Cinemascope

March 6, 2007

And yet more Brando trivia....

Was unable to raise the $10 million bail initially required of his son Christian Brando (Gary Brown) in the May 16, 1990 slaying of his sister Cheyenne's boyfriend Dag Drollett. After the holding of a two-day preliminary hearing in early August 1990, the presiding judge ruled that enough evidence had been presented to try Christian on first-degree murder charges. At this time, the judge refused to lower the $10 million bail due to what he termed evidence of the Brando family's failure to cooperate with he court, specifically citing Cheyenne's flight from the United States to avoid helping the police investigation. However, two weeks later, the same judge reduced Christian's bail to $2 million, which his father Marlon was able to post by putting up his Mulholland Drive house as collateral. Marlon soon accepted a cameo role in the film Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992) for $5 million, according to Variety, the bible of the Hollywood trade papers.

Brando's friend, the actor William Redfield, mentioned him prominently in the memoir he wrote about the 1964 stage production of Hamlet (1964/I) directed by John Gielgud and starring Richard Burton. In "Letters from an Actor" (1967, Viking Press), Redfield -- who played Guildenstern -- said that Brando had been considered the Great White Hope by his generation of American actors. That is, they believed that Brando's more naturalistic style, combined with his greatness as an actor, would prove a challenge to the more stylized and technical English acting paradigm epitomized by Laurence Olivier, and that Brando would supplant Olivier as the world's greatest actor. Redfield would tell Burton stories of Brando, whom the Welsh actor had not yet met. Refield sadly confessed that Brando, by not taking on roles such as Hamlet (and furthermore, by betraying his craft by abandoning the stage, thus allowing his instrument to be dulled by film work), had failed not only as an actor, but had failed to help American actors create an acting tradition that would rival the English in terms of expertise.

He worked for union scale on the anti-apartheid film A Dry White Season (1989) with the proviso that the producers donate $3 million (which would have been his normal fee) to charity. When Brando was interviewed by Connie Chung for her TV program "Saturday Night with Connie Chung" broadcast on October 7, 1989, he said was upset with the picture and mentioned the charitable gift the producers had made on his bequest to show his commitment to toppling apartheid in South Africa. Circa 1989, Brando could be generous as he appeared set financially for life due to his profit participation in Apocalypse Now (1979) and the $14 million settlement he won from Superman (1978) producer Ilya Salkind. However, the defense of his son Gary Brown, who was arrested for murder on May 16, 1990, reportedly cost his father as much as $5 million, so Brando was forced to go back to work after almost a decade away from the screen, but for the anti- apartheid picture and what he intended as his career swan-song, The Freshman (1990), for which he was paid $3 million (approximately $4.7 million in 2005 dollars). When he died in 2004, Brando left an estate valued at more than $20 million.

Turned down the role of the Sundance Kid in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) after Paul Newman took over the production from Steve McQueen. McQueen, who was obsessed with Newman as his rival as a movie actor and superstar, had bought the script from William Goldman, originally called "The Sundance Kid and Butch Cassidy". McQueen was slated to play "The Sundance Kid". When he dropped out and Newman took over the production, the title was reversed and Brando was offered the role. He declined in order to film _Queimada! (1969) ("Burn") with Gillo Pontecorvo. Brando earlier had dropped out of Elia Kazan's _Arrangement, THe (1969)_ , shortly after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. Brando told Kazan he could not star in a run-of-the-mill movie after King's assassination. Instead, he opted for "Burn", which was a pro-revolutionary story about a rebellion of African slaves in the Caribbean.

The very last film role that was ever offered to him was Rayburn in Man on Fire (2004), less than a year before he passed away. The role instead went to Christopher Walken.

Turned down the role of Earl Partridge in Magnolia (1999).

Turned down the role of the Headless Horseman in _Sleepy Hollow (1999)_ .

Was considered by director Tim Burton for the role of The Penguin in Batman Returns (1992). Creator Bob Kane was relieved that Brando wasn't cast, as he was the "wrongest possible choice for the role."

Keith Richards's son, Marlon Richards is named after him.

