News

Matt Piedmont, best known for his directorial work with Funny or Die, is helming Casa de mi padre, a Spanish language comedy starring Will Ferrell.

While it’s a surprise to see Piedmont and Ferrell take on comedy in a foreign tongue, Piedmont is securing the film’s success by adding as many talented and notable Hispanic actors as possible. Most recently The Hollywood Reporter announced Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, who co-starred in Y tu mamá también and Rudo y Cursi, have joined the ranks which includes: Genesis Rodriguez (Entourage), Pedro Armendariz Jr. (Casa de los babys), Hector Jimenez (Gentleman Bronchos), and Adrian Martinez (It’s Kind of a Funny Story).

It’s a smart cast lineup as American audiences are likely to follow Ferrell, while Bernal and Luna both hold international appeal. Add the sultriness Rodriquez with the comedy prowess of Jimenez and Martinez and the film...

Let me begin with a confession: I have not been able to stand Maggie Gyllenhaal as an actress for years. I'm not sure where I got turned off. Maybe Casa de los Babys. Maybe later, with Happy Endings. I definitely couldn't take her in SherryBaby, and by the time she showed up in The Dark Knight, I had decided she was the worst part of most movies in which she appears.

Basically I feel she tries too hard in really dramatic performances. I also think she's completely ill-fit for characters with power or demanding professions, such as Rachel Dawes in Tdk. Yet I also didn't wholly believe her right for the flakier, manic-pixie-dream-girl type she plays in Stranger Than Fiction. Honestly, I had some hope for her after seeing her in World Trade Center, but maybe it was just that I find her to be a good crier. And more...

As you may have noticed, I will not be done with my Decade in Review until sometime into the new year. Hopefully we'll wrap up shortly after the Oscars; You know how distractingly all-consuming the Oscars can be! I hope you'll stay with it even though the rest of the media will move on any second now. They're always in such a rush. No stopping and smelling of the flowers. I've still got to update that "Actors of the Aughts" project for final compilation/statement. For now, let's move on to 2003. What follows is my original top ten list, based on films released in NYC in 2003. If I have anything new to say that'll be in red after the original text.

Special Mentions: The Cremaster Cycle and Angels in America

Most Underappreciated: Hulk (Ang Lee), In the Cut (Jane Campion), Anything Else (Woody Allen), Charlies Angels: Full Throttle (McG) and...

Pablo Proenza and Erin Ploss-Campoamor of Cut Glass Productions have sold their film Dark Mirror, a feature length supernatural thriller, to IFC Films, which has scheduled a May 6th date for its release on "Movies on Demand" as part of "IFC in Theaters" service. The film stars Lisa Vidal, David Chisum, Christine Lakin and Lupe Ontiveros. Variety said of the film: "tour-de-force performance," "excellent!," "a spin on the genre."

Watch the trailer at -- http://www.vimeo.com/4113686

With a broadcast premiere of May 6th approaching the husband and wife creative team are fanning out next week to bring added fanbase attention to the project. Pablo will be participating on a panel about the film at Fangoria's Weekend Of Horrors (http://tinyurl.com/cg7mjp) at the La Convention Center, while Erin presses the flesh at the National Association of Latino Independent Producer's (Nalip) 10th anniversary conference (http://www.nalip.

City of Lights, City of Angels Film Festival

Plenty of films have dealt with the longing for a child or the emotional and political ramifications of adoption. But Holy Lola, Bertrand Tavernier's vivid and affecting new film, immerses viewers in the experience of foreign adoption. Revolving around a French couple's moment-to-moment endurance test through hope, red tape and an unfamiliar culture as they try to adopt a child in Cambodia, the film convincingly re-creates the semi-stateless state of Westerners who travel abroad in pursuit of a baby to love. At once thoughtful and visceral, the well-acted drama, which screened at the City of Lights, City of Angels fest, deserves wider stateside exposure.

