[Casting News TBC] Naomi Watts to play Laura Bush in fictionalized biopic “American Wife”

April 18, 2014

It’s recently been confirmed that Naomi Watts is attached to star as Alice Lindgren, the fictionalized version of former first lady Laura Bush in a biopic based loosely on her life. The script is currently being penned by Ron Nyswaner and is based off the 2008 novel of the same name AMERICAN WIFE by Curtis Sittenfeld. All the character names and events have been slightly disguised, but the story follows a woman who marries the rambunctious son of a political dynasty, who eventually becomes president. The independent film is being produced by Red Crown and Marc Platt Productions, and is currently in search of a director.

This could be a huge chance for Naomi Watts to regain footing and even get a possible Oscar nod for portraying a member of one of the most controversial political families of the current era. Watts has been dancing between small indie films and box-office stumbles of late, and this is a great opportunity to get some positive attention.....

Naomi Watts and Ben Stiller making a street scene for "While We're Young"

Public enemies! Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts create a scene by fighting in the streets of New York as they film takes for new movie




Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts made a scene in public today... literally.

The two A-list actors where spotted filming for their upcoming movie While We're Young, in which the actors had to enter a war of words on the New York streets.

In the film, Watts and Stiller play a married couple who attempt to adopt a free-spirited lifestyle after meeting a younger couple.

[Newscast] Naomi Watts walks out of radio interview after Diana questions

4 Sep 2013

The actress reportedly became uncomfortable with Simon Mayo's questioning, although he's "baffled" as to why

Naomi Watts might have to start getting used to answering questions about the late Princess Diana seeing as she's playing her in the new movie called, unsurprisingly, Diana.

According to a tweet by BBC radio presenter Simon Mayo, she walked out of an interview with him after becoming uncomfortable with his questions regarding the biopic.

[Casting News] Naomi Watts in Negotiations for Noah Baumbach Movie

5/1/2013 - THR

She'd join "Girls'"Adam Driver, Ben Stiller in the Scott Rudin-produced comedy, "While We're Young."

Noah Baumbach is once again trying to mount his midlife crisis for hipsters movie While We're Young.

Naomi Watts is in talks to star opposite Ben Stiller, and Girls' star Adam Driver is also in talks to join the project, which will likely shoot in the fall in New York.

The project has been on and off for Baumbach and even for some of its stars. Both Stiller and Driver were around in an earlier incarnation that included Greta Gerwig, but a consistent problem with the project has been securing financing. In fact, a scheduled spring shoot didn't happen for that very reason. But Watts' involvement would help the filmmaker secure the coin.

Written by Baumbach, the story revolves around an uptight documentary filmmaker (Stiller) and his wife (Watts) who find their lives loosened up a bit after befriending a free-spirited younger couple. Driver would play one half of the younger couple. Amanda Seyfried's name has surfaced as a candidate for the mate of Driver's character.

(Other incarnations of this project have included James Franco, Cate Blanchett and Jesse Eisenberg.)

Baumbach's frequent collaborator Scott Rudin is producing.

Watts, who will next be seen in Sunlight Jr. and Two Mothers, also has the Princess Diana biopic Diana in the can. The Aussie star is currently filming the Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu comedy Birdman and has St. Vincent de Van Nuys on tap.

She is repped by CAA and manager Jason Weinberg at Untitled Entertainment.

Naomi Watts will present star to good friend Simon Baker

Feb 1, 2013

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has announced that the Australian star Simon Baker of the hit TV series, The Mentalist, will receive a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame on Feb 14, and his good friend Naomi Watts and Bruno Heller, executive producer of The Mentalist, will present him the star.

Simon Baker co-starred with Naomi as her boss in The Ring 2 , a role and job introduced and mediated by his long-time good friend as reported.

[Newscast] Naomi Watts' "Two Mothers" Stirs Controversy at Sundance

Jan 18, 2013
- Gina Sunseri/ABC News

PARK CITY, Utah — It’s not Sundance unless someone’s up in arms about a movie.




This year’s chief target is “Two Mothers,” which stars Naomi Watts and Robin Wright as mothers who have affairs with each other’s teenage sons. While Watts told ABC News Now’s “Popcorn With Peter Travers” “there is sex in it but it’s not really about sex,” the Sutherland Institute, a conservative group in Utah, feels otherwise, and has proposed that state funding for the festival should be cut on the grounds that its content is at odds with Utah’s family values.

