[-Katie-]

Ooh good news! This movie sounds awesome. Josh and Mark in a movie together? Oh la la!!

[ellavm]

DAHLIA DELAYED TO WINTER?
HARTNETT SIGNS ON FOR NEW FILM, MORE COMMENTS FROM FIRTH

According to the sometimes reliable Contact Music, filming on The Black Dahlia has been delayed until this upcoming winter. The brief article states that the film was supposed to begin filming in August, "But because of changing policies in Britain, the project was suddenly out of funding, but is now back on track for shooting later this year." Meanwhile, an article by Michael Fleming in today's Variety states that Josh Hartnett has just signed on for a new film with his Wicker Park director that will begin filming in November. This would not leave much time between now and then to film Dahlia (and if it did film in between then, that would be filming in the fall), and the article by Fleming does not mention Dahlia at all. Hopefully Hartnett will provide us some clues about the film this week as he makes the talk show rounds to promote Wicker Park (see schedule on the left). Mark Wahlberg will attend the Toronto Film Festival September 10, for a screening of David O. Russell's I Heart Huckabees, while Scarlett Johansson will be finishing up her jury duty at the Venice Film Festival one day later. Johansson's new film A Good Woman, premieres at the Toronto fest on September 15 (but no word that she will be in attendance). (Thanks to Kate!) Meanwhile, here's a bit more on the comments Colin Firth made Sunday night at London's National Film Theatre. Firth was there to screen his new film, Trauma, in which he plays a character named Ben. As reported yesterday, Firth was asked about Brian De Palma's Toyer during the Q&A following the screening (the Q&A also featured director Marc Evans). According to someone in attendance, Firth mentioned several times that he is sticking with the project and will see it through. He said that Toyer has been pushed back a bit because De Palma is having trouble with the film he is currently working on and which he is trying to get made. Firth said that his Toyer persona "makes Ben [his character in Trauma] look like Lassie." Interestingly, Firth and Evans showed a series of four clips tracing the horror genre, beginning with Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now, the Venice-set film scored by Pino Donaggio that looks to be a sure-fire inspiration for De Palma's Toyer.

http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/

[ellavm]

Mark Wahlberg plays a firefighter in Huckabees, which opens in New York and L.A. on Oct. 1, but said he has left the cast of film noir The Black Dahlia because of scheduling conflicts. Instead, he plans to reunite with Charlize Theron, his Italian Job co-star, in March to shoot the sequel in either Paris or Brazil.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/...premiere_x.htm

uhm well his loss i say

[ellavm]

Posted September 14 2004 PRODUCER BRINGS DAHLIA TO TORONTO AND MORE PICS FROM THX 1138 PREMIERE At left is another picture from last Thursday's premiere of George Lucas's THX 1138 (The Director's Cut). While Martin Scorsese hung around with the latest Jesus figure, Jim Caviezel, Brian De Palma was being interviewed on camera, for who we have no idea. We'll see if the interview pops up anywhere in the near future. More pictures from the bash are below, including one of De Palma talking with THX star Robert Duvall. Variety posted a story about the event yesterday, saying that "Thursday's Guggenheim soiree for the director's cut of THX 1138 was crawling with helmer heavies." When asked if this was the first time this group had gathered, Francis Ford Coppola (who executive-produced THX 1138) said, "No," and recalled "some photo shoot at George's ranch" from four years ago. Meanwhile, one wonders if De Palma is attending one of his favorite film festivals in Toronto this week, not only to watch films, but also to help sell The Black Dahlia with producer Avi Lerner. According to Variety, "With his biggest slate ever, [Millenium Films co-chair Avi Lerner] will have a strong show at Toronto with Edison, starring Kevin Spacey, Morgan Freeman and Justin Timberlake; Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia, with Scarlett Johansson; and thriller 88 Minutes, starring Al Pacino." Lerner is an executive-producer of Josh Hartnett's labor of love Mozart and the Whale, which was also produced by Millenium Films.

http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/

[ellavm]

