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Euronews
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Euronews
Falling in Love 'is possible only in Berlin' says Jean Paul Gaultier
"I went to the Garden of Love, And saw what I never had seen." Thus begins William Blake's 230 year-old poem 'The Garden of Love'. And what a bloom has it inspired in the shape of musical sensation Falling in Love, at the Friedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin. "I just remember how it was the first time I read the first two lines," writer and director Oliver Hoppmann explains. "I went to the Garden of Love and saw what I never had seen. And that was just, wow, that struck me, because there's pretty much everything in there for a show. There's a reference to nature, to love, I mean, what else do you need?" Well, it turns out what else you need are a supporting team of 60 performers, 50 musicians and countless backstage and office staff. Oh, and an audience, which now collectively amounts to half a million spectators. Some of whom, much to my initial dismay, clapped along rather a lot. The show centres on a young, creative but rather lost character called 'You', a deaf poet whose inability to conform leaves them dejected until an immersion into the lost Garden of Love opens a realm of possibilities. A magical place where they may finally find words, and a voice that is heard. That it is a spectacle is doubtless. From the get-go, Falling in Love showers you with light, with colour and with a wow factor that doesn't ever really go away. Your eyes dart left, right, up, through, beyond, and at every shift there is a new colour, a new depth, another stonking guitar-riff. And while you're blown away by the sheer magnitude of this visual carnival, the remaining part of your senses will not be surprised to discover that the entire thing has been curated by the French fashion stylist Jean Paul Gaultier. "Jean Paul and I, we've known each other for quite some has become a friend of our house because he loves the shows at Frederickstraße Palast," continues Hoppmann. "He travels here privately to see shows. So we have been in regular contact. And when we came to that idea of that new show, that poem, that garden of love, we said, okay, who could be that person who brings that spark in a couture way to that?" There is of course only one answer. Enter Jean Paul Gaultier. "I have had the pleasure and the privilege to design again many costumes for Falling in Love, but I also worked with other designers: Matières Fécales and Sasha Frolova. The challenge was to choose great collaborators who would share my and Oliver's vision for the show. And after our initial meetings and exchange of ideas and first sketches I was happy to give them almost a carte blanche for their sections of the show," Gaultier explains to Euronews Culture. The layered production design and the scale of that design gives you a tangible 360 degree sensation. The costumes are truly spectacular with echoes of Gaultier's iconic outfits in The Fifth Element but also The Hunger Games which, although designed by Judianna Makovsky, betrayed a Gaultier influence in places. "I have some codes that are part of my style and my fashion vocabulary," he says. "The corset and the cone bra is one of them. I always want to create something new but at the same time I use my fashion codes as my vocabulary." Theatrically it shares some elements with the We Will Rock You musical that ran for 12 years in London, and not just the wall of guitars. The flagrant pantomime nature that pervades much of the interaction is a common by-product of writing it large. And this is as large as indoor theatre gets. From the kick-off number Diamond City, it's clear the show is going to be a kaleidoscope. And you need such a thing when the whole audience is not bilingual and therefore the jokes sometimes fall flat. The audiences have comprised many nationalities but the top five are France, Switzerland, the US, Austria, and Denmark. There is cheeky titillation (the lower cheeks to be precise) and super-hench pecs on show in a celebration of athletic prowess and beauty. Choreography and technical elements come together to form something genuinely beautiful; a dancer abseiling down a waterfall enchants the mind while a wonderfully-engineered fountain dance is candy-popping fun. And all the camp, kitsch, multicoloured vibrancy sometimes finds its way into the audience. There's no fourth wall here. We're allowed into the pop video, the dream, the trip. The guitar-toting character of Leon is part game show host, part Worf from Star Trek. I wonder if all this colour has left characterisation as a second thought. The colours don't really inhabit the character types they represent in any physical or vocal way which leaves us having to try to recall them. Gaultier himself admits