L.A. Times, KOH directors cut, Japan Times

Today's Calendar Live section of L.A. Times has an article on the expansion of the film market to China. There's not much on The Painted Veil but it does include a new picture of EN from the film (the same guy always does his promo shots). L.A. Times: Crouching U.S. studios, hidden Chinese market

The Hollywood Reporter (Dec 22) states that the director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven (includes an extra 45 minutes) will have an exclusive engagement at the Laemmle Fairfax Theater in Los Angeles. Are there any additional scenes that feature EN? I don't know, but since the HR article mentioned that the original cut was a "breakout hit on DVD", it seems only a matter of time before a new DVD release. [Thanks to huihui for the info!]

The Japan Times (Dec 29) included Down in the Valley as one of the top 10 films of 2005 due to EN's performance. There is no info as to when it will be released in the U.S. - I don't know whether it even has a U.S. distributor. Below are the excerpts from the article Scene stealers.

"Down in the Valley": As a delusional mid-life guy named Harlan who thinks he's a cowboy, Edward Norton is brilliant. There's something evangelical about the way Harlan tries his darndest to spread the word: cars are bad and people should ride horses, men should behave like gentlemen but carry handguns and hone their shooting skills. In another age, Harlan would have been a hero; in this one, he's a crackpot. Harlan knows it, won't admit it and winds up staging his own inevitable tragedy.

The holidays were not as I had hoped. My lovebird came down with a serious respiratory illness and I cancelled my travel plans. I've spent a lot of time worrying whether she would get through it. I also had $400 worth of car repairs. Plus my problems with the damaged air conditioning unit are nowhere near resolved. So I've spent an unhealthy amount of time watching all 13 episodes of Epitafios on HBO on Demand, as well rewatching over and over the Britcom Coupling on DVD, while handfeeding the lovebird. With all the unexpected expenses, I've had a lot less money to give to charity. If your fortunes have been good this year, please consider donating to a charity. EN has been a generous donor to several charities including The Enterprise Foundation, the Nature Conservancy, the Signature Theater Company, and Friends of the High Line to name a few. A more extensive list of his favorite charities can be found on the charity page. If your wallet has been overextended this year, why not do what I did and donate blood. Find a blood drive

Birdie in happier times (and one of the few times she's actually standing still)

EN is not one of the Headhunters

I just came across an article touting that Nicole Kidman will be going to China for her upcoming film Headhunters early next year. This article also states that EN and Ewan McGregor are costaring. I have never heard of EN in connection with this film. EN just returned from China where he spent around 3 mos. filming The Painted Veil. Also, EN already has a film early next year - Pride and Glory is scheduled to start filming in Feb in New York. The only cast member listed on IMDB.com for Headhunters is Kidman. When I started looking for more info on this, I found that the synopses were strangely divergent. From my just discovered article: "The film tells a story of love and betrayal, in which Nicole plays a schizophrenic who is the lover of the character played by Ewan McGregor." However the Sep 25, 2005 annoucement of the Headhunters in Variety states the film will be an adaptation of a comic novel of the same name where "four New Jersey women who jet to Monte Carlo and pretend to be rich heiresses in hopes of landing wealthy husbands. There, they are targeted by four down-on-their-luck gigolos trying to pass as wealthy playboys." I usually try to give the benefit of the doubt, but I'm waiting on something a little more concrete before believing it. Here is the article Nicole Heading for China for "Headhunters" [FLATBROKE's NOTE: It has been confirmed that Edward Norton is not involved with this film]

Pride and Glory update, the unanswered questions

Today's Hollywood Reporter has news on Pride and Glory. Lake Bell is in negotiations to join the cast. The most important piece of news that I took from the article is that filming is now scheduled to start in February in New York. The casting announcement of EN back in late September stated that filming would begin in Jan. The cast includes EN, Colin Farrell, Nick Nolte, Samantha Morton and Noah Emmerich. More on Pride and Glory. Below is a synopsis from today's article

Bell will play Megan, who is married to tough cop Jimmy Egan (Farrell). When she discovers her husband's complicity in a police corruption scandal that her brother (Norton) is investigating, she must choose between her husband and her family.

