Jackman Film Role News

[jo]

A new thread to cover official announcements or news of new Jackman film projects, compared to the other thread which covers speculations of possible roles for Hugh.

A very much awaited news -- Hugh will now star in an indie movie!

variety.com/2015/film/news/hugh-jackman-and-rooney-mara-to-star-in-me-and-earl-the-dying-girl-directors-next-movie-exclusive-1201494972/

Hugh Jackman and Rooney Mara to Star in ‘Me And Earl & the Dying Girl’ Director’s Next Movie (EXCLUSIVE)






Hugh Jackman Rooney Mara
Getty Images

May 13, 2015 | 01:17PM PT


Justin Kroll

Film Reporter

@krolljvar


Hot off his Sundance breakout “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon is lining up his next project with two of Hollywood’s biggest talents. Sources tell Variety that Gomez-Rejon has attached himself to direct “Collateral Beauty” with Hugh Jackman and Rooney Mara attached to star.

Allan Loeb wrote the original screenplay, which is set in a New York ad agency and focuses on a man whose life is flipped upside down after experiencing an incredible tragedy that sends him down a path of deep depression.

Anonymous Content’s Michael Sugar and Bard Dorros are producing.

The emotional drama does not have a distributor or financier, yet the attachment of both Jackman and Gomez-Rejon should make it one of the hotter packages in town.

After winning both the grand prize and audience award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, “Me and Earl” made Gomez-Rejon a must-get filmmaker for studios and high-profile projects. But the filmmaker, who got his start on TV (“Glee,” “American Horror Story”), is said to have instantly fallen in love with Loeb’s script.

“Collateral Beauty” reunites the onscreen pairing of Jackman and Mara, who recently starred together in Warner Bros.’ Peter Pan origin story “Pan,” which opens in October.

Jackman just finished production on “Eddie the Eagle” opposite Taron Egerton.

Mara, star of “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” has a big year starting with her Cate Blanchett romancer “Carol,” which premieres at the Cannes Film Festival this Sunday. She most recently wrapped production on Jim Sherridan’s “The Secret Scripture” and next month starts shooting drama “Blackbird.”

In addition to “Me and Earl,” which bows in July, and “Collateral Beauty,” Gomez-Rejon is developing a handful of other pics including Plan B’s “The Fortress of Solitude.”

Jackman, Mara and Gomez-Rejon are all repped by WME. Gomez-Rejon is also repped by LBI Entertainment while Management 360 also backs Mara.

CAA and Anonymous Content represent Loeb.

Ahem! I thought the sequel to PAN would be the story of Peter and Wendy, not Hugh and Rooney

The storyline reminds me somewhat of A STEADY RAIN, especially as it deals with a man who spirals down an emotional abyss after a dark tragedy occurs and leads him to depression. It is not as dark as PRISONERS which deals with how a normal man goes into a dark mental abyss after a tragedy occurs in his family!

Hugh is prepared for this kind of dramatic roles!


PS: Is this why he stopped in LA on the way to Hawaii


Jo

[mamaleh]

Now that's the kind of role I've been hoping he'd play. I just hope it happens sooner rather than later and all goes smoothly.

Ellen

[jo]

blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/hugh-jackman-and-rooney-mara-reteam-for-collateral-beauty-from-me-and-earl-and-the-dying-girl-director-alfonso-gomez-rejon-20150513

No word on when it will shoot, but the project is being shopped around Cannes, where it will undoubtedly pick up some interest. [The Wrap]

Harvey Weinstein buys a lot of film project properties in film festivals like Cannes

Or will Fox Searchlight ( Fox's very successful film subsidiary) be in strong contention? It has won the rights to the director Gomez-Rejon's successful Sundance film Me and Earl and the Dying Girl?

If you have ever been to Cannes, it is not the glitter of the red carpet of the exhibition hall where the festival happens that leaves an unusual impression,  but what you see in coffee shops at or the like on the famous street called La Croissette where people huddle for seeming intense negotiations. Many a deal has been forged in those discussions!


Jo

[jo]

The announcement has caught the eye of film sites --

www.slashfilm.com/hugh-jackman-rooney-mara-collateral-beauty/

Gomez-Rejon is also developing a few other movies but it sounds like this film will be his next, especially with a completed screenplay and two huge stars attached.

But what is Hugh's availability? It's probably not a long shoot?


Jo

[jo]

Interesting that the film will be helmed by someone with a Latin American background.

Recent Oscar winners Innaritu ( Birdman) and Cuaron ( Gravity) and someone like Mireilles who was nominated for City of God indicate a deft handling of film material. It must be the innate passion that characterizes the culture?

Jo

[hughmanity]

Wow...24 hours away and all kinds of news! Ellen, I couldn't agree with you more; I've been waiting to hear about a role like this and also hope it will all "pan" out!

[jo]

COLLIDER gives its view on the new direction in Hugh Jackman's career --

collider.com/hugh-jackman-to-lead-alfonso-gomez-rejons-me-and-earl-and-the-dying-girl-follow-up/

Hugh Jackman to Lead Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL Follow-Up

by Haleigh Foutch  15 hours ago


After breaking out big time at Sundance with his festival favorite Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon is lining up an A-list cast for his next project, Collateral Beauty. Hugh Jackman and Rooney Mara are attached to star in the emotional drama from an original screenplay by Allan Loeb (21, Rock of Ages). Per Variety, the film is set in a New York ad agency and follows “a man whose life is flipped upside down after experiencing an incredible tragedy that sends him down a path of deep depression.”

Gomez-Rejon previously helmed the horror remake The Town that Dreaded Sundown, as well as episodes of hit TV shows Glee and American Horror Story. The director is currently riding a high wave after Me and Earl and the Dying Girl won both the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and incited a bidding war that led to a record-breaking deal with 20th Century Fox and Indian Paintbrush. The film will receive a limited summer release on July 1st.

prisoners-hugh-jackman
Image via Warner Bros.

Jackman and Mara previously collaborated on Joe Wright‘s Pan. Now that Jackman has made it clear that he’s finished playing Wolverine after James Mangold‘s next standalone film, I’m excited to see what projects he lines up as he enters this next stage of his career. If Collateral Beauty is any indication, Jackman will continue to perform in challenging, diverse work as he’s done throughout his wide-ranging career. When Jackman wasn’t picking up the claws for one of his many performances as Wolverine over the last fifteen years, he squeezed in an impressive variety of exciting projects spanning from romantic comedies to hard dramas to award shows to broadway musicals and just about everything in between. He hasn’t done a proper horror movie yet (and I’d love to see that), but Prisoners was damn close.

What do you think? Does Collateral Beauty sound like a good follow-up feature for Gomez-Rejon? How would you like to see Jackman fill his post-Wolverine days? Sound off in the comments.

[jo]

Rooney Mara has just won the Best Actress Prize at Cannes 2015!

abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/eyes-coen-brothers-cannes-readies-palme-dor-31265884

The best actress prize was split but not the way some expected. It was given to both Rooney Mara, half of the romantic pair of Todd Haynes' '50s lesbian drama "Carol," and Emmanuelle Bercot, the French star of the roller coaster marriage drama "My King." (Bercot also directed the festival opener, "Standing Tall," about a delinquent teenager.) Any split was presumed to go to Mara and her "Carol" co-star, Cate Blanchett

Hope this helps the film project proposal of COLLATERAL BEAUTY, with Hugh Jackman, to be a much more sought-after project which is being shopped for financing and distribution rights.


Jo

[jo]

We saw them in posters for PAN --






But do check out this link for a completely different image of this team-up.

www.movies.ie/movie_news/hugh-jackman-finds-collateral-beauty-with-rooney-mara/

Can't reproduce the image into a larger one -- but the photo highlights the strong screen chemistry potential between Hugh and Rooney - can't trust their PAN images to do that

[jo]

variety.com/2015/film/news/collateral-beauty-hugh-jackman-rooney-mara-palmstar-media-1201515525/

Hugh Jackman, Rooney Mara Spec ‘Collateral Beauty’ Acquired by PalmStar Media



Hugh Jackman Roony Mara Collateral Beauty
Getty Images

June 9, 2015 | 12:15PM PT


Justin Kroll
Film Reporter
@krolljvar


PalmStar Media and Likely Story have acquired the rights to the script “Collateral Beauty” with Hugh Jackman and Rooney Mara attached to star.

PalmStar will be fully financing in conjunction with its partner Merced Capital.

“Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” helmer Alfonso Gomez-Rejon is on board to direct with Anonymous Content’s Michael Sugar and Bard Darros producing along with Allan Loeb, who penned script. Palmstar CEO Kevin Frakes and Anthony Bregman will exec produce.

The story follows a New York advertising executive who experiences a deep personal tragedy. When his colleagues devise an unconventional plan to break him out of his depression, the plan works, but not in a way that anyone imagined.

“I was deeply moved by Allan’s extraordinary script and knew immediately that PalmStar had to get behind it,” Frakes said. “We could not wish for a better group of creative partners to bring Allan and Alfonso’s vision to life and look forward to working with Michael, Bard and Allan to deliver this film to a worldwide audience.”

CAA and Anonymous took the project to Cannes last month and, given the talent attached, the auction was competitive. Principal photography is not expected to start in the fall.

The deal was negotiated by Ankur Rungta on behalf of PalmStar Media, Sean Marks and CAA on behalf of Allan Loeb and Dave Fierson on behalf of Anonymous Content.

Is it or is it not going to start principal photography in the fall?

Maybe there should not have been a "not" in the reporting

Jo

[jo]

The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline.com both confirm the start of filming in the fall.

www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hugh-jackman-rooney-maras-collateral-799322

deadline.com/2015/06/hugh-jackman-rooney-mara-collateral-beauty-allan-loeb-1201440205/

[jo]

If you're interested in the boy-wonder Sundance breakout director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, here's an interesting interview on him. He is not completely inexperienced in the film business having worked for a few Hollywood names. He also seems to be very hard-working and is known for the thoroughness of his work.

www.redeyechicago.com/movies/redeye-me-and-earl-director-interview-20150601-htmlstory.html


Rope of Silicon is also gushing over Gomez-Rejon --

www.ropeofsilicon.com/earl-director-lines-collateral-beauty-hugh-jackman-rooney-mara/

[jo]

The spec script has also been drawing a lot of attention --

Christopher Cosmos ‏@hereisthecosmos · 14m14 minutes ago
Some of us are just writing scripts. COLLATERAL BEAUTY, to me, is art -- a writer at the very top of his game.




Christopher Cosmos ‏@hereisthecosmos · 15m15 minutes ago
This is an amazing script… undoubtedly in the top two that I've read so far this year…
deadline.com/2015/06/hugh-jackman-rooney-mara-collateral-beauty-allan-loeb-1201440205/ …

[mamaleh]

I wonder where it is going to film. New York? Australia? England?

Ellen

[jo]

Where else

In the land of Madison Avenue

Especially so if there are outside scenes.

Or has that fabled avenue for the bigtime advertising industry now become more of super-luxe houses and boutiques ?



I am guessing of course




The script description sounds intriguing --

www.screendaily.com/news/production/palmstar-likely-story-acquire-collateral-beauty/5089213.article

Allan Loeb wrote the screenplay about a New York advertising executive who emerges from depression in a surprising way when colleagues hatch a plan to help him.

I initially thought this is all dramatic ( it has been described as a drama)...but maybe not so?

Could it be a rom-com


Jo

[jo]

Someone who runs a well-known script-review and script-writing site has tweeted this --

Carson Reeves ‏@scriptshadow · 1h1 hour ago

What many consider to be the best script of the year, Collateral Beauty, is coming together as a movie -

[jo]

Alfonso Gomez-Rejon's movie ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL won the audience at the Sundance Film Festival and is getting excellent reviews now that it is opening to a wider audience. Btw, there is also a little surprise in store.

www.hollywoodnews.com/2015/06/10/me-and-earl-and-the-dying-girl-represents-perfect-summer-counter-programming/

and even the voice of Hugh Jackman in a great little cameo

I have read somewhere that a Wolverine poster figures in one scene, but nothing was mentioned about Hugh's voice also being featured.

[jo]

Hugh has been supportive of ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL -- turning up to introduce the film on its NYC premiere --

www.showbiz411.com/2015/06/11/hugh-jackman-surprises-me-and-earl-premiere-introduces-sundance-hit-to-a-list

Home Movies Hugh Jackman Surprises “Me and Earl” Premiere, Introduces Sundance Hit to A...

Hugh Jackman Surprises “Me and Earl” Premiere, Introduces Sundance Hit to A List




by Paula Schwartz - June 11, 2015 9:07 am



Hugh Jackman was the surprise guest at the New York premiere of Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” at the Landmark Sunshine Theater Wednesday night. The one and only Wolverine came through a side entrance of the theater where he wasn’t spotted.

“I believe in life that if something’s good you just tell everyone about it,” said Jackman in his remarks from the stage before the screening and before he introduced the director.

Added Jackman, “I immediately rang Alfonso and said I love your movie. What can I do? Do you want me to tweet? He rang me back and said, ‘Man, I want you to come and introduce the film, so that’s what I’m here to do, and you’ll understand why I’m so passionate about this film after you’ve seen it. Alfonso is one of the great, most exciting directors out there. I love him so much I actually signed on to his next movie. You know that Alfonso? He does,” Jackman called out to the director. He will co-star with Rooney Mara in Gomez-Rejon’s next project, “Collateral Beauty.”

“The cast is absolutely extraordinary in this movie, every single one of the performances, so nuanced, so beautiful, so touching, so funny,” Jackman said. “So I told him I was going to be here. I’ve done my job. You guys are in for absolute treat!” Then Jackman introduced the director, who bears a startling resemblance to Javier Bardem.

(Jackman’s voice coming from a Wolverine poster in the dying girl’s bedroom also figures comically in “Me and Earl.”)

Based on the YA book by first-time screenwriter and novelist Jesse Andrews, the cancer-kid story is equal parts comedy and tragedy without being sentimental. “Me and Earl” was a bit hit at Sundance, where it picked up the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award.

After Jackman’s comments, the director introduced the film’s three young stars, Thomas Mann, Olivia Cook and newcomer R.J. Cyler, who are perfectly cast and make the film. The story is set in inner city Pittsburg, which is where the screenwriter grew up.

Mann plays Greg, a socially awkward high school senior who aspires to invisibility and gets along with all the kids by pretending to form alliances with the various cliques. His only friend is Earl, who comes from the other side of the tracks, and who is no-nonsense and has a big heart. They two share a passion for making movies that are parody takes on classics, which include “2:48 PM Cowboy” (Midnight Cowboy, 1969), “Don’t Look Now Because a Creepy Ass Dwarf is About to Kill you!!! Damn!!! (“Don’t Look Now,” 1973) and “A Sockwork Orange” (no translation needed).

Gomez-Rejon also introduced “Nashville” star Connie Britton, who plays Greg’s mother, a kind but absent minded woman who forces him to spend time with Rachel, who has leukemia. Britton worked with the director a few years before on “American Horror Stories” and he told the audience that Britton read the script for “Me and Earl” and told him she “loved it and wanted to be involved” and the “second she was attached to the project it became real.”

