First Look: Clint Eastwood and Leonardo DiCaprio in 'J. Edgar'

Anthony Breznican
Aug 12, 2011
http://insidemovies.ew.com/2011/08/12/first-look-clint-eastwood-and-leonardo-dicaprios-j-edgar

No kid says he wants to be J. Edgar Hoover when he grows up.

He was America’s Top Cop for five decades, but somewhere along the line, the FBI founder went from protector to tyrant in the minds of many Americans.

Hoover unified the federal police force, helped popularize fingerprints and other forensic evidence... then went sadly astray, abusing his power, manipulating elected officials and, most damningly, wiretapping and intimidating civil rights leaders. That tragic arc is at the heart of director Clint Eastwood’s drama, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the notorious G-man.

“I started to become curious about the ‘why,’” says screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, Oscar-winner for 2008’s Milk. “He did wonderful things for this country, but why did he ended up doing so many things that were heinous and harmful? I think it was all in the name of trying to fill that void, where love goes, with public admiration. This is a guy who from his earliest years was told he could never express the love he felt.”

Was Hoover was gay or straight? The movie leaves it open to interpretation, according to Eastwood, but one thing is undeniable — he was an achingly solitary man. And there was far more to him than that.

“Well, I grew up with Hoover in the 30’s and 40’s as The G-man,” says Eastwood. “He was always the authority; always sort of the top cop. Certainly the FBI was considered somewhat revered, and [we were] somewhat in awe, I guess. When you talk to FBI agents now who’ve worked with him, they all have different opinions of him. A lot of them liked Hoover very much, liked working for him very much.”

The movie J. Edgar tracks him from his early days, building the FBI into an actual law enforcement agency, instead of the powerless entity they were before.

“They were just guys going around asking questions. Almost like reporters, trying to create a story to give to the localized police, and the police are the ones that had all the power,” says DiCaprio. “It was almost like our country was fractioned off into little city-states that have their own jurisdiction, and here comes a man that creates a federal police force where you’re held accountable in our country for your actions and your deeds.”

He also pushed for a federal fingerprints database, and helped popularize the use of scientific evidence to convict criminals. “We’re not simply relying on testimony from eyewitnesses that can often be misleading and can take you in different directions,” DiCaprio says. “He brought forensics into it. The modernized way that we convict people and people are put on to trial and the evidence we use is all a result of the way J. Edgar Hoover designed the FBI.”

Then of course, after amassing so much power, things went astray...

“Here’s this guy starting the Bureau of Investigation, which later became the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and then goes on to stay for 48 years through eight presidents,” Eastwood says. “Of course nobody could fire him, because he had something on everybody.”

But what did they have on him?

Practically nothing, actually — apart from rumor and innuendo.

“He knew what he could do to everybody else by finding out what their life was like, but on the same token, everything in his life was pretty much kept between he and Helen Gandy and Clyde Tolson,” said Eastwood, referring to the Associate FBI Director, rumored to be Hoover’s lover, played by The Social Network‘s Armie Hammer. Gandy, Hoover’s secretary, is played in the film by Naomi Watts, filling out that secretive FBI triumvirate.

While the screenwriter, Black, believes it was Hoover’s suppressed sexuality that twisted him into the ultimate control freak with ultimate enforcement power, the screenplay keeps things somewhat ambiguous. After all, the premise is that failing to be able to feel something for another person is what warped Hoover, leading him to see everyone from Martin Luther King Jr. to Robert F. Kennedy as enemies of the state.

Eastwood says he didn’t want to make a definitive statement about whether Hoover was gay, since that history is far from certain: “Some people might interpret it that way. Some people might say [he and Tolson] were just inseparable pals. Or maybe it’s a love story without being gay, I don’t know. But it’s very interesting, the way Lance laid out the script. It was nicely written. It didn’t go to the obvious.”

DiCaprio plays Hoover into his bulldog-esque later years with prosthetic makeup, though it was never easy getting into the man’s skin, especially as the lawman became the outlaw.

“I think that he was always an outsider,” says the actor. “I think that’s what this story is about, how he sort of lost touch towards the end of his life, to say the least.” By the time he died, DiCaprio says, Hoover was obsessed with “pretty far-fetched, bizarre, highly paranoid stuff.”

Oh, Leo, if Hoover were alive today, you’d be so wire-tapped right now.

