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With Ray Charles (Ray), Johnny Cash (Walk The Line), and Bob Dylan (Im Not There) in the bag, and with Martin Scorsese taking on a film based on the life of Frank Sinatra, here are a few more legendary musicians who are ripe for the big screen treatment.
ELVIS PRESLEY
While their have been a plethora of straight to TV productions dedicated to the King of Rock and Roll, there has yet to be a big budget Hollywood production devoted to telling Elvis life story, and what a story it is: Poor southern boy turned cultural icon, Hollywood movie star, Las Vegas Showman, and bloated drug addict. If placed in the right hands, and if cast right, an Elvis Presley biopic could be a huge commercial and critical success.
KURT COBAIN
Never has a star shun so bright only to succumb to the darkness of depression and drug addiction.
Kurt Cobain was a champion to a generation of music fans who had become wary of the glam rock excess from the 1980s, yet his music also had a dark undercurrent that would not be felt thoroughly until after his suicide in 1994.
Gus Van Sant had filmed a biopic of sorts in 2005 with Last Days, which starred Michael Pitt as a rock star with a striking resemblance to Cobain. However, word around the camp fire is that Ewen McGregor has been tapped to play Cobain in a big budget movie based on the biography Heavier Than Heaven.
JIMI HENDRIX
There have been various attempts at making a big budget film upon the life of Jimi Hendrix. Hell, only last year it was rumoured that Quentin Tarantino had the project in the bag, with Terrence Howard set to star.
However, all attempts have been nixed by the Hendrix estates refusal to allow his music to be used in any film production, and what good is a Jimi Hendrix film without Purple Haze. Or Voodoo Chile. Or Red House
Still, there is hope that this charismatic stage personality would be given the proper big screen treatment.
When compiling a list of the greatest film actresses of all time, it is hard to deny the sterling work actress Ellen Burstyn has compiled over the last 30 years.
While not reaching the same level of success as Meryl Streep or Jane Fonda, Burstyn never the less has created a name for herself as an actors actor, providing stunning performances in film, TV, and the theatre.
PERSONAL LIFE
Ellen Burstyn (real name Edna Rae Gillooly) was born on the 7th of December, 1932, in Detroit, Michigan. Her parents were Correine Marie and John Austin Gillooly, a building contractor. They divorced when Burstyn was very young.
Before becoming an actress, Burstyn worked an assortment of jobs. At the age of 14 she was a short order cook at a lunch counter. After her graduation from Detriots Cass Technical High School, she travelled to Texas to become a model. This was followed by a stint as a showgirl on the Jackie Gleeson Show, and then as a nightclub dancer in Montreal.
Burstyn studied acting with Lee Strasberg at the famed Actors Studio, which she is now a co-president alongside Harvey Keitel and Al Pacino.
She has been married a total of three times. Her first marriage was to William Alexander (1950-1957), and was followed by marriages to Paul Roberts (1958-1962), and Neil Burstyn (1964-1972), which ended tragically when Neil committed suicide after succumbing to schizophrenia.
According to Burstyn in her biography Lessons in Becoming Myself, she was stalked by Neil for over a period of 10 years. This included a violent incident of rape which lead to no charges being laid, since Ellen and Neil were technically married at the time and the place were unable to charge him for rape.
She has an adopted son named Jefferson, and a granddaughter named Emily.
As well as being an award winning actress during the 1970s, Burstyn was also active in the movement to free convicted boxer Rubin Hurricane Carter from jail.
Burstyn practices the mystical Islamic religion Sufism, and is an ordained minister.
She is a vegetarian, does not drink alcohol or coffee, and practices yoga.
CAREER
In 1957, Burstyn made her Broadway debut in Fair Game. The 1960s would see her appear in a variety of television shows such as The Doctors, Perry Mason, Maverick, 77 Sunset Strip, and Gunsmoke.
After studying at the Actors Studio, she got her big break in Peter Bogdanovichs The Last Picture Show (1971), which garnered her Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for best supporting actress.
