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LATEST NEWS:
06.12.10:
May
2011 is the target date for the Marvel Studios superhero film - THOR.
The cast is as follows:
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Chris Hemsworth as Thor
Natalie Portman as Jane Foster
Anthony Hopkins as Odin
Kat Dennings as Darcy
Idris Elba as Heimdall
Ray Stevenson as Volstagg
Stellan Skarsgard as Selvig
Tom Hiddleston as Loki
Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson
Rene Russo as Frigga
Jaimie Alexander as Sif |
The first on-set footage was
revealed last week on "Entertainment Tonight". The set visit featured
mostly Chris Helmsworth and Natalie Portman chatting about non-specific
details regarding the film. Director Kenneth Branagh seems intent on
keeping his production super secret. The footage reveals the American
southwest setting of the picture as well as a chamber that may very well
be a piece of the Asgard set. You can also get glimpses of Anthony
Hopkins as the one-eye Odin and a couple shots of Stellan. In theaters
May 6, 2011, Thor, the arrogant Norse warrior, is forced to live among
humans as punishment after reigniting an ancient war in his world. His
true mettle is put to the test when a villainous foe sends dark forces
from the realm of Asgard to invade Earth. The photo above of Helmsworth
as Thor is the first image released.
Next
month Stellan will be off to Trollhättan in Sweden to take part in Lars
Von Trier's film, MELANCHOLIA. It will be the first time that
Stellan and his son Alexander will play father and son on film. Stellan
says he will play a guy who works in the advertising business. The proud
father says he's thrilled about his son's success in Hollywood. "It's
not always enough to be good to be successful. Alexander has been
working very hard in Los Angeles for several years now. It's fun to see
how bloody good he is!"
06.07.10:
A
couple days ago the NY Post
published an article on the Skarsgård
family, namely to zero in on the "True Blood" fame of Alexander. I
believe it was hastily written; hence, it's poor journalism with several
errors and glaring omissions, such as the fact that Stellan's seventh
child was born to his second wife, Melanie Everett! Shame on the NY
Post!
05.18.10:
 Stellan
made an appearance last weekend at the Cannes Film Festival! On May 14th
he attended a pre-screening party on Harle Yacht to celebrate the new
film, MOOMINS AND THE COMET CHASE. The Finnish stereoscopic 3D
animation film by Maria Lindberg is based on the popular characters
created by Finnish writer Tove Jansson. The characters inspired various
TV shows spanning more than three decades and were a huge hit all over
Scandinavia and in many parts of Europe and Japan. Stellan was joined at
Cannes by Helena Mattson and Mads Mikkelsen, who also provided voices
for the Moomin characters. In a interview with Stellan at Cannes, he
shared his reaction to the film, "Wow, finally an art movie for
six-year-olds!" The film will be released domestically by FS Film on
August 8. Nordisk Film will open the film with Scandinavian rights and
Myndform in Iceland. The film's producer Tom Carpelan said a
second Moomin film based on the Polish TV series from the 1970s will
start production in the autumn.
Click here for more photos from
Cannes.
Every
year a lot of film news comes out of the Cannes Film Festival, and one
project creating some buzz is Stellan's film, FRANKIE & ALICE,
starring Halle Berry as a stripper with multiple personalities. The
Hollywood Reporter’s Duane Byrge saw the film in the marketplace and
describes Berry's character as follows: “She switches from
hard-drinking, promiscuous lady of the night to a teetotaling, racist
Southern white belle, and, to boot, a genius-level kid. Not
surprisingly, this lands her in a lot of trouble, personally and
legally.” The film is still in search of an outlet for distribution.
Here's an excerpt from Bryge's review:
Overall, "Frankie & Alice" is a well-wrought
psychological drama that delves into the dark side of one woman's
psyche. Berry is spellbinding as Frankie,
a young L.A. exotic dancer. If stripping for a living weren't
chaotic enough, Frankie is plagued by gigantic personality swings:
She switches from hard-drinking, promiscuous lady of the night to a
teetotaling, racist Southern white belle, and, to boot, a
genius-level kid. Not surprisingly, this lands her in a lot of
trouble, personally and legally.
Crammed into a public psych ward after an "episode," Frankie is left
in the care of an emotionally drained psychiatrist (Stellan
Skarsgard). The good doctor is a former LSD "researcher" who is
still trying to plug into another reality. Down to basic prognosis,
however, he's essentially a mope who medicates with tuna sandwiches,
jazz and liquor. Frankie gets his professional and personal juices
flowing again...
Although six scribes credited with the screenplay usually predicts
erratic story and mood swings, "Frankie" does not suffer from
multiple writer disorder. Both clinically and dramatically, it's an
engaging titillation despite a somewhat flat last half-hour.
Throughout, its exhibitionist proclivities are evened-out
under director Geoffrey Sax's astute guidance and the intelligent,
nuanced performances of Berry and Skarsgård.