DiCaprio to star in JFK tale

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118027763

Fri., Nov. 19, 2010
DiCaprio to star in JFK tale
Assassination story based on book 'Legacy of Secrecy'
Dave McNary

Leonardo DiCaprio will star in and produce the feature "Legacy of Secrecy," based on the book about the John F. Kennedy assassination by Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann.

DiCaprio will produce through his Warner Bros.-based Appian Way banner with his father, George, who brought the book to his son's attention. Appian Way's Earl Katz will exec produce.

Warners, which handled Oliver Stone's "JFK" in 1991, is eyeing a possible 2013 release of "Legacy of Secrecy" coinciding with the 50th anni of President Kennedy's assassination.

DiCaprio is expected to play FBI informant Jack Van Laningham. The book -- whose full title is "Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination" -- asserts that Mafia godfather Carlos Marcello confessed to Van Laningham to having ordered JFK's assassination. As part of a dangerous and long-secret undercover operation, the FBI positioned Van Laningham to become confidant to Marcello, who ruled organized crime in Louisiana and most of Texas for decades.

"Legacy of Secrecy" includes information from declassified FBI files from the National Archives which details the FBI's clandestine operation with Van Laningham and Marcello's JFK confession. The book also included information from FBI and Secret Service files showing that more than a dozen of Marcello's associates and family members were questioned or arrested by authorities in assocation with the JFK assassination. Marcello, who died in 1993, has not yet been the subject of a feature film. Marcello's name did not appear in the 1964 Warren Report, but the 1979 House Select Committee on Assassinations said mobster Santo Trafficante and Marcello "had the motive, means, and opportunity to assassinate President Kennedy."

As part of Warner's deal for "Legacy of Secrecy," Waldron is retaining documentary film and TV rights to the book, which also says the Mafia played a role in the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and in Watergate. Appian Way's Katz will produce one of the documentaries.

DiCaprio was last seen in "Inception." Appian Way's a producer on "Red Riding Hood," due out in March from Warners, and on the George Clooney-Ryan Gosling starrer "The Ides of March," currently in pre-production.

Contact Dave McNary at dave.mcnary@variety.com

Vladimir Putin and World Bank chief stage summit to save the tiger

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/nov/21/tiger-conservation-russia-world-bank

Vladimir Putin and World Bank chief stage summit to save the tiger
• Event aims to secure £220m for tiger conservation
• Leaders to sign pledges on poaching and safe areas
Jonathan Watts in St Petersburg
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 21 November 2010
Tiger numbers have declined by 97% in the past 100 years. They can be found in only 13 countries of Asia now, compared with 25 at the start of the 20th century.

A campaign to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022 was on the agenda todayat the highest level political meeting to ever discuss a single species.

The International Tiger Forum in St Petersburg is being staged in response to a calamitous 97% decline in tigers in the wild over a century.

The Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, and the president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, were behind the four-day event, during which it is hoped that $350m (£220m) will be secured for tiger conservation.

The forum – which is taking place during the international year of biodiversity and the Chinese year of the tiger – will also include the unveiling of an international consortium to combat wildlife crime and pledges to tighten protection by the 13 countries where tigers live.

There are appeals expected from celebrities including the actor Leonardo DiCaprio and the model Naomi Campbell.

The unprecedented mobilisation of political, financial and celebrity power was welcomed by conservation groups, but there were concerns that it may prove too little too late unless the words are translated into actions.

Jim Leape, director general of WWF, said that 40 years of conservation efforts had failed to halt poaching, loss of habitat and the decline of prey species. As a result, several subspecies have already died out, the wild population has shrunk to just 3,200 tigers and the number continues to shrink every day.

"The reasons for this disaster are well known," Leape said. "Unless we take drastic action, there will be no tigers by the next year of the tiger in 2022."

The crisis was described as far deeper than the loss of a single charismatic cat. In an opening address, James Adams, the vice president of the World Bank, said the demise of the tiger was symptomatic of a broader biological crisis that imperils economic growth.

"This forces us to rethink the development paradigm. The loss of a species at the top of the food chain endangers all the creatures below," said Adams. "Past failures have proven that piecemeal approaches don't work. Action must be comprehensive."

At the end of the summit, leaders are expected to adopt a global tiger recovery programme that includes a target of doubling numbers by 2022, making core tiger areas inviolate, increasing public awareness of tiger conservation, setting up cross-boundary protected areas and cracking down on poaching and smuggling.

Ministers and officials from Asian nations spelled out the actions they are taking to address the crisis.

