dreams |
Dreams: The Brothers GrimmEdited by Phil StubbsTerry Gilliam continues to work on the postproduction of a picture
called The Brothers Grimm in London alongside the postproduction
of Tideland. Follow Grimm's development on this page - in
reverse chronological order...
13 May 2005 A report from Cannes about the preview of The Brothers Grimm from Associated Press, suggesting that the movie is going to get a big release in the summer. In Terry Gilliams fertile imagination, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were more than fairy-tale collectors. They actually lived a fairy tale, complete with curses, monsters and an evil hag in a tower. Gilliam and Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein showed off about 20 minutes of The Brothers Grimm to reporters at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday, looking to give their movie a publicity boost for its release amid the crowded summer blockbuster season. The Brothers Grimm stars Matt Damon and Heath Ledger as the 19th century folklorists who gathered tales that have enchanted and terrorized generations of children. The movie casts the Grimm siblings as hucksters who travel from town to town with a bag of tricks and a reputation as fearless monster slayers, spinning tall tales of supernatural terrors that they will exorcise for a fee. The Grimm boys get a dose of fairy-tale reality when they encounter a true curse, complete with a forest of trees that can move on its own, a horse that swallows a child and races off with it in its belly and a 500-year-old queen in a tower (Monica Bellucci) abducting young girls to steal their life energy and preserve her beauty. The Cannes footage revealed a blend of gritty 19th century reality and the wild, surreal visuals Gilliam (Brazil, The Fisher King, Twelve Monkeys) is known for. I tried to bring it down to a real fairy-tale level, Gilliam said. I want the ground to be below us, because when it disappears, its a longer fall. The film, Gilliams first since 1998s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, has had a longer run to the finish line than most movies, with Gilliam laboring on it for two years and Miramax shuffling the release date repeatedly. A year ago at Cannes, when the movie still was scheduled for release in late 2004, Miramax showed off a few minutes of The Brothers Grimm. The release later switched to early this year, then late this year, and finally shifted back to this August. Last year, we showed three minutes, this year, 20 minutes. This way, about four or five years from how, youll see the finished film, Gilliam joked. Gilliam has had epic battles with studios and financial backers on such films as Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, and his uncompleted The Man Who Killed Don Quixote with Johnny Depp shut down after just six days of shooting in 2000 because of a series of freak troubles. Weinstein and Gilliam reportedly clashed on The Brothers Grimm, but they appeared chummy at Cannes, and Weinstein said Miramax was releasing the film with a huge marketing blitz. Delays on The Brothers Grimm resulted because Gilliam and his collaborators had to inject top-of-the-line effects and production values essentially at half-price, Weinstein said. It takes so long when the movie should cost $150 million and it only costs $75 million. 12 May 2005 The Brothers Grimm is nearly complete, still in postproduction in London. It was announced yesterday that Terry Gilliam and Harvey Weinstein are to present 20 minutes of completed footage at Cannes on Friday May 13. Variety has just reported that the film will be released as a WeinsteinCo picture, their new brand, rather than a Dimension picture. 20 February 2005 As Terry Gilliam continues to work on the postproduction of both Tideland and The Brothers Grimm, he sends to Dreams the current status of The Brothers Grimm... "At the same time[as working on Tideland], Lesley Walker and I are tidying up our cut of The Brothers Grimm. Two films at once. A first! We have til the end of May to finish it. Matt and Heath need to be here in mid March to do their post-sync work. The July release date that we read about might be a bit flexible. It's all about traffic management. Rush hour is not necessarily the best time out on the street." 