his greatest challenge on this production "was the soloists and how best to express their nature and their feelings through the costumes." There is something tribal about the colours here. We have three camps: red, green and blue, all in their various ways offering modes of expression to the poet to colour their world. The theme of deafness and isolation is encapsulated by the character of 'You', which brings a profound level of meaning to the carnival. "I try to focus on vision, on touch, on vibrations," says Justyna Woloch, who plays the deaf character of 'You'. "There is, built into the stage, a vibration plate in the middle of the hexagon that was purposefully made for people with hearing problems to be able to feel when to really be on the music and not be off the beat." Woloch is not deaf but took over from deaf performer Hearns Sebuado when she took the role of 'You'. "The plate helps me as well because, of course, I hear music and I immediately start moving but I really consciously have to try to stop hearing it, which is really hard. And so many times during the show I'm touching the vibration plate and trying to really block out all the sound." To illustrate the genesis of this element of the show, Hoppmann tells me about a deaf poetry slam that he attended 10 years ago where he suddenly understood the frustration of those with hearing impairment. "I'm a hearing director in a room of non-hearing people with performers on stage who are only using sign language, German sign language, to recite their poems. And I didn't have a clue what they were saying. There were, like, verbalisations and an audio description." "There was a verbal translation for people who were hearing and couldn't understand sign language," he recounts. "But, you know, a director always wants to be ahead of time, right? You want to know what comes next, what happens next. And I couldn't because I had always to wait until I got the translation. I really felt it. I'm the last person in the room that understood." It is without a doubt impressive that the themes of deafness and isolation are part of something so vast, loud (in both colour and sound) and inclusive, and the Palast itself plays a fundamental part in the proceedings. With an unrivalled stage area of 2,854 square metres, and near-perfect sight lines for the whole audience, as well as a trailblazing air-conditioning system via the actual seats, unusually visual treats can be clearly observed in comfort. Also playing a role is the wider geographical context. The inimitable city of Berlin. "I love Berlin," admits Gaultier. "I have been coming regularly for years. There was still the wall dividing the city the first time I visited. And this show is possible only in Berlin with its unique history and unique feeling." Disco ball shoulder pads, bike helmets, glitter g-strings with regency wigs run amok on the enormous stage. Every number is a brilliant pop video leaving little room for sentiment but plenty of fuel for entertainment. Gaultier is resolute on what's important. "It is a show, a Grand Show and I think it is most important that the audience enjoys themselves, that they enjoy the story, the music, the dancing, the special effects, the costumes. Whether that enjoyment is through form or the substance is not crucial for me," he says. Another thing that will not have escaped the audiences are the extraordinary number of crystals in the design. This is thanks to a partnership deal with Swarovski who provided a staggering 100 million crystals in all cuts and colours, which I am assured is a new world record in live entertainment. I'm not convinced there was an old world record to beat but it certainly fits the 'sky's the limit' remit. Profundity may be hard to detect among a sea of crystals but there are important themes at work amongst the glitz. There's an anthropological callback to Levi Strauss in the play's symbolic handing-over of the written word from the character of 'Me' and then to the character of 'You'. Walls created by isolation are broken, which takes on its own emotional evocation after the confinement of the global pandemic. The astonishing acrobatic performers (audiences genuinely screaming with disbelief at the physical feats) fall out of windows onto trampettes and ping back up again only to throw themselves out again is a nice metaphor for human romantic behaviour. The silly shapes we bend ourselves into for love and visibility. And on the philosophical note, when quizzed about upcoming fashion trends, Gaultier responds with something that probably should be on a poster. "I don't look at fashion as much as I used to. And trends are just trends but the style is something that stays. If you are too fashionable then very quickly you become unfashionable. As the French say La Mode se démode." Falling in Love is booking until 5 July 2025.
