Posts Tagged ‘Leonardo DiCaprio’

Get ready Mass because it’s looking like another Beantown crime drama is in the works. Author Chuck Hogan aka the backbone of Ben Affleck’s hot flick The Town, has signed on to write the script for yet another Boston crime film.

The untitled script will revolve around the Winter Hill gang leader and one of the ten most wanted fugitives, James “Whitey” Bulger, notorious hitman, John Martoranom, and the legal case that exposed the ties between the mob and the corrupt Boston FBI office, according to Deadline. Wait, have we seen this one before?

The flick will be produced by GK film partners, Graham King and Tim Headington. You might remember King from his work with Martin Scorsese on The Departed.  GK also produced The Town. Martorano was the governments main witness and GK acquired his rights after he was released after serving 14 years for murder.

As the plot thickens, no production date has been set and no director has been attached. Hogan is currently on the best-seller list co-writing a vampire trilogy with Guillermo del Toro.  The pair are working on the final novel and will then look towards bright lights. Don’t forget to become fans of GK Films on FB. Who knows, maybe you’ll even be on set.

Tell us who you think will be cast as “Whitey”? Maybe Leonardo DiCaprio? Yes please!

While the proverbial NBA battle of Hollywood East versus west may be over, we saw a plethora of celebrities and other famous faces packing the stands, cheering their favorite team on.

So which stars cheered for which team? On the Boston Celtics side, “Access Hollywood”  cohost, Medford-born Maria Menounos, a graduate of Emerson College, Cambridge-born comedian Dane Cook, retired New England Patriots linebacker (and recent Health Expo attendee) Tedy Bruschi, Boston-born actor Mike O’Malley, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady, Red Sox owner John Henry, Everett’s Ellen Pompeo, Watertown’s Eliza Dushku, and Dorchester’s Donnie Wahlberg. Chief executive of DreamWorks Animation and film producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, who donated $1.25 million to Boston University in 2006, was also assumed to be cheering for the Celtics.

Rooting for the Lakers, as always, was Jack Nicholson, singer Justin Timberlake, Sylvester Stallone, director Spike Lee, Sean P. Diddy Combs, Snoop Dogg, actor Leonardo DiCaprio who spent some time in Boston in 2008 while filming Shutter Island, Kevin Connolly, and Andy Garcia. Stars of the E! reality show, “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” Kris, Kim, and Khloe Kardashian, wife of Lakers forward Lamar Odom, attended the games in L.A., but were absent on the east coast. Khloe did, however, find herself the target of some unique taunting by Boston fans at the TD Garden; fans were seen waving cardboard cutouts of her in hopes of distracting Odom.

Others famous faces that have been spotted at some of the games, included, First Lady Michelle Obama and daughters Sasha and Malia, singer Christina Aguilera, Olympic gold medalist from Jamaica, Usain Bolt, musicians Glenn Frey and Joe Walsh of the Eagles, “Saturday Night Live” performer Seth Meyers, singer Anita Baker, and comedian Will Ferrell. Actors Chris Rock and Adam Sandler, who have been heavily promoting their movie, Grown Ups, throughout the games, also spent time in Boston last summer filming their new flick, and were spotted sitting courtside in L.A.

The stars in the stands weren’t the only TV and film personalities in attendance. Lakers star Lamar Odom has been featured numerous times alongside his wife on “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” as well as its spin-off “Khloe and Kourtney take Miami”. Celtics star Ray Allen, who began his college career at the University of Connecticut, has also starred in a number of films, including Spike Lee’s He Got Game, and Harvard Man. At a press conference after game 4, Celtics players Nate Robinson and Glen Davis even likened themselves to characters from the popular Shrek movies. Perhaps we’ll see them on set at the next film shot in Hollywood East during their off season!

As more and more movies have turned to Hollywood East for filming locations, Boston has become quite the celebrity hub. Combined with the number of stage shows, traveling theater, concert venues, world class hotels, world-renowned universities, and high-profile sporting and charity events, Beantown’s ability to attract the A-list crowd is significant. With stars ranging from former SNL castmembers, to popular movie actors, to reality show winners, lately, it seems like there’s no telling who you could run into walking down the streets of Boston these days.

Here at Hollywood East Connection, we’ve heard about a variety of celebrity sightings over the past year. These stars have been spotted all around town by fans. Singer Seal was seen in Boston’s Public Garden. Actress Natalie Portman was in town in February for a friend’s wedding in Cambridge. Brooke Shields was spotted in her off-time from shooting Furry Vengeance at a number of South Boston eateries. She wasn’t the only one sampling local eats, funnymen Denis Leary and Lenny Clark grabbed lunch at the Four Seasons last spring, and Grown Ups costars David Spade and Colin Quinn were seen this summer grabbing a bite at Sel De La Terre. We even caught Lady GaGa’s make-up artist shopping at the Pru.

