Roland Joffe

Josh Hartnett Talks BUNRAKU and Roland Joffe’s SINGULARITY

by Christina Radish    Posted: August 30th, 2011 at 4:53 pm

Borrowing its name from a 400-year-old art of Japanese puppetry, the fantasy drama Bunraku (available on VOD on September 1^st and in theaters on September 30^th) is about a mysterious drifter (Josh Hartnett) and a passionate young Japanese warrior named Yoshi (Gackt), that both arrive in a town that has been terrorized by extreme criminals. Each man is obsessed with his own separate mission, and are guided by the wisdom of The Bartender (Woody Harrelson), but they eventually join forces to bring down the corrupt Nicola (Ron Perlman), who is at the root of each of their problems. Set in a unique world of hyper-real colors and locations, and combining the themes of Samurai and Western films, it gives the story’s classic conflict a vitality and imagination that makes the dynamic fresh.

To promote the film’s release, Josh Hartnett did this exclusive phone interview with Collider, in which he talked about the visual presentation that the film’s director showed him before he agreed to take the role, how much fun he had developing the backstory for a character known only as The Drifter, how this is such a universal story because everybody wants someone to come in and save the day and change our lives for the better, and the importance of keeping his character’s emotions as real as possible in such a surreal setting. He also talked about how he quit the business for awhile so that he could decide the direction he wanted to take his career, choosing things that are unique in an attempt to break the mold, and how he just finished another film, Roland Joffe’s Singularity, that is an epic tale of an impossible love set across two time periods and continents. Check out what he had to say after the jump:

THERE BE DRAGONS Review

by Bill Graham    Posted: May 6th, 2011 at 5:12 am

There Be Dragons manages to keep the most sympathetic character from carrying any emotional weight. When you try to form a historical epic set during the Spanish Civil War and you miss out on grounding the film with an emotional core, you risk losing your audience in the motions of film making; beautiful scenery, heavy drama, and an intriguing story. But those are the things that Roland Joffé’s film squanders more than anything else. Without emotion, all of the standard qualities form a hollow experience. Worse than that, those not well-versed in Opus Dei nor the Spanish Civil War may not get the full benefit of the experience because they will be left with many questions from the very beginning. Hit the jump for the full review.

New Trailer and Poster for THERE BE DRAGONS

by Jason Barr    Posted: January 24th, 2011 at 2:22 pm

A new trailer and poster for two-time Oscar-nominated director Roland Joffe’s (The Killing Fields) There Be Dragons have debuted online.  Featuring a solid cast that includes Charlie Cox (Stardust), Wes Bentley (American Beauty), Dougray Scott (Mission: Impossible II), and Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace), There Be Dragons follows investigative journalist Robert Torres (Scott) as he attempts to uncover secrets from his father’s (Bentley) overlapping, and super-secretive, past.

As for the trailer, it showcases a bombastic score and beautiful cinematography coupled with what looks to be convincing turns from all sides (especially Bentley and Scott).  To check it out along with the poster and full synopsis, hit the jump.  There Be Dragons opens later this year on May 6th.

Neve Campbell in Talks for SINGULARITY; Jessica Chastain Joins THE WETTEST COUNTY

by Jason Barr    Posted: December 13th, 2010 at 2:29 pm

We have a couple of casting tidbits to send your way this afternoon.  First up, Neve Campbell is currently in negotiations to join Singularity alongside confirmed star Josh Hartnett.  Singularity will be directed by two-time Oscar nominee Roland Joffe (The Mission) and will take place in 1778 and 2015 concurrently.  According to THR, Campbell would play Hartnett’s wife in 2015 and would manage to “get stuck in a sunken ship while trying to retrieve a ring.”  The film is set to begin shooting in Australia and India in January.

Next, Jessica Chastain (upcoming The Tree of Life) has agreed to star in the Prohibition-Era-drama The Wettest County.  Chastain joins Shia LaBeouf and Tom Hardy as confirmed cast members in what will be John Hillcoat’s feature directorial follow-up to 2009′s The Road.  Per THR, Chastain will play Hardy’s love interest, a “a big city woman now living in a small town who at one time was mixed up with gangsters.”  The Wettest County is based on Matt Bondurant’s 2008 novel The Wettest County in the World: A Novel Based on a True Story in which Bondurant tells the story of his siblings and their bootlegging trials/tribulations in a purportedly dry Virginia.  Production on the film is currently aiming for a February 2011 start.

First Trailer for Roland Joffe’s THERE BE DRAGONS

by Ramses Flores    Posted: September 14th, 2010 at 7:59 pm

We have the first teaser trailer for director Roland Joffe’s (The Killing Fields) upcoming epic, There Be Dragons.  The film tells the story of “two childhood friends who become separated during the political conflict to find themselves on opposite sides as war erupts.”  Rodrigo Santoro, Olga Kurylenko, Derek Jacobi, Wes Bentley, Charlie Cox,  Dougray Scott, and Golshifteh Farahani star.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer and to read a plot synopsis for the film.

Final Installment of AFM 2009 Coverage Featuring Stills, Images, and Synopses for DOROTHY OF OZ, JACKBOOTS ON WHITEHALL, ALIEN VS. NINJA, and More

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: November 29th, 2009 at 3:00 pm

By now you’ve probably noticed that Steve got an ungodly amount of material from this year’s American Film Market (AFM). The place where buyers and sellers do business to bring you the films you’ll hopefully be seeing in the near future, AFM has tons of artwork and synopses which are used to promote films but which we will use to bring you news on these films.  We have reached the last piece of our AFM coverage.  It’s been a long and fruitful journey and you can follow it by reading parts Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, and Part 7 by click on their respective links.

Below you’ll find posters for Conan and The Promised Land (The Wettest County in the World), images and synopses for animated film Dorothy of Oz and Jackboots on Whitehall plus images and synopses for the live-action movies Singularity, The Last Dragon, and my favorite, Alien vs. Ninja.  Hit the jump to check them all out. Please note that all the synopses are copied down directly from the original materials with no editorial alterations.

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