“What would you call a film festival airing movies that explore the lives of porn stars, adulterous relationships between mothers and their friends’ children, and teenagers competing to lose their virginity?” Derek Monson, director of public policy for Sutherland, wrote in a blog post. “Many Utahans’ values would lead them to call this ‘obscenity’ or ‘pornography,’ but to the state of Utah, evidently it is simply ‘economic activity.’” (...more after jump)

[Newscast] 'The Impossible' Sweeps Past 'Titanic' at Spain Box Office

Dec 6, 2012 The Hollywood Reporter

Director Juan Antonio Bayona's drama has sold more than 5.6 million tickets and made 40 million euros in less than two months in theaters.

MADRID -- After leaping into Spanish film history as the all-time highest grossing domestic film, Juan Antonio Bayona's intense post-tsunami The Impossible -- with 5.6 million tickets sold -- smashed passed the box office earnings of James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster Titanic.

Since its Oct. 11 release and following five consecutive weeks at No. 1 in the national box office standings, Bayona's hyper-realistic depiction of the 2004 tsunami that swept Thailand has snagged 40 million euros at the box office.

Cameron's Avatar still sits ahead of the pack with 6 million tickets sold and 50.4 million euros earned.

Distributed in Spain by Warner Bros. Pictures, the drama stars Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor in potential Oscar-nominated roles and is set for release in the U.S. on Dec. 21 through Summit Entertainment -- who came onto the project in the early stages.

Produced by Belen Atienza and Enrique Lopez Lavigne's Apaches Entertainment and Telecinco Cinema, the film branch of media giant Mediaset Espana, The Impossible has become a social phenomenon in Spain and a must for moviegoers thanks to an aggressive marketing campaign launched by Telecinco.

Alongside his commercial success in Spain, the film is making a big splash in the international market. Since its release in Thailand, the film sits in the top spot at the box office, while it stands just behind Twilight franchise closer Breaking Dawn in France, two weeks after its release.

Spanish cinema currently holds a 17.1 percent slice of the domestic market, two points more than last year at the same time, according to the Spanish producers' federation FAPAE.

NAOMI WATTS DREAMS OF PERFORMING AT SHAKESPEARE’S GLOBE THEATRE

 
-Express.co.uk

NAOMI WATTS has lived all over the world but the Hollywood actress, who was born in Kent, wants to tread the boards in the West End or even at Shakespeare’s Globe.

Naomi, 44, spoke to Day & Night at the London premiere of The Impossible at the BFI Imax cinema in Waterloo, telling us the only barrier would be her long-term boyfriend, actor Live Schreiber.

“I love London but it might take some jogging of Liev because he’s a New Yorker but I would love it if we could spend some years in London.

“I’d do some London theatre. I don’t know what. I’d have to wait a while to do Shakespeare but I would love to play Lady Macbeth.”

[Newscast] UK Charity premiere of "The Impossible" Nov 19, 2012

Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland and director J A Bayona are confirmed to attend the UK charity premiere of "The Impossible" on 19 Nov at BFI IMAX in Leicester Square in London. This would be one month ahead of the opening of the film in North America on Dec 21, 2012.

'The Impossible' Set to Smash Another Spanish Box Office Record

11/2/2012 by Pamela Rolfe, THR

Juan Antonio Bayona's drama about post-tsunami Thailand is set to unseat "The Others" as the highest-grossing release for a Spanish film in its home market.

It has already grossed more than €27.5 million ($35.4 million) at the box office and sold some 4 million tickets in Spain since its Oct. 11 premiere in theaters. That is just shy of the $35.5 million that the Nicole Kidman mystery had snagged in 2001. That made it the highest-grossing release here to-date that qualifies as a Spanish production due to its Spanish director and production firm. Both releases are English-language films.

Distributed in Spain by Warner Bros. Pictures and starring Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor, The Impossible is a drama about a family dealing with the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia. It already recorded the largest-ever opening weekend box office for a Spanish film in Spain.

Produced by Belen Atienza and Enrique Lopez Lavigne's Apaches Entertainment and Telecinco Cinema, the film branch of media giant Mediaset Espana, The Impossible has become a social phenomenon in Spain and a must for moviegoers thanks to an aggressive marketing campaign by Telecinco Cinema.

The company, which posted an operating profit of $53.8 million for the first half of its fiscal year, is hoping The Impossible can hold onto its top spot in the weekly box office rankings ahead of the just-released Skyfall. Expectations of a long, rainy holiday weekend in Spain bode well for box office earnings.

Spanish cinema currently holds a 17.1 percent share of the domestic market, two points more than last year at the same time, according to the Spanish producers' federation FAPAE.

[Newscast] "The Impossible" continues to top Spanish box office in 2nd week

In Spain, Warner Bros. Espana’s release of Lo Impossible (The Impossible), director Juan Antonio Bayona’s action adventure costarring Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor, dominated the market for the second consecutive weekend. The second round at 643 screens yielded $8.7 million and a No. 1 ranking. The cume stands at $25.5 million over 10 days of release, which Warners says, makes Lo Impossible the “highest-grossing film for 2012” in Spain.

