This is a real shocker, and not just Hollywood but the rest of America should love it. What a coup for Warner Bros getting The Man on this, the 4th version of A Star Is Born. Of course, Clint Eastwood will produce (as always through Malpaso) as well as direct the script by Will Fetters along with producers Billy Gerber and and Basil Iwanyk and Jon Peters (who made the infamous 3rd version of A Star Is Born with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson). No male lead is cast yet, but the possibilities are endless. The project, which has been at WB for several years, had hoped to pair Beyoncé and Will Smith. But how about P Diddy (who's turning into a surprisingly fine actor along with Beyoncé's husband Jayz), Eddie Murphy (reteaming with Beyoncé after Dreamgirls), or any white guy imaginable though Robert Downey Jr and Jon Hamm are names that have been floating?
Hey, I'm one of those huge fans who thinks Clint can do anything. And Beyoncé scored at the box office for Screen Gems -- one of its biggest -- in Obsessed. (And, yes, I do happen to think she can act.) This is going to be a high profile film but low cost since Eastwood is at the helm. The idea is to start shooting in the Fall.
Of course, Clint has had a huge interest in music off and on screen. He intended to major in music theory in college. He learned how not to do a musical when starring in the dreadful Paint Your Wagon (1969). He played that super-cool jazz DJ in Play Misty For Me, his 1971 directorial debut. He sdirected and starred alongside his son Kyle in 1982's Honkytonk Man about a Depression-era aspiring country music singer. He directing Bird (1988), a biopic starring Forest Whitaker as jazz musician Charlie "Bird" Parker. He more recently has been doing all his own scores for his movies, including Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby and Changeling. Eastwood also partly scored Gran Torino with his son Kyle and Jamie Cullum.
Warner Bros' idea of a 4th version of A Star Is Born has been floating around for some time now. This pic fell apart and just came back together. Back in January, Deadline reported that Nick Cassavetes was in early talks with Warner Bros to direct an updated version of the well-worn story of a love affair between an alcoholic star on the way down, and a young female artist on the rise. There have been a trio of A Star Is Born versions made since the 1930s, the last one coming in 1976 with Kristofferson playing the boozer and Streisand the wannabe. Or even 4 if you consider What Price Hollywood (1932) made by George Cukor which is often forgotten.
as well as direct the script by Will Fetters along with producers Billy Gerber and and Basil Iwanyk and Jon Peters (who made the infamous 3rd version of A Star Is Born with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson).
And for those who DO remember the Streisand/Kristofferson version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e35Yn4nBGzs
(Ah, the days when Mad Magazine writers worked for the Carol Burnett Show... )
It makes it appear like they're STARRING together in the (planned) remake. Eastwood is a Great Director, KNOWS Music, so I don't see where the problem is with the writer of that article.
They'll find a good male lead - Will Smith OR Sean Combs would both be nice choices - & we'll see what happens.
It's certainly not the most natural pairing. That would have to go to Every Which Way But Loose, where a hairy, long-armed primate starred opposite an orangutan.
i don't think it's such an odd pairing, but why do a remake of an oler film (even the 1939 version was a remake).Why not have the two of them do a more original movie.
Tom Cruise Courted to Star in Clint Eastwood’s A STAR IS BORN
Clint Eastwood is gearing up to dip his toe back into the acting game with the upcoming drama Trouble with the Curve, but the director is still pulling things together for his adaptation of A Star Is Born. Production was pushed back when star Beyoncé Knowles became pregnant, then Leonardo DiCaprio—Eastwood’s first choice for the project—passed. Alternates for the male lead were rumored to be Christian Bale and Will Smith, but Variety now reports that Warner Bros. is courting Tom Cruise to take the part. Hit the jump for more.
Several adaptations of A Star Is Born have come to the screen, but the most notable is the 1954 version starring Judy Garland and James Mason. The story concerned a movie star with a career on the decline who helps a young showgirl ascend to stardom. Tensions arise when her star rises and he fades further into obscurity. Eastwood’s version moves the action to the music world as the over-the-hill musician falls for the young star. Hit the jump for more on Cruise’s involvement with the project.
Cruise himself has quite a busy slate on his hands. He scored big with Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, and he recently completed filming the thriller adaptation One Shot. He’s next set to star in Joseph Kosinski’s sci-fi thriller Oblivion, and he recently signed on for Doug Liman’s sci-fi actioner All You Need Is Kill. Beyond these confirmed projects, there’s also another Mission: Impossible to think about and the untitled Les Grossman movie that spins off his character from Tropic Thunder. So yeah, Cruise is a very busy guy.
That said, A Star Is Born might be a smart move for the actor. He’s been working his way back into moviegoers’ hearts following Oprahgate, and he seems to have lined up primarily action-thriller films. It’d be nice to see him stretch his dramatic chops once again, and A Star Is Born could be the perfect vehicle for the stretching of said chops. The actor will be seen signing in this summer’s musical Rock of Ages, so if audiences respond positively then A Star Is Born would be another go-around with a musically-inclined Cruise. The actor has yet to sign on, but the studio seems keen on casting him. If he does show interest, he’ll have to move his schedule around a bit to accommodate the shoot (though Eastwood will be busy this spring with Trouble with the Curve). Hopefully we hear more soon, but for now I kind of like the pairing of Cruise and Beyonce.
Clint Eastwood’s ‘A Star is Born’ Inspired By an Unlikely Source: Kurt Cobain
A Star is Born is a story that has been told multiple times, in different eras, with the story changing a bit each time to reflect the time in which it was made.
Now a new version is in development with Clint Eastwood set to direct, and Beyonce meant to play the up and coming singer who is groomed for stardom by an older musician on the downside of his career. Tom Cruise has been reported as being the top choice to play the male lead, but we don’t know whether that will happen.
What we do know now makes part of the film sound rather interesting, however. This current version is being written to factor in the great state of flux in which the music industry has been mired for the last decade. And the older male character is inspired by one of the major musical figures of the ’90s: Kurt Cobain.
Speaking to Crave Online, A Star is Born screenwriter Will Fetters said of the film,
Quote:
I think I’ve reinvented the Norman Maine character, the lead,” Fetters said. “I wanted to do A Star is Born because I’m a huge Kurt Cobain fan. That was like my Kennedy assassination when I was a teenager. When he died it was a huge horrible thing. So I approached A Star is Born, for me the framework was all right, if Kurt Cobain never got to go Unplugged and survived and it’s 20 years later and it’s now, and he wanted to try to do that album with that understanding as this grunge icon. That’d be tough to get done if he was past his prime, no longer selling, how does he get that album?”
He explains further that the script is still in flux, but that he definitely latched on to adding a layer of modern concern:
Quote:
The love story is there and it’s been done five times, but I was more interested in I feel like right now is an interesting time. My industry’s changing and trying to deal with it. People aren’t going to the movies as much anymore. The music industry’s changing. It’s harder to be a successful artist and make money off it, especially if you’re a dinosaur. If you’re a guy in your 50s, in a world of Justin Bieber, if you’re Kurt Cobain now in your 50s, what do you do? How do you exist in this world?
Nearly twenty years after his suicide, Cobain remains a polarizing figure, with arguments quick to erupt over his talent and lasting value. But I find it difficult to accept any argument that dismisses the resonance Cobain had on the music industry; the decade of popular music that followed the release of Nirvana’s Nevermind was indelibly affected by the popularity of that record. Imagining one of the leads of A Star is Born as the aged version of Cobain is quite a good way to reinterpret the character, and to place the story in a context that makes sense today.
At risk of opening the 'no, this is the oddest team up ever' floodgates even wider the first thing that popped into my head when I saw the thread title was...
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Oddest team up ever, Clint Eastwood and Beyonce's A Star Is Born!
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