Bonham Carter in Fight Club?!

I was surprised to find no immediate follow-up to the (early Thurs) banner announcement on Helena Bonham Carter joining the Fight Club. The announcements on this banner have now been changed with nothing on the website to indicate that it was ever mentioned (of course this happens after I announce it to all who I feel might be interested). So I have formulated the following possibilities to explain this: (a) somebody at Variety went on a long weekend, (b) it was announced before a final decision was actually made, (c) Bonham Carter was offered the part and the announcement was made before she had confirmed she would take the part, (d) I need to be heavily medicated since I am seeing hallucinations in Java Script.

Grammy party

In the May 1998 issue of In Style magazine, there is a photo of Edward Norton and Danny DeVito at a post-1998 Grammys party (pg. 128, In Style isn't big on page numbers). Movieline's May issue lists some summer movies that they are looking forward to seeing, listing Rounders among the bunch (in the nether regions of the "continued" pages). It lists a summary of the movie and reasons why to see it. Nothing all that new to people who have been keeping track.

Bonham Carter in Fight Club!

The Variety website (4/29/98 early Thurs. morning) reports that Helena Bonham Carter will be joining the cast of The Fight Club. This is listed on the "Breaking News" Java Script banner.

AHX not in Cannes, Past wins award

American History X is not on the slate for the 1998 Cannes Film Festival (E! Online News 4/23/98). However, Out of the Past won a special mention in the documentary section of the 13th Turin (Italy) International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (Variety 4/23/98).

Fight Club filming

The Fight Club is set to start filming in June in Los Angeles (Hollywood Reporter 4/21-4/27/98, Films in Preparation section).

AHX release date

New Line Cinema's Publicity Page now states a release date of November 6 for American History X. This is probably to keep it fresh in the minds of Academy members when Oscar nominations are decided.

Frat Pack

Entertainment Weekly has a cover article on "Hollywood's Frat Pack". Norton is one of eight up-and-coming actors on the cover. Cover article contains only a few sentences on Norton. But don't forget to look at pg 51 in the "Reel World" section. It mentions that the female lead for The Fight Club is still being cast and mentions that Helena Bonham Carter and Courtney Love are under consideration [NOTE: Bonham Carter was cast]. This is the April 24 print issue. There is an online version on EW's website, Frat Pack.

EN and Signature Theatre Company

The May issue of Interview magazine has a piece on the Signature Theater Company. Edward Norton wrote the piece and took the photos. Before Primal Fear, Norton was cast in Edward Albee's Fragments with the Signature Theater Company.

Rounders video clip

Desperate to see Rounders? Do you want a sneak peek? Take a look inside People Online's Video Vault where there is a Quicktime movie of a Rounders scene. There is no audio, so its an opportunity to brush up on lip reading. Oh, and there is no Edward Norton- it's a street scene between Matt Damon and Gretchen Mol. Okay, so I feel a little slimey for building up your hopes, but I'll get over it. If your interested in seeing the clip, follow the link: "It's in the cards". The Video Vault houses some other interesting videos- where else can you see Geraldine Ferraro, Rosie O'Donnell, and musical group Betty sing "I'm a Believer". If you think I'm kidding, check out the site!

Weird stuff

Even though the release date for American History X has been pushed back, plans for its release on DVD has moved forward. The DVD Video Group has listed on its Upcoming releases page the entry "American History X: Platinum Series - New Line (1998)". With an November theatrical release date, I seriously doubt that the DVD will be released during 1998. Although, it would be quite a change from the usual Christmas fare...

AHX release date

The confirmed release date for American History X is October 1998 (personal communication with New Line Cinema 04/10/98) [NOTE: no longer valid, the date has been set back to November 6]. This date may change in the future.

AHX release date

Box Office Magazine has a feature "Summer Heat: Preview Pictorial", which is a a bunch of pictures on the upcoming summer films. It features a b & w pic of EN in the New Line section, with a legend that says "New Line, despite some success in previous summers, has only two offerings: rights drama 'American History X' (above), opening in key cities in June [**NOTE-old release date], and the Wesley Snipes vampire tale "Blade" (right), biting into theaters on 8/14." This is from the online magazine, so I think this is contained in the April issue of the print version (with the Zorro cover).

IFC commercials

Access Hollywood (4/7/98) had a segment on the Independent Film Channel commercials (see 3/19/98). They mentioned that the commercials will start airing on IFC on Friday (4/10). Completely useless knowledge- Damon and Norton were wearing the same clothes in these commercials as the ones in the pictures in Entertainment Weekly (listed right below) and People Daily (Was it Time-Warner day on the set?). It's more evident on Norton than Damon. Don't believe me? Watch the commercial. Don't have the mag? Try and judge from the pic on the Photo Gallery. For those of you that are in areas that don't carry IFC, its sister network Bravo does show them. More on the IFC commercials!.

