The Matarese Circle Archives - The Playlist

Producer Ben Smith Talks ‘The Bourne Legacy’ & The Status Of Robert Ludlum Adaptations In Development

The Playlist Staff — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:02:00 +0000

Producer Ben Smith Talks 'The Bourne Legacy' & The Status Of Robert Ludlum Adaptations In Development

Continue reading Producer Ben Smith Talks ‘The Bourne Legacy’ & The Status Of Robert Ludlum Adaptations In Development at The Playlist.

Development On ‘The Three Stooges,’ ‘The Matarese Circle’ & ‘Robocop’ Stalled At MGM

Kevin Jagernauth — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:07:00 +0000

We won’t bore you with the nitty gritty details or history of MGM’s financial woes (and to be perfectly fair, it’s not like we’ve been keeping pace with every step of that riveting accounting drama) but needless to say the company is in dire straights. Of course, there is the “The Hobbit,” the highest profile film caught up in the studio’s monetary quagmire. “Bond 23” was put on hiatus by its producers citing the instability of the studio, and completed films “Red Dawn” and “Cabin In The Woods” have been put on the shelf as MGM has no resources to properly promote and market the films.

Continue reading Development On ‘The Three Stooges,’ ‘The Matarese Circle’ & ‘Robocop’ Stalled At MGM at The Playlist.

Stana Katic & Odette Yustman Join ‘The Double’ With Richard Gere & Topher Grace

Gabe Toro — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 23:50:00 +0000

Stana Katic and Odette Yustman, the stars of some very specific Hollywood-loving masturbator’s fantasies, have jumped aboard Michael Brandt’s directorial debut “The Double.” The thriller, which starts shooting June 21st in Detroit, concerns a retired CIA agent (Richard Gere) brought out of retirement to help a young FBI operative (Topher Grace) find a senator’s killer. The CIA and FBI working together? Mass hysteria!

Katic, who can be seen weekly on ABC’s modest hit drama “Castle” playing straight man to Nathan Fillion, will be playing a Russian prostitute who knows more than she’s letting on.

Continue reading Stana Katic & Odette Yustman Join ‘The Double’ With Richard Gere & Topher Grace at The Playlist.

Trailers: ‘Knight & Day’ and ‘Kick-Ass’

Gabe Toro — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:32:00 +0000

Most who saw “Avatar” this weekend were blindsided by a trailer for what’s probably the most low-key Tom Cruise film in a decade, the James Mangold-directed “Knight & Day.” In the punchy, blockbustery clip, Cruise is some sort of secret agent who bumps into duck-faced civilian Cameron Diaz while on some sort of mission (impossible!). Eventually, she realizes that this handsome if creepily youthful-looking (praise Xenu!) action hero is going to have to save her from some shady people (Peter Sarsgaard) in order to return to her normal, car-chase-free life.

Continue reading Trailers: ‘Knight & Day’ and ‘Kick-Ass’ at The Playlist.

Cronenberg Returns To ‘The Fly’

Oliver Lyttelton — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:10:00 +0000

David Cronenberg’s particular brand of body horror appears to be back in fashion of late – the recent likes of “Moon” and “District 9,” with their bloody teeth and flaky fingernails, have nodded to the master, and now it looks like the Canadian director is going back to the well, with the surprising news that he will write, and potentially direct, a remake of his own 1986 classic “The Fly,” itself a remake of the 1958 Vincent Price-starrer (before the remake patrol get up in arms…)

Fox, the same studio that’s behind Ridley Scott’s return to the “Alien” franchise, appears to have lured Cronenberg back after his adaptation of Robert Ludlum’s “The Matarese Circle” fell through.

Continue reading Cronenberg Returns To ‘The Fly’ at The Playlist.

Viggo Mortensen To Retire Early? Gilliam “Relieved” He Never Got ‘Harry Potter’ Gig

Rodrigo Perez — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:45:00 +0000

Was it the recent “Road’ bump news that did it? Viggo Mortensen is apparently considering an early retirement from acting. Look, convince Cronenberg to make “The Matarese Circle,” make sure you’re cast next to Denzel Washington, we’ll finally get our heavyweights toe-to-toe-action and then you can retire. Actually, it would be a shame if he left us early. Mortensen has never won an Oscar and has rarely had the chance to square off against today’s best actors in a leading role.

Continue reading Viggo Mortensen To Retire Early? Gilliam “Relieved” He Never Got ‘Harry Potter’ Gig at The Playlist.

Bye Bye, ‘Matarese Circle,’ Cronenberg Moving To ‘Cosmopolis’ Next

Rodrigo Perez — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 22:31:00 +0000

Bad news for those of us that wanted to see David Cronenberg’s adaptation of “The Matarese Circle” by author Robert Ludlum (The ‘Bourne’ series). That project now seems to be on the back burner.

