Angelina Jolie and Roger Deakins collaborating on UNBROKEN. This large format photo hangs on the walls of the entrance to the Linwood Dunn Theater. pic.twitter.com/qPkjJn7iOy
— My Scary Name *is* Courtney Howard (@Lulamaybelle) October 30, 2022
Angelina Jolie citing the amazing Hamid Mossadegh is really one I couldn’t have predicted.
Thank
you to everyone who made "Unbroken" the #1 movie in America, enjoying
the third-largest-grossing Christmas opening in history. On CinemaScore,
it receives an A- among viewers. If you haven't seen it yet, go!
#Unbroken dips FRI to $12.3M for strong $27.9M 2day start. 4day Christmas wknd heading to stellar $48M. Good aud scores.
— Gitesh Pandya (@giteshpandya) December 27, 2014
UPDATE, 8:30 AM:Studio-reported Friday figures: Warner Bros. is reporting $15.65M for The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies, higher than what the industry thought late last night and a running cume of $142.75M. Universal’s Unbrokenis still in second for the day with a studio-reported $12.3M (cume $27.4M) followed by Disney’s Into The Woodsat $12.2M (two day cume $12.27M) in third. The two look like they’re neck and neck, but the industry predicts that Into The Woods will take second based on slightly better matinees for the PG-rated film over the PG-13-rated Unbroken’s ($11.5M vs. $11.1M).
4:00 AM: Franchises and family films continued to leave buckets of cash under the Christmas trees of the major studios as The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies powered back to No. 1 Friday over new titles Unbrokenand Into the Woodswith an industry estimate of $15.2M. Sony’s controversial comedy The Interviewslid 41%
Friday from its $1.04M Christmas opening at 331 locales, but then most
adult-geared arthouse films were down a bit from their Christmas takes.
Analysts see the Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy raking in $2.7M over its
four days by Sunday.
Meanwhile, Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 looks like it clicked past the $300M Friday, becoming the second film to do so this year behind Disney/Marvel’s The Guardians of the Galaxy ($332.7M). It’s quite possible during January, Mockingjay could take the 2014 top grossing film title away from Guardians. Though Unbroken and Into the Woods
eased a bit from their Christmas openings with respective dips of 17%
and 18%, it would be an understatement to say that both Universal and
Disney are over the moon. Given the lackluster B.O. year, both studios
rightfully made conservative projections on their titles heading into
the holiday with Disney seeing at best low $30Ms over four days for Into the Woods, and Universal seeing high teens for Unbroken over the same span. As of tonight, both films are looking at four-day bows in the high $40Ms.
Further proving the power of multiples for family films over the Christmas frame were the second Fridays of 20th Century Fox’s Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb and Sony’s Annie: Both bested their opening days a week ago respectively with estimated 33% and 18% surges.
It’s obvious holiday moviegoers never get tired of The Hobbit. Five Armies‘ haul yesterday of $13.14M ranked as the second best Christmas day among Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit installments, ranking behind 2003’s Lord of the Rings: Return of the King‘s $13.986M. If estimates hold strong throughout the weekend, and Five Armies collects a 12-day domestic cume of $167.5M, it will have outstripped last year’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug by 19% and will be a few bucks short of the $168.1M generated by 2012’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey over the same frame.
When it comes to World War II films and couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt — Angie wins. True, Unbroken is
a different type of war film that focuses on the human spirit and will,
not to mention it’s a biopic, but it’s projected to outpace a number of
films of its genre in its first four days, including Pitt’s Inglourious Basterds ($42.7M) and Fury ($26.05M), as well as other notable World War II films as Saving Private Ryan ($35.8M) and Valkyrie ($29.5M).