Buzz Feed
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
42 Actors Who Weren't Acting In These Movie Scenes That Were Way More Genuine Than You Realized
1. Anya Taylor-Joy actually got a nosebleed in the Emma scene where Mr. Knightley confesses his love. "I don't know what happened, but I guess I believed I was in the moment enough that my nose really started bleeding. It was just so magic, and Johnny and I were looking at each other like, 'Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, roll the cameras.'" Apparently, Taylor-Joy used to get lots of nosebleeds as a kid, but she never expected to spontaneously get one at the perfect moment. "The plan was to pause filming and add the blood and then continue," Taylor-Joy said. "I provided the blood, so there was no need." 2. Tricky was not told just how big the explosion behind him and Gary Oldman would be in this scene from The Fifth Element — in fact, the fire was even scarier than expected, as the wind brought the flames back towards the actors and even melted some of Oldman's costume. As such, Tricky's reaction was real. "Tricky soiled his costume," Oldman joked. 3. Similarly, the maid in Ghostbusters, played by Frances Nealy, was truly scared by the cart explosion in the film. She had been told it was going to blow up, but didn't expect the level of pyrotechnics. Visual effects director John Bruno said, "It scared the hell out of her. She fell to the ground, looked up, and was like, 'What the hell are you doing?' It wasn't scripted. It's just what happened." 4. Multiple actors in Casablanca were real-life refugees who had fled the Nazis. In the La Marseillaise scene, many of the actors were truly moved by singing the song of resistance. Madeleine Lebeau, in particular, had fled Nazi-occupied France two years before filming the scene, and her teary-eyed close-up became famous for how authentic it felt. Leslie Epstein, whose father Philip Epstein and uncle Julius Epstein wrote the film, noted, "They're not tears of glycerin shed by an actress. The tears in her eyes are real." Epstein also said, "When people speak here, the accents are real. ... In a sense, they're playing themselves." 5. James Marsden was really hit by bikers in this scene from Enchanted. In the first few takes, the bikers would lightly bump him, and he'd fake falling over, but Marsden didn't feel it was funny enough. It was also his last day of shooting, so he wasn't too worried about delaying production with an injury. "'Just take me out!'" Marsden recalled telling the stuntpeople. "So he knocked the hell out of me, but it's funnier. My voice squeaks and he just knocks me down, but there was a pad in front of me, and, actually, the prince's suit is pretty padded." 6. Jack Nicholson and his costars were really high in the Easy Rider campfire scene. "We were all stoned the night we shot the campfire scene," Nicholson recalled. "The story about me smoking 155 joints – that's a little exaggerated. But each time I did a take or an angle, it involved smoking almost an entire joint. After the first take or two, the acting job became reversed. Instead of being straight and having to act stoned at the end, I was now stoned at the beginning and having to act straight." 7. Similarly, Norm Macdonald was really drunk while filming some of Billy Madison."They wanted me to play a drunk, so I said, 'You got some booze?'" he revealed on Conan. In fact, in one pool scene, he fell asleep while the camera was rolling, he was so drunk — and didn't understand why everyone was calling him Frank (his character's name). 8. And Nicolas Cage was truly blackout drunk while filming this breakdown scene in Leaving Las Vegas. He spent most of the film sober — besides what he said was a taste here and there "just to get a sense of, like, the Albert Finney" — but he decided he would try out, just once, getting blackout drunk. He actually had a "drinking coach" who got him drunk on Sambuca. "I was drinking the Sambuca and I went downstairs, and I was like, whatever happens, get it, because this isn't gonna happen again," Cage recalled. The resulting footage of the devastating moment was used in the film. 9. In The Deer Hunter, writer/director Michael Cimino told Christopher Walken to truly spit in Robert De Niro's face in this scene. De Niro had no idea he was going to do this, and was reportedly truly angry at the time, though he later said, "It worked. It got the reaction the scene needed." 