Director: Wes Anderson

Writer: Roald Dahl (Novel), Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach (Screenplay)

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Fantastic Mr. Fox is a stop motion animated film based on Roald Dahl’s book of the same name, it will be released on November 13, 2009.

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The story is about a fox named Mr Fox (George Clooney). At night, he steals chickens, ducks, and turkeys from wealthy farmers to feed his family. The farmers are tiered of this and try everything to get rid of him.

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Determined to catch him, the farmers use spades and shovels to dig their way into the foxes’ home, but Mr and Mrs Fox (Meryl Streep) and their four children dig a tunnel deeper into the ground and escape. The farmers decide to play a waiting game, keeping watch on the entrance to the fox hole with shotguns ready, while their men patrol the area to make sure the foxes don’t escape.

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After days of starving, Mr Fox comes up with a plan. He and his children dig further on and end up in one of the farmers chicken house. There they steal some chickens and leave without any sign of them ever being there……

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Released dates

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Russia       22 October 2009

Ukraine     22 October 2009

UK     23 October 2009

Bulgaria     6 November 2009

Malaysia     12 November 2009

Finland     13 November 2009

USA     13 November 2009

Germany     19 November 2009

Romania     20 November 2009

Italy     27 November 2009

Norway     27 November 2009

Netherlands     3 December 2009

Brazil     4 December 2009

Belgium     23 December 2009

France     23 December 2009

Argentina     7 January 2010

Australia     7 January 2010

Director: David Frankel

Writer: Susan Orlean (Novel), Charlie Kaufman (Screenplay)

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Comedy-drama satire film. The film is based on Susan Orlean’s book The Orchid Thief through self-referential events.  The film tells the story of Charlie Kaufman’s difficult struggle to make The Orchid Thief into a film.

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Director: Stephen Daldry

Writer: Michael Cunningham (Novel), David Hare (Screenplay)

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American/British drama film based on the 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title. We follow lifes of three women of different generations whose lives are interconnected by the novel Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.

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Director: Jonathan Demme

Writer: Richard Condon (Novel), Daniel Pyne (Screenplay)

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The story is based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Richard Condon, and a reimaking of the previous 1962 film.

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Teaser Trailer

Director: Brad Silberling

Writer: Daniel Handler (Novel), Robert Gordon (Screenplay)

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A black comedy film. It is based on the first three novels, The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room, and The Wide Window, in Lemony Snicket’s book series.

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Teaser Trailer

Cast: Uma Thurman, Meryl Streep, Bryan Greenberg

Director: Ben Younger

Writer: Ben Younger

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Rafi (Uma Thurman) is a divorced, career woman. David (Bryan Greenberg), a 23-year painter, falls in love with her. Rafi shares her secrets with her therapist Lisa (Meryl Streep). Not knowing Lisa is David’s mother.

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Director: Robert Altman

Writer: Garrison Keillor

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A long-running live radio show is in danger of being canceled by new owners of their parent company. The film takes place on their last night’s performance.

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Meryl Streep talks about Lindsay Lohan

and a prairie home companion

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Trivia provided by The Internet Movie Database:

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• Michelle Pfeiffer was originally slated to play the Dangerous Woman, but then backed out of the project.

• George Clooney was offered the role of detective Guy Noir, but was forced to turn it down due to scheduling conflicts.

• Tom Waits and Lyle Lovett were originally slated to play singing cowboys Lefty and Dusty.

• For insurance purposes, and in the event that 80-year-old director Robert Altman was unable to finish shooting the film, Paul Thomas Anderson was employed as a standby director.

• Robert Altman’s last movie.

• Originally, Robert Altman didn’t like the character of the Dangerous Woman and reduced her role significantly. Virginia Madsen was able to convince him otherwise.

• Shot largely on-site at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota, the home of the actual A Prairie Home Companion radio show.

• Garrison Keillor has been broadcasting the real Prairie Home Companion for 30 years.

• Robert Altman’s wife was an avid fan of the Prairie Home radio show and was always badgering her husband about tackling it as a subject for one of his films.

• Garrison Keillor’s first few drafts of the screenplay were — by his own admission — rather patchy. Altman’s only notes on them were “you’re getting closer”. By the time filming began, Keillor was rewriting scenes constantly.

• Meryl Streep accepted her role “in a heartbeat” as it had always been her lifetime’s ambition to make a film with Robert Altman.

• Shot in high-definition video and then transferred to 35mm film.

• All the music was recorded live.

• Reportedly Robert Altman didn’t care for the character played by Virginia Madsen and had reduced the role considerably. When Madsen came on board, she persuaded him to make it a more central character.

• 44 different musical compositions are featured throughout the film.

• Because the Fitzgerald was such a small building, other stage theaters in the Minneapolis-St Paul region were drafted in as stand-ins. The bulk of filming took place at the Fitzgerald however with the crew using the basement, and constructing fake dressing rooms.

• A bidding war broke out after an initial screening in New York City with Picturehouse ultimately securing the distribution rights for $3.75 million.