Into the Woods marks a boom for Stephen Sondheim on the big
screen with the musical expected to surpass the $52.9M total domestic
B.O. of his previous Broadway musical feature adaptation Sweeney Todd by the end of the year. Sweeney Todd played during Christmas 2007 and also starred Johnny Depp. The obvious comp for Into the Woods is Universal’s 2012 Les Miserables which also was a Christmas bow. Les Mis boasted an opening day of $18.1M and followed a slightly different B.O. trajectory since Christmas fell on a Tuesday that year, however, by Sunday Into the Woods could be just shy of the $48.8M generated by the Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg musical. Into the Woods’ current awards profile, like Les Mis, is
no doubt impacting folks to flock to the theater: the Rob Marshall
film has three Golden Globes noms for best musical/comedy, actress Emily
Blunt and supporting actress Meryl Streep, while Les Mis touted
four for song (“Suddenly”), best musical/comedy, actor Hugh Jackman,
and supporting actress Anne Hathaway (the last three took home
trophies). Into the Woods’ B Cinemascore isn’t the best of
it. Fans of the musical are responding, and critics warmed to it with a
72% fresh Rotten Tomatoes score. Given how fairy tales are in Disney’s
wheelhouse, particularly with its ABC cult hit Once Upon a Time, it’s
interesting to note that the company didn’t engage the show’s fervent
fanbase — particularly where it thrives on social media — with any
cross-promotional Into the Woods events aside from a heavy spot rotation of ads.
While Mark Wahlberg’s 2010 December title The Fighter and this year’s The Gambler had
different rollouts and awards buzz, the latter is betting on a four-day
cume of $13.4M that’s slightly higher than the wide release 3-day break
of the actor’s boxing film ($12.1M). Among the actor’s R-rated films, The Gambler should file in the middle of those openings, which in recent years have been as high as Lone Survivor which made $37.8M back in January during its wide bow, and as low as 2013’s Broken City which made $8M during its first weekend. Paramount is just fine: The Gambler‘s production cost was $25M.
Weinstein Co.’s Big Eyes is
expected to rank outside the top 10, arriving at the lower end of its
holiday four-day projection. It’s too early in the film’s release to
comment on its progress in just over 1,000 engagements. Key Oscar noms
and potential Golden Globe wins for Amy Adams (best actress
comedy/musical) and Christoph Waltz (best actor comedy/musical) could
propel this Tim Burton-directed film higher. The film has a 72% fresh
Rotten Tomatoes score, which is great because an adult drama such as
this is largely driven by reviews.
RelishMix, which monitors entertainment social media, noticed the significant upswing in The Interview‘s
activity across YouTube, Facebook and Twitter after Sony decided to
release the film in independent theaters, citing plugs made by Franco
(7.8M Facebook likes and 2.7M Twitter followers) and Rogen (2.4M
Twitter). YouTube views for The Interview were at37M last
week. After Sony pulled their social media, 51% of the views were lost
according to RelishMix, but rebounded with 17M when the studio flicked
the switch back on, adding another 50 videos and another million plus
views. The Interview Twitter hashtag #TheInterview spiked to 100k
last week in the middle of its media storm and popped again on
Christmas Eve outpacing #Unbroken, #IntoTheWoods and #TheGambler by over
18 to 1.
Among limited bows, Warner Bros.’ American Sniper should hold its record as the highest opening screen average for a December release, potentially beating 2006’s Dreamgirls’ $126,316 (at 3 theaters) by Sunday. Paramount’s Selmais strong with $214K on Friday. RelishMix sees Selma star
and producer Oprah Winfrey as the key driver for auds, with her social
media reach of 26M Twitter followers and 10M Facebook friends.
Below are the top 10 films based on industry estimates. Friday percent changes vs. previous Friday, Dec. 19.
