Cool News
The Rat(ner) Pack?? Brett Takes On Sinatra!!
Merrick here...
Brett Ratner and Chris Tucker of RUSH HOUR will re-team on a Frank Sinatra project. Tucker will play Sinatra in the prime of his Rat Pack years; it's hoped this casting will broaden the singer's appeal to wider, hipper audience.
I'm kidding.
Tucker would play George Jacobs, Sinatra's valet, who recently co-authored a book called "Mr. S: My Life With Frank Sinatra" - from which the film is being drawn.
Book, a dishy tell-all penned by Jacobs and William Stadiem, was first published by HarperCollins in 2003. It offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the world of Sinatra and the Rat Pack.
Stadiem, a longtime chronicler of old Hollywood, has been tapped to write the screenplay, which weaves in celebrity anecdotes involving Marilyn Monroe, Peter Lawford, the Kennedys, Ava Gardner, Humphrey Bogart, Mia Farrow, Elvis Presley, Swifty Lazar and Marlene Dietrich, among others.
...says THIS ARTICLE in Variety.
I've always wondered what DIRTY HARRY would've been like if Sinatra had taken the role, as originally planned.
Insert obligatory Ratner bashing here _____________.
Readers Talkback
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Ratner is a hack
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He makes the script. If the script is good, his movie is good. If the script sucks, so does his movie.
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he's lazy.
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not bad. Specially Don Cheadle as Sammy Davis Jr. New movie remake idea..."Chris Tucker Must Die".
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I'd pay double for that shit! Bwa ha ha!
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Could you fill us in on a well scripted Ratner movie? Red Dragon doesn't count, cause Manhunter wipes the floor with that movie.
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there's one. Let's fill up the talkback!
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This will keep Ratner away from projects I might actually be interested in. No, Ratner isn't a terrible director, he's just mediocre, and that's why I don't want him screwing up stuff I'm interested in seeing.
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It can, and likely will, happen.
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oh and... Ratner, please fist yourself. www.nategrace.com
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He wanted to thank Brett for making his movies look so good.
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That's the stupidest casting I've heard. Chris Tucker to play George Jacobs is like Robin Williams to play Dean Martin. There's only one good choice: Eriq La Salle. But who cares, Ratner will screw this up royally anyway.
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the new De Niro/Scorsese? Ha!
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It didn't really happen. Really.
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You know it's true.
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I wonder how much he'll demand for this one.. 30 million?
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Somebody please stop funding this hack... Please? For the children?!?!?
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If it wasn't Ratner I never would have considered it but man, that scared me for a minute. The thing with Ratner is that I thought X3 was going to be dreadful but wound up really enjoying it. So who knows? It could be great.
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...and it reminded me that there are far worse cinematic criminals to worry about than Ratner.
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...it wasn't good enough trashing the X-Men franchise?<p> ...now he has to trash Frank Sinatra...<p> Go the whole way, Brett... get Sinead O'Connor to play his mother, that should really get ol' Blue Eyes spinning in his grave.
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Sept. 20, 2007, 1:33 p.m. CST
The sad thing is that after a three-second shock...
by JackPumpkinhead
...I actually believed it until I saw the "kidding" part. Says a lot about Hollywood these days. Or maybe it's because I rewatched Superman a while ago and was thinking of McG and the "Beyonce as Lois" horror...
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isn't with us anymore. I guess Sinatra will either be played by Joe Piscapo or John Travolta in man-drag.
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Fuck Brett Ratner and the Sarah Jessica Parker-looking steed he rode in on.
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Let the Rat have his shot a genre designed to get best actor Oscars and create forgettable, poorly structured, unrewarding films.
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... Bergman had Max von Sydow, Kurosawa had Toshiro Mifune, Fellini had Marcello Mastroianni, and Ratner has Chris Tucker. Shit finds its own level.
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...they hire. WHY?
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blow me, you know it was. X3, however, was a steaming pile of shit. it was literally ratner blowing coke, playing with an avid, and collecting a check.
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"Are you ready boots? START WALKING !"
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different people playing sinatra at different points in his life...a nice wide veriety of people for Tucker to shout at...christ...so fucking sad...
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And include Gumby, dammit!
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that he sucks? ratner i mean, he must know about all his haters surely. Id give up filmaking if i were him.
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Just saw it for the first time a few weeks ago. A great job done by all, and the opening that shows how Hannibal got caught--great stuff. I thought X3 was decent--not great, but I liked a lot of stuff about it--but I thought Red Dragon was really great. Liked it more than Hannibal, really.
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what have you been smoking?