• To broaden the film’s appeal, Garrison Keillor considered retitling the film “Savage Love”. Bob Berney, President of Picturehouse, was adamant that the film should retain its original title of “A Prairie Home Companion”.

• This was the first occasion that Robert Altman worked with Meryl Streep. He remarked that she was “25% above anyone else”.

• Altman reputedly directed most of the film from a wheelchair.

• Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin repeated their onscreen partnership at the 2005 Academy Awards when they presented an Honorary Oscar to Robert Altman.

• The song “Goodbye To My Mama” had to be very difficult for Lily Tomlin to sing. Her mother passed away at the beginning of production.

• The Fitzgerald Theatre is in downtown St. Paul and is the real home of the radio show “A Prairie Home Companion”.

• Maya Rudolph, who plays the pregnant character Molly, was actually pregnant during the filming of the movie.

• “The Penguin Joke” was first featured on the Joke Show several years ago. Garrison Keillor mangled the delivery of the joke badly and ever since then the joke has regularly resurfaced on the show.

• When Kevin Kline’s character pops the cork off a bottle of champagne, the cork shoots off-camera and hits director Robert Altman in the forehead. A small cry of “OW!” can be heard and Kline says, “Sorry!” without breaking character.

• Instead of pre-recording their parts in studio sessions, cast members performed live in the theater, singing and playing their own instruments in front of a real audience of whom Robert Altman asked to choose their favorite takes.

• Meryl Streep’s mother-in-law helped her practice the Midwestern accent necessary for this role.

• Garrison Keillor got the name Lola for Lindsay Lohan’s character from the song “Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets” after Lohan successfully lobbied for a place in the film, even though there was no part written for her in the original script.

• The name for the character, Chuck Akers, comes from the name Garrison Keillor’s friend Chet Atkins uses when he checks into hotel rooms

• Was originally going to be titled ‘The Last Broadcast’.

• Kevin Kline’s character Guy Noir is the main character in one of the serialized stories written by Garrison Keillor for the real Prairie Home Companion radio show.

• The “4-5-94″ written on Lola’s right jean leg is a reference to the date of Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain’s suicide.

• When the cast reunites in Mickey’s Diner at the end of the movie, Garrison Keillor, wearing a University of Minnesota shirt, comments on his new job at a parking ramp. In real life, that was how Keillor worked his way through the University of Minnesota in the early 1960s..

>>> WARNING: Here Be Spoilers <<<

Trivia items below here contain information that may give away important plot points. You may not want to read any further if you’ve not already seen this title.

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• SPOILER: During the movie, after the character of Chuck Akers dies mid-broadcast, the Keillor character refuses to stage an on-air tribute to him or even to announce the death on the air on general principle. The real Keillor does not share any such compunction against paying tribute to departed friends and colleagues on his actual radio show, as he spent a portion of the November 25, 2006, broadcast of “A Prairie Home Companion” memorializing director Robert Altman.

]]> http://merylstreep-tribute.com/a-prairie-home-companion/feed 0 http://merylstreep-tribute.com/the-devil-wears-prada http://merylstreep-tribute.com/the-devil-wears-prada#comments Wed, 10 Jun 2009 08:33:34 +0000 anna MOVIES - OVERVIEW]]> http://merylstreep-tribute.com/?p=759 Cast: Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci, Simon Baker, Adrian Grenier

Director: David Frankel

Writer: Lauren Weisberger (Novel), Aline Brosh McKenna (Screenplay)

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Andy (Anne Hathaway), a journalist fresh out of Uni, lands the Job as a personal assistant to icy editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), the queen of the fashion world.

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The Devil Wears Prada Gag Reel

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Trivia provided by The Internet Movie Database:

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• The book that Miranda asks Andy to retrieve for her twin daughters is Harry Potter Book 7. One of the prop books used in the movie sold in an on line auction for $586.00 and proceeds went to Dress for Success, a non-profit organization that assists more than 45,000 disadvantaged women each year as they transition into the workforce.

• A ‘Runway’ issue is displayed behind Emily’s desk, next to the fax machine. It features a cover with three models. It is based on the real cover of VOGUE August 2004 issue, featuring Priscilla Presley, Lisa Marie Presley and Danielle Riley Keough.

• The newspaper that hires Andy is the New York Mirror. The Mirror was a real newspaper that ended in 1898, and often published first editions of Edgar Allan Poe.

• Helen Mirren was considered for the role of Miranda Priestly.

• Meryl Streep’s daughter, Mamie Gummer, played a Starbucks clerk, but her scene was cut for pacing.

• Gisele Bündchen agreed to be in the movie only if she didn’t play a model. Stanley Tucci was one of the last actors cast. Daniel Sunjata had originally read for Tucci’s part, rather unenthusiastically since he had just finished playing a similar character, but then read the Holt part and asked if he could audition for it. Simon Baker auditioned by sending a video of himself, wearing the same self-designed green jacket he has on when he and Andrea meet for the first time.