India, which has the largest wild population, said it planned to establish eight new reserves, while Thailand promised to spend $98.6m over five years to strengthen conservation and tackle the illegal wildlife trade.

Russia pledged to crack down on poachers and to work with China to set up a shared, cross-border protected area aimed at adding space for an extra 500 Amur tigers. Malaysia said it would increase its population, but it would need help with the expected cost of $1m per tiger.

Donors are expected to emerge in the days ahead: the World Bank website notes plans to raise $350m over the next five years, while the United States announced $400,000 in funds to help Russia protect the Amur tiger.

"Things are promising. People are really getting behind the common agenda. The question now is when will the rubber hit the road," said John Robinson, chief conservation officer of the Wildlife Conservation Society. "If we can't come together as a global community to save tigers then it's hard to imagine what we can do it for."

But without a reduction in demand for tiger products, conservationists warn that efforts to protect habitat could come to nothing.

A recent report by Traffic, which monitors wildlife trade, noted that body parts from more than 1,000 tigers had been seized in the last decade.

China remains the main destination for illegally imported bone, penis and hides. Tiger farms in China also continue to advertise "tonics" made from harvested parts. Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, is due to attend the final day of the summit. The country has pledged to crack down on poaching, expand international co-operation and increase investment into habitat conservation.

Jia Zhibang, the minister of the state forest administration, said China had accepted a heavy economic sacrifice by banning trade in tiger products in 1993.

International conservation groups urge China to strengthen enforcement of conservation with more undercover investigations.

"It's not difficult to encounter the traders who are selling tiger skin and bone in China. It would be relatively easy to get intelligence on them," said Debbie Banks, head of the China campaign for the Environmental Investigation Agency. "For a wealthy nation like China that could spend $31bn on the Olympics, ending the tiger trade is simple if they want to."

Not burning so bright

The demise of the tiger has been rapid. Subspecies have collapsed one after another – the Bali tiger in the 1940s, the central Asia tiger in the 1970s, the Java tiger in the 1980s, the south China wild tiger the 1990s.

While tigers once roamed in at least 25 countries at the start of the 20th century, today they are in dwindling, separated communities across just 13 nations.

The remaining populations are as follows: India 1,200-1650; Indonesia 450-700; Bangladesh 400; Nepal 350; Russia 350; Bhutan 70-80; China 40-50; Cambodia 10-50; Laos 50; Vietnam less than 30; Burma about 100; Thailand 250-500; Malaysia 300-500

Source: Global Tiger Initiative

Eastwood on Hoover film: DiCaprio in, Phoenix out

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69A4GP20101011

Eastwood on Hoover film: DiCaprio in, Phoenix out
NEW YORK | Mon Oct 11, 2010

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Director Clint Eastwood on Monday shot down rumors that Joaquin Phoenix might return to acting by portraying J. Edgar Hoover's protege and purported lover in a biopic on the controversial, first FBI director.

Eastwood told Reuters that Leonardo DiCaprio was definitely lined up to play Hoover. But Phoenix, who recently revealed his charade to quit acting and become a rap singer, was not in talks to play Clyde Tolson.

"No. I don't know where that came from...didn't he become a rapper?" Eastwood said, when asked about recent reports Phoenix was being considered for the role. Phoenix had taken on rapping in a hoax that surrounded the making of a mock documentary film called "I'm Still Here" about his supposed transition.

Oscar-winning director Eastwood did say that DiCaprio definitely wants the role of Hoover. "It's a great role for him," Eastwood said, adding that the film's makers were "in the process" of signing contracts with DiCaprio.

The Hollywood legend, who after turning 80 years-old this year, is about to release his latest directorial effort "Hereafter" that tackles mortality and possibilities of an afterlife, said his next project on Hoover would focus on many aspects of the man's complicated life.

"He was a very complex person. The homosexual aspect is just one of many. I would say that's the least of his problems. But he was also very clever, whether rightfully or wrongfully, he was very clever about keeping himself in a certain position in life, so it is an interesting study," Eastwood said.

Hoover, who died in 1972, was the first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and he served nearly four decades at the helm of the U.S. law enforcement agency.

Following his death, Hoover fell under sharp criticism for keeping secret files on prominent citizens, politicians and celebrities, including Martin Luther King, Jr. He also became the subject of conjecture over whether he was gay and if Tolson, Associate Director of the FBI, was his lover.

Eastwood said that by growing up in the 1930s and 40s, he could capture the mythology of Hoover in pop culture at the time, which had "comic books with him on the cover with machine guns and all that."

