JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, AMY ADAMS & CLINT EASTWOOD TO STAR IN "TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE"

Still from In Time

Hot on the heels of Moneyball's success, another Baseball Drama is on its way. In tandem with his 31st Birthday today, it was announced that Justin Timberlake will be starring alongside Amy Adams and Clint Eastwood in Trouble with the Curve. The Film is to be directed by Robert Lorenz, a production partner of Eastwood's.

In what will be Eastwood's first time starring in a Film not directed by himself since 1993's In the Line of Fire, the five-time Academy Award-winning Director/Producer/Composer and Actor plays an aging Baseball Scout who is losing his sight. Heading on a road trip to Atlanta with his Daughter (Adams), they cross paths with a younger Baseball Scout (Timberlake). It is said that Timberlake and Adams' characters have a romantic story line.

Warner Bros. is set to release Trouble with the Curve on January 13, 2013.

(Photo credit: 20th Century Fox)

"J. EDGAR" - MOVIE REVIEW

Still from J. Edgar

Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar gives us a glimpse at the little-known private life of a Public Figure who both was celebrated for his achievements in Law Enforcement and also despised for an ethically  questionable regime in his near-50 year reign as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States.

Leonardo DiCaprio steps-up to the challenge of playing a Man who is tough-as-nails in his all-consuming ambition to establish and protect his own Legacy in America. At the other end of the spectrum however, we see a Paradox. Eastwood portrays Hoover as an Man torn between his relentless drive to please his demanding Mother (Judi Dench), his secret relationship with second-in-line Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer) and his endless desire to be a Public Hero, which he will go at all lengths to become.  Does J. Edgar portray its Hero in a positive light?  No, not necessarily.  What we get here is an attempt to understand the psyche of an incredibly complex Hero who nobody really ever knew -  not his Lover, his trusted Secretary Helen (Naomi Watts) nor Himself for that matter.

We all know Dustin Lance Black's fantastic Screenwriting in 2008's Milk, but even he had his work cut-out for him with the challenge of covering the span of 50 years in the life of someone who in all honesty isn't that likable.   As is the case with any Biopic, everything traditionally culminates in a defining moment and despite hinting repeatedly at that to come, J. Edgar hangs anticlimactically. The frequent crisscrossing of time lines instead of punctuating important moments in Hoover's life, somewhat disrupts a natural flow. One moment we see a young, strapping Hoover as Hollywood Starlets are clawing to bed him; the next we doubt his mental well-being in his old age.  The most telling moment of all is when Hoover's world unravels late and I found myself feeling apathy versus sympathy and this is unfortunate.

EARLY "J. EDGAR" REVIEWS ARE MIXED

Official Artwork for J. Edgar

So you pair together Clint Eastwood, Leonardo DiCaprio, Naomi Watts, Judi Dench, Armie Hammer and you get what clearly is an Oscar front-runner right?  Well, Critics seem to have their own say on the matter as shockingly Reviews for Eastwood's eye-opening Biopic about American Law Enforcement figure J. Edgar Hoover, disappointingly are mixed ...so far.

Variety wasn't fully impressed saying: "J. Edgar Hoover's mystique lies in the fact that while he kept meticulous files with compromising details on some of America's most powerful figures, nobody knew the man's own secrets. Therefore, any movie in which the longtime FBI honcho features as the central character must supply some insight into what made him tick, or suffer from the reality that the Bureau's exploits were far more interesting than the bureaucrat who ran it -- a dilemma J. Edgar never rises above.".

The Hollywood Reporter appeared to like it, calling the Film: "A surprising collaboration that tackles its trickiest challenges with plausibility and good sense, while s.erving up a simmeringly caustic view of its controversial subject's behavior, public and private."

Although it's still early, you can read some additional Reviews here.

I'll be reviewing J. Edgar mid-week and will be sure to let you know my thoughts...

(Photo credit: Mr. Will-W.)

BEYONCÉ AND CLINT EASTWOOD TO TEAM IN "A STAR IS BORN" REMAKE

Beyoncé in Toronto, 2009

Sign me up for some Screening Passes to this! Warner Bros. has managed to convince Clint Eastwood to direct the upcoming fourth remake of A Star is Born, which is to begin filming later this year.  

Deadline reports that the Musical will star none other than Beyoncé in the Lead Role, although the role of the Male Lead has yet to be cast.  For those of you who have never seen any of the previous three incarnations of the Film, the Plot revolves around a washed-up Rock Star who falls in love with a Diva with her star on-the-rise.

Beyoncé and Eastwood. God, that sounds odd, but isn't it irresistible? 

(Photo credit: Mr. Will-W.)

LEONARDO DiCAPRIO & CLINT EASTWOOD TO TEAM ON J. EDGAR HOOVER BIOPIC

Clyde Tolson & J. Edgar Hoover

An exciting bit of news here. Clint Eastwood and Leonardo DiCaprio are teaming up together for the first time to make a Biopic about J. Edgar Hoover, the first ever Director to the Bureau of Investigation, eventually known as the FBI. Known mostly for his controversial tactics in obtaining evidence and directives, Hoover oversaw the investigation to John F. Kennedy's assassination.  He also was rumoured to have been romantically involved with his second-in-line, Clyde Tolson.