The delay is probably a good thing since the world premiere of The Illusionist will be in late Jan at the Sundance Film Festival. Hopefully, that will be a chance for more interviews and more of an idea of what to expect in the future from EN. Other than the Vogue Hommes article, there has been little about EN's upcoming work except announcements in the trades. For as much as I welcomed the appearance of the Vogue Hommes article, it didn't address the kind of questions that I have. EN is well-respected in the business and has a wide range of roles available to him. Each role represents months of work. What is it about each of these upcoming films that drew EN to them? What experiences making the film had the most impact upon him (in finding his character or as a person)? He could work nonstop if that's what he wanted. Why spend so much time away from on camera roles (between Italian Job and Kingdom of Heaven)? What is it about Motherless Brooklyn that makes EN want to work on it for over 6 years? Or the Painted Veil (also about six yearas worth of work)? EN received wonderful reviews for Kingdom of Heaven and the comments by Eva Green (Sibylla) about working with him were very interesting. But he didn't provide any enlightenment on his role. Anyone who saw his performance knows that there is so much more to it than just the James Mason voice. Although, if I were him, I don't know if I would talk about anything that substantial. After all, his remarks from his September Painted Veil press conference were misquoted and ended up in wide circulation. Why should he put himself out on a limb when the press is mainly concerned about superficial items anyway? I guess we'll have to see what comes out in January.

Golden Satellites

EN was nominated for a Golden Satellite award for best supporting actor in a drama for Kingdom of Heaven. Check out all the Golden Satellite nominations. Awards will be presented on December 17 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills [Thanks to rainbowland and Kamila for the info!!!].

Back to his roots, Girl In Heat, Girl with no A/C

Toby Orenstein was EN's first drama teacher when he was growing up in Columbia, MD and has owned Toby's Dinner Theatre there for many years. According to today's Baltimore Sun, EN is expected to attend the opening of a second location, Toby's Baltimore. The opening will be a fundraiser for the Center for Theatrical Arts, which is an educational, nonprofit arm of Toby's that tours schools and offers classes and a summer camp. It's Toby's times two: Theater to open in Canton

I received an email from the Michael Weller Theatre about their upcoming production "Girl in Heat" which included the following quote from EN - "Nelson Avidon is a terrific actor and 'Girl in Heat' is a breakout role. This is an edgy, smart, challenging play." There isn't any info on the production on their website- brokenwatch.org. However, Theatermania.com has posted info on the play.

So what am I getting for Christmas? A new air conditioning unit! And why do I need a new air conditioning unit? Because a 57 foot tree fell on my perfectly functioning 3 year old unit the night before Thanksgiving during a wind storm. Since I'm in a condo, my insurance company has to review all the condo paperwork to make sure it's my responsibility (as opposed to the condo management company which stated immediately that it's my responsibility). Though I won't need it for a while (we're expecting snow tonight), I just want everything settled as soon as possible.

Illusionist world premiere

The lineup for the 2006 Sundance Film Festival was announced yesterday. The Illusionist will be making its world premiere at the Festival. Sundance official site

Shootout DVD

EN's 10/12/03 interview on Sunday Morning Shootout is included on an upcoming DVD set Sunday Morning Shootout: The Best of Season 1 DVD. His interview is on Disc 3:The New Breed of Leading Men. It will be available December 27, 2005 with a choice of either a 6-pack deluxe set or individual 2-packs. For more info, go to the DVD's official website [Thanks to Noam for the info!]

Painted Veil Filming Over?

Phily.com has an AP story on tonight's game between the New York Knicks and the Philadelphia 76ers. It mentions that EN was present at the NYC game. So is he on a Thanksgiving break from The Painted Veil or has filming been completed? I don't know for sure. Over the weekend, I checked the weekly version of the Hollywood Reporter (I believe it was the edition for the second week of Nov) and The Painted Veil was still in the production listings. However, a casting announcement (mentioned in Aug 18 post) requires people through 11/7. Filming apparently started Aug 15 and was scheduled to last 12 weeks. EN probably won't be getting much free time since filming on Pride and Glory is supposed to start in January. Plus, EN also would spend time preparing for the role and before filming, there might be rehearsal time.

Pride and Glory casting update

Today's Hollywood Reporter states that Nick Nolte and Samantha Morton may join the cast of Pride and Glory. In the last info on this project, EN was in negotiations, but from the wording, it appears that he has definitely committed to the film

Morton, Nolte show 'Pride' for New Line

Nick Nolte and Samantha Morton are in negotiations to join the cast of New Line's "Pride and Glory," a generational drama about a family of police officers, being directed by Gavin O'Connor and produced by Greg O'Connor. Colin Farrell, Edward Norton and Noah Emmerich already are on board. Written by Gavin O'Connor and Joe Carnahan, the story focuses on a three-generation family of officers torn apart by a corruption scandal. Nolte will play the family patriarch, a New York Police Department deputy chief of detectives who has spent 40-plus years on the job. He is the father of Ray (Norton), who is investigating the precinct run by Nolte's other son (Emmerich).

