Clint Eastwood to direct Flags of Our Fathers
01-16-05, 11:08 AM
#1
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Clint Eastwood to direct Flags of Our Fathers
from Jeffrey Wells HOLLYWOOD ELSEWHERE column on January 12th:
"Clint's Furlough
After directing films for no other studio but Warner Bros. for 28 years straight (i.e., except for Columbia's Absolute Power), Clint Eastwood will briefly jump ship when he makes his next movie -- a time-shifting father-son World War II flick called Flags of Our Fathers -- for DreamWorks this summer.
The film will be based on James Bradley and Ron Powers' book of the same name, which was published in 2000. It recounts the sometimes tragic tales of the six Marines who raised the American flag on Mount Suribachi (*) on February 23, 1945, during the American forces' battle for Iwo Jima against Japanese occupiers.
In less than a month's time (from 2.19.45 to 3.10.45), more than 22,000 Japanese soldiers and 5,391 U.S. Marines were killed, with an additional 17,400 Americans suffering wounds.
One of the six flag-raisers was Bradley's father John, a Navy corpsman who later received the Navy Cross for bravery under fire. The senior Bradley, who died in 1994, never told his family about his heroism, and only after his death did James Bradley begin to piece together the facts.
As I understand it, the film will portray the younger Bradley's investigation of his dad's experience in a narrative, non-documentary, actors-speaking-lines fashion, as well as the back-stories of the other five flag-raisers, presumably with the use of frequent flashbacks and whatnot.
Eastwood couldn't be hotter right now with the nominations and coming Oscar noms for Million Dollar Baby, etc., and it does seem as if directing a film without Warner Bros. funding for the first time in nearly three decades would be a milestone of some kind. But making Flags of Our Fathers for DreamWorks doesn't mean he's pulling up stakes.
That would be a significant story, but a guy who's close to the situation is saying "nope."
Eastwood is not acting, he says, on an alleged long-simmering frustration with Warner Bros. execs, including president Alan Horn, over their purported lack of enthusiasm for his making Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby ...although WB execs were naturally delighted with both after they caught on.
Eastwood's frustration was very real last spring when the Million Dollar Baby negotations were hanging in the balance and Warner Bros. execs were exuding, I've heard, half-hearted enthusiasm over the boxing film.
Nor is Eastwood venting, I'm told, over Warner Bros.' reported lack of faith in both Baby and the earlier Mystic River as indicated by the Burbank-based studio having allegedly sold off foreign rights to both films at a lower price than their U.S. receptions would indicate.
That's all water under the bridge, my guy tells me. Relations between Eastwood and Horn these days are pleasant and amicable, he says.
Eastwood, I'm told, will simply direct the Iwo Jima film, working from a script that was completed last August or thereabouts by Million Dollar Baby screenwriter Paul Haggis. He'll then return to Warner Bros. after Fathers is wrapped and promoted to make another Haggis-scripted film, the details about which my source was unwilling to confide.
The DreamWorks deal, which had its first stirrings when DreamWorks partner Steven Spielberg, who'd worked with Eastwood on The Bridges of Madison County in '95, sent the "Flags of Our Fathers" book to Eastwood last year, with urgings that he consider directing a film version.
Eastwood read it, liked it and approached Haggis to adapt it in January '04. The intention to shoot the film for DreamWorks was more or less decided upon, I'm told, before the Million Dollar Baby animus happened last spring.
Although a DreamWorks spokesperson told me yesterday that nothing is really in place on the Fathers project, the closely-involved guy says it'll definitely film this summer, probably on Iwo Jima itself and perhaps also on one of the Hawaiian islands (i.e., somewhere where there are black-sand beaches).
No Fathers casting or anything else is happening just yet. Eastwood and DreamWorks are "going over budget issues" right now.
(*) The flag-raising by the six G.I.'s was actually the second that happened atop Mt. Suribachi on 2.23.45. Another U.S. flag was raised around 10 a.m. by five G.I.'s, but the event was repeated for p.r. purposes a few hours later with a second flag (on top of a 100-pound pole) and photographers capturing it for posterity."
Hollywood Elsewhere
_________________________________________________________________________________
This was the first I have heard about this. And now I can't wait.
"Clint's Furlough
After directing films for no other studio but Warner Bros. for 28 years straight (i.e., except for Columbia's Absolute Power), Clint Eastwood will briefly jump ship when he makes his next movie -- a time-shifting father-son World War II flick called Flags of Our Fathers -- for DreamWorks this summer.
The film will be based on James Bradley and Ron Powers' book of the same name, which was published in 2000. It recounts the sometimes tragic tales of the six Marines who raised the American flag on Mount Suribachi (*) on February 23, 1945, during the American forces' battle for Iwo Jima against Japanese occupiers.
