Sunday, November 29, 2009

Solomon Kane *HeadDesk*

For those of you who remember that I was going to direct a movie two years ago:

Exec: We're happy with the script, your budget looks fine --
John: I had two line producers run it for me separately, they came back with estimates within fifty grand of each other ...
Exec: We just need to find a lead.
John: James Purefoy.
Exec: Who?
John: James Purefoy. He flew himself in to audition. He tore the roof off the joint. Seriously, he was so good we just sat quietly for a few minutes after he left.
Exec: He's not a movie star.
John: No, he is a movie star who just hasn't been in any movies yet. We can be his first. We will look like geniuses. And he will rip it up.
Exec: We need to find a movie star who won't cost a lot.
John: James. Purefoy.
Exec: Nah. Wonder what Macavoy's doing?
John: He just did Wanted with Angelina FUCKING Jolie, he is not going to hang out in Montreal with me for a month doing a two-hander low-budget heist flick. He. Will. Not. Take. This. Job.
Exec: We'll send it to Macavoy.




Full size here.

NOTE: I'm sorry, some people are misunderstanding. SOLOMON KANE is not my movie. SOLOMON KANE is the movie Purefoy went on to do right after my studio passed on him. My movie (a remake of Adieu L'ami) laid down and died when we couldn't get a lead actor at the price the studio would pay.

76 comments:

Ben said...

Anyone who has seen Rome (who hasn't???), knows that James Purefoy is an extraordinary actor. His portrayal of Anthony was legendary.

a progressive crank said...

I hope the Nameless Exec is reminded of this. That dude is a movie star.

briddie said...

I love Purefoy! And Pete Postlethwaite is wonderful as well! Congratulations!

kimshum said...

James Purefoy is fantastic; his performance in Rome was epic.

...uhh, not to rub it in or anything. At least you know you have a good eye for actors?

Calla said...

First, how do these execs get their jobs and, second, how do they keep them?

As for Purefoy, I think he looks like an awesome choice for this role. Macavoy is all well and good, but Purefoy just seems to have a more physical presence.

But that brings up a question - especially given the title of this film - why did you not think of Christian Kane for the lead?

Doctor Memory said...

Wait, wait, wait. Two years... so they passed on him after "Rome"?!!

I know Hollywood execs are not exactly a breed noted for their intelligence, but even by the low local standards, that's impressive.

Anne said...

They scoffed at the movie star-itude of James Puresex? Oh, that's just sad.

Ranielle said...

Some people know nothing. I have loved James Purefoy since I saw him in Patricia Rozema's MANSFIELD PARK.

OhShinyTomato said...

Not to rub it in.... but I think that movie looks fantastic >.>

Sorry the exec was a great big jackass.

Freelancer said...

Wow, talk about short-sightedness.

For your next pitch try and get Kyle Chandler before he becomes my generation's Harrison Ford. If you've watched any season of FNL, then you know what I'm talking about. They'll probably fuck you over again, but it's at least worth a shot.

"Always cast against the part and it won't be boring."
-David Lean

DrGaellon said...

So not only did the idiot exec pass on Purefoy (who ultimately got the job), they gave the film to someone else? That sucks BALLS, man. Not on at all.

Anonymous said...

I liked him on Philanthropist as well.

Viv said...

Maybe Purefoy should be/will be glad that he's not attached to this, the reception for Solomon Kane at Comic-Con was rather cold, and I mean, this is Comic-Con we're talking about, a lot of the times studios over-estimate how well a movie will do because everyone there is over-enthusiastic about everything... usually.

Anyway, during the panel, it was obvious that most people didn't have any interest in the movie -it really looks atrocious- no one came up to ask any questions. Even when the audience was asked to cheer, it was half-hearted and a lot of people left during this panel. The creators got a bit desperate and kept showing clip after clip just to fill in the silences, with each clip the determination to NOT watch this movie settled in even more. I'm not sure what the creators took away from that experience, but if I were them, I would have scrapped the whole movie.

John Seavey said...

Visually, it's very striking, and James Purefoy is a perfect Solomon Kane...

But I don't recall Solomon Kane ever having any problem with killing anyone or anything, ever. :)

Lesley said...

I've adored him since "A Knight's Tale" and as others have noted, he was amazing in Rome. It's a shame that exec will never get his comeuppance :P

Unknown said...

Now I understand why you drink Guinness so much.

CanadianSarah said...

Wow. How did a studio not JUMP ALL OVER James Purefoy? I've loved him since he did Mansfield Park and A Knight's Tale!!
I sincerely hope Nameless Exec is kicking himself right now.

Unknown said...

YEs, Purefoy after Rome. "Spring comes. Snows melt ..."

Anonymous said...

Well, that's just sad on so many levels.

Purefoy is a star to come; McAvoy is just a flavor of the month

briddie said...

I feel blonde; I should have read more carefully. How about congratulations on being proven right, but let's hope the movie flops without your brilliance? Oh, wait, if it flops that could be construed as a reason why they didn't want him in the first place..... Catch-22. We appreciate you, too bad they didn't.

SageK said...

Loved Purfoy since a Knights Tale. How could they pass on him? I'll take him of McAvoy any day.

The movie looks fantastic and he looks kick ass

Dave L. said...

