Angelina Jolie Pitt’s third narrative feature, BY THE SEA, centers on a married couple (Jolie Pitt and Brad Pitt) in the 1970s on vacation in a small seaside town, struggling to save their relationship. The film, set in France, is based on an original idea by Jolie Pitt.
AFI: The film’s narrative and its characters are evocative of French and Italian films of the late 1960s and 1970s. Were there any specific films that served as an inspiration as you wrote and directed BY THE SEA?
Angelina Jolie Pitt: No. But I was conscious of the creative freedom that artists had at that time. That was an influence and something we were trying to explore.
The time and place in which this film is set are essential to how the couple relate to each other and the emotional crisis at the heart of the story. Was this always a story that was set in the 1970s, or did this evolve as you wrote and developed the characters and the script?
It was always set in the 1970s because it was a very unique and rich time for art and politics.
Author: Josan
One-Night U.S. Theatrical Release Of “Hitting The Apex”
The heart-pounding, high-intensity feature film HITTING THE APEX is racing into theaters November 17, 2015 for a one-night nationwide event.
HITTING THE APEX, produced and narrated by Brad Pitt, is the inside story of six fighters – six of the fastest motorcycle racers of all time – and of the fates that awaited them at the peak of the sport. It’s the story of what is at stake for all of them: all that can be won, and all that can be lost, when you go chasing glory at over two hundred miles an hour – on a motorcycle.
TheatriCast, the new event cinema initiative from Different Drummer and Tugg, is releasing the film and exclusive event content on more than 40 screens, determined by the demands and data of racing and motorcycle fans across North America. HITTING THE APEX has had successful theatrical launches in the UK, Italy, and Spain.
Tickets are available for online purchase now at: Theatricast
New ‘By the Sea’ trailer
The new By the Sea trailer for the film written and directed by Angelina Jolie Pitt
Universal Pictures has released (via EW) the new trailer for By the Sea, Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie Pitt’s directorial follow-up to the studio’s Unbroken that stars herself and her real-life husband, Brad Pitt. You can watch the By the Sea trailer in the player below.
Written, directed and produced by Jolie Pitt, the dramatic film also features an international ensemble led by Mélanie Laurent, Niels Arestrup, Melvil Poupaud and Richard Bohringer.
By the Sea follows an American writer named Roland (Pitt) and his wife, Vanessa (Jolie Pitt), who arrive in a tranquil and picturesque seaside resort in 1970s France, their marriage in apparent crisis. As they spend time with fellow travelers, including young newlyweds Lea (Laurent) and François (Poupaud), and village locals Michel (Arestrup) and Patrice (Bohringer), the couple begins to come to terms with unresolved issues in their own lives.
In its style, and its treatment of themes of the human experience, By the Sea is inspired by European cinema and theater of the ’60s and ’70s.
“This is a story about a relationship derailed by loss, the tenacity of love, and the path to recovery and acceptance,” said Jolie Pitt in a statement earlier this year. “It has been a privilege to explore these universal human experiences with such a generous and talented cast and crew.”
The Audition
Remember that corporate-sponsored short film Martin Scorsese made with Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Brad Pitt that reportedly cost $70 million (most of which the actors collected)? It’s finally leaked online for you to watch from behind your fingers.
The Audition was made to promote Melco Crown Entertainment’s new $3.2 billion Hollywood-themed casino resort Studio City, and got its premiere this week when it opened its doors.
Someone managed to capture the 15-minute short on their smartphone, and it’s now on YouTube (below, at least for the time being).
Hollywood stars can’t mask turmoil behind Macau casino opening
In fairness, it could be a lot worse. There are some classic Scorsesian shots in there, the all-vying-for-the-same-part plot isn’t a terrible idea and there’s been more egregious examples of corporate shilling in the past, though there is some wince-inducing dialogue in the film, particularly when DiCaprio and De Niro do some awkward banter about the spa services on offer at the resort.
Scorsese, DiCaprio and De Niro all turned up for the red carpet premiere of the film in Macau, though Pitt was nowhere to be seen, said to have ‘prior commitments’.
