The Descendants

I went to Payne's talk on cinema and it was very stimulating convo. He seems really nicce but cannot dress for the life of me lol.

Any special highlights you can share with us?

It was a lot of info on cinema, movies that influenced him to go to a film school in College. He chose some movies and told us why he liked them so much: 7 samurai (he saw pretty much all Akira Kurosawa movies), Casino (Scorsese), la note (I don't know if I wrote this right), a cute one called the perils of Priscilla. There was a Western movie (the very first one he talked about with james Stuart) that I cannot remember the title.

He was asked if the movies done by the actors he casts influences his decision and he said: No. Otherwise he would not cast Clooney as a father who gets cheated on because who will cheat on Clooney? It was something along these lines, lol. He is very nice, simple and extremely intelligent. I will download the couple of pics I shot on Monday when I get home.

ps: he talked about the importance of landscaping and the rhythm of a movie, etc.

As I was leaving, I passed by James Woods. Obviously me being me I did not recognized him and someone who did asked him to take a picture with him and he was very nice. The guy turned to me and asked me if I could take the picture for him and I did. I did not engage into a conversation because he was going to talk about the movie Salvador.

It's a simple movie and a very compelling story.

Alexander Payne balances the drama and comedy so well. I loved the young daughter's character, she is adorable and funny.

I liked to see George Clooney not playing George Clooney or like we say in acting class : the extension of himself. Or maybe it is a layer of him we did not know...

I liked the movie a lot, could not be any different with Payne.

That being said, I still maintain my opinion from last week.

New poster for UK

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WOW! I love it!!!!

Thanks!!! LOVE IT!!!

WOW , i love his hair in this poster , makes me wish to pass my fingers through his hair!!

Thanks for all your info, LL & Socimar!

He's wearing a wedding ring!! heh heh I wonder if his finger developed a rash????

And the new website is up too. Looks good: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

and there is a new trailer but i can't post it here!!

This one?

yup thanks!!

Another good trailer. I wonder if we will see the whole film before going to the movies...

Can I just correct myself for a second? When I mentioned that James Woods passed by me at NYFF and he was going to do a press for Salvador (25 years it was shot), I said it was a Scorsese movie. I don't know why I said that. The director was Oliver Stone. Correction made, Phew!!!

maybe it was in another thread. Here I said Casino (scorsese, which it is correct, I believe). Nevermind then!

The Uk poster and tyhe new webstite I like ! Too bad you can't move a little bit more around Hawai on the website, that'll be a treat.
I'm pretty sure once I see the film I'm just gonna have to go and visit!

oh CAN'T WAIT to see this one!!

macs, definitely a great place to visit. Some of the most beautiful scenery in the world, some of the most delicious food, and the people, Hawaiians not imports, are among the happiest and friendliest people I have ever met.
Don't know, but IMO people in southern Pacific region are much more friendly than anywhere else in the world - Hawaiians, Tahitians, Kiwis and Aussies all included.
Hope you do get to travel there, you'll love it.

i did like that clip so much i just want to see the movie if george in it or not ,he's doing good performance it seems !

Here's a link of the latest Lainey article. Bonus, if anyone is interested it has a picture of Lainey.

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cindi, that bonus picture of Lainey is actually Mariah Carey. Even she uses an avatar. Did you click on it or just believe it?

thaaaaaaanks K , i love the last scene in the trailer , he's sooo funny

pattygirl wrote:cindi, that bonus picture of Lainey is actually Mariah Carey. Even she uses an avatar. Did you click on it or just believe it?

Yes, yes I did. Silly me.

Cindigirl, please never change, I love you just the way you are.

cindi won't change, believe me. She is one of a kind, witty, funny, and smart. Don't believe her when she tells everyone she's dittsy. It's a lie.

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Breaking News: “The Descendants” Wins Gotham Awards

I realize I’m a bit early in declaring the winner of this year’s Gotham Awards—the event doesn’t take place until November 28—but when the nominees were announced today, it seemed to me almost a certainty that Alexander Payne’s George Clooney dramatic crowd-pleaser “The Descendants” would take home New York’s answer to the Spirit Awards (or if you’re feeling generous, the Oscars).

While the Gotham Awards are thankfully awarded by a jury (and not that mass voting membership of the Spirit Awards’ Film Independent members, which always guarantees that the biggest box-office winner takes the top prize), I do know that the juries are often made up of dissenting critics and journalists, which leads to a winning film determined out of consensus, not passion.

So if you look at the other nominees, “Meek’s Cutoff” (no way), “Take Shelter” (too dark), “Beginners” (liked, but not enough), and “Tree of Life” (too divisive), I’d say “The Descendants” has it in the bag, unless “Take Shelter” advocates stage a coup.

I’m surprised that “Martha Marcy May Marlene” did not nab a Best Picture slot, which could have had a shot. But “Martha” director Sean Durkin is virtually guaranteed a win for Best Breakthrough Director.

