The Goon - Clancy Brown and Paul Giamatti voicing The Goon and Frankie?

Some more Comic Con news. This time about Eric Powell's film of The Goon. Apparantly footage was shown and it looked lovely, in a smashing zombie's around the head kind of way. /film had this to say.

At the moment, Clancy Brown is interested in voicing the Goon, and Paul Giamatti is interested voicing Frankie. We heard their voices in the clips, and they worked beautifully. But since the film isn’t fully greenlit, they’re not signed. The first clip was a ‘public service announcement’ from the Goon, who explained how to deal with a zombie, or slackjaw. “Pick up a hammer or a large wrench, maybe a rusty mailbox and…bash the fucker’s head in!” Then we saw Frankie at a bar with a slackjaw, and got a little dialogue from Giamatti complaining about getting a drink. It’s fun, vulgar and just dark enough.

I think that voice casting is just spot on and I hope they get signed for the feature. Clancy Brown's voice is just fantastic plus he was the Kurgen!

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How about Tom Cruise as the Third Stooge?

With the recent news that Sean Penn was taking a year off from acting this means there is a place within the the Farrelly Brothers Three Stooges film. Penn was playing Larry opposite Jim Carrey as Curly (he is apparantly going to pile on the pounds for the role) and Benicio Del Toro as Moe.

Who could join Carrey and Del Toro? Names such as Paul Giamatti, Zach Galifianakis, Matt Damon, Larry David, Ben Stiller, Jack Nicholson and Simon Pegg have been mentioned.

However, another name put forward is Tom Cruise and out of all of them I think I like that idea the most - although the whole idea of the Three Stooges film leaves me feeling a little cold. He was great in Tropic Thunder when he played quite a slapstick character so he has the skills.

How do you feel about the Stooges film? Who would be the best person to fill Sean Penn's shoes?

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Cold Souls - Trailer

Is your soul weighing you down? Paul Giamatti has found a solution! In the surreal comedy Cold Souls, Paul Giamatti plays an actor named… Paul Giamatti. Stumbling upon an article in The New Yorker about a high-tech company that extracts, deep-freezes and stores people’s souls, Paul very well might have found the key to happiness for which he’s been searching. But, complications arise when he is the unfortunate victim of “soul-trafficking.” Giamatti’s journey takes him all the way to Russia in hopes of retrieving his stolen soul from an ambitious but talentless soap-opera actress. Balancing a tightrope between deadpan humor & pathos, and reality & fantasy, Cold Souls is a true soul searching comedy. Also starring David Strathairn, Dana Korzun and Emily Watson.

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Cold Souls - Cool poster for Giamatti's latest film

It has been a while since I last posted anything on this film (check out some clips from the film), but now we have this excellent poster.

Paralyzed with anxiety over an upcoming role, Paul Giamatti stumbles upon a high-tech company promising to alleviate suffering by deep-freezing souls. Giamatti enlists their services, intending to reinstate his soul once he survives the performance. But complications ensue when a soul-trafficking mule borrows Giamatti's stored soul for an ambitious, but unfortunately talentless, soap-opera actress.

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Cold Souls - Paul Giamatti in action

Rehearsing to play Uncle Vanya on a New York stage, Paul Giamatti feels that his emotional life is getting in the way of his performance. After consulting with the affable Dr. Flintstein (David Strathairn), he decides to try an experimental service called “Soul Storage,” which provides relief from man’s existential burden through the extraction (and cold storage) of the soul. Yet the side effects – he’s now bizarrely buoyant and blithely callous – send him back to “rent” the soul of a Russian poet, salvaging his Vanya but leading to disturbing visions. Plans to reclaim his soul are dashed when a mysterious, soul-trafficking Russian “mule” (Korzun) steals Giamatti's stored soul for an ambitious, but talentless, soap-opera actress (Winnick) in St. Petersburg. Suddenly thrust into the middle of a twisted black market of international soul trafficking, the actor journeys halfway around the world to reclaim what he’d so readily given away.

An indelible story that approaches deep philosophical questions with a light, beguiling touch, writer-director Sophie Barthes’s wise and funny first feature evokes everything from Woody Allen’s SLEEPER to the novels of Nikolai Gogol. Featuring a hilarious and heartbreaking performance by the always-game Giamatti and memorable turns by an all-star cast, COLD SOULS is a poetic, entertaining, and confidently ambitious piece of filmmaking.

