EXCLUSIVE: KEITH DAVID JOINS WACHOWSKI’S ‘CLOUD ATLAS’

One of the most underused, under-appreciated actors in Hollywood is The Mighty Keith David, a true screen talent and presence who has made every project he’s been associated with better since his first major role in John Carpenter’s “The Thing.”

Nothing’s been formally announced yet, but I’m told Mr. David is in Berlin working on “Cloud Atlas” after another actor didn’t work out. He’s joined an A-list cast that includes Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving Jim Broadbent and Susan Sarandon.

The Wachowskis are lucky to have him.

Here’s a synopsis of the science-fiction drama:

We already know that Cloud Atlas is going to be weird. Directed by Tom Tykwer and the Wachowski siblings, the project, based on the book by David Mitchell, is about six different characters with six separate storylines in six separate locations in six different eras and the actors will all be playing more than one role. If that isn’t enough, however, actor Ben Whishaw has informed Vulture that it gets even weirder. Speaking with the site to promote his new BBC show, The Hour, Whishaw revealed that not only are all the performers playing multiple roles in Cloud Atlas, but they will be switching races and genders as well. “I.m doing three,” the actor said.

If you want to know why I’m such a fan of the two-time Emmy winner, rent “Pitch Black” and “Requiem for a Dream” and closely watch his introduction scenes. If the story allows for any kind of nuance, David never shows all of his cards and therefore you never fully know what the true intentions of his characters are. In both of those films, when you first see his character, you have no idea whether he’s a good guy or a villain. Best of all, throughout the rest of his performance, you’re always under the impression that at any time he could turn in some unexpected direction.

Something’s always hidden, something unseen and unspoken is always going on. With little help from the script and using only his talent, David always tries to give his characters an inner-life, which makes him an actor with a very rare quality today… He’s interesting.

WHO SAID THESE WORDS IN A 1988 SPEECH OPPOSING THE ALTERING OF FILMS:

These current defacements are just the beginning. Today, engineers with their computers can add color to black-and-white movies, change the soundtrack, speed up the pace, and add or subtract material to the philosophical tastes of the copyright holder. Tomorrow, more advanced technology will be able to replace actors with “fresher faces,” or alter dialogue and change the movement of the actor’s lips to match. It will soon be possible to create a new “original” negative with whatever changes or alterations the copyright holder of the moment desires.

NOOOOOOOoooooo!!!!

HEAD-MOUNTED MOVIES? BRING ‘EM ON!

Over 25 years ago at some Disney World future world technology expo, I put on a pair of small Walkman-like headphones and experience what they called “3D sound.” It was so impressive that my notoriously awful memory still remembers the experience.

I was sure this was the future in film sound; that within five years, movie theatres would start handing out headphones as you took your seat. Not only would you be immersed in a motion picture’s sound design, but you could control your own volume and, best of all, not be distracted by jerk-off theatre talkers. And how simple would it have been to incorporate that technology into home theatres?

Well, I have no idea what happened to that technology, but now the same idea has been taken a step further with a movie theatre you can strap to your head. You can skip the spell-breaking 3D picture, thank you very much, but otherwise I think I’m in love.

If this thing takes off, I’ll bet dollars to donuts it will be because of the porn industry.  

AMY ADAMS SOUGHT FOR AMERICAN REMAKE OF “THE ORPHANAGE”

Whatever.

What this story does allow me to do is encourage you to see the original, a brilliant, emotional, atmospheric, and frightening experience.  

FANBOYS AREN’T FANBOYS OF SUPERMAN’S NEW DUDS

You can’t judge the look of a film or costume or anything based on leaked photographs. If you’ve ever been on an actual film or television set, it’s striking how phony, cheap and fake everything looks. It’s only after the color correction and lighting that this kind of stuff comes to life.

I trust Zack Snyder and Chris Nolan’s instincts and have faith that on the big screen, Supes won’t look like a piece of “big blue cheese.”

I’ll take this over this any day of the week.

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LAST NIGHT’S SCREENING

Though I’m over a half-dozen seasons behind the times, based on my dad’s enthusiasm for the show, I gave the first few episodes of “The Closer” a look last night. The fetching Kyra Sedgwick plays Brenda Leigh Johnson, a fish-out-water deputy police chief from Atlanta who’s placed in charge of the LAPD’s Priority Homicide Division — which is pretty much set up to handle high-profile cases and avoid another O.J. debacle.

Good concept. Terrific cast, including J.K. Simmons and a very funny G.W. Bailey.

 The premiere episode definitely set the wrong tone, though. The murderer was a homophobic Christian woman and the vibe was the worst of “Law & Order” after it went over a partisan cliff. The two episodes that followed, however, showed real promise and anyone who’s transplanted themselves to Los Angeles pre-GPS can certainly sympathize as Brenda attempting to navigate all those streets named Mulholland while reading a bulky Thomas Guide.

Good times. Good times.

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‘CHILDREN OF THE CORN: GENESIS’ ISN’T THAT BAD

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NETFLIX PRICE INCREASE STARTS TODAY

LOVE LETTER TO A PERFECT FILM: “RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK”

SUMMER MOVIES MANGLE THE FACTS

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–Please send tips/suggestions/requests to jnolte@breitbart.com

A billion!

The future for other such projects was unending. Think of the possibilities. You could have very successful films that were also vast award winners. But alas, it was not meant to be.