Wait for the “Toldjas” at the end of next month.

I'm so looking forward to seeing George in The Descendents posing as a papa. Papa George.

pattygirl wrote:cindi won't change, believe me. She is one of a kind, witty, funny, and smart. Don't believe her when she tells everyone she's dittsy. It's a lie.

Thanks Lucy and Patty for the vote of confidence. I only tell people I'm ditsy because I'm blonde. Have to live up to the expectations. LOL

the OST of that new trailer is sooooooooooooooo funny LOL .i know it's a language but it made me laugh my love to hawai and ppl from there .

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George Clooney Interview For Alexander Payne’s ‘The Descendants’

From Alexander Payne, the creator of the Oscar-winning ‘Sideways,’ set in Hawaii, ‘The Descendants’ is a sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic journey for Matt King (George Clooney) an indifferent husband and father of two girls, who is forced to re-examine his past and embrace his future when his wife suffers a boating accident off of Waikiki. The event leads to a rapprochement with his young daughters while Matt wrestles with a decision to sell the family’s land handed down from Hawaiian royalty and missionaries. Alongside George Clooney, the film stars Judy Greer, Beau Bridges, Matthew Lillard, Robert Forster, Shailene Woodley, Mary Birdsong, Nick Krause and Amara Miller. ‘The Descendants’ is released in cinemas November 18th in the US, and January 20th in the UK.

This is very human performance, mixing emotion with humour, there’s a lot of depth to it. How hard is it to get that right balance?

George Clooney: First you have to have a really good script, that does all of those things for you, and then you have one of the best directors in the business handling that. Then you just kind of put yourself in his hands and say, “Too much? 15% less existential realism?” He really takes care of all of that. I found it challenging only in the sense that I wanted to serve the material very well. It’s a tricky piece, the movie basically starts with the death of your wife. It’s like a coming of age film, unfortunately the person who’s coming of age is a 50 year old man (laughs). Whenever the script is really good the work is a lot easier.


You‘ve worked on a number of acclaimed films in succession, what do you look for as an actor when choosing a role, and what drew you to this particular movie?

George Clooney: First and foremost I learned after a series of very bad mistakes in film, early on in my career. I learned I should probably read a good screenplay every once in a while before I say yes (laughs). You can make a bad film out of a good script, but your not gonna make a good film out of a bad script, so I needed to start with a good screenplay. With this particular film I wanted to work with Alexander Payne for a long time, we had dinner in Toronto, he said he was going to be sending me a script. I sort of thought I would have done it no matter what the script was (laughs), because I hadn’t seen him miss yet as a filmmaker. Then I read the screenplay and thought wow. There are really only two elements solidify the choices I make, and that’s director and screenplay.

I’d done ‘Batman & Robin,’ ‘The Peacemaker’ kind of run….you know, when you first start getting work as an actor you just take jobs. I’d been on a lot of TV series and I got a couple of films and was very excited. I’m calling everyone and I’m like, “I got Batman, wooooooooh!” And then I started to understand that I was going to be held responsible for not just the role I was gonna get to play, but also for the films that were gonna get made. The next three scripts I worked on were ‘Out of Sight,’ ‘Three Kings’ and ‘O Brother Where Art Thou,’ which were all very good screenplays. So since then I’ve really tried to focus on the best screenplay as possible, then the second thing I do is try to make sure the directors I’m working with are on the same page, and we want to do the same kind of films. You can really protect yourself as an actor if you work with really good people, it can hide a lot of flaws (laughs).

What was it like on the set for this film, working with Alexander Payne?

George Clooney: Alexander Payne keeps such a nice set, it’s such a fun place to be. There are people who like to work under chaos – some people work better under that, some people create that kind of chaos, and a lot of times that makes a set not necessarily very fun. I like to work on sets that don’t have that, I feel like it’s more creative, I feel like it makes people feel more welcome. Alexander makes the most welcome set you’ve ever been on. So there are some very difficult scenes you have to do, for example kissing your wife goodbye, there’s yelling at a corpse, they’re difficult scenes to do. But when your finished it’s a really friendly fun place to be, so with that there isn’t a lot of carrying things around with you, your not moping around – we were in Hawaii, what was there to be unhappy about, you know (laughs).

How has directing over the last decade changed you as an actor?

George Clooney: I always think in terms of what the director needs, not just for this scene, but for the film. You really learn that from episodic television, when your doing episodic television for long periods of time you have different directors coming in every week. I’m doing ER, so every week I’ve got a kid who’s going to be on a gurney, some kids going to be dieing. So every director would come in and go like, “You have to cry a little bit.” But then you think, “I’ll be crying in 22 episodes, this will be too weepy.” So you have to adjust towards the long term, thinking it all the way through, from beginning to end – that works also in film, you’ll understand that there’s some scenes that you’ll have to lose in order to win something in the end. A really good director will constantly keep pointing you that way, but I also think it’s your job as an actor to understand that there are scenes that you do, particularly when you’re the lead, where other people get to come in and steal, and you have to let them. I understand that, but working with a really good director always reminds you of that.

