Director Jason Reitman is gearing up for his next project, Labor Day, which will star Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin.

The movie is based on Joyce Maynard’s book of the same name and is set on a late summer Labor Day holiday weekend in the 1980s. It opens with a divorced, depressed single mom (Winslet) who encounters a large, bleeding man (Brolin) while shopping with her 13-year-old. He asks for a ride and against their better judgment, they agree. Meanwhile, they learn that police are searching their town for an escaped convict. The story is mostly told through the eyes of 13-year-old Henry, who spends most of his time daydreaming or watching TV.

As we reported last month, there have been rumors that the movie would be filmed in the Boston area next summer and now, based on the casting call below, it looks like the rumors are true.

Chrystie Street Casting recently issued a casting call for the part of Henry, which Reitman has stressed is crucial to the movie because, “we’ve got to find someone very special.” He has also implied that he has not ruled out using an unknown actor for the role.

But, the casting call also confirms that the movie will be filming in Massachusetts in June. You can check out the complete listing below:

Chrystie Street Casting is casting Labor Day, a feature film. Chrystie Street Casting has cast the films Young Adult, Precious, Shakespeare In Love, Good Will Hunting, Cider House Rules, Pineapple Express, The Wrestler, and 200 other major films, as well as the TV series Pan Am. Jason Reitman (Juno, Up In The Air), dir.; Suzanne Smith Crowley & Jessica Kelly, casting. Shooting begins June 2012 in MA.

Seeking — Henry: boy, 13 years old (submit ages 10-14), Caucasian, a true innocent, has taken over the role of caretaker and protector to his fragile and reclusive mother Adele, an observant boy who understands his mother’s loneliness, but is too young to understand why he cannot entirely fill it, when a new man enters the picture the friend-less Henry is both exhilarated by the relationship and threatened by the prospect that he is no longer needed by his mother, LEAD; Eleanor: girl, 14 years old (submit ages 10-14), Caucasian, a skinny girl, a product of a broken home, newly moved from a big city to live with her father and is already bored with the small town entertainments, an intelligent girl, learned how to get what she wants with wit, calculations, and her newly developed sexual awareness, to Henry she is the mysterious hot girl who seems to know everything about the world that he doesn’t, LEAD; Barry: boy, 15 years old (submit ages 12-17), Caucasian, mentally challenged, could be Down’s Syndrome or Cerebral Palsy, the wheelchair-bound son of Evelyn (the lead character’s only friend), can only communicate through gurgles and mumbles, is perhaps more engaged in the world around him than his mother realizes, seeking actors who have either condition described above, supporting role.

To be considered, e-mail recent pics, age, and contact info as soon as possible to labordaycasting@gmail.com. No phone calls. Professional pay provided. SAG Film Agreement.

Source: Backstage

Open auditions are being held to find a child to appear in the film adaptation of the novel, the Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society.

Filmmakers are looking for a girl from Guernsey to play the part of Kit, who is aged between four and six.

The character is the adopted child of Juliet Ashton, who will be played by Kate Winslet.

The open auditions are due to be held on Saturday at St. Sampson’s High School between 09:00 and 14:30 GMT.

Last week it was confirmed some of the scenes would be filmed in Guernsey.

Theater schools in the island have been approached to put forward girls for private auditions on Friday.

Kelly Valentine Hendry, who is responsible for the casting, said they were looking for a natural and previous experience of acting was not necessary.

She said there was no need to book for the open casting, that only one parent could attend per child and those girls attending should take along a small box containing three items they particularly like or find interesting to talk about.

Source: BBC News

Kate Winslet is attached to star in The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society, which Kenneth Branagh is set to direct for Fox 2000.
This reunites Winslet with Branagh for the first time since she played Ophelia in his bigscreen Hamlet in 1996.

The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society is adapted by Don Roos from the bestseller by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.

It’s a love story set in the London and the Channel Islands after WWII. Winslet will play a magazine columnist who enters into a correspondence with a man from Guernsey, and learns how the islanders used a book group during the war as cover to outwit their German occupiers.

Captivated by their stories of the occupation, and how the books came to influence their lives, she decides to travel to Guernsey herself, a journey that changes her forever.

In a recent interview with Variety, Branagh described the project as “a beautiful romance, very touching and uplifting.”

The project is being produced by Paula Masur and Mitchell Kaplan, with Branagh’s regular partner David Barron. Shooting is scheduled for March, according to the Daily Mail.

The book was first published in the U.S. in 2008. It was the first and only novel by Mary Ann Shaffer, an editor and librarian, whose niece Annie Burrows helped her finish it when Shaffer became terminally ill. Shaffer died aged 74 a few months before the novel was published.

Source: Variety

The Titanic star landed her big break in the movie and she chronicled her time on the set with co-stars Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman in a diary.

Rickman tells the New York Times, “Kate wrote a book about the film and there are some quotes in there about Ang’s occasionally lose grasp of English. We’d get notes that left you kind of staring.

