Variety On the Town

Minghella's 'Truly' Tribute

According to the late-director Anthony Minghella's daughter Hannah, “Truly Madly Deeply” was not only the helmer's first film, but one of his most personal.

Hannah Minghella, along with several of the helmer's close colleagues gathered at Hollywood's Egyptian theater Sunday for a screening and discussion of the film as one of many events during BritWeek 2008.

“I think this film achieves what great films achieve — it makes you laugh, it makes you cry and it also brings a bit of humanism to it, which dad was always so good at,” Hannah
said, also revealing that the film was originally meant to be titled “Cello,” an instrument
her father loved. She was joined on stage by actor Julian Sands and producers Colin Vaines and Bill Horberg, in a conversation moderated by filmmaker Nick Redman.

“Seeing (“Truly Madly Deeply”) again on a screen, I was struck at how much a self portrait
it was,” Sands said of the film about a woman grieving over the death of a loved
one. “I'm overwhelmed by his presence on the screen tonight.” — Libby McCarthy

(Pictured: Bill Horberg, Hannah Minghella and Julian Sands/ WireImage)

Burton's 'Barber' Talk

The Film Society of Lincoln Center feted director Tim Burton at Gotham’s Rose Hall on Wednesday, naming the offbeat helmer “The Demon Barber of Cinema” in honor of his new film adaptation “Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.”

Although Burton hasn’t made any of his enemies into pies as Sweeney Todd has been known to do, he has had his share of troubles, which he discussed with interviewer Richard Pena during the evening's Q&A.

The helmer wryly expressed admiration for one-time subject, “worst director in the world” Ed Wood. “There’s a weird sort of poetry to it,” said Burton of Wood’s work. “You’d watch his movies and day would accidentally turn to night, and you’d be like, ‘wow, that’s avant-garde filmmaking. You could have made big money in Europe.’ You get the French medal of honor for that kind of thing. He’s not the worst director in the world — the worst director in the world is somebody you’ve never heard of.”

Burton also spoke of his collaboration with Johnny Depp on “Sweeney.” “We tried to make it like an old horror movie where there’s a lot of music under the action. It changes everything; it changes the way the actors walk across the set.” said Burton.  (S. Thielman)

Deneuve's Lesson Learned

Catherine Deneuve chatted with film critic Kenneth Turan, before the unspooling of "Persepolis" at Sunday's AFI fest's tribute in her honor at the Arclight. The thesp said helmer Francois Truffaut gave her the most valuable acting tip while shooting a marital fight she was struggling with in the film "Mississippi Mermaid."  "I went up to him and told him I couldn't do it right because it didn't seem logical to me," Deneuve remembers.  "And he said to me, 'Listen, if it all made sense, we would just take normal people to do these scenes, not actors.'"  She added with a laugh, "He sounded a little nuts but what he said actually explained a lot of things to me." (E. Bertet)

Carrie and Princess Leia's Worlds Collide

While auditioning for the role of Sue Snell in Brian De Palma’s 1976 horror pic, “Carrie,” Amy Irving revealed that she was simultaneously auditioning for the role of Princess Leia. “It was like a cattle call to meet George Lucas for “Star Wars” and Brian De Palma for “Carrie,” Irving said during a Q&A following a screening of “Carrie” as part of The Academy’s Monday Nights with Oscar series. “They had every kid in town going to the office (they shared) where the two of them were sitting there deciding who gets which part.” De Palma said joint casting with Lucas was like killing two birds with one stone.  “George and I were looking for young people for (“Carrie” and “Star Wars”). We had kids auditioning from all around the world. With so many people we thought lets do this together.” (A. Morfoot)

A Tasteful Tea with Ang Lee

What better time to discuss sex and politics with Ang Lee than over afternoon tea? Speaking to On the Town Tuesday at an intimate Focus Features tea party at Tea’s Tea Garden & Herbal Emporium, the helmer bared his inspirations for the pungent scenes in “Lust, Caution.”

“People mix sex and politics together metaphorically.  Eileen Chang, who wrote the short story of ‘Lust, Caution’  said that the ultimate relationship between man and woman is that of the occupier and the occupied,” explained Lee, “In her own life story, Chang’s one true love dumped her while working as a high official in the occupied Chinese government.  In some ways, she felt that the collaborated government was like a prostitute to the Japanese." (A. D’Alessandro)

Jeff Garlin Serves Up Laughs

Not even Jeff Garlin could curb the enthusiasm of the crowd at Busby's East on Sunday where the HBO show's exec producer and thesp was on hand for the Jewish Federation hosted event. Following a screening of Sunday's episode, Garlin took part in a Q&A session, which quickly turned to talk about “Curb’s” creator and star Larry David. “Everyone busts Larry up,” said Garlin. “When you watch the show our little secret is to watch how quickly when someone says something, we cut to Larry and see how quickly we have to cut away from Larry because he laughs a lot.” Garlin seemed to enjoy the Q&A before he had to rush off to host his Sunday night comedy show “Jeff Garlin’s Combo Platter” at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Hollywood. “I’ve already seen this episode probably five times," he said. "But I love seeing it with an audience because that’s rare.”          (J. Marks)

Jack's Movie Memories

Wearing a lime green shirt and his trademark sunglasses, Jack Nicholson was on hand to introduce "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" Wednesday night at the Target presents AFI's 40th Anniversary celebration. Nicholson amused the crowd with some anecdotes from the set.  “The first time we shot the basketball game, Danny DeVito took the ball and threw it against the fence where the camera was. I couldn’t stop laughing," he said. “I also improvised a lot during this period,” Nicholson recalled, saying that the scene in which his character reenacts the boxscore of a baseball game was heavily improvised.

And though the film was based on Ken Kesey's critically acclaimed novel, "The studio didn’t put up the money until they saw a couple of days worth of dailies. They were in once they saw it, but that’s the business part of it." (J. Sneider)

Lucas Talks About Makin' Wookie

At the Target Presents AFI’s 40th Anniversary screening of "Star Wars" on Wednesday at the Arclight, the original Jedi master George Lucas was on hand to introduce the film. Flanked by stormtroopers, the helmer entered the theater to thunderous applause and took a place at the podium to talk about the challenges of bringing “Star Wars” to the bigscreen.

"We were out in Tunisia, and it was very, very cold. I was there for 10 days and I was four days behind. Out of nowhere a storm swept in and knocked down all of our sets." recalled Lucas. "That day was one I'll always remember because that was probably the most fun we had.”

Lucas also explained that the secret to the film's longevity was the script, not the effects. "When the movie came out, everyone said, 'Oh, that's fantastic. It's all about the special effects.' That has nothing to do with it. It really does have to do about a story, the psychological underpinnings and the fun characters. After ‘Star Wars,’ there was about a hundred special effects movies that were boring as hell. Even today, they don't seem to get it." Before concluding, Lucas added. "I have given you the secret," he said. "Go make good movies."                      (E. Maxwell)

Eva Mendes Plays the Waiting Game

If one word could be used to describe the making of "We Own the Night," it would be “perseverance.” At the Variety screening series on Thursday, director James Gray shared his difficulties in casting the cop drama. "I never once had an actor say, 'Yes, I want to do your movie.'" said the helmer. "I was in New York researching the movie and saw a cheesy talkshow that Eva [Mendes] was on. She was obviously a thousand times brighter than the person interviewing her," said Gray. "We sent her the script. And we got the answer: 'NO!'"

The lovely Eva was on hand at the screening to explain her decision at time. "A year goes by, and he's relentless. It's amazing," said the thesp. "Then I heard he might offer it to another actress that shall remain nameless, and suddenly I'm like, 'What?'"  Luckily for Gray, his persistence paid off and Mendes finally hoped on board.  (E. Maxwell)

On The Town Photo Gallery Nicole Fiscella, Jessica Szohr, Blake Lively and Nan Zhang attend the "Gossip Girl" •View Photo Gallery • All Variety Photo Galleries

Gosling's Latex Love

At the Variety screening of “Lars and the Real Girl,” on Wednesday at the Arclight, director Craig Gillespie and thesp Ryan Gosling chatted about their unconventional story that follows the courtship of a man and his latex love.

After a four-year battle to get the film made, Gillespie got the pic off the ground. Nabbing Gosling was the easy part.  “The fact that I was crying at the end of the script…I couldn’t believe that this writer [Nancy Oliver] took me to that place,” said Gosling. “It reminded me of some of my favorite films in a way, like ‘Harvey,’ or a Hal Ashby film.”

Although a pic about a man finding true love with a 125 lb. Barbie is not a classic theme, the director found that auds can still relate to the story. “In the first focus group, there was one guy who was really annoyed and he said, 'I don't get it. Is it a comedy? Is it a drama? What is it?' And a guy at the other end yelled, 'It's called life.'” (E. Maxwell)