Guy Ritchie’s ‘Toff Guys’ Gets New Title, Chadwick Boseman In ’21 Bridges’, ‘Bad Moms’ Moms’ & More: STX At CinemaCon
Chairman of Motion Picture Group Adam Fogelson began STX’s CinemaCon session this morning heralding the mini-major’s progress with female-driven fare.
“18% of our films are directed by women, and 64% have had women in the lead role. 14% have had entire female led teams” and how the mini-major is an “artist friendly studio…that attracts star talent not once, but brings them back again and again.”
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“We know there is still work to be done and we applaud the 4% initiative, we know as an industry we can do better,” added Fogelson.
They showed trailers for this Friday’s Taraji P. Henson and Sam Rockwell drama The Best of Enemies, about Civil rights activist Ann Atwater school integration face off with C.P. Ellis, Exalted Cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan, in 1971 Durham, North Carolina.
Also, shown a trailer for their geriatric $8M+ AFM pick-up Poms starring Diane Keaton who creates an elder cheerleader squad at a retirement community. Bringing Keaton on stage, she told Fogelson, who moderated the session, that she’s been in 68 films. “Why am I not richer though? I’ve been worried about that,…Can you imagine? For me being on those movies is kind of like a dream.”
Asked by Fogelson what the thru line has been, Keaton deadpanned, “The thread has been that I got the job. I have accepted every job I have been offered in my entire career.”
Keaton also shared her experiences about trying out to be a cheerleader. “It didn’t go well,” said Keaton. Poms opens May 10.
A huge delight was the trailer for Guy Ritche’s Miramax movie The Gentlemen aka Toff Guys and Bush. The story’s about a very British drug lord who tries to sell off his highly profitable empire to a dynasty of Oklahoma billionaires. In the trailer, Hugh Grant is seen doing his best 70s era Michael Caine (with a dash of Ray Winstone). Grant’s Fletcher, who appears to be recounting the story, says, “I can’t be specific about the heroes and zeroes, but the protagonist is a hungry animal and the antagonist explodes on the scene like a millennial f***ing fireworks.”
It’s classic kinetic Ritchie with bullets, a steely, fierce Matthew McConaughey in a kingpin role we haven’t seen before (“when the lion is hungry, he needs to eat!” screams the Oscar winner), a bespectacled Charlie Hunnam, Colin Farrell in a working class (what looks to be the Brad Pitt Snatch like part, and rocky voiced bully Hugh Grant — everyone playing wonderfully against type. Michelle Dockery is the icy femme. Falling bodies out of windows, fast camera movies. After Ritchie’s ambitious King Arthur Legend of the Sword, it’s clear Ritchie is back.
“He needs to be on set with his actors, it evolves in real-time” said Hunnam who says that Ritchie’s style involves sometimes throwing out the day’s script, having the actors improvise, even with the actors getting a rewritten scene.
Hunnam and Henry Golding who came out on stage at Caesar’s Colosseum said that they both grew up on Ritchie’s classics and praised the director for being “so collaborative.”. He allows everyone to “imbue characters with their own personality and views, but it goes through the Guy Ritchie filter,” said Hunnam who also noted he and Ritchie had “discussed at great lengths the merits of the California marijuana business,” when they first talked about the project.
Fogelson also said that Jennifer Lopez’s Hustlers movie, about the Scores strippers who turn the tables on their corrupt Wall Street clients, is in production now will be ready this fall. Fogelson also announced a third Bad Moms — Bad Moms’ Moms starring the elder parents of the women in A Bad Moms Christmas with Christine Baranski, Susan Sarandon and Cheryl Hines.
Here’s some other highlights from the STX session:
21 Bridges
“When I ride the script, I knew it would be a ride,” said Chadwick Boseman saying he loved the Russo brothers produced movie because “it had the fast paced language like David Mamet.” Plotline is that a disgraced detective in the NYPD is given a shot at redemption. But the hook, and hence the title as Boseman chases down Stephen James antagonist is there’s “21 bridges in and out of NY, shut them down, shut down the trains,” says Boseman’s cop to his force as he tries to corner the guy. Boseman followed LA and NY cops in prepping for the part. “One of the things they talk about is how the job takes over their entire lives, that’s one element in this film that we try to stay true to,” said the Black Panther thespian. 21 Bridges hits theaters on July 12. Brian Kirk directs, and it’s high octane action, and chases scenes through NYC.
My Spy
Star Dave Bautista said that he’s “never been involved in the process from A-to-Z” but thanks to STX, they allowed him to fully be hands on as producer. Pic which also stars Kristen Schaal, follows a hardened CIA operative who finds himself at the mercy of a precocious 9-year-old girl, who has been sent undercover to surveil her family.
Brahams Boy 2
If Annabelle has the opposite sex counterpart, it’s Brahams in Boy 2. The doll becomes friends with a boy, and well just evil soul posession ensues. Katie Holmes, who is new in the sequel, said she had “a lot of dolls growing up, so I had a conflict, like 80, and I never thought of a doll being creepy and now I have to rethink everything.” The trailer: a family seeking a change of scenery for their son. Cue the appearance of an imposing old tudor house with old portraits, hidden hallways and another creepy porcelaine kid. Lakeshore Entertainment produces.
Fogelson also ended the STX session with various music video clips from their summer animated feature UglyDolls out on May 3, the song “Couldn’t Be Better” by Kelly Clarkson and “The Ugly Truth” performed by Nick Jonas and “Unbreakable” sung by Janelle Monae.
“We’re still a film company of over 100 people,” said Fogelson about how STX pulled their presentation together. The session ended with a live performance of Clarkson performing “Broken & Beautiful”
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