Heather Graham joins Shanghai jury: Aaron Eckhart, Famke Janssen to attend fest

BEIJING -- Thesps Heather Graham and Li Bingbing, producer Terence Chang and helmers Zhang Yang, Bela Tarr and Rakhshan Bani-Etemad will join jury prexy Jean-Jacques Annaud to judge the Golden Goblet prize at the Shanghai Film Festival. The fest will feature around 300 Chinese and foreign films at 28 cinemas across the city during the 15th edition of the fest, which runs Jun. 16 to 24. Shanghai will show movies by Annaud in the Tribute to Masters section. The fest has secured a host of big names to attend the event, a sign of its growing importance as a regional fest. Among the more than 400 biz figures due to walk the red carpet at the Shanghai Grand Theater on Jun. 16 will be Hollywood thesps Aaron Eckhart and Famke Janssen. Other actors attending will be Japan's Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, Korea's Kwon Sang-woo, Hong Kong stars Tony Leung and Chow Yun-fat, and Mainland topliner Zhang Ziyi. The organizers said 417 producers and buyers have registered to attend the market from June 18 thru 20. In the market section, the fest will combine the China Film Pitch and Catch, and Co-production Pitch and Catch sessions and rename them SIFF Project Market. Eight Chinese projects and 25 Chinese-foreign co-production projects will be presented. The fest's Golden Goblet Award competition lineup includes two Russian pics, Karen Shakhnazarov's "White Tiger" and Pavel Lungin's "The Conductor," and "Chrysalis" from Spain's Paula Ortiz. The event has received 1,643 entries from 106 countries and regions competing in various categories. Iranian filmmaker Amir Naderi will serve as jury chairman of Asian New Talent Award, which includes two pics from China, Peng Lei's "Follow Follow" and He Wenchao's "Sweet Eighteen."

Aaron Eckhart joins 'Olympus Has Fallen': Thesp to play U.S. prez in Millennium Films' Gerard Butler starrer

After playing Gotham's district attorney, Aaron Eckhart is getting a promotion to commander in chief in Millennium Films' "Olympus Has Fallen." Pic stars Gerard Butler. Antoine Fuqua will helm from a script by first-time scribes Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt. Described as "Die Hard" in the White House, story follows a former Secret Service agent who becomes America's only hope when the White House is overtaken by terrorists. Butler and his manager Alan Siegel will produce with Millennium prexy Mark Gill, while Avi Lerner will exec produce with Trevor Short. Production is skedded to start in September. The pic is the one of two White House takeover films in the works with Sony's "White House Down" set to go into production soon as well. The CAA-repped Eckhart can be seen next in Radius-Weinstein Company's "The Expatriate."

Aaron Eckhart joins 'Olympus Has Fallen': Thesp to play U.S. prez in Millennium Films' Gerard Butler starrer

After playing Gotham's district attorney, Aaron Eckhart is getting a promotion to commander in chief in Millennium Films' "Olympus Has Fallen." Pic stars Gerard Butler. Antoine Fuqua will helm from a script by first-time scribes Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt. Described as "Die Hard" in the White House, story follows a former Secret Service agent who becomes America's only hope when the White House is overtaken by terrorists. Butler and his manager Alan Siegel will produce with Millennium prexy Mark Gill, while Avi Lerner will exec produce with Trevor Short. Production is skedded to start in September. The pic is the one of two White House takeover films in the works with Sony's "White House Down" set to go into production soon as well. The CAA-repped Eckhart can be seen next in Radius-Weinstein Company's "The Expatriate."

‘I Frankenstein’ Video Interview: Aaron Eckhart On Playing Icons & Gorilla Martial Arts

I, Frankenstein takes Underworld actor Kevin Grevioux’s graphic novel re-imagining of Mary Shelly’s gothic novel and transforms it into a blockbuster mythos that is not-so- coincidentally being brought to theaters by the same producers behind the Underworld franchise. There are new monsters at war this time (angelic gargoyles and hellish demons) and instead of a love story at the center, there stands just one figure, Adam (Aaron Eckhart) – better known to the world as Victor Frankenstein’s monster.

After hundreds of years on Earth, Adam has become something more than the brute monster he started as, but is still something short of human. That set quite a tricky task for Aaron Eckhart to tackle, stepping into a role that has been held by the likes of Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Robert De Niro – and even current fan-favorite, Benedict Cumberbatch. That’s not even counting the physical aspect of the role, as this Frankenstein brawls like we’ve never seen before.

Below you’ll find transcript of the video above:

Screen Rantt: This is the second time people will see you play such an iconic genre character; can you tell me when you are taking on a role like that is it kind of constricting to have the kind of conventions of the characters and their mythology? Or do you find that it is kind of a good foundation to start from when building your own interpretation?