Holy Lola is similar in setup to John Sayles' Mexico-set Casa de los Babys but without being static or didactic. Tavernier wastes no time on background before plunging into the humid downpours of monsoon season in Phnom Penh, where 40-ish "country doctor" Pierre Ceyssac (Jacques Gamblin) and his wife, Geraldine (Isabelle Carre) -- a bespectacled blonde who's weary of being told how young she looks -- have come to adopt a child. Along with other guests at their hotel, which caters to French would-be adopters, the Ceyssacs inhabit a strange limbo somewhere between tourism and exile.

The script by Dominique Sampiero, Tiffany Tavernier and the director is refreshingly free of psychologizing; through shorthand and the cast's naturalistic work, we know all we need to know about the hotel's cross-section of France, from working-class couple Marco and Sandrine (Bruno Putzulu and Maria Pitarresi) to Annie (Lara Guirao), alone and especially resilient. Whether still searching for a child or awaiting exit paperwork, they seesaw between hope and disappointment for weeks on end.

The drama's moral questions are as implicit as the need to care for a child. In postcolonial Cambodia, where bureaucrats quote Hugo or appreciate offerings of Shalimar, Westerners' only power is money. Wielding the most power are the story's unseen Americans, while the Ceyssacs ply local orphanages with food and toys, hoping to be in the right place at the right time when a child becomes available. They befriend a clinic doctor (Vongsa Chea) who helps them navigate the labyrinth. An encounter with baby traffickers in the impoverished, mine-dotted countryside proves dispiriting on many levels.

There's a wonderful moment when the Ceyssacs and another couple cross a dangerously busy thoroughfare four abreast, arms linked. It's a lovely picture of the way they collectively withstand the dislocation and try to make sense of a formidable bureaucracy. The equanimity Pierre and Geraldine attain during months of uncertainty becomes clear only when new people arrive at the hotel, anxious and green.

Alain Choquart's ace camerawork captures the intimate drama with immediacy, and Henri Texier's propulsive music is a major contribution.

HOLY LOLA

A Little Bear/Les Films Alain Sarde/TF1 Films Prods. production with the participation of Canal Plus, Sofica Valor 6, Sogecinema 2

Credits:

Director: Bertrand Tavernier

Screenwriters: Dominique Sampiero, Tiffany Tavernier, Bertrand Tavernier

Producers: Frederic Bourboulon, Alain Sarde

Executive producers: Agnes Le Pont, Christine Gozlan

Director of photography: Alain Choquart

Production designer: Giuseppe Ponturo

Music: Henri Texier

Costume designer: Eve-Marie Arnault

Editor: Sophie Brunet

Cast:

Dr. Pierre Ceyssac: Jacques Gamblin

Geraldine Ceyssac: Isabelle Carre

Marco Folio: Bruno Putzulu

Annie: Lara Guirao

Xavier: Frederic Pierrot

Sandrine Folio: Maria Pitarresi

Michel: Jean-Yves Roan

Dr. Sim Duong: Vongsa Chea

No MPAA rating

Running time -- 128 minutes...

The Independent Film Channel is losing its senior vp marketing after 14 years with the cable network. Caroline Bock is leaving IFC at week's end to pursue a career in writing. The network has not yet decided on a replacement. "It's been a great job," Bock said. "I was at the crossroads of my own career there, and I decided to take the opportunity to make a dramatic change." Bock recently added to her duties by taking on responsibility for the marketing of IFC's TV and film units. She spearheaded the promotional campaigns for such indie releases as Camp and Casa de los Babys as well as TV properties including A Decade Under the Influence and Bad Ass Cinema. Her past work also covered Bravo, formerly owned by IFC parent company Rainbow Media Holdings. At Bravo, she helped launch Inside the Actors Studio.

Filming adoption drama Casa De Los Babys in one of the poorest areas of Mexico has prompted actress Daryl Hannah to get serious about motherhood. The 42-year-old Splash star plays a wannabe mum in the John Sayles film, which follows the trials and tribulations of a group of Americans who go to Mexico looking to adopt children. And Hannah admits the storyline, coupled with the experience of meeting the poor children who would hang around the set, made her start thinking about becoming a first-time mom. She says, "It's something I've always wanted and it's something I still want, but conditions and circumstances haven't been right. I think once you get to the point where you want a child, you should do whatever needs to be done to make that happen. That's what this film is about. I understand that. It killed me to be on that set and see the conditions kids lived in there. I'm terrible because I have like a billion stray animals at home and that's what these homeless kids were like for me. I can't stand to see homeless kids running around the streets. I just wish I could take everyone home and help them out."...