SCHEDULING NOTES: HARTNETT TO BEGIN SLEVIN DEC. 7thVariety also reports today that Josh Hartnett will begin filming Lucky Number Slevin December 7th. The paper had previously reported that filming would begin in November. Meanwhile, Dark Horizons mysteriously reported last week that The Black Dahlia was set to begin shooting on November 1st. This seems unlikely for several reasons, as Hartnett had previously mapped out three months to devote to the filming of Dahlia-- if he has to begin filming Slevin on December 7th, that leaves only a month to shoot Dahlia. Hartnett has previously stated that Dahlia would be the next film he shoots after Slevin. And according to The Hollywood Reporter, Scarlett Johansson will shoot Michael Bay's The Island, which begins filming October 25th, before she works on The Black Dahlia. But it is looking as though Dahlia may shoot partly in Rome as the filmmakers had hoped. A Screen Daily report dated September 29th about Cinecitta's plans for expansion mentioned that Cinecitta and Roma Studios (the latter of which, according to the report, is now owned by Cinecitta and headed by Tarak Ben Ammar) are "preparing to host Brian De Palma's upcoming movie, The Black Dahlia.

NOTES ON THE BLACK DAHLIA MILLENNIUM BRINGS 'PRODUCT' TO MIPCOM IN CANNES Variety lists The Black Dahlia as the top product being offered by Nu Image-Millennium at this week's Mipcom TV trade show in Cannes. Film companies bring their films to the show to drive interest from cable and other television companies. Danny Dimbort (co-chairman) and Carole DeLosSantos (vice president, international) will attend on behalf of the company. The other films listed for Nu Image-Millenium are 88 Minutes and Edison. Avi Lerner was pushing the same three films for the company at last month's Toronto Film Festival.

DAHLIA SHOOT PLANNED FOR MARCH DE PALMA CONFIRMS WAHLBERG SCHEDULE CONFLICT In an e-mail correspondence, Brian De Palma said today that he is planning to begin shooting The Black Dahlia in March, 2005. The director confirmed that the revised schedule presents a conflict for Mark Wahlberg, who is planning to begin filming the sequel to The Italian Job that same month. "As of now," said De Palma, "he's not on board." (Wahlberg will be hitting the TV talk shows early next week to promote I Heart Huckabees.) I asked De Palma whether Universal had approached him this week about taking over the Tru Blu project, after director Antoine Fuqua left the film last week over "creative differences," and he said they had not. De Palma had considered signing on for Tru Blu about ten months ago, but said at the time that the actors he had wanted for the film would not be ready for another year. Instead, he went forward with The Black Dahlia, while also preparing Toyer. Another source states that Toyer is in line for a late 2005 shoot.

http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/

[AlienK]

How can they start shooting if Mark backed out of the project? Won't they have to find someone to replace him first? I have a feeling it's going to be a while before this movie comes out.

[ellavm]

yep i´m not sure who´s gonna take over from mark and like you i´m not to optimystic about this one coming out until 2006 or sumthing.

[AlienK]

That makes me sad though... I mean... 2006? That's when I graduate dude! I want it to come out before then so that I can bring it for my psychology/criminal justice class. It'd be a good one. *tear*

[-Katie-]

*sigh* I want this movie to come out right now. I need some more Josh goodness.

[ellavm]

i know but hey it´s something to look forward to

I hate that this movie keeps getting delayed..
I've read the book and loved it so I'm dying for this movie to get made...
just thinking about all the stuff that we'll see Josh do...

[ellavm]

By Doug Moe
October 15, 2004

THE SELF-DESCRIBED demon dog of American literature was loose and barking in Madison Wednesday night, and no one was safe. Certainly not his fellow crime authors.


"Let's put it this way," James Ellroy was saying. "There's me, and then there's everybody else."

This was just before dark in a suite at the Edgewater. Ellroy, author of "L.A. Confidential" and "The Black Dahlia," had just arrived from Chicago to promote what he calls "my most recent masterpiece." That would be "Destination: Morgue!" a collection of magazine pieces and three previously unpublished novellas.