In less than a month's time (from 2.19.45 to 3.10.45), more than 22,000 Japanese soldiers and 5,391 U.S. Marines were killed, with an additional 17,400 Americans suffering wounds.
One of the six flag-raisers was Bradley's father John, a Navy corpsman who later received the Navy Cross for bravery under fire. The senior Bradley, who died in 1994, never told his family about his heroism, and only after his death did James Bradley begin to piece together the facts.
As I understand it, the film will portray the younger Bradley's investigation of his dad's experience in a narrative, non-documentary, actors-speaking-lines fashion, as well as the back-stories of the other five flag-raisers, presumably with the use of frequent flashbacks and whatnot.
Eastwood couldn't be hotter right now with the nominations and coming Oscar noms for Million Dollar Baby, etc., and it does seem as if directing a film without Warner Bros. funding for the first time in nearly three decades would be a milestone of some kind. But making Flags of Our Fathers for DreamWorks doesn't mean he's pulling up stakes.
That would be a significant story, but a guy who's close to the situation is saying "nope."
Eastwood is not acting, he says, on an alleged long-simmering frustration with Warner Bros. execs, including president Alan Horn, over their purported lack of enthusiasm for his making Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby ...although WB execs were naturally delighted with both after they caught on.
Eastwood's frustration was very real last spring when the Million Dollar Baby negotations were hanging in the balance and Warner Bros. execs were exuding, I've heard, half-hearted enthusiasm over the boxing film.
Nor is Eastwood venting, I'm told, over Warner Bros.' reported lack of faith in both Baby and the earlier Mystic River as indicated by the Burbank-based studio having allegedly sold off foreign rights to both films at a lower price than their U.S. receptions would indicate.
That's all water under the bridge, my guy tells me. Relations between Eastwood and Horn these days are pleasant and amicable, he says.
Eastwood, I'm told, will simply direct the Iwo Jima film, working from a script that was completed last August or thereabouts by Million Dollar Baby screenwriter Paul Haggis. He'll then return to Warner Bros. after Fathers is wrapped and promoted to make another Haggis-scripted film, the details about which my source was unwilling to confide.
The DreamWorks deal, which had its first stirrings when DreamWorks partner Steven Spielberg, who'd worked with Eastwood on The Bridges of Madison County in '95, sent the "Flags of Our Fathers" book to Eastwood last year, with urgings that he consider directing a film version.
Eastwood read it, liked it and approached Haggis to adapt it in January '04. The intention to shoot the film for DreamWorks was more or less decided upon, I'm told, before the Million Dollar Baby animus happened last spring.
Although a DreamWorks spokesperson told me yesterday that nothing is really in place on the Fathers project, the closely-involved guy says it'll definitely film this summer, probably on Iwo Jima itself and perhaps also on one of the Hawaiian islands (i.e., somewhere where there are black-sand beaches).
No Fathers casting or anything else is happening just yet. Eastwood and DreamWorks are "going over budget issues" right now.
(*) The flag-raising by the six G.I.'s was actually the second that happened atop Mt. Suribachi on 2.23.45. Another U.S. flag was raised around 10 a.m. by five G.I.'s, but the event was repeated for p.r. purposes a few hours later with a second flag (on top of a 100-pound pole) and photographers capturing it for posterity."
Hollywood Elsewhere
_________________________________________________________________________________
This was the first I have heard about this. And now I can't wait.
07-09-05, 07:36 AM
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Originally Posted by HN
Directed by Clint Eastwood
Executive Producer Steven Spielberg
Starring...Ryan Phillippe
http://www.zap2it.com/movies/news/st...-26201,00.html
Executive Producer Steven Spielberg
Starring...Ryan Phillippe
http://www.zap2it.com/movies/news/st...-26201,00.html
07-09-05, 11:40 AM
#9
DVD Talk Ultimate Edition
Originally Posted by B.A.
from Jeffrey Wells HOLLYWOOD ELSEWHERE column on January 12th:
"Clint's Furlough
After directing films for no other studio but Warner Bros. for 28 years straight (i.e., except for Columbia's Absolute Power)
"Clint's Furlough
After directing films for no other studio but Warner Bros. for 28 years straight (i.e., except for Columbia's Absolute Power)
07-09-05, 11:46 AM
#11
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
So after 30 some years Clint is going to work for someone else? He's been at the top of the food chain of every film he's been involved with since early-mid 70s. I've always wondered if offered a role in a film that was not his personal project, just hire out as an actor, if he would take it if the role was right.