10. In the same film, Walken was truly slapped in the Russian Roulette scene. "We shot that in the jungle," Walken said. "We were put in bamboo cages. It was all for real. Right down to the slap in the face." De Niro had actually told the actor to slap Walken, who wasn't expecting it. 11. In Deep Blue Sea, the cast dealt with an accident on-set that made it into the film. In the helicopter scene, after hooking up Whitlock, the crew runs back to the elevator as waves crash around. "At one point, three tons of water got thrown on us by accident, and we got swept toward those cargo bays, and everyone thought we were going into the drink, and people were tumbling around this metal grating," star Samuel L. Jackson revealed."They hit us full on with three tons of water. That was not supposed to happen, and we didn't have safety harnesses on, and we were flailing around on this deck." While Jackson claimed they were "still acting," it was still a genuinely unexpected moment that ended up in the film and made it seem more real. 12. This memorable scene at the end of Captain Philips, where Philips is evaluated by a corpsman, was made to feel even more genuine by using a real corpsman. The scene wasn't in the original script, and director Paul Greengrass decided to add it on the day while shooting at Norfolk Naval Station. He asked a corpsman there, Danielle Albert, to improvise a scene with star Tom Hanks. She wasn't an actor, and she really treated Hanks as if he were a patient. 13. Russell Crowe was actually talking about his own home when his character talked about home in Gladiator. He ad-libbed much of the speech, throwing in references to his real home in Australia. 14. The people talking about dust storms at the start of Interstellar were actual witnesses of the 1930s Dust Bowl. The clips are an excerpt from the 2012 documentary The Dust Bowl. 15. The scene in Spider-Man when Peter caught the food on MJ's tray was not done with CGI — Tobey Maguire actually caught it (though his hand was glued to the tray). It took 156 takes. 16. Similarly, you can see from the bloopers that Michael Cera really made this package-throwing shot in Scott Pilgrim vs. the it took him 33 tries. Universal Pictures / Via 17. Even more impressively, Kurt Russell actually made all those shots in the basketball scene from Escape From L.A. Rysher Entertainment / Via 18. Tippi Hedren was truly attacked by birds in this horrifying scene from The Birds. They were originally going to use mechanical birds, but Hedren was told they were not working and that she would be attacked by live birds instead. For five days, Hedren said, live birds trained to peck her were thrown at her and even tied to her. When one almost pecked her eye, she broke down and had to spend a week in bed due to exhaustion. This is the footage you see in the film. Distributed by Universal-International Pictures / Via 19. Jake Gyllenhaal was always meant to hit the mirror in Nightcrawler, but it wasn't supposed to break. When it did, it cut Gyllenhaal's hand, and he had to go to the ER to get stitches. This take, with Gyllenhaal's real-life injury, actually ended up in the movie. Open Road Films / Via 20. Director Ivan Reitman had most of the kids ad-lib about their real dads' jobs in this Kindergarten Cop scene. Universal Pictures / Via 21. The opening airport scene of Love Actually featured real couples and families genuinely embracing. Universal Pictures / Via 22. In the beginning scene of 22 Jump Street, when Schmidt is attacked by a bird, Jonah Hill's reaction is authentic — he really is terrified of birds. Sony Pictures Releasing/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 23. In a comedic moment of 1941, John Belushi's Kelso falls not once but twice as he's trying to get back onto his plane. He then recovers with an ironic bravado. The second fall — the more serious one — truly happened by accident. Belushi actually fell off the wing and landed on his head, sustaining such a serious injury that he had to go to the hospital. However, it made the scene even funnier, and it was kept in. Universal Pictures/Columbia Pictures / Via 24. While filming The Passion of Christ, Jim Caviezel was hit by a cross that weighed over 250 pounds. "It fell on my head, and I bit through my tongue and my cheek," he said. "And it was actually in the film. You see blood streaming out of my mouth." Newmarket Films / Via 25. In the Anchorman scene where Ron wanders the streets, drinking milk, Will Ferrell improvised the "milk was a bad choice" — because it was exactly what he was thinking. "He's sitting there with a carton of milk — we're shooting in San Pedro and it's hotter than hell — and Will just said it for real. It's perfect, because it was an honest moment from the human Will Ferrell speaking through Ron Burgundy," David Koechner revealed. DreamWorks Pictures / Via 26. In Cheech & Chong's Up in Smoke, the dog that eats Chong's burrito was a real stray that just wandered up and ate the burrito. It wasn't in the script. Paramount Pictures / Via 27. At one