"He is a fascinating character, and I think I am the right person to do it , not because I knew him or anything, but I did grow up with him," Eastwood said. "He was an iconic figure."

(Reporting by Christine Kearney, editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

'Inception' review: Leonardo DiCaprio and Christopher Nolan blow our minds

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/2010/07/15/2010-07-15_inception_review_leonardo_dicaprio_and_christopher_nolan_blow_our_minds.html

Inception
'Inception' review: Leonardo DiCaprio and Christopher Nolan blow our minds
Elizabeth Weitzman
Friday, July 16th 2010
'Inception' star Leonardo DiCaprio is about to blow your mind - not with the gun - in one of the best mind benders ever made.

When was the last time you had your mind blown by a movie? Because when "Inception" ends and the lights come up, you'll be sitting in your seat, staring at the screen, wondering what the hell just happened.

Of course, it won't be the first time director Christopher Nolan has shaken us out of the apathy that modern moviegoing induces. "Inception" blends the blockbuster enormity of his "Dark Knight" with the indie insights of "Memento" to create an all-encompassing experience that makes most other summer films seem mediocre.

Like "Memento," this is one you'll need to see several times, backwards and forwards, to fully grasp. And since part of the fun is Nolan's insistence on keeping us unmoored, you won't find any spoilers here.

But the basics are these: Leonardo DiCaprio is Dom Cobb, a futuristic thief who specializes in rifling through people's brains while they dream. Though this is not a job without risks, his new assignment is about to raise the stakes.

When a mysterious businessman (Ken Watanabe) asks Dom to change- rather than simply steal - the thoughts of a competitor (Cillian Murphy), Dom's colleagues (including Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ellen Page) balk. They'd have to travel deeper into the recesses of their target's subconscious, which poses extreme danger for everyone involved. But Dom has been a haunted man since his wife (Marion Cotillard) died, and this mission may be his best chance to find some peace.

No synopsis could possibly do justice to the complex universe Nolan fashions as we go deeper into each visually ornate, emotionally intricate dreamscape. Granted, not every element works perfectly; Cotillard's storyline feels underdeveloped, and the action could have been tightened up. But the ambition on display is so huge, and the filmmaking so intelligent, you'll emerge feeling as if you've just watched an entire season of the greatest sci-fi series never made.

With "Inception," Nolan acknowledges that no one could create a movie as exciting, as unexpected, as startling as the dreams we invent for ourselves. But it's evident by now that he's never going to give up trying.

Leonardo DiCaprio eyes the 'Zone'

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3ifcce08ba05c710728c58fa09d3a4db04?imw=Y

Leonardo DiCaprio eyes the 'Zone'
Warners, Appian Way in early stages of 'Twilight' feature
By Steven Zeitchik
July 25, 2008

Could the eerie music of "The Twilight Zone" soon be playing again at the movies?

Warner Bros. and Leonardo DiCaprio's production company Appian Way are in the early stages of seeking material for a feature take on one or more episodes from the classic TV series.

The studio and production company are quietly putting out word to creators that they are looking for pitches and script ideas based on the show for feature development.

The companies are not seeking to remake an episodic movie, as the only big-screen version of the show did 25 years ago, but rather hope to build one continuing story line based on one or more episodes.

Warners is negotiating for rights to the Rod Serling-penned episodes, which is owned by the Serling estate. The episodes comprise the bulk of its 1959-64 run. The Serling shows include famous episodes such as "To Serve Man," about giant aliens who land on Earth to serve humans as food, and "Eye of the Beholder," about an inverted society where the attractive are considered ugly. About 155 episodes of the original series exist.

A feature adaptation could be a passion project of sorts for DiCaprio, who in interviews has cited "Twilight Zone" as his favorite show.

Thanks to syndication -- the show runs on Sci Fi Channel -- and many pop-culture homages, "Twilight Zone" continues to have a devoted, if somewhat older-skewing, fan base nearly five decades after it left the airwaves.

In 1983, Warners released a four-segment film based on the series. Each segment was helmed by a different director -- Joe Dante, John Landis, George Miller and Steven Spielberg -- with three of the segments remakes of classic episodes.

The movie drew modest boxoffice and was known mainly for a supposed curse after Vic Morrow and two child actors died during production.

The news of a possible Twilight Zone movie comes as "The X-Files," another film adaptation of a paranormal-themed television series, opens this weekend.