1). The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (WB), 3,875 theaters /$15.2M Fri. (-8%)/3-day cume:$40.4 (-26%)/ Total cume: $167.5M/Wk 2
2). Unbroken (UNI), 3,131 theaters /$13M Fri./3-day cume:$33.3M/ Total cume: $48.9M* /Wk 1
*includes Christmas Eve previews of $850K
3). Into the Woods (DIS), 2,440 theaters /$12.4M Fri./3-day cume: $32.6M/Total cume:$47.7M* /Wk 1
includes Christmas Eve previews of $1.1M
4). Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (FOX), 3,914 theaters (+129) /$7.5M Fri. (+33%)/3-day cume: $21.6M (+26%)/Total cume: $56.3M /Wk 2
5). Annie (Sony), 3,197 theaters (+81) /$6.26M Fri. (+18%)/3-day cume: $17.3M (+9%)/Total cume: $45.9M /Wk 2
6). The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1(LGF),2,793 theaters (-381) /$3.67M Fri. (+61%)/3-day cume:$10.4M (+32%)/Total cume: $306.7M/Wk 6
7). The Gambler (Par), 2,478 theaters /$3.27M Fri./3-day cume: $8.4M/Total cume: $13.4M /Wk 1
8.) The Imitation Game (TWC), 747 theaters (+713) / $2.8M Fri. (+1,167%)/3-day cume:$7.9M (+821%) Total cume: $14.6M/ Wk 5
9). Exodus: Gods and Kings(FOX), 3,002 theaters (-501)/$2.23M Fri. (-2%)/3-day cume: $6.3M (-22%)/Total cume: $52.1M/Wk 3
10). Wild (FSL), 1,285 theaters (+224) / $1.76M Fri. (+48%)/3-day cume:$5.15M (+25%)/ Total cume: $16.1M /Wk 4 NOTABLES: Big Eyes (TWC), 1,307 theaters /$964K Fri./3-day cume: $2.6M Total cume: $4M /Wk 1 Top Five(PAR), 1,426 theaters (+119) /$1.3M Fri. (+24%)/3-day cume: $3.407m (-5%)/ Total cume: $18.9M /Wk 3 The Interview (Sony), 331 theaters / $612K Fri./3-day cume:$1.6M/Total cume: $2.7M/ Wk 1 Selma (Par), 19 theaters / $214K Fri./3-day cume:$670k/$35,263 screen average/ Total cume: $992K / Wk 1 American Sniper (WB), 4 theaters / $189K Fri./3-day cume:$518K/$129,500K screen average/ Total cume: $758k/ Wk 1
Following a $1 million-plus Christmas Day launch for “The Interview,” Sony’s political comedy is heading for a $3 million finish over the four-day holiday period at 331 U.S. locations.
“The Interview” figure will be dwarfed by the three top wide releases: New Line-MGM’s Hobbit finale, Universal’s “Unbroken” and Disney’s Into the Woods”
are each projected to gross at least $45 million during the four days —
setting the stage for the final weekend of 2014 to finish up as much as
10% from the last frame of 2013.
But “The Interview” has managed to generate respectable results,
given its array of handicaps — a Dec. 16 threat by hackers to launch a
9/11-style attack on theaters showing the movie; Sony’s decision to
withdraw the movie on Dec. 17 after major exhibition chains refused to
play it, its about-face allowing it to play in independent theaters; and
the pre-theatrical VOD release of the film Wednesday.
Forecasts from mid-December projected a four-day launch of as much as
$30 million at as many as 3,000 locations but the “The Interview” is
now playing in about 12% of that total at lower capacity venues.
Estimates of Friday’s gross projected a 35% decline to $650,000.
The wall-to-wall coverage of “The Interview” may have encouraged
people to get out and see movies in theaters at the end of a year that’s
seen a 5% plunge in U.S. box office. Overall moviegoing surged on
Thursday and Friday thanks to stronger than expected launches from
“Unbroken” and “Into the Woods” and an impressive hold by “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” which led Friday with $14.5 million.
“Armies” was heading for as much as $44 million for the three days,
$57 million for the four days and a 12-day total hitting $170 million.
“Unbroken” and “Into the Woods” generated solid second-day totals in
the $12 million to $14 million range. Angelina Jolie’s war drama could
finish the four days with as much as $52 million while four-day
estimates for “Into the Woods” ranged from $46 million to $49 million.
A pair of holdover titles aimed at the family demo took the next two
slots Friday with Fox’s “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb” taking
$8.2 million and Sony’s “Annie” with $6.5 million. The third “Museum”
could wind up on Sunday with $58 million in its first 10 days while
“Annie” will top $45 million at that point.
Paramount’s “The Gambler” added $3 million in its second day on
Friday and will wind up with around $13 million by the end of the
weekend.
It's been a long time since Jon Stewart worked with Angelina Jolie on a 1998 film called Playing by Heart, but the Oscar winner left a lasting impression on him.
