Any info on Steven Soderbergh's Che?
 

Terrence Malick was going to direct this Che Guevara bio but decided to make The New World. Malick and Benicio Del Toro had already written a sreeenplay, but now that Soderbergh took over they have started all over. Is this movie beeing released in 2005 or 2006? Ive serched the net for info, but all I can find is the same stuff Ive metioned here. Any new info on this film will be appreciated.

The last I heard, they were starting shooting later this year in South America, so my guess would be it would up for a 2006 release.

It's to come out sometime next year, most certainly around Oscar-time to compete with the competition. Thus begins my daily rant:

Not much else is know about the movie yet, but personally I really hope Soderbergh's film doesn't further propagate the cult, myth and lie of Che. :cough:Mororcycle Diaries:cough: Just look at the links that pop up on this page taking you to Che collectibles, T-shirts, merchandise, etc. The man was a brutal butcher and thug who slaughtered thousands of innocents and worshipped Stalin. Interesting that most of the pro-Che sites don't say what he did and only mention lofty ideals that he never practiced. He was a butcher and a monster and the world is better off without him. And yet his image becomes increasingly more and more popular each year on college campuses, coffee houses and malls across this nation. All around the world there are people who have actually lived through the horrors of communism and yet a bunch of dopey-white-upper-class kids who have been brainwashed by their Marxist-draft-dodging-proffessors are believing communism is an ideology worth dying/killing for. I take great pleasure in the fact that the most common place to see his picture nowadays is on the record sleeves of 2nd tier rock bands, whatever cd or concert film Margaret Cho puts out, and the g-strings of raver-girls before she's about to get fucked in the back of a dingy club as she practices her "evolved" ideals while a capitalist makes money off of the clothes his image adorns. There is some poetic justice in that. Soderbergh is a smart man and one hell of a director. Here's hoping he doesn't commercialize this thing, film it in Spanglish, and release a white-washed Hollywood blockbuster that idolizes a man who would detest a film being made on his life, especially one coming from America. Thus ends my rant.

:up: Glad we can happily agree on something.

I also agree. Although I think highly of Che because he was willing to die for countries that were not his, I also want this new movie to focus on what Che wanted to be and what Che ultimatly became. Roger Ebert wrote a good review about The Motorcycle Diaries (although I think his politics got in the way of reviewing the film based on how good it was) and he mentioned how Che's good points are always pointed out, but no one has the balls to go agaisnt the grain and mention all the horrible things Che did in his life. Although Im not a whore for Che, I love The Motorcycle Diaries as a well directed film and great performance by Gael, you dont have to be pro-Che to enjoy this new coming Soderbergh film or to admire it if, like Rivero said, he doenst commercialize the film. Just like you dont have to be Christian do judge The Passion as art. Anyway, 2006 seems to fucking far but I cant wait to see it and I hope both sides of the story are told. Does anyone actually think that Malick was the right choice for a movie about Che?.

:up: I'm hoping Soderbergh is brutally honest w/ this film and tells it like it was, and show what that idealist became during and after the Cuban Revolution. I hope his film is like a swift punch in the nose to all of those people who think he was such a great man until the day he died.

Rivero, that was a highly articulate rant, and I know I agree with you wholeheartedly


ive always thought RATM should have to change their name to "Rage Against the Machine*" and then on the back of all their albums it would say


* "the Machine" does not include the Sony Music entertainment group or any of its affiliates and subsidiaries. Any "Rage"ing against these entities could result in a disruption in the flow of royalties to the band and they would then be unable to engage in consumption with great glee in the capitalist system that they ostensibly seek to destroy. Thank you.

Funny, I never took Rage seriously. I always thought that was just their hook, their gimmick per se. I mean back when Evil Empire came out I couldn't walk within 10 feet in my school without seeing a kid wearing that yellow shirt.

Why would they even try to make another film about Che, nothing can top the 1969 Che with Omar Sharif as Che Guevara & Jack Palance as Castro:D

I wish Malick was still directing. I like Soderbergh (and he made Traffic look GREAT!), but Malick would make this a much more better looking film.

This movie was supposed to be started last year, that is why Malick left because he wanted to do The New World. So Soderbergh took the job. I wish Malick could take it back seeing as how The New World seems to be in the can and Che hasn't even started production.

Like in most movies, it will probably be commercialized to appeal to most. Id love for it to show who El Che really was and his ideas for all those people who idolize him without knowing anything profound about him. I'm not even going to touch the political aspect of it though.

Soderbergh's two part Che Guevera biopic w/ Spanish trailer
 

Now this looks interesting! Benicio Del Tero as Che. No US distribution as of yet.

Cannes reaction

Spanish trailer

Benicio Del Toro won Best Actor at Cannes for his performance. I guess there isn't another thread but we discussed it a bit in the Cannes thread.

I can't believe there isn't a distributor yet. Probably because of negotiations on how to release it.

I want to see it...in a Downfall kind of way. Keep my views in check.

It won't be as good as Medellin

Also, a four hour foreign language film on a extremely controversial, polarizing historical figure doesn't exactly scream boffo box office, despite the involvement of Soderbergh and Del Toro.

If every person who wears a shirt with his friggin' face on it went to go see it, it would be a hit.

:lol: Like those people know half of the things he did.

Brief (subtitled) clip.

The movie is reportedly a bunch of vignettes and "moments" with a very surface dealing with his motivations and ideals. Portrayed as more the "Hero" and not the murderous fascist he really was. Hot Topic customers everywhere should love the movie. Descendents and kids of Guatemalan parents however.... I would say not so much, probably.

I doubt this thing will ever find distribution.

I would be willing to bet that it will, since Soderbergh is savvy enough to tie distribution of this with distribution of a future, more mainstream, release.

:scratch2: Guatemala? Che did nothing in Guatemala because Arbenz' army wouldn't let him volunteer and asked him to leave. So unless those Guatemalan grandparents didn't like the magazines Che sold them, I'm sure they have nothing do to with it.

As for the film I'm sure it will find distribution in the US once they figure out how to show it. I'm guessing make make 2 films and show them weeks apart in a somewhat limited run in artsy theaters.

Official website. In Spanish, but plenty of pictures. Here's a brief interview with Del Toro from New York magazine:

When he says "Batman" I assume he's referring to the movie as a whole. Because I would mostly compare Che to the guy in the The Dark Knight who was "an agent of chaos".

Nah'. Maybe not a full 2500-screen release. But Soderbergh is a name among the film community. At this point, Erin Brokavich, Traffic and the Ocean's movies were all $100mil +. I would say that the ONLY thing holding it back is the four-hour run time.

I expect a November-December release - maybe NY and LA, followed by 800-or-so additional screens.

So Benicio Del Tero is 'pro Che'. Is the movie presenting him in a positive light? I'd like to see Soderbergh use the 'sideline' approach that we saw in Traffic. I presume that we're going to see a well-intentioned guy drop his profession, help the poor, make a few mistakes, become a little corrupt - with a greater purpose in mind. Kind of like a 'dirty cop walking the line' type story. Sounds good - at least in my head - but I have escapism issues - so who knows.