6 February 2005 The Filmjerk site reports that Grimm has a new release date in the States of 29 July 2005, and a PG rating: The Brothers Grimm (Miramax Films): PG-13 for violence, frightening sequences and brief suggestive material Thanks to Felicity of the Matt Damon Column 24 November 2004 Earlier this month, Terry Gilliam told Dreams that he continues to work on The Brothers Grimm in Canada on his days off from Tideland. The director has agreed with Dimension that there are to be no reshoots and that his target date for completing his final cut of the movie is June 2005. The film is still expected to be released November 2005. Here's what Terry said... Dreams: What is the current status of Grimm? Gilliam: The current status of Grimm is still a little bit unclear. Up until a few days ago we thought we had to deliver the film for financial reasons by the end of March next year and now I've just been told I have to deliver the film sometime in June. Your final cut? Yes. Due to the funding, there's restrictions on when it has to be delivered, so that's now the current date - we have to deliver by June. And at the moment over here Lesley Walker, who's also editing Tideland, and I have been working on the weekends on Grimm. What work remains on it? We've still got quite a few shots that aren't finalised on Grimm cgi-wise. In the end there's been about 750 cgi shots, and there's about 50 that aren't finished yet. And right now there's a lot of going round in circles about how much is left financially and the budget to pay for these things and how many shots are critical. So there's a lot of negotiations going on. Any re-shoots in the pipeline? Nope - it was finally agreed that I would finish the film with my cut with no re-shoots. That's been agreed, that is the current plan. 18 September 2004 In a frustrating move to those eagerly awaiting Terry Gilliam's next feature film, the release date of The Brothers Grimm has been put back twice this August. The release date changed from February 2005 to April 2005. But again at the end of the month, the date was moved further back to November 2005. CNN's website reported the following: "Terry Gilliam's upcoming The Brothers Grimm isn't changing its date because of bad word of mouth or due to a lack of star wattage, it's just being positioned to come out in a marketplace where it can shine and with plenty of time to nail the many special effects needed in conveying the fabled horrors and curiosities the Grimm clan is known for. The surprise is that it's being pushed a full year away from when it was originally expected to debut. "A full year -- that's incredible. It's also just the controversial cherry on top of the career of Gilliam, a director whose every project seems to balloon out of proportion, be mired in creative struggles, or flat out dissipate into thin air as the director's Don Quixote epic did. "The recent release Lost in La Mancha succinctly demonstrates both the incredible passion of Terry Gilliam and the horrendous luck his projects tend to be cursed with. Were the former Monty Pythoneer not such an amazing and brilliantly complex director, such a massive shift might be considered a doomsday sign, but all signs point to the shift as one that will allow the film's post-production process some breathing room, as well as the marketing people at Dimension Films the tools they need to sell the macabre film to audiences who normally see Ledger and Damon as heartthrobs or postmodern action heroes. "Still, a year is a long time. The increasingly shaky relationship between Dimension/Miramax and its parent company, Disney, could erupt, and there's no knowing what the fallout could be. The public awareness for Grimm is nonexistent, so there's no risk of ruining any momentum the film has amassed. Granted, hardcore Gilliam fans (myself included) want this film to come out as soon as possible, but we represent a tiny chunk of the public. As a whole, shifts like these are documented in the margins of trade publications, away from the glossy mainstream newsstand magazines, but a Gilliam film is an event film, and now one that seems so far away. "If nothing else, release date witchcraft like this should serve as an eye-opening example of how malleable and amorphous the movie industry can really be." Late in June there was a third test screening in Wandsworth, London. I understand that this screening in a cinema full of children aged from ten. There also seems to have been a test screening in the US at the end of June from which appeared the following two reviews: here and here As mentioned in the CNN article, there is plenty of change at Miramax, the parent company of Dimension Films. Miramax has laid off 65 staff, and the ongoing negotiations about the relationship with Disney has created more uncertainty about Miramax's future. 