WEIRDLAND: Waiting for David O. Russell's "Nailed", "All the boys love Mandy Lane", etc.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Waiting for David O. Russell's "Nailed", "All the boys love Mandy Lane", etc.

Amber Heard plays Mandy Lane in "All the boys love Mandy Lane" (2006)

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane: The debut of Jonathan Levine, who later directed the marvelous The Wackness, and who has high-profile cancer comedy starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, and Anna Kendrick due to be released later this year, screened this horror flick first in 2007 at the SXSW film festival, and most recently, at the 2010 International Comic-Con.
But, the film — which stars Amber Heard — is still sitting on a shelf, and at this point, may never be released.
It’s not too hard to find, however, as I did a couple of years ago, providing this review: Levine has taken the slasher film blueprint and, without necessarily doing anything particularly original with it, has created a dead teenager movie that you can appreciate not for its campy gloriousness, its machete gore, its body count, or the T & A. In fact, he’s done something I’d never even considered before: He’s crossed Friday the 13th with … Heathers. Actually, the film’s scribe, Jacob Forman, should get credit for the ’80s mash-up, but it’s Levine that sells it.

Jessica Biel in a Revlon ad

Nailed: The temperamental genius, David O. Russell, who quits as many projects as he directs (most recently, Uncharted and before that, Pride & Prejudice and Zombies), began Nailed even before The Fighter. The film centers on a waitress (Jessica Biel) who gets a spike lodged in her head, and when she can’t get it removed because she doesn’t have health care, she heads to Washington, D.C., to quarrel for health rights. There, she befriends congressman (Jake Gyllenhaal) and from what I understand, there’s a lot of sex involved. Shooting started and stopped several times, as financing dried up. Apparently, there’s only a few scenes left that need to be filmed.
Directors David O. Russell and David Fincher speak onstage at the 63rd Annual Directors Guild Of America Awards Feature Film Symposium held at the DGA on January 29, 2011 in Hollywood, California.

There are reports that someone else has edited their own version of the film, from which David O. Russell has dissociated himself. Other reports suggest that the film will be buried for good. It’s too bad, as Paul Reubens — who was in the film — had some very nice things to say about the leads, according to The Playlist:

“And I’ve never seen anybody be so successful with something that complicated [as Gyllenhaal was].
And Jessica Biel is literally—I hate this word, but I can’t think of another word to use—is like a revelation. She’s so incredibly good in the movie, and again, no one’s ever seen her do anything like this… This is like an ingenue. It’s almost like Dorothy in The Wizard Of Oz.” Source: www.pajiba.com

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