starting point for additional moral issues to be explored.  In fact, because I cheated and read a synopsis online, I know that the idea of corporate responsibility weighs heavily in the movie (clue to why the film is moving forward now?).  With the country in a recession, I think a film like High and Low, which peripherally explores the business world, drawing unlikely parallels between familial and corporate responsibility, will resonate with audiences.

'Wall Street' sequel in the works; Steve Martin third man in Meyers'-directed love triangle

By Sarah Sluis

 It was only a matter of time.  Fox plans to fast-track a sequel to Wall Street, that glorious Michael

Douglas and Charlie Sheen epic that made "Greed is Good" a catchphrase for years to come--with some using the phrase more facetiously than others.

As long as this film fulfills these three requirements, I would be sold:

1. Provide a delicious villain for the audience to burn in effigy.  The film plans to start with the Michael Douglas character back from jail.  I certainly don't want him to be "reformed" and just end up in cahoots with another bad guy.  Right now Americans are in no mood for redemption; I think most would prefer him to remain evil.



2. Explain the financial crisis.  Credit default swaps are tricky things.  The first Wall Street did a good job of explaining (what seemed to me) a complicated inside trading deal.  If nothing else, it provided technical "bomb defusing" dialogue that conveyed the degree of complexity of their deals.



3. Showcase Wall Street excess.  Everyone's heard about the AIG "top earners" spending $440,000 at the St. Regis after the bailout; I want to see that scene in the movie.

Steve Martin added to cast of Nancy Meyers comedy
The untitled Nancy Meyers romantic comedy has added Steve Martin to complete the love triangle between him, Alec Baldwin, and Meryl Streep.  Each of these three actors has a signature style and humor, but will all three be able to build off each other and not cancel each other out? 

Meyers' latest work The Holiday also juggled stars (four A-listers), but its young, half-Brit cast proved much more bankable abroad than at home.  Diane Keaton-Jack Nicholson picture Something's Gotta Give, was a huge hit, so it looks like Meyers is dialing up the age of her stars to replicate the success of the romantic comedy unique for NOT targeting twenty and thirtysomethings.

DreamWorks delays financing talks with Wall Street

By Sarah Sluis

While Hollywood likes to tout its immunity to recession via The Great Depression, during which the
industry not only made money, but also lifted the spirits of America with its leggy musicals, it looks as though the credit crunch has already affected Hollywood financing.

DreamWorks chose to delay its Wall Street pitch for additional financing, planning to wait a month for the crisis to settle down before proceeding.  Right now this makes sense--DreamWorks says it has enough money from its Reliance deal, and Wall Street has more important things on its hands right now than to lend more money.  More news stories like this might indicate trouble.  However, with the Dow dropping 40% from last year, the question is not if we will see more stories like these, but "when?" and "how many?" 

As I wrote yesterday, major studios have already secured financing for most of their projects going into production now, giving them some safety and lead time.  In fact, many of them had delayed their projects for another one of capitalism's favorite concerns--unions, and the expiration of the Screen Actors Guild contracts.  Hollywood has stated its confidence that people will still go to movies in an economic crisis, since they are a relatively cheap source of entertainment, but what if it lacks the money to make its films?

Reprising my "Money, Politics, Hollywood" post from last month, I thought I would throw in a Hollywood political update.  Today, THR's Risky Business blog ruminated about the timing of the release of Oliver Stone's W.  Releasing a film about our president before his term has finished surprises me as well, although from what I understand it's more of an "origin" film than an analysis of the Bush presidency.  Unlike other politically minded films like Farenheit 9/11, which looked for someone to blame, W's trailer surprised viewers, including myself, with its frat boy lampoon of Bush.  The trailer shows Bush's partying antics and his sheepish reception of a lecture from his father--no one nefarious, just criminally clueless.  With the popularity of Tina Fey's Sarah Palin imitation fresh on the minds of viewers, I think W's greatest angle for success will come from viewers trying to chase laughs similar to SNL's political caricatures.