Showing posts with label Kate Winslet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kate Winslet. Show all posts
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Paramount Produces Jason Reitman’s Labor Day with Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin
Paramount Pictures and Indian Paintbrush will co-produce Jason Reitman’s next, Labor Day, co-starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin. Writer-director Reitman was nominated for an Oscar and won a Golden Globe for Best Adapted Screenplay for 2010’s Up in the Air.
Reitman adapted the screenplay from Joyce Maynard’s eponymous novel, which tells the story of an escaped convict (Brolin) who finds shelter with a single mother (Winslet) and her young son over a Labor Day Weekend.
‘Contagion’ creepy, but suffers from too many characters
Kate Winslet as Dr. Erin Mears and Larry Clark as Dave in a scene from the worldwide pandemic thriller “Contagion.”
Warner Bros.
If there’s ever a movie that will give you a queasy, sinking feeling, it’s “Contagion,” which arrives just in time for the gear-up to the flu season.
This is a movie that gives actresses a chance to take off their makeup, look really terrible and die with a dramatic flourish as they play the victims of a seemingly unstoppable (at least at first) worldwide pandemic.
Fittingly, the very first thing coming from the screen in “Contagion” is a cough. As more and more people fall victim to the strange, uncontrollable ailment whose origins, we eventually learn, were spread from a bat to a pig, one is certain to have his ears pealed in the theater, hoping not to hear a hacking cough. That fear was used most effectively in the last pandemic movie, 1995’s “Outbreak,” in which the deadly virus was spread by someone coughing in a movie theater. Obviously “Contagion” wasn’t the first viral terror movie. Before “Outbreak” there were “The Satan Bug” and “The Andromeda Strain,” to name two of the more famous.
It’s creepy and scary, but it suffers as many of these wide-scale films do by having too many characters spread across too many continents to make it truly gripping. When the numbers of its victims spread into the multimillions, it becomes more of an abstraction. Of course that’s why “Contagion” concentrates on a cross-section sample of those touched by the virus. But even then there are too many stories unfolding at once.
Director Steven Soderbergh has had success with multi-character, multi-star stories before, most notably in the “Ocean’s 11,” “12” and “13” series. But those were told with the main focus on a few of the characters. That’s attempted in “Contagion” too, but not as well. Matt Damon, who starred in all three “Ocean’s” films, has the more or less central role in “Contagion” as Mitch Emhoff, whose wife, Beth (Gwyneth Paltrow), is the first victim. He is a survivor and desperately tries to keep his daughter (Anna Jacoby-Heron) safe from the disease. But though Mitch’s story is compelling and has deeper layers, it’s still one of several.
Screenwriter Scott Z. Burns, who wrote Soderbergh’s underappreciated “The Informant!” which also starred Damon, as well as Damon’s “The Bourne Ultimatum,” leaps across the planet to tell the story. Hong Kong, Macao, Minneapolis, Geneva, Tokyo, Chicago and Atlanta, where Dr. Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne) at the Centers for Disease Control is trying to unravel the mystery and gets into trouble for allowing his own emotions to color his judgment.
Other principal characters include Kate Winslet as a gutsy, dedicated CDC epidemic analyst who puts herself at risk to find an answer. Jude Law is the character you grow to love to hate, an Internet blogger who spreads panic worldwide and gives hope to the hopeless about an untested homeopathic “cure” called Forsythia as he spreads distrust of scientists and government efforts to control the disease. Jennifer Ehle is Ally, a pragmatic researcher hoping to break the virus’s genetic code in a laboratory with the help of some monkeys. Marion Cotillard is a doctor from the World Health Organization who travels to an infected village in the outreaches of Hong Kong and can’t get out. Sometimes there’s such a long wait between appearances for some of their characters that by the time they turn up again, they seem an intrusion. Winslet and Law create the strongest characters, but from opposite ends of the spectrum.
“Contagion” is an epic story without an epic scale. One gauges the effects of the worldwide panic in a few scenes of mob violence: the looting of a supermarket, a raid on a pharmacy, a riot at a food distribution area. And the resolution seems too quick, even though it’s supposed to take place over more than four months.
Soderbergh toys with the audience in showing how the virus is spread, focusing his camera on people coughing into their hands, then touching things –– elevator buttons, doorknobs, cell phones, cocktail glasses, each other. It’s designed to make one a little nervous or at least self-conscious about ever touching anything or anyone again. And you can shake on that.
***Contagion
Starring: Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne, Marion Cotillard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Ehle, Elliott Gould, Anna Jacoby-Heron.
Jason Reitman To Direct Labor Day, Starring Josh Brolin And Kate Winslet
The film, based on the novel by Joyce Maynard is about a single mom (Winslet) enjoying the long Labor Day weekend with her son until an escaped convict (Brolin) bursts in seeking shelter. Fitting that this would be announced less than a week removed from the actual Labor Day holiday. The premise sounds like perfect fodder for a thriller, but looking into the description of the novel on Amazon, it seems to be more of a coming-of-age drama. Thanks to Juno, we already know Reitman is capable of this type of fare and I hope he’s again able to mix in his particular brand of dark comedy.
I am really interested to see what he does with this cast. Reitman has already proven his ability to work with, and elicit great performances from, some of Hollywood’s top talent; George Clooney even receiving an Oscar nomination for his performance in Up in the Air. Josh Brolin and Kate Winselt have demonstrated their capacity for grabbing the attention of the Academy in their own right, most recently with the films Milk and The Reader respectively. This seems like a perfect collaboration all around.