Rounders pic

Picture from Rounders of Norton and Matt Damon in April 3, 1998 edition of Entertainment Weekly on pg 63. The text is a small mention of Damon's upcoming projects (a kind of "Life after Oscar" segment). The Entertainment Weekly site has a modified version of this picture, cutting out all of Norton except part of his right arm (it was still in character, though). When I get access to a scanner (or see the full pic elsewhere) I will post it or link to it. For those of you who still want to see the modified pic, whether it is because you like Matt Damon or because you have an arm fetish (btw, I don't want to know), I have included a link to that page. I want to see Edward Norton's arm .

Rounders article

Segment on Rounders in the April 1998 edition of Premiere magazine. Its on pg 35, in the "In the Works" section, and it is called "Damon and Norton go to Stud" (who says the media uses sex to sell news?). It features a picture of Norton and Matt Damon on the set and also an (unsmiling) picture of the director, John Dahl. Premiere magazine does have a website, but the site only features certain articles (this isn't one of them).

START OF WEBSITE (4/7/98)

IFC commercials

The Independent Film Channel (IFC) released a press statement (3/19/98) announcing EN, Matt Damon, Janeane Garofalo, and Lili Taylor appearing in a series of IFC commercials that satirize independent films. For more info, visit my IFC commercial page

World Series of Poker

News off the Wire (Yahoo Reuters 3/18/98)- "Big-Time Gamblers- NEW YORK (Reuters)-Matt Damon and Ed Norton researched their roles as gamblers by going to underground casinos and now have become serious gamblers, the New York Post reports. The young actors even ended up winning $1,200 off Miramax execs Harvey and Bob Weinstein. Now Damon and Norton are scheduled to play in the World Series of Poker on May 11 at Binion's Horseshoe Casino in La Vegas and the Post says that professional gamblers are putting a bounty on their heads. The pros reportedly don't like the idea of a couple of Hollywood youngsters showing them up and whoever knocks them out of the tournament will get a bonus."-----An interesting bit of news. For more info on their participation in the WSOP, visit the Poker page

ShoWest Rounders

Variety (3/13/98) reports that footage from Rounders was shown at ShoWest's Miramax presentation. This seems like a pretty good turnaround since I believe the film only started filming in December 1997.

ShoWest no AHX

I was hoping that ShoWest (where studios unveil the coming year's movies to theater owners) would provide a little more info on American History X, however the one New Line Cinema-related notice (Variety 3/12/98) that I saw had a different focus. The main drive was that New Line completed their presentation in a short amount of time (45 minutes) rather than dragging it on for hours. It did mention that both AHX and another New Line film, Pleasantville met favorable reaction during the showing of New Line's 1998 product reel. Another comment on the picture in the notice is that "[AHX] looked to win the controversy award of the year with its depiction of skinheads and Nazi sympathizers in the U.S." One of the actors included in the presentation was Edward Furlong, who also stars in AHX. I don't know what release date for AHX was quoted at ShoWest. Information on upcoming movie releases on ShoWest web site hasn't been updated since Nov 1997.

Rounders pic

People Daily archives contain a Rounders production picture of EN, Matt Damon, and director John Dahl. Rounders pic

Andy Kaufman bio

Norton was one of the actors (Jim Carrey, Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, and Kevin Spacey) interested in portraying Andy Kaufman in an upcoming biography of the comedian called Man in the Moon that is to by directed by Milos Forman. Forman asked the front runners to submit audition tapes (it is reported that not all of the actors were happy about this). Norton and Carrey both submitted audition tapes and the role was eventually awarded to Carrey (Variety 3/2/98).

AHX pic

Movieline magazine December/January 1998 issue (pg 38)showed the first (or one of the first) published pictures of American History X. It featured no text about the pic, other than stating the names of the actors. The pic itself is of a tie-wearing Norton talking to a shaved-head Edward Furlong against a grass and trees background.

AHX disturbing scene

From Variety's DISH column (01/22/98)-"Dishings- Here's a budding trend Dish hopes won't take hold. Both the Paramount/Warner Bros. drama "Payback" and New Line's "American History X" feature "curb sandwich" scenes. It's not something you'd order from a menu. It's a fairly grotesque procedure in which a person's open mouth is placed face down on a concrete curb, and the back of the head gets stomped on. Mel Gibson and Edward Norton deliver them, and dental damage is considerable in both cases."----This is reported way before the release dates of both pictures.