Steve Buscemi: From Jersey Boardwalk To Vegas For Burt Wonderstone?

UPDATE: A trade report had Olivia Wilde in negotiations to play the female lead, but I’m told that while this may happen, it hasn’t yet. Judy Greer and Sarah Silverman also made strong impressions, and the filmmakers are waiting to see if Jessica Biel ends up reading for the role. New Line is smartly making the comedy for $30 million, and after Carell and Carrey, that doesn’t leave a fortune for supporting roles. Deadline reported that a short list of actresses were in the mix for the role. EARLIER, 12:22 PM: New Line wants Steve Buscemi to star opposite Steve Carell and Jim Carrey in the Don Scardino-directed comedy Burt Wonderstone. Buscemi has been offered the role of Anton, the longtime Las Vegas magic act partner of Wonderstone (Carell). Their split sends Wonderstone into a crisis and a collision with a rival magician (Carrey) out to steal his thunder. Buscemi hopes to fit Burt Wonderstone into his hiatus from Boardwalk Empire. If the talks work out, he would make the movie and move right into the third season of the superb HBO drama. He’s repped by WME and The Gotham Group.

Berlinale unspools Panahi film

"This Is Not a Film"BERLIN -- The Berlin Film Festival continues its support of Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who is facing six years in prison after a Tehran appeals court upheld the sentence earlier this month. In a further show of solidarity with Panahi and other jailed filmmakers, the Berlinale is joining the German Film Academy and Berlin public radio station Radioeins to honor Panahi with a screening of his latest film, "This Is Not a Film," on Nov. 9 at the KulturBrauerei in Berlin as "a form of public protest and recognition for the courage of these Iranian filmmakers who continue their work despite constant danger." Co-directed by Mojtaba Mirtahmasb -- who was arrested in September -- the film shows a day in the life of Panahi as he waits for months under house arrest for the outcome of his appeal, eating breakfast, phoning his lawyer, chatting with the building's maintenance man and even enacting roles of a planned film that he has been prohibited from making. "'This Is Not a Film' is the defiance of a director who cannot desist from making films and presents the atrociousness of being banned from his profession without any self-pity whatsoever," the Berlinale said. "Convicting artists and banning them from their professions violates human rights, freedom of opinion and expression in the arts," added Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick. "We sharply condemn such infringements and want to demonstrate our solidarity with this screening." In September, Mirtahmasb and fellow Iranian filmmakers and actors Katayoon Shahabi, Hadi Afarideh, Naser Safarian, Shahnam Bazdar and Mohsen Shahrnazdar were also arrested as part of the Tehran government's draconian crackdown on critics of the Islamic regime. In December 2010 Panahi and fellow director Mohammad Rasoulof were charged with spreading "propaganda against the system," and sentenced to six years in prison and banned from making films and travelling for the next 20 years. At this year's Berlinale the fest expressed its support, calling attention to the plight of Panahi, and other Iranian filmmakers with a number of initiatives. It also invited Panahi to serve on the Berlinale's international jury -- something the director was unable to do due to his arrest. Moved by his plight, the German Film Academy has launched the project "Filmmakers in Prison" to support politically persecuted filmmakers. Contact Ed Meza at staff@variety.com

Relativity Responds To Experts Of Filming In China: We'd Never Knowingly Do Anything Whatsoever To Undermine Human Privileges

