MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA casting update (1 Viewer)

[Brian Thibodeau]

Looks like LAST SAMURAI's Ken Watanabe, SHALL WE DANCE's Koji Yakusho and SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS' Youki Kudoh (who I enjoyed years ago in PICTURE BRIDE and HEAVEN'S BURNING with Russel Crowe) have been signed to co-star with Michelle Yeoh, Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi in the film, directed by Rob Marshall (CHICAGO).

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040819/lath081_1.html

(and in case anyone questions the casting of the leads, it's already been done in a lengthy and interesting recent thread, so I'm only posting this for information purposes )

 

[Kristian]

Well, it's great to see some Japanese actors in the cast. I'm still uneasy about the three leads, but I'll say no more until the film comes out.

 

[Chris]

This is one of my favorite books; I hope the movie version can do it justice.

 

[Dan Rudolph]

Keep an open mind if you're a fan of the book. Spielberg isn't known for sticking to books.

 

[Ernest Rister]

"Spielberg isn't known for sticking to books."

And in some instances, that has been a good thing...(Jaws, The Color Purple, Schindler's List). For Empire of the Sun, Spielberg (and one would assume, Tom Stoppard) came to the conclusion that the memories Ballard based his book upon were hopelessly warped by the prism of childhood, and so Spielberg and Stoppard incorporated that theme into the screenplay and shooting strategy. Gestures and mannerisms of one father figure meld into those of a later surrogate father figure, entire moments of inner-life fantasy are played as real (the pilot salute, the glider, the food canister) -- just as an adult would remember a distorted memory. It is a brilliant movie, almost as much a comment on the book as it is an adaptation of the same.

 

[Nick C.]

Didn't want to start up a new thread, but thought folks might want some news on the picture...

Principal photography just completed after shooting in the US and Japan.

In addition, a column just appeared in the NY Times speaking of how the movie finally got around to being filmed--including how Spike Jonze (!?) and Spielberg stepped away before Rob Marshall finally entered the scene. Also of note was a tidbit about the "casting controversy":

 

[ThomasC]

She looks beautiful, but "I'm Chinese" is written all over her face. :frowning:

 

[Charles Coates]

hummina hummina!

 

[George See]

I can't wait to get some more signifigant info on this one, i'm curious as to what the inevitable cuts will be to the source material. I'd say right now this and Hitch Hikers guide are my two most eagerly anticipated movies of the coming year.

 

[Citizen87645]

It might have been wise to spoilerize some of that info...

 

[Nick C.]

George,
Plenty of pictures over at monkeypeaches.com look for the Memoirs of a Geisha section. Here are two:

In the village where Sayuri is discovered:


Some stage performance (ie. film within the film)

 

[George See]

Awesome link and Pictures Nick thanks.

Sorry about the lack of spoiler tags Cameron. Usually i'm good about using those I was just kind of thinking that stuff was pretty common knowledge and not very spoilerific, i'll be more carefull in the future.

 

[Citizen87645]

No problem George. I'm not as particular about spoilers as some.