An interesting development at today’s press junket for Woody Allen’s romantic comedy “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” when ComingSoon.net spoke to the film’s star Javier Bardem and asked him about Joe Carnahan’s “Killing Pablo”, for which the Oscar-winning actor was attached to play the title role of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar.

It was reported by Variety last October that the Yari Film Group was fast-tracking the film with Bardem playing the lead role and Christian Bale to co-star. When ComingSoon.net spoke to Carnahan earlier this summer, he was already talking about his trip down to Colombia to start preparing in order to shoot the movie in the fall. (At the time, he said nothing about the casting.)

In February, the National Ledger cast some doubt on whether Bardem would play the role, but it seemed more like Bardem hadn’t decided what he wanted to do yet, saying “Those credits are up in the air” even though Bardem was still listed to play the role on IMDb.com, having presumably been Carnahan’s first choice for Escobar.

With that in mind, ComingSoon.net asked Bardem today how he was preparing for the role, to which we were informed that it was “a mistake” and that it “wasn’t true” he was going to play the part in Carnahan’s movie. Since we presumed everything was in place for casting with the Variety report and Carnahan’s own progress on moving into production, we’ll have to wait and see who Carnahan gets to fill the role if Bardem is out. There’s been no word from Bale on his own part in the movie despite having spent the past few weeks doing press for “The Dark Knight.”

Source: ComingSoon.net

In what Francis Ford Coppola is calling a “sex change” operation, Carmen Maura is replacing fellow Spaniard Javier Bardem in the family drama “Tetro”.

Coppola said he rewrote the pivotal role during rehearsals for the film’s 11-week shoot, which began Monday in Buenos Aires.

“One of the important roles in the script is a mentor and teacher to Tetro (Vincent Gallo), and I originally wrote it for a man. As I read and reread (the script), I felt that the interaction between the two characters would be far more intriguing if they were of the opposite sex.”

The director often changes key elements of his script before and during filming, he said.

But according to another person involved in the deal, Bardem “became unavailable” for the project and is currently reading drafts of the script for his starring role in Rob Marshall’s adaptation of the Broadway musical “Nine.” Bardem, who recently won an Oscar for his supporting role in “No Country For Old Men,” never attended the rehearsals.

… Read the full story »

Vincent Gallo is joining Javier Bardem in writer-director Francis Ford Coppola’s family drama Tetro for American Zoetrope.

The Brown Bunny actor-director will play the title character, a brother in a family torn apart by rivalries and betrayal. Newcomer Alden Ehrenreich plays the younger brother who searches for him in Buenos Aires. Bardem plays an Argentinean literary critic, and Maribel Verdu plays Tetro’s longtime love interest.

… Read the full story »