22 June 2004 Postproduction on The Brothers Grimm continues in London. On 14 June, Dark Horizons reported that Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm has been delayed to a February 2005 release in the US. The reason is not clear, although Miramax's Bridget Jones follow-up has been confirmed as opening in the US on Grimm's original opening date - 19 November 2004. Terry Gilliam gave an interview to Dreams in June, in which he reveals that the music for The Brothers Grimm will be provided by Dario Marianelli and not Goran Bregovic. Also the director mentions that Matt Damon took tango lessons in preparation for Grimm. 26 May 2004 GiG posts to the Dreams Messageboard that it was reported at an Emir Kusturica website that Goran Bregovic has been asked by Terry Gilliam to provide music for The Brothers Grimm. Ain't it Cool News features mixed reviews from the second test screening, which Terry Gilliam attended in NYC. On 21 May, Hollywood Reporter stated that Miramax has sold Grimm to a number of territories. In particular, French indie Metropolitan FilmExport snapped up the film from Miramax International. 14 May 2004 Sci-Fi Wire announces the following: MGM has pulled out of distribution of Terry Gilliam's upcoming dark fairy-tale movie The Brothers Grimm, leaving partner Dimension Films to handle worldwide distribution on its own, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Grimm went into production last summer with Dimension and MGM splitting costs and territories. But MGM backed out, retaining only a small equity investment in the film, the trade paper reported. Grimm - starring Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Jonathan Pryce and Monica Bellucci - originally was developed at MGM, with Mosaic Media's Charles Roven producing with Daniel Bobker. Dimension came on board to co-finance and produce and to handle domestic distribution in March 2003, the trade paper reported. MGM is understood to have reached the decision on Grimm in part due to its heavy international release slate next year, in which the studio will unveil The Amityville Horror and the next James Bond movie, among other films, the trade paper reported. The Brothers Grimm is eyeing a November release date. 9 May 2004 Matt Damon's nose caused an argument between the makers of his latest film. Director Terry Gilliam and studio boss Harvey Weinstein disagreed on whether the Hollywood heartthrob should wear a large false nose for new movie The Brothers Grimm. Gilliam wanted Matt to wear the prosthetic nose, but Weinstein didn't. A source revealed to Britain's Daily Express newspaper: "Terry had the make-up artist do tests and finally came up with exactly what he wanted - a large false nose for Damon. But despite Nicole Kidman winning an Oscar after sporting a similar nose to portray Virginia Woolf in The Hours, Miramax boss Weinstein did not agree. The source added: "Terry sent the tapes of the make-up tests to Harvey and received the all clear for the shooting, but Harvey didn't see the tapes until the day before shooting began. He then immediately called up Gilliam, wanting him to drop the prosthetics. "Harvey claimed he had paid to have Matt Damon as his star so he wanted to see all of his face on screen. The last thing he wanted was for him to be unrecognizable." After arguments between the pair, Gilliam finally backed down. Source: The Matt Damon Column. 20 April 2004 Ain't-It-Cool News today reports a broadly positive review from a first test screening of The Brothers Grimm. A brief interview with Matt Damon about Grimm recently appeared in USA Today. On Gilliam, Damon said, "He inspires a kind of passion in everyone who works for him. It's going to have a really unique tone because it has Terry's twist on it. It's very funny, but there all these elements of adventure, fantasy and fairy tale in it. Terry's one of the founding members of Monty Python, so it's also got some humor." Cover art from Bob McCabe's book about Grimm has appeared over at Amazon.