Reacting Sunday evening to critique of Relativity Media for filming moments in the approaching buddy-debauchery movie 21 and also over inside a province of China in which a blind activist continues to be held under brutal house arrest, the organization released this statement: “From its founding, Relativity Media is a consistent and open supporter of human privileges and that we would not knowingly do anything whatsoever to undermine this commitment. We uphold that commitment and that we are happy with our growing business associations in China, through our partnership with Sky Land, its proper alliance with Huaxia Film Distribution Company. Like a company, we feel deeply that growing trade and business ties with our alternatives in China and elsewhere can lead to positive final results.” Critique within the press from activists in China and via Twitter within the U.S. made an appearance to trap professionals at Relativity unawares, using the dust still settling from recent but unrelated industry fallout over bad publicity surrounding Hilary Swanks appearance at Chechnya tyrant Ramzan Kadyrovs birthday celebration. Reviews appeared earlier Sunday about human privileges activists protesting Relativitys decision to film the now already completed moments of 21 and also over within the Chinese town of Linyi. The town is tainted by its location in Shandong province where blind activist Chen Guangcheng remains under house arrest in the village of Dongshigu and apparently exposed to government thuggery. Relativitys announcement from the filming a week ago under its Chinese partnership came the interest of activists who're focusing on Chens account. Theyre particularly unhappy that in Relativitys pr release about 21 and also over Linyis top Communist Party official Zhang Shajun — whom activists connect directly using the harsh management of Chen — is cited mentioning to Relativity’s Ryan Kavanaugh like a close friend. Company co-leader Tucker Tooley describes Linyi being an amazing place. Nanjing-based activist He Peirong stated, I really hope Relativity Media will find out more about the actual Linyi, about Chen Guangcheng, and find out that what's presently happening in Dongshigu village is exactly what is actually amazing. Chens village is within virtual lockdown, based on reviews, and activists, foreign diplomats and reporters happen to be averted, threatened coupled with gemstones tossed their way. On Sunday several activists was attacked by males patrolling the village.

REVIEW: Rhys Ifans Brings Roland Emmerich's Mammoth Historical Thriller Anonymous Down to Earth

Sometimes directors with certain strengths try to stretch different muscles and you desperately wish they wouldn’t: Woody Allen getting all serious with Interiors comes to mind. But Roland Emmerich, taking a break from cavorting with woolly mammoths and blowing up the world, is onto something with Anonymous, an intricate — if not terribly convincing — historical thriller positing that a minor Elizabethan poet named Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, and not William Shakespeare, wrote all those plays and sonnets that the world loves so well. Anonymous isn’t so different from Emmerich’s other movies — pictures like 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow — in that it’s guided by a grand, ambitious vision. It’s also something of a mess, packing in a bit too much of everything when just a few judiciously chosen nuts and bolts would do. But it is, at the very least, a curiosity, one with some clever casting and a few very fine performances at its core. And I guess it could be true that the person we know as Shakespeare wasn’t really Shakespeare. Emmerich treats the possibility solemnly, welcoming us into his movie with a heavy-duty thespian intro by Derek Jacobi: He steps into a theater spotlight to deliver a semi-informative prologue in plummy tones. It turns out, as screenwriter John Orloff (A Mighty Heart) lays the whole thing out for us, that Edward (Rhys Ifans), unwelcome in the court of Elizabeth I (Vanessa Redgrave) for reasons that aren’t clear until the end, is churning out plays as fast as he can scribble them onto paper. Some of these things he writes just for kicks. (A whole play in iambic pentameter, anyone?) With others, he hopes to effect serious political change, exposing, for example, the machinations of the power-mad father-son duo of William and Robert Cecil (David Thewlis and Edward Hogg), who have entirely too much influence over the queen. Edward can’t send his plays out into the world under his own name, so he enlists the playwright Ben Jonson (Sebastian Armesto) to serve as his beard. But somehow, a lazy, bumbling actor named Will Shakespeare (Rafe Spall) ends up taking credit for them. Meanwhile, Emmerich keeps zapping us into the backstory, in which the young Edward (played by a winsome Jamie Campbell Bower) woos the young Elizabeth (played, in a genius stroke of casting, by Joely Richardson, Redgrave’s daughter). Their bedroom frolicking inspires some of Edward’s finest romantic wordplay. If you’re not confused yet, you will be once the curly-wigged Earl of Southampton (Xavier Samuel) and the ginger-haired Earl of Essex (Sam Reid) enter the picture to stir things up further. Emmerich is so excited about this exotic, fanciful story that he crams too much in, trading excess for clarity. But he does, at least, exercise his propensity for visual grandeur: Working on a relatively slim budget — this is a historical drama and not a pack-‘em-in blockbuster, after all — he has re-created a reasonably believable facsimile of Elizabethan London using computer-generated effects. Shot by Anna Foerster, with production design by Sebastian T. Krawinkel, the picture looks just right, striking the proper balance between grimy and glowing. It doesn’t hurt that the actors in Anonymous also look great, and three in particular rise to every challenge that’s brought to them. Richardson, with her tumble of pale curls, is a living, breathing version of John Millais’ Ophelia, but tougher. Redgrave plays her version of the character as if she has become more emotionally vulnerable, not less, with age — the older Elizabeth just works harder to submerge it beneath her imperious veneer. Redgrave brings an astonishing fragility to the role. Her canny, powerful Elizabeth may act like a tough old bird, but we can see that underneath she has the delicate bones of a goldfinch. As always, Redgrave is glorious to watch. But it’s Rhys Ifans, as the Earl of Oxford, who keeps the movie spinning. Ifans takes dorky, grandiose dialogue and turns it into something almost — well, Shakespearean. His character has spent his life writing incredible plays and sonnets, but he’s forced to hide his identity from the public. As Ifans plays him, he’s OK with all that — it’s the personal anguish he’s suffered that really matters, and Ifans carries that bruised nobility with him every second. His voice, sonorous and always just faintly sorrowful, reminds me of that of the late, great, Richard Harris. Although Harris was Irish and Ifans is Welsh, they’re linked in spirit, rapscallions who can really buckle down and surprise you with their depth and heart. I giggled at parts of Anonymous, especially when our earl’s angry, disapproving wife catches him at his desk and bellows, like Gale Sondergaard with PMS, “My God! You’re writing again!” But I never laughed at Ifans. When you look into those eyes, you could almost believe that this was the guy who wrote all those sonnets. [Portions of this review appeared earlier, in a different form, during Movieline’s coverage of the 2011 Toronto Film Festival.] Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.

