ARAB TIMES, SUNDAY, JULY 26, 2015
NEWS/FEATURES
20
People & Places
Film
Unique talent
Chenoweth gets
star on ‘Fame’
LOS ANGELES, July 25, (RTRS):
These days, Kristin Chenoweth is
everywhere — on film and TV, in
concert and on the Broadway stage
for eight shows a week as the Tonynominated romantic lead Lily
Garland/Mildred
Plotka
in
Roundabout Theatre Company’s
revival of “On the Twentieth
Century.”
“This is a commitment, what I’m
doing and (what) all of my fellow
Broadway artists (are doing),” says
the petite Oklahoman (she’s all of 4
feet, 11 inches tall) of her role as
the ugly duckling piano accompanist who transforms into a
swan movie
star. “It’s a
marathon, like
being
an
Olympic athlete. It’s also a
gift.”
And
Chenoweth’s
fans know it.
The
second
Chenoweth
she
appears
onstage, the audience thunderously
applauds. And then comes that
unmistakable voice: bigger than she
is — perfect in pitch, tone and
breath — from ballad to belt.
Hilarious
“Kristin is enormously bright and
kind,” says Matthew Broderick, who
starred opposite Chenoweth in the
2003 TV version of “The Music
Man.” “She is also completely hilarious — part Madeline Kahn, part
Carole Lombard — and with that
beautiful, beautiful voice that breaks
your heart. Everyone lucky enough
to work with her falls for her. I basically spent the whole time laughing
and grinning, the gorgeous girl next
door with twinkly, slightly mischievous eyes.”
Like Kahn, who originated the
role of Lily Garland on Broadway
in 1978, Chenoweth, receiving a
star on the Hollywood Walk of
Fame on July 24, is one of those
rare commodities possessing both
sharp comic skills and prodigious
musical chops.
In “On the Twentieth Century”
the multi-talented thesp juggles
acrobatic dance moves (complete
with high kicks in the air) with
physical comedy and, most notably,
that unsinkable likability and firecracker sex appeal.
“Kristin Chenoweth is a rare and
unique talent from Broadway to
Hollywood,” says Jennifer Lopez,
with whom Chenoweth co-starred in
the dramatic thriller “The Boy Next
Door.” “Kristin is my kind of girl:
she sings, she dances, she acts.”
But the classically trained coloratura soprano with a three-octave
range never saw Lily Garland coming. Enrolled to study opera at
Philadelphia’s Academy of Vocal
Arts, Chenoweth was making a
quick pit stop in New York to help
a friend unpack when a chance
audition led to her first role in the
Paper Mill Playhouse production of
“Animal Crackers.”
Quirky
Since then, Chenoweth has
wooed
audiences
on
the
smallscreen with memorable,
quirky roles on “The West Wing,”
“Glee” and “Pushing Daisies,” for
which she earned an Emmy Award
in the supporting actress category.
She won a Tony for playing
Charlie’s sister Sally in “You’re a
Good Man, Charlie Brown” and
was enthusiastically touted for her
signature turn as Glinda the Good
Witch in “Wicked,” where she was
nominated for a lead actress Tony.
She also broadcast her musical abilities beyond Manhattan in the 1999
smallscreen version of “Annie,”
opposite Alan Cumming, and in
“Leonard Bernstein’s Candide” on
PBS’ “Great Performances.” (A
YouTube clip of Chenoweth performing the number “Glitter and Be
Gay” from “Candide” has fielded
over 1.5 million views.)
“The second I met Kristin
Chenoweth I knew she was a star.
But not just a star performer— a star
person,” Cumming says. The two
hosted this year’s Tony Awards during which they performed a rousing
musical parody of “The King and I.”
“She is the kindest, funniest, most
beautiful little spitfire and I love her
to the moon and back.”
Consistently seeking roles that
“combine head and heart,”
Chenoweth
will
next
play
Maleficent in the Kenny Ortegahelmed Disney Channel movie,
“Descendants,” which bows July 31
and chronicles the adventures of
Disney’s cartoon villain offspring
(such as Cruella De Vil’s progeny,
Carlos). She’s also embarking on a
national concert tour with dates
planned in her hometown of Broken
Arrow, Okla., and the Walt Disney
Concert Hall. While she hasn’t quite
crossed over to bigscreen stardom
— like so many talented actresses,
she’s found meatier roles onstage
and on TV than in film —
Chenoweth is more concerned with
what part she is playing, rather than
in what medium.
Actress/singer Kristin Chenoweth attends a ceremony honoring her with the 2,555th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on July 24, in Hollywood, California. (AFP)
Film
Kinnear, Ehle starring in New York dramedy from Sachs
Slick crime caper in ‘10 Cent Pistol’
This Jan 25, 2015 file photo shows
US
actress
and
UNHCR
Ambassador Angelina Jolie as she
stands during a visit to a camp for
displaced Iraqis in Khanke, a few
kilometres (miles) from the Turkish
border in Iraq’s Dohuk province.