The day before, Ellroy had hung out in Chicago with Seymour Hersh, the famed investigative reporter. The two met through a mutual friend, a Chicago guy named Bill Young, who has the nifty job of driving visiting authors around the Midwest.

Among other things Ellroy and Hersh spoke about was Sidney Korshak, a Chicago kid and University of Wisconsin-Madison boxing champion who became a shadowy and vastly influential attorney in California - the primary link, some believed, between Hollywood, big labor and organized crime. Hersh wrote a series of articles about Korshak in the New York Times, and last February, Ellroy was signed to write a screenplay about Korshak for the producer Robert Evans.

Now in Madison Wednesday evening, Ellroy was asked, "Are you still attached to that Korshak movie project?"

"I was fired!" the writer said. He then offered a stream of off-the-record comments about the movie's director, William Friedkin, who happens to be married to the woman who runs the studio that commissioned the movie.

For someone famous for being blunt, Ellroy goes off the record a lot. Of course, you couldn't print what he says on those occasions anyway. He is spectacularly profane, opinionated and often very funny. His books are, too.

"My books are for the whole family," Ellroy said later Wednesday night. "That is, if you're the Manson family."

At the Edgewater, Ellroy was dressed in a long-sleeved yellow shirt and pale blue jeans. He wore rimless glasses on his shaved head. He doesn't miss much. "You get those shoes at Lands' End?" he asked a visitor. The energy he exudes is palpable. In an easy chair in his suite, he was like a racehorse reined in.

"Do you know anything about Little Bohemia?" he asked suddenly, referring to the John Dillinger hideout in northern Wisconsin.

Ellroy has Wisconsin roots and relatives in the Madison area. His mother, Jean Hilliker, was born in Tunnel City, near Tomah. She won a beauty contest, moved to Los Angeles, married a man named Ellroy, divorced, and was murdered in June 1958 in what her son believes was a date rape that went from bad to worse.

The murder was never solved, though it led to one of Ellroy's greatest books, "My Dark Places." In it Ellroy writes of how her murder - he was 10 at the time - sent his life spiraling down, eventually into drugs and booze, a ride he also describes memorably in "My Life as a Creep," which is included in the new collection. Ellroy pulled himself out of it by writing, and in "Places" describes his hunt, decades later, for his mother's killer.

The grisly nature of his mother's death lent him a natural affinity for perhaps the most famous (pre-O.J. Simpson) murder in Hollywood history: the 1947 killing of Elizabeth Short, nicknamed the Black Dahlia.

Ellroy had published several novels before his fictionalized take on the case, "The Black Dahlia," came out in 1987. He said Wednesday he knew "Dahlia" would be a break-out book for him. "I knew it was the best thing I had written," he said. "I knew it was the one."

Hollywood did, too. "It has been optioned for a movie ever since it was in galleys," he said.

The best news Ellroy delivered in Madison this week was that it looks like the "Dahlia" movie is finally going to happen, with Brian De Palma directing early next year and Josh Hartnett and Scarlet Johannson starring.

"Of course if it falls apart again," Ellroy said, "I wouldn't be surprised."

At 6:45 p.m. Ellroy left the Edgewater. He was driven out University Avenue to Borders, where he dazzled a group of about 75 people (dazzled those he didn't offend, at least) with a reading preceded by a lurid introduction: "Welcome peepers, pimps and pederasts." He thanked liberal Madisonians for taking time from their "misguided effort to unseat" George W. Bush to hear from the "white knight of the far right" - himself.

Actually, Ellroy is not much of a political animal. He's an artist who knows that corruption and lust and humanity's dark places cut across party lines. He's brilliant and outrageous, and likes pointing out he was born in 1948, the year of the rat in Chinese mythology.

In the end, of course, it is the books that matter.