As of a few month ago, the spy thriller was “set” to star Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington as two agents (one from the CIA and the other from the KGB) who put their rivalry in the past to go up against an international circle of killers called the Matarese.

Continue reading Bye Bye, ‘Matarese Circle,’ Cronenberg Moving To ‘Cosmopolis’ Next at The Playlist.

Denzel Washington Not So ‘Unstoppable’

Gabe Toro — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 12:30:00 +0000

With the recession giving movie executives a fake reason to start saying “no!” to people (the numbers are undeniable — box office receipts are well ahead of last year’s pace), we’re seeing a lot of musical chairs as projects start to slowly collapse into a heap of failed ambition, miscommunication, and misplaced ego. Sometimes this results in interesting fare like Steven Soderbergh’s “Moneyball” dying on the vine. More often that not, it deep-sixes troublesome projects that no one saw as a slam dunk in the first place.

Continue reading Denzel Washington Not So ‘Unstoppable’ at The Playlist.

Hollywood Feeds Screenwriting Industry By Tailoring Gigs For Your Savior Tom Cruise

Gabe Toro — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:34:00 +0000

Variety has just released a piece on Tom Cruise’s next couple of gigs, noting the many writers he was bringing aboard each film. The biggest news from the piece seems to be the grudge Variety has against Cruise, as this sort of information is usually kept under the rug; most blockbusters take on additional writers in the scripting stage, some at the producer’s request, but most at the behest of a A-list star looking for a project that better suits their persona.

Continue reading Hollywood Feeds Screenwriting Industry By Tailoring Gigs For Your Savior Tom Cruise at The Playlist.

Shortcuts: Cronenberg Talks ‘The Matarese Circle’, ‘Gigantic’ Wins Top Prize In Dallas

Simon Dang — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:06:00 +0000

David Cronenberg recently talked about his project “The Matarese Circle.” He revealed that he has ” spoken to both Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington, and they both want to do it.” The delays of the project has been due to the fact that he is rewriting the script, originally by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas (“Wanted”), from scratch and is “under a lot of pressure and [doesn’t] want to screw it up.” Also, he talked about how one of things that drew him to the project in the first was his belief that “when you get too comfortable, you need to scare yourself by trying something you’ve never done before.” [Toronto Star]

Rosemarie DeWitt (“Rachel Getting Married”, TV’s “United States Of Tara”) and Chris Cooper (“The Kingdom”,”Syrianna”) have joined the cast of John Well’s indie drama film, “Company Men.” The film details the lives of three men over the course of a year as the company they work for implements corporate downsizing.

Continue reading Shortcuts: Cronenberg Talks ‘The Matarese Circle’, ‘Gigantic’ Wins Top Prize In Dallas at The Playlist.

David Cronenberg Receives Badass Legion D’Honneur Award- Vive La Nouvelle Chair!

Gabe Toro — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 20:23:00 +0000

The great David Cronenberg, director of exciting work as diverse as “Videodrome,” “A History of Violence” and the version of “Crash” that doesn’t make us want to commit genocide, is set to receive the Medal of Honor from France, the highest honor one can receive from the French government. Cronenberg’s been a big favorite amongst French film audiences, specifically the Cannes’ filmgoers, but more importantly, this is a gesture that should begin a worldwide appraisal of Cronenberg, who’s been churning out a steady stream of brilliant, transgressive, idiosycratic masterpieces since the late seventies.

Continue reading David Cronenberg Receives Badass Legion D’Honneur Award- Vive La Nouvelle Chair! at The Playlist.

Tom Cruise May Join Denzel In Cronenberg’s ‘Matarese Circle’

Rodrigo Perez — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:41:00 +0000

Whoa, weird. It was already an odd pairing when it was reported that Denzel Washington and David Cronenberg were in negotiations to work together on a political thriller called, “The Matarese Circle” for MGM.

While, Cronenberg has worked within the framework of Hollywood, he wasn’t exactly an insider and working with Denzel was a rather big move for the mostly under-the-radar director. Well, crank it up a notch or two, apparently United Artists c0-head (which is under the MGM banner) Tom Cruise is interested too.

Continue reading Tom Cruise May Join Denzel In Cronenberg’s ‘Matarese Circle’ at The Playlist.

Cronenberg & Denzel For Cold War Spy Thriller ‘Circle’ Is Weird Match

Rodrigo Perez — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:00:00 +0000

David Cronenberg and Denzel Washington: those are two names we’d never figure we’d hear in the same film together. An odd pairing, no? Well, Cronenberg is in talks to direct, a political thriller called, “The Matarese Circle” for MGM according to Variety.

Denzel is already attached to star and just his name on the project would probably make it one of the biggest films the cerebral Cronenberg has ever worked on. Based on a Robert Ludlum spy novel set in the Cold War, ‘Circle’ focuses on two agents, one U.S.

Continue reading Cronenberg & Denzel For Cold War Spy Thriller ‘Circle’ Is Weird Match at The Playlist.