This would be followed by another supporting role next to Jack Nicholson in The King of Marvin Gardens (1972), and a second Oscar nomination, this time as Best Lead Actress, in the ground breaking horror classic The Exorcist (1973).
Burstyn would go on to finally snag the Oscar for her role as a single mother in Martin Scorseses Alice Doesnt Live Here Aymore (1974). That same year, she would also win a Tony Award for Same Time, Next Year, a role she would reprise for the big screen 1978, and would once again be nominated for an Oscar. Another nomination would follow for Resurrection (1980).
Despite her success in the 1970s, Burstyn would find it hard to find work in Hollywood during the 1980s, and opted to for roles in TV productions instead, receiving Emmy nominations for The People VS Jean Harris (1981) and Pack of Lies (1987), and also starring in her own sitcom titled The Ellen Burstyn Show. It would only last one season.
The 1990s and onwards would see Burstyn play supporting roles usually as a maternal figure in films such as How to Make an American Quilt, The Spitfire Grill, and The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.
However, Burstyn would prove to have one more powerful performance left in her, with a startling portrayal of a speed addicted elderly widow in Darren Aronofskys potent anti-drug film Requiem for a Dream.
Other notable role around this time: the voice of Grandma Dolarhyde in Red Dragon (2002), a Pagan cult leader in the 2006 re-make of The Wicker Man, and a minor turn in HBOs Mrs. Harris, where she was nominated for a supporting actress Emmy award despite being on screen for only 14 seconds!
Upcoming films include an adaptation of Tennessee Williams The Loss of a Teardrop, and as Barbara Bush in the upcoming Oliver Stone George W. Bush biography, W.
Top 3 Ellen Burstyn Performances
3) Chris MacNeil, The Exorcist (1973)
Burstyn plows through a gauntlet of emotions in her portrayal of a distressed Hollywood actress and single mother who watches on as her seemingly possessed daughter (Linda Blair) turns into a monster.
2) Alice Hyatt, Alice Doesnt Live Here Anymore (1974)
Burstyn who would go on to win an Oscar for her performance as Alice, a woman who desires to live life on her terms after years of catering to the wishes of men, providing sass and vulnerability to the role while also proving to be an adequate singer and pianist.
1) Sara Goldfarb, Requiem for a Dream (2000)
In her single greatest performance of her storied 30 plus year career, Burstyn is remarkable as a lonely widower who after given the news that she will appear in a future episode of her favourite TV show decides to lose weight in order to fit into her favourite red dress. She would be robbed at the Oscars by Julia Roberts in her role as Erin Brokovich.
and the worst?
Sister Summersisle, The Wicker Man (2006)
Burstyn tries to lend gravitas in Neil LaButes shaky re-make of the British horror classic The Wicker Man, playing the spiritual leader of a feminist Pagan community who is something of a cross between Germaine Greer and Jeffrey Jones.
QUOTES
"Acting feels like a congenial condition to me - it's in my genes."
"It's unfortunate but our society is such that, for women in Hollywood, you get to a certain age and just fall off a cliff. But in my case, I refuse to die. I will hang on, by a little finger if necessary."
I do like to work with young directors because it's such a difficult business that I think after directors have been around a while sometimes, not always, but sometimes their passion gets siphoned off because they get hurt.
I love the internet. While many an editor refuses to even acknowledge I exist in the print media world (several months of query letters can attain to that fact), the net has opened its arms to me (and many others like me), and allows me to express my passion for film, whether as a film critic or a writer for a blog such as Orble.
However, like everything else is our world, there also lies a dark side to the web: Hate speech, hardcore pornography (adult or otherwise), illegal downloading, and online gambling are just some of the evils I refer to.
But what I dislike the most about the internet is its ability to ruin the element of surprise found in todays films thanks to the use of the spoiler.
Think about that word. Spoiler.
Now imagine it is 1980. You have been planning to watch The Empire Strikes Back for a week now. You wait in line to purchase your ticket. You have almost reached the ticket booth, then some jerk off carelessly reveals the explosive ending during a conversation with his friend as they leave the cinema, ala The Simpsons.