March 6, 2007

Reel.com was also enthusiastic

Borat (2006)(Widescreen)

Movie: 3 1/2

DVD: 3

To call Borat Sagdiyev "clueless" is a grand understatement. Sacha Baron-Cohen's fictional Kazakh journalist is a hillbilly from a remote, busted-down Soviet-era backwater, making his way around the U.S. with an armload of ridiculous superstitions and misinformation (and a jar of gypsy tears "for protection"). He lays out his racist, sexist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic misconceptions in pidgin English for anybody unfortunate enough to be bushwhacked by him, and the results are almost invariably hilarious. Along with furry, 5'2", 300-pound producer Azamat Bagatov (Ken Davitian), they embark on a journey to find Borat's love interest, Pamela Anderson Lee, and find all sorts of adventures in American culture along the way. His appearance at a rodeo in Roanoke, Virginia, doesn't end well, to say the least. Neither do his visits to a humor coach, social-etiquette experts, an antique store, an RV full of South Carolina frat boys, a suburban-Midwest yard sale, or a session with former Congressman Bob Barr. And through it all is Borat's guileless naivet?, asking about "the best gun to shoot a Jew", debating with poker-faced feminists about the size of women's brains ("like squirrel"), asking his driving instructor if he can make sexy-time with a woman in a nearby car. We won't even go into the (naked) fight between Borat and Azamat. Hell, he's funny enough even when he's not saying anything, with his gangly, clumsy body language, ill-fitting suit (which was reportedly not ever cleaned during the making of the movie), bushy moustache, and toothy grin. And the stories have started to roll in about the making of Borat, such as the 90-odd times the police were called on Cohen, the fact that his "Kazakh" dialect is actually a mix of Polish and Hebrew, the lawsuits from various dupes who appeared in the movie, and the fact that it was banned in Kazakhstan almost right away. As for the lawsuits from people who were blindsided by Borat into showing their own unsavory prejudices, it's hard to feel a whole lot of sympathy for them...but chances are if you are going to watch this DVD you know about most of this already.

Special features ("surplus materials") on the DVD are a little scant, but what's there is pretty rich indeed. You get 30 minutes of deleted scenes, some of which are hysterical: Borat visits a West Virginia animal shelter and tries to train a puppy to attack Jews; with a newspaper photo of Barbara Bush, he consults with a plastic surgeon about a little cosmetic surgery; he's pulled over by D.C. and Dallas cops as he and Azamat cruise in their ice-cream truck and learns that the Dallas cops "don't high-five nobody." A visit to a massage therapist is enough to induce spasms, and his appearance on Conan O'Brien's show culminates in Borat and Azamat wrestling O'Brien to the ground. Borat also hangs out on Jay Leno's show, and takes a seminar from Martha Stewart, which of course involves Borat hitting on the homemaker in his completely non-suave manner. There's more on the disc that's outrageously funny and definitely offensive, but why spoil it all here? Just get the disc and see for yourself.

There's no making-of featurette and no commentary track. Those would have been welcome extras. Oh well. Maybe the next DVD version of this hilarious comedy will be the Borat: Extra Niiice Edition.

March 6, 2007

and here's a few more tidbits

The Chase (1966) producer Sam Spiegel was quite fond of Brando, who won his first Best Actor Oscar in the Spiegel-produced Best Picture winner On the Waterfront (1954). When casting Brando in The Chase (1966), Spiegel was worried that motorcycle enthusiast Brando would kill himself like James Dean had, in an accident. (Brando had had lacerated his knee while biking before filming began.) Spiegel constantly queried "Chase" director Arthur Penn as to whether Brando had brought his motorbike with him to the filming. When Brando got wind of this, he had his motorcycle brought over to the set on a trailer and left on the lot to play a joke on Spiegel, who quickly arrived at the shooting to see that Brando didn't drive it. When Spiegel found out it was all a joke, the normally taciturn producer laughed heartily. Spiegel originally had acquired the property that became "The Chase" in the 1950s and wanted Brando to play the role of Jason 'Jake' Rogers and Marilyn Monroe to play his lover, Anna Reeves . By the time production began in 1965, Brando was too old to play the role of the son, and took the part of Sheriff Calder instead. Brando was paid $750,000 and his production company Pennebaker was paid a fee of $130,000. (Marlon's sister Jocelyn Brando also was cast in the small role of Mrs. Briggs.) Brando did not like the part, and complained that all he did in the picture was wander around. He began referring to himself as "The Old Lamplighter." However, many critics and cinephiles consider Sheriff Calder one of his best performances.

According to Lawrence Grobel's "Conversations with Brando" (NY: Hyperion, 1991), Brando ultimately made $14 million from Superman (1978). The Salkinds, producers of the movie, tried to buy out his share of the profits for $6 million, but Brando refused and had to file a lawsuit to recover what was owed him.