Daryl Hannah, who worked with helmer John Sayles on his upcoming Casa de los Babys for IFC Films, will reteam with the director on his next project, Silver City. At the same time, the actress has inked with Writers & Artists Agency. Details of Silver City are being closely guarded, but it's described as a political drama/murder mystery that tells the story of a small town in Colorado and the events leading up to a local election. Among those events is the discovery of a man's body in a local lake and the mystery surrounding his death. Hannah will play a wild girl named Wendy. Maggie Renzi is producing from a script by Sayles. Shooting is due to begin next month. In addition to Writers & Artists, Hannah will continue to be repped by manager Chuck Binder. Hannah has been on a roll lately, starring onscreen in the Polish brothers' Northfork for Paramount Classics. She also has four other projects in the can: She next stars in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, followed by Sayles' Babys, Kenny Golde's The Job and Steve Anderson's The Big Empty.

Filmmaker John Sayles, now prepping for the September release of his Casa De Los Babys for IFC Films, is setting his sights on Silver City. Sayles and producer Maggie Renzi are packaging the indie project. They've set Danny Huston for a lead role in the film and are in talks with recent Oscar winner Chris Cooper to join the cast along with Kris Kristofferson and Cheech Marin, sources said. Several other actors are expected to sign on shortly, with lensing to begin in September. While details of the project are being closely guarded, Silver City is described as a political drama/murder mystery telling the story of a small town in Colorado and the events leading up to a local election. Among those events is the discovery of a man's body in a local lake and the mystery surrounding his murder.

Secretary star Maggie Gyllenhaal is in negotiations to join John C. Reilly and Diego Luna in the Warner Bros. Pictures feature Criminal (aka Nine Queens) for Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney's Section Eight Prods. The project, a remake of an Argentine feature, begins production next month with Gregory Jacobs directing. Criminal is a caper thriller about two men (Reilly and Luna) who team on a scam involving a forged set of extremely valuable stamps, the Nine Queens. Gyllenhaal would play the sister of Reilly's character, whom he swindles out of her inheritance. Jacobs, Soderbergh's longtime first assistant director, co-wrote with Soderbergh the English version of the screenplay. Soderbergh and Clooney will produce, with Section Eight's Jennifer Fox and Ben Cosgrove executive producing. Warners vp production Jessica Goodman will oversee the project on behalf of the studio, which acquired remake rights to Criminal two months ago (HR 2/6). Gyllenhaal, repped by CAA and Benderspink's Courtney Kivowitz, next stars in Revolution Studios' Mona Lisa Smile opposite Julia Roberts and IFC Films' Casa de Los Babys for writer-director John Sayles.

Oscar-winning actress Marcia Gay Harden has joined Gene Hackman, Ray Romano and Maura Tierney in the Donald Petrie-directed comedy Mooseport for 20th Century Fox and Intermedia Film. Production is scheduled to start by month's end. Penned by Tom Shulman, Mooseport centers on a former U.S. president (Hackman) who retires to a small Northeastern coastal town. There, he is implored by his new neighbors to fill a mayoral seat that has become vacant. To keep things honest, a local hardware store owner (Romano) runs against him, only to see the race turn into a full-scale battle. Harden will star as the right-hand figure to Hackman's character. Producing the project are Shulman and Intermedia's Basil Iwanyk. Executive producers are Moritz Borman and Doug Richardson, the latter of whom came up with the story line for the project. Harden is repped by ICM, Framework Entertainment and Ira Schreck at Schreck, Rose & Dapello. She next stars on the big screen opposite Julia Roberts in Mona Lisa Smile for Revolution Studios, followed by the Clint Eastwood-directed Mystic River for Warner Bros. Pictures and John Sayles' Casa de los Babys for IFC Films.