Showing posts tagged wettest county in the world

From an interview with Matt Bondurant, author of The Wettest County in the world:

The Wettest County has been made into a film with Gary Oldman, Shia Labeouf and Tom Hardy. Labeouf plays Jack Bondurant, Matt Bondurant’s grandfather, while Hardy plays Forrest Bondurant, his grand-uncle. The film — written by songwriter/screenwriter Nick Cave (The Proposition) — was originally set for release this spring but has now been held back until August. Normally, that’s a bad sign in Hollywood. But Bondurant says it’s good: The producers are waiting on The Dark Knight Rises, which opens July 20. The anticipation for Tom Hardy’s performance as the villain in that Batman movie has been so high, the producers of The Wettest County now hope to ride on his coattails.

Bondurant saw the British actor in Georgia, filming the bloody bar fight that triggers the open war in The WettestCounty. Hardy’s performances in such earlier films as Warrior, Bronson have had a brooding ferocity, and Bondurant saw that in action on the set – in take after take.

Bondurant: “He was freaking me out, I mean, because he just turns on this rage and he’s flying really fast with these stunt men. And it’s, it’s … frightening.”

(Source: artandseek.net)

Tom Hardy on the set of Wettest County with stunt performer Tom Proctor who says this on his website:

Me and Tom Hardy on the set of Wettest County in the world. What a great actor and fun guy to work with.

(Source: tomproctorstunts.com)

Tom Hardy with a little boy actor on the set of The Wettest County.

Aww! How sweet. Love the look. :)

(Source: twitter.com)

Why Wettest County was moved

Here’s the official explanation for moving the release of Wettest County; they want Tom Hardy to be a big star first… 

Today Harvey Weinstein offered an explanation for the postponement, citing a media strategy that aims to capitalize on the post-“Dark Knight Rises” appeal of Hardy as well as a release template followed by other action-tinged dramas. “We have a star in Tom Hardy who’s completely anonymous right now. If you go to a line at the ArcLight nobody would know who he is,” Weinstein told 24 Frames. But the film executive said that would change with the release of Hardy’s Batman picture (Hardy plays the villain, Bane) in July. “He’s going to be a huge movie star by August,” Weinstein said.

Weinstein, who said he believed performances from Hardy and LaBeouf would attract awards attention, also said that the new date would allow the film to play at at least one major international festival. “The idea is to go to Venice and then hit the domestic market right after,” he said. It was a tack Weinstein said was taken by “The Constant Gardener,” Fenrando Mereilles’ 2005 John le Carre adaptation; the movie, released by Focus Features in late summer, went on to gross $33 million domestically and $48 million internationally.

Labor Day is typically considered a very slow weekend in U.S. moviegoing, but Weinstein noted that “it can be a great bridge between the summer and the fall. And we wanted the holiday weekend for the movie, especially down South, where there’s a big audience for this film.” While a movie’s period setting usually dictates a limited release, Weinstein said he saw “Wettest County” as a wide play and planned on opening it in several thousand theaters. 

(Source: Los Angeles Times)

A violent and wet county.

A comment from someone who’s seen The Wettest County. It sounds very intriguing to me. Hillcoat doesn’t like to make easy films, that’s for sure.

The movie was… pretty good. A bit too violent for my own taste (though it’s entire serviceable for the story). It’s a tough movie to sit through and it takes a while to figure out what kind of story it’s telling (they may still edit it down, though). I’m curious to see how they market it. Hardy and Chastain have incredible chemistry. The main element that didn’t click for me was LeBeouf (no surprise there). He’s clearly stretching himself but I somehow never bought him in the part. As for the two ‘villains’: crazy Gary Oldman is my favorite kind of Gary Oldman (it was a Leon meets Fifth Element performance, ie. he’s fucking terrifying) while Pearce is almost unrecognizable in that he looks creepy and totally unattractive (his is a performance that toys with camp and dandiness while being eerily cold-blooded). It’s an odd choice and it took me a while to warm up to it (or get used to it) and it might actually be a talking point once the film opens as it is so bizarre.

