Talking Films » The Informant

Gwyneth Paltrow infects Contagion

John — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 06:28:27 +0000

There is lot of buzz surrounding Steven Soderbergh’s next movie that already has a great cast. Steven is still putting the final touches on his new film called Knockout. But the word is that he is already readying a cast for his next film. Gwyneth Paltrow is now added to his next feature called Contagion.

The film stars Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Marion Cotillard and Jude Law. It is reported that its budget will be around 60 million dollars. The film is told from multiple and intertwined perspectives and revolves around the outbreak of a deadly virus taking place on four continents. This will be something special in store for this film because of the presence of such a cast.

Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns had discussed the idea but it was catalyzed when someone sneezed on the set of The Informant. Someone sneezed and a movie not only goes into production, but it takes priority over Soderbergh’s planned biopic of Liberace starring Michael Douglas and Damon. This will be the sixth collaboration of Matt Damon with Steven Soderbergh.
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Steven Soderbergh on the musical Cleo

John — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:06:34 +0000

Steven Soderbergh has been changing his way of approaching the Cleo biopic. He is right now multitasking this with another project called Knockout. Knockout is based on a script by David Holmes.

The other film will be Liberace. It will star Matt Damon and Michael Douglas. The film will be 3D musical; Cleo will be the next one after that. There is also talk about retirement in the cards.

The Cleo film will be something in the lines of early Ken Russell works. Russell is known for his infamous stuff like The Who work called Tommy and also a comedy titled Lisztomania.

This going to be a totally different direction for Steven Soderbergh; his work will lead him into the world of the crazy. Steven also said he will want something to do akin to Ocean’s Twelve.

Soderbergh’s latest is called The Informant which is another screwball comedy. There are so many other projects for him to take that will be in the horizon.
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Review: The Informant is Weirdly Entertaining

Prem — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 22:49:06 +0000

This is one of the most oddly entertaining films of the year. Matt Damon has pulled off one of his best performance of his career that too by looking over thirty pounds over-weight. The Informant is all about Matt Damon and he carries all the expectations of this movie on his shoulders and he does not disappoint. This is the story of the most unreliable and dishonest man you will ever come across.

The film is set in Illinois and it takes place from the early 90’s to 2002. Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) is well off, a married family man who is hard working and successful in his job at ADM. He considers himself to be very intelligent and plans to be the top dog in the company some day. So, smartly he begins to make up stories and lies and tries to deceive the company by giving information to the FBI. The problems begin when the FBI thinks that Mark Whitacre is doing the right thing, when hes actually lying to them.

Matt Damon is soo believable as Mark Whitacre and thats the important thing. He narrates the movie also with such confidence and so much belief at the fact that he is doing the right thing to expose the company of price fixing as well ensuring that he gets a promotion to basically run the company. What follows is the number of lies Mark had to tell to conceal his previous lies and it goes on till a breaking point.

Steven Soderbergh has told a true story in the most entertaining way possible. Maybe, he didn’t have to make it entertaining as the character Matt Damon played was a person like that. He seemed so natural and so convincing that we begin to believe in what he does until we find out that hes been more of an idiot than anything else. It’s a story told in the best possible manner and Soderbergh deserves credit for it. His direction and overall presentation of the corruption in the company was prefect. Matt Damon has really matured into a fine actor and this movie shows enough evidence of it. Its a must watch for sure.

Rating: 8 out of 10 starsSimilar Posts:

Steven Soderbergh says yes to Liberace as well

John — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:44:39 +0000

Steven Soderbergh is one of the most powerful directors of our time. His sensibility seems to be reforming with every passing film. His understanding of the medium seems to contain so much form that we can’t help but be a fan. He is up in his shoes with projects lined up for the future. He is already getting ready for the Matt Damon Starrer called The Informant!. There is also the other project with Matt Damon that has been in the pipeline for sometime now. The Liberace project will star Michael Douglas as the title character and Matt Damon will play his lover. But even though they never officially came out with it everyone kind of knew.

Steven Soderbergh had a conference with the French press where he spilled about the production of the film. “We’ve already done some costume and wardrobe tests on Michael, and they’re very, very, very good”. He goes on to say that “I swear to you, Michael amazed me. He crushed it.” Soderbergh also says that Matt Damon has agreed to portray longtime lover/assistant Scott Thorsen, whose 1982 palimony suit for $110 million publicly outed Liberace. The director says that “Matt accepted the challenge.”

Liberace at his peak was known to get paid even more than Elvis and the Beatles. He was easily the most recognizable face in television. The film is written by Richard Lagravence and it is being budgeted to the utmost sincerity. But this doesn’t mean Knockout will be sidelined that will be the rapid fire movie for Steven then Liberace.
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Gina Carano is the “Knockout” in Soderbergh’s next film

Prem — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 21:36:13 +0000

Director Steven Soderbergh has pulled in MMA Women’s fighter Gina Carano to make her debut in his next film Knockout.

Variety says that Relativity Media will fully finance the film, and Soderbergh plans a late January production start. The movie will be scripted by Lem Dobbs (Kafka, The Limey). The character played by Gina Carano is from the wrong side of the law and she is given a second chance to put her skills to good use.

Soderbergh who recently decided he will not direct Moneyball, is busy currently promoting his latest film, The Informant which stars Matt Damon in the lead.

Knockout seems to be an all out action flick, so who better than the face of women’s MMA Gina Carano to star in out. Just hope that she can act as good as she fights, then we all be in for a treat.
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Soderberg’s final say on the Moneyball issue

John — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 06:03:20 +0000

So with the Moneyball finally out of theway. Steven Soderberg seems to be in a retrospection mood. The main issue for pulling the plug on the film was the budget and script issues.

Another bit of news was the early retirement plans of the director. This piece of news has sort of not gone down well many of the industry folks. But the dust seems to have settled with the issue. So he was waiting for the chance to tell his side of the story to Vanity Fair.

“There have been a couple of times in my career where I’ve been unceremoniously removed from projects. I don’t waste a lot of energy on it,” he told the Orlando Sentinel. “It doesn’t get you anywhere. As soon as it became clear that there was no iteration of that movie that I was going to get to direct, I immediately started looking around for something else to do. I have a couple of other things in development that I had hoped to move up, but actor’s schedules wouldn’t allow it. But I have something I can get to after the first of the year, and I’m supposed to do my Liberace movie next summer. So my attitude when something like that happens is, ‘What’s next?’ You can’t dwell on it.”

After all that is behind us. Steven Soderbergh is not set to shoot Liberace next summer. So he is surely going to rest it out till then. But he surely has the promotional work on his next film The Informant. There is also the news surfacing about ‘The Limey sequel’. The Limey was one of the most well shot movies that came out around the time when the hyper popular Memento which brazed the same issue with more style. There are also talks about a musical starring Catherine Zeta jones called Cleo.

So with so much to look forward to from him, we just hope he does not burn out like he predicts. Till then there will be lots to talk about in the coming years. Keep your comments coming on this latent issue?
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New Poster of Matt Damon in ‘The Informant’

Prem — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 08:18:53 +0000

Yahoo has just debuted a fantastic new poster of Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant and this is as funny as it can get.

The poster looks hilarious at first glance. It more or less looks like an old school horror movie poster with a large shadow of the main character. Its something different and thats what I like about it. What do you think?

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