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Ratner had every tool at his disposal - a great story, script, a stable full of excellent actors, money - and he handed in the safest, sterile mediocre movie he could. No atmosphere, and no good performances from his actors. Ed Norton was terrible. Hi Will Graham showed no turmoil behind the eyes. In retrospect, Rob Zombie should've directed.
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really care about stories about Monroe, Dietrich, or Peter Lawford.
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Billy West for Sinatra
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Ratner couldn't earn it even if it was willed to him. Go make "Rush Hour 4."
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"He is stupid... but he KNOWS that he is stupid... (chuckles) and that almost makes him smart. Let's listen."
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it should take place in an alternative universe. Michael Berryman as Sinatra, Danny Devito as Dean Martin, Michael Clarke Duncan as Sammy Davis jnr, Warwick Davis as Peter Lawford, and Brad Pitt as Joey Bishop.
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A visual that will take all day to get out of my head...
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Or of course Ben Affleck. Or OMG! TEH CHRISTIAN BALE!
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For the proof of all proofs: http://tinyurl.com/22ucxg
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And have the rat-pack as robots from the future with the ability to shoot lasers from their fingernails. I'd buy that shit. http://tinyurl.com/22ucxg
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Are you smoking crack? Red Dragon blows ass. Better atmosphere? Better then Michael Mann? I'm sorry but no. Ratner fucked that whole movie up. Everything about it was lame. His version of the flaming wheel chair alone proves this point. And as for the ending it maybe closer to the book.But it blows compared to the In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida ending. Also There is not better line of dialog better then "i'm going to get you Sport"
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His Sinatra was just the coolest. And on the lighter side of things, please Brett make this feature as cool as X3.....ugh!!
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I like Nortons performance in anything he does. The rest of Ratners shit I can not stomach. If he doesn't use Ray Liotta as Sinatra I will not even give this shit a moment of my time.
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The Chairman will provide Mr. Ratner with a luxurious ass-kicking that will be taped and eventually be displayed at the Smithsonian. Sinatra fans and future generations will cite "Frank Puts The Kid In His Place" as yet another gem in Ol' Blue Eyes' career.
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He's just the fucking antichrist. And Michael Bay sucks too. Fucking apologists.
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Loved the Renny Harlin line.
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Warrick Davis. <BR> <BR> Yes I know I know I am beside myself too. *pats self on back* Truly this is the right guy for that role. Truly.
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With the size of Sinatra's unit as the book was? Damn, George - we got it the first dozen times you mentioned it.
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Should always be Sinatra. Come on!
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First Jessica Simpson desecrates the goddess Nancy Sinatra with her atrocious Boots cover, and now this. I am saddened in ways I cannot express.
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where a better director is at the helm for the first and second acts, working towards a completely un-screw-upable crescendo that draws from decades of well-worked out backstory, then Mr. Ratner can come in and have Frank Sinatra be listless and mute for most of the movie, kill off Sammy Davis Jr. without a good reason, and have Dean Martin...oh, I don't know...maybe go from being ultra-awesome and badass in the first two installments to being all weepy and whatnot...LIKE WOLVERINE! No freakin excuse for all that! He had solid gold in his hands! He practically had to try to screw it up! It was the third act, it could've practically written itself! UGH!
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...and Quint is fat.
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always hated deceptive little shit jokes like that...
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He was getting in touch with his feminine side while Jean Grey lubricated her strap-on dildo. Ratner sure knows how to pick 'em.
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...and yes I'm aware of Don Cheadle's performance long ago (bizzare dream sequence in that movie in my humble opinion.) I do not graspe the usage of a valet talking about Sinatra. Now tucker talking about Elvis sure, why the hell not, everyone has a little Elvis in them. (Harry Knowles would make a neat Elvis impersanator come to think of it.)
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....on the set of Red Dragon, and Hopkins has this look on his face that is like,,,, fuck this guy, fuck this movie, where is my check?Hilarious. X3 makes Batman with nipples look cool.
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Was the lamest thing ever committed to film, besides every other movie this guy makes. Stop wasting our time updating us on what he is doing.
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Once forced Nancy Reagan to do blow off another broads ass whilst he fucked them both...that,,, is what is sorely missing from todays music landscape....genuine Im better than all of you and I can back it up attitude...no gay movie will do this man justice.
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Sept. 20, 2007, 7:36 p.m. CST
i'd rather see "Chest-Bumping Fat Kids, The Movie"
by the_man_from_Rio
Hackner should stay away from icons like Sinatra, for he will deliver nothing but bland performances with his paint-by-numbers "style" of filmmaking.
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It would be quite the coup for the Ironies to have in their possession a Frank Sinatra movie completely bereft of any style whatsoever.