"They're all masterpieces," James Ellroy said.

http://www.madison.com/tct/news/inde...=14103&ntpid=5

[ellavm]

DAHLIA PRODUCERS WANTED TO SHOOT '40s LA IN BULGARIA
Mark Wahlberg has mentioned a bit more about why he was not keen to continue to work on the Black Dahlia project. Wahlberg has discussed in several interviews of late about how his passion for making movies is dwindling, being replaced by concerns for his new daughter and family. Talking to The Hartford Courant, Wahlberg said that he dropped out of The Black Dahlia when the producers wanted to shoot 1940s Los Angeles in present-day Bulgaria. "No thanks," said Wahlberg. Recent reports, however, suggest that the production is looking to go back to its plan of shooting much of the film in Italy's Cinecitta and Roma studios, with acclaimed designer Dante Ferretti recreating the look of 1940s L.A. in his own meticulous fashion.

http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/

[ellavm]

BULGARIA IT IS
DE PALMA TO INSPECT LOCATIONS FOR BLACK DAHLIA IN NOV.
Sofia News Agency reported yesterday that "Legendary U.S. director Brian De Palma" is set to visit Bulgaria to inspect the shooting sites for The Black Dahlia. The article states that "De Palma will arrive in Sofia around November 8 and filming should start in March or April next year, according to the Bulgarian News Agency BTA." Mentioned to star in the film are the usual suspects, including Mark Wahlberg, who we know is not actually planning on making the trip to Bulgaria to work on the film (see recent articles below). Also mentioned is that the project is worth $50 million U.S. dollars.

MILLENNIUM'S STUDIO IN BULGARIA
LOOKS LIKE 'PRODUCTION APPARATUS' IN SOFIA WILL HOUSE DAHLIA
After doing a little research, I found an article from the Hollywood Reporter, dated October 18, 2002, in which filmmaker Tim Blake Nelson discusses filming The Grey Zone at Nu Image/Millennium's studio complex in Sofia, Bulgaria. We know from recent stories (see below) that Nu Image/Millennium has taken on the production of The Black Dahlia, and that Brian De Palma will be visiting Sofia next week to inspect locations there. Add in the fact that lead Josh Hartnett already has a working relationship with Nu Image/Millennium head Avi Lerner, and the picture all seems to come together. So in speculation, it looks like much of the filming will take place on sets designed by Dante Ferretti in the studio's complex in Bulgaria. Ferretti told Cinecitta News this past September that interiors would be shot in studios, while exteriors would be shot in Los Angeles. The following is an excerpt from the Hollywood Reporter article, including what Nelson had to say about Lerner and the production studio in 2002:


Posted November 1 2004
DAHLIA STUDIO STEPS UP
FILLING TENTPOLE THEATRICAL VOID LEFT BY MIRAMAX
The 25th American Film Market is taking place this week and next at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, and Nu Image/Millennium is there pushing its current line of films. The company's slate is topped by Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia, which is currently in preproduction at a budget of $50-$55 million. An article in Variety discusses the void being felt in international sales by Miramax, the company that is in a sort of limbo right now as it tries to figure out its fate apart from Disney, which has housed Miramax for years. Miramax has typically been the independent company buyers look to for bigger-budgeted theatrical films. But that studio's limbo is providing more space for other suppliers to fill the void as overseas independents look for tentpole theatrical films to release in 2005. "One company that's stepped into the bigger-budget fray," states the article, "is Nu Image/Millennium." Avi Lerner, head of Nu Image/Millennium and one of the executive producers on The Black Dahlia, told Variety, "Most of the independents don't want to take risks like we do. We are stepping up."


http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/

[ellavm]

WALKER SEEKS DAHLIA ROLE
SAYS 'DE PALMA'S MY FAVORITE'
Paul Walker (The Fast and the Furious) tells Cinema Confidential that he is doing everything he can to take over the role that Mark Wahlberg left vacant when he dropped out of The Black Dahlia. "Brian De Palma’s got a movie he’s gonna do called The Black Dahlia, said Walker. "De Palma’s my favorite. And I heard that one of the cast members, someone that’s attached dropped out. I want to do that movie! De Palma’s the man." When asked if he has seen all of De Palma's films, Walker replied, "Every one. And Jeff Byrd is my agent at ICM. Jeff Byrd represents De Palma. So I’m like, 'yo, Byrd, make this happen.'"
http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/

uhm i do like they way he looks but not sure about his acting skills though