Tom Cruise's Hitler biopic, Valkyrie.
With Oliver Stone's dramedy-take on the life of our current president, W. , on the way, we thought this was a good time to take a look at some of the many other "biopics" that Hollywood has coming our way in 2008 and 2009. A biopic can be defined as any movie about a real person, which is pretty broad, so this isn't a complete list, but rather a focus on what we think will be the cream of the "biopic" crop.
The Soloist (Nov. 21, 2008)
Ray star Jamie Foxx returns to the field of portraying real life musical geniuses in The Soloist, the true story of a Los Angeles newspaper columnist (Robert Downey, Jr.) who discovers an eccentric street performer who was once talented enough to attend the Julliard School, until schizophrenia forced him to drop out. The Soloist is directed by British helmer Joe Wright, who is making his first movie set in America after 2006’s Pride and Prejudice and last year’s best picture nominee, Atonement.
Milk (Nov. 26, 2008)
Academy Award winner Sean Penn and Oscar nominee director Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting) teamed up for Milk, the political biopic about San Francisco city supervisor and gay rights activist Harvey Milk, who led the movement in that city in the 1970s amid death threats that eventually did indeed end with his death in 1978. The ensemble cast includes James Franco, Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna and Josh Brolin, the star of W.
Cadillac Records (Dec. 5, 2008)
A large ensemble cast of African American singers and actors headlines Cadillac Records, a look back at the heyday of one of the most important early soul/R&B record labels, Chess Records, run by Leonard Chess (Adrien Brody). The Chess Records roster included Etta James (Beyonce Knowles), Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright), Willie Dixon (Cedric the Entertainer), Little Walter (Columbus Short) and Chuck Berry (Mos Def). This Christmas season is short on musicals, so this movie is positioned possibly to be the big musical biopic of the Oscars season.
Frost/Nixon (Dec. 5, 2008)
The 1977 series of television interviews between British host David Frost and disgraced former President Richard M. Nixon first inspired a play in London and on Broadway, and now the play’s two stars (Michael Sheen and Frank Langella, respectively) reprise their roles in this movie version, directed by Ron Howard (The Da Vinci Code, A Beautiful Mind). Although not a full biopic, by focusing on Nixon’s revelations to Frost, this movie covers the president’s life fully in words through his remembrances, if not in images of the actual events.
Valkyrie (Dec. 26, 2008)
Tom Cruise stars as German Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg in this World War II historical drama about the anti-Nazi resistance movement within the German military, which led to the July 20, 1944 coup attempt in which Stauffenberg set off a briefcase bomb intending to kill Adolph Hitler and overthrow the government. Valkryie is directed by Bryan Singer, and is his follow-up to the first two X-Men movies and Superman Returns. The movie was originally scheduled for the summer of 2008, and then was bumped all the way back to February, 2009, but United Artists (which Tom Cruise is currently co-running) has high Oscar hopes, and so they have settled on the last weekend of the year.
Che: The Argentine and Che: Guerilla (Dec. 2008)
When prolific director Steven Soderberg set out to adapt the life of South American communist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara to film, he decided that a single movie wasn’t enough, so this Oscar season, we will get two movies about him starring Benicio del Toro, which add up to a total of 4 hours and 28 minutes. The Argentine focuses on the Cuban Revolution, with Guerilla detailing Che’s life in the years after, leading up to his assassination in Bolivia in 1967. Del Toro’s costars in the two movies include Benjamin Bratt, Lou Diamond Phillips, Franka Potente and Julia Ormond.
Notorious (Jan. 16, 2009)
The life of slain rapper Chris Wallace, better known as both Biggie Smalls and The Notorious B.I.G., has been adapted for the big screen by director George Tillman, Jr. (Soul Food, Made of Honor) in Notorious, which will tell the story of both Wallace's rise to fame and his death at the age of 24 in 1997 from a shooting that remains unsolved to this day. An interesting thing about this movie is that it features many of today's biggest hip-hop stars as supporting characters. The movie features an ensemble cast headlined by newcomer Jamal Woolard as Chris Wallace that includes Derek Luke as Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, Sean Ringgold as Suge Knight, Anwar Glover as Snoop Dogg, Naturi Naughton as Lil' Kim, Anthony Mackie as Tupac Shakur and Angela Bassett as his mother, Violetta Wallace.
The Informant (Mar. 27, 2009)
Director Steven Soderbergh's busy schedule continues next March with The Informant, starring Matt Damon as Mark Whitacre, the highest-ranked executive to ever turn whistleblower in U.S. history, in a tale of early 1990s corporate intrigue involving price fixin g of the agricultural feed additive Lysine. Filming took place mostly in rural Illinois, and Matt Damon gained 20-30 pounds to portray the doughy exec, which resulted in some interesting Internet image postings, as this is the first time we've seen Matt Damon with a little extra baggage. Damon promptly lost the weight for his next movie, the Iraq War drama The Green Zone.