Broadcast Newsroom reports that the company producing CGI for Grimm has invested in new processing power. "Twenty-seven high-end workstations have been sold to Peerless Camera in Soho, one of Europe's oldest and most respected visual effects houses. Peerless possesses a long-standing name for quality, creativity and cost effectiveness and is currently in production on Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm, a major Miramax release for 2004." 16 February 2004 The Z Review features many stills of Monica Bellucci, Heath and Matt. 08 February 2004 Postproduction on The Brothers Grimm is now well underway in London. According to a website called The Z Review, The Brothers Grimm will be released in the US on 19 November 2004. Interviewed by Empire Online at London's premiere of Big Fish, Gilliam confirmed that much progress had been made at the editing stage. "I actually saw the first assembly today for the first time, and, well, it's going to be busy for the next few months. There's hundreds of special effects shots. Part of it is editing in the dark, because you're trying to imagine extraordinary things." The CG work is being performed by Peerless in London, who have worked on Fear and Loathing, Baron Munchausen and Brazil. Dreams understands that the majority of the CG work is being performed using Maya software. Gilliam went on to tell Empire about Heath Ledger and Matt Damon's roles. "These are very different from their normal characters. They're cast completely against type, which is always a gamble, but when it pays off I love it. The actors love it, and the audience likes waking up and discovering the world is different every day." Late November 2003, Variety reported the following, an unfair article since other than Munchausen, Gilliam has a fairly good reputation for delivering films on budget: "Like Gilliam's notorious The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and other projects by the gifted U.S.-born but U.K.-based helmer, Grimm has gone over budget, spending some $78 million according to insiders, suffered from on-set creative clashes." In December, Variety reported the end of principal photography for Grimm. "Terry Gilliam had something extra to be thankful for when The Brothers Grimm wrapped its 22-plus-week shoot Nov. 27. Film was originally skedded to shoot in 17 weeks, but a replacement cinematographer (Newton Thomas Siegel) and the complicated effects resulted in the delay. Despite some rumors that Gilliam was headed toward another Lost in La Mancha mire, local production vets were sanguine about the filming." In January 2004 the London Evening Standard reported the following article headlined: "It's looking Grimm in row over Monty Python man's film". Dreams is not sure about its accuracy, especially as the author of the article suggests The Brothers Grimm are an invention of Hans Christian Andersen. On the set of The Brothers Grimm, Matt Damon's new film which has just finished filming in Prague, there's anything but a fairytale atmosphere. Director and former Monty Python man Terry Gilliam has been involved in "a titanic battle of egos" with Miramax moguls Harvey and Bob Weinstein. Eyebrows were raised when Miramax asked Gilliam to direct the $100 million fantasy flick, starring Matt Damon, Heath Ledger and Monica Bellucci, which reinvents Hans Christian Andersen's Jacob and Will Grimm as 16th century con men. Gilliam has not made a film for five years and the abandonment of his ill-fated film adaptation of Don Quixote was memorably chronicled in last year's documentary film Lost in La Mancha. "Terry wants to make the film his way, but it is becoming increasingly apparent that his vision of The Brothers Grimm differs from Miramax's", says my source. "Bob Weinstein was sent to Prague to oversee production. But after taking one look at the rushes, he replaced Gilliam's trusted cinematographer with his own man. "Now Terry has been telling everybody: 'Harvey Weinstein needs to learn a lesson and I'm the one to teach it.' The majority of the crew agrees with Terry. It's a titanic battle of egos." A spokesman for Miramax in the States denied any knowledge of discord. "I'm not aware of this at all." Matt Damon seems in the dark too. "It's going to be spectacular," he said recently. "But I don't know what the tone of the movie will be." (Source of Evening Standard article: Felicity at the Matt Damon Column). 15 November 2003 A source on the set of The Brothers Grimm told Dreams the end is in sight as far as shooting is concerned. Shooting is scheduled to end on 22 Nov, with Matt Damon leaving on 18 Nov to perform in Bourne Again. The source went on to say that the set for the Queen's tower looks fantastic, and that everyone involved is pretty exhausted!
As reported here in October (below), the French magazine Brazil
features an article about the film. This report has been translated into
English and is available
at the Matt Damon site. The article reveals that the Director of Photography
for the film is Tom Sigel (X-Men 2) and not Nicola Pecorini, as
previously reported.
And a magazine
promoting trade between Sweden and the Czech Republic featured a piece
on Peter Stormare as Cavaldi in amongst articles like "Duvets, Liquor
and Showrooms". The interview is not repeated in full here since
it features a major spoiler. But it's safe to click on the link and see
a picture of Stormare in character on the front page of the pdf magazine. Stormare said (no spoiler), "All the male actors I know have one
dream - to play in a film directed by Terry Gilliam. He is both cult and
king! So to me, acting in a film by Gilliam is a dream come true. When
you're shooting a film there is always a lot of waiting, so we have plenty
of time to chat and get acquainted. But after everything's wrapped up,
I never socialise with the other actors. We are working all day - when
we were shooting outside Kutna Hora, I rose at five in the morning and
returned to my apartment at 11 - so you just don't have the strength..."