“I remember he said to Emma once, ‘Emma, try not to look so old’. That was a little shattering for her but she knew to translate that as ‘don’t be so knowing’. Mine was, ‘Alan, be more subtle, do more’, which we worked out that he meant do more of the subtle stuff.”

But Winslet had it harder than most on the set. Her co-star recalls, “Kate was only 19 at the time and he said, ‘Kate, never mind, you’ll get better’.”

Source: Hollywood

You can also download the video here:

VIDEO LINKS:
• Movies Memorabilia: Miscellaneous > Carnage – Kate talks her role

Oscar-winning actress Kate Winslet might be a pro, but she still learned a lot in her new film, Carnage, and hopes that the comedy of the piece comes through.

“There’s no guide book on how to act, how to be funny, sad. You have to rely on the writing, I think, with a piece like this cause the comedy is in the writing, it’s in the story and it’s within the framework of how the piece is set up,” Winslet said in a promotional interview provided by Sony Pictures Classics. “And I think acknowledging the piece is satire, yes, that’s important to do and we’ve all been able to do that. You can’t take these moments and try to make them funny. You have to sort of play the sincerity of the moment or the lunacy of the moment or just how ridiculous the entire situation is.”

The film, which is based on the play by Yasmina Reza, “God Of Carnage,” follows two sets of parents who organize a “cordial” meeting after their sons are involved in a fight at school which leaves one child with broken teeth. The talk goes awry as the adults reveal their less civilized sides.

Winslet appears opposite Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz as Nancy and Alan Cowan, while Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly portray the victim’s parents, Penelope and Michael Longstreet.

(more…)

When Roman calls, Kate goes to work. Holidays can wait.

That’s Roman, as in Polanski, and, Kate as in Winslet, whose new film Carnage, a satirical comedy of manners that skewers overbearing parents, opens today, one day after earning Winslet a Golden Globe nomination for acting.

“I had planned not to work,” Winslet told Reuters in a telephone interview. “But that notion just went right out the window the second I heard the name Roman Polanski.

“One doesn’t think of oneself as being ever sort of Roman Polanski-worthy,” said Winslet about the director of such classics as Chinatown and Rosemary’s Baby. “So you’d have to be kind of stupid, really, not to change your plans.”

Carnage, which also co-stars Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly and Christoph Waltz, is based on Yasmina Reza’s biting Broadway satire of two sets of parents who meet one afternoon to discuss their sons’ playground fracas.

Set smack in the middle of smug self-righteousness that is one of the hallmarks of upscale Brooklyn neighborhoods, the film chronicles in real time the couples’ downward spiral as polite overtures give way to Scotch-and-cobbler-fueled invective — a sort of “Virginia Woolf lite.”

(more…)

Kate has been nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for her role in Carnage and also for Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television for her role in Mildred Pierce, which was also nominated for Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television.

Also, Kate’s Carnage co-star Jodie Foster is nominated in the same category as Kate.

And last but not least, Kate’s Mildred Pierce co-stars Guy Pearce and Evan Rachel wood were also nominated!

Double congratulations to Kate! And congratulations to Jodie, Guy and Evan as well!

Kate Winslet talks Titanic 3D release

Kate Winslet is about to hit the big screen as Rose once again when Titanic 3D debuts in April, yet the actress isn’t exactly ready to party like it’s 1997.

Titanic 3D is coming to theaters next year! While fans of the mega movie can’t wait to see the ship sink in three dimensions, actress Kate Winslet is struggling with this walk down memory lane.

A lot has changed since Kate Winslet originally took on the role of Rose DeWitt Bukater. In the nearly 15 years since James Cameron’s Titanic first hit theaters, the 36-year-old has married, became a mother to daughter Mia, divorced, remarried, became mother to son Joe, and divorced again. Perhaps it’s understandable then that Kate Winslet feels “disconnected” from her life so long ago.

Regarding Titanic 3D, the actress recently confessed to Stylelist, “You know, at the end of the day, it’s weird. It’s really weird because it’s 15 years ago and I don’t know, I feel very disconnected now from actually what was going on in my life at the time and how I felt. A lot of it, it does really feel like a distant memory, so it’s going to be quite strange to have that sort of thrust into people’s face all over again.”

Kate Winslet continued, “I’ve no idea what it’ll be like, the experience, but it’s exciting to think that a whole new generation of young men and women who, perhaps, haven’t seen it, who may have been conceived after the first date night of a couple going to see Titanic. I mean, God knows. It does mean that a whole new generation of people will be seeing the film and that’s fantastic. That’s wonderful.”

Despite having been nominated for an Academy Award for her Titanic role, Kate Winslet hasn’t yet set eyes on any of the revamped film’s 3D effects. “I’m fascinated to see it in 3D myself,” she said. “I still haven’t seen any of it. I know a couple of people who have and they’re like, ‘God, it looks amazing,’ So yeah, we’ll see.”

Source: She Knows’ Entertainment