Painted Veil photo, old fan mail addresses

There's a new Painted Veil photo of director John Curran, EN, and Naomi Watts. [Thanks to Monica and huihui for the info!]

Ever since I posted the news that EN's talent agency Endeavor is sending back his fan mail, I've received emails about other addresses. As I wrote on the fan mail page, the addresses for Banner Entertainment and CAA are old addresses. These addresses have not been valid since 1998. The problem is not that the address I posted is outdated. He is represented by Endeavor. The problem is that Endeavor is not accepting his fan mail - I don't understand this policy.

Vogue Hommes article and photos, Painted Veil photo

EN makes the cover of Vogue Hommes Fall/Winter 2005-2005. Red Dragon director Brett Ratner took the pictures that accompany the article. Article and scans

The first photo of Naomi Watts in The Painted Veil has been posted on Sina.com [Source Monkey Peaches]

Down in the Valley trailer and official sites, No Mailbox for Edward?

The Down in the Valley trailer has been posted [Thanks to Danielle, J, and huihui for the info!] (I reached it before, but at 8:15 AM the link does not seem to be working- hopefully it's temporary). There's no info as to when it will hit theaters, however the first of the official sites seems to be up. The official Japanese site is up with some sections open [Thanks to Danielle for the info!]

I received an email from someone that had sent a fan letter only to have it returned unopened with the rationale "No Mail Receptacle". I find this very disturbing because there is no reason for it. EN is still represented by Endeavor and they have an obligation to handle his mail. Fan mail is the only opportunity for most individuals to interact with an actor. Therefore, how the fan mail is treated is an indicator of the value that an actor places on his/her relationship with the audience. The sheer volume of fan mail precludes the possibility that every person will receive a personalized response. But a response, even by form letter and autopen, acknowledges the importance of the relationship. It can take a long time to write a letter that adequately describes the visceral reactions that one can have from a good film. With box office turnout declining, the relationship becomes even more vital. Even with Charlize Theron toplining, good reviews, a media blitz, and the requisite Oscar buzz, North Country pulled in only $6.5 million on its opening weekend. In comparison, if you are bothering to read this entry, chances are pretty good that you saw Death to Smoochy when it was in theaters and/or you own the DVD. Plus with message boards and blogs, how an actor treats his/her fans easily becomes common knowledge. It may not put more people in the seats, but it can prevent the core audience from leaving. Could this be a one time mistake? It's not. I received another email a while back with a similar story of having the letter sent back. I chalked that one up to an anomaly. Hopefully, this mistake will be resolved soon. [ NOTE: Banner Entertainment and CAA are old addresses]

It's been a very busy time. I've been holding back on any panda cub related updates. I did go to the naming ceremony (his name is Tai Shan which means "Peaceful Mountain") as well as the lecture which included a video of his birth. I attended a few International Spy Museum lectures: Engineering Communism and one by Patrick Radden Keefe, the author of "Chatter". Work has been overwhelming as well. Somewhere in between this chaos, I also celebrated my 33rd bday.

The Ugly American, Mother on Fire

Another non-EN related post. My favorite audiobook by far is 21 Dog Years: Doing Time at Amazon.com by Mike Daisey. Daisey is a great storyteller, so I was excited to hear his latest monologue "The Ugly American" which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4's The Afternoon Play on Oct 12. You can hear it on their website, but it will only be available for a few more days (until next Wednesday's play is posted). In "The Ugly American", Daisey describes his experience learning acting in London by day and acting in fringe theater at night. It is a look in the mind of the beginning actor. The Ugly American.