"Ever since I met you about 20 years ago on set, I thought,
'This person has talent coming out of everywhere,' " Stewart told the
actress and director, who stopped by The Daily Show
on Thursday. "You meet certain people and you go, 'This person embodies
something different, special.' I've always thought that about you."
In fact, he even came up with a Brangelina-like name for himself and Jolie, 39.
"If you'd ended up with me instead of Brad Pitt, our portmanteau – Stewart and Jolie – would have been 'Stolie,' " he told the newlywed. "We could have been a vodka brand!"
Stewart, 52, was also full of praise for Jolie's new film, Unbroken
(out Dec. 25), which marks her second outing as a director. He
described the big-budget film about Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner
and World War II prisoner of war who survived 47 days lost at sea, as
"epic" and asked his former rom-com costar if she felt daunted by
undertaking a film of such scope.
"It took me off-guard," Jolie admitted. "I remember waking up in
the middle of the night thinking, 'I don't know how to film a shark
attack.' "
"You convince the studio, you say, 'You should give me this job,
I know exactly what I'm doing. I'm so sure of it.' And then you get the
job and you go, 'Oh my, I'm not sure that I do.' So every day was a
challenge," she added.
Jolie, who directed In the Land of Blood and Honey in 2011, a film she also wrote, told Stewart that she enjoyed the "huge responsibility" of helming a film.
"I love directing," Jolie said. "You're there from the beginning until the end, shepherding every tiny detail."
When Stewart asked if her interest in directing came from acting
on films where she felt that maybe the director could have gone a
different way with a scene, Jolie admitted that there were a few of her
movies that she hadn't seen "because I couldn't sit through them."
That prompted an adoring Stewart to lean forward, and as they
batted eyes at each other he said, "Do you want to talk to me about
them, because I've seen them all."
But when Jolie returned the compliment and told the host that she and her husband watched The Daily Show at home, Stewart's interest in her quickly evaporated.
What does the former PEOPLE Sexiest Man Alive wear when he watches the show, Stewart wanted to know. Just pajama pants and no top?
Hollywood-Star Angelina Jolie ist am
Mittwochabend um 21.40 Uhr am Flughafen Schönefeld gelandet. Ihre
Mission heißt: “Unbroken”. Das ist der Titel ihres neuen Films, den
die Schauspielerin am Donnerstag gegen 14 Uhr im Grand Hyatt am
Marlene-Dietrich-Platz auf einer Pressekonferenz vorstellt.
Die Geschichte handelt von Louis „Louie”
Zamperini (Jack O’Connell), der nach einem Flugzeugabsturz im Zweiten
Weltkrieg in einem Schlauchboot überlebt und von der japanischen Marine
gefangen genommen wird. Der Film, der auf einem Roman von Laura
Hillenbrand basiert, startet am 22. Januar in den Kinos. Das
Weltkriegsdrama ist die zweite Regiearbeit der 39-Jährigen.
google translate Hollywood starAngelinaJolie landedon Wednesdayeveningat 21.40clockat Schoenefeld Airport. Their missionstates: "Unbroken". This is the titleof her new movie, theactresson Thursdayat Marlene-Dietrich-Platz presentsat 14clockat the GrandHyattat a press conference.
The story revolves aroundLouis"Louie" Zamperini(JackO'Connell), whosurvives after a plane crashduring World War IIin a rubber boatandcaptured bythe Japanese Navy. Thefilm, basedon a novel byLauraHillenbrand,startson 22 Januaryin theaters.TheWorld War II dramais the seconddirectorial effortof the 39-year-old.
"Unbroken" isn’t about war, either. It’s a spiritual quest of one
man: An incredible athlete and a survivor, how he uses his strength and
training to survive. It's more of a spiritual quest.
How is that represented in the score for "Unbroken"?
It’s very different because "Imitation Game" moves very quickly. The
tempo and the way I used the orchestra in "Unbroken" is very different.
It’s much slower, it’s much deeper, the orchestra is much bigger. It’s
got a great power, and yet it was recorded by the same orchestra.
=======
Kris Tapley earlier wrote that early word from those who have seen Unbroken was mixed and he again restates that "it doesn't sound like its going to be any sort of a game-changer." In other words, that it may not be the Oscar BP frontrunner it was earlier expected to be. Tapley has been predicting for some time that Imitation Game will emerge as the frontrunner. We will know the initial verdict on Unbroken in a week.
"Unbroken" is on the horizon next weekend, but it doesn't sound like it's going to be any sort of game-changer. The only real wave that's been kicked up in this race was by "Selma,"
which finds itself in a position to potentially go far. But the Academy
still needs to see it, of course, as well as a number of these films.
Screeners are landing more and more and the upcoming holidays will be
fertile turf for catch-up. What will play well on the small screen?
.....
Angelina Jolie’s
penetrating eyes are filling with tears. “I don’t want to cry, and I’m
not going to cry in front of you,” she vows, quickly regaining her
composure.
The actress-filmmaker is choked up over the recent death of Louis
Zamperini — a man who meant a great deal to her, and is the subject of
her most significant directorial effort yet, “Unbroken.”
Zamperini, a former Olympic runner, was on a World War II
search-and-rescue mission when his plane went down in the Pacific. He
was lost at sea for 47 days before being sent to a Japanese prison camp.
Over his two years there, he was starved, beaten and faced an adversary
known as the Bird — a Japanese officer named Mutsuhiro Watanabe, who
singled him out for torture. Zamperini returned home a haunted man, but
overcame alcoholism to become an inspirational speaker. His life was
chronicled in Laura Hillenbrand’s 2010 best-seller “Unbroken,” which
Jolie adapted to the bigscreen for a Christmas Day debut.
On this August afternoon, it has been only five weeks since Zamperini
died at the age of 97 due to complications from pneumonia. Jolie is
seated in a room at a Beverly Hills hotel, flanked by two of the stars
of her film, Jack O’Connell and singer-songwriter Miyavi,
who play Zamperini and Watanabe, respectively. Along with the pressure
of being involved in one of the most anticipated films of the year,
everyone clearly feels a huge responsibility to Zamperini’s legacy.
“They say you should never meet your heroes, because they often
disappoint you,” Jolie notes. “But Louis really was one of the greatest
people ever.”
As compelling as Zamperini’s story is, it was not an easy sell.
Possibly the longest gestating project in Hollywood history, it took 57
years to turn his tale into a cinematic reality. Actors from Tony
Curtis to Nicolas Cage at one time or another were attached to the role,
and many directors came and went. In the end, it was an Oscar-winning
actress with only one little-seen feature film to her directing resume
who shepherded the $65 million film to the silver screen. It is by far
Jolie’s most ambitious and riskiest directorial outing — her first big
studio movie. And she did it without any marquee names in her cast; in
fact, one of the most pivotal roles was filled by a Japanese rock star
who had never acted before.
In 1956, Universal Pictures acquired the rights to Zamperini’s
just-published biography “Devil at My Heels,” but a script was never
written and the project languished. In 1998, a CBS documentary about
Zamperini’s life caught the eye of Matt Baer, who was then running the
film division at Brillstein-Grey. Baer met with Zamperini and formed a
fast friendship.
Over the next few years, Baer worked to get a film made. Scripts were
written — an early title was “Iron Man,” one of Zamperini’s nicknames —
and at one point Antonie Fuqua was attached to direct. But the project
never came together. In 2002, Zamperini told Baer he’d received a letter
from Hillenbrand asking to write his life story. Says Baer, “Lou said
he was going to tell Laura, ‘Look, lady, I’ve already written my book,
but if you want to write yours, go ahead!’ ”
But Baer was excited, knowing the book could help move the film
along. What he didn’t know was that it would take the meticulous
Hillenbrand eight years to finish the volume. During that time, Baer was
still knocking on doors. “I would take our script and the CBS video
around to every financier, saying there was about to be a big book about
his life,” recalls Baer. “And everybody said no.”