There’s gotta be something to that box office in Spain and everywhere reports on the film talks about the gut wrenching turn by Australia’s own. ‘Watts packs a huge charge of emotion as the battered, ever-weakening Maria whose tears of pain and fear never appear fake or idealized.’ – The Hollywood Reporter

[Newscast] A Spanish Triumph

Bayona and Lavigne talk about the huge success of The Impossible

18 October, 2012 | By Juan Sarda, Screen International

The director and producer of Spain's record-setting box-office hit talk about why the film has connected with audiences, what's next for them and potential awards consideration.

The Impossible has not only succeeded in Spain, it has made history. Juan Antonio Bayona's drama set against the 2004 tsunami has become the most successful opening in the year at the local box office with more than 1.4 million tickets sold and $13.5m grossed.

The new English-language feature - by the director of The Orphanage, with a cast led by Naomi Watts and Ewan McGergor, produced by Apaches Entertainment (Intruders) and Telecinco Cinema -has at least doubled analysts' predictions and created a path for an astonishing final result: "We are just very happy," Bayona tells ScreenDaily. "I really feel this success as one of the Spanish cinema. Nobody expected that and I am sure this will help bring people to cinemas not only to watch this film”.

[Newscast] Excellent News from Spain

 15 October, 2012

Bayona and Naomi's "The Impossible" makes $10.3m in first weekend in Spain. Drama starring Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor sells 1m tickets and marks a historic record.

Summit got good news from abroad. Awards hopeful The Impossible, starring Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor as a family caught in the 2004 tsunami in Thailand, opened to record numbers in Spain, where it was financed and produced.

Warner Bros., which is distributing the film in Spain (Summit has domestic rights), reports that the film opened to $13.4 million, the largest three-day and four-day debut of all time. Impossible is an Apaches Entertainment and Telecinco Cinema.

[the all-praising Spanish audience responses]

[Newscast] "The Impossible" will be shown at the Zurich/Berlin Film Festival

Sep. 6, 2012

Zurich selects 'Impossible,' 'Argo'

BERLIN -- Juan Antonio Bayona's tsunami drama "The Impossible," starring Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor, Ben Affleck's Iran hostage crisis thriller "Argo," and Susanne Bier's "Love Is All You Need," with Pierce Brosnan and Trine Dyrholm, are among 111 films unspooling at the Zurich Film Festival.

The fest's lineup, announced on Thursday, includes 21 high-profile international titles -- 12 of them from the U.S. -- screening in the Gala Premieres section. Others include Nicholas Jarecki's "Arbitrage," Rian Johnson's "Looper," Jake Schreier's "Robot and Frank," Til Schweiger's actioner "Schutzengel" (The Guardians), Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal's "The Words" and Ben Lewin's "The Sessions."

Oliver Stone's "Savages," also in Gala Premieres, opens the fest, Sept. 20. The European premiere of Francois Ozon's "In the House" closes it on Sept. 30.

[Newscast] Mila Kunis joins Naomi, and others in the 'Third Person' with shooting to begin in Fall

...and I'm wondering how is Naomi going to be able to do so many movies at the same time coz "Queen of the Desert", "Blonde", and the rumored "Lovers and Sons" are all said to be beginning shooting in the Fall.

[Third Person]

Naomi will present "The Impossible" in person at The Toronto International Festival on Sep 9, 2012

TIFF also announced a list of directors and actors who are expected to attend the festival. The list includes actors Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jackie Chan, Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Bill Murray, Robert Redford, Riz Ahmed, Ryan Gosling, Robert De Niro, Stephen Dorff, Dennis Quaid, Jennifer Connelly, Billy Bob Thornton, Bradley Cooper, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Colin Firth, Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland, Gwyneth Paltrow, Viggo Mortensen, James Franco, Javier Bardem, Hiroshi Abe, Elle Fanning, Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Zhang Ziyi, Greta Gerwig, Helen Hunt, Laura Linney, Logan Lerman, Keira Knightley, Mads Mikkelsen, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jennifer Lawrence, Julianne Moore, Greg Kinnear, Gael García Bernal, Sridevi, Saoirse Ronan, Selena Gomez, Salman Rushdie, Sam Rockwell, Naomi Watts, Will Smith, Johnny Depp, Terence Stamp and Vanessa Redgrave.

Sunday September 9
Princess of Wales Theater
7:00 PM

Monday September 10
Princess of Wales Theater
3:00 PM

[new photos]

[Newscast] Press Release: DIANA ( previously "Caught in Flight" ) - Location Shooting Begins

DIANA 

NAOMI WATTS ASSUMES ICONIC ROLE AS PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY COMMENCES ON PORTRAIT OF A PRINCESS

A definitive account of her most fulfilling years, Ecosse Films' UK production DIANA shoots on location in Europe, Africa and in the Capital this summer.

