203 replies to this topic

[templer1972]

Kinnear & Davis Join Brosnan's Matador

Greg Kinnear and Hope Davis have joined Pierce Brosnan in the black comedy Matador for writer and director Richard Shepard, says The Hollywood Reporter. The film is set to start shooting next month in Mexico City.

Matador centers on an unlikely friendship between a globe-trotting assassin (Brosnan) and a gullible young suburban couple from Denver (Kinnear, Davis).

Financed by Stratus Film Co., Matador is being produced by Irish DreamTime partners Brosnan and Beau St. Clair along with Furst Films' Sean Furst and Bryan Furst. Stratus partners Bob Yari and Mark Gordon will receive executive producer credit.

p/s what a great casting

[Athena007]

I'm just so glad Pierce is making more movies...
The more the better!

[[dark]]

Ditto, Athena.

I'm really looking forward to The Matador, Mexicali, After the Sunset, and should it get made, The Thomas Crown Affair 2.

[templer1972]

WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK OF THE PLOT ?
DOES IT SOUND CORNY !!!

In a wacky chance encounter at a Mexican hotel bar, Julian (Brosnan), a sleazy hitman, strikes up a peculiar friendship with Danny(Greg Kinner), a struggling salesman. Lonely Julian is thrilled to make a friend and offers to solve all of Danny's financial problems if he'll help with a hit. When Danny balks at the crazy proposition Julian begs forgiveness for crossing the line, but it's too late and the two part company. Burnt out on drugs, sex and death, Julian heads to Venice where he fails a hit. His employer wants Julian's head. Julian tracks down Danny down in America and begs him as his only friend for help. He's been given one last chance but he can't pull off the job alone. This time Danny agrees and the obligation binding the two men from different worlds is startlingly revealed...

[SeaNNy-T.]

look like pierce brosnan's career outside of bond aint that hot.

[Athena007]

I'm not so sure about this one, but I will see it anyways. Brosnan & Greg Kinner... I'm interested in seeing them act off eachother.

[Qwerty]

I'm not sure about this one. May skip it.

[Contessa]

Looks interesting to me. I can see the possiblility of it being a well-done character study, more than an action flick. Anyway, if it's in the vein of "Tailor of Panama", I'll enjoy it. Probably won't make a killing at the BO, but who cares?

[Righty007]

According to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), Irish DreamTime's The Matador, will be released in 2004. There are only 35 days left in the year 2004 and I have not yet heard a release date. Do any of you know when this film is going to be released?

[Qwerty]

I haven't heard anything about this for a long time.

[[dark]]

Me neither. Doubt it'll make the 2004 date.

I've got a feeling this'll be a limited release film,

[templer1972]

FOUND THIS IN RICHARD SHEPARD OFFICIAL WEBSITE TODAY.

NEWS (November 30, 2004):

THE MATADOR is premiering at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival this January!

Richard Shepard & company have locked picture on THE MATADOR and are moving on to Skywalker Ranch to mix the sound with sound designed Richard Hymns (Saving Private Ryan). "We're all pretty excited; had a slew of little test screenings that have gone very well.

[templer1972]

AN UPDATE ON THE MATADOR FROM SUNDANCE
http://festival.sund....aspx?film=4867

U.S.A., 2004, 97 Minutes, color

Director:
Richard Shepard

Screenwriter:
Richard Shepard


If Pierce Brosnan wearing a black Speedo, cowboy boots, and sunglasses and smoking a cigar wasn't in itself worth the price of admission, everything else one gets in this rapturously conceived comedy about a lonely hit man would certainly be enough. But the glorious excesses that writer/director Richard Shepard offers are just part of the considerable range of payoffs that make The Matador a delightful mix of genres that simultaneously spoofs the buddy film, killers, and ordinary American life while it plumbs the complexities of the human heart.

When a traveling salesman, Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear), accidentally meets up with Julian (Brosnan), "a facilitator of fatalities," at a Mexico City bar, their subsequent evening together intertwines their lives in an unexpected, but lasting, bond. Each one is facing what could be a life-changing moment, and though they ostensibly have nothing in common, they're drawn together.

When the twists and turns of fate are revealed, it becomes clear that Shepard has crafted an enormously entertaining work that takes the hit-man film and spins it on its head while creating a funny and strangely poignant story that is original and genuinely moving. With an outrageously unique performance by Brosnan, and great turns by Kinnear and Hope Davis, The Matador is a film that will stay fixed in your memory long after the curtain has closed.

