SEPTEMBER 2006 NEWS:

9.27.06:

Disney has announced the single and double-disc DVD editions of POTC: DEAD MAN'S CHEST, which will be released in the US on December 5. The single-disc will include a commentary with writers Ted Elliot & Terry Rossio, and a blooper reel. The two-disc collector's edition will include that along with a Charting the Return pre-production documentary, an According To Plan: The Harrowing and True Story of Dead Man’s Chest documentary, a Captain Jack: From Head To Toe featurette, a Mastering The Blade: Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Jack Davenport featurette, a Meet Davy Jones: Anatomy Of A Legend featurette, and a Creating The Kraken featurette. Completing the package will be a Dead Men Tell New Tales: Re-Imagineering The Attraction feature, Jerry Bruckheimer: A Producer's Photo Diary, a Fly On The Set: The Bone Cage featurette, and Pirates on Main Street: The Dead Man’s Chest Premiere.

9.26.06:

button_box.gif (205 bytes)Warner Bros. has now launched their official web site in Spain for GOYA'S GHOSTS (Los Fantasmas de Goya). You can now view the trailer.

button_box.gif (205 bytes)The IMDB is now showing VALHALLA RISING as a 2007 film project for Stellan. You may remember several months ago the rumor went around and I personally asked Stellan, who said he had never even heard of it. Well, he STILL has never heard of it.

09.22.06

Two more GOYA'S GHOSTS photos. The one on the left shows Stellan on the set with co-star Javier Bardem and the film's cinematographer, Javier Aguirresarobe. If you click on the right one, you'll view a full-length portrait of our artist at work, Francisco de Goya. Have you noticed Stellan's eyes? I believe they've given him brown contacts.

button_box.gif (205 bytes)Arclight Films International & Movies Down Under have agreed to distribute BEOWULF AND GRENDEL in New Zealand. The film will open in 24 theatres on October 5th. A Region 4 DVD is also scheduled for release prior to Christmas. In Arizona the film will be featured at the Scottsdale International Film Festival, which runs from October 6-10, 2006. And you can purchase the DVD in the USA in just four days!

button_box.gif (205 bytes)In today's edition of Sweden's newspaper Expressen, Stellan spoke about cinematographer, Sven Nykvist, who died on Wednesday at 83 years old. "He was a fantastic man to work with." Apparently he talked to the newspaper from Los Angeles where he's presently filming POTC: AT WORLD'S END.

09.21.06:

Here's a new photo of Stellan from GOYA'S GHOSTS. At first I joked that he looked like he was wearing a brightly lit hat. Well, I've been corrected! He indeed has candles on his head in order to have enough light to paint. Several hi-res images have surfaced on the Internet including some with Stellan and have now been posted to the film page. Still no word on a US distributor...

button_box.gif (205 bytes)There's a new addition to Stellan's filmography - a road trip comedy called KILL YOUR DARLINGS (2006), also starring his eldest son Alexander. I was hesitant to add it but IMDB Pro includes it in their filmography and who am I to argue? Sometime I'll have to ask Stellan about his role. The film opened in Sweden in April of this year and also made its US premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival that month. Here are some photos taken at the Swedish premiere.

button_box.gif (205 bytes)Sven Nykvist, one of the world’s foremost cinematographers, whose poetic use of light illuminated many of Ingmar Berman's greatest films, died yesterday in Sweden after a long illness. Stellan and Sven had two collaborations. In 1987 Nykvist was the cinematographer for THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING, and then four years later, he wrote, directed and filmed THE OX. Stellan shared some of his memories working with Sven in the documentary highlighting his life called Ljuset håller mig sällskap (Light Keeps me Company). You can read his comments here.

button_box.gif (205 bytes)Last month at San Jose's ZeroOne Festival, Director Mike Figgis featured a new interpretation of his 2000 film TIMECODE, starring Stellan, Selma Hayek, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Saffron Burrows. For the performance Figgis manipulated the image and sound to create a new way to experience the story. Shot simultaneously on four cameras and presented in four frames, Timecode tracks the lives of several people who work at a Hollywood film production company. Figgis says he's "very much concerned with an abstracted view of parallel action and synchronicity. These notions have always been an obsession for me."

09.10.06:

button_box.gif (205 bytes)There is still no official word on a US distributor for GOYA'S GHOSTS though all signs point to a Warner Bros. limited release by year's end. The film will premiere in Germany on November 23 and in Spain on November 10. For a film that appears to have Oscar talk buzzing around it, it's strange that there's barely any  promotional effort to make audiences even aware of the upcoming film.

