When Al Pacino plays an eccentric, megalomaniacal music producer in a biopic written and directed by David Mamet, you can bet it’s a recipe for ACTING, with a capital A. The script might as well be in all caps, and when it premieres on HBO March 29th, you might want to add a sneeze guard to your flatscreen to keep from getting sprayed like the first two rows at a Shamu show. STAND BACK, EVERYONE! PACINO’S GONNA SHOUT SOME WORDS!

Regardless, Phil Spector should slake your thirst for goofy wigs and opulence until Soderbergh’s Liberace picture hits later this year. Spector tells the uplifting story of Spector’s relationship with his defense attorney, Helen Mirren as Linda Kenney Baden (who also worked with Casey Anthony), as Spector’s first trial for the murder of Lana Clarkson ended in a mistrial, and eventually got him 19 years for second-degree murder in a second trial. Pacino reportedly refused to meet with Spector, which probably helped him deliver lines like “FIRST time you got felt up – guess what? You were listenin’ to one a my sawngs!” with a straight face.

In any case, you can watch the trailer below, and click on for a cataloging and naming of all of Pacino’s wigs. This one up top, we call that the John 3:16.

Read the rest of this entry »

Steven Soderbergh’s film, Behind the Candelabra, starring Matt Damon and Michael Douglas, is set to hit HBO this Spring, and according to Soderbergh, speaking at the Television Critics Association press tour over the weekend, the only reason it’s not getting a theatrical release is that every studio in town told him it was “too gay.” This despite it costing only $5 million to make, having a name director, and starring Matt Damon and Michael Douglas. (*spits out coffee*) Hold on, Liberace is GAY?!

“Nobody would make it. We went to everybody in town,” the “Traffic” and “Ocean’s 11″ director told TheWrap on Friday, at the Television Critics Association winter press tour. “We needed $5 million. Nobody would do it.”

“They said it was too gay. Everybody. This was after ‘Brokeback Mountain,’ by the way. Which is not as funny as this movie. I was stunned. It made no sense to any of us.”

“They’re great and they’re really good at what they do, and ultimately I think more people will see it, and that’s all you care about,” Soderbergh said. “Studios were going, ‘We don’t know how to sell it. They were scared.’” [Yahoo/TheWrap]

Considering all the gay stuff studios release – Milk, Brokeback, Pitch Perfect, Fast and Furious – and how hot gay-themed projects are generally considered to be these days, you wonder if “they said it was too gay!” is just a convenient excuse for a movie that had bigger problems, not to mention a great way to curry sympathy. But Steven Soderbergh seems like a pretty straight shooter, so if he says it, I believe him. Plus it’s hard to be surprised by stories of business execs doing something shortsighted anymore. It’s just weird that the American public could be almost universally obsessed with super gay stuff – find me a network show that isn’t about singing and/or dancing, for instance – but only if the gayness isn’t spoken outright, like this, or I Love You Philip Morris (which had similar problems). You can crowbar some gay stereotypes into every sitcom after Modern Family, but God forbid you try to depict an actual gay relationship.

Incidentally, “too gay for theater” was the meanest thing my guidance counselor ever told me.

Gay? These guys?

A while back I told you about that Jimi Hendrix biopic starring Andre 3000, All is By My Side, directed by John Ridley, the interesting thing about which was that the Hendrix estate wasn’t giving the filmmakers permission to use any of Jimi Hendrix’s music – much like Jenna’s fictional Janis Joplin biopic on 30 Rock, Jackie Jormp-Jomp. Luckily for the filmmakers, Hendrix was famous for playing a lot of covers of other people’s songs, and the plan is apparently to focus on those, with Andre 3000 singing them himself.

The film – set in London in 1966 and 1967 – will include Benjamin’s new versions of covers that Hendrix performed during those years, shortly before the release of his landmark debut, Are You Experienced. Audiences will see Benjamin singing “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (which Hendrix famously performed in a London club with members of the Beatles in the audience), “Wild Thing,” “Hound Dog,” Muddy Waters’ “Mannish Boy” and Elmore James’ “Bleeding Heart,” plus two songs, “Future Trip” and “Driving South,” that Hendrix played as a backup musician for Curtis Knight and the Squires.

If the movie were to include songs Hendrix wrote, like “Purple Haze” or “The Wind Cries Mary,” the producers would have needed permission from Experience Hendrix, which owns the copyrights to the material. But according to McKittrick, the film was always set in Hendrix’ pre-fame era, so neither he or his team ever approached the Hendrix estate. “This is the story of Jimi being discovered as a backup musician and how he went to London and became Jimi Hendrix,” says the producer. McKittrick says that focusing on early stories about Hendrix – like the times he jammed with Cream and met Eric Clapton – is preferable to a biopic about Hendrix’s full life story. “That would be like making a movie about Kurt Cobain,” he says. “We all know how that story ends.”

Read the rest of this entry »