The Film, J. Edgar, is a Warner Bros. production and on that same note, Hoover served also as a consultant to that Company when required for research purposes during the '60s.

J. Edgar will star DiCaprio in the lead role of Hoover, while The Social Network's breakout star Armie Hammer will star as Tolson. Charlize Theron also will star in the project too which will soon begin production.  Dustin Lance Black who penned the amazing Oscar-winning Screenplay for Milk is attached also here.  Oscars Gold.

CLINT EASTWOOD'S "HEREAFTER" REVIEW

Still from Hereafter

When you're a Director of Clint Eastwood's stature, rarely do you ever make a bad film. The question instead is, just how good your film is. Eastwood teams with Oscar-winning Screenwriter Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost/Nixon) on Fantasy-Drama Hereafter, which ties together the stories of three people in different parts of the world who experience death in different ways.

George Lonegan (Matt Damon) is a man with the psychic ability to communicate with the dead, although he never has truly come to terms with this. Instead, he opts to live the simple life as a factory worker in anonymity. Under the persistent urging of his brother Billy (Jay Mohr), George is encouraged once again to re-visit a joint venture, capitalizing off his psychic abilities, despite his hesitance to do so.

While taking a Cooking Class, George meets Melanie (Bryce Dallas Howard) who starts a new life in San Francisco, attempting to bury a dark past. Once she discovers that George is psychic, the possibility of them pursuing a relationship together is destroyed after he unveils some pieces of Melanie's past (at her urging) she also has never come to terms with.

Meanwhile, while vacationing on an Island with her lover, renowned French journalist Marie LeLay (Cécile De France) has a near-death experience, almost getting killed in a catastrophic Tsunami. Soon after, she returns back to France and tries to re-adjust to her life there, but struggles to do so as she becomes fixated on what she saw while she was unconscious, prior to being revived by rescuers. She then makes the decision to focus on writing a book which explores the concept of a Hereafter, much to the disapproval of her colleagues.

Meanwhile in London, identical twins Marcus and Jason (Frankie and George McLaren) are fighting to keep Children's Aid workers from tearing them apart from their Alcoholic mother. Tragedy strikes, resulting in Jason's accidental death. After being separated from his mother, Marcus devotes his energies to finding a way to communicate with his beloved deceased brother. How is it then, that the stories of these seemingly unrelated people become connected?

MORE FILM TITLES ADDED TO TIFF 2010 LIST

Still from Hereafter

In what's shaping up to be a v. exciting TIFF, more titles have been confirmed for the festivities beginning September 9, 2010. I cannot wait.

Among the titles added were Passion Play (starring Mickey Rourke, Megan Fox), What's Wrong With Virginia (Emma Roberts, Ed Harris - directorial debut of Dustin Lance Black who penned Milk), Last Night (Sam Worthington, Keira Knightley), SUPER (Ellen Page, Kevin Bacon, Liv Tyler), Everything Must Go (Will Ferrell in a rare dramatic role), Let Me In (Chloë Moretz), Casey Affleck-directed Mockumentary I'm Still Here (Joaquin Phoenix) and Clint Eastwood's Hereafter (Matt Damon). Also as rumoured, Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle's 127 Hours (James Franco) has also been given the green light.

Definitely one of the better years in recent memory. Click here for the updated list of films and synopses on IndieWire.

THANK YOU: CLINT EASTWOOD, CHARLIZE THERON AND DAME JUDI DENCH.

Wow. My mailbox has never been more glamorous. I'm proud to have received these today from the latest Oscar-winning inductees to The Mr. Will-W. Museum of Signed Art.  For these accomplished actors to have put aside a moment for me in their day, touches me.

Dame Judi Dench - you are a legend. Incomparable.  As we all saw in NINE, you've definitely still got it.

Charlize - you are a Goddess.  Your performance in Monster will always hold a place in the public's psyche.

Mr. Eastwood - you are an all-around genius and I always await your next work with baited breath.

I am a v. lucky person.

xW

REVIEW: INVICTUS

I have no idea how he finds time to do it, but Clint Eastwood has done it again. Invictus won't be winning any Oscars, but it is his third great effort to be released in a span of 13 months, the last two being 2008's The Changeling and Gran Torino.

Invictus is the true story of Nelson Mandela (Morgran Freeman) in his first term as South African President in 1995. He has a plan to unite his people and does so via one thing they are jointly passionate about, Rugby. He enlists underdogs The Springboks, led by Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon) to accomplish this. The team had been hovering near the bottom of the league for quite some time, and perception wise, they fared unfavourably with black South Africans and more favourably with white South Africans.

The Springboks are a metaphor for apartheid in South Africa as ethnically speaking, they resembled "the same people" who wrongfully arrested Nelson Mandela. And if the team were able to overcome this negative perception, it could perhaps inspire the people of South Africa, black or white, to come together. Mandela challenges and inspires Pienaar to lead his team by example, setting their sights on the 1995 Rugby World Cup Championship. Although seemingly impossible, the team makes it there while Mandela watches eagerly from the sidelines.