David Mamet - FishbowlLA

Get Ready for Some Glorious Glengarry Glen Role Reversal

Richard Horgan — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 20:45:51 +0000

EW senior writer Anthony Breznican, keeper of LACMA Live Read scoops, is absolutely right when he suggests that next week’s staging of Glengarry Glen Ross has the potential to match the excitement of Season One’s Reservoir Dogs event. That’s because instead of a stage lined with African-Americans doing Tarantino, Jason Reitman will guide a gaggle of women through Mamet.

The spectacular February 21 line-up will feature Robin Wright (reading the role of Ricky Roma), Catherine O’Hara (Shelley Levene), Maria Bello (Dave Moss), Allison Janney (George Aaronow) and Mae Whitman (John Williamson). Per Breznican’s report:

Every performance re-imagines the script with a new actor in each role, but after the success of Reservoir Dogs last year Reitman and LACMA film curator Elvis Mitchell wanted to have another live-read where the entire cast shared a trait that was new to the story.

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Mamet, Rudin, Nichols And Their Egos To Take On Kurosawa

Dan Cox — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 07:31:14 +0000

Screenwriter David Mamet, producer Scott Rudin
and director Mike Nichols may well end up not just remaking another Kurosawa epic “High and Low” for Miramax Films, but becoming the subjects. The storage-closet egos of this trio are likely to take center stage.

Talk about “Rashomon” revisited.

And don’t forget Martin Scorsese, who originally commissioned Mamet to write the script back in 1999 and will likely stay on as executive producer, according to Variety.

Kurosawa’s 1963 detective thriller starring Toshiro Mifune was based on the Ed McBain novel “King’s Ransom,” about a businessman who is ruined when he honorably pays ransom to kidnappers who mistakenly nabbed his driver’s son.

Several Kurosawa films have been remade by Hollywood, most notably “The Seven Samurai” (“The Magnificent Seven”) and “Rashomon” (“The Outrage”). Steven Spielberg is developing a remake of “Ikiru” at DreamWorks, possibly to direct. And the Weinstein Co. has been developing another “Seven Samurai” remake.

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LAT in 90 Seconds

Greg — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 09:00:32 +0000

David Mamet Ropes A Dope: He’s a silver-tongued salesman, all right, but can David Mamet sell audiences on a heady film about Ultimate Fighting Championship that features his own rabbi? He seems to have Patrick Goldstein convinced.

Big Money! Big Money! How do you make a three-day old story seem fresh and new? Top it with a cute lede! Our hats are off (and our dogs are spayed) to Martin Miller for this Rosie/Price Is Right story.

Cutesy Ledes Are Just Par For The Course Today: Exhibit B.

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LAT in 90 Seconds

Greg — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 08:48:01 +0000

All Is Happy In Happy Valley: The David Mamet TV show The Unit skipped the headaches of filming in L.A. by shooting its exterior shots on a Santa Clarita cul-de-sacs, where locals are happy to pocket location cash and graze at craft services tables.

Emergent Submersibles: Of all the causes to fight for — world peace, an end to poverty, a reduction of greenhouse gasses — some Disney folks chose to battle on behalf of the Disneyland submarine ride. We mock, but maybe it makes sense to rally behind a cause you can actually win.

Now He Tells Us: Years after telling us stories about yellow cake and anthrax and other lethal nonsense, Colin Powell tells NBC’s Meet the Press that the Bush Administration is going in the wrong direction. What a brave statement to make. Now. After the war — and the president — have proven unpopular. Thanks.

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