Watch Fearless, Possibly Crazy Tom Cruise Scale World's Tallest Building for Mission Impossible 4

How hardcore is Tom Cruise? So hardcore that he actually scaled the tallest structure in the world — Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, which stands at just over a half-mile high — for a perilous, stomach-churning action sequence in the upcoming Brad Bird-directed Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Video proof of the superstar’s stunt hardcore-ness ahead. The above featurette shows Mission Impossible star/executive producer Cruise swinging from the 2,723 ft. tower effortlessly as Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille) captures the sequence in IMAX. Movieline had the privilege of watching the finished Burj Khalifa sequence last week and will post about what we saw tomorrow with the release of the film’s new trailer. IMF agent Ethan Hunt returns to theaters for Mission Impossible’s fourth installment this December 16. [via Yahoo!] Follow Julie Miller on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.

CBS sets Grammy noms special

Film Technology SummitNovember 7, 2011 The Annex Space @ Hollywood & Highland, Los Angeles, CA Future Of Film SummitNovember 8, 2011 The Annex Space @ Hollywood & Highland, Los Angeles, CA American Music Conference Presented By Variety and Dick Clark ProductionsNovember 18, 2011Nokia LA Live, Los Angeles, CA Entertainment Apps ConferenceDecember 1, 2011Sofitel Hotel, Los Angeles, CA Variety's Home Entertainment Hall of Fame AwardsDecember 5, 2011Beverly Hills Hotel, Los Angeles, CA Entertainment Security SummitDecember 8, 2011Hilton Los Angeles, Universal City, CA

Hathaway In Tune With L'ensemble des Miserables

She's kept in as FantineShe's experienced Hugh Jackman's sights for some time now, and her casting was stated dating back to August, but it is official: Hathaway As Catwoman has signed an offer to co-star as Fantine in Tom Hooper's new undertake L'ensemble des Miserables. In line with the musical version of Victor Hugo's novel, L'ensemble des Miserables will discover Jackman playing troubled hero Jean Valjean, a guy who finally sees freedom after 19 many years of jail time. Even while he attempts to rebuild his existence, he's constantly hunted by driven lawman Javert (Russell Crowe), who thinks he'll never change his criminal ways.Among the people Valjean meets on the way is Fantine, a youthful lady tossed from his factory after being discovered delivering money to her daughter. Taking pity around the ailing lady, Valjean concurs to boost her child, Cosette, an action that years later puts each of them within the center of the edgy uprising.Hathaway is going to be belting out showstopper I Imagined An Aspiration and usually getting trouble from it when King's Speech director Hooper begins the cameras turning early the coming year.