point in Blade Runner, Daryl Hannah's Pris runs and falls onto a van, jamming her elbow into the window before continuing to flee. This was Hannah genuinely slipping. She finished the take, then had her elbow looked at and found out it was chipped in eight places. However, it added to her character's desperation and was kept in. Warner Bros / Via 28. Dustin Hoffman actually accidentally farted in the phone booth scene in Rain Man, and Tom Cruise's reactions were improvised and somewhat real. Hoffman called it his "favorite moment" of any film he's done. "That includes Shakespeare that I've done on stage, anything." MGM/UA Communications Co. / Via 29. In Burnt, Bradley Cooper improvised his character's suicide attempt, and his costar Matthew Rhys was genuinely afraid Cooper might die. "It was late at night, and we didn't have much time, and the bag thing just sort of happened in one of the takes," Cooper said. Rhys acted quickly, saving Cooper, and the scene made it into the final film. The Weinstein Company / Via 30. The actors' reactions to the gunfire in this Boyz n the Hood scene were real, according to star Ice Cube. Director John Singleton didn't tell the actors there would be real gunfire in the scene. Columbia Pictures / Via 31. Child actor Oliver Robins truly was being strangled in the clown scene in Poltergeist. Robins explained to Fright how the extended arm of the clown got caught around his neck: "I was in a tight, confined space under the bed, and ... it's almost like a car accident. You know how a car accident happens so fast, you don't remember, but if you don't act, something is going to happen? Well, Steven saw that, probably in the video assist, and he pulled me away from it. Who knows what might have happened otherwise." Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 32. Lorenza Izzo was really drowning in one frightening scene from The Green Inferno, where Justine tries to escape a canoe of cannibals and jumps into the water. Izzo grabbed a rock and fought against the current as she screamed; she had a safe word to use if she was really in danger, but it was too loud for anyone to make it out. They thought she was acting until they realized she was shouting in English and Spanish. The footage ended up in the film. High Top Releasing/BH Tilt 33. The lion attack from Tarzan, the Ape Man was real. The lion unexpectedly darted for star Bo Derek while filming a scene where she first meets Tarzan (played by Miles O'Keeffe). O'Keeffe put himself between the lion and Derek, who tried to crawl to safety into the water, where the lion would not follow. She got away, but not before the lion sliced her shoulder with his paw. The footage stayed in the final cut — in fact, the scene was adjusted so that the attack could be included. United Artists/Cinema International Corporation 34. Michael McDonald was truly hit by a phone book in this scene from The Heat. McCarthy ended up being positioned closer than McDonald had thought she would be, and he didn't have time to dodge, meaning he was hit directly in the face, and his reaction was real. "Everyone, including Melissa and me, was thinking that my nose was broken," he revealed. "All I could think of was, 'Nobody break. Nobody laugh.' Because I only want to do this once." Luckily, his nose was alright, though Melissa was soon injured as well: "She ran over so fast to see if I was all right that she slid on the phone book on the floor, and then everybody just ran to Melissa, of course." He joked, "I knew where I ranked." 20th Century Fox / Via 35. In Clueless, Alicia Silverstone actually thought"Haitians" was pronounced that way — she wasn't trying to act dumb. The director, Amy Heckerling, thought it was so funny that she declined to correct her. Paramount Pictures / Via 36. The actors' reactions in this scene from Rocky Horror Picture Show — where Dr. Frank-N-Furter pulls off the tablecloth to reveal a dead body — were real. None of the actors, except Tim Curry, knew it was there, as director Jim Sharman wanted a genuine reaction. Michael White Productions / Via Facebook: TheZENRoom 37. Will Ferrell's reaction of surprise to the Jack-in-the-box in Elf was also real. Director Jon Favreau controlled the jack-in-the-boxes from offscreen so that Ferrell's surprise would be genuine. New Line Cinema 38. And finally, we'll end with some behind-the-scenes facts from 1974's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which was a real-life nightmare to shoot. The cast and crew were pushed to their breaking point while acting in horrible conditions, particularly during the 26-hour shoot of the dinner scene, which took place in over 100-degree heat around rotting animals (cast and crew would periodically go outside to puke). Vortex