Angelina Jolie is to make a film about
Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime
seen through the eyes of a warscarred child for Netflix, the streaming giant said July 23. The Oscarwinning Hollywood A-lister will adapt
‘First They Killed My Father: A
Daughter of Cambodia Remembers’,
a harrowing memoir by Cambodian
human rights activist Loung Ung
about surviving the deadly regime. ‘I
was deeply affected by Loung’s
book,’ said Jolie, cited in a Netflix
statement. (AFP)
Campbell
Lady Gaga
Variety
LOS ANGELES: A diva battle is brewing
at “American Horror Story: Hotel,” and a
“Star Trek” vet sets a course for “Arrow”
in Friday’s casting roundup ...
Naomi Campbell has joined the cast of
“American Horror Story: Hotel” in a
multi-episode arc, sources tell Variety.
The model-turned-actress, who most
recently recurred on “Empire,” will play a
fashion editor who pays the ultimate price
for her critiques. She will share scenes
with Lady Gaga and returning “AHS”
player Angela Bassett.
“Major Crimes’” Jeri Ryan is on the
case for CW’s “Arrow,” guest starring in
one episode of the superhero series. The
“Star Trek: Voyager” alum will play a politically minded friend of the family of Oliver
Queen (Stephen Amell). The casting may
be apropos, as Ryan was once married to
Illinois politician Jack Ryan. (RTRS)
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LOS ANGELES: Vera Farmiga and
Virginia Madsen are starring in Cinelou
Films’ comedy-drama “Burn Your Maps,”
with shooting starting next week in
Alberta, Canada.
The film also stars Suraj Sharma (“Life
of Pi”) and Jacob Tremblay. Cinelou partners Courtney Solomon and Mark Canton
will produce with Patrick Aiello.
Jordan Roberts, who scripted Disney’s
“Big Hero Six,” is directing from his own
screenplay, which was adapted from the
LOS ANGELES, July 25, (RTRS): A
modestly scaled but slick crime caper,
“10 Cent Pistol” serves up a diverting
if overcomplicated menu of flashbacks
and betrayals among organized-crime
players in Los Angeles. This first
directorial feature for scenarist
Michael C. Martin (who also copenned the concurrent horror-thriller
“The Vatican Tapes”), produced by
fraternal leads JT and Damon
Alexander, is a genre exercise that
should make decent niche-sales
inroads in various formats. It launches
July 24 on VOD and iTunes, simultaneous with limited US theatrical
release.
Two policemen show up at an
impressive Hollywood Hills manse,
having been alerted by a silent alarm.
A young man, Harris (Thomas Ian
Nicholas) appears very reluctant to let
them in, and his apparent girlfriend,
Danneel (Jena Malone), is no less
awkward in greeting the visitors.
There are others stiffly gathered in a
living room, while someone is supposedly stuck in an elevator upstairs.
Clearly something very fishy is going
on — though just what what that is
escapes the cops’ detection.
From this loaded moment, our wiseguy
narrator
Easton
(Damon
Alexander) winds back the clock to a
year earlier, when he was having four
bullets dug out of his back. That misfortune was just one among many tangled consequences of a “Russian job”
he pulled, killing a client of wealthy
mobster Punchy (Joe Mantegna),
whose home and son are now under
threat in the present tense. While
Punchy promised Easton no jail time
and a hefty reward in return for that
short story by Robyn Joy Leff.
“Burn Your Maps” centers on an
American 8-year-old who declares to his
parents that he is actually a Mongolian
hit, he reneged on both. Once hot-tempered Easton gets out of prison some
months later, he enlists his brainier
longtime criminal partner, Jake (JT
Alexander), in enacting his revenge.
A third conspirator, of sorts, is
aspiring actress Danneel — officially
Easton’s squeeze, though unbeknownst to him, she and Jake got very
cozy during his locked-up absence. All
of them share a roomy loft apartment,
creating an uncomfortable, unacknowledged menage a trois in which
we gradually realize each participant
is hiding a major, disloyal agenda
from the others.
Revelations
Those revelations are so densely
packed into “10 Cent Pistol’s” sometimes confusing flashback structure
that they carry less punch than they
ought to. Martin’s screenplay is so
tricky in the plot-twist and scrambledchronology departments, there’s little
attention left to limn the character
depths that might make us more
invested in sussing out so many double- and triple-crosses. When there’s a
big climactic shootout in the mansion
(with some participants wearing
masks), the average viewer might be
forgiven for wondering just who is
shooting whom, and why. (More successful in suspense terms, perhaps
because its action is comparatively
stripped down, is an earlier setpiece in
which Jake nervously heists a car
under the nose of a belligerent parking-garage attendant, played by Justin
Hires.) While some may look forward
to repeat viewings in order to better
unravel “Pistol’s” narrative intricacies,
others will find it simply too fussy a
goat herder born in the wrong place.
When he meets a similarly displaced
Indian filmmaker, they journey east, seeking what they believe to be their true
puzzle to reward even one watch.
