Friday, July 22, 2011

Liev Goes Mental


According to Encore Magazine we have new role for Liev
on this very Happy Friday! It looks as thought Liev will be
reunited with screen pal Anthony LaPaglia for a new project
that begins shooting Down Under on Monday!

PJ Hogan’s Mental shoot starts

Production begins Monday 25 July on PJ Hogan’s Mental in Tweed Heads.
The shoot reclaims not only its star Toni Collette, but the same suburban landscape that brought Muriel’s Wedding‘s Porpoise Spit to life.

Written and directed by PJ Hogan it is produced by Jerry Zucker, Todd Fellman and Jocelyn Moorhouse. Joining Collette is Liev Schreiber (Salt, X-Men Origins: Wolverine), Anthony LaPaglia (Without a Trace, Balibo), Rebecca Gibney (Packed to the Rafters), Kerry Fox (Cloudstreet, Bright Star), Caroline Goodall (Dorian Gray), Deborah Mailman (Offspring, Bran Nue Dae) and Sam Clark (Neighbours).

Mental is the story of Shirley Moochmore (Gibney)—a mother who through lack of support by her philandering politician husband, Barry (LaPaglia) is unable to cope with her demanding daughters and suffers a nervous breakdown and is committed to a mental hospital. Desperate and suddenly alone with five teenage girls, Barry impulsively brings a charismatic, crazy, hotheaded hitchhiker Shaz (Collette) home to be the new nanny.

The script is based upon Hogan’s own personal story. Said Zucker, who collaborated with Hogan on My Best Friend’s Wedding, “I’m thrilled to be back in the magical world of PJ Hogan. PJ has once again written a brilliant screenplay filled with all the bizarre and lovable characters from his childhood. I can’t wait to see it all come to life in Queensland where it all began.”

The shoot is due to run until Friday 23 September.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Hamptons for Haiti 2011

New photos in the Gallery of Liev attending the 2011 Hamptons for Haiti Benefit. For a more in depth description of the event and who was there, see below.

 

"Hamptons for Haiti" Shines Light of Hope

Star power unites to help change lives in Haiti.
Sunday’s star-studded “Hamptons For Haiti” fundraiser at the Ross School, is far more than just another glittering summer cocktail gala. The benefit which will feature a slate of A-list prime-time celebs, including Maria Bello, Mariska Hargitay, Liev Schreiber, Keifer Sutherland and many more, who will lend their star power to making in a difference in the lives of impoverished children and rape victims in Haiti.

The event, which features a cocktail brunch, live auction – with exciting prizes including walk-on roles on primetime television shows – and a musical performance by The Diva Barbara Guillaume, benefits We Advance and Global Dirt, two not for profit organizations aimed at bettering tomorrows.

Global Disaster Immediate Response Team (DIRT) was founded in January 2010 by Adam Marlatt shortly after the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Adam and fellow Marine Robert Sullivan have created a volunteer force dedicated to providing immediate assistance to victims of disasters worldwide, including Haiti.

We Advance founders Alison Thompson, humanitarian and disaster relief veteran, and “ER” star and women’s right activist Maria Bella work together on infusing hope into dire situations.

“We Advance focuses on gender-based violence, with an emphasis on educating and empowering rape victims and the children of Haiti, while Global Dirt’s mission is to buy an ambulance and mobilize a 911 rescue service that is very much needed,” Thompson said.

Montauk resident Melissa Berman, a “dedicated supporter” of the group, said she is lending a hand by helping to coordinate a volunteer crew.

“What makes We Advance special is that they are focused – their vision is clear: To advance the health, safety, and well-being of women in Haiti,” Berman said. “They start with the basics of health care and at the same time, educate and help empower the Haitian women to lead themselves.”

The group, Berman said, has built a “wonderful and well run” clinic “in the worst part of the worst slum in the western hemisphere.”

In addition, efforts include teaching Haitians English and other skills and advocating passionately alongside Haitian women against gender-based violence.

