The Playlist

Philip Seymour Hoffman To Star In John Slattery's Directorial Debut, Cate Blanchett Teams With David Mamet For 'Blackbird'

By Ben Brock
|
May 16, 2013 10:19 AM
|
6 Comments

News

Incoming casting news, fresh from the French Riviera: first off, Philip Seymour Hoffman has signed on for a new film, so we can all get our regular dose of rumpled magnificence. “God's Pocket” will be directed by John Slattery, who you know as “Mad Men”'s silver fox Roger Sterling but who is making the move to directing (having helmed several excellent episodes of the series in which he stars), adapting a Pete Dexter novel about Mickey (Hoffman), whose attempts to move on after the suspicious, and not unwelcome, death of his unstable stepson are frustrated by a local reporter with a hunch.

More:

Review: 'Phil Spector' Killed Lana Clarkson, But David Mamet's Movie Presupposes, Maybe He Didn't?

By Kevin Jagernauth
|
March 22, 2013 8:56 AM
|
4 Comments

Television

With production on the film starting all the way back in the summer of 2011, it's been a curiously long wait for David Mamet's "Phil Spector," and from the first moment, one gets the impression that HBO's lawyers were a bit nervous about the effort. Before we even see one frame of the picture, an opening title card insists: "This is a work of fiction. It's not 'based on a true story.' It is a drama inspired by actual persons in a trial, but it is neither an attempt to depict the actual persons, nor to comment upon the trial or its outcome." But frankly, it's a little hard to swallow, particular since the director himself has been quite clear about what he thinks about Spector's fate regarding the murder of Lana Clarkson.

More:

Watch: Teaser Trailer For David Mamet's HBO Film 'Phil Spector' With Al Pacino & Helen Mirren

By Ken Guidry
|
January 30, 2013 9:25 AM
|
1 Comment

Television

Just when you thought you couldn’t get any more excited about HBO’s upcoming slate of original programming, we now have a teaser for David Mamet’s “Phil Spector.” The TV movie starring Al Pacino as Phil Spector and Helen Mirren as his defense attorney is just two months away from its television premiere. While HBO doesn’t really give us much to go by, the very idea of a Pacino-Mirren-Mamet team up on the small screen should be exciting in itself.

More:

First Look At Al Pacino As Phil Spector In David Mamet's HBO Movie

By Kevin Jagernauth
|
December 6, 2012 5:42 PM
|
3 Comments

News

Thanks to a prematurely leaked 2013 preview that has since been yanked offline, it has been around long enough for savvy folks to capture snaps of upcoming programming, and it looks like David Mamet's Phil Spector movie is finally arriving, with Al Pacino in the lead. Yes, that Al Pacino.

More:

David Mamet To Write CBS Reboot Of 'Have Gun - Will Travel'

By Cain Rodriguez
|
August 22, 2012 11:22 AM
|
3 Comments

Television

Since CBS cancelled his series “The Unit” in 2009, David Mamet hasn’t had a lot brewing on the small or big screen -- his last feature-length film was the 2008 MMA drama “Redbelt.” But the acclaimed playwright has some new television work in the pipeline in the form of a reboot of the classic western series “Have Gun - Will Travel.”

More:

David Mamet's Phil Spector Biopic Sings A New Tune As Helen Mirren Replaces Bette Midler

By Kevin Jagernauth
|
July 19, 2011 1:50 AM
|
1 Comment

Well, it was less than a week ago when Bette Midler suffered a herniated disc and on doctor's orders was forced to pull out of David Mamet's Phil Spector biopic he has brewing for HBO. Production was put on hold as a replacement needed to be found quick and damn, did this movie ever step up its game big time.

More:

Bette Midler Bails On David Mamet's Phil Spector Biopic On 'Doctor's Orders'

By Oliver Lyttelton
|
July 13, 2011 1:17 AM
|
4 Comments

It's easy to forget these days what a big star Bette Midler was for a period of time. A Broadway and recording star who made her movie debut with thinly-veiled Janis Joplin biopic "The Rose," Midler had a series of successes in the 80s and 90s, up to 1996's surprise smash "The First Wives Club," but since then, her few film appearances have underwhelmed, with a whole generation knowing her principally for seasonal Disney favorite "Hocus Pocus" over anything else.

More:

First Look At Al Pacino As Phil Spector In Forthcoming David Mamet Directed Biopic For HBO

By Kevin Jagernauth
|
July 11, 2011 2:36 AM
|
7 Comments

Though in the works for a while now, we didn't realize that the Al Pacino-starring, David Mamet-directed Phil Spector biopic had started rolling, but we're glad it has.

More:

Bette Midler & Jeffrey Tambor Join Al Pacino Starring, David Mamet Directed HBO Phil Spector Project

By Kevin Jagernauth
|
May 23, 2011 8:10 AM
|
0 Comments

First revealed last year, this is one of those projects that seemed too good to be true and when word around it died as quickly as it arrived, we figured that it wasn't coming along. Guess we were (thankfully) wrong.

More:

David Mamet's Gone Right-Wing, Taking On Affirmative Action In Next Screenplay

By Oliver Lyttelton
|
May 19, 2011 4:57 AM
|
16 Comments

Day two of Von Triergate, and... oh, sorry, it's become almost automatic at this point. But enough of directors who haven't actually suddenly displayed right-wing tendencies, how about a director who actually has! David Mamet's always been a controversial figure, since at least his troublesome sexual harassment play "Oleanna." But a shift has started to be seen in his recent work, one explained in full by a lengthy article in the Weekly Standard.

More: