| 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.
Vancouver
Sun: Rush of filming packs Vancouver with stars
By: Lynne
McNamara
April 22, 2006
SPOTTED
At B.C. Place last Monday
night --
handsome devils Pierce Brosnan, Gerard Butler and glam Maria Bello
shooting
scenes from their thriller, Butterfly on a Wheel.
Long-legged Brosnan, in
jeans and
leather jacket and equally lanky Butler, in a suede jacket looked warm
and comfy, while Bello, in four-inch stilettos and a strappy dress,
shivered
in the rain shooting until the very wee hours. One of the stadium's
entrances
was standing in for Chicago's Union Station, with extras milling about
and taxis pulling up during a desperate altercation between parents
(Butler
and Bello) and Brosnan, who's kidnapped their child.
Vancouver
Province: Brosnan's just looking for a good role (Excerpt)
By: Glen Schaefer
September 24, 2006
POST BOND: He looks
for roles
that can make him a surprise
TORONTO -- Pierce Brosnan
is lounging
at a restaurant table at the Hotel Intercontinental, nursing a
breakfast
coffee. Just off a spring and summer spent mainly in Vancouver making
two
movies, and doing the festival rounds for yet another movie, he's laid
back, stylish -- a relaxed-fit version of that character he played in
those
spy movies. He doesn't mind admitting that those movies gave him the
clout
to do whatever he wanted, but the routine got to him.
"In the early days of my
career as
Bond, I realized I could make films anywhere in the world," Brosnan
says,
in a meandering conversational mood after premiering his new western Seraphim
Falls for a festival crowd the previous night. That movie opens in
theatres later this year. "But I kind of painted myself into a corner
there
with suave and debonaire."
Point out the contrast
between Seraphim
Falls's shaggy civil-war veteran and the chatty 1940s bon vivant he
just finished playing in the Vancouver-filmed thriller Marriage, and
Brosnan
leans back in his chair.
"So what does that say?
It just means
I'm an actor looking for a good role, looking for a good job, just like
any actor is," he says. "You want to be, hopefully, an unexpected
surprise.
At this point, that would be a mantra to live by, having played
somewhat
the same . . ."
He trails off and ponders
for a moment.
"One was educated and
taught and
led to believe that if you want to play a character you must transform
the physical being, the physical speech. Then you find yourself coming
to America and you kind of play the same. You get into a style -- not a
rut, but you find a groove for yourself. You go off and do a big movie,
they say 'do it again.' You do it again, but within that comes a
certain
ennui. You're not scared anymore, where you used to scare yourself."
All of which led Brosnan
from 2002's Die
Another Day on the career track that ultimately landed him in
Vancouver
last March as star and executive producer of Butterfly on a Wheel.
Maria Bello and Gerard Butler are also featured in a close-quarters
contemporary
thriller.
"It's a toughie, really,
thrillers
are always tough to pull off," says Brosnan, who got to play scary for
British director Mike Barker and Vancouver producer Bill Vince. "It's
about
this husband and wife who get waylaid by this crazy, horrid psychotic
guy.
I'm the psychotic guy. For one day I hold them ransom with their child
-- it's not until the end that you find out why."
Almost as soon as that
movie wrapped,
Brosnan signed on to stay in Vancouver for the summer making Marriage,
a quite different thriller set in a 1940s American small town. Both
movies
hit theatres in 2007. American director-writer Ira Sachs resumes
filming
Marriage next month with Chris Cooper and Patricia Clarkson, while
Brosnan
finished his role in August as the questionable confidant to Cooper's
married
man.
"I just loved the
character, it was
so well-written," says Brosnan. "It had such a lovely Hitchcockian tone
to it -- film noir, thriller, romantic, whodunit. We talk a blue
streak,
we just talk and talk, lots of dialogue."
Cooper's character meets
his friend
for lunch and tells him that he must leave his wife (Clarkson) because
he's met another woman (Rachel McAdams).
"I look over my shoulder,
and here
she comes," Brosnan says. "God she's beautiful. She sits down and thus
starts the story. It's really quite delightful. I'm the narrator of the
story."
Is he also the story's
conscience?
"No, not really. The
burden of conscience
does not weigh heavily on my shoulders, because I'm a rogue. But a
sincere
rogue."
Sounds like a fun way to
spend the
summer.
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