Director Terry Gilliam told Dreams that he has been particularly pleased with the quality of the performances that his cast have given on the shoot so far. Some photos away from the shoot - I understand from Stephen Bridgewater's birthday party - appeared at imdb. The first features Peter Stormare, Bridgewater and Matt Damon; the second Gilliam alone. Bridgewater has worked on several Gilliam pictures as a dialogue/acting coach.
There was a profile of Heath Ledger in the UK's Mail on Sunday early in September, which has mentioned The Brothers Grimm. Here are some highlights, from a website called heathbaby. Heath Ledger, the notoriously reserved Australian grump, wears a smile as wide as a billabong. I was admiring your wombat, I say. "I've got a koala too," he replies. The actor leaps three steps into his on-set trailer on the outskirts of Prague, and bounds over to the wombat perched at the open front door. Inside, strewn on a table and two floral sofas, is a spectrum of Australian bits and bobs of the sort you buy at the airport gift shop-toy animals, comedy hats beer coolers, socks, jars of vegemite. Gifts, he says, from his agent. "I like the socks, though," decides Ledger, brandishing a bush tucker hat in their direction. A magical combination of Prague's surrealism, Terry Gilliam in the director's seat of The Brothers Grimm, and the access to some of the most psychedelic marijuana on earth -which, he says, makes walking around the pink-hued city "even more interesting" - has turned Ledger into a blessed-out, caricature Australian. Since his move, aged 18, to Los Angeles in 1997, Ledger has been a Hollywood anomaly - a low profile character actor with a bent for the dramatically difficult. He displayed medieval swordsmanship in A Knight's Tale and starred as Billy Bob Thornton's suicidal son in the oscar-laden Monster's Ball. Later this year he will be seen in The Order, playing a priest who physically takes on other people's sins, and this month he stars in the biopic Ned Kelly, playing Australia's mythological out-law, who was hanged aged 25. Today, though, he's in the Czech Republic having the time of his life on Gilliam's fantasy biopic of the Grimm brothers, Inside his trailer, Ledger is listening to hip-hop and twitching like an asylum inmate, endlessly pulling at his loose t-shirt, limbs flailing in uncontrollable spasms, and rubbing a bottle of water on his chest. He loathes interviews, and finds them profoundly intrusive. They make him nervous, and he's a nervous enough person already. With his hair on end and new beard - a scratchy growth that he twirls in Salvador Dali points - he looks like a hyperactive goblin. This, apparently is his natural state. "When I get nervous my hands go (he flails his hands uncontrollably and begins screaming), "Waaah...rrrr!" Everything inside me goes a hundred miles an hour. Usually when I'm working it's (takes a deep breath) 'Oooh Kaay, I'm going to centre myself.' But Terry says, "I love all this stuff you do (arms everywhere). Just go for it." So he's provoked a lot of my stupidity." Gilliam, evidently is worse than him-a continually animated spectre gesticulating from his director's chair. "When he describes his direction, he embodies it," says Ledger. "He's an incredible, dignified, intellectual visualist, and as mad as a mongoose." 3 August 2003
Terry Gilliam's project Brothers Grimm has been shooting in Prague now for five weeks. The film began shooting on 30 June at the medieval Krivoklat Castle, outside the Czech capital. The shoot is scheduled to last 17 weeks, mostly on stages and the backlot at the Barrandov Studios. The first photos of the medieval village built on the backlot at Barrandov for Brothers Grimm have appeared at FilmPub. Since shooting began, Uma Thurman has been confirmed in the cameo role of an evil queen. And Czech actor Tomas Hanak is to play a character that Robin Williams was to have played as a second role. Fangoria magazine gives the movie's storyline more detail: "Brothers Grimm is a dark fantasy about the two "Brothers Grimm" who travel around the Napoleonic countryside vanquishing fake monsters and demons in exchange for cash. When the French government figures out what they're up to, they force the brothers to deal with the real thing, a number of murders being committed under mysterious circumstances in the northern woods between Germany and France. It is there that they have to try and discover what's really happening and deal with it before more people are killed or their lack of success leads to the guillotine." A book about the making of the film - featuring with Gilliam's diary - will be published by Harper Collins upon the movie's release next summer. It is to be written/edited with Bob McCrobe. (Many thanks again to Felicity who is currently performing painstaking research on Brothers Grimm for her website - the Matt Damon Column.) 