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

  • Adam & Steve (limited)- website

  • ATL

  • Awesome: I F**kin' Shot That

  • Basic Instinct 2- website

  • Brick (NY, LA)- website

  • The Devil And Daniel Johnston (NY, LA)

  • Ice Age: The Meltdown- website

  • Iowa (NY, LA)

  • Iron Island (NY)- website

  • Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing And Charm School (NY, LA)

  • The Proposition (NY)

  • Slither- website

  • Thank You For Smoking (wider)- website

 

April 2

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