07-29-05, 08:49 AM
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Oh man... it gets worse...
Paul Walker Raises Flags of Our Fathers
Source: The Hollywood Reporter July 29, 2005
Paul Walker will star in Clint Eastwood's World War II epic Flags of Our Fathers, says The Hollywood Reporter. He joins a cast that includes Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford and Adam Beach.
The DreamWorks Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures co-production is based on the book "Flags of Our Fathers: Heroes of Iwo Jima," by James Bradley with Ron Powers. Paul Haggis (Million Dollar Baby) adapted the book.
The story is told from the point of view of Bradley, whose father was one of the six soldiers who raised the American flag at the battle of Iwo Jima. It was only after the elder James' death in 1994 that his son learned the full extent of his father's heroism
Walker will play Hank Hansen, a seasoned soldier and a flag raiser.
Paul Walker Raises Flags of Our Fathers
Source: The Hollywood Reporter July 29, 2005
Paul Walker will star in Clint Eastwood's World War II epic Flags of Our Fathers, says The Hollywood Reporter. He joins a cast that includes Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford and Adam Beach.
The DreamWorks Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures co-production is based on the book "Flags of Our Fathers: Heroes of Iwo Jima," by James Bradley with Ron Powers. Paul Haggis (Million Dollar Baby) adapted the book.
The story is told from the point of view of Bradley, whose father was one of the six soldiers who raised the American flag at the battle of Iwo Jima. It was only after the elder James' death in 1994 that his son learned the full extent of his father's heroism
Walker will play Hank Hansen, a seasoned soldier and a flag raiser.
12-13-05, 10:19 PM
#19
<br
08-03-06, 02:21 PM
#21
DVD Talk Ultimate Edition
I'm excited as hell about this movie, especially after seeing the teaser poster above. Hopefully, Eastwood won't screw up this amazing book like Randall Wallace f'ed up We Were Soldiers Once...and Young.
08-03-06, 02:30 PM
#22
DVD Talk Hero
The flag in the recreation must have been manipulated digitally because it's movement looks EXACTLY like the original photo.
I'm all kinds of excited for this...Eastwood can do no wrong in my book. (even if I thought Million Dollar Baby was slightly overrated)
I'm all kinds of excited for this...Eastwood can do no wrong in my book. (even if I thought Million Dollar Baby was slightly overrated)
08-04-06, 09:08 AM
#24
Damn that original picture powerful. The position of Harlon Block, on the far right forcing the pole into the ground, is what hits me immediately when I see the pic. That's something that I've never seen perfectly duplicated. Not in the statue (below) or in the movie pic, although the movie version looks pretty damned goood.
Also, the note at the end or the original post is a bit misleading, saying the 2nd flagraising was staged for p.r. purposes and so that photographers could "capture it for posterity". IIRC the Secretary of the Navy decided he wanted the first flag as a souvenir but when the commanding officer of the battalion that raised it heard the news he decided to secure the flag for batallion. A replacement flag, a bigger one, was found and the boys were dispatched to replace it. Photographer Joe Rosenthal was on hand and snapped pictures of the original flag coming down and the new flag going up. He then posed the men on the hill, all of them, not just the 6 flag raisers, in a standing/sitting combo shot with them waving and cheering. He sent the film off not knowing the significance of that one shot out of the many that he'd captured. Later, I'm pretty sure it was before he even saw the image that captured the imagination of the nation, he was asked if he posed the shot. Assuming he was being asked about the posed group shot he said yes. Controvery and disinformation about the flag raising lasted for years after that. The raising itself was spontaneous and video exists of it. I'm sure it can be tracked down on the internet.
Can't wait for the movie.
Also, the note at the end or the original post is a bit misleading, saying the 2nd flagraising was staged for p.r. purposes and so that photographers could "capture it for posterity". IIRC the Secretary of the Navy decided he wanted the first flag as a souvenir but when the commanding officer of the battalion that raised it heard the news he decided to secure the flag for batallion. A replacement flag, a bigger one, was found and the boys were dispatched to replace it. Photographer Joe Rosenthal was on hand and snapped pictures of the original flag coming down and the new flag going up. He then posed the men on the hill, all of them, not just the 6 flag raisers, in a standing/sitting combo shot with them waving and cheering. He sent the film off not knowing the significance of that one shot out of the many that he'd captured. Later, I'm pretty sure it was before he even saw the image that captured the imagination of the nation, he was asked if he posed the shot. Assuming he was being asked about the posed group shot he said yes. Controvery and disinformation about the flag raising lasted for years after that. The raising itself was spontaneous and video exists of it. I'm sure it can be tracked down on the internet.
Can't wait for the movie.
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