Read more. Thank you Mark.
Quiet Abu Dhabi street transforms into War Machine film set
A quiet residential street in Abu Dhabi has been transformed into a military fortress as part of Brad Pitt’s upcoming blockbuster War Machine.
The tight one-way road, off 15th Street and parallel to Sultan Bin Zayed the First, has been cordoned off by police since Monday, with one old building featuring an “American embassy in Kabul” plaque.
Shooting is reportedly set to continue at the location until November 5.
At noon Wednesday, three burly actors in combat gear stood as sentries at the gate armed with what appeared to be M-16s. On set was a catering van emblazoned with the words “Golden Crown”, a restaurant on Hamdan street.
According to sources on the site, the street will also double as a Palestinian border crossing, and will be the scene of an action sequence.
“I hear there will be shooting and also one bomb here in the ‘embassy’ in two or three days,” said a Pakistani resident who lives nearby. “They say there will be lots of action here soon.”
The beginning of the Abu Dhabi shoot this week emerged from an unlikely source: Ann Michod, a relative of director David Michod, who confirmed the news in a tweet on October 19.
“The War Machine crew have arrived in Abu Dhabi for the second half of the shoot, should be there for six weeks,” she posted.
Brad Pitt Channels Robert Redford for V magazine
Brad Pitt is only getting more handsome with age.
The 51-year-old actor recently posed for the cover of V magazine**, showing off his legendary good looks. He also bears a striking resemblance to the iconic Robert Redford in the new photos, who he memorably worked with on 2001’s Spy Game.
Inside the magazine, Brad works a ’70s vibe, and it’s safe to say that he completely pulls it off.
The By the Sea star opens up about his highly anticipated new romance drama in the accompanying interview, and what it was like being directed by his wife, 40-year-old Angelina Jolie. Brad and Angelina play a married couple in the film — set in mid-1970s France — who experience some heavy ups and downs in their relationship.
“It’s surprising how much I enjoy the direction of my wife,” Brad says. “She’s decisive, incredibly intuitive, and might I say sexy at her post. I trust her with my life.”
The two memorably worked together on 2005’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith, but he makes it clear that their latest project together couldn’t be more different.
“Mr. & Mrs. Smith this is not,” he stresses. “By the Sea deals with that period when the honeymoon is well over and the couple is faced with the banality of every day and the pains of the unplanned. There are no Hallmark cards that define the next chapter, or the value of a history together. So who are you?”
Ennio Morricone Also Scoring Malick’s Long-Awaited ‘Voyage of Time’
The more Morricone, the better. Our friends at The Film Stage picked up on a mention on the website for film distributor Wild Bunch that indicates Terrence Malick’s long-awaited other film Voyage of Time will feature a score by legendary Italian composer Ennio Morricone. It mentions in the cast & crew listings there will be Original Music by Ennio Morricone. Many may remember the news we breathlessly reported earlier this year about Morricone returning to score his first original western in over 40 years – which would be Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, arriving in theaters later this December. It looks like Morricone will follow that up with Malick’s Voyage of Time, his non-fiction film due sometime in late 2016, hopefully.
The Big Short Poster Bets Big Against the U.S. Economy
Paramount Pictures and Regency Enterprises just released a poster for the Adam McKay film The Big Short, starring Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt. Check out the first Big Short poster in the gallery below!
When four outsiders saw what the big banks, media and government refused to, the global collapse of the economy, they had an idea: The Big Short. Their bold investment leads them into the dark underbelly of modern banking where they must question everyone and everything. The film is based on the true story and best-selling book by Michael Lewis (The Blind Side, Moneyball), and directed by Adam Mckay (Anchorman, Step Brothers).
The Big Short is a Plan B Entertainment production. The film is executive produced by Louise Rosner-Meyer and Kevin Messick, with Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, and Arnon Milchan serving as producers. Charles Randolph and Adam McKay wrote the script.
The film will hit limited theaters on December 11 before expanding wide on December 23.
By the Sea ‘Behind the scenes’
• x052 By the Sea – Behind the Scenes.
