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Post by coolclearwaters on Apr 13, 2017 4:23:04 GMT
How exciting! This kind of story appeals to me and Benedict sounds perfect for the part. I remember him saying that he enjoyed playing a spy because of all the layers of identity (or words to that effect). I think playing a con-man would be similar. Plus, he gets to be charming at least some of the time! I don't see any reason for Benedict to look like the real life character. It's not as though very many people would even recognize the man. Judging from the pictures, he changed his appearance fairly often, as con-men are wont to do. Apparently he is also a very respected play writer. Does he write stage plays? His Imdb credits as a writer are very few, all realated, I think, to John Leguizamo.
I love Jon Leguizamo and think he is a very underrated actor! I haven’t seen Freak in years, but I remember liking it. David Bar Katz’s credits as a playwright are extensive and pretty impressive: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bar_KatzHe was close friends with Philip Seymour Hoffman and was one of the friends who found his body. He is also Executive Director of the American Playwriting Foundation which was set up in honor of Hoffman and gives grants to new American plays. linkhttp://www.americanplaywritingfoundation.org/who-we-are.html
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Post by onebluestocking on Apr 13, 2017 5:29:45 GMT
This sounds great! It's another biopic, but very different type of character. Maybe a little sinister! I loved his slightly creepy, morally ambiguous role in Wreckers. And I'm glad he gets to play someone charming. I guess he'll be doing an American accent for it?
He is so busy these days!
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Post by coolclearwaters on Apr 13, 2017 5:50:51 GMT
This sounds great! It's another biopic, but very different type of character. Maybe a little sinister! I loved his slightly creepy, morally ambiguous role in Wreckers. And I'm glad he gets to play someone charming. I guess he'll be doing an American accent for it? He is so busy these days! The real Clark Rockefeller, Christian Gerhartsreiter, was German and moved to the United States in his teens - so Benedict doesn't have to sound authentically American (Thank Heavens!), just vaguely upper-crust affected. He probably claimed to be a world-traveler, which was actually true, so his marks wouldn't necessarily have been bothered by his accent. Gerhartsreiter assumed many identities over the years, including that of an English aristocrat. I don't know if any of those will be included in this story, but if they are, it could be fun.
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Post by onebluestocking on Apr 13, 2017 11:43:32 GMT
I'm looking forward to this chance for him to do different disguises and accents. I looked right at him disguised as Euros' prison guard in the last Sherlock episode, and didn't even recognize him.
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Post by sgev1977 on Apr 13, 2017 12:48:14 GMT
I read the script. It really seems like a work in progress, esp. because it's full of errors (wrong names of the characters with the dialogues). It's entertaining and very conventional thriller. It's not very dark. It seems to me more an homage to Hitchcock than anything else. The guy is presented like a super fan always quoting phrases from the movies and projecting them to everyone. He is like an antihero from those films but self-made insipered in them. He is described like a narcissist during the trial. To me it's clear he is the main character (not a supporting role at all) but yes there are the classic cynic cops who are trying to discover who he is. There are a few corny scenes involving the wife. I haven't read the whole book but in it she immediately told the police he was not what he said. Here she is presented like an apparently cold woman (the FBI members "joke" that she probably is autistic. The script was from a few years ago, I can see this joke being delated) who is extremely intelligent in her professional life but very naive at a personal level. The murders are kind of underestimated and never exactly explained. Well, the guy explained them with a Hitchcock movie. The first scene is the exactly the same scene described in the book. Even the dialogues!
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Post by sgev1977 on Apr 13, 2017 16:22:42 GMT
I just noticied that the IMDb entry still has Walter Salles as director. Surely it's wrong considering the reports clearly said they don't have a director (and that a few were attached in the past) but Salles is a good director. It will be interesting to see who they hire. The director is the one who more clearly define what they do with the script.
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Post by coolclearwaters on Apr 13, 2017 21:41:58 GMT
I read the script,too. i'm not accustomed to reading scripts, so I don't want to be too critical, but it did seem to need a lot of work!!!
