HOLLYWOOD — Even before the Valentine’s Day release of “50 Shades of Grey”, its star, Jamie Dornan, is red hot. In October, he starts shooting the psychological thriller “Ninth Life of Louis Drax,” from the Liz Jensen novel, and then in the spring, he’ll play Commandant Pat Quinlin, who led United Nations soldiers into “The Siege of Jadotville.” These two films are about as far as he can get from Christian Grey.
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Sophia Loren, considered one of the last living movie stars from Hollywood’s Golden Era, will be feted Nov. 12 by the American Film Institute. It also will mark the 50th anniversary of “Marriage, Italian Style,” for which she received a best actress Oscar nomination in 1964. Sophia, who won the first best actress Oscar for a foreign language film (“Two Women,” 1960), also starred in Hollywood films such as “Houseboat” with Cary Grant, “That Kind of Woman” opposite Tab Hunter, “It Started in Naples” with Clark Gable, “Arabesque” with Gregory Peck, “The Countess From Hong Kong” opposite Marlon Brando (directed by the great Charles Chaplin), “Man of La Mancha” with Peter O’Toole, “The Voyage” with Richard Burton, “Grumpier Old Men” with Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau and Ann-Margret, and 2009’s “Nine” with three-time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis and Oscar winners Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench and Nicole Kidman. Her co-stars have been a virtual Who’s Who of movies.
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Film makers are forever fascinated with Abraham Lincoln. In 2012, “Lincoln” won Daniel Day-Lewis his third Oscar, and despite its $65 million price tag still grabbed $275 million at the box office. Now a documentary film, “The Gettysburg Address,” written, produced and directed by Sean Conant, is coming our way. It has a great cast that includes Jason Alexander, Ed Asner, Matthew Broderick, Sam Elliott, Cary Elwes, Delmot Mulroney, George Takei, Tom Brokaw … and David Morse as Lincoln.
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Not all historic films succeed. “Parkland,” released last year, was produced by Tom Hanks and Bill Paxton, and cost $10 million to make. Despite The Washington Post ranking it the sixth-best film made about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and a great cast that included Billy Bob Thornton, Tom Welling, Paul Giamatti, Zac Efron, Colin Hanks, Ron Livingston and Marcia Gay Harden, it only grossed $1.4 million. People apparently weren’t interested in the hospital or staff that treated JFK after his assassination.
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How the mighty have fallen! Piers Morgan, who went from London tabloid writer to a judge on “America’s Got Talent” and then Larry King’s talk-show replacement, has been named the most hated personality from the United Kingdom on Twitter. Guess he’s not well-liked by his PEERS!
© 2014 King Features Synd., Inc.