Given Reitman’s recent success with Up in the Air, and prior to that Juno, it is not surprising that he’s so busy these days. His new comedy Young Adult, which recently unveiled its new poster, is set to hit theaters in December and he already has another project lined up. Of course both Labor Day and Young Adult are Paramount projects as was Up in the Air. Reitman’s sort of their golden goose right now.
Kate Winslet Interview For ‘Contagion’
Directed by Steven Soderbergh from an original screenplay by Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum,The Informant!), ‘Contagion’ follows the rapid progress of a lethal airborne virus that kills within days. As the fast-moving epidemic grows, the worldwide medical community races to find a cure and control the panic that spreads faster than the virus itself. At the same time, ordinary people struggle to survive in a society coming apart. Alongside Kate Winslet the film stars the likes of Jude Law, Marion Cotillard, Jennifer Ehle, Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Lawrence Fishbourne, Bryan Cranston, Demitri Martin, Sanaa Lathan and Elliott Gould. ‘Contagion’ opens September 9th in the US, and October 21st in the UK.
Contagion' leaves CDC's real scientists eager for details
Actress Kate Winslet, left, consults about the technical accuracy of the new movie "Contagion" with Dr. Ian Lipkin, center, director of the Mailman School of Public Health's Center for Infection and Immunity and Stuart Nichol, chief of the Viral Special Pathogens Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The normally staid scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sounded positively star-struck this week as they awaited release of a new movie in which it’s up to them to save the world from a killer outbreak.
Tickets to a special Thursday screening of “Contagion,” the just-released Steven Soderbergh film about a deadly pandemic virus, had to be doled out via lottery to eager CDC staffers, who already had acted as extras and hobnobbed with actors during filming.
Even Dr. Ali Khan, a rear admiral and assistant surgeon general who leads the CDC’s Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response, admitted to a bit of Hollywood awe.
“I had fun chatting with Kate Winslet. I drew an epi curve for her,” he said, referring to the graphic representation of infection cases used to track an epidemic.
Winslet plays a CDC researcher in the movie. The film's team caused a buzz at the agency's Atlanta offices starting about two years ago, when the crew sought technical advice and filming locations to add authenticity to the movie, said Dave Daigle, an associate director for communications with the CDC's preparedness office.
During the course of the filming, staffers decided that Winslet’s real-life counterpart would likely be Dr. Anne Schuchat, the director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases who served frequently as the agency’s spokeswoman during the 2009 swine flu pandemic.
Fictional-but-plausible deadly virus
But on the eve of the film’s nationwide release, CDC curiosity had reached a fever pitch, particularly about the source of the fictional-but-plausible deadly virus that quickly circles the globe.
Kate Winslet Covers Elizabeth Taylor And Bares All Again
September 9 | Posted by Popular Critic
Tags: Elizabeth Taylor, Kate Winslet, V Magazine
Tags: Elizabeth Taylor, Kate Winslet, V Magazine
“She was very strong in her head and in her heart, not just in the exterior and I suppose I am. To me she hid vulnerability pretty successfully, and I do that too. We all have vulnerable sides. I think for a long time I pretended I didn’t have one, and I definitely do. The last couple of years I really had to pay attention to that. The great thing about acting is that you can fling it all into the mix of the part.”
Kate Winslet’s vulnerability appears to be whether or not she should decline nude roles.
In 2009 Winslet stated she didn’t want to become ‘that actress who always gets her kit off’.”
Flash forward and Kate tells V magazine,
“It definitely makes me the hypocrite of the decade. I’m just going to stop saying it.”
Winslet went on to mention that disrobing on screen was extremely awkward and didn’t offer any personal satisfaction.
“I hate it! Listen, make no mistake, I just get on it. I just go in and say, Oh f–k, let’s do it, and boom! If you complain about it or procrastinate it’s not going to go away. It’s a profoundly bizarre thing to do.”
She continued;
“As actors you talk about it all the time. You can literally be tangled in sheets, and you turn to the other actor and say, what the f–k are we doing?’ Dear Mum, at work today I had so-and-so’s left nut-sack (testicles) pressed against my cheek. It’s sort of unethical if you think about it in those terms.”
While Kate decides whether or not she can keep her clothes on, enjoy her gorgeous Elizabeth Taylor inspired shoot below.
SheWired Shot of The Day: Kate Winslet Channels Liz Taylor for V Mag
There is a moment in just about every workday when we come across something sexy, gratuitous and completely pointless that we wish we could post but don't under the auspices of there being nothing lesbian about it and often there being no redeeming value. Well, we at SheWired have made an executive decision to just throw any of our pseudo-feminist caution to the wind and to just post our favorite shot of the day, whether it be sexy, salacious, or just because…
Kate Winslet, the Academy Award winning actress and recent real-life firefighting hero can add another talent to her long list: killer Elizabeth Taylor impersonator. Winslet pays homage to the stunning icon in a V Magazine cover shoot and shares that she already told her young son it won't make any difference if he's gay or straight.
Kate Winslet, the Academy Award winning actress and recent real-life firefighting hero can add another talent to her long list: killer Elizabeth Taylor impersonator. Winslet pays homage to the stunning icon in a V Magazine cover shoot and shares that she already told her young son it won't make any difference if he's gay or straight.
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