“In short, they get important stuff done, wisely, efficiently, and powerfully,” Berman said. “They are women, after all.”

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

New Liev Project "Robot and Frank"

GREAT NEWS from Variety this morning:


Thesp trio sparks to 'Robot and Frank'

Liev Schreiber, Jeremy Strong and Liv Tyler join indie



EXCLUSIVE: Liev Schreiber, Jeremy Strong and Liv Tyler have boarded the indie "Robot and Frank," joining Frank Langella and Susan Sarandon.  
 
Jake Schreier is directing the story of a young architect (Strong) working to scan all the books at the library where he works when he's suddenly forced to go up against a man (Langella) who plans to steal from the institution with his robot companion.
 
Galt Niederhoffer is on board to produce through his Park Pictures.
 
Strong has stayed busy of late, recently wrapping production on the indie "See Girl Run" and also a role in Steven Spielberg's biopic "Lincoln" as John Nicolay, the president's aide and private secretary.
 
Schreiber was most recently seen in Sony's "Salt," and Tyler can be seen in "The Ledge" with Patrick Wilson and Charlie Hunnam.
 
Strong is repped by ICM and Mosiac and Tyler is repped by UTA and the Schiff Co. Schreiber is repped by CAA and Untitled Entertainment.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Little Big Night

++ Major Spoiler Alert ++




Who is the real star in a film like Big Night? Is it the obvious main character? Is it the food? Is it the era? How about the promise of Louis Primo, the oft mentioned jazz musician who never actually shows his face?

The answer to that question probably differs depending on who you are and what you expect from a film. I screened this little gem on Saturday and wondered why I'd waited so long. Perhaps it was because I knew Liev's role was not-so-big.

As Liev Fan I could say that his stint as a doorman was impactful. Sure he had only background dialogue and no plot points, but he stood out to me. I could point out that he was mentioned on IMDB in the Thank You's which sometimes means that he worked harder than the credits would indicate - worked for free or below scale or whatever it was that they considered to be above and beyond. 

What I would rather do is be truthful and say that I enjoyed this film for the very reasons I doubt it would be made today. There was a relaxed pace and confidence in what they were trying to acheive that made you relate to the food and it's chef: they would rush their craft for no one.

There were structural issues that we're learning as iron clad rules in film class today. The meeting with the banker should have been sooner to establish the plot right away. We didn't see the florist, who is the main character in the B Storyline, until the second act. etc. Is this what makes a movie indie? The fact that it's willing to break these rules? Maybe. Or is it Indie because they did not succumb to the formulaic and the studios want and pay for the formula?

I'm not sure, but I did enjoy the pace and inflections of the film, and as always left grateful for another (albeit brief) glimpse of Liev doing what he does best. If you plan on watching it (which I hope) and you're as highly suggestible as I am, make sure you have some Italian food on hand or you will be craving it for days.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Liev - The Art Installation

Anyone willing to pop down there and snap a
photo of Liev will win our enduring gratitude!




Alan Rickman hurls his tea at glacial speeds.


David Michalek, a photographer and visual artist, grins before the 60-foot-tall head of a very angry, very slow-moving Alan Rickman, who is projected onto a gigantic screen on the façade of the David H. Koch Theater at New York's Lincoln Center on Tuesday night. It’s part of “Portraits in Dramatic Time,” a series of ultra-slow-motion video portraits of Rickman, William H. Macy, Holly Hunter, Liev Schreiber, and other actors livening up the plaza every night from 8:45 to 11:45 until the end of the month.

The 45 portraits on view feature original scenes that took only ten seconds to make but are stretched to as long as ten minutes in length.To create the appearance of glacially slow movement, Michalek used an ultra-high-speed digital camera, recording at anywhere from 500 to 900 frames per second but playing them back at the usual 30.

