`OUT OF SIGHT' PUTS CLOONEY IN FOCUS; MOVIE COULD BE TURNING POINT FOR TV HUNK.Byline: Glenn Whipp Daily News Film Writer George Clooney George Timothy Clooney (May 6, 1961) is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter who gained fame as the lead doctor in the long-running television drama, ER has not made a bad choice when it comes to his film career. But until ``Out of Sight,'' he had not made a good movie, either. Consider his decisions and try to separate them from the results. ``From Dusk Till Dawn,'' the schizoid schizoid /schiz·oid/ (skit´soid) 1. denoting the traits that characterize the schizoid personality. 2. vampire comedy, put Clooney on the movie map in 1996 after years of TV grunt work. It was a clinker clink·er n. 1. The incombustible residue, fused into an irregular lump, that remains after the combustion of coal. 2. A partially vitrified brick or a mass of bricks fused together. 3. , but it was a start, too. Next up was a romantic comedy with Michelle Pfeiffer - never a bad proposition - unless the movie was ``One Fine Day,'' a predictable piece of fluff that never found an audience during the busy Christmas shopping season. Last year came ``Batman & Robin,'' a chance to step into the lucrative cartoon movie franchise, followed by ``The Peacemaker,'' the first movie ever released by DreamWorks SKG SKG Stichting Kwaliteit Gevelbouw (Dutch) SKG Spielberg, Katzenberg,and Geffen (DreamWorks Studios) SKG Thessaloniki, Greece - Thessaloniki (Airport Code) SKG Smith and Kraus Global . Both were great picks; both were anathema to critics and audiences. Nobody blamed Clooney - completely, at least - for these movies. The perception was that he was better than the work, a thought neatly encapsuled by ``Out of Sight'' screenwriter Scott Frank Scott Frank (born March 10, 1960) is an American screenwriter known largely for his work as a script doctor, creating drafts of other writers' original screenplays. His solo work on the screenplay for Out of Sight , who bluntly said, ``George has a Steve McQueen thing going. But he needs the right material - he's got to stop doing `Peacemaker.' '' Clooney laughs when apprised of the comment. ``You know, I have a framed letter from Steven Spielberg Noun 1. Steven Spielberg - United States filmmaker (born in 1947) Spielberg , saying, `Here's our first film for DreamWorks. Do you want to do it?' Like I'm going to say no to that. ``All those movies were good breaks, especially considering where I was coming from,'' Clooney continues. `` `Batman' was a huge break. And, well, that franchise is buried now. I won't be doing that again. The other movies all fell a little short, and, yeah, if I had been better, they probably would have been better, too.'' The right robber Clooney, 37, was determined not to make any apologies for his next movie. He spent nine months reading scripts - at an average of five screenplays a week - and turning them all down before he came across Frank's adaptation of the Elmore Leonard Noun 1. Elmore Leonard - United States writer of thrillers (born in 1925) Dutch Leonard, Elmore John Leonard, Leonard novel, ``Out of Sight.'' The character-driven story of a bank robber named Jack Foley who becomes irresistibly drawn to the female federal marshal (played by Jennifer Lopez) pursuing him had Clooney hooked after he read just four pages. That's when he called a friend and shouted into the phone receiver, ``I found it!'' ``I didn't even need to finish it, because I've been a fan of Elmore Leonard (those in the know call him Dutch) since reading `52 Pick-Up' years ago,'' Clooney says. ``I would never be so arrogant as to say that any movie could improve one of Dutch's books, but this one gets things right. People were telling me that I seemed so natural I must have been improvising, but I didn't change one line in Scott Frank's script. I just read the words, man. This is a guy who really gets what Dutch is doing in his books.'' Critics have agreed, calling ``Out of Sight'' one the year's best films. And audiences have responded, too, showing up in healthy numbers for a modestly budgeted movie that's competing for attention in a summer filled with mind-numbing, effects-driven films where the dialogue is typically drowned out Drowned Out is a 2002 documentary by Franny Armstrong about the controversial Sardar Sarovar Project. It closely follows a family that is unwilling to leave its village home as the water levels of the Narmada River, mostly because the government provides them no viable by the explosions. He likes it ``No one is expecting this movie to make a billion dollars,'' Clooney says. ``We'd just like to get some good word-of-mouth and hang around for a while. I tell you, though, it's awfully nice sitting here talking to Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to" lecture, speech rebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to you about a movie that I can unabashedly un·a·bashed adj. 1. Not disconcerted or embarrassed; poised. 2. Not concealed or disguised; obvious: unabashed disgust. say I love.'' Clooney also has high praise for director Steven Soderbergh, who had been on a losing streak A Losing Streak is the third episode of series 2 of the BBC sit-com, Only Fools and Horses. It was first broadcast on 4 November 1982. Synopsis Del Boy, Rodney, and Grandad are making some sort of cheap perfume just to earn money after Del has been losing most of of his own since making a big splash Big Splash could refer to:
v. gushed, gush·ing, gush·es v.intr. 1. To flow forth suddenly in great volume: water gushing from a hydrant. 2. about his director so he can promote his new movie. Clooney and Soderbergh enjoyed working together enough to want to do it again and are developing ``Leatherheads,'' a film about the early days of the National Football League. ``I've always liked George, but in a lot of his movies he's just always moving so fast, and he came across like mercury,'' Soderbergh says. ``What I wanted to do was simplify his acting and make him still. George can be still and be compelling, but it's hard for a lot of actors to believe that. They think they have to tart up the scene. He didn't have to do that here, though, because this film has such great dialogue.'' Says Clooney: ``If you look at what Steven does with this movie, you can see why I want to work with him again. It's the little touches like the freeze frames that highlight an important moment in Jack Foley's life. Or the way he cross-cuts the love scene between Jennifer Lopez and myself. He makes interesting, informed decisions.'' Clooney says he would like to make another Elmore Leonard movie, and he's angling to see what the Coen brothers are thinking about doing with their upcoming adaptation of the author's latest book, the Spanish-American War Spanish-American War, 1898, brief conflict between Spain and the United States arising out of Spanish policies in Cuba. It was, to a large degree, brought about by the efforts of U.S. expansionists. story ``Cuba Libre
The Cuba Libre (IPA /'kuβ̞a'liβ̞ɾe/ in Spanish, /kjuːbʌ liːbɹeɪ/ in English) is a cocktail made of Cola, lime, and rum. .'' Clooney thinks it might be a hard sell, though, not seeing himself as the kind of actor the Coens typically use in their films. ``I might try to con Elmore into calling them for me,'' Clooney says with a wink. What about `ER'? It's not like he needs the work. Clooney hasn't quit his day job - yet - and will soon be returning to the set of ``ER,'' for the fifth season of the nation's most popular television series. He has said for some time that this will be his final year on the program, but he is also leaving the door open for guest appearances in the future. ``I signed a five-year contract, and I will have honored it,'' Clooney says. ``What I'll probably miss most is not doing 11 pages a day, which is a lot of work, but it makes the days fly by. And working so fast, you only get a couple of cracks at it. So if you don't get it, too bad. They'll print it. It's a nice incentive to be prepared.'' Clooney has a $23 million deal with Warner Bros BROS Brothers BROS Benefits and Retirement Operations Section (King County, Washington) BROS Barnes and Richmond Operatic Society (London, UK) . to develop films during the next five years, and he already has a few dozen projects in the pipeline. Movie audiences will see him next, though, in a 20th Century Fox film, ``The Thin Red Line,'' the war film that marks director Terence Malick's long-awaited return to moviemaking mov·ie·mak·er n. One that makes movies, especially professionally. mov  ie·mak . ``It's just a small part,'' Clooney says, dismissing his role when compared to friend Sean Penn's. ``I just did it because `Badlands' (Malick's first movie) is one of my all-time favorite films.'' ``Hell,'' Clooney continues, ``I would have showed up just to carry the hammer box, you know? I just wanted to be there.'' Sounds like another good choice to us. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: ``It's awfully nice sitting here talking to you about a movie that I can unabashedly say I love,'' says George Clooney, who plays Jack Foley, a bank robber who escapes from prison in ``Out of Sight.'' |
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