Another of my favorites, Sandra Tsing Loh, is performing Mother on Fire. She received a favorable review from Variety in this show where she outlines her efforts in trying to get her daughter into a good school (a topic she's been talking about in her weekly monologues The Loh Life). I've enjoyed her books and monologues on life in southern California for a number of years and saw her last show "I Worry" when it played at the Kennedy Center. Mother on Fire is at the 24th Street Theatre in LA through November 6

Panda Cam Obsession- he crawls

Forgive me for another indulgence of my obsession with the National Zoo Panda cam. It was a busy morning for the cub. He's finally figured out crawling and spent time exploring the other areas of the den. He was also squealing for mom Mei Xiang, who was resting outside and blissfully unaware of this new development that will soon curtail her free time. He would crawl his way around the den, then return to his regular spot and nap. He's done this twice this morning. The San Diego Zoo (which has their own panda cam on their 2005 female cub) has a blog entry that includes a great picture of all the cubs born this year at the Wolong panda breeding center in China.

panda cub exploring


The Wolong Clan (from San Diego Zoo blog)

EN and Brad Pitt team up again

Today's Variety reports that EN and Brad Pitt will team up on the production of a 10 part miniseries about explorers Lewis and Clark based on the Stephen Ambrose book "Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West". EN will direct at least one of the episodes. His comments on the project are below. More info on the project [Thanks to Danielle and Zazu for the news!!!]

"Lewis and Clark's expedition is as great a story as you could ever hope to tell, and like so many people, Brad and I have both been drawn to it for years. We both always agreed that compressing that story into a feature-length film ruined the spirit of it ... so we sat down and said, 'How can we really do this justice?' " Norton said. "HBO is really the only company committed to this kind of long-form storytelling, and so we're ecstatic that they wanted to take it on with us. With National Geographic in the mix, it's a great team."

Painted Veil filming update

Painted Veil filming has moved to the Guangxi Region of China in the town of Huangyao. Monkey Peaches has posted three photos. One of them is of director John Curran and EN praying for good fortune. The other two are of filming in Huangyao. Filming should continue on into November. If you haven't taken at EN's interview in Shanghai, it's still up at Sina.com. The page date seems to indicate either that the interview was done on Thursday, Sep 29. The date would seem to be correct since the story in the Shanghai Morning Post came out on Sep 30.

Kingdom of Heaven DVD

The Kingdom of Heaven DVD is due to be released on Tuesday. Edward Norton has a small role in the film as Baldwin IV, the Christian king of Jerusalem who suffers from leprosy. Although he is in only about 6 scenes, his performance was consistantly singled out for praise in reviews. The DVD is a two disc set with numerous special features. I was hoping for a Ridley Scott commentary, but there are no audio commentaries with the film. They apparently have a text commentary they refer to as "The Pilgrim's Guide" that includes details about the making of the film and the historical background. Disc 1 includes the film itself, "The Pilgrim's Guide" option, combo trailer, "Inside Look: Tristan and Isolde" (the KOH DVD site mentions this feature but does not describe it). Disc 2 - the hyped feature about this DVD set is the interactive production grid where the viewer can choose which featurettes to watch up to about 125 minutes worth of material. "There are no less than 16 different ways to experience The Grid." Big fat hairy deal. I'm more interested in the content, which is not explained in the promotional info. There are additional features mentioned, but I'm not sure whether or not they are part of "The Grid". I didn't want to write that there is all this extra material and find out that they were all just a part of "The Grid" . From the reviews, they would seem to be standalone featurettes. Here they are: "A&E Movie Real: Kingdom of Heaven" (approx 45 min), The History Chanel's "History vs Hollywood: Kingdom of Heaven" (approx 48 min), Ridley Scott - "Creating Worlds" featurette, Production featurette, Wardrobe featurette, Orlando Bloom "The Adventure of a Lifetime" featurette. And more trailers. It's available in two formats: widescreen and full screen. The packaging on both seems to be virtually identical, so double check before you buy it. Kingdom of Heaven DVD (widescreen). Kingdom of Heaven DVD (full screen)

Here's another look at the National Zoo's panda cub with mom Mei Xiang. He'll be 13 weeks old tomorrow, weighs over 11 pounds, and is trying to crawl. At 100 days old (Oct 17), he'll be given a name.