When “Unbroken” was published in 2010, it was an instant sensation,
spending more than 180 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list. A
new script was written by Richard Lagravanese (“The Fisher King”); when
he left to make “Beautiful Creatures,” William Monaghan (“The Departed”)
came onboard. Still, Baer says, “The vast majority of directors
passed.” Then the book found its way to Jolie after she read the logline
at her agency, and she fell hard for the story of triumph. “There’s so
much going on in the world today that could make you lose hope,” she
says. “To read about somebody who had something inspirational and
positive — it was fulfilling. I wanted to be close to his story. I
wanted to go on this journey and become a better person.”
The story seems a perfect match for Jolie, an actor, director,
mother, newlywed and humanitarian. A special envoy of the United Nations
high commissioner for refugees, she has witnessed the effects of war in
her worldwide travels. Fourteen years ago, when she first began working
with the United Nations, she was shocked to learn the statistics
concerning refugees. Since then, she says, she has always wanted to
learn more and help more.
Her passion was apparent in her first narrative feature, the 2011
drama “The Land of Blood and Honey,” about the conflict in Sarajevo.
Though it earned less than $2 million at the box office, among its fans
was Universal Pictures chairman Donna Langley. “I’ve seen almost every
film about that conflict, and I thought her film was the most impactful
and clearest about what people were living through during that time,”
Langley says. “The movie follows the story of a woman caught in
difficult circumstances, who has to persevere; that’s very synonymous
with Louis Zamperini’s story.”
But Langley didn’t just hand Jolie the job. “She had to work for it,”
Langley notes. “I put her through her paces.” Baer says Jolie brought
in boards using photographs that were representative of her vision for
scenes and characters, and discussed what she wanted to do with the
draft. “It was clear, well thought out, and filled with energy and
passion,” he recalls.” Concurs Langley, “After a few conversations, it
became very clear that she was ready to step up to the task.”
Once hired, Jolie met Zamperini, and a deep friendship ensued. As it
turned out, the two were practically neighbors — Zamperini could see
Jolie’s house from his office, and as Jolie was developing the film, she
would climb on her roof and wave to him. Baer says it was a strong
connection born of having many things in common. “They were both people
who overcame obstacles as children. Both are highly physical. And both
dealt with a lot of acclaim at a young age,” Baer notes. “Equally, they
both ended up using their popularity to try to help others.”
Zamperini’s two children, Luke Zamperini and Cynthia Garris, say their father was smitten by Jolie.
“It was a very close and very affectionate relationship built on so
much admiration and respect,” Luke says. He adds that Jolie’s husband,
Brad Pitt, was also a fan. “When Brad was shooting ‘Fury,’ he was so
excited to tell Louis he could drive a tank,” Luke laughs.
Adds Garris, “The night our father passed away, she and Brad came to
our home and took such beautiful care of us. They cried with us, they
held us, they made a soft place for us to fall. At one point I told her,
‘My father was really in love with you.’ And she said, ‘I was in love
with him!’”
For as long as they could remember, Luke and Cynthia had watched
their father try to get his story onscreen; it wasn’t until Jolie was
onboard that they truly believed it would happen. “With her star power
and her unbelievable focus, she got this film on the fast track,” Luke
says. Adds Cynthia, “She really swooped in like an angel.”
Jolie enlisted a number of top talents who were big fans of the book,
including Joel and Ethan Coen, who were tapped to write a draft of the
script. “I couldn’t believe my good fortune,” Jolie says. “And being
writers and directors, they write very visually, so I learned a lot from
them.” The Coens’ frequent cinematographer, Roger Deakins, also signed
on, as did composer Alexandre Desplat. “You can’t meet Angie and not
say, ‘I want to work with her,’ ” Baer says.
In September 2013, the film officially got the greenlight to begin
shooting the following month in Australia. To celebrate, Jolie posted an
American flag on her roof for Zamperini to see.
Jolie knew the film wouldn’t work if she didn’t find a credible
Zamperini and Watanabe. “These roles are so difficult,” she says. “And
as an actor, I knew this film was going to rise or fall on these
performances. They could sink the film if they weren’t brilliant.”
Art Streiber for Variety
Though name actors were discussed for Zamperini, the book was so
beloved that it afforded Jolie the opportunity to cast whomever she
wanted. But it was a tall order. “He had to be the appropriate age,
because he was a young man at the time,” she notes. “It had to be
somebody who had the strength and masculinity of that era — a real man’s
man, a physical man. And at the same time, it had to be a skilled actor
who can be deeply emotional and make people root for him.”
