When will Nick Berg’s lifestory be told? It really is fascinating how he traveled America, bumped into Jose Padilla, logged Jose into his password protected laptop, and later traveled to Iraq where he was interviewed by Michael Moore’s film crew (absent Mike remained in American and never did GO to the country he evaluated), after which he was interviewed by US officials, releases and advised to get the hell out of there, and then was kidnapped and held hostage for awhile until the US media broke the story of Abu Ghraib, and then was murdered by the head of Al Qaeda’s Iraq agents in a videotape that was seen around the world.
Where is this story? I want to see it.
Reese Witherspoon-Jake Gyllenhaal Romance Didn't Help 'Rendition'
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
By Roger Friedman
Reese-Jake Romance Didn't Help Movie
Movie star romances used to be the thing that made box office numbers soar. Think Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” or Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn in “The Break-Up.”
Another great example: Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz in “Vanilla Sky.”
These movies weren't Oscar-quality films, but the idea that the stars were fooling around off-camera made ticket sales pop.
Publicists have been using this gambit forever, often inventing relationships where there weren’t any just to get publicity.
Alas, the old formula ain’t workin’ for Gavin Hood’s thriller, “Rendition.” A rumored romance between stars Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal surfaced months ago. Everyone involved denied it. Indeed, it seemed from afar that maybe Reese and Jake were just part of a PR machine.
In any case, that should have raised the profile of "Rendition." It didn’t. With a strange title and a complicated plot, "Rendition" was hard to explain even to those who wanted to know more about it.
Then the movie opened on Oct. 19. The first weekend take was an anemic $4 million from 2,250 theaters. Ten days later, “Rendition” has $8 million in ticket sales.
It’s dead, and a total write-off for New Line, which not only has top money earners in Witherspoon and Gyllenhaal, but a pricey supporting cast in previous Oscar-winners Meryl Streep, Alan Arkin and in Gyllenhaal’s much admired actor brother-in-law, Peter Saarsgard.
Now here’s the rub: Reese and Jake are for real. As "Rendition" sinks into red ink, the couple is everywhere. They’re in all the supermarket tabloids as a confirmed couple. They’re photographed strolling amorously around Rome.
They’ve let the cat out of the bag. But it’s too late -- "Rendition" is over. By Thanksgiving, in three weeks, its theatrical run will end to make room for new movies. If it grosses $15 million, New Line execs will pop champagne to go with their Xanax.
So what went wrong? "Rendition" is about the CIA and torture, two things audiences don’t really want to know much about anyway unless there’s a big romantic subplot. If there isn’t one in the film, then there has to be off-screen.
But without confirmation, the Reese-Jake story lost momentum before the film opened. The irony of its veracity now is a good Hollywood laugh, except, of course, to the people who put up the money for “Rendition.”