[Athena007]

The only thing my eyes read from that: "...Pierce Brosnan wearing a black Speedo, cowboy boots, and sunglasses and smoking a cigar..." LOL

[Qwerty]

Brosnan's The Matador

[DLibrasnow]

This will be one to miss IMO.

[mccartney007]

I'll be seeing this film tomorrow at the premier here in Utah. I'll let you all know how it is.

[Athena007]

Defiantly looking forward to your review, Jordan!

Speaking of "The Matador" ...may I present some pictures... I like the BLOOD ones

Attached Files

•  PB_Matador_1.jpg   16.72KB   156 downloads
•  PB_Matador_2.jpg   128.34KB   147 downloads
•  PB_Matador_3.jpg   80.61KB   146 downloads
•  PB_Matador_4.jpg   129.22KB   153 downloads
•  PB_Matador_5.jpg   129.23KB   140 downloads
•  PB_Matador_6.jpg   90.67KB   144 downloads

[Qwerty]

A little different for a Brosnan film it seems.

[spynovelfan]

an unexpected, but lasting, bond.

Clear evidence that Brosnan has signed on for Bond 21.

[hrabb04]

I hope Pierce doesn't end up in bed with Greg Kinnear like he did with a Woody Harrellson.

[HawkEye007]

I definetly would not pay to see this in the theater. Maybe a rental but only if I heard good things about it.

And what is it with Brosnan doing all these movies set in Mexico?

[Prav_007]

Laws of Attraction and After the Sunset doesn't scare anyone, but the Matador does. I actually thought this one would be good. Anyways, I will be waiting for the Topakpi Affair.

[homerjbond]

From Roger Ebert at the Sundance Film Festival:

'Matador' rises above expectations

He pretty much said the movie is much more than formula and lauds "the best performance Pierce Brosnan has ever given".

[Loomis]

'Matador' rises above expectations

PARK CITY, Utah -- "Matador" sounds on paper like a formula film, the kind of generic dreariness you expect Sundance to avoid.

On the screen, it's another matter altogether -- funny, quirky and sad, and wonderfully well-acted.

The Sundance premiere audience walked out astonished by a film so much better than they'd expected.

Well, what did we expect? The movie stars Pierce Brosnan as a professional hit man, and Greg Kinnear as an unemployed Denver executive.

They meet in a bar in Mexico City, become unlikely friends, and find themselves sort of in business together. When Kinnear's wife (Hope Davis) meets the assassin she's heard so much about, she gets right to the point: "Did you bring your gun?"

Everything I have described could perfectly well add up to a mediocre comedy destined for the video shelves. But it adds up to so much more.

Writer-director Richard Shepard finds an eerie balance of the macabre, the delightful and the sentimental; the movie is so nimble it sometimes switches tones in the middle of a sentence.

Everything centers on the best performance Pierce Brosnan has ever given. He's a loner with no home and no friends, a man who uses booze and prostitutes to distract himself from killing people for a living. He's coming to pieces when he meets Kinnear in a hotel bar. Kinnear can hardly believe Brosnan actually kills people, and there is a virtuoso sequence at a bullfight when Brosnan demonstrates how easy it would be to kill -- well, almost anyone. But he's beginning to fall apart, and botched a job in the Philippines.

Now his employers are planning to kill him. The problem with "Matador" is that no description can do it justice, because its elements sound routine, but its direction, writing and acting elevate it into something very special. It's "Sideways" with death instead of wine, someone said after the screening. I think it was me.

Wow! Looks like THE MATADOR is an absolute must-see, and quite possibly the best film Brosnan's ever been in. Really looking forward to this.

[Qwerty]

This really seems like a surprise, as it didn't look like much attention was paid to this at first. (For example, on CBn, where news for a film like 'After The Sunset' seemed to overtake the news for this film here.) Looks like it could be quite interesting though.

[Righty007]

Good to see people like it.

[License To Kill]

Is it going to be nationally released?

[Seannery]

This really sounds great--good for Pierce! Though I get a feeling this is the type of film that that is critically lauded but with limited mass appeal. So it won't boost Pierce's box office stock. But I for one can't wait to see it. Shows what Pierce can do with strong script and director.

Edited by Seannery, 23 January 2005 - 08:02 PM.

[hrabb04]

Just a hunch, but I think the ending will be very downbeat. Pierce probably dies a gruesome death at the end. Athena and the rest of the Brosnan women are not going to like the ending. I heard Jim was at Sundance doing his little dance at the end of the movie.