In addition, the supporting performances are rock-solid,
particularly Phylicia Rashad's steadfast portrayal of Frankie's
supportive but enabling mother. Scoped in
a hard-noir style, with mean-streets Canada standing in for Los
Angeles, "Frankie & Alice " is a technically well-balanced
entertainment.
04.16.10:
 It
appears that the father and son team of Stellan and Alexander will be
teamed up once more for Lars Von Trier's new film, MELANCHOLIA, a
science-fiction disaster film. The name refers to Planet Melancholia, a
huge planet hovering dangerously close to Earth and Von Trier warns us
there are "no more happy endings!" Kirsten Dunst has been cast in the
lead with Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlotte
Rampling and Udo Kier also attached to roles. The film will be shot July
through September in Southern Sweden. The film has a modest $7
million price tag, and will use only a moderate amount of effects.
Stellan has previously worked with Von Trier on several films and has
nothing but praise for the eccentric Danish director.
04.13.10:
Before
Alexander Skarsgård
shot to fame in HBO's "True Blood", it was much easier for me to circle
in on Skarsgård news because the
search engines only popped out one name "Stellan". In today's world,
it's not so easy to track down the elder Swede when his son's career has
skyrocketed, namely because Alexander plays this sexy vampire and female
audiences across America are whispering the name "Eric...." Even my
35-year-old daughter has taken notice! When I created Stellanonline.com
six years ago, Alexander had just closed down his own personal web site.
Initially I included career news for him on his father's web site but
thanks to his claim to fame, he has plenty of exposure on the Internet
these days so there is no longer a need to post his news. The photo
above shows this rising star on the cover of the May issue of Details
magazine. He does indeed look hot!
And what is Stellan saying about
his eldest son these days - "He's wiser, more beautiful and better than
I was." Interesting... He continues, "At a certain age, my children
thought it was so embarrassing that I was an actor. When Alexander was
7, he asked me, 'Why can't you be like a normal dad? Why can't you work
with computers or drive a Saab?' They wanted me to be like all the other
dads." And female attention is not that new to the 'True Blood' star.
Stellan relates how Alexander was a preteen heartthrob - "He didn't like
it at all. At the age of 12, he had girls standing outside the house.
They would ask his younger brother Gustaf to let them in, and sometimes
it worked."
Good news for
EN
GANSKE SNILL MANN (A Somewhat Gentle Man)! An American premiere
is scheduled to take place in late autumn in New York and Los Angeles,
and at least three other U.S. cities. The film will receive distribution
in the U.S. through Strand Releasing, who will spend one million dollars
on promoting the film. They are known for selecting quality films with
commercial potential. The film has previously been sold to over 20
countries.
Stellan's appearance in the film
is far from glamorous. The character is a thin-haired man with a
ponytail and poor posture. Skarsgard says jokingly about his preparation
for the role -
"It's the way I really look like. It is now I do me. I worked for months
to lose lots of hair. The role is very passive in the beginning, so I
spent several months doing nothing. If one is working with Hans Petter,
one cannot expect anything glamourous in any area."
03.22.10:
A
press conference in Helsinki was held this week announcing that Stellan,
his son Alexander plus Peter Stormare have signed on to voice the iconic
Moomins characters in the animated family 3D feature, MOOMINS AND THE
COMET CHASE. Finnish production company Oy Filmkompaniet is
bringing the beloved animated creatures to the big screen in a way they
have never been seen before – presenting the first Nordic stereoscopic
3D film ever produced. The real life father and son
team will provide the voices of Momminpapa and son Moomintroll with
Stormare lending his voice to the character Sunfkin. Stellan calls the
Moomim universe a place "where dreams are looked at with love and care.
And the attitude towards people and reality doesn’t have to be
always so practical, but it has to be curious, friendly, and always
feeling that something really good, really interesting could happen.”
The film is scheduled to be released in the fall.
I've posted a
recent interview in which Stellan
likens himself to a castrated bull as he speculates on why he has a good
reputation in the film industry - "I'm on time. That's really good! And
I function socially very well on a set. Sometimes I feel like I’m
brought onto the set like a…you know, when they run the bulls in
Pamplona, they also have some castrated bulls to calm them down!
[laughs]. Sometimes I feel like the castrated bull that is thrown in to
calm down a set and create a good atmosphere! I hope that’s not why I’m
hired, though. Milos Forman said that he liked me because I had no face
of my own. He saw me in different roles that I’d done, but he didn’t see
me as an actor bigger than my roles." How true!!
Evidently, it's no small matter
that Stellan demands a good hot lunch while on location.
Apparently the first time he worked in Norway, he was shocked by the
Norwegian smorgasbord. He claims it was nothing but bread with a topping
of brown cheese and ham, so when it came time to film
EN
GANSKE SNILL MANN outside of Oslo last year, he put his
foot down. During the press conference held in March 2009, producer
Stein B. Kvae admitted he had promised Stellan good food!
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