• Only Valentino, who had designed the black gown Meryl Streep wears in the museum benefit scene, chose to make an appearance.

• Anne Hathaway prepared for the part by volunteering for a week as an assistant at an auction house.

• The idea of having Miranda appear without any make-up in the scene where she opens up to Andrea and worries about the effect of her divorce’s public disclosure on her daughters was Meryl Streep’s idea.

• For the photo of Andrea with her parents, Anne Hathaway posed with her own mother and David Marshall Grant.

• The role of “Nigel” was offered to Javier Cámara but he didn’t accept it.

• The recurrent need for Hermès scarves comes from the novel as in the novel it is Miranda’s trademark that she always has a white Hermès scarf somewhere on her person

• The date of Andrea’s job interview shown in her appointment book is Monday, 13 March 2006.

• The Elias-Clarke Publishing building was actually the McGraw-Hill Publishing offices at 49th and 6th in midtown Manhattan.

• In one of the original drafts, Miranda explains how she started out as an assistant and worked her way up. It is also revealed where she grew up: Pearl River, New York. The scene then continues on to the scene of Miranda confessing her divorce to Andy. This however isn’t true to the book as Miranda was born Miriam Princhek, to orthodox Jews, in the East End of London and started off as an assistant to an English designer. She became well known in London fashion and started learning French at night to soon become junior editor of Chic magazine in Paris. At 24 she changed her name to Miranda Priestly, replaced her rough, London accent with a sophisticated one before spending 10 years at French Runway before she was transferred to New York.

• In the book, Andy’s boyfriend, Nate, is a teacher. In the movie, he is a chef. His name was also Alex in the book.

• The first bag we see Miranda carry into the office is, appropriately, a Prada bag.

• In the English audio track Nigel says that Miranda is not supposed to arrive until 9. In the French audio track, she’s not due to arrive until 9.15

• Anna Wintour, the formidable editor of Vogue (and the rumored inspiration for Miranda Priestly), was not invited to the premiere. She did however attend an advance screening for the press (dressed, head-to-toe, in Prada.)

• Over 100 sets of twins auditioned the role of Caroline and Cassidy (Miranda’s daughters).

• In the last scene between Miranda and Andy, Andy asks Miranda if the lifestyle that Miranda led wasn’t what she wanted. Miranda responds, “Everyone wants this. Everyone wants to be us.” The original line was “Everyone wants to be me.” However, Meryl Streep did not like this line, finding it too self involved and dramatic. At the table reading of the script, Meryl organically changed the line to “Everyone wants to be us.” The line change stuck and was used in the film.

• Emily Blunt was cast before Anne Hathaway. In several scenes, she is seen running about in the background — though never written or directed, she felt her character would always be busy and wanted to keep her alive in the film. Also, most of her wardrobe is from Vivienne Westwood.

• The character of Miranda Priestley is supposedly based on Anna Wintour (her nickname in the industry is ‘Nuclear Wintour’).

• The original adaptation was written by Peter Hedges, with Howard Michael Gould, Paul Rudnick, and Don Roos doing uncredited script revisions.

• Anna Wintour, the powerful Vogue editor on whom Streep’s character was widely believed to be based in the novel (Weisberger once worked as her assistant), reportedly warned major fashion designers who had been invited to make cameo appearances as themselves in the film that they would be banished from the magazine’s pages if they did so. Wintour’s spokespeople deny this claim; however, it is notable that Vogue and other major women’s and fashion magazines have avoided reviewing or even mentioning the book in their pages.

• Many fashion designers allowed their clothes and accessories to be used in the film, making it the most expensively-costumed film in history.

• Anna Wintour, the supposed inspiration for Miranda Priestly, reportedly really liked the film despite initial skepticism. She enjoyed Meryl Streep for her “decisive nature”.

• Meryl Streep donated her wardrobe to a charity auction.

• Author of the original novel, Lauren Weisberger, reportedly based the the character Emily upon Plum Sykes, writer and former assistant to Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. Sykes worked at Vogue at the same time as Weisberger.

• The character of Emily, played by Emily Blunt was not supposed to be British in the script.

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Director: John Davis

Writer: John Davis,Dave Reynolds

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The Ant Bully is a 1999 children’s book adapted into a computer-animated film.  The story is about 10-year-old boy named Lucas Nickle (Zach Tyler Eisen) who has just moved to the neighborhood.

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Teaser Trailer

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Trivia provided by The Internet Movie Database:

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• The eerie insect noise heard when Zoc and the other ants first enter Lucas’ house (to shrink and kidnap him) is the same eerie insect noise heard in “Them!” (1954), when the giant ants are shown on screen.

• The kid who answers the phone at the Pizza Kingdom says, “Hail to the King.” Bruce Campbell, who voices Fugax, was the star of the Evil Dead movies, in which Hail to the King was a prominent quote and the title of the video games that were based on the movies.

• Final film appearance of Ricardo Montalban.