Arthur

 

The trailer for Arthur a redo of the 1981 Dudley Moore-Liza Minnelli flick, about a privileged rich boy who stands to lose his inheritance if he doesn't marry the icy society gal his family has chosen for him.  I know this film reeks of failure on a multitude of levels, mainly the mangy Russell Brand (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him to the Greek) in the title role, but I'll be there.  I have an affection for the original but no one can really claim it's greatness; it the type of pleasing, gentle movie that harmlessly can be remade, unlike certain cinematic heresies of the greedy studio pasts.  Plus the supporting cast looks fun-- Jennifer Garner, I truly believe is an underrated light comedienne (Juno and The Invention of Lying showed nice variations of iciness and warmth), Helen Mirren, who's clearly enjoying her paycheck these days (why would a woman of such enormous talents choose to coast in films like Red and National Treasure; some brave auteur needs to pluck her up and give her a plum role-- it's been years since she's been nude!) and finally Greta Gerwig, Indie Spirit nominee for last year's Greenberg will be playing the Liza Minnelli role, and while the trailer totally ignores her (I get it, she's not a STAR), she surely one of the more interesting finds in the last few years.

Speaking of Mirren, I came across this clip of her presenting Daniel Day-Lewis the Oscar, and love the slow, meditative and seductive prologue-- she really could read the yellow pages and make it sound epic.  Perhaps that should be next movie!  Love the way she says "cojones."  Some useless trivia-- this marks the second time in two years in which Mirren has played a role that was originated by John Gielgud.  Gielgud famously chaperoned Dudley Moore in the original Arthur and played the title role in Peter Greenway's Prospero's Book, an adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest.  Last year, Mirren took the title role in Julie Taymor's version of The Tempest, which co-starred Russell Brand.  To further the six degrees of Mirren, both she and Gielgud were famously featured in the1979 controversy-laded Caligula.