“This is weird. This is so weird. And great!” Michalek says, taking in his work. And he’s right: Even better is the next film, with a soaking wet, shirtless Macy violently flinging his body about, like a balletic head-banger. “Even as a young photographer,” Michalek says (he started out assisting Herb Ritts), “I was always trying to develop ways to get people comfortable so I could elicit a certain thing. You can’t tell someone ‘smile!’ or you get a fake smile. You have to create the conditions for laughter.”

Four years ago, Michalek used a prototype of a high-speed camera to realize his first slo-mo experiment: “Slow Dancing,” a similar installation focused on dancers and also shown on the Koch Theater’s façade. Working with actors for “Portraits” presented a different set of challenges. “Dancers kind of … dance themselves?” Michalek says (he knows: His wife is New York City Ballet principal Wendy Whelan).

“I could tell them, 'Please come to the studio with three five-second sequences prepared, each with a beginning, middle, and end, and let’s begin there.' You can’t tell an actor to show up with that; you need to write a story and cast them in a scenario.” Rickman, who came to Michalek’s apartment after his run at BAM in John Gabriel Borkman, was desperate to escape the world of Ibsen. “He said, ‘We could start anywhere, couldn’t we? You just made me tea. Let’s begin with tea. I’m a guy drinking tea. Am I alone? How do I feel about the person across the table?’” (Rickman would go on to vengefully splash the tea, and when seen in thousand-fold relief, it elicits many oohs and aahs from the plaza audience.)

The unintentional result in these scenes, Michalek says, is “an inventory of emotional states. Part of what is amazing about [the camera] is it shows you moments inside of moments. Even though the actors may be directing themselves toward a certain end, every artificial moment has thousands of moments of truth within it. Shards of what the actor wasn’t intending show through.”

And the crowd on the plaza this muggy evening responds, transfixed. Take the next film up, one of two featuring Lili Taylor. It co-stars her young daughter, Maeve. Both are gazing at a newborn baby (the production designer’s): Taylor’s face is one of complete wonderment, but as her daughter shifts her gaze from the baby to mom, well, something else is going on.

A chorus of foreboding “Awwww”s waves across the plaza, and a friend calls out, “David, this is so heartbreaking!” And a stranger on the fountain yells, “That kid wasn’t acting — that girl is jealous!”

Taylor is currently in a play at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, and she hasn’t yet seen the portrait. “Was I able to convey any wonderment at all?” she asks anxiously over the phone the next day. “It’s so funny it got that reaction. It was like I was trying to act and be enamored with the little baby, but trying to keep Maeve on my lap and still. I don’t know how the hell I did it!”

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Fit for a Duchess (Off Topic - sorry!)

The Duchess in her Canada Day fascinator chapeau:


Alyssa going for giggles from Their Royal Highnesses at the Stampede Parade tomorrow:





Screen Test Purity

Moving Manchurian Moments


What I love about screen tests is that you're seeing raw footage. Without background music and affects, the purity of the acting resonates. While all these enhancements are supposed to enrich a film, I've seen many occasions where I thought the screen test was actually better than the finished product, just unadorned and pure.

I enjoyed the Manchurian Candidate very much. But I do feel (when watching this screen test) that what I'm experiencing is these two powerhouse actors working in their genuine element. It makes me wish that all DVD's would include screen tests in their Special Features.

Allow yourself to absorb this clip and let the creepiness of Streep's portrayal crawl under your skin. Makes me feel oogly every time I see it, which I guess means she's doing a great job. And what can you say about Liev here? How do you admire someone's strength and feel protective of their vulnerability all at the same time? It's a conflict only an artist of Liev's caliber could bring to the audience.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Life Among the Weiners

Get ready for your daily shudder/laugh as we watch Liev (staying good natured as always) detain a greasy pap who interfered with his personal freedom. I don't know how he puts up with this kind of bull, I swear.

Check out this cowardly pap as he half-assed shouts "Help..." like a stuck pig. Then he fakes being injured, lying in the gutter moaning. Makes my skin crawl, actually.


