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Weekend Newsreel: March 31, 2006
Compiled By The FilmBuffOnLine.com staff
The Truth About Brando’s Screen Test:
Much has been
made recently about a newly discovered 1947 screen test featuring
Marlon Brando that will be included as a special feature on the
upcoming DVD release of Brando’s tour de force performance A
Streetcar Named Desire. Shot when the actor was only 23 years
old, the test reportedly shows an intense and raw performance that
runs the gamut from angry to tender to crying. It was Brando’s first
screen test. The fact that the clapper board at the beginning of the
test shows that Brando was testing for a film called Rebel
Without A Cause have led many film fans to speculate what that
classic film would have been like if Brando had been cast in the
role that James Dean would make famous when Rebel Without A Cause
finally hit screens in 1955. However, the fine folks over at
Cinematical have done some digging and have
discovered that the Rebel that Brando tested for was not the
same Rebel that Catapulted Dean to stardom. According to an
interview Cinematical did with Rebel Without A Cause
scriptwriter Stewart Stern, the version that Brando tested for was
based on several case studies presented in psychologist Dr. Robert
Lindner’s book Rebel Without A Cause. When numerous problems
with the script could not be overcome, the project was shelved.
Several years later, director Nicholas Ray approached Warner
Brothers with the idea of a film about troubled middle-class teens
which he wanted to call The Blind Run. The studio didn’t like
the title, and since they had paid for the rights to a book that was
currently gathering dust on a studio shelf, they took the title for
Ray’s film. However, the finished project contained no material from
the version that Brando had tested for years earlier.
Rossellini Restored:
Italian Director Roberto Rossellini’s classic Rome, Open City
(1945) is one of ten films that Cinecitta has announced that it will
be restoring as part of Italy’s celebration of the centennial of the
director’s birth. Other films that will be restored include Paisa
(1946), Germany Year Zero (1948), Stromboli (1950) and
Voyage To Italy (1953).
Lange Honored By Lincoln:
The Film Society
of Lincoln Center will honor Jessica Lange at the group’s 34th
Annual Gala in New York City April 17. The program will include a
screening of clips from Lange’s most memorable performances and
tributes from several of her acting colleagues. Lange made her film
debut in the 1976 remake of King Kong and has appeared in
such films as All That Jazz (1979), The Postman Always
Rings Twice (1981), Crimes Of The Heart (1986), Cape Fear
(1991), Losing Isaiah (1995), Big Fish (2003) and
Broken Flowers (2005). Nominated for Academy Awards six times,
she won Oscars for her performances in Tootsie (1982) and
Blue Sky (1994). In a statement on the Lincoln Center’s website
Gala Director Wendy Keys states “Jessica Lange is a very special
talent. She has an uncanny ability to delve into the female with a
psyche with a subtlety that few actors can match.”
Hollywood To Broadway:
Add yet another
pair of films to the list of movies that are making a bid for
success on the Great White Way of Broadway. Launching into preview
performances this weekend is a stage adaptation of the 199- Adam
Sandler comedy The Wedding Singer, featuring comic Stephen
Lynch in the title role… Meanwhile, producers have already announced
a stage version of 1980 disco musical Xanadu. The show will
retain the original film’s songs written by John Farrar and
ex-Electric Light Orchestra/ Traveling Wilburys member Jeff Lynne.
The producers plan to hold an out-of-town tryout for the show this
fall before premiering in New York City in the spring of 2007.
Opening This Week
March 31
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Adam & Steve (limited)-
website
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ATL
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Awesome: I F**kin' Shot
That
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Basic Instinct 2-
website
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Brick (NY, LA)-
website
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The Devil And Daniel
Johnston (NY, LA)
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Ice Age: The Meltdown-
website
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Iowa (NY, LA)
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Iron Island (NY)-
website
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Marilyn Hotchkiss'
Ballroom Dancing And Charm School (NY, LA)
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The Proposition (NY)
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Slither-
website
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Thank You For Smoking
(wider)-
website
April 2
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