First Showing (via ONTD) has a nice first look at Russell Crowe’s “look” in State of Play. The film, directed by Kevin MacDonald (Last King of Scotland) is described this way on IMDb, “Based on the BBC mini-series of the same title, a team of investigative reporters work alongside a police detective to try to solve the murder of a congressman’s mistress.”
I really hope that voters have forgiven Russell Crowe. It was a horrifying thing to watch him utterly ignored for giving two of the finest performances last year, (I don’t know what Christian Bale ever did, though, to find himself completely ignored either).
The film also stars Ben Affleck, currently in career turnaround. This being the internet age, someone who worked on the film wrote this last week, ‚ÄúI thought it was cool at first that I was cast as a ‚Äòdelivery guy,‚Äô as opposed to being just another passerby, but in the end, I was just a douchebag wearing a UPS uniform.‚Äù His girlfriend recounts the rest of the details about the shoot that day, “Mike didn‚Äôt get to see Ben Affleck or Helen Mirren but he did get a few glimpses of Russell Crowe, who he said looked (in his role as an investigative reporter for the fictional Washington Globe) like a slightly healthier Christopher Hitchens.”
“From what he can gather, the scene involves Russell Crowe going in to Ben‚Äôs Chili Bowl, ordering a chili cheese dog, and then something happens involving a woman they‚Äôd made up to look more or less like she was dying of herpes, and Crowe almost gets hit by a car, and in the meantime his briefcase disappears.”
Lol. You can read all of the inexplicably interesting details of that day, here.
I wish I had seen this when it played on the BBC back in 2003 – it even has James McAvoy in it. As luck would have it, the whole miniseries is available on Amazon for $25. Here is a clip off of YouTube:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFMwIMJjuQs[/youtube]
Your blog is getting better and better! Previous posts were good, but this one is just FABULOUS.
If the film will have a release in 2008 I think than Helen Mirren will have another Oscar nomination in 2009 (weak year-unleast in theory-of supporting actress category, because I only see two majors contenders: Kate Winslet for “the Reader” and Franka Potente “Guerrilla/The Argentine”), my question is next… If Russell Crowe sounds good for his performance he’s contender for Best Actor in this movie and supporting for “Body of lies”?
I’ve been a fan of both Crowe and Bale for a while now, but I didn’t think Crowe’s performance in American Gangster or Bale’s in 3:10 to Yuma deserved nominations. However, Crowe was great in 3:10 and Bale in Rescue Dawn. It just ended up being too competitive a year. The Actor and Supporting Actor nominees the Academy picked, I feel, were pretty much on the money.
Who ever thought of Helen Mirren in the Bill Nighy -part deserves a special Oscar for casting.
I’ve been watching the original BBC series and it’s absolutely riveting. I wish they had left this alone. Ben Affleck is already bad casting. Crowe is better. I wish they had just picked up Kelly McDonald for the new version.
I wasn’t crazy about The Last King of Scotland so I’m kind of skeptical about this project.
I would love to see the BBC version, but will wait until seeing this film version first. It would only be disappointing to see how much they had to cut out to make an abbreviated version. For one thing, the James McAvoy character isn’t even in this.
This is no “first look”, however. Pics of Crowe and Jason Batemen on location in LA and other pics from DC have been around for quite a while.
Another good article on filming in DC just came out today…
http://silverchips.mbhs.edu/inside.php?sid=8246
I hope they do stop ignoring Crowe. How they ignored him in 3:10 I’ll never understand – I guess niceness and butt kissing is more important to the Academy than talent. It’s probably why they ignored Christian Bale as well. Like Crowe, he just isn’t the schmoozing type.
Anyway, I’m excited to see anything with Russell Crowe, but I wish they could have cast James McAvoy in the movie.
I will wait and see how this film turns out. This film got a very rough start with both Brad Pitt and Edward Norton dropping out….both pretty smart guys. Pitt reportedly dropped out after the script changed from the one he agreed on. My high hopes for this one were dashed once Norton dropped out as well.
BTW Kez. I am not at all surprised that Crowe is repeatedly ignored by the Academy. Performance is one thing, but it seems these days
you also have to be a nice guy who plays the Hollywood game ala Clooney as well….and Crowe definitely does not exude that kind of reputation. I wish that all that counted was a great performance….but schmoozing
seems to go a long way unfortunately.
This picture isn’t all that new. There’ve been more than a few of Russ, Rachel, Ben, and Jason knocking around SOP’s IMDb pages, but I’ll have to look up the original sites.
BTW, I just finished watching the miniseries via Netflix, and I think they cast this very well. After watching it, I think the recasts make way more since than the original Brad and Ed face-off. While Norton is talented, I can’t see him as a congressional rising star with presidential aspirations (he’s too mousy), and Russell fits the street-wise journalist role way better than Brad could have.
Definitely looking forward to this.
Doesn’t James McAvoy look even more handsome than now? As Paula Abdul would say: “I just want to stuff him in a cake and eat him whole”. Yum.
Bleah! Why does he look like Harry Knowles?
I’m with you Kez, Russell is an AMAZING man, actor, and musician. I’ve seen him three times in concert, and met him once in 2006, in New York City after the third concert. There were about 50 women waiting outside, and he came out to meet us, sign autographs, and pose for pictures with us. He was very sincere, relaxed, and friendly. I hope that I’ll get the opportunity to meet him again!
I love Russell Crowe and see all his movies he is one the finest actors to grace the silver screen. I too continue to be shocked that he is ignored by the Academy but he is in some potentially great movies this year so hopefully this oversite will be rectified.
State of Play sounds amazing and I for one cannot wait to see this movie.
Oy I meant Jeff Daniels, not Bridges. Although hell – either would be interesting as the possibly-corrupt politico….
I just rented the original BBC series from Netflix and watched the entire two-disk 6-hour affair in one sitting into the wee hours. I literally could not turn it off. I’m curious to see how this works in an Americanized version and with such a high-profile cast. The original ensemble was so tight and pitch-perfect it’s very hard to imagine others in the roles. But I trust Kevin MacDonald (probably more for “Touching the Void” than “Last King of Scotland”), and Crowe, Mirren, Bridges, and even Affleck are smart actors so if the script is good I think this is one to watch.
I can’t see how this could top the mini-series but Helen Mirren in the Bill Nighy role should be something!
I just watched the miniseries recently, and it’s brilliant. Although Crowe is a great actor, and I can see him in this role, I have a hard time seeing how they’re going to make a movie out of it. I am glad they cast Helen Mirren in the Bill Nighy role.
“…he did get a few glimpses of Russell Crowe, who he said looked (in his role as an investigative reporter for the fictional Washington Globe) like a slightly healthier Christopher Hitchens.”
I was just about to say that, honestly. Crowe has always had a rough look about him, but that’s positively shaggy.
I have some inside scoopage as well. My in-laws filmed a scene for this film. They played “elderly constituents” of a congressman that Russell Crowe passes as he talks to another character.
Here’s the kicker though. The congressman is played by Jeff Daniels (who is not reported as a cast member on IMDB) so there’s another high profile cast member that not many people realize is attatched to this project.
(BTW they never interacted with Crowe, but Daniels was a delight, very nice and always cracking jokes. They also had nice things to say about Kevin MacDonald)