November
18A New Career Track for Kate and Leonardo?
When I leave a screening these days, I keep hearing the voice of Jack Warner. Jack’s been dead 30 years and he wasn’t much fun to hang with even when he was alive, but I still hear him nattering at me. Maybe I spent too much time viewing Richard Schickel’s documentary history of Warner Bros., “You Must Remember This,” and that’s why the old geezer sticks in my mind.I heard Jack’s voice when I saw “Revolutionary Road” this week. “Good movie and all that,” Jack was saying, “but why take these two great looking kids from ‘Titanic’ and cast them as a miserable quarreling married couple in 1955? Why aren’t they remaking Tracy-Hepburn romantic comedies?”
“Stars are different now, Jack,” I tried to explain. “Guys like you can’t tell them what to do like in the old days.”
“I don’t get it,” Jack replied. “I wouldn’t cast Brad Pitt as an aging baby. I’m sure ‘Benjamin Button’ is a damn good picture, but I would put Brad into gangster films. Rough him up a bit. Same with Leonardo.”
“Stars are their own masters, Jack,” I cautioned. “They want to stretch.”
“Stretch, kvetch,” Jack groaned. “I don’t want to see Angelina Jolie looking for lost children. She should be doing Bette Davis pictures. I want to see Sean Penn blow people away, not blow people.”
“The world has changed since you were around, Jack.”
“Not changed for the better. Actors are children. You’ve got to tell them what to do, like I did with Bogart and Bergman and even Cagney. The only guy I was wary about was George Raft. He had friends in bad places.”
“Isn’t there anything today that you approve of?” I asked Jack.“The Heath Ledger shtick in ‘Dark Knight’… that’s Hollywood,” Jack declared. “The vampire bit in ‘Twilight’ – kids find blood sucking sexy. Always have. We need more of that.”
I thanked Jack, but asked if I could go to my next screening without him.
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I agree Peter...I've tried to get both Angelina and Brad a current day "noir" piece...she's the Bette Davis/Rita Hayworth of our day...he's the Bogart/Grant...set in Paris...even had an offer for her...a good one....agents, managers, and babies oh my!
Posted by: Willie Fab | 11/22/2008 8:00:57 PM
Gee, Peter, back in 1998 you were giving Leo career advice, and I see ,now ten years, later you are doing it again.
However, when one considers that in recent years he has been the lead actor in ''''3'''' films that were nodded for Best Picture, with possibly a 4th with "RR"
That in recent years he has rc''''d ''''2'''' nods for Best Actor with the possibilty of a 3rd BA nod for "RR"
Who knows, maybe, one might consider that Leo, like the other actors you mentioned, is doing just fine without help from you and Jack :)
Posted by: Dona | 11/20/2008 2:56:10 PM
stars are their own masters
sad but true.
Posted by: mpfrmny | 11/19/2008 2:39:23 PM
Conjuring Jack Warner? You could do a lot worse...
Always loved his line about not wanting to make pictures about guys who write with feathers.
Posted by: Arye (Leslie) Michael Bender | 11/19/2008 10:25:45 AM
what would Louis B. Mayer say?
Posted by: sam | 11/19/2008 9:49:29 AM
very funny,Peter
Posted by: bob | 11/19/2008 9:45:57 AM
You do realize, Peter, that you''re an old geezer too?
Posted by: AC | 11/19/2008 1:38:52 AM