30 June 2003 Brothers Grimm shooting is underway in Prague. Here is a report from Scott McMillan for ScreenDaily, confirming that Robin Williams is not on the project any more. And with Nicole Kidman confirmed as not taking part, the movie is still in need of a actress for a cameo role as a queen. "Terry Gilliam's $75m Brothers Grimm kicks off its 17-week shoot in Prague today, with Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Lena Heady, Peter Stormare and Jonathan Pryce in the main roles. The shoot will travel around the Czech Republic for the next two weeks, with Czech castle and cathedral towns including Krivoklat, Kacina, Kutna Hora and Ledec doubling for the 19th-century German countryside. MGM and Miramax, via its Dimension subsidiary, are teaming up on the fantasy production, which casts Damon and Ledger as Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the fairy-tale brothers, who in Gilliam's version are Jake and Will, two 19th-century con artists who meet their match when they encounter an actual curse. Gilliam, Ehren Kruger and Tony Grisoni wrote the screenplay. Robin Williams is no longer on board, and recent negotiations with Nicole Kidman for a small part failed to pan out, a source on the set told Screendaily. Charles Roven and Daniel Bobker are producing, with John D Scofield as executive producer. Director of Photographer is Nicola Pecorini, Gabriella Pescucci is handing costume design and Guy Hendrix Dyas serves as production designer. Prague-based upstart production service company Reforma Films is overseeing services for the shoot, which is based at Prague's Barrandov studio complex, together with Etic." 28 June 2003
(CTK) U.S. film director Terry Gilliam, the former member of the British Monty Python group, will shoot a film called Brothers Grimm in the Prague Barrandov film studios from the end of June to October. Heath Ledger and Matt Damon will feature in the leading roles of the German fairy tale collectors and writers of the 19th century, while Robin Williams will play another character in the prepared film. "The film is being created upon the script written by Ehren Kruger. The budget of this Miramax company project is estimated at $75 millions," Romana Rychetska from the GCI company told CTK on Wednesday. The preparation of the film is in full swing, she added. A gruesome forest with rocks, a brook and real twelve-metre tall trees is "growing" in the Barrandov studios. Besides, a medieval village consisting of 25 houses, including a church, is being built on the studio grounds. The film village is to be surrounded with a forest as well. "Over the shooting, we have transported 700 full-grown trees to Barrandov," Jiri Matolin, the head and art director of the Barrandov Studio set division, said. Apart from Prague, the film will be also shot in other localities in the Czech Republic - for example in the surroundings of Hruba Skala, east Bohemia, and in the Krivoklat Castle, central Bohemia. Some of these places, for example the facades in the narrow streets of Ledec nad Sazavou, central Bohemia, will have to be adjusted for the shooting. The Reforma and Etic Films production companies provide services for the U.S. crew of Brothers Grimm. Matolin said that the film would be one of the largest projects on which the Barrandov studio cooperated in the past few years. According to the MGM studio, Brothers Grimm will be a popular advantageous film full of mysterious myths and spectres with the leading characters of the Grimm brothers wandering round the villages collecting fairy tales and legends. Gilliam has already been to Prague three times so he can feel like at home there. At the end of 2001, Gilliam attended the closing eve of the Monty Python films festival in Prague. In 1999, he personally launched the controversial British film The Life of Bryan in the Prague Aero cinema, and three years before he took part in the Summer Film School in Uherske Hradiste, south Moravia. "I hope that we will persuade him [to come to the film school] this year, too," summer film school head Jiri Kralik told CTK. Gilliam, 62, lives in Britain, however, he is often shooting films in Hollywood. His film The Brazil was nominated for the Oscar award in the best script category in 1986, while The Fisher King won the Silver Lion Award at the International Film festival in Venice five years later. (Dreams thanks Felicity of the Matt Damon Column). 