In my opinion, the writer is relying way too much on quotes, especially from movies, to show "Rockefeller's" charm and obsessions. The script also focuses so much the absurdities of this man's claims, that it's impossible to understand why anyone - not just his wife, but some very sophisticated people - would fall for his act. Surely some of his behavior was subtle and convincing enough to fool these people. They can't all have been such dopes.
I do like some of the focus on his relationship with his daughter. There does seem to have been genuine love there, no matter how dangerous, and I think they are trying to say something about the joy of dreaming and fantasy that he is giving her.
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Post by sgev1977 on Apr 13, 2017 23:11:32 GMT
In my experience non-filmed scripts tend to feel "empty" or "lacking" The extra ingredient that make the movie great or not it's the director. He or she is the one who choose the rhythm and tone.
I found interesting how a lot of acclaimed scripts end like mediocre or bad films. There's this article by Richard Brody in the New Yorker actually claiming that great scripts produce bad movies! He is very auteur oriented and just think the star should never be the scriptwriter. He was criticizing the Black List and similar. This script was including in one of these lists.
My main worry with this and maybe Melrose is that it end in the hands of a very conventional director and the tone and rhythm is wrong. I just watched Netflix's The Most hated woman and the tone is all wrong! It's a very dark story from real life but at the beginning it seems like a typical dramedy based in a real life character but it just suddenly become something gruesome without warning. I'm sure a great director can manage criminal stories that combine humor with nastiness but it's not an easy task.
Talking about scripts but slightly OT, I am a member of this script forum in which a lot of member are super fans of the guy who is writing The War Magician. It seems he hasn't been very lucky with his filmed scripts (with the exception of Rogue One, I guess) but at least there he is very respected. I think I downloaded some of his old scripts but I haven't read them.
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Post by dreamsincolour on Apr 14, 2017 0:22:02 GMT
I read the script,too. i'm not accustomed to reading scripts, so I don't want to be too critical, but it did seem to need a lot of work!!!
In my opinion, the writer is relying way too much on quotes, especially from movies, to show "Rockefeller's" charm and obsessions. The script also focuses so much the absurdities of this man's claims, that it's impossible to understand why anyone - not just his wife, but some very sophisticated people - would fall for his act. Surely some of his behavior was subtle and convincing enough to fool these people. They can't all have been such dopes.
I do like some of the focus on his relationship with his daughter. There does seem to have been genuine love there, no matter how dangerous, and I think they are trying to say something about the joy of dreaming and fantasy that he is giving her. I've read it now too, and I was a bit surprised at some of the mistakes in it as well. Just a bit surprising, though, rather than problematic. That it got on to the Black List at all, however, is significant. It did only get 6 votes in 2014 compared to TIG which got 133 in 2011, though. TIG was exceptional in that but 6 votes is still a way off the 51 votes that topped the Black List in the 2014 year. It really is a story that is stranger than fiction, because it really does indeed sound unbelievable. Quite a tightrope to walk, I think, to make it credible. I'd put this in spoilers but I don't see how to do that. The focus on the relationship with the daughter was nice and was the underpinning heart and glue. But that's not exactly going to be an easy, either, because it's not too credible that the daughter wouldn't really make any sort of fuss at being taken away from her mother. And a lot of the weight of the credibility of the story is actually going to rest on her shoulders. That it's based on an (extraordinary) true story doesn't entirely cut it when some aspects of the script are quite incongruous. And I agree with Sgev, above, that this (along with Melrose too) is very much a work that will be incredibly dependent on the vision of the director. In the right guiding hands, it could be a really excellent film. Or it could be a complete travesty. That's presumably why it's been deemed to be in development hell, because it's a difficult one.
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Post by sgev1977 on Apr 14, 2017 0:50:54 GMT
I haven't finished the book but it seems the daughter reaction to the violent kidnapping was actually real. She was scared but then very happy to be with his father. But yes, even if it's real the producers should have look it real.
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