Spike Lee

Spike Lee to Direct ‘Time Traveler,’ AFI Releases ‘10 Top 10’ List, New J.J. Abrams Film

HollywoodChicago.com — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:58:54 -0700

CHICAGO – Spike Lee has announced that “Time Traveler” will be his next project. “Time Traveler” will be an adaptation of Ronald Mallett’s memoir. Mallett was one of the first African-Americans to earn a doctorate in theoretical physics.

A labor of love for Lee, he purchased the rights to the novel and will co-write and direct the film. “Time Traveler” is being produced through his Forty Acres & A Mule Filmworks production company. “Miracle at St. Anna,” which is also an adaptation of a novel, was directed by Lee and will be released by Touchstone this fall.

J.J. Abrams also will be producing an adaptation soon. Paramount has purchased the New York Times article “Mystery on Fifth Street” that Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions will produce.

Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky have been hired to write the adaptation. Forbes wrote for “The Larry Sanders Show” and Woladarsky wrote for “The Simpsons”. Most recently, they collaborated on the Rainn Wilson comedy “The Rocker”.

The story, which was written by Penelope Green, ran as a feature in the New York Times last week. It talks about an upper east side luxury apartment that had been renovated to include hidden compartments, puzzles, poems and codes for pre-teen children.

Abrams is currently at work directing a new “Star Trek” film and creating the new series “Fringe” on FOX this fall.

The American Film Institute (AFI) has just unveiled its “10 Top 10” list, which highlights the best films in each genre. Here are the AFI’s “10 Top 10” honorees.

The American Film Institute’s “10 Top 10” films in 2008.
Photo credits: American Film Institute

Animation

1) “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” 1937
2) “Pinocchio,” 1940
3) “Bambi,” 1942
4) “The Lion King,” 1994
5) “Fantasia,” 1940
6) “Toy Story,” 1995
7) “Beauty and the Beast,” 1991
8) “Shrek,” 2001
9) “Cinderella,” 1950
10) “Finding Nemo,” 2003

Fantasy

1) “The Wizard of Oz,” 1939
2) “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” 2001
3) “It’s a Wonderful Life,” 1946
4) “King Kong,” 1933
5) “Miracle on 34th Street,” 1947
6) “Field of Dreams,” 1989
7) “Harvey,” 1950
8) “Groundhog Day,” 1993
9) “The Thief of Bagdad,” 1924
10) “Big,” 1988

Gangster

1) “The Godfather,” 1972
2) “Goodfellas,” 1990
3) “The Godfather: Part II,” 1974
4) “White Heat,” 1949
5) “Bonnie and Clyde,” 1967
6) “Scarface: The Shame of a Nation,” 1932
7) “Pulp Fiction,” 1994
8) “The Public Enemy,” 1931
9) “Little Caesar,” 1930
10) “Scarface,” 1983

Science Fiction

1) “2001: A Space Odyssey,” 1968
2) “Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope” 1977
3) “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” 1982
4) “A Clockwork Orange,” 1971
5) “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” 1951
6) “Blade Runner,” 1982
7) “Alien,” 1979
8) “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” 1991
9) “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” 1956
10) “Back to the Future,” 1985

Western

1) “The Searchers,” 1956
2) “High Noon,” 1952
3) “Shane,” 1953
4) “Unforgiven,” 1992
5) “Red River,” 1948
6) “The Wild Bunch,” 1969
7) “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” 1969
8) “McCabe & Mrs. Miller,” 1971
9) “Stagecoach,” 1939
10) “Cat Ballou,” 1965

Sports

1) “Raging Bull,” 1980
2) “Rocky,” 1976
3) “The Pride of the Yankees,” 1942
4) “Hoosiers,” 1986
5) “Bull Durham,” 1988
6) “The Hustler,” 1961
7) “Caddyshack,” 1980
8) “Breaking Away,” 1979
9) “National Velvet,” 1944
10) “Jerry Maguire,” 1996

Mystery

1) “Vertigo,” 1958
2) “Chinatown,” 1974
3) “Rear Window,” 1954
4) “Laura,” 1944
5) “The Third Man,” 1949
6) “The Maltese Falcon,” 1941
7) “North By Northwest,” 1959
8) “Blue Velvet,” 1986
9) “Dial M for Murder,” 1954
10) “The Usual Suspects,” 1995

Romantic Comedy

1) “City Lights,” 1931
2) “Annie Hall,” 1977
3) “It Happened One Night,” 1934
4) “Roman Holiday,” 1953
5) “The Philadelphia Story,” 1940
6) “When Harry Met Sally…,” 1989
7) “Adam’s Rib,” 1949
8) “Moonstruck,” 1987
9) “Harold and Maude,” 1971
10) “Sleepless in Seattle,” 1993