(Source: thefilmexperience.net)

Like I said, I’m unable to resist any mention of Tom Hardy (and Benedict!) from Gary Oldman (Capone is the interviewer and TA is Tomas Alfredson):

Capone: Gary, this would have been the first film of now three with Tom Hardy. Both of you, tell me about working with him.

TA: Is it your third now?

Capone: I just saw a release date for WETTEST COUNTY IN THE WORLD.

GO: Now THE WETTEST COUNTY, Tom is in it, but I don’t work with Tom. I’m in it, if you blink you miss me. I’m a little cameo. The DARK KNIGHT RISES movie I’ve honestly had hardly anything to do with him as well. “Hardly Hardy.” [laughs] I’ve gotten to know him socially. Our paths crossed on the set of DARK KNIGHT, but we weren’t really… I’m in one scene with him, and then I’m unconscious and another scene where he’s in the room. But TINKER, was the one where we really got to share scenes.

TA: But he was very nervous before the first day he met Gary.

Capone: I just saw an interview with him where he said he just watched you and forgot that he was in the scene with you. “Oh, I have to say something here.”

GO: Yeah, he was. It’s flattering. He’s nice, but he’s ascending, isn’t he? What about Cumberbatch? Do you like Cumberbatch?

Capone: I love him. I have seen him in things before, but I took note of him in the FRANKENSTEIN production in London directed by Danny Boyle.

GO: I wish I had seen that.

TA: I missed that, yeah.

Capone: He and Jonny Lee Miller switched roles every other night, and that’s how I kind of learned who he was, and the TV “Sherlock Holmes” now. I understand you became pretty friendly with him.

GO: Yeah, I think he’s just marvelous in that scene where he says, “What’s shrug? Stop shrugging at me.” “Get off my back!”

(Source: aintitcool.com)

I can never resist posting any comment from Gary Oldman on working with Tom. :)

And then the young one you seem to be working with in these three films coming up is Tom Hardy.
I wouldn’t say we have a great deal to do in Batman, and I don’t physically work with him in the Hillcoat movie [The Wettest County], but it’s been the year of Oldman and Hardy.

I’m sure he’s learning a lot from this, the youth of today!
Oh, yeah, I mean, you know when you’re getting on a bit when Tom Hardy comes in and says, “Oh, man, I love your work. I used to watch you when I was a kid.”

Just as you did with John Hurt?
Yes, I guess John’s now of that generation. He must be nearly 70 now, but it’s nice. That’s one of the lovely things about the job — we’re all like links and chain. We’re all passing through, and now you look at people like Tom and Benedict Cumberbatch and all these lovely actors that are coming up.

(Source: m.askmen.com)

More praise for Tom Hardy from Jessica Chastain! I can’t wait to see this film.

In director John Hillcoat’s “Wettest County,” a Depression-era drama about a bootlegging gang that’s one of the eagerly anticipated films next year, Jessica pits talents with Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf, Gary Oldman, Guy Pearce and Mia Wasikowska. “I’m a big fan of John,” she said, citing his films, “The Proposition” and “The Road.” “I’ve wanted to work with him for a long time. The script was great, written by Nick Cave. ‘Wettest County’ is a set where acting across the board is so good that even when people weren’t working, they would still show up to watch the scenes. Most of my scenes were with Tom Hardy. He’s fantastic in the film! It’s an absolute transformation. You learn something from every actor that you work with. Tom is good at making the unexpected choice.”

(Source: entertainment.inquirer.net)

New release date for The Wettest County

Here’s the exact (for now) release date for The Wettest County from Boxofficemojo:

The Wettest Country -   Weinstein Company   -    4/20/12

Weirdly enough, there’s been a release date for Sweden up at imdb.com for a long time: June 29 2012. So that fits.

(Source: boxofficemojo.com)

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