For me, some of the most powerful moments in this film are the silent moments, the dialogueless moments….

George Clooney: Oh yeah, we live in an age and a time now when we’re trying to show 500 things going on at the same time. You’ll turn on Bloomberg Television and there’s 50 things going on. I find that silence and stillness…..if your flipping the channels and you see someone just staring at the camera and it‘s quiet, nothings going on, you tend to stop now – that seems to be the new “unusual” thing to see. I really enjoy the quiet moments in film, you have to earn them though, Alexander is so good at earning those moments. For example the very end of the film, with us just sitting together, you earn it because you couldn’t have done that scene that long in the beginning of the movie, people would have gotten up and left (laughs). To watch the stillness of that particular scene speaks volumes.

Good interview! Thanks Laetval!

I like this interview, too!

Thank you for posting, Laetval!

Is there a separate link for the London Premiere of The Descendents?

I just saw some of the pictures of George and Stacey at Just Jared but wasn't sure if they were posted here somewhere.

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In case not here they are. (I'm sure they're somewhere else just haven't found them).

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Thanks it's me for the video. A little more of what we can see of The Descendents.

Thanks!! I really can´t wait to watch this movie. More than Ides of March.
I like the new scenes!

hathaross wrote:Thanks!! I really can´t wait to watch this movie. More than Ides of March.
I like the new scenes!

Yeah, me too! Notice at the end of the video where Scotty is watching TV and eating ice cream. She made a joke about this at one of the press conferences. She said on every take she finished the ice cream. After 10 takes she got sick.

Oh no! Poor Scotty! And thanks for the vid! Nice!

i can't wait , the new vid is aweeeeeeesome!

thanks it's me!! it is greaaaaat god this movie is looking better everday!! and from those scenes i can see why critics are saying G will get the Oscar, caaaan't wait!!

I'm waiting
ages of waiting


....wt

She said on every take she finished the ice cream. After 10 takes she got sick.

poor Scotty... Goerge let her eating ice cream like an uncle and... Joking!
How much more we have to wait?
16th December on USA right?
In Spain still have to wait until 27th January....

dunno about here....

November 18th in the US!

more reviews (hope i'm not doubleposting)

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Awards Season: It’s George Clooney’s Oscar To Lose


There’s a point in every silly season - oh of course, I meant to say awards season – when I actually get interested in the race. It happened yesterday when I saw The Descendants and realized no one is likely to beat George Clooney’s deep and touching performance. OK, maybe I also got interested because I am sick of hearing about Herman Cain and Rick Perry in that other contest; will everyone please stop taking those buffoons seriously? But mostly it was Clooney.

He chose the part well. Matt King, living in paradisiacal Hawaii, has a wife in a coma after an accident, a feisty 10-year-old daughter and a college-age daughter who lets him know why she’s been so angry at her mother: “Mom was cheating on you.” You can see that much in the trailers.

What you don’t instantly see is how beautifully Alexander Payne directs the film, or how gracefully the parts fit together. There’s a semi-comic strand about Clooney’s character looking for the Other Man, and a socially-conscious strand about his family’s plan to sell the beautiful, undeveloped land they inherited. That’s a pretty complete package.

Clooney never overacts; even his eye-popping comic turn in O Brother Where Art Thou fit the Coen Brothers’ stylized approach. But he is especially subtle here, as he was in his last Oscar-nominated leading role, in Up In the Air.

But let’s be cynical about awards for a minute – or, let’s go all in and make that for the season. I’m not saying Clooney and Payne calculated this role as awards bait; I’m not saying they didn’t. But I will say it fits every criteria. Clooney gets to cry and grieve and be droll. The film is mainstream and accessible but not depressing. And there is nothing working against it.

Who can beat him? Brad Pitt is terrific in Moneyball, but his baseball-manager’s role doesn’t really have awards depth. Michael Fassbender is searing as the sex addict in Shame, and I can believe that Oscar voters have gotten younger and less fusty, but are they really going to vote for a film so raw it’s been rated NC-17? Moneyball’s too cold, Shame is too hot, but The Descendants is just right.

There’s plenty I haven’t seen yet, including Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover; he seems to get nominated easily, just for playing not-Leo. Some other actor could make me change my mind. But for now, Clooney’s deeply realized performance in this straight-down-the-middle film makes it his Oscar to lose.

Good one, macs. Don't think I've seen this one. Guess she liked it, she really liked it. Hope academy voters do too.

Me too, Patty!

If this video is already posted, I apologize