Courtroom Drama

1) “To Kill a Mockingbird,” 1962
2) “12 Angry Men,” 1957
3) “Kramer vs. Kramer,” 1979
4) “The Verdict,” 1982
5) “A Few Good Men,” 1992
6) “Witness for the Prosecution,” 1957
7) “Anatomy of a Murder,” 1959
8) “In Cold Blood,” 1967
9) “A Cry in the Dark,” 1988
10) “Judgment at Nuremberg,” 1961

Epic

1) “Lawrence of Arabia,” 1962
2) “Ben-Hur,” 1959
3) “Schindler’s List,” 1993
4) “Gone with the Wind,” 1939
5) “Spartacus,” 1960
6) “Titanic,” 1997
7) “All Quiet on the Western Front,” 1930
8) “Saving Private Ryan,” 1998
9) “Red,” 1981
10) “The Ten Commandments,” 1956

By DUSTIN LEVELL
Senior Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
dustin@hollywoodchicago.com

Interview: Chiwetel Ejiofor on American Samurai Journey ‘Redbelt’ From Mind of David Mamet

HollywoodChicago.com — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:04:22 -0700

CHICAGO – Chiwetel Ejiofor (pronounced choo-ih-tell edge-o-for) has been a stalwart film actor ever since his dramatic debut in Steven Spielberg’s “Amistad”. Since then, he has been a go-to character actor for directors as diverse as Spike Lee, Woody Allen and Stephen Frears.

His latest film is “Redbelt,” which is written and directed by the great Chicago playwright David Mamet. Ejiofor plays Mike Terry: a jujitsu master caught between his passion for the martial art discipline and the outside forces that want to exploit his talent for commercial means.

Chiwetel Ejiofor (left) and John Machado in “Redbelt”.
Photo by Lorey Sebastian | © The Redbelt Company | Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Mamet weaves a compelling tale that’s set in modern Hollywood. It mixes the movies, an emerging new spectator sport and the men who desire the power associated with ownership in both media.

Cyril Takayama in “Redbelt”.
Photo by Lorey Sebastian | © The Redbelt Company | Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

HollywoodChicago.com recently conducted a one-on-one interview with Ejiofor to tackle all aspects of the unique film including working with Mamet and his new respect for art of jujitsu.

“The first part of the pre-production area was dominated psychologically by my growing appreciation for the martial art form that is Brazilian jujitsu, which is so complex and brilliant,” Ejiofor said. “It’s one of those things that – once you have a plethora of moves you understand – you start to apply them. Then you realize truly how complex it is.”

Ejiofor plays Mike Terry. He’s a noble character, but with a sense of real-world propriety, he accepts that the world is sometimes a bitter place. The people around him don’t share his morality.

Chiwetel Ejiofor in Chicago on March 31, 2008 for “Redbelt”.
Photo credit: Patrick McDonald, HollywoodChicago.com

His wife frets about bills, his connected brother-in-law doesn’t understand him and even a new student (played with jittery effectiveness by Emily Mortimer) seems determined to unbalance his world.

Ejiofor added: “He has an unerring belief in his own moral code. Nothing that happens in the film ever comes close to breaking that.”

He continued: “Mike Terry is a man who has found a way to live in the present. Not to project into the future or reflect on what has happened, he lives in the now moment, which is part of the philosophy of being in martial arts. What I was communicating is the sense that he is still and always will be himself.”

David Mamet combines his famous rat-a-tat dialogue rhythms with a story that he describes as “American samurai”. While he populates the film with stock players like Joe Mantegna, he surprises with casting like comedic actor Tim Allen (here playing an action-film star whose sad cynicism reveals a finer acting depth).

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“I think Tim was great. He really seemed to be right into the role,” Ejiofor said. “He certainly disappeared into it. You felt that he was there and you weren’t working with someone who was trying to find something.”

Regarding the Mamet dialogue style, Ejiofor said: “I was well versed in it just by growing up with Mamet. I studied him in school. I was very familiar with his plays and screenplays. I did have a great love for his dialogue. I knew a bit about rhythms and enough about Mamet himself. I was happy to try and find a way in making that my own.”

Though the mixture of martial arts and modern American commerce make strange bedfellows in this unusual tale, Mamet makes it sing. He even adds Rocky-like fight sequences that work essentially.

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“If anything, the film is commenting on the way of how people through their own volition favor a simple way of living within their own moral framework, but find themselves at times vulnerable to the bigger machines at work,” Ejiofor concluded. “The lesson within the film is that if you maintain your own position, you’ll find ways of engaging if not defeating anything that comes your way.”

This collaboration of Mamet, Ejiofor and the purity of martial arts join forces for a captivating and one-of-a-kind film experience.

David Mamet’s “Redbelt” – a Sony Pictures Classics release – opened on May 9, 2008 at Landmark’s Century Centre Cinema in Chicago along with other U.S. theaters.

By PATRICK McDONALD
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com