FYI. I also added a couple of The Big Short trailer screencaps the other day. Enjoy!
Angelina Jolie Pitt on Her Most Personal Project With Brad Yet and…
Angelina Jolie Pitt is calling the shots as actress, mother, philanthropist, and auteur. Next month, she and her husband, Brad Pitt, will appear as a married couple in By the Sea, which she wrote and directed and is their first on-screen outing since Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
“The director was very focused. The actress was unstable. And the writer was deeply confused,” says Angelina Jolie Pitt. Then she laughs. She’s talking about what it was like to direct herself and her husband as a married couple in her own script for By the Sea, an elegiac exploration of grief and love. Ten years after her last collaboration with Brad Pitt, Mr. & Mrs. Smith—the movie that sparked their relationship—it’s about as far from that marriage-as-war-of-assassins comedy as you can get.
“This is the only film I’ve done that is completely based on my own crazy mind,” she says, speaking with humor and intensity, bringing to life a soulless room at the Sunset Tower Hotel. Outside is glittering, heat-wave sun, umbrellas packing the Los Angeles beaches. Inside, Angelina’s in black—skinny pants, short-sleeved silk blouse—which makes her printer paper–white skin even whiter. She wears no makeup. Why bother? Her beauty has only deepened with time.
For years, she says, she and Brad called the script for By the Sea “the crazy one. We even called it ‘the worst idea.’ ” She laughs again, and covers her face with her hands. “As artists we wanted something that took us out of our comfort zones,” she explains. “Just being raw actors. It’s not the safest idea. But life is short.” Angelina, of course, has never played it safe. And at this point in her mythic life, perhaps the only risk left is to pare down the myth, expose her self.
• x006 Vogue November 2015.
Care to Learn director retires, successor named
Morey Mechlin is retiring at the end of the month.
Springfield-based nonprofit Care to Learn this month named two new leaders as its longtime executive director retires.
Morey Mechlin, who worked as executive director of the Foundation for Springfield Public Schools for a decade prior to joining Care to Learn, is slated to retire at the end of the month after holding the job since 2009.
“Morey has worked hard for Care to Learn, for Springfield, for Missouri, for poverty. It’s just a chance for her to take a breath,” co-founder Doug Pitt said yesterday at Care to Learn’s Creamery Arts Center headquarters, 411 N. Sherman Parkway.
Mechlin, 62, said she would continue to be an advocate for Care to Learn, as well as serve in volunteer community roles, but she would not seek another paid job.
“Care to Learn needed more energy and time than I was able to give it,” she said, noting she approached (Doug) Pitt and the nonprofit’s board in June to announce her retirement.
Succeeding her, effective Oct. 1, is Linda Ramey-Greiwe, a former president and publisher at Springfield News-Leader. Care to Learn also named former state Rep. Sara Lampe its deputy director, a newly created salaried position, said Pitt, who co-founded the organization in 2008.
Scorsese’s ‘The Audition’ to premiere at S Korean film festival
An inconspicuous cinema tucked at the back of a South Korean shopping mall is an unexpected setting for the world premiere of a new film by an Oscar-winning director,featuring some of cinemas biggest stars.
But this is just where Martin Scorsese’s “The Audition” starring Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, will debut Saturday (oct 3).
The idea for the film was conceived by Australian playboy billionaire James Packer to promote Studio City, the US$3.2 billion Hollywood-inspired casino he and his partner at Melco Crown Entertainment, Lawrence Ho, are building in the Chinese enclave of Macau, and another similar project titled City of Dreams being built in Manila.
The 16-minute production features in the Short Film Showcase section at the 20th Busan International Film Festival.
It had been scheduled to show first at the Venice Film Festival and was one of the event’s most hotly anticipated screenings, but it was pulled from the programme at the last moment due to “technical problems”, according to a statement released by festival organisers. They had earlier defended showing such a commercially natured production.
“It’s a Scorsese film, not a commercial. The casino paid for the film, but it’s not in the film at all,” Venice director Alberto Barbera told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year.