Aaron Eckhart: What if I told you I don’t think about it? I read the script and I think, “what do I get to do as an actor? What’s my challenge as an actor?” A man looking for his purpose in life, rejected, ostracized from society and trying to find love – that’s what I go to most.

This is such a different re-imagining of the monster of Frankenstein, I didn’t worry about it too much. When I go on Twitter and people tell me what they think about, that it’s a different story! But I think we made this Adam, our hero, a lean, mean, fighting machine. We’ve given him energy. Before, the incarnations of Frankenstein have been this block-headed, cumbersome, bolts-in-the-neck kind of guy. We’ve just taken that all out.

Two-Face… When you’re acting with Heath [Ledger] and everybody, you don’t have time to think about all that kind of stuff. But I’m happy that I am in the family.

Screen Rant: You did certainly portray the Frankenstein monster deeper and with more layers than I think we’ve ever seen before; but I also know that Stewart loves to build entire mythos and worlds, and he’s very good at that. If you had to keep playing in the sandbox – because in the business now universe building is the thing – would it be a challenge for you as an actor to then revisit a character? Or are you good with that?

Aaron Eckhart: Yeah, I mean if this resonated with people around the world and they wanted another one, it’d be interesting to see where you’d go with it and to get to know my character a bit more, and it could be more nuanced and complex…. I don’t know where it would go, and Stuart is the guy for that. I would be interested in it. It would be hard to get back into shape like that, but that would be worth it, I think.

Screen Rant: One thing that I loved about your portrayal of this character is that in certain ways you really put this subtle touch on it where you couldn’t tell – because he’s such a unique character – how his mind works. Can you talk about that approach? Because it was like he was very lively, but not quite human in the way he moved, in the way he acted.

Aaron Eckhart: Well I think I went to the animal world for that; I studied the gorilla, I studied how he acts and how he moves and his movements. I thought that was a good place to start, an animal that had an abundance of strength, strikes quickly, but yet in his interior he’s basically a sensitive creature. All his physicality I got from the gorilla.

Screenrant: Can I just say: I’m terrified of the idea of gorillas who know Kali stick fighting.

Aaron Eckhart: [Laughs] Yes, well there’s that! Stick fighting in general is so dangerous, but when you know it – for all the MMA people out there, people who like action – that’s a fascinating discipline and very destructive.

FIVE FAVORITE FILMS WITH AARON ECKHART

You could set your watch to Aaron Eckhart’s handsomely chiseled features — but do so at your own peril. As he’s proved time and again on screen, Eckhart excels at portraying deceptively charming men: be they manipulative executives (his breakout In the Company of Men), big-tobacco spin doctors (Thank You For Smoking), or literally, physically duplicitous district attorneys (The Dark Knight). Which isn’t to say he won’t play nice, reasonably normal guys, of course, as his excellent (and strangely Oscar-overlooked) performance in last year’s Rabbit Hole attests. This week, however, Eckhart’s up to his smooth-talking tricks in The Rum Diary, playing against Johnny Depp as the impeccably-dressed but otherwise rather rapacious Sanderson — an American businessman out to turn postcard-perfect Puerto Rico into a lucrative tourist resort. We spoke with Eckhart recently, where he talked about the film, his thoughts on writer Hunter S. Thompson, and the art of playing the likeable bad guy. But first, he ran through his five favorite films.

Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)




My five favorite films? I have no memory, that’s my problem. [Laughs] Well one of them would beApocalypse Now. I mean, you could tell that the movie was made in madness, as madness, and that, to me… someday I want to make a movie like that. Total consumption.

Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson, 1970)



One of them would be… did I say Apocalypse Now? [Laughs] What other films are there? Have there been any other films? I would say Five Easy Pieces. Nicholson was a god. Is a god. Great movie. F—ing great movie.

The Getaway (Sam Peckinpah, 1972)



Then I’ll say — this is so easy, but I’ll say The Getaway, with McQueen. Just, you know, just raw power and action.

Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks, 1938)



Bringing Up Baby, with Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn — just because I grew up on those movies.

Midnight Express (Alan Parker, 1978)




And then I’m gonna say… What’s a modern movie that I’ve seen? How about… you know a great movie that I saw was… [extremely long pause] Oh, I got a movie — the one where he goes to the Turkish Prison. Midnight Express. There you go. That movieterrified me. [Laughs] Go to Turkey, but do your hashbefore.

Next, Eckhart on The Rum Diary, staying sober on set, and playing charming bad guys.



Did you have a good time on the film?