BEOWULF AND GRENDEL premiered in Iceland last week. According to the online newspaper Visir, the film received mixed reviews in Iceland, some likening it to Lord of the Rings and others to Highlander 3. The film is the country's most expensive movie production. Director Sturla Gunnarsson was unable to attend the premiere due to his work schedule but Gerry Butler was able to represent the cast. The DVD will be released in the US on September 26th. It is available for pre-order at Amazon. As of yet, there is no release date for the UK. Can you believe the DVD doesn't include subtitles! That will be sorely missed considering the problem of understanding much of the dialogue. The DVD does include a commentary track with director Gunnarsson and screenwriter Berzins with occasional comments from costume designer Debra Hanson and first assistant director Wendy Ord. There's also a collection of interviews from various cast and crew members, including an extended talk with Butler in his trailer during filming. Normally the "making of the film" is included, but in this case it's actually been bundled as a separate DVD called "Wrath of Gods." I'm not sure who would be interested in spending the extra cash. And lastly,  there's a gallery of costume and character sketches, eight minutes of deleted scenes and three minutes of footage comparing storyboards to the opening of the film. Thanks to DVD Verdict for this information.

Though the film will be shortly released on DVD, it will be screened in Austin, Texas, at the Fantastic Fest on September 21, and then at the Alamo Downtown Theatre in AUSTIN from September 30 thru October 2. It will also be shown at the Saratoga Film Forum in upstate New York on October 7 and this week it will have its Australian premiere at the Gold Coast Fantastic Film Festival. For a very humorous review by Joanna Connors, check out Cleveland's newspaper, The Plain Dealer.

button_box.gif (205 bytes)Continuing its rampage across the movie box offices of the world, DEAD MAN'S CHEST entered sacred waters over the weekend becoming the third film in history to pass the $1 billion mark in global ticket sales. With Italy the lone remaining major market left, it is unlikely to surpass the number two film, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King at $1.1 billion, and certainly won't reach Titanic's $1.8 billion, but taking home the bronze is an astonishing achievement.

09.01.06:

button_box.gif (205 bytes)According to David Poland of Movie City News, GOYA'S GHOSTS has yet to find a US distributor but he speculates that they'll obtain one this month. Warner Bros. is distributing it in Spain. I received a heads up from Sharon Smithline that the trailer is now being shown in Spain theatres as LOS FANTASMAS DE GOYA. The trailer is dubbed in Spanish and shows several scenes of Natalie Portman as well as a few Goya paintings with her actual face in them (as seen below). She also reports that director Milos Forman will be at The New Yorker Festival on October 7 and will show part of his film. Nadia from Mexico also alerted me to the very first film clips from the movie now being shown on Spanish television. Thanks so much, ladies!

button_box.gif (205 bytes)Sweden's Expressen newspaper ran a couple articles last weekend regarding the future casting of the country's most expensive film production. There will be two films based on novelist Jan Guillou's medieval trilogy about a templar knight named Arn Magnusson. The production, with a budget of nearly $30 million, is preparing to name a director and announce its cast. It's possible that three Skarsgård family members may be given roles. Both Gustaf and Alexander are being considered for the role of the younger Arn with their father playing the older Arn. According to producer  Waldemar Bergendahl, Alexander is definitely in the picture; however, his role may end up being Arn's brother or King Knut. Last spring Stellan's eldest son sought  fame in Los Angeles, but a good role would make him stay in Sweden. Alexander says, " I live a nomad life moving between different productions. Now I've been in Sweden all summer." And how does he feel about being in the film? He responds, "It's not as much fun if a producer only sees profit in having two or three Skarsgårds in a movie. I want to be hired for having talent rather than being just a name," though he admits "it would be great to work together." The first film is scheduled to open in December 2007 with the second film opening in the fall of 2008. The director has not been named yet through it's rumored it might be a Danish director, but not Billie August, Lars Von Trier or Thomas Vinterberg. Decisions on film locations are still undecided  - possibly Jordan or Morocco and Västergötland. Many thanks to Robin Solsjö Höglund for his translation of this news from Sweden!

The second sequel to PIRATES has now been officially named AT WORLD'S END. The film makes its US premiere on May 25, 2007. And I'm finally going to see DEAD MAN'S CHEST this Sunday afternoon! With being at the beach most of the summer and then preparing for our son's wedding, there just hasn't been a lot of free time. Having seen the first PIRATES film, I'm set for 2 1/2 hours of pure fun watching the antics of Jack Sparrow played so wickedly funny by the one and only Johnny Depp. Of course, adding Stellan to the cast only makes it that much more exciting. BTW, here's a good link to another interview with Stellan discussing his make-up.