We’ve also heard from up-and-coming stars from the New England area about their experiences on set with all the big names. Local talent Bradley J. Van Dussen checked out Robin Wright Penn’s piggy toes on the set of Empire Falls and in his first-time movie role, teen actor Anthony O’Leary talked baseball with Ben Affleck on the set of The Company Men. Movie extra Kathy Fitzgerald recently shared with us details of her experience on the set of the the Martin Scorsese directed Shutter Island. She tells Hollywood East Connection:

“I worked on Shutter Island as a criminally insane person and was right on the side of the path that Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Max Von Sydow, and Sir Ben Kinglsey walked down. With the many takes of Leonardo walking down in his ‘detective’ costume, he and Mark kept looking at me with a quirk.  I knew what it was, but could do nothing about it.  Finally, after about 7 takes, and a ‘cut’ yelled out, Leonardo looked at me again and asked…”What’s with the curl?”  Then they both started laughing.  All I could say was…”That’s what they did to me, what can I say?”  The hair people took my bangs and put them into one curl in the middle of my forehead, while the rest of my very long hair remained normal, if not nice and shiny.”

Whether its accidental encounters on the street, or more professional experiences with fellow actors on set, there’s no doubt that Boston has become quite the hotbed for celebrity activity. As the summer shooting season is about to heat up, we want to hear your stories about your close encounters of the movie star kind on the streets of Boston and its surrounding areas. Email your sightings, and snapshots to [email protected]!

On Friday, August 21, Paramount CEO Brad Grey announced the postponement of the made-in-Massachusetts Shutter Island release from October 2, 2009 to February 19, 2010, citing financial determinants.

“Our 2009 slate was greenlit in a very different economic climate and as a result we must remain flexible and willing to recalibrate and adapt to a changing environment,” said Grey in a press release. “This is a situation facing every single studio as we all work through the financial pressures associated with the broader downturn.”

Deadline Hollywood Daily (DHD) spelled out the financial pressures, relaying a studio source’s insight that “’s got the cash, just not the home video sales: ‘Given where the DVD business is in 2009, our only hope is the economy and the retail business rebounds in 2010 because the hardest hit segment has been movies that play to an older adult audience.’”

Shutter Island is the second major studio flick to jump from fall 2009 to February 2010, after Universal’s The Wolfman. The postponement will knock the film out of contention for the March 2010 Academy Awards. However, now that the Academy has expanded the Best Picture category to 10 nominees, it will be easier for a movie released at the beginning of the year to be recognized. DHD confirms that Shutter Island‘s Oscar dreams are still alive with comments from a studio insider: “ studio settled on the release date of February 19th because ‘’that’s when Silence of the Lambs came out’ back in 1991 and it won the Oscar.”

Shutter Island’s all-star team—most notably the dynamic duo of Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio—has fueled speculation about the reasons behind postponement; after all, who wouldn’t shell out some cash or risk home video sales for the boys who brought us the 2006 Best Picture winner, The Departed? DHD reports that DiCaprio wasn’t going to be available for international promotion efforts, but this reasoning seems shady as well with modern inventions like contracts and iCals.

In spite of Scorsese’s track record, the release postponement is raising questions about the quality of the movie. A filmic interpretation of Dennis Lehane’s novel by the same name, Shutter Island is the story of two U.S. marshals who investigate the disappearance of a mental hospital patient. Clearly this isn’t fodder for a light-hearted, coming-of-age film; plan to sleep with the hallway light on for a week after catching this flick.

Even Lehane himself admits to shaking in his boots. At an October 2008 appearance at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona, he explained that the opening scene “freaks him out,” and that he anticipates that the film will be “disturbing.”

Filmmaker Celina Murga recounted her experience on Shutter Island shoots in the January edition of Cahiers du Cinema: “Dialogues are filmed through close-ups, with the characters virtually looking at the camera shaft. The result is something deeply disquieting. It is uncomfortable for the spectator since they are intense monologues of patients spouting their madness.”

Despite the accounts, it’s unlikely that the film is too disturbing for theater release; in fact, DHD’s insider reported that the film “…tested in the high 80s/low 90s and Scorsese even brought it down to 2 hours.” Alas, the missing-person mystery film remains a mystery itself. Check out the trailer below for some clues.