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How did Chris Fucker get to be worth 25 million a movie? I don't get it???
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Cuz you know he gon' have a fit when he finds out that Ratner is going behind the camera again.
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The general wisdom is that more people went to see the RH movies for Chris Tucker as oppose to Jackie Chan..That and the suprise success of Money Talks which he (Tucker) co-produced for a small budget with an above average return. Jackie Chan on the otherhand just can't seem to open (yet alone) carry a movie by himself or with anyother actor/actress with little success domestically and in some cases abroad. It remains to be seen if Chris Tucker can ask for $ 25 million on his next movie w/out certain b.o return provisions due to the underperformance of RH3.
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What next? Warwick Davis as Mike Tyson or Britney Spears as Martin Luther King?
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Tommy Davidson of In Loving Color fame could do it or Billy Crystal in blackface could pull it off.
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Don Cheadle was fucking terrible in THE RAT PACK. And as much as I love the man, Billy Petersen is NOT Jack Kennedy.
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Have at it!
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Are you fucking serious???? Manhunter was so much better than Red Dragon! The styling, atmosphere, drama, acting, direction, writing, music, cinematography, and overall coolness.. Dude, Manhunter had style and character whereas Red Dragon had Anthony Hopkins turning the series into a Hanibal Lecter gimmick. In Manhunter, the focus was not on Brian Cox, he was almost an after thought, only put in to show the audience the person who drove Wil Graham crazy and made him quit.. Again I blame Brendt Ratner.. If you can make Edward Norton look wooden and forgetable, than you are a HORRIBLE director...
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He's only good at shuckin' and jivin' while his eyes bug out. His face when Kanye made his famous Dubya "doesn't care" blurt on the Katrina telethon was the only passable acting I've seen from Tucker in years.
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Jackie Chan has been cast as Sammy Davis Jr. PERFECT! Calling Brett Ratner a hack is a compliment he doesn't deserve. Most hacks have made at least one watchable film.
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..will have ZERO personality. If you want to do the quintessential Bio of Ratpack like magnitude, it would need Sodersberg or Oliver Stone to be interesting.
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hmmmm, there's an image I'll not easily forget.
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Juggernaut should've been CG and almost identicle to his comic self in X3. I hope when someone gets around to putting Rhino in a movie they wont let realism destroy the interpretation of the character.
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Maybe the wave of overdue material will continue, and we'll FINALLY get the loooooooooooooooong awaited Scorcese Rat Pack movie with Travolta as Sinatra, Hanks as Dino, Carrey as Lewis, Sandler as Lawford, etc etc...
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lifes' an eskimo pie lets take a bite, that was groovy thinkin Lincoln when you set them free....I am dark and you are light, Your as blind as a bat and I have sight, so come on now amigo negro lets not fiiiight.
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but put a couple of white kids in jail for tying a rope to their truck? This country has a case of moral constipation.
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I dont want to hear about Brett fucking ratner any more. The guy hasnt made a good film. He did okay with X3, under the circumstances,but seriously he's a low rent hack-no different from marcus nispel or shawn levy or any of those directors who cram the theatres with crap comedy. Empire wrote a suspicous article praising him cos he throws good parites and he's a NICE GUY, and proceeded to say he's made no good films but"ah, who cares"? I DO! I dont give a toss if he throws good parties, his films are still crap! Kubrick was an antisocial git but we'll rember him as a great director!! Not ratner however, but Im sure we'll a;ll remember those great parties we HEARD a bit about. Christ, and Chris Tucker?! this aint cool news, and I know Im wasting my own time talking about this but it needed said-Ratner has been bandied about this site by sheer luck-hes a crap director who had one good gig, that while it was okay will always be regarded as a disappointment in the history books. I mean come on people, you cant defend him...even michael bay has more credibility than this guy...but just barely. In conclusion, ratner may be a nice guy but until he makes something worth while I dont wana hear his name....
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Sept. 21, 2007, 10:40 a.m. CST
RockLobster800 - But Ratner's not even a nice guy
by BringingSexyBack
so he has no redeemable qualities whatsoever
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The articla on him in Empire actually seemed very forced too...if I didnt know better Id say Ratners publicists paid them to write it or something.
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its not even close he is incapable of making a good film look at it from facts. x men 3. after 2 good movies he completely drops the ball and gives a movie with no energy. red dragon. great source material. great cast. and anothe rmovie with no enegry. he just likes getting paid.
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I don't think anyone wants to free them (and anyone who does is an idiot). I thought the outcry was the fact they were charged with attempted murder when it was clearly a case of battery. I think all involved should get jail time, but attempted murder is going overboard considering the incident. Oh, and Brett Ratner is a hack.
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