There have been other attempts at "Zone" updates over the years, particularly on television; CBS made a TV movie in 1994 based on several Serling episodes, and a short-lived show aired on UPN six years ago. On the film side, Summit is currently working on a film version of the Richard Matheson-penned "Countdown," about astronauts who land on a planet only to find a spacecraft that looks remarkably similar to their own.

Dark Knight Makes Record-Breaking $300M

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20215205,00.html

Dark Knight Makes Record-Breaking $300M in 10 Days
By Stephen M. Silverman
Sunday July 27, 2008

No argument: The Dark Knight is Hollywood's brightest light.

The Batman adventure, starring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger, shattered another box-office benchmark this weekend – reaching beyond the $300 million mark in a mere 10 days.

The movie grossed $75.6 million in its second weekend in theaters, bringing its North American box-office total to $314,245,000, Warner Bros. head of distribution Dan Fellman tells the Associated Press.

The number breaks the record established by 2006's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, which hit $300 million after 16 days.

Fellman says Dark Knight could conceivably reach the $400-million mark in about 18 days – placing it ahead of Shrek 2's 43-day record in 2004.

Hold on to your life preservers – The Dark Knight might also surpass 1997's Titanic as the highest-grossing film in U.S. history, according to Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers. That sinking-ship saga, starring Leonardo Di Caprio, made $600,788,188 domestically.

Rounding out this weekend's top five at the box office were Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly in Step Brothers, with an estimated $30 million; Meryl Streep in Mamma Mia!, $17.9 million; David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in The X-Files: I Want to Believe, $10.2 million; and Brendan Fraser in Journey to the Center of the Earth, $9.4 million.

Leo Lands on Planet Green

http://yahoo.eonline.com/news/article/index.jsp?uuid=d2f17184-20ff-4f75-b7e0-914d685ee58f

Leo Lands on Planet Green
by Natalie Finn

Leonardo DiCaprio is taking one small step for an A-list celebrity, and one giant leap for the environment.

The card-carrying hybrid driver has partnered up with Discovery Communications to executive-produce a reality series chronicling the eco-friendly rebuild of Greensburg, Kansas, which was decimated by a fierce tornado in May.

The 13-part series will be for the Discovery Channel's latest offshoot, the 24/7 cable network Planet Green, which is scheduled to launch early next year, taking the place of Discovery Home in your local listings.

"This is at the center of what we want to do with Planet Green," Discovery Communications president and CEO David Zaslav said Friday at his network's Television Critics Association presentation in Beverly Hills. "This is not about a TV show and about a cable channel that reaches 50 million homes…we’re the number one non-fiction media company in the world, but we also want to make a difference."

It was reported in October that DiCaprio's production company, Appian Way, had a reality show in the works called E-topia that, inspired by the widespread damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, would follow a team of construction workers, urban planners and environmentalists as they gave a rundown town a top-to-bottom green makeover.

Sadly, the natural disaster in Greensburg on May 4 made the tight-knit farming community about 110 miles west of Wichita a prime candidate for the series' efforts. The tornado killed 10 and displaced nearly all of the rest of the town's 1,500 residents, leveling practically every house, business, hospital and school in the process.

Planet Network's new show will follow state and local officials in their quest to create an ecologically—and economically—sustainable locale and encourage the storm's victims to return to their homes.

Pilgrim Films & Television's Craig Piligian, who originally brought the now-untitled project to DiCaprio last year, will also serve as an executive producer.

DiCaprio, who hosted the ABC News special Planet Earth 2000 and has long been a champion of green causes, has also been invited to sit on the Planet Green Board of Advisers, along with leading advocacy groups such as the Nature Conservancy and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The Oscar-nominated actor was on hand to address the Live Earth crowd about reducing carbon emissions last weekend at Giants Stadium, and he was the chosen celeb who got to joke with An Inconvenient Truth guru Al Gore at the Academy Awards about the possibilities for another presidential run in 2008.

And while DiCaprio is busy putting his name and money to good use, he'll be doing his best to beautify a few studios' box office returns, as well.

Up next he stars in the period drama Revolutionary Road along with Kate Winslet, playing one half of a disenchanted suburban couple that picks up and moves to France to pursue their bohemian ideals. The film, based on the Richard Yates novel, is slated for a December 2008 release.

DiCaprio is also set to costar with Russell Crowe in the Ridley Scott-directed CIA thriller Body of Lies, which is expected to start shooting this fall.