<a href='http://video.msn.com?vid=d124ac89-5671-47cf-b744-642748d49fbc&mkt=en-us&src=FLPl:embed::uuids' target='_new' title='Liev Schreiber Strikes Back at Photog' >Video: Liev Schreiber Strikes Back at Photog</a>


Special shout-out to the good samaritan who decided to pop over and help! GREAT job!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

The Need for Weed(s)

*** MAJOR SPOILER ALERTS ***


According to Examiner.com, Liev Schreiber has a guest run on Season 7 of Weeds - one of my favourite shows EVER! (See article below) And if they're to be believed, this is going to get sexy shmexy!

There's no mention of this on Liev's IMDB profile and I cannot view their synopsis video from Canada. You can view the video HERE and if one of you oh-so-kind Liev enthusiasts can confirm if  Liev a.k.a. "The Sarge" makes an appearance that would be FANTASTIC.

AHHHHHHHHHH Liev back on TV. Dare we dream??? (BTW the article says Liev plays the brother of someone Nancy did time with, but I always thought Liev would slide in perfectly as another one of Judah's brothers, myself.)

CHANGE: Thanks to Sofia for letting me know it's actually PABLO and not LIEV who'll be playing The Sarge.

And a big thanks to Examiner.com for their excellent sluething and tips - NOT!!!! A pox on your house, amateurs!!!!!!!!!!!!


Okay, from http://www.examiner.com/:

Nancy served three years for manslaughter and was released to a halfway house in Washington Heights, New York. Her family uprooted their lives in Denmark to check in on their matriarch.
Per Weeds tradition, episode 2 is even more setup, as everyone not named Nancy struggles to come up with something to do this season.

In addition to her big, slowly unraveling drug dealing plan, Nancy has a job interview as a lamp repair technician, so she bum rushes her roommate’s boyfriend off the phone during some kitchen appliance-based phone sex. We go on to learn that the roommate is enough of a foodie to have a hollowed-out cookbook in which to hide her contraband, a character trait that belies what is intended to play as a tough exterior.

The next morning, Nancy is on the clock for her job interview, and during her three-hour window she must also connect with the buyer of her suitcase full of explosives, which she hauled out of a car trunk at the end of last week’s episode. Her deadline may factor into why she, clad in some awful ‘80s garb donated by a church, sneaks out the back door when she sees her family waiting in the lobby.
Nancy makes the interview, which she fails for being too nervous. She picks up her suitcase, which she stored on the roof of a building, and hides it in a maintenance closet across from The Sarge’s (Liev Schreiber) apartment. This guy is the brother of Zoya, Nancy’s former cellmate. To relax, she pitches him on her new weapons-for-weed business plan. He is tentative, but agrees to let her at least sample the product.

This is the first time we’ve seen Nancy high for any amount of time. The only other memorable on-screen occurrence was in the grow house with Conrad years back, when they sat and watched the grass grow. In the past, Nancy has maintained that she is too much of a control freak to enjoy her own product. Is this one of the ways prison has changed her? Maybe she accepts that she is less in control of her fate than she’d like to admit. Either way, she’s definitely going to bang Zoya’s brother at some point.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Talking "Walking and Talking"

Mmmmmm hello, cookies!



According to our friends at Tribeca Citizen, Liev is scheduled to appear at a screening of everyone's favourite film on Wednesday at the 92Y Tribeca.

(This tragically non-local yocal is guessing that means the 92nd Street YMCA in Tribeca???)

Here's the blurb:

Wednesday
Woody Allen’s Manhattan screens at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. ••• Nicole Holofcener’s 1996 Walking and Talking, with can-do-no-wrong Catherine Keener, is at 92YTribeca; Liev Schreiber is scheduled to appear.


Please let me know if you plan on attending.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Happy Canada Day You Hosers


Liev spent the first few years of his life in Canada. 
Let's hope wherever Liev is today that there's a
chance to enjoy some good beer and get out into nature.




And just because I'm feeling extra patriotic today: