By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
The Postman, Minnie Driver and More
As I find myself longing never to write about Titanic again, I think that I can get The Postman almost all the way out of my system today. There’s no actual news or anything, but in L.A. it’s become very fashionable to cleanse your body and soul of unclean thoughts and other waste by force. So, here goes.
KUNDUN UNDONE: After a lackluster release by Disney in the U.S., Australia’s Village Roadshow, Disney’s normal distribution outlet down under, has passed on the distribution of the film. Is it a coincidence that A.V.R. is negotiating multiplex deals on mainland China and Hong Kong that might be complicated by the totalitarian depiction of the Chinese in Martin Scorsese‘s small masterpiece? Demonstrators who camped out in front of their offices last week didn’t think so. A.V.R. execs claim that it’s just business, but that hasn’t kept The Postman from hitting Aussie screens. Village Roadshow hasn’t spindled or mutilated Scorsese’s film, but they’ve definitely folded.
MOD UPDATE: A couple of week’s ago (link to: http://www.roughcut.com/today/hot.button/980319_thu.html), I told you about Aaron Spelling‘s search for two young co-stars to star opposite Claire Danes in the feature version of The Mod Squad. Well, they found a Pete in Giovanni Ribisi, a very talented comic actor who you may remember as Frank, Jr. on “Friends” or from his starring role in Richard Linklater’s SubUrbia. Or, as the theme column continues, from his role in The Postman, which co-starred the original Julie, Peggy Lipton. I love when an item goes full circle.
THE MARRYING MAC: I know this will send all of you away in tears, but Macaulay Culkin is tying the knot (and not around his dad’s neck). At the ripe old age of 17, Mac is engaged to Diary of Anne Frank star Rachel Miner. His publicist tried to get him engaged to the real star of Anne Frank, Natalie Portman, but her ring finger is committed to a publicity stunt in which she gets engaged to Leonardo DiCaprio. Can you imagine the cat fight? (Not between the women, between Leo and Mac). Almost makes you want to make a $100 million movie about a post-apocalyptic world whose primary remnants of the past seem to be made up primarily of product placements. (I know, there was no connection. You come up with a Postman reference that fits and e-mail it to me!)
JUST WONDERING: Kevin Costner will certainly survive The Postman, but does the film’s failure give an excuse to people who don’t want to make Larenz Tate a movie star?
THE MINNIE WATCH: After a month or so of worrying about Minnie Driver‘s love life, here’s a little work news. She’s picked her next film. It’s called An Ideal husband. Oh, Minnie! You deserve the perfect husband! That Matt Damon! He’ll pay for dumping you! With God as my witness, I’ll avenge you! Uh, did I get off track? Driver will co-star in the film which is being adapted from the Oscar Wilde play and directed by Oliver Parker, the guy who adapted and directed the Laurence (“Don’t Call Me Larry!”) Fishburne Othello that burned and crashed a couple of years ago. No one from The Postman has been cast yet, though Olivia Williams would fit nicely, I think.
DATING YOURSELF: Ready for the next “Why Did Everyone Make The Same Movie This Year” phenom? It’s dating schools. Yes, we insane people on the coasts are paying others to tell us how to date. (And when that doesn’t work, some of us are paying for sex. Right, Charlie?) DreamWorks is adapting an article from Mademoiselle magazine (kind of like adapting a political philosophy from a three-fold pamphlet) called I Went to Date School. That dating legend, Danny DeVito and his Jersey Films has purchased rights to the story of the company the Mademoiselle article focused on, First Impressions. And the guy who brought us Wild Things has a script in the market called Date School, about a nerd who gets a date he didn’t expect to get (with the hottest high school hottie) and decides he needs a lesson on how to date. Of course, in that version, everyone ends up naked or dead or both. Much like in, you guessed it, The Postman.
READER OF THE DAY: From Loyd Movie: “Glad you’re as interested in the ‘missing’ Oscar winners as I seem to be. But you left off a few — just a few — like Olivia De Havilland, Art Carney, Joan Fontaine, John Gielgud, Alec Guinness, Goldie Hawn, Eileen Heckart, Wendy Hiller, Katharine Hepburn, Kim Hunter, Glenda Jackson, Lila Kedrova, Sophia Loren, Dorothy Malone, John Mills, Tatum O’Neal, Liza Minnelli, Jason Robards, Anthony Quinn, George C. Scott, Beatrice Straight, Peter Ustinov, Loretta Young, Jane Wyman, Maureen Stapleton and Paul Scofield. Yes, I know many of these stars are close to 90, but 88-year-old Luise Rainer made it! And she’s only one year older than a certain Best-Supporting-Actress-Oscar nominee who should be a winner now and her movie would’ve beat that chariot race movie.”