Inc. / Via 39. At one point, Gunnar Hansen, who played Leatherface, got impatient with problems involving the fake blood and really did cut star Marilyn Burns's finger and put it to actor John Dugan's lips. Dugan reportedly didn't realize he drank her real blood until years later, when he called it "kind of erotic." Vortex Inc. 40. Allen Danziger was genuinely frightened the first time his character saw Leatherface — as it was also his first time seeing the actor in-costume. His scream was real. Vortex Inc. / Via 41. Hansen also used a real chainsaw while chasing the actors around, and at one point, he was doing so while high after accidentally ingesting pot brownies during the shoot. Burns also really did twist her ankle when jumping six feet for her character's escape scene. Hansen was so terrifying that at one point, Burns said, she began to question whether this was actually a snuff film and he really did want to hurt her. Vortex Inc. / Via 'You scared me to death,' Burns later told Hansen. 'I didn't know you really at all, and by this time, you're not sure if it's real or a movie. And snuff films were just coming in at this time, and I'm thinking, This is too real. The leering, leering when you started coming at me, that was really scary.' 42. In the scene where actor Jim Siedow beats Burns, he really did hit her multiple times (with her permission). She actually passed out when filming cut. "Every time we'd try it, she'd come up with a few more bruises. Finally, I got with it and started having fun doing it and started really slugging her, and we kept that up — we did eight shots — and then they finally said, 'That's a take.' She just fainted dead away. The poor girl was beaten up pretty badly," Siedow said. TL;DR: The film was a LOT more real than you thought. Vortex Inc. What's your favorite movie moment that was actually genuine? Let us know in the comments!
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Story Behind How A Cancelled Bruce Willis Rom-Com Forced Him To Make Two Of His Career's Biggest Hits
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. As a professional movie fan, excitement surrounding a roster like the 2025 movie schedule means anticipating the arrival of both projects and talent heading to the big screen. It's been that way for a while, and I have to admit that as a kid, looking forward to a new Bruce Willis movie was pretty sweet, considering movies like The Fifth Element and The Jackal were square in young Mike's wheelhouse. But there's a movie that never got its chance in the sun, and it's all because of a perfect storm of imperfect creative differences forcing it to be cancelled. Yet through a story that saw the Die Hard legend basically being forced into a deal that was less than ideal, the result saw two classics we still consider as some of the best Bruce Willis movies becoming a living, breathing reality. The only reason I know of Broadway Brawler's existence is because of Channel Serfer's 'The Death of Cinergi Pictures' video. A deep dive into how the production label that partnered with Disney on films such as Judge Dredd, Deep Rising, and other more mature fare collapsed, this tale is one of the cornerstones of how that demise came to be. Which is weird, because when trying to imagine what this Bruce Willis movie would have looked like, I could kind of see it working. Our basic setup is recounted on Broadway Brawler's Wikipedia page in some pretty broad strokes. All we really know is that hockey player Eddie Kapinsky (Willis) is retired and trying to start a romance with a character played by Maura Tierney. Admit it: this concept harkens back to Willis' days on Moonlighting, allowing the action star to dabble once again in the rom-com format that helped make him. Alas, on February 28th, 1997, Broadway Brawler came to a halt after just 20 days of shooting. Per a 1997 report from Variety, the collapse of Broadway Brawler came after, according to director Lee Grant, Bruce Willis simply didn't show up for work on the Wilmington, Delaware set. What's more, Grant was apparently fired on that same day, along with several other crew members on the project. Lee Grant's husband, and Broadway Brawler producer Joe Feury, summed up the situation in this passage from a letter to the town of Wilmington: (via Delaware Online) The way it ended was a nightmare. After 20 days of shooting, we knew that we were making a wonderful film, but Bruce wasn't happy. So, the production was closed down. The wreckage that was left after two years of our work is so shocking that as I write to you, the full impact of it still hasn't hit. Allegedly, there were several Broadway Brawler crew members that the Die Hard star did not get along with; Lee Grant and her husband being two of the most notable. By the time the picture had shut down, 'more than half' of the $28 million budget (worth roughly $53 million in 2025) was spent, according to the Variety piece cited above. Though that wasn't until after Mr. Willis supposedly tapped an old friend from his Moonlighting days to try and right the ship. After the alleged troubles between Bruce Willis and his Broadway Brawler crew, the 12 Monkeys actor had what he thought was an ace up his sleeve. Recounted in The Los Angeles Times' 1997 story 'The Fight Over 'Broadway Brawler',' Willis had tapped director Dennis Dugan to step in and try to get things back on track. Personal connection aside, that's a choice that I think anyone would stand by; given that Dugan's big hit for 1996, the Adam Sandler classic Happy Gilmore, swam in very similar circles. However, this hopeful replacement saw only one day of action on set, which officially sealed Broadway Brawler's fate as lost media gold. Cinergi Pictures' decline was all but certain at this point, and Disney was looking to recoup its losses, which almost came through a lawsuit against Bruce Willis himself. In the aftermath of cancelling Broadway Brawler, the final matter that needed to be addressed was how Disney would be made whole for the money they'd spent. Again, 'more than half' of the aborted romantic comedy's budget was blown, and that's pretty huge for something that was never completed. As you'd imagine, this is yet another one of those situations where it's good to have friends, and as recalled by Deadline in a 2010 report about a later Bruce Willis deal, that pal would come in the form of former Fox chairman Joe Roth. That man just so happened to be the chairman of Walt Disney Studios during Broadway Bomber's embattled tenure, which positioned him to make this infamous deal: Facing a lawsuit and on the hook for the $17.5 million cost to scrap the movie, Willis was persuaded by Roth to make a three-picture deal, the smartest decision the actor made outside of saying yes to Die Hard. Willis replaced Sean Connery as the star of Armageddon, getting around $3 million upfront (the rest of his usual payday offset the Broadway Brawler costs). OK, while I'm definitely going to put a pin in the story of how Sean Connery was being pitched for Armageddon, that deal sounds like a definite downgrade. But at the same time, at least we weren't talking about a classic Marvel Cinematic Universe-style contract. Three movies would be nothing in the grand scheme of things, and they definitely beat Mr. Willis' other choice of going to court. The reporting above noted that it was a pretty smart move, which would be proven over the next two summers at the box office. When you hear a star like Bruce Willis has been backed into a corner on 'contractual obligations,' the movies that result are almost always assumed to be horrific. But surprisingly, two of the New Jersey-native's biggest successes came out of this twist of fate. You see, if Broadway Brawler hadn't failed, then Mr. Willis may have never made Armageddon, The Sixth Sense, and Disney's The Kid. Without a question, the first two titles are included on anyone's list of favorites from the Willis filmography, and rightfully so. Especially since Ben Affleck's infamous Criterion commentary for Michael Bay's 1998 blockbuster is just as beloved as the film itself. However, as someone who has seen all three, I'd definitely encourage you to check out The Kid, as the light-hearted comedy scratches a similar itch to the one I mentioned when pondering Broadway Brawler's big 'what if.' As curious as I am about what this cancelled rom-com would have looked like, I don't think we're ever going to see that footage for ourselves. Which means that the only traces of this unfinished Bruce Willis movie remain solely on Broadway Brawler's IMDb page, through alleged set images and a mock-up of an Eddie Kapinsky trading card. There's still a little hope, though, at least if director Lee Grant's remarks to Variety in 1997 still hold true, closing the book on her own involvement with the project, Grant discussed the results of those 20 days of filming by stating, 'I'd love to edit it together.' In a post-Coyote vs. Acme world, stranger prospects could be proposed. Even outside of the losses and disagreements that came out of Broadway Brawler's aftermath, it's hard to argue against this being a best-case solution to a worst-case scenario. Sadly, Bruce Willis' 2022 retirement, due to his diagnosis with frontotemporal dementia, means that the action-comedy icon will never work again. And while there are a lot of negatives in this story, perhaps the greatest is that we'll always be missing out without that trademark Willis charm flashing on our screens.