Through a combination of factors, many of the decision-makers in Hollywood developed a small panic. Many felt that films should be used for political advocacy and not just entertainment, while others feared all films would turn into what they called “hollow epics,” without any real narrative direction. They didn’t want to see every film become a “Troy” or “Master and Commander: The Far Side Of The World.”

So sadly, because of a combination of these two factors, decisions came fast and furious in Hollywood to stop this perceived menace. Films were scaled down and many films were turned into more “self serving” modules where filmmakers could create infomercials that covered political issues, social issues, and anything else they felt was needed to change what they perceived as evil in the world. And why stop there? They even went so far as to create characters based on real-life people they despised. (“Day After Tomorrow’s” infamous Dick Cheney character come to mind).

Wow. So creative…

For those of us who just wanted more spectacle like that which made “Lord Of The Rings” so iconic… Well, we lost. Filmmakers grew addicted to the political narrative they were building and saw themselves as political forces.

The only problem was that none of these films made any kind of serious money. In fact, in most cases these films lost money. Films that now barely pulled in over $30 million would now be crowned successes because they “advanced” a movement. Unfortunately for them, that money made couldn’t even cover marketing costs. DVD sales also tanked (along with the rest of home media) and a steady decline began that is still steadily declining today.

Then the unthinkable happened. “The Dark Knight” opened to high acclaim and crossed the billion dollar mark. At last, could it be — a film loved by movie-goers would follow in the Oscar footsteps of “Return of the King”? Unfortunately for the “Dark Knight,” the industry had changed. Instead of welcoming it into the Best Picture race like “King” or even “Titanic,” “Knight” was ignored completely. It didn’t even garner a nomination. Why? It didn’t further the “correct” politics like, say, the flop “Frost/Nixon.” And with all due respect to “Nixon,” who even remembers that film?

But fear not. Like a White Knight arriving to slay the dragon, there is hope. In 2012, Peter Jackson returns with “The Hobbit.” Could we have another grand spectacle; another “Dark Knight” or even parts of “Avatar”? Could it really happen and awaken the film industry?

The answer is a resounding yes. Hollywood’s vision is changing, not by choice, but because of financial realities. The flop after flop after flop of political films is undeniable. With their green, audiences overwhelmingly vote for  fare such as “Transformers” and “Twilight.”

And “Hobbit,” if it’s good enough, can bring about more positive change.

There is, obviously, some overlap: Not all art entertains (though some does); not all entertainment is art (though some is).  At bottom, it seems, the difference is one of intent – the artist seeks to connect us with larger meanings, larger truths about the world, about ourselves.  The primary focus of art is therefore to illuminate, with any entertainment had in the process merely a bonus.

The goal of the entertainer, on the other hand, is perhaps less sublime, though no less worthy – to distract, to tickle, to stimulate the fancy.  Entertainment is at bottom diversion, and I say this without a trace of disdain – often it is the quality and quantity of our diversions which makes the difference between a joyful life and a merely bearable one.

One year ago this weekend, a beating black heart pulsed in summer’s midst: The Dark Knight.  It was big-budget, comic book based franchise movie, made for popcorn eaters seeking suitable summer diversion.  And It delivered beyond the filmmakers wildest expectations – the masses were so entertained that they lifted it up into the box office stratosphere in grateful recompense.

And yet…

There was something different about The Dark Knight, something which separated it from its innumerable costume-wearing, crime-fighting brethren.  Something weighty, a gravity which distorted its appearance in interesting ways.  For instance, more of the story of The Dark Knight takes place during the day than in any previous Batman film.  And yet no comic book movie was ever so black and bleak; it seems to take place in an unending polar night, not some sunny Chicago day.

Even common film tropes are distorted by this gravity, and bend backwards in on themselves: Lieutenant James Gordon is shot and killed…only to later reappear, his ‘death’ having been an elaborate head-fake for the benefit the film’s villains…and us.  Lots of movies have this type of false death.  The difference?  We believe Gordon’s death; the film unfolds in such a manner as to make clear that no one is safe, a suspicion confirmed when, only a short while later, Bruce Wayne’s childhood friend, and love interest to both Wayne and Harvey Dent, is blown to bits in front of our eyes.  This combination of reassurance and disaster, of sigh-of-relief then sucker punch, makes clear – there are no rules in this film.

Which, of course, is exactly how the Joker would want it.  The only sensible way to live in this world, the Joker tells a demoralized and disfigured Harvey Dent, is without rules.  Why would this movie, his movie, be any different?

In that same scene, the Joker puts a loaded gun into Harvey’s hand, then puts his own head to the barrel as he confesses to Dent “I’m an agent of chaos.”  It was in that moment that I realized what Chris Nolan was up to: This isn’t the Joker – it’s the Devil.

Heath Ledger’s villain is not the macabre clown who battled Batman on the pages of the D.C. comics for most of the 20th century.  He is the serpent from the Old Testament who has battled God for most of eternity.   The genius of The Dark Knight is to give this eternal adversary a form well suited for our post 9-11 world – the man who blows up buildings and wages war on civilization itself.

Satan as Osama – that is Heath Ledger’s Joker, and the heart of The Dark Knight.  By entangling our most ancient and mythic tormentor with our most recent real life villain, The Dark Knight simultaneously plays on our most primal and frightening suspicions: 1) That anyone can become a villain (wasn’t Lucifer the light-bearing angel most favored by God?  Wasn’t Dent the most virtuous of public servants?), and 2) that the veneer of civilization is paper thin, and no match for even one man with bullets and gasoline and the will to use them.

By daring to step into those pooling shadows, The Dark Knight attains something higher than mere diversion.  Dare I say it?

Art.