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Cold Souls - Paul Giamatti has his soul extracted. ...with hilarious consequences!

The Samuel Goldwyn Company has acquired the US distribution rights to Cold Souls. The film is written and directed by Sophie Barthes and stars Paul Giamatti as himself.
In the film, Giamatti plays an actor that during an existential crisis decides to explore "soul extraction" as a relief from the burdens of daily life.
Sundance programmer Caroline Libresco says of Cold Souls: "Sophie Barthes’s debut feature is strikingly original, not only for its haunting concept but for its poetic execution. Inspired production design and lyrical cinematography create a melancholic, heightened world. Perfectly cast, Giamatti and a gifted ensemble maneuver seamlessly through shifting ontological landscapes without ever betraying the surrealism. With this dazzling accomplishment, Barthes establishes herself as an auteur to reckon with."



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Duplicity - Trailer - Clive Owen, Julia Roberts, Paul Giamatti, Tom Wilkinson

CIA officer Claire Stenwick (Roberts) and MI6 agent Ray Koval (Owen) have left the world of government intelligence to cash in on the highly profitable cold war raging between two rival multinational corporations. Their mission? Secure the formula for a product that will bring a fortune to the company that patents it first.

For their employers-industry titan Howard Tully (Tom Wilkinson) and buccaneer CEO Dick Garsik (Paul Giamatti)- nothing is out of bounds. But as the stakes rise, the mystery deepens and the tactics get dirtier, the trickiest secret for Claire and Ray is their growing attraction. And as they each try to stay one double-cross ahead, two career loners find their schemes endangered by the only thing they can’t cheat their way out of: love.

Written and directed by Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton).

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Cinderella Man, 2005. DVD Review

Director: Ron Howard
Starring: Russell Crowe, Renee Zellweger, Paul Giamatti
Running Time: 144 minutes

Score: 8/10

A boxing movie based upon the life of Jim Braddock (Russell Crowe) who could have been a contender but had to give up his dream after breaking his hand during a fight. To make matters worse the Great Depression kicked in, he lost everything and had to work on the docks to support his wife (the hamster faced Renee Zellweger) and 3 kids. Then, due to a cancellation from another boxer, his manager (Paul Giamatti) gets him another boxing match. He goes up against the number two heavyweight contender and, to the surprise of everyone, beats the crap out of him and becomes an inspiration to the disillusioned American public. This then leads him to confronting the World Heavyweight champion, Max Baer (Craig Bierko), who is said to have killed two men in the ring.

That this is a Ron Howard movie is as plain as plain can be. He ticks all the right boxes and pulls all the right strings to make you totally buy into the character and the crappy times he goes through and that's no bad thing. He makes good, solid movies. The Great Depression truly was a bad time for most people and the way they kept going was truly something special. The scenes with Jim Braddock and his family just eking out a living while everything is against them show exactly what he was fighting for when he got his second chance. The boxing scenes are also done well with the flashes of the news cameras working well for the white outs experienced after a blow to the head. However, they don't have the immediacy of the fight scenes from Raging Bull, but still have a slightly more realistic approach to those of the Rocky movies (don't get me wrong, I really like Rocky as well).

Russell Crowe is brilliant as James Braddock. Often his real life seems to overshadow his acting work and it is easy to forget how good an actor he can be. Paul Giamatti (Sideways, Shoot 'em Up, American Splendour) is once again brilliant. As for the lollipop headed, squinty eyed, perpetually pouting Renee Zelleweger, she just gets on my nerves in every movie she is in, but I managed to overlook that and enjoy the film regardless. I just wish she would stop pouting!

Craig Bierko as Max Baer is almost unrecognizable from his previous roles in The Thirteenth Floor and The Long Kiss Goodnight (he was also Dave Lister in the US remake of Red Dwarf). He makes the final fight all the more thrilling and you are cheering Jim Braddock on to beat the living crap out of Baer.

Like Seabiscuit this movie gives you a snapshot of the Great Depression and the people who suffered through it. Like Seabiscuit it also shows how one thing (person, horse, etc) could bring hope to the people in the most difficult of times.

Well worth checking out.

Phil