That said, Martin (whose previous
script work includes the higher-profile
2009 crime drama “Brooklyn’s Finest”
and the short-lived 2005 Showtime
skein “Sleeper Cell”) does very polished work on modest means, resulting in an impressively resourceful first
release for the Alexander brothers’
production
shingle
Route
17
Entertainment. (A prior feature in
which they co-starred, called “Crime
Share,” appears to have been completed but hasn’t surfaced yet.)
The relatively little-known sibs
have decent screen presence, though
the character writing doesn’t give
them a lot of dimensionality, even
though the breakdown in their bloodbrotherhood assumes what ought to be
central dramatic importance here —
and despite the fact that both have successive voiceover-narration duties.
(Easton’s rather stock swaggeringgoodfella voice is displaced by Jake’s
more earnest, guilt-plagued one somewhere past the midpoint.) Variably
familiar supporting actors, including
Mantegna, Adam Arkin and Brendon
Sexton III, acquit themselves nicely in
briefer doses. The most interesting figure and performance here, however, is
Malone’s seemingly naive Danneel,
even if her character psychology ultimately proves a bit much to swallow.
Good-looking package is pro in all
departments, notably the sleek
widescreen photography by Michael
Fimognari (“Oculus”).
Also:
LOS ANGELES: Greg Kinnear,
Jennifer Ehle and Paulina Garcia are
starring in an untitled dramedy from
place in the world. (RTRS)
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LOS ANGELES: Former “Deadliest
Catch” producer Joe McMahon was shot
Tokyo Fest to feature
‘Mobile Suit Gundam’
Lebanese musician and composer Ziad Rahbani performs during the opening
of the Zouk International Festival, north of the capital Beirut, late on
July 23. (AFP)
LOS ANGELES, July 25, (RTRS):
Iconic Japanese robot-themed animation ‘Mobile Suit Gundam’ will be
given pride of place this year at
October’s edition of the Tokyo
International Film Festival (Oct 22-31).
The festival will give a screening
to the first theatrical-released film
“Mobile Suit Gundam,” directed by
Tomino Yoshiyuki. It will also screen
a number of TV series episodes, other
films released in theaters, and shorts
that have rarely appeared on the big
screen.
Ahead of the festival, the latest TV
series “Mobile Suit Gundam: Blood
and Iron Orphans,” will be broadcast
on 28 stations MBS/TBS networks
across Japan weekly, on Sundays
from Oct 4. Similarly, the newest theatrical OVA series “Mobile Suit
Gundam The Origin II: Artesia’s
Sorrow,” will be screened as a limited
two-week event in 15 theaters
throughout Japan from Oct 31.
filmmaker Ira Sachs, to be shot in
New York and Brooklyn.
The film (previously known as “The
Silent Treatment”) follows “Keep the
Lights On” and “Love Is Strange” as
the third in a trilogy of films by Sachs
that focus on New York City, family
life and real estate. The script is by
Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias, who
teamed on the previous two films.
Alfred Molina, Talia Balsam,
David Krumholtz, Andy Karl,
Yolonda Ross and Stella Schnabel
also star along with new actors Theo
Taplitz and Michael Barbieri, who
play new best friends whose bond is
tested by their parents’ battle over a
dress shop lease. Kinnear and Ehle
play a married couple, and Garcia portrays the single mother who runs the
shop.
“Love Is Strange,” which starred
Molina and John Lithgow, received
Gotham and Spirit nominations, and
“Keep the Lights On” won the Teddy
Award at the 2012 Berlin International
Film Festival.
The new film is produced by Sachs
and Lucas Joaquin, Christos
Konstantakopoulos, Jim Lande and
Laura Teodosio in association with
Faliro House, Parts; Labor, Race Point
Films, Raptor Films, RT Features and
Water’s End Productions.
Kinnear most recently starred in
“Rake” and will next appear as Joe
Biden in HBO’s “Confirmation.” Ehle
appeared in “Grey” and can next be
seen in Emily Dickinson biopic “A
Quiet Passion.” Garcia won the best
actress award at Berlin in 2013 for
“Gloria.”
and killed early Friday morning in front of
his home in Pasadena, Calif. He was 25
years old.
According to CBS-LA, the suspect in
the murder, an unidentified 24-year-old
man, was found dead in his car Friday
afternoon in West LA from an apparent
self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“We are heartsick about this tragedy —
our thoughts and prayers go out to his family
and to all that knew and worked with him,”
Discovery, the network behind “Deadliest
Catch,” said in a statement. (RTRS)
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LOS ANGELES: Comedian Amy
Schumer expressed her deep condolences
on Thursday shortly after police confirmed that three people were shot and
killed at a movie theater during a screening of her film “Trainwreck” in
Lafayette, Louisiana.
“My heart is broken and all my
thoughts and prayers are with everyone in
Louisiana,” she wrote on Twitter.
The American Film Institute also
offered “heartfelt sympathies” to the victims in Lafayette.
“Going to a summer movie is a celebration of the American creative spirit and
one of our nation’s most beloved pastimes,” AFI President and CEO Bob
Gazzale said. “Let us stand together in
these times of tragedy and embrace what
is precious to us — churches, schools and
places where the arts can send our spirits
soaring.” (RTRS)