Aaron Eckhart: I did. I enjoyed working on a movie that Johnny’s in, and produced, and is so passionate about. And Hunter, you know — it was an opportunity to be a part of, I guess, Hunter’s legacy, in a way; Johnny’s sort of taking up that mantle. So it was a good time making the movie.

Bruce Robinson said you were his first and only choice for Sanderson.

Well I feel like it’s always an honor when people are thinking about you, especially when you don’t have any idea who they are, you know — in terms of, like, you don’t know that Bruce is thinking about you. Somebody who you’ve admired for years will say, “Oh I was thinking about you,” or “I’m gonna offer you a part,” and you say, “Well, I’d never think that you were thinking about me.” It’s always flattering, and it’s good to know. But I’d done these sorts of parts before, you know, where I play a sort of all-American businessman who’s unscrupulous — so I think Bruce felt like I could do it.

“Cruel beauty” was his description of you.

Cruel beauty, yeah. [Laughs]

It’s kind of a compliment.

Yeah. I think he’s talking about Sanderson. I think with Sanderson, you know, you’re developing paradise and you have a creative vision of how you’re gonna do that; you have to step on some toes and not everybody’s gonna like what you’re doing. I think that’s how the whole world’s been developed; some people love it and some people hate it. Plus, I mean the character’s written to define the protagonist, who’s Paul Kemp/Johnny, so my character was really set up to play the antithesis of Paul — in every way, from the way we dress, to our attitudes, and then have us come together and work together. So it’s sort of one of those characters where you’re set up to fail, but you’ve gotta play it with heart and soul.

Do you find it challenging to play that kind of character?

The challenge is that you have very little to work with, and you have to make him human and multidimensional — to make the audience conflicted and say, “Well, I like him, he’s charming, but I don’t like what he’s doing,” so they say, “Yeah, he’s the bad guy, but we like him anyway.” That’s probably the hardest thing about that. I think Giovanni [Ribisi] had the hardest part — he really had to put a lot of energy into that.

It was quite a performance. You’ve had experience in playing this kind of charming character — inThank You For Smoking, for example; though he was far more likeable. Had Bruce and Johnny seen that?

Oh I’m sure, yeah. With Thank You, he was the protagonist, so he was given much more time. But in a role like this you don’t have that time; you have to get it across immediately. As soon as the audience sees you they have to be immediately able to form an opinion about you.

I think you did it pretty well.

Well, I did it. [Smiles]

Were you a fan of Hunter’s before doing the film?

Well, you know, I was familiar with Hunter. I certainly wasn’t an aficionado. I’d read some of his articles and his books early on when I went to college, [along with] Bukowski and all that, but I was refamiliarized through this movie — through reading the script and reading the book and then hearing stories from Johnny and listening to Bruce, and their research. So I am a fan of his. I’m intrigued by his lifestyle: how he managed to make it all work and be a professional at the same time.

It’s quite a feat, when you think about it.

Yeah. [Laughs] I mean, think about it yourself: trying to write, you know, and being completely bonko in this hotel room — and then trying to be coherent. Hunter had a pretty elite following, too — it’s not like he was writing for dummies. He was a very smart dude. I think everybody’s very intrigued by that lifestyle. And I think Johnny does it really well.

Johnny and Bruce spoke of Hunter being a “presence” on the set, having his chair and his bottle there every day. Did you feel he was around?

[Laughs] Oh yeah. I’m sure we made jokes about that. Bruce and Johnny had their morning ritual — I’m not sure if they told you about that?

Dabbing themselves with rum before the shoot?

Yeah.

Did you partake?

I didn’t.

Your character’s meant to be relatively sober, I suppose.

Yeah. [Laughs] Plus those guys, you know, when you’re the director and you’re number one and you’re the producer, it’s like — it’s almost like they had their own little club, you know. And that’s the way it should be, because they’re creating something — it’s a birth; they’re bringing life to something. I mean, I was there, but I enjoyed watching it. I thought it was a lot of fun. You don’t see that every day. Was it a bottle of Jack Daniels they had?

Chivas Regal.

Oh, Chivas Regal, yeah. Plus, I don’t drink.

Which is all good for your character, to a certain extent — you don’t want to be part of the clique.

No, you don’t want to be best friends with Johnny and his character, and all that sort of stuff. Although we had a really good time making the film. Like I said, you’re set up to go head-to-head. It’s an unlikely friendship that turns bad. You always find yourself, when you’re making movies — even if people say, “Well, I’m not a Method Actor” or whatever all that s— means — you always end up sort of playing your role in the movie. If you’re the bad guy, you’re the bad guy, you know what I mean? You naturally fall into those roles ’cause that’s what you’re hired to do. It sort of permeates your off time.