O’Connell, 24, is a British thesp best known in the U.S. for his work
on the popular series “Skins” and in the thriller “Eden Lake.” When
asked to submit an audition tape, O’Connell enlisted the help of his
former drama teacher, Ian Smith. “We have a creative, rocky
relationship, and he grilled me,” says the actor. “He told me what was
sh-t about it, what was good. And by the time it was ready to send, I
felt polished.”
According to Garris, O’Connell’s audition stood out for many reasons,
but one that turned the tide. “It’s a scene in which he’s in
confinement and being attacked by a guard,” Garris notes. “Jack was the
only actor who fought back. I think that was a deciding factor for
Angelina.”
Jolie went to London to meet O’Connell in person. That night, Baer says, “She emailed me, simply saying, ‘I found Lou.’”
He still had to screen test for Universal, and in a gesture for which
he says he’s profoundly grateful, Jolie brought in O’Connell’s cousin
to read with him. “He had done my taped audition with me, and I
mentioned this to Angie,” O’Connell says.
Even after O’Connell got the part, he wanted the blessing of
Zamperini. Their initial meeting was in a group, surrounded by cameras,
but the second time they were alone. “We sat in his dining room, and he
showed me his memorabilia and I got really emotional,” O’Connell admits.
“He and his family welcomed me in, so I could go to Australia feeling I
was championed by his people.”
Baer recalls that the first time O’Connell and Zamperini met, the
latter showed off his original bomber jacket from the war. “Jack said,
‘Hey, can I try that on?’ And it fit perfectly,” Baer says. Garris adds,
“Whenever I see Jack now, I call him Dad. He’s about as close as you
can get to Louis onscreen, and we all adore him. We made him an honorary
Zamperini for the rest of his life.”
While finding her Louis was difficult, casting the Bird seemed, in
Jolie’s words, “impossible.” Watanabe was described in the book as “a
beautifully crafted monster,” and Jolie was determined to find someone
who was “striking, educated and intense,” and not a Hollywood stereotype
of a Japanese person. Early on, she thought of casting a rock star.
“There’s a confidence that comes from someone who’s a frontman,” she
maintains. “It’s a very unusual thing to be able to be in front of
thousands of people and have your presence affect a room.”
Jolie enlisted Japanese casting director
and acting coach Yoko Narahashi in her search. Narahashi reached out to
Miyavi (born Takamasa Ishihara), a guitarist and singer — but didn’t
tell him what their meeting was about. “She came to my office in Tokyo
and kept asking me questions like, ‘What kind of movies do you like? Who
are your favorite actors and actresses?’ ” Miyavi recalls. “I said, ‘I
really like Angelina Jolie.’ She just smiled.”
Jolie wanted Narahashi to meet with Miyavi before auditioning him, to
find out what kind of person he was. “It’s important the soul of this
person be a great man to play someone this complicated. He has to be
somebody who’s in a healthy place in his life to be able to go to these
places,” Jolie says.
Though he had never considered an acting career, Miyavi was thrilled
at the prospect. Still, he hesitated playing such a sadistic character,
worried it would reflect badly on the Japanese people. “But after
meeting Angie in Tokyo, I was confident to be a part of this story,” he
says. “We can all learn many things from this film, from the theme of
forgiveness.”
By all accounts, it was a tough role for the 33-year-old father of
two. “Once or twice when Angie called cut, he had to run off and vomit,”
Garris says. “It made him violently ill to have to inflict so much
anger and damage.”
Art Streiber for Variety
O’Connell also was struggling; to play the life raft and prison camp
scenes, he estimates he lost around 30 pounds. He then had to quickly
bulk back up for scenes of Zamperini as an Olympic runner. “We wrapped
the prison camp scenes, and five days later, I was shooting a running
sequence,” O’Connell notes. “Thinking about the example of endurance
Louis set was invaluable. Because I was never going to suffer as much as
Louis did.”
Though they play adversaries onscreen, O’Connell and Miyavi developed
a friendly rapport when the cameras were off. “I actually thought I
would keep my distance at first and try to stay separate,” O’Connell
admits. “But the more we’d engage, the deeper our respect developed. In
the end, his support of me and my support of him was important.”
While Miyavi says he wants to continue acting, his director is less certain about her future in front of the camera.
There have been reports that Jolie, currently the highest-paid actress
in Hollywood, is thinking of retiring from thesping. “I’ll do a few
more,” she says slyly. “I’m about to direct something with Brad and
myself, in fact.” That film, “By the Sea,” is currently being shot in
Malta, and little is known about the plot other than it features Jolie
and Pitt as a married couple.
She readily admits that directing is her first love. “I’m happier
when I get to put a camera on another actor and watch them do great
work.”
Though critics and audiences will soon pass judgement on “Unbroken,”
Jolie has already received a rave review from the one person who
matters. The day before Zamperini went into ICU for the last time, Jolie
brought her computer to the hospital, climbed onto his bed and screened
a rough cut of the film. “We were able to show him his life just in
time to let him see all that he had accomplished and reflect on all the
people he’s loved and was about to reunite with in heaven.”
Jolie begins to tear up again. “It’s not about ego, he didn’t want to
be famous. He wanted to make sure his message was clear. It’s why he
did speaking engagements, it’s why he did his book. It’s why he tried to
get a movie made for 57 years. Everybody who reads this book and knows
his life feels very connected to this man.”
Into the Woods marks a boom for Stephen Sondheim on the big
screen with the musical expected to surpass the $52.9M total domestic
B.O. of his previous Broadway musical feature adaptation Sweeney Todd by the end of the year. Sweeney Todd played during Christmas 2007 and also starred Johnny Depp. The obvious comp for Into the Woods is Universal’s 2012 Les Miserables which also was a Christmas bow. Les Mis boasted an opening day of $18.1M and followed a slightly different B.O. trajectory since Christmas fell on a Tuesday that year, however, by Sunday Into the Woods could be just shy of the $48.8M generated by the Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg musical. Into the Woods’ current awards profile, like Les Mis, is
no doubt impacting folks to flock to the theater: the Rob Marshall
film has three Golden Globes noms for best musical/comedy, actress Emily
Blunt and supporting actress Meryl Streep, while Les Mis touted
four for song (“Suddenly”), best musical/comedy, actor Hugh Jackman,
and supporting actress Anne Hathaway (the last three took home
trophies). Into the Woods’ B Cinemascore isn’t the best of
it. Fans of the musical are responding, and critics warmed to it with a
72% fresh Rotten Tomatoes score. Given how fairy tales are in Disney’s
wheelhouse, particularly with its ABC cult hit Once Upon a Time, it’s
interesting to note that the company didn’t engage the show’s fervent
fanbase — particularly where it thrives on social media — with any
cross-promotional Into the Woods events aside from a heavy spot rotation of ads.
Weinstein Co.’s Big Eyes is
expected to rank outside the top 10, arriving at the lower end of its
holiday four-day projection. It’s too early in the film’s release to
comment on its progress in just over 1,000 engagements. Key Oscar noms
and potential Golden Globe wins for Amy Adams (best actress
comedy/musical) and Christoph Waltz (best actor comedy/musical) could
propel this Tim Burton-directed film higher. The film has a 72% fresh
Rotten Tomatoes score, which is great because an adult drama such as
this is largely driven by reviews.
RelishMix, which monitors entertainment social media, noticed the significant upswing in The Interview‘s
activity across YouTube, Facebook and Twitter after Sony decided to
release the film in independent theaters, citing plugs made by Franco
(7.8M Facebook likes and 2.7M Twitter followers) and Rogen (2.4M
Twitter). YouTube views for The Interview were at 37M last
week. After Sony pulled their social media, 51% of the views were lost
according to RelishMix, but rebounded with 17M when the studio flicked
the switch back on, adding another 50 videos and another million plus
views. The Interview Twitter hashtag #TheInterview spiked to 100k
last week in the middle of its media storm and popped again on
Christmas Eve outpacing #Unbroken, #IntoTheWoods and #TheGambler by over
18 to 1.
