Jodie Foster has a nose for what's commercial--most of the time. (The Brave One worked fine for me.) This trailer for the family comedy Nim's Island reminds me of one of those Hayley Mills movies from the 60s. Or maybe Romancing the Stone. There's nothing in the Koran that says that Jodie Foster can't be funny. Or that Gerard Butler can't be swashbuckling. On the other hand, this could be really awful.
Accepting a leadership award from Sherry Lansing at last week's Women in Entertainment event, Jodie Foster thanked "Cydney," her long-term partner, for sticking with her through thick and thin. Foster has long kept any reference to her private life out of the public eye, so this marked a significant change for the actress.
Poor execution and bad timing at the end of the most recent horror cycle were part of the poor reception for the horrific "The Reaping" and "The Invasion," which both Kidman and co-star Daniel Craig refused to promote. As for Neil Jordan's brainy twist on the vigilante genre, "The Brave One," Robinov said he is "proud of the movie," which Foster continues to support around the world. "It's tricky," he said. "It may have been too rough for women, and we didn't get the reviews we had expected."
Action features starring women remain a hard sell for many moviegoers. But Robinov said he is still willing to put a femme star into an action role. "But, like any other movie, it has to be the right movie with the right actor and the right filmmaker at the right time," he said.
Jeffrey Wells makes an important distinction in his story about the unsubstantiated rumors that Robinov had put a halt to movies with women stars:
Would Robinov be saying "no more movies with women in the lead" if WB had recently made a film as good and successful as The Silence of the Lambs, Aliens, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or Kill Bill? Not likely. If a sweeping statement is required, Robinov should actually be saying that Warner Bros. "is no longer doing female-starring thrillers and actioners produced by Joel Silver." Silver, after all, produced The Brave One, The Invasion, Gothika and The Reaping.
Agreed. Warners greenlit three violent action pics starring female stars with femme appeal--Jodie Foster, Hilary Swank and Nicole Kidman, respectively--and then marketed the movies like Joel Silver movies. There are myriad reasons why each of these pics failed to thrive. A brainy twist on the vigilante genre, The Brave One may have been too disturbing for moviegoers, who remain uncomfortable with realistic stories about women with guns or angry women who take revenge on violent men. (Angelina Jolie with guns in a fantasy action pic is another matter.) The Brave One required careful handling and may have needed a slower release plan. Selling Foster as some kind of action hero may not have been the best approach. Audiences did buy her in Panic Room and Flight Plan, probably because in both she was a frightened mother defending her child. That's one of the only ways that audiences will forgive a woman with a gun.
The Reaping and The Invasion were both expensive B-pictures that were poor vehicles for any star, and were badly timed at the tail end of the recent horror cycle. Their fate had nothing to do with Swank or Kidman's performances. One thing that Warners and Silver should keep in mind with any movie aimed at women--they tend to be more discerning, read reviews, don't show up en masse opening weekend, and look for movies to be well-executed. Ouch.
Jodie Foster knows how to pick her roles, and she scores with Neil Jordan's The Brave One, which is likely to inspire Oscar talk when it debuts at The Toronto International Film Festival next month. It's also going to generate some controversy for Foster's role as a victim of violence who picks up a gun and starts to use it.
I talked to Foster before she left for Australia to shoot Nim's Island, co-starring Abigail Breslin. (She'll return to do press in Toronto.) We talked about "The Brave One," not her personal life.
Eight new films have been added to the Toronto Fest selection, including a number of potential Oscar contenders: Julian Schanbel's Cannes hit the Diving Bell and the Butterfly; Tony Gilroy's Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney; Gavin Hood's Rendition, starring Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal and Meryl Streep; Neil Jordan's The Brave One, starring Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard; Terry George's Reservation Road, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Connelly, and Peter Greenaway's Nightwatching, starring Martin Freeman as Rembrandt and Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball's Nothing is Private, starring Toni Collette, which are seeking distribution.
GALA PRESENTATIONS
MICHAEL CLAYTON Tony Gilroy, USA
Tony Gilroy (screenwriter, THE BOURNE IDENTITY, THE BOURNE SUPREMACY) wrote and makes his feature directorial debut with this gripping legal drama about an in-house "fixer" at one of the largest corporate law firms in New York. Michael Clayton (George Clooney) takes care of Kenner, Bach & Ledeen's dirtiest work at the behest of the firm's co-founder Marty Bach (Sydney Pollack). Though burned out and hardly content with his job, Michael Clayton faces a divorce, a failed business venture and mounting debt, all of which have left him inextricably tied to the firm. At U/North, meanwhile, the career of litigator Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton) rests on the multi-million dollar settlement that Clayton's firm is leading to a seemingly successful conclusion. But when Kenner Bach's brilliant and guilt-ridden attorney Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson) sabotages the U/North case, Clayton faces the biggest challenge of his career and his life. Produced by Sydney Pollack, Jennifer Fox, Steven Samuels and Kerry Orent, MICHAEL CLAYTON is a Mirage Enterprises/Section Eight production. The film is a presentation of Warner Bros. Pictures in association with Samuels Media and Castle Rock Entertainment.
RENDITION Gavin Hood, USA
Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, Peter Sarsgaard and Alan Arkin head an all-star ensemble cast in RENDITION, a compelling thriller from Gavin Hood, director of the Academy Award-winning TSOTSI (winner of the TIFF 2005 People's Choice Award). Witherspoon plays Isabella El-Ibrahimi, the American wife of Egyptian-born chemical engineer Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally) who disappears on a flight from South Africa to Washington. Isabella desperately tries to track her husband down, while a CIA analyst (Gyllenhaal) at a secret detention facility outside the U.S. is forced to question his assignment as he becomes party to the man’s unorthodox interrogation. A New Line Cinema production, RENDITION is produced by Steve Golin and Marcus Viscidi from a screenplay by Kelly Sane. The film is distributed by New Line Cinema in the United States and by Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Distribution in Canada.