London, July 3 2012: Ecosse Films (NOWHERE BOY, WUTHERING HEIGHTS, MRS BROWN, BECOMING JANE) has today announced that their highly anticipated 'Diana' project has this week commenced shooting.

Leading the cast is British-born Academy®-Award nominated actress Naomi Watts (J. EDGAR, FAIR GAME, 21 GRAMS) as the eponymous and iconic Princess.

DIANA - previously reported under its working title of CAUGHT IN FLIGHT - will be directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel (Academy®-Award nominated for DOWNFALL), and is based on a screenplay by Stephen Jeffreys. Joining Naomi Watts will be fellow Brits Naveen Andrews as Dr Hasnat Khan, Douglas Hodge and Juliet Stevenson.


*More MQ/HQ photos [HERE], all without water-marking.

From the set of the film, Ms.Watts said: " I'm excited and honoured to be playing the role of a truly remarkable woman, who had such a positive and profound impact in so many ways."?

DIANA is a compelling portrait of Diana, Princess of Wales during the final two years of her life. It charts how finding true personal happiness allowed her to achieve her defining successes, as she evolved into a major international campaigner and humanitarian.

Locations for the 9-week shoot will include Croatia, Mozambique, as well as various locations in and around London and the South of England.

Speaking today, Ecosse Films' Robert Bernstein and Douglas Rae stated: "We are very excited to be working with such a talented and creative team both in front of and behind the camera. Everyone's aim is to produce a truly insightful and compassionate study of Diana's later years.?"
International sales on DIANA are being handled by Embankment Films, with all major international territories pre-sold (ex USA.)

DIANA is produced by Robert Bernstein and Douglas Rae of Ecosse and will be co-produced by Matt Delargy, James Saynor (also of Ecosse) and Paul Ritchie. Executive producers are Tim Haslam and Mark Woolley. Journalist and documentary filmmaker Kate Snell is acting as Associate Producer.

[Newscast] Naomi nearly met Prince William in Mayfair June 9, 2012 & on preparing for the role of Diana

She is about to play Princess Diana in a new film, but Naomi Watts got closer to real royalty than she expected during a night out in Mayfair.

The British actress was with her husband at a nightclub on Friday when Prince William and his friend Guy Pelly dropped in – though she didn’t get to meet them.

Naomi will play Diana in Caught In Flight, a film about the Princess's affair with heart surgeon Hasnat Khan

Naomi tells me she is finding it hard to prepare for the movie role – and that there had been little advice from the Royal Family or friends of the Princess.

The 43-year-old, who will play Diana in Caught In Flight, a film about the Princess’s affair with heart surgeon Hasnat Khan, said: ‘We'’re being helped by researchers to prepare for our roles but none of the Royals has been involved.

'They haven'’t been up for lending a hand. There are other people helping who knew her in other ways.’

[Newscast] From Cannes: Dominik is eager and preparing to do "Blonde" next

Cannes: Andrew Dominik Says He's Aiming To Make "Emotional Nightmare Fairy-Tale" Marilyn Monroe Biopic 'Blonde' Next

May 25, 2012, The Playlist

After a few years in the wilderness after the masterpiece "The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford" underperformed at the box office, Andrew Dominik's third film -- initially titled "Cogan's Trade" after the George V. Higgins book on which it's based, and later retitled "Killing Them Softly" -- came together quite quickly. The first hints emerged in September 2010, and within a few months it had a star and producer in Brad Pitt, a distributor courtesy of The Weinstein Company, and rolled in front of cameras in early 2011.

But with the film having premiered at Cannes this week (read our review here), we began to wonder what happened to "Blonde," Dominik's Naomi Watts-starring adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates' novel about Marilyn Monroe. That film was long-mooted to be his next project after 'Jesse James,' and was originally set to get underway in January 2011 before "Killing Them Softly" came along. Was it still a going concern? Or had last year's "My Week With Marilyn" put paid to Monroe-themed pictures for a while?

Just two movies but $19m for Watts

By Davud Hirst
Dec 14, 2011 Canberra Times

Naomi Watts may have had a quiet year when it comes to movie releases but that hasn't stopped the King Kong star from becoming Australia's highest earning actor for 2011.

A basketballer took top spot in the BRW Top 50 Sports Earners list with NBA star Andrew Bogut moving up from second with annual earnings of $13 million.

British-born Watts came third in BRW's annual Top 50 Entertainers rich list, earning $19.1 million for the year despite having only two films released this year - J. Edgar and Dream House.