Daily Mail
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
'Why not?' Katy Perry reveals the simple mantra she lives by
Katy Perry has revealed the simple mantra that has inspired her big decisions in life. In less than a year, the singer has released an album, campaigned for Kamala Harris in the presidential election, and flown to space. And the singer - who is reportedly worth $400million - is showing no signs of slowing down. 'I'm always open and I say, "Why not?" and "Let's just try",' she told The Associated Press. She added: 'The power of your thoughts are so incredible because everything starts with a thought. I had this thought, "I want to go on tour." And here we are.' With that mantra, though, comes potential pitfalls as her album, 143, was panned, her spaceflight criticized by environmentalists and eco-friendly celebrities, and Harris - whom Katy endorsed - lost the election to Donald Trump. She added: 'I can control what I can control.' That mantra has been refined over the years through her practice of Transcendental Meditation. The meditation technique has been embraced by a handful of celebrities, including the late David Lynch, whom Katy credits with spreading the practice and its message. She said: 'That changed my life. And I've gone on a long inner space journey to untangle some wires, to answer some questions, to become more grounded, to find the power within myself.' Katy is fascinated by all things spiritual, casually weaving into conversation references to astrology, the enneagram and cardology, which purports to impart mystical insights into an individual's personality through playing cards. She also credits her daughter, Daisy, for propelling her along a journey of self-discovery and enhancing her 'feminine divine'. She said: 'Being a mother just makes you level up with that type of power. I think I've just grown into the strong woman that I've always dreamed of and idolized.' That journey has inspired her approach to music, down to the narrative of her sci-fi themed Lifetimes Tour, which will run from April 23 till December 7. Citing films like Blade Runner and The Fifth Element as visual and thematic inspirations, Katy will play a video game character who faces off against evil forces. She said: 'It's really about believing in yourself and leading with love. Those are always my messages, no matter how I wrap it or whatever tour I bring. It's love and empowerment. When I can lead by example, it just ripples.' Katy's tour of more than 80 performances will primarily be a career-spanning showcase of past hits, but with a dance-infused flare to some of the traditional pop songs. She explained: 'I tell everybody they have to wear some sensible shoes.' In the nearly two decades since Katy emerged as a pop star, she has made tongue-in cheek-lyricism - in line with her 'very sarcastic' sense of humor - and catchy messages of empowerment a signature of her songs. Critical reception to her more recent albums has been less than enthusiastic, but that hasn't stopped her from going all out for this tour, calling it 'Disneyland on wheels'. She said: 'I feel a responsibility to my audience who have really been with me on this ride during this whole lifetime to give them that feeling that they had when they first heard Teenage Dream.'
Yahoo
23-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Millie Bobby Brown's candyfloss hair transformation is radical af
We've been more than a little obsessed with Millie Bobby Brown lately. The actress has been busy promoting her new film Electric State: a sci-fi adventure movie that's currently showing on Netflix and boasts a stacked cast that includes Millie (duh!), Chris Pratt, Stanley Tucci, Ke Huy Quan and Brian Cox. In the spirit of method dressing, Millie has been using her style choices to pay homage to the 1990s, the decade in which Electric State is set. Our fave among these? Her stuuuning Brit Awards look, consisting of a chainmail, hooded gown that wasn't giving ~classic~ 90s but certainly wouldn't have been out of place in a 90s sci-fi classic like The Fifth Element. For beauty fanatics, good news: Millie's method dressing isn't just method dressing, it's method hairdressing, too. When it comes to her locks, she's been keeping up the retro theme. Not only has she recently bleached her hair blonde but she's worn it in all manner of throwback styles, including a Pamela Anderson-style bouffant updo with graduated fringe. Her hair transformation didn't end there, with her recently unveiling a short blonde bob for spring — one which we're pretty sure will inspire plenty of others to take the chop. However, another social media post has recently shown her do a major hair U-turn. Rather than sporting a blonde bob, in a video for her makeup brand Florence by Mills she can be seen with long, bubblegum pink hair! In the video, she appears to also be wearing a pink, wetlook top by DiPetsa as well as pink blush, lip colour and eye shadow: a serious pink theme is going on. Seemingly, the various shades of pink are a reference to her latests Florence by Mills launch: the Soft Girl Sheer Vanilla Hair & Body Mist which is giving all kinds of ~girly pop~. Loving the pink on Millie! You Might Also Like A ranking of the very best hair straighteners - according to our Beauty Editors Best party dresses to shop in the UK right now 11 products you'd be mad to miss from the Net A Porter beauty sale