Public Enemies (July 1, 2009)
Johnny Depp as 1930s gangster John Dillinger and Christian Bale as FBI Agent Melvin Purvis headline the ensemble crime drama Public Enemies, about the central figures in what is known as the "Public Enemy Era" in the early 1930s when gangsters terrorized America. The ensemble also includes Billy Crudup as J. Edgar Hoover, Channing Tatum as Pretty Boy Floyd, Stephen Graham as Babyface Nelson, with Marion Cotillard, Emilie de Ravin, Stephen Dorff, Shawn Hatosy, Leelee Sobieski, Lili Taylor and David Wenham. Directed by Michael Mann (Collateral, Heat), this Depression Era crime drama is notable for filming across the Midwest where the real-life crimes, heists and arrests actually took place.
Amelia (Oct. 23, 2009)
Hilary Swank shaved off her eyebrows to convincingly portray pioneering aviatrix Amelia Earhart in this biopic directed by Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding, Vanity Fair), about Earhart’s many adventures and eventual disappearance in 1937. Richard Gere leads the supporting cast as Earhart’s husband/manager George P. Putnam, with Ewan McGregor as her young friend Gore Vidal, and Virginia Madsen and Christopher Eccleston rounding out the main cast. Filming began in June, 2008, but Fox Searchlight has already staked out an Oscar season release date over a year later, marking this as one of the potentially highest profile projects of next autumn.
Lincoln (Nov. 2009)
Without a doubt, the highest profile biopic in the coming years is Steven Spielberg's long in development hell, Lincoln, based on the book, Team of Rivals, by historian Doris Kearn Goodwin, which focused on the way that Lincoln recruited many of his political opponents to be part of his presidential cabinet. Starring as our 16th president will be Liam Neeson (who has read over 20 Lincoln biographies and his diaries in fierce research), with Sally Field signed to costar as his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. There are also internet rumors that the director's Indiana Jones star, Harrison Ford, may be his choice to play Lincoln's VP and the 17th president, Andrew Johnson. There have been several writers on the project over the years, but the latest draft is by playwright Tony Kushner, who also co-wrote Spielberg's Munich. Spielberg hopes to start filming in February, 2009, the month which will celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth, aiming for release in November, 2009.
Bright Star (TBA 2009)
Acclaimed director Jane Campion returns next year with Bright Star, a romantic drama about the last three years of the English poet, John Keats, who died at the young age of 25, effectively ending his romance with his great love, Fannie Brawne. Stars Ben Whishaw and Abbie Cornish are mostly unknown, but Campion's reputation will no doubt be used to promote the movie, which I'm guessing will probably debut at a major film festival and then be released in the USA in the fall of 2009.
The Last Station (TBA 2009)
Christopher Plummer will be starring as Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy next year in The Last Station, with Helen Mirren as his wife, with Paul Giamatti and James McAvoy also costarring. Helen Mirren was cast when Meryl Streep dropped out of the project, but no doubt, the Oscar hopes for this one still run quite high. The independent production is directed by Michael Hoffman (The Emperor's Club). The Last Station focuses on the final years of the author's life, when he took up residence in a train station house in remote Russia, and his relationship with his wife.
Big Eyes (TBA 2009/2010)
Kate Hudson will star in this life story of painter Margaret Keene, famous for her images of girls and children with extremely large eyes (hence, the title), with Thomas Haden Church costarring as Keene’s husband, who reportedly took credit for her paintings. Filming starts in January, 2009, with the biopic specialty writing team of Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (Ed Wood, Man on the Moon, The People vs Larry Flynt directing from their own script.
Torso (TBA 2009/2010)
Following the upcoming The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, visionary director David Fincher is preparing to filmTorso, a graphic novel adaptation based on the true story of what Eliott Ness did after his mob-busting adventures in Chicago, as seen in The Untouchables. Matt Damon will star as Ness, who from 1934 to 1938, served as Cleveland’s Safety Director, and investigated a series of grisly “Torso” murders, named for the only body part left behind. Filming should start next March in Cleveland.
Greg Dean Schmitz, a native of Wisconsin, launched Upcomingmovies.com, the most thorough and widely read Internet database devoted entirely to movies before their release, in 1997. He continued the database at Yahoo! Movies from 2002 to 2007 as Greg's Previews of Upcoming Movies. Greg continues to write about tomorrow's movies today as a columnist for Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes.
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