11 June 2003 Is Robin Williams taking part in Grimm? With news today of the main cast, his name is oddly missing. He anyway is committed to Final Cut, which starts production any day now. No indication of a Kidman signing yet, so that looks like a production aspiration rather than a confirmed deal at present. The following is from Variety... "Lena Headey, Peter Stormare and Jonathan Pryce have joined the cast of Brothers Grimm, a supernatural film centered on the fairy-tale authors. They join previously announced leads Matt Damon and Heath Ledger in director Terry Gilliam's film, which starts shooting June 30 in Prague. "Ehren Kruger (The Ring) wrote the script, an action-adventure fantasy in which the brothers battle a real magical curse after a history of trading in hoaxes. Richard Ridings and Mackenzie Cook co-star." 26 April 2003 It's now official - Terry Gilliam's current movie project, Brothers Grimm, has been given a green-light. A delighted Gilliam recently told Dreams that Brothers Grimm was happening. "At long last," he said. "We are in the depths of pre-production in Prague right now." The go-ahead was reported at ScreenDaily on 24 April. Scott MacMillan, in Prague, reported that the gothic fantasy is set to start a 17-week schedule at the end of June and wrap in late October. The ScreenDaily article continued: "Producers are currently in negotiation with Nicole Kidman for a small part in the film. The film stars Matt Damon and Heath Ledger in comic turns as the brothers of fairy-tale fame, directed by ex-Monty Pythoner Gilliam. The $75m Brothers Grimm sees Miramax’s Dimension Films teaming up with MGM for financing, production and distribution. On the ground in Prague, local Reforma Films – a new production services outfit headed by Ales Komarek – handles services together with Komarek’s former firm, Etic. Italian costume designer Gabriella Pescucci, who created the undead of Van Helsing, returns to Prague for Brothers Grimm, which sees the brothers touring the German countryside conning villagers into believing in woodland spirits and then charging money for the exorcisms. John Schofield is executive producer, Nicola Pecorini is director of photography and Guy Dyas is set designer. 21 April 2003 As Gilliam continues work on Brothers Grimm in Prague, Dreams pulls together some information on the background of the Brothers Grimm, folklore collectors of the nineteenth century. 26 March 2003 Heath Ledger talks to the Daily Telegraph (Australia), while promoting Ned Kelly. Ledger confirms that he is ready to roll on the comedic action film Brothers Grimm. The paper reports that he will join Matt Damon, Robin Williams and Jonathan Pryce in an adaptation by Terry Gilliam, although the project is dependant on Damon's commitment. Ledger tells the paper that he can't wait to work with the director of Brazil, Twelve Monkeys and The Fisher King. "I love him he's fantastic, cuckoo in such a beautifully eccentric way," says Ledger. "He's got such a brilliant mind. I love his movies, am a really big fan and he's definitely on the top of the list of people I wanted to work with." Damon and Ledger will play the brothers but there's one problem. Ledger will have to ride a horse, for the fifth time in six consecutive films: The Patriot, A Knight's Tale, The Four Feathers and Ned Kelly, as well as Brothers Grimm. "I know, I'd like to stop now. I've actually got it written in my contract that I must ride a horse," he laughs. Previously, on March 21, Ledger was quoted over at SciFi
Wire about his involvement in Brothers Grimm movie. "Im
pretty close to nailing [that] down," he said. "As soon as it's
[green-lighted], thats what I will be doing." |