Hollywood
Reporter
Brosnan joins Stratus' 'Matador'
May 6, 2003
By: Zorianna Kit
Pierce Brosnan is finalizing a deal
to star in Stratus Film Co.'s "The Matador," which New York-based filmmaker
Richard Shepard wrote and will direct. A year-end start date is being planned
with a budget of $20 million-$25 million. Furst Films and Irish Dreamtime
are producing.
"Matador" is a thriller that follows
the unusual friendship between two very different men set against an international
backdrop. Brosnan will play Julian Noble, a hit man who has a breakdown
while on assignment in Mexico City. There, he crosses paths with an ordinary,
married businessman from Denver with problems of his own.
"The Cooler" producers Sean and Bryan
Furst are producing "Matador" through their Furst Films along with Brosnan's
producing partner Beau St. Clair in their Irish Dreamtime. Stratus' Bob
Yari, Mark Gordon and Mark Gill are executive producing.
Furst optioned the material, and
when Brosnan expressed an interest, the company partnered with Irish Dreamtime.
Stratus came on board to finance, with Arclight Films is handling foreign
sales on the film.
"We are excited to be working with
such extremely gifted filmmakers like Richard Shepard and Sean and Bryan
Furst," St. Clair said. "There aren't many projects that come along which
stop you dead in your tracks and make you want to go into production immediately.
We were committed to making this movie as soon as we read the script."
Added Sean Furst: "To say we are
ecstatic to have Pierce Brosnan taking the lead in 'The Matador' is a huge
understatement. We fell in love with Richard's screenplay immediately upon
reading it and knew we needed an actor of Pierce's caliber to maximize
its potential."
Bryan Furst said, "This is shaping
up to be what we knew it could be -- a very commercial and unique film."
"Matador" reunites Irish Dreamtime
with Stratus as the two are working on "Laws of Attraction," starring Brosnan,
with New Line Cinema coming aboard in a negative pickup.
Shepard, repped by the Gersh Agency,
wrote and directed the indie feature "Oxygen," starring Adrien Brody. Shepard
also produced the indie feature "Scotland, PA."
Brosnan and Irish Dreamtime are repped
by CAA, which packaged the project.
- Zorianna Kit
Variety:
Brosnan a 'Butterfly'
New roles bond to thesp (11-04-05)
By Ian Mohr, Adam Dawtrey
Moving into his post-007 period,
Pierce Brosnan is looking to shake and stir expectations: Thesp is taking
on the gritty role of a kidnapper who pulls a family apart in the indie
thriller "Butterfly on a Wheel."
Mike Barker will direct the pic,
to be produced by Icon, Irish DreamTime and Infinity Feature Canada.
Icon Entertainment Intl. has snapped
up world rights to the thriller, penned by William Morrissey.
Plot centers on a happy couple with
a seemingly perfect life whose daughter is abducted. Over the course of
a day, the kidnapper dismantles the family's lives with brutal efficiency.
Brosnan takes on the role of the
"Butterfly" baddie after playing a hitman in the Weinstein Co.'s upcoming
"The Matador." Beau St. Clair -- a principal with Brosnan in Irish DreamTime
-- explained that the actor is seeking darker roles following his successful
Bond run.
"This was a very conscious shift,
in terms of the company, and a new direction for Pierce," St. Clair told
Daily Variety. "Darker, edgier roles are really attractive to him right
now. In the post-Bond phase, it's time to take that chance. A role can
box you in a bit, and Bond is so iconic, it can hang on you."
A February start is skedded, with
locations in Canada and Chicago. Producers said further cast will be unveiled
in the coming weeks.
"We believe that is a solid commercial
addition to our worldwide sales slate," said Icon chairman Bruce Davey.
He added that Icon will distribute
the pic in the U.K. and Australia and offer "Butterfly" to international
buyers at AFM.
Irish DreamTime has been developing
the project with Barker and Morrissey, and Marina Grasic brought in the
project to Icon. CAA brokered the pact that brought the various parties
together, and the tenpercentery is partnering with Icon on the pic's domestic
sale.
Icon's slate includes Mel Gibson's
"Apocalypto" and the Brosnan-Liam Neeson starrer "Seraphim Falls."
DreamTime's slate includes the Brosnan-Greg
Kinnear vehicle "Matador," and the banner is developing with Sony "The
Topkapi Affair," a follow-up to "The Thomas Crown Affair."
Infinity's "Capote" is in release
via Sony Pictures Classics. Shingle's "Just Friends" is being rolled out
by New Line.
Date in print: Fri., Nov. 4, 2005,
Los Angeles
The
Vancouver Sun: Matador-hot heartthrob here in February
By: Lynne McNamara
January 18, 2006
Heartthrob alert. Pierce Brosnan
will be arriving here in the next month or so to co-star in the indie thriller,
Butterfly on a Wheel, with Maria Bello and Scottish star Gerard Butler.
Mike Barker will direct for Brosnan's L.A.-based production company, Irish
DreamTime (which was formed in 1996 with his biz partner Beau St. Clair
with the goal of fostering new talent and producing independent and studio
films), Icon Productions and Vancouver producer William Vince's Infinity
Media, Inc.
Executive producers are Brosnan,
Mel Gibson, St. Clair and Bruce Davey.
Brosnan gained my undying respect
back in 1993 while here shooting a teensie TV movie called Don't Talk to
Strangers.
He was sick as a dog with the flu,
but nevertheless pulled himself together for an interview for my teensie
BCTV News segment, Star Tracks. And his greeting: "McNa-mawra, for a Paddy,
ya scrub up good!"
A mensch, if there ever were one.
This was before Bond. In fact when
I asked him if the rumours that he'd soon take on the role were true, he
said he'd heard the gossip, too, but was still waiting for the call. Well,
a few years later, he's finally shedding that glossy image with his role
in The Matador, where he plays a slimy hit man and in Butterfly, where
he'll take on the juicy part of a brutal, kidnapping psycho whose deeds
ruin an upscale family. Exteriors, we hear, will be shot in Chicago.
And Brosnan has just razored off
the Uncle Sam-style chin hair grown for Seraphim Falls, a Civil War era
western, co-starring Liam Neeson, shot in New Mexico and Oregon.
(By the way, did you see Phillip
Seymour Hoffman accept his Golden Globe best actor award for Capote on
Monday night? You may have noticed he gave a special thanks to the film's
producer and his company: "Thank you Infinity, thank you Bill Vince, for
helping us and sticking your neck out." That's because Vince took on the
art house project when nobody else would. His reward: Infinity owns Capote!
And next, the Oscars....
Copyright 2006 The Vancouver Sun,
a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publication Inc.
New Haven
Register: Uma Thurman coming to city to shoot scenes for new flick
By: Donna Doherty
8/04/2006
The glamorous actress Uma Thurman
will have her introduction to the Elm City and Yale in a few weeks when
she and a movie crew hit town to film several scenes for her 2007 release
film, "In Bloom."
Thurman plays Diane McFee, the wife
of a college professor played by Pierce Brosnan, in the 2929 Productions
thriller. The film is directed by Vadim Perelman ("House of Sand and Fog")
and based on Laura Kasischke’s novel, "The Life Before Her Eyes."
The New Haven scenes, tentatively
scheduled for Aug. 21, call for Thurman to get struck by a car crossing
Chapel Street to visit her husband in his office, which will be Vanderbilt
Hall on Yale’s Old Campus, filling in for a Maine university.
There’s also a flashback of a school
shooting incident, which will be filmed inside and outside Sheridan Middle
School on Fountain Street, with actress Evan Rachel Wood ("The Upside of
Anger," "Thirteen") playing the teenage Thurman.
Laura Macaluso, public art assistant
for the city Office of Cultural Affairs, has been working on the permit
process with the film’s location manager, Michael Nickodem, who also worked
on Thurman’s latest film, "My Super Ex-Girlfriend."
Macaluso said the filming dates could
change. Filmmakers hoped to have Yale students, who aren’t in town now,
"milling about," and "with the Pilot Pen, we want people to come downtown
and shop, so you don’t want to have roads closed," said Macaluso.
Qualifying matches for the Pilot
Pen tennis tournament are Aug. 18 and 19, and the main draw is scheduled
from Aug. 20 to Aug. 26.
"We’re working out the permits right
now, which will be based on the film crew’s scouting team looking around
the city at sites that would be appropriate," said Macaluso. "They will
then come back and talk with city and Yale representatives about what they
need to do."
Macaluso said that should happen
next week, and will also involve the Film Division of the Connecticut Commission
on Culture & Tourism.
Traffic on Fountain Street, which
is actually a state road, and city-maintained Chapel Street will be intermittently
interrupted, and some bus routes and emergency vehicles may be rerouted,
but Macaluso said residents will be given plenty of notification about
any changes in routes or service.
California-based director Perelman,
42, recently made news of his own when he was accused of groping two women
and punching another July 22 in a South Norwalk bar. Tuesday he sought
accelerated rehabilitation to avoid charges in the case, which was continued
until Oct. 16.
Donna Doherty may be reached at (203)
789-5672 or ddoherty@nhregister.com.
Daily
Mail: Mamma Mia, Meryl gets to snog Bond! (4-13-07)
MAMMA Meryl Streep starts learning
the lip lock with Pierce Brosnan soon.
The Oscar-winning actress will begin
crooning with the former 007 star in London at the begining of vocal rehearsals
for the movie based on the mega-hit stage musical Mamma Mia!, featuring
the songs of Abba, in which Meryl plays free-spirit Donna, whose daughter,
Sophie, decides to get married.
One of the musical's main strands
involves Donna's three former suitors, each of whom could be Sophie's father.
Brosnan will play rugged Sam and,
I'm told, the film will focus more on his romance with Donna.
Colin Firth has been confirmed to
play 'headbanger' Harry, while Stellan Skarsgard, a popular actor thanks
to his Bootstrap Bill in the Pirates Of The Caribbean movies, is in final
negotiations to play Bill.
Interestingly, the part was earmarked
for his Pirates co-star Bill Nighy, but he has other plans.
An executive on the picture observed:
'You'll certainly be able to tell that Donna slept with all of them.' Meryl,
a trained singer, will sing SOS with Brosnan, before going on to warble
numbers with her character's close friends, and onetime pop group members,
being played by Julie Walters (Rosie) and Christine Baranski (Tanya).
By the way, Ms Baranski played the
harddrinking Maryann in the Nineties TV sitcom Cybill (opposite Cybill
Shepherd) and I recall Mamma Mia! boss Judy Craymer, who is also producing
the film, telling me how Maryann was the inspiration for some of Tanya's
character traits.
Three songs from the stage show -
still enjoying a moneymaking run in the West End, now with Linzi Hateley
- have been dropped - Thank You For The Music, Under Attack and Knowing
Me, Knowing You, although the movie introduces another Abba number, When
All Is Said And Done.
Later this month, the whole cast
of the film, including Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper, as the engaged
couple, will be in London to record the score, then full rehearsals begin
with director Phyllida Lloyd in May before ten weeks of filming at Pinewood
in June, followed by five weeks' location shooting on a Greek island.
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