Much as I love Purefoy, 'Kane' is going to be a bomb of 'Van Helsing'-ian proportions[/hyperbole. Kane probably cost a quarter of what Van Helsing did, but nobody's going to see it]. He might come out of it okay, but it's not going to be his star-making turn.

Doc Nebula said...

Heh. When the trailer was flashing "Warrior", then "Hero", then, "Legend", I was hoping for a final "Blathering Puritan Numbnuts" to cap it all off. Ah, well. Someone will eventually do a parody trailer, I'm sure.

Solomon Kane was always the least of REH's heroes, to my mind... the essential conflict of the character is on the one hand compelling, but on the other, mindbogglingly boring, and the Puritan Era really can't compare to REH's rendition of the legendary realms inhabited by Conan and Kull. Still, the movie looks like they spent a great deal of money trying to find a Christian justification for violence, and I'm sure in the coming days of pitched mob street frenzy, that will be an important contribution to our social decay.

Prankster said...

I saw Solomon Kane at TIFF, and if it's any consolation, it's resoundingly mediocre. Actually, that may be overstating it. And you wouldn't really know Purefoy had any charisma if you'd only seen this movie.

mds said...

Still, the movie looks like they spent a great deal of money trying to find a Christian justification for violence

Earlier in your comment, you even pointed out that it's set in the "Puritan Era." What, you think Cromwell's troops tickled the Cavaliers into submission? Or do you mean the great deal of money was spent on a really expensive history textbook? Seriously, Christian justifications for violence are never hard to come by.

Ranielle said...

I'll have to totally disagree with whoever said McAvoy was a "flavor of the month", though. Has anyone seen RORY O'SHEA WAS HERE? It was the first movie I ever saw him in, and it blew me out of the water. There was no doubt in my mind he was going to be a movie star.

I love both Purefoy and McAvoy, but don't see them as interchangeable.

shahea said...

Actually, this movie looks interesting to me. I'm probably in the minority, since I also loved Van Helsing (though admittedly, for the laughs of it - Cleolinda Jones did a fantastic parody of it) but this looks like fun.

shahea said...

Also, it's gotta be said - there is SUCH a Gaiman flavor to the creatures in this trailer.

Doc Nebula said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Doc Nebula said...

>>>Still, the movie looks like they spent a great deal of money trying to find a Christian justification for violence

Earlier in your comment, you even pointed out that it's set in the "Puritan Era." What, you think Cromwell's troops tickled the Cavaliers into submission? Or do you mean the great deal of money was spent on a really expensive history textbook? Seriously, Christian justifications for violence are never hard to come by.


True. Merely call to mind the Crusades, especially that against the Albigensian heretics, to know how easily the Church of Love has always managed to justify atrocity to itself.

What I meant, though, was that the movie offers to its contemporary audience such a justification. They don't need one... maybe one in ten thousand present day 'Christians' know much of anything at all about the teachings of Christ, and only one in a thousand of those try to seriously follow those teachings in real life...but as the howling fundamentalist mobs take to the streets over the next decade, determined to pillage and loot the squalid mercantile vanities they can no longer purchase with honest wages, this whole idea of "not every path to peace... is peaceful" may prove invaluable to those very few who are troubled even slightly by the notion that Christ never led a lynch mob, nor did He ever spearhead His disciples in a sack of the Roman equivalent of a Wal-mart. (The expulsion of the moneylenders from the Temple could be seen, in fact, as a sort of anti-sack... a reclaiming of the holy from the profane... but few indeed of the enraged NASCAR mobs will be able to follow a complex train of thought that far into the theoretical weeds.)

But you're right; they won't need this movie to justify their rampaging; they'll have charismatic, slope browed, wild eyed, hairy sorts to screech the appropriate frenzy-phrases as they march gloriously onward.

Anonymous said...

Also, it's gotta be said - there is SUCH a Gaiman flavor to the creatures in this trailer.

It doesn't actually HAVE to be said, but still, it's nice to see the flexibility. Only on the internet can a person show up at one discreet space-time locus to plant a big wet kiss on John Rogers' ass, and simultaneously, pucker up, press their lips firmly to the buttocks of Neil Gaiman, and SMOOCH, as well.

The internet -- an immeasurable boon to toadies and wannabe wannabefuckers since 1988!

Emily Blake said...

Dammit to hell. I ADORE James Purefoy. I like the way he over-pronounces words.

And he's waaay hotter than Mackavoy.

mds said...

Mr. Nebula, M.D., Ph.D:

What I meant, though, was that the movie offers to its contemporary audience such a justification.

Oh, I understood where you were coming from. I just loved the image of the Roundheads (hee-hee) tickling the Cavaliers.

(And I think you might still be giving the trogs a little too much credit, which is saying something. I think the tiny subset that would need additional justification would be unlikely to have acquired it from watching this film.)

mdh said...

I think maybe the exec's bread was buttered on a different side than you expected.

Anonymous said...

Can I ask a quick question? Was this exec at a studio or and indie. If he was at an indie, his response was correct if they were using the foreign market approach to funding this movie. Purefoy, while being a great actor doesn't have a "foreign" profile and won't fund this movie. That is probably why they waved you off Purefoy... execs aren't as stupid as people want to believe.... it's all about how the movie is to be funded.

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Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

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Unknown said...

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