In his intro to Molly Shannon, Gomez-Rejon said he was “obsessed with her” for years. “I used to spend the night at Rockefeller Center to get passes to see her on Saturday Night Live.” Shannon has never been better in the tough role of the dying girl’s mother, and infuses her dramatic performance with just enough comic touches to keep it from getting too heavy.

Gomez-Rejon mentioned that he made the film for his father, who was his “best friend and who I loved so much,” adding, “the reason he was as great as he was because of the woman he married,” introducing his mother.

“And most people, even on the outer circle know that I can’t say anything without Scorsese’s name,” said the director, who saw “Mean Streets” when he was 13, which led him to New York” and “the two greatest guardian angels I’ve had in my entire career,” and then dedicated the evening to “GoodFellas” author Nicholas Pileggi and that movie’s famed editor Thelma Schoonmaker.

Other celebrities we spotted at the after party at Pravda on Lafayette included Octavia Spencer, Chris Abbott and Chelsea Handler.

On the red carpet I told Connie Britton she was unrecognizable in the film as Greg’s frumpy mother. “Oh thank you!” she told me. The actress, best know for her sexy roles, wears unflattering glasses and her hair is in a messy bun. As for how she found her character, she told me, “I just had this vision of who this woman was, you know? It’s one of those things where I felt like I had met her before. That was really it, and it was a lot of hair and makeup and all that kind of thing.”

Two days earlier at the film’s junket, R. J. Cyler charmed journalists with his anecdotes, especially about his scenes with Nick Offerman, who plays Greg’s eccentric professor father. His character wears sarongs and caftans and eats exotic foods like cuttlefish and pig legs that he shares with Earl.

I asked Cyler, who told me he ate the food for real, if he’d acquired a taste for the cuttlefish.

“I haven’t. It still makes me emotional,” he told me. “Calamari isn’t too bad. That’s what I thought cuttlefish was gonna be that. I’ve eaten octopus and eel, and shark, and sea urchin before and those are good. So nothing in this movie could be too bad a challenge, right? They brung me to my knees with the stuff!”

[jo]

Hugh Jackman ‏@realhughjackman · 59m59 minutes ago
#MeandEarl meandearl foxsearchlight. THE STAIRWELL exclusive with (most of) the amazing cast and…

http://instagram.com/p/3zlmQ0ihIL

[hughmanity]

http://instagram.com/p/3xp_sCLoQe

[jo]

"Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" is a release of Fox Searchlight, so Hugh's involvement is probably not too unusual. Maybe the cameo and the appearance at the premiere? In his tweet, Hugh mentions Fox Searchlight specifically --

Hugh Jackman ‏@realhughjackman · 6h6 hours ago
#MeandEarl meandearl foxsearchlight. THE STAIRWELL exclusive with (most of) the amazing cast and...

Hopefully, it is Fox Searchlight ( which is very well-known and very successful for its choice of indie film releases, ending up as Oscar winners/nominees or as unexpected hits) which will pick up the distribution rights for "Collateral Beauty".


Check out the impressive list of films released under the Fox Searchlight banner --

www.imdb.com/company/co0028932/

Jo

[jo]

At the ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL premiere --



With Connie Britton.

[hughmanity]

Additional casting news:

variety.com/2015/film/news/jason-segel-collateral-beauty-hugh-jackman-rooney-mara-1201520186/

[carouselkathy]

Not sure where to put this, but just saw it on Playbill.com www.playbill.com/news/article/hugh-jackman-in-negotiations-to-star-in-film-epic-358721

[hughmanity]

Please sign on the dotted line, Hugh!  This would be beyond exciting!

Aug 20, 2015 15:54:59 GMT -5 carouselkathy said:

Not sure where to put this, but just saw it on Playbill.com www.playbill.com/news/article/hugh-jackman-in-negotiations-to-star-in-film-epic-358721