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
BEFORE THE RAINS Santosh Sivan, USA/India
The English language debut of acclaimed Indian director Santosh Sivan (THE TERRORIST, ASOKA), set in 1930s India. When a married British colonialist (Linus Roache) is caught having an affair with his beautiful housemaid (Nandita Das), he convinces his trusted farmhand (Rahul Bose) - a member of the housemaid's tribe - to help find a solution to the potentially deadly situation.
THE BRAVE ONE Neil Jordan, USA/Australia
Two-time Academy Award™ winner Jodie Foster stars in a bracing thriller from filmmaker Neil Jordan (BREAKFAST ON PLUTO, INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, THE CRYING GAME). New York radio host Erica Bain (Foster) has a life that she loves and a fiancé she adores – and it all is taken away when a brutal attack leaves Erica badly wounded and her fiancé dead. Unable to move past the tragedy, Erica begins prowling the city streets at night to track down the men she holds responsible. Her dark pursuit of justice catches the public’s attention, and New York is riveted by her anonymous exploits. But with the NYPD desperate to find the culprit and a dogged police detective (Terrence Howard) hot on her trail, she must decide whether her quest for revenge is truly the right path, or if she is indeed becoming the very thing she is trying to stop. Also starring Naveen Andrews, Nicky Katt and Mary Steenburgen.
NIGHTWATCHING Peter Greenaway, UK/Poland/Canada/The Netherlands
The year 1642 marks the turning point in the life of the famous Dutch painter, Rembrandt, transforming him from a wealthy respected celebrity into a discredited pauper. At the insistence of his pregnant wife Saskia, Rembrandt (Martin Freeman, BREAKING AND ENTERING) has reluctantly agreed to paint the Amsterdam Musketeer Militia in a group portrait, a portrait that would become his most celebrated painting – The Nightwatch. Going about his work, Rembrandt discovers that there is conspiracy afoot after a man is shot dead during routine musket practice. Determined to bring these conspiracies to light, the artist builds his accusation meticulously in the form of the commissioned painting itself, simultaneously uncovering a seamy and hypocritical side to Dutch Society in the Golden Age.
NOTHING IS PRIVATE Alan Ball, USA
Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello and Academy Award nominee Toni Collette star in the feature directorial debut from Alan Ball (Writer, AMERICAN BEAUTY; Creator, TV's "Six Feet Under"). Based on the acclaimed book Towelhead, Ball’s NOTHING IS PRIVATE deals with the powerful issues of female sexuality, politics and racial bigotry, challenging preconceived notions of what is political and what is personal. America prepares for the first Gulf War. Thirteen-year-old Jasira (newcomer Summer Bishil) unwittingly enters into a dangerous flirtation with her mother's boyfriend, and is sent to live with her father Rifat (Peter Macdissi of "Six Feet Under") in the suburbs of Houston. An over-bearing and traditional man, Rifat is ill-equipped to deal with the rapid sexual awakening of his teenage daughter. Jasira's interactions with Rifat, her classmates and the neighbours on either side of her new home – liberal newlyweds and a conservative Army reservist – yield startling consequences, as Jasira comes to realize that she and only she should be in control of her body and her life.
RESERVATION ROAD Terry George, USA
A compelling tale about the lure of revenge and the power of redemption, the drama revolves around two fathers whose families and lives tragically converge with the death of a child. In the aftermath, Ethan (two-time Academy Award nominee Joaquin Phoenix) and Dwight (Mark Ruffalo) each react in unexpected ways as their families struggle to cope and an emotional reckoning looms. Directed by Terry George (HOTEL RWANDA), the film also stars Academy Award winners Jennifer Connelly and Mira Sorvino.
LE SCAPHANDRE ET LE PAPILLON (THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY) Julian Schnabel, France
The remarkable true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric),a successful and charismatic editor-in-chief of French Elle, who believes he is living his life to its absolute fullest when a sudden stroke leaves him in a life-altered state. While the physical challenges of Bauby's fate first leave him with little hope for the future, he begins to discover how his life's passions, his rich memories and his newfound imagination can help him achieve a life without boundaries. Winner of Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival and based on Bauby's internationally acclaimed memoir, the film also stars Marie-Josée Croze (ARARAT, LES INVASIONS BARBARES) and Max Von Sydow.
Jodie Foster has been threatening to play legendary Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl (The Triumph of the Will) for some seven years. Before her death in 2003, Riefenstahl wasn't thrilled; Foster didn't proceed at the time because the German filmmaker was demanding too much control over her own story. Now it looks like the project is gaining steam, as Foster has found a script she likes and is seeking a director. Riefenstahl is a fascinating woman, at once a brilliant filmmaker and propagandist as well as a Nazi collaborator. How much did she really sympathize? That is the question.
Foster picks her roles carefully. This summer she stars in the thriller The Brave One; she's going off to Australia to film the family film Nim's Island with Little Miss Sunshine star Abigail Breslin for Fox-Walden. That will be finished by early fall. Another long-in-the-works project based on a Marie Brenner article, Sugarland, is still in development.
At the weekend boxoffice, George Clooney's period screwball comedy Leatherleads (54% rotten on Rotten Tomatoes) dukes it out with family film Nim's Island, starring Jodie Foster (46 %). Here's Variety's boxoffice forecast. 
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