Painted Veil video interview

Sina.com has a video of the interview with the Chinese press. You'll have to have a little patience since this is not like a TV interview - it goes slowly, you can hear the questions in Chinese but not the English translation that is told to EN, there is a wait while EN's answer is translated into Chinese, and EN speaks a little softly. EN's comments that went from the Shanghai Morning Post to the Associated press (Sept 30 post) seem to be taken from this interview. But what he actually says is different that what was reported. For instance, the whole section about how his character "realizes his mistakes in the end" is completely absent from his comments. He refers to his character as "slightly arrogant" but talks about it in terms of the attitutes of Westerners in China during the '20s. He uses the term "fix", the press used the word "force". He does talk about how the story has relevance today which is probably why the story ended up in wide circulation. Below is a transcript of that section of the interview (I've highlighted in red portions that seem to be the basis for the comments in the press. The question starts at around 26 minutes into the video clip. EN's Painted Veil interview. I found out about this through the IMDB Painted Veil message board

[I could not hear the question- EN seems to have been asked about how he was able to prepare to do a period film about China.]

"That's an interesting question. You use anything that's available to you, I think. Sometimes at the beginning, I just look at photographs. And that's limited as to what you can learn. But sometimes just to see the textures of all the different things that were going on in that time. For instance, if you're an American and you don't happen to know about China in that time, just looking at photographs is very revealing because there was so much change happening in China at that time. And you had the overlapping of so many different cultural moments. It's very interesting. In that period, you still see people with the Manchu queue. Then you see people who are in Western dress. Then you see Westerners. You see Sun Yat-sen in his military uniforms. And there are still the warlords wearing grand ceremonial dress. It was a time when there were so many things overlapping. Just looking at pictures makes you realize this was a very complicated time. Beyond that, I think we've all been reading the histories of that period, about what life was like. I was very fortunate that when I was in university, one of my professors was one of the really great Western historians of China. One of the books that specifically was really useful was a book that he wrote about Westerners who came to China either to try to change China or give China assistance and what happened to them. Because my character, I think he's a prototypical Westerner in that era in China. He's slightly arrogant. He thinks he can come in and sort of fix some things in China. He doesn't have a very broad view of Chinese culture or Chinese politics or Chinese history. His ignorance of that ends up being his downfall because he has too arrogant an assumption that he can just come in and fix things. And I think this particular book was very illuminating about people who kind of fell into that trap in China. The interesting thing is that I think that sort of resonates for now. That's a part of the story that I thought was relevant with what's going on in the United States. We're still doing that. We're still sending people into other countries on this notion that we can fix other people's problems without really understanding the depth of the cultural forces that are at work there. I think that even though this story takes place in the '20s, the messages in it are very relevant, especially in the United States right now."

First Painted Veil photos

The first three production photos from The Painted Veil has been posted on Monkey Peaches (they credit Sina.com but I can't find them there). They really give you an idea of the look and feel of the film. "The film is exclusively shot in China. Even the replicated old Shanghai streets, built inside Shanghai Film Studios' production facility in Chedun, is used to double streets in England."

Shanghai story

EN did an interview in the Chinese language Shanghai Morning Post and a few of his remarks made it into the China Post's story Edward Norton, Naomi Watts in Shanghai to shoot "The Painted Veil"?. I hope he chose to qualify his remarks this time. [FLATBROKE's note: His actual comments seem to have been different- see Oct 3 post]

Edward Norton says his latest movie role as an arrogant British doctor out to change the world is a little like today's America.

"In fact, the United States today keeps on making the same sort of mistakes," the American star of the upcoming film "The Painted Veil" was quoted as saying by the Chinese-language newspaper Shanghai Morning Post.

"We force those methods we think are useful on a few countries, hoping to make a few changes. The good thing is that, in the movie, I realize my mistakes in the end," the critically acclaimed 36-year-old actor said in the interview, published Friday.

Pride and Glory in Variety

Pride and Glory seems to moving a little closer to reality. Today's Variety states that Edward Norton, Colin Farrell and Noah Emmerich are in negotiations to star in the film with shooting to begin in January in New York. "Norton is poised to play a homicide detective who is assigned to investigate the precinct run by his older brother (Emmerich). Farrell plays the investigator's best friend, a cop in that precinct who might be dirty himself." Pride and Glory

Passes to Painted Veil premiere

In order to contribute to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, celebrities have been offering items up for auction at Charityfolks.com with the proceeds going to American Red Cross Disaster Relief. One of the current auctions is "Two Passes to the Premiere and After Party of The Painted Veil staring Naomi Watts and Ed Norton in Fall, 2006 (location TBD)". The current bid is $1400.00. Because The Painted Veil is currently filming, there is no info as to exactly when and where the premiere will take place. The auction ends on September 16. Also of note, the winning bidder and their guest must submit to a background check. Charity Folks: Painted Veil auction