Was paid $3 million for 10 days work on The Formula (1980) (approximately $8.5 million in 2005 terms). Brando told Lawrence Grobel ("Conversations with Brando") that the movie, which he only made for the money as he was broke, was ruined in the editing room, with the humor of his scenes cut out. In his autobiography, Brando -- in a caption for a picture from the film -- recounts that George C. Scott asked him during the shooting of the film whether he, Brando, would ever give the same line-reading twice. Brando replied, "I know you know a cue when you hear one." The two both played chess together during waits during the shooting. Scott said that Brando was not that good a player.

Brando had to sue Francis Ford Coppola to get all the monies owed to him from his percentage of the profits of Apocalypse Now (1979). Brando characterized the people in the movie industry as "liars" to Lawrence Grobel (who conducted his 1979 Playboy interview): "Even Francis Coppola owed me one-and-a-half million and I have to sue him. They all do that, as they make interest on the money...so they delay paying.... It's all so ugly, I hate the idea of having to act, but there's no other way to do it."

The producers of the film adaptation of Sir Peter Shaffer's play Equus (1977) were interested in casting either Brando or Jack Nicholson in the lead role of Dr. Martin Dysart. The part went instead to Richard Burton, who had to "screen-test" for the role by agreeing to appear in the play on Broadway. Burton did, got rave reviews and a special Tony award, and won his seventh and last Oscar nomination for the role. In his diary, Burton wrote that in the late 1950s, he was always one of the first actors producers turned to when Brando turned down a role.

Became quite friendly with Elizabeth Taylor while shooting Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967). Brando agreed to pick up her Best Actress Award for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) from the New York Film Critics Circle. When Brando made his appearance at the NYFCC Award ceremony at Sardi's on January 29, 1967, he hectored the critics, querying them as to why they hadn't recognized Liz before. He then flew to Dahomey, Africa where Taylor was shooting The Comedians (1967) with husband Richard Burton to personally deliver the award. Brando later socialized with the Burtons, visiting them on their famous yacht the Kalizma, while they plied the Mediterreanean. Brando's ex-wife Anna Kashfi, in her book "Brando for Breakfast" (1979), claimed that Brando and Burton got into a fist-fight aboard the yacht, probably over Liz, but nothing of the incident appears in Burton's voluminous diaries. In his diaries, Burton found Brando to be quite intelligent but believed he suffered, like Liz did, from becoming too famous too early in his life. He recognized Brando as a great actor, but felt he would have been more suited to silent films due to the deficiency in his voice (the famous "mumble"). As a silent film star, Burton believed Brando would have been the greatest motion picture actor ever.

His performance as Stanley Kowalski in _A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)_ is ranked #85 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.

His performance as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront (1954) is ranked #69 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.

His monumental portrayal of Vito Corleone in the masterpiece _The Godfather (1972)_ is the #1 Greatest Movie Character of All Time in Premiere Magazine.

March 6, 2007

CBS News had an interesting segment, too

Bring Borat Home With You

NEW YORK, March 6, 2007(CBS) Borat Sagdiyev first received attention as one of the outrageous characters on Sacha Baron Cohen's "Da Ali G Show."

When he made his big-screen debut, he became a national sensation. Now his film "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" is available on DVD.

The movie follows a Kazakhstani television reporter as he embarks on a journey to discover America.

The film shocked many, and Entertainment Weekly magazine even posed the question: "Has this man made the funniest movie ever or simply the most outrageous, offensive one?"

"The fact that it showed supposed prejudices in America, it made a sort of social point," Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly's editor at large, told The Early Show entertainment contributor and People magazine Assistant Managing Editor Jess Cagle. "It was really funny and it made people think."

The studio was a little nervous before the film's release, but the $26 million opening at just 800 theaters put their minds at ease. It set the pace for one of the year's most controversial and surprising hits.

The faux documentary also surprised the unwitting Americans Borat interviewed. Some have even sued the producers over their participation.

"They all sign release forms, everybody that appeared on the film," Tucker said. "It was pretty water-tight in terms of legal terms, but it was a bonanza for publicity 'cause it meant the news media was forced to cover this as a news story, that there were people so offended that they would sue Fox, the film company that released it and Sacha Baron Cohen."

The film, which cost a reported $18 million, took in over a $250 million worldwide, received an Oscar nomination for best adapted screenplay and earned Cohen a Golden Globe award for best actor in a comedy.

All involved in the film hope the success continues with the DVD release, which includes over 30 minutes of outrageous deleted scenes. There has been talk of a "Borat" sequel, but it seems unlikely. More likely is a film based on another of Cohen's "Da Ali G Show" characters, Bruno, a flamboyant Austrian.

March 6, 2007