He spoiled the movie. He revealed the clincher to a film you have been eagerly anticipating since you were blown away after the first Star Wars film (screw the prequels). And now the rest of your evening is tainted. The element of surprise is gone.
Now, apply that scenario to The Usual Suspects. Or The Sixth Sense. Or Se7en. Or any other film acclaimed for its twist conclusion.
Such is the situation many are faced with today. Modern day and future classics have and will forever be tainted by the hand of numerous websites and industry insiders who reveal way too much information on the internet before a film even hits the cinema.
Take Ben Stillers up coming comedy Tropic Thunder for example. The film which is directed and stars Stiller along with Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. tells the story of three actors shooting a war picture only to become embroiled in a real life war.
Unbeknownst at the time, Tom Cruise had been cast in a minor role as a fat, balding film studio executive. That was until some slime ball let the cat out of the bag, to the furious reaction of the films cast, Cruise, and its studio.
Thankfully, a few filmmakers have gotten wise to the growing trend and have taken steps to try and rectify the situation.
Hugely successful yet equally despised director Michael Bay has let it be known that he will intentionally release false information in regards to the in pre-production Transformers sequel, in a bid to keep the fanboys on their toes and stick it to those websites who love to reveal secret information prior to a films release.
However, such a strategy as Garth Franklin at Dark Horizons pointed out will lead websites to stop promoting the film altogether.
The there is Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, who kept such a tight ship on the just released Indiana Jones and The Crystal Skull, that the films stars such as Harrison Ford and Shia Lebouf were steadfastly hesitant in revealing any information to the press after signing a confidentiality agreement.
The same cannot be said about actor Tyler Nelson, who was fired from the film after spilling critical plot details to his hometown newspaper. Call it an extreme reaction, but let there be no doubt that it was a necessary one which I totally approve of.
Final Note: Perhaps one of the finest on screen mysterious of our lifetime has been ruined over at Youtube, where a bloodless individual has revealed the words Bill Murray whispered to Scarlett Johanson in the final scene of Lost in Translation. As a staunch advocate of the power of the imagination and the strength of mystery, I refuse to find out what those words were. And I feel sorry for anyone who has.
Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel is one of the most prominent yet undervalued actors of the last 40 years. Whilst people tend to throw around names such as Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, and Jack Nicholson in regards to who is the greatest living actor, Keitel is usually left without praise
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Under increasing pressure and facing bankruptcy due to his production company American Zoetropes inability to create a hit, acclaimed director Francis Ford Coppola took on the difficult task of creating a follow up to perhaps the greatest two films of all time.
The film I am referring to, of course, is the Godfather Pt III, which was released in 1990 to mostly positive reviews and several Academy Award Nominations, including best picture.
The plot had an aged and remorseful Michael Corleone (played extremely well by Al Pacino) trying to legitimize the Corleone family by investing money into a broke and corrupt Catholic Church. Meanwhile, his daughter Mary (Sofia Coppola) enters into an incestuous affair with the late Sonny Corleones (played in the first Godfather film by James Caan) illegitimate son Vincent Mancini (a superb Andy Garcia
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In the past year, a vast number of high profile productions have featured villains with strong Christian leanings. The majority of these films feature said Christian villains as fundamentalist whackos, who often stand in the way of reason and progress, and often use (or encourage) violent means whilst doing so.
And while it is true that some Christians do fall in line with this stereotype, what is often ignored is that said individuals do not represent the Christian faith, and are extreme in nature and ideology.
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Comment by Matthew Pejkovic
on Why Is The 'Is Homosexuality Normal?' Argument Homophobic?
"And there are plenty of straight men that i know that enjoy their girlfriends pleasuring them with strap-ons and vibrators and a whole host of anal play."
I am not going to touch that with a ten foot pole.
Also, this is not a subject that I am obsessed with. I just thought it was an essential point to bring up concerning the themes of this post